" Albany Fort America 1778 & 9"


" Honourable Sirs
The Indulgence you have formerly shewn to my Remarks of this kind are a sufficient Motive to me for continuing them. The dates as usual will correspond with the Journal in most Cases."

Nov. 18 1778
" This Evening the Factory had nearly been burnt down by a spark from the Chimney catching into a Crack in the covering boards on the Top of the North parapet; but happily was discovered just as it began to blaze, & was speedily extinguished with Snow and Water, without any material Damage."

Feb. 19 1779
" I have this Day contracted with James Robinson and Matthew Tate to continue longer in your Service. Robinson is engaged for four years at 18 £ pr Annum from the expiration of his last Contract which was out in 1778 so that this new Contract will continue only to 1782. He is by far the best Man at Eastmain for inland Discoveries, which must be my excuse to your Honours for giving him the above Wages before your determination could be received, for had Robinson & Tate been sent Home or detained at Albany until Shiptime all Inland expeditions from Eastmain must be totally put a stop to.
Matthew Tates Contract is very near the Same with your Orders of May last viz. One year at 8 £ and two years at 10 £ pr Annum. I imagined the Small deviation will not be regarded by your Honours considering his Utility at this Conjuncture for making inland Settlements & the obstruction that businefs would receive from sending him home: On the whole I have acted agreable to What I imagined would be most conducive to the Company's Interest and chearfully submit my Conduct to Your Honours' Candour and Indulgence.
It has given me much uneasinefs to find the Lists of Servants annually sent from Hence, give so little satisfaction to Your Honours. During the stay of the Ship the hurry of businefs and quantity of writing necefsary to be done ( the most part of which must pafs through my hands & requires me sometimes to set up whole nights to dispatch) renders it impofsible, with all my endeavours to have every thing as compleat as I could wish. I have therefore taken this leizure time to reconsider your Instructions concerning the Lists & have formed them anew, on a plan which I hope will give your Honours every Information you desire. By this Method it will appear who are fixed at each place, all exchanger? are are? particularly noticed, the Servants left at each place at the departure of the respective Master, the persons going with the Henley Boats & back again, or between Henley and Gloucester, the date when they set off to correspond with the Journals at Albany & Henley & every other particular is distinctly arranged: so that the premium can be readily afsigned to the Persons your Honours think most deserving, for at present I am not able to determine to whom your Honours adjudge it, Whether to the Servants residing at Henley and Gloucester or those who travel between Albany, Henley & Gloucester or further Inland.
The Allowance of 10 Shillings per Journey between Henley and Albany is more equitable to your Servants and will prove a saving to the Company: but the Journeys between Henley & Gloucester cannot be so precisely determined as the Boat goes part of the way and the Canoes make Trips from where the Boat lays, up to Gloucester; for which reason perhps your Honours will deem it right that the annual 40 Shillings bounty Should be given to each of those persons employed on that service, instead of 10 Shilling pr Journey, otherwise those who remain to guard the Goods & Boat during the absence of the Canoes, would be excluded the benefit of your Indulgence though they bear a part in the execution of the businefs."

Mar. 30 1779
" John Hodgson is returned from Gloucester House having determined its situation agreable to your Order. Mr Kipling gives me great hopes the place was answer the expence and trouble of establishing it. He has already rec'd 400 Made Beaver. He has also sent down his Indent for next Summer in which is 7 Months provisions and he says he cannot do with lefs which is very hard upon Albany. for the amount of the whole Invoice of Provisions that comes from England including Butter & every article, is only 14 Weeks for 70 Men, which is the Complement established by your Order. However I will do all I can to support the place to prevent its being deserted a second time on that account; and I hope your Honours will not think me unreasonable or extravagant if I enlarge the Indent of Bacon Cheese Beef pork & Oatmeal on this Account.
The Bubble of the Land-Quadrant requiring to be frequently adjusted, I could wish your Honours would send out directions for doing it, as neither myself or Hogson are acquainted with the proper Method. I think it is contained in a Small pamphlet discribing the Use of Hadley's Quadrant."

