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Page 29
Two itinerant missionaries called at the Lake of Two Mountains and
distributed a number of religious tracts among the natives, together
with a few copies of the Gospel according to St. John, in the Indian
language. My Algonquin interpreter happened to get one of the latter,
and took much pleasure in reading it. Towards the latter end of the
season I received a packet from my superior at the Lake, and, to my
surprise, found in it a letter with the seal of the Church affixed,
addressed to my interpreter, which I put into his hands, and observed
him perusing very attentively. Soon after he called me aside, and told
me that the letter in question conveyed a peremptory command from the
priest to destroy the bad book he had in his possession, or else his
child that died in autumn would be denied the rites of Christian
sepulture.
We are told that the age of bigotry is past: facts like this prove the
contrary. I asked him if he intended to obey the commands of his
ghostly father. "Not exactly," said he; "I shall send the book to him,
and let him do with it what he pleases; for my part, I have read it
over and over again, and find it all good, very good; why the 'black
coat' should call it bad is a mystery to me."
CHAPTER XII.
JOURNEY TO MONTREAL--APPOINTMENT TO LAC DE SABLE--ADVANTAGES OF THIS
POST--ITS DIFFICULTIES--GOVERNOR'S FLATTERING LETTER--RETURN FROM
MONTREAL--LOST IN THE WOOD--SUFFERINGS--ESCAPE.
Early in spring I returned to the Chats, and after the close of the
trade took my departure for Montreal, having finished my
apprenticeship. I renewed my contract for three years, and was
appointed to the charge of Lac de Sable, a post situated on a
tributary of the Ottawa, called _Rivi�re aux Li�vres_, two hundred
miles distant from Montreal.
I embarked on the 15th August, 1826, and arrived at the post on the
1st September; where I was gratified to find a comfortable
dwelling-house, and a large farm with pigs, poultry, and cattle in
abundance. All this was very well, but there was also a powerful
opposition, and I had experience enough to know that the enjoyment of
any kind of comfort is incompatible with the life we lead in
opposition.
The difficulties of my situation, moreover, were from various causes
extremely perplexing. The old North-West agents, acting for the
Hudson's Bay Company in Canada, had declared a bankruptcy the
preceding winter; the principal manager having quitted the country
rather precipitately, as was supposed, and forgotten to appoint a
successor; the management devolved in consequence upon the head
accountant, Mr. C----e, who, however well he might be qualified for
the duties of the situation, felt the responsibility of acting without
authority to be too great, and confined himself accordingly to such
measures only as he was confident would subject him to no
inconvenience when the day of reckoning arrived. Meantime the business
of this department sustained a serious check; the old hands of the
post, having been tampered with by the opposition in the course of
last winter, quitted the service to a man, and I now found the
establishment to consist of a clerk, interpreter, and one man only. I
was given to understand that three men additional would join me as
soon as they could, and that I must not expect any more; thus our
number would be seven against twenty-two.
A disparity so vast precluded all hopes of maintaining the contest
with advantage to the Company or credit to myself. Fortune, however,
declared in our favour; dissensions arose in the ranks of our
opponents, clerks and men deserted, supplies for trade ran short, and
from being the weaker party we were now the stronger.
Governor Simpson having taken up his residence at La Chine in autumn,
men and goods were furnished in abundance, and the petty traders were
made to see, ere the winter passed, the futility of entering the lists
in competition with a Company possessing so vast resources.
Mr. MacD----l having wintered two years at this post, and being
consequently well acquainted with the natives, I entrusted the
direction of affairs against the opposition entirely to him, and
remained quietly at home, having only the few Indians that wintered in
the neighbourhood of the post to attend to; my situation, however, was
often far from agreeable, being frequently reduced to the company of
my pigs and poultry for weeks together, and obliged to act as trader,
cook, hewer of wood, and drawer of water.
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