The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4)

The journey to Canada, however, was clearly the only hope of the colonists, and on the 6th of January, 1687, the attempt to make it was renewed. The band of adventurers this time consisted of eighteen persons. At their head was La Salle himself. His brother and nephew, already mentioned, were also of the party. Of the others the only ones necessary to specify are Joutel, La Salle's trusty henchman, the second in command; Hiens, a German, formerly a pirate of the Spanish Main; Duhaut, a man of respectable birth and education, but a cruel and remorseless villain; and l'Archévêque, his servant; Liotot, the surgeon of the expedition; Teissier, a pilot; Douay, a friar; and Nika, a Shawnee Indian, who was a devoted friend of La Salle's. They proceeded northward. The members of the party were incongruous, and did not agree one with another. Duhaut and Liotot were disappointed at the ruinous result of their enterprise. They had a quarrel with young Moranget. Already at Fort St. Louis Duhaut had intrigued against La Salle, against whom Liotot had also secretly sworn vengeance. On the 15th of March they encamped within a few miles of a spot which La Salle had passed on his preceding journey, and where he had left a quantity of Indian corn and beans in a caçhe. As provisions were falling short he sent a party from the camp to find it. These men were Duhaut, Liotot, Hiens the buccaneer, Teissier, l'Archévêque, Nika the hunter, and La Salle's servant, Saget. They opened the caçhe, and found the contents spoiled; but as they returned they saw buffalo, and Nika shot two of them. They now encamped on the spot, and sent the servant to inform La Salle, in order that he might send horses to bring in the meat. Accordingly, on the next day he directed Moranget and another, with the necessary horses, to go with Saget to the hunters' camp. When they arrived they found that Duhaut and his companions had already cut up the meat, and laid it upon scaffolds for smoking, and had also put by for themselves certain portions to which, by woodland custom, they had a perfect right. Moranget fell into an unreasonable fit of rage, and seized the whole of the meat. This added fuel to the fire of Duhaut's old grudge against Moranget and his uncle. The surgeon also bore hatred against Moranget. The two took counsel apart with Hiens, Teissier, and l'Archévêque, and it was resolved to kill Moranget, Nika and Saget. All the five were of one mind, except the pilot Teissier, who neither aided nor opposed the scheme. When night came on, the order of the guard was arranged; and the first hour was assigned to Moranget, the second to Saget, and the third to Nika. Gun in hand, each stood watch in turn. Duhaut and Hiens stood with their guns cocked, ready to shoot down any one of the victims who should resist. Saget, Nika and Moranget were ruthlessly butchered, and then it was resolved that La Salle should share their fate. La Salle was still at his camp, six miles distant. Next morning, having heard nothing of Moranget or the others, he set out to find them, accompanied by his Indian guide, and by Douay, the friar. "All the way," writes the friar, "he spoke to me of nothing but matters of piety, grace, and predestination; enlarging on the debt he owed to God, who had saved him from so many perils during more than twenty years of travel in America. Suddenly, I saw him overwhelmed with a profound sadness, for which he himself could not account. He was so much moved that I scarcely knew him." He soon recovered his usual calmness, and they walked on till they approached the camp of Duhaut, on the farther side of a small river. Looking about him, La Salle saw two eagles circling in the air, as if attracted by the carcasses of beasts or men. He fired his gun and his pistol as a summons. The shots reached the ears of the conspirators, who fired from their place of concealment, and La Salle, shot through the brain, sank lifeless on the ground. Douay stood terror-stricken. Duhaut called out to him that he had nothing to fear. The murderers came forward and gathered about their victim. "There thou liest, great Bashaw! There thou liest!" exclaimed the surgeon Liotot, in base exultation over the unconscious corpse. With mockery and insult, they stripped it naked, dragged it into the bushes, and left it there a prey to the buzzards and the wolves. It is sad to think that such was the fate of the veritable Discoverer of the Great West.

