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Full text of "The romantic settlement of Lord Selkirk's colonists (the pioneers of Manitoba)"

226 

Lord Sclkirk's C(lonists. 

no danger is feared, the animals are kept, on 
the outside. Thus, the carts formed a stroll,, 
barrier, not only for securing the people and 
the beasts of burden within, but as a place of 
shelter and defence against an attack of the 
enemy without. 
There is, however, another appendage be- 
longing to the expedition, and to every expe- 
dition of the kind; and you may be assured they 
are not the least noisy. We allude to the dogs 
or camp followers. On the present occasion 
they numbered no fewer than 542; sufficient of 
themselves to consume no small number of a.P.i- 
ma.ls a day, for, like their masters, they dearly 
relish a bit of bufftlo meat. 
These animals are kept in summer as they 
are, about the establishments of the fur trad- 
ers, for their services in the winter. In deep 
snows, when horses cannot conveniently be used, 
dogs are very serviceable to the hunters in these 
parts. The half-breed, dressed in his wolf cos- 
tume, tackles two or three sturdy curs into a flat 
sled, throws himself on it at full lenh, and gets 
among the buffalo unperceived. Here the bow 
and arrow play their part to prevent noise; and 
here the skillful hunter kills as many as he 
pleases, and returns to canp without disturb- 
ing the band. 
But now to our camp againmthe largest of its 
kind perhaps in the world. A council was held 



Off to tl( Buffalo. 

227 

for the nomination of chiefs or officers for con- 
ducting the expedition. Two captains were 
named, the senior on this occasion being Jean 
Baptiste Wilkie, an English half-breed brought 
up among the French, a man of good sound 
sense and long experience, and withal a bold- 
looking and discreet fellow, a second Nimrod in 
his way. Besides being captain, in common with 
others, he was styled the great war chief or head 
of the camp, and on all public occasions he 
cupied the place of president. 
The hoisting of the flag every morning is the 
signal for raising camp. Half an hour is the 
full time allowed to prepare for the march, but 
if anyone is sick, or their animals have strayed, 
notice is sent to the guide, who halts until all is 
made right. From the time the flag is hoisted 
however, till the hour of camping arrives, it is 
never taken down. The flag taken down is a sig- 
nal for encamping, while it is up the guide is 
chief of the expedition, captain. are subject to 
him, and the soldiers of the day are hi. messen- 
gers, he commands all. The moment the flag is 
lowered his functions cease and the captains and 
soldiers' duties commence. The)" point out the 
order of the camp, and every cart as it arrives 
moves to its appointed place. This business usu- 
ally occupies about the same time as raising 
camp in the morning, for everything moves with 
the regnlari of clockwork. 



Off to the Buffalo. 

229 

At eight o'clock the whole cavalcade broke 
ground, and made for the buffaloes. When the 
horsemen started the buffaloes were about a 
mile and a half distant, but when they ap- 
proached to about four or five hundred yards, 
the bulls curled their tails or pawed the ground. 
In a moment more the herd took flight, and 
horse and rider are presently seen bursting up- 
on them, shots are hard, and all is smoke, dust 
and hurry, and in less time than we have occu- 
pied with a description a thousand Carcasses 
strew the plain. 
When the rush was made, the earth seemed to 
tremble as the horses started, but when the ani- 
mals fled, it was like the shock of an earthquake. 
The air was darkened, the rapid firing, at first, 
soon became more and more faint, and at last 
died away in the distance. 
In such a run, a good horse and experienced 
rider will select and kill from ten to twelve buf- 
faloes at one heat, but in the case before us, the 
surface was rocky and full of badger holes. 
Twenty-three horses and riders were at one 
momentall sprawling on the ground, one horse 
gored by a bull, was killed on the spot, two more 
were disabled by the fall. One rider broke his 
shoulder blade, another burst his gun, and lost 
three fingers by the accident, another was struck 
on the knee by an exhausted bu]|. In the even- 
ing no less than 1,375 tongues were brought into 



Lord ,,'lkirk's Coloists. 

camp. When the run is over the hunter's work 
is now retrograde. The last animal killed is the 
first skinned, and night not unfrequently, sur- 
prises the runner at his work. What then re- 
mains is l,t and falls to the wolves. Hundreds 
of dead buffaloes are often abandoned, for even 
a thunder:;torm, in one hour, will render the 
meat useless. 
The day of a race is as fati-ming on the hunter 
as on the horse, but the meat well in the camp, 
he enjoys the very luxury of idleness. 
Then the task of the women begins, who do 
all the rest, and what with skins, and meat and 
fat, their duty is a most laborious one. 
It is to be regretted tlat much of the meat is 
waste(1. Our expedition killed not less than 2,- 
500 buffaloes, and out of all these nade 375 bags 
of pemmican, and 240 bales of dried meat; 750 
animals should have made that amount, so that 
a great quantity was wasted. Of course, the 
buffalo skins were saved and had their value. 
Our party were now on the Missouri and en- 
camped there. A few traders went to the near- 
est American fort, and bartered furs for ar- 
ticles they needed. 
After passing" a week on the banks of the Mis- 
souri we turned to the West, when we had a few 
ra.ce, with various success. We were afterwards 
led backwards and forwards at the pleasure of 
the buffalo herds. They crossed and recrossed 



Off to the Bufl'al,,. 

231 

our path until we had travelled to almost every 
point of the compass. 
Having had various altercations with the In- 
dians, the party reached Red River, bringing 
about 900 lbs. of buffalo meat in each cart, mak- 
ing more than one million pounds in all. The 
Hudson's Bay Company took a considerable 
amount of this, and the remainder went to sup- 
ply the wants of the Red River Settlement for 
another year. 



234 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

chimney planted against one wall. Inside is but 
a single room, well whitewashed, as is indeed 
the outside and exceptionally tidy; a bed oc- 
cupies one corner, a sort of couch another, a 
rung ladder leads up to loose boards overhead 
which form an attic, a trap door in the middle of 
the room opens to a small hole in the ground 
where milk and butter are kept cool; from the 
beam is suspended a hammock, used as a cradle 
for the baby; shelves singularly hung held a 
scanty stock of plates, knives and forks; two 
windows on either side, covered with mosquito 
netting, admit the light, and a modicum of air; 
chests and boxes supply the place of seats, with 
here and there a keg by way of easy-chair. An 
open fireplace of whitewashed clay gives sign 
of cheer and warmth in the long winter, and a 
half-dozen books for library complete the scene. 
Our hosts feel so "highly honored to have 
such gentlemen enter the house "--these are 
their very words--that it is with the greatest 
difficulty they are forced to take any compensa- 
tion for the excellent meal of bread, butter, and 
rich cream which they set before us, and to 
which we do ample justice. 
This was not the only interior we saw; we had 
before called on the single scientific man of the 
Settlement, Donald Gunn, and later in the day 
are forced by a thunderstorm to seek shelter in 
the nearest house; where we are also warmly 



What the tar Gazers Saw. 

2:5 

welcomed and the rain continuing, are glad to 
accept the cordial invitations of its inhabitants 
to pass the night. This is a larger house, but 
only the father of the family and his buxom 
daughter, Susie, a lively girl of eighteen or nine- 
teen, are at home, the others being off at the 
other end of their small farm, where they havc 
temporary shelter during the harvest. 
We have each a chamber to ourselves in the 
garret, reached in the same primitive method 
a before mentioned--and are shown with a dip 
of buffalo-tallow to our rooms. The furniture of 
these consists of a sort of couch, with buffalo 
skins for mattress and wolf skins for sheets and 
coverlet, a chest for a seat, a punch-bowl.of wa- 
ter on a broken chair for a washstand, and a torn 
bit of rag for towel; while a barrel covered with 
a white cloth serves as a centre-table, and is be- 
sprinkled with antique books. Among those in 
his chamber our naturalist discovers one which 
appears to be a catechism of human knowledge 
containing, among other entertaining and in- 
structive information as an answer to the ques- 
tion, "What is a shark ? ' the highly satisfactory 
reply that it is "An animal having eighty-eight 
teeth." 
The wants of the Colony were few, the 
peasantry simple and industrious, and their lot 
in life did not seem to them hard. The earth 
yielded bountifully, and in time of temporary 



What the Star Gazers Saw. 

237 

are heavy, straight beams, between which is 
harnessed an ox, the harness of rawhide 
(shaga-nappi) without buckles. 
Everybody makes for himself what he wishes 
in this undifferentiated Settlement. We return 
in tatters. Not a tailor, nor anything approach- 
ing the description of ofie, exists here, and a 
week's search is needed to discover such a being 
as a shoemaker. A single store in the Hudson's 
Bay post at each of the two forts, twenty miles 
apart, supplies the goods of the outside world, 
and the purchaser must furnish the receptacle 
for carriage. For small goods this invariably 
consists, as far as we can see, of a red ban- 
danna handkerchief, so that purchases have to 
be small and frequent; not all of one sort, how- 
ever, for the native can readily tie up his tea in 
one corner, his sugar and buttons in two others, 
and still have one left for normal uses. How 
many handkerchiefs a day are put to use may 
be judged from the fact that the average sale of 
tea at Upper Fort Garry is four large boxes 
daily--all, be it remembered, brought by ship to 
Hudson Bay, and thence by batteaux and por- 
tage to the Red River. 
The caravan by which we and a number of 
others were carried back to civilization was a 
stylish enough turnout for Red River. It was 
supplied b.v McKinney, .the host of the Royal 
Hotel of the village of Winnipeg. Three large 



238 Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 
emigrant wagons, with canvas coverings of the 
most approved pattern, but of very different 
hues, drawn each by a yoke of oxen, convey the 
patrons of the party, with the exception of a 
miner, who rides his horse. The astronomers 
take the lead under a brown canvas; a theologi- 
cal student for Toronto University, a gentle- 
man for St. Paul, and others follow under a 
black canvas full of holes; and the third wagon 
with a cover of spotless purity, conveys the la- 
dies of the party and a clergyman. Behind 
them follow not only half a. dozen Red River 
carts, with a most promiscuous assortment of 
baggage, peltry, and squeak, but also a stray ox 
and a pony or two; a number of armed horse- 
men, and for the first day a cavalcade of friends 
giving a Scotch convoy to those who were de- 
parting. The astronomers at length reached 
St. Paul, when they declare their connection 
with the world again complete, after an absence 
of about three months, during which they had 
travelled thirty-five hundred miles. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

APPLES OF GOLD. 

Shakespeare's play of "As You Like It" is 
an eulogy of the flight from the highly formal 
life of city life to the simplicity of the forest and 
the retirement of the plains. Even in the ban- 
ished Duke, there is a strain of oddity and 
quaintness. Not many years after the middle 
of last century, a Detroit lawyer fled from the 
troubles of society and city life to the peaceful 
plains of secluded Assiniboia. liarrying, after 
his arrival, a daughter of one of our best na- 
tive families, and on her death, a pure Indian 
woman, he reared a large family. The poetic 
spirit of Frank Larned was never repressed, 
and we give, with some changes, to suit our pur- 
pose, and at times some divergence from the 
views expressed, scenes of the Red River Set- 
tlement, in which he, for more than a genera- 
tion, dwelt. 

ONE JTOPIA--SELKIR:KIA. 

That brave old Englishman, Thomas More-- 
afterwards, unhappily for his head--Lord High 
Chancellor of England--wrote out, in fair La- 



240 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

tin,--in his chambers in the City of London, 
over three centuries ago--his idea of an Utopia. 
This, modest as are its requirements, has yet 
found no practical illustration, even among the 
many seats of the great colonizing race of man- 
kind. 
The primitive history of all the colonies that 
faced the Atlantic--when the new-found con- 
tinent first felt the abiding foot of the stranger 
--from Oglethorpe to Acadia, reveals, alas! no 
Utopia. It remained for a later time,--the 
erlier half of the present century, amid some 
severity of climate, and under conditions with- 
out precedent, and incapable of repetition,-- 
to evolve a community in the heart of the con- 
tinent, shut away from intercourse with civi- 
lized mankind--that slowly crystalized into a 
form beyond the ideal of the dreamers--a com- 
munity, in the past, known but slightly to the 
outer world as the Red River Settlement, which 
is but the bygone name for the one Utopia of 
Britain--the clear-cut impress of an exceptional 
people living under conditions of excellence un- 
thought of by themselves until, they had passed 

away. 

THE UTOPIAN COLONY. 

A people, whose name in the vast domain, was 
in days by gone, sou'ht out and coveted by all. 
Unknown races had rested here and gone away, 



242 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

other than themselves. A people whose un- 
checked primal freedom was afterward 
strengthened by the light hand of laws that con- 
served what they most desired; whose personal 
relations with their rulers were of such primi- 
tive character as to make the Government in 
every sense paternal; the petty tax on imports 
attending its administration one practically un- 
felt! 
A people whose land was dotted with schools 
and churches, to whose maintenance their con- 
tributions were so slight as to be unworthy of 
mention. The three separate religious denom- 
inations, holding widely different tenets--else- 
where the cause of bitter sectarian feeling,-- 
was with them so unthought of as to give 
where all topics were eagerly sought--no room 
for even fireside discussion. Side by side, "up- 
on the voyage," as they termed their lake or 
inland trips--the Catholic and the Protestant 
knelt and offered up their devotions--following 
the ways of their fathers,--no more to be made 
a subject of dispute than a difference in color or 
height. 
The cursings and obscenities that taint the air 
and brutalize life elsewhere, were in this quaint 
old settlement unknown. Sweet thought, pure 
speech, went hand in hand, clad in nervous, 
pithy old English, or a "patois" of the French, 
mellowed and enlarged by their constant use of 



Apples of Gold. 243 
the liquid Indian tongues, flowing like soft- 
sounding waters about them, their daily talk 
came ever welcome to the ear. 

AN ARCADIA. 

Where locks for doors were unknown, or, 
known, unused, where a man's word, even in 
the transfer of land, was held as his bond--hon- 
esty became a necessity. Lawyers were none. 
Law was held to be a danger. Still the im- 
portance attached by simple minds to an ap- 
pearance in public, the amusing belief cherished 
by some, that, if permitted to plead his own 
case, exert his unsuspected powers, there could 
be but one result, brought some honest souls to 
the Red River forum, with matter of much mo- 
ment, "the like never heard before." None 
can read the quaint, minutely-detailed record of 
these "causes celbres" that shook the little 
households as with a great wind, without a 
smile, or resist the conviction that no scheme of 
an English Utopia can safely be pronounced 
perfect without some such modest tribunal to 
afford vent for that ever-germinating desire 
for battle inherent in the race. 
Their manners were natural, cordial, and full 
of a lightsome heartness that robed accost with 
sunshine,--a quietude withal--that rare quality 
--that irked them not at all--one gathered from 
their Indian kin-folk. Their knowledge of each 



244 

Lord Sclkirk's Colonists. 

other was simply universal--their kin ties al- 
most as genera]. These ties were brightened 
and friendships reknit in the holiday season of 
the year, the leisure of the long winters, when 

ALEXANDER ROSS 
Shert and Author. 
Came to Red River Settlement in 8z5 from British Columbia. 

Dil in x86. 

the far-scattered hewn log housessmall to the 
eye--were ever found large enough to hold the 
welcome arrivals,--greeted with a kiss that said, 



246 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

A LAND OF PEACE. 

Foverty in one sense certainly existed; age 
and improvidence are always with us, but it was 
not obtrusive, made apparent only towards the 
close of the long winter, when some old veteran 
of the canoe or saddle would make a "grand 
promenade" through the Settlement, with his 
ox and sled, making known his wants, incident- 
ally, at his different camps among his old 
friends, finding always before he left his sled 
made the heavier by the women's hands. This 
was simply done; few in the wild country but 
had met with sudden exigencies in supply, knew 
well the need at times of one man to another, 
and, when asked for aid, gave willingly. Or it 
may be that some large-hearted, jovial son of 
the chase had overrated his winter store, or un- 
derrated the assiduity of his friends. His re- 
course in such case being the more carefully es- 
timated stock of some neighbor, who could in 
no wise suffer the reproach to lie at his door, 
that he had turned his back, in such emergence, 
upon his good-natured, if injudicious country- 
man. 
This practical communismnborrowed from 
the Indians, among whom it was inviolable-- 
was, in the matter of hospitality, the rule of all, 
--a reciprocation of good offices, in the absence 
of all houses of public entertainment, becoming 



Apples of Gold. 

247 

a social necessity. The manner of its exercise 
hearty, a knitting of the people together,--no 
one was at a loss for a winter camp when travel- 
ling. Every house he saw was his own, the 
bustling wife, with welcome in her eyes, eager 
to assure your comfort. The supper being laid 
and dealt sturdily with, the good man's pipe 
and your own alight and breathing satisfaction, 
--a neighbor soul drops in to swell the gale of 
talk, that rocks you at last into a restful sleep. 

How now, my masters I 
cady? 
Early and universal 

Smacks not this of Ar- 

marriage was the rule. 

Here you received the blessings of home in the 
married life, and the care of offspring. There 
were thus no defrauded women--called, by a 
cruel irony," old maids"; no isolated, mistaken 
men, cheated out of themselves, and robbed of 
the best training possible for man. This vital 
fact was fi'aught with every good. 
On the young birds leaving the parent nest, 
they only exchanged it for one near at hand-- 
land for the taking; a house to be built, a wife 
to be got--a share of the stock, some tools and 
simple furniture, and the outfit was complete. 
The youngest son remained at home to care for 
the old father and mother, and to him came the 
homestead when they were laid away. The 
conditions were all faithful, home life dear in- 
deed. 



250 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

sense whatever of inferiority, unfrayed by the 
trituration of the average book, their powers of 
apprehension--singularly clear--had full scope 
to appropriate and resolve the world about 
them, which they did to such purpose as to mas- 
ter every exigence of their lives. Seizing upon 
the minutest detail affecting them they mastered 
as if by intuition all difficult handiwork, making 
with but few tools everything they required from 
a windmill to a horseshoe. 
Their real education was in scenes of travel 
or adventure in the great unbroken regions 
sought out by the fur trade, their retentive 
memories reproducing by the winter fireside or 
summer camp pictures so graphi c as to com- 
mend themselves to every ear. 
The tender heart and true of the brave old 
knight, Sir Thomas More, put a ban upon hunt- 
ing in his Utopia. Alas and alack for the way- 
ward proclivities of our Utopians, predaceous 
creatures all, hunting was to them as the 
breath of their nostrils, for to them, unlike the 
sons of Adam, it was given--with their brothers 
resting upon the tranquil river--to lay upon the 
altar of their homes alike the fruits of the earth 
and the spoils of the chase. 

THE BUFFALO HUNT. 

What pen can paint the life of the "Chas- 
seurs of the Great Plains," tell of the gathering 



Apples of Gold. 

251 

of the mighty Halfbreed clan going forth--each 
spring and fall--in a tumult of carts and horse- 
men to their boundless preserves, the home of 
the buffaloes, whose outrangers were the grizzly 
bear, the branching elk, the flying antelope that 
skirted the great columns, the last relieving the 
heavy rolling gait of the herds by a speed and 
airy flight that mocked the eye to follow them, 
scouting the dull trot of the prowling wolves-- 
attent upon the motions of their best purveyor 
What a going forth was theirs I this array of 
Hunters, with their wives and little ones; this 
new tribe clad in semi-savage garniture, 
streaming across the plains with cries of glee 
and joyance; the riders in their "travoie" of 
arms and horse equipment--the vast "brigade" 
of carts and bands of following horses, kept to 
the cavalcade by those reckless jubilants--the 
boys--seeming a part of the creatures they be- 
strode. The sunshine and the flying fleecy clouds, 
emulous in motion with the troop below: what 
life was in it all; what freedom and what 
breadth ! 
And as the sun sank apace and the guides and 
Headmen rode apart on some o'er-looking 
height and reined their cattle in, the closing up 
of the flying squadron for the evening camp, the 
great circular camp of these our Scythians 
proof against sudden raid crowning the land- 



252 

Lord Selkirk's Colot,ists. 

scape far and wide, seen, yet seeing every foe, 
whose subtle coming through the short-lived 
night was watched by eyes as keen as were their 

When reached, their bellowing, countless 
quarry: the plain alive and trembling with their 
tumult, what tournament of mail-clad knights 
but was as a stilted play to this rude shock of 
man and beast--carrying in a cloud of dust that 
hid alike the chaser and the chased, till done 
their work the frightened herds swept onward 
and away, leaving the sward flecked with the 
huge forms that made the hunters' wealth! And 
now! on: fall prosaic from the wild charge, the 
danger of the fierce elee!--drifting from the 
camp the carts sppear piled red in a trice with 
bosses, tonoes, back fat and ju]cy haunch, a 
feast unknown to hapless kings. 
We but glance at this great feature, that fed 
so fat our Utopia, leaving to imagination the re- 
turn, the trade, the feasting and the fiddle when 
lusty legs embossed by "quills" or beads kept 
up the dance. 
The outcome of the "Plain Hunt" was not 
only a wide spread plenty among the Hunters 
on reaching the quiet farmer folk upon the riv- 
ers, but also the diffusion of a sunshine, a tone 
of generous serenity theft sat well on the chiv- 
alry of the chase--the bold riders of the Plain. 



Apples of Gold. 

253 

THE SUMMER PRAIRIES. 

Beneficent nature nowhere makes her compen- 
sations more gratefully felt than in the summer 
season of our Utopia of the north, where the 
purest and most vivifying of atmospheres hues 
with a wealth of sunshine the great reaching 
spaces of verdure covered with flowers in a pro- 
fusion rivaling their exquisite beauty. Green 
vaving copses dot the level sward, and rob the 
sky line of its sea-like sweep. The winding riv- 
ers, signalled by their wooded ban.ks, upon 
which rest the comfortable homes of the dwell- 
ers in the "hidden land" guarding their little 
fields close by where the ranked grain standing 
awaits the sickle, turning from green to gold 
and so unhurried resting. The shining cattle 
couched outside in ruminant content or cropping 
lazily the succulent feast spread wide before 
them; the horses wary of approach, just seen in 
compact bands upon the verge; the patriarchal 
windmills--at wide paces--signalling to each 
other their peaceful task; the little groups of 
horsemen coming adown the winding road, or 
stopping to greet some good wife and her gos- 
sip-going abroad in a high-railed cart in quest 
of trade, or friendly call. And as the day 
wanes, the sleek cows, with considered careful 
walk and placid mien, wend their way home- 
ward, ])earing their heavy, udders to the house- 



25-1: 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

mother, who, pail in hand awaiting their ap- 
proach, pauses for a moment to mark the feath- 
ered boaster at her feet, as he makes his part- 
ing vaunt of a day well spent and summons 
"Partlet" to her vesper perch hard by. 
O'er all the scene there rests a brooding 
peace, bespeaking tranquil lives, repose trim- 
med with the hush of night, and effort health- 
ful and cool as the freshening airs of morn. 

L ENVOI. 

Longfellow--moving all hearts to pity--has 
painted in "Evangeline" the enforced disper- 
sion of the French in "Acadia." Who shall 
tell the homesick pain, the vain regrets, the look- 
ing back of those who peopled our "Acadia"? 
No voice bids them away; they melt before the 
fervor of the time; hasten lest they be 'whelmed 
by the great wave of life now rolling towards 
them. Vain retreat, the waters are out and 
may not be stayed. It is fate l it is right, but 
the travail is sore, the face of the mother is wet 
with tears. 
This outline sketch proposed is at an end; we 
have striven to be faithful to the true lines. 
There is no obligation to perpetuate unworthy 
"minutiae." Joy is immortall sorrow dies! the 
petty features are absorbed in the broad ones; 
those capable only of conveying truth. 
The Red River Settlement in the days ad- 



Apple's of Gold. 

255 

verted to is an idyl simple and pure: a nomadic 
pastoral, inwrought with Indian traits and 
color; our one acted poem in the great national 
prosaic life. When the vast country in the far 
future is teeming with wealth and luxury, this 
light rescued and defined will shine adown the 
fullness of the time with hues all its own. The 
story that it tells will be as a sweet refresh- 
ment: a dream made possible, called by those 
vho shared in its great calm, "Britain's One 
Utopia--Selkirkia." 



,- ,. ?. 
CHAPTER XXI. 

PICTURES OF SILVER. 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists never had, as we 
have seen, a bed of roses. Adversity had 
their steps from the time that they put the first 
foot forward toward the new worldmand Stor- 
noway, Fort Churchill, York Factory, Norway 
House, Pembina and Fort Douglas start, as 
we speak of them, a train of bitter memories. 
Flood and famine, attack and bloodshed, toil 
and anxiety were the constant atmosphere, in 
which for a generation they existed. Higher 
civilization is impossible when the struggle for 
shelter and bread is too strenuous. Though the 
ministrations of religion were supplied within a 
few years of the beg.inning of the Colony, yet 
the Colonists were not satisfied in this respect 
till forty years had passed. It was a genera- 
tion before the Roman Catholic Church had a 
Bishop, who held the See of St. Boniface in- 
stead of the title "in the parts of the heathen." 
It was not before the year 1849 that  Church 
of En.g]and Bishop arrived, and it was two 
years after that date when the first Presbyter- 



258 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

part of his recompense for his long journey, a 
priest to be the guide of himself and family. 
Father Dugas says: (See printed page 2.) 
"Lord Selkirk before his departure had made 
the Catholic colony on the Red River sign a pe- 
tition asking the Bishop of Quebec to send mis- 
sionries to evangelize the country. He pre- 
sented this petition himself and employed all his 
influence to have it granted. 
"Though a Protestant Lord Selkirk knew 
that to found a permanent colony on the Red 
River he required the encouragement of reli- 
gion. Should his application succeed the mis- 
sionarie, would come with the voyageurs in the 
following spring and would arrive in Red River 
towards the month of July. This thought alone 
made Madame Lajimoniere forget her eleven 
years of loneline,, and sorrow. 
"Before July the news had spread that the 
missionaries were coming that very summer, but 
as yet the exact date of their arrival was not 
known. Telegraphs had not reached this re,on 
and moreover the voyageurs were often exposed 
to de|ays. 
"After waiting patiently, one beautiful morn- 
ing on t]e 16th of July, the day of Our Lady of 
Mount Carmel, a man came from the foot of 
the river to warn Fort Douglas and the neigh- 
borhood that wo canoes brining the mission- 
aries were coming up the river, and that all the 



Pictures of Silver. 

259 

people ought to be at the Fort to receive them 
on their arrival. 
"Scarcely was the news made known when 
men, women and children hurried to the Fort. 
Those who had never seen the priests were 
anxious to contemplate these men of God of 
whom they had heard so much. Madame Laji- 
moniere was not the last to hasten to the place 
where the missionaries would land. She took 
all her little ones with her, the eldest of whom 
was Reine, then eleven years old. 
"Towards the hour of noon on a beautiful 
clear day more than one hundred and fifty per- 
sons were gathered on the river bank in front 
of Fort Douglas. Every eye was on the turn 
of the river at the point. It was who should 
first see the voyageurs. Suddenly two canoes 
bearing the Company's flag came in sight. 
There was a general shout of joy. The trader 
of the Fort, Mr. A. McDonald, was a Catholic, 
and he had everything prepared to give them a 
solemn reception. Many shed tears of joy. The 
memory of their native land was recalled to the 
old Canadians who had left their homes many 
years before. These old voyageurs who had been 
constantly called upon to face death had been 
deprived of all relious succour during the long 
years, but they had not been held by a spirit of 
impiety. The missionaries were to them the 
messengers of God. 



Picturcs of 5'ilvcr. 

261 

of the Colony. A large room in one of the 
buildings of the Fort had been set apart for 
them, and it was there that they held divine 
service. M. Provencher invited all the mothers 
of families to bring their children who were un- 
der six years of age to the Fort on the followin,a" 
aturday when they would receive the hapl,i- 
ness of being baptised. All persons above that 
age who were not Christians could not receive 
that sacrament until after being instructed in 
the truths of Christianity. 
"When M. Provencher had finished speaking 
the Governor conducted him with M. Dumoulin 
into the Fort. Canadians, Metis and Indians 
feeling very happy retired to return three days 
afterwardS. 

"There were four children in the Lajimoniere 
family, but only two of them .ould be baptised, 
the others being nine and eleven years of age. 
On the following Saturday Madame Lajimo- 
niere with all the other women came to the Fort. 
The number of children, includin,o, Indians and 
Metis, amounted to a hundred and Madame La- 
jimoniere being the only ('hri,tian woman stood 
Godmother to them all. For a long time all the 
children in the colony called her 'Marraine.' 
"M. Provencher announced that from the 
ne.'t day the mi,ionaries wou.d be.in their 
work and that the settlers ought to ben at the 



262 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

same time to work at the erection of a home 
for them. 
M. Lajimoniere was one of the first to meet at 
the place selected and to commence preparing 
the materials for the building. The work pro- 
gressed so rapidly that the house was ready for 
occupation by the end of October. 
"Madame Lajimoniere rendered every as- 
sistance in her power to the missionaries." 

HARGRAVE S TALE. 

With a few changes we shall allow an old 
friend of the writer, J. J. Hargrave, long an 
official of the Hudson's Bay Company, to give 
the tale of the Church of England in Red River 
Settlement. "As we have seen, the Rev. John 
West came from England to Red River as 
chaplain of the Hudson's Bay Company. One 
of his first works was the erection of a rude 
school-house, and the systematic education of a 
few children. Chief among the names of the 
clergymen, who came out from England in the 
early days of the Settlement, after Mr. West's 
return, were Rev. Messrs. Jones, Cochran, 
Cowley, McCallum, Smedhurst, James and 
Hunter. William Cochran is universally re- 
garded in the Colony as the founder of the 
En.]ish Church in Rupert's Land, and from 
the date of his arrival till ]849 all the principal 
ecclesiastical business done may be said to 



264 

Lord Sclkirk's ColoJists. 

time held in the Court House at Fort Garry, 
and in the autumn of 1868 Holy Trinity Church 
was opened in Winnipeg. 

A SELF-DENYING APOSTLE. 
After many disappointments the cry of the 
Selkirk Colonists for a minister of their own 
faith reached Scotland, and their case was re- 
ferred to Dr. Robert Burns, of Toronto, who 
was further urged to action by Governor Bal- 
lenden, of Fort Garry. In August, 1857, the 
Rev. John Black, then newly ordained, was sent 
on by Dr. Burns to Red River. He was for- 
tunate in becoming attached to a military ex- 
pedition led by Governor Ramsey, of Minne- 
sota, going northwest for nearly four hundred 
miles, from St. Paul to Pembina. 
Leaving the military escort behind, in com- 
pany with Mr. Bond, who wrote an account of 
the trip, Mr. Black floated down Red River in 
a birch canoe, and in a three-days' journey tl!ey 
reached the Marion's House in St. Boniface. It 
is said that it was from Bond's description of 
this voya.o-e that the Poet Vhittier obtained the 
information for the well-known poem. 

THE RED RIVER VOYAGEUR. 

Out and in the river is winding 
The banks of its long red chain, 
Through belts of dusky line land 
.\nd gusty leagues of plain. 



Pictures of Silver. 

265 

Only at times a smoky wreath 
With the drifting cloud-rack joins-- 
The smoke of the hunting lodges 
Of the wild Assiniboines. 

Drearily blows the north wind, 
From the land of ice and snow; 
The eyes that look are uneasy, 
,d heavy the hands that row. 

.knd with one foot on the water, 
.,.knd one upon the shore, 
The kngel's shadow gives warning-- 
Theft day shall be no more. 

Is it the clang of wild geese? 
Is it the Indians' yell, 
That lends to the voice of the North wind 
The tones of a far-off bell? 

The Voyageur smiles as he listens 
To the sound that grows apace; 
Well he knows the vesper ringing 
(f the bells of St. Boniface. 

The bells of the Roman Mission 
That call from their turrets twain; 
To the boatmen on the river, 
To the hunter on the plain. 



266 Lord Sclkirk's Colonists. 
Even so on our mortal journey 
The bitter north winds blow; 
And thus upon Life's Red River 
Our hearts, as oarsmen, row. 

Happy is he who heareth 
The signal of his release 
In the bells of the Holy Citym 
The chimes of Eternal peace. 

In the afternoon of the day of their arrival 
the party crossed from St. Boniface to Fort 
Garry, and the missionary well known as 
as Rev. Dr. Black, went to the hospitable shel- 
ter of Alexander Ross, whose daughter he af- 
terward married. Three hundred f the Sel 
kirk Colonists and their children immediately 
gatliered around Mr. Black, and though inter- 
rupted for a year by the great flood which we 
have described, erected in the following year, 
the stone Church of Kildonan, on the highway 
some five miles from Winnipeg. With the help 
of a small grant from the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, the Selkirk Colonists erected, free from 
debt, their church which still remains. Two 
other churches were erected by the Presbyter- 
ians, and beside each a school. Forseveralyears 
before the old Colony ceased Mr. Black con- 
ducted service in the Court House near Fort 
Garry, and in 1868, with the assistance of Cana- 



Pictures of Silver. 

267 

dian friends, erected the small Knox Church 
on Portage Avenue, in Winnipeg. This build- 
ing, though used, was not completed till after 
the arrival of the Canadian troops in 1870. 

EARLY RED RIVER CULTURE. 

Strange as it may seem, the isolated Red 
River Colony was far from being an illiterate 
communit.v. The presence of the officers of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, the coming of the 
clergy of the different churches, who established 
schools, and the leisure for reading books sup- 
plied by the Red River Library produced a peo- 
ple whose speech was generally correct, and 
whose diction was largely modeled on standard 
books of literature. Mrs. Marion Bryce has 
made a sympathetic study of this subject, and 
we quote a number of her passages: 

SCIENTIFIC WORK. 

The duty laid upon the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany officers and clerks of keeping for the bene- 
fit of their employers a diary recording every- 
thing at their posts that might make one day dif- 
fer from another, or indeed that often made ev- 
ery day alike, cultivated among the officers of 
the fur trade the powers of observation that 
were frequently turned to scientific account, and 
we find some of them acting as corresponding 
members of the Smithsonian Institution in 



Pictures of Silver. 

269 

LITERARY CLUBS. 

In addition to libraries we find that at a later 
date in the history of the Settlement, literary 
clubs were formed. Bishop Anderson and his 
sister, who arrived in Red River in 1849, were 
instrumental in forming a reading club for mu- 
tual improvement, for which the leading maga- 
zines were ordered. 

