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Title: The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists
The Pioneers of Manitoba
Author: George Bryce
Release Date: December 19, 2005 [eBook #17358]
Language: English
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THE ROMANTIC SETTLEMENT OF LORD SELKIRK'S COLONISTS
(The Pioneers of Manitoba)
by
DR. GEORGE BRYCE
Of Winnipeg
President of the Royal Society of Canada, etc., etc.
[Illustration: THOMAS, 5TH EARL OF SELKIRK, The Founder of Red River
Colony, 1812. From copy of painting by Raeburn, obtained by author from
St Mary's Isle, Lord Selkirk's seat.]
Toronto
The Musson Book Company Limited
"Copyrighted Canada, 1909, by The Musson Book Company, Limited,
Toronto."
CONTENTS
Page.
Chapter 1. Patriarch's Story 9
An Extinct Race.
The Gay Frenchman.
The Earlier Peoples.
The Montreal Merchants and Men.
The Dusky Riders of the Plain.
The Stately Hudson's Bay Company.
Chapter 2. A Scottish Duel 33
Chapter 3. Across the Stormy Sea 44
Chapter 4. A Winter of Discontent 58
Chapter 5. First Foot on Red River Banks 69
Chapter 6. Three Desperate Years 80
Chapter 7. Fight and Flight 95
Chapter 8. No Surrender 107
Chapter 9. Seven Oaks Massacre 117
Chapter 10. Afterclaps 133
Chapter 11. The Silver Chief Arrives 142
Chapter 12. Soldiers and Swiss 152
Chapter 13. English Lion and Canadian
Bear Lie Down Together 161
Chapter 14. Satrap Rule 170
Chapter 15. And the Flood Came 178
Chapter 16. The Jolly Governor 185
Chapter 17. The Oligarchy 194
Chapter 18. An Ogre of Justice 202
Chapter 19. A Half-Breed Patriot 210
Chapter 20. Sayer and Liberty 216
Chapter 21. Off to the Buffalo 224
Chapter 22. What the Stargazers Saw 232
Chapter 23. Apples of Gold 239
Chapter 24. Pictures of Silver 256
Chapter 25. Eden Invaded 276
Chapter 26. Riel's Rising 284
Chapter 27. Lord Strathcona's Hand 291
Chapter 28. Wolseley's Welcome 300
Chapter 29. Manitoba in the Making 307
Chapter 30. The Selkirk Centennial 315
Appendix 320
PREFACE
The 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
pleasure of seeing the current of all reliable history turned in Lord
Selkirk's favor.
Dr. Doughty, the popular Archivist at Ottawa, has put at the author's
disposal a large amount of Lord Selkirk's correspondence lately received
by him, so that many new, interesting 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, oppressions and heartless
persecutions 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 Settlement 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 thoroughfare, with
asphalt pavement, as it runs southward 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
Assiniboine tribe whose northern limit it was, and whose name implies
the "Sioux" of the Stony Lake. The Assiniboine River is as large as the
Tiber at Rome, and the color of the water justifies 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 ago, 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 wooingly here, and through the
gentle haze, was to be seen sitting on his verandah, the patriarch 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 occupied an
easy chair.
The writer was then quite a young man fresh from College, and with a
simple introduction, after the easy manner of Western Canada, proceeded
to hear the story of old Andrew McDermott, the patriarch of Winnipeg.
"Yes," said Mr. McDermott, "I was among those of the first year of Lord
Selkirk's immigrants. We landed from the Old Country, at York Factory,
on Hudson Bay. The first immigrants reached the banks of the Red River
in the year 1812.
"I am a native of Ireland and embarked with Owen Keveny--a bright
Hibernian--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 course the greater number of Lord Selkirk's settlers were
Scotchmen, 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 cast 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 region, who
lived their lives, and came and went, before the arrival of Lord
Selkirk's settlers in 1812." Thus the story-telling began, and patriarch
and questioner made out from one source and another the whole story of
the predecessors of the Selkirk Colonists.
[Illustration: MOUND BUILDERS' ORNAMENTS, ETC.
A. Ornamental gorget of turtle's plastron.
B. Gorget of sea-shell (1879).
C. Gorget of buffalo bone.
D. Breast or arm ornament of very hard bone.
E. String of beads of birds' leg bones. Note cross X.
F. One of three polished stones used for gaming.
G. Columella of large sea couch (tropical, used as sinker for fishing).]
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
bastions. A little north of this you may have noticed 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 observation. The enemy approaching could from these
mounds easily be seen. They are also found in good agricultural
districts, showing that the race were agriculturists, 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 hundred years ago, just before the coming of the 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 implements 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 notable 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 Mexico 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 left 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."
THE GAY FRENCHMAN.
Then the conversation turned upon the early Frenchmen, who came to the
West during the days of French Canada, before Wolfe took Quebec. "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 explorers
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
patriarch. That is the Story of the French Explorers.
"Oh! Yes," replied the writer, "you know the world of men and things
about you; I know the world of books and journals and letters."
"Let us hear of that," said the patriarch eagerly.
[Illustration: MOUND BUILDERS' REMAINS
A. Native Copper Drill.
B. Soapstone Conjurer's tube.
C. Flint Skinning Implement.
D. Horn Fish Spear.
E. Native Copper Cutting Knife.
F. Cup found in Rainy River Mound by the Author, 1884.]
Well, you know the French Explorers were very venturesome. They went,
sometimes to their sorrow, among the wildest tribes of Indians.
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 England. 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 Rainy River, went back again with his
furs, and after several such journeys, came down the Winnipeg River 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 Indians had never seen a white man in their
country, and the French Captain, with his officers, his men and a
priest, found their way 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 Poland, the unfortunate Queen of France--"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 Assiniboine. The Frenchmen
worked hard, and on the south side of the junction of the Red River with
the Assiniboine, erected Fort Rouge--the 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 Mountains. But
French Canada was doomed. In twenty years more Wolfe was to wrench
Canada from France and make it British. The whole French force of
soldiers, free traders, and voyageurs were needed at Montreal and
Quebec. Not a Frenchman seems to have remained behind, and for a number
of years the way to the West was blocked up. The canoes went to decay,
the portages grew up with weeds and underwood, and the Western search
for furs from Montreal was suspended.
THE INDIANS OF THE RED RIVER.
No man knew the Indian better than Andrew McDermott. No one knew better
how to trade and dicker with the red man of the prairie. He could tell
of all the feuds of tribe with tribe, and of the wonderful skill of the
Fur Companies in keeping order among the Indian bands. The Red River had
not, after the departure of the French, been visited by travellers for
well nigh forty years. No doubt bands of Indians had threaded the
waterways, and carried their furs in one year to Pigeon River, on Lake
Superior, or to Fort Churchill, or York Factory on Hudson Bay. It was
only some ten or fifteen years before the coming of the Selkirk
Colonists that the fur traders, though they for forty years had been
ascending the Saskatchewan, had visited Red River at all. No missionary
had up to the coming of the Colonists ever appeared on the banks of the
Red River. Some ten years before the settler's advent, the fur traders
on the upper Red River had most bitter rivalries and for two or three
years the fire water--the Indian's curse--flowed like a flood. The
danger appealed 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 Dakotas, and the Roches
Percées, on the upper Souris River, in the land of the wild Assiniboines
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 country--eastward to the Lake of the Woods--was
really the "marches" where battles and conflicts continually 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 settlers
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 field, they were laughed at by
the Indians who caught the French word "Jardiniers," or gardeners, and
applied it to them.
The Colonists were certainly a puzzle to the Red man. To the banks of
the Red River and to the east of Lake Winnipeg had come many of the
Chippewas. They were known on the Red River as Sauteurs, or Saulteaux,
or Bungays, because they had come to the West from Sault Ste. Marie,
thinking nothing of the hundreds of miles of travel along the streams.
They were sometimes considered to be the gypsies of the Red men. It was
they coming from the lucid streams emptying into Lake Superior and
thence to Lake Winnipeg, who had called the latter by its name "Win,"
cloudy or muddy, and "nipiy" water. When the Colonists arrived, the
leading chief of the Chippewas, or Saulteaux, was Peguis. He became at
once the friend of the white man, for he was always a peaceful, kindly,
old Ogemah, or Chieftain.
All the Indians were, at first, kindness itself to the new comers, and
they showed great willingness to supply food to the hungry settlers, and
to assist them in transfer and in taking possession of their own homes.
The Saulteaux Indians while active and helpful were really intruders
among the Crees, a great Indian nation, who in language and blood were
their relations. As proof of this the Crees at this time used horses on
the plains. The horse was an importation brought up the valleys 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 translated into pronounceable English, "the Premier,"
"the Black Robe," "the Black Man," while seemingly Mache Wheskab--"the
Noisy Man"--represented the Assiniboines. The Crees, so well represented
by their doughty Chiefs, are a sturdy race. They adapt themselves
readily enough to new conditions. While the northern Indian tribes met
the Colonists, yet in after days, as had frequently 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 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 decided insecurity.
[Illustration: Osoup, Agent, Atalacoup, Kakawistaha, Mistawasis
FOUR CREE CHIEFS OF RUPERT'S LAND]
THE MONTREAL MERCHANTS AND MEN.
But the fur trade paid too well to be left alone by the Montrealers who
knew of Verandrye's exploits on the Ottawa and the Upper Lakes. When
Canada became British, many daring spirits 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 Culloden, and after the power of the
Jacobites was broken. Some of the young men of enterprising 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. Some men were of Yankee origin, who with their proverbial
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 Wolfe's great victory, that a great Montreal trader, Alexander
Henry, penetrated the western lakes to Mackinaw--the Island of the
Turtle, lying between Lakes Huron and 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 Commandant 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 another Scotchman, Thomas Curry, and made so successful a
voyage that he reached the Saskatchewan River, and came back laden with
furs, so that he was now satisfied never to have to go again to the
Indian country. Shortly afterwards James Findlay, another son of the
heather, followed up the fur-traders' route, and reached Saskatchewan.
Thus the Northwest Fur Trade became the almost exclusive possession of
the Scottish Merchants of Montreal. 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 Richardsons, 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
canoemen 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 Montreal 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 disposition, 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," "Malbrouck has gone to the war," or
"This is the beautiful French Girl"--ballads that they 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
American Northwest.
Some thirty years before the arrival of the Colonists, the Montreal
traders found it useful to form a Company. This was called the
North-West Fur Company of Montreal. Having taken large amounts out of
the fur trade, they became the leaders among the merchants of Montreal.
The Company had an energy and ability that made them about the beginning
of the nineteenth century the most influential force in Canadian life.
At Fort William and Lachine their convivial meetings did something to
make them forget the perils of the rapids and whirlpools of the rivers,
and the bitterness of the piercing winds of the northwestern stretches.
Familiarly they were known as the "Nor'-Westers." Shortly before the
beginning 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 Company, 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 were at the junction of the Souris and
Assiniboine Rivers, five establishments, 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 men.
He was naturally a man of no small importance.
"THE DUSKY RIDERS OF THE PLAINS."
But the conditions, in which both the traders and 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 afforded 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 officers 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 employee, or pensioned off. It
is worthy of note that many of these Indian women became most true and
affectionate spouses. With the voyageurs and laborers the conditions
were different. They could not leave the country, they 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 Companies, especially around those
of the prairie, there had grown up families, which were half French 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-Brulés," 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, muscular; both are excitable, imaginative, ambitious; both are
easily amused and devout. The "Bois-Brulés" 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-Brulés from childhood were familiar with the
Indian pony, knew all his tricks and habits, began to ride with all 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, Bellegardes, and Falcons were equally skilled in managing the
swift canoe, or scouring the plains on the Indian ponies. 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 HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY.
The last of the elements to come into the valley of the Red River and to
precede the Colonists, 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-confidence 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 the Indians through an open window of the fort. This was in
striking contrast to the "Nor'-Wester" who trusted the Indians and lived
among them with the freest intercourse. For the one hundred years spoken
of, the Indians from the Red River Country, the Saskatchewan, the Red
River and Lake Winnipeg, found their way by the water courses to the
shores of the Hudson Bay. But the enterprise of the Montreal merchants
in leaving their forts and trading in the open with the Indians,
prevented the great fleets of canoes, from going down with their furs,
as they had once done to Churchill and York. The English Company felt
the necessity of starting into the interior, and so within six years of
the time of the expedition of Thomas Curry, appeared five hundred miles
inland from the Bay, and erected a fort--Fort Cumberland--a few hundred
yards from the "Nor'-Westers'" Trading House, on the Saskatchewan River.
By degrees before the end of the century almost every place of any
importance, in the fur-producing country, saw the two rival forts built
within a mile or two of each other. Shortly before the end of the 18th
Century, the "Nor'-Westers" came into the Red River Valley and built one
or two forts near the 49th parallel, N. lat.--the U.S. boundary of
to-day. But four years after the new Century began, the "Nor'-Westers"
decided to occupy the "Forks" of the Red and Assiniboine River, near
where Verandrye's Fort Rouge had been built some sixty years before.