"Thus," says Mr. Parkman, "in the vigour of his manhood, at the age of forty-three, died Robert Cavelier de la Salle, 'one of the greatest men,' writes Tonty, 'of this age;' without question one of the most remarkable explorers whose names live in history. The enthusiasm of the disinterested and chivalrous Champlain was not the enthusiasm of La Salle; nor had he any part in the self-devoted zeal of the early Jesuit explorers. He belonged not to the age of the knight-errant and the saint, but to the modern world of practical study and action. He was the hero, not of a principle nor of a faith, but simply of a fixed idea and a determined purpose. It is easy to reckon up his defects, but it is not easy to hide from sight the Roman virtues that redeemed them. Beset by a throng of enemies, he stands, like the King of Israel, head and shoulders above them all. He was a tower of adamant, against whose impregnable front hardship and danger, the rage of man and of the elements, the southern sun, the northern blast, fatigue, famine and disease, delay, disappointment and deferred hope, emptied their quivers in vain. Never under the impenetrable mail of paladin or crusader beat a heart of more intrepid mettle than within the stoic panoply that armed the breast of La Salle. To estimate aright the marvels of his patient fortitude, one must follow on his track through the vast scene of his interminable journeyings, those thousands of weary miles of forest, marsh and river, where again and again, in the bitterness of baffled striving, the untiring pilgrim pushed onwards towards the goal which he was never to attain. America owes him an enduring memory; for in this masculine figure she sees the pioneer who guided her to the possession of her richest heritage."

THE RIGHT REV. JAMES W. WILLIAMS, D.D.,

BISHOP OF QUEBEC

Bishop Williams is a son of the late Rev. David Williams, who was for many years Rector of Banghurst, Hampshire, England. He was born at the town of Overton, Hampshire, in 1825, and his childhood was chiefly passed in that neighbourhood. He was intended for holy orders from his earliest years. In his boyhood he attended for some time at an educational establishment at Crewkerne, a town in the south-eastern part of Somersetshire, whence he passed to Pembroke College, Oxford. His collegiate course was not specially noteworthy, but was marked by considerable diligence. He graduated as B.A. in 1851, taking honours in classics. He in due course obtained his degrees of M.A. and D.D. He was admitted to Deacon's Orders by the Lord Bishop of Oxford, and (in 1856) to Priest's Orders by the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells. He for a short time held curacies respectively in Buckinghamshire and Somersetshire. His classical attainments were of more than average excellence, and seeing no prospect of immediate advancement in England, he in 1857 came over to Canada to assist in organizing a school in connection with Bishop's College, Lennoxville. Within a short time after his arrival he was appointed Rector of the College Grammar School, and soon afterwards succeeded to the Classical Professorship of the College, a position which he retained until his elevation to the Episcopacy.

Upon the death of the late Right Rev. George Jehoshaphat Mountain, Bishop of Quebec, in 1863, the subject of this sketch was appointed his successor by the Synod; and on the 11th of June of that year he was consecrated at Quebec by the Most Reverend the Metropolitan, assisted by the Bishops of Toronto, Ontario, Huron and Vermont. His first Episcopal act was to advance three Deacons to the Priesthood.

The See over which his jurisdiction extends was constituted in the year 1793, and formerly comprised the whole of Upper and Lower Canada. Its extent has since been from time to time curtailed, and it is now confined to that part of the Province of Quebec extending from Three Rivers to the Straits of Belleisle and New Brunswick, on the shores of the St. Lawrence and all east of a line drawn from Three Rivers to Lake Memphremagog.

Bishop Williams is a plain and unaffected preacher, and a man of scholarly tastes. He makes no pretence to showy or splendid gifts of pulpit oratory, but is known as an energetic and industrious ecclesiastic, careful for the spiritual welfare of his diocese and clergy. Several of his lectures and sermons have been published, and have been highly commended by the religious press of Canada and the United States. Among them may be mentioned his Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Quebec, at the Visitation held in Bishop's College, Lennoxville, in 1864; and a lecture on Self-Education, published at Quebec in 1865.

