The conquest of the great Northwest, Volume 2 (of 2): $b Being the story of the adventurers of England known as the Hudson's Bay Company, new pages in the history of the Canadian northwest and western statesLaut, Agnes C.
History
The conquest of the great Northwest, Volume 2 (of 2): $b Being the story of the adventurers of England known as the Hudson's Bay Company, new pages in the history of the Canadian northwest and western states
Laut, Agnes C.
Hudson Bay -- History; Hudson's Bay Company; Northwest, Canadian
of California, Nevada and Utah as well as the corner of Wyoming--a
fairly good record for brave men, who made no pretenses and thought no
greatness of daily deeds. The next few years, other men led the Oregon
brigade South. Ogden was sent North to open up that Russian strip of
coast leading to the interior of British Columbia. Henceforth, he led
the canoe brigade to the famous Caribou and Cassiar regions, but he
came back to pass his last days in Oregon, where he died on the banks
of the Willamette about 1854. Looking back over the plain little man’s
plain life, told in plain words without a thought of heroism, I cannot
say I am surprised that his numerous descendants and distinguished
relatives of the East are as proud of him as other people are of the
Mayflower and William the Conqueror.
_Notes to Chapter XXXI._--Ogden’s daily journals as sent in to H. B.
C. House, London, fill some six or eight note-books--foolscap size--of
three hundred pages each. The contents of this chapter are taken
entirely from my copies of these daily journals.
* * * * *
The Jo. Paul and his son, Jo. Paul, were two of the most famous
guides and bullies in the West during the last century. Of them both
the same story is told: of the father in these H. B. C. journals,
of the son in the Oblate Missionary annals. In an article on Père
Lacombe, I told the story as of the son. What was my surprise to find
the same story turn up in the H. B. C. journals, about Jo. Paul, Sr.
Whether father or son, here is the legend of their prowess. In the
days when the French bullies used to meet and fight the Orkneymen on
the Saskatchewan, Jo. Paul chanced to enter an H. B. C. post. Knowing
his fame for strength, the clerk thought to put up a trick on him. A
sugar barrel was filled with lead. “There, Jo. Paul,” said the clerk,
“lift that barrel of sugar on the counter for me--will you?” Jo.
Paul gave it a tug. It did not budge. He gave it another tug. Not a
move! Very heavy sugar. Jo. Paul scented a trick. Mustering all his
strength, he seized the barrel and hurled it with a slam right on
the counter. It splintered through counter and floor to the bottom
of the cellar. “_Voila, mon enfant_,” says Jo. Paul with a shrug.
Whether the incident occurred with the Jo. Paul whose body lies lonely
on the desert river, or the Jo. Paul who guided the Oblates up the
Saskatchewan, I do not know, It is just a Jo. Paul legend of those
early days.
CHAPTER XXXII
1825-1859
MCLOUGHLIN’S TRANSMONTANE EMPIRE CONTINUED--DOUGLAS’ ADVENTURES
IN NEW CALEDONIA, HOW HE PUNISHES MURDER AND IS HIMSELF ALMOST
MURDERED--LITTLE YALE OF THE LOWER FRASER--BLACK’S DEATH AT
KAMLOOPS--HOW TOD OUTWITS CONSPIRACY--THE COMPANY’S OPERATIONS IN
CALIFORNIA AND SANDWICH ISLANDS AND ALASKA--WHY DID RAE KILL HIMSELF
IN SAN FRANCISCO?--THE SECRET DIPLOMACY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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