JOHN M. KELLY LIBRARY

Donated byThe Redemptorists of

the Toronto Province

from the Library Collection of

Holy Redeemer College, Windsor

University of

St. Michael's College, Toronto

%,

TORONTO, CAN.

Arm No

SCOTS IN CANADA

SASKATCHEWAN THK MODERN SCOT ON HIS SELF-BINDER.

SCOTS IN CANADAA HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT OFTHE DOMINION FROM THE EARLIEST

DAYS TO THE PRESENT TIME

BY

JOHN MURRAY GIBBON

With 12 Illustrations by

CYRUS C. CUNEO AND C. M. SHELDON

TORONTO

THE MUSSON BOOK COMPANYLIMITED

1911

LIB/WRY. ITOsnp

CONTENTS.

PAOR

I. THE NORTH-WEST TRAIL . . . . 11

II. THE FRENCH DOMINION .... 21III. NOVA SCOTIA 29

IV. WAR AND SETTLEMENT 37

V. LORD SELKIRK AND PRINCE EDWARDISLAND 47

VI. THE CITY OF THE LOYALISTS . . 57

VII. GLENGARRY, ONTARIO .... 63VIII. SCOTS IN QUEBEC 77

IX. THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY ... 89X. THE TRADE ROUTE ACROSS THE ROCKIES 97

xi. THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY . .105

xii. LORD SELKIRK'S KILDONAN SETTLERS . Ill

XIII. THE WINNING OF THE WEST . . .119

XIV. THE OUTLET OF EMIGRATION . . .129

XV. CANADA A DOMINION . . . .135

XVI. TAMERS OF THE WILDERNESS . .14*3

XVII. MANITOBA AND SASKATCHEWAN . .149

XVIII. THE FLOOD TIDE OF EMIGRATION 159

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

SASKATCHEWAN THE MODERN SCOT ONHIS SELF-BINDER.... Frontispiece

HIGHLAND SETTLERS ARRIVING AT PICTOU,NOVA SCOTIA, FROM THE "HECTOR,"1773 . . Facing page 17

FRASER HIGHLANDERS STORMING THEHEIGHTS AT QUEBEC 32

HIGHLAND SETTLERS CAMPING ON THESHORES OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND,1803.... 49

NEW BRUNSWICK WILLIAM DAVIDSON,CANADA'S FIRST LUMBERMAN, CUT-TING MASTS FOR THE BRITISH NAVY 57

ONTARIO A GLENGARRY SETTLER . 64

SIMON FRASER SHOOTING THE RAPIDS OFTHE FRASER RIVER 81

SIR GEORGE SIMPSON ON HIS TOUR OF

INSPECTION FROM HUDSON BAY TOTHE PACIFIC COAST . . . 96

FACTOR JOHN MCLEAN ROUNDING UP AHERD OF CARIBOU IN LABRADOR

112

SETTLERS FROM KILDONAN ARRIVING ATTHE RED RIVER, MANITOBA . 129

COLONEL MACLEOD, OF THE ROYALNORTH - WEST MOUNTED POLICE,TREATING WITH INDIANS AT FORT

MACLEOD . . . . . 145

CRAIGELLACHIE DRIVING THE LAST SPIKE

OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY 160

THE CHAIN OF EMPIBE.

Where were you when the Spirit called you forth ?

Dreaming in old-world gardens sweet with stocks,

Or 'mid the purple heather of the North,

Watching the wanderings of your half-wild flocks ,Till some white gull's wing glistened o'er the rocks,

And took your eyes out seaward, where the windFilled the strong sails, and mocked your idle rest ?

How could you, Viking-bred, have stayed behind,You, who had sucked at that old mother's breast,Whose children win the world from East to West.

How could you rest, whilst thick on every handThe air grew foul with smoke, men criedfor bread,

With half a world untrod, they prayed for land,For room to breathe, for leave to work and wed ?

They needed leaders. God be praised : you led.

What was it that ye slew ? An old world's gloom.What won? A staunching of sweet woman's tears;

Bread for the children ; for the strong men room ;

Empire for Britain ; for your failing yearsBest, in the front rank of Her pioneers.

OLIVE PHILLIPPS-WoOUjEY.

SCOTS IN CANADA

CHAPTER I.THE NORTH-WEST TRAIL.

TAKING shape as human life upon aglobe that whirls monotonously roundthe sun, the Spirit of the World hasbeen impelled for many thousand yearsinto a westward motion. Where thathuman life began is still uncertain, andhow it fought the Northern Ice is justas much a subject for geologists andanthropologists as for historians andReuters. But so far as we can guess,from somewhere near the Persian Gulf,where Adam in his irrigated gardenlived a more or less unhappy life withEve, the human race that we knowmost about set its face to follow thesun, spreading slowly over the land tillit met the ocean, and across the oceantill it met the land again. Tribe fol-lowed tribe, nation followed nation, race

12 SCOTS IN CANADA.

followed race, not always on each other's

heels, but sometimes by divergent pathswhich met again, and there was war.The paths diverged. There was West

and North-west, and between them wasWest by Nor'-west, and so on see theMariner's Compass. The folk that thistale tells of belong to those that fol-lowed and are following the North-west

trail, swinging through northern fiordsacross the salt, salt sea to the little groupof islands that we know as " Home," andfrom home again out to the West.What wonder the Scot thinks of it

as home ! It is so near to the heart.The bee sucks honey in the heather,and through the heather sings many aHighland burn. If the air has anythingto carry it is the scent of the fir, andthe sunshine, and the swirling mist, andthe wind. The wind may be high, andthe mist sometimes be heavy, but a cosypeat fire burns in the wee house downthere. It's a wee house, but it's home.

Over a thousand years ago the Norse-men swept across the foam in their searovings. They harried the coasts ofScotland and of England and of Gaul,and lit the road back to their ships withthe torch of burning spires. But someof them were sea-weary, and some of

NORSE IN SCOTLAND. 18

the women that they found were fair. Nowonder that some of them found home.Some of them came upon the Northern

Islands before the Message of the Crosshad reached them, wild pagans falling onthe six and fifty islands of the Orkneys.There they harried and married a Celtic

folk, an earlier wave of the same westwardmotion of the same Spirit of the World.A few pushed on to Iceland and to Green-land, and one Bjarni Herjulfson sighted the

glaciers and high hills of Labrador, while

another, in the year one thousand, Leif

Erickson, son of Eric the Red, skirted thesame wild coast till he reached, or said hereached, the still mysterious Vineland.

Many a Yarl found home in the Islandsand in the Highlands, as far south asSutherland and down even to the Isle ofMan. In the Orkneys and in the Hebrideswe find his children still, half fishermen,half farmers, looking upon the otherScots as aliens, just as the other Scotslook upon the Orkneys as the Islands ofthe Stranger.The Norseman was a pagan when he

first came to the Orkneys, and to Green-land, and to Labrador, but on his faringhe met the Message of the Cross, and theCross came also up to Norway. The Lightof the Cross lit up all Europe, and the

14 SCOTS IN CANADA.

Shadow of the Cross fell over Europe.It was to bring the Light of the Cross thatEric Gnupsson, in the year of our Lordeleven hundred and twenty-one, sailedout for that almost visionary Vineland.

Erling Sighvatson and Bjarni Thorharsonand Eindrid Oddson carved their stone

inscription on an island in Baffin's Bay," on Saturday before Ascension Week,eleven hundred and thirty-five."The Norse who swooped down upon

the Orkneys and the Western Isles were

pirates sure enough, but they were piratesmore by circumstance than by inherent

villainy. Up in Norway they were tenantfarmers, driven to emigration because of

heavy taxes, and when they came toScotland they were homemakers just asmuch as homebreakers. So fair a homethey found that they became guid Scotslords and roved the sea, only to harry theland from which they hailed.Another wave of Northmen came to

the Scottish Lowlands by the easterncoast and eastern England. The Englishcalled them Danes, doing them homageunder stress of battleaxe. But the Danes,too, harried as well as married, and cameto speak the English tongue, adding alilt of their own. On the eastern coastthey swept and settled, and along the

NORMAN AND NORTHMAN. 15

southern coast of Devon and the BristolChannel. It was not all plain sailing.

See you the windy levels spreadAbout the gates of Rye ?

O that was where the Northmen fledWhen Alfred's ships came by.

But on the whole they won, and some ofthem remained seafarers, fishing up from

Scarborough to Scotland, and tradingwith the Baltic and the North of Europe.

