Page images
PDF
EPUB

REPORT ON THE BOUNDARIES

OF THE

PROVINCE OF ONTARIO.

Part II.

NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF ONTARIO.

The sovereignty of the territory, upon the shore of Hudson's Bay was a matter in dispute, between the Crowns of Great Britain and France, from the year 1670 until the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht, when the French claims to the possession of the coasts of the bay were definitely yielded to Great Britain. The location of the boundary line between Ontario and the Hudson's bay country, can be determined only by the facts of history and the recognized principles of public law.

Hudson Bay and Straits were discovered by Sebastian Cabot, who sailed thither under a commission from Henry VIII. of England, in 1517. He then entered the bay, which ninetythree years later took its name from Henry Hudson.*

It is stated in a paper prepared by the Hudson's Bay Company, for the purpose of establishing the right of the Crown. of Great Britain to this bay at the time they obtained their charter," that Sir Martin Frobisher, in Queen Elizabeth's time, made three voyages to the said bay, in 1576, 1577, and 1578, and gave English names to several places there; and that Captain Davis made also three voyages, and named other places in the bay." This statement is inaccurate. In the year 1576,

* Sir H. Gilbert, in Hackluyt, vol. 3, pp. 49, 50; Eden and Willis' History of Travayles in the East and West Indies, fol. 223; Anderson's History of Cominerce, ann. 1496. "In a map published by Ortelius," says the author of the Memoir of Cabot, "Hudson's Bay is laid down with singular precision. Ortelius was in possession of a map of the world by Sebastian Cabot."- Memoir of Cabot, p. 29.

Frobisher, who had long desired to start on a voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage to the east, regarding it, as he himself declared, as "the only thing of the world that was yet left undone by which a notable minde might be made famous and fortunate," was gratified through the favour of the Earl of Warwick. He sailed from the Thames in command of three small vessels of ten, twenty, and twenty-five tons burden, respectively. The smallest of the three sank in a storm. The mariners on the second, fearing a similar fate, returned. Frobisher sailed in the remaining sloop to the entrance of Hudson's Bay. He landed on an island near the strait which bears his name, and took formal possession of it for Elizabeth, and returned to England. A stone was brought back from this island which, it was said, contained gold. A fleet was at once fitted out. Elizabeth, who had done nothing more than express her good wishes at the first voyage, sent a large ship. This fleet which went in search for the northern Eldorado, did not advance westward as far as Frobisher had done in his little barque of twenty-five tons burden the year before. In his third voyage, a fleet of fifteen sail left upon the adventure, with one hundred persons as colonists. He reached the strait now called Hudson's. Frobisher thought that this strait led to the Pacific. As he was not seeking for geogra phical knowledge, but for the rich mines which were supposed to have been discovered upon his first voyage, he did not feel himself at liberty to sail further westward. He and his companions voyaged northward through dense fogs, amidst mountains of ice, again and again escaping destruction, they scarcely knew how; so that, by the time they had reached the point of destination, those who were to colonise the islands, between Hudson's Bay and Davis Straits, were most willing to return to England. The sailors were ready to mutiny. A cargo of the black ore was carried back. The avaricious were disappointed, and science gained nothing by the adventure. Frobisher, perhaps, would have found his way into the bay, had he not felt that his duty as a mercantile

agent forbade him sailing thither. He did not do so, and I fail to discover in what way these voyages of Frobisher can establish a title to territories which stretched along a shore at least a thousand miles away.* The discoveries of Davis were still more distant.

The bay was explored by "Frederic Anschild, who had set out from Norway or Yelandia some years before with a design to find out a passage to Japan. He entered a strait, which twenty or thirty years later, was called Hudson's Straits. He wintered in Hudson's Bay, and returned the next spring to Denmark.t

Captain Hudson entered the bay in 1610, in search of a north-west passage. He is often credited with being the discoverer; and the English claim to the possession of the bay has been in part based upon his supposed discovery. Baron La Hontan says that he was in command of a Dutch ship, and when he left the bay returned to Holland. In this La Hontan is in error. Hudson made four voyages in search of a highway to the east. The first was in 1607, under the direc tion of a company of London merchants. He coasted the eastern shore of Greenland, and visited Spitzbergen. He sailed north to within eight degrees of the pole, and was compelled, on account of the ice, to return.

