Читать книгу First Furrows - Rev. Alfred Campbell Garrioch - Страница 10

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The selection of the most suitable name for the reconstructed and united company was settled in harmony with the law of the survival of the fittest by the retention of the name of one of the absorbed concerns, whose legal status, splendid inheritance and no mean sentimental support were all closely connected with its name and title—that of the Honourable Hudson’s Bay Company—the name of the enterprising corporation which had sprung into existence in the company of those famous adventurers, Radisson and Groseillers and Prince Rupert, and whose history was that of a monopoly which for one hundred and fifty years had enjoyed Imperial patronage, and which from all appearances might be expected to continue in the same favoured position for many years to come, with the prospect of larger results, when the two companies before trading in rivalry, were united, and with combined wealth and energy, were availing themselves of the rights and privileges secured to them by the famous Hudson’s Bay Charter.

In the reorganized Hudson’s Bay Company there was necessarily considerable change; the capital, for instance, was raised to £400,000, which was done by the old Hudson’s Bay Company increasing its previous capital from £100,000 to £200,000, so that it would contribute an equal share to the stock or capital of the new company. In the new as in the former company, there were two arms of service—the capitalistic and the labor—the former providing the stock or goods and the other doing the work. The stock was divided into one hundred shares. Of these the subscribers retained sixty for themselves, and the remaining forty were to be divided between the officials residing in and conducting the fur trade in Rupert’s Land. These officials were divided into two classes commissioned and non-commissioned—the non-commissioned consisting of clerks and postmasters, who were paid by salary. The commissioned officers were paid from the dividends accruing from the forty shares before mentioned. Promotion to the rank of commissioned officer raised the official to the honoured rank of Chief Trader, and a second promotion to that of Chief Factor. The participants in these forty shares were commonly spoken of as “wintering partners,” a name perhaps suggested by the frigid regions in which their duties were performed; or possibly conveying a hint of their being left out in the cold, in the event of dividends accruing that were not strictly profits on the fur trade.

The forty shares aforementioned were divided into eighty-four smaller ones so as to correspond to the number of chief factors and chief traders who were to be maintained in full number as the company’s staff of wintering partners; and a chief trader received as his income the proceeds of one share, and a chief factor the proceeds of two. The commissioned officers were ex-officio members of the council for the fur trade. At the meetings of this council promotions were made, and retirements arranged for. A retiring commissioned officer received a full share for one year after retirement, and a half share for six years afterwards. All this was duly provided for in a legal document known as the poll tax.

From this out the history of the Hudson’s Bay Company is that of a powerful corporation in a far better position to insist on its rights than it had been before; and it might well be expected that there would be no important deviation from its former policy, since the company which had joined it, had shown when acting as opponent, that it was dominated by an equally monopolistic spirit. From the nature of the case it did not seem likely that the coalition company would be more modest than either of the old, or that it would try to do business on a higher plane. However, after having suffered so much affliction at each others’ hands, they appeared to appreciate a rest. It was a good time to pause and reflect how best to start afresh; and perhaps during that pause, the dead spoke—among them the gentle Governor Semple, who met his tragic death at Seven Oaks, and who deploring the lack of Christian churches in the land had written: “I blush to say that throughout the whole extent of the Hudson’s Bay territories no such building exists.” And perchance a voice haunted them coming from the lonely eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, where only two years before poor Frobisher had the life starved and frozen out of him, because the fur trading companies of the day had become victims to a consuming ambition. And forasmuch as Lord Selkirk was known to be a very sick man—in fact he died only shortly before the union was consummated—the philanthropic schemes to which he had devoted his life would appear to them now in a better light, and the hand of charity that covereth a multitude of sins, would draw a veil over his worst mistake—that of interpreting a contract or charter too much according to the letter that killeth, a mistake into which he had been helped by the well meant aid of some of them and provoked into by the bitter opposition of the others. Not strange, then, if after a pause, the business that was resumed under the old name was dominated by a better spirit, brought about not only from having observed the evil effects, in this land, of ignorance and strife, but also from the powerful effects of a religious revival which had recently taken place in the old land, and which had so great an effect on the political, social and religious life of the nation that every part of the British Empire participated in the benefit—that revival brought about by the earnest preaching and hymns of John and Charles Wesley, and the Evangelical movement which took practical shape in the formation of the Church Missionary Society, one of whose missionaries was the first to preach the gospel in Rupert’s Land.

