 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 20
by Mary K. Cullen Langley in Its Most Active PhaseFort Langley in 1850 was on the threshold of the most active phase of its existence. During the next eight years the annual depot routine and adjunct operations of boat building, blacksmithing and farming, as well as a cranberry packing industry, were added to the extensive work of fish curing. The dual focus of the Hudson's Bay Company's Pacific trade, inland and coastal, was served by these activities. Fort Langley depot played a vital role in the annual process of getting goods into the interior and preparing returns for shipment. Its salmon and cranberry industries contributed valuable cargoes to the Company's commercial shipping. In their daily and frequently simultaneous operations, the Fort Langley businesses of the 1850s presented a panorama of activity uniquely representative of the character of the Company's entire Pacific operation. Fort Langley Depot The position of interior depot involved three major functions: routine reception and dispatch of goods and men; maintenance of an efficient river transport to Fort Hope, and production of ironwork and foodstuffs for the interior districts. Annual Routine About five months prior to the brigade arrival each summer, supplies for the interior were shipped to Fort Langley from the central depot of Fort Victoria.1 In the course of the winter, members of the Fort Langley staff divided the bulk provisions into smaller units, filling oak kegs from large puncheons of flour, molasses, tobacco and liquor. They also made oilcloths for wrapping bales of goods.2 At the end of May, George Simpson, eldest son of Governor Simpson and clerk at Victoria, was sent to the Fort Langley equipment shop to supervise the packing of the district outfits and to put up the servants' orders.3 The inland pieces, which weighed 90 pounds each, probably numbered over 600 pieces for the three districts. Once ready, they were shipped by batteaux to Fort Hope. The brigade men and furs were brought down on the return journey. The three brigade parties from New Caledonia, Thompson River and Fort Colvile annually arrived at Fort Langley about 20 June.4 Each party had its own officer in charge throughout most of this period, Manson, New Caledonia; Anderson, Fort Colvile, and Paul Fraser, Thompson River. One record specifies there was a total of 60 men and officers,5 but whole families often accompanied the brigade. In June 1850 Simpson complained that the board of management's application for 300 horses did not arise from the need to transport the outfits, but from heavy demands on private account and "from conveyance of families to and from Fort Langley."6 The annual sojourn at Langley was an occasion for celebration by the labouring men of the interior. The depot supplies offered an assortment of articles, scarce or unavailable in the interior, which the servants purchased subject only to their credit and a limit of one-third of a piece each for inland transport.7 Generous purchases of liquor meant that besides the usual gentlemanly sports and dances, there occurred some classic instances of rowdyism. Yale, a morally disciplined man who ran his fort with an iron hand, was highly incensed with this behaviour. In a letter to Simpson dated 22 October 1852 he wrote; I anticipated that the Brigades as coming from the interior would have afforded a sample somewhat in accordance with things here, but was sorely disappointed. They could not believe it possible that in a place so obscure anything good could exist, and seemed benignly disposed to regenerate the whole and thwart my whimsical propensities to uphold the ancient and idolatrous usages. The desire of disorganization, that the laws of morality should be changed, perfidy rewarded and honesty scorned, seemed, to my bewildered imagination, to prevade the land .... I could not have believed it possible ... that, among so few people, there could have been found so great a majority of unsteadfast persons.8 During one of the four weeks when the brigades were at the depot, Douglas came from Fort Victoria to renew employees' contracts, receive reports from the officers and discuss arrangements for the following year.9 The business aspect of these meetings was offset by the strong social ties of the Company officers. On his visit in June 185710 Douglas had the pleasant task of performing a double wedding ceremony for two of Yale's daughters. Aurelia married John D. Manson, son of Donald Manson, and Bella married George Simpson, the clerk who supervised the packing of the interior outfits.11 Many years later Aurelia Manson recalled this event. Our wedding ceremonies were performed by ... James Douglas, in the presence of his daughter, Miss Agnes, his niece, Miss