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4. Gold and Imperial Adventure
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| C. Demand For Change →→ 1. Our Struggle for Rights →→ 2. Industry and Labour →→ 3. The Canadian Industrial Boom →→ 4. Gold and Imperial Adventure →→ →→ 5. The Immigration Boom 1895-1914 →→ 6. The New West 1885-1905 →→ D. World War I |
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The Nile Voyageurs
The Nile Expedition marked the first time that Canadians saw overseas service at the call of the British Empire.
On Aug. 21, 1884, during the Battle of Khartoum in the Sudan, the British Colonial Office telegraphed Governor General Lord Lansdowne "to engage 300 good voyageurs from Caugnawaga, Saint Regis, and Manitoba as steersmen in boats for Nile expedition." General Garnet Wolseley's Nile Expedition aimed to rescue Major-General Charles Gordon, who was besieged at the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, located on the Nile approximately 2,000 kilometres south of Cairo, Egypt. Wolseley needed men who could overcome the Nile's cataracts as they moved upriver, and knew that the men for the job were Canadian boatmen like those who assisted in his Red River Expedition 14 years earlier.
Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald had no objections to this grand imperial adventure, providing Britain absorbed all costs. The British Army in Montreal soon started recruiting Canadian raftsmen and log drivers. Soon, a group of 392 Canadian boatmen - the Nile Voyageurs - were engaged. They were about half English- and half French-speaking, and they included 56 Iroquois from Kahnawake and 30 Ojibway from Manitoba. Chief Louis Jackson of Kahnawake recommended the design for the whaler-boats that were used on the voyage and became a river foreman. The monthly wages were $40 for ordinary boatmen and $75 for foremen.
The Nile Expedition sailed for Egypt from Québec on September 15, 1884, with 386 Nile Voyageurs led by Wolseley and Toronto cavalryman Frederick Charles Denison. Only 89 men actually helped the expedition in moving the boats up the Nile. They left Korti, Egypt, in December 1884, to mount the rapids and advance south into the Sudan. Meanwhile, Gordon's situation had become desperate, with the food supplies running low for a garrison of 6,000 men.
The Mahdists attacked the relief expedition at Abu Klea, and later at Abu Kru, but Wolseley's troops repelled the rebels, and pressed onwards, with the voyageurs rowing, polling and at times roping and dragging the boats up the Nile's many cataracts and rapids. But the rebels, hearing of the British advance, decided to press the attack on Khartoum. On the night of January 24-25, taking advantage of the low level of the Nile, which could be crossed on foot, the army of nearly 50,000 Mahdists rushed into the town. They slaughtered the entire British garrison, along with 4,000 inhabitants, while many others were carried into slavery. Gordon himself was killed, despite the Mahdi's orders, who had wanted to capture him alive. The General's head was cut off and brought to the Mahdi as a trophy.
On January 26, 1885 the expedition sighted Khartoum, and on January 28, 1885, entered the city, but found they were too late. After surveying the scene of carnage and burying the dead, the surviving British and Egyptian troops withdrew from the Sudan.
Denison and his Nile Voyageurs departed for Canada from Alexandria, Egypt in early February and arrived home a month later. A total of 16 Canadians lost their lives in this, Canada's first overseas military expedition.
The Ottawa group marched through city streets lined with cheering spectators to the drill hall for a welcome dinner on March 6, 1885. The Ottawa Free Press gushed: "Hurrah stout hearts, well and bravely have you done your duty, though at times it has been hard and perilous. Cheerfully and fearlessly have you faced the danger, and overcome it! Welcome home, an honour to your cherished country which proudly salutes you and totally delights to honour you."
An Imperial Adventure, 1899-1902
Canadians were split over Britain's decision to go to war against the Boers in South Africa. Most English Canadians wanted to support the Empire, but others thought it was Britain's war. Many French Canadians identified with the Boers. Led by Henri Bourassa, they rejected getting involved in an imperial war. Wilfrid Laurier's compromise was to decline joining the Boer War officially by sending the Canadian Army (a decision he had already given to Joseph Chamberlain in 1897). But he agreed to place 8,300 volunteers at the disposal of Britain and supply up to $3 million in equipment and transportation to South Africa. Britain agreed to be responsible for paying the troops and returning them to Canada at the end of their service.