All unconsciously a field was being made ready in this country for the sowing of the Word, while men in the Old Country were being made ready to come and open “First Furrows” in this field. It may well be “marvellous in our eyes,” that while it is true that this first missionary came out under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society, it was really the successors of the traders and adventurers who had come out one hundred and fifty years before to trade furs in Hudson’s Bay who were the prime movers in this first missionary venture into North-West America. For John West, first Protestant missionary, came out as Hudson’s Bay chaplain and in their pay.

It is not clear that his coming had anything to do with a promise which the Selkirk Colonists claimed had been made to them by Lord Selkirk of a Presbyterian minister who could speak Gaelic. The facts, as far as can be ascertained, do not make the matter quite clear. It is evident that Lord Selkirk did give two lots at St. John’s and that they were intended for the promised minister and a school whenever the said minister might be sent. When a minister was sent, he was an Anglican, who probably could not speak a word of Gaelic, and he was sent out conjointly by the Church Missionary Society and the Hudson’s Bay Company. Yet from the fact that he was located on the two lots at St. John’s, it would seem that the Hudson’s Bay officials were aware of Lord Selkirk’s promise, and were disposed to regard the Rev. John West as a proper substitute for a Presbyterian minister who could speak Gaelic. Sixteen years later, in 1836, when the company were purchasing the shares held by Lord Selkirk’s heirs, they claimed that there never had been an undertaking to provide a Presbyterian minister for the Colonists. However, it is pleasant to relate that the apparent miscarriage of Lord Selkirk’s good intentions did not lead to any hard feelings between the Anglicans and the Presbyterians; and that in 1851, when Rev. John Black came out to minister to the spiritual needs of the Selkirk settlers the matter was amicably arranged; the Anglicans retaining the land inadvertently turned over to them, while the Hudson’s Bay Company, in lieu thereof, made over to the Presbyterians the necessary land two miles lower down the river, also made them a gift of £150 and an annual grant of £50 towards the stipend of their ministers; and thus the Hudson’s Bay Company generously lived up to the spirit of the Earl of Selkirk’s good intentions, and all parties were satisfied.

Perhaps it should be conceded that the beginning of missionary work in this country was largely due to a desire on the part of some of its inhabitants for the means of education, using the word education in its popular acceptation. But the popular acceptation of the word in that day, it is much to be feared, has become much less popular in our day. Then the education or enlightenment fondly embraced a spiritual better half, from which it would now seem to be seriously contemplating a divorce. The astute officials of the Hudson’s Bay Company did not desire education for the country with the “spirit that quickeneth” left out of it. That kind of education that consists mainly in brain development they had applied for a century and a half in the endeavour to wrench the wealth of the country from their opponents, and well might they contemplate the effect with disgust—it had brought them to the verge of financial disaster, hearts had been broken, human blood shed and the condition of the natives was morally worse then when they first made their acquaintance. These business men did not blame their religion for what had happened. Doubtless they placed the blame where it was well merited, and were willing to support the claim of the Christian church—that wherever it is cordially received and its precepts are faithfully practised there peace and prosperity, contentment and happiness are bound to flourish. And so they materially assisted in the realization of the very general desire to have the gospel of Christ preached in the land. England as represented by the Anglican Church was glad to attend to this too long neglected duty; the settlers on the banks of the Red River were glad at the prospect of having again the privileges they had enjoyed in the older land; and even among the Indians were some, who perhaps having visualized the crucified one through the representations of a few of his faithful followers declared themselves desirous of knowing more about him.

Before going any further I would like to correct an impression which has perhaps been unintentionally conveyed by some writers, to the effect that all non-Christian people are, and must be utterly bad until they receive the Christian religion, but once they have done so, though it may be only formally, they are at once vastly improved. It is a mistake to create any such impression, and is unfair both to the Christian religion and to the nations that have not accepted it.

When Rev. John West came to this country there were already a considerable number of Christians in it, and some of them very truly goodly people. To begin with, there were the one hundred and thirty Colonists settled on the banks of the Red River. Then northwards from these along the left bank of the Red River, retired Hudson’s Bay Company employees were beginning to settle, and shortly after the union of the companies their number exceeded that of the Selkirk settlers. Some were Scottish, some were English and others were of mixed race. Among both these classes of settlers there were honourable and pious men, men who had religion in the Old Country and brought it out with them; men who had their bibles and read them; and some of them had never given up the Godly custom of family worship. Even among the usually condemned De Meurons and Swiss, peradventure there were to be found a few righteous men, and as to the Indian tribes, granted that they were all heathen, there was as great diversity of character among them as among the whites, and when they first came into contact with the whites, it was simply a matter of opinion as to which race excelled in honesty and morality. Conditions were bad enough without trying to make out that they were worse. Darkness certainly hung over the land; but it augured well for the future that the darkness was felt, and that light was desired.