Cameron, Mr. Dallas, Mr. Pemberton, and Mr. Golledge and Mr. Ogden of Stuart Lake. Captain Mouat gave the signal to the men who were waiting, and seven guns were fired from the fort to salute the weddings of the Chief Trader's daughters. Mr. Odgen suggested a canoe ride after the ceremonies. So the boats were brought out, manned by the Voyageurs. The Governor, the Chief Trader and the bridal party took the first canoe. The remainder of the party followed in the other one. I can see it all still. We paddled up the Fraser River, the Canadiens singing their Boat Song.12 Once the business and social activities had been concluded and the brigades had departed sometime between 15 and 20 July, the work of preparing the furs for England began. All the inland furs were opened and aired. "The great point," Douglas instructed Yale in 1854, "is to have them thoroughly clean and perfectly dry when packed ... If the weather is at all damp the furs should be well aired and packed in a house where fires are kept constantly burning."13 Generally, foxes, martens, minks, muskrats and sea otters were put in rum puncheons. Other furs were packed in bales weighing about 250 pounds (in contrast to the 90-pounds bales for inland transportation), each wrapped with inferior bear skins or hair-seal skins. Beaver skins were spread full length in these bales.14 The separate packs were numbered and marked with the outfit to which the furs belonged, "C" for the Columbia Department and, after 1853, "W" for the Western Department. A typical bale made up at Langley for shipment to England is suggested in the invoice of sundries shipped by the steamer Otter in December 1855.15 Fur Pack number 4 of this shipment contained 59 large beaver, 30 small beaver, 11 land otter, 29 martens, 4 fishers and 6 lynx. While this particular cargo mainly contained barrels of cranberries and fish and only six packs of furs, the volume of furs annually packed at the depot included those of the four districts of Langley, New Caledonia, Thompson River and Colvile. Boat Building Although Fort Langley often helped to clear the brigade trail to Kamloops, after 1850 its principal contribution to the inland communication network was the maintenance of river transportation to Fort Hope, the beginning of the overland trail. Boat building was introduced as an adjunct of this service. About seven batteaux were constructed and kept in operation for the 80-mile Fort Langley-Fort Hope run. In addition, keel boats were made to sail across the Strait of Georgia, supplementing steam service from Fort Victoria. Long before the Hudson's Bay Company had resolved to supply its New Caledonia posts from the sea, the North West Company had successfully introduced batteaux for freight along the Columbia River. In 1825 Simpson ordered the continued use of "boats" to carry the Company's outfits from Vancouver to Okanagan.16 Both "Columbia Boats" and "Batteaux" are listed in the Fort Vancouver inventory of 184417 although the distinction between the two was not generally made. In 1841 nine batteaux rowed by 60 voyageurs transported the New Caledonia outfit on the Columbia River leg of the inland journey.18 Early in 1847 when it was anticipated that the Fraser River might provide a water highway some distance into the interior, Anderson suggested the necessity of getting "an adequate number of boats similar in all respects to those used on the Columbia made either at Langley or Kequeloose, during the winter."19 Samuel Robertson, a boatbuilder from Fort Vancouver, arrived at Fort Langley in April under engagement to build four large batteaux.20 A year later the board of management reported that seven boats had been constructed at Fort Langley for navigation to the rapids.21 The actual design of the first Fort Langley-built batteaux probably did not vary from the type constructed at Fort Vancouver. Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, who accompanied the inland brigade on the Columbia River in 1841, described these batteaux. [Their shape is] ... somewhat of the model of our whale-boats, only much larger, and of the kind built expressly to accommodate the trade ... they have great strength and buoyancy, carry three tons weight, and have a crew of eight men, besides a padroon: They are thirty feet long and five and a half feet beam, sharp at both ends, clinker-built and have no knees. In building them, flat timbers of oak are bent to the requisite shape by steaming; they are bolted to a flat keel, at distances of a foot from each other: the planks are of cedar, and generally extend the whole length of the boat. The gunwale is of the same kind of wood, but the rowlocks are of birch. The peculiarity in the construction of these boats is, that they are only riveted at each end with a strong