This Anglo-Danish stock had restedbut a little before another wave of North-men swung up from that part of Gaulnamed Normandy. King Harold fell at

Hastings, and as the Normans foughttheir way through England the Anglo-Danes were pushed back closer into theScottish Lowlands, where in truth theyfound many a Northman cousin. MalcolmCanmore, Celtic King of Scotland, mar-ried first Ingebiorge, daughter of Thorfinnof the Isles, and then as second wife took

Margaret, sister of the exiled EadgarAetheling. Thus did two waves meet

again. The third wave caught them upere they were half aware. MalcolmCanmore lived to do homage to the

Conqueror William. Robert the Bruce,hero of Bannockburn, was Norman.William Wallace was very likely thesame; while in the Erasers, Chisholms,

16 SCOTS IN CANADA.

Menzies, and the Stewarts themselves wehave not Celtic chieftains but adventurousNorthmen once of Gaul, then English,and now Scots.For a time the Lowland Scot held back

the Norman English, and to strengthentheir defence they formed alliance withthe King of France. Under the shadow

CHATEAU RAMEZAY.

of that Ancient League, many Scots wentSouth to serve the Golden Lilies, gainingseigneuries for their valour under namesthat curiously reappear in Nouvelle France

such as that " de Ramezay," whoseChateau landmarks Old Quebec. Whoso likely as those Franco-Scots, roversand warriors and merchants and colonisers

by instinct, to be the pioneers for France

ABRAHAM MARTIN. 17

adventuring into the New World. Thefirst known pilot of the St. Lawrence wasAbraham Martin, dit lEcossais, registeredas such in 1621, who gave his name to thehistoric Plains of Abraham.From the thirteenth to the sixteenth

centuries Scots merchants shipped toNorthern Europe, importing wines in

exchange for fish, trading in 1518 more

particularly with Dieppe. Berwick-on-Tweed became as great a port as Rotter-dam. Later, the supremacy of Englandled to Navigation Laws which tied upScottish ports, ousting them from theirshare in the English shipping privilegesand colonial trade. It was to break thesefetters that so much Scots gold pouredinto the Darien Scheme in 1695, the

Company of Scotland which had hopedto found a settlement to hold the key tothe commerce of the world.From Dieppe and Rouen and Honfleur

the merchants and skippers of Normandytraded with and harried the rest of

Europe. At the end of the fifteenthcentury, when the World was beginningto realise that it was round, the pilotsand pirates of Dieppe were in theirelement on the sea raiding the Spanishand the Portuguese, who had forestalledthem in the discovery of America, and

18 SCOTS IN CANADA.

following that discovery farther North

along with their Breton neighbours of St.Malo on the coast of Newfoundland andLabrador. Jean Ango, of Dieppe, wassuch a merchant, and such a skipper wasJean Denys, of Honfleur, who went withpilot Gamart to Newfoundland in 1506,and Thomas Aubert, who, three yearslater, brought back seven wild Indiansto amaze Rouen.Ever since the Shadow of the Cross

fell over Europe there were many fastdays, and with those fast days grew an

appetite for fish. This appetite for fishhad no small part in drawing the Spiritof the World across the seas to NorthernAmerica. Out over the sea went the sea-rovers Norman, Breton, Basque, English,and Scot from Rouen, from St. Malo,from La Rochelle, from Dartmouth andBristol, from Scarborough and Berwickand Leith, from the Orkneys to Icelandand to Greenland and the Dogger Banks,those fishermen and rovers who were theforerunners and the skippers and thecrews of the French who later pushed upinto the St. Lawrence, or of the Englishwho swept the Spanish Main, or of theadventurers trading into Hudson Bay.John Cabot came to Bristol for his

crew, and came back from his finding of

CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS. 19

Newfoundland full of fisherman's tales.In 1510 it is recorded that the vessel

Jacquette arrived at Rouen to sell fish

caught in Terre Neuve. In 1517 "full ahundred sail of French

"loaded with fish

at Newfoundland. In 1522 English men-of-war were stationed in the Channel to

protect the returning fishing fleets fromthe same Banks. In 1534 Jacques Cartiermet a fishing vessel from La Rochelle inthe Straits of Belle Isle looking for the

harbour of Brest on the coast of Labra-dor. In 1542 an English Act was passedto encourage fisheries and imposing a fineon merchants buying fish from France,"Provided furthermore that this Act or

anything contained therein shall not ex-tend to any person which shall buy anyfisshe in any partis of Iseland, Scotlands,

Orkeney, Shatlande, Ireland, or New-land." The records centre round the so-called English and the so-called French,But it is significant that the ships whichlater sailed from Gravesend for the

Company of Adventurers Trading intoHudson Bay never failed to call at the

Orkneys for their crews.From Newfoundland and Labrador the

merchants, the pirates, the skippers, the

fishermen, and the adventurers foundtheir way up the St. Lawrence, and thus

20 SCOTS IN CANADA.

comes Canada into our history. The his-

tory of Canada is intimately woven withthe history of its whole Continent and ofthe older world. It might at one timehave fallen to Portugal, at another to the

Basques. It was discovered by a Genoeseand claimed by Spain. But the historyof the settlement has in the main beenthe history of the North-west Trail of

Northmen, Normans, and Scots, wavesof the same great human tide for everpressing to the West under the impulseof economic circumstance and the in-

spiration of bold adventure.

NORMAN SETTLERS. 21

CHAPTER II.THE FRENCH DOMINION.

ALTHOUGH the first exploration of theCanadian coast was by a Genoese witha crew from Bristol, the earliest successfulsettlement was by the Norman French.These Norman settlers followed in thewake of Breton, Basque, and Normanfishermen, and more particularly of aBreton sailor, Jacques Cartier by name.The maps of Carrier's discoveries on theSt. Lawrence were published at Dieppe,and the Normans gradually assumed thelead in the development of New France.In 1600 Pierre de Chauvin, a shipownerof Honfleur, sailed for Canada as Lieu-tenant of the King of France, on a fur-

trading adventure, and made the firstreal settlement at Tadousac. He hadthe exclusive privilege of trade, andwhen he died the enterprise was takenover by a company headed by Aymarde Chastes, Governor of Dieppe. It wasde Chastes who sent out Champlain fromHonfleur in La Bonne Renommee on the15th of March, 1603. Ten years laterthe movements of the emigrants beganin earnest, and the emigrants were mostly

22 SCOTS IN CANADA.

Norman. That is why the French spokenin French Canada to-day is more or lessa Norman patois. A company to coloniseNew France was formed in 1614 withan exclusive charter, and the stock wasoffered in equal shares to the merchantsof Normandy, Brittany, and La Rochelle.But the Rochellois backed out and theBretons were half-hearted, so that whenRichelieu consolidated the enterprise in

MEDAL STRUCK FOR LOVIS THE MAGNIFICENT.

1627, with himself as head, the operationswere directed by a committee of mer-chants of Rouen, Dieppe, and Paris.It was on the representations of a piratesailor of Dieppe, Desnambuc by name,who had settled in St. Kitts, that Riche-lieu in the preceding year had grantedthe charter of colonisation for the French

"Company of the Islands of America"to colonise the West Indies.The old spirit of the Northmen found

THE WESTERN SEA. 29

in Canada a wonderful new field. Herewas a country of vast and intricate water-

ways, where the birch-bark canoe servedthe purpose of the children of the Vikings.The Norman made a sturdy settler andjust as good a trader, a hunter, and an ex-

plorer. In the year 1634, when Champ-lain, the great coloniser, felt the approachof death, he confided to Nicollet, a Nor-

man, the tales he had heard tell by theIndians of a great Western sea, and senthim out to search for it. Nicollet reachedWisconsin and the land of the Winneba-

goes, and may have reached the basin ofthe Mississippi. For a time the furtherwork of exploration was barred by hostileIndians; but in 1658 Mddard Chouart,born at Meaux but undoubtedly a Nor-man, set out with the Breton, Pierre

Esprit Radisson, in search of furs and thatsame Western sea. Strangely enough,Chouart's first wife was a daughter of thatAbraham Martin, the first Scots pilot ofthe St. Lawrence, to whom referencealready has been made. They made four

expeditions, and whether they actuallyreached the shores of Hudson Bay or not,they certainly were able to plan a later

expedition to those shores by sea, the first

expedition of the great English Companyof Merchant Adrenturers.

24 SCOTS IN CANADA.

While those bold hearts were threadingthe dark forests of the North, Colbert in

Paris assumed the direction of French

expansion in the New World. This re-markable Minister was proud to claim aScots descent, no doubt from one ofthose soldiers of fortune who in the daysof the Ancient League fought for Franceand guarded the person of her king.Colbert conceived a great colonial policywhich made Canada one of the gatewaysto an immense Western Dominion. His

study of the explorations may have ledhim to believe that by way of the St.Lawrence a route could be found behindthe Alieghanies which would link the

great river of Canada with the mouth otthe Mississippi. A regiment of soldierswas sent to hold the Indians in check, a

squadron was despatched under the Mar-

quis de Tracey to make a general inspec-tion of these western lands from Guiana

up to Canada, forts were built, emigrationencouraged, and explorations set on foot.In July, 1669, Robert Cavelier de LaSalle, Norman of course, set out fromQuebec on the first of those adventurousmissions which ended in his paddlingdown the waters of the Mississippi andclaiming the vast hinterland of the Alie-

ghanies for Louis the Magnificent.

D1BERVILLE. 25

Colbert consolidated the various mer-chant companies of France operating over-seas into one great Compagnie des IndiesOccidentals, and eventually absorbedthis into a department of the Crown. His

comprehensive policy was carried on byhis son, de Seignelay, and its sweep isseen in the range of raids upon theEnglish and the Dutch possessions madeby another Norman Canadian, le Moyned'Iberville, who harried the English inAcadia, in Newfoundland, and in HudsonBay, and who completed the settlementof Louisiana commenced by La Salle, byintroducing a nucleus of two hundredCanadian coureurs de boiv.

D'Iberville, however, was more suc-cessful as a raider than as a coloniser;and in spite of his Canadians, Louisiana

brought but little wealth to its promoters.In the meantime the Canadian fur tradesuffered from heavy imposts, and wasfarmed out to a company of no greatmerit. The enthusiasm of the Frenchfor their colonial possessions began todwindle until upon the scene appeareda Scot, John Law de Lauriston, anEdinburgh goldsmith, who had found itconvenient to transfer his interests to

Paris, where he founded a famous bank.This bank took shares in the Canadian

26 SCOTS IN CANADA.

company and renewed the interest in theWest. Canada was suffering from lackof emigrants, and Louisiana from lackof capital. John Law resuscitated theCompagnie des Indies Occidentals, andundertook to supply the deficiency inboth. Money poured into the coffers ofthose who dealt in his shares. Most ofthe interest centred in the Mississippi,and there the cultivation of tobacco, rice,and indigo received an immense impetus.Canada drew little profit from this

speculative venture and fortunately stillless from its failure.For a year or two, however, this

scheme of Law's renewed an interest inthe Western Empire, and, as it happened,this was a time when France was full ofScots, exiles from their native land owingto the failure of the Jacobite Rebellion ot1715. From this date begins anew theinterest of the Scots in the St. Lawrence,Jacobites most of them and stronglyFrench in sympathy, cousins of theNormans who had preceded them, andfierce opponents of those other Scotswho under the English flag attempted amonopoly of trade in the territories ofthe Hudson Bay. One finds among thefollowers of Prince Charlie, capturedat Culloden in 1745, a certain Charles

A FRANCO-SCOT. 27

Joseph Douglas, Comte et Seigneur deMontreal. It is surely not unreasonableto suppose that it was the old connectionwith France that drew this early Scot tothe country of fur-traders, and after '45drew many another of his countrymen toseek fresh fortune in the West.

SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER. 29

CHAPTER III.NOVA SCOTIA.

THE coming of the Stuarts to the Eng-lish throne drew a number of proverbiallyneedy Scots to London. The Stuartswere perhaps the neediest of them all,

SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER.

hence the troubles of that luckless cen-

tury. They stepped into the inheritanceof Elizabethan England England themistress of the seas and full of the pride

30 SCOTS IN CANADA.

of Empire* The Plantations of Virginiacelebrated the virtues of the Virgin Queen.The Plymouth Company had secured in1620 a charter for New England. Andso in 1621 Sir William Alexander, alearned and poetic Scot, easily won KingJames's assent to the scheme of a NovaScotia which at first was to bring renown

SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER'S MAP OP HOVA SCOTIA.

and then considerable profit to the throne.Sir William was the tutor of the King'sson Henry, and thus had the ear of theCourt. He secured a charter grantinghim the territory roughly covered now bythe provinces of Nova Scotia and NewBrunswick, and of this he was to beLieutenant-General for James, who made

NOVA SCOTIA BARONETS. 81

the grant an appanage of his Kingdom ofScotland. Sir William Alexander hopedto colonise New Scotland with his fellow-countrymen, but these did not comeforward in such numbers as expected.The territory was on paper subdividedinto two chief districts.

(1) Caledonia, representing the presentNova Scotia,

(2) Alexandria, roughly corresponding-to New Brunswick.

In order to complete the link with the

original Scotland, the River St. Croix wasrenamed the Tweed, the St. John was re-named the Clyde, and another river wasrenamed the Forth. Even so the colonyfailed to draw its complement of settlers,and its father therefore suggested a newOrder of Baronets, who should earn theirtitle by purchasing six thousand acresand contributing 150 to King James's

Privy Purse. James unfortunately died,but Charles the First most willinglytook up the scheme and confirmed theOrder.

Richelieu, however, who knew this

territory as Acadia, claimed that it was

already French, and sent a squadron ta

uphold the rights of his own King andthe Company in which he happened to

32 SCOTS IN CANADA.

be interested. By a strange chain otcircumstance the destruction of this

squadron was achieved by a Franco-Scot. David Kirke was the son of aScot married to the daughter of a mer-chant of Dieppe, and originally settledas a good French citizen. The father,however, was a Huguenot, and came inexile to England. Here he entered into

partnership with Sir William Alexanderin a Company of Adventurers to Canada,and in 1628, with the authority of KingCharles, fitted out ships under his sonDavid to attack French ships and settle-ments in New France. First he seizedon Tadousac, then he captured seventeenof the eighteen ships that Richelieu had

sent, and in the following year, on

July 22nd, he forced Champlain to sur-render at Quebec. Charles, however,had more use for cash than for suchnew possessions, and only three yearslater he restored New France to itsold owners in consideration of their re-

mitting the unpaid half of his marriagesettlement.

The Scots who had been induced toemigrate to Nova Scotia either cameback or were absorbed by their newNorman neighbours. Sir William died,not of a broken heart, but as the Earl

ACADIA AGAIN. 38

of Stirling, while Sir David Kirke becamethe Governor of Newfoundland.

Acadia was recaptured by one ofCromwell's expeditions in 1654, but in-

evitably handed back to France byCharles II. in 1667. It remained amore or less possession of the Frenchtill 1713. when most of it was cededback to England by the Treaty ofUtrecht. The name of Nova Scotiawas restored, and the first Governor wasColonel Vetch, formerly a Councillor inthe ill-fated Scots colony at Darien.The final settlement of Nova Scotia bycolonists from New England, by disbandedScottish soldiers, by United EmpireLoyalists, and by the vast tide of emigra-tion that followed on the Highland clear-

ances, will be narrated in a later chapter.Meanwhile, the Shadow of the Cfoss

had fallen over Europe, and dark thingswere done in the name of Christ. The

impulse of the Reformation spread overthe Northern nations, creating the Pro-testants in England and in Scotlandthe Covenanters. Elizabethan Englandstood against Spain for what was Pro-

testant, and to fight the Spaniard Englishcaptains swept the Atlantic, plantingcolonies in the New World. As soonas the Stuarts sought to change the

34 SCOTS IN CANADA.

mode of worship and persecuted theProtestant and the Covenanter, the NewWorld became the refuge of the op-pressed. When, for instance, Sir GeorgeCarteret sold his rights in New Jerseyto the settlers, who were Quakers andPresbyterians, they were gladly joinedby a number of Cameronians from Rox-

burgh and Selkirk who had fled fromScotland rather than break faith withtheir conscience.

These Western Colonies became the

dumping - ground for such as soughtto clear the land of contumacious rebels.Scots taken prisoner at Worcester were

shipped off to the Barbadoes ; unrulyCovenanters were covenanted in anothersense to West Indian planters, who foundthem much less dear than slaves. Acanting Scot cost his new master just10, which for the usual life of seven

years worked out devilish cheap, and

nothing for the burial. Not that they allreached their unhappy destination. OffDeerness in the Orkneys lie the bones oftwo hundred Covenanters wrecked thereon their way to the Plantations. Evenwhen a Protestant like Cromwell cameto power emigration did not cease.Cromwell had to make his conquestslast, and for such a reason ordered "all

DECAY OF THE CLANS. 35

known idle, masterless robbers and vaga-bonds" in Scotland, male and female, to

help populate Jamaica.But what made Scotland ripe for

emigration was the decay of the old

Highland chieftainship and system ofland tenure, a decay due to the unionwith the English. In the old daysMacdonell of Glengarry maintained anoble retinue, not because his land couldwell support such followers, but becausehis life was otherwise hardly quite his own.These were fighting days, and man livedby the broad claymore. But when the

English way of life came over the Borderthe chief began to count his chickens.There were red-coat soldiers now to seethat life was safe, and swords were lessthe fashion than the ploughshare. ThoseFlemish weavers who had come toEngland had made Yorkshire one hugefactory crying out for wool ; so outwent the black cattle and the army ofretainers and in came the sheep to thewide and profitable pastures. WhenPitt demanded Highland regiments thesechiefs were glad of the excuse to findthe men, and the men were glad to dosome soldiering. Otherwise they had

naught to look for save some wretchedlabour in some Lowland city. Culloden

36 SCOTS IN CANADA.

was the last stand made for the High-land clans.

As for the Lowlands, war had madethere many a bitter circumstance. TheCovenanters were mostly Lowlanders, hail-

ing from round Dumfries or Ayr, or else

Kirkcudbright. When the West sent outthe call they were glad to listen. Andwho can blame them ?

AFTER '45. 37

CHAPTER IV.WAR AND SETTLEMENT.

THIS is not a tale of warfare, but a taleof settlement, so look not here for gorybattles or heroic combats, in which brave

Highlanders have shown themselves morethan men. At the same time war clearedthe way for settlement, and many a bloodyfight was fought on many a bloody fieldbefore the Scot could ride on his self-binderover the fertile prairies of Saskatchewan.For a time, therefore, let's talk of war.The '45 left many a bare estate in Scot-

land, and many a well-born Scot set sailfor Canada, hoping there to found -a newfortune, either as fur trader or perhaps

fighting the English, who were fartherSouth, and had not yet set certain foot onthe St. Lawrence. When Wolfe came toQuebec he found it garrisoned not only byFranco-Scots, such as the Commandant de

Ramezay,but also by good Jacobites,whosehearts must have been full sore to have to

fight the Frasers that he brought with him.

But before Wolfe came to Quebec, Louis-

bourg, on Cape Breton, must be captured,and the outposts of the Canadian French

destroyed.

38 SCOTS IN CANADA.

Cape Breton was the refuge for theFrench driven out of Newfoundland bythe Treaty of Utrecht, and Louisbourgwas its chief citadel. It had been capturedby an expedition of New Englanders fromBoston in 1745, but four years after wasrestored to the French. Then came theSeven Years' War, when France and

England fought to the death for the

Empire of the West.It was Duncan Forbes of Culloden

who suggested to the elder Pitt to draftthe Highlanders into military service.Simon Fraser raised the 78th Regiment,which in 1758 saw its first service at

Louisbourg. Here, too, fought the Black

Watch, or 42nd, while the 77th Mont-

gomeries, who shipped out with theFrasers, were sent on to attack Fort duQuesne, the site of the present Pittsburg.

In June of 1758 Wolfe landed his menunder the guns of Louisbourg, and byJuly 27th the fortress had surrendered.In the following year he was sent againto take Quebec. The story of thatmemorable siege and assault has been toldso often that it would be idle to repeat ithere. It was the Fraser Highlanders whoscaled the Heights and showed the pathto victory.Within another year the Black Watch,

SOLDIER SETTLEMENTS. 39

the Montgomeries, and a battalion of

Royal Highlanders were led by GeneralAmherst to assist General Murray in the

siege of Montreal, and by September 8thall Canada was British.

After the peace of 1763 the Frasersand Montgomeries were offered 'grants ofland to settle in the newly conquered

GENERAL MURRAY.

country. Many agreed, and from theirsettlements in years to come Canada wasable to raise regiments of volunteers

whose loyalty and valour proved her chiefsalvation in her hour of need.

