Shin

A Soul Above a Beaver

By
ROBERT WATSON, F.R.G.S.

*

Telling of the Founding of Fort Victoria—of Sir James Douglas and other early
Fur Traders—of Victoria’s early names—of “Made Beaver”’—the Steamship
“Beaver’—the Beaver Club of the Famous Nor’ Westers—of International
Squabbles and Empires in the Making—in short, of “Cabbages and Kings.”

BY IMPERIAL Order in Council, the prov-
ince of British Columbia was admitted into
and became part of the Dominion of Canada
on 20th July, 1871. In 1931, a cairn was
erected and unveiled at Victoria, significant
of the building of Fort Victoria in 1843 and
in memory of the founder of the city of
Victoria, James Douglas of the Hudson’s
Bay Company.

Sir JAMES DOUGLAS

A strong-minded, forceful man this James
Douglas, even as a youth, who had two
thoughts about joining the Hudson’s Bay

_ Company at all when he heard of the coali-

tion between the two rival fur trade com-
panies, the Hudson’s Bay and the North
West Companies. He was impetuous too, as
was marked by several of his early acts.
But he was quick to learn by his mistakes
and a man not likely to repeat a mistake
previously made.

It is on record that James Douglas was a
scion of the noble House of Douglas, the
Black Douglases famous in Scottish history
at the time of King Robert the Bruce, just
as it is on record that the Black Douglases
were, for the most part, red-headed and the
prefix “Black” was originally attached to
them because of the political and other
‘black’ deeds their enemies attributed to
them.

Be that as it may, there are white and
black sheep in every flock.

James Douglas was born June 5th, 1803,
He was educated at Lanark, Scotland, and
inherited a handsome countenance and an
imposing figure; but most impressive always
was his indomitable will.

He entered the service of the North West
Company at Fort William at the early age
of sixteen and, as has been mentioned, re-
sented the coalition with the Hudson’s Bay
Company, so much that he was about to
resign and return to Scotland when his
friend and mentor, Dr. John McLoughlin,
persuaded him to remain and make the best
of it.

Young Douglas’ first assignment in Nor-
thern British Columbia, (New Caledonia),
was under John Tod at McLeod’s Lake.
Shortly afterwards, was transferred to Fort
St. James on Stuart Lake, where records
show him as being in charge of the fishing
for the Company. Fort St. James was what
one might term the capital of all New Cale-
donia.

WINTER EDITION

In 1828, James Douglas married by ac-
ceptance the daughter of William Connolly,
Amelia Connolly, at Stuart Lake. Amelia’s
mother was the daughter of an Indian Chief.
At the time of her union with young Doug:
las she was fifteen years of age. Douglas was
25. Amelia Connolly, in the course of time,
became Lady Douglas, and first lady in
British Columbia, and right well did she

Sir James Douglas, B. C.’s first Governor.

—Photo courtesy Provincial Archives, Victoria, B. C.

grace her position. The marriage between
the young people was later fully confirmed
by the Reverend Mr. Beaver.

When at Fort St. James on Stuart Lake,
Douglas gave a demonstration of his hot-
headedness and forcefulness of character,
under great provocation it is true. He was
temporarily in charge of the fort during
William Connolly’s absence on inspection.
A fight took place between the traders and
the Carrier Indians. This fracas already has
been detailed in an earlier issue of THE
SHOULDER STRAP and need not be repeated
here. Suffice to say that it almost ended a
great career before that career had properly
begun. But bloodshed was averted and

Douglas was preserved to follow his star of
destiny.

He left his post in New Caledonia in 1830
to go south to serve under Dr. McLoughlin,
in the Oregon. When he departed from
Stuart Lake on January 30th, 1830, he left
behind him his wife and a sick infant. The
latter died a month or so later.

In May of the following year, Mrs. Doug
las set southward to join her husband.

Young Douglas soon began to attract
attention at headquarters, and ten years
later we find him elevated to the post of
Chief Factor in the service. The impulsive-
ness and fire of his youth had now subsided
somewhat and in its place could be noted,
reserve, deliberation, tact, and that certain
canniness known as “Scotch caution.”

There was an artistic streak in James
Douglas in spite of the vigorous life he led,
just as there was in many of the old Hud-
son’s Bay Co. and North West Co. fur
traders, most of whom really had ‘a soul
above a beaver skin” and were greater by
far almost at all times than the Companies
they served. He was a bit of a poet too, this
Douglas, as witnessed by occasional phrases
of great beauty in his writing. Some years
ago now, the writer had the pleasure of
going through some of his more intimate
documents at Victoria, among which were
several little note-books in Douglas’s hand-
writing, recording his early journeys around
1841 to 1843. Under date of October 13th,
1841, he found the following, which displays
a spirit in harmony with nature in its early
morning loveliness:

“It was therefore doubly pleasant to see the
bright sun rising in its majesty, diffusing a
glorious light over the clear blue sky, tinging
the masses of vapour that are still seen hanging
heavily about the mountain sides, and throwing
a certain cheerful light even over the dark
gloomy forests that overhang the straits.”

Soon there ensued on the Pacific Coast
and elsewhere, that famous period in history
known as “54-40 or Fight,” the boundary
trouble between the United States and Great
Britain, when the U.S.A. claimed the terri-
tory as theirs as far as the 34th parallel, a
trouble which terminated with the Oregon
Treaty of 1846. Looking back on it at this
date, the wonder is that with Russia’s claims
in the north and United States claims in
the south, to say nothing of a certain apathy
on the part of resident and visiting repre-
centatives of the British government not con-
nected with the fur trade, she did not have

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