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LES BOURGEOIS DE LA COMPAGNIE NORD-OUEST RÉCITS DE VOYAGES, LETTRES ET RAPPORTS INÉDITS RELATIFS AU NORD-OUEST CANADIEN PUBLIES AVEC UNE ESQUISSE HISTORIQUE et des Annotations 1A, R. MASSOtf Deuxième Série ' QUÉBEC DE L'IMPRIMERIE GÉNÉRALE A. COTÉ ET <i 1890 RÉCITS DE VOYAGES LETTRES ET RAPPORTS INÉDITS RELATIFS AU NORD-OUEST CANADIEN DEUXIÈME SÉRIE 1. M. John McDonald, Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest. " Autobiographical Notes", 1*791-1816. 2. M. George Keith, Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord- Ouest. Lettres à l'honorable E. McKenzie: 1807- 1817.—Les départements de la Rivière Mackenzie et du " Lac d'Ours "—Great Bear Lake.—Légendes. 8. M. John Johnston, traiteur libre, du Sault Ste-Marie. " An account of Lake Superior ", 1792-1807. 4. M. Samuel H. "Wilcocke. Narrative of circumstances attending the death of the late Benjamin Frobisher, Esq., a Partner of the North-West Company", 1819. — Luttes contre Lord Selkirk et la Compagnie de la Baie d'Hud- son. 5. M. Duncan Cameron, Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest. " A sketch of the customs, manners and way of living of the Natives in the barren Country àbout Nipi- gon " :—Extraits de son journal, 1804-1805.—La traite avec les sauvages. 6. M. Peter G-xant, Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord- Ouest. " The Sauteux Indians ", vers 1804. — ri — 7. M. James McKenzie, Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest. Extraits de son journal de 1199. — Le département d'Atkabasca. 8. M. James McKenzie. " Some account of the King's Posts, the Labrador Coast and the Island of Anticosti, by an Indian Trader residing there several years ; with a Descrip­ tion of the Natives, and the Journal of a trip through those Countries, in 1808, by the same Person." 9. The uNorth-West agreements", 1802 and 1804. —Actes constitutifs de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest. JOHN M°DONALD OF GARTH AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL KOTES 1791-1816. Antesque Dios fuese Dios 0 que el Sol illuminab los penascos, la era noble casa de los Velascos (1). The proud Velascos of Spain claimed an ancestry <3ating from the création and beyond ! Mr. McDonald îhad not quite so exalted an opinion of the McDonalds, and felt content with claiming for them an existence coeval with and independent of " Old Noah " ! " It is asserted in the Highlands of Old Scotland, " he says, in the mémorandum which préfaces his autobio- graphical notes, that the McDonald's are coeval with the family of Old Noah, &c ; that they had a boat of their own on Lock Lomond, indépendant of the ark, by which the chief of the clan saved as many as the boat (1) " Before God was (Jod. Before the Sun brightened the mountain tops, existed the noble House of the Velascos. " Noble corne el Reij, e aun " As Noble as the King, and even " 'wrote a Spanish nobleman under his signature. Be'mg asked what he meant by " e •aun ", he replied that, being a Knight, he was as noble as his King, and, being a •Castillan, he was still more so, the King was only a Frenchman. 4 JOHN McDOXALD OF GABTiï could safely hold, of course the finest and fairest of both sexes. Hence the superiority of that race above ail others ever since. " Be tliat as it may, they bave not, at any rate, l'al­ leu off, eitlior in peace or war, froin any of the race of Adam. " Mr. McDonald wasbornin the Ilighlands of Scotland in 1774, " ofgentlt' blood, " as he says, " being a des­ cendant of the Lord of the Isles. " His father, a captain in the oid 84th, had destined him for the Arrny, and had obtained for him—although he was then only fourtecn yenrs old—a commission in the saine régi nient. In conséquence, however, of an accident which had happened to lus right arm during lus childhood, he was unable to pass the médical exam- ination neeessary for admission to the Army (1). Having soon after lost lus father, bis grand unclc, General Small, and an older brother bound him with Mr. Simon MacTavish, whomtUey had met in England, a8 an apprentice clerk to the North-West Company, and in the spring of 1791, he left for Canada, his nevv home. lie arrived in Québec on the isfc of Jime, and on the 15th of the saine month he was on board the canoë at (1) Mr. MoDonnld'j arm booaine «lightly deformod In oon«equonco of this accident, nnd tho old Canadien vnyaytur», in ordor to distingui*I> Mm (rorn tho nuinerou* oth«r MoDonald» nnd MoDoncll», used to oull him " Momfcur Muc/Jiiul, le Ira» eroehe. '" AUT0BI0GRAPHICAL NOTES 6 Lachine, having spent in Montréal the time barely suf- ficient to présent liis letters of introduction