It was in response to this very general desire that the Rev. John West came out to this country—the pioneer missionary in the cause of Christian civilization. Mr. George Harbidge came out at the same time as school teacher.

On landing at York Factory Mr. West began to plan and prepare for a school in the Red River Settlement, where the children of Hudson’s Bay employees or Settlers could be educated, and where also Indian lads could be trained and sent out as teachers to their fellow-countrymen. When he left York Factory in a birch bark canoe for the eight hundred miles journey to the Red River Settlement, among his companions was a small nucleus of the contemplated Indian school in the person of a Cree boy, son of Withaweecapo; and at Norway House, three hundred miles from the Settlement, a second Cree pupil was taken aboard. In this manner there were gathered as many as ten Indian boys, two of them coming from a tribe living west of the Rocky Mountains. Four of these afterwards did good work in the Mission field, viz.: Rev. Henry Budd, who founded a Mission at Cumberland, on the Saskatchewan; Rev. James Settee, who a little later established a Mission at Lac la Ronge; John Hope, who, as Catechist, worked among the Cree Indians in the neighbourhood of Battleford; and Charles Pratt, who worked for many years among the Crees of Touchwood Hills. These native missionaries, with their simple faith, consistent lives and splendid knowledge of both the English and Cree languages, exerted a fine influence over the lives of their fellow-countrymen.

The writer was best acquainted with Mr. Settee, who not only did successful work at Lac la Ronge but afterwards did equally good work at widely different points as an itinerant missionary.

He was a fluent speaker in his own language—the Cree, but the delivery of a speech or sermon in English was always a laborious undertaking. On one occasion shortly after Archdeacon Cochrane had moved to Portage la Prairie and had built the Church and Parsonage by the river, he was visited by Mr. Settee, who spent a Sunday with him, and occupied the pulpit at the morning service. The elder members of the congregation were prepared to enjoy a rare treat, as they were themselves adepts in the Cree language, while we of the younger generation (the writer was ten years old) were delighted with the variation of a new occupant of the pulpit who would speak in a new tongue. The unexpected happened. Due either to the humorous vein in his makeup—or more likely to a mistaken notion as to the literary character of his audience, he did not address them in Cree, and not feeling at home in English, he escaped from the horns of a dilemma by reading them somebody else’s English, which was contained in a tract both dry and long, and which was more puzzling than edifying. Doubtless when he spoke to the Indians in the West End in the afternoon, he discarded the tract and spoke more attractively.

A good story is told in connection with a confirmation visit paid to Mr. Settee’s mission in winter by Bishop Machray. The mission-house, in which Mr. Settee dwelt, was Indian-like in simplicity, and had but one door. It happened that a few days previous to the Bishop’s arrival, Mr. Settee’s cow had brought forth a calf, and in order to improve its chances of living and thriving it was being domiciled in the mission-house until it should grow strong enough to stand the lower temperature of its legitimate quarters. Mr. Settee had planned in the hope that he would not have to entertain his Lordship and the calf under the same roof at the same time; but he was a poor planner, while his Lordship’s plans were always well made and promptly executed. Perhaps on this occasion his dog-train was just a trifle ahead of the schedule. At any rate, Mr. Settee had not yet attended to the transfer of the calf, when he was startled by the tinkle of sleigh bells, and glancing through the window he saw the Bishop being peeled of his buffaloes before getting out of the dog cariole. Rushing to the calf he proceeded to half drag, half thrust it towards the door, and just as he reached it the door was opened and the Bishop was announced. Imagine the situation—without, a Bishop of Lordly height—within, Mr. Settee, short, thick-set and very dark—between them, in the low doorway, a calf, two legs in and two out, possibly reminding his Lordship of the fatted calf served up on the return of the prodigal, while to poor Settee, it was likely suggestive of nothing in particular unless “matter out of place”; and he is perhaps to be pardoned, if in the desperate straits, he attempted to relieve the situation of something of its tenseness by saying to the Bishop: “My Lord, this is one of them.”

