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If we think of Yale at all, we probably think of a cantankerous, anti-social little man whose only pleasures derived from watching Fort Langley prosper and sniping at James Douglas. This is a fairly reasonable assessment of Yale -- he was a man who could not forgive and would never forget.
James Murray Yale was born about 1798. According to family history, his father drowned in 1805, his mother abandoned him, remarried and went to Scotland. A Colonel James Murray, who was a friend of Colin Robertson, fostered Yale. Robertson had been a clerk with the NorthWest Company and could never understand why the Hudson's Bay Company didn't use their geographic advantage to wrest a share of the rich Athabasca trade from the Nor'Westers.
When Robertson left the Nor'Westers he approached the Bay's London Committee. He told them of the enormous profits the Nor'Westers reaped by making "a voyage of 4 months to purchase beaver at the threshold of your doors." He recalled the Bay's past feeble efforts to penetrate Athabasca, all of which ended in humiliating defeat when the mighty Nor'Westers drove them out of the country.
Robertson put forth a proposal for establishing Athabasca, which was revolutionary in that it had no place for servants recruited from Britain. In Montreal Robertson would hire voyageurs -- those hardworking, colourful Canadians on whose backs the success of the NorthWest Company was founded. He would recruit French-speaking officers, ex-Nor'Westers who had survived northern winters and who knew how to manage the volatile voyageurs.
The London Committee engaged Robertson to carry out his plans and in 1815 he was in Montreal putting together the Bay's Athabasca Expedition. One day he visited his friend Colonel Murray, met Yale, and took him on as apprentice clerk.
The Nor'Westers were determined to put down once and for all the bothersome English forays into Athabasca. This contest would be particularly ugly, pitting brother against brother, comrade against comrade. Some partners resigned rather than engage in the struggle. Simon Fraser refused to go but was threatened with dire financial consequences if he didn't. John McLoughlin was Colin Robertson's good friend and absolutely refused a posting to Athabasca. The partners huffed that his behaviour was irresponsible, but allowed him a different posting,...