and to make the necessary préparations for bis long voyage and for the «ew life to which he was destined. He was seven- teen years old ! Though rather small in stature and at a disadvantage on account of the injury he bad sustained to bis right arm, Mr. McDonald appoars to liave been of a quarrel- sorae and pugnacious disposition. He bad bardly boarded the good sbip " Canada " which took bim to Québec than he managed to pick a quarrel with a young officer, a fellow passenger, and cballenged bim to go on deck, on a very dark night, and figbt a duel with pocket pistols ! Tbis freak greatly araused the oflicers on board,and Mr. McDonald was the iirst to make l'un of it later. He had great faith in bis pocket pistols, and was very apt to resort to the m as the readiest mode of settling his little controversies with bis mates. Fortunately for him, while at Grand Portage, he happened to fall in with a burly North-West clerk, who, instead of yeild- ing to his bad temper or accepting the judgment of the pocket pistols. went for a bitof ropeand threatened the aiubitious young dueilist with a good thrashing. Tbis seems to bave quieted him for some time. Mr. McDonald, like most North-Westers, was brave, rash, reckless and domineering. He had a niost decided disposition to seek redress at his own hands, and never 6 JOHN MCDONALD OF GA.RTH underrated his own doingsand prowess. He would have- probably done poor service in the Army, but he wa» justsuch'a man as was required in the indisciplined and lawless wilds of the North-West. His indomitable energy and pluck carried him through where many would have failed, and his frank and generous nature endeared him to many. The bénéficiai influence of his high character was par- ticularly felt when the first open acts of hostility broke out between Mr. Miles McDonell, governor of Red River and the North-West Company, in 1814, by the seizure- and confiscation by the former of the provisions desiined for the northern departments. Mr. McDonald strenuously exerted himself to brhig about a compromise between thetwo parties, explnining to Lord Selkirk's people the position in winch the ser­ vants of the North-West Company would be placed if they persisted in detaining in their possession the pemi- can and provisions required for the subsistance of their clerks and voyageurs in the northern régions. He, at the same time, explained to his co-partners in the North- West Company the odium which would fall on thera if the Colonist were totally deprived of the seized pro­ visions. By the good sensé and the conciliatory spirit he displayed in this négociation he, at last, brought the two parties to effect an agreeraent by which a considérable portion of the confiscated provisions were to be re- AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES T turned to their legitimate owners, and sccurity given for the payraent of the balance retaincd (1). Mr. McDonald definitively left the North-West in 1816 and settled at Gray's Creek, in the county of Glen- gary, where he died at the good old âge of 86, leaving several cluldren, among whora, the late Judge Rolland McDonald, of Ontario, and Mr. deBellefeuille McDonald, who raarried a Miss Harwood and to whose son, Mr. de Lery MacDonald, I ara indebted for the permission to give to the public the following copious extracts from his grand-father's autobiographical notes (2). (I) See Gabriel Franche™ : Relation tl'n* roijuije <t la Mite Nord-Out»i dt l'Amé­ rique septentrionale. (1810-1814). Ci) Soc : Ker. Robert Campbell : " History of lh> St. Gabriel-StrootChurcli, Mon­ tréal. " Garth Gray's Greek, Ist Mardi, 1859. Dear de Bellefeuille, Yourself and ray dear daughter-in-law have been long since «desironstoknowsomething ofyour forefathers—being a stranger in a strange land—and some sketch of my longlife. You will remember that I am in my eighty-ninth (89) (1) year and that my memory is failing Eovvever, I shall try and meet yonr wishes, however in­ correct and as briefly as I can. I am, Dear de Bellefeuille, Your affectionate father, JOHN MCDONALD. De Bellefeuille McDonald, Esq. <1) More probably eighty-fifth see page 11. I was from school and too yomig whon I lcft 0kl Scotland to knowmuchof my relations, or care mnch for thcm, cotiscquently this narrative which I hâve given you is vory concise, and my absence from home ever since lias left me very liltle acquainted with an y of them. My grand uncle, General Small, met the late Simon McTa- vish, head partner of the 0kl North-West Company, in Lon- don, and, with my brother Angus, of Pall Mail, botind me as a clerk to that Company for a definile number of years.
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