Typical of these soldier settlements was

that at Murray Bay, where Lieutenant

40 SCOTS IN CANADA.

Fraser and Major Nairn farmed theirwell-won seigneuries. It was from suchsettlements that the first battalion of theso-called Royal Highland Emigrants, the84th, was raised in 1775 under ColonelAllan Maclean to repel the Americaninvaders. Quebec was largely garrisonedby Scots against the assault of Mont-

gomery in that wild year. Such a Scotwas Hugh M'Quarters, the gunner whoslew Montgomery himself together withhis A.D.C.'s in the assault, when, fearingGod and keeping his powder dry, he firedhis cannon down the fatal path. But allthe Scots who garrisoned Quebec werenot Pitt's soldiers. Some were such asCameron, a follower of Prince Charlie,who emigrated after '45 and became atrue Canadian. When offered pay forhis services in the defence, he refused totake it. "I will help," he said, "todefend the country from our invaders,but I will not take service under theHouse of Hanover."The capture of Louisbourg drew the

attention of New England colonists oncemore to this district, and several town-

ships were by them established in the

years 1760 to 1770. The Lieutenant-Governor supported claims for grants ofLand that were made by colonising com-

AN EIGHT-DAY CLOCK. 41

panics. Several such companies obtainedsuch grants in the neighbourhood of

Pictou, but the only one to fulfil itsduties and bring in actual settlers wasthe Philadelphia Company, which wasallotted 200,000 acres, and sent sixfamilies with supplies of provisions fortheir use. Of these six families two wereScots, namely, that of Robert Patterson,of Renfrew, who brought with him notonly a wife and five children, but alsoan eight-day clock ; and that of John

Rogers, of Glasgow, with wife and fourchildren, who also brought from Mary-land the seeds of apple-trees that stood

at Pictou for over a century. Soon after-wards they were joined by another Scot,James Davidson by name, who inaugu-rated at Lyons Brook the first SabbathSchool in the whole of Canada.One condition of this grant connects

the early settlers of Cape Breton withthe British Navy, namely, that they must

plant, within ten years from the date ofthe grant, one rood of every thousandacres with hemp, and must keep a like

quantity planted during the succeedingyears. Thus did the King seek suppliesof cordage for his marine.John Pagan, a merchant of Greenock,

purchased three shares in this Philadelphia

42 SCOTS IN CANADA.

Company and took a portion of its landgrant at Pictou in exchange for propertyhe owned in New England. He em-ployed an emigration agent named JohnRoss, and offered as inducement to comeout to Canada a free passage, a farm lot,and a year's provisions. He owned anold Dutch brig which he called theHector, and in the Hector he shipped outin July, 1773, his first colonists from the

Highlands, 189 souls in all. A Highlandpiper beguiled the tedium of the voyageon this ancient vessel. " Her sides beingpainted, according to the fashion, in imi-

tation of gunports, helped to induce the

impression that she was a man-o'-war.The Highland dress was then proscribed,but was carefully preserved and fondlycherished by the Highlanders, and inhonour of the occasion (of their landing)the young men had arrayed themselves intheir kilts, with skein dhu, and some withbroadswords. As she dropped anchorthe piper blew his pipes to their utmost

power ; its thrilling sounds then first

startling the echoes among the silentsolitudes of our forests."The ground was still uncleared and did

not at all agree with the Land of Promisewhich John Ross had pictured to them,but they struggled through the first hard

SETTLEMENT OF PICTOU. 43

years and prospered. Three years later

they were joined by other Scots fromPrince Edward Island, who had emi-grated thither from Dumfries, but hadbeen eaten out by locusts.

" The most of the Highlanders werevery ignorant," says Dr. Patterson, thehistorian of Pictou. " Very few of themcould read, and books were unknownamong them. The Dumfries settlers weremuch more intelligent in religion andeverything else. They had brought withthem a few religious books from Scotland,some of which were lost in Prince Ed-ward Island, but the rest were carefullyread. In the year 1779 John Patterson

brought a supply of books from Scotland,

among which was a plentiful supply ofthe New England primer, which wasdistributed among the young, and thecontents of which they soon learned."

In 1783 the Scots settlers were aug-mented by disbanded soldiers of the82nd or Hamilton Regiment. Land forfeitto the Crown was allotted to these 1,500acres to Colonel Robertson of Struan,in Perthshire, 700 acres to Captain Fraser,500 acres to four other officers, 300 acresto another, 200 acres each to 32 non-com-missioned officers, 150 acres to two others,and 100 acres each to 120 privates. Some

44 SCOTS IN CANADA.

made little use of their grant, but anumber permanently settled.

In the summer of 1784 the settlementwas still further increased by another

group of disbanded soldiers, this timefrom the second battalion of the RoyalHighland Emigrants. This battalion wasrecruited during the American Revolu-

tionary War from the Loyalists and fromScots emigrants on their way to the NewEngland Colonies whose vessels wereboarded and who were pressed into theKing's service.

"They were not only in poverty, but

many were in debt for their passage, andthey were now told that by enlistingthey would have their debts paid, have

plenty of food as well as full pay, andwould receive for each head of a familytwo hundred acres of land and fifty morefor each child as soon as the presentunnatural rebellion is suppressed."

In the same year eight Highlandfamilies arrived, via Halifax, from Scot-land five Erasers, a M'Kay, a M'Kenzie,and a Robertson.When the first hardships were over-

come, these early pioneers wrote to theirrelatives in Scotland to come out and jointhem, and thus Pictou became populous.In 1803 the settlement numbered five

SHIP-BUILDING. 45

hundred souls. It became a centre for

shipbuilding under the lead of a Low-land Scot, Captain Lowden. Here is a

quotation from Murdoch's History :

"Pictou, October 25th, 1798.

"Yesterday was launched here, by

Messrs. Lowdens, the ship Harriet,burthen six hundred tons. She is piercedfor twenty-four guns, and supposed tobe the largest and finest ship built inthis Province. Her bottom is composedof oak and black birch timber, and her

upper works, beams, etc., totally of pitchpine : on account of which mode of con-struction she is said to be little inferiorin quality to British-built ships, and does

peculiar credit not only to this growingsettlement, but to the Province at

largo.'

The so-called Highland Clearancesbrought large additions to the settlement,

especially from 1801 to 1803 as many as1,309 souls arriving in a single season.

The emigrants were sometimes inducedto come on unscrupulous promises, suchas that they would get sugar from thetrees and tea from the roots. In 1803 the

Favourite, of Kirkcaldy, arrived from

Ullapool with five hundred passengerson board. Many emigrants arrived from

46 SCOTS IN CANADA.

Sunderland, having been disbanded inthe previous year from Lord Reay'sFencibles.

And so the tale goes on, showing thesteady movement of population acrossfrom the shores of Scotland to this NovaScotia. Writing of the settlement atPictou in the early century, Dr. Patter-son says :

" The Gaelic language was everywhereheard ; the customs of their fatherland

everywhere seen, and its memories andtraditions in some instances even its

superstitions- -

fondly cherished. Somehad been old enough to have been

* out'

in the 'Forty-five ; many at least remem-bered Culloden ; the sympathies of the

majority were with Bonnie Prince Charlie,while all of the older generation had theirreminiscences of the scenes of that day."

FRENCH OUTPOSTS. 47

CHAPTER V.LORD SELKIRK AND PRINCE EDWARD

ISLAND.

SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER'S map of" New Scotlande" and the "great river ofCaneda" does not show Cape Breton asan island, although the charter refers to the"Isle and Continent of Norumbega." Yet

Cape Breton was the major portion of hisCaledonia, and he meant it to be Scot-tish, for he made it over to Sir RobertGordon of Lochinvar, and in 1629 LordOchiltree constructed a fort and attemptedto found a colony of sixty people atBaleine Harbour. Lord Ochiltree, how-ever, had not reckoned with CaptainDaniel, of Dieppe, who, a few monthslater, seized and razed the fort for Franceand deported the settlers. Nicholas Denysestablished trading ports and fishing settle-ments along this northern coast, but no

general settlement of French was madetill after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713,when Cape Breton Island, now calledTile Royale, together with the He de St.Jean (Prince Edward Island) was left thelast French outpost on the Atlantic sea-board on the St. Lawrence gulf. The

48 SCOTS IN CANADA.

fort of Louisbourg was built, and the twoislands were offered as refuge for theFrench Aeadians still left in Nova Scotia.These Aeadians were mostly Norman,and though the picture of their peacefulvillage life is idealised in Longfellow's"Evangeline," it is worth quoting in this

connection :

Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oakand of chestnut,

Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reignof the Henries.

Thatched were the roofs with dormer windows;and

gables projectingOver the basement below protected and shaded the

doorway.There, in the tranquil evenings of summer, when

brightly the sunset

Lighted the village street, and gilded the ranes onthe chimneys,

Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and inkirtles

Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spinning thegolden

Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttleswithin doors

Mingled their sound with the whir of the wheels andthe songs of the maidens.

Down the long street she passed with her chaplet ofbeads and her missal,

Wearing her Norman cap, and her kirtle of blue, andthe ear-rings

Brought in the olden times from France, and since,as an heirloom,

Handed down from mother to child, through longgenerations.

ACADIANS IN EXILE. 49

The Acadians of Nova Scotia were so

intrigued by the neighbouring Louisbourgthat they were evicted, and many retiredto the two French islands. But evenhere they had but a temporary home.

Louisbourg fell, and the He Royale andHe de St. Jean came under the British

flag. The unfortunate Acadians were forthe most part deported back to France.

Still stands the forest primeval; but under the shadeof its branches

Dwells another race, with other customs and lan-

guage.Only along the shore of the mournful and misty

Atlantic

Linger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers fromexile

Wandered back from their native land to die in itsbosom.

In the fisherman's cot the wheel and the loom arestill busy ;

Maidens still wear their Norman caps and theirkirtles of homespun.