rivet, and being well gummed, they have no occasion for nailing.22 Some alterations were made in the design after several years' experience on the Fort Langley-Fort Hope line. Although specific adaptations are not mentioned, Douglas noted that a new set of river boats, built in 1852, possessed "many improvements in framing and modelling which will better adapt them for the navigation of Fraser's River."23 Loaded batteaux took from five to six days to make the journey upstream from Fort Langley to Fort Hope.24 They each carried 60 bales packed for the interior and from six to eight boat men.25 There were no portages, but some difficult passages which necessitated tracking. This involved landing about half the load, attaching manilla rope to the sides of the boat and towing or tracking the craft from the river bank through the swift current. The landed packs were transported on voyageurs backs to the end of the rapids where the cargo was again shipped.26 On the downward trip the batteaux were carried by the current, making the journey in three or four days.27 The keel boats which Langley depot built in connection with the transport service were intended "in a pressure to be sent to Fort Victoria for supplies of goods." The board of management commissioned a 50-foot boat for this purpose in April 1847,28 but the priority of building batteaux postponed the project until 1851. Then instructions were given for two keel boats, one of pine and the other of oak. Materials for the former were procured at Langley, but for the latter a keel and oak timber were forwarded from Fort Victoria.29 A year later Yale received word that one of the finshed craft had "arrived safely and is reported to pull and sail remarkably well in addition to her other good qualities in point of model and strength which are equally remarkable."30 While the construction of a few keel boats was relatively inexpensive, the maintenance of a fleet of batteaux from Fort Langley to Fort Hope was a heavy factor in the total cost of inland transportation. Discovery of a continuous land route from Langley depot to the Thompson could alone relieve this expense. With this object in view the Company had Gavin Hamilton explore a route by the valley of the Chilliwack River during the summer of 1855.31 He reported favourably on the trail which came to the Fraser 30 miles above Fort Langley, swept south avoiding the mountain barrier of the Coquihalla road and united with the latter on the banks of the Similkameen River.32 Operations were started on the road from both ends in the fall, but the proposed batteaux-free route was abandoned in July 1856 "in consequence of unexpected obstacles which the explorers of the route had overlooked near the Chilliwack Lake, which is enclosed by precipitous rocky hills apparently inaccessible to horses either in a direct line across their summits or by following the margin of the Lake."33 Transportation by the Fraser remained an integral part of the brigade route and thus boat building continued to be an important enterprise at Fort Langley until the post ceased to be depot in 1858. Ironwork As a matter of expediency, ironwork for the interior posts on the Pacific Slope was made at the coastal depot where iron and coal could be easily shipped. When Fort Vancouver ceased to be depot in 1848, the function was temporarily taken over by the blacksmith at Fort Victoria. On 30 August 1850 Yale was informed that since Victoria had only one blacksmith, henceforth the Company would depend on Fort Langley for the manufacture of "all the Iron works required in the Interior."34 The annual volume of work which this order entailed is indicated by the "List of Sundry Axes and other Iron work to be made at Fort Langley for the undermentioned Districts, Outfit 1852:"35
Other items frequently made for the interior and not included in this list were "ketches, springs, nutts and palletts" for beaver traps, door hinges, handles and latches, ice chisels and horseshoes.36 All these orders were completed in conjunction with a variety of other tasks. Fort Langley blacksmiths made iron hoops for the salmon barrels, fastenings for boats, oxen yokes and horse harnesses and many of the hardware items for the buildings. They repaired farm implements, fort locks and hinges and generally kept everything in working condition.37 Farming Cultivation at Langley had been largely abandoned in 1847 in favour of the fishery, but was reintroduced in 1850 in consequence of a general dearth of provisions on the Northwest Coast.38 The problem arose partly as a result of the 1849 crown grant of Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company for purposes of colonization. The resources of the Fort Victoria farm were insufficient to help the new settlers get started and also supply