EDUCATION. 
But we must now speak of more decided or- 
ganization for the promotion of culture in Red 
River. The Selkirk settlers had now (1821) 
gained a footing in the ]and and the banks of 
the Red River had become the paradise of re- 
tired officers of the fur-trading companies. 
Happy families were growing up in the homes 
of the Settlement and education was necessary. 
A settled community made it possible for the 
churches and church societies in the homeland 
to do Christian work, both among the Indians 
and the white people, and to these institutions 
the Settlement was ndebted for the first educa- 
tional efforts made. 

COMMON SCHOOLS. 

The Rev. John West, the first Episcopal mis- 
sionary who arrived, n 1820, and his successors, 
the Rev. David Jones and Archdeacon Coch- 
rane, as far as the$ could, organized common 



Picres of Silver. 271 

debted to him for the foundations ]aid. It was 
his endeavor after entering on his bishopric to 
have a parish school wherever there was a mis- 
sionary of the Church of England, and in the 
year 1869 there were 16 schools of this kind in 
the different parishes of Rupert's Land. This 
is bringing us very near the time of the transfer 
when our public school system was inau,urated. 
Mrs. Jones, the wife of Rev. David Jones, 
the missionary of Red River, joined her hus- 
band in 1829. She very soon saw the need there 
was for a boarding and day school for the sons 
and daughters of Hudson's Bay Company fac- 
tors and other settlers in the Northwest. A 
school of this kind was opened and in addition 
to the mis,on work in which she asisted her 
husband, Mrs. Jones devoted herself to the 
training of the young people committed to her 
charge until her death, which occurred some- 
what suddenly in 1836. Mr. and Mrs. Jones 
were assisted by a governess and tutor from 
En,land and the Church Missionary Society 
gave financial assistance. 
Mr. John Maca]lum, who was afterward, or- 
dained at l,ed River, arrived from England in 
1836, as assistant to Mr. Jones. He took charge 
of the school for young ladies and also the clas- 
sical school for the sons of Hudson's Bay fac- 
tors and traders. He was asisted by Mrs. Ma- 
callum and also had teachers brou.aht out from 



272 Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

England. He had two daughters who were pu- 
pils in the school, one of whom still survives in 
British Columbia. 
One of the Red River ladies who attended that 
school when a very little girl says that the build- 
ing occupied by it stood near the site of Dean 
O'Meara's present residence. The enclosure 
took in the pretty ravine formed by a creek in 
the neighborhood--the ravine that is now 
bridged by one of o,ur public streets. It con- 
sisted of two large wings, one for the boys and 
one for the girls, joined together by a dining 
hall used by the boys. There were also two 
pretty gardens in which the boys and girls could 
disport themselves separately. The large trees 
that surrounded the building have long since 
disappeared. The young girl spoken of as a 
pupil seems to have had her youthful mind cap- 
tivated by the beauty of the site, and indeed no- 
where could the love of naturebe better culti- 
vated than along the bends of the Red River 
near St. John's, where groves of majestic trees 
succeed each other, where the wild flowers flour- 
ish in the sheltered nooks and the fire-flies 
glance among the greenery at the close of day 
and where for sound we have the whip-poor-will 
lashing the woods as if impatient of the si- 
lence. 
Among other schools was one commenced in 
the early thirties by Mr. John Pritchard, at one 



274 Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

home for the sons of Hudson's Bay Company 
factors and traders, so that they might be fit- 
ted for the company's business in which they 
were to succeed their fathers. 

GIRLS  SCHOOLS. 

From the death of Mr. Macallum, 1849, there 
was a vacancy in the school for girls until 1851, 
when Mrs. Mills and her two daughters came 
from England to assume its charge. A new 
building was erected for this school a little fur- 
ther down the river to which was given the name 
of St. Cross. This was the same building en- 
larged with which we were familiar a few years 
ago as St. John's Boys' College, and which has 
lately been taken down. Mrs. Mill, . .id to 
have been very thorough in her instruction and 
management. The young ladies were trained in 
all the social etiquette of the day in addition to 
the more solid education imparted. Miss Mills 
assisted her mother with the music and mod- 
ern ]anchorages. Miss Harriet Mills, being 
younger, was more of a companion to the 
girls, and accompanied them on walks, in win- 
ter on the frozen river, in summer towards the 
plain, and unless her maturer years belie the 
record of her girlhood we ma.  imane she was 
a very lively and agreeable companion. In 
addition to her regu]a.r school dutie Mrs. Mills 
had a class for girls who were beyond school 



Pictures of Silcer. 

275 

age. She also gave assistance in Sunday school 
work. 
The pianos used in these school had to be 
brought by sea, river and portage by way of 
Hudson Bay; one of them is still in possession 
of Miss Lewis, St. James. The teachers from 
England had to traverse the same somewhat 
discouraging route in coming into the Settle- 
ment. Miss Mills, who came alone a little later 
than her mother and sister, traveled from York 
Factory under the care of Mr. Thomas Sinclair. 
She always manifested the highest appreciation 
of his kindness to her during the way, making 
his men cut down and pile up branches around 
her to protect her from the cold when his party 
had to camp out for the night. 



CPTER XXV. 

DEN INVADED. 

The conception of Red River Settlement be- 
ing an Idyllic Paradise was not confined to the 
writer, whose picture we have described as "Ap- 
ples of Gold." It was a self-contained spot, 
distant from St. Anthony Falls (now Minne- 
apolis) some four or five hundred miles, and 
this was its nearest neighbor of importance. 
Our astronomers thus describe it as an orb in 
space, and the celebrated Milton and Cheadle 
Expedition of 1862 looked upon it as an, 
"oasis." It was often represented as being en- 
closed behind the Chinese wall of Hudson's 
Bay Company exclusiveness, nd thus as hope- 
lessly retired. The writer remembers well, 
when entering Manitoba, in the year after it 
ceased to be Red River Settlement, as he called 
upon the pioneer of his faith, who, for twenty 
years, had held his post, the old man said, when 
youthful plans of progress were being advanced 
to him, oh, rest! rest! there are creatures that 
prefer lying quietly at the bottom of the pool 
rather than to be always plunging through the 



278 

Lord Selkirk's Colotists. 

and it is said that the report of this party of 
explorers is one of the most accurate, sane, 
and useful accounts ever given of this prairie 
country. 
With all this attention being paid to the 
country and with the press of Canada awakened 
to see the possibility of extending Canada in 
this direction, it is not to be wondered at, that 
adventurous spirits found out this Eden and 
sought in it for the tree of life, perchance often 
finding in it the tree of evil as well as that of 

good. , 
Of course, to the modern philosopher the dis- 
turbances of these peaceful seats is simply the 
symptom of progress and the struggle that is 
bound to take place in all development. 
But to the Hudson's Bay Company pessi- 
mist, or to the grey-headed sage, the greatest 
disturbers of this Eden were two Englishmen, 
Messrs. Buckingham and Coldwell, who, in 
1859, entered Red River Colony, and estab- 
lished that organ for good or evil, the newspa- 
per. This first paper was called "The Nor'- 
Wester." It is amusing to read the comments 
upon its entrance made by Hudson's Bay Com- 
party writers, both English and French. The 
constitution and conduct of the Council of As- 
siniboia was certainly the weak point in the 
Hudson's Bay regime, and the Nor'-Wester 
kept this point so constantly before the people 



Eden Invaded. 

279 

that it was really a thorn in the side of the 
Company. The Nor'-Wester, itself, was surely 
not free from troubles. The Red River Com- 
munity was very small, so that it could not very 
well supply a constituency. Comparatively few 
of the people could read, many felt no need of 
newspapers, and the Company certainly did not 
encourage its distribution. It would have been 
a subject of constant amusement had the Nor'- 
Wester been in operation in the days of Judge 
Thorn and his policy of repression. Mr. Buck- 
ingham did not remain long in Red River Set- 
tlement. Mr. Coldwell became the dean of 
newspaperdom in the Canadian West. The 
great antagonist of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, Dr. John Schultz, a Western Canadian, 
came to the Settlement in the same year as The 
Nor'-Wester--a medical man, he became also a 
merchant, a land-owner, a politician, and in this 
last sphere held many offices. At times he suc- 
ceeded in controlling The Nor'-Wester, at other 
times the Hudson's Bay Company were able to 
direct The Nor'-Wester policy; sometimes Mr. 
James Ross, son of Sheriff Alexander Ross', 
was in control, but it may be said that in gen- 
eral its policy was hostile to that of the Com- 
pany. About this time of beginnings came 
along a number of Americans, or Canadians, 
who had been in the United States, and these 
congregated in the little village, which began to 



280 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

form at what is now the junction of Main 
Street and Portage Avenue, in Winnipeg. Cer- 
tain Canadians in St. Paul, such as Messrs. 
N. W. Kittson, and J. J. Hill, began at this time 
to take an interest in the trade of Red River 
Settlement, and to speak of communication be- 
tween the Settlement and the outside world. 
The demand for transport led a company to 
bring in a steamer, the Anson Northrup, after- 
wards called "The Pioneer," to break the Red 
River solitude with her scream. The steamer 
International was built to run on the river in 
1862, and thus the Hudson's Bay Company was 
unwittingly joining with The Nor'-Wester in 
opening up the country to the world, and sound- 
ing the death-knell of the Company's hopes of 
maintaining supremacy in Rupert's land. 
Until this time of arrivals there had been no 
village of Winnipeg. The first building back 
from the McDermott, Ross and Logan build- 
ings on the bank of Red River, was on the 
corner of Main and Portage Avenue. Here 
gathered those, who may be spoken of as free 
traders, being rivals of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany Store at Fort Garry. Another villag.e 
began a few years after at Point Douglas on 
Main Street, near the Canadian Pacific Rail- 
way Station of to-day, while at St. John's, on 
Main Street, was another nucleus. These were 
in existence when the old order passed away 



282 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

in 1870, but they are all absorbed into the City 
of Winnipeg of to-day. The Hudson's Bay 
Company, while long attached to its ancient 
customs, brought over from the seventeenth 
century, has fully and heartily adopted the new 
order of things. Glorying in the old, it has 
embraced the new, and has become thoroughly 
modern in all its enterprises. It has been a 
safe and solvent institution in its whole history. 
That it has been able to do this is no doubt, 
largely due to the enterprise and modern spirit 
of its great London Governor, who for years 
watched over its time of transition in Winnipeg 
--Donald A. Smith--Lord Strathcona of to- 
day. 
When the regime of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany is recalled old timers delight to think of 
a figure of that time who was an embodiment of 
the life of the Red River Settlement from its 
hero'inning nearly to its end. This was William 
Robert Smith, a blue-coat boy from London, 
who came out in the Company's service in 1813, 
served for a number of years as a clerk, and 
settled down in Lower Fort Garry District in 
1824. Farming, teaching, catechising for the 
church, acting precentor, a local encyclopaedia 
and collector of customs, he passed his versatile 
life, till in the year before the Sayer affair, 
1848, he became clerk of Court, which place, 
with slight interruption, he held for twenty 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

RIEL mS RISING. 

The agitation for freedom which we have de- 
scribed in Red River Settlement, and the ef- 
forts of Canada to introduce Rupert's Land into 
the newly-formed Dominion of Canada had, af- 
ter much effort, and the overcoming of many 
hindrances, resulted in the British Government 
agreeing to transfer this Western territory to 
Canada, and in the Hudson's Bay Company ac- 
cepting a subsidy in full payment of their claim 
to the country. This payment was to be paid 
by Canada. Somewhat careless of the feelings 
of the Hudson's Bay Company officers, and also 
of the views of the old settlers of the Colonym 
especially of the French-speaking sectionmthe 
Dominion Government sent a reckless body of 
men to survey the lands near the French set- 
tlements and to rouse animosity in the minds 
of the Metis. 
Now came the Riel Rising. 
Five causes may be stated as leading up to it. 
1. The weakness of the Government of 
Assiniboia and the sickness and helpless- 
ness of Governor McTavish, whose duty it 
was to act. 



286 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

to seize the highway at St. Noebert, some nine 
miles south of Fort Garry, and in the true style 
ot a Paris revolt, erected a barricade or bar- 
rier to stop all passers-by. It was here that 
Governor McTavish failed. He was immedi- 
ately informed of this illegal act, but did noth- 
ing. Hearing of the obstacle on the highway, 
two of McDougall's officers came on towar.s 
Fort Garry, and finding the obstruction, one of 
them gave command, "Remove that blawsted 
fence," but the half-breeds refused to obey. 
The half-breeds seized the mails and all freight 
coming along the road coming into the country. 

THE SCENE SHIFTS TO FORT GARRY. 

It is rumored that Riel was thinking of seizing 
Fort Garry; an affidavit of the Chief of Police 
under the Dominion shows that he urged the 
master of Fort Garry to meet the danger, and 
asked leave to call out special police to pro- 
tect the Fort, but no Governor spoke; no one 
even closed the gate of the Fort as a precau- 
tion; its gates stood wide open to its enemies 
who seemed to be the friends of its officers. 
On November 2nd Riel and a hundred of his 
Metis followers took possesion of Fort Garry, 
and without opposition. 
Riel now issued a proclamation with the air 
of Dictator or Deliverer, calling on the English 
parishes to elect twelve representatives to meet 



Riel's Rising. 

287 

the Presidentand representatives of the French- 
speaking population. He likewise summoned 
them to assemble in twelve days. 
McDougall, prospective Governor, on hearing 
of these things, wrote to Governor McTavish, 
calling on him to make proclamation that the 
rebels should disperse, and a number of the loy- 
al inhabitants made the same request. The sick 
and helpless Governor fourteen days after the 
seizure of the Fort, and twenty-three days after 
the date of the affidavit of the rising, issued a 
tardy proclamation, condemning the rebels and 
calling upon them to disperse. 
The convention summoned by Riel, met on 
November 16th, the English parishes having 
been induced to choose delegates. The conven- 
tion at this meeting could reach no result and 
agreed to adjourn to December 1st. The Eng- 
lish members saw plainly that Riel wished the 
formation of a provisional government, of 
which he should be head. 
At the adjourned meeting, Riel and his fel- 
lows insisted on ruling the meeting and passe( 
a bill of rights of fifteen clauses. The English 
representatives refused to accept the bill of 
rights, and after vainly trying to make arrange- 
ments for the entrance to the country of Gov- 
ernor McDougall, returned home, ashamed and 
discouraged. 
Turn now to the condition of things in Peru- 



288 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

bina, from which prospective Oovernor Mc- 
Dougall is all this while viewing the promised 
land. He and his family are badly housed in 
Pembina, and he is of a haughty and imperious 
disposition. 
December 1st was the day on which the trans- 
fer being made of the country to Canada, his 
proclamation as Governor would come into 
force. But it so happened on account of the 
breaking out of Riel's revolt, the transfer had 
not been made. 
Now came about a thing utterly inexplicable, 
that Mr. McDougall, a lawyer, a privy council- 
lor, and an experienced parliamentarian, should, 
on a mere supposition, issue his proclamation 
as Governor. Riel was aware of all the step 
being taken by the Government, and so h,. an,! 
the Metis laughed a tie proclamation. Mc 
Dougall was an object of pity to his Loyalist 
friends, and he became a laughing stock for the 
whole world. 
His proclamation, authorizing Col. Dennis to 
raise a force in the settlement to oppose Riel, 
was of no value, and prevented Col. Dennis from 
obtaining a loyal force of any strength, which 
under ordinary circumstances he would have 
done. 
As all Canada looked at it, the whole thing 
was a miserable fiasco. 
The illegality of McDougall's proclamation 



Riel's Rising. 

289 

left the loyal Canadians in Winnipeg in a most 
awkward situation. One hundred of them had 
arms in their hands, and they were naturally 
looked upon by Riel as dangerous, and as his 
enemies. 
Riel now acted most deceitfully to them. He 
promised them their freedom, and that he would 
negotiate with McDougall and try to settle the 
whole matter. 
On the 7th of December the Canadians sur- 
rendered, but with some of them in the Fort 
and others in the prison outside the wall, where 
the Sayer episode had taken place, Riel coolly 
broke his truce, while the Metis celebrated their 
early victory by numerous potations of rum, 
from the Hudson's Bay Company Stores, and, 
of course at the Company's expense. 
Encouraged by his victory and the possession 
of his prisoners, Riel, now in Napoleonic fash- 
ion, issued a proclamation which it is said was 
written for him by a petty American lawyer at 
Pembina, who was hostile to Britain and 
Canada. 
An evidence of R.iel's disloyalty and want of 
sense was shown by his superseding the Union 
Jack and hoisting in its place a new flag--not 
even the French tri-color, but one with a fleur- 
de-lis and shamrocks upon it, no doubt the 
flag of the old French regime with ad- 
ditions. He also took possession of Hud- 



Lrd Slkirk's Colonists. 

son's Bay Company funds with the coolness 
of a buccaneer, and his manner in refusing per- 
sonal liberty to people whom he dared not ar- 
rest was overbearing and impertinent. 
The inaccessibilit: of Red River Settlement 
in winter added much to the anxiety. No tele- 
graphic connection nearer than St. Paul, some 
four or five hundred miles, was possible, even 
the regular conveyance of the mails could not 
be relied on. Meanwhile the Canadian people 
were in a state of the greatest excitement, and 
the Government at Ottawa, well-knowing 
its mismanagement of the whole affair, 
was in desperate straits. To make the sit- 
uation more serious the only man who could 
deal with Riel and could remedy the situation, 
Bishop Tache, of St. Boniface, was absent at 
the great conclave of that year in Rome. The 
more intelligent French people had no confi- 
dence in t.he sanity and reasonableness of Riel. 
He was to them as great a puzzle as he was to 
the English. It was a gloomy Christmas time 
in Red River, and the gloom was increased by 
the suspense of not knowing what the Govern- 
ment at Ottawa would do in the circumstances. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

LORD STRAT:IICONAS HAND. 

On Christmas Day, 1870, John Bruce, who 
was but a figurehead, resigned his office of Pre- 
sident of the so-called Provisional Government 
of Red River Settlement, and the ambitious 
Louis Riel was chosen in his stead. The Dom- 
inion Government had at length, been awak- 
ened to the danger. Divided counsels still pre- 
vailed. Two Commissioners, Grand Vicar Thi- 
bault and Col. De Salaberry, arrived at Fort 
Garry, but they were safely quartered at the 
Bishop's palace at St. Boniface, and as they 
professed to have no authority, Riel cavalierly 
set them aside. At this time the American ele- 
ment in the hamlet of Winnipeg became very 
offensive. Riel's oicial organ, "The New Na- 
ton," was edited by an American, Major Rob- 
inson. This journal was filled with articles hav- 
ing such hed-lines as "Confederation," "The 
British-American Provinces," "Proposed An- 
nexation to the United States," etc., etc. Or, 
a,c'ain, "Annexation," "British Columbia De- 
fying the Dominion," "Annexation our Mani- 



292 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

fest Destiny." All this was very disagreeable 
to the English-speaking people, and highly com- 
promising to Riel. 
But the real negociator was at hand, and he 
not only had the authority to speak for Canada, 
but had Scottish prudence and diplomacy, as 
well as real influence in the country, from hold- 
ing the highest position in Canada of any of the 
officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. This 
chief factor was Donald A. Smith, whom we 
have since learned to know so well as Lord 
Strathcona. He, with his secretary, Hardisty, ar- 
rived on December 27th, and went immediately 
to Fort Garry. Riel demanded of Mr. Smith, 
the object of his visit, but received no satisfac- 
tion. On being asked for his credentials, Mr. 
Smith replied that he had left them at Pembina. 
Being a high Hudson's Bay Company officer, he 
was quartered in Government House, Fort 
Garry. The larger portion of the building was 
occupied by Governor McTavish, the smaller or 
official portion became the Commissioner's 
apartments. Here he was able to observe 
events, meet a number of the old settlers, and 
obtain his information at first hand. On the 
15th of January Riel again demanded the Com- 
missioner's papers; he, indeed, offered to send 
to Pembina for them, but Mr. Smith declined 
the offer. In the meantime the Commissioner 
had learned that the Dauphinais Settlement, Iy- 



o! 



Lord Strathcona's Hand. 

and the greatest annoyance was felt at this by 
the better citizens on account of his being an 
Nation" 

American, and because of the "New 
continui.ng to advocate annexation. 
On the 25th of January the forty 

delegates 
assembled. Much excitement had been caused 
at this time among the French by the escape of 
Dr. Schultz, their great opponent. Commis- 
sioner Smith addressed the Convention. Riel 
vished him to accept the original Bill of 
Rights, but Mr. Smith refused to do this. A 
proposal was then brought up by the French 
Deputies that the proposal made by 
the Imperial Government to the Hud- 
son's Bay ('ompany to take over their lands be 
null and void. This was voted down by 22 to 
17. Riel rose in rage and said: "The devil 
take it; we must win. The vote may go as it 
likes, but the motion must be carried." Riel 
raged like a madman. That night, in his fury, 
he went to the bedside of Governor McTavish, 
sick as he was, and it is said, threatened to 
have him shot at once. Dr. Cowan, the master 
of the fort, was arrested, and so was Mr. Ban- 
natyne, the chief merchant, as well as Charles 
Nolan, a loyal French delegate. 
On the 7th of February the delegates again 
met, and at this meeting Commissioner Smith, 
having the power given him by the Dominion 
Government, invited the Convention to send 



LORD STRAfHCONA AND IIOI:NT ROYAL. 
Governor of the Hudson's Bay Corpay 



Lord Strathcona's Hand. 

299 

ied by Major Bulton. The conflict of opinion 
was transferred to Ottawa, and the act consti- 
tuting the Province of Manitoba was passed. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

WOLSELEY S WELCOME. 

Canada's military experience, ever since the 
excitement of the "Trent Affair," had been in 
dealing with a persistent band of Irishmen, pos- 
ing as Fenians, and egged on by sympathizers 
in the United States. Now there was trouble, 
as we have seen, in her own borders, and though 
here again, American influence of a hostile na- 
ture played its part, yet it was those connected 
with one of the two races in Canada who were 
now giving trouble in the Northwestern 
prairies. Such an outbreak was more danger- 
ous than Fenianism, for to the credit of the 
Irish in Canada, it should be said that they gave 
no countenance to the Fenian intruders. The 
French people in Quebec, however, had strong 
sympathies for their race in the Red River Set- 
tlement. No one in Canada believed that any 
injustice could be done to either the English or 
French elements on the banks of Red River, but 
Sir George Cartier fought strongly for his own, 
and was very unwilling to allow an expedition 
to go out to Manitoba with hostile intent. Of 



Wolseley's Welcome. 

301 

the two battalions of volunteers that went out 
to Red River, one was from Quebec, but one mil- 
itary authority states that there were not fifty 
French-Canadians all told in the Quebec bat- 
talion. It had been proposed that Col. Wolseley, 
who was to command the Red River Expedi- 
tion, should be appointed G,vernor of the new 
province of Manitoba, but tl is was sturdily op- 
posed by the French-Cana(dan section of the 

Cabinet, and Hon. Adams G Archibald, a Nova 
Scotian, was appointed to tl e post of Governor. 
Hampered thus, in so far as exercising any civil 
functions were concerned, Col. Garnet Wolseley 
was chosen by the British officer in command in 
Canada--General Lindsay--to organize this ex- 
pedition. Wolseley was very popular, having 
served in Burmah, India, the Crimea and China. 



302 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

The Ontario battalion soon had to refuse ap- 
plications, and from Ontario the complement of 
the Quebec battalion was filled up. It was de- 
cided also that a battalion of regulars, with 
small bodies of artillery and engineers 
should take the lead in the expedition. Thus, 
a force of 1,200 men was speedily gathered to- 
gether and put at the disposal of Colonel Wolse- 
leyo Two hundred boats, each some 25 to 30 
feet long, carrying four tons as well as fourteen 
men as a crew, were built; the voyageurs num- 
bered some four hundred men. No sooner did 
the Fenians in the United States hear of this 
expedition than they threatened Lower Canada, 
and spole of interrupting the troops as they 
passed Sault Ste. Marie. The United States 
also refused to allow soldiers or munitions of 
war to pass up their Sault Canal. The rallying 
began in May, and though the troops were com- 
pel]ed to debark themselves and their stores at 
Sault Ste. Marie, portage them around the Sault 
and replace them in the steamers again, yet all 
the troops were landed at Port Arthur on Lake 
Superior by the 21st of June, their officers de- 
claring "our mission is one of peace, and the 
sole object of it is to secure Her Majesty's Soy- 
ereio'n authority." Some time was lost in en- 
deavoring to use land carriage' up from Port 
Arthur as far as Lake Shebandowan. The dif- 
ficulties were so great that the scouts were led 



Wolseley's l'elcoc. 

303 

to find another route for the boats up the Kam- 
inistiquia River. In this they were successful; 
in all this worry from mosquitoes, black flies 
and deer flies in millions, the troops preserved 
their good temper, and Col. Wolseley said, "I 
have never been with any body of men in the 
field so well fed as this has been." (July 10th.) 
The real start of the expedition was from Lake 
Shebandowan. The three brigades of boats-- 
A. B. and C.--seventeen in all, got off from She- 
bandowan shore on the evening of July 16th; by 
the 4th of August Rainy River'was reached, and 
at Fort Frances Colonel olseley met Captain 
Butler, who had acted as intelligence officer, 
having adroitly passed, under Riel's shadow, 
and being able now to give the news required. 
It was still the statement and belief of Riel that 
"Wolse]ey would never reach Fort Garry." 
Crossing Lake of the Woods the re,olar troops 
were pushed ahead, and on descending Winni- 
peg River they reached Fort Alexander and 
Lake Winnipeg on August 20th. Here Com- 
missioner Donald A. Smith, having come 
through in a light canoe, met Colonel Wolseley. 
After "a short delay Colonel Wolseley's com- 
mand hastened to the Red River, ascended it, 
and cautiously approached Fort Garry. It was 
still uncertain whether Riel was to oppose the 
expedition or not. The troops formed for what 
emergency might arise, and two small guns were 



304 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 



"k,. Wolseley's Welcome. 305 

in readiness should they be required. When 
Fort Garry was sighted, its guns were mounted, 
and everything seemed ready for defence. The 
officers of the expedition, as they approached it 
were quite ready for a shot to be fired from the 
battlements, but there was no movement, Riel, 
Lepine, and O 'Donoghue alone, were left of the 
Metis levy, and as the 60th Rifles drew near the 
Fort the three were seen to escape from the 
river gate and to flee across the bridge of boats 
on the Assiniboine River. Capt. Huyshe states 
that the troops took possession of the fort with a 
bloodless victory, the Union Jack was hoisted, 
three cheers were given for the Queen and te 
Riel regime was at an end. The militia regi- 
ments arrived on the 27th of August, and two 
days afterwards the Imperial troops started 
back to their headquarters in Ontario. Captain 
Bu]]er, who afterward became so celebrated in 
South Africa, took his company down the Daw- 
son road to the northwest angle of the Lake of 
the Woods, and thus returned eastward, while 
Colonel McNeil left the country by way of Red 
River, through the United States. Shortly af- 
terward, on September 2nd, Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor Archibald arrived by the Winnipeg River 
route, and began his work. 
The joy of all classes of the people was un- 
bounded. The English halfbreeds had been loyal 
through the whole of the disturbances. Kildonan 



306 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

Church had been the headquarters of the Loyal- 
ists in their attempted rally, and after the exe- 
cution of Scott, the French half-breeds had 
gradually dropped off from Riel, until he and 
his two companions formed a helpless trio shorn 
of all power. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

MANITOBA IN THE MAKING. 

Close in the wake of Wolseley's Expedition, 
there arrived on the 2nd of September, Adams 
G. Archibald, the newly-appointed Governor of 
the new Province of Manitoba. His arrival was 
greeted with joy, for he was a man of high char- 
acter, and of much experience in his native 
Province of Nova Scotia. The two volunteer 
regiments, the Quebec and Ontario battalions, 
were quartered for the winter, the former in 
Lower Fort Garry, the latter in Fort Garry. 
The new Governor took up his abode in Fort 
Garry, in the residence with which our story 
is so familiar. The organization of his gov- 
ernment began at once. The first Government 
Building stood back from the street in Win- 
nipeg on the corner of Main Street and Mc- 
Dermott Avenue East, of the present-day. The 
Legislative Council--a miniature House of 
Lordsmof seven members, was appointed, and 
electoral divisions for the election of members 
to the Legislative Assembly were made to the 
number of twenty-fourDtwelve French and 



308 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

twelve English. The time for the opening of 
Parliament was the spring of 1871. It was 
a notable day, for the citizens were much in- 
terested in scrutinizing those who were to be 
their future rulers. The opening passed off 
with eclat. During the first session certain ele- 
mentary legislation was passed including a 
short school act. There was yet no division of 
parties, and a sufficient cabinet was chosen by 
the Governor. Thus, institutions after the 
model of the mother of Parliaments at West- 
minster were evolved and Manitoba--the suc- 
cessor of our Red River Settlement--had con- 
ceded to it the right of local self-government. 
In the year of the first parliament of Mani- 
toba it was the fortune of the writer to take up 
his abode here. Winnipeg, a village of less than 
three hundred inhabitants was in that year, still 
four hundred miles distant from a railway. 
From the railway terminus in Minnesota, the 
stage coach drawn by four horses with relays 
every twenty miles, sped rapidly over prairies, 
smooth as a lawn to the site of the future city 

of the plains. 
Since that 
passed away. 
cart, and the 

time well-nigh forty years has 
The stage coach, the Red River 
shaganappi pony are things of 
the past, and several railways with richly fur- 
nished trains connect St. Paul and Minneapo. 
li, with the City of Winnipeg. More import- 



Maitoba i the Making. 

309 

ant, the skill of the engineer has surpassed 
what we then even dreamt of in his blasting of 
rock cuttings and tunnels through the Archman 
rocks to Fort William, and this has been done 
by three main trunk lines of railway. The old 
amphibious route of the fur traders and of 
Wolseley's Expedition has been superseded, the 
tremendous cliffs of the north shore of Lake 
Superior have been levelled and the chasm 
bridged. To the west the whole wide prairie 
land has been gridironed by railways all tribu- 
tary to Winnipeg, the enormous ascent of the 
four Rocky Mountain ranges, rising a mile 
above the sea, have been crossed by the Cana. 
dian Pacific Railway. The giddy heights of 
the Fraser River Canyon are traversed, and 
this is but the beginning, for three other great 
corporations are bending their strenh to 

pierce the passes 
the Pacific Ocean. 
after the manner 
tertainments than 

of the Rocky Mountains to 
We see to-day scenes more 
of the Arabian Nights En- 
of the humble dream that 

Lord Selkirk dreamt one hundred years ago. 
The towns and cities of Manitoba have sprung 
up on every hand where the railway has gone 
and these are but the centres of business of 
twenty thousand farms whose owners have 
come to this land, many of them empty-handed, 
and are now blessed with competence and in 
many cases wealth. What a vindication of 



Manitoba in the Making. 

311 

Lord Selkirk's prospectus of a hundred years 
ago when he said: "The soil on the Red River 
and the Assiniboine is generally a good soil, sus- 
ceptible of culture and capable of bearing rich 
crops." Lord Selkirk's dream is fulfilled, for 
his land is fast becoming the grainary of the 
world. As the traveller of to-day passes along 
the railways in the last days of August or early 
in September, he beholds the sight of a life-time, 
in the rattling reapers, each drawn by four great 
horses, turning off the golden sheaves of wheat 
and other cereals. A little later the giant thresh- 
ers, driven by steam power, pour forth the pre- 
cious grain, which is hurried off to the high ele- 
vators for storage, till the railways can carry it 
to the markets of the world to feed earth's 
hungry millions. When the historian recalls 
the statement that the few cattle of the early 
settlers had degenerated in size on account of 
the climatic conditions, that the shaganappi pony 
could never do the work of the stalwart Clydes- 
dale, and that nothing could result from the 
straggling flock of foot-sore and dying sheep, 
driven by Burke and Campbell from far-dis- 
tant Missouri, we look with astonishment at 
the horses now taken away by hundreds to sup- 
ply with chargers the crack cavalry regiments 
of the Empire, at the vast consignments of cat- 
tle passing through Winnipeg every day to feed 
the hungry, and flocks of sheep supplying wool 
for Eastern manufacturers to clothe the naked. 



312 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

One of the greatest trials of the early Sel- 
kirk Settlers was to get schools sufficient to give 
the children scattered along the river belt, even 
the three R's of education. Kildonan parish 
manfully raised by subscription the means, un- 
aided by Government help, to give some oppor- 
tunity to their children. It is a notable fact 
which emerged in the great School Contention 
of twenty years ago in Manitoba, that not a dol- 
lar had been given to schools as aid by the old 
Government of Assiniboia. To-day the glory of 
Manitoba is its school system. For school 
buildings, school organization, attainments of 
the teachers, and efficient school management, 
the schools of Winnipeg are probably unsur- 
pas,ed in any country, and the same is true of 
many other places in the Province. Two Win- 
nipeg schools bear the names of Selkirk and Is- 
bister. The University of Manitoba, with its 
seven affiliated colleges and twelve hundred and 
forty candidates in 1909 for its several exam- 
inations has its seat at the forks of the Red and 
Assiniboine Rivers, and one of the colleges is 
on the very lot where Lord Selkirk stood and 
divided up their lands to the Colonists. 
One of the most continued and aggressive 
struggles which Lord Selkirk's Colonists main- 
tained was seen in the efforts put forth to 
worship God according to the dictates of their 
own consciences, and after the manner of their 



Manitoba in the Making. 