The following is one more story showing Mr. Settee’s weakness for a joke; and this time it was staged not in his own place but in the Bishop’s. The point in the anecdote is that Mr. Settee knew very well as did many others, that when his Lordship was seen in the company of ladies, it was when courtesy or the discharge of his duties, made it necessary; in fact, the opinion had been at different times expressed among his friends that he was shy in the presence of ladies. Mr. Settee had gone to call at the Bishop’s Court, and found the Bishop seated at his desk with one leg in a horizontal position. For years before his death, he suffered from phlebitis and his physician advised sitting with the ailing limb in this posture when reading or at study. Mr. Settee as a Missionary to the Indians doubtless would have had much experience in the healing of the sick, and he assured the Bishop on this occasion, that he knew of a remedy that was infallible. Laughing in his genial manner, the Bishop asked, “What is that?” “Skunk oil,” replied Mr. Settee, and then, folding his hands and looking very solemn, he sank his voice, and finishing in a whisper he said, “Only, my Lord, it must be rubbed in by a woman.” It is not on record that the Bishop ever tried Mr. Settee’s method of anointing with oil.

Returning now to Mr. West, we notice that he located at St. John’s. There he raised his first building which consisted of a schoolhouse, one end of which was portioned off so as to provide a dwelling place for Mr. Harbidge. The historian, Donald Gunn, who was a staunch Presbyterian, and not to be blamed for showing that he would have been better pleased if the John who came out West had been a Presbyterian, does not fail to give full credit to the founders of the first educational institution in this country. With praiseworthy candour he writes of the pupils who studied in this humble log edifice: “We are not prepared to say what progress they made, but this we will say, that the elementary school established by Mr. West for the instruction of a few Indian boys was the germ whence originated all the Protestant schools and colleges in Manitoba at the present time.”

For a few months after his arrival Mr. West did a thriving business in performing the marriage ceremony, for not only at German Creek where lived the De Meurons and Swiss, but in other localities were to be found husband and wife who had been made such only by civil contract, while other couples had attained to their oneness by an even more primitive, though it may be, none the less sacred usage, and all these gladly availed themselves of the opportunity of having the conjugal tie strengthened and blessed by ecclesiastical sanction.

When Mr. West had been three months in the country he made a journey westward by dog-train. He left Red River Settlement in January, 1821. Following the usual route, he would pass through this place, called then as at present, Portage la Prairie—the place where Archdeacon Cochrane thirty-two years later established St. Mary’s Church. Thence he went on to Brandon House, and from there to Beaver Creek, later called Fort Ellice. The journey occupied a month, and the distance travelled would be about five hundred and fifty miles. His ministrations were confined to the few English-speaking people belonging to the Hudson’s Bay forts. He was evidently more impressed with the beauties of the landscape, than with the beauty of the nature and practices of the Brandon and Beaver Creek residents, for he wrote:

“The heavens do indeed declare the glory of God, and day unto day uttereth speech; but in this wilderness the voice of God is not heard among the heathen, and his name is scarcely known among the Europeans except to be profaned.”

In the spring of the same year he made a journey to Fort Daer or Pembina, where as one of a number of delegates from the settlement he met in conference with the residents of that place to decide upon the best means of protection against an expected attack from the turbulent Sioux. In the summer of the same year he went with the company’s brigade of boats to York Factory. From Norway House to the end of the journey he enjoyed the company of Mr. Garry, a director of the Hudson’s Bay Company, a gentleman of high character and pleasant manner, who was visiting the country and negotiating the terms of amalgamation between the Hudson’s Bay and the North-West companies. He showed a lively interest in Mr. West’s plans, and favoured the establishment of a branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Rupert’s Land. On his return to England he interviewed the Society in the matter, and they consented to his proposal, and made the necessary grant of bibles, so that the next ship that sailed had on board enough bibles to start depositories at different centres in Rupert’s Land; and from that time to the present there has never been lacking a supply of bibles quite equal to the demand, and always at a low cost, and, when necessary, free.

In 1822 Mr. West again visited York Factory, where he met Sir John Franklin and Dr. Richardson who had returned from explorations in the North. These gentlemen were interested in evangelistic work, and gave Mr. West much valuable information about the Eskimo at Churchill and further north. Returning to Red River he continued his ministrations there for another year. During that time he had the satisfaction of seeing a small church completed, and also a dwelling house. His school, too, was thriving, and there was a marked improvement in the spiritual tone of the community.