the Company's inland parties. To divide the burden of provisioning, the board of management determined on raising foodstuffs for the brigades at Langley. This decision was approved by the governor and committee in a letter dated 10 July 1851. We notice your intention to extend the farm at Langley and trust that you will be able to supply the wants of the interior from that post as we suppose with the large influx of people into Vancouver's Island, you at present consume as much or more than you can raise.39 The work of tilling was undertaken by servants who arrived by ship from England in the spring of 1851. Four men were sent to Fort Langley in May to be stationed on the plain. William Atkinson, "an elderly man of excellent character and good education," was placed in charge. With the assistance of local Indians, this work force was "to enlarge the farm, subdivide it into fields of proper size and to surround it with neat substantial rail fences."40 Farming progress was immediately blocked by the character of the Englishmen who failed to get along either with local conditions or with the spartan personality of Yale. Douglas warned Yale that because the English labourers were accustomed to better fare than usual, a degree of management would be required to supervise them without causing dissatisfaction.41 Yale refused to pamper anyone. Ten months later, he dismissed two of the men as "useless" and strongly criticized Atkinson for inactivity. The dismissals caused some inconvenience since there were no readily available substitutes except "stubborn Englishmen" and as Douglas wrote Yale, "you would find [them] quite unmanageable seeing that you have not the character of being a liberal master nor disposed to feed them on roast beef and plum pudding."42 Langley Farm was later staffed with Orkneymen and Highlanders who were considered better adapted for the service of the interior posts.43 Grasses and root crops similar to those raised in the 1840s were cultivated during this period. Unusual grass seeds, probably used for pasturage, are itemized in a July 1850 invoice.44 1 bushel Perenial Rye Grass The three main grasses were oats, timothy and wheat. In April 1851,140 bushels of grain (probably wheat) were sown.45 Fort Langley wheat, manufactured into flour at Victoria, was one of the major staples supplied to the interior. Another was potatoes which grew exceedingly well and supplied Fort Victoria as well as the brigades.46 By 1854 Fort Langley was producing a surplus of grain which was exported for the use of the settlers on Vancouver Island. The area of land under cultivation is not recorded, but judging from the miscellaneous wheat exported to Fort Victoria, it probably did not reach the maximum tilled when Fort Langley contributed wheat to the Russian contract. A liberal estimate would be 200 acres. Dairy farming at Fort Langley, which had been largely oriented toward the supply of butter for the Russian America Company, did not appear to diminish although the Hudson's Bay Company provisioning agreement was abolished by the renewed contract of 1849. Destruction of a large quantity of grain and the whole stock of fodder by fire in November 1848 followed by a winter of extraordinary severity had reduced the Fort Langley herd from 240 to 80 head.47 In March 1849, however, the stock was increased to 430 head.48 Although inventories of livestock for the 1850 period are missing, general correspondence including references to the dairies would suggest a large herd was kept up for at least the next decade. The Salmon Fishery The support activities which Fort Langley provided for the interior transport were essential to the annual net profit of the fur trade, but, unlike the Langley salmon-curing industry, they did not appear as a single tangible monetary surplus in the Company accounts. In an operation whose principal goal was profit, it is therefore not surprising that the salmon-curing business should have been nourished with special care. Once Langley salmon claimed attention in the Oahu native market, the Company had quickly developed the industry to its peak export of 2,610 barrels in 1849. Between 1850 and 1854 an average of 1,660 barrels was marketed yearly at prices ranging from $15 to $17.49 Subsequently, however, demand declined and prices for year-old fish slumped as low as two dollars a barrel. Part of the reason for this trend was competition from other sources, such as Puget Sound, and development of fish curing on the islands themselves.50 Of greater concern to the Hudson's Bay Company was the reported inferior quality of the Langley salmon. The Company's protracted debate on this issue illuminates the latter two facets of the threefold Langley curing enterprise: 1) trading, 2) curing and 3) coopering. Trading