In Search of Mr. Boondin: Henley House 1759 Re-Visited

©  John S. Long*

Pp. 203-225 in David H. Pentland ed., Papers of the 26^th Algonquian Conference (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1995)

Introduction

Following in the footsteps of E.E. Rich (1960 1: 549-553, 613-614; 1967: 107-8) and Marcel Giraud (1986 [1945] 1: 141, 307-308), Charles Bishop (1976: 36-41; see also Thorman 1974) has described and analyzed the events surrounding the 1755 killing of Hudson's Bay Company personnel at Henley House, on the Albany River.

This 1755 incident, on the eve of the Seven Years' War, has been considered noteworthy by ethnohistorians for three reasons: Henley House was the HBC's first inland post, a departure from what critics called a sleep "at the edge of a frozen sea" (Williams 1974: 562); the murdered ones were traders who had taken Cree women as their country wives without providing reciprocal concessions to their menfolk (e.g. Brown 1980: 61-62; Van Kirk n.d.: 43-44; Francis & Morantz 1983: 99-100; Long 1986: 59-60; Thistle 1986: 51-52; Dickason 1992: 146); and -- as I discussed last year -- the Company's representatives at Fort Albany retaliated by imposing British justice and hanging the offenders , who included a Home Guard captain (Rich 1967: 107; Long 1993).

Like other well known incidents -- at Hannah Bay in 1832 (Francis and Morantz 1983: 158-160) and at Frederick House in 1812-13 (Mitchell 1973, 1977) -- the Henley House murders are usually referred to as a "massacre," which my dictionary defines as "the unnecessary, indiscriminate killing of human beings, as in barbarous warfare or persecution, or for revenge or plunder." It is an unfortunate word which conjures up one culture's image of another as "savages" -- although Richard Preston (1990) puts Hannah Bay in context and provides us with an East Cree "view from the other side."[i]

Bishop briefly reports that Henley House was re-established in 1759 "but within a few weeks was attacked [again] by about forty Indians. The manager was killed and the other servants fled at night on foot to Fort Albany" (1976: 41).

If the first Henley incident is notable to historians for its breach of contract, the one in 1759 is important to the Crees for the opposite reason. The survivors reached Fort Albany only because Indians provided them with assistance and sounded the warning. It is a story of Indians who provide critical help to fur traders -- described as funny people -- and of Indians who are people with power and ability (competence).

This paper will compare archival accounts of the 1759 event with Cree oral traditions still preserved more than two centuries later.

HBC Accounts

By 1759 the Hudson's Bay Company's Albany post was situated on Albany Island, although men were still sent to cut grass -- for the Company's livestock -- at the original or "old Factory"[ii] (HBCA 1758-59a: 38) which had been attacked by de Troyes in 1686 (Kenyon and Turnbull 1971).

Shortly after break-up, on the 24th of May 1759, the Albany Post Journal recorded:

George Clark, W^m Ward and thirteen hands in two Boats a Large Canoe w^th two of our home Indians all Loaded w^th Provisions, Stores, and other necessaries for the [re-]Building of Henley House Set out this morning (HBCA 1758-59a: 24).

On June 4th Albany's Chief Factor, Robert Temple, wrote that the two Indians and eight of the servants had returned in one of the boats, leaving the other one "for Rafting" and the canoe "for fishing." Henley House II would be re-built at the site of the disaster four years earlier:

He has fixed upon the place where the old house stood as the properest that he can find; They found some of the bones of the Men, they having buried them near the House, and a Musket barrel they bro^t down, most of the Pallasades are [still] Standing (HBCA 1758-59a: 32).

Meanwhile, Temple learned from his colleague Henry Pollexsen Sr. at Moose Factory that a plot by "old Captain Snuff" -- to attack the English there -- had been foiled. On June 9th, Pollexsen sent word to Temple by Indian messenger that Snuff -- he was nicknamed Snuff the Blanket for his habit of covering his nose in the presence of smelly Europeans (Judd 1984; Dickason 1988; Thorman 1974) -- had hanged himself (1758-59c: 27d-29d).