When Cartier in 1534 came upon theHe de St. Jean he found the trees there"marvellously beautiful and pleasant in

odour cedars, pines, yews, white elms,ash trees, willows, and others unknown.Where the land was clear of trees itwas good, and abounded in red andwhite gooseberries, peas, strawberries,

raspberries, and wild corn, like rye,having almost the appearance of culti-

50 SCOTS IN CANADA.

vation. The climate was most pleasantand warm. There were doves and

pigeons and many other birds." Asalready described this island was settled

by and then depleted of Norman-French, so that it had very few whiteinhabitants when the new settlementwas initiated under British rule.

In 1767 a number of grants of landwere made, of which, however, onlya few were put into immediate use.

Judge Stewart, in 1771, brought his

family from Cantyre, in Argyllshire, toform the nucleus of a Highland colony.In the following year arrived a furtherbatch of Highland settlers under Cap-tain Macdonald of Glenalladale. In1774 the population of the island wasincreased by a settlement of Lowlandersfrom Dumfries under Wellwood Waughof Lockerbie, but these were discouragedby a pest of locusts, and migrated toPictou. The settlement, however, ofwhich we have the most interestingrecord was that initiated by ThomasDouglas, Earl of Selkirk. This was in1808, four years after the island hadbeen renamed "Prince Edward Island.""Of these settlers," says Lord Selkirk,"the greatest proportion were from theIsle of Skye, a district which had so

LORD SELKIRK'S STORY. 51

decided a connection with North Caro-lina that no emigrants had ever gonefrom it to any other quarter. Therewere a few from Ross-shire, from thenorth part of Argyllshire, and fromsome interior districts of Inverness-shire, all of whose connections lay insome parts of the United States. Therewere some also from a part of theIsland of Uist, where the emigrationhad not taken a decided direction."

Three ships were chartered to conveythe colonists to their destination, con-

taining altogether eight hundred souls,and reaching the island on the 7th, 9th,and 27th of August, 1803. Lord Selkirkhad intended to precede them and makepreparations for their arrival, but in thishe was prevented, and when he didmake his appearance the first ship hadalready disembarked her passengers.

" I lost no time in proceeding to the

spot, where I found that the people had

already lodged themselves in temporarywigwams, constructed after the fashion ofthe Indians, by setting up a number ofpoles in a conical form, tied together at

top, and covered with boughs of trees.Those of the spruce fir were preferred,and, when disposed in regular layers ofsufficient thickness, formed a very sub-

52 SCOTS IN CANADA.

stantial thatch, giving a shelter not

inferior to that of a tent.

"The settlers had spread themselvesalong the shore for the distance of about

half a mile, upon the site of an oldFrench village, which had been destroyedand abandoned after the capture of theisland by the British forces in 1758. Theland, which had formerly been cleared of

wood, was overgrown again with thicketsof young trees, interspersed with grassyglades.

" I arrived at the place late in the

evening, and it had then a very strikingappearance. Each family had kindled a

large fire near their wigwams, and roundthese were assembled groups of figures,whose peculiar national dress added tothe singularity of the surrounding scene.Confused heaps of baggage were every-where piled together beside their wildhabitations ; and by the number of firesthe whole woods were illuminated. Atthe end of this line of encampment I

pitched my own tent, and was surroundedin the morning by a numerous assemblageof people whose behaviour indicated that

they looked to nothing less than a restora-tion of the happy days of Clanship. . .

"Provisions, adequate to the whole

demand, were purchased by an agent ; he

METHOD OF SETTLEMENT. 53

procured some cattle for beef in distant

parts of the island, and also a largequantity of potatoes, which were broughtby water carriage into the centre of thesettlement, and each family received theirshare within a short distance of their ownresidence. . . .

" To obviate the terrors which thewoods were calculated to inspire, thesettlement was not dispersed, as those ofthe Americans usually are, over a largetract of country, but concentrated within

a moderate space. The lots were laid outin such a manner that there were gene-rally four or five families, and sometimes

more, who built their houses in a littleknot together ; the distance between the

adjacent hamlets seldom exceeded a mile.

Each of them was inhabited by personsnearly related, who sometimes carried ontheir work in common, or, at least, were

always at hand to come to each other'sassistance. . . .

" The settlers had every inducement to

vigorous exertion from the nature of their

tenures. They were allowed to purchasein fee simple, and to a certain extent on

credit; from fifty to one hundred acres

were allotted to each family at a verymoderate price, but none was given

gratuitously. To accommodate those who

54 SCOTS IN CANADA.

had no superfluity of capital, they werenot required to pay the price in full tillthe third or fourth year of their posses-sion.

" I left the island in September, 1803 ;and after an extensive tour on the Con-tinent, returned in the end of the samemonth the following year. It was withthe utmost satisfaction I then found that

my plans had been followed up withattention and judgment.

" I found the settlers engaged in se-

curing the harvest which their industryhad produced. They had a small pro-portion of grain of various kinds, but

potatoes were the principal crop ; thesewere of excellent quality, and would havebeen alone sufficient for the entire sup-port of the settlement. . . . The extentof land in cultivation at the differenthamlets I found to be in the general in a

proportion of two acres or thereabouts toeach able working hand : in many casesfrom three to four. Several boats hadalso been built, by means of which aconsiderable supply of fish had been ob-tained, and formed no trifling addition tothe stock of provisions. Thus, in littlemore than a year, one year from the dateof their landing on the island, had these

people made themselves independent of

HIGHLAND PRIDE. 55

any supply that did not arise from theirown labour. . . .

"Having secured the first great object,

subsistence, most of them are now pro-ceeding to improve their habitations, andsome are already lodged in a manner

superior to the utmost wishes they wouldhave formed in their native country. . . .The commencement of improvement tobe seen in some of these habitations is, Ibelieve, not so much of a personal wishfor better accommodation as of the prideof landed property, a feeling natural tothe human breast, and particularly con-sonant to the antient habits of the High-landers. . . . One of a very moderateproperty, who had held a small possessionin the Isle of Sky, traces his lineage to a

family which had once possessed an estatein Ross-shire, but had lost it in the tur-bulence of the feudal times. He hadgiven to his new property the name ofthe antient seat of his family ; has selec-ted a situation with more taste than

might have been expected from a mere

peasant; and to render the house of

Auchtertyre worthy of its name, is doingmore than would otherwise have been

thought of by a man of his station."

NEW BRUNSWICK WILLIAM DAVIDSON, CANADA'S FIRSTLUMBERMAN, CUTTING MASTS FOR THE BRITISH NAVY.

ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK. 57

CHAPTER VI.THE CITY OF THE LOYALISTS.

THE interplay of Scots and French inthe early settlement of North Americafinds no stranger illustration than in thetale of the la Tours and their attemptsto colonise the St. John Valley. Thisis the richest district in what is nowthe Province of New Brunswick, butwhat in the seventeenth century was

part of Acadia or Nova Scotia, accord-ing to the point of view. Samuel de

Champlain, who in 1604 was sent outby a company of merchants of Rouenand La Rochelle to accompany theSieur de Monts on a colonising mission*was accompanied by 120 emigrants, and

spent a winter on an island in theSt. Croix River. Nearly half died of

scurvy, and the colony removed next

spring to Port Royal. This failure was,however, only the prelude to furthersettlement ; and in 1609 Claude Etiennede la Tour decided that the land was

good. In 1627, when Richelieu was

founding the Company of One hundredAssociates, Claude de la Tour went toFrance to secure the Governorship of

SCOTS IN CANADA.

Acadia for his son Charles. Capturedon the voyage back by Sir David Kirke,he was transferred to England, wherehe shrewdly took advantage of SirWilliam Alexander's Nova Scotia scheme,.and in 1630 obtained for himself andfor his son two Nova Scotia baronetcies.At the head of a body of Scots colonists,Sir Claude de la Tour settled at Port

Royal. The baronetcy awarded to hisson Charles carried with it a grant ofland on the river, which Sir WilliamAlexander named the Clyde, but whichthe French called the St. John. To makehis tenure doubly sure, Charles, who hadbuilt for himself Fort Latour, got him-self named Lieutenant-Governor by theFrench king in 1631, a most wise move,since in the following year Acadia wasrestored to France by the Treaty of St.Germain-en-Laye. For twenty years andmore the younger la Tour traded and

fought with his neighbours, the French, atPort Royal, and the New Englanders atBoston, till in 1654 a fleet of Crom-well's ships appeared at Fort Latour andhoisted the British flag. Charles there-fore went to England and laid beforeCromwell his claims as a Nova Scotiabaronet under the charter of Sir WilliamAlexander. The grant was confirmed,

FRENCH CLAIMS. 59

indeed extended so as to cover nearly allAcadia. The versatile Sir Charles mar-ried the widow of his deadliest enemy,and died at peace with man and woman-kind in 1663.

Five Norman brothers ruled in the St.John Valley in the later years of thiscentury, sons of Charles le Moyne, and

naming themselves Menneval, Portneuf,Villebon, d'Iberville, and des Isles, butin 1702 the fort was abandoned, and the

valley almost deserted by its Frenchsettlers. The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713ceded Acadia once again to England, butthe French now claimed that the St.John Valley was part not of Acadia butof Canada, and strengthened their posi-tion by encouraging Acadian refugees tosettle on the river banks. Canada wasstill a vague, unlimited empire, stretchingbehind the Alleghanies to Louisiana andout to the unknown West, and this St.John Valley was the gateway of an over-land route to that Empire. Not till 1758was this gateway definitely closed tothem, when General Monckton forciblyoccupied the territory, burning out the

villages of the French and deporting suchas he did not kill.