From the establishment of the original fort in 1827, inhabitants of Fort Langley had found that they could not fish salmon as cheaply as they could trade them from the Indians. An attempt at fishing in 1828 prompted the conclusion that "the expense in trade would hardly exceed the very cost of Lines and Twine."51 In 1829 McDonald traded 7,544 salmon for goods amounting to £131 7s. 2d. Given his estimate of 90 salmon to a barrel, the cost in trade per barrel was 3s. 3d.52 Seventeen years later the cost remained practically the same. In the summer of 1846 Langley cured 1,400 barrels of salmon at an expense of three shillings in goods per barrel.53 A statement of the salmon trade at Fort Langley, 10-20 August 1829, specifies the kinds of articles expended for 84 barrels of salmon:54 1 common half axe Ball buttons and other small articles were still being used in the salmon trade of 1851.55 Before salmon curing developed as an export industry, trading for fish was confined to the wharf in front of Fort Langley. Here the trader stood with a chest of articles and bartered for salmon and other commodities which the natives wished to sell.56 As exports increased, it became necessary to get greater quantities of fresh fish. A trader and a curing party were then dispatched to the Indian fishing stations farther up the Fraser. One such fishery, established near the Chilliwack River approximately 25 miles upriver from Fort Langley, produced 1,020 barrels of salmon in 1847.57 This establishment, consisting of "a dwelling house, sheds, salting tubs, 200 empty barrels and about 60 bushels of salt," was consumed by fire in 1848 but was quickly re-established.58 From time to time traders and curers also set up business at the Harrison River and Fort Hope.59 Naturally, the Indians preferred to sell to the highest buyer. When the Company made an attempt to develop salmon curing at Fort Victoria in 1849, the higher valuation of salmon there in comparison to the price given at Fort Langley caused much dissatisfaction among the natives.60 During the fishing season of 1852, an American ship anchored at the mouth of the river and another with an establishment on Belvou Island obstructed the Langley salmon trade to a greater degree. Yale viewed these fledgling enterprises with disdain. He reported to Simpson; "The choicest goods, such as were reckoned too valuable to be given for fish here, were there readily disposed of at a rate three hundred per cent lower than at Fort Langley, enticing off our Fishermen and causing much bitter reproach from the natives." It was only because the Langley traders were more mobile than the opposition that they finally reconciled the Indians to their tariff.61 Curing Curing or salting commenced immediately after the salmon was traded and usually lasted for four or five days or the duration of the salmon run. Aurelia Manson described the procedure in very general terms. Many boys, and a man or two, would be running from the wharf with the salmon, which they piled before the women of the fort and others who were seated in a circle in the shed where they cut the salmon. No rest for the boys. They had to continue their running, this time with the cut salmon to the men in the big shed where they were salting the salmon. And so they worked all the week, early in the morning till late at night till the salmon run was over.62 The method of cutting the salmon and the recipe for brine including the amount of salt required per barrel of 180 pounds is not recorded although it is known that, contrary to East Coast practice, salmon salted at Langley had the backbone and head removed.63 Although the Langley product gained favour among the natives of Oahu, salmon sold to the Hawaiian Islands wholesalers and reexported to other countries did not fair so well. A consignment of Fraser River salmon to Sydney, Australia, in 1853 brought a severe loss to the shippers who contended the fish was not properly cured, being quite soft instead of firm.64 Robert Clouston, Hudson's Bay Company agent in the Hawaiian Islands, attributed the loss to the inferior quality of the Hawaiian Island salt used to cure the Langley fish. He stated that Liverpool salt would preserve the salmon longer, giving the Company product a decided superiority in the market and inducing speculators to ship to Sydney.65 As a result of this recommendation, 60 tons of Liverpool salt were forwarded to Fort Victoria in December 1854 and and transhipped to Langley with a memo from Douglas that "a much smaller quantity of Liverpool salt will be required than of the other kind, and the fish will exhibit a healthy ruddy appearance, which will ... recover their character in the foreign market."66 In January 1855 the board of management sent 100 barrels of Fraser River salmon (sans