LIEUT. — COL. CASIMIR STANISLAUS GZOWSKI,

AIDE-DE-CAMP TO HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA

In compiling the various sketches which have appeared in the present series, the editor has frequently been compelled to encounter the difficulty of constructing a readable narrative out of very sparse and prosaic materials. A collection of this kind must necessarily include the lives of many professional and scientific men; and eminence in literature, in science, and in the learned professions, is commonly attained by means which — however interesting to those most immediately concerned — seem wonderfully commonplace to the general public, when reduced to plain, matter-of-fact narration. As a rule, stirring and romantic incidents are incompatible with a successful professional career, and in recounting the life of a learned divine, Chief Justice, or man of science, it is rarely necessary to deal with thrilling incidents or dramatic situations. The lives of such men are usually passed within a narrow and restricted groove, and the salient points may easily be comprised within a few lines. In the life of Colonel Gzowski, on the other hand, we have an instance of a remarkably successful professional career, combined with a chapter of vicissitude and adventure which, in the hands of a writer familiar with all the details, might very well form the groundwork of a sensation novel. His elasticity of spirits, strength of will, and vigour of constitution have supported him through an amount of labour, fatigue and suffering to which a more feeble mind and a more delicately-constructed frame must inevitably have succumbed long ago. Such a life as his commonly leaves very perceptible traces behind it. In his case no such traces are discernible. Neither in his visage, his gait, nor his manner, can the most observant eye detect any sign that his pathway has not always been strewn with roses. No one remarking his erect and firmly-knit figure, his jauntiness of step, and his keenness of glance, as he perambulates our streets, would readily believe that he is rapidly approaching his sixty-eighth birthday. Still less would it be supposed that he has passed through adventures enough for a knight-errant; that he has fought and bled in the fierce struggle for a nation's existence; that he has had his full share of the horrors of war; that he has languished in a patriot's prison; and that some of the best years of his life were passed in a hard struggle for existence in a foreign land. As we pass in review the alternating phases of his chequered career we seem to be contemplating a shifting panorama of the novelist's fancy, rather than a veracious chronicle of facts. The story of his life can be adequately narrated by no other pen than his own, and for many years past he has found more profitable employment for his talents than the inditing of autobiographical memoirs. In the absence of any such memoirs, be it ours to place on record such of the more salient points of his life as are readily ascertainable.

He is descended from an ancient Polish family which was ennobled in the sixteenth century, and which for more than two hundred years thereafter continued to exercise an influence upon the national affairs. His father, Stanislaus, Count (Hrabia) Gzowski, was an officer of the Imperial Guard. He himself was born on the 5th of March, 1813, at St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, where his parents were then temporarily sojourning. His childhood was spent as the childhood of most Polish children of his station in life was passed in those days — viz., in preparation for a military career. At nine years of age he entered a military engineering college at Kremenetz, in the Province of Volhynia, where he remained until 1830, when he graduated as an engineer, received a commission, and entered the army of Russia.

The Russian Empire was at this time on the verge of one of those periodical insurrections to which she had long been subject, more especially since the final partition and absorption of Poland, and the annihilation of the Polish monarchy. In 1825, Nicholas I. succeeded his elder brother Alexander on the throne of Russia. He had not long been installed there before he gave evidence of that aggressive policy which he pursued through life, and which nearly thirty years later involved him in the Crimean War. Some years before his accession, his elder brother Constantine, the heir-apparent to the throne, had been entrusted with the military government of Poland, and in 1822 had resigned his right to the Russian throne in Nicholas's favour. Upon the latter's accession he continued his elder brother in his sovereignty of Poland. Constantine's administration of affairs in that unhappy country was arbitrary and despotic in the extreme, and little calculated to mollify the heartburnings of the inhabitants. His oppressions were not confined to the serfs, but extended to the nobility. The result of his tyranny was the formation of secret societies with a view to striking one more blow for Polish liberty. A widespread insurrection, wherein most of the Polish officers in the Imperial army were involved, finally broke out in 1830 — the year in which the subject of this sketch received his commission. The success of the concurrent revolution in France, and the forced abdication of Charles X., inspired the insurgents with high hopes. In November of the year last mentioned the Grand Duke Constantine and his Russian adherents were driven out of Warsaw, the Polish capital. If the insurrectionary forces had been thoroughly organized, and if they had not been subjected to extraneous interference, there is reason for believing that their country might have been freed from the hateful domination of the Czar. Notwithstanding all the manifold disabilities under which they carried on the contest, they achieved a temporary success. After the expulsion of Constantine, a provisional government was formed under the presidency of Prince Czartoryski, and a series of desperate engagements was fought in which the patriots had in almost every instance a decided advantage. Their desperate courage and self-devotion, however, were of no permanent avail, for Prussia and Austria both lent their assistance to crush them, and towards the close of 1831 Warsaw was recaptured by the allied forces under Count Paskevitch, who was forthwith installed as viceroy of Poland. The crushing of the insurrection was of course marked by merciless severity and cruelty. In 1832 Poland was declared to be an integral part of the Russian Empire, and all the important prisoners were either put to death, banished to Siberia, or compelled to endure the horrors of a Russian prison.

