It was in 1837 that the
most exciting event took place at the fort. From
time to time war canoes had been seen going up and down
the river. An early entry in the Fort Langley
Journal read:
"The war
party of Cowichans
returned this afternoon. They have murdered one
man and a woman and taken several women and children
as prisoners, who as a matter of course, become
slaves. The head of one of their victims was
pendant on the bow of one of the canoes, presenting a
spectacle as dismal and disgusting as can well be
imagined; a spectacle most shocking to humanity that
this land of savage Barbarism produces...."
Yale received word that the Yuculta
from Quadra Island planned an attack
on the Indian village near the fort. He felt an
attack on these friendly Indians was the same as an
attack on the fort. The constant attacks from the
Yuculta kept the Indians in the vicinity of the fort in
such turmoil that fur trading had seriously
declined. Yale ordered his men to their
posts. Patiently the gunners waited for the Yuculta
armada to come within range of the death-crammed guns in
the bastions. When the attackers did eventually
come around the bend in the river within view of the fort
the odds were unbelievable. The 25 men of the fort
faced an enemy of 600.
(17)
When word came to open fire the carnage was
incredible. Canoes were blasted right out of the
water. The muddy river turned red as the dead and
dying fell from their wrecked crafts. Any that
escaped the initial onslaught of heavy firing were soon
dispatched by Kwantlen warriors who
had hidden across the river from the fort. As their
hereditary enemies swam to shore they ran out and cracked
them over the heads with stone hammers. It was
never ascertained how many Yuculta
warriors died in that brief encounter. The raiders
never recovered from the defeat.
The year following the Indian attack Yale moved the fort
stockade. On October 14, 1838, he wrote Chief
Factor James Douglas, McLoughlin's right
hand man on the Columbia, that "we have
abandoned the old fort which was in a dilapidated
condition and removed into a new fort a few miles up the
river." Douglas had
earlier concurred with such a move.
Despite this Yale's work force the following year was
reduced to 15 men. They were:--Ovid
Allard, Basil Brousseau, Pierre
Charles, Louis Delonie, Narcisse
Fallardeau, Angus McPhail, Fredereque
Minie, Joseph Peaennau, Etienne
Pepin, James Rendall, Louis
Satakarata, I Ta, Xavier
Vautrin, Wivicari, and Zahowbalow.
Of these men Ovid Allard would be of great assistance to
the peppery Yale in the building of the second Fort
Langley. Born at Lachine, Quebec, in 1817 to
French parents J. O. Allard and a Ms.
Chanteline, he had joined the company
looking for adventure. Stationed for five years
at Fort Hall in the Snake
River Country, he found the adventure he craved and
fought Snake River Indians alongside Kit Carson
and Jim Bridger. In 1839 he
came to Fort Langley
where his tact and charming manners facilitated his
successful trading with the Indians.
While Yale and Allard were supervising the building of
the new fort, Sir George Simpson was
in Hamburg, Germany, negotiating
the lease of the Panhandle portion of the Russian
Territory. The agreement was signed on February 6,
1839, by Simpson and Baron Wrangell.
By its provisions the Hudson's Bay Company
was to pay rental in the farm produce for the territory
involved.
(18)
Yale suffered a serious setback
when the second fort was
completely gutted by fire on April 11, 1840. He was
assisted in the rebuilding of the third fort byAllard.
This fort was built a few hundred yards upriver from the
ruins of the second. James Douglas, now in
charge of Fort Victoria on Vancouver
Island, came over on the Beaver
to offer help in the rebuilding. Yale told him that
his Langley crew could manage on their own.
At the end of August, 1841, Father
Modeste Demers reached the Hudson's
Bay Company farm via the portage crossed by the fort's
discoverers in 1824. Here he was met by one of the
farm workers who got word back to Yale at the fort.
Yale immediately sent men and horses to transfer the
priest's baggage to the post, where he was given a royal
welcome. By the time Demers reached the fort the
message of his arrival had travelled up and down the
river by moccasin telegraph to the Indians. Six
hundred Indians greeted the 'man dressed in black women's
clothing' at the fort.
The priest's message was primarily to the Indians.
For several days Demers preached Christianity to
them. Incredibly Kwantlen and Yuculta
adults, who a few years earlier had been deadly enemies,
listened attentively and with good order to the gospel
message. On one occasion the priest preached to
1,500 - 1,600 Indians just outside the gates of the
fort. The visit from the Catholic missionary
boosted the company's tradings with the Indians.
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