Liverpool salt) for trial in the London market "with the view of reducing [Oahu] stock and of selling to better advantage."67 The experiment turned out badly, realizing only 18s. per barrel. The report of London fish factors Ricknell and Rotten in July 1855 suggested the main problem was not the salt, but the defective state of the barrels which caused the brine to escape and rendered the fish almost worthless.68 Meanwhile the Langley salmon of the 1855 season, cured with Liverpool salt and covered with brine, was reported from the Hawaiian Islands to be "so soft that the natives will not take it" and to have maggots in some barrels in the pickle.69 This news and the statements from England relative to the Fraser River salmon arrived simultaneously at Langley for Yale's perusal on 8 November 1855. Langley's chief trader did not appreciate criticism of his salmon-curing business. He blamed poor sales on other fish cured by the Company at Vancouver Island and on methods of marketing. Yale remarked, Perhaps the Salmon might have been sold when there was a demand for it, at a moderate price .... Things will grow rusty by long keeping and bad care, and it is not very surprising that out of 6000 or 7000 barrels some two or three hundred should have become depreciated in quality and value. The tutelar duties of Fraser's River have no control over the fish after they have been salted and shipped for market. We never heard any complaints about the Fraser's River Salmon before an attempt had been made on Belvou and Vancouver's Island to surpass us in the process of curing. The contrast opened the eyes of the Islands, and they wanted fresh supplies from Old Langley.70 The reaction of the board of management to these accusations was restrained. While trying to mollify Yale's wounded feelings, Douglas insistently denoted areas for improvement in the curing process. He replied, Your own experience in curing fish has been so great that I do not think my remarks on the subject would much extend the spheres of your knowledge but I have been taught by experience that two conditions are essential to the proper curing of fish. — First, that the fish should be perfectly fresh, and not overexposed to the sun, which makes it soft and flabby. Secondly. It should not be washed in fresh water after being cut up but immediately salted down. To keep salmon from becoming rusty the oil should be extracted by tilling the cask with pickle to some distance above the brine hole which can be done by placing a circle of clay around it skimming off the oil as it rises to the surface. The oil will continue to rise for Several days and will be collected in sufficient quantities to pay for the expense of the operation.71 In February 1856 Douglas had 150 barrels of Langley salmon repacked at Fort Victoria for shipment to London,72 but seems to have ignored his own advice to use perfectly fresh fish. In their report on the consignment dated 14 August 1856, Ricknell and Rotten stated, "the fish were not cured and prepared according to our written advice of last year and were principally out of season or old fish." As an illustration of the proper way to prepare salmon for the London market, a package containing two Labrador-cured salmon was sent to the Pacific Coast.73 Early in 1857 Fort Langley received instructions to cure 200 barrels of salmon for England according to the Labrador sample with head and backbone attached.74 A scarcity of salmon which caused prices to rise in the Hawaiian Islands subsequently diverted the board of management's attention from the London market.75 Curing continued in the old manner for the islands until the Fraser River gold rush of 1858 abruptly ended salmon exportation. Coopering The quality of coopering came under almost as much attack as curing in accounting for the slump in salmon sales. On repeated occasions the finished state of the Langley salmon barrels was found to be so inferior on arrival in the Hawaiian Islands that the whole cargo had to be repaired at considerable expense.76 Throughout the 1850s efforts were made to improve the method of coopering. The salmon barrels manufactured at Langley were made with white pine staves which were hewed in the vicinity and allowed to season for a time.77 There were two sizes of barrels, the standard 180-pound cask78 and a smaller number of half barrels, each 90 pounds. At first all were bound with wooden hoops, but these were unable to bear a heavy pressure and on the long voyage to the Hawaiian Islands were likely to burst, causing the pickle to leak out. In 1852 instructions were given Yale to have two iron chine (end) hoops on as many barrels as possible and to secure wooden hoops with small nails.79 A letter dated 6 April 1854 indicates that two-thirds of the barrels were then