Evidently both companies felt the conflict to be on, in their efforts to
cover all important parts, for they called this Trading House Fort
Gibraltar, whose 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 said
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 Gibraltar, 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 occupying the Red
River Valley, was the Englishman Peter Fidler, who was the surveyor 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 Traders' 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 World type of mercantile
life. It was plain 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.
"A SCOTTISH DUEL."
Inasmuch as this tale is chiefly one of Scottish and of Colonial life,
the story of the movement from Old Kildonan, on the German Ocean, to New
Kildonan, on the Western Prairies--we may be very sure, that it did not
take place without irritation and opposition and conflict. The Scottish
race, while possessing intense earnestness 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 chieftains, 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
chieftains--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.
The two men of mark were the Earl of Selkirk and Sir Alexander
Mackenzie. Before showing the origin of the quarrel, it may be well to
take a glance at each of the men.
Thomas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, was the youngest of seven sons, and was
born in 1771. Though he belonged to one of the oldest noble families, of
Scotland, yet when he went to Edinburgh, as a fellow student of Sir
Walter Scott, Clerk of Eldon, and David Douglas, afterward Lord Reston,
it was with a view of making his own way in the world, for there were
older brothers between him and the Earldom. He was a young man of
intense earnestness, capable of living in an atmosphere of
enthusiasm--always rather given indeed to take up and advocate new
schemes. There was in him the spirit of service of his Douglas
ancestors, of being unwilling to "rust unburnished," and he was strong
in will, "to strive, to seek, to find." This gave the young Douglas a
seeming restlessness, and so he visited the Highlands and learned the
Gaelic tongue. He went to France in the days of the French Revolution,
and took great interest in the Jacobin dreams of progress. The minor
title of the House of Selkirk was Daer, and so the young collegian saw
one Daer depart, then another, until at last he held the title, becoming
in 1799 Earl of Selkirk and was confirmed as the master of the 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 dress--the "Garb of old Gaul"--which
attracted him. The Earl of Selkirk has been charged by those who knew
little of him with being a man of feudal instincts. His temper was the
exact opposite of this. When he saw his Scottish fellow-countrymen being
driven out of their homes in Sutherlandshire, and sent elsewhere to give
way for sheep farmers, and forest runs, and deer stalking, it touched
his heart, and his three Emigration Movements, the last culminating in
the Kildonan Colonists, showed not only what title and means could do,
but showed a kindly and compassionate heart beating under the starry
badge of Earldom.
Rather it was the case that the fur trading oligarchy ensconced in the
plains of the West, could not understand the heart of a
philanthropist--of 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 Scottish nobleman."
Lord Selkirk's active mind led him into various 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 excesses of Robespierre and his French
compatriots. When the Napoleonic wars were at their height, like a true
patriot, Lord Selkirk wrote a small work on the "System of National
Defence," 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 own
expense to carry out the Colonists to America. Even before this effort,
reading Alexander Mackenzie's great book of voyages detailing the
discoveries of the Mackenzie River in its course 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 Canada upon the
waters which fall into Lake Winnipeg. This spot, "fertile and having a
salubrious climate," he could reach by way of the Nelson River, running
into Hudson Bay. The British Government refused him the permission
necessary. Lord Selkirk's first visit to Canada was in the year 1803, in
which his colony was placed in Prince Edward Island. Canada was a
country very sparsely settled, but it was then turning its eyes toward
Britain, with the hope of receiving more settlers, for it had just seen
settled in Upper Canada a band of Glengarry Highlanders. Lord Selkirk
visited Canada by way of New York. To a man of his imaginative
disposition, the fur trade appealed irresistibly. The picturesque
brigades of the voyageurs hieing away for the summer up the Ottawa
toward the land of which Mackenzie had written, "the Nor'-Wester" garb
of capote and moccassin and snowshoe, and the influence plainly given by
this the only remunerative industry of Montreal, caught his fancy. Then
as a British peer and a Scottish Nobleman, the fun-loving but
hard-headed Scottish traders of Montreal took him to their hearts. He
met them at their convivial gatherings, he heard the chanson sung by
voyageurs, and the "habitant" caught his fancy. He was only a little
past thirty, and that Canadian picture could never be effaced from his
mind. In after days, these "Lords of the North" abused Lord Selkirk for
spying out their trade, for catching the secrets of their business which
were in the wind, and for making an undue use of what they had disclosed
to him. In this there was nothing. His schemes were afire in his own
mind long before, his Montreal experiences but fanned the flame, and led
him to send a few Colonists to Upper Canada to the Settlement to
Baldoon. This settlement was, however, of small account.
In 1808 though inactive he showed his bent by buying up Hudson's Bay
Company stock. During this time projects in agriculture, the condition
of the poor, the safety of the country, and the spread of civilization
constantly occupied his active mind. The Napoleonic war cut off the vast
cornfields of America from England, and as a great historian shows was
followed by a terrible pauperization of the laboring classes.
There is no trace of a desire for aggrandizement, for engaging in the
fur trade, or for going a-field on plans of speculation in the mind of
Lord Selkirk. The feuds of the two branches of the Montreal Fur
traders--the Old Northwest and the New Northwest--which were apparently
healed in the year after the Colonization of Prince Edward Island, were
not ended between the two factions of the united company led by
McTavish--called the Premier--on the one hand and Sir Alexander
Mackenzie on the other.
During these ten years of the century, the Hudson's Bay Company had also
established rival posts all over the country. The competition 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 Selkirk, the man of
many dreams and imaginations and he saw the opportunity of finding a
home under the prairie skies for his hapless countrymen. 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, whoever they might be, if they
sought freedom though bound up with hardship, hope instead of a pauper's
grave, the prospect of independence of life and station in the new world
instead 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 Selkirk's great protagonist. Like many a distinguished
man who has made his mark in the new world, and notably our great Lord
Strathcona, who came as a mere lad to Canada, Alexander Mackenzie, a
stripling of sixteen, arrived in Montreal to make his fortune. He 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 partners, Gregory and McLeod, were
fighting at Montreal in opposition to the dominant firm of McTavish and
Frobisher. Young Alexander Mackenzie joined this opposition. So great
was his aptitude, that boy as he was, he was despatched West to lead an
expedition to Detroit. 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 energy 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 learned 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 Mackenzie, from Canada, by land,
the Twenty-second of July, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-three."
That was his record as the first white man to cross North America,
north of Mexico. A few years afterwards he received the honor of
knighthood for his discoveries. He gained much distinction as a leader,
though the great McTavish in his Company was never very friendly to him.
At length he retired, became a representative in the legislature of
Lower Canada, and was for a time a travelling companion of the Duke of
Kent. With a desire for loftier station, he settled in his native land,
married the beautiful and gifted daughter of the House of Seaforth, and
from her enjoyed the property of Avoch, near Inverness.
Three years before the starting of Lord Selkirk's Colonists and before
his marriage with Geddes Mackenzie, Sir Alexander took up his abode in
Scotland. He was the guardian of the rights of the North-West Company
and manfully he stood for them.
Mackenzie was startled when he heard in 1810 of Lord Selkirk's scheme to
send his Colonists to Red River. This he thought to be a plan of the
Hudson's Bay Company, to regain their failing prestige and to strike a
blow at the Nor'-Wester trade. To the fur trader or the rancher, the
incoming of the farmer is ever obnoxious. The beaver and the mink desert
the streams whenever the plowshare disturbs the soil. The deer flee to
their coverts, the wolf and the fox are exterminated, and even the
muskrat has a troubled existence when the dog and cat, the domestic
animals, make their appearance. The proposed settlement is to be
opposed, and Lord Selkirk's plans thwarted at any cost. Lord Selkirk had
in the eyes of the Nor'-Westers much presumption, indeed nothing less
than to buy out the great Hudson's Bay Company, which for a century and
a half had controlled nearly one-half of North America. The
Nor'-Westers--Alexander Mackenzie, Inglis and Ellice--made sport of the
thing as a dream. But the "eccentric Lord" was buying up stock and
majorities rule in Companies as in the nation. Contempt and abuse gave
place to settled anxiety and in desperation at last the trio of
opponents, two days before the meeting, purchased £2,500 of stock, not
enough to appreciably affect the vote, but enough to give them a footing
in the Hudson's Bay Company, and to secure information of value to them.
The mill of destiny goes slowly round, and Lord Selkirk and his friends
are triumphant. He purchases an enormous tract of land, 116,000 square
miles, one-half in what is now the Province of Manitoba, the other at
present included in the States of Minnesota and North Dakota, 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 begun! Who will win? Cunning and misrepresentation are to be
employed to check the success of the Colony, and also local opposition
on the other side of the Atlantic, should the scheme ever come to
anything. At present their hope is that it may fall to pieces of its own
weight.
Lord Selkirk's scheme is dazzling almost beyond belief. A territory is
his, purchased out and out, from the Hudson's Bay Company, about 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 after his arrival. A territory,
not possessed by a foreign 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! 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 the
battlefield, that war become so hideous. It is always, as it was in the
time of the Europe-shadowing Napoleon when for twenty years the wheels
of industry in Britain were stopped. It is always the derangement of
business, the increased price of food for the poor, the decay of trade,
the cutting 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,
and despair of the last decade of the Napoleonic War, puts into the
mouth of the victim of poverty this terrible wail:
"But why do I talk of death?
That phantom of grizzly bone;
I hardly fear his terrible shape
It seems so like my own;
It seems so like my own,
Because of the fasts I keep;
Oh God, that bread should be so dear
And flesh and blood so cheap!"
To the philanthropist or the benevolent sympathiser like Lord Selkirk,
who aims at benefiting suffering humanity, it is not the trouble, the
self-sacrifice, or the spending of money in relief that is the worry,
but it is the bitterness, the suspicion, the unworkableness, and the
selfishness of the poverty-stricken themselves that disturbs and
distresses the benefactor's heart. It is often too the heartlessness and
prejudice of those who oppose the benefactor's plans that causes the
generous man anxiety and even at times despair. Poverty in its worst
form is a gaunt and ravenous beast, that bites the hand of friend or foe
that is stretched out toward it. So Lord Selkirk found it, when he
undertook to help the poverty-stricken Celts of the Scottish Highlands
and of the West of Ireland. He had the sympathising heart; he had the
true vision; and he had as few others of his time had, the power to
plan, the invention to suggest, and the skill and pluck to overcome
difficulties, but the carrying out of his intent brought him infinite
trouble and sorrow. His prospectus, offering the means to the
poverty-stricken people of reaching what he believed to be a home of
ultimate plenty on the banks of the Red River, was an entirely worthy
document. His first point is, that his Colonists will be freemen. No
religious tenet will be considered in their selection. This was even
freer that was that of Lord Baltimore's much-vaunted Colony, on the
Atlantic Coast, for Baltimore required that every Colonist should
believe 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 active and decided men to press upon them the
advantages which are offered them. The Emigration Agent is a necessity.
The fur traders' country was at this time well known to many of the
partners. It was by employing 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 the hands of his brother Miles. He had written:
"From the Forks of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers the plains are quite
near the banks, and 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 the Assiniboine is generally a good soil, susceptible of culture,
and capable of bearing rich crops."
He goes on to state, "that the buffalo comes to the fords of the
Assinboil, besides in these rivers are plenty of sturgeon, catfish,
goldeyes, pike and whitefish--the latter so common that men have been
seen to catch thirty or forty a piece while they smoked their pipes." To
reach this land of plenty, which his brother knew so well, Miles
Macdonell became the leader of Lord Selkirk's Colonists. He arrived in
Great Britain in the year for the starting of the Colony, and
immediately as being a Roman Catholic in religion went to the West of
Ireland 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 Glasgow 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, Captain 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 Highlands
knows to this day. Captain Roderick McDonald was compelled to promise
larger wages to clerks and laborers to induce them to join. He secured
less than half an hundred men at Stornoway--the 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 to join Lord Selkirk in his enterprise.
One of the Nor'-Westers in Saskatchewan a few years before the beginning
of Lord Selkirk'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 disposition." In his district Colin
Robertson was a "Bourgeois" in charge of a station. A quarrel between
the two men resulted in Colin Robertson 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 Robertson went among his countrymen in the
Island of Lewis and elsewhere.
And now as the time draws nigh for gathering 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 heat and
opposition of the "Nor'-West" partners--Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Inglis
and Ellice--shown at the general meeting of the Company, were to break
out in numberless hidden and irritating efforts to stop and perhaps
render 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
"Inverness Journal," containing an effusion signed by "Highlander," was
spread broadcast through the Highlands, the Islands, and the Orkneys,
picturing the dangers of their journey, the hardships of the country,
the deceitfulness 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 decidedly
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 Lordship
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. 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. Sometimes more than one a year has gone. In 1811 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 enterprise. 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 British 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
officials up until half a century ago are heart-sickening. So the third
ship of the fleet that was to carry the first human freight of Manitoba
pioneers was the "Edward and Ann." She 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 Macdonell 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 centennial celebration.