In 1608 he sailed a second time, and attempted to reach the East Indies by passing between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, but failed. The ardour of the London merchants was dampened by these failures, and they were not willing to incur further expense.

Hudson repaired to Holland, where he was engaged by the Dutch East India Company, through the influence of Moucheron, and in April, 1609, the Crescent, under his command, manned by a mixed crew of Dutch and English, put to sea in search of a north-west passage. This time he sailed along the coast of Nova Scotia to Sandy Hook, passed through the Nar

Hackluyt, vol. 3, pp. 52-129.

+ La Hontan's Memoirs.

rows, discovered and explored the Hudson river, and gave to Holland a claim upon the country which subsequently became the Province of New Netherlands. He sailed from America to Dartmouth. From thence he sent "a brilliant account of his discoveries," to the Dutch Company, but they refused to search further for a north-western passage to southern Asia.

sea.

In 1610 Hudson made his fourth voyage under the direction of a company of English merchants. He entered the straits which bear his name. He supposed when he came upon the wide gulf that he had indeed gained his object. He voyaged along the coast, and found himself within an inland He still hoped to discover a western strait, and resolved to winter in the bay. For this no adequate preparation had been made. When spring opened, the ship's supplies were exhausted, and he was compelled to make ready for a return. The ship became encompassed with vast fields of ice. The crew, who were discontented before, now mutinied. Hudson, his only son, and seven others were placed in a boat. Four of the seven were sick at the time. Philip Staffe, the ship's carpenter, asked leave to share the fate of his captain, and the request was granted him. Just when the ship made its way from the ice, the boat, with the ten who had been placed in it, was sent adrift, and was never after heard of. abstract of the voyages of Captain Hudson. and the last of which were made under the patronage of Eng. lishmen.*

Such is a brief

The first two

It is recorded that Sir Thomas Button, in 1612, entered the bay and erected a cross at the mouth of Nelson river, and took possession of the country on behalf of the Crown of England; that Captains Baffin and Bylot entered the bay in 1615; that Captain Fox, by command of Charles the First, made a voyage to Hudson's Bay, in 1631, and finding the cross erected by Sir Thomas Button, with the inscription nearly worn out. renewed the inscription and again took formal possession; and

*N. Y. Hist. Doc., vol. 1, p. 61, 146-188.

that Captain James explored the southern part to which he gave his name, the same year.*

For more than thirty years after Fox's voyage, we have no account of the bay having been visited by any English ship.

After the restoration of Charles the Second, some noblemen and merchants undertook to establish a trade with the Indians, and to erect forts and factories upon the southern and western shores of the bay.

In the year 1667, after the visit of Radisson and Des Grossilliers to London, one Zachray Gilham, in the interest of some London merchants, sailed through Hudson's Straits to the southern end of the bay, and erected a fort at the mouth of Rupert's river.

In the year 1669, another voyage was undertaken by the same adventurers, and one Captain Newland was sent by them to the mouth of Nelson river.

In 1670, those persons who were engaged in fitting out these expeditions applied to the King (Charles Second) for a charter, conferring upon them the exclusive property and trade of the Straits and Bay of Hudson and its coasts, which charter was granted them in May of that year. This charter professed to grant them in free and common socage, "all the lands and territories upon the countries, coasts, and confines of the seas, bays, lakes, rivers, creeks, and sounds aforesaid, that are not already actually possessed by, or granted to, any of our subjects, or possessed by the subjects of any other Christian Prince or State." These words imply the following propositions :

That the grant to the Hudson's Bay Company should not be held to include:

1st. Any portion of the country granted to any other British subject.

* Robson's account of Hudson's Bay, Appendix 1, p. 4. In many of the maps published early in the last century the greater part of what is now called Hudson's Bay was then called Button's Bay. Hudson's Bay was, upon the west, but little more than what is now called James Bay. The company by extending the name, have increased the limits embraced by their charter.

« PreviousContinue »