Throughout the whole of this fruitless insurrection Casimir Stanislaus Gzowski played a conspicuous part. He cast in his lot with his compatriots from the beginning; was present at the expulsion of Constantine from Warsaw, in November, 1830, and was actively engaged in numerous important conflicts that ensued. He was wounded, and several times narrowly escaped capture. We have no means of closely following him through the hazardous exploits of that dark and sanguinary period. Persons who are familiar with the history of Polish insurrections will be at no loss to conjecture the "hair-breadth 'scapes, and moving accidents by flood and field," which he encountered in that desperate struggle for a nation's freedom. After the battle of Boremel, General Dwernicki's division, to which he was attached, retreated into Austrian territory, where the troops laid down their arms and became prisoners. The rank and file were permitted to depart whithersoever they would, but the officers, to the number of about six hundred, were placed in durance, and quartered in several fortified stations. There they languished for several months, when, by an arrangement entered into between the governments of Russia and Austria, they were shipped off as exiles to the United States.

When Mr. Gzowski, with his fellow-exiles, landed at New York in the summer of 1833, he had no knowledge whatever of the English language. When the pilot came on board at Sandy Hook, and saluted the captain of the vessel, he heard that language spoken for the first time. Like most members of the Polish and Russian aristocracy, he was an accomplished linguist, and was familiar with many of the continental languages; but it was a part of the Russian policy in those days to exclude English books from the public schools, and to prevent by every conceivable means the spread of English ideas among the people. During his course of study at the military college at Kremenetz, one of the Professors had exhibited an English book to him as a sort of outlandish curiosity. He now found himself in a strange land, without means, without any friends except his fellow-exiles — who were as helpless in that respect as himself — and without any prospect of obtaining employment. He possessed qualifications, however, which, as the event proved, were of more value than mere worldly wealth. He had been a diligent student, and had acquired what must have been, for a youth of twenty years, a thorough knowledge of engineering. He was, as has been remarked, a good linguist, and had not merely a grammatical, but a practical knowledge of the French, German and Italian languages. Better than all these, he was endowed with an iron constitution, which even the rigours of an Austrian prison had not been able to injure, and a strength of will which would not admit the possibility of failure. Some idea of his resolution may be formed from the fact that, when he found that his want of knowledge of English prevented him from following the engineering profession with advantage, he determined to study law as a means of acquiring a mastery of the English tongue. After subsisting for some months in New York by giving lessons in French and German, he betook himself to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he entered the office of the late Mr. Parker L. Hall, an eminent lawyer of that town, and a gentleman of high social position. The facility displayed by the natives of Poland and Russia in acquiring a knowledge of foreign languages is well known, but the achievements of Mr. Gzowski at this time seem almost phenomenal. It must be borne in mind that while he was studying law in a tongue which was foreign to him, he was compelled to support himself by outside employment. He obtained his livelihood by teaching modern languages, drawing, and fencing, in two of the local academies. He worked early and late, and was at first obliged to study the commentaries of Blackstone and Kent through the medium of a dictionary. In nothing did he appear to greater advantage than in his invariable readiness to adapt his mind, without useless repining, to the circumstances in which he found himself. His indomitable industry, natural ability, and fine social qualities, combined with his misfortunes to make him a marked man in Pittsfield society. He gained many warm friends, but was always wise enough to remember that his success in life must mainly depend upon his own exertions. In the month of February, 1837, when he had been studying his profession about three years, he passed a successful examination, and was only prevented from being admitted to practice by his not having become a naturalized citizen of the United States. A knowledge of the legal profession, however, was with him merely a means to an end. He had no intention of permanently devoting himself to legal practice, and had always contemplated returning to his profession of an engineer. He had by this time acquired a competent knowledge of the English language, and had begun to look about him for some suitable field for his exertions. The development of the coal regions of Pennsylvania was attracting a good deal of attention at this time, and it occurred to him that he might not improbably find employment there. A visit to that State tended to confirm his views, and in November Term, 1837, having submitted the necessary proofs, and taken the oath of allegiance, he was duly admitted as a citizen of the United States, before the Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. He had brought with him from Pittsfield numerous letters of introduction to persons of high social position and influence, all bearing testimony to his unimpeachable character and wide attainments. The only obstacle to his admission to practice having been removed, he was enrolled as an advocate at the Bar of the Supreme Court, and for a short time acted as an advocate in Pennsylvania. This, however, was not the line of action for which he considered himself best qualified, nor did the prospect held out to him satisfy his ambition. He soon obtained employment as an engineer in connection with the great canals and public works, and abandoned the law as a profession. He became interested in several contracts, which were faithfully and skilfully carried out; and wherever he went he won the reputation of a delightful companion and a thoroughly honourable man.