The first Canadian contingent organized to serve with British in South African War was the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, with 57 officers and 1,224 men, led by William Dillon Otter, who sailed from Quebec on October 30, 1899. Two more battalions of Mounted Rifles and artillery sailed from Halifax in January.
Of the Canadians who served in South Africa, 267 were killed.
The War's Three Phases
The war had three phases. During the first, October 1899 to January 1900, the Boers inflicted heavy losses on the imperial forces, but were defeated in several key engagements, and turned to a guerrilla war of ambush, sniping and retreat. During the second phase, February to June 1900, Britain launched a counter-offensive and captured Pretoria, the capital of Transvaal.
The first Canadian blood was spilled on February 18, 1900, at the start of the nine-day Battle of Paardeburg. This was seen as a major Boer defeat and a great national triumph for Canada. The Canadian losses consisted of 18 dead and 68 wounded on the first day of battle, and 130 casualties in total. A few weeks later, Canadians engaged the Boers in an artillery fight at Poplar Grove, and then fought them again in April at Israel's Port.
In this second phase of fighting, Canadians participated in numerous small actions. Imperial forces turned to denying the Boers food and water; they burned Boer houses and farms, and moved civilians to internment camps, where thousands died from disease. This harsh strategy eventually defeated the Boers.
Lord Strathcona's Horse
In January 1900, financier Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal) offered to raise and equip a mounted regiment at his own expense to serve in the Boer War. He chose North West Mounted Police (N.W.M.P.) Superintendent Samuel Benfield Steele to command Lord Strathcona's Horse, and recruit a regiment consisting largely of Mounties, cowboys and frontiersmen from Western Canada.
On March 16, 1900, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Steele embarked the troops of Lord Strathcona's Horse for South Africa. The regiment consisted of 537 mounted troops recruited in Manitoba, BC and the NWT.
Lord Strathcona's Horse arrived in Cape Town, South Africa on April 10, 1900 and soon became an essential element of the guerilla war against the Boers. Because of their background as frontiersmen and cowboys, the Strathconas were ideal troops for scouting and skirmishing against Boer mounted riflemen. Strathcona Sgt Arthur Richardson received the Victoria Cross (VC) for valour during an ambush at Wolver Spruit (Wolwespruit, Standerton), when he rode back under a hail of Boer gunfire, rescued a wounded comrade and brought him to safety.
At the end of the war, in Queen Victoria's memory, King Edward VII presented the King's Colours to Lord Strathcona's Horse. Upon its return to Canada the Regiment was disbanded, but in 1909 it was reformed and named Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) (LdSH(RC)).
The Last Phase
The third and longest phase was from the fall of 1900 until the peace, in May 1902. During the Battle of Lillefontein in November 1900, three more Victoria Cross medals were awarded, to members of the Royal Canadian Dragoons: Lieutenant Hampden Z.C. Cockburn, Lieutenant Richard E.W. Turner, and Sergeant Edward J.G. Holland.
Two Canadians also received unique awards for heroism. Private R.R. Thompson, a medical orderly, was twice nominated for the VVC although he never received the medal. When Queen Victoria heard of this, she knitted a wool scarf for him and others whose bravery had not been recognized - the rarest recognition for bravery ever awarded to a Canadian. As well, Head Nurse, Georgina Fane Pope, from Charlottetown, PEI, received the Royal Red Cross - the first Canadian to receive this distinction.
On November 7, 1900, a troop of Canadian cavalrymen, 90 officers and men of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, supported by two guns of the Royal Canadian Field Artillery, cover retreat of British infantry column under attack by several hundred Boer horsemen near Leliefontein farm, East Transvaal; 3 dragoons killed, 11 wounded, 3 win Victoria Crosses, including Lt. Richard Turner, wounded in the neck and arm; later Lieut-General Sir Richard Turner; Battle of Leliefontein, South African War.