May 28 1779
" Approaching Winter and the want of Water has hitherto prevented a proper supply of Trading Goods being sent to Henley after Shiptime. By your Honours' consigned such a large Cargo last Shiptime I am enabled to fulfill the next Year's Indent of Trading Goods for that Settlement at this time; which will greatly forward the businefs and save the expence of hauling Goods up thither in the Winter. I have therefore sent three large Boats, two of which are for Henley and one for Gloucester which I hope will be a means of putting your Affairs at these Places in a prosperous Condition and procuring an encrease of Trade, at the Same time that it lefsens the labour of your Servants."

June 9 1779
" By a Letter received from Mr Kipling I find he has already got near nine hundred made Beaver and many Indians still waiting the Arrival of the Boat & Canoes with Goods for them to trade there. Mr Kipling's Letter was dated 2 days before the Boats set off from hence so that it must be very long before the Supply can reach Gloucester as the Water is uncommonly high & the Current rapid."

July 1 1779
" The Trade at Albany is somewhat lefs than last Year which I attribute to the lofs of those Indians who conveyed George Sutherland to Lake Winnepeg, not one of whom came to Albany, Henley or Gloucester: and on these Natives I chiefly depended for encreasing the Trade, as they were the only people who came any great distance to visit us. & by whom I had some little communication inland & could convey presents to Indians to gain their Friendship and Trade: At present the Trade at Albany Fort is the produce of only the Hunting Indians and a few others that inhabit near it. The Upland Trade seems entirely lost (as you may see by the small quantity of Catts & Beaver). Gloucester House perhaps may in some Measure retrieve it: and as that Settlement seems to answer well I am persuaded Your Honours woud wish to have it well supported. European Provisions are all that is wanting, as your last Cargo has prevented any scarcity of Trading Goods. I look upon Gloucester House & Settlements made still farther Inland to be the only Method of increasing the Trade, as Circumstances are at present; for if the Indians will not come down to us, we must (like the Canadians) go up to them: Those Traders seem to have cut us quite off from the inland Commerce but I should suppose the Natives would prefer your Articles of Trade to those of the Canadians, were your Servants upon the Spot with them. in the Indian country: but how to get the is a point very difficult to be accomplished; we have no Indians from those parts to Serve as Guides, we have very few Men able to undertake it, not one that knows how manage Canoes in the fall & currents. no Officers to conduct it or provisions to support the people. these are great & almost insurmountable Difficulties, and I submit them to your Honour's Consideration afsuring You that no endeavours of mine shall be wanting to render your Affairs succefsfull."

July 20
" I have caused new covering boards to be put on the top of the parapet all Round the Fort & have covered them with old sheet Lead off the North East Flanker to prevent any future accidents from Fire, such as happened the 18 November last. I presumed this measure would be agreable to Your Honours as the preservation of your Factory is so materially concerned."

July 22
" Mr Kipling came down from Gloucester with his Trade amounting to 1171 made Beaver and left the Charge with James Sutherland. So considerable a return from thence, almost the beginning of its Establishment, cannot fail giving pleasure to your Honors, and doing Credit to Mr Kipling, who voluntarily undertook and accomplished the undertaking. He gives me hopes that he will have 2000 made Beaver next Year, provided he has an additional supply of Trading Goods sent up this fall, for tho' I fully complied with the Indent he sent me by Jn. Hodgson last March, Yet the Trade having exceeded what either himself or me could expect, the Remains are insufficient to answer the End proposed of a Stock sufficient to supply those Indians who may be induced to visit this place; I could give him any Quantity of Trading Goods he wished for, but I have no Provisions for the Men to take it up, which cannot be lefs than 12 and allowing only 50 Days for accomplishing the work, would require 600 Mens Allowance for one Day; I am now at the lowest Ebb for Victuals, I expect Mr George Atkinson will bring me some Geese from Eastmain, but then I shall have 40 Men or more to feed, and were it otherwise, the Country Provisions are by much too bulky for these Journey's as it would take 5 Hogsheads of Geese, which would fill the Boat with Provisions only, wherehas 3 or 4 Half Hogsheads of Pork or Beef would answer the purpose, and occupy not more than half of the room. He must therefore be obliged to wait the arrival of the Ship, and if She comes late, or the Ice comes early in the river, it will be impofsible to get up the additional Goods, and your Affairs will eventually suffer. Those Considerations prompt me to make an addition to the Indent of Bacon, Cheese, Beef, Pork, and Oatmeal, but I refer it to your Honors, who can best determine the necefsity of such an augmentation, and proportion it accordingly."