In June, 1823, Mr. West left the Settlement, and went to England for his family. He never returned, for which failure, no quite satisfactory explanation has ever been attempted. It was supposed, however, that it was due to the disinclination of Mrs. West. In treading on this ground which other writers have usually avoided, the present writer would remark that, supposing the foregoing to be the correct explanation for Mr. West’s non-return, there would not thereby be furnished any justifiable reason for questioning the zeal or sincerity of either Mr. or Mrs. West. In regard to Mr. West himself, it is evident from the nature of his actions if not from actual promises, that he fully intended to return and continue much longer in the prosecution of the work he had so wisely planned and earnestly begun. His very last act before sailing from York Factory, viewed with candour, affords additional ground for such an opinion. He remembered the encouragement he had received the year before from Sir John Franklin for the opening of Missionary work among the Esquimaux at Fort Churchill; and finding when he reached York Factory that the ship from England had not arrived, he undertook a journey to Churchill on foot, a distance of two hundred miles. His road passed through a swampy country, infested day and night by voracious swarms of mosquitoes. Arriving at Churchill, he was able to address the Esquimaux through the interpreter who had served with Franklin. He was listened to attentively, and his hearers expressed the hope that a teacher might be sent to them. Returning to York Factory he found that the ship had arrived, and had brought out another Missionary, viz., David Jones, sent out by the Church Missionary Society to continue his work during his absence. The population of the Settlement had now more than doubled since the arrival of Mr. West, for once coalition of the companies had actually taken place, retiring Hudson’s Bay employees quickly settled up the lower banks of the Red River, making a parish of five or six hundred members, about enough for one clergyman to attend to as they were located on a strip along the banks of about fifteen miles in length. During the interval of four months between Mr. West’s departure and Mr. Jones arrival, these settlers showed that they valued the opportunity for public worship by holding weekly prayer meetings among themselves.

Mr. Jones does not seem to have been a man of very rugged constitution, and during his first winter in the country he had a hemorrhage of the lungs which weakened him considerably; but “it is the spirit that quickeneth,” and he was so heartened up by the blessed results attending his labours that he was able to do the work of a strong man, and to do it with pleasure.

When he had been a short time in the Settlement the church at St. John’s was found to be too small, so in 1824 he commenced building one a little north of Kildonan, which was opened in 1825, and which afterwards was sometimes referred to as St. Paul’s, sometimes as Middle Church. During the latter part of the two years that he was alone in the Settlement as a Missionary he held services of a Sunday in both of these churches.

The population of the Settlement was of a very heterogeneous character, and the various nationalities and tribes of which Mr. Jones’ congregations were composed filled the churches to their utmost capacity. He speaks of being much affected on one occasion, “at the manner in which the whole congregation, English, Scottish, Swiss, German, Canadian, Norwegians, Half-breeds and Indians, joined in singing ‘Crown Him Lord of All,’ little thinking,” he says, “when he first read the hymn in Welsh, in the account of the formation of the London Missionary Society, that it would be brought home to his heart with so much power in the American wilderness.”

Out of regard to the preferences of the Presbyterians, Mr. Jones did not restrict himself to the liturgy, but made free use of extemporary prayer, and although this concession which was made both by him and Archdeacon Cochrane, did not have the effect of making Anglicans out of the Presbyterians, it accomplished what was equally desirable—it enabled them to worship in harmony, and to live “in the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace.”

In 1902 the writer enjoyed pleasant and unlooked for evidence of the very Christian feeling that had prevailed between Mr. Jones and the members of his flock, with little regard as to whether they were Anglican or Presbyterian. Having occasion to return from Winnipeg to Portage la Prairie via Stonewall and Woodlands, being overtaken by night somewhere in the vicinity of the last named place, and seeing a light streaming out into the inky darkness from a house by the roadside, I called to obtain direction, with the result that an invitation was given, and thankfully accepted, to spend the night there. The bible used at family prayers was evidently highly prized by mine host Mr. Polson, for it was the bible Mr. Jones had used during his ministry in the Settlement and it had numerous marginal notes in his hand-writing and had been presented to Mr. Polson’s father by Mr. Jones when he was about leaving the country. It was very pleasing indeed—it was some more light “shining through the gloom and pointing to the skies”—to hear Mr. Polson speak of the affectionate esteem in which his father and the other Selkirk Colonists held Mr. Jones. In the kindly light we saw “footprints in the sands of time and took heart again.”