The fleet was, however, to take up its passengers 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 Stornoway on the 17th.
And now, with the storms of the German Ocean left behind, began the
opposition of the "Nor'-Westers." The "Prince of Wales" brought her
contingent from the Orkneys, and on July 25th Miles Macdonell writes
that after all the efforts put forth at all the points he had 125
Colonists and employees, and these were in a most unsettled state 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 number
and he fears that they may desert. The expenses 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 son-in-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 enlisting money and then
seeking to compel them to leave the ship with him. Afterwards, Captain
Mackenzie came on board the "Edward and Ann" and claimed the new
recruits, as deserters from the army. The Customs officials also boarded
the emigrant ship and most officiously proclaimed that if any emigrants
were not satisfied, or were not going of their own free will then they
might go ashore, and the scene as described by Miles Macdonell may be
imagined. "Several said they were not willing, and many went over the
ship's side into Captain Mackenzie's boat. One party ran away with the
ship's boat, but were brought back. One man jumped into the sea, and
swam for it until he was picked up by the recruiting boat." The Revenue
Cutter's boat was likewise very active in taking men away, and the
collector took some ashore in his boat with himself. A prominent
employee of the promoters of the expedition, Mr. Moncrieff Blair, who
posed as a gentleman, deserted on July 25th, the day before the sailing
of the vessel.
No wonder that Miles Macdonell should write: "My Lord, this is a most
unfortunate business * * * I condole with your Lordship on all these
cross accidents."
Thus amid annoyance, opposition, and discouragement did the little fleet
set sail, on July 26th, 1811.
But this time of Napoleonism in Europe affected even the high seas.
French cruisers 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 fairly away from the British Isles and some four hundred miles
northwest of Ireland, 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 Macdonell 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 were fifty-three on the "Edward and Ann." Two men of
especial note, representing the clerical and medical professions were on
board the Emigrant Ship. Father Burke, a Roman Catholic priest, who had
come away without the permission of his Bishop was one.
Miles Macdonell did not like him, but he 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 York Factory, Burke did not leave the shore to follow
the Colonists to their homes on the banks of Red River. He married two
Scotch Presbyterians, and while somewhat merry at times had amused the
passengers 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 employees.
At times Miles Macdonell endeavored on shipboard 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 "Eddystone" was detailed to sail to
"Fort Churchill," 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 Colonists, for they did
not reach York Factory, the winter destination, until the 24th of
September, having taken sixty-one days on the voyage from Stornoway,
which was declared by the Hudson'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
sheltered meantime in tents, and as they stood on the shore they saw on
October 5th, the ships that had brought them safely across the stormy
sea pass through a considerable amount of floating ice on their homeward
journey to London.
For one season at least the settlers will face the rigor of this
Northern Clime.
CHAPTER IV.
A 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 Company 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 temperatures as they
never had seen even among the stormy Hebrides, or in the Northward
Orkneys. Lord Selkirk's dreams are now to be tested. Is the story of the
Colony to be an epic or a drama?
It 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 Century De Monts, a French
Colonizer, had a band of his countrymen on Douchet's Island, in the Ste.
Croix River, on the borders of New Brunswick. 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 survivors of the Colony
were moved to Port Royal in Acadia and the Ste. Croix was given up. This
was surely dramatic; this was tragic indeed. But in the fourth year of
this Century, the Tercentenary of this event was celebrated in Annapolis
and St. John, as the writer himself beheld, 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 become 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 Champlain's settlement of Quebec,
and with the presence of the Prince of Wales, General Roberts, the idol
of the British Army, a joint fleet, of eleven English, French and
American first-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 discomfort, 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 heroism 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 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 region. Two rivers, the Nelson 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
during the history of the Company, which dates back to 1670. In Lord
Selkirk's time the factory was more than half a mile from the Bay and
lay between the two rivers. Miles Macdonell 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
summer. The buildings of the Factory were also badly planned, and badly
constructed, so that the Fort was unsuitable for quartering the
Colonists. Besides this, Messrs. Cook and Auld, the former Governor of
York Factory, and the latter chief officer of Fort Churchill, having the
old Hudson's Bay Company's spirit of dislike 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 land transport, the sturdy, steady going Orkneyman
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 dwellings for the workmen and
the settlers on the higher ground north of the Nelson River. Several
miles distant from the Factory itself, Spruce 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 Colonists from the severe cold of
winter, which would soon be upon them, although on October 5th Miles
Macdonell wrote home to Lord Selkirk: "The weather has been mild and
pleasant for some days past."
The erection of suitable houses, that is homely on the exterior, but
warm in the coldest weather, was superintended by Miles
Macdonell--himself a Colonial and one aware of the precautions needing
to be taken.
Amid all the troubles and complaints of the winter there were none
against the suitableness of the log dwellings which were erected on the
chosen site to which was given the name, "Nelson Encampment." Winter,
however, came in fiercely enough in November, although again on the 29th
of November, Macdonell writes to Cook, Governor of the Factory: "A mild
day enables us to send a boat across the Nelson with the Express." It
was open water on the river.
Macdonell knew well that with the recent arrivals from the Old Land, one
of the greatest dangers would be the weakening and dangerous disease of
scurvy. He had sought for supplies of "Essence of Malt" and "Crystallized
Salts of Lemon," and at the beginning of December as the people were
living chiefly on salt provisions and a short allowance of oatmeal the
scurvy made its appearance. Medical care was given by Mr. Edwards and
the disease was at once met. However within a month one-third of the
Immigrants were thus afflicted and the fear was that the malady would go
through the whole Encampment. But the remedy that Champlain found so
effective at Quebec--the juice of the Spruce tree, which grew in
abundance 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 Orkneymen 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 February 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 much 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 constant strain on Miles
Macdonell arising from the difficulties of his position and the
waywardness 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, desolate and (I may add) barren
region, excluded at present from all communication with the civilized
world, intelligence of a local kind can alone be expected. Could we join
in the sentinel's cry of 'All is well,' although not affording great
changes, it might yet be satisfactory in our isolated condition. We have
as great variety as generally happens in this sublunary world, of which
we here form a true epitome, being composed of men of all countries,
religions and tongues."
Plainly Governor Macdonell feels his burdens! However, the culmination
of this officer's troubles did not reach him until a serious rebellion
occurred among his subjects--so mixed and various.
A workman--William Finlay--presumably an Orkneyman, who had been
regularly employed by Miles Macdonell when the scurvy was bad in Mr.
Hillier's camp, refused to obey the health regulations, his one
objection being to drink this spruce decoction. He was immediately
dropped from work. A few days afterward 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 it the prisoner was confined. Not a
day had entirely passed when a rebellion arose among some of his
compatriots--the Scottish contingent 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 before Macdonell and Hillier,
sitting as magistrates. This was about the end of February. The rebels,
however, defied the authorities, departed carrying Finlay with them and
getting possession of a house took it defiantly for their own use.
During their remaining sojourn at York Factory they subsisted on
provisions obtained at the Factory itself and carried by themselves from
the post to the encampment. 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 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. They were thus compelled
to submit and on the receipt of a note from Mr. Auld to Macdonell, the
latter wrote a joyful letter to Lord Selkirk to the effect that the
insurgents had at length come to terms, acknowledged their guilt and
thrown themselves upon 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, however, 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 Macdonell, his Colonists, and the
Hudson's Bay officials--Cook and Auld--are all gazing wistfully up the
Nelson and Hayes Rivers, and we have the postscript to the last letter
as found in Miles Macdonell letter book, sent to Lord Selkirk, reading,
"Four Irishmen are to be sent home; Higgins and Hart, for the felonious
attack on the Orkneymen; William Gray, non-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 interior on the 6th of July,
1812.
CHAPTER V.
FIRST FOOT ON RED RIVER BANKS.
The weary winter passing at Nelson Encampment had its bright spots.
Miles Macdonell 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, officers 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 fair 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 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 continuous urging of
the dull and inefficient workmen to greater effort, Miles Macdonell had
succeeded 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 Hudson's Bay
Company officials. Two days, however, 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 Hill 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 running 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 hundred miles
from the Factory has been passed without any obstruction or delay. Now
the serious 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 carried, 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 voyageur 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 children and the old men must trudge the weary path,
varying from a few hundred yards to several miles along a rocky, steep
and rugged way. When the portage is made the whole force of boatmen and
able-bodied passengers are required 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 immigrant, or the
waiter-on-fortune this was hard work. Many were the oaths of the
officers 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 comparative rest to the toiling crews,
but at the end of it a short portage passed takes the beleagured party
into the mouth of the Jack Tent River. Day after day with sound sleep
when the mosquitoes 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 seventy miles.
The party now find themselves on the surface of Knee Lake, a
considerable sheet of water, but a comparative rest after 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 celebrated 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 variety, 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 colored
masses, or shaded by overhanging hills--now there is a tranquil pool
lying like a sheet of silver--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 above 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 route whether passing up or down the water courses, it was always
so. After the long and tedious voyaging it was their Elysium. Not only
are the sweet surroundings of the lake most charming, but the Indians of
the neighborhood have always been noted for their good character, their
docility and their industry.
[Illustration: ANDREW McDERMOTT, ESQ., Greatest Merchant of the Red
River Settlement. Came to Red River Settlement in 1813. Died in
Winnipeg in 1881.]
A short delay at Oxford House led to the continuation of the journey
over what was now the roughest, most desolate, and most trying part of
the voyage. On this rough passage, perhaps the most distressing spot was
"Windy Lake," a 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 sudden
descents of this alarming stream. Those coming toward Oxford Lake run it
at the very risk of their lives, but the painful portages impress
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
stream dashing headlong down from the mile-long Robinson Portage.
This region is an elevated, 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 Hudson 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.
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 runway to Black Water Creek. It was said that in consequence
it was called "Each-a-Man's" brook, according as each voyageur took the
water with his craft first. The way was now clear, down stream until
shortly was seen the dashing 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, weather 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 them and the dissociable sea. For better or for
worse they will now complete their journey, going on to found the
Settlement which has become so famous.
The appearance of Norway House with its fine site and evidences of trade
cheered the Colonists, 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 settlers, 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 River--was 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 behind 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 tracking, that is, by dragging the boats
by a line up the bank.
Up the river they came and rounded what we now call Point Douglas, in
the City of Winnipeg, 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 Winnipeg--and they
had done this in fifty-five days. Now they landed.
THE RED LETTER DAY OF THEIR LANDING WAS AUGUST 30TH, 1812.
At York Factory the Colonists had met a Hudson's Bay Company
officer--Peter Fidler--on his way to England. He was the surveyor 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 Douglas was afterwards built, around which circles much of
this Romantic Settlement Story.
This spot was the centre of the First Settlement 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 engine; only one Newton among those who
discuss 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 Manitoba--and what
is wider--in 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
recognition and to respectful memory.
CHAPTER 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 West for two or three
hundreds of miles across the plains. When he wishes more land for his
growing sons, he "sells out," fits up his commodious covered wagon,
called "the prairie schooner," and with implements, supplies, cattle 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
mosquitoes 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 registered 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 dwelling. The children explore the
new farm lying 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 gophers. Health and homely fare make life
enjoyable. Subject to the incidents and interruptions 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 winter 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 uncomfortable. 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-servant chanced to be a
countryman of their own. They were without money, they were dependent
upon Lord Selkirk'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 farming requisites to be found in
the country. Horses there were, but there were only two or three
individual 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. Hillier and Heney, who were the Hudson's Bay Company
officers for the East Winnipeg District, had arduous duties ahead of
them. But though the orders to prepare for the Colonists had been sent
on in good time, there was not a single bag of pemmican or any other
article of provision awaiting the hapless settlers. The few French
people who were freemen, lived in what is now the St. Boniface side of
the river, were only living from hand to mouth, and the Company's people
were little better provided. The river was the only resource, and from
the scarceness of hooks the supply of fish obtainable was rather scanty.
As the Colonists and their leader were strangers they desired leisure to
select a suitable location for their buildings. For the time being their
camp was at the Forks, on the east side of the river, a little north of
the mouth of the Assiniboine.