On December 23, 1900, Otter's first Canadian contingent arrived back in Halifax from South Africa, having completed their Boer War service. Lord Strathcona's Horse followed in March, 1901. They were replaced by other Canadian contingents, such as the Canadian Mounted Rifles, who sailed from Halifax bound for the Boer War in January, 1902. But the end of the Boer War was near, and on May 31, 1902, the Boers signed the the Treaty of Vereeniging. In return for the surrender of their independence, the Boers negotiated certain commitments, including eventual Boer self government and generous relief to the victims of war.
The conflict costs Canada almost $3 million; in total, 7,368 Canadians served with British forces.
The Yukon Gold Bonanza, 1895-1901
Later that year, one of these prospectors, a Canadian called Robert Henderson, found some traces of gold near the Klondike River, and the following spring tipped off a friend, US Marine Corps deserter George Washington Carmack, who lived among the Tagish Indians in the Yukon Valley along with his wife, Kate.
On August 16, 1896, Carmack and Kate found some rich placer gold in the sands of Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River, with Patsy Henderson and his Indian helpers Tagish Charlie and Skookum Jim. They staked their claims the following day, renaming Rabbit Creek Bonanza Creek. Carmack would later say that the gold veins were "thick between the flaky slabs, like cheese sandwiches."
The following day, Cormack ripped some bark off a tree, and wrote on it: "I name this creek Bonanza. George Carmack."
According to Carmack, the gold veins were "thick between the flaky slabs, like cheese sandwiches.
Word was slow to get out about the find - the news was reported in Edmonton on May 6 of the following year, and on July 17, 1897, when the ships Excelsior and Portland arrived at Seatle, Washington, from Skagway with the first group of gold-laden Yukon prospectors. But within two years, the Klondike Gold Rush turned Dawson City into the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Winnipeg. Within three years, all important creeks in the Klondike valley had been staked out by the gold-seekers. Total value of gold production in the eight years after the find topped $100 million.
The Canadian government was quick to respond to the gold rush, and on July 28, Canada imposed a new 2% royalty on minerals from Canadian mines; it was primarily a tax on Klondike gold to pay for law enforcement.
On August 16, the Yukon Judicial District was created and NWMP Superintendent James Morrow Walsh was appointed Commissioner of the Yukon by the new Yukon Administration responsible for law and order. Walsh escorted Minister of the Interior Clifford Sifton to the Yukon in October to investigate a boundary dispute; the Americans were casting covetous eyes on the gold fields, and planning to send troops to keep order, so Walsh set up NWMP posts in the Lake Bennett-Lake Tagish area near the border with Alaska.
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With the Mounted Police came civilization. On October 24, R. J. Bowen conducted the first service in St. Paul's Anglican Church in Dawson City. The following May 27 saw the first edition of the Klondike Nugget, the Yukon's first regular newspaper. It cost 50¢ an issue. On June 25, 1898, a Salvation Army group arrived in Dawson after an 882 km trek over the Chilkoot Pass from Skagway, Alaska to organize a mission for the Klondike gold miners. The group helped survivors of a Chilkoot Pass avalanche that killed 88 men that April, and the "Sally Anns" provided food, shelter, and medical services in Dawson until 1912.
RESOURCE: The Yukon Territory Act
On June 13, 1898, the Yukon Territory was officially separated from the Northwest Territories and given separate territorial status, with Dawson City, now home to about 30,000 people, chosen as the capital. William Ogilvie was appointed Commissioner of the new territory. He ruled with a Legislative Council partly elected, partly appointed by the Governor General.
Soon the Yukon was reached easily by the outside world. On May 28, 1898, Michael J. Heney started building his 177 km long White Pass & Yukon Railway at Skagway, Alaska. The line will climb 880 metres from sea level up to the White Pass summit in only 32 km of track; 32 km of the line are in Alaska, 52 km in British Columbia and 93 km in Yukon Territory. Completed in 26 months, the line cost about $10 million, with not a single dollar in government aid. Almost 35,000 navvies will work on the line, about 2,000 at a time. The WP&Y will make the Chillkoot Trail and its aerial tramways obsolete, and carry thousands of prospectors to the Klondike gold fields, even though the stampede will be already over. Heney opened the road on July 29, 1900. In the same year, telegraph service from BC reached Dawson, and by 1901, the territory had both telegraph and telephone communication with southern Canada. Skagway, Alaska
NOTE: Dawson City was once the largest community north of Seattle and west of Winnipeg; the population today is 700. Dawson was named after George Mercer Dawson (1849-1901), explorer, scientist and director of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada 1895-1901. A son of geologist Sir John Dawson, G. M. Dawson suffered from a severe illness at age 12, leaving him hunchbacked and crippled for the rest of his life. But after graduating from the Royal School of Mines in London, England, at the top of his class, he carried out some of the most strenuous surveys ever attempted in Canada.
