A RACE FOR BEAVER SKINS.
The present Hudson's Bay Company, which long held the undivided monopoly of trade with the Indians for furs over the most northern portion of the North American Continent—a region nearly one third larger than the whole extent of Europe—had up to the year 1821, a powerful rival in a company entitled the North-West Company. The agents and factors of these
companies were men of remarkable enterprise and energy, and in their struggles to outrival each other they met with numerous adventures, which still form the subject of stories among their descendants. Their conflicts were often of a far from pacific character. The gentlemen of the opposing parties when they crossed each other in the haunts of the Indians, were little disposed to barter peaceably their guns, tobacco-boxes, copper kettles, brass buttons, and other articles, for the beaver, marten, and fox skins of the Indian trappers. Fierce contentions arose between them, ending sometimes in personal conflicts with fists, and not unfrequently with more deadly weapons. Stratagem, however, was more common than open violence, of which the following amusing instance is related by Mr. R. M. Ballantyne in his interesting narrative of a residence of many years in the territories of the Company:—
Upon one occasion, the Hudson's Bay Company's look-out man reported that he had discovered the tracts of Indians in the snow, and that he thought they had just returned from a hunting expedition. No sooner was this heard, than a grand ball was given to the North-West Company. Great preparations were made; the men, dressed in their newest capotes and gaudiest hats, visited each other, and nothing was thought of or talked of but the ball. The evening came, and with it the guests; and soon might be heard within the fort the sounds of merriment and revelry, as they danced in lively measures to a Scottish reel, played by some native fiddler upon a violin of his own construction. Without the gates, however, a very different scene met the eye. Down in a hollow, where the lofty trees and dense underwood threw a shadow on the ground, a knot of men might be seen, muffled in their leathern coats and fur caps, hurrying to and fro with bundles on their backs and snow-shoes under their arms, packing and tying them firmly on trains of dog-sledges, which stood, with the dogs ready harnessed, in the shadow of the bushes. The men whispered eagerly and hurriedly to each other as they packed their goods, while others held the dogs and patted them to keep them quiet—evidently showing that whatever was their object, expedition and secrecy were necessary. Soon all was in readiness: the bells which usually tinkled on the dogs' necks were unhooked and packed in the sledges; an active looking man sprang forwards and set off at a round trot over the snow, and a single crack of the whip sent four sledges, each with a train of four or five dogs, after him, while two other men brought up the rear. For a time the muffled sound of the sledges was heard as they slid over the snow, while now and then the whine of a dog broke upon the ear, as the impatient drivers urged them along. Gradually these sounds died away, and nothing was heard but the faint echoes of music and mirth, which floated on the frosty night- wind, giving token that the revellers still kept up the dance, and were ignorant of the departure of the trains. Late on the following day the North-West scouts reported the party of Indians, and soon a set of sleighs departed from the fort with loudly-ringing bells. After a long day's march of forty miles, they reached the encampment, where they found all the Indians intoxicated, and not a skin left to repay them for their trouble. Then it was that they discovered the ruse of the ball, and vowed to have their revenge.
Opportunity was not long wanting. Soon after this occurrence, one of their parties met a Hudson's Bay train on its way to trade with the Indians, of whom they also were in search: they exchanged compliments with each other; and as the day was very cold, proposed lighting a fire and taking a dram together. Soon five or six goodly trees yielded to their vigorous blows, and fell crashing to the ground; and in a few minutes one of the party lighting a sulphur match with his flint and steel, set fire to a huge pile of logs, which crackled and burned furiously, sending up clouds of sparks into the wintry sky, and casting a warm tinge upon the snow and the surrounding trees. The canteen was quickly produced, and they told their stories and adventures, while the liquor mounted to their brains. The North-Westers, however, after a little time, spilled their grog on the snow, unperceived by the others, so that they kept tolerably sober, while their rivals became very much elevated; and at last they began boasting of their superior powers of drinking, and, as a proof, each of them swallowed a large bumper. The Hudson's Bay party, who were nearly drunk by this time, of course followed their example, and almost instantly fell into a heavy sleep on the snow. In ten minutes more, they were tied firmly upon the sledges, and the dogs being turned homewards, away they went strait for the Hudson's Bay fort, where they soon after arrived, the men still sound asleep; while the North-Westers started for the Indian camp, and, this time at least, had the furs all to themselves.