The Governor, Miles Macdonell, on the 4th of September, summoned three
of the North-West Company gentlemen, the free Canadians beside whom they
were encamped, and a number of the Indians to a spectacle similar to
that enacted by St. Lawson, at Sault Ste. Marie, nearly a hundred and
fifty years before. The Nor'-Westers had not permitted their employees
to cross the river. Facing, as he did, Fort Gibraltar, across the river,
the Governor directed the patent of Lord Selkirk to his vast concession
to be read, "delivering and seizin were formally taken," and Mr. Heney
translated some part of the Patent into French for 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 guns, 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 days' thorough investigation of both banks of the river
for some miles below the Forks. The place found most eligible was "an
extensive point of land through which fire had run and destroyed the
wood, there being only burnt wood and weeds left." This was afterwards
called Point Douglas.
He had, as we shall see, dispatched the settlers 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 wheat. An officer was left with the men to trade with
Indians for fish and meat for the support of the workers.
The winter, which is sharp, crisp and decided in all of Rupert's Land,
was approaching, so that their situation began to be desperate.
Governor Macdonell's chief care was for the safety and comfort during
the winter of his helpless Colonists.
Sixty miles up the Red River from the Forks was a settlement of native
people--chiefly French half-breeds--and to this place called Pembina
came in the buffaloes, or if not they were easily reached from this
settlement. But the poor Scottish settlers had no means of transport,
and the way seemed long and desolate to them to venture upon,
unaccompanied and unhelped. Governor Macdonell did his best for them,
and succeeded in inducing the Saulteaux Indians, who seemed friendly, to
guide and protect them as they sought Pembina for winter quarters.
The Indians had a few ponies and mounted on these they undertook to
conduct the settlers to their destination. The caravan was grotesquely
comical as it departed southward. The Indians upon their "Shaganappi
ponies," as they are called, like mounted guards protecting the men,
women and children of the Colony who trudged wearily on foot. The
Indians were kind to their charge, but the Redman loves a joke, and
often indulges in "horse-play." The demure Highlander looked unmoved
upon the Indian pranks. The Indians also hold everything they possess on
a loose tenure. The Highlander who was forced to surrender the gun,
which his father had carried at the battle of Culloden, failed to see
the humour of the affair, and the Highland woman who was compelled to
give up her gold marriage ring, because some prairie brave wanted it,
was unable to see the ethics of the Saulteaux guide who robbed her. The
women became very weary of their journey, but their mounted guardians
only laughed, because they were in the habit on their long marches of
treating their own squaws in the same manner.
To Pembina at length they came--worn out, dusty and despondent. Here
they erected tents or built huts. The settlers reached Pembina on the
11th of September, and Macdonell and an escort of three men, all on
horseback, arrived on the 12th. Arrived at Pembina Macdonell examined
the ground carefully, and selected the point on the south side of the
Pembina River at its juncture with the Red River as a site for a fort.
His men immediately camped here. Great quantities of buffalo meat were
brought in by the French Canadians and Indians. Some of this was sent
down to the Forks to the party which had remained to built a hut at that
point for stores. At Pembina a storehouse was built immediately, and
having given directions to erect several other buildings, the Governor
returned by boat to the Forks. On the 27th of October Owen Keveny, in
charge of the second detachment of Colonists, arrived with his party,
largely of Irishmen. These men were taken on to Pembina. After great
activity the buildings were ready by the 21st of November to house the
whole of the two parties now united in one band of Colonists. The
Governor and officers' quarters were finished on December 27th.
Macdonell reports to Lord Selkirk that "as soon as the place at Pembina
took some form and a decent flagstaff was erected on it, it was called
Fort Daer." It is said that in most years the buffaloes were very
numerous and so tame that they came to the Trader's Fort and rubbed
their backs upon its stockaded enclosure. There was this year plenty of
buffalo meat and the Scotch women soon learned to cook it into
"Rubaboo," or "Rowschow," after the manner of the French half-breeds.
Toward spring food was scarcer.
[Illustration: HON. DONALD GUNN Schoolmaster, Naturalist and Legislator.
York Factory, 1813; Red River, 1823; Died at Little Britain. 1878.]
In May the winterers of Pembina returned to their settlement at the
Colony. They sought to begin the cultivation of their farms, but they
were helpless. The tough prairie sod had to be broken up and worked
over, but the only implement which the Colonist had to use was a simple
hoe, the one harrow being incomplete. The crofters were poor farmers,
for they were rather fishermen. But the fish in Red River were scarce in
this year, so that even the fisher's art which they knew was of little
avail to them. The summer of 1813 was thus what the old settlers would
call an "Off-Year," for even the small fruits on the plains were far
from abundant. These being scarce, the chief food of the settlers for
all that summer through was the "Prairie turnip." This is a variety of
the pea family, known as the Astragalus esculenta, which with its large
taproot grows quite abundantly on the dry plains. An old-time trader,
who was lost for forty days and only able to get the Prairie turnip,
practically subsisted in this way. Along with this the settlers gathered
quantities of a very succulent weed known as "fat-hen," and so were kept
alive. The Colonists knowing now what the soil could produce obtained
small quantities of grain and even with their defective means of
cultivation, in the next year demonstrated the fertility of the soil of
the country.
It was somewhat distressing to the Colonists again in 1813 to make the
journey of sixty miles to Pembina, trudging along the prairie trail, but
there was no other resource. The treatment of the Colonists by the
"Nor'-Westers" had not thus far been unfriendly and the Canadian traders
had even imported a few cattle, pigs, and poultry for the use of the
settlers, and for these favors Governor Macdonell expressed his hearty
thanks to the Montreal Company. The fatigues and mishaps of the journey
to Pembina were, however, only the beginning of trouble for the winter.
The reception by the French half-breed residents of Pembina was not now
so friendly as that of the previous winter. At first the Nor'-Wester
feeling had been one of contempt for the Colonists and pity for them in
their hunger and miseries. The building of Fort Daer was an evidence of
occupation that caused the jealous Canadian pioneers to pause. The
reception of the second season was thus decidedly cool. The struggling
settlers found before the winter was over that troubles come in troops.
Very heavy snows fell in the winter of 1813-14. This brought two
difficulties. It prevented the buffaloes coming freely from the open
plains into the rivers and sheltered spots. The buffalo being a heavy
animal is helpless in the snow. The other difficulty was that the
settlers could not go on the chase with freedom. Unfortunately the
Colonists were not able to use the snowshoe as could the lively Metis.
The settlers well nigh perished in seeking the camp whither the native
hunters had gone to follow the buffalo. Indeed the Colonists had the
conviction that a plot to murder two of their most active leaders was
laid by the French half-breeds whose sympathies were all with the
"Nor'-Westers."
The climax of feeling was reached when Governor Macdonell, who was with
the Colonists at Pembina, issued a most unwise proclamation, which to
the Nor'-Westers seemed an illegality if not an impertinence. Dependent
as the settlers 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 Honorable Hudson's Bay Company, the North-West Company,
or any individual or unconnected trader whatever to take out any
provisions, 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 entrance 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 his own fort.
It is quite true that Governor Macdonell expected new bands of Colonists
and thus justified himself in his seizure. It is to the credit of the
Nor'-Westers that they restrained themselves and avoided a general
conflict, but evidently they only bided their time.
No breach of the peace occurred however, before the return of the
Colonists from Pembina to the Colony Houses. The settlers occupied their
homes in the best of spirits, and began to sow their wheat, but they
were still greatly checked by the absence of the commonest 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 the 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 leadership of a very capable man--Archibald Macdonald. 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. Several 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 hundred miles between
the Fort Churchill and 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 celebrated
tramp. At first the party began to march in single file, but finding
this inconvenient 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 partridges was given them on starting, and the party
was met by hunters sent from York Factory to meet them, who brought two
hundred partridges, killed by the way. York Factory was reached on the
13th of April. This band of 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 Appendix. After
remaining a month at York Factory, on the 27th of May, this heroic band
went on their way to Red River, and reached their destination in time to
plant potatoes for themselves and others. Comrades left behind at
Churchill 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 and happiness were soon to be dashed to pieces.
The arrival of the third year's Colonists provoked still greater
opposition. Feeling had been gradually rising against 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 disaster. Napoleon's
Europe-shadowing wings had for years been over that continent and he
like a ravenous bird had left marks of his ravages among the most
prominent European nations. 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 battle 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, 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
beginning 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 interrupting
trade which Governor Miles Macdonell had taken. Immediate action was
impossible. 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 Superior some thirty or forty miles southwest of where
Fort William now stands. This concourse was a notable affair. From
distant Athabasca, from the Saskatchewan, from the Red River and from
Lake Winnipeg, the traders 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 of
Grand Portage Fort. The Highland Chieftains were now transformed into
factors and traders, and for days they met in counsel together. Their
evenings were spent in the great dining room of the Fort in revelry.
Songs of the voyage were sung and as the excitement grew more intense
the partners would take seats on the floor of the room and each armed
with a sword or poker or pair of tongs unite in the paddle song of "A la
Claire Fontaine," and make merry till far on in the morning. The days
were laboriously given to business and accounts. When the great
MacTavish--the head of the Nor'-Westers--was there he was often opposed
by the younger men, yet he ended the strife with his tyrannical will and
silenced all opposition.
The Nor'-Westers at their meeting, July, 1814, under Honorable William
McGillivray, after whom Fort William was named, decided to oppose the
Colony and sent two of their most aggressive men to meet force with
force, and to give Miles Macdonell, the new Dictator, either by arms or
by craft, the reward for his tyranny, as they regarded it.
The whole body of the traders were incensed against Lord Selkirk, for
had not one of the chief Nor'-Wester partners written two years before
from London saying, "Lord Selkirk must be driven to abandon his project,
for his success would strike at the very existence 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 master-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-bearing disposition. The Nor'-Westers, having planned
bloodshed, all agreed that Duncan Cameron was well chosen. He had been a
leading explorer and trader in the Lake Superior district and knew the
fur traders' route as few others did. His well-nigh thirty years of
service 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 notable.
Having had some rank as a U.E. Loyalist 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 Commission by posting it at the gate of Fort Gibraltar. 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 Colonists.
Speaking, as he did the Gaelic language, he appealed with much success
to his countrymen. 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 rations, he induced some of the Colonists to demand 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 houses and removed the cannon. Macdonald
now arrested the leading settler, who had taken the field pieces,
whereupon Cameron, like a small Napoleon, incited his clerks and men, to
invade the Governor's house and release the prisoner. This was done, and
now it may be said that war between the rival Companies was declared. On
the return of Miles Macdonald, Cameron ordered his arrest. Macdonell
refused to acknowledge the lawfulness of this action. The oily
Nor'-Wester Highlander then threatened the people that if the Governor
would not submit to the law, the whole body of settlers would be
dispossessed of their farms and driven away from the banks of Red River.
As if to make this threat seem more real, several loyal settlers were
fired at by unseen marksmen.
Once having begun, Cameron was not the man to hesitate. Another
Nor'-Wester plan was put into effect.
Cameron's comrade, Alexander Macdonell, now arrived from the Western
plains leading it was said, a band of Cree Indians. The Crees are
stubborn and determined warriors, but they are also crafty. The proposal
by Alexander Macdonell ("Yellow Head as he was called" to distinguish
him), was gravely considered by the Indians. The Indians respect
authority and in this case they were not very sure who had the
authority. The Indians declined the offer, and the report proved untrue.
The Nor'-Westers were, however, strong in their influence over the
Chippewas of Red Lake in Minnesota. Similar propositions were made to
the Sand Lake band of this tribe. Though offered a large reward to go on
this expedition against the Selkirk settlers, the chief refused the
bribe, and the tribe declined to undertake the enterprise.
Cameron however, knew the importance of keeping up the war-like spirit
of his following, and early in June himself took part in an attack upon
the Colony houses. The affray took place on the edge of the wood near
the Governor's residence. Surgeon White and Burke the store-keeper,
narrowly escaped being killed by the shots fired and four of the
servants were actually wounded. Cameron like a real operator effusively
thanked his followers for their grand attack. This state of constant
hostility, ostensibly on account of the refusal of Governor Macdonell to
respect the legal summons served upon him, was ended by the surrender of
Miles Macdonell, who was taken as a prisoner to Montreal, though he was
never brought up for trial.
Thus far Cameron had succeeded in his plans. He was an artful plotter.