Pacific Fisheries and The Alaska Boundary Crisis
In 1892, the US and Britain, still acting for Canada in international affairs, signed a Boundary Convention on Alaska and Passamaquoddy Bay, Maine, that eased some of the tensions, and in 1897, the Bering Sea Claims Commission recommended that the US pay Canadian sealers $463,454 to compensate for seizure of their vessels.
Finally, on August 24, 1898, the parties held a six week conference at Quebec to discuss the Alaska Boundary issue. The conference then moved to Washington, DC, from November until the following Feb. 21, 1899. Britain and the US agreed on a provisional boundary between Alaska and Canada, but the Klondike gold rush intervened, and the US grew determined to control all Pacific port access to the Yukon.
On January 24, 1903, Britain and the US referred the Alaskan boundary dispute to a commission that sat from September 3 to October 2. On October 20, the commissioners voted 4-2 to support the US claim for a boundary running behind the heads of the inlets, but agreeing to equal distribution of 4 islands at the mouth of Portland Canal. The British commissioner, Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice of England, broke the deadlock, but the two Canadian members, A.B. Aylesworth and Sir Louis Jetté, refused to sign the lopsided award, and returned to Ottawa.
The Anglo-American Convention infuriated Canadians; it gave the Americans everything they wanted, and defined the Alaska-Canada border along the coast as it is today.
The Alaska Boundary Crisis led to a Canada's determination to protect its own national interests ap[art from the Empire. US President Theodore Roosevelt had threatened to send in troops if the boundary was not fixed the way the US wanted. Left out of the final decision, Canada ended up with no seaports in northern BC or the Yukon, and the resulting anti-British sentiment helped lead to the founding of the Department of External Affairs in 1909. Three years later, on April 21, 1906, Britain and the US signed a convention fixing the Canada-Alaska boundary to the Arctic Ocean at the 141st meridian.
Bernier and Canada's Arctic Archipelago
On July 1, 1909 at Melville Island, Nunavut, Joseph-Elzéar Bernier, Captain of the government steamship Arctic, placed a metal plaque at Parry Rock claiming Canadian sovereignty over the entire Arctic Archipelago.
"I took possession of Baffin Island for Canada in the presence of several Eskimo," said Bernier, "and after firing nineteen shots I instructed an Eskimo to fire the twentieth, telling him that he was now a Canadian."
Bernier led several expeditions into the Arctic between 1904 and 1911, to certify Canada's claim to the northern archipelago. At the time, US and Norwegian whalers and mining companies were trying to convince their governments to claim the land.
 Canada's First Christmas StampCanadian Postmaster General William Mulock wanted a Christmas stamp that would show the vast extent of the British Empire, with Canada's place in the centre, and at the same time commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The result was this design made by Mr. Warren L. Green, President of the American Bank Note Company Limited in Ottawa. The lines come from Sir William Morris, a Welsh poet. On the occasion of Queen Victoria's sixtieth year on the throne, Morris wrote "A Song of Empire", published as the Jubilee Ode in June, 1897. The line occurs in the following stanza:
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| Gold and Imperial Adventure - Gallery | Stories and Texts | Web Links | Student Activities | Shared Projects | Quizzes |
| C. Demand For Change →→ 1. Our Struggle for Rights →→ 2. Industry and Labour →→ 3. The Canadian Industrial Boom →→ 4. Gold and Imperial Adventure →→ →→ 5. The Immigration Boom 1895-1914 →→ 6. The New West 1885-1905 →→ D. World War I |
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