July 26
" Mons. Maugenest with his Clerk Mr Thomas Coats, 7 Canadians, and three Indians, arrived here four days ago, they had the prudence and precaution to send two of the latter forwards with Mr Favell's Letters informing me of their pafsing by Henley on their way to Albany. I had a large Tent made for the Canadians and Indians, and admitted Mons. Maugenest and Mr Coats into my apartment, where after they had taken some refreshment I began to question them on the reason of their coming down to Albany. They informed me they came to make a voluntary offer of their Service to the Company. Mr Coats in particular said he had seen with regret the Company's Trade all run away by the French Canadians, and that he had persuaded his patron to come down hither, and engage with the Company, as a means to render himself (Coats) of Service to his Countrymen the English that they had brought Canadians and Luggage Canoes down to Conduct and afsist the Company's Servants Inland. that they had great Influence with the Natives, and could ensure them to Trade at the Company's Settlements, that Mons. Maugenest had been many Years a capital Trader amongst them about the Rainy Lake, Woody Lake, Petit River, and Nippigon (Anemepeg or Lake St. Anns) and on an Average of several Years procured 60 french packs of one hundred made Beaver each. that in four Years at farthest, supposing they were immediately employed, they would engage to bring all this into your Forts, and did not doubt but that they should soon oblige all the Canadian Traders to depart from these parts which they called the Petit North, but said they had no influence in the Grand North which ran up above York Fort and Severn. I could not help exprefsing my surprize that Mons. Maugenest being a large Trader on his own Account should be so solicitous for a contrary Interest as to wish to be engaged as a Servant but they said he had been so very ill used by the Canadian Merchants and met with so many disappointments from that Quarter that he was determined to have no farther Connections with any of them.
I told them I was very sorry that they had given themselves the trouble to come down, that I had no Authority to treat with them, on the Contrary my Orders were to have no Intercourse with them and to require their immediate departure, and in case of non compliance I was to take such other Measures that could not fail of being disagreeable to both parties. They were both astonished at my Answer, and said they had persuaded themselves they proposals which they brought and presumed were so evedently advantageous to the Company. would have been readily recieved, and have procured them the most Cordial Welcome; they feared the perfidy the Company had found in Lewis Primo, John Cole, and other Canadians (of whom they had heard or known) had prejudiced the Company against all other Canadians, but that they would afsure me, they would be true, and faithfull to the Company's Interests, that they were really Men of Integrity, and Mons. Maugenest said he would egage to serve the Company for three Years gratis, leaving it to their Honors to reward him afterwards according as he shall appear to deserve; They added that their Situation was extremely critical and distrefsing for coming down here they had lost the Season for going to Canada, they had neither Provisions for the Journey back, or any thing to support or Cloath themselves in Winter, they must therefore inevitably perish. unlefs I could in some Measure retrieve them. they offered to Conduct some of my Men Inland, and me to send a quantity of Trading Goods to be under the Management and Care of one of my own Men. That unlefs the Company did persue a Measure of that kind, their Trade would decrease every Year, for the Canadian Merchants had lately established Posts at different Stations Inland, which were well stocked with every Article necefsary for the Indians Commerce, and from these Posts had detached Traders to every Considerable Lake or River, where the Indians resort that used to visit the Company's Factory's, but that if the Company made Inland Settlements at those places the Trade would be retrieved, and the Canadians be obliged to retire for want of it. I desired they would put down their proposals in writing and I would give them a final Answer in the Morning. I shall transmit to your Honors the original Paper written by Mr Coats from Mons. Maugenest dictating.