His capture of Miles Macdonell gave him great prestige. Besides, he had
roused feelings of serious discontent in the minds of nearly all of the
Selkirk Colonists. His apparent sincerity and kindness to them had also
won their hearts. He was now to make the greatest move in the game. This
was nothing less than a tempting offer to transfer the whole of them to
the fertile townships of Upper Canada. He provided all the means of
transport, he promised them free lands in the neighborhood of market
towns--two hundred acres to each family. Any wages due to them by Lord
Selkirk he would pay and should three-quarters of the Colony accept his
offer they would have provisions provided for a year free of cost. When
the poor Colonists thought of the bleak, uncultivated country in which
they were, of the inevitable hardships which lay before them, and saw
the dangerous, unsettled state of the Selkirk settlement, they could not
well resist the offer. Furthermore, the schemer did not stop here. As
was afterward found out, George Campbell, the arch-agitator and leader
among the disaffected settlers received a promise of £100, and others of
£20 and the like. Further to allay their fears it was urged that they
were going where the British flag was flying and where the truest
loyalty prevailed. It was pointed out that it had been to prevent any
obstacles being raised against their going, that the nine guns had been
seized and were in the custody of the Nor'-Westers. Accordingly full
arrangements were made. A supply of canoes was obtained and on the 15th
of June, 1815, no less than one hundred and forty of the two hundred
Colonists on Red River embarked and drifted down the river on their long
canoe voyage 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 journey. 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
commissariat, and under fear of pursuit by the agents of Lord Selkirk,
to whom many of them were personally bound. In the township of West
Gwillinbury, north of Toronto, near London, and in the Talbot
settlement, near St. Thomas--all in Upper Canada--they received their
lands. 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
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 Macdonell. 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-Brulés, under dashing young
Cuthbert Grant. On their agile ponies they appeared like scourging Huns,
to drive out the discouraged remnant of Colonists.
Each remaining settler was on the 25th of June served with a notice
signed by four Nor'-Westers, thus:
"All settlers to retire immediately from Red River, and no trace of a
settlement to remain." (Signed) Cuthbert Grant, etc.
Two days after the notice was served the beleaguered settlers, made up
of some thirteen families--in all from forty to sixty persons, who had
remained true to Lord Selkirk and the Colony--went forth from their
homes as sadly as the Acadian refugees from Grand Pré. 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 Winnipeg and Jack River 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, dangers, and dismay of the Selkirk
Colonists.
Alexander Macdonell's party of seventy or eighty mounted men easily
carried out this work of destruction. There was one fly in the ointment
for them. The small Hudson's Bay House built by Fidler still remained.
Here a daring Celt, John McLeod, was in charge. Seeing the temper of
Macdonell's levy McLeod determined to fortify his rude castle. Beside
the trading house of the Hudson's Bay Company 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-Brulés. 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 killed in the encounter. The siege of McLeod's
improvised fort continued for several days, but the defence was
successful, and McLeod saved for the Company £1,000 worth of goods.
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-brulés on their prairie ponies for a time hovered about yet they
did not dare to approach the spiteful little field piece. The Metis soon
betook themselves 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 connection with the Selkirk
Colony was the long sea voyage and the difficult land-journey necessary,
not only to gain assistance, but even to receive information from the
founder in 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 temporarily in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company 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
immediately 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 would 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 quantities 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 Selkirk's family name, and which
McLeod has some claim to have so christened.
Meanwhile the Colonists had taken their lonely way by boat or canoe, to
the foot of Lake Winnipeg--not expecting a speedy delivery. They reached
their rendezvous in July. Lord Selkirk knew in a general way that his
Colony was in danger and so had given orders to his faithful
officer--Colin Robertson, who had done yeoman service in collecting his
first party in Scotland, but who was now in Canada--to engage a number
of men and with them proceed to Red River settlement to help his
Colonists. That the real state of things was not known to Robertson, or
the founder, appears in the fact that Robertson coming from the East
with twenty Canadians, passed up the Red River to the Forks to get the
first news of the dispersing of the Colonists. With his usual dash their
rescuer immediately followed the settlers to Jack River, found them very
much discouraged but persuaded them to return again to the banks of the
Red River. The work of rebuilding other houses which McLeod had not been
able to overtake now went on, and there was the greatest anxiety to hear
of Lord Selkirk's plans.
The Earl of Selkirk had not become in the slightest degree discouraged.
Opposition and failure seemed but to inspire him the more. On the return
of Miles Macdonell as a prisoner to Montreal in the hands of the
Nor'-Wester emmissaries, the founder immediately sought for a competent
successor to Macdonell, 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 estimate is probably true--"A
man not very conciliatory, it is true, but intelligent, honorable and a
man of integrity." He 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 despatch a new Governor to the Red
River settlement 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 Emigrants 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,
Sutherland, Polson, Gunn and the like show the sturdy character of this
band whose descendents are taking their full part in the affairs of the
Province of Manitoba of to-day. Governor Semple accompanied this party
of about one hundred settlers, and by way of the Hudson Bay route
reached the Red River Settlement 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
imperfect 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 settlers 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. Cameron, on his promising to keep the peace was almost
immediately restored to his liberty and to the command of his fort. The
feeling, however, all over the country where there were rival Forts was
not a happy one and gave anxiety to both parties as to the future. After
New Year, 1816, Governor Semple returned from Pembina and counselled
with Colin Robertson, as to the disturbed state of things. They came to
the conclusion that the only safe course was to again capture Fort
Gibraltar. This they did about April, 1816, and again held Cameron as a
prisoner. Duncan Cameron was however a dangerous prisoner. His
ingenuity, courage, and force of character were so great that at any
time he might be the centre of a movement among the Metis. It was in
consequence decided that Duncan Cameron should be taken as a captive to
England by way of York Factory and be tried across seas. Colin Robertson
was instructed to conduct him to York Factory. No doubt this was a
reprisal for the arrest and banishment meted out to Miles Macdonell.
Cameron was delayed at York Factory on his way to England for more than
a year and after a short stay in Britain returned to Canada. He
afterwards obtained damages of £3,000 for his illegal detention.
[Illustration: FORT DOUGLAS From copy of a Pencil sketch made by Lord
Selkirk and obtained by the author]
But there was future trouble brewing all through the West.
The new Governor, however, unaware of the real state of matters in
Rupert's Land and probably ignorant of the claim of Canada to the West,
and of the force of a customary occupation of the land, procured with
high-handed zeal a further reprisal. Before Colin Robertson had gone to
conduct Cameron to York Factory the Governor and Robertson had discussed
the advisability of dismantling Fort Gibraltar. To this course
Robertson, knowing the irritation which this would cause to the
Nor'-Westers strongly objected. For the time the proposal was dropped,
but when Robertson had gone, then the Governor proceeded with a 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 Governor 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 Governor Semple, it is suggested, had something of the
same treatment as that given to the Colonists by the official classes in
England against which Edmund Burke burst out with such vehemence in his
great orations.
Governor Semple's course would not satisfy Colin Robertson nor would it
have been approved 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 report of them was carried
westward and repeated over the camp fires of the Nor'-Westers and their
Bois-brulés 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 extinguished 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 discovery of the West by French
traders, the daring occupation by Findlay, the Frobishers, Thompson, and
Sir Alexander Mackenzie all from Montreal even to the Arctic and Pacific
Oceans, seemed strong to Canadians as against the undefined 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 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 trouble, and with their wives and half-breed children 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 Lordship's son and two daughters,
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
acquainted with the daring and recklessness of the Nor'-Wester leaders,
hesitated about demolishing Fort Gibraltar should have given Governor
Semple pause. Ignorance and inexperience sometimes give men rare
courage. But while Semple was self-confident he could not be exonerated
from paying the price of his rashness.
Undoubtedly the Governor knew that the "Nor'-Westers" after their
aggressiveness during the year 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 coming from Fort
William in the East to fall upon the devoted Colony; also a letter from
Qu'Appelle written by Cuthbert Grant, the young Bois-brulés 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 Colonizing 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 standpoint in
destroying the enemy's base in levelling 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 Territories was given over to
Canada. The decision 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
population, Governor Semple's action was looked upon as illegal and
unjust in destroying Fort Gibraltar and appropriating its materials for
building up the Colony Headquarters--Fort Douglas.
As the spring opened the wildest rumours of approaching conflict spread
through the whole fifteen hundred miles of country from Fort William on
Lake Superior, to the Prairie Fort, where Edmonton now stands on the
North Saskatchewan. 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-brulés 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 Douglas Pambrun started down the river to reach the Fort by
descending 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 by Cuthbert 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 frequently
announced their determination to destroy the Selkirk Settlement; in
boastful language it was declared that the Bois-brulés 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 utterances.
A start was made late in May for the scene of action. Their prisoner
Lieutenant Pambrun was taken with them and the captured pemmican was
carried along as supplies for the journey.
On the way an episode of some moment occurred. On the river bank a band
of Cree Indians 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-brulés 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
Indian does not, for the 'Nor'-West' Company and the Bois-brulés are
one. If you (turning 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 Brandon 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-brulés cavalcade
was organized.
The half-breeds were mounted on their prairie steeds and formed a
company of sixty men under command of Cuthbert Grant. Dressed in their
blue capotes and encircled by red sashes the men of this irregular
cavalry had an imposing effect, especially as they were provided with
every variety of arms from muskets and pistols down to bows and arrows.
They were all expert riders and could equal in their feats on horseback
the fabled Centaurs.
Down the Portage road which is a prolongation 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
headquarters--Fort Douglas. Here at Boggy Creek, called also Cat-Fish
Creek, a Council of War was held. Some importance has been attached to
their action at this point, as showing their motive. That they 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 contention. 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 Semple
and his garrison were on the look-out, and the alarm being given, the
party from the Fort sallied forth. Was it to parley? or to 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 present 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 Bois-brulés were coming. A few of
us, among whom was Governor Semple--there were perhaps six
altogether--looked through a spyglass, from a place that had been used
as a stable, and we distinctly saw armed persons going along the plains.
Shortly after, I heard the same boy call out, that the party on
horseback 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 towards the settlement, we saw, behind a point of wood which goes
down to the river, that the party increased very much. Mr. Semple,
therefore, 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-brulés returning towards us, and they divided into two
parties, and surrounded us in the shape of a half-moon or half-circle.
On our way, we met a number of the settlers crying, and speaking in the
Gaelic language, which I do not understand, and they went on to the
Fort.
[Illustration: RED RIVER SETTLEMENT Fac-simile of section of Map (1818).
A--Seven Oaks, where Semple fell. B--Creek where Metis left Assiniboine.
C--Frog Plain (since Kildonan church). E to F--De Meuron Settlers on
Seine. G--Half-breeds (St. Boniface of to-day). H--Fort Douglas (1815).
I--Colony Gardens. J--Fort Gibraltar (N.W. Co.). K--Road followed by
Metis. L--Dry Cart trail west of Settlers' lots.]
"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
manner; 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 Governor directed the party to proceed onwards; we
had not gone far before we saw the Bois-brulés 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, 'What do you
want? What do you want?' Governor 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 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
happened to turn my head that way, and immediately 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 taking 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-brulés 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 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 minutes 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 surrendered,
and that he gave himself up, and praying them to save his life. Thomas
McKay, a Bois-brulés, shot him through the head, and another Bois-brulés
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.' McKay, who was
among this party, and who knew me, said, 'You little toad, what do you
do here?' He spoke in French, and called me 'un petit crapaud,' and
asked what I did here! I fully expected then to lose my life. I again
appealed to Lavigne, and he joined in entreating them to spare me. I
told them over and over again that I was their prisoner, and I had
something to tell them. They, however, seemed determined to take my
life. They struck at me with their guns, and Lavigne caught some of the
blows, and joined me in entreating for my safety. He told them of my
kindness on different occasions. I remonstrated that I had thrown down
my arms and was at their mercy. One Primeau wished to shoot me; he said
I had formerly killed his brother. I begged him to recollect my former
kindness to him at Qu'Appelle. At length they spared me, telling me I
was a little dog, and had not long to live, and that he (Primeau) would
find me when he came back.
"Then I went to Frog Plain (Kildonan), in charge of Boucher. In going to
the plain I was again threatened by one of the party, and saved by
Boucher, who conducted me safely to Frog Plain. I there saw Cuthbert
Grant, who told me that they did not expect to have met us on the plain,
but that their intention was to have surprised the Colony, and that they
would have hunted the Colonists like buffaloes. He also told me they
expected to have got round unperceived, and at night would have
surrounded 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
something 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-Canadian 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-brulés, who very seldom paint or disguise themselves, were on
this occasion painted as I have been accustomed to see the Indians at
their war-dance; they were very much painted, and disguised in a hideous
manner. They gave the war-whoop when they met Governor Semple and his
party; they made a hideous noise and shouting. I know from Grant, as
well as from other Bois-brulés, and other settlers, 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 supposed that they had passed the Fort unobserved.
"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 instantly 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
indiscriminate 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.
"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-brulés to allow me
to go to Fort Douglas, I met our people; 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-West Company.' I remained at Fort
Douglas till the evening of the 22nd, 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
employed in agricultural 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 Bois-brulés victory being now complete, the messenger 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 unexpectedness 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-brulés war party, fill one with horror, and remind one of scenes of
butchery in dark Africa or the isles of the South Sea.