provided with iron hoops and the other third were bound with wood to serve for the native trade at Oahu.80 The barrel-making industry employed at least four coopers at Langley. The head cooper, William Cromarty, was paid £50 sterling a year and his assistants received from £25 to £30.81 Work was carried out in the cooper's shop which was equipped with the contemporary tools of the trade such as adzes, broad axes, tap borers, braces and bits, compasses, dogs, drivers, truss hoops and inshaves.82 The cooper's shop was located on the north (river) side of the fort. It was destroyed by fire in 1852 and subsequently resituated in the building on the east side of the fort which remains today as the only surviving original structure of Fort Langley.83 In May 1852 Yale sold ten new empty barrels to Captain James Cooper, a former employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, lately turned entrepreneur.84 Cooper proposed to use the services of the Langley cooperage to establish his own fishery and to package cranberries and potatoes traded from the natives for export to San Franciso. When the board of management learned of his intention, they defended the Company's exclusive right of trade by limiting the sale of barrels to Cooper and entering the cranberry trade on their own account.85 Thus, besides making nearly 2,000 salmon barrels, from 1852 the Langley coopers yearly turned out over 500 cranberry kegs. The Cranberry Industry The Fort Langley cranberry industry was not only motivated by the Hudson's Bay Company's desire to keep other traders out of the country and maintain a monopoly of commerce with the Indians. A quick appraisal of the San Franciso market in the fall of 1852 suggested that cranberries might actually be more remunerative than salmon. "We can sell as many cranberries as you can possibly furnish at from 75¢ to 1 dollar per gallon," Douglas wrote Yale on 7 December. "A Barrel being equal to 33 to 42 dollars a much better article than Salmon, therefore, get as many as you possibly can, as besides the direct profit arising from the trade other parties will be deterred from meddling with the Company's business."86 Several years and much argument passed before the Langley cranberries were groomed suitably to market taste. The 1853 and 1854 fruit was put up in casks of 24 gallons which according to scant instruction from Victoria were merely filled with berries and afterwwards with as much water as the cask would contain.87 These sold well at $12 a barrel or 50 cents a gallon, but did not bring the phenomenal prices anticipated by Douglas in 1852. Since most of the cranberries were bought for trade in the interior of California, the Langley packages were considered too large. In October 1854 Thomas Lowe, the Company agent in San Francisco, advised that henceforth cranberries be packed in kegs of 10, 15 and 20 gallons.88 The extra coopering necessitated by Lowe's advice was instantly perceived by Langley's officer in charge, who sarcastically wrote to Douglas, "I presume it was not intended that we should relinquish the salmon trade and keep our coopers employed throughout the year making kegs for cranberries."89 For the 1855 season, Yale had his coopers manufacture 200 half-barrels or 12-gallon kegs and 100 8-gallon kegs. The remaining three-fourths of the cranberry yield was packed in 425 barrels of the old 25-gallon size.90 Although the whole 1855 quantity of 725 barrels sold at 55 cents a gallon and yielded net proceeds of $8,132.67, the Langley product still failed to command the $1.25 per gallon accorded United States cranberries.91 The chief objection to the Company berries was reported to be "their being badly put up and exceedingly foul, being mixed with leaves, moss and other substances." In February 1856 Yale was cautioned to run the berries through a winnowing machine and "have them thoroughly well cleaned on all future occasions before packing."92 Early in September 1856 a cargo of 489 barrels and 175 half-barrels of cranberries was shipped from Langley and immediately dispatched to San Franciso "to have the first supply of that fruit in the market and the chance at the highest price."93 It sold at 35 cents a gallon. Lowe complained the berries were sent to market at too early a season when fruit was abundant in California. He further stated the fruit was not ripe and the packages fell short of measurement. In a letter relaying this information to Yale, Douglas called for an immediate additional shipment of fuller casks and riper fruit. "Pray my friend," he implored, "do not despair of the future but get as many more cranberries as you can, and try to make those savages wait till they are ripe before they pick them."94 This request for a second batch of cranberries coming with the debate on Langley