Early in 1841 the project of widening and deepening the Welland Canal began to be discussed with some vehemence in Upper Canada. With a view to securing a contract, Mr. Gzowski came over from Erie, Pennsylvania (where he then resided), to Toronto, and for the first time was brought into contact with some of the leading public men of Canada. The Government was then administered by Sir Charles Bagot, a gentleman whose infirm state of health did not prevent him from taking a warm interest in the public improvements of the country. Sir Charles formed a high opinion of Mr. Gzowski's talents, and sanctioned his appointment to an office in connection with the Department of Public Works. This appointment having been accepted by Mr. Gzowski, he bade adieu to his many friends in the United States, and took up his abode in Upper Canada.

During the next six years Mr. Gzowski's life was entirely occupied by his duties in connection with the Department of Public Works. It is manifestly out of the question to give even an epitome of the numberless important enterprises conducted by him during this, the busiest period of his active life. His reports of the works in connection with harbours, bridges and highways alone occupy a considerable portion of a large folio volume. It will be sufficient to say that every important provincial improvement came under his supervision, and that nearly every county in Upper Canada bears upon its surface the impress of his great industry and engineering skill. In 1846 he obtained naturalization and became a British subject. Soon after the accession to power of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Government, in 1848, his services in an official capacity were brought to a close, and he began to enter upon large engineering enterprises on his own account. Towards the end of the year 1848 he published a report on the mines of the Upper Canada Mining Company on Lake Huron. But his mind was occupied by more important schemes. The railway era set in. The Railroad Guarantee Act, authorizing Government grants to private companies undertaking the construction of railways, having been passed in 1849, the public began to hear of various railway projects of greater or lesser importance. The first great enterprise of this sort with which Mr. Gzowski connected himself was the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad Company, from Montreal to Island Pond, which has since been amalgamated with the Grand Trunk. Mr. Gzowski was appointed Chief Engineer of this undertaking, made a survey of the greater portion of the line, and superintended the actual construction. When the line became merged in the Grand Trunk he resigned his position of Chief Engineer, and received the most gratifying written testimonials from the Board of Directors as to his able administration of the important duties which had fallen to his share. Having formed a partnership with the present Sir Alexander T. Galt, the late Hon. Luther H. Holton, and the Hon. D. L. Macpherson, Mr. Gzowski for some years devoted himself entirely to the work of railway construction. On the 24th of March, 1853, the firm of Gzowski & Co. obtained the contract for the construction of the line from Toronto westward to Sarnia. This great work was prosecuted to a successful conclusion, and was attended with most gratifying pecuniary results to the contractors. The firm was then dissolved, and has since consisted of Messrs. Gzowski and Macpherson only, who continued to carry on large operations in the way of railway construction. Among other railway works constructed by the firm were the line from Port Huron to Detroit, in the State of Michigan, and the line from London to St. Mary's, in this Province. In connection with their own enterprises, and for the purpose of supplying railway companies with iron rails and materials used in the construction of railways, Messrs. Gzowski & Macpherson in 1857 established the Toronto Rolling Mills, which were carried on successfully for about twelve years. Steel rails having largely superseded the use of iron ones, the necessity for maintaining the establishment ceased to exist, and the works were closed up in 1869.