On June 25th, a second crew returned from taking more supplies to Henley. Working "from four in the morning till seven at night," Clark's men had already squared 100 logs and prepared 70 planks. Supplies of "Flour, Beef, Pork, and Geese ... with Sundry other Articles" had been easily transported upriver from Albany while the water was high. Left with Clark were three "Sawyers" -- John Favell, James Ingster [sic] and John Spence -- and four laborers -- John Cromartie, Thomas Clouston, Charles Sinclair and Benjamin Barnet (HBCA 1758-59a: 34-34d).

The Hudson's Bay Company's calendar -- or "outfit" -- was based on the arrival and departure of the annual supply ship. And so, on the 4th of September, a crew of Indians returned from Henley with Clark's Journal and Mess Book, and a letter to the London Committee. These were sent to Moose Factory by Indian messenger, in order to reach the HBC supply ship Seahorse (HBCA 1759-60a: 1).[iii] Clark undoubtedly began a new journal, which has not survived.

On the 22nd September 16 men set out from Albany in two boats "loaded w^th Trading Goods, Provisions and Stores for Henly" (HBCA 1759-60a: 2d).

Next day, Albany residents learned that disaster had befallen the men at Henley, just four months after they had set out to re-establish the inland post:

The two Henly Boats return'd having met with James Inkster, and John Cromartie who told them that M^r Clark was Shot dead and John Spence wounded in the Thigh, who they had left at a place called the fishing Creek[iv] about half way to Henly. I immediately dispatched an Indian call'd Chubby to bring him to the Factory (HBCA 1759-60a: 2d).

Temple interviewed Inkster and Cromartie on the 24th, and the following day "Sent an Indian away ... with Letters for Moose Fort and Eastmain to acquaint them with the Loss of Henly" (HBCA 1759-60a: 2d).[v]

Chubby returned to Albany on the 26th with "J^o Spence, and the two Old Women that took care of him at their Tent" (HBCA 1759-60a: 3).

On the 28th Chubby and another Indian, "old Capucheen," were sent to Henley by canoe to investigate (HBCA 1759-60a: 3). The pair returned October 5th with Clark's body, and Temple wrote: "we found he had been shot in twelve different places, they had Scalped him and left him under the Bank." The post had been "burnt ... to the ground" and its contents looted. But if the attackers were looking for a bounty of trade goods, "in that they have been disappointed" (1759-60a:4). The attackers had struck a week too soon.

George Taylor began making a coffin, other servants at Albany dug the grave, and on the 8th of October Clark was buried: "hoisted the Colours; Read the funeral Service, and fired five Guns over the Grave" (HBCA 1759-60a: 4).

That was the end of Clark, and also of Henley House -- until it was re-established once again seven years later.

In the archival records, the Chief Factor at Albany is named Robert Temple. There are dozens of named HBC officers and servants -- including now-familiar "Indian" surnames like Spence, Cromartie, Sutherland and Sinclair (HBCA 1758-59b, 1759-60b). But there is no Mr. Bunden.

These same records reveal the annual cycle of the people of Albany post: repairing guns, splitting and salting geese, packing furs and feathers, setting out buoys and beacons, mowing grass for the cattle, getting wood and lumber, brewing beer, occasionally hearing prayers and a sermon. And, a century after the Company's arrival in James Bay, the building of boats for inland travel; HBC employees were still poor canoemen (Rich 1967: 107-108).

Then as now, spring break-up meant flooding at the mouth of the Albany River. We are reminded of natural hazards by the case of James Stinson of Albany, who broke through the November ice at the mouth of Fishing Creek and perished; his body was not found until nine months later (HBCA 1758-59a: 6, 40d). Similarly, at Moose Factory, the sloopmaster and two of the post's best hands were lost when their boat upset in the mouth of the Moose River (HBCA 1758-59c: 27d, 28d). Some Rupert River Indians, on their way to trade at Moose Factory,[vi] discovered one of the bodies (HBCA 1758-59c: 29, 31d, 32).

We learn the recorded names and nicknames of Cree leaders trading at Albany: Chubby, old Capucheen, Capuneca, Cukemadego, Little Breeches, Macabee, Sooncaupee, Pekecan, Mekis (Bead), Nemekis (Trout), Blind Tack, Wachisk, Sasakenham, Nappowish, Acuneap, Pattawistygan and an unspecified "French Captain." The HBC called some of these leaders captain or lieutenant, and provided them with gifts -- a coat, brandy, tobacco (HBCA 1758-59a; 1759-60a; see also Lytwyn 1993: 79, 315).