They seemed very peaceable good Men, and the Canadians all behaved very well, however not choosing to trust to Appearances, I dispatched a Letter to inform Mr Hitchen? of their Arrival in case others should have visited Moose Fort, and being uncertain whether I could comply in any Manner with their Wishes, I thought it prudent to put Gloucester House in a stronger Condition by sending an Order to Mr Favell to Reinforce that Settlement with 5 additional Men untill the Canadians had gone past a considerable time.
In answer to the written proposals I told Mons. Maugenest by Mr Coats that I would give him the choice of two Measures. the first to depart immediately and take all his Furrs (which were 17 Bundles) away with him; the Second that I would trade a supply of necefsary's with him according to the Company's Standard, and Mr Coats to Conduct the Canadians back again, and Mons. Maugenest agreeable to his desire should remain at Albany till shiptime and go to England with his Proposals to the Company. They embraced the latter offer with much Joy and Thankfullnefs.
I should have informed your Honors before that both Maugenest and Coats begged I would permit them to go to England in your Ship, even if I sent them as Prisoners, for when I told them on their Arrival I could do nothing for them but send them away directly they with Tears intreated me to send them to England, for they said they shuld either be starved or Murder'd. for they had sent Notice to the Indians that they would be well supplied and the disappointment the Natives would have would so irretate them that they feared they should be killed. besides their own Men to whom they had made great promises would probably rise against them as the Canadians are at no times easy to Manage. I found they had left 2 Men building a House Inland against their Arrival. Mons'r had also other Settlements last Year, with Clerks in them to Transact the Businefs, that one of them had 10 French packs (100 made Beaver each) but it is gone to Canada not knowing Mons. Maugenest was coming to Hudson's Bay.
Your Honors will perhaps be surprised to find I offer'd any accommodation to them when your Orders were to have no Connection with Canadians, but I hope you will suspend your Jugement until you have Weighed the Motives upon which I acted, and then I have reason to hope for your Approbation, especially if You make Allowances for my situation, without a single Officer to consult or advise with."
1st To have sent these two Gentlemen home as prisoners might have brought the Company to trouble and Expence in the Courts of Law, and obstruct if not imbarrafs their Affairs at home.
2d To have turned the Canadians away without Victuals, Cloathing, or any thing would have made them desperate out of necefsity and I feared for Gloucester House which was furnished with every thing the Canadian could wish for or desire. and yet had only 5 Men to secure it.
3d Not to have enabled them to get up to their former Stations would be a means of detaining them nearer to your Factory's by which means they could get acquainted with our Indians, and perhaps next Year deprive us of the little Trade we have left.
4th If I could get their Furrs upon the Company's Standard of Trade, I was unwilling to loose such an acquisition, Especially as the Articles I should Trade would neither in quantity or Quality be productive of much if any Injury to the Trade of the Company's Settlements.
5th There whole Conduct was very civil and polite and peaceable here as well as at Henley and Gloucester.
And the Company's strict Orders concerning these Canadians orriginated at a time when the Americans were supposed to have pofsefsion of Canada, which was not the case at present though the Order was Continued.
6th Their proposals were (in my Opinion) very advantageous and the design the Company had at heart, and by accepting them all difficulties would be removed to establishments Inland, I was unwilling therefore to reject them absolutely, but choose rather to refer them to your Honors, who are the best judges whether they Merit acceptance or not.
7th The lofs the Canadians must sustain by bartering their Furrs here, according to the Company's Standard of Trade, together with the badnefs of the road (which they said was much worse than they have been used to) would I expect be sufficient discouragement to other Canadians to prevent any more visits of this kind.
