Fort Douglas

“ Grant's warrant as a joke and scornfully turned the whole North-West party out of Fort Douglas. On the stockades outside were proclamations commanding settlers to take up arms in defense of the Hudson's Bay traders and forbidding natives to sell furs to any but our rivals. These things added fuel to the hot anger of the chafing Bois-Brulés. A curious race were these mongrel plain-rangers, with all the savage instincts of the wild beast and few of the brutal impulses of the beastly man. ”

“ Arming himself, young Douglas walked fearlessly into the Indian camp and shot the renegade. Looking neither to the right nor the left, he coolly walked back to Fort St. James. The daring act awed the astonished Shushwaps for weeks they were silent, it seemed forgotten. But when Chief Factor Connolly went down the Columbia with a brigade of furs, the mindful Shushwaps roused themselves. "We must have pay," they said, "pay, pay, pay for the dead man." Crowding in at the fort gate one day, two hundred blackened warriors surprised and seized the Douglas and bound him hand and foot. ”

“ Also, there were reasons why I wished to visit the settlers of Fort Douglas. We camped on the south side of the Assiniboine a few miles from the Red, and Little Fellow went to some neighboring half-breeds for a canoe.
And a strange story he brought back! A great man, second only to the king—so the half-breeds said—had come from England to rule over Assiniboia. He boasted the shock of his power would be felt from Montreal to Athabasca. He would drive out all Nor'-Westers. This personage, I afterwards learned, was the amiable Governor Semple, who succeeded Captain Miles McDonell. ”

“ The retaking of Fort Douglas virtually closed the bitter war between Hudson's Bay and Nor'-Westers. To both companies the conflict had proved ruinous. Each was as anxious as the other for the terms of peace by which the great fur-trading rivals were united a few years after the massacre of Seven Oaks.
So ended the despotic rule of gentlemen adventurers in the far north. The massacre turned the attention of Britain to this unknown land and the daring heroism of explorers has given place to the patient nation-building of multitudes who follow the pioneer. ”

“ Now, if Fort Douglas is not given up with all the public property instantly and without resistance, man, women and child will be put to death.' He said the attack would be made upon it that night, and if a single shot were fired, that would be a signal for the indiscriminate destruction of every soul. ”

“ Meanwhile, up at Stuart Lake, was Douglas learning what was untellable—the daily discipline of strong, absolutely self-reliant living; Douglas developing what McLoughlin meant should be developed when he sent the young man to such [325] a hard post—iron in muscle, iron in nerve, iron in will.
The story is told that once at a later era in Douglas’ life at Victoria, a clerk dashed breathless into his presence gasping out that a whole tribe of unruly Indians had got possession of the fort courtyard. “Will we fire, sir? Will we man the guns?” ”

“ Then, when the Nor’West partners come from the East, the Hudson’s Bay people are to be given a taste of their own medicine. No attack is planned. The Plain Rangers are to keep away from Fort Douglas; but the English company is to be starved out, and if there is resistance—then, in the language of Alex McDonell, mad with the lust of revenge for the death of Eneas—“the ground is to be drenched with the blood of the colonists.”
In Fort Douglas sits Robert Semple, Governor of [168] the Colony, his cannon pointed across Red River to stop all trespassers on Selkirk’s domain. ”

“ The Americans were not yet overstepping the boundary fixed in the British imagination as their rightful limits; and perhaps Douglas foresaw that the presence of a war-vessel would alarm them, and lead them to call upon their government.
Captain Belcher, on his side, was outspoken in his contempt for the unmilitary appearance of forts George and Vancouver. "No Fort Vancouver exists," he says; "it is merely the mercantile post of the Hudson's Bay Company." [14] And the captain's sneer was just, inasmuch as the total armament of Fort Vancouver at this time consisted of a little three-pounder. ”

“ The vanquished then passed quickly to the barges at the river. Each of the six drunken fellows, whom I had last seen in the late Governor Semple's office, the Highlanders who had spied upon me when I visited Fort Douglas but a year before, the clerks whom I had heard talking that night in the great hall, and many others with whom I had but a chance acquaintance, filed down to the river. Seeing all ready, with a North-West clerk at the prow of each boat to warn away marauders, the men came back for settlers and wounded comrades. ”

