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
Another assertion equally long-lived and equally ill-founded, was to
the effect that one Sieur La Couture, with five men, proceeded
overland to the Bay, and there took possession of it in the King's
name. There is no account of this voyage in _Charlevoix_, or in the
"Relations des Jesuites," or in the memoir furnished by M. de
Callieres to the Marquis de Denonville. This memoir, which was penned
in 1685, or twenty-one years after the time of which it treated, set
forth that La Couture made the journey for purposes of discovery.
Under the circumstances, particularly owing to the strong necessity
under which the French were placed to find some shadow of right for
their pretensions, M. de Callieres' memoir has been declared
untrustworthy by competent authorities.
[Illustration: ENGLISH MAP OF 1782.]
In 1663, Sieur Duquet, the King's Attorney for Quebec, and Jean
L'Anglois, a Canadian colonist, are said to have gone to Hudson's Bay
by order of Sieur D'Argenson, and to have renewed possession by
setting up the King's arms there a second time. Such an order could
hardly have been given by D'Argenson, because he had left Canada on
September 16th, 1671, two years before this pretended order was given
to Sieur Duquet.
[Sidenote: French falsehoods and fallacies.]
It has been attempted to explain the silence of the "Relations of the
Jesuits" concerning Bourdon's voyage, by asserting that they were
naturally anxious that members of their own society should be the
pioneers in discovery, and that therefore many important discoveries
were never brought to light in their relations because they were not
made by Jesuits. It is enough to say that such an argument cannot
apply to the voyage of Dablon. He was a Jesuit, a man in whom the
interests of the society were centred, and if a voyage had been made
by him, no doubt a great deal of prominence would have been given to
it. On the contrary, in the third volume of the "Jesuit Relations,"
1662, we find this Jesuit, Father Dablon, describing an unsuccessful
voyage that he made. There can be no doubt that he attempted a voyage.
A portion of this relation is written by himself, and he calls it,
"Journal du Premier Voyage Fait Vers la Mer du Nord." The first
portion of it is most important and conclusive, as showing that De
Callieres, in his memoir to M. De Seignely, twenty-one years
afterwards, must have been speaking from hearsay, and without any
authentic documents on which to base his assertions. Dablon says that
the highest point which he did reach was Nekauba, a hundred leagues
from Tadoussac, and that subsequently he returned; and this is from a
report of this journey written by himself. Some have attempted to
raise a doubt as to the identity of the Dablon in De Callieres'
memoir, with the Dablon of the "Relations des Jesuites." But at the
end of one of the volumes is a complete list of all the Jesuits,
pioneers both of the faith and in the way of discovery, and there is
only one Dablon mentioned.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account