Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/173



THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OHE(!0\ 99

jiaitni'i's and iiiaiiiigirs o\' the Ncul Invest (JoiuiJaiiy. Hcit was inajriiifirnicc in •111' wilderness a thousand miles IVmn an organized eoniniunity. And hen' law anil diseii)line was enl'oiTed fn |ir(iiii(ite pt'ofit under the rules of a ,L;i'eal |ii-i\;ate c'cir- poration. Here was in fael a petty soNcreiiiiuty in the- lieai-t ot a Imundless foi'est. with nn limits upon its I'ule liut its i)\\n measure oi' its pi-otits and ahilities -in exart them. Not iine, liut many sui-li petty governments. The same thing existed in neai-ly tin' sanu' t'orui uniler the i'\de ol' the Hudson's Hay ( 'o.. at ^'ork Faetm-y, Fort Churehiil, Fort Garry, cm the .Vssinilioim', Fort Edmonton on the Saskatche- wan, aiul Foi-t Vaneouvei'. nn the Colundiia. Ilei-e in all these establishments I)etty governors tried men loi- their lives, and meted nut punishment aceording to their own ideas of justice, without any of the checks oi' restraints of courts, laws. Juries oi' legislatures.

But the old proposition tiuit two bixiies could not occupy the same space at tint same time tiiudly precipit^ited a violent concussion between the Northwest C'om- pany and its JJritish rival the Hudson's Bay Company. Slowly and finally after the lapse of a hundred and thirty years the old Hudson's Bay Company awoke to the fact that the untitled Scotchmen of Montreal were after all, formidable rivals of a Corporatipn organized by a King. The Scotchmen mu.st be driven out of the fur trade — and the battle began. For every post the Scotchmen built, another must be built alongside of it flying the II. B, C, flag. For every inducement offered the Indians to trade, double should be ofl'ered by the H. B. C. And so the battle began. No Highland Chieftain of Scotia's rock ribbed hills and glens ever ac- cepted the challenge or fought an English army with keener zest than did these fur trading clansmen and their ready allies — the half breed French voyageurs. In vain did the Englishmen plead their Royal Grant, and its British Parliament confirnuition. The Northwest Co. cared not a fig for Royal Grants, This was un- inhabited territory, and was as free to one robber as another. Reprisals were frequent. The hunters of one company would break into the huts and carry off the furs of the rival company. All went armed and ready for a fight wherever they might meet. And the Indians, like the Irishman at the wake, seeing it was a free fight stole furs from both sides, and hit a head whenever convenient. And so the fighting went on in a desultory way for ten years — 1805 to 1815. Men were killed and forts captured on both sides; the Hudson's Bay Co. generally getting the worst of it. The fur trade was ruined. Playing ])oth sides, the Indians got more for their furs than they would sell for in Montreal. In 1816 the fighting a.ssumed a desperate phase. Three hundred half breeds were armed, painted, mounted on ponies, by the Northwest Co., and sent forth to seize everything they could get hold of. The first H. B. Co. settlement they came to was destroyed root and branch and the colonists driven into the forest. At Athabasca the Hudson's Bay men were besieged, and after losing seventeen men by starvation the balance sur- rendered. At Slave Lake the II. B. Co. men fared better, but lost thirteen men by famine. Two of the Northwest forts were captured by H, B. Co, men, and burned. At Fort Douglas, the Northwesters were proceeding to surround it when Governor Semple with twenty-eight men sallied out to deuumd the object of their approach. He was told the Northwesters were simply attending to their busi- ness, and "what are you going to do about it.'" The answer came sharp and quick, and Sample's men fired on the Northwesters killing one umn. The fire was instantly returned by the Northwesters killing the Governor and seven of his