This is the more remarkable when it is considered 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 Companies have altogether perished by violence as in this
unfortunate Seven Oaks disaster. No sooner was the massacre over than
the Bois-brulés took possession of Fort Douglas and were under the
command meantime of Cuthbert Grant. There was the greatest hilarity
among the Metis. This New Nation had been vindicated. About forty-five
men under arms held possession of the Fort. The dead left upon 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 Macdonell the partner who had
brought with him the Qu'Appelle contingent and had waited at Portage la
Prairie while Cuthbert Grant with his followers, chiefly disguised as
Indians, had gone on their bloody work. Macdonell on receiving the news
showed great satisfaction. He announced to those about him that Governor
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 regiments
which had fought for Britain against the Americans in the War of 1812
was with them, and gives a good account of the journey. We need only
deal with the ending of the expedition. Coming from Lake Winnipeg they
reached Nettly Creek two days after the fight at Seven Oaks, expecting
there to get news from the Western levy and Alexander Macdonell. But no
news of that Company 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 Douglas and
capture it, as Governor Semple had done with Fort Gibraltar. Their
commander Archibald Norman McLeod was the senior officer 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 fragment 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 announcement 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 now joined
them, and gave them full news of what had happened.
The Colonists were then ordered to re-embark and to proceed upon their
journey to their lonely place of banishment whither they had gone the
previous year--Jack River, near Norway House. One of the Bois-brulés
followed after them to make sure that they went upon their long voyage.
McLeod's party then pushed on with great glee to Fort Douglas and were
received with discharges of artillery and firearms. McLeod now took
command of the captured Fort.
Huerter, the discharged soldier, formerly mentioned, went to the field
of Seven Oaks about a week after the fight and confirmed Pambrun's
account.
A.N. McLeod now became the superior officer in the Fort and made
preparation for defending it. He himself occupied the late Governor
Semple's quarters and passed out compliments to white and native alike,
praising them for their daring, their adroitness and their success. A
great meeting was then gathered in the Governor's apartments and a levee
was held at which all of the servants and employees of the Company were
present, and in a speech McLeod told the audience that the English had
no right to build upon their lands without their permission--a new
doctrine surely.
Leaving Fort Douglas McLeod with his officers and the Bois-brulés 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 followers
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 cautious. He knew that the
Bois-brulés had assumed their garb and committed the outrage of Seven
Oaks, and therefore the tribe were unwilling to be under the stigma
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 a 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 soldier 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 the bone,
evidently by dogs and wolves.
Far from discouraging the talkative half-breeds, whose blood was up with
the sights of carnage, McLeod and his fellow-officers expressed their
approbation of the deeds done, and the Bois-brulés became boisterous in
detailing their victories. The worst of the whole, old Deschamps, a
French-Canadian, who murdered the disabled even when they cried for
quarter, drew forth as he detailed his valorous actions to Alexander
Macdonell, the exclamation, "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-brulés 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 contagious shout they excite
each other. They reach a frenzy which communicates itself with hypnotic
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
excitement and frenzy.
To the partners McLeod and the others, however 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.
The struggle over and the battle won, while leaving the garrison
sufficient to hold the fort, ten days after the fight the partners and
those forming the Northern brigade, who were to penetrate to the wilds
to Athabasca, departed. They were following down the Red River and Lake
Winnipeg, in the very path which the fleeing Colonists had gone, but
they would turn toward the "Grand Rapids" at the spot where the great
river of the West pours into Lake Winnipeg, and by this way speed
themselves to the great hunting fields of the North. The departure of
what was called the Grand Brigade was signalized by an artillery salute
from Fort Douglas, which resounded through the wretched ruins of the
houses burnt the previous year, and over the fields deserted by the
Colonists and left to the chattering blackbird and the howling wolf.
Almost every race of people--however small--has its bard. Among the
Bois-brulés was the son of old Pierre Falcon, a French-Canadian, of some
influence among the natives. This young poet was a character. He had the
French vivacity, the prejudice of race, the devotion to the Scotch Fur
Company and a considerable rhyming talent. Many years after Pierre
Falcon won the admiration of the buffalo hunter and was the friend of
all the dusky maidens who followed his song of love or war alike. He it
was who sang 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-brulés,
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.
Having seen us pass his stronghold,
He had thought to strike with terror
The Bois-brulés; ah! 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-brulés
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 trackless 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 Solway Frith, opposite
the town of Kirkcudbright. Here in 1778 Paul Jones, the so-called pirate
in the employ of the Revolutionary Government in America, had landed,
invested the dwelling with his men, and carried away all the plate and
jewels of the House of Selkirk. 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 became a monastery,
then it was enlarged and improved to become the dwelling of the family
of the Douglasses, which it is to this day.
But now the far cry from Red River reverberated across the Atlantic. The
startling succession 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 people 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 atmosphere 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
avenues of Government power seemed by influential 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 personally should he go to the far West, and the
appointment of himself as a Justice of the Peace in Upper Canada and the
Indian Territory was grudgingly given.
The active mind of his Lordship occupied the 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 returned 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
Switzerland 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 commanding 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 hundred 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'-Westers 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.
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 Scottish pluck headed directly to
Fort William. Here assaults, arrests and imprisonments took place. It is
needless for us to give the details of this unfortunate affair, except
to say that the seizure of the Fort brought much trouble afterwards to
the founder.
Moving some miles up the Kaministiquia River Lord Selkirk made his
military encampment, which bore the name of "Pointe De Meuron."
Plans were soon made for the spring attack on Fort Douglas.
In March, stealthily crossing the silent pathways for upwards of four
hundred miles and striking the Red River some where near the
international 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.
On May day, 1817, Lord Selkirk, with his body guard, left Fort William
and following the water-courses arrived at his own Fort in the last week
of June. Fort Douglas was the centre of his Colony, and there he was at
once the chief figure of the picture.
None of the Selkirk 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 benignant 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 connected with their
Great Father the King. Because of his generosity to them in making a
treaty, they called him "The Silver Chief." He was the source of their
treaty money.
It is said that some of the last party to reach his Colony had seen him
at Kildonan in Scotland, where he had visited them, and encouraged them
in their departure for the Colony.
His first duties were to the unfortunate settlers, who had been brought
back from Jack River.
Lord Selkirk gathered the Colonists on the spot where the church and
burial ground of St. John's are still found. "The Parish," said he,
"shall be Kildonan. Here you shall build your church, and that lot," he
said, pointing to the lot across the little stream called Parsonage
Creek, "is for a school." He 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 looking 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.
Peguis, the Saulteaux chief, befriended the white man from the
beginning. He denounced the Bois-brulés. He said, "We do not acknowledge
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-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 Governor-General 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
Montreal and the far East as a destructive ogre.
The Commissioner's report covered one hundred 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 sunshine to the Colonists of Red
River. Being of an intensely religious disposition, the people 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 without religious services. They always
continued to have prayer meetings and to keep up the pious customs of
their fathers. This practise long survived among them. In repeating his
promise of a clergyman, Lord Selkirk asserted to them: "Selkirk never
forfeited his 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 children 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 journey, 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 centres--Fort
Douglas and Fort William--where the collisions had taken place. The
influence of the Nor'-Westers in Montreal was so great that the U.E.
Loyalists of Upper Canada sympathised with them against the noble
philanthropist. Justice was undoubtedly perverted in Upper Canada in the
most shameless way. Weak in body at the best, Lord Selkirk by his
misfortunes, losses and legal persecution began to fail in health. With
the sense of having been unjustly defeated, and anxious about his
Colonists in Red River, he returned with his family to Britain to his
beloved 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
letter to him from Sir Walter Scott, his old friend, is in the hands of
the writer, but Sir Walter 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 Cemetery of Orthes.
He had not fought in vain. He had broken down single-handed a system of
organized terrorism 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 optimism, but if we understand him aright he bore an
untainted and resolute soul.
"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 passionate 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."
CHAPTER XII.
SOLDIERS AND SWISS.
Many Canadian Settlements have had a military 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 Niagara 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 settlement of the De Meuron soldiers 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 mould from that of the farm. He is apt to despise the hoe and
the harrow and many even of the half-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 admitted 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 and Italy, they had not fought for home and
country, and their life of mercenary soldiering had 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, French, Italians, Swiss and others. They
were bad farmers and withal very bad subjects; quarrelsome, slothful,
famous bottle companions and ready for any enterprise however 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 Meurons grew in number in exactly the
same ratio as those of the Scottish settlers decreased.
Some four years after the settlement of the De Meurons a sunburst came
upon them quite unexpectedly.
Lord Selkirk in the very last years of his life planned to bring a band
of Protestant settlers from Switzerland. A Colonel May, late of another
of the mercenary regiments, accepted the duty of going to Switzerland,
issuing a very attractive 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 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 was 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 alongside the De
Meurons on German Creek. Good Mr. West, who had just been sent out as
chaplain 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 Meuron bachelors of German
Creek. The description of the way in which the De Meurons invited
families having young women in them to the wifeless cabins is ludicrous.
A modern "Sabine raid" was made upon the young damsels, who were
actually 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 comfortless 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 can advance.
Probably 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 attack. 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 community, and it is said they lifted up
their eyes to heaven, weeping and despairing. The sole return of 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 settlers 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 hundred 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 Highlander 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 world. And so a
daring party went off on snowshoes, and taking three months for their
trip, reached the land of plenty and secured some hundred bushels at the
price of ten shillings a bushel.
The question now was how to transport the wheat through a trackless
wilderness. Up the Mississippi River for hundreds of miles the flat
boats constructed for the purpose were painfully 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 adventurers who
brought the "corn out of Egypt." 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 settlers grain enough to sow the fields of the coming year. This
expedition cost Lord Selkirk upwards of a thousand pounds sterling. In
the following year the grasshoppers again visited the Red River fields,
but by a sudden movement which, by some of the good Colonists was
interpreted to be a 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 presence of the grasshoppers upon the Canadian prairies is one of
interest. It is known that they appeared throughout the territory of Red
River a dozen years or so before the coming of the Selkirk Colonists,
also during the period we have been describing, and then not till the
period from 1868 to 1875. During the latter half of this period the
writer saw their devastations in Manitoba. The occurrence of the
grasshopper at times in all agricultural districts in America is very
different from the grasshopper or locust plague which we are describing.
The red-legged Caloptenus or the Rocky Mountain locust are provided for
lofty flight and pass in myriads over the prairies, lighting whenever a
cloud obscures the sun. At one time the writer saw them in such hordes
that they were found from Winnipeg to Edmonton, over a region about one
thousand miles in breadth. In that year they devoured not only crops and
garden products but almost completely ate up the grass on the prairie to
such an extent as to make it useless for hay. In the year 1875 they
appeared, in the main, for the last time in Manitoba, and in that year
their disappearance was as sudden as in the former case of 1821. Under
the wing upon the body of each grasshopper was to be found one or more
scarlet red parasites which drew all the juices from the body of the
insect and produced death. For a third of a century they have been
almost unknown, and the area of cultivated ground in the States of North
and South Dakota, where they may supply their hunger renders it likely
that Manitoba will know them no more. It 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 resource 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 a 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 citizens of the
United States.
CHAPTER XIII.
ENGLISH LION AND CANADIAN BEAR LIE DOWN TOGETHER.
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 aggressive 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 protects
himself thus from the bear and the panther. 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, Toronto, and Montreal, reflected more dishonor on the
Canadians than did even the bloody violence of the Bois-Brulés. The
chicanery employed by the Canadian courts, the procuring of special
legislation to adapt 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 Lordship will ever remain a blot on earlier
Canadian jurisprudence. Fortunately the rights of man, whether native or
foreigner, are now better 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 opponents--Lord Selkirk at an early age in France, and Sir
Alexander Mackenzie, at his estate in Scotland, he having been seized
with sudden illness on his way from London. The two men died within a
month of one another in the spring of 1820. Their passing away was
surely impressive. It seemed like an offering to the god of peace in
order that the vast region with its scattered and thunderstruck
inhabitants from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean might be saved from
the horrors of a 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 Selkirk--the 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 correspondence passed between the offices of
Leadenhall Street and Suffolk Lane in London, which the two companies
occupied, but articles of agreement were not sufficient to make a union.
All such coalitions to be successful must circle around a single man.
This man was a young Scottish clerk, who had spent a year only in the
far Athabasca district. He had not depended on birth or influence for
his advancement, was not yet wholly immersed in the traditions or
prejudices of either company, and had consequently 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 Scotland. 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 now!" To the surprise of everyone the first
message from the executors was one of courage, and the announcement was
made that their first aim would be to send six hundred new settlers to
the banks of Red River.
[Illustration: SEVEN OAKS MONUMENT On Kildonan Road near Winnipeg.]
The angry passions which had been roused led the English directors to
take the very wise step of sending out two representatives--one from
each of the old companies to rearrange all matters and settle all
disputes. The two delegates were Nicholas Garry, the Vice-Governor of
the Hudson's Bay Company, and Simon 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
gentleman. 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 1821, and Garry entered
particularly into the arrangement of the Forts at the Forks. The old
Fort Douglas was retained as Colony Fort, and the small Hudson's Bay
Company trading house as well as Fort Gibraltar were absorbed into the
new fort which was erected on the banks of the Assiniboine 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 year should bear the name Fort Garry. This was the
wooden fort, which still remained in existence though superseded as a
fort in 1850.