Settlement under the British rule com-menced in 1762, when land was offered

CO SCOTS IN CANADA.

to the neighbouring New Englanders, andmore particularly to disbanded soldierswho had served in North America duringthe late war, and to retired officers of the

Navy who had fought at Louisbourg andat Quebec. The Government was in-undated with demands for land. ThusSir Allan M'Lean, whose ancestor, Sir

Laughlan M'Lean, was a Nova Scotiabaronet, and who himself had been acaptain in Montgomery's Highlanders,applied for a modest 200,000 acres. Such

speculative applications, however, led tolittle settlement, and many grants weredeclared forfeit in 1783, on the arrival ofthe Loyalists.Of more real benefit to the develop-

ment of the country were such colonistsas William Davidson, of Inverness, the

pioneer of the great lumber industry,who came to Miramichi in 1765 andobtained a grant of 100,000 acres, traded

in furs, and developed the fisheries.Four years later Davidson undertook todeliver at Fort Howe, in Nova Scotia,masts for the British Navy. Mastsat this time fetched 136 sterlingif they could measure a diameter of3ft. and a length of 108ft. His suc-cess was the foundation of an in-

dustry which for a century has been

THE LOYALISTS. 61

the chief source of revenue to theProvince.

The great settlement of the St. John

Valley dates, however, from the comingof the United Empire Loyalists in 1783.St. John, indeed, is known to-day as theCity of the Loyalists. Nearly twelvethousand souls arrived at the rivermouth in this historic year, and manyof these were Scots. One group of lotsin Parrtown, as it then was called, fellto men of the 42nd Highlanders.No migration in the history of peoples

carried with it more romance, more

tragedy, than this movement of the

Loyalists, men and women who gaveup home and fortune in the rebelcolonies further South. The bravesthearts and finest intellects sailed fromNew York to this more northern coast,or struggled up by land through the

inhospitable forest to the unknownCanada. Their axes cleared the landfor the new settlements; they faced the

privations of winter and the old

pioneering hardships rather than betraitors to the flag of their forefathers.

In 1784 New Brunswick was createda separate Province, and the Loyalistswho settled on the St. John Valleyand along its coasts proved themselves

62 SCOTS IN CANADA,

no mean people. They throve andprospered, and by their success en-

couraged the settlement of new immi-grants from Scotland. The Highlandsat that time were suffering from theclearances which swept the glens so

pitilessly. Then the distress that natur-ally followed the great Napoleonic warsforced the Lowland unemployed to

emigrate or starve. Driven by sucheconomic circumstances the Scots surgedover the Atlantic, and on New Bruns-wick's shores they founded settlementswhich in later days have sent outCanada's most famous citizens, hard-headed men of affairs, and canny as theScots that were their forebears.

THE MACDONELLS. 63-

CHAPTER VII.

GLENGARRY, ONTARIO.

THE Loyalist migration into Britishterritory moved in two great streams,one by sea to Nova Scotia (includingNew Brunswick, which did not becomea separate entity till 1784), and the other

by land to Canada, which was still an

entirely distinct colony. In this secondstream were a number of Highland fami-lies which had only recently settled inthe Colony of New York MacdonellsyChisholms, Grants, Camerons, M'Intyresy

Fergusons, and the like, only too well

acquainted with war in their nativeScotland, and now again engulfed in themiseries of a rebellion.Prominent among these Highland

families were the Macdonells, RomanCatholics from Glengarry, in Inverness,who in 1773 had settled in the MohawkValley, Tryon County (afterwards called

Montgomery). When the movement forIndependence set in throughout the NewEngland Colonies, Sir John Johnson, theleader in this district, headed the High-landers in a Loyalist movement which

brought them into such suspicion that

64 SCOTS IN CANADA.

they found it prudent to withdraw toCanada. There Sir John received acommission to raise on the Frontier abattalion to be called the King's RoyalRegiment of New York. In this bat-talion there were five captains of thename of Macdonell, not to mention alieutenant and an ensign, and twenty-two

MACDONELL ARMORIAL BEARINGS.

of the officers were born in Scotland.The claymores

" dented by blows on the

bayonets of Cumberland's Grenadiers,"laid waste the settlements of Albany and

Tryon, and protected the Loyalists trek-

king north to Canada. When the warwas over, and they had to be disbanded,large numbers of this regiment settled in

ONTARIO A GLENGARRY SETTLER.

ON ST. LAWRENCE BANKS. 65

the uncleared but fertile bush on thebanks of the St. Lawrence west of theFrench. The officers and men of theFirst Battalion of the King's Royal Regi-ment, numbering with their women andchildren 1,462 souls, settled together in

one body. The Glengarry families chosewhat is now known as the County ofGlengarry, in Ontario, while others filled

up the Counties of Stormont and Dundas.

Many families of men belonging to theRoyal Highland Emigrants also settledin this neighbourhood. In his historyof the County of Glengarry, J. A.Macdonell, Q.C., gave the list of Scotsin this county who were entitled to thename of United Empire Loyalist 588in all, of whom 84 were Macdonells, 35Grants, 28 Campbells, 27 Frasers, 25

Camerons, 23 Andersons, and 20 Rosses.From their farms they must have grownfamiliar with the sight of the voyageurscoming and going on the broad St.Lawrence to and from the great Martat Montreal. Some such as DuncanCameron, of whom more later, cast intheir lot with the fur traders, or articled

their sons with the North-West Com-pany.The problem of escorting to the new

settlement the wives and children whom

66 SCOTS IN CANADA.

they perforce had had to leave behind

presented no small difficulties. South otthe Lakes lay deep morass and almost

impenetrable forest, full of maraudingIndians, while the white folk whom theypassed were embittered by the war.Mr. J. A. Macdonell tells an entertain-

ing story of a Scots officer who fellin with one of the veterans survivingfrom this period. After hearing the

story of those strenuous times the officer

expressed his admiration, saying, "The

only instance I know that I can at all

compare it to is that of Moses leadingthe children of Israel into their Pro-

mised Land." Up jumped old John." Moses !

"said he,

"compare me to

Moses ! Moses be d d ! He losthalf his army in the Red Sea, and Ibrought my party through without losingone man!"The method of settlement is said to

have been as follows : " When they ar-rived at their destination the soldiers

found the Government Land Agent, and

thereupon drew lots for the lands thathad been granted to them. The town-

ships in which the different corps wereto settle being first arranged, the lots

were numbered on small slips of paperand placed in a hat, when each soldier

BUILDING NEW HOMES. 67

in turn drew his own. By exercisinga spirit of mutual accommodation it

frequently resulted that old comradeswho had stood side by side in theranks now sat down side by side on thebanks of the St. Lawrence.

" The first operation of the new settlerwas to erect a shanty. Each, with his axeon his shoulder, turned out to help theother, and in a short time everyone in thelittle colony was provided with a snug logcabin. AH were evidently planned bythe same architect, differing only in size,which was regulated by the requirementsof the family, the largest not exceedingtwenty feet by fifteen feet inside, and ofone storey in height. They were builtsomewhat similar to the modern back-woodsman's shanty. Round logs, roughlynotched together at the corner, and piledone above the other to the height ofseven or eight feet, constituted the walls.

Openings for a door, and one small window,designed for four lights of glass seven bynine, were cut out, the spaces between the

logs were chinked with small splinters,and carefully plastered outside and inside,with clay for mortar. Smooth straightpoles were laid lengthways of the building,on the walls, to serve as supports for theroof. This was composed of strips of

68 SCOTS IN CANADA.

elm bark, 4ft. in length, by 2ft. or3ft. in width, in layers, overlappingeach other, and fastened to the poles bywidths. With a sufficient slope to theback this formed a roof which was prootagainst wind and weather. An amplehearth, made of flat stones, was then laidout, and a fire-back of field stone or small

boulders, rudely built, was carried up as

high as the walls. Above this the chimneywas formed of round poles notched to-

gether, and plastered with mud. The floorwas of the same material as the walls,only that the logs were split in two, andflattened so as to make a tolerably evensurface.

" The settlers were provided by Gov-ernment with everything that their situa-tion rendered necessary food and clothesfor three years, or until they were ableto provide these for themselves; besides

seed to sow on their new clearances, andsuch implements of husbandry as were

required. Each received an axe, a hoe,and a spade ; a plough and one cow wereallotted to two families; a whip andcross-cut saw to every fourth family, andeven boats were provided for their useand placed at convenient points on theriver. Even portable corn-mills, consistingof steel plates, turned by hand like a

NEW ARRIVALS. 69

coffee-mill, were distributed amongst thesettlers. The operation of grinding inthis way was of necessity very slow, itcame besides to be considered a menialand degrading employment, and, as themen were all occupied out of doors, itusually fell to the lot of the women. . . .Pork was then, as now, the staple articleof animal food, and it was usual for the

settlers, as soon as they had received their

rations, to smoke their bacon, and then

hang it up to dry."These Loyalist settlers found the French

tenure of land burdensome. They askedfor the same laws and tenure of land asNova Scotia and New Brunswick. Therequest was granted, and in 1791 UpperCanada was separated from the French orLower Canada, and constitutional govern-ment was allowed, which enabled thesettlers to decide the tenure of their land

for themselves.

In 1785 came an additional five hun-dred settlers to this district from Knoy-dart, in Glengarry. Their arrival at

Quebec was chronicled as follows by the

Quebec Gazette:

"Quebec, 7th September, 1785.

"Arrived ship McDonald, CaptainRobert Stevenson, from Greenock, with

70 SCOTS IN CANADA.

emigrants, nearly the whole of a parishin the north of Scotland, who emigratedwith their priest (the Reverend AlexanderMacdonell Scotus), and nineteen cabin

passengers, together with 520 steeragepassengers, to better their case."

The success of these settlements in-duced others to follow. In 1793 CaptainAlexander M'Leod chartered a vessel andbrought out with him from Glenelgforty families of M'Leods, M'Gillivrays,M'Cuaigs, and M/Intoshes. These settledat Kirkhill, in the north of the county,and in 1799 were followed by Cameronsfrom Lochiel, who settled at Lochiel.The next great influx is sufficiently

explained by the following letter fromLord Hobart, Secretary of State for theColonies, to Lieutenant-General Hunter,Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada :

"Downing Street,

"Sin," lst March, 1803.

" A body of Highlanders, mostlyMacdonells, and partly disbanded soldiersof the Glengarry Fencible Regiment,with their families and immediate connec-tions, are upon the point of quitting their

present place of abode, with the design ot

following into Upper Canada some of

GOVERNMENT APPROVAL. 71

their relatives who have already estab-lished themselves in that Province.