“ Before Grant can control his murderous crew or obtain aid for the wounded governor, a scamp of a half-breed has slashed the fallen man to death. Two or three Hudson's Bay men escape through the long grass {395} and swim across Red River. Two or three more save themselves by instant surrender. For the rest of the twenty-seven, they lie where they have fallen. They are stripped, mutilated, cut to pieces. Only one Nor'wester is killed, only one wounded.
Later, in order to save the lives of the settlers, Fort Douglas is surrendered. For a second time the colonists are dispersed. ”

“ John McLoughlin dominated the Columbia District and shaped the policy of the fur trade beyond the Rocky Mountains , subject only to the orders of the Governor and Committee in London and the decision of the Council of the Northern Department of Rupert's Land, which met annually in the Red River Settlement or on the shores of Hudson Bay . When Douglas came to Fort Vancouver in 1830 he was still merely a clerk in the company's service , when he transferred the depot from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria in 1849 he as a chief factor and one of the lords of the fur trade . ”

“ Such a man was sure to win the approbation of Dr. McLoughlin . Sowearenotat all surprised to read in a letter of Archibald McDonald to Edward Ermatinger, dated February 20, 1831: " James Douglas is at Vancouver & is rising fast in favour.” As accountant it was part of Douglas' duties not only to keep the books of the depot but usually in the spring to accompany the annual express which left the fort on the Columbia in March and made its way across the mountains to far-off York Factory on Hudson Bay. ”

“ A pleased expression rested upon Douglas’s powder-stained face, as he said:
“And I shall be delighted to meet my old commander again. He’s one of nature’s gentlemen.”
Then he dreamily stared into the red embers, and was silent.
“Look here!” Joe cried in a testy tone. “Don’t be goin’ back into the past an’ dreamin’ ’bout things that can never be, Ross Douglas. Me an’ Bright Wing wants to hear ’bout how you sarcumvented the redskins an’ got here to the fort. Don’t we, Injin?” ”

“ After the luncheon, never to be forgotten for the cordial welcome of His Excellency and Mrs. Douglas and their interesting family, not to say the delicious salmon and other delicacies after shipboard fare, we were conducted to the Fort, which was to be our temporary abode till the Parsonage, which then began to be built, should be finished. I have no recollection of the impression produced on my mind as we entered by the south gate the large square fenced in by tall palisades and frowning bastions, only I am certain I had no fear of being imprisoned in this stronghold of the great Adventurers ”

“ McNeill's exploration, 1837, 176; Sir George Simpson's approval of the site, 176; Douglas examines locality, 1842, and reports favourably, 176; establishment of fort at Camosun approved, 176; advantages of the site, 177; Douglas sails, March 1, 1843, from Fort Vancouver with an expedition to establish the post, 177; lands at Clover Point, 177; site selected and building operations begun, 178; fort and stockade completed, 179; Charles Ross in command with Roderick Finlayson as assistant, 180; natives attack the fort, 182; early shipping, 183; name of port changed to Fort Victoria, 183 ”

“ Like all American forts, it was formed with earthen ramparts, covered by rich green turf, and defended by tall stockades of dry white timber. Within were seen the shingle-covered roofs of the low barrack buildings, tarred and painted black, and all glistening in the sunshine. Two of the lower bastions were faced with stone and washed by the azure water of Lake George, while a deep fosse secured the fort on the landward, and dangerous morasses protected its flanks. Beyond lay a cleared space, where the timber of the old primeval forest had been cut down for garrison purposes. ”

“ As the British had constructed the fort, it was a small, unfinished work, about one hundred and fifty yards from the Lake-shore, open in the rear, and mounting three guns. The American engineers completed its rear bastions, and constructed an earthwork seven feet high, with a ditch, to the shore, where a small stone-work completed the defence on that side, and brought [71] the lines to the water’s edge. The stone-work was called the Douglass battery, after the lieutenant of engineers who built it. Fort Erie, Battery Douglass, and their connecting breastwork secured the camp on the right. ”