313 

fathers. Their perseverance which showed itself 
in the erection of old Kildonan Church in the 
year immediately after the destructive flood of 

1852, bore fruit in succeeding years. They were 
always a religious people. No one can even esti- 
mate what their religious disposition did in a 



314 Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

miscellaneous gathering of people who had, be- 
ing scattered over the posts of the fur trader, 
been in most cases, without any religious op- 
opportunities whatever, before their coming to 
settle on Red River. The sturdy stand for 
principle which the Selkirk Colonists made cre- 
ated an atmosphere which has remained until 
this day. The well-nigh forty years of religious 
life of Manitoba has been marked by a good 
understanding among the several churches, by 
an energetic zeal in carrying church services in 
the very first year of their settlement to hun- 
dreds of new communities. The generosity of 
the people in erecting churches for themselves 
in maintaining among themselves their cher- 
ished beliefs, is in striking contrast to the new 
settlements of the United States. In the new 
Western States the religious movements fell be- 
hind the Western march of the immigrant. In 
the Canadian West from the very day that old 
Verandrye took his priest with him, from the 
time when the first Colonists brought a devout 
la)nan as their relious teacher with them, 
from the hour when the stalwart Provencher 
came, from the era when the self-denying West 
visited the Indian camps and Settlers' camp 
alike, from the time when the saintly Black came 
as the natural leader of the Selkirk Colonists, 
and during the forty years of the development 
of Manitoba, the foundations have been laid :u 
that righteousness which exalteth a nation. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

How strange and wonderful is the web of des- 
tiny, which is being woven in our national, pro- 
vincial and family life, which we poor mor- 
tals are simply the individual strands. 
How marvellous it is to look into the seeds of 
time--yes, and these may be small as mustard 
seeds--which are the smallest of all seeds--and 
see the bursting of the husks, the peering out of 
the plumule, the feeding of the sprout, the 
struggle through the clods, the fight with frost 
and hail and broiling sun, and canker worm 
and blight, the growth of the strengthening 
stem, and then the leaf and blossoms and fruit 
We say it has survived, it becomes a great tre( 
under whose leaves and under whose branches 
the fowls of Heaven find shelter. How pass- 
ing strange it was to see the seed-thought rise in 



316 Lord Selkirk'$ Colonists. 

the mind of Lord Selkirk, that suffering hu- 
manity transplanted to another environment 
might grow out of poverty, into happiness and 
content. See his sorrow as he meets with un- 
deserved opposition from rival traders, from 
slanderous agents, from bitter articles in the 
press, from Government officials and even po- 
lice officers who strive to break up his immi- 
grant parties. Recall the troubles of the Nel- 
son Encampment as they reach him in letters 
and reports. Think of the misery of knowing 
thousands of miles away that his Colonists were 
starving, were being imprisoned, banished, se- 
duced from their allegiance, and in one notable 
case that men of honor, education and standing 
to the number of twenty, were massacred, while 
he, in St. Mary's Isle, in Montreal, or in Fort 
William, fretted his soul because he could not 
reach them with deliverance. 
The world looked coldly on and said, "A 
visionary Scottish nobleman! a dreamer a hun- 
dred ears before his time! Is it worth while ?" 
while he himself saw a dream of sunshine when 
he visited his Colonists on Red River, when he 
made allocations for their separate homes for 
them, when he pledged his honor and estate 
that the settlers might in time be independent, 
and when he made religious provision for both 
his Protestant and Catholic settlers, yet think 
of the unexampled ferocity with which he was 



MARBLE BUST OF EARL OF SELKIRK, THE FOUNDER 
By Chantrey, obtained by author from St. llary's Isle. Lord Selkirk's seat. 



The 'elkirk Ccte.ial. 

317 

attacked upon his return to Upper Canada, in 
law suits, and illegal processes, so that his es- 
tates became heavily encumbered, so that he 
went to France to pine away and die. The 
world failed to see any glamour in him, and care- 
lessly said, what does it profit? Folly has its 
reward. 
Yet the answer. Here is Manitoba to-day, it 
is the fruitage of all that bitter sowing time. 
Next year Manitoba will be in the fortieth year 
of its history. Its people have seen pain, strife 
and defeat, they have gone through excitement 
and anxiety and patient waiting, and at times 
have almost given up the strife. But the pro- 
vince and its great city, Winnipeg, are the 
meeting place of the East and West, the pivotal 
point of the Dominion. The national life of 
Canada throbs here with a steadier beat and a 
more normal pulse than it does in any other 
part of Canada, its dominating Canadian spirit 
is so hearty and so sprightly, that it is taking 
possession of the scores of different nations 
coming to us and they feel that we are their 
friends and brothers. This, while it may not 
be the noisy and blatant type of loyalty is a 
practical patriotism which is making a united, 
sane and abiding type of national character. 
Again we answer: Three years from now 
will be the hundredth year since the landing on 
the banks of Red River of the first band of 



319 

sister nation in the Empire had the West not 
been saved to her. The line of possible settle- 
ment has been moving steadily northward in 
Canada since the days when the French King 
showed his contempt for it by calling it "a few 
arpents of snow." The St. Lawrence route 
was regarded as a doubtful line for steamships, 
Rupert's Land was called a Siberia., but all this 
is changing with our Transcontinental and 
Hud.on's Bay railways in prospect. In terri- 
tory, resources, and influence the opening up of 
the West is making Canada complete. And, if 
so, we owe it to Lord Selkirk and to Selkirk 
Settlers, who stood true to their flag and na- 
tionality. Very willingly will we observe the 
Selkirk Centennial in 1912. "Many a time and 
oft" it looked in their case to be one long, con- 
tinued and alarming drama, but on the 30th day 
of August, the day of their landing on the 
banks of the Red River, shall we recite the epic 
of Lord Selkirk's Colonists, and it will be of the 
temper of Browning's couplet: 

God's in His Heaven, 
All's right with the world. 



Appendix. 

19 Christine, his daughter, 
C-Y .................. 16 
20 George McDonald ....... 48 
21 Jannet, his wife ....... 50 
22 Betty Grey ............ 17 
23 Catherine Grey ......... 23 
24 Barbara McBeath, widow 45 
25 Charles, her son ....... 16 
26 Jenny, her daughter .... 23 
27 Andrew McBeath, C-Y.. 10 
28 Jannet, his wife, C-Y .... 
29 William Sutherland ..... 23 
30 Margaret, his wife ...... 15 
31 Christian, his sister .... 24 
32 Donald Gunn ........... 65 
33 Jannet, his wife ....... 50 
34 Transferred to Eddy- 
stone, H. B. Co ...... 
35 George Gunn, son of 
Donald, C-Y ......... 16 
36 Esther, his sister, C-Y. 24 
37 Catherine, his sister .... 20 
38 Oristian, his sister .... 10 
39 Angus Gunn ........... 21 
40 Jannet, his wife .......... 
41 Robert Sutherland, broth- 
er of William, C-Y.. 17 
42 Elizabeth Frazer, C-Y.. 30 
43 Angus Sutherland ...... 20 
44 Elizabeth, his mother.. 60 
45 Betsy, his sister ........ 18 

46 Donald Stewart ........... 

Died 1st Sept., 1813, Churchill 

Borobal 

Borobal 

Borobal 

Borobal, Parish Kildonan 
Died 29th August 

Borobal 

Auchraich 

47 Catherine, his wife ..... 39 
48 Margaret, his daughter. 8 
49 Mary, his daughter .... 5 
50 Ann, his daughter ...... 2 
51 John Smith .............. Kildonan 
52 'Mary, his wife .......... 
53 John, his son ............ 
54 Jean, his daughter, C-Y... 
55 Mary, his daughter ....... 
56 Alexander Gunn ........ '58 Kildonan, Sutherlandshire 
57 Elizabeth McKay, his 

niece, ('-Y ............ 
58 Betsy McKay, his niece... 
59 George Bannerman, C-Y.. 22 

Died of consumption, Oct. 
26th 
Parish of Appin, died 20th 
August, 1813, Churchill 



324 Appendix. 

List of settlers who came with Duncan Cameron from Red 
River to Canada, 1815. List prepared by Win. McGillivray, of 
Kingston, August 15th, 1815. About one hundred and forty, 
probably forty or fifty families, and some single men, arrived 
at Holland River, September 6th, 1815. 
Made at York (Toronto), September 22nd, 1815. 

I. OLD MEN. 

Donald Gunn, wife and daughter. 
Alexander Gunn and wife. 
Angus McDonell, wife and two children. 
Neil McKinnon, wife and two boys. 

II. SETTLERS. 

Miles Livingston, wife and two children. 
Angus McKay, wife and one child. 
John Matheson wife and one child. 
John Matheson, Jr., and wife. 
George Bannerman and wife. 
Andrew McBeath, wife and one child. 
William Sutherland, wife and one child. 
Angus Gunn, wife and one child. 
Alexander Bannerman and wife. 
Robert Sutherland and wife. 
William Bannerman and wife. 
James McKay and wife. 

III. WIDOWS. 

Mrs. Barbara McBeath. 
Mrs. Jeannet Sutherland and two boys. 
Mrs. Elizabeth Sutherland. 
Mrs. Christy Bannerman. 
Mrs. Jeannet McDonell. 
IV. YOUNG 
Jane Gray. 
Elizabeth Gray. 
Esther Bannerman. 
Elspeth Gunn. 
Jannet Sutherland. 
Isabella MeKinnon. 
McKinnon. 
Catta McDonelh 
Elizabeth McKay. 
V. YOUNG 
John Murray. 
Alexander Murray. 

WOMEN, UNMARRIED. 

MEN, NOT MARRIED. 



Appendix. 325 

York and Newmarket. 
market for the present. 
Montreal not included. 

William Gunn. 
Hugh Bannerman. 
Hector McLeod. 
George Gunn. 
Charles McBeath. 
Angus Sutherland. 
Thomas Sutherland. 
Alex. Matheson. 
John McPherson. 
Robert Gunn. 
George Sutherland. 
VI. MENTIONED IN ARCHIVES, OTTAWA. 
Miles Livingston. 
James McKay. 
Angus Sutherland. 
John Cooper. 
Mary Bannerman (wife of John McLean). 
Haman Sutherland. 
John Maburry. 
Alex. McLellan. 
Young people capable of labour generally employed between 
The old people are stationed at New- 
Some of the settlers who have gone to 

List of passengers, chiefly from Old Kildonan, landed at 
York Factory, August 26th, 1815. Reached Red River Settle- 

merit in same year. 
Names. Age. 
1 James Sutherland ...... 47 
2 Mary Polson ........... 48 
3 James Sutherland ....... 12 
4 Janet Sutherland ....... 16 
5 Catherine Sutherland .... 14 
6 Isabella Sutherland ..... 13 
1 Win. Sutherland ........ 54 
2 Isabell Sutherland ...... 50 
3 Jeremiah Sutherland .... 15 
4 Ebenezer Sutherland .... 11 
5 Donald' Sutherland ...... 7 
6 Helen Sutherland ....... 12 
1 Widow Matheson ....... 60 
2 John Matheson ......... 18 
3 Helen Matheson ........ 21 
1 Angus Matheson ........ 30 

Remarks. 
An elder who was authorized 
by the Church of Scotland 
to baptize and marry 

At school 
At school 
At school 

School master 



326 

Appe    dix. 

'2 Christian Matheson ..... 18 
1 Alex. Murray .......... 52 
') Eb Mu y 54 
3 James Murray ......... 16 
4 Donald Murray ........ 13 
5 Catherine Murray ....... 27 
6 Christian Murray ....... 25 
7 Isabella 5lurray ........ 18 
1 George McKay ......... 50 
2 IsabcJa Matheson ...... 50 
3 loderick McKay ....... 19 
4 [:.,,bert McKay ......... 11 At school 
5 He, betty McKay ........ 16 
1 Donald McKay ......... 31 
oj Ky 
. ohn Mc a ........... 1 
3 Catherine Bruce ........ 33 
1 Barbara Gunn .......... 50 
2 Win. Bannerm ........ 55 
3 Wm. Bannerman ........ 16 
4 Alexander Bannerman... 14 
5 Donald Bannerman ..... 8 At school 
6 George Bannermaa ...... 7 At hool 
7 Ann Bannerman ........ 19 
1 Widow Gunn ........... 40 
') Alex McKay 16 
3 Adam McKay .......... 13 
4 bert McKay ......... 12 
5 Christian McKay ....... 19 
1 John Bannerman ....... 55 
2 Catherine McKay ....... 28 
3 Alexander Bannerman... 1 
1 Alex. McBeth .......... 35 
2 ristian Gunn ......... 50 
3 George McBeth ......... 16 
4 derick McBeth ....... 12 
5 Robert McBeth ......... 10 
6 Adam McBeth ......... 6 
7 Morson 5.IcBeth ....... 4 
8 Margaret Meth ....... 18 
9 Molly McBeth .......... 18 
10 Christian McBeth ...... 14 
1 Alexder Mathewsoa... 34 Sergeant 
2 Ann 5[athewson ........ 34 
3 Hugh 'Mathewson ....... 10 At school 
4 Angus Mathewsoa ....... 6 
5 John Mathewson ....... 1 
6 Cathern Mathewson ...... 2 
1 exander Polson ....... 30 

of 

the 

passengers 



328 

James Suther]and 
James Sutherland 
William Bannerman, father 
of lot 21 
Donald McKay 
John Flett 
John Bruce 
lobert MacKay 
William Bannerman, 5r. 
Roderick McKay 

Appendix. 

Ebenezer Suther]and 
Donald Bannerman 
Hugh McLean 
George Bannerman 
Donald Sutherland 
Beth Beathen 
John Matheson 
George Sutherland 
Margaret McLean (widow) 

ADDENDA AND ERRATA 

Page 74.--Andrew McDermott arrived at Red River Settle- 
Settlement in 1812. 
Page 148.--Fourth line from the bottom, after the word "him" 
insert ' ' afterwards. ' ' 
Page 218.--Add to the title of the cut "and of the other forts 
of Winnipeg." 1. Fort Rouge; 2, Fort Doug- 
las; 3, Fort Gibraltar; 4, Fidler's Fort; 5, First 
Fort Garry; 6, Fort Garry. 
Page 264.--Line 10; 1857 should be 1851. 
Page 297 and following pages.--" Major Bulton" should be 
"Major Boulton.' ' 
Appendix.--Words ' ' Author's Note" should be, "The author 
notes the fact, etc." 



'F Bryce, George 
5672 The roaantic settlement of 

B72 Lord Selkirk' s colonists 

PLEASE DO 
CARDS OR SLIPS 

NOT REMOVE 
FROM THIS POCKET 

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY 



THOMAS, TH EARL OF SELKIRK 
The Founder of Red River Colony, :82. 
tom copy of painting by Raeburn, obtained by author from St Mary's Isle. Lord Selkirk's seal 



" Copyrighted Canada, 1909, by The Musson Book 
Company, Limited, Toronto." 



PREFACE 

T]E present work tells the romantic story of 
the Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists in 
Manitoba, and is appropriate and timely in view 
of the Centennial celebration of this event which 
will be held in Winnipeg in 1912. 
The author was the first, in his earlier books, 
to take a stand for justice to be done to Lord 
Selkirk as a Colonizer, and he has had the plea- 
sure of seeing the current of all reliable history 
turned in Lord Selkirk's favor. 
Dr. DoughCy, the popular Archivist at Ot- 
tawa, has put at the author's disposal a large 
amount of Lord Selkirk's correspondence late- 
ly received by him, so that many new, interest- 
ing facts about the Settlers' coming are now 
published for the first time. 
If we are to celebrate the Selkirk Centennial 
intelligently, it is essential to know the facts of 
the trials, opl)ressions and heartless persecu- 
tions through which the Settlers' passed, to 
learn what shameful treatment Lord Selkirk 
received from his enemies, and to trace the rise 



from misery to comfort of the people of the 
Colony. 
The story is chiefly confined to Red River Set- 
tlement as it existed--a unique community, 
which in 1870 became the present Province of 
Manitoba. It is a sympathetic study of what one 
writer has called--" Britain 's One Utopia." 



The Romantic Settlement 

OF 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists 



Lord Selkirk's Colonists 

CHAPTER I. 
THE EARLIER PEOPLE. 

A PATRIARCH'S STORY. 

This 'is the City of Winnipeg. Its growth 
has been wonderful. It is the highwater mark 
of Canadian enterprise. Its chief thorough- 
fare, with asphalt pavement, as it runs south- 
ward and approaches the Assiniboine River, 
has a broad street diverging at right angles 
from it to the West. This is Broadway, a most 
commodious avenue with four boulevards 
neatly kept, and four lines of fine young Elm 
trees. It represents to us "Unter den Linden" 
of Berlin, the German Capital. 
The wide business thoroughfare Main Street, 
where it reaches the Assiniboine River, looks 
out upon a stream, so called from the wild As- 
siniboine tribe whose northern limit it was, and 
whose name implies the "Sioux" of the Stony 
Lake. The Assiniboine River is as large as the 



10 

Lord Sclkirk's Colonists. 

Tiber at Rome, and the color of the water justi- 
ties its being compared with the "Yellow 
Tiber." 
The Assiniboine falls into the Red River, a 
larger stream, also with tawny-colored water. 
The point of union of these two rivers was 
long ago called by the French voyageurs "Les 
Fourches," which we have translated into "The 
Forks." 
One morning nearly forty years a.'o, the 
writer wandered eastward toward Red River, 
from Main Street, down what is now called 
Lombard Street. Here not far from the bank 
of the Red River, stood a wooden house, then 
of the better class, but now left far behind 
by the brick and stone and steel structures of 
modern Winnipeg. 
The house still stands a stained and battered 
memorial of a past generation. But on this 
October morning, of an Indian summer day, the 
' air was so soft, that it seemed to smell woo- 
ing]y here, and throu.a'h the gentle haze, was 
to be seen sitting on his verandah, the patri- 
arch of the village, who was as well the genius 
of the place. 
The old man had a fine gray head with the 
locks very thin, and with his form, not tall but 
broad and comfortable to look upon, he oc- 
cupied an easy chair. 
The writer was then quite a young man fresh 



The Earlir Pcopb. 

from College, and with a simple introduction, 
after the easy manner of Western Canada, p.'o- 
ceeded to hear the sto'y of old Andrew Mc- 
Dermott, the patriarch of Winnipeg. 
"Yes," said Mr. McDermott, "I was among 
those of the first year of Lord Selkirk's immi- 
grants. We landed from the Old Country, at 
York Fctory, on tIudson Bay. The first immi- 
grants reached the banks of the Red River in 
the year 1812. 
"I am a native of Ireland and embarked with 
Owen Keveny--a bright tIibernian--a clever 
writer, and speaker, who, poor fellow, was killed 
by the rival Fur Company, and whose murderer, 
De Reinhard, was tried at Quebec. Of eourse 
the greater number of Lord Selkirk's settlers 
were Scotehmen, but I have always lived with 
them, known them, and find that they trust me 
rather more than they at times trust each other. 
I have been their merchant, contractor, treaty- 
maker, business manager, counsellor, adviser, 
and confidential friend." 
"But," said the writer, "as having come to 
'ast in my lot with the people of the Red 
River, I should be glad to hear from you about 
the early times, and especially of the earlier 
people of this re#on, who lived their fives, and 
came and went, before the ,rrival of Lord Sel- 
kirk's settlers in 18.12." Thus the story-telling 
began, and patriarch and questioner made out 



The Earlier People. 

13 

from one source and another the whole story 
of the predecessors of the Selkirk Colonists. 

AN EXTINCT RACE. 

"Long before the coming of the settler, there 
lived a race who have now entirely disappeared. 
Not very far from the Assiniboine River, where 
Main Street crosses it, is now to be seen," said 
the narrator, "Fort Garry--a fine castellated 
structure with stone walls and substantial bas- 
tions. A little north of this you may have no- 
ticed a round mound, forty feet across. We 
opened this mound on one occasion, and found 
it to contain a number of human skeletons and 
articles of various kinds. The remains are 
those of a people whom we call "The Mound 
Builders," who ages ago lived here. Their 
mounds stood on high places on the river bank 
and were used for obsexvation. The enemy 
approaching could from these mounds easily 
be seen. They are also found in good agricul- 
tural districts, showing that the race were agri- 
culturists, and where the fishing is good on the 
river or lake these mounds occur. The Mound 
Builders are the first people of whom we have 
traces here about. The Indians say that these 
Mound Builders are not their ancestors, but 
are the "Very Ancient Men." It is thought that 
the last of them passed away some four hun- 
dred years ago, just before the coming of the 



14 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

white man. At that time a fierce whirlwind of 
conquest passed over North America, which 
was seen in the destruction of the Hurons, who 
lived in Ontario and Quebec. Some of their im- 
plements found were copper, probably brought 
from Lake Superior, but stone axes, hammers, 
and chisels, were commonly used by them. A 
horn spear, with barbs, and a fine shell sinker, 
shows that they lived on fish. Strings of beads 
and fine pearl ornaments are readily found. 
But the most notalle thing about these people 
is that they were far ahead of the Indians, in 
that they made pottery, with brightly designed 
patterns, which showed some taste. Very likely 
these Mound Builders were peaceful people, 
who, driven out of Mexi,o many centuries ago, 
came up the Mississippi, and from its branches 
passing into Red River, settled all along its 
banks. We know but little of this vanished 
race. They have ]eft only a few features of 
their work behind them. Their name and fame 
are lost forever. 
"And is this all? an earthen pot, 
A broken spear, a copper pin 
Earth's grandest prizes counted in-- 
A burial mound ?--the common lot." 

Then the conversation turned upon the early 
Frenchmen, who came to the West during the 



The Earlier People. 

15 

days of French Canada, before Wolfe took Que- 
bec. "Oh! I have no doubt they would make 
a great ado," said the old patriarch, "when 
they came here. The French, you know, are so 
fond of pageants. But beyond a few rumors 
among the old Indians far up the Assiniboine 
River of their remembrance of the crosses and 
of the priests, or black robes, as they call them, 
I have never heard anything; these early ex- 
plorers themselves left few traces. When they 
retired from the country, after Canada was 
taken by Wolfe, the Indians burnt their forts 
and tried to destroy every vestige of them. You 
know the Indian is a cunning diplomatist. He 
very soon sees which is the stronger side and 
takes it. When the King is dead he is ready to 
shout, Long live the new King. I have heard 
that down on the point, on the south side of 
the Forks of the two rivers, the Frenchmen 
built a fort, but there wasn't a stick or a stone 
of it left when the Selkirk Colonists came in 
1812. But perhaps you know that part of the 
story better than I do," ventured the old pa- 
triarch. That is the Story of the French Ex- 
plorers. 
"Oh! Yes," replied the writer, "you know 
the world of men and things about you; 
know the world of books and journals and let- 
ters. ' ' 
"Let us hear of that," said the patriarch 
eagerly. 



16 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

A. Native Copper Drill. 

B. Soapstone Conjurer's 
tube. 

O. Flint Skinning Imple- 
ment. 

D. Horn Fish Spear. 

E. Native Copper Cutting 
Knife. 

Cup found in Rainy 
River Mound by the 
Author, 884. 

MOUND BUILDERS' REMAINS 



The Earlier People. 

17 

Well, you know the French Explorers were 
very venturesome. They went, sometimes to 
their sorrow, among the wildest tribes of In- 
dians. 
A French Captain, named Verandrye, who 
was born in Lower Canada, came up the great 
lakes to trade for furs of the beaver, mink, and 
musk-rat..When he reached the shore of Lake 
Superior, west of where Fort William now 
stands, an old Indian guide, gave him a birch 
bark map, which showed all the streams and 
water courses from Lake Superior to Lake of 
the Woods, and on to Lake Winnipeg. This 
was when the "well-beloved" Louis XV. was 
King of France, and George II. King of Eng- 
land. It was heroic of Verandrye to face the 
danger, but he was a soldier who had been 
twice wounded in battle in Europe, and had the 
French love of glory. By carrying his canoes 
over the portages and running the rapids when 
possible, he came to the head of lainy River, 
went back again with his furs, and after several 
such journeys, came down the Winnipeg liver 
from Lake of the Woods, to Lake Winnipeg, 

and after a while made a dash across the 
stormy Lake Winnipeg and came to the Red 
River. The places were all unknown, the In- 
dians had never seen a white man in their 
country, and the French Captain, with his of- 
ricers, his men and a priest, found their way 



18 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

to the Forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. 
This was nearly three-quarters of a century 
before the first Selkirk Colonists reached Red 
River. The French Captain saw only a few 
Indian teepees at the Forks, and ascended the 
Assiniboine. It was a very dry year, and the 
water in the Assiniboine was so low that it was 
with difficulty he managed to pull over the St. 
James rapids, and reached where Portage la 
Prairie now stands, and sixty miles from the 
site of Winnipeg claimed the country for his 
Royal Master. Here he collected the Indians, 
made them his friends, and proceeded to build 
a great fort, and named it after Mary of Po- 
land, the unfortunate Queen of FranceM"Fort 
de la Reine," or Queen's Fort. But he could 
not forget "The Forks "--the Winnipeg of to- 
day--and so gave instructions to one of his 
lieutenants to stop with a number of his men 
at the Forks, cut down trees, and erect a fort 
for safety in coming and going up the Assini- 
boine. The Frenchmen worked hard, and on 
the south side of the junction of the Red River 
with the Assiniboine, erected Fort RougeMthe 
Red Fort. This fort, built in 1738, was the first 
occupation of the site of the City of Winnipeg. 
The French Captain Verandrye, his sons and 
his men, made further journeys to the far West, 
even once coming in sight of the Rocky Mourn 
rains. But French Canada was doomed. 



2O 

Lord Sdl,'irk's Colonists. 

Colonists ever appeared on the banks of the 
Red River. Some ten years before the set- 
tler's advent, the fur traders on the upper Red 
River had most bitter rivalries and for two 
or three years the fire &ater--the Indian's 
curse--flowed like a flood. The danger ap- 
pealed to the traders, and from a policy of 
mere self-protection they had decided to give 
out no strong drink, unless it might be a slight 
allowance at Christmas and New Year's time. 
Red River was now the central meeting place 
of four of the great Indian Nations. The Red 
Pipestone Quarry down in the land of the Da- 
kotas, and the Roches Perches, on the upper 
Souris River, in the land of the wild Assini- 
boines were sacred shrines. At intervals all 
the Indian natives met at these spots, buried 
for the time being their weapons, and lived in 
peace. But Red River, and the countrymeast- 
ward to the Lake of the Woodsmwas really the 
"marches" where battles and conflicts contin- 
ually prevailed. Red River, the Miskouesipi, 
or Blood Red River of the Chippewas and 
Crees, was said to have thus received its name. 
Andrew McDermott knew all the Indians as 
they drew near with curiosity, to see the set- 
tlers and to speculate upon the object of their 
coming. The Indian despises the man who uses 
the hoe, and when the Colonists sought thus to 
gain a sustenance from the fertile soil of the 



Lvrd lkb'k's ('olotists. 

at this time used horses on the plains. The 
horse was an importation brought up the val- 
leys from the Spaniards of Mexico. Seeing 
his value as a beast of burden, more fit than 
the dog which had been formerly used, they 
coined the word "Mis-ta-tim," or big dog as 
the name for the horse. Their Chiefs were, 
with their names tran,qlated into pronounceable 
English, "the Premier," "the Black Robe," 
"the Black M,n," while seemingly Mache 
Wheskab" the Noisy Man "--represented the 
Assiniboine,. The Crees, so well represented 
1)y their doughty Chiefs, are a sturdy race. 
They adapt them,(,lves readily enough to new 
conditions. While the northern Indian tribes 
met the Colonists, yet in after days, as had fre- 
quently taken place in days preceding, bands of 
Sioux or Dakotas, came on pilgrimages to the 
Red River. Long ago when the French Captain 
Verandrye voyaged to Lake of the Woods, his 
son and others of his men, were attacked by 
Sioux warriors, and the whole party of whites 
was massacred in an Island on the Lake. The 
writer in a later day, near Winnipeg, met on 
the highway, a band of Sioux warriors, on 
horse-back, with their bodies naked to the 
waist, and painted with high color, in token of 
the fact that they were on the warpath. On 
occasion it was the habit of bands of Sioux to 
find their way to the Red River Valley, and 



The EaJ'lb r People. 

the people did not feel at all safe, at their 
hostile attitude, as they bore the name of the 
"Tigers of the Plains." 
With Saulteaux, Crees, Assiniboines, and 
Sioux coming freely among them, the settlers 
had at first a feeling of de.ided insc'urity. 
THE MOITREAL MERCtIAITS AID MEIo 
But the fur trade paid too well to be left 
alone by the Montrealers who knew of Veran- 
drye's exploits on the Ottawa and the Upper 
Lakes. Vlmn Canada became British, many 
daring slirits hastened to it from New York 
and New Jersey States. Montreal became the 
home of many young men of Scottish families. 
Some of their fathers had fled to the Colonies 
after the Stuart Prince was defeated at Cullo- 
den, and after the power of the Jacobites was 
broken. Some of the young men of enterpris- 
ing spirit were the sons of officers and men who 
had fought in the Seven Years' War against 
France and now came to claim their share of 
the conqueror's spoils. So,he men were of 
Yankee origin, who with their lrox-erbial 
ability to see a good chance, came to what has 
always been Canada's greatest city, on the 
Island of Montreal. It was only half a dozen 
years after olfe's great victory, that a 'reat 
Montreal trader, Alexander Henry, penetrated 
the western lakes to Mackinawthe Island of 
the Turtle, lying between Lakes Huron and 



24 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

Michigan. At Sault Ste. Marie, he fell in with 
a most noted French Canadian, Trader Cadot, 
who had married a Saulteur wife. He became 
a power among the Indians. With Scottish 
shrewdness Henry acquired from the Com- 
mandant at Mackinaw the exclusive right to 
trade on Lake Superior. He became a partner 
of Cadot, and they made a voyage as Canadian 
Argonauts, to bring back very rich cargoes of 
fur. They even went up to the Saskatchewan 
on Lake Winnipeg. After Henry, came an- 
other Scotchman, Thomas Curry, and made so 
successful a voyage that he reached the Sas- 
katchewan River, and came back laden with 
furs, so that he was now satisfied never to 
have to go again to the Indian country. Short- 
ly afterwards James Findlay, another son of 
the heather, followed up the fur-traders' route, 
and reached Saskatchewan. Thus the North- 
west Fur Trade became the almost exclusive 
possession of the Scottish Merchants of Mon- 
treal. With the master must go the man. And 
no man on the rivers of North America ever 
equalled, in speed, in good temper, and in skill, 
the French Canadian voyageur. Almost all the 
Montreal merchants, the Forsythes, the Rich- 
ardsons, the McTavishes, the Mackenzies, and 
the McGillivrays, spoke the French as fluently 
as they did their own language. Thus they 
became magnetic leaders of the French canoe- 



Ooup - - 
Agent 
Atalacoup Kakawistaha Mistawasis 
FOUR CREE CHIEFS OF RUPERT'S LAND 



The Earlier People. 

25 

men of the rivers. The voyageurs clung to 
them with all the tenacity of a pointer on the 
scent. There were Nolins, Falcons, Delormes, 
Faribaults, Lalondes, Leroux, Trottiers, and 
hundreds of others, that followed the route 
until they became almost a part of the West 
and retired in old age, to take up a spot on 
some beautiful bay, or promontory, and never 
to return to "Bas Canada." Those from Mon- 
treal to the north of Lake Superior were the 
pork eaters, because they lived on dried pork, 
those west of Lake Superior, "Couriers of the 
Woods," and they fed on pemmican, the dried 
flesh of the buffalo. They were mighty in 
strength, daring in spirit, tractable in disposi- 
tion, eagles in swiftness, but withal had the 
simplicity of little children. They made short 
the weary miles on the rivers by their smoking 
"tabac"--the time to smoke a pipe counting 
a mile--and by their merry songs, the "Fairy 
Ducks" and "La Claire Fontaine," "Mal- 
brouck has gone to the war," or "This is the 
beautiful French Girl"--ballads that the- still 
retained from the French of Louis XIV. They 
were a jolly crew, full of superstitions of the 
woods, and leaving behind them records of 
daring, their names remain upon the rivers, 
towns and cities of the Canadian and Ameri- 
can Northwest. 
Some thirty years before the arrival of the 



26 

Lord Selki'k's Coloists. 

Colonists, the Montreal traders found it use- 
ful to form a Company. This was called the 
North-West Fur Company of Montreal. tIa,- 
ing taken large amounts out of the fur trade, 
they became the leaders among the merchan!.s 
of Montreal. The Company had an eneray .nnd 
ability that made them about the beinnin,_.." 
of the nineteenth century the most infltentil 
force in Canadian life. At Fort William and 
Lachine their convivial meetings did some- 
thing to make them forget the perils of the 
rapids and whirlpools of the rivers, and the 
bitterness of the piercing winds of the north- 
western stretches. Familiarly they were known 
as the "Nor'-Westers." Shortly before the be- 
ginning of the century mentioned, a split took 
place among the "Nor'-Westers," and as the 
bales of merchandise of the old Company had 
upon them the initials "N. W.," the new Com- 
pany, as it was called, marked their packages 
"XY," these being the following letters of the 
alphabet. 
Besides these mentioned there were a number 
of independent merchants, or free traders. At 
one time there vere at the junction of the 
Souris and Assiniboine Rivers, five establish- 
ments, two of them being those of free traders 
or independents. Among all these Companies 
the commander of a Fort was called, "The 
Bourgeois" to suit the French tongue of the 



The Earlicr P,ople. 

27 

men. He w(s naturally a man of no small 
importance. 
THE DUSKY RIDERS OF TttE PLAINS.  

But the conditions, in which both the traders 
:nd the voyageurs lived, brought a disturbing 
shadow over the wide plains of the North-West. 
Now under British rule, the Fur trade from 
Montreal became a settled industry. From 
Curry's time (1766) they began to erect posts 
or depots at important points to carry on their 
trade. Around these posts the voyageurs built 
a few cabins and this new centre of trade af- 
forded a spot for the encampment near by of 
the Indian teepees made of tanned skins. The 
meeting of the savage and the civilized is ever 
a contact of peril. Among the traders or of- 
ricers of the Fur trade a custom grew up--not 
sanctioned by the decalogue--but somewhat like 
the German Morganatic marriage. It was called 
"Marriage of the Country." By this in many 
cases the trader married the Indian wife; she 
bore children to him, and afterwards when he 
retired from the country, she was given in real 
marriage to some other voyageur, or other em- 
ployee, or pensioned off. It is worthy of note 
that many of these Indian women became most 
true and affectionate spouses. With the voy- 
ageurs and laborers the conditions were dif- 
ferent. They could not leave the country, they 



28 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

had become a part of it, and their marriages 
with the Indian women were bona fide. Thus 
it was that during the space from the time of 
Curry until the arrival of the Selkirk Colonists 
upwards of forty years had elapsed, and around 
the wide spread posts of the Fur Trading Com- 
panies, especially around those of the prairie, 
there had grown up families, which were half 
Frencll and half Indian, or half English and 
half Indian. When it could be afforded these 
children were sent for a time to Montreal, to 
be educated, and came back to their native wilds. 
On the plain between the Assiniboine and the 
Saskatchewan, a half-breed community had 
sprung up. From their dusky faces they took 
the name "Bois-Bruls," or "Charcoal Faces, ' 
or referring to their mixed blood, of "Metis," 
or as exhibiting their importance, they sought 
to be called "The New Nation." The blend of 
French and Indian was in many respects a 
natural one. Both are stalwart, active, mus- 
cular; both are excitable, imaginative, ambi- 
tious; both are easily amused and devout. The 
"Bois-Bruls" growing up among the Indians 
on the plains naturally possessed many of the 
features of the Indian life. The pursuit of 
their fur-bearing animals was the only industry 
of the country. The Bois-Brulgs from child- 
hood were familiar with the Indian pony, knew 
all his tricks and habits, began to ride with all 



The Earlier People. 