" The merit and services of the Regi-ment, in which a proportion of these

people have served, give them strongclaims to any mark of favour and con-sideration which can consistently beextended to them ; and with the en-

couragement usually afforded in theProvince, they would no doubt prove asvaluable settlers as their connections nowresiding in the District of Glengarry, ofwhose industry and general good conduct

very favourable representations have beenreceived here.

" Government has been apprised of thesituation and disposition of the familiesbefore described by Mr. Macdonell, oneof the Ministers of their Church, and

formerly Chaplain to the GlengarryRegiment, who possesses considerableinfluence with the whole body.

" He has undertaken, in the event ottheir absolute determination to carry intoexecution their plan of departure, to em-bark with them and direct their courseto Canada.

" In case of their arrival within yourGovernment, I am commanded byHis Majesty to authorise you to grantin the usual manner a tract of the

72 SCOTS IN CANADA.

unappropriated Crown lands in any partof the Province where they may wishto fix, in the proportion of 1,200 acresto Mr. Macdonell, and two hundredacres to every family he may introduceinto the Colony.

" I have the honour to be, Sir," Your most obedient, humble servant,

" HOBART."

In the same year arrived another shipbearing a further 1,100 souls, mostlyfrom Glenelg and Kintail. The settlersfrequently maintained the name of thedistrict in Scotland from which theyoriginated. Thus McLeods from Skyecentred round Dunvegan ; Glenelg wasthe settlement of McLeods fromGlenelg; Chisholms were to be found at

Strathglass ; Macdonalds at Uist. Fromthe census of 1852 Colonel AlexanderChisholm classified the various Highlandclans at that time traceable in Glengarry,as follows :

Macdonell and M'Donald 3,228McMillan - 545

McDougall - 541McRae 456McLeod 437Grant 415Cameron - - - 399

HIGHLAND NAMES. 73

McGillis 359

Kennedy 333McLennan 322Campbell 304Mclntosh - 262

McGillivray- 243

McKinnon - 242McPherson - 195Fraser - 176McPhee 157Mclntyre 140Ross - 139Chisholm 133

McGregor - 114

Ferguson 110McLaren 102McKenzie - 99Morrison 99McCormick - 83McMartin - 72

McKay 72McArthur - 70McLauchlan 68Cattanach - 50

On the approach of war with theAmerican States in 1812, a proposal,originally made some years before byColonel John Macdonell, to raise a corpsof Glengarry Fencibles from HighlandCatholics of that county, was carried

74 SCOTS IN CANADA.

into effect. The Reverend AlexanderMacdonell, the Catholic priest referred to

in Lord Hobart's letter, was designedlyselected as chaplain of the corps, with the

object of enlisting for the British cause

the sympathy of the Catholic French otLower Canada. The design succeeded.French as well as British were enlisted inthe various regiments of Fencibles in

addition to the Corps of Voltigeurs. Atthe same time Ranald Macdonell was sentto recruit at Pictou, and the Highlandsettlements on the coast and gulf. ToHighland dash and valour were due the

capture of Detroit, the capture of Ogdens-burg, the famous march to Chateaugay,the capture of Oswego.Most interesting, however, as showing

how the Scots and French were linking uptogether was the Corps des VoyageursCanadiens, raised by the North-West FurTrading Company, and officered chieflyby good Scots. Here is the list given inthe Quebec " Almanac

"of 1813 : -

Lieutenant - Colonel Commandant :William Macgillivray.

First Major : Angus Shaw.Second Major : Archibald MacLeod.

Capitaines : Alexander Mackenzie,John Macdonell, James Hughes, William

,LES BOURGEOIS. 75

Mackay, Pierre de Rocheblave, KennethMackenzie, Junr.

Lieutenants : James Goddard, PeterGrant, William Hall, Joseph Mackenzie,

Joseph Macgillivray, Pierre Rotot, Fils.

Paie Maitre : ^Eneas Cameron.

Adjutant : Cartwright.Quartier Maitre : James Campbell.Chirurgien : Henry Munro.

Many of these officers were partners, or"bourgeois," in the North-West Com-

pany, fur traders of Montreal. In orderto understand how these came here, it is

necessary for us to retrace our history to

the lower reaches of the St. Lawrenceand the Province of Lower Canada orQuebec.

A SCOTTISH CHEVALIER. 77

CHAPTER VIII.SCOTS IN QUEBEC.

REFERENCE has been made already tothe Scots who were in Quebec beforethe Frasers stormed it. Such was theChevalier Johnstone, son of an Edin-

burgh merchant, who was a captainin the army of Prince Charlie in the

'Forty-five, and fought at Culloden, whosesad history he wrote. Struggling to

Holland, he entered the service of France,and in 1748 with several fellow exilessailed from Rochefort in the companyof a troop of French for Cape BretonIsland. Chevalier Johnstone has left hisdiaries of the Sieges of Louisbourg andQuebec, and mentions a French poston the Sillery Heights commanded by anofficer of the name of Douglas. Thismay have been the Comte et Seigneurde Montreal who fought at Culloden, butthere were other Douglases in Nouvelle

France, descendants of a soldier of ad-venture who settled in Brittany in 1400.His family moved thence to Picardy, andsomehow found their way to Canada, nodoubt under the aegis of the HundredAssociates.

78 SCOTS IN CANADA.

Garneau, in his account of the Battleof Carillon, fought on July 8th, 1758,mentions the following curious episode:

" Some Highlanders, taken prisonersby the French and Canadians, huddled

together on the battlefield and expectingto be cruelly treated, looked on in mourn-ful silence. Presently a gigantic Frenchofficer walked up to them, and whilst ex-

changing in a severe tone some remarksin French with some of his men, suddenlyaddressed them in Gaelic. Surprise inthe Highlanders soon turned to positivehorror. Firmly believing that no French-man could ever speak Gaelic, they con-cluded that his Satanic Majesty in personwas before them. It was a Jacobite

serving in the French army."The French who garrisoned Quebec

had a further link with Scotland in three

prisoners of war, who, in 1754, disturbed

by their gallant bearing the hearts of nota few French ladies. One of these wasCaptain, afterwards Major, Stobo, a nativeof Glasgow serving in a corps of Virginianriflemen. Stobo has left a memoir of his

escape, and may have been the originalof Captain Lismahago in

"Humphrey

Clinker," as he was a friend or thenovelist Smollett. On May 21st hejoined, in an attempt to escape, his two

A SCOT AND TWO SCALPS. 79

compatriots, Lieutenant Stevenson, of

Roger's Rangers, a Virginian Corps, and

Clarke, a carpenter of Leith. They metunder a windmill " probably the oldwindmill on the grounds of the General

Hospital Convent. Having stolen a birchcanoe, the party paddled it all night, and,after incredible fatigue and danger, theypassed Isle

- aux - Coudres, Kamouraska,and landed below this spot, shooting twoIndians in self-defence, whom Clarkeburied after having scalped them, sayingto the Major :

' Good sir, by your per-mission, these same two scalps, when Icome to New York, will sell for twenty-four good pounds; with this I'll be rightmerry, and my wife right beau.'

'

Theythen murdered the Indians' faithful dogbecause he howled, and buried himwith his masters. Then, commandeeringvarious boats by the way, they ended bycapturing a French sloop, in which theylanded at Louisbourg.

Stobo had still a stomach for fighting.He went back to Quebec, offering hisservices to Wolfe. Knowing the groundso well, he was able to be of great service,and pointed out the path by which theFraser Highlanders afterwards scaled the

heights.When Montcalm died and Wolfe

80 SCOTS IN CANADA.

had fallen victorious on the Plains ot

Abraham, it was a Franco- Scot, Majorde Ramezay, who handed the keys ofthe citadel of Quebec to General James

Murray.The Fraser Highlanders were popularly

known to the French Canadians as " LesPetites Jupes

"or, alternatively, as

" Les

QUEBEC IN 1730.

Sauvages d'Ecosse." Joseph Trahan, an

eye-witness of the great encounter, hassaid :

" I can remember the Scotch High-landers flying after us with streamingplaids, bonnets, and large swords like so

many infuriated demons over the browof the hill."

FRASER HIGHLANDERS. 81

The Frasers wore the full Highlanddress, with musket and broadsword.

Many of the soldiers at their own expenseadded the dirk and the purse of otter'sskin. Some of these dirks are still pre-served, notably one carried by SergeantJames Thompson, of Tain, which on theblade shows seven heads of kings wearingcrowns, while on the hilt are carved on thewoodwork emblems of the Masonic craft.The bonnet was cocked on one side, witha slight bend inclining down to the rightear, over which were suspended two ormore black feathers. The feathers wornby the officers were those of the eagle orthe hawk.

