The Great Company : $b being a history of the honourable company of merchants-adventurers trading into Hudson's BayWillson, Beckles
History
The Great Company : $b being a history of the honourable company of merchants-adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay
Willson, Beckles
Fur trade -- Canada; Hudson's Bay Company; Northwest, Canadian -- History
Duncan Campbell was sent to Canada, _via_ Moose Factory and
Michipicoten, and there placed at liberty. As to Benjamin Frobisher,
there was no accusation or warrant of arrest against him, but it was
felt that he should not escape punishment for his long hostility to
the Company, as well as for the violent and crafty resistance which he
had offered in the first instance to his arrest. Frobisher is
described as being a man of great strength and herculean stature. On
numerous occasions he had had the good or ill-fortune to come in
contact with the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, and there were
many to testify that he had on such occasions not emerged with the
loss either of prestige or property. His whole ambition now, whilst
suffering from a severe wound in the head, was to escape from his
captors. The nearest North-West post was distant about five hundred
miles as the crow flies, but this circumstance had little restraining
power upon his project. Two of his French-Canadian companions,
Turcotte and Lépine, endeavoured to dissuade him, but without success;
and at length they consented to participate in the escape should it be
possible to elude the vigilance of their captors. They succeeded in
doing this on the 30th September; launched themselves in an old canoe,
into which they had stored some pounds of pemmican saved from their
rations, and so commenced their painful journey.
[Sidenote: Flight of prisoners from York Factory.]
For two whole months these three fugitives from York Factory travelled
through the wilderness. They suffered from cold and hunger, even
devouring the buffalo skins that the Indians had left suspended in the
trees as an indication of their route. At last the doughty Frobisher
arrived at such a state of weakness that he was fain to lie down
without further power of exertion. The trio were then not more than
two days' journey from Lac L'Orignal, near Lake Bourbon, where the
North-Westers had a post. Frobisher begged his companions, whose
greater power of endurance and devotion to their superior had led to
their carrying him on their shoulders, to leave him and seek
assistance. This they did, after having deposited their burden at the
side of a fire, and grilled a morsel of buffalo skin for his
nourishment. Four days later they reached the fort, and a search party
did not arrive on the spot until the 27th of November. Their eyes
were greeted by the corpse of Frobisher, partly burnt, and extended at
full length on the ground. Within his scanty clothing was found a
journal, which he had kept ever since his arrest at Grand Rapids, and
in which he had recorded his daily sufferings.[106]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account