29 

the skill of a desert ranger, were familiar with 
fire-arms, took part in the chase of the buffalo 
on the plains, and were already trained to make 
the attack as cavalry on buffalo herds, after 
the Indian fashion, in the famous half-circle, 
where they were to be so successful in their 
later troubles, of which we shall speak. Such 
men as the Grants, Findlays, Lapointes, Bel- 

legardes, and Falcons were 
managing the swift canoe, 
plains on the Indian ponies. 

equally skilled in 
or scouring the 
We shall see the 

part which this new element were to play in 
the social life and even in the public concerns 
of the prairies. 

THE STATELY UDSOIIS BAY COI:PAIIY. 

The last of the elements to come into the val- 
ley of the Red River and to precede the Col- 
onists, was the Hudson's Bay Company--even 
then, dating back its history almost a century 
and a half. They were a dignified and wealthy 
Company, reaching back to the times of easy- 
.going Charles II., who gave them their charter. 
For a hundred years they lived in self-confi- 
dence and prudence in their forts of Churchill 
and York, on the shore of Hudson Bay. They 
were even at times so inhospitable as to deal 
with he Indians through an open window of 
the fort. This was in striking contrast to the 



The Earlier People. 

31 

been built some sixty years before. Evidently 
both companies felt the conflict to be on, in 
their efforts to cover all importants parts, for 
they called this Trading House Fort Gibral- 
tt, r, who,e name has a decided ring of the war- 
like about it. It is not clear exactly where the 
Hudson's Bay post was built, but it is sad to 
have rather faced the Assiniboine than the Red 
River, perhaps near where Notre Dame Avenue 
East, or the Hudson's Bay stores is to-day. It 
was probably built a few years after Fort Gib- 
raltar, and was called "Fidler's Fort." By this 
time, however, the Hudson's Bay Company, 
working from their first post of Cumberland 
House, pushed on to the Rocky Mountains to 
engage in the Titanic struggle which they saw 
lay ahead of them. One of their most active 
agents, in occupyin.g the Red River Valley, was 
the Englishman Peter Fidler, who was the sur- 
veyor of this district, the master of several 
forts, and a man who ended his eventful career 
by a will made--providing that all of his funds 
should be kept at interest until 1962, when 
they should be divided, as his last chimerical 
plan should direct. It thus came about that 
when the Colonists arrived there were two Trad- 
ers' Houses, on the site of the City of Winnipeg 
of to-day, within a mile of one another, one 
representing a New World, and the other an 
Old Vorld type of mercantile life. It was plain 



32 Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

that on the Plains of Rupert's Land there would 
come a struggle for the possession of power, 
if not for very existence. 



CHAPTER II. 

SCOTTISH DUEL.  ' 

Inasmuch as this tale is chiefly one of Scot- 
tish and of Colonial life, the story of the move- 
ment from 01d Kildonan, on the German Ocean, 
to New Kildonan, on the Western Prairies--we 
may be very sure, that it did not take place with- 
out irritation and opposition and conflict. The 
Scottish race, while possessing intense earnest- 
ness and energy, often gains its ends by the 
most thoroughgoing animosity. In this great 
emigration movement, there were great new 
world interests involved, and champions of the 
rival parties concerned were two stalwart chief- 
tains, of Scotland's best blood, both with great 
powers of leadership and both backed up with 
abundant means and strongest influence. It 
was a duel--indeed a fight, as old Sir Walter 
Scott would say, "a l'outrance"--to the bitter 
end. That the struggle was between two chief- 
tains--one a Lowlander, the other a Highlander, 
did not count for much, for the Lowlander spoke 
the Gaelic tongue--and he was championing 
the interest of Highland men. 



" A Scottist Duel." 

35 

beautiful St. Mary's Isle, near the mouth of 
the Dee, on Solway Frith. On his visits to the 
Highlands, it was not alone the Highland 
straths and mountains, nor the Highland 
Chieftain's absolute mastership of his clan, nor 
was it the picturesque dressmthe"Garb of old 
Gaul"--which attracted him. The Earl of Sel- 
kirk has been charged by those who knew little 
of him with being a man of feudal instim.ts. 
His temper was the exact opposite of this. 
When he saw his Scottish fellow-countrymen 
being driven out of their homes in Sutherland- 
shire, and sent elsewhere to give way for sheep 
farmers, and forest runs, and deer stalkin, 
it touched his heart, and his three Emigration 
Movements, the last culminating in the Kil- 
donan Colonists, showed not only what title and 
means could do, but showed a kindly, and com- 
passionate heart beating under the starry 
badge of Earldom. 
Rather it was the case that the fur trading 
oligarchy ensconced in the plains of the \ est, 
could not understand the heart of a philan- 
thropistof a man who could work for mere 
humanity. Up till a few years ago it was the 
fashion for even historians, being unable to 
understand his motive and disposition, to speak 
of him as a "kind hearted, but eccentric Scot- 
tish nobleman." 
Lord Selkirk's active mind led him into va- 



36 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

rious different spheres of human life. He 
visited France and studied the problem of the 
French Revolution, and while sympathizing 
with the struggle for liberty, was alienated as 
were Wordsworth and hundreds of other 
British writers and philanthropists, by the ex- 
cesses of Robespierre and his French compa- 
triots. When the Napoleonic wars were at their 
height, like a true patriot, Lord Selkirk wrote 
a small work on the "System of National De- 
fence," anticipating the Volunteer System of 
the present day. But his keen mind sought 
lines of activity as well as of theory. Seeing 
his fellow-countrymen, as well as their Irish 
neighbors, in distress and also desiring to keep 
them under the British flag, he planned at his 
ow expense to carry out the Colonists to Amer- ' 
ica. Even before this effort, reading Alexander 
Mackenzie's great book of voyages detailing the 
discoveries of the Mackenzie River in its courage 
to the Arctic Sea, and also the first crossing 
in northern latitudes of the mountains to the 
Pacific Ocean-- he had applied (1802), to the 
Imperial Government, for permission to take 
a colony to the western extremity of (anada 
upon the waters which fall into Lake Winni- 
peg." This spot, "fertile and having a salu- 
brious climate," he could reach by way of the 
Nelson l.iver, running into Hudson Bay. The 
British Government refused him the permis- 



" A Scottish 

3q 

tion at times reached bloodshed, and financial 
ruin was staring all branches of the fur trade 
in the face. 
It was the depressed condition of the fur 
trade and the consequent drop in Hudson's 
Bay Company shares that appealed to Lord Sel- 
kirk, the man of many dreams and imaginations 
and he saw the opportunity of finding a home 
under the prairie skies for his hapless country- 
men. It requires no detail here of how Lord 
Selkirk bought a controlling interest in the 
Hudson's Bay Company's stock, made out his 
plans of Emigration, and took steps to send out 
his hoped-for thousands or tens of thousands 
of Highland crofters, or Irish peasants, who- 
ever they might be, if they sought freedom 
though bound up with hardship, hope instead 
of a pauper's grave, the prospect of indepen- 
dence of life and station in the new world in- 
stead of penury and misery under impossible 
conditions of life at home. Nor is it a matter 
of moment to us, how the struggle began until 
we have brought before our minds the stalwart 
figure of Sir Alexander Mackenzie--Lord Sel- 
kirk's great protagonist. Like many a distin- 
guished man who has made his mark in the 
new world, and notably our great Lord Strath- 
cona, who came as a mere lad to Canada, 
Alexander Mackenzie, a stripling of sixteen, 
arrived in Montreal to make his fortune. He 



4O 

Lord Selklrk's Colonists. 

was born as the Scottish people say of 
"kenn't" of "well-to-do" folk in Stornoway, in 
the Hebrides. He received a fair education and 
as a boy had a liking for the sea. Two part- 
ners, Gregory and McLeod, were fighting at 
Montreal in opposition to the dominant firm of 
McTavish and Frobisher. Young AlexandeT 
Mackenzie joined this opposition. So great 
was his aptitude, that boy as he was, he was 
despatched West to lead an expedition to De- 
troit. Soon he was pushed on to be a bourgeois, 
and was appointed at the age of twenty-two to 
go to the far West fur country of Athabasca, 
the vast Northern country which was to be the 
area of his discoveries and his fame. His en- 
ergy and skill were amazing, although like 
many of his class, he had to battle against 
the envy of rivals. After completely planning 
his expedition, he made a dash for the Arctic 
Sea, by way of Mackenzie River, which he--- 
first of white men--descended, and which bears 
his name. Finding his astronomical knowledge 
defective, he took a year off, and in his native 
land ]earned the use of the instruments needed 
in exploration. After his return he ascended 
the Peace River, crossed the Rocky Mountains, 
and on a rock on the shore of the Pacific Ocean 
in British Columbia, inscribed with vermillion 
and grease, in large letters, "Alexander Mac- 
kenzie, from Canada, by land, the Twenty- 



"A b'cottis] Duel. ' 

on the south side of the boundary line between 
Canada and the United States. The Nor'- 
Westers are frantic; but the fates are against 
them. The duel has beun! Who will win? 
Cunning and misrepresentation are to be em- 
ployed to check the success of the Colony, and 
also local opposition on the other side of the 
Atlantic, should the scheme ever come to any- 
thing. At present their hope is that it may 
fall to pieces of its own weight. 
Lord Selkirk's scheme is dazzling almost be- 
yond belief. A territory is his, purchased out 
and out, from the Hudson's Bay Company, 
:bout four times the area of Scotland, his native 
land, and the greater part of it fertile, with 
the finest natural soil in the world, waiting for 
the farmer to give a return in a single year af- 
ter his arrival. A territory, not possessed y : 
forein people, but under the British flag! A 
country yet to be the home of millions! It is 
worth living to be able to plant such a tree, 
which will shelter and bless future generations 
of mankind. Financial loss he might have; but 
he would have fame as his reward. 



CHAPTER III. 

ACROSS THE STORMY SEA. ' 

Oh dreadful war l It is not only in the deadly 
horror of battle, and in the pain and anguish 
of men strong and hearty, done to death by 
human hands. It is not only in the rotting 
heap of horses and men, torn to pieces by 
bullets and shell, and thrust together within 
huge pits in one red burial blent. It is not only 
in the helpless widow and her brood of dazed 
and desolate children weeping over the news 

that comes from 
come so hideous. 
the time of the 

the battlefield, that war be- 
It is always, as it was in 
Europe-shadowing Nal)oleon 

when for twenty years the wheels of industry 
in Britain were stopped. It is always the de- 
rangement of business, the increased price of 
food for the poor, the decay of trade, the cut- 
ting off of supplies, and the stopping of works 
of improvement that brings conditions which 
make poverty so terrible. Rags! A bed of 
straw; a crust of bread; the shattered roof; 
the naked floor; a deal table; a broken chair! A 
writer whose boyhood saw the terror, and want, 



46 

Lord Selkirk's Coloists. 

had the true vision; and he had as few others 
of his time had, the power to plan, the inven- 
tion to suggest, and the skill and pluck to over- 
come difficulties, but the carrying out of his in- 
tent brought him infinite trouble and sorrow. 
His prospectus, offering the means to the pov- 
erty-stricken people of reaching what he be- 
lieved to be a home of ultimate plenty on the 
banks of the led River, was an entirely worthy 

document. His 
will be freemen. 
sidered in their 
that was that 

first point is, that his Colonists 
No religious tenet will be con- 
selection. This was even freer 
of Lord Baltimore's much- 

vaunted Colony, on the Atlantic Coa.t, for Bal- 
timore required that every Colonist should be- 
lieve in the doctrine of the Trinity. Then, the 
offer was to the landless and the penniless men. 
Employment was to be supplied; work in the 
employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, or free 
grants of land to actual settlers, or even a sale 
in fee simple of land for a mere nominal sum; 
free passages for the poor, reduced passages 
for those who had small means, food provided 
on the voyage, and the prospect of new world 
advantages to all. 
But the poor are timid, and they love even 
their straw-thatched cottages, and it needs ac- 
tive and decided men to press upon them the 
advanta'es which are offered them. The Emi- 
-ation Agent is a necessity. 



"Across the Stormy Sea." 

47 

The fur traders' country was at this time well 
known to many of the partners. It was by em- 
ploying or consulting with some of these fur 
traders that Lord Selkirk obtained a knowledge 
of the Western land which he was to acquire. 
Years before the Colony began Lord Selkirk 
had been in correspondence with an officer who 
belonged to a well known Catholic family of 
Highlanders, the Macdonells, who had gone to 
the Mohawk district in the United States before 
the American Revolution, and had afterwards 
come to Canada as U. E. Loyalists. One of 
these, a man of standing and of executive ability 
was Miles Macdonell. He had been an officer 
of the King's Royal Regiment of New York, 
and held the rank of Captain of the Canadian 
Militia. This officer had a brother in the 
North-West Fur Company, John Macdonell, 
who, more than ten years before, had been 
in the service of his Company on Red River 
and whose Journal had no doubt fallen into t]e 
hands of his brother Miles. He had writte: 
"From the Forks of the Assiniboine amt ]ted 
Rivers the plains are quite near the banks, ad 
so extensive that a man may travel to the 
Rocky Mountains without passing a wood, a 
mile long. The soil on the Red River and 
Assiniboine is generally a good soil, susceptible 
of culture, and capable of bearing rich crops." 
He goes on to state, "that the buffalo comes 



48 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

to the fords of the Assinboil, besides in the.,e 
rivers are plenty of sturgeon, catfish, goldeye, 
pike and whitefish--the latter so common tliat 
men have been seen to catch thirty or fory a 
piece while they smoked their pipes." To reach 
this land of plenty, which his brother knew so 
well, iles acdonell became the leader of 
Lord Selkirk's Colonists. He arrived in Great 
Britain in the year for the starting of the Col- 
ony, and immediately as being a Roman Cath- 
olic in religion went to the West of Irel:d 
to recommend the Emigration scheme, obtain 
subscriptions of stock, and to engage workmen 
as Colonists. Glasgow was then, as now, the 
centre of Scottish industry, and it is to Glas- 
gow that the penniless Highlanders flock in 
large numbers for work and residence. Here 
was a suitable field for the Emigration Agent, 
and accordingly one of their countrymen, Cap- 
tain Roderick McDonald, was sent thither. The 
way to Canada was long, the country unknown, 
and it required all his persuasion and the power 
of the Gaelic tongue---an open Sesame to an 
Highlander's heart--to persuade many to join 
the Colonists' bank. It required more. The 
Highlander is a bargainer, as the Tourist in 
the Scottish Higllands knows to this day. Cap- 
t,n Roderick McDonald was compelled to 
promise larger wages to clerks and laborers to 
induce them to join. He secured less than half 



"Across thv Stormy Sea." 

49 

an hundred men at Stornowaywthe trysting 
place--and the promises he had made of higher 
wages were a bone of contention through the 
whole voyage. 
Perhaps the most effective agent obtained 
by Lord Selkirk was .a returned trader of the 
Montreal merchants named Colin Robertson. 
He had seen the whole western fur country, and 
the fact that he had a grievance made him very 
willing tc join Lord Selkirk in his enterprise. 
One of the Nor'-Westers in Saskatchewan a 
few years before the beginning of Lord Sel- 
kirk's Colony, was "Bras Croche," or crooked- 
arm McDonald. He was of gentle Scottish 
birth, but his own acquaintances declared that 
he was of a "quarrelsome and pugnacious dis- 
position." In his district Colin Robertson was 
a "Bourgeois" in charge of a station. A quarrel 
between the two men resulted in Colin Robert- 
son losing his position, and as we shall see he 
became one of the most active and serviceable 
men in the history of the Colony. Colin Rob- 
ertson went among his countrymen in the Island 
of Lewis and elsewhere. 
And now as the time draws nigh for gather- 
ing together at a common port, the Stromness 
(Orkney), the Glasgow, the Sligo and the Lewis 
contingents to face the stormy sea and seek a 
new untried home, a fierce storm breaks out 
upon the land. Evidence accumulates that the 



5O 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

heat and opposition of the "Nor'-West" part- 
ners--Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Inglis and El- 
lice---shown at the general meeting of the Com- 
pany, were to break out in numberless hidden 
and irritating efforts to stop and perhaps ren- 
der impossible the whole Colonizing project. 
Just as the active agents, Miles Macdonell, 
Capt. McDonald and Colin Robertson, had set 
the heather on fire on behalf of Lord Selkirk's 
project, so the aid of the press was used to 
throw doubt upon the enterprise. Inverness is 
the Capital of the Highlanders, and so the "In- 
verness Journal," containing an effusion signed 
by "Highlander," was spread broadcast 
through the Highlands, the Islands, and the 
Orknes, picturing the dangers of their jour- 
ney, the hardships of the country, the deceitful- 
ness of the agents, and the mercenary aims of 
the noble promoter. 
Before Miles Macdonell had cleared the coast 
of England, he wrote to Lord Selkirk: "Sir A. 
(Mackenzie) has pledged himself as so decid- 
edly opposed to this project that he will try 
every means in his power to thwart it. Besides, 
I am convinced he was no friend to your Lord- 
ship before this came upon the carpet." 
No doubt Miles Macdonell was correct, and 
the two Scottish antagonists were face to face 
in the conflict. We shall see the means supplied 
by which the expedition will be harassed. 



"Across the ,_qtor,y Sea." 

51 

And now the enterprise is to be set on foot. 
For nearly a century and a half the Hudson's 
Bay Company ships have sailed yearly from the 
Thames, and taken the goods of the London 
merchants to the posts and forts of Hudson 
Bay, carrying back rich returns of furs. Some- 
times more than one a year has gone. In 181.1 
there was the Commodore 's ship the "Prince 
of Wales," with cabin accommodation and such 
comforts as ships of that period supplied. A 
second ship, the "Eddystone," chartered for 
special service, accompanied her. These two 
were intended to carry out employees and men 
for the fur trade, as well as the goods. 
It must not be forgotten that there was some 
want of confidence between the trading side of 
the Hudson's Bay Company and that which 
Lord Selkirk represented, in the Colonizing en- 
terprise. Also at this time the laws in regard to 
the safety of vessels, the comfort of passengers, 
or precautions for health were very lax. While 
the records of emigration experiences of Brit- 
ish settlers to Canada and the United States 
are being recited by men and women yet living 
in Canada, the want of resource and the neglect 
of life and property by Governments and offi- 
cials up until half a century ago are heart-sick- 
ening. So the third ship of the fleet that was to 
carry the first human freight of Manitoba 
pioneers was the "Edward and Ann." She 



52 

Lord Selkirk's Coloists. 

was a sorry craft, with old sails, ropes, etc., and 
very badly manned. She had as a crew only 
sixteen, including the captain, mates and three 
small boys. It was a surprise to Miles Mac- 
donell that the Company would charter and 
send her out in such a state. The officers came 
down to Gravesend from London and joined 
their ships, and somewhere about the 25th of 
June, 1811, they set sail from Sheerness on 
their mission, which was to become historic-- 
not so historic, perhaps, as the Mayflower--but 
still sufficiently important to deserve a centen- 
nial celebration. 
The fleet was, however, to take up its pas- 
sengers after it had passed Duncansby Head, 
on the north of Scotland. But the elements on 
the North Sea were unpropitious. Sheerness 
left behind, the trio of vessels had not passed 
the coast of Norfolk before they were driven 
into Yarmouth Harbor, and there for days they 
lay held in by adverse winds. On July 2nd 
they again started northward, when they were 
compelled to return to Yarmouth. 
In company they succeeded in reaching 
Stromness, in the Orkney Isles, in about ten 
days. Here the "Prince of Wales" remained 
and her two companions sailed-down to Storno- 
way on the 17th. 
And now, with the storms of the German 
Ocean left behind, legan the opposition of the 



"Across the ,b'tor,y 

53 

"Nor'-Westers." The "Prince of Wales" 
brought her contingent from the Orkneys, and 
on July 25th Miles Macdonell writeg that after 
all the efforts put forth at all the points he had 
125 Colonists and employees, and these were in 
a most unsettled stae of mind. 
Some dispute the wages offered them. One 
party from Galway had not arrived. Some are 
irritated at not being in the quarter of the ship 
which they desired, and some anxiety is evident 
on the part of Miles Macdonell because large 
advances of money have been given to a num- 
ber and he fears that they may desert. The ex- 
penses of assembling the settlers have been 
very heavy, and now opposition appears. Sir 
Alexander's party are doing their work. Mr. 
Reed, Collector of Customs at Stornoway, was 
married to a niece of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, 
and as collector he throws every obstacle in the 
way of Macdonell. He has also taken pains to 
stir up discontent in the minds of the Colonists 
and to advise them not to embark. 
Further trouble was caused by a. Captain 
Mackenzie--called "a mean fellow "--who 
proved to be a somin-law of the Collector of 
Customs Reed, and who went on board the 
"Edward and Ann," recruited as soldiers some 
of the settlers, himself handing them the en- 
listing money and then seeking to compel them 
to leave the ship with him. Afterwards, Cap- 



"Across the Stormy Sea." 

55 

might seize the valuable cargoes being sent out 
to York Factory. Accordingly a man-of-war 
had been detailed to lead the way. This had 
caused a part of the delay on the East Coast 

of England, and when 
British Isles and some 
northwest of Ireland, 

fairly away from the 
four hundred miles 
the protecting ship 

turned back, but the sea was so wild that not 
even a letter could be handed to the Captain to 
carry in a message to the promoter. 
The journey continued to be boisterous, but 
once within Hudson straits the weather turned 
mild, and the great walls of rock reminded the 
Highlanders of their Sutherlandshire West 
Coast. 
They saw no living being as they went 
through the Strait. Their studies of human 
nature were among themselves. Miles Mac- 
donell reports that exclusive of the officers and 
crews who embarked at Gravesend, there were 
of laborers and writers one hundred and five 

persons. 
Of these there 
ward and Ann." 
representing the 

were fifty-three on the "Ed- 
Two men of especial note, 
clerical and medical profes- 

sions were on board the Emigrant Ship. Father 
Burke, a Roman Catholic priest, who had come 

away without the permission of his 
was one. 

Miles Macdonell did not like him, 

Bishop 

but he 



56 

Lord Sclkirk's Colonists. 

seems to have been a hearty supporter of the 
Emigration Scheme and promised to do great 
things in Ireland on his return. 

When'he reached 
not leave the shore 
their homes on the 

York Factory, Burke did 
to follow the Colonists to 
banks of Red River. He 

married two Scotch Presbyterians, and while 
somewhat merry at times had amused the pas- 
sengers on their dreary ocean journey. More 
useful, however, to the passengers was Mr. 
Edwards, the ship's doctor. 
He had much opportunity for practising his 
art, both among the Colonists and the em- 
ployees. 
At times Miles Macdonell endeavored on ship- 
board to drill his future servants and settlers, 
but he found them a very awkward squad--not 
one had ever handled a gun or musket. The 
sea seemed generally too tempestuous in mood 
for their evolutions. As the ships approached 
York Factory the interest increased. The "Ed- 
dystone" was detailed to sail to "Fort Church- 
ill," but was unable to reach it and found her 
way in the wake of the other vessels to York 
Factory. It seemed as if the sea-divinities all 
combined to fight against the Coloni,ts, for 
they did not reach York Factory, the winter 
destination, until the 24th of September, hav- 
ing taken sixty-one days on the voyage from 
Stornoway, which was declared by the Hud- 



"Actor's' the 8tor,y b'ca. ' 

5'7 

son's Bay Company officers to be the longest 
and latest passage ever known on Hudson Bay. 
Then settlers and employees were all landed 
on the point, near York Factory, and were shel- 
tered meantime in tents, and as they stood on 
the shore they saw on October 5th, the shps 
that had brought them safely across the stormy 
sea pass through a considerable amount of float- 
ing ice on their homeward journey to London. 
For one season at least the settlers will face 
the rigor of this Northern Clime. 



CHAPTER IV. 

WINTER OF DISCONTENT. 

The Emigrant ship has landed its living 
freight at Fort Factory, upon the Coast of 
Hudson Bay--a shore unoccupied for hundreds 
of miles except by a few Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany forts such as those at the mouth of the 
Nelson River, and of Fort Churchill, a hundred 
miles or more farther north. It was now the 
end of the season, and it will not do to trifle 
with the nip of cold "Boreas" on the shore 
of Hudson Bay. The icy winter is at hand, 
and all know that they will face such tempera- 
tures s they never had seen even among the 
stormy Hebride,, or in the Northward Ork- 
hers. Lord Selkirk's dreams are now to be 
tested. Is the story of the Colony to be an epic 
or a drama? 
I was by no means the first experiment of 
facing in an unprepared way the rigors of a 
North American winter. 
In the fourth year of the Seventeenth Cen- 
tury De Monts, a French Colonizer, had a band 
of his countrymen on Doucher's Island, in the 



A Winter of Discotcnt. 

59 

Ste. Croix River, on the borders of New Bruns- 
wick. Though fairly well provided in some 
ways yet the winter proved so trying that out 
of the number of less than eighty, nearly one- 
half died. The winter was so long, weary and 
deadly, that in the spring the zurvivors of the 
Colony were moved to Port Royal in Acadia 
and the Ste. Croix was ven up. This was 
surely dramatic; this was trac indeed. But 
in the fourth year of this Century, the Tercen- 
tenary of this event was celebrated in Anna- 
polis .and St. John, as the writer himself be- 
held, and the shouts and applause of gathered 
thousands made a great and patriotic epic. 
Again four years after De Monts, when 
knowledge of climate and conditions had be- 
come known to the French pioneers, Samuel 
de Champlain wintered with his crew and a 
few settlers on the site of Old Quebec, on the 
St. Lawrence. Discontent and dissension led 
to rebellion, and blood was shed in the execution 
of the plotters. Hunger, suffering and the 
dreadful scurvy attacked the founder's party 
of less than thirty, of whom only ten survived, 
and yet in July of 1908, the writer witnessed 
the grand Tercentenary celebration of Cham- 
plain's settlement of Quebec, and with the 
presence of the Prince of Wales, General Rob- 
erts, the idol of the British Army, a joint fleet, 
of eleven English, French and American first- 



6O 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

class Men-of War, with pageantry and music, 
the Epic of Champlain was sung at the foot of 
the great statue erected to his memory. 
In the Twentieth year of the Seventeenth 
Century, a company of very sober folk, came 
to the shore of the Atlantic Ocean in a trifling 
little vessel the "Mayflower," and brought 
about one hundred Immigrants from the British 
Isles to Plymouth Rock to build up a refuge 
and a home. What a mighty song of patriotism 
will burst out when in a few years the United 
States hold their Tercentenary of the landing 
of the Pilgrim Fathers. 
And so we see the first Selkirk Colonists 
landed on the Hudson Bay numbering at the 
outside seventy, a number not greatly different 
from the French and Pilgrim Fathers and called 
on to pass through similar trials in the severe 
winter of Hudson Bay. Their experience has 
been less tragic than that of the other parties 
spoken of, but in it the same elements of dis- 
comfort, dissension and disease certainly 
present themselves. However distressing their 
winter was, the dramatic conditions passed 
away, in a short time we shall be engaged 
in commemorating the patience and the hero- 
ism of these settlers, and in 1912 we shall sing 
a new song--the epic of the Lord Selkirk 
Colonists. 
But to be true we must look more closely at 



A Winter of Discontent. 

61 

the trials, and sufferings of the untried, and 
somewhat turbulent band, on their way to the 
Red River. 
York Factory as being the port of entry for 
the southern prairie country was a place of some 
importance. As in the largest number of cases, 
other than a few huts for workmen, and a few 
Indian families, the Fort was the only centre 
of life in the whole re.on. Two rivers, the Nel- 
son and the Hayes, enter the Hudson Bay at 
this point--the Nelson being the more northerly 
of the two. Between the two rivers is really 
a delta or low swampy tongue of land. On the 
Nelson's north bank, the land near the Bay 
is low, while inland there is a rising height. 
Five or six different Sites of forts are pointed 
out at this point. These have been built on dur- 
ing the history of the Company, which dates 
back to 1670. In Lord Se]kirk's time the fac- 
tory was more than half a mile from the Bay 
and lay between the. two rivers. Miles Mac- 
donell states that it was on "low, miry ground 
without a ditch." The stagnant water by which 
the post was surrounded would be productive 
of much ill-health, were there a longer sum- 
mer." The buildings of the Factory were also 
badly planned, and badly constructed, so that 
the Fort was unsuitable for quartering the Col- 
onists. Besides this, Messrs. Cook and Auld, 
the former Governor of York Factory, and the 



62 

Tord Selkirk's Colonists. 

latter chief officer of Fort Churchill, having 
the old Hudson's Ba: Company's spirit of dis- 
like of Colonists, decided that the new settlers, 
being an innovation and an evil, should have 
separate quarters built for them at a distance 
from the Fort. 
Poor Colonists! Miles Macdonell is wearied 
with them in their complaining spirit, berates 
them for indolence, and finds fault with their 
awkwardness as workmen. To Macdonell, who 
was a Canadian, accustomed as a soldier and 
frontiersman to dealing with canoes, boats, and 
every means of ]and transport, the sturdy, 
steady going 0rkneyman was slow and clumsy. 
The inexperienced new settler thus gets 
rather brusque treatment from the Colonial, 
more a good deal than he deserves. 
Accordingly it was decided to erect log dwel- 
lings for he workmen and the settlers on the 
higher ground north of the Nelson River. Sev- 
eral miles distant from the Factory itself, 
Sl, ruce trees of considerable size grew along 
the river, and so all hands were put to work to 
have huts or shanties erected to protect the Col- 
onists from the severe cold of winter, which 
would soon be upon them, although on October 
5th Miles Macdonell wrote home to Lord Sel- 
kirk: "The weather has been mild and pleas- 
ant for some days past." 
The erection of suitable houses, that is home- 



64 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

dance around the Encampment--checked the 
disease, wherever the obstinacy of the settlers 
did not prevent its use, for says Macdonell, 
"It is not an easy matter to get the Orkney- 
men to drink it, particularly the old hands." 
A smouldering fire of discontent that had been 
detected on board the ship on crossing the 
ocean now broke out into a flame. The Irish 
and the Orkneymen could not agree. In Feb- 
ruary the vigilant leader Macdonell writes: 
"The Irish displayed their native propensity 
and prowess on the first night of the year, by 
unmercifully beating some Orkneymen. Too 
mu.] strong drink was the chief incitement." 
This antipathy continued to be a difficulty even 
until the party arrived at Red River. 
There are signs in his letters, of the con- 
stant strain on Miles Macdonell arising from 
the difficulties of'his position and the wayward- 
nes of the Immigrants. At times he consults 
with the Hudson's Bay Company's officer, Mr. 
Hillier, and at others thus unbosoms himself to 
Messrs. Cook and Auld. "In this wild, deso- 
late and (I may add) barren re.on, excluded 
at present from all communication with the 
civilized world, intelligence of a local kind can 
alone be expected. Could we join in the sent- 
inel's cry of' All is well,  although not affording 
great changes, it might yet be satisfactory in 
our i.olated condition. We have as great variety 



A Winter of Discontent. 

65 

as generally happens in this sublunary world, 
of which we here form a true epitome, being 
composed of men of all countries, religions and 
tonoes." 
Plainly Governor Macdonell feels his lur- 
dens l However, the culmination of this 
ficer's troubles did not reach him until a seri- 
ous rebellion occurred among his subjects--so 
mixed and various. 
A workmanWilliam Finlay--presumably 
an Orkneyman, who had been regularly em- 
ployed by Miles Macdonell when the scurvy 
was bad in Mr. Hillier's camp, refused to obey 
he health r%olations, his one objection being 
to drink this spruce decoction. He was imme- 
diately dropped from work. A few days af- 
terward supposing the matter had blown over, 
Macdonell ordered him to work again. Finlay 
declined, whereupon, though under engagement 
he refused to further obey Macdonell. The 
Governor then brought him before Mr. Hillier, 
who like himself, had been made a magistrate. 
His breach of law in this, as in other matters 
being" brought against Finlay he was sentenced 
to confinement. There being no prison at 
York Factory it seemed difficult to carry out 
the sentence by his being simply confined with 
his other companions in the men's quarters. 
Accordingly the Governor ordered a single log 
hut to be constructed, and this being done, in 



66 

Lord Selki'k's Colonists. 

it the prisoner was confined. Not a day had 
entirely passed when a rebellion arose among 
some of his compatriots--the Scottish contin- 
gent from Orkney and Glasgow--and a band 
of thirteen of them surrounded the newly built 
hut, set it on fire and as it went up in smoke 
rescued the prisoner. 
The men were arrested and were brought be- 
fore Macdonell and Hillier, sitting as magis- 
trates. This was about the end of February. 
The rebels, however, defied the authorities, de- 
parted carrying Finlay with them and get- 
ting possession of a house took it defiantly for 
their own use. During their remaining so- 
journ at York Factory they subsisted on pro- 
visions obtained at the Factory itself and car- 
ried by themselve, from the post to the encamp- 
ment. Governor Macdonell, meantime, decided 
to send these rebellious spirits home to Britain 
for punishment, and not allow them to go on 
to Red River. 
The possession by the rioters of some five or 
six stand of firearms, was felt to be a menace 
to the peace of the encampment. An effort 
was made to obtain them by Macdonell, but 
"the insurgents," as they were called, secreted 
the arms and thus kept possession of them. In 
June on the rebels being very bold and being 
unable to get back across the Nelson River 
from the Factory for a number of days, they 



A Witttet" of Discottent. 