salmon was too much for Yale. In a scathing letter to the board of management in October 1856 he wrote, The Cranberry plant is not bifarious — it bears fruit only once annually, and it seemed not unreasonable to anticipate some fair shadow of approbation that at so small a cost, in spite of opposition and without very stimulating advice, we had managed to procure so great a proportion of the last year's crop — $10,000 worth of fruit from Fort Langley in course of one season; this would seem no trifle, and yet evidently dissatisfaction reigns. Yale pointed out the steps taken at Langley to obtain a good product. No one now may feel disposed to admit the fact that one of the Langleyans had discernment enough to think of the winnowing machine as accomodable for cleaning the berries and that we have built a stable and a stately store for the convenience of the business, It seems to me ... that the purchasers were rather prone to amplify a little on their foulness. The poor people could not now afford to purchase any more at the rate of $1.25 per gallon.95 That the Company certainly made adequate profit from the Langley cranberry industry appears from the following cost analysis of the 1856 trade prepared by Douglas for the London committee.96 An estimate of the result of the Cranberry trade for Outfit 1856 is difficult to ascertain with exactness, for the reason that the berries are procured in barter, from the Native Tribes at Fort Langley, and amidst the hurry and bustle of trade, when Indians are numerous and pressing in their demands, and trading all sorts of things at the same time; it is utterly impossible to determine the precise cost of each or to ascertain any thing beyond the general expenditure of goods for the day. There being, however, a price fixed upon every article sold in the Indian shope, our estimate of the cost of the Cranberries will be founded on that established rate of barter, thus we find that a Blanket of 2-1/2 pts. valued at 7/1 is given for 24 Gallons of Cranberries, however, though the Blanket is the equivalent in trade of that quantity of Cranberries, very few blankets are actually expended in that trade, the value being made up with beads, vermilion, knives, needles, thread and other less costly articles, in quantities considered equivalent in trade to the Blanket, though their money cost, is not, by any means, so great. We thus arrive at the conclusion that the first cost of Cranberries is something less than 4d a gallon, which we shall however assume to be the price, in order that the first cost may be fully covered. The Barrels, being all made by the servants on the Establishment at Fort Langley, we have valued at a low rate but yet fully representing their actual cost to the concern. All the other expense are exactly known, and charged in the account herewith forwarded, showing the result of the Cranberry trade for Outfit 1856, which you will observe has realized a profit of £613. 18.5-1/2. To that profit may fairly be added the sum of £514. 14.2. charged against the consignments and credited Fort Langley for barrels, a sum which nearly covers the whole expense for servants wages (£584. 17.3) incurred at the Post for Outfit 1856, and on the same principle, a part of the expenses of the "Otter" which otherwise she would not have earned are covered by the Freight charge of £210..2..8. credited that vessel for carrying the berries to San Franciso, thus the sum actually brought to credit of the Western Department, by those consignments is as follows Vizt.,
The fortunes of 1854, 1855 and 1856 were not repeated. A dry season in 1857 was unfavourable to the production of cranberries with the result that only 13 12-gallon and 180 8-gallon kegs were shipped from Langley.97 The excitement of 1858 relegated the cranberry industry to a domestic venture. Fort Langley's triple role during the 1850s as interior depot, salmon and cranberry exporter was a major force making Hudson's Bay Company commerce on the northern Pacific Slope a flourishing enterprise. The smooth functioning of an all-British route to the interior, of which Langley's boat building, ironwork, provisioning and forwarding were so integral a part, was basic to Company success. The Fort Langley salmon and cranberry industries, while low in volume and rudimentary in method, supported shipping and added substantial profits to the Company ledgers. Fort Langley defined future trade and transportation patterns and, by contributing to the strong economic presence of the Hudson's Bay Company, guaranteed British political interests during the Fraser River gold rush of 1858. That the post could not sustain these activities in the face of government and settlement did not lessen its achievement.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||
