Lords of the North

Lords of the North, by A. C. Laut

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Title: Lords of the North
Author: A. C. Laut
Release Date: January 22, 2007 [EBook #20418]
Language: English
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LORDS
OF THE

NORTH
BY
A. C. LAUT
TORONTO WILLIAM BRIGGS
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one
thousand nine hundred, by WILLIAM BRIGGS, at the Department of
Agriculture.
[Illustration:
LORDS of the NORTH
by A. C. LAUT]
TO THE
Pioneers and their Descendants
WHOSE
HEROISM WON THE LAND,
THIS WORK
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
The author desires to express thanks to pioneers and fur traders of the
West for information, details and anecdotes bearing on the old life,
which are herein embodied; and would also acknowledge the assistance
of the history of the North-West Company and manuscripts of the
Bourgeois, compiled by Senator L. R. Masson; and the value of such
early works as those of Dr. George Bryce, Gunn, Hargraves, Ross and

others.

THE TRAPPER'S DEFIANCE.
"The adventurous spirits, who haunted the forest and plain, grew fond
of their wild life and affected a great contempt for civilization."
You boxed-up, mewed-up artificials, Pent in your piles of mortar and
stone, Hugging your finely spun judicials, Adorning externals,
externals alone, Vaunting in prideful ostentation Of the Juggernaut car,
called Civilization-- What know ye of freedom and life and God?
Monkeys, that follow a showman's string, Know more of freedom and
less of care, Cage birds, that flutter from perch to ring, Have less of
worry and surer fare. Cursing the burdens, yourselves have bound, In a
maze of wants, running round and round-- Are ye free men, or
manniken slaves?
Costly patches, adorning your walls, Are all of earth's beauty ye care to
know; But ye strut about in soul-stifled halls To play moth-life by a
candle-glow-- What soul has space for upward fling, What manhood
room for shoulder-swing, Coffined and cramped from the vasts of God?
The Spirit of Life, O atrophied soul, In trappings of ease is not confined;
That touch from Infinite Will 'neath the Whole In Nature's temple, not
man's, is shrined! From hovel-shed come out and be strong! Be ye free!
Be redeemed from the wrong, Of soul-guilt, I charge you as sons of
God!

INTRODUCTION.
I, Rufus Gillespie, trader and clerk for the North-West Company, which
ruled over an empire broader than Europe in the beginning of this
century, and with Indian allies and its own riotous Bois-Brulés, carried
war into the very heart of the vast territory claimed by its rivals, the

Honorable Hudson's Bay Company, have briefly related a few stirring
events of those boisterous days. Should the account here set down be
questioned, I appeal for confirmation to that missionary among
northern tribes, the famous priest, who is the son of the ill-fated girl
stolen by the wandering Iroquois. Lord Selkirk's narration of lawless
conflict with the Nor'-Westers and the verbal testimony of Red River
settlers, who are still living, will also substantiate what I have stated;
though allowance must be made for the violent partisan leaning of
witnesses, and from that, I--as a Nor'-Wester--do not claim to be free.
On the charges and counter-charges of cruelty bandied between white
men and red, I have nothing to say. Remembering how white soldiers
from eastern cities took the skin of a native chief for a trophy of victory,
and recalling the fiendish glee of Mandanes over a victim, I can only
conclude that neither race may blamelessly point the finger of reproach
at the other.
Any variations in detail from actual occurrences as seen by my own
eyes are solely for the purpose of screening living descendants of those
whose lives are here portrayed from prying curiosity; but, in truth,
many experiences during the thrilling days of the fur companies were
far too harrowing for recital. I would fain have tempered some of the
incidents herein related to suit the sentiments of a milk-and-water age;
but that could be done only at the cost of truth.
There is no French strain in my blood, so I have not that passionate
devotion to the wild daring of l'ancien régime, in which many of