During the winter following the siegeand capture a number of the Fraserswere quartered in the Ursuline's Con-vent. The unsophisticated nuns wereso distressed at the bare legs of the

Highlanders that they begged General

Murray to be allowed to provide the

poor fellows with raiment.Some of the Scots officers bought

seigneuries such as those at Murray Bayheld by Major Nairn and LieutenantMalcolm Fraser. Not a few of theScots in the army of occupation marriedfair French Canadians. Thus in 1770the Hon William Grant, Receirer-

82 SCOTS IN CANADA.

General of Quebec, wedded the widowof Charles Jacque Le Moine, thirdBaron de Longueil ; while in 1781 his

nephew, Captain David Alexander Grant,married her daughter. A record of suchintermarriages may be found in the"Transactions of the Literary and His-torical Society of Quebec." The readi-ness with which the Highlanders whosettled in Quebec were absorbed bytheir French Canadian neighbours is notso difficult to understand when oneremembers that the Frasers at any ratewere not Celts but Normans. Theabsorption has had some curious results.Cases are not unknown where, on cere-monial occasions, a French Canadian

village has turned out in the kilt, led

by the bagpipes, with perhaps only oneof the leading citizens able to speak a

smattering of English.The publication of Quebec's first

newspaper is credited to Messrs. Brownand Gilmore, two good Scots from

Philadelphia, the date of No. 1 beingJune 21st, 1764.Most interesting of all the documents

connected with these early Scots whosettled in French Canada is the Petition,dated 1802, and signed by Alexander

Sparks, Minister, and 147 others :

THE AULD KIRK. 83

"To His Most Excellent Majesty,George the Third, by the Graceof God, of the United Kingdomof Great Britain and Ireland, King,Defender of the Faith :

"May it please your Majesty :" The Humble Petition of Your Ma-

jesty's Faithful Subjects of the Con-

gregation of the Church of Scotland,in the City of Quebec, in the Pro-vince of Lower Canada,

"Humbly Sheweth :" That Your Majesty's Petitioners hav-

ing been educated in the Principles of theChurch of Scotland, and being attachedto the form of Worship and the Rites andCeremonies as established in that Church,have supported and paid, during the last

thirty- six years, a Minister regularly

ordained of the Church of Scotland to

perform public worship for them, thoughas your Petitioners have not had anyappropriate place of worship, nor anyparticular fund from whence to drawthe necessary expense, they have beenreduced to the necessity of an annual

subscription for that purpose, which,besides being subject to variation, theyconsider as an improper mode of supportfor a church.

84 SCOTS IN CANADA.

"That your Petitioners have alwayshad in view to build a decent, plainchurch for their public worship, but asin such an undertaking they expectedthey would be obliged to depend prin-cipally on their own resources, they havebeen, for several reasons and circum-stances, compelled to defer it."Your Petitioners, judging the period

of the restoration of peace favourable totheir plan, have resolved to make theattempt, and they have hopes that, witha very little assistance, they may nowattain the great object of their wishesa decent place appropriated to publicworship. Your Petitioners desire tobe known to Your Majesty, and to beconsidered by Your Majesty's Govern-ment as members of and united to theNational Church of Scotland. YourPetitioners therefore hope, from yourknown regard and zeal for all theInterests of true Religion, that they

may receive some small mark of YourMajesty's attention and favour, to assistthem in their purpose of providing aplace for their public worship which

may appear respectable to their sisterChurch of England, and to their fellowcitizens, the Roman Catholics.

"Etc., etc."

FRASERS IN CANADA. 85

Quebec received a share of the Scotswho came to Canada as United EmpireLoyalists, hence the settlements at Baiedes Chaleurs, at Sorel in the Bay ofQuinte, and at Douglas Town, in Gaspe"Bay. The quantity of Scots scattered

throughout the Province may be under-stood from a report published in the

Morning Chronicle, of Quebec." At a meeting of the

* Frasers'

of theProvince of Quebec, held at Mrs. Brown's

City Hotel, Garden Street, on February8th, 1868, Alexander Fraser, Esq.,notary, ex-Member for the County ofKamouraska, now resident in Quebec, inthe chair ; Mr. Omer Fraser acting assecretary. It was unanimously resolved :

"1. That it is desirable that the family

of ' Frasers'

do organise themselves intoa clan with a purely benevolent and social

object, and with that view they do nowproceed to such organisation, by recom-

mending the choice of:

A Chief for the Dominion of Canada.A Chief for each Province.A Chief for each Electoral Division.A Chief for each County.A Chief for each Locality and Town-

ship.

86 SCOTS IN CANADA.

"2. That the Chief of the Dominion of

Canada be named ' The Fraser,' and thathe be chosen at the general meeting ofthe ' Frasers

'

of all the Provinces ; thesaid meeting to be held on the second

Tuesday in the month of May next, atten o'clock in the forenoon, in such placein the City of Ottawa as will then be

designated."3. To be the Chief of the Province ot

Quebec : The Honourable John Fraserde Berry, Esquire, one of the membersof the Legislative Council of the said

Province, etc., being the fifty -eighthdescendant of Jules de Berry, a rich and

powerful lord (seigneur), who feastedsumptuously the Emperor Charlemagneand his numerous suite at his castle in

Normandy in the eighth century."4. For the following electoral divi-

sions :

Lauzon : Thomas Fraser, Esquire,Farmer, of Pointe Levis.

Kennebec : Simon Fraser, Esquire, ofSt. Croix.

De La Durantaye : Alexander Fraser,Esquire, Farmer, of St. Valier.

Les Laurentides : William Fraser,Esquire, of Lake St. John, Chicoutimi.

A CANADIAN CLAN. 87

Grandville : Jean Etienne Fraser,

Esquire, Notary.

Green Island, Stadacona : Alexander

Fraser, Esquire, Notary, St. Roch,Quebec.

" The meeting, having voted thanks tothe President and Secretary, then ad-

journed."ALEXANDER FRASER,

" President.

"OMER FRASEH,"Secretary

"

THE FRENCH-CANADIAN. 89

CHAPTER IX.THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY.

GENERAL MURRAY, who by his tactand consideration did much to enlist thesympathies of the French Canadians forBritish rule, has left an interesting accountof these people in 1761. They were"mostly of a Norman race and in general

of a litigious disposition. The gentry orseigneurs, descendants of military or civil

officers, were for the most part men ofsmall means, unless they had held oneor other of the distant posts where theycould make their fortunes. These " havean utter contempt for the trading part ofthe colony, though they made no scrupleto engage in it, pretty deeply too, when-ever a convenient opportunity served."Of the clergy the higher ranks were filledby Frenchmen, the rest being Canadianborn, and in general Canadians of thelower class. The wholesale traders weremostly French, and the retail tradersnatives of Canada. The peasantry werea strong, healthy race, plain in their dress,virtuous in their morals, and temperate intheir living, very ignorant and tenaciousof their religion.

" The French bent their

90 SCOTS IN CANADA.

whole attention in this part of the worldto the fur trade."

The fur trade was indeed the magnetthat for over one hundred years had drawnso many younger sons of old Frenchfamilies to Canada. The life it entailedwas blent with romantic adventure, andthe profits were enticing. The roving lifeof the fur trader and the voyageur was,however, a disturbing element in the workof settlement The farmers' sons driftedoff into the woods and became coureursdes bois rather than face the monotony of

ploughing and of harvest. In the woods

they mated with Indian squaws, goodenough wives for a canoe life, but hardlythe wives to help to build up a nation.To protect the route of the fur traders

forts were built, and from these forts the

hardy pioneers went out to explore. Michi-limackinac, at the point of the peninsulathat separates Lake Michigan from LakeHuron, was the great rendezvous of theFrench fur traders, and it was from herethat Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur dela Verandrye, Canadian born and son ofa soldier colonist, in 1731 set out for theWest. He went by Grand Portage, onLake Superior, to Rainy Lake, where hefounded Fort St. Pierre. Next year onthe Lake of the Woods he built Fort

DE LA VERANDRYE. 91

St. Charles. In 1734 he erected a fort atLake Winnipeg : Fort Maurepas, near the

present Fort Alexander. On September24th, 1738, he reached the site of the

present Winnipeg, where Fort Rougewas founded, and at Portage la Prairiebuilt Fort de la Reine.

Fort Dauphin, on Lake Manitoba, FortBourbon, at Cedar Lake, Fort Poskoyac,on the Saskatchewan, and Fort Lacorne,near the present Prince Albert, were built

by his sons in 1741 ; and in 1751, closeto the present city of Calgary, Fort LaJonquiere was established by de Nirevilleas the French farthest West.

During the war with Great Britain,which culminated in the capture of

Quebec, the fur trade naturally suffered ;but British rule brought a new elementthat made for still greater activity,namely, the Scots merchants of Montreal.At this date the American tobacco tradewas already in the hands of the so-called"Virginia merchants

"of Glasgow, and

as the British supremacy extended northinto Canada, the enterprising Scot natu-

rally coveted the still more profitable furtrade. The traders who followed in thewake of the British army seem to havelost no time, for we find one of them onthe scene before hostilities were actually

92 SCOTS IN CANADA.

concluded. Alexander Henry a nativeof the Cameronian Colony of NewJersey who has left a vivid accountof his adventures, appeared at Michili-mackinac in 1761, and joined forceswith the old fur trader, Jean Bap-tiste Cadotte, of Sault Ste. Marie. Dis-

carding his British clothes, and assumingthose of a French Canadian voyageur,Henry met with more adventure thansuccess. However, in 1765, he obtainedfrom the commandant at Michilimackinac

monopoly of the trade of Lake Superior,and, with M. Cadotte and the brothersFrobisher, formed an alliance which wasthe nucleus of the famous North-WestCompany. After successful trading,Alexander Henry visited Europe, andcarried his tale to the Court of France,where he was presented to MarieAntoinette.Thomas Curry was another Scot of

Montreal, who followed in the footstepsof Verandrye as far as Fort Bourbon,

returning with such profitable cargo thathe retired from business. James Finlay,another Scot, followed in 1771, andreached Fort Lacorne. The Frobishers,partners of Alexander Henry, pushed still

farther, establishing posts at lie de la

Crosse; while Pond, another partner,

THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY. 93

penetrated as far as Athabasca, where hebuilt Fort Athabasca. So much did thefur trade prosper through the enterpriseof the merchants of Montreal, and solittle was it affected by the War ofIndependence, that in 1783 there werefive hundred men engaged at GrandPortage.The success of those already mentioned

had induced others to enter this profitablebusiness, and to prevent undue competi-tion most of the traders combined in 1784to form the North-West Company, theleading spirit of which was SimonMcTavish ; but no sooner had this mer-

ger been formed than another group ofScots threw down the challenge : GregoryMcLeod & Co., to whose firm belongedAlexander Mackenzie, who brought inhis cousin, Roderick Mackenzie, James

Finlay, son of the Finlay already men-tioned, and William McGillivray, nephewof Simon McTavish himself. Withinthree years the two