Battle of Fort Albany (1709)
Battle of Fort Albany | |
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Part of ) | |
Result | British victory |
30 Mohawk warriors
The Battle of Fort Albany (about 26 June 1709) was an attack by French colonial volunteers and their native allies against the Canadian Hudson's Bay Company outpost of Fort Albany in the southern reaches of Hudson Bay. About 70 Frenchmen and 30 Indians attacked the fort, which was under the command of John Fullartine. Fullartine repulsed the attack, killing eighteen men including the leaders. He lost two men to ambush on their way back to the fort shortly after the attack.
Background
Following the creation of the Hudson's Bay Company by English investors in 1670, a lucrative fur trade was established on the shores of Hudson Bay by the company. By the early 1680s the company had established several trading posts near the mouths of rivers entering into the bay, and Indians living in those watersheds would deliver their furs to these trading posts in exchange for provisions and European goods, including weapons, ammunition, and other items.[1][2]
The success of this enterprise drew the attention of the authorities in
When the
Battle
Fort Albany was inhabited by company employees under the direction of John Fullartine, a longtime company employee who had spent time as a prisoner of the French in the earlier raids.[7] Fullartine was alerted to the French expedition by Cree traders,[8] and thus had time to prepare a defense; the number of defenders and the exact date of the event are not known from the fragmentary records of the event.[7]
All that is known of the French attack is that it was successfully repulsed, and that both Manthet and his second in command were killed. French casualties totalled 18 killed (including the two leaders), while the company lost only two men. They had not been in the fort and were ambushed by the French as they made their way toward it.[7]
Aftermath
Because the company did not send a ship to Fort Albany in 1709, officials in London learned of the event through an unexpected channel.[7] Francis Nicholson, who had led an aborted expedition against New France from New York in 1709, brought one Mahican and three Mohawk chiefs to London in a bid to gain support for a new expedition in 1710.[9] The Mohawks informed company officials that they learned of the attack because they were in Montreal at the time of the expedition's return.[7] Fullartine filed a report on the event when he returned to England in 1711, but it has been lost.[7]
Governor Vaudreuil was criticized by government ministers in
Notes
- ^ Statutes, Documents and Papers, p. 40
- ^ Krech, p. 39
- ^ Statutes, Documents and Papers, pp. 40–44
- ^ Lanctot, p. 159
- ^ Blain, Jean. "Biography of Nicolas d'Ailleboust de Manthet". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Retrieved 21 September 2010.
- ^ Lanctot, p. 159, claims the party was 90; Johnson claims the party was "about 100" with 30 Indians
- ^ a b c d e f Johnson, Alice. "Biography of John Fullartine". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
- ^ Krech, p. 38
- ^ Drake, pp. 254–256
- ^ Charlevoix et al, p. 224
References
- OCLC 13380963.
- Drake, Samuel Adams (1910) [1897]. The Border Wars of New England. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. OCLC 2358736.
- Krech, Shepard (1984). The Subarctic Fur Trade: Native Social and Economic Adaptions. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. OCLC 228093218.
- Lanctot, Gustave (1964). A History of Canada: From the Royal Regime to the Treaty of Utrecht, 1663–1713. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. OCLC 640186350.
- Statutes, Documents and Papers Bearing on the Discussion Respecting the Northern and Western Boundaries of the Province of Ontario. Toronto: Hunter and Rose. 1877. OCLC 29117888.
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