The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company: Including that of the French Traders of North-Western Canada and of the North-West, XY, and Astor Fur CompaniesBryce, George
History
The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company: Including that of the French Traders of North-Western Canada and of the North-West, XY, and Astor Fur Companies
Bryce, George
Fur trade -- Northwest, Canadian; Hudson's Bay Company; North West Company; Northwest, Canadian -- History; XY Company
Certainly, as we see him, Lord Selkirk was a high-minded, generous,
far-seeing, adventurous, courageous, and honourable man. We may admit
that his opinion of the North-West Company opponents was a prejudiced
and often unjust one. But we linger on the picture of his Lordship
returning from Montreal with his Countess, their two young daughters,
the one afterward Lady Isabella Hope, and the other Lady Katherine
Wigram, with the young boy who grew up to be the last Earl of Selkirk;
we think of him worried by the lawsuits and penalties of which we have
spoken, going home to meet the British Government somewhat prejudiced
against him as having been a personage in what they considered a
dangerous _émeute_: we follow him passing over to France, attended
by his family, and dying in a foreign land--and we are compelled to
say, how often does the world persecute its benefactors and leave its
greatest uncrowned. The Protestant cemetery at Orthes contains the bones
of one who, under other circumstances, might have been crowned with
laurel.
GOVERNOR MILES MACDONELL.
Engaged by Lord Selkirk to lead his first company and superintend the
planting of his colony, Capt. Miles Macdonell found himself thrust
into a position of danger and responsibility as local governor at
Red River. He was a man with a considerable experience. Of Highland
origin, he had with his father, John Macdonell, called "Scotas," from
his residence in Scotland, settled in the valley of the Mohawk River,
on the estates of Sir William Johnson, in New York State. The estates
of Sir William were a hotbed of loyalism, and here was enlisted by his
son, Sir John Johnson, under the authority of the British Government,
at the time of the American Revolution, the well-known King's Royal
Regiment of New York, familiarly known as the "Royal Greens." The
older Macdonell was a captain in this regiment, and Miles, as a boy
of fifteen, was commissioned as ensign. Afterward the young Macdonell
returned to Scotland, where he married, and again came to Canada.
Following a military career, he was engaged by Lord Selkirk shortly
before the war of 1812 to lead his colony to the Red River. We have
seen how faithfully, both at York Factory and the Red River, he served
his Lordship. The chief point in dispute in connection with Governor
Macdonell is whether the embargo against the export of supplies from
Red River in 1814 was legal or not. If it was not, then on him rests
much of the responsibility for the troubles which ensued. The seizure
of pemmican, belonging to the North-West Company, at the mouth of
the Souris River, seems to have been high-handed. Undoubtedly Miles
Macdonell believed it to be necessary for the support of the settlers
in the country. His life was one of constant worry after this event.
Reprisals began between the parties. These at length ended in Miles
Macdonell being seized by the North-West Company agents on June 22nd,
1815, and taken as a prisoner to Fort William, and thence to Montreal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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