67 

were forced by Mr. Auld, then at York Factory, 
to give up their arms and submit or else have 
their supplies from the Factory stopped. Tley 
were thus compelled to submit and on the re- 
ceipt of a note from Mr. Auld to Macdonel], 
the latter wrote a joyful letter to Lord Se]- 
kirk to the effect thaat the insurgents had at 
length come to terms, acknowledged their guilt 
and thrown themselves upofi the mercy of the 
Hudson's Bay Committee. 
This surrender made it unnecessary to send 
the body of rioters back to England for trial. 
During the months of later winter Governor 
Miles Macdonell was specially employed in 
building boats for the journey up to Red River. 
He introduced a style of boat used on the rivers 
of New York, his native State. These, how- 
ever, he complains, were very badly constructed 
through the clumsiness and lack of skill of the 
Colonists and Company employees, whom he 
had ordered to build them. 
Now on July fourth, 1812, Governor Mac- 
donell, his Colonists, and the Hudson's Bay 
officials--Cook and Auld--are all gazing wist- 
fully up the Nelson and Hayes Rivers, and we 
have the postscript to the last letter as found 
in Miles Macdonell letter book, sent o Lord 
Selkirk, reading, "Four Irishmen are to be 
sent home; Higgins and Hart, for the felonious 
attack on the Orkneymen; William Gray, non- 



68 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

effective, and Hugh Redden, who lost his arm 
by the bursting of a gun given him to fire off 
by Mr. Brown, one of the Glasgow clerks." 
(Signed) H. MacD. 
The expedition left York Factory for the in- 
terior on the 6th of July, 1812. 



CHAPTEI V. 

FIRST FOOT ON RED IIVEI BANKS. 

The weary winter passing at Nelson En- 
campment had its bright spots. Miles Mac- 
donell in the building erected for himself, on 
the south side of the Nelson River, kept up 
his mess, having with him Mr. Hillier, Priest 
Bourke, Doctor Edwards, and Messrs. John 
McLeod, Whitford and Michael Macdonell, of- 
ricers and clerks. Those Immigrants who took 
no part in the rebellion fared well. True, the 
scurvy seized several of them, but proved 
harmless to those who obeyed the orders and 
took plentiful potations of spruce beer. With 
the opening year a fdr supply of fresh and 
dried venison was supplied by the Indians. In 
April upwards of thirty deer were snared or 
shot by the settlers. Some three thousand deer 
of several different kinds crossed the Nelson 
River within a month. "Fresh venison," writes 
Macdonell, "was so plenty that our men would 
not taste salt meat. We have all got better since 
we came to Hudson Bay." 
But as in all far northern climates the heat 



7O 

Lord Sclkb'k's Colonists. 

was great in the months of May and June, and 
Governor and Colonists became alike restless 
to start on the inland journey. 
The passing out of the ice in north-flowing 
rivers is always wearisome for those who are 
waiting to ascend. Beginning to melt farther 
south, the ice at the mouth is always last to 
move. Besides, the arrival was anxiously 
awaited of Bird, Sinclair and House. By con- 
tinuous urging of the dull and inefficient work- 
men to greater effort, Miles Macdonell had suc- 
ceeded in securing four boats--none too well 
built--but commodious enough to carry his boat- 
crews, workmen, and Colonists. 
Though Macdonell sought for the selection of 
the workmen who were to accompany him to 
Red River, he was not able to move the Hud- 
son's Bay Company officials. Two days, how-- 
ever, after arrival of the Company magnates 
from the interior his men were secured to him, 
and he was fully occupied in transporting his 
stores up the river as far as the " Rock "--the 
rapids of the tIill River which here falls into 
Hayes River. For a long distance up the river 
there is a broad stream, one-quarter of a mile 
wide, running at the rate of two miles an hour 
through low banks. The boatmen have a good 
steady pull up the river for some sixty miles, 
and here where the Steel River enters the 
Hayes is seen a wide, deep, rapid stream run- 



First Foot on Red Ri'cr Banks. 

71 

ning about three miles an hour. The banks of 
this river are of clay and rising from fifty 
to one hundred feet, the clay of the banks is so 
smooth and white that a traveller has compared 
them in color to the white, chalk cliffs of Dover. 
Thus far though it has required exertion on the 
part of the boatmen, a good stretch of a hun- 
dred miles from the Factory has been passed 
without any obstruction or delay. Now the seri- 
ous work of the journey begins. The Hill River, 
as this part of the river is called, is a series 
of rapids and portages--where the cargo and 
boat have both to be carried around a rapid; of 
decharges where the cargo has thus to be car- 
ried, and of semi-decharges--where a portion 
of the cargo only needs to be removed. 
At times waterfalls require to be circuited 
with great effort. A high mountain or elevated 
table-land seen from this river shows the rough 
country of which these cascades and rapids are 
the proof. Here are the White-Mud Falls and 
other smaller cataracts. To the expert voy- 
ageur such a river has no terrors, but to the 
raw-hand the management of such boats is a 
most toilsome work. The birch-bark canoe is 
a mere trifle on the portage, but the heavy 
York boat capable of carrying three or four tons 
is a clumsy lugger. The cargo must be moved, 
the non-effectives such as the women and chil- 
dren and the old men must trudge the weary 



72 

Lord Selkirk's Colo.tists. 

path, wrying from a few hundred yards to sev- 
eral miles along a rocky, steep and rugged way. 
When the portage is made the whole force of 
botmen and able-bodied passengers are re- 
quired to stand by each boat, pull it out of the 
water, and then skid or drag or cajole it along 
till it is thrust into its native element again. 
To the willing crofter or Orkney boatmen this 
was not a great task, but to the Glasgow immi- 
grant, or the lazy waiter--on--fortune this was 
hard work. Many were the oaths of the of- 
ricers and the complaints and objections of the 
men when they were required to grapple with 
the foaming cascades, the fearful rapids and the 
difficult portages of Hill River. Mossy Portage 
being now past the landing on a rocky island 
at the head of the river showed that the first 
"Hill Difficulty" had been overcome. 
Swampy lake for ten miles gives a compara 
tive rest to the toiling crews, but at the end of 
it a short portage passed takes the be]eaored 
1,,rty into the mouth of the Jack Tent River, 
Day after day with sound sleep when the mos- 
quitoes would permit, the unwilling voyageurs 
continued their journey. Ten portages have to 
be faced and overcome as the brigade ascends 
the rapid Jack Tent River, covering a stretch 
of seenty miles. The party now find them- 
selx-es on the surface of Knee Lake, a consider- 
able sheet of water, but a comparative rest after 



First Foot on Red liccr Baks. 

73 

the trials of Jack Tent River. The lake is fifty- 
six miles long and at times widens to ten miles 
across. 
But there is trouble just ahead. 
The travellers have now come to the cele- 
brated Fall Portage. It is short but deterrent. 
The height and ruggedness of the rocks over 
which cargo and boats have to be dragged are 
unusually forbidding. The only consolation to 
the contemplative soul, who does not have to 
portage, is that "The stream is turbulent and 
unfriendly in the extreme, but in romantic 
riety, and in natural beauty nothing can exceed 
this picture." High rocks are seen, beetling 
over the rapids like towers, and are rent into 
the most diversified forms, gay with various col- 
ored masses, or. shaded by overhanng hills-- 
now there is a tranquil pool lying like a sheet 
of sil'er--now the dash and foam of a cataract 
--these are but parts of this picturesque and 
striking scene. 
But Fall Portage was only a culmination, in 
this fiercely rushing Trout River, for abox'e it 
a dozen rapids are to be passed with toilsome 
energy. After this the party is rewarded with 
beautiful islets, and the lake for a length of 
thirty-five miles lies in a fertile tract of country. 
It was formerly appropriately called Holy Lake, 
and as a summit lake suggests to the traveller 
abiding restfulness. To the traders on their 



74 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

route whether passing up or down the water 
courses, it was always so. After the long and 
tedious voyaging it was their Elysium. lot 
only are the sweet surroundings of the lake 

ANDREW McDERMOTT ESQ. 
Greatest Merchant of the Red River Settlement. 
Came to Red River Settlement in a8x3. Died in Winnipeg in 88x. 

most charming, but the Indians of the neighbor- 
hood have always been noted for their good 
character, their docility and their industry. 
A short delay at Oxford House led to the con- 



First Foot on l;cd Rit' ' Baks. 

75 

tinuation of the journey over what ws now the 
roughest, most desolate, and most trying part of 
the voyage. On this rough passage, perhaps 
the most distressing spot was "Windy Lake," 
it small but tempestuous sheet. The voyageurs 
declare that they never cross "Lac de Vent" 
without encountering high winds and very often 
dangerous storms. Again "the Real Hill 
Difficulty" is encountered above the lake at the 
"Big Hill" portage and rapids--one of the sud- 
den descents of this alarming stream. Those 
coming toward Oxford Lake run it at the very 
risk of their lives, but the painful portages im- 
press themselves on all going up the "Height of 
Land," which is reached after passing through 
a narrow gorge between hills and mountains 
of rocks, the sream dashing headlong down 
from the mile-long Robinson Portage. 
This region is an elevafed, rugged waste, with 
no signs of animal life about it. It is the terror 
of the voyageurs. This eerie tract culminates 
in the ascending "Haute de Terre," as the 
French call it--the dividing ridge between the 
waters running eastward to Hudson Bay and 
those running westward and descending to meet 
the Nelson River, on its headlong way to Hud- 
son Bay as well. The obstacle known as the 
"Painted Stone" being passed the Colonists' 
brigade was now on its way to the inland plain 
of the Continent. 



76 

Lord Sclkirk's Colonists. 

The portage led from this string of five 
small lakes to the head waters of a trifling, but 
very interesting stream called the" Echimamish 
River." A doubtful but curious explanation has 
been given of the name. On the stream are 
ten beaver dams;which ever of these filled first 
gave the voyageur the opportunity to launch 
in his canoe or boat and go down the little run- 
way to Black Water Creek. It was said that in 
consequence it was called "Each-a-Man's" 
brook, according as each voyageur took the wa- 
ter with his craft first. The way was now clear, 
down stream until shortly was seen the dash- 
ing Nelson River, or as it is here called, "The 
Sea River." When this was accomplished the 
Immigrants had only to pull stoutly up stream 
for forty miles or more until Norway House, the 
great Hudson's Bay Fort at the north end of 
Lake Winnipeg was reached. 
The weary journey--430 miles from York 
Factory--was thus over and the worn out, wea- 
ther beaten, ragged, and foot-sore travellers had 
come to the lake, whose name, other than that 
of Red River, was the only inland word they 
had ever heard of before starting on their 
journey. 
It was the first standing place in the country, 
which was now to have them as its pioneers. 
There is no turning back now. The Rubicon 
is crossed. Thirty-seven portages lie between 



First Foot on Red Ri,er Banks. 

77 

them and the dissociable sea. For better or for 
worse they will now complete their journey, go- 
ing on to found the Settlement which has be- 
come so famous. . 
The appearance of Norway House with its 
fine site and evidences of trade cheered the Col- 
onists, and the sight of a body of water like 
Lake Winnipeg, which can be as boisterous as 
the ocean, brought back the loud resounding 
sea by whose swishing waves most of the set- 
tlers, for all their lives, had been lulled to sleep. 
It is a great stormy and dangerous lake--Lake 
Winnipeg. But for boats to creep along its 
shore with the liberty of landing on its sloping 
banks in case of need it is safe enough. The 
season was well past, and haste was needed, 
but in due time the mouth of the river 
--the delta of Red Rivermwas reached. 
Now they were within forty or forty-five miles 
of their destination. At this time the banks 
of the Red River were well wooded, though 
there was open grassy plains lying be- 
hind these belts of forest. There was only one 
obstruction on their way up the river. This 
was the "Deer," now St. Andrew's Rapids, 
but after their experiences this was nothing, for 
these rapids were easily overcome by track- 
ing, that is, by dragng the })oats by a line 
up the bank. 
Up the river they came and rounded what 



78 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

we now call Point Douglas, in the City of Win- 
nipeg, a name afterwards given to mark Lord 
Selkirk's family name. They had completed a 
journey of seven hundred and twenty-eight 
miles, from York Factory to the site of Winni- 
peg-and they had done this in fifty-five days. 
Now they landed. 

THE RED LETTER DAY OF THEIR LANDING WAS AUGUST 
30T, 1812. 

At York Factory the Colonists had met a 
Hudson's Bay Company officermPeter Fidler-- 
on his way to England. He was the strx-eyor 
of the Company and a map of the Colony of 
which a copy is given by us marks the Colony 
Gardens, where Governor Miles Macdonell 
lived. This spot they chose, and the locality 
at the foot of Rupert Street is marked in the 
City of Winnipeg. A stone's throw further 
north along the bank of Red River, Fort Doug- 
las was afterwards built, around which circles 
much of this Romantic Settlement Story. 
This spot was the centre of the First Settle- 
ment of Rupert's Land and to this first party 
peculiar interest attaches. 
There can only be one Columbus among all 
the navigators who crossed from Europe to 
America ; there can only be one Watt among all 
the inventors and improvers of the steam en- 
gine; only one Newton among those who dis- 



First Foot on Red River Banks. 

79 

cuss the great discovery of the basal law of 
gravitation. 
There can be only one first party of those who 
laid the foundation of collective family life in 
what is now the Province of Manitobamand 
what is widermin the great Western Canada of 
to-day. There may have been not many wise 
men, not many mighty, not many noble among 
them, but the long and stormy voyage which 
they made, the dangers they endured on the sea, 
the marvellous land journey they accomplished, 
and their taking "seisin of the land," to use 
William the Conqueror's phrase, entitles them 
to recoition and to respectful memory. 



CIIAPTER VI. 

THREE DESPERATE YEARS. 

Pioneering to-day is not so serious a matter 
as it once was. To the frontiers' man now it 
involves little risk, and little thought, to dispose 
of his holding, and make a dash further 
for two or three hundreds of miles across the 
plains, hVhen he wishes more land for his 
growing sons, he "sells out," fits up his com- 
modious covered wagon, called "the prairie 
schooner," and with implements, supplies, cat- 
tle and horses, starts on the Western "trail." 
His wife and children are in high spirits. When 
a running stream or spring is reached on the 
way he stops and camps. His journey taken 
when the weather is fine and when the mosqui- 
toes are gone is a diversion. The writer has 
seen a family which went through this gypsy- 
like "moving" no less than four times. At 
length the settler finds his location, has it reg- 
istered in the nearest Land Office and calls it 
his. With ready axes. the farmer and his sons 
cut down the logs which are to make their dwel- 
ling. The children explore the new farm lying 



"Th,'cc Desperate Years." 

81 

covered with its velvet sod, as it has done for 
centuries; they gather its flowers, pluck its wild 
fruits, chase its wild ducks or grouse or go- 
phers. Health and homely fare make life en- 
joyable. Subject to the incidents and interrup- 
tions of every day, which follow humanity, it 
seems to them a continual picnic. 
But how different was the fate of the worn- 
out Selkirk Colonists. The memory of a 
wretched sea voyage, of a long and dreary win- 
ter at Nelson Encampment, and of a fifty-five 
days' journey of constant hardship along the 
fur traders' route were impressed upon their 
minds. The thought of fierce rivers and the 
dangers of portage and cascade still haunted 
them, and now everything on the banks of Red 
River was strange. On their arrival the flowers 
were blooming, but they were prairie flowers, 
and unknown to them. The small Colony houses 
which they were to occupy would be uncomfor- 
table. The very sun in the sky seemed alien to 
them, for the Highland drizzle was seen no 
more. The days were bright, the weather warm, 
the nights cool, and there was an occasional 
August thunderstorm, or hailstorm which 
alarmed them. The traders, the Indians, the 
half-breed trappers, and runners were all new 
to them. Their Gaelic language, which they 
claimed as that of Eden, was of little value to 
them except where an occasional company-ser- 



82 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

vant chanced to be a countryman of their own. 
They were without money, they were dependent 
upon Lord Se]kirk's agents for shelter and 
rations. The land which they hoped to possess 
was there awaiting them, but they had no means 
for purchasing implements, nor were the farm- 
ing requisites to be found in the country. Horses 
there were, but there were only two or three in- 
dividual cattle within five hundred miles of 
them. 
If they had sung on their sorrowful leaving, 
"Lochaber no more," the words were now 
turned by their depressed Highland natures 
into a wail, and they sang in the words of their 
old Psalms of "Rouse's" version: 

"By Babel's streams we sat and wept, 
When Zion we thought on." 

They thought of their crofts and clachans, 
where if the land was stingy, the gift of the 
sea was at hand to supply abundant food. 
But this was no time for sighs or regrets. 
The Hudson's Bay traders from Brandon 
House were waiting for expected goods, and 
Messrs. ttillier and Heney, who were the Hud- 
son's Bay Company officers for the East Win- 
nipeg District, had arduous duties ahead of 
them. But though the orders to prepare for 
the Colonists had been sent on in good time, 



Lord S,lkb'k's Colo,ists. 

the information of the French Canadians. 
There was an officers' guard under arms; colors 
were flying and after the reading of the Patent 
all the artillery belonging to Lord Selkirk, as 
well as that of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
under Mr. Hillier, consisting of six swivel 
ons, were discharged in a grand salute. 
At the close of the ceremony the gentlemen 
were invited to the Governor's tent, and a keg 
of spirits was turned out for the people. 
Having made such disposition as we shall 
see of the people, Governor Macdonell went 
with a boat's crew down the river to make a 
choice of a place of settlement for the Colonists. 
A bull and cow and winter wheat had been 
brought with the party, and these were taken 
to a spot selected after a three da),s' thorough 
investigation of both banks of the river for 
some miles below the Forks. The place found 
most eli;ible was "an extensive point of land 
through which fire had run and destro),ed the 
wood, there bein.a' only brnt wood and weeds 
left." This was afterwards called Point 
Douglas. 
He had, as we shall see, dispatched the set- 
tlers to their wintering place up the Red River 
on the 6th of September, and set some half- 
dozen men, who were to stay at the Forks, to 
work clearing the ground for sowing winter 



"Three Desperate Years." 

91 

tlers were on the older Company for supplies 
and assistance this was nothing less than an 
act of madness. 
By proclamation, on the 8th of January, 1814, 
Macdonell forbade any traders of "The Hon- 
orable Hudson's Bay Company, the North- 
West Company, or any individual or uncon- 
nected trader whatever to take out any pro- 
visions, either of flesh, grain or vegetables, 
from the country. 
The embargo was complete. 
In Governor Macdonell's defence it should 
be said that he offered to pay by British bills 
for all the provisions taken, at customary rates. 
This assertion of sovereignty set on fire the 
Nor'-Westers and their sympathizers. 
Not only was this extreme step taken, but 
John Spencer, a subordinate of Macdonell was 
sent west to Brandon House, found an en- 
trance into the North-West Fort at the mouth 
of the Souris River and seizing some twenty- 
five tons of dry buffalo meat took it into lis 
own fort. 
It is quite true that Governor Macdonell ex- 
pected new bands of Colonists and thus justi- 
fied himself in his seizure. It is to the credit 
of the Nor'-Westers that they restrained them- 
selves and avoided a general conflict, but evi- 
dently they only bided their time. 
No breach of the peace occurred however, 



92 Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

before the return of the Colonists from Pem- 
bina to the Colony Houses. The settlers oc- 
cupied their homes in the best of spirits, and 
began to sow their wheat, but they were still 
greatly checked by the absence of the common- 
est implements of farm culture. Had Lord 
Selkirk known the true state of things on Red 
River, he would never have continued to send 
new bands of Colonists so imperfectly fitted 
for dealing with the cultivation of the soil. 
The founder's mind had been fired, both by 
tle opposition of Sir Alexander Mackenzie 
and by the successful arrival of his two bands 
of Colonists at the Red River, to make greater 
efforts than ever. 
This he did by sending out a third party in 
all nearly a. hundred strong, under the leader- 
ship of a very capable man--Archibald Mac- 
donald. This band of settlers in 1813 were 
bound on the ship Prince of Wales for York 
Factory. A very serious attack of ship fever 
filled the whole ship's crew with alarm. Sev- 
eral well-known Colonists died. The Captain, 
alarmed, refused to go on to his destination, 
but ran the ship into Fort Churchill and there 
disembarked them. Further deaths took place 
at this point. In the spring there was no 
resource but to trudge over the rocky ledges 
and forbidding desolation of more than a hun- 
dred miles between the Fort Churchill and 



"Three Desperate Years." 

93 

York Factory. Only the stronger men and 
women were selected for the journey. On the 
6th of April, 1814, a party of twenty-one males 
and twenty females started on this now cele- 
brated tramp. At first the party began to 
march in single file, but finding this inconven- 
ient changed to six abreast. Unaccustomed to 
snowshoes and sleds the Colonists found the 
snowy walk very distressing. Three fell by the 
way and were carried on by the stronger men. 
The weather was very cold. A supply of part- 
ridges was given them on starting', and the 
l)arty was met by hunters sent from York 
tory to meet them, who brought two hundred 
partridges, killed by the way. York Factory 
was reached on the 13th of April. This band 
or' Colonists were superior to any who had 
come in the former parties. Many of them, as 
we shall see, did not remain in the Colony. A 
list of this party may be found in the Appendi. 
After remaining a month at York Factor)', on 
the 27th of May, this heroic band went on their 
way to Red River, and reached their destina- 
tion in time to plant potatoes for themselves 
and others. Comrades left behind at Church- 
ill found their way to Red River. Lots along 
Red River were now being taken up by the 
settlers, and here they sought to found homes 
under a northern sky. Old and new settlers 
were now hopeful, but their hopes of peace 



94 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

and happiness were soon to be dashed to 
pieces. 
The arrival of the third year's Colonists pro- 
voked still greater opposition. Feeling had 
been gradually rising aamst the new. settlers 
at every new arrival. The excellence of the 
later immigrants but led their opponents to be 
irritated. 



CHAPTER VII. 

FIGHT AND FLIGHT. 

The year 1815 was a year of world-wide dis- 
aster. Napoleon's Europe-shadowing wings 
had for years been over that continent and he 
like a ravenous bird had left marks of his rav- 
ages among the most prominent European na- 
tions. The world had a breathing spell for 
a short time with Napoleon a virtual prisoner 
in Elba, but now in March of this year he broke 
from the perch where he had been tethered and 
all Europe was again in terror. The nations 
were thunderstruck;the alarm was deepened by 
the appearance of Olber's great comet, and in 
their superstition the ignorant were panic- 
stricken, while the more religious and informed 
saw in these terrible events the scenes pictured 
in the Apocalypse and maintained that the bat- 
tle of Armageddon was at hand. The epoch- 
marking battle of Waterloo in June of this 
year was sufficiently near the picture of blood 
painted in the Revelation to satisfy the 
credulous. 
But in a remote corner of Rupert's Land, 



96 

Lord Sclkirk's Colonists. 

where the number of the combatants was small 
and the conditions exceedingly primitive the 
comet was alarming enough. The action of 
Governor Miles Macdonell in the beginnin 
of 1814, in forbidding the export of food 
from Rupert's Land and in interfering with the 
liberty of the traders, Indians and half-breeds, 
who had regarded themselves as outside of law, 
and as free as the wind of their wild prairies, 
produced an open and out-spoken dissent from 
every class. 
The Nor'-Westers took time to consider the 
grave step of interrulting trade which Gov- 
ernor Miles Macdonell had taken. Immediate 
action was im])ossible. It was four hundred 
miles and more from the Colony to the great 
emporium of the fur trade on Lake Superior. 
The annual gathering of the Nor'-Westers was 
held at Grand Portage, the terminus of a road 
nine miles long, built to avoid the rapids of 
the Pigeon River which flows into Lake Su- 
perior some thirty or forty miles southwest 
of where Fort Villiam now stands. This con- 
course was a notable affair. From distant 
Athabasca, from the Saskatchewan, from the 
Red River and from Lake Vinnipeg, the trad- 
ers gathered in their gaily decked canoes, to 
meet the gentlemen from Montreal, who came 
to count the gains of the year, and lay out 
plans for the future. Indians gathered outside 



98 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

for his success would strike at the very exist- 
ence of our trade." 
The two men chosen at the gathering in 
Grand Portage were well fitted for their work. 
Most forward was Alexander Macdonell. On 
his journey writing to a friend he said: "Much 
is expected of us .... So here is at them 
with all my heart and energy." But the mas- 
ter-mind was his companion Duncan Cameron 
who, as a leader, stands out in the conflicts 
of the times as a determined man, of great 
executive ability, but of fierce and over-bear- 
ing disposition. The Nor'-Westers, having 
planned bloodshed, all agreed that Duncan 
Cameron was well chosen. He had been a lead- 
ing explorer and trader in the Lake Superior 
district and knew the fur traders' route as few 
others did. His well-nigh thirty years of ser- 
vice made him a man of outstanding influence 
in the Company. Moreover, he could be bland 
and jovial. He had the Celtic adroitness. He 
knew how to ingratiate himself with every class 
and possessed all the devices of an envoy. His 
appearance and dress at Red River were not- 
able. Having had some rank as a U. E. Loy- 
alist leader in the war of 1812, he came to the 
Forks dressed in a scarlet military coat with all 
the accoutrements of a Captain in the Army. 
He even made display of his Captain's Com- 
mission by posting it at the gate of Fort Gib- 



Fight and Flight. 

99 

raltar. Of the Fort itself he took possession 
as Bourgeois or master and laid his plans in 
August, 1814, for the destruction of the Selkirk 
Colony. Cameron then began a systematic 
course of ingratiating himself with the Colon- 
ists. Speaking, as he did the Gaelic language, 
he appealed with much success to his country- 
men. He represented himself as their friend 
and stirred up the people of Red River against 
Selkirk tyranny. He pictured to them their 
wrongs, the broken promises of the founder, 
and the undesirability of remaining in the 
Colony. He brought the settlers freely to his 
table, treating them openly to the beverage of 
their native country, and completely captured 
the hearts of a number of them. Those, friends 
of his, he made use of to carry out his deep 
plans. On the very day of the issue of the ra- 
tions, he induced some of the Colonists to de- 
mand the nine small cannon in the Colony 
store houses. The request was refused by 
Archibald Macdonald, the acting Governor. The 
settlers then went forward, broke open the 
store housees and removed the cannon. Mac- 
donald now arrested the leading settler, who 
had tao.n the field pieces, whereupon Cameron, 
like a small Napoleon, incited his clerks and 
men, to invade the Governor's house and re- 
lease the prisoner. This was done, and now it 
may be said that war between the rival Corn- 



Fight ad Fbight. 103 

of more than a thousand miles. By the 
end of July they had gone over the dangerous 
Fur traders' route and passing over four or 
five hundred miles reached Fort William, near 
Lake Superior. But their journey was not one- 
half over. Along the base of the rugged shores 
of Lake Superior, through the St. Mary's River, 
down the foaming Sault and then along the 
shores of Georgian Bay, they paddled their 
way to Penetanguishene. From this point they 
crossed southward to Holland Landing, which 
is forty miles north of Toronto, and arrived 
at their destination on the 5th of September. 
It is hard to find a parallel for such a jour- 
ney. They were a large body, made up of men, 
women, and children, continuously journeying 
for eighty-two days, through an unsettled and 
barren country, running dangerous rapids, and 
exposed to storms with a poorly organized com- 
missariat, and under fear of pursuit by the 
agents of Lord Selkirk, to whom many of them 
were personally bound. In the township of 
West Gwil]inbury, north of Toronto, near Lon- 
don, and in the Talbot settlement, near St. 
Thomas--all in Upper Canadamthey received 
their ]ands. Half a century later, in one of 
the townships north of Toronto, the writer had 
pointed out to him a man named MacBeth 
weighing two hundred and fifty pounds, of 
whom it was humourously told that he had 



104 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

been carried all the way from Red River. The 
explanation of course was, that he had been 
brought as an infant on this famous Hegira 
of the Selkirk Colonists. 
The finishing of Cameron's work on the Red 
River, was handed over to Alexander Macdon- 
ell. The plan was nothing less than that the 
settlers remaining should be driven by force 
from the banks of Red River. The party led 
by Macdonell was made up of Bois-Bruls, un- 
der dashing young Cuthbert Grant. On their 
agile ponies they appeared like scouring Huns, 
to drive out the discouraged remnant of 
Colonists. 
Each remaining settler was on the 25th of 
June served with a notice sined by four Nor'- 
We,ters, thus: 
"All settlt, rs to retire immediately from Red 
River, and no trace of a settlement to remain." 
(Sioed) Cuthbert Grant, etc. 
Two day. after the notice was served the be- 
leaguered settl,rs, made up of some thirteen 
familie.--in all from forty to sixty persons, 
who had remained true to Lord Selkirk and 
the Col,nymwent forth from their homes 
as sadly as the Acadian refugees from 
Grand PrS. They were allowed to take with 
them such belongings as they had, and in boats 
and other craft went pensively down Red 
River with Lake Vinnipeg and Jack River 



Fight ad Flight. 

105 

in view as their destination. The house of the 
Governor, the mill, and the buildings which the 
settlers had begun to build upon their lots were 
all set on fire and destroyed. 
The U. E. Loyalists of Upper Canada and 
Nova Scotia draw upon our sympathies in their 
sufferings of hunger and hardship, but they 
afford no parallel to the discouragement, dan- 
gers, and dismay of the Selkirk Colonists. 
Alexander Macdonel]'s party of seventy or 
eighty mounted men easily carried out this work 
of destruction. There was one fly in the oint- 
ment for them. The small Hudson's Bay 
House built by Fid]er still remained. Here a 
daring Celt, John McLeod, was in charge. See- 
ing the temper of Macdone]l's levy McLeod 
determined to fortify his rude castle. Beside 
the trading house of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany stood the blacksmith's shop. Hurriedly 
McLeod, with a cart, carried thither the three- 
pounder cannon in his possession, then cut up 
lengths of chain to be his shot and shell, used 
with care his small supply of powder and with 
three or four men, his only garrison, stood to 
his gun and awaited the attack of the Bois- 
Bruls. Being on horseback his assailants 
could not long face his one piece of artillery. 
It is not known to what extent the assailants 
suffered in the skirmish, but John Warren, a 
gentleman of the Hudson's Bay Company, was 



CHAPTER VIII. 

NO SURRENDER. 

The crisis has come. The Colony seems to 
be blotted out. The affair may appear small, 
being nothing more than the defence of the 
smithy, with one gun and the most primitive 
contrivances, yet as 1Hercutio says of his 
wound: " 'Tis not so deep as a well, nor so 
wide as a church door; but it is enough." 
The plucky McLeod, with three men held his 
fort and though the dusky Bois-brul6s on their 
prairie ponies for a time hovered about yet 
they did not dare to approach the spiteful lit- 
tle field piece. The Metis soon betook them- 
selves westward to their own district of Qu'- 
.ppelle. 
The danger being over for the present, John 
McLeod began to restore the Colony buildings 
and even to aim at greater things than had been 
before. 
One of the most discourang things in con- 
nection with the Selkirk Colony was the long 
sea voyage and the difficult la.nd-ourney neces- 
sary, not only to gain assistance, but even to 
receive information from the founder in 



CHAPTER VIII. 

NO SURRENDER. 

The crisis has come. The Colony seems to 
be blotted out. The affair may appear small, 
being nothing more than the defence of the 
smithy, with one gun and the most primitive 
contrivances, yet as Mercutio says of his 
wound: " 'Tis not so deep as a well, nor so 
wide as a church door; but it is enough." 
The plucky McLeod, with three men held his 
fort and though the dusky Bois-brul6s on their 
prairie ponies for a time hovered about yet 
they did not dare to approach the spiteful lit- 
tle field piece. The Metis soon betook them- 
selves westward to their own district of Qu'- 
Appelle. 
The danger being over for the present, John 
McLeod began to restore the Colony buildings 
and even to aim at greater things than had been 
before. 
One of the most discouraging things in con- 
nection with the Se]kirk Colony was the long 
sea voyage and the difficult land-journey neces- 
sary, not only to gain assistance, but even to 
receive information from the founder in 



108 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

Britain for the guidance of the officers in Red 
River settlement. This being the case McLeod 
could not wait for orders and so as being tem- 
porarily in charge of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany district at Red River, he planned a fort 
and proceeded at once to build a portion of it. 
Fortunately across the Red River in what is 
now the town of St. Boniface, he found the 
freemen who were willing to help him. He im- 
mediately hired a number of these and began 
work on the new fort. 
Somewhat lower down the Red River than 
the Colony gardens he selected a site on the 
river banks, now partially fallen in, where 
George Street at the present days ends. Here 
McLeod began to erect a Governor's House, 
having confidence that the founder would not 
desert his Colony. Along with this important 
project, expecting that the Colonists xvould 
return, he turned his men upon the fields of 
grain--small, but to them very precious. The 
yield in this year was good. He also erected 
new fences and cured for the settlers quanti- 
ties of hay from the swamp lands. 
McLeod states in his diary--of which a copy 
of the original is in the Provincial Library in 
Winnipeg--that Fort Douglas was on the south 
side of Point Douglas, so called from Lord Sel- 
kirk's family name, and which McLeod has 
some claim to have so christened. 



110 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

Wester emmissaries, the founder immediately 
sought for a competent successor to Macdo- 
nell, and determined to send out the best and 
strongest party of settlers that had yet been 
gathered. 
He appointed, backed by all the influence of 
the Hudson's Bay Company, a retired officer, 
Captain Robert Semple. The new Governor 
was of American origin, born in Philadelphia, 
but had been in the British army. He was a 
distinctly high-class man, though Masson's es- 
timate is probably true--" A man not very con- 
ciliatory, it is true, but intelligent, honorable 
and a man of integrity." I-le was an author 
of some note, but as it proved, too good or too 
inexperienced a man for the lawless region to 
which he was sent. 
It would have been almost useless to de- 
spatch a new Governor to the Red River set- 
tlement unless there had also been obtained a 
number of settlers to fill the place of those so 
skillfully led away by Duncan Cameron. Lord 
Selkirk now secured the best band of Emi- 
grants attainable. These were from a rural 
parish on the East Coast of Sutherlandshire in 
Scotland. They were from Helmsdale and 
from the parish of Kildonan and the noble 
founder afterwards conferred this name on 
their new parish on the banks of the Red 
River. The names of Matheson, Bannerman, 



No Surrender. 

111 

Sutherland, Polson, Gunn and the like show the 
sturdy character of this band whose descen- 
dents are taking their full part in the affairs 
of the Province of Manitoba of to-day. Gov- 
ernor Semple accompanied this party of about 
one hundred settlers, and by way of the Hud- 
son Bay route reached the Red River Settle- 
ment in the same year in which they started. 
They joined the restored settlers, whom Colin 
Robertson had placed upon their lands again. 
With Governor Semple's contingent came 
James Sutherland, an elder of the Church of 
Scotland, who was authorized to baptize and 
marry. He was the first ordained man who 
reached the Selkirk Colony. The influx of new 
and old settlers to the Colony, and the imper- 
fect preparations made for their shelter and 
sustenance led to the whole Company betaking 
itself for the winter to Pembina, where at Fort 
Daer they might be within reach of the buffalo 
herds. Governor Semple accompanied the set- 
tlers to Pembina, though Alexander Macdonell 
had charge for the winter. In October of 
1815, as the settlers were preparing for their 
winter quarters, the authorities of the Colony 
thought it right to seize Fort Gibraltar, and to 
retake the field pieces and other property of 
the Colony, which the "Nor'-Westers" had 
captured. This was done and Duncan Cameron 
who had returned was also taken prisoner. 



112 Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 



114 

Lord Selkirk'8 Colonists. 

The new Governor, however, unaware of the 
real state of matters in Rupert's Land and prob- 
ably ignorant of the claim of Canada to the 
West, and of the force of a customary occupa- 
tion of the land, procured with high-handed 
zeal a further reprisal. Before Colin Robert- 
son had gone to conduct Cameron to York Fac- 
tory the Governor and Robertson had discussed 
the advisability of dismantling Fort Gibraltar. 
To this course Robertson, knowing the irrita- 
tion which this would cause to the Nor'-West- 
ers strongly objected. For the time the pro- 
posal was dropped, but when Robertson had 
gone, then the Governor proceeded with  force 
of thirty men to pull down Gibraltar, which was 
done in a week. The stockade was taken down, 
carried to the Red River and made into a 
raft. Upon this was piled the material of the 
buildings, and the whole was floated to the site 
of Fort Douglas and used in erecting a new 
structure and fully completing the Fort which 
John McLeod had begun. The same aggressive 
course was pursued under orders from the Gov- 
ernor in regard to Pembina House which was 
captured, its occupants sent as prisoners to 
Fort Douglas, and its stores confiscated for the 
use of the Colony. The spirit shown by Gov- 
ernor Semple, it is suggested, had something of 
the same treatment as that given to the Colon- 
ists by the official classes in England against 



No Surrender. 

115 

which Edmund Burke burst out with such ve- 
hemence in his great orations. 
Governor Semple's course would not satisfy 
Colin Robertson nor would it have been ap- 
proved by Lord Selkirk. The course was his 
own and fully did he afterwards pay the price 
for his aggressions. 
The last acts of Governor Semple as the re- 
port of them was carried westward and re- 
peated over the camp fires of the Nor'-Westers 
and their Bois-brulSs horsemen and voyageurs 
caused the most violent excitement. The Metis 
claimed a right in the soil from their Indian 
mothers. The Indian title had never been ex- 
tinguished and afterwards Lord Selkirk found 
it necessary to make a treaty and satisfy the 
Indian claim. The Nor'-Westers were also by 
a good number of years the first occupants of 
the Red River district. The Canadian discov- 
ery of the West by French traders, the daring 
occupation by Findlay, the Frobishers, Thomp- 
son, and Sir Alexander Mackenzie all from 
Montrea| even to the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, 
seemed strong to Canadians as against the un- 
defined and shadowy claim to the soil of Lord 
Selkirk and his officers. 
Certain signs of coming trouble might have 
pressed themselves upon Governor Semple. He 
had eyes but he saw not. 
The Indians, it is true, with their reverence 



116 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

for King George III., and showing their silver 
medals with the old King's face upon them, 
were disposed to take sides with the British 
Company. This may have confirmed Semple 
in the tyrannical course he had followed, but 
had he studied the action of the free traders 
it might have opened his eyes. Just as certain 
animals of the prairie exposed to enemies have 
an instinctive feeling of coming danger, so these 
denizens of the plains felt the approach of trou- 
ble, and with their wives and half-breed chil- 
dren betook themselves--bag and baggage--to 
the far Western plains where the buffalo runs, 
and remained there to let the storm blow past, 
to return to the "Forks" in more peaceful 
times. 
Lord Selkirk, Lady Selkirk, with his Lord- 
ship's son and two daughers, were on the other 
hand drawing nearer to the scene of conflict, as 
they came to Montreal in the summer of 1815. 
In the spring Lord Selkirk started westward 
to see the vast estate which he possessed, but 
alas! only to see it in the throes of division, of 
excited passion and of bloody conflict, and to 
face one of the greatest catastrophes of new 
world Colonization. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SEVEN OAKS MASSACRE. 

Semple's course is on trial. Self-assertion 
and dictation bring their own penalty with 
them. That so experienced a leader as Colin 
Robertson, who had been in both Companies, 
who knew the native element, and was ac- 
quainted with the daring and recklessness of 
the Nor'-Wester leaders, hesitated about de- 
molishing Fort Gibraltar should have given 
Governor Semple pause. Ignorance and inex- 
perience sometimes give men rare courage. But 
while Semple was self-confident he could not be 

exonerated from 
rashness. 
Undoubtedly the 

paying the price of his 

Governor knew that the 

"Nor'-Westers" after their aggressiveness dur- 
ing the yea.r 1815 were planning an attack upon 
Fort Douglas and upon the Colonists. Letters 
intercepted by the Governor acquainted him 
with the fact that an expedition was comin, 
from Fort William in the East to fall upon the 
devoted Colon)'; also a letter from Qu'Appelle 
written by Cuthbert Grant, the young Bois- 



118 

Lord Selkirk's Coloists. 

bruls leader, to John Dugald Cameron, stated 
that the native horsemen were coming in the 
spring from the Saskatchewan forts to join 
those of Qu'Appelle, and says the writer, "It 
is hoped we shall come off with flying colors, 
and never to see any of them again in the Col- 
onizing way in Red River." 
The evidence in hand was clear enough to the 
Governor. He expected the attack, and as a 
soldier he took action from the military stand- 
point in destroying the enemy's base in level- 
ling their Fort Gibraltar. But on the other 
hand there was no open war. The forms of law 
were being followed by the Nor'-Westers, whose 
officers were magistrates, and who held that by 
the authorization of the British Parliament the 
administration of justice in the Western Ter- 
ritories was given over to Canada. The de- 
cision afterwards given in the De Reinhard 
case in Quebec seems against this theory, but 
this was the popular opinion. 
Thus it came about that among the Hudson's 
Bay Company fur traders, who were somewhat 
doubtful about Lord Selkirk's movement, and 
certainly among all the "Nor'-Westers," who 
included the French Canadian voyageur popula- 
tion, Governor Semple's action was looked upon 
as illegal and unjust in destroying Fort Gib- 
raltar and appropriating its materials for build- 
ing up the Colony HeadquartersuFort Douglas. 



Seven Oaks Massacre. 

119 

As the spring opened the wildest rumours of 
approaching conflict spread through the whole 
fifteen hundred miles of country from Fort Wil- 
liam on Lake Superior, to the Prairie Fort, 
where Edmonton now stands on the North Sas- 
katchewan. The excitement was especially high 
in the Qu'Appelle district, some three hundred 
miles west of Red River. 
As the spring of 1815 opened, all eyes were 
looking to the action of the "New Nation" on 
the Qu'Appelle River as the Bois-bru](.s under 
Cuthbert Grant called themselves. As the whole 
of these events were afterwards investigated 
by the law courts of Upper Canada, there is 
substantial agreement about the facts. The 
first violence of the season is described by 
Lieutenant Pambrun, a most accurate writer. 
He had served in the war of 1812 and gained 
distinction. On entering the Hudson's Bay 
Company service he was sent to Qu'Appelle 
district. In order to supply food at Fort Doug- 
las Pambrun started down the river to reach 
the Fort by descendin the Assiniboine with 
five boat loads of pemmican and furs. At a 
landing place in the river Pambrun's convoy 
was surrounded and his goods seized l)y Cuth- 
bert Grant, Pambrun himself being kept for five 
days as a prisoner. While in custody Pambrun 
saw every evidence of war-like intentions on the 
part of the half-breeds. Cuthbert Grant fre- 



120 

Lord Sclkirk's Colonists. 

quently announced their determination to de- 
stroy the Selkirk Settlement; in boastful lan- 
guage it was declared that the Bois-bruISs 
would bow to no authority in Rupert's Land; 
in their gatherings they sang French war-songs 
to keep up the spirit of their corps. There was 
a ring of growing nationality in all their ut- 
terances. 
A start was made late in May for the scene 
of action. Their prisoner Lieutenant Pambrun 
was taken with them and the captured pemmi- 
can was carried along as supplies for the 
journey. 
On the way an episode of some moment oc- 
curred. On the river bank a band of Cree In- 
dians was encamped. 
Commander Macdonell addressed the redmen 
through an interpreter to incite them to action. 
A portion of his address was: 
My Friends and Relations,--"I address you 
bashfully, for I have not a pipe of tobacco to 
give you.... The English have been spoiling 
the fair lands which belonged to you and the 
Bois-bruls and to which they have no right. 
They have been driving away the buffalo. You 
will soon be poor and miserable if the English 
stay. But we will drive them away, if the Im 
dian does not, for the "Nor'-West" Company 
and the Bois-bruls are one. If you (turning, 



Oaks Massacre. 

121 

to the chief) and some of your young men will 
join I shall be glad." 
But the taciturn Indian Chief coldly declined 
the polite proposal. As the party passed Bran- 
don House Pambrun saw in the North-West 
Fort near by, tobacco, tools and furs, which had 
been captured by the Nor'-Westers from the 
Hudson's Bay Company fort. When Portage 
la Prairie was reached--about sixty miles from 
"The Forks "--the Bois-bruls calvalcade was 
organized. 
The half-breeds were mounted on their prairie 
steeds and formed a company of sixty men un- 
der command of Cuthbert Grant. Dressed in 
their blue capotes and encircled by red sashes 
the men of this irregular cavalry had an impos- 
ing effect, especially as they were provided with 
every variety of arms from muskets and pistols 
down to bows and arrows. They were all ex- 
pert riders and could equal in their feats on 
horseback the fabled Centaurs. 
Down the Portage road which is a prolonga- 
tion of the great business street of Winnipeg 
running to the West, they came. On the 19th 
of June, 1816, they had arrived within four 
miles of the Colony headquartersFort Doug- 
las. Here at BoggT Creek, called also Cat-Fsh 
Creek, a Council of War was held. Some im- 
portance has been attached to their action at 
this point, as showing their motive. That they 



122 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

did not intend to attack Fort Douglas has been 
maintained, else they would not have turned off 
the Portage Road and have crossed the prairie 
to the Northeast. There is nothing in this con- 
tention. The plan of campaign was that the 
Fort William expedition and they were to meet 
at some point on the banks of Red River, before 
they took further action. Showing how well 
both parties had timed their movements, at this 
very moment those coming from the East under 
Trader Alexander McLeod, had reached a small 
tributary of Red River some forty miles from 
Fort Douglas. That they at present wished to 
avoid Fort Douglas is certainly true. Governor 
Semp]e and his garrison were on the look-out, 
and the alarm being given, the party from the 
forth. Was it to parley? or to 

Fort sallied 
fight? 
The events 

which followed are well told in 
the evidence given by Mr. John Pritchard, who 
afterwards acted as Lord Selkirk's secretary. 
Mr. Pritchard was the grandfather of the pre- 
sent Archbishop Matheson of Rupert's Land. 
His evidence has been in almost every respect 
corroborated by other eye-witnesses of this 
bloody event: 
"On the evening of the 19th of June, 1816, 
I had been upstairs in my own room, in Fort 
Douglas, and about six o'clock I heard the boy 
at the watch house give the alarm that the 



Seven Oaks Massacre. 

123 

Bois-bruls were coming. A few of us, among 
whom was Governor Semple--there were per- 
haps six altogether--looked through a spy- 
glass, from a place that had been used as a 
stable, and we distinctly saw armed persons go- 
ing along the plains. Shortly after, I heard the 
same boy call out, that the party on horse- 
back were making to the settlers." 
"About twenty of us, in obedience to the 
Governor," who said, 'We must go and see 
what these people are, ' took our arms. He could 
only let about twenty go, at least he told about 
twenty to follow him, to come with him; there 
was, however, some confusion at the time, and 
I believe a few more than twenty accompanied 
us. Having proceeded about half a mile .to- 
wards the settlement, we saw, behind a point 
of wood which goes down to the river, that the 
party increased very much. Mr. Semple, there- 
fore, sent one of the people (Mr. Burke) to the 
Fort for a piece of cannon and as many men as 
Mr. Miles Macdonell could spare. Mr. Burke, 
however, not returning soon, Governor Semple 
said, 'Gentlemen, we had better go on, and 
we accordingly proceeded. We had not gone 
far before we saw the Bois-bruls returning to- 
wards us, and they divided into two parties, and 
surrounded 

half-circle. 

the settlers 

us in the shape of a half-moon or 
On our way, we met a number of 
crying, and speaking in the Gaelic 



Se,e Oaks Massacre. 125 

language, which I do not understand, and they 
went on to the Fort. 
"The party on horseback had got pretty near 
to us, so that we could discover that they were 
painted and disguised in the most hideous man- 
ner; upon this, as they were retreating, a 
Frenchman named Boucher advanced, waving 
his hand, riding up to us, and calling out in 
broken English, "What do you want? What 
do you want?' Governor Semple said. 'What 
do you want?' Mr. Burke not coming on with 
the cannon as soon as he was expected, the Gov- 
ernor directed the party to proceed onwards; 
we had not gone far before we saw the Bois- 
bruls returning upon us. 
"Upon observing that they were so numerous, 
we had extended our line, and got more into the 
open plain;as they advanced, we retreated; but 
they divided themselves into two parties, and 
surrounded us again in the shape of a half- 
moon. ' ' 
"Boucher then came out of the ranks of his 
party, and advanced towards us (he was on 
horseback), calling out in broken English, 
'Vhat do you want ? What do you want ?' Gov- 
ernor Semple answered, 'What do you want?' 
To which Boucher answered, 'We want our 
Fort.' The Governor said, 'Well, go to your 
Fort.' After that I did not hear anything that 
passed, as they were close together. I saw the 



126 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

Governor putting his hand on Boucher's gun. 
Expecting an attack to be made instantly, I had 
not been looking at Governor Semple and 
Boucher for some time; but just then I hap- 
pened to turn my head that way, and imme- 
diately I heard a shot, and directly afterwards 
a general firing. I turned round upon hearing 
the shot, and saw Mr. Holte, one of our officers, 
struggling as if he were shot. He was on the 
ground. On their approach, as I have said, we 
had extended our line on the plain, by each tak- 
ing a place at a greater distance from the other. 
This had been done by the Governor's orders, 
and we each took such places as best suited our 
individual safety. 
"From not seeing the firing begin, I cannot 
say from whom it first came; but immediately 
upon hearing the first shot, I turned and saw 
Lieut. Holte struggling." (Several persons 
present at the affair, such as a blacksmith named 
Heden, and McKay, a settler, distinctly state 
that the first shot fired was from the Bois- 
brulSs and that by it Lieut. Holte fell). 
"As to our attacking our assailants, one of 
our people, Bruin, I believe, did propose that 
we should keep them off; and the Governor 
turned round and asked who could be such a 
rascal as to make such a proposition? and that 
he should hear no word of that kind again. The 
Governor was very much displeased indeed at 



Seven Oaks Massacre. 

127 

the suggestion made. A fire was kept up for 
several minutes after the first shot, and I saw 
a number wounded; indeed, in a few minute 
almost all our people were either killed or 
wounded. I saw Sinclair and Bruin fall, either 
wounded or killed; and a Mr. McLean, a little 
in front defending himself, but by a second shot 
I saw him fall. 
"At this time I saw Captain Rodgers getting 
up again, but not observing any of our people 
standing, I called out to him, 'Rodgers, for 
God's sake give yourself up! Give yourself up !' 
Captain Rodgers ran toward them, calling out 
in English and in broken French, that he sur- 
rendered, and that he gave himself up, and pray- 
ing them to save his life. Thomas McKay, a 
Bois-bruls, shot him through the head, and an- 
other Bois- brulSs dashed upon him with a knife, 
using the most horrid imprecations to him. I 
did not see the Governor fall. I saw his corpse 
the next day at the Fort. When I saw Captain 
Rodgers fall, I expected to share his fate. As 
there was a French-Canadian among those who 
surrounded me, who had just made an end of my 
friend, I said, 'Lavigne, you are a Frenchman, 
you are a man, you are a Christian. For God's 
sake save my life! For God's sake try and save 
it! I give myself up; I am your prisoner.' Mc- 
Kay, who was among this party, and who knew 
me, said, 'You little toad, what do you do here ?' 



Seven Oaks Massacre. 

129 

rounded the Fort and have shot everyone 
who left it; but being seen, their scheme had 
been destroyed or frustrated. They were all 
painted and disfigured so that I did not know 
many. I should not have known that Cuthbert 
Grant was there, though I knew him well, had 
he not spoken to me." 
"Grant told me that Governor Semple was 
not mortally wounded by the shot he received, 
but that his thigh was broken. He said that he 
spoke to the Governor after he was wounded, 
and had been asked by him to have him taken 
to the Fort, and as he was not mortally wounded 
he thought he might perhaps live. Grant said 
he could not take him himself as he had some- 
thing else to do, but that he would send some 
person to convey him on whom he might depend, 
and that he left him in charge of a French-Cana- 
dian and went away; but that almost directly 
after he had left him, an Indian, who, he said, 
was the only rascal they had, came up and shot 
him in the breast, and killed him on the spot. 
"The Bois-bruls, who very seldom paint or 
disguise themselves, wer.e on this occasion 
painted as I have been accustomed to see the In- 
dians at their war-dance; they were very much 
painted, and disguised in a hideous manner. 
They gave the war-whoop when they met Gov- 
ernor Semple and his party; they made a hide- 
ous noise and shouting. :[ kaow from Grant, 



130 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

as well as from other Bois-brulSs, and other set- 
tlers, that some of the Colonists had been taken 
prisoners. Grant told me that they were taken 
to weaken the Colony, and prevent its being 
known that they were there--they having sup- 
posed that they had passed the Fort un- 
observed. 
"Their intention clearly was to pass the Fort. 
I saw no carts, though I heard they had carts 
with them. I saw about five of .the settlers 
prisoners in the camp at Frog Plain. Grant 
said to me further: 'You see we have had but 
one of our people killed, and how little quarter 
we have given you. Now, if Fort Douglas is 
not given up with all the public property instant- 
ly and without resistance, man, women and child 
will be put to death.' He said the attack would 
be made upon it that night, and if a single shot 
were fired, that would be a signal for the in- 
discriminate destruction of every soul. I was 
completely satisfied myself that the whole would 
be destroyed, and I besought Grant, whom I 
knew, to suggest or let them try and devise 
some means to save the women and children. 
I represented to him that they could have done 
no harm to anybody, whatever he or his party 
might think the men had. I entreated him to 
take compassion on them. I reminded him that 
they were his father's country-women and in his 
deceased father's name, I begged him to take 
pity and compassion on them and spare them. 



Seven Oaks Massacre. 

131 

At last he said, if all the arms and public 
property were given up, we should be allowed to 
go away. After inducing the Bois-brulSs to al- 
low me to go to Fort Douglas, I met our peo- 
ple; they were long unwilling to give up,.but at 
last our Mr. Macdonell, who was now in charge 
consented. We went together to the Frog Plain, 
and an inventory of the property was taken 
when we had returned to the Fort. The Fort 
was delivered over to Cuthbert Grant, who gave 
receipts on each sheet of the inventory-signed 
"Cuthbert Grant, acting for the North-Wet 
Company." I remained at Fort Douglas till 
the evening of the 22rid, when all proceeded 
down the river--the settlers, a second time on 
their journey into exile. 
"The Colonists, it is true, had little now to 
leave. They were generally mployed in agri- 
cultural pursuits, in attending to their farms, 
and the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company 
in their ordinary avocations. They lived in 
tents or in huts. In 1816 at Red River there was 
but one residence, the Governor's which was 
in Fort Douglas. The settlers had lived in 
houses previous to 1815, but in that year these 
had been burnt in the attack that had been made 
upon them. The settlers were employed during 
the day time on their land, and used to come up 
to the Fort to sleep in some of the buildings in 
the enclosure. All was now left behind. The 



132 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

Bois-bruls victory being now complete, the mes- 
senger was despatched Westward to tell the 
news far and near." 



CHAPTER X. 

AFTERCLAPS. 

The Seven Oaks affair was the most shocking 
episode that ever occurred in North-Western 
history. The standing of the victims, including 
a Governor appointed by the Hudson's Bay 
Company, his staff men of position, the unex- 
pectedness of the collison, the suddenness of 
the attack, the destruction of life, the cruelty 
and injustice of the killing, and the barbarous 
treatment of the bodies of the dead, by the Bois- 
bruls war party, fill one with horror, and re- 
mind one of scenes of butchery in dark Africa 
or the isles of the South Sea. 
This is the more remarkable when it is con- 
sidered that so far as known in the whole two 
hundred years and more of the career of the 
Hudson's Bay and Nor'-Wester Companies not 
so many officers and clerks of these two Com- 
panies have altogether perished by violence as 
in this unfortunate Seven Oaks disaster. No 
sooner was the massacre over than the Bois- 
bruls took possession of Fort Douglas and 
were under the command meantime of Cuth- 



134 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

bert Grant. There was the greatest hilarity 
among the Metis. This bew Nation had been 
vindicated. About forty-five men under arms 
held possession of the Fort. The dead left up- 
on the field were still exposed there days after 
the fight and were torn to pieces by the wild 
birds and beasts. The body of Governor Semple 
was carried to the Fort. 
Word was meanwhile sent to Alexander Mac- 
donell the partner who had brought with 
him the Qu'Appelle contingent and had waited 
at Portage ]a Prairie while Cuthbert Grant 
with his followers, chiefly disoised as Indians, 
had gone on their bloody work. Macdonell on 
receiving the news showed great satisfaction 
He announced to those about him that Gov- 
ernor Semple and five of his officers had been 
killed; and becoming more enthusiastic shouted 
with an oath in French that twenty-two of the 
English were slain. His company shouted with 
joy at his announcement. Macdonell then went 
to Fort Douglas and took command of it. But 
what had become of the Eastern Company 
from Fort William? Of this a discharged non- 
commissioned officer, Huerter, of one of the 
mercenary re,aiments which had fought for 
Britain against the Americans in the War of 
1812 was with them, and ves a good account 
of the journey. We need only deal with the 
ending of the expedition. Coming from Lake 



Afterclaps. 135 

Vinnipeg they reached Nettly Creek two days 
after the fight at Seven Oaks, expecting there 
to get news from the Western levy and Alex- 
ander Macdonell. But no news of that Com- 
pany having reached them they started in boats 
up the Red River to reach the rendezvous 
agreed on at "Frog Plain," the spot where 
Kildonan church stands to-day. From this 
point they expected to meet with their Western 
reinforcement, and to move upon Fort Doug- 
las and capture it, as Governor Semple had 
done with Fort Gibraltar. Their commander 
Archibald Norman McLeod was the senior of- 
ricer and would later take command. 
They had on the 23rd of June gone but a 
little way when they were surprised to meet 
seven or eight boats laden with men, women 
and children. These were the fraoznent of the 
Colony which had refused to go with Duncan 
Cameron down to Upper Canada. They had 
been sheltered in the Fort during the time of 
the fight and now were rudely driven away 
from the settlement, according to the announce- 
ment of Cuthbert Grant. 
McLeod ordered the convoy of boats to stop 
and the Colonists to disembark. Their boxes 
and packages were opened, including the late 
Governor Semple's trunks, and examined for 
papers or letters which might give important 
information to the captors. The Western levy 



Afterclaps. 137 

Leaving Fort Douglas McLeod with his of- 
ricers and the Bois-bruls all mounted, made an 
imposing procession up to the site of old Fort 
Gibraltar. Here Peguis, now the chief of the 
Saulteaux who had shown such kindness to the 
settlers was camped, and to him and his follow- 
ers McLeod showed his great displeasure. The 
Indian always loved the British-man, whom on 
the west coast he called, "King Shautshman," 
or King George's man. 
The Indian is taciturn, unemotional, and cau- 
tious. He knew that the Bois-brulSs had as- 
sumed their garb and committed the outrage 
of Seven Oaks, and therefore the tribe were un- 
willing to be under the stia being thrown 
upon them. When McLeod had failed in his 
appeal, he laid many sins to their charge. They 
had allowed the English to carry away Duncan 
Cameron to Hudson Bay, they were a band of 
dogs, and he would count them always as his 
enemies if they should hold to their English 
friends. Peguis, who was  master diplomat, 
looked on with attention and held his peace. 
It was now about a week from the time of 
the massacre. Huerter, the discharged solider 
spoken of, rode down with a party from the 
Fort to the field of Seven Oaks. He saw a 
.number of human bodies scattered on the plain, 
and in most cases the flesh had been torn off 
to he bone, evidently by dogs and wolves. 



138 

Lord Selk,irk ' s Colonists. 

Far from discouraging the talkative half- 
breeds, whose blood was up with the sights of 
carnage, McLeod and his fellow-officers ex- 
pressed their approbation of the deeds done, 
and the Bois-brul4s became boisterous in detail- 
ing their victories. The worst of the whole, 
old Deschamps, a French-Canadian, who mur- 
dered the disabled even when they cried for 
quarter, drew forth as he detailed his valorous 
actions to Alexander MacdonelI, the exclama- 
tion, "What a fine, vigorous old man he is!" 
On the evening of this Red-letter day of the 
visit to the Indian encampment and to Seven 
Oaks, a wild and heathenish orgy took place. 
The Bois-bruls bedecked their naked bodies 
with Indian trinkets and executed the dance of 
victory, as had done their savage ancestors. The 
effect of these dances is marvellous. By a con- 
tagious shout they excite each other. They reach 
a frenzy which communicates itself with hyp- 
notic effect to the whole dancing circle. At 
times men tear their hair, cut their flesh or 
even mutilate their limbs for life. The "tom- 
tom," or Indian drum, adds to the power of 
monotonous rhythm and to the spirit of excite- 
ment and frenzy. 
To the partners McLeod and the others, how- 
ever much in earnest the actors might be, it 
afforded much amusement, and gave hope of a 
strength and enthusiasm that would bind them 
fast to the "Nor'-Wester" side. 



140 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

the song of his race and helped to keep up the 
love of fun among the French people of the 
Red River. It was reminiscent of victory and 
also a forecast of future influence and power. 
Various versions of Pierre Falcon's song 
have come down to us celebrating the victory of 
Seven Oaks. We give a simple translation of 
the bard's effusion: 

PIERRE FALCON'S SONG. 

Come listen to this song of truth! 
A song of the brave Bois-bruls, 
Who at Frog Plain took three captives, 
Strangers come to rob our country. 

When dismounting there to rest us, 
A cry is raised--the English! 
They are coming to attack us, 
So we hasten forth to meet them. 

I looked upon their army, 
They are motionless and downcast; 
So, as honor would incline us 
We desire with them to parley. 

But their leader, moved with anger, 
Gives the word to fire upon us; 
And imperiously repeats it, 
Rushing on to this destruction. 



Afterclaps. 

141 

Having seen us pass his stronghold, 
He had thought to strike with terror 
The Bois-bruls ; ah I mistaken, 
Many of his soldiers perish. 

But a few escaped the slaughter, 
Rushing from the field of battle; 
Oh, to see the English fleeing! 
Oh, the shouts of their pursuers! 

Who has sung this song of triumph ? 
The good Pierre Falcon had composed it, 
That the praise of these Bois-bruls 
Might be evermore recorded. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE SILVER CHIEF ARRIVES. 

The scene changes to the home of the founder 
of the Colony. The Earl of Selkirk is living 
at his interesting seat--St. Mary's Isle, and 
letter after letter arrives which has taken many 
weeks on the road, coming down through track- 
less prairie, across the middle and Eastern 
States of America and reaching him via New 
York. These letters continue to increase in 
being more and more terrible until his island 
home seems to be in a state of siege. 
St. Mary's Isle lies at the mouth of the Dee 
on Solwy Frith, opposite the town of Kirk- 
cudbright. Here in 1778 Paul Jones, the so- 
called pirate in the employ of the Revolution- 
ary Government in America, had landed, in- 
vested the dwelling with his men, and carried 
away all the plate and jewels of the House 
of Se]kirk. The Old Manor House of St. 
Mary's Isle, with its very thick stone wall on 
one side, evidently had been a keep or castle. It 
was at one time given to the church and be- 
cme a monastery, then it was enlarged and ira- 



The Sil'er Chief Arri'cs. 

143 

proved to become the dwelling of the family 
of the Douglasses, which it is to this day. 
But now the far cry from Red River rever- 
berated across the Atlantic. The startling suc- 
cession of events of 1815 reached the Earl one 
after another. It was late in the year when 
he made up his mind, but taking his Countess, 
his two daughters and his only son, Dunbar, 
a mere boy, and crossing the ocean he heard, 
on his arrival in New York, of the complete 
destruction by flight and expulsion of the peo- 
ple of his Colony. About the end of October 
he reached Montreal, but winter was too near 
to allow him to travel up the lakes and through 
the wilds to Red River. 
The winter in Montreal was long, but the at- 
mosphere of opposition to Lord Selkirk in that 
city, the home of the Nor'-Westers, was more 
trying to him than the frost and snow. His 
every movement was watched. Even the ave- 
nues of Government power seemed by influen- 
tial Nor'-Westers to be closed against him. An 
appeal to Sir Gordon Drummond, the Governor- 
General, could obtain no more than a promise 
of a Sergeant and six men to protect him per- 
sonally should he go to the far West, and the 
appointment of himself as a Justice of the 
Peace in Upper Canada and the Indian Terri- 
tory was grudgingly given. 
The active mind of his Lordship occupied the 



144 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

time of winter well. He planned nothing less 
than introducing to the banks of Red River a 
body of men as settlers, who could, like the re- 
turned exiles to Jerusalem, work with sword in 
one hand and a tool of industry in the other. 
The man of resource finds his material ready 
made. Two mercenary regiments from Switzer- 
land which had been fighting England's battles 
in America had just been disbanded, and Lord 
Selkirk at once engaged them to go as settlers, 
under his pay, to Red River. From the com- 
manding officer of the larger regiment these 
have always been called the "De Meurons." 
From these two regiments--one at Montreal 
and the other at Kingston--he engaged an hun- 
dred men, each provided with a musket, and 
with rather more than that number of expert 
voyageurs started in June 16th, 1816, for the 
North-West. The route followed by him was up 
Lake Ontario to Toronto, then across country 
to Georgian Bay and through it to Ste. Sault 
Marie. At Drummond Island, being the last 
British garrison toward the West, he got from 
the Indians news of the efforts of the Nor'West- 
ers to involve them in the wars of the whites. 
The Indians had, however, resisted all their 
temptations. Lord Selkirk again overtook his 
party and passed through the St. Mary's River 
into Lake Superior. 
Here a new grief awaited him. 



The Silver Chief Arrives. 

145 

Two canoes coming from Fort William 
brought him the sad news about Governor 
Semple and his party being killed at Seven 
Oaks, as it did also of the second expulsion of 
the Colonists. Lord Selkirk had been intending 
to go west to where Duluth now stands and then 
overland to the Red River. 
He now changed his plans and with true Scot- 
tish pluck headed directly to Fort William. 
Here assaults, arrests and imprisonments took 
place. It "is needless for us to give the de- 
tails of this unfortunate affair, except to say 
that he seizure of the Fort brought much trou- 
ble afterwards to the founder. 
Moving some miles up the Kaministiquia 
River Lord Selkirk made his military encamp- 
ment, which bore the name of "Pointe De 
Meuron. ' 
Plans were soon made for the spring attack 
on Fort Douglas. 
In March, steathily crossing the silent path- 
ways for upwards of four hundred miles and 
striking the led liver some where near the in- 
ternational boundary line, the De Meurons came 
northward and made a circuit towards Silver 
Heights. There, having constructed ladders, 
they next made a night attack on Fort Douglas, 
and being trained soldiers easily captured it, 
and restored it to its rightful owner, Lord 
Selkirk. 



146 

Lord Sclkirk's Coloists. 

On May day, 1817, Lord Selkirk, with his 
body gard, left Fort William and following the 
water-courses arrived at his own Fort in the 
last week of June. Fort Douglas was the cen- 
tre of his Colony, and there he was at once 
the chief fiore of the picture. 
None of the Se]kirk Settlers' descendants who 
are living to-day saw him in Fort Douglas, but 
a number who have passed away have told the 
writer that they remembered him well. He was 
tall in stature, thin and refined in appearance. 
He had a benioaant face, his manner was easy 
and polite. To the Indians he was especially 
interesting. They caught the idea that being a 
man of title he was in some way closely con- 
nected with their Great Father the King. Be- 
cau,e of his generosity to them in making a 
treaty, they called him "The Silver Chief." He 
was the source of their treaty money. 
It ix said that some of the last party to reach 
his Colony had seen him at Kildonan in Scot- 
land, where he had visited them, and encouraged 
them in their departure for the Colony. 
His first duties were to the unfortunate set- 
]ers, who had been brought back from Jack 
River. 
Lord Selkirk gathered the Colonists on the 
spot where the church and burial ground of St. 
Jo]m's are still found. "The Parish," said he, 
"shall be Ki]donan. Here you shall build your 



The Silver Chief Arrivcs. 

147 

church, and that lot," he said, pointing to 
the lot across the little stream called Parsonage 
Creek, "is for a school." Ite was thus planning 
to carry out the devout imagination of the 
greatest religious leader of his nation, John 
Knox: "A church and a school for every 
parish." 
Perhaps the most interesting episode in Lord 
Selkirk's visit was his treaty-making with the 
Indians. The plan of securing a strip of land 
on each side of the river was said to have been 
decided to be as much as could be seen by look- 
ing under the belly of a horse out upon the 
prairie. This was about two miles. Hence the 
river lots were generally about two miles long. 
His meeting with the Indians was after the 
manner of a great "Pow-wow." The Indians 
are fluent and eloquent speakers, though they 
indulge in endless repetitions. 
P%o-uis, the Saulteaux chief, befriended the 
white man from the beginning. He denounced 
the Bois-brul6s. He said, "SVe do not acknowl- 
edge these men as an independent tribe." 
"L'Homme Noir," the Assiniboine chief, 
among other things, said: "We have often been 
told you were our enemy, but we hear from your 
own mouth the words of a true friend. ' 
"Robe Noire," the Chippewa, tried in 
lofty style to declare: "Clouds have over- 



148 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

whelmed me. I was a long time in doubt and 
difficulty, but now I begin to see clearly." 
While Lord Selkirk was still in his Colony, 
the very serious state of things on the banks 
of Red River and the pressure of the British 
Government led to the appointment, by the Gov- 
ernor-Genera,1 of Canada, of a most clear- 
minded and peace-loving man as Commissioner. 
This appointment was all the more pleasing on 
account of Mr. W. B. Coltman being a resident 
Canadian of Quebec. Coltman was one man 
among a thousand. He was patient and kind 
and just. Though he had come to the Colony 
prejudiced against Lord Selkirk, he found his 
Lordship so fair and reasonable that he became 
much attached to the man represented in Mon- 
treal and the far East as a destructive ogre. 
The Commissioner's report covered one hun- 
dred pages, and it was in all respects a model. 
He thoroughly understood the motives of both 
parties, and his decisions led to a perfect era 
of peace, and moreover in the end to the union 
of the Hudson's Bay and Nor'-West Companies. 
Lord Selkirk's coming was like a ray of sun- 
shine to the Colonists, of Red River. Being 
of an intensely religious disposition, the peo- 
ple reminded him that the elder who came out 
in 1815, who was able to baptize and marry, had 
been carried away by main force by the Nor'- 
Westers to Canada in 1818, so that they were 



The Silver Chief Arrives. 

149 

without religious services. They always con- 
tinued to have prayer meetings and to keep up 
the pious customs of their fathers. This prac- 
tise long survived among them. In repeating 
clergyman, Lord Selkirk as- 
"Selkirk never forfeited his 

his promise of a 
serted to them: 
word. ' ' 
His work done 

among his Colonists, he left 
them never to see them again. He went south 
from Fort Douglas to the United States, visited, 
it is said, St. Louis, came to the Eastern States, 
and rejoined in Montreal his Countess and chil- 
dren who had in his absence lived in great 
anxiety. One of his daughters, afterwards Lady 
Isabella Hope, told the writer nearly thirty 
years ago that she as a girl remembered seeing 
Lord Selkirk as he returned from this long jour- 
ney, coming around the Island into Montreal 
Harbor paddled by French voyageurs in swift 
canoes to his destination. His attention was 
immediately given to law suits and actions 
brought against him in the courts of Upper 
Canada. These legal conflicts originated from 
the troubles about the two centresmFort Doug- 
las and Fort Williammwhere the collisions had 
taken place. The influence of the Nor'-Westers 
in Montreal was so great that the U. E. Loy- 
alists of Upper Canada sympathised with them 
against the noble philanthropist. Justice was 
undoubtedly perverted in Upper Canada in the 



150 

Lord Selkirk's Coloists. 

most shameless way. Weak in body at the best, 
Lord Selkirk by his misfortunes, losses and 
legal persecution began to fail in health. \Vith 
the sense of having been unjustly defeated, and 
anxious about his Colonists in Red River, he 
returned with his family to Britain to his be- 
loved St. Mary's Isle. He sought for justice 
from the British Parliament, but could there 
get no movement in his favor. A copy of a let- 
ter to him from Sir Walter Scott, his old friend, 
is in the hands of the writer, but Sir Wlter 
was himself too ill at the time to lend him aid 
in presenting his case before the British public. 
Heart-broken, he gave up the struggle. With 
the Countess and his family he went to the 
South of France and died on April 8th, 1820, 
at Pau, and his bones lie in the Protestant Ceme- 
tery of Orthes. 
He had not fought in vain. He had broken 
down single-handed a system of organized ter- 
rorism in the heart of North America, for the 
Nor'-Westers never rose to strength again. 
They united in a few years with the Hudson's 
Bay Company. He established a Colony that 
has thriven; he cherished a lofty vision; he 
made mistakes in action, in judgment, and in a 
too great ol,timism, but if we understand him 
aright he bore an untainted nnd resolute soul. 



The Silver Chief Arr,i's. 

"Only those are crown'd and sainted 
Who with grief have been acquainted 
Making Nations nobler, freer." 

"In their feverish exultations, 
In their triumph and their yearning, 
In their pasionate pulsations, 
In their words among the nations 
The Promethean fire is burning." 

"But the glories so transcendent 
That around their memories cluster, 
And on all their steps attendant, 
Make their darken'd lives resplendent 
With such gleams of inward lustre." 

151 



CHAPTER XII. 

SOLDIERS AND SWISS. 

Many Canadian Settlements have had a mili- 
tary origin. It was considered a wise, strategic 
move in the game of national defence when 
Colonel Butler and his Rangers, after the 
Treaty of Paris, were settled along the lliagara 
frontier, and when Captain Grass and other 
United Empire Loyalists took.up their holdings 
at Kingston and other points on the boundary 
line along the St. Lawrence. The town of Perth 
was the headquarters of a military settlement in 
Central Canada. Traces of military occupation 
can still be found in such Highland districts of 
Canada as Pictou, Glengarry and Zorra, in 
which last named township the enthusiastic 
Celt in 1866 declared that perhaps the Fenians 
would take Canada, but they could never take 
Zorra. Numerous examples can be found all 
through Canada where there is an aroma of 
valor and patriotism surrounding the old army 
officer or the families of the veterans of the 
Napoleonic or Crimean wars. 
The sett|emen of he De Meuron soldiers 



Soldiers and Swiss. 

153 

opposite Fort Douglas gave some promise of a 
military flavor to Selkirk Settlement. But as 
we shall see it was an ill-advised attempt at 
colonization. It was a mistake to settle some 
hundred or more single men as these soldiers 
were without a woman among them, as Lord 
Selkirk was compelled to do. To these soldier- 
colonists he gave lands along the small winding 
river now called the Seine, which empties into 
Red River opposite Point Douglas. Many of 
the De Meurons spoke German, and hence for 
several years the little stream on which they 
lived was called German Creek. The writings 
of the time are full of rather severe criticism 
of these bello-agricultural settlers. Of course 
no one expects an old soldier to be of much use 
to a new country. He is usually a lazy settler. 
His habits of life are formed in another mollld 
from that of the farm. He is apt to despise the 
hoe and the harrow and many even of the haft- 
pay officers who came to hew out a home in the 
Canadian forest, never learned to cut down a 
tree or to hold a plough, though it may be ad- 
mitted that they lived a useful life in their sons 
and daughters, while the culture and decision of 
character of the old officer or sturdy veteran 
were an asset of great value to the locality in 
which he settled. 
But the De Meurons were not only bachelors, 
but they came from the peasantry of Austria 



154 

Lord Nelkirk's Colonists. 

and Italy, they had not fought for home and 
.ountry, and their life of mercenary soldiering 
lind made them selfish and deceitful. A writer 
of the time speaks, and evidently with much 
prejudice, against the De Meurons. "They 
were," he says, a medley of almost all nations 
--Germans, Fren'h, Italians, Swiss and others. 
They were bad farmers and withal very bad 
subjects; quarrelsome, slothful, famous bottle 
companions and read)" for any enterprise how- 
ever lawless and tyrannical." A few years 
later we find it stated that they made free with 
the cattle of their neighbors, and the chronicler 
does not hesitate to say that the herds of the 
De IIeurons grew in number in exactly the 
same ratio as tlose of the Scottish settlers de- 
creased. 
Some four years after the settlement of the 
De Meurons a sunburst came upon them quite 
unexpectedly. 
Lord elkirk in the very last ?-ears of his life 
planned to bring a band of Protestant settlers 
from Switzerland. A Colonel May, late of an- 
other of the mercenary regiments, accepted the 
duty of .a'oing to Switzerland, issuing a very 
attra.tive invitation to settlers, and succeeded 
in shipping a considerable number of Swiss 
families to his so-called Red River paradise. 
This band of Colonists, consisting as they did 
of "watch and clock-makers, pastry cooks and 



and ,'wiss. 

155 

musicians," were quite unfit for the rough work 
of the Selkirk Colony. In 1821 they were 
brought by way of Hudson Bay, over the same 
rocky way as the earlier Colonists came. They. 
were utterly poverty stricken, though honest, 
and well-behaved. Their only possession of 
value ws a. plenty of handsome daughters. The 
Swiss families on arrival were placed under 
tents nearby Fort Douglas. As soon as possible 
many of the Swiss settlers were placed along- 
side the De Neurons on German Creek. Good 
Mr. West, who had just been sent out as chap- 
lain by the Hudson's Bay Company, in place of 
the minister of their own faith promised to the 
Scottish settlers, did a great stroke of work in 
marrying the young Swiss girls to the De Meu- 
ron bachelors of German Creek. The descrip- 
tion of the way in which the De Meurons in- 
vited families having :oung women in them to 
the wifeless cabins is ludicrous. A modern 
"Sabine raid" was made upon the young 
damsels, who were ctually carried away to the 
De Meuron homesteads. The Swiss families 
which had the misfortune to have no daughters 
in them were left to languish in their comfort- 
less tents. The afflictions of the earlier Selkirk 
settlers were increased by the arrival of these 
settlers. With the Selkirk settlers in their 
first decade the first consideration was always 
food. Till that question is settled no Colony 



156 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

can advance. Prbbably the most alarming and 
hopeless feature of their new colonial life was 
the appearance of vast flights of locusts or 
grasshoppers, which devoured every blade of 
wheat and grass in the country. To those who 
have never seen this plague it is inconceivable. 
Some thirty-five years ago in Manitoba the 
writer witnessed the utter devastation of the 
country by these pests. Some thirteen years 
before the coming of the first Colonists this 
plague prevailed. About the end of July, 1818, 
these riders of the air made their at- 
tack. In this year the Selkirk Colonists 
were greatly discouraged by the capture and 
removal to Canada, by the Nor'-Westers, of 
Mr. James Sutherland, their spiritual 
guide. But their labors now seem likely to be 
rewarded by a good harvest. The oats and 
barley were in ear, when suddenly the invasion 
came. The vast clouds of grasshoppers sailing 
northward from the great Utah desert in the 
United States, alighted late in the afternoon of 
one day and in the morning fields of grain, 
gardens with their promise, and every herb in 
the Settlement were gone, and a waste like a 
blasted hearth remained behind. The event was 

more than a loss of their crops, it seemed a 
heaven-struck blow upon their commumty, and 

it is said they lifted up their eyes to heaven, 
weeping and despairing. The sole return of 



Soldiers ad 'wiss. 

157 

their labors for the season was a few ears of 
half-ripened barley which the women saved and 
carried home in their aprons. There was no 
help for it but to retire to Pembina, although 
there was less fear than formerly for as a 
writer of the day says: "The settlers had now 
become good hunters; they could kill the 
buffalo; walk on snowshoes; had trains of dogs 
trimmed with ribbons, bells and feathers, in 
true Indian style; and in other respects were 
making rapid steps in the arts of a savage life." 
The complete loss of their crops left the set- 
tlers even without the seed-wheat necessary to 
sow their fields. The nearest point of supply 
of this necessity was an agricultural settlement 
in the State of Minnesota, upwards of five hun- 
dred miles away. Here was a mighty task--to 
undertake to cross the plains in winter and to 
bring back in time for the seeding time in spring 
the wheat which was necessary. But the High- 
lander is not to be deterred by rocky crag or 
dashing river, or heavy snow in his own land 
and he was ready to face this and more in the 
new worM. And so a daring party went off 
on snowshoes, and taking three months for their 
trip, reached the ]and of plenty and secured 
some hundred bushels at the price of ten shil- 
lings a bushel. 
The question now was how to transport the 
wheat through a trackless wilderness. Up the 



158 

Lord ,clkirk's Coloist,. 

Mississippi River for hundreds of miles the flat 
boats constructed for the purpose were pain- 
fully propelled, and passing through the branch 
known as the Minnesota River the Stony Lake 
was reached. This lake is the source of the 
Minnesota and Red rivers, and being at high 
water in the spring it was possible to go 
through the narrow lake from one river to the 
other with the rough boats constructed. The 
Red River was reached by the fearless adven- 
turers who brought the "corn out of EoTpt." 
They did not, however, reach the Red River 
with their treasure till about the end of June, 
1820, and while the wheat grew well it was sown 
too late to ripen well, although it gave the set- 
tlers grain enough to sow the fields of the com- 
ing year. Tlis expedition cost Lord Se]kirk 
upwards of a thousand pounds sterling. In the 
followin.a" yer the grasshoppers aa'ain visited 
the Red River fields, but by a sudden movement 
whi'h, by some of the good Colonists was inter- 
preted to be . direct interference of Providence 
on their behalf, the swarms of intruders passed 
away never to appear again in the Red River 
for half a century. 
The )resen,e of the grasshoppers upon the 
Can.dian prairies is one of interest. It is 
known that they appeared throughout the ter- 
ritory of Red River a dozen years or so before 
the coming of the Selkirk Colonists, also during 



160 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

cannot be wondered at that such continuous 
disasters made the settler whether Scottish, 
De Meuron, or Swiss, extremely discontented. 
During the period of the scourge, the only re- 
source was to winter at Pembina in reasonable 
distance from the buffalo-herds. In one of 
these years a number of the Selkirk .Colonists 
did not return to their farms but emigrated to 
the United States. As we shall see in  few 
years after the grasshopper scourge the flood 
of the Red River took place, when the De 
Meurons and Swiss, with one or two exceptions, 
disappeared from the Colony and became citi- 
zens of the United States. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ENGLISH LION 

AND CANADIAN 
TOGETHER. 

BEAR LIE 

DOWN 

That such violence and bloodshed as that 
about Fort Douglas, should be seen by British 
subjects under the flag which stands for justice 
and equal rights made sober-minded Britons 
blush. While Lord Selkirk's agents on the 
banks of the Red River may have been ag- 
gressive in pushing their rights, yet to the 
Canadians was chargeable the greater part of 
the bloodshed. This was but natural. To the 
hunter, the trapper, and the frontiersman the 
use of firearms is familiar. The fur trader pro- 
tects himself thus from the bear and the pan- 
ther. The hot blood of the Metis as he careered 
over the prairie on his steed boiled up at the 
least provocation. 
But the disheartening law suits through 
which Lord Selkirk passed in Sandwich, To- 
ronto, and Montreal, reflected more dishonor on 
the Canadians than did even the bloody vio- 
lence of the Bois-Bruls. The chicanery em- 
ployed by the Canadian courts, the procuring 



1(i2 

Lord ,''clkirk's Colonists. 

of special legislation to adal)t the law to Lord 
Selkirk's case, and the invocation of the highest 
social and even clerical influence in Upper 
Canada for the purpose of injuring his Lord- 
ship will ever remain a blot on earlier Cana- 
dian jurisprudence. Fortunately the rights of 
man, whether native or foreigner, are now bet- 
ter understood and more fully protected in 
Canada than they were in the second decade of 
the nineteenth century. Col. Coltman's report, 
as already stated, was a model of truthfulness, 
fair play and freedom from prejudice, and 
Coltman was a Canadian appointee. 
So grave, however, were the rumours of these 
events happening on the plains of Rupert's 
Land, as they reached Britain that the House 
of Commons named a committee to enquire into 
the troubles. This committee sat in 1819, and 
the result is a blue-book of considerable size 
which exposes the injustice most fully. The 
violence and bloodshed which the fur traders 
now heard of far and near paralyzed the fur 
trade carried on by both fur companies, and 
brought the financial affairs of both companies 
to the verge of destruction. Two startling 
events of the next year produced a great shock. 
These were sudden and untimely deaths of the 
two great opponent--Lord Selkirk at an early 
age in France, and Sir Alexander Mackenzie, 
at his estate in Scotland, he having been seized 



Et,glisl, Lion atd Catt(dian Bcar. 

163 

with sudden illness on his way from London. 
The two men died within a month of one an- 
other in tle sprin," of 1820. Their pass- 
ing wy was surely impressive. It seemed 
like an offering to the god of peace in order 
that the vast region with its scttered and 
thunderstruck inhabitants from Lake Superior 
to the Pacific Ocean might be saved from the 
horrors of . cruel war of brother against 
brother, and a war which might involve even 
the cautious but hot-blooded Indian tribes. 
Though the two parties were made up of 
daring and head-strong men, yet adversity is a 
hard but effective teacher. 
The Hudson's Bay Company was represented 
by Andrew Colville, a warm friend of the house 
of Selkirk, the opponents by Edward Ellice, a 
Nor'-Wester. It seemed, indeed, the very 
irony of fate that Ellice should be a negotiator 
for peace. He and his sons the writer heard 
spoken of by the late Earl of Selkirkthe son 
of the founder--as the bear and cubs. On the 
other hand the burly directors of the Hudson's 
Bay Company possessed with all the confidence 
of the British Lion, and with their motto of 
"Skin for skin" were only brought to a state 
of peace by the loss of dividends. Much cor- 
respondence pased between the o'lce of 
Leadenhall Street and Suffolk I,ane in London, 
which the two companies occupied, but articles 



164 

Lord Sclkirk's Coloists. 

of agreement were not sufficient 
union. 
All such coalitions to be successful 
circle around a single man. 
This man was a young Scottish 
had spent a year only in the far 

to make a 

must 

clerk, who 
Athabasca 
district. He had not depended on birth or 
influence for his advancement, was not yet 
wholly immersed in the traditions or preju- 
dices of either company, and had consequent- 
ly nothing to unlearn. Montreal became the 
Canadian headquarters of the company, but 
now the annual meeting of the traders where 
he as Governor presided, was held at Norway 
House. The offices in London were united, and 
thus the affairs of the fur trade were provided 
for and outward peace at least was guaranteed. 
We are, however, chiefly dealing with the affairs 
of Assiniboia as Lord Selkirk called it, or with 
what was more commonly called Red River 
Settlement. This belonged to Lord Selkirk's 
heirs. The executors were, of course, Hudson's 
Bay Company grandees. They were Sir James 
Montgomery, Mr. Halkett, Andrew Colville, 
and his brother the Solicitor-General of Scot- 
land. When the news came of the death of 
Lord Selkirk, the mishaps and disturbances of 
the Colony had been so many, that Hudson's 
Bay Company, Nor'-Westers, Settlers, and 
Freemen all said, "That will end the Colony 



English Lion and Canadian Bear. 

165 

now!" To the surprise of everyone the first 
message from the executors was one of courage, 
and the announcement was made that their first 

SEVEN OAKS MONUMENT 
On Kildonan Road near Winnipeg. 

aim would be to send six hundred new settlers 
to the banks of Red River. 
The angry passions which had been roused 



166 

Lord ,elkirk' Coloists. 

led the El;sh directors to take the very wise 
step of ,eld;ng olt two representtives--one 
from each of the old companies to rearran0,'e 
all matters and settle all disputes. The two 
delegates were Nicholas Garry, the Vice- 
Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and 
Simn McGillivray, who bore one of the most 
influential names of the Nor'-Wester traders. 
They were not, however, equally well liked. 
Garry was a courteous, fair, and kindly gentle- 
man. He won golden opinions among officers 
and settlers alike. McGillivray was suspicious 
and selfish, so the records of the time state. 
They came to the Red River in 121, and Garry 
entered particularly into the arrangement of 
the Forts a.t the Forks. The old Fort Douglas 
was retained as Colony Fort, and the small 
Hudson's Bay Company trading house as well 
a.s Fort Gibraltar were absorbed into the new 
fort which was erected on the banks of the 
Asiniboine between Main Street and the bank 
of the Red River. All the letters and documents 
of the time speak of Governor Garry's visits 
as carrying a gleam of sunshine wherever he 
went and it was appropriate that the new fort 
built in the following )'ear should bear the name 
Fort Garry. This wa the wooden fort, which 
still remained in exi.tence though superseded 
as a fort in 1850. 
At the time of Governor Garry's visit the 



Eglis] Lio ad ;aadia, B('ar. 

167 

population of the settlement may be considered 
to have been about five hundred. These were 
made up of somewhat less than two hundred 
Selkirk Colonists, about one hundred ...De 
Meurons, a considerable number of French 
Voyageurs and Freemen, Swiss Colonists per- 
haps eighty, and the remainder Orkney, em- 
ployees of the Hudson's Bay Company. The 
Colony was, however, beginning to organize 
itself. The accounts of the French settlers are 
very vague, an occasional name flitting across 
the page of history. One family still found on 
Red River banks, gains celebrity as possessing 
tlm fir,t white woman who came to Rupert's 
Land. With her husband she had gone to Ed- 
monton in , and had wandered over the 
prairies. In 181]., with her husband, she first saw 
the Forks of Red River and wintered in 1811-12 
at Pembin, the winter which the first band of 
(,olonists spent at York Factory. Lajimoniere 
became a fast adherent of Lord Selkirk, and 
made a famous and most dangerous winter 
journey through the wilds alone, carrying let- 
ters from Red River to Montreal, delivered 
them personally to Lord Selkirk in 1815. 
The Lajimonieres received with great delight 
in 181, the first Roman Catholic missionaries 
who reached Red River. These were sent 
through Lord Selkirk's influence, and the large 
gift of land known as the Seigniory lying east 



168 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

of St. Boniface was the reward given to the 
early pioneer missionariesDProvencher and 
Dumoulin, men of great stature and manly bear- 
ing. In the year of their arrival James Suth- 
erland, the Presbyterian chaplain of the Sel- 
kirk Colonists, was taken by the Nor'-Westers 
to Upper Canada, whither his son, Haman 
Sutherland, had gone in 1815 with Duncan 
Cameron. The Earl of Selkirk had promised 
to send to his Scottish Colonists a minister of 
their own faith. On his death in France his 
agent in London was Mr. John Pritchard. 
Seventeen days after the death of Lord Selkirk, 
Rev. John West was appointed to come as 
chaplain to the Colonists and the other Protest- 
ants of Red River. Pritchard arrived by Hud- 
son's Bay ship at York Factory 15 Aug., 1820, 
having Mr. West in company with him. 
And now Colville wrote to Alexander Mac- 
donell, the Governor of the Settlement: "Mr. 
West goes out and takes with him persons ac- 
quainted with making bricks and pottery." 
Macdonell was a Roman Catholic, but Colville 
wrote: "I trust also that by your example and 
advice you will encourage all the Protestants, 
Presbyterians as well as others to attend di- 
vine service as performed by Mr. West. He 
will also open schools." As to Mr. West's sup- 
port a curiosity occurs in one of Mr. West's 
letters written in the following year from York 



English Lion and Canadian Bear. 

169 

Factory. He speaks of an agreement between 
Lord Selkirk and the Selkirk Settlers. 
"That the Settlers will use their endeavours 
for the benefit and support of the clergyman 
and shall be chargeable therewith as follows 
(that is to say): each settler shall employ him- 
self, his servants, his horses, cattle, carts, car- 
riages and other things necessary to the pur- 
pose on every day and at every place to be 
appointed by the clergyman to whom, or whose 
flock he shall belong, not exceeding at and 
after the rate of three days in the spring and 
three days in the autumn of each year." 
This is a gem of ecclesiasticism. 
Mr. West says: "I find that it is impracti- 
cable to carry the same into effect. This is at- 
tributable to the distance of most of the settlers 
and the reluctance of the Scotch Settlers." 
Mr. West had made mention of this to 
Governor Garry. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SATRAP IULE. 

"Woe to the Nation," says a high authority, 
"whose King is a child," but far worse than 
even having a child-ruler is the fate o 
a Kingdom or Principality whose ruler is a hire- 
ling. The Roman Empire was ruled in the dif- 
ferent provinces by selfish and dishonest adven- 
turers, who tyrannized over the people, farmed 
out the revenues, bribed their favorites and de- 
frauded their masters. Turkish Government or 
Persian Rule is to-day an organized system of 
and oppression by unscrupulous 

Lord Selkirk's two governors, Miles 

extortion 
Satraps. 
Macdonell 

and Robert Semple, had been re- 
moved, the former by capture, the latter by 
death. Alexander Macdonell in 1816 became 
acting governor and was confirmed in office 
for five or six years afterward. In his re- 
gime the Grasshoppers came and did their de- 
structive work, but the French.people nick- 
named him "Governor Sauterelle," Grasshop- 
per Governor, for, says the historian of this de- 
cade he was so called, "because he proved as 



Sab'ap Rle. 

171 

great a destroyer within doors as the grass- 
hoppers in the fields." 
Lord Selkirk had been a most generous and 
sympathetic founder to his Scottish Colony. 
He was not only proprietor of the whole Red 
River Valley, but he felt himself responsible for 
the support and comfort of his Colonists. He 
had to begin with supplying food, clothing, im- 
plements, arms and ammunition to his settler. 
He had erected buildings for shelter and a store 
house and fort for the protection of them and 
their 'o,ds. He had supplied, in a Colony shop, 
provisions ,nd all requisites to be purchased by 
his settlers and on account of their poverty to 
be charged to their individual accounts. 
Geore Simpson, who wa. the new Governor 
of the United Hudson's Bay Company, was for 
two years Macdonell's contemporary, and he in 
one of his letters says: "Macdonell is, I am 
concerned to say, extremely unpopular, despised 
and held in contempt by every person connected 
with the place, he is accused of partiality, dis- 
honesty, untruth and drunkenness,in short, 
by a disrespect of every moral and elevated 
feeling." 
Alexander los. says of him, "The officials he 
kept about him resembled the court of an East- 
ern Nabob, with its warriors, serfs, and var]et:, 
and the names they bore were hardly less pom- 
pous, for here were secretaries, assistant secre- 



172 

Lord Selkirk's Coloists. 

taries, accountants, orderlies, grooms, cooks and 
butlers." 
Satrap Macdonell held high revels in his time. 
"From the time the puncheons of rum reached 
the colony in the fall, till they were all drunk 
dry, nothing was to be seen or heard about 
Fort Douglas but balling, dancing, rioting and 
drunkenness in the barbarous sport of those dis- 
orderly times." Macdonell's method of reck- 
oning accounts was unique. "In place of hav- 
ing recourse to the tedious process of pen and 
ink the heel of a bottle was filled with wheat and 
set on the cask. This contrivance was called 
the "hour glass," and for every flagon drawn 
off, a grain of wheat was taken out of the hour 
glass, and put aside till the bouse was over." 
As was to be expected this disgraceful state 
of things leel to grave frauds in the dealings 
with the Colonists, and when Halkett, one of 
Lord Selkirk's executors, arrived on Red River 
to investigate the complaints, a thorough sys- 
tem of' 'false entries, erroneous statements and 
over-charges" was found, and the discontent of 
the settlers was removed, though they were all 
heavily in debt to the Estate. 
It had been the object of Lord Selkirk from 
the beginning of his enterprise to give employ- 
ment to his needy Colonists. Various enter- 
prises were begun with this end in view, but 
they were all mere bubbles which soon burst. 



176 Lord Selkirk's Colo,ists. 

the Selkirk settlers demanded it, but as in 
hundreds of other enterprises undertaken by 
British capitalists on the AmeriCan continent, 
the choice of men foreign to the country and 
its conditions, the lack of conscience and 
economy on the part of the agents sent out, the 
dissension and jealousy aroused by every such 
attempt, as well as the absence of the means of 
transport by land and sea through the methods 
supplied by science to-day, resulted in a series 
of dismal failures, which placed an undeserved 
stigma upon the character of the soil, climate, 
and resources of Assiniboia. It took more 
than fifty years of subsequent effort to re- 
move this impression. 
These experiences took place under those 
overnors who succeeded Alexander Macdonel] 
--the Grasshopper Governor. The first of 
them was Captain Bulger, an unfortunate mar- 
tinet, though a man of good conscience and 
high ideals. He had a most uncompromising 
manner. He quarreled with the Hudson's Bay 
Company officer at Fort Garry on the one hand, 
and with old Indian Chief Peo-us on the other. 
A whole crop of uggestions made by the Cap- 
tain on the improvement of the Colony remain 
in his "Red River Papers." Bulgers succes- 
sor was Governor Pelly, a relative of the cele- 
brated Governor of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany. The new Governor lacked nerve and de- 



Satrap Rule. 

177 

cision, and was quite unfitted for his position. 
His method of dealing with an Indian mur- 
derer was long repeated on Red River as a 
subject for humor, when he instructed the in- 
terpreter to announce to the criminal: "that 
he had manifested a disposition subversive of 
all order, and if he should not be punished in 
this world, he would be sure to be punished 
in the next." The hopelessness of carrying on 
the affairs of the Colony apart from those of 
the general affairs of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, was now seen, and on the suggestion 
of Governor Simpson, the management was 
placed in the hands of governors immediately 
responsible to the company. This change led 
to the appointment as Governor of Donald Mc- 
Kenzie. This old trader had taken part in the 
formation of the Astor Fur Company, and was 
in charge of one of the famous parties, which 
in 1811 crossed the continent, as described by 
Washington Irving. Ross Cox says of this be- 
leaguered party: "Their concave cheeks, pro- 
tuberant bones, and tattered garments indi- 
cated the dreadful extent of their privations. 
The old trader thus case-hardened faced brave- 
ly for eight years the worries of the Colony. 



CHAPTER XV. 

AND THE FLOOD CAME. 

Vith fire and flood some of the greatest catas- 
trophies of the world have been closely con- 
nected. The tradition of the Noachian deluge 
has been found among almost all peoples. Hor- 
ace speaks of the mild little Tiber becoming so 
unruly that the fishes swam among the tops of 
the trees upon its banks. Tidal waves devastated 
the shores of England and France on several oc- 
ca.sin,. It is most natural that prairie rivers 
should exceed their banks and spread over wide 
areas of the land. Old Trader Nolin, one of the 
first on the prairies, stats that a worse flood 
than bat een by the Selkirk Settlers took place 
fifty years before, and there were two other 
floods between these two. Each year, accord- 
ing to the tale of the old settlers, the rivers of 
the prairies have been becoming wider by de- 
nudation, so that each flood tends to be less. 
Several conditions seem to be necessary for a 
flood upon these prairie rivers. These are a 
very heavy snowfall during the prairie winter, 
a late spring in which the river ice retains its 



A,d the Flood Cae. 

179 

hold, and a sudden period in the springtime 
of very hot weather, these being modified as 
the years go on by the ever-widening river 
channel. 
The winter of 1825-6 was one of the most 
terrific ever known in the history of the Sel- 
kirk Settlement. Just before Christmas the 
first woe occurred. The snow drove the herds 
of buffaloes far out upon the prairies from the 
river encampments and the wooded shelter. 
The horses in bands were scattered and lost, 
dying as they floundered in the deep snows. 
Even the hunters were cut off from one 
another, the hunters' families were driven 
hither and thither, and in many cases separated 
on the wide snowy plains. Sheriff Ross, who 
wa a visitor from the Settlement to Pembina 
in the dreary winter there, describes the scene 
of horror. "Families here and families there 
despairing of life, huddled themselves together 
for warmth, and in too many cases, their shelter 
proved their grave. At first, the heat of their 
bodies melted the snow; they became wet, and 
being without food or fuel, the cold soon pene- 
trated, and in several instances froze the whole 
into a body of solid ice. Some again, were 
found in a state of wild delirium, frantic, mad; 
while others were picked up, one here, and one 
there, overcome in their fruitless attempts to 
reach Pembina--some ha|f-way, some more, 



180 Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

some less; one woman was found with an in- 
fant on her back, within a quarter of a mile of 
Pembina. This poor creature must have tra- 
velled, at least, one hundred and twenty-five 
miles, in three days and nights, till she sunk at 
last in the too unequal struggle for life." Such 
scenes might be expected in the valleys of the 
Highlands of Scotland, or amid the heavy 
snows of New Brunswick or Quebec, but they 
were a surprise upon the open prairie. Some 
of the settlers had devoured their dogs, raw 
hides, leather and their very shoes. The loss 
of thirty-three lives cast a gloom over the whole 
settlement. 
Anxiety had been aroused throughout the 
whole Colony. The St. Lawrence often over- 
flows its banks at Montreal, the Grand River 
at Brantford and the Fraser at its delta, but 
the rarity of the Red River overflows led 
the people, after their winter disaster, to hope 
that they would escape a flood. 
This was not to be. 
As the Red River flows northward, the first 
thaw of spring is usually south of the Ameri- 
can International Boundary line at the head 
waters of the river which divides Minnesota 
and Dakota. In these States the floods are al- 
way., in consequence, greater than they are in 
Manitoba. In this year the ice held very firm 
up to the end of April. On the second of May, 



Ad the Flood Came. 

181 

the waters from above rose and lifted the ice 
which still held in a mass together some nine 
feet above the level of the day before. Indians 
and whites alike were alarmed. The water 
overflowed its banks, and still continued to rise 
at Fort Garry. The Governor and his famliy 
were driven to the upper story of their resi- 
dence in the fort, with the water ten feet deep 

below that. 
The whole 
of confusion 

river bank for mites was a scene 
and terror. Every home was an 
alarming scene as the flood reached it. The 
first thought was to save life. Amid the cry- 
ing of children, the lowing of cattle and the 
howling of dogs, parents sought out all their 
children to see them safely removed. Parents 
and grown men and women fled in fright from 
their houses, and in many cases without any 
other garments than their working clothes. 
The only hope was to seek out somewhat higher 
spots more and more removed from the river. 
And with them went their cattle and horses. 
To those in boats---the stronger and more 
venturesome men--the task now came of re- 
moving the wheat and oats, what little furni- 
ture they possessed and the necessary cooking 
utensils. 
Blessed, on such occasions, are those who 
possess little for they shall have no loss. 
As 

the waters rose, the lake became wider, 



182 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

and the wind blew the waves to a dangerous 
height. The ice broke up and the current in- 
creasing dashed this against the buildings, 
which at length gave way and all went floating 
down across the points--ice, log houses with 
dogs and cats frantic on their roofs. One eye- 
witness says: "The most singular spectacle 
was a house in flames, drifting along in the 
night, its one half immersed in water and the 
remainder furiously burning." 
As the flood of waters widened into a great 
expanse it became plain that it would be some 
time,--if indeed less than several months,--be- 
fore the waters would begin to abate, and in 
the absence of an Ararat on which to rest, the 
setters occupied the rock-bared elevations, 
the highest Stony Mount, only eighty feet above 
the level, with the middle bluff, little Stony 
Mountain and Bird's Hill, east of the river. It 
is interesting to know that Silver Heights and 
the banks of the Sturgeon Creek near its 
mouth, were not submerged and at their var- 
ious points the Colonists pitched their tents 
and sojourned. 
In seventeen days from the first rise, the wa- 
ter reached its height, and hope began immedi- 
ately to return. On the 22nd of May the wa- 
ters commenced to assuage, and twenty days 
fterward tle Settlers were able with diffi- 
culty to reach their homes again. 



And the Flood Came. 

183 

:But every disaster has its side of advantage. 
During the escape of the Settlers to the heights, 
the De Meurons, losing all sense of restraint, 
stole the cattle of the Settlers and actually sold 
them meat from their own slaughtered cattle. 
So intense was the feeling of the Scottish Set- 
tlers against the De Meurons that the Selkirk 
Colonists chose another situation and moved 
to it 
Now that the flood was over, the De Meurons 
and Swiss became more restless than ever. They 
decided to move to the United States. The 
Se]kirk Colonists were glad to see them go, and 
furnished them, free of cost, sufficient supplies 
for their journey. They departed on the 24th 
of June, their band numbering 243, and the 
sturdy pioneers who held to their land shed no 
tears of sorrow at their going. 
With remarkable courage and hope the Set- 
tlers returned after what was to some of them, 
their fourth Hegira, and immediately planted 
potatoes and small quantities of wheat and 
barley. This grew well and supplied food for 
them, and in the next two or three years no 
less than two hundred and four houses were 
built. The Settlement, now freed from dissen- 
sion, had not gone t]/rough its fiery ordeal in 
vain. The news of a home for themselves and 
their dusky wives and half-breed children, had 
spread over the whole of Rupert's Land, and 



184 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

now began, what Lieutenant-Governor Archi- 
bald, the first Governor of Manitoba, after- 
ward spoke of as the floating down the rivers 
with their wives and children of the Hudson's 
Bay Company officers and men to the paradise 
of Red River. The great majority of the em- 
ployees of the Company were Orkneymen. 
They gradually took up the most of the Red 
River lots surveyed, lying below Kildonan, and 
forming the Parishes of St. Paul's and St. An- 
drew's on Red River, down to St. Peter's In- 
dian Reserve and St. James' and Headingly up 
the Assiniboine. The French half-breeds who 
removed from Pembina and different parts of 
Rupert's Land, made the great French par- 
ishes of St. Boniface, St. Norbert, St. Vital on 
the Red River, with St. Charles, St. Francois 
Xavier and Baie St. Paul on the Assiniboine. 
And now of Scottish Settlers with French and 
English half-breeds, the population of Red 
River Settlement had reached the number of 
1,500 souls. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE JOLLY GOVERIOR. 

Great crises in the world's history generally 
produce the men who solve them. Cromwell, 
Washington, Garibaldi--each of them was the 
movement itself. . wider philosophy may see 
that the age or the Community evolves the man, 
but as Carlyle shows, it is the man who reacts 
upon the community, becomes the embodiment 
of its ideal, and is the mouthpiece and the 
right hand of the age which prod:e him. 
That Andrew Colville, a brother-in-law of 
Lord Selkirk, should select a young clerk in 
London and send him out to Athabasca to .ee 
the great fur-re.zion of the Mackenzie River 
District, is not a wonderful thing, but that f- 
ter one year of active service this young man 
should be chosen to guide the destinies of the 
great united fur company, made up of the 
Hudson's Bay and Nor'-Wester Companies is 
a wonder. 
This was the case with George Simpson, a 
Scottish youth, who was the illetimate son of 
the maternal uncle of Thomas Simpson, the 



The Jolly Governor. 

187 

opinions, was held at Norway House, the old 
resting place of the Selkirk Settlers. This 
meeting took place in June, 1823; the minutes 
of this meeting have been preserved and are 
Such items as, that Bow River 

interesting. 
Fort at the 
abandoned; 

foot of the Rocky Mountains was] 
that because of prairie fires the 

buffaloes were far beyond Pembina; that the 
Assiniboine Indians had moved to the Saskat- 
chewan for food; that trouble with the French 
traders had arisen on account of their deter- 
mination to trade in furs; that the French half- 
breeds had largely moved from Pembina to St. 
Boniface; that the trade should be withdrawn 
from beyond the American Boundary line; that 
the Sioux Indians should be discouraged from 
coming to the Forts to trade;and that the com- 
pany intended to take over the Colony from 
Lord Selkirk's trustees, all came up for con- 
sideration. 
These were all important and difficult prob- 
lems, but the young Governor acted with such 
shrewdness and skill, that he completely car- 
ried the Council with him, and was given power 
to act for the Council during the intervals be- 
tween its meetings--a thing most unusual. 
The Governor was ubiquitous. 
Now at Moose Factory, then at York; now at 
Norway House, but every year at Red River, 
the Governor saw for himself the needs of the 



The Jolly Go'cror. 

crossing the Lake of the Woods, so infuriated 
with his master's urging that he seized the tor- 
mentor who was small in stature, by the shoul- 
ders, and with a plentiful use of "sacrs," dip- 
ped him into the lake, and then replaced him in 
the bottom of the canoe. 
It does not fall within the scope of our story 
to tell of Simpson's journeys through Rupert's 
Land, nor of his famous voyage around the 
world, but there is extant an account of his 
methods of appealing to the interest of the In- 
dians and servants of the company in his no- 
table progresses through the wilds. Some 
seven years after his appointment Governor 
Simpson made a voyage from Hudson Bay, 
across country to the Pacific Ocean, namely, 
from York Factory to Fort Vancouver on the 
Columbia River. Fourteen chief officers, factors 
and traders, and as many more clerks had gath- 
ered to see the chieftain depart. Taking with 
him a lieutenant--Macdonald, a doctor and two 
canoe crews, of nine men each, the jolly Gov- 
ernor with dashing speed ascended the Hayes 
River, up which the Selkirk Colonists had la- 
boriously come, receiving as he ]eft the Fac- 
tory, loud cheers from all the people gathered, 
and a salute of seven guns from the garrison. 
The French-Canadian voyageurs struck up 
their boating songs with glee, and with dash- 
ing paddles left the bay behind. 



192 

Lord Sclkirk's Colonists. 

River Settlement, of whom we speak mor ful- 
ly in a later chapter. This double authorship 
became decidedly inconvenient to Sir George 
on the celebrated occasion when he was cited 
in 1857 to give evidence before the Committee 
of the House of Commons as to Rupert's Land. 
Sir George's experience in introducing farm- 
ing into Red River Settlement had been so 
troublesome, and expensive as well, that he 
really believed agriculture would be a failure 
in the West, and so he gave his evidence. Un- 
fortunately for him his editor had indulged in 
his book, in a pictorial and fulsome description 
of the Rainy River, as an agricultural re.on. 
Mr. Roebuck quoted this passage and Sir 
George was in a serious dilemma. If he ad- 
mitted it his evidence would seem untrue, if !e 
denied it then he must deny his authorship. He 
admitted that the book was somewhat too fla. 
tering in its description. 
But, take him all in all, Sir George really 
stood for his duty and his people. He lifted the 
fur trade out of a slough of despond, he was 
kind and charitable to the people of the Red 
River Settlement, he was a good administrator 
and a patriot Briton, and though as his book 
tells and local tradition confirms it, he could 
not escape from what is called "the w_tc]ery 
of a pretty face," yet he rose to the position on 
the whole as a man who sought for the higher 



The Oligarchy. 

195 

Gradually the rulership was coming under 
the direction of Governor Simpson, though 
there was the local Governor who was homo 

inally independent. 
Even when Governor 
it is to be remembered 

Simpson was invoked, 
that he and his corn- 

pany were the embodiment of privilege. But 
the Governor was a surprisingly shrewd man. 
He saw the aspiration after freedom, of both 
Scottish and French Settlers. True, gaunt pov- 
erty did not stalk along the banks of Red Rix-er 
as it had done in the first ten years of the Col- 
ony, but just because the people were 1)ecoln 
ing better housed, better clad, and better fed, 
were they becoming more independent. The 
unwillingness to be controlled was showing it- 
self very distinctly among the French half- 
breeds as they grew in numbers and dashed 
over the prairies on their fiery steeds. They 
were hunters, accustomed to the use of fire- 
arms and were, therefore, difficult to restrain. 
The Governor's policy clearly defined in his 
own mind became, for the next ten years, the 
,oli.y of the Company. We have seen that the 
,/overnor built Lower Fort Garry, and he re- 
garded this as his residence, nearly twenty 
miles down the river from the Forks, which was 
the centre of Fren,_h influence. Even before 
doing this in 1831 he had, in the year pre,:ed- 
ing this, as Ross tells us, built a small powder 



196 

Lord Selkb'k's Colonists. 

magazine at Upper Fort Garry, and it goes 
without saying that rulers do not build pow- 
der magazines for the purpose of ornament. 
In 1834, as we learn from Hon. Donald Gunn, 
who was then a resident of Red River Settle- 
ment, and who has left us his views in the man- 
us(.ript afterward published coming up to 1835, 
a most serious revolt took place among the 
Metis. Gunn's account is vivid and interesting. 
The French half-breeds were entirely de- 
pendent upon hunting, trapping or voyaging. 
One hundred or one hundred and fifty men 
were required to transfer goods, furs, etc., 
from the boats during the time of open water. 
Generally they received advances from the Fur 
Company at the beginning of summer, for they 
were always in debt to the company. On 
close of the open season they were paid the 
balance due them. After a few days of idle- 
ness and gossip the money would be spent and 
want would begin to press them. A new 
engagement with an advance would fol- 
low. The agreement was signed, and so like 
an endless chain, the natives were al- 
ways held to the Company's interest. At 
Christmas, these workmen received a portion of 
their advance, and as is well known, the com. 
pany relaxed somewhat its rules as to liql9r 
selling at this season. At this Christmas time 
of 1834 payments were being made and indu!- 



The Oligarch y. 

199 

Board of the Hudson's Bay Company choosing 
the Council of Assiniboia, certainly did smack 
of the age of Henry VIII. or Charles I. in Eng- 
lish history. 
The Council consisted of fifteen members, 
viz. : the Governor-in-Chief Simpson, the Local 
Governor Christie, the Roman Catholic Bishop, 
two Church of England clergymen, three re- 
tired Hudson's Bay Company officers, the lead- 
ing doctor of the Colony, Sheriff Ross, Coroner 
McCallum, and three leading business men, viz. : 
Pritchard, Logan and McDermott. It is no- 
ticeable that though the French element num- 
bered about one-half of the people, that only 
one Councillor besides the Bishop was given 
them, and this was Cuthbert Grant, now settled 
down from the period of his Bois-bruls impul- 
siveness to be the Warden of the Plains, with 
an influence over the Metis, that can only be 
described as magical. 
Judged by the methods of representative 
government the Council was rather a burlesque. 
Sheriff Alexander Ross, though a member 
of the Council, says: "To guard against fool- 
ish and oppressive acts, the sooner the people 
have a share in their own affairs the better. It 
is only fair that those that have to obey the 
laws should have a voice in making them." 
Hon. Donald Gunn, who was not on the Coun- 
cil, says: "The majority of the Council thus 



200 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

appointed were, no doubt, the wealthiest men 
in the Colony and generally well-informed, and 
yet their appointment was far from being ac- 
ceptable to the people who knew that they were 
either sinecurists or salaried servants of the 
Hudson's Bay Company, and consequently 
were not the fittest men to legislate for people 
who retained some faint recollection of the 
manner in which the popular branch of the leg- 
islature in their native land was appointed, 
and who never ceased to inveigh against the ar- 
bitrary manner in which.the Governor-in-chief 
chose the legislators." 
Notwithstanding the writer's perfect sym- 
pathy with both of these opinions, it is but fair 
to state that the Council of Assiniboia did in 

ordinary times do 
most beneficial and 
Community. 

many things which were 
helpful to the Red River 

Its most distressing failures were in those 
things which are very essential. (1) Being a 
compromise body it had no power of progres- 
sive development, and in the whole generation 
of its existence it did practically nothing to ad- 
vance the public, intellectual, or moral interests 
of the people. (2) Perhaps its most serious 
breakdown took p|ace, as we shall see, in the 
failure of its judicial system. Executive power 
it had none, as seen in the cases where jail-deliv- 
ry took place again and again by the friends of 



SOUTH AND EAST FACES, 1840 
From sketch by wife of Governor Finlavson. 

EAST FACE IN I882, ,VHEN FORT ,VAS DISMANTLED 
(From paiating in author's possession.) 
x Spot where Scott was Executed. 

FORT GARRY WINTER SCENES 



The Oligarchy. 

201 

the prisoners boldly extricating whom they 
would. (3) But most alarming and miserable 
was its failure to act in its moribund days, 
when it allowed, as we shall see, a mob to seize 
Fort Garry and bring in an era of disorder 
which made every self-respecting British sub- 
ject blush with shame. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE OGRE OF JUSTICE. 

The wild life of the prairie or mountain cul- 
tivates a spirit of freedom. When individuals 
must become a law unto themselves, when the 
absence of steamers, railways, electric power, 
work-shops, and mills, throws men on their own 
resources, they find it irksome to obey the law. 
They regard its restrictions as tyrannical. The 
prairie horse becomes free. He must be caught 
with the lasso, he needs to be hobbled near the 
camp, it is necessary to curb him in his temper, 
but in his wild state he can provide for him- 
self. He knows the best pasture and seeks it, 
he is acquainted with the water courses and 
finds them, he returns or not to his stable or 
covert at his own sweet will, he fights the wolf 
or the bear and protects the colts from the wild 
beasts. 
As is the prairie steed, so to a large extent is 
his master. He is apt to despise civilization, 
prefers his buckskin coat and fringed leggings, 
and loves the moccasin rather than the stiff 
leather shoe. 



The Ogre of Justice. 

203 

With him the idea of sub-division of pro- 
perty is not developed. There are no local game 
laws. He shoots large or small game, moose 
or prairie chicken, whenever he can find them. 
He traps on whatever stream he chooses. His 
idea of personal property is very liberal. He 
is large-hearted and bountiful, divides his find 
of game with his neighbors, and his shanty has, 
as he says, "a latch hanging outside the door," 
for any wanderer or passing stranger. 
This many-sided notion of freedom belongs 
to all primitive peoples and societies. Of the 
Red River Community the French half-breed 
was of the most unsubdued and restive type, 
for he followed the ways of the Indians, while 
the Selkirk Colonists and their descendants al- 
ways professed to be farmers, and hunting was 
only their diversion. Moreover, being of Scot- 
tish blood, they had been taught to fear God 
and honor the King. 
We have seen that Governor Simpson had a 
plan in his mind for gaining control and pre- 
serving order in his own kingdom. His idea 
of building fortified stone forts is chiefly seen 
in the cases of Upper and Lower Forts Garry. 
Fort Garry was, as we have seen, well on the 
way to completion by the time of the French 
outbreak in connection with Larocque. And 
Governor Christie was authorized to go on and 
construct a still more elaborate fort at the 



ADAM THOM, LL.D. 
Recorder and Author. Lived in Red River Settlement 1839-x854. 



The Ogre of Justice. 

205 

Governor Simpson's 
so decided. 
And the man who 

mind when he took a step 

had been chosen for this 

post was no man of putty. He was a Scotchman 
of commanding presence, decided opinions and 
strong will. He was a man of rather aggres- 
sive and combative disposition. The writer 
met him in London long after he had retired 
--and this was some thirty years ago, and 
though the judge was then upwards of three 
score and ten, he was yet a man of force and 
decision. A graduate of Aberdeen University, 
Adam Thorn had come to Montreal as a lawyer, 
and was for a time on Lord Durham's staff. He 
had taken high ground against Papineau' re- 
bellion, and was known as one of the strongest 
newspaper controversialists of the time. He 
was a determined opponent of the French- 
Canadian rebellion, as he was of rebellion in 
any form whatever. Evidently, Governor 
Simpson chose a man "after his own heart" for 
the difficult task, of introducing law and order 
among the turbulent Nor'-Vesters. 
The arrival of the new Judge in the Red 
River Settlement gave rise to much comment. 
The spirit of discontent had strengthened, as 
we have seen among the Colonists and Eng- 
lish-speaking half-breeds. The Hu_dspn's_Bay 
Company__had no_ re-bo_gh_f the land_f-As-- 
simoia from Lord Selkirk's _heirs. Hitherto 



206 Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

it was difficult to find out precisely who their op- 
pressor was. Now, though Governor Simpson 
sought by diplomacy to evade the responsibil- 
ity, yet the explanation given by the Colonists 
of the arrival of lecorder Thorn, was that he 
had come to uphold the Company's pretensions 
adto restrict their liberties. According to 
(Ross> he Colonists reasoned that "a manAlace_d 
--infecorder Thorn's position, liab]  be turned 
out of office at the Company's pleasure, natur- 
ally provokes the doubt whether he could at 
all times be proof against the sin of partiality. 
Is it likely," they said, "that he could always 
take the impartial view of a case that might in- 
volve in its results his own interests or deprive 
him of his daily bread?" 
Likewise, on the part of the French half- 
breeds, there was the same distrust in regard 
to the limiting of the privileges which they en- 
joyed, while along with this it had been noised 
about that during the Papineau trouble in Can- 
ada, the Judge was no favorite of the French. 
The French half-breeds, accordingly, became 
strongly prejudiced against the new Recorder. 
In the year after the arrival of Recorder 
Thorn, a most startling and mysterious event-- 
which indeed has never been solved to the pres- 
ent day, happenel in the case of Thomas Simp- 
son, who it will be remembered had roused by 
his crushing blow on the head of Larocque, the 



TIe Ogre of Jstice. 

207 

rage of the whole French half-breed community. 
The case was that Thomas Simpson, with a 
party of natives, had been going southward 
through Minnesota, ahead of the main body of 
sojourners. In a state of frenzy he had shot two 
of his four companions. The other two returned 
to the main body, and got assistance. He was 
seen to be alive as they approached him, a shot 
was heard, and then shots were fired in his direc- 
tion by those observing him. Whether he com- 
mitted suicide or was killed by those approach- 
ing, some of whom were French, will never be 
known. The fact that he had quarreled with 
the French half-breeds, five years before this 
event, was used to throw suspicion. The body 
of Simpson was carried back to St. John's 
Cemetery in Winnipeg, and it is said was bur- 
ied along the wall in token of the belief that he 
had committed suicide. 
What the body of the people had feared in the 
tightening of the legal restrictions by the new 
laws and new officials, did actually take place. 
The French half-breeds were, as we ha'e seen, 
chiefly given to hunting. In theory, the Hud- 
son's Bay Company possessed all ht.ig rghts 
under their charter. A French-Canadian, La- 
rant, and another half-breed also, had the furs, 
which they had hunted for, forcibly taken from 
them by legal authority., while in a third case an 
offender against the game laws had been actually 



208 Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

deported to York Factory. Alarm was now 
general among the French half-breeds. Hith- 
erto the English half-breeds had been loyal to 
the Company. Alexander Ross gives an inci- 
dent worth repeating as to how even the Eng- 
lish half-breeds became rebellios. He says: 
"One of the Company's officers, residing at a 
distance, had placed two of his daughters at the 
boarding-school in the Settlement. An Eng- 
lish half-breed, a comely well-behaved young 
man, of respectable connections, was paying his 
addresses to one of these young ladies, and had 
asked her in marriage. The young lady had an- 
other suitor in the person of a Scotch lad, but 
her affections were in favor of the former, while 
her guardian, the chief officer in Red River, pre- 
ferred the latter. In his zeal to succeed in the 
choice he had made for the young lady, this gen- 
tleman sent for the half-breed and reprimanded 
him for aspiring to the hand of a lady, accus- 
tomed, as he expressed it, to the first society. 
The young man, without saying a word, put on 
his hat and walked out of the room; but being 
the leading man among his countrymen, the 
whole community took fire at the insult. "This 
is the way," said they, "that we half-breeds are 
despised and treated." From that time they 
clubbed together in high dudgeon and joined 
the French Malcontents against their rulers. 
The French half-breeds made a flag for use on 



T]e Ogre of Justice. 

209 

the plains called"The Papineau Standard." It 
is plain that rightly or wrongly, Recorder Thorn 
has a thorny path to tread. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

A HALF-BREED PATRIOT. 

Canada looks with patriotic delight not only 
on her sons who remain at home to work out the 
problems of her developing life, but follows with 
keenest interest those Canadians who have gone 
abroad and made a name for themselves, and 
their country in other parts of the Empire or 
the world. Some of these are Judge Halibur- 
ton, Satirist; Roberts and Bliss Carman, Poets; 
Gilbert Parker, Grant Allen and Barr, Novel- 
ists; R.omanes and Newcombe, Scientists; Gir- 
ouard, Kennedy and Scott in the Army, and 
many others who have won laurels in the several 
walks of life. But Manitoba, or rather Red 
River Settlement has also its sons who have 
gone abroad to do distinguished service and 
bring honor to their place of birth. One of them 
was Alexander K. Isbister, most commonly 
known as the donor of upwards of $80,000, given 
as a Scholarship Fund to the University of 
Manitoba, but really more celebrated still, for 
the service he rendered his native land. A little 
less than thirty years ago the writer met Mr. 



A Half-Breed Patriot. 211 

Isbister in London and enjoyed his hospital- 
ity. Isbister was a tall and handsome man, 
showing distinctly by his color and high cheek- 
bones that he had Indian blood in his veins. Re- 
ceiving his early education in St. John's School, 
he had gone home to England, taken his de- 
grees, become a lawyer, and afterward had 
gone into educational work. He was, at the 
time of the visit spoken of, Dean of the College 
of Preceptors in London, and had much reputa- 
tion as an educationalist. But the service he 
rendered to his native land out-topped all his 
other achievements. We have already shown 
the tendency toward restriction being developed 
under Recorder Thorn's leadership, in Red 
River Settlement. James Sinclair, a member 
of a most respectable Scotch half-breed family, 
had obtained the privilege from the Company 
to export tallow, the product of the buffalo, by 
way of York Factory to England. The venture 
succeeded, but a second shipment was held at 
York Factory for nearly two years, and thus 
Sinclair was virtually compelled to sell it to the 
Company. 
Twenty leading half-breeds then appealed to 
the Hudson's Bay Company to be allowed to 
export tallow at a reasonable rate. In 1844 two 
proclamations were issued, that before the Com- 
pany would carry goods for any settler, a de- 
claration from such settler, and the examination 



212 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

of his correspondence 
in furs would first be 
people determined to 

in regard to his dealing 
necessary. The native 
oppose them. They 

claimed as having Indian blood, that they were 
entitled to aborinal rights. Twenty leading 
English-speaking half-breeds, among them such 
respectable names as Sinclair, Dease, Vincent, 
Bird and Garrioch, demanded from Governor 
Christie a defmite answer as to their position 
and rights. The Governor answered with sweet 
words, but the policy of "thorough" was stead- 
ily pushed forward, and a new land deed was 
devised by which the land would be forfeited 
should the settlers interfere in the fur trade. 
Next, heavy freights were put on goods going 
to England by way of Hudson Bay, and Sin- 
clair, as an agitator, was refused the privilege 
of having his freight carried at any price. The 
spirits of the English-speaking half-breeds 
were raised to a pitch of discontent, quite equal 
to that of the French half-breeds, although the 
latter were more noisy and demonstrative. 
James Sinclair became the "village Hamp- 
den" who stood for his rights and those of his 
compeers. 
It was at this juncture that the valuable aid 
of Isbister came to his count .rymen. In 1847 
Isbister, with his educated mind, social stand- 
ing, and valiant spirit led the way for his peo- 
ple, and with five other half-breeds of Red 



A Half-Breed Patriot. 213 

liver forwarded a long and able memorial to 
Earl Grey, the Secretary of State for the Col- 
onies, bringing the serious charges against the 
Company, of neglecting the native people, op- 
pressing all the settlers, and taking from them 
their natural rights. A perusal of this docu- 
ment leads us to the opinion that the charges 
were exaggerated, but nevertheless they showed( 
how impossible it was, for a Trading Com- 
pany, to be at the same time the Government 
of a country and to be equitable and high/ 
minded." The Hudson's Bay Company answere 
this document sent them by the Imperial Gov- 

ernment, and so far 
some of the charges. 
could not be quieted. 

relieved themselves of 
But the storm raised 
Isbister obtained new 

evidence and attacked the validity of the Com- 
pany's Charter. Lord Elgin, the fair-minded 
Governor of Canada, claimed that he, in Can- 
ada, was too far away from the scene of dis- 
pute to give an authoritative answer, but on the 
whole he favored the Company. Lord Elgin, 
however, based his reply too much upon the 
statement of Colonel Crofton, a military officer, 
who had been sent to Red River. Alexander 
Ross said of Crofton, on the other hand, that he 
was a man "who never studied the art of gov- 
erning a people. ' 
But the agitation still gained head. 
The mercurial French half-breeds now joined 



214 

Lord Selkirk's Coloists. 

in the struggle. They forwarded a petition to 
Her Majesty the Queen, couched in excellent 
terms, in the French language, in the main ask- 
ing that their right to enjoy the liberty of com- 
merce be given them. This petition was signed 
by nine hundred and seventy-seven persons, and 
virtually represented the whole French half- 
breed adult population. 
An important episode soon took place among 
the French, usually known as the "Sayer Af- 
fair." Of this we shall speak in another chap- 
ter. The movement, headed by Isbister, still 
continued, and led to the serious consideration 
by the British Government of the whole situa- 
tion in Red River Settlement. The impatience 
of the people of all classes in Red River led to 
a new plan of attack. Not being able to influ- 
ence sufficiently the British authorities, they 
forwarded a petition, signed by five hun- 
dred and seventy English-speaking people of 
Red River Settlement, to the Legislative As- 
sembly of Canada. The grievances of the peo- 
ple were given in detail. The reason suggested 
for the deaf ear which had been given them by 
the British Parliament were stated to be "the 
chicanery of the Hudson's Bay Company, and 
its false representations." 
Isbister, in all his efforts, gained the unfail- 
ing respect and gratitude, not only of his own 
race, but very generally of the people of the 



A Half-Breed Patriot. 

215 

Red liver Settlement. Ten years after the pe- 
tition of Isbister and his friends had been pre- 
sented to Earl Grey, a committee of the House 
of Commons was sitting to investigate the af- 
fairs of the Hudson's Bay Company. It was 
a sifting inquiry, in which Gladstone, Roebuck 
and other friends of liberty, took part. It, 
however, took a quarter of a century to bring 
about the union of Rupert's Land with Can- 
ada, although, as we shall see, in less than five 
years, a measure of amelioration came to the 
oppressed and indignant settlers of Red River. 
For this the people of Red River Settlement 
were largely indebted to the self-denying and 
persistent efforts of Alexander Isbister. The old 
settlers of Kildonan, the French and English 
half-breeds of the several parishes, and their de- 
scendants as well as the University of Mani- 
toba and all friends of education ought to keep 
his memory green for what he did for them, for 
as a writer of his own time says," He gained for 
himself a name that will live in days yet to 
come. ' ' 



218 

Lord Sclkirk's Colonists. 

leading men of the Colony, so that they refused 
to sit with him in Council. It was the common 
opinion that the turbulence and violence of the 
pensioners was so great that, as one of the Com- 
pany said, "We have more trouble with the 
pensioners than with all the rest of the Settle- 
ment put together." The pensioners were cer- 

2 

PLAN OF FORT GARRY 

tainly absolutely useless for the purpose for 
which they had been sent, that is to preserve 
order in the country- The Metis, at any rate, 
spoke of them with derision. 
In the year following the removal of the 
troops the policy of preventing the French 



Sayer ad Liberty. 

219 

half-breeds from buying and selling furs with 
the Indians was being carried out by Judge 
Thom, the relentless ogre of the law. Four 
men of the Metis had been arrested; of these the 
leader was William Sayer. He was the half- 
breed son of an old French bourgeois of the 
Northwest Company. He had been liberated 
on bail, and was to come up for trial in May. 
The charge against him was of buying goods 
with which to go on a trading expedition to 
Lake Manitoba. 
Possibly the case would be easily disposed of, 
and most likely dismissed with a trifling fine, 
although it was true that Sayer had made a 
stiff resistance on his being arrested. This 
violent resistance was but an example of the 
bitter and dangerous spirit that was develop- 
ing among the Metis. 
A brave and restless man was now growing 
to have a dominting influence over the French 
half-breeds. This was Louis Riel, a fierce and 
noisy revolutionist, ready for any extremity. He. 
was a French half-breed, was owner of a small 
flour mill on the Seine River, and he was the 
father of the rebel chief of later years. The 
day fixed for the Sayer trial by the legal au- 
thorities was a most unfortunate one. It was 
on May 17th, which on that year was Ascension 
Day, a da.v of obligation among the Catholic 
people of the Settlement. It was noticeable 



220 

Lord Selkirk's Colonists. 

that there was much ferment in the French par- 
:hes. Louis Riel, who was a violent, but ef- 
fective speaker, of French, Irish and Indian de- 
scent, busied himself in stirring up resistance. 
The fact that it was a Church day for the Metis 
made it easy for them to gather together. This 
they did by hundreds in front of the St. Boni- 
face Cathedral, where, piling up their guns, 
with which all the men were armed, at the 
Church door, they then entered and performed 
their sacred duties. At the close of the ser- 
vice, Riel, "the miller of the Seine," n:de a 
fiery oration, advocating the rescue of their 
compatriot Sayer, who was to be held for trial 
at the Court House. A French sympathizer said 
of this public meeting: "Louis Riel obtained a 
veritable triumph on that occasion, and long 
and loud the hurrahs were repeated by the 
echoes of the Red River." 
And now, under Riel's direction, by a con- 
certed action, movement of the whole body 
was made to cross the Red River and march to 
the Court House, which stood leside the wall of 
Fort Garry. To allow the five hundred men to 
cross easily, Point Douglas was selected, and 
here by ferry boats, said to have been provided 
by James Sinclair, the English half-breed leader 
of whom we have spoken, the party crossed, and 
worked up to the highest pitch of excitement, 
stalked up the mite or two to the Court House. 



Sayer and Liberty. 

221 

Though somewhat anxious, the Governor and 
Court officials passed through the excited crowd 
which surrounded the Court House. It was" ex- 

I 
I 
| 
t 
I 
, 

t 
I 
I 
t 
I 
I 
I 
I 
t 
I 
I 
I 

PLAN OF FORT GARRY 

South portion with stone wall and bastions built in t/a35. 
North lmrtion with wooden wall and stone north gate still standing, built in tg5o. 

pected that the Governor would order out a 
guard of pensioners to protect the Court, but 
he had dispensed with this, and so he, Recorder 



222 

Lord Sclkirk's Colonists. 

Thom, and the Magistrate, took their seats upon 
the elevated platform of Justice precisely at 
eleven o'clock. Sayer's case was called first, but 
he was held by the Metis outside of the Court 
room. Other unimportant business was then 
taken up until one o'clock. An Irish relative 
of old Andrew McDermott, named McLaughlin, 
attempted to interfere, but was instantly sup- 
pressed. The Court then sent  suggestion to 
the Metis that they should appoint a leader with 
a deputation to enter the Court room with Sayer 
and state their case. This proposal was ac- 
cepted, and James Sinclair, the English half- 
breed leader, undertook the duty. Sayer was 
then brought in, 'uarded by twenty of his com- 
patriots, fully armed, while fifty Metis guards 
stood at the gates of the Court House enclosure. 
An attempt was then made to select a jury, but 
it was fruitles. Sayer next confessed that he 
had traded for furs with an Indian. The Court 
then gave a verdict of guilty, whereupon Sayer 
proved that a Hudson's Bay officer named Har- 
riott, had given him authority to trade. The 
other three cases against the Metis were not 
proceeded with, and Governor, Recorder, offi- 
cia.ls and spectators all left the Court room, the 
mob being of the impression that the prisoners 
had been acquitted, and that trading for furs 
was no longer illegal. Though this was not the 
decision yet the crowd so took it up, and made 



Sayer ad Liberty. 

223 

the welkin ring with shouts (Le Commerce est 
libre, vive la libertY) "Commerce is free, long 
live liberty." 
The Metis then crossed the river to St. Boni- 
face, and after much cheering, fired several sa- 
lutes with their guns. It was their victory, but 
it was one in which the vast mass of the Eng- 
lish-speaking rejoiced for the bands of tyranny 
were broken. Judge Thom, under instructions 
from Governor Simpson, never acted as Re- 
corder again, but was simply Secretary of the 
Court, and another reioed in his stead. After 
this the Court was largely without authority, 
and as has been said the rescue of prisoners 
was not an infrequent occurrence in the future 
life of the Settlement. 



CHAPTER XXL 

OFF TO THE BUFFALO. 

Alexander Ross was a Scottish Highlander, 
vho came to Glengarry in Canada, quite a 
century ago, joined Astor's expedition, vent 
around Cape Horn and in British Columbia 
rose to be an officer in the Northwest Company. 
He married the daughter of an Indian Chief at 
Okanagan, came over the Rocky Mountains, 
and vas given by Sir George Simpson a free 
gift of a farm, where Ross and James Streets 
are now found in Winnipeg. This land is to- 
day worth many millions of dollars. Ross was 
also fond of hunting the buffalo, and we are 
fortunate in having his spirited story of 1840. 

BUFFALO HUNTING. 

In the leafy month of June carts were seen 
to emerge from every nook and corner of the 
Settlement bound for the plains. As they pass- 
ed us, many things were discovered to be still 
wanting, to supply vhich a halt had to be made 
at Fort Garry shop; one wanted this thing, an- 
other that, but all on credit. The day of pay- 
ment was yet to come; but payment was prom- 
ised. Many on the present occasion vere sup- 



Off to the Buffalo. 

225 

plied, many were not; they got and grumbled, 
and grumbled and got, till they could get no 
more; and at last went off, still grumbling and 
discontented. 
From Fort Garry the cavalcade and camp- 
followers were crowding on the public road, 
and thence, stretching from point to point, till 
the third day in the evening, when they reached 
Pembina, the great rendezvous of such occa- 
sions. When the hunters leave the Settlement 
it enjoys that relief which a person feels on re- 
covering from a long and painful sickness. 
Here, on a level plain, the whole patriarchal 
camp squatted down like pilgrims on a jour- 
ney to the Holy Land, in ancient days: only 
not so devout, for neither scrip nor staff were 
consecrated for the occasion. Here the roll 
was called, and general muster taken, when 
they numbered on the occasion 1,630 souls: and 
here the rules and regulations for the journey 
were finally settled. The officials for the trip 
ere named and installed into their office, and 
all without the aid of writing materials. 
The camp occupied as much ground as a 
modern city, and was formed in a circle: all 
the carts were placed side by side, the trams 
outward. Within this line, the tents were 
placed in double, treble rows, at one end; the 
animals at the other in front of the *.ents. This 
:s the order in all dangerous pla_s: but wLen