New Caledonian rough-edged life

The Fort George Murders of 1823: Crises and Coexistence in New Caledonia
by Geoff Mynett

Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2026
$28.00 / 9781773861791

Reviewed by Steven Brown

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England’s King Charles II granted a charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670 giving it a monopoly on trade in all the land whose waters drained into Hudson’s Bay. Rupert’s Land as it was called was a separate entity from Upper Canada and Lower Canada, areas roughly equivalent to today’s southern Ontario and southern Quebec.

Rupert’s Land was vast. The trade was in furs. In 1779, the North West Company was formed by a group of men with the intent of breaking the Hudson’s Bay Company absolute fur trade monopoly. In 1791, the company’s Alexander MacKenzie descended what became known as the MacKenzie River to the Arctic Ocean. In 1793, he pushed through the Rocky Mountains all the way to the west coast. Later both David Thompson and Simon Fraser expanded geographic knowledge of the far west.

After 1805 the North West Company established a number of trading posts or forts in a large area of what would later be part of the colony of British Columbia, later of course the province of British Columbia. The area became known as New Caledonia, Caledonia being another name for the northern regions of Scotland. A majority of white fur traders were in fact from Scotland. In 1821, the Hudson’s Bay Company absorbed the North West Company and took over the fur trade in New Caledonia as well as the trade in Athabasca and south in the Columbia River territory centered on Fort Vancouver (present day Vancouver, Washington). Many employees of the North West Company continued in the trade as employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

One of them was John Stuart (1780 – 1847). He’d joined the North West Company in 1796 and was with Simon Fraser on his epic journey to the Pacific down the river that would bear his name. Stuart became a partner in the North West Company in 1813. He was indeed a native of Scotland and coined the term New Caledonia, helping to establish forts there. He spent several years in the Athabasca region north of New Caledonia but returned there as superintendent in 1821, the year of the merger. With that merger there was still no more than sixty employees of the HBC in all of New Caledonia. The natives, consisting of the Dakelh people often called the Carrier, numbered in the low thousands. The word Dakelh translates as “people who travel upon the water.”

The whites were badly outnumbered and knew it. Good relations with the natives were essential. The HBC was interested in trade only. They weren’t out to conquer territory or convert the natives to Christianity or impose laws. There were no written laws, no police, no courts, no government just as there were no cities, no towns, and no roads. A few pack trails wound their way through the wilderness here and there.

What had been established was a mutually beneficial business relationship. The HBC men wanted the furs the natives could provide, mostly beaver pelts, while the natives desired the blankets, guns, ammunition, clothing, steel traps, axes, and tobacco and liquor when they could get it, that the white men could provide. Another thing the natives provided that was absolutely essential to the whites was food in the form of salmon trapped from the fall salmon runs. Every fort or post had its salmon house where dried fish was stored in the thousands. It had to last until the following fall. If the salmon runs failed as they sometimes did starvation became a real possibility. By the summer stocks were invariably running low for both natives and whites. Life in New Caledonia two hundred years ago was rough-edged to put it mildly. It wore men out.

Things had been running along fairly smoothly until the fall of 1823. Fort George had been established at the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser rivers. In the spring of 1823, Stuart led the New Caledonia fur haul on the long journey to York Factory on Hudson’s Bay. He was to attend the annual meeting of the Northern Counsel taking place that July.

Getting the furs out was a daunting undertaking. The collection point for New Caledonia was Fort St. James on Stuart Lake north of Fort George. From there it was on to McLeod’s Lake by pack trail then to the Parsnip River and into canoes that proceeded north to the Peace River and down to Fort Chipewyan, the HBC’s Athabasca headquarters. From there it was east into the Saskatchewan river system and on to York Factory on Hudson’s Bay. York Factory was the company’s main depot. From here the furs were shipped to Europe. The word factory was employed not because something was being manufactured. Factor was a Scottish word for agent or superintendent, the individual responsible for operations.

John Stuart was inclined not to return to New Caledonia after the trip to York Factory. Although only in his early forties he was feeling his years and hoping for a less rigorous assignment. He didn’t get it. He was told he was too valuable to New Caledonia and was reappointed as superintendent. He left York Factory for the return journey on July 23, canoes heavily laden.

News of the shocking murders of two French Canadian engagés or employees of the HBC at Fort George by a native and his accomplice was conveyed to William Brown, chief trader at Fort Kilmaurs at the northern end of Babine Lake. Again, Kilmaurs was the name of the small town in Scotland Brown hailed from. He’d been left in charge of New Caledonia in Stuart’s absence. He learned that Stuart was returning and decided to meet him himself with the bad news. On October 24, Stuart was not far from McLeod’s Lake when the two men met. It was bad news indeed. The fragile balance of the relationship with the natives faced a grave threat.

Who committed the murders and why and what to do about it and what happens later takes up the rest of this remarkable story, the seventh book in what has evolved as author Geoff Mynett’s stand-out series of deep dives into formerly obscure corners of British Columbia history. William Brown is the subject of the author’s previous book in the series, A Gentleman of Considerable Talent.

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“Books have ruined my life,” jokes Steven Brown. A professional in the book trade for decades he’s managed to hang on to a lively interest in good books that began in his preschool years and has never quit. His reviews of fiction, non-fiction and poetry have appeared in newspapers, literary journals and he has donated reviews to worthy causes. [Editor’s note: Steven has reviewed books by Merlin Bunt, Derek Hayes, John Horgan with Rod Mickleburgh, Robert J. Muckle, Peter Smith, and Jonathan Swainger for The British Columbia Review.]

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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