The excitement produced on two continents in 1861 by the Trent affair, and the threatened rupture of amicable relations between Great Britain and the United States, led Mr. Gzowski to reflect seriously on the defenceless condition of Canada. In the event of hostilities between the two nations, this country would of course be the first point of attack; and, in the absence of any efficient means of defence, it would manifestly be impossible to maintain a frontier extending over thousands of miles. It occurred to Mr. Gzowski that the establishment of a large arsenal in Canadian territory, where every description of armament and ammunition might be manufactured or repaired, would be a very wise precaution. He counted the cost, prepared elaborate plans, and even fixed upon what he believed to be the most appropriate site. Full of this scheme, he proceeded to England, where he submitted it to the War Secretary and other prominent members of the Imperial Government. Its liberality created much surprise among all to whom it was broached, for Mr. Gzowski proposed to provide capital for the construction and equipment of the entire establishment, subject to certain very reasonable stipulations. The project was taken into careful consideration by the Government, and for some time it seemed not unlikely to be carried out. It was finally concluded, however, that for certain diplomatic reasons, it would be undesirable to proceed with it; but full justice was done to Mr. Gzowski's unbounded liberality and public spirit, and he was assured that the Government were not insensible to the munificence of his proposal. From this time forward he began to interest himself in military matters. He took a very active part in developing the Rifle Association of the Province of Ontario, and erelong became its President. He subsequently became President of the Dominion Rifle Association, and was instrumental in sending the first team of representative Canadian riflemen from this Province to England in 1870, to take part in the annual military operations at Wimbledon. A team has ever since been sent over annually by the Dominion, and Mr. Gzowski has generally made a point of accompanying them himself. In November, 1872, as a mark of appreciation of his services in connection with the development of the Rifle Association, he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Central Division of Toronto Volunteers; and in May, 1873, became a Lieutenant-Colonel on the staff. His last and highest promotion came to him in May, 1879, when he was appointed Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty Queen Victoria.

For many years past Colonel Gzowski has been the possessor of large means, acquired by his own industry and talents, and sufficient to enable him to indulge in a dignified repose for the remainder of his life. He is, however, possessed of a stirring nervousness of temperament which impels him to action, and has never ceased to engage in engineering projects of greater or less magnitude. This sketch would be very incomplete without some reference to an enterprise which is entitled to rank among the grandest public works of the Dominion; viz., the International Bridge over the Niagara River at Buffalo. The charters for the construction of this great enterprise were granted by the Legislature of Canada and the State of New York as far back as the year 1857, but were permitted to lie dormant owing to the difficulty of obtaining the funds necessary to carrying out so gigantic a project. The capital was at last raised in England in 1870, and the contract was let to Colonel Gzowski and his partner, the Hon. D. L. Macpherson, who forthwith began the work of construction. The engineering difficulties to be encountered were very great, and at certain seasons of the year the work had to be totally suspended. The bridge was finally completed and opened for the passage of trains on the 3rd of November, 1873, and the entire cost of construction was about $1,500,000. It stands as a perpetual memorial of the great skill and enterprise of the contractors. After its completion Colonel Gzowski wrote and published a full account of the enterprise from its inception, accompanied by elaborate plans and illustrations. Sir Charles Hartley, in a work published in England in 1875, bears testimony to the fact that "the chief credit in overcoming the extraordinary difficulties which beset the building of the piers of this bridge is due to Colonel Gzowski, upon whom all the practical operations devolved." A still higher testimony comes from Mr. Thomas Elliott Harrison, President of the (British) Institute of Civil Engineers, who, in an annual address read before the Institute on his election to the Presidency in the session of 1873-4, referred to the International Bridge as one of the most gigantic engineering works on the American continent, and made a special reference to the difficulties met with in subaqueous foundations, as described in Colonel Gzowski's volume.