These are the Reasons which regulated my Conduct in this Affair and I should be very happy to receive your future directions and to know whether it is your pleasure that I should Trade with Canadians according to your Standard or not at all.
Mons. Maugenest exprefses his hopes that your Honors would take Money, for the Goods he had out of the Warehouse and give him the overplus Value of his Furrs, after you had deducted a Premium for freight &c. when your Honor's were convinced he had your Interest at heart, and really meant to further it by his utmost Endeavours; but I told him I could give him no Encouragement to expect it, all that I could do was to pack up his Furrs directly seperate from my Trade, that your Honors might have an opportunity precisely to determine, the quantity and quality of what he had Traded and what he has not, and do as you thought proper: Agreeable to which you will find the Invoice specifies Bundles No. 60 a 64, and Cask No. 24, to be sundry Furrs untraded from Mons. Maugenest and Bundles No. 58 a 59 and Cask No. 25 to be Furrs Traded from him. The whole amount is wrote distincty in the Account Book near the beginning of the Ledger, which will give you a full view of my transactions with him, and you will find that he has recieved no equivalent for near half the Quantity of made Beaver now consigned to you Honors from him.
The Provision supplied to his Men he gave me a receipt for and will account for them to your Honor's as I could not fix any price upon them.
I found in Conversation that one of their Men who understood a little English, had seen a Letter from me to one of the Leading Indians who formerly traded at Albany Fort, and was sent to invite him down again, but the Canadian Man taking it for an Invitation to the Traders to come down here to be supplied as at Montreal, was what deceived Mons. Maugenest and brought him here. I have some of these Letters still by me, and shall send one of them for your perusal, they were written by Mr John Jarvis, as you may see by comparing them with the Account Books he wrote here, but the Leaders being Dead, or having no Indians that could convey it, is the Reason why it was not sent. you will see the Indians Name is both in the bottom of the Page, and also on the Direction, so that the blunder is almost unaccountable; however this occurred to me as a much more plasible reason for their Visit, than either Mr Coats's patriotic Sentiments, or the Written proposals, for they asked me whether I thought your Honors would let them have a Supply of Trading Goods yearly from Gloucester at 70 PrCent premium and all the Furrs to be sent home to your Honor's to account with them (the Canadians) for the Sale; but I told them I was of opinion you would do no such thing, as from Proprieters you would become Factors, this however appears to me to have been their primary Intention, but not being likely to be accepted, they altered it for the above mentioned proposals.
Not being certain whether your Honors would think their Offers of Service, admifsible, and being desirous of turning this Affair as much as pofsible to the Company's Interest, I readily embraced the offer of Conducting a Man up Country, espicially as we have no Communication farr Inland by the Natives. I have therefore sent George Sutherland with them to find out the Track and observe their manner of Travelling &c that he might hereafter be able to conduct a Settlement Inland there if found necefsary. I likewise gave presents and Leaders Cloathing to two of the Indians (who I found had formerly traded here) to renew our Connection, and to bring Sutherland down next Year. this I hope will be productive of an Increase of Trade and gaining some knowledge of the Country, as well as experience in the manner of Conveying Goods Inland, and that George Sutherland might be totally independant from the Canadians, I have fitted him out at the Expence of more than one hundred Beaver, besides Tobacco, Beads, and Vermillion &c as presents to Indians. this will augment the Expence of next Year, but on such an emergency I am persuaded Your Honors will approve of it. I should be very thanfull for Your Sentiments on this head, that I might act agreeable to them, as my highest Pride is to merit Your Approbation.
Having thus explained my Conduct in this Affair in the fullest manner, I shall take occasion to offer some Remarks and Observations upon the whole before the Ship Arrives."