“ While the armies lay thus opposed to each other, Douglas resolved to give the young king of England a lesson in the art of war. At the dead of night, he left the Scottish camp with a small body of chosen horse, not above two hundred, well armed. He crossed the river in deep silence, and came to the English camp, which was but carelessly guarded. Seeing this, Douglas rode past the English sentinels as if he had been an officer of the English army, saying,—"Ha, Saint George! you keep bad watch here!" ”

“ This project includes an auxiliary channel reservoir called Guernsey, located above Whalen, Wyoming. Its capacity is 50,870 acre feet. The project also includes two small reservoirs in Nebraska-Lake Alice and Lake Minatare-having a capacity of 11,400 and 67,000 acre feet respectively. There are two main supply canals-Interstate and Fort Laramie-which take out from the North Platte at the Whalen diversion dam. The Interstate canal runs on the north side and the Fort Laramie on the south side of the river. Both extend far into Nebraska. Northport-a third canal-is located wholly in Nebraska. ”

“ In less than five minutes the boat, distinctly visible, with those salient points of color, the red coat and the white flag against the silver-gray water, had rounded the bend; every Indian runner was out of sight; and the line of warriors had relapsed into their silent staring at the fort, where the garrison dragged out three hours of such poignant suspense as seldom falls to the lot of even unhappy men. ”

“ Douglas!” they fell upon them, and a fierce hand-to-hand struggle began. The moon rose clear and bright, and the quiet evening air was filled with the din of battle, the ring of steel on steel, the crash of axe on armour, the groans of the wounded, and the battle-cries of the combatants on each side. Sir Ralph Percy, pressing too rashly forward, was captured by a newly-made Scottish knight, Sir John Maxwell. The battle was turning in favour of Hotspur, when Douglas sent his silken banner to the front and with renewed shouts of “Douglas!” the Scots pressed forward and overbore their foes. ”

“ His offer of allegiance to Edward I. being refused, he cast in his lot with Robert Bruce, whom he joined before his coronation at Scone in 1306. From the battle of Methven he escaped with Bruce and the remnant of his followers, and accompanied him in his wanderings in the Highlands. In the next year they returned to the south of Scotland. He twice outwitted the English garrison of Douglas and destroyed the castle. One of these exploits, carried out on Palm Sunday, the 19th of March 1307, with barbarities excessive even in those days, is known as the “Douglas Larder.” ”

“ He was broken in body, but resolute to carry through the expedition, in spite of the lateness of the season. The road had been cut to within easy reach of the French fort; and, on November 18, 2,500 men, picked out of the force, advanced in three columns, carrying with them only what was absolutely necessary in the way of supplies, and their brave commander on a litter. At a day's march from Fort Duquesne, it was reported that the fort had been evacuated and burnt; and when the English reached it on the twenty-fifth, they found that the news was true. ”

“ The race cannot afford, yet a while, to dispense with the services of the “Old Guard.”
LEWIS H. DOUGLASS.
The senior editor of the “New National Era” is the eldest son of Frederick Douglass, and inherits a large share of the father’s abilities. He was born in Massachusetts, has a liberal education, is a practical printer, received excellent training in the office of “The North Star,” at Rochester, New York, and is well calculated to conduct a newspaper. Mr. Douglass distinguished himself at the attack on Fort Wagner, [Pg 544] where the lamented Colonel Robert G. Shaw fell. ”

“ Then he stooped and carefully examined his fallen foe.
“He’s only stunned; thank God I didn’t have to kill him!” he ejaculated.
Then, taking a bundle of thongs from a peg upon the wall, he proceeded to bind the prostrate man, hand and foot. When he had finished, he secured the other’s gun, ammunition, and knife, and calling to the dog left the hut, noiselessly closing the door behind him.
By this time it was quite dark. Along the creek bank, the camp-fires twinkled like watchful eyes. With long, sturdy strides, Douglas set off toward the ravine up the stream. ”