Indians received "trust" (HBCA 1759-60a: 1; Lytwyn 1993: 302) and provided fur, venison and tongues. They were employed as messengers: a trip between Albany and Moose was worth 15 made beaver (Lytwyn 1993: 349-51), more than enough to acquire a gun (e.g. Rich 1954: 372). The Cree were also starting to provide geese for the Company (Lytwyn 1993: 304-310). And they resisted any efforts by the HBC to eliminate the use of brandy as a gift or trade item (Lytwyn 1993: 313-314).

Those Indians who stopped at Henley as the Company's men built a new post in 1759 received gifts of tobacco and pipes before they continued downstream to Albany. Some of them traded fish at Henley; the traders' nets rarely yielded any. Visitors would have seen the Company men digging sawpits, felling trees, hauling and rafting logs, squaring timbers, sawing planks, brewing, building an oven, repairing the palisades, digging a foundation and erecting the square house and cabins (HBCA 1759). All this took place over the summer, while the strangers coped with a "grate many moskittos" (HBCA 1759: 3d).

This seems to have been a high point for the Albany River Crees, shortly before they suffered from major game depletion and smallpox epidemics (Lytwyn 1993: 451).[vii] They were still making raids on the Inuit (Francis and Morantz 1983: 75-77; Lytwyn 1993: 150-176). The French inland were offering 30 made beaver for the scalp of an HBC trader (Lytwyn 1993: 196).

Cree Oral Tradition

I was visiting Cree elder Willie Wesley in Kashechewan and he was finishing a cigarette. I had known him since 1986, when he was an employee of Ministry of Transport (responsible for maintaining the airport), then as a Chief, and as the father of my friends Archie and James. This was the first time I had taped him.

Before we turned the tape recorder on, he asked me bluntly (in English), "What do you want me to talk about?"

I said I was interested to hear about when the RCMP first started coming around James Bay arresting Indians. I wanted to know about the arrest of a renowned shaman in the 1920s (Long 1993), but didn't want to be that specific. It was an evening in late March and Willie's sick wife, daughter and grandchildren had gone to bed. We were sitting at the kitchen table.

When he was a boy, Willie said he remembered there was a very good magician. [Thinking he meant the shaman -- for some people translate mitEW as 'magician' -- I mentioned a name. But I had jumped to the wrong conclusion, for Willie meant 'Tiny' Covell, an RCMP officer who was also a professional magician.] He finished his cigarette and we agreed ASHay, 'ready'.

I turned on the tape recorder and heard what my friend wanted to tell me, understanding a few words here and there. I learned later it was not what I had asked for -- but that was presumptuous anyway. Willie spoke in Cree, and suggested at the end of our session that I bring someone with me next time who understood enough Cree to know when to laugh.

By the end of the evening I thought that Willie had helped me solve the mystery of Mr. Bunden (Long 1986: 65), a named character in his uncle's oral tradition of the 1759 attack on Henley House. I mentally made a note to write the paper I had intended to present at the 1993 Algonquian Conference, comparing the oral tradition with archival accounts of this incident.

Now that I've had Willie's stories translated, however, I can more fully appreciate that evening with my old friend and reflect on what I inadvertently learned from him.

After introducing himself, Willie explained (in Cree) what he was going to do:

I will tell about the things I have seen in the past, the things I did while I was a young man. I will tell about the stories I have heard from my father and grandfather.

As a child I always liked to listen to these stories. I have no idea why I liked to listen to these stories. I must have been interested in them.

Willie proceeded to talk about his father, and mother, his residential school days, working down south, returning to James Bay to start a family, retirement -- in short, his life history (the entire session is summarized in the Appendix).

Then the narration began to shift from oral history to oral tradition (Cruickshank 1994):

Now I will talk about the things in the past. I heard these stories. I may even tell lies, if my grandparents lied to me. Anyway, I'll tell you the way I heard these stories told. I heard a lot of stories.