Aug. 2 1779
" The last of the Men that were conveying the Cargo up to Gloucester House returned this Day with a further Increase of 143 made Beaver which make above 1400 recieved from thence this Year. This proves the importance of the place, and the necefsity of its being well supplied, agreeable to my Remarks of 26 Ultimo."

Aug. 27
" I have now been a Considerable time in Mons. Maugenest's Company, he speaks a little English, and with the help of Latin and Indian, we make a tolerable shift to understand each other. He is a Man of some Family in Old France, but took the Oath of Allegiance to his Majesty on the Surrender of Montreal where he sustained a great Lofs in the dreadful fire that happen'd there some Years ago. he has a Father living and several Brothers. one is a Merchant in Flanders, another lives near Lisle, a third is a Carpenter. He is a Man of Sense and I believe of Probity by his Actions and Behaviour, he was formerly in the Mifsipy Trade, but for 9 Years past has been in the Furr Trade, with great succefs, but by the perfidy of his Partners, and Embezzlement of his Clerks, he find himself but little better than when he set out. He has a Wife and Daughter at Montreal, and wished to get them to England, to give the latter a good Education, and said he would willingly leave his family and fortune in the Company's hands, as a security for the faithfull discharge of his Duty, in case of being engaged in this Service; Your Honors who are able to converse freely with him in his own Language will have an Opportunity of judging of the Sincerity of these Sentiments, and whether the disappointments and Injuries he has recieved from the Canadians may not prove a great Security for his fidelity. though in my own opinion from the Tenor of his Behaviour here, I am inclined to think very favourably of him as an honest Man, and he is quite abstremious in drinking, rarely taking above a single Glafs of any thing in an Evening. Had Albany Fort been my own private Concerns, I should have made no difficulty of sending an Afsortment of Goods, and some Men with him and his Canadians, but I would not venture doing so with the Company's property without your Directions, besides I am sensible the recluse Life I have always led makes me quite unpractised in the way of the world and liable to imposition. Your Honors experience and Wisdom will undoubtedly direct You to guard against deciet, and improve every fortunate Opportunity. Mr Coats enumerated no lefs than 18 Canadian Houses around us in these parts, and some of them only two days Journey above Gloucester, in coming down in small Canoes without Luggage. Him & Mons. Maugenest said that had Gloucester House been settled 8 or 9 Years ago, the Canadians would never been able to hurt Albany Trade, and that in a few Years more, Gloucester House will be the best place for Trade that belongs to Albany. He wonder'd at our using small Canoes, and said we ran great risk, both of the Men and Cargo; that Battaux would take more Goods with lefs Trouble, fewer Men, and more safety. he mentioned 32 feet Long and 7 broad. I have Indented for two of lefs dimentions to serve for a beginning untill we acquire the method of managing them. If Your Honors should employ him, he could point out to You several things that would facilitate the Inland work, and as he is acquainted with the rainy and Woody Lakes &c he can give You any Information he can desire, and can lead Your Servants directly to the parts your Honors are solicitous of settling. At all events I shall continue to persue it with Alacrity & improve every Opportunity of furthering your Service, as the best Method of evencing any Gratitude for the favors I have recieved in it.
I have been a long time considering on the best method of forming the Indent for Trading Goods, so that it should be neither excefsive or insufficient, and have formed a set of Rules, which I imagine will fully answer the intention. Albany Fort particular Indent is made out according to this plan; Your Honors will be so obliging to consider it, and either add or diminish the quantity's as the Rules appear to be effectual or not, it being of the utmost consequence to your Affairs.
The extraordinary services and Contingences to be provided for this Year are a large After Package, and sending Sutherland Inland, which has much lefsened the Remains; and a great addition of Goods most probably will be required for Gloucester House. this makes the Quantity's Indented for larger than those deducted from the following"


" Rules for making out the Indent"

"1st Take the difference between the General Charge and Remains of each Article the preceeding Year, or mean of a Number of Years, and call it expenditure.
2d Add the Remains of the same Article the preceeding Year, to the Invoice expected to come out the approaching Shiptime and call that Stock
3d Double the Expediture, and from its Sum Subract Stock, the Remainder shews the Indent necefsary to compleat two Years Stock.
NB. Extraordinary Services and Contingences to be discretionally Added."


" I am with great respect
Honourable Sirs
Your obliged & obed. humble Servt.
Tho. Hutchins."


B.3/a/76

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