At the time of Governor Garry's visit the 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 perhaps eighty, and the remainder Orkney, employees 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 the first white
woman who came to Rupert's Land. With her husband she had gone to
Edmonton in ----, and had wandered over the prairies. In 1811, with her
husband, she first saw the Forks of Red River and wintered in 1811-12 at
Pembina, the winter which the first band of Colonists 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 letters from Red River to Montreal, delivered them personally
to Lord Selkirk in 1815.
The Lajimonieres received with great delight in 1818 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 of St. Boniface was the reward given to the early
pioneer missionaries--Provencher and Dumoulin, men of great stature and
manly bearing. In the year of their arrival James Sutherland, the
Presbyterian chaplain of the Selkirk 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 Protestants of Red
River. Pritchard arrived by Hudson's Bay ship at York Factory 15 Aug.,
1820, having Mr. West in company with him.
And now Colville wrote to Alexander Macdonell, the Governor of the
Settlement: "Mr. West goes out and takes with him persons acquainted
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
divine service as performed by Mr. West. He will also open schools." As
to Mr. West's support a curiosity occurs in one of Mr. West's letters
written in the following year from York 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 himself, his servants, his horses,
cattle, carts, carriages and other things necessary to the purpose 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 impracticable to carry the same into
effect. This is attributable 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 RULE.
"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 of a Kingdom or
Principality whose ruler is a hireling. The Roman Empire was ruled in
the different provinces by selfish and dishonest adventurers, who
tyrannized over the people, farmed out the revenues, bribed their
favorites and defrauded their masters. Turkish Government or Persian
Rule is to-day an organized system of extortion and oppression by
unscrupulous Satraps. Lord Selkirk's two governors, Miles Macdonell and
Robert Semple, had been removed, 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 regime the
Grasshoppers came and did their destructive work, but the French people
nicknamed him "Governor Sauterelle," Grasshopper Governor, for, says the
historian of this decade he was so called, "because he proved as great a
destroyer within doors as the grasshoppers 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,
implements, arms and ammunition to his settlers. He had erected
buildings for shelter and a store house and fort for the protection of
them and their goods. He had supplied, in a Colony shop, provisions and
all requisites to be purchased by his settlers and on account of their
poverty to be charged to their individual accounts.
George Simpson, who was 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, dishonesty, untruth and
drunkenness,--in short, by a disrespect of every moral and elevated
feeling."
Alexander Ross says of him, "The officials he kept about him resembled
the court of an Eastern Nabob, with its warriors, serfs, and varlets,
and the names they bore were hardly less pompous, for here were
secretaries, assistant secretaries, 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 disorderly times." Macdonell's method of reckoning accounts was
unique. "In place of having 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 led 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 system 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 employment to his needy Colonists. Various
enterprises were begun with this end in view, but they were all mere
bubbles which soon burst. John Pritchard, whom Lord Selkirk had taken as
his secretary to London, was largely instrumental in floating the
ill-starred scheme known as the "Buffalo Wool Company." Just as on the
shores of the Mediterranean, shawls were made from the long wool of the
goats, so it was thought that shawls could be made of the hair or wool
of the buffalo. A voluminous correspondence given in many letters of
Pritchard's to Lady Selkirk and other ladies of high station and to an
English firm of manufacturers exploiting this project is before us.
Sample squares of the cloth made of buffalo wool were distributed and in
certain circles the novelty from the Red River was the "talk of the
town," in London.
On the banks of Red River the scheme took like wild-fire. All Red River
people were to make fortunes. There were to be high wages and work for
everybody. Wages were increased, and men were receiving nearly four
dollars a day. Money became plentiful and provisions became dear and
also scarce. The employees, higher and lower, became intoxicated with
their success, as they now also became really intoxicated and fell into
reckless habits. The work was neglected, and the enterprize collapsed.
This was the earliest boom on Red River banks. Failure was sure to
follow so mad a scheme. The buffalo wool cloth which it cost some twelve
dollars and a half to manufacture, partly in Red River Settlement and
partly in England, was sold for little more than one dollar a yard. The
£2,000 of capital was all swallowed up, £4,500 of debt to the Hudson's
Bay Company was never paid, the scheme became a laughing stock in
England, and failure and misery followed its collapse in the Colony.
At this time the French-Canadian settlement at Pembina was induced to
remove to St. Boniface on the Red River, where they gathered around
their new priest, Provencher, to whom they became much attached.
The Selkirk Trustees, in every way, continued ungrudgingly to advance
the interests of the Colony, but their plans, though often mere theories
failed more from extravagance and want of good men to execute them than
from any other cause.
Believing that farming was the thing needing cultivation in a country
with so rich a soil, the Colonizers began the Hayfield farm on the north
bank of the Assiniboine River, near what is now the outskirts of the
City of Winnipeg, a little above the present Agricultural College
buildings. Beginning with an expensive salary for Manager Laidlaw, the
promoters erected ample farm buildings, barns, yards and stables.
Importations were made of well-bred cattle and horses. Several years of
mismanagement and helplessness resulted from this trial of a model farm,
and it was given up at a total loss to the proprietors of £3,500. The
Assiniboine Wool Company was next started, but failed before the first
payment of stock took place, without damage to anyone, so that, as was
remarked, there was "much cry and little wool." The Flax and Hemp
Company was the next unfortunate enterprise. This failed on account of
there being no market, so that farmers never reaped the successful crops
which they had grown. An expedition was made to Missouri, under Messrs.
Burke and Campbell, to introduce sheep into the settlement. As the
fifteen hundred sheep purchased had to be driven 1,500 miles to their
destination on Red River, only two hundred and fifty of the whole flock
survived. Failure after failure taking place did not prevent the
formation of a Tallow Company, which resulted in the loss of £600 to
£1,000, and a considerable sum was spent also in an abortive attempt to
open up a road to Hudson's Bay, a scheme which Lord Selkirk's letters
show, he had in view from the very beginning of the life of the Colony.
The courage and generosity of the executors of Lord Selkirk shown to all
these enterprises reflects the greatest credit upon them. True, the
concession of so wide an area of fertile land was worth it, and the
pledges made to 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 remove this impression.
These experiences took place under those governors who succeeded
Alexander Macdonell--the Grasshopper Governor. The first of them was
Captain Bulger, an unfortunate martinet, 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 Peguis on the other. A whole crop of suggestions made
by the Captain on the improvement of the Colony remain in his "Red River
Papers." Bulger's successor was Governor Pelly, a relative of the
celebrated Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. The new Governor lacked
nerve and decision, and was quite unfitted for his position. His method
of dealing with an Indian murderer was long repeated on Red River as a
subject for humor, when he instructed the interpreter 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
Company, 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
McKenzie. 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 beleaguered party: "Their concave cheeks, protuberant
bones, and tattered garments indicated the dreadful extent of their
privations." The old trader thus case-hardened faced bravely for eight
years the worries of the Colony.
CHAPTER XV.
AND THE FLOOD CAME.
With fire and flood some of the greatest catastrophies of the world have
been closely connected. The tradition of the Noachian deluge has been
found among almost all peoples. Horace 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 occasions. 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, states that a worse flood than that
seen by the Selkirk Settlers took place fifty years before, and there
were two other floods between these two. Each year, according to the
tale of the old settlers, the rivers of the prairies have been becoming
wider by denudation, 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 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 Selkirk 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 was 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
penetrated, 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 half-way, some more,
some less; one woman was found with an infant on her back, within a
quarter of a mile of Pembina. This poor creature must have travelled, 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 overflows 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 American International Boundary line at the head waters of
the river which divides Minnesota and Dakota. In these States the floods
are always, 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, 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 family were driven
to the upper story of their residence in the fort, with the water ten
feet deep below that.
The whole river bank for miles was a scene of confusion and terror.
Every home was an alarming scene as the flood reached it. The first
thought was to save life. Amid the crying 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 removing the wheat and oats, what little furniture 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, and the wind blew the waves
to a dangerous height. The ice broke up and the current increasing
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,--before the
waters would begin to abate, and in the absence of an Ararat on which to
rest, the settlers 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 various points the Colonists
pitched their tents and sojourned.
In seventeen days from the first rise, the water reached its height, and
hope began immediately to return. On the 22nd of May the waters
commenced to assuage, and twenty days afterward the Settlers were able
with difficulty to reach their homes again.
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
Settlers 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
Selkirk 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 Settlers 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 dissension,
had not gone through 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 now began, what Lieutenant-Governor
Archibald, the first Governor of Manitoba, afterward 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 employees 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. Andrew's on Red River,
down to St. Peter's Indian 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 parishes 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 GOVERNOR.
Great crises in the world's history generally produce the men who solve
them. Cromwell, Washington, Garibaldi--each of them was the movement
itself. A 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 produces 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 see the great
fur-region of the Mackenzie River District, is not a wonderful thing,
but that after 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
illegitimate son of the maternal uncle of Thomas Simpson, the famous
Arctic explorer, who is known as having followed out a portion of the
coast line of the Arctic Sea.
Anyone can see that from the proverbial energy that is developed in
those of inferior birth, there was here one of Nature's commanding
spirits, who would bring order out of chaos.
Moreover, the fact of his short service in a distant part of the fur
country, left him free from prejudice, gave him an open mind, and
permitted him to serve as a young man when he was yet plastic and
adaptable--all this was in his favor.
Governor Simpson was short of stature, but possessed of great energy and
endurance. He was keen in mind and observing in his faculties. Active
and determined, he might at times seem a martinet and a tyrant, but he
had at the same time an easy and pleasant manner that enabled him to
attract to himself his servants and subordinates, but especially the
savages with whom he had constantly to have dealings. His ardent
Highland nature led him to rejoice in the picturesque and the showy, and
he was fond of music and of society. Given to change, Simpson became a
great traveller and made a voyage around the world before the days of
steam or railway.
One of the first gatherings of the fur traders, in which the young
Governor gained golden 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
interesting. Such items as, that Bow River Fort at the foot of the Rocky
Mountains was abandoned; that because of prairie fires the buffaloes
were far beyond Pembina; that the Assiniboine Indians had moved to the
Saskatchewan for food; that trouble with the French traders had arisen
on account of their determination 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 company intended to take over the Colony from Lord
Selkirk's trustees, all came up for consideration.
These were all important and difficult problems, but the young Governor
acted with such shrewdness and skill, that he completely carried the
Council with him, and was given power to act for the Council during the
intervals between its meetings--a thing most unusual.
The Governor was ubiquitous.
[Illustration: SIR GEORGE SIMPSON Governor of Rupert's Land, 1821-60.]
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 country, and
the opportunities for advancing the interests of the Hudson's Bay
Company. Forty times, that is, nearly every year of his Governorship, it
is said he travelled the route between Montreal and Fort Garry, and this
by canoe. He drove his men, who were chiefly French-Canadians, with
irritating haste, and it is a story prevalent among the old Selkirk
Settlers, that a stalwart French voyageur, who was a favorite of the
Governor, was once, in crossing the Lake of the Woods, so infuriated
with his master's urging that he seized the tormentor who was small in
stature, by the shoulders, and with a plentiful use of "sacrés," dipped
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 Indians and servants of the company in his notable
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 gathered to see the chieftain depart. Taking with
him a lieutenant--Macdonald, a doctor and two canoe crews, of nine men
each, the jolly Governor with dashing speed ascended the Hayes River, up
which the Selkirk Colonists had laboriously come, receiving as he left
the Factory, 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 dashing paddles left the bay
behind.
The expedition was well provided with supplies, including wine for the
gentlemen and spirits for the men.
The arrival at Norway House was a féte.
Before reaching the Fort the party landed on the shore, and paying much
attention to their toilets, put themselves in proper trim. In full
career the canoes dashed through the deep rocky gorge leading to the
Fort, the Governor's canoe, had on its high prow, conspicuous the French
guide, who for the time gave commands. The Governor always took his
Highland piper with him, and now there pealed forth from the canoe the
strident strains of the bagpipes, while from the second canoe sounded
the shrill call of the chief factor's bugle. As the party approached the
Fort they saw the Union Jack with its magic letters H.B.C. floating from
the tall flag-staff of Norway pine erected on Signal Hill. Bands of
Indians from all directions were assembled to meet the great chief or
"Kitche Okema," as they called him. Ceasing the pipes and bugle, the
voyageurs sang with lively spirit one of their boat songs, to the great
delight of their old friends, the Indians.
The Governor was in 1839, at a time when Canada was much disturbed in
both Provinces by the Mackenzie-Papineau rebellion, rewarded for the
loyalty of his Company by having knighthood conferred upon him.
Sir George Simpson's annual visits to Red River Settlement were the
bright spots in the life of the Colony. Never did a Governor get so near
the people as did Sir George. Old settlers tell how when Sir George
arrived every grievance, disaster, suspicion, or bit of gossip was
faithfully carried to him, and his patience and ingenuity were freely
exercised in "jollying" the people and giving them condescending
attention.
Sir George married in time, and on occasion brought Lady Simpson, who
was a native of the country, to visit the Red River Settlement. Her
presence was taken as a compliment by the people. Sir George Simpson,
like many of the Hudson's Bay Company, had among all his business
engagements the taste for literature. He encouraged the formation of
libraries at the several trading posts, and in his letters throws in a
remark about Sir Walter Scott, or Blackwood's last magazine, or other
living topic, although the means of communication made literature often
months late even on the banks of the Red River. His own effort in
producing a book gave rise to a considerable amount of amusement. After
his great journey around the world, he published an account of his
travels in two considerable volumes. It is now no secret that these were
prepared for him by a well-known judge of Red River Settlement, of whom
we speak more fully 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
farming 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. Unfortunately for him his editor had
indulged in his book, in a pictorial and fulsome description of the
Rainy River, as an agricultural region. Mr. Roebuck quoted this passage
and Sir George was in a serious dilemma. If he admitted it his evidence
would seem untrue, if he denied it then he must deny his authorship. He
admitted that the book was somewhat too flattering 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 witchery of a pretty face," yet he rose to the position on the
whole as a man who sought for the higher interests of the vast territory
under his sway, as well as for the financial advancement of his company.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE OLIGARCHY.
The struggle has always been between the masses and the classes.
Privilege always strives to confine itself to a few. It could not be but
that the echoes of the great British Reform Bill of 1832 should reach
even the remote banks of Red River. The struggle for constitutional
freedom was also going on in Upper Canada, as well as in Lower Canada
where the French-Canadians were fighting bitterly for their rights.
Besides all this in the Red River Settlement the existence of a Company
store--a monopoly--could never prove satisfactory to a community of
British blood. Had the Colony shop been ever so justly and honestly
conducted it could not be popular, how much less so must it have been in
the hands of Alexander Macdonell, the peculator and deceiver.
It is true the Company store, of which we speak, was not that of the
Hudson's Bay Company proper, but rather the possession of Lord Selkirk's
heirs.
Gradually the rulership was coming under the direction of Governor
Simpson, though there was the local Governor who was nominally
independent.
Even when Governor Simpson was invoked, it is to be remembered that he
and his company 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 poverty did not stalk along
the banks of Red River as it had done in the first ten years of the
Colony, but just because the people were becoming better housed, better
clad, and better fed, were they becoming more independent. The
unwillingness to be controlled was showing itself 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 firearms and were, therefore, difficult to restrain.
The Governor's policy clearly defined in his own mind became, for the
next ten years, the policy of the Company. We have seen that the
Governor built Lower Fort Garry, and he regarded this as his residence,
nearly twenty miles down the river from the Forks, which was the centre
of French influence. Even before doing this in 1831 he had, in the year
preceding this, as Ross tells us, built a small powder magazine at Upper
Fort Garry, and it goes without saying that rulers do not build powder
magazines for the purpose of ornament.
In 1834, as we learn from Hon. Donald Gunn, who was then a resident of
Red River Settlement, and who has left us his views in the manuscript
afterward published coming up to 1835, a most serious revolt took place
among the Metis. Gunn's account is vivid and interesting.
[Illustration: The Sisters, The Ferry, The Forks, Fort Garry, Site of
Fort Gibraltar, Pontoon Bridge, French Half-breeds with Ox-carts, Red and
Assiniboine Rivers. FORT GARRY (From Oil painting of Mr. W. Frank
Lynn made in 1872, now in possession of the Author.)]
The French half-breeds were entirely dependent 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 the
close of the open season they were paid the balance due them. After a
few days of idleness and gossip the money would be spent and want would
begin to press them. A new engagement with an advance would follow. The
agreement was signed, and so like an endless chain, the natives were
always held to the Company's interest. At Christmas, these workmen
received a portion of their advance, and as is well known, the company
relaxed somewhat its rules as to liquor selling at this season. At this
Christmas time of 1834 payments were being made and indulgence was
supreme, when a French half-breed named Larocque entered the office of
the accountant, Thomas Simpson, a relative of Sir George, and demanded
his pay in a disrespectful way. Simpson replied somewhat roughly, which
led Larocque to insult the officer of the company. Simpson seized the
fire poker and striking Larocque's head made an ugly wound on his scalp.
Larocque's companions retired without violence, but on returning home,
gathered the violent spirits together, came back to Fort Garry and
demanded that Thomas Simpson should be given up to them for punishment,
with the threat that if this were not granted, they would destroy the
Fort, and take Simpson by violence. This being refused them, the Metis
returned to their homes to prepare themselves for action, and began the
war songs and war dances of their savage ancestors in true Indian style.
Governor Christie, the local authority, took with him Chief Factor
Cameron, Robert Logan and Alexander Ross, chief men of the Settlement,
and visited the gathering of the Metis. One of the deputation writes
that "they resembled a troop of furies more than human beings." For some
time the mob refused the approaches of the officers of the Company. At
length the quarrel was settled by the Company agreeing to pay the
voyageur's wages in full, and that he should be allowed to remain at
home. Probably, however, the most acceptable part of the concession, was
the gift by the Company of a "ten-gallon keg of rum and tobacco."
Next spring another demonstration was made by the Metis for other
demands, but these were refused.
[Illustration: EXTERIOR VIEW OF FORT GARRY]
Then, from every direction came the imperious suggestion that some more
effective form of government should be adopted. This was granted. True,
Governor Simpson did not succeed in satisfying all the Settlers, though
in this respect he found it easier to supply the volatile
French-Canadian hunters, than the hard-headed people of British origin.
The method of Governor Simpson, along with the London 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 English 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 retired Hudson's Bay Company
officers, the leading doctor of the Colony, Sheriff Ross, Coroner
McCallum, and three leading business men, viz.: Pritchard, Logan and
McDermott. It is noticeable that though the French element numbered
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-brulés impulsiveness 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 foolish 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 Council, says: "The majority of the
Council thus appointed were, no doubt, the wealthiest men in the Colony
and generally well-informed, and yet their appointment was far from
being acceptable 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 legislature in their native land was appointed, and who
never ceased to inveigh against the arbitrary manner in which the
Governor-in-chief chose the legislators."
Notwithstanding the writer's perfect sympathy with both of these
opinions, it is but fair to state that the Council of Assiniboia did in
ordinary times do many things which were most beneficial and helpful to
the Red River Community.
Its most distressing failures were in those things which are very
essential. (1) Being a compromise body it had no power of progressive
development, and in the whole generation of its existence it did
practically nothing to advance the public, intellectual, or moral
interests of the people. (2) Perhaps its most serious breakdown took
place, as we shall see, in the failure of its judicial system. Executive
power it had none, as seen in the cases where jail-delivery took place
again and again by the friends of 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 subject blush with shame.
[Illustration: FORT GARRY WINTER SCENES
SOUTH AND EAST FACES, 1840
From sketch by wife of Governor Finlayson.
EAST FACE IN 1882, WHEN FORT WAS DISMANTLED (From
painting in author's possession.) x Spot where Scott was Executed.]
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE OGRE OF JUSTICE.
The wild life of the prairie or mountain cultivates 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 himself. 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.
With him the idea of sub-division of property 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 always
professed to be farmers, and hunting was only their diversion. Moreover,
being of Scottish 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 preserving 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 Forks to replace the wooden Fort Garry
built shortly after the union of the Companies. Thus, a large Fort with
numerous buildings, suitable for trade and residence, was begun in 1835,
and around it a substantial stone wall was built. The dimensions from
east to west were 280 feet, and from north to south 240 feet. The fort
faced the Assiniboine River, and each of its corners showed a large and
well-built bastion. The bastions were provided with port holes, and all
about the structure suggested the possibility of an armed struggle. This
was begun in the same year as the formation of the Council of
Assiniboia, and was fairly advanced to completion by 1839. Laws for the
government of the people, and the administration of justice were passed
by the Council, in accordance with the opening address of Governor
Simpson, when he said: "The time is at length arrived, when it becomes
necessary to put the administration of justice on a more firm and
regular footing than heretofore."
And now, in 1839, in this Arcadia of Red River there became evident the
dreadful presence of the law in the person of Adam Thom, first Recorder
of Rupert's Land, who, as compared with the humble incomes of the people
of Red River, had the enormous salary of £700 a year bestowed upon him
by the Hudson's Bay Company. The plan was a very real one in Governor
Simpson's mind when he took a step so decided.
[Illustration: ADAM THOM, LL.D. Recorder and Author. Lived in Red River
Settlement 1839-1854.]
And the man who 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 aggressive 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 Thom had come to Montreal as a lawyer, and was for a
time on Lord Durham's staff. He had taken high ground against Papineau's
rebellion, 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'-Westers.
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 English-speaking half-breeds. The Hudson's Bay
Company had now re-bought the land of Assiniboia from Lord Selkirk's
heirs. Hitherto it was difficult to find out precisely who their
oppressor was. Now, though Governor Simpson sought by diplomacy to evade
the responsibility, yet the explanation given by the Colonists of the
arrival of Recorder Thom, was that he had come to uphold the Company's
pretensions and to restrict their liberties. According to Ross, the
Colonists reasoned that "a man placed in Recorder Thom's position,
liable to be turned out of office at the Company's pleasure, naturally
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 involve 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 enjoyed,
while along with this it had been noised about that during the Papineau
trouble in Canada, 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 Thom, a most startling and
mysterious event--which indeed has never been solved to the present day,
happened in the case of Thomas Simpson, who it will be remembered had
roused by his crushing blow on the head of Larocque, the 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 direction by those observing
him. Whether he committed suicide or was killed by those approaching,
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 buried 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 have seen, chiefly given to hunting.
In theory, the Hudson's Bay Company possessed _all hunting rights under
their charter_. A French-Canadian, Larant, 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 deported to York Factory. Alarm was now general among
the French half-breeds. Hitherto the English half-breeds had been loyal
to the Company. Alexander Ross gives an incident worth repeating as to
how even the English half-breeds became rebellious. 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 English
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 another 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, preferred the latter. In his zeal to
succeed in the choice he had made for the young lady, this gentleman
sent for the half-breed and reprimanded him for aspiring to the hand of
a lady, accustomed, 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 the plains called 'The
Papineau Standard.' It is plain that rightly or wrongly, Recorder Thom
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 Haliburton, Satirist; Roberts and Bliss
Carman, Poets; Gilbert Parker, Grant Allen and Barr, Novelists; Romanes
and Newcombe, Scientists; Girouard, 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. Isbister in London and enjoyed his hospitality.
Isbister was a tall and handsome man, showing distinctly by his color
and high cheekbones that he had Indian blood in his veins. Receiving his
early education in St. John's School, he had gone home to England, taken
his degrees, 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 reputation 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 Thom'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 Company would carry goods for
any settler, a declaration from such settler, and the examination of his
correspondence in regard to his dealing in furs would first be
necessary. The native people determined to oppose them. They claimed as
having Indian blood, that they were entitled to aboriginal rights.
Twenty leading English-speaking half-breeds, among them such respectable
names as Sinclair, Dease, Vincent, Bird and Garrioch, demanded from
Governor Christie a definite answer as to their position and rights. The
Governor answered with sweet words, but the policy of "thorough" was
steadily 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 Sinclair, 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 Hampden" who stood for
his rights and those of his compeers.
It was at this juncture that the valuable aid of Isbister came to his
countrymen. In 1847 Isbister, with his educated mind, social standing,
and valiant spirit led the way for his people, and with five other
half-breeds of Red River forwarded a long and able memorial to Earl
Grey, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, bringing the serious
charges against the Company, of neglecting the native people, oppressing
all the settlers, and taking from them their natural rights. A perusal
of this document leads us to the opinion that the charges were
exaggerated, but nevertheless they showed how impossible it was, for a
Trading Company, to be at the same time the Government of a country and
to be equitable and high-minded. The Hudson's Bay Company answered this
document sent them by the Imperial Government, and so far relieved
themselves of some of the charges. But the storm raised could not be
quieted. Isbister obtained new evidence and attacked the validity of the
Company's Charter. Lord Elgin, the fair-minded Governor of Canada,
claimed that he, in Canada, was too far away from the scene of dispute
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 governing a people."
But the agitation still gained head.
The mercurial French half-breeds now joined in the struggle. They
forwarded a petition to Her Majesty the Queen, couched in excellent
terms, in the French language, in the main asking that their right to
enjoy the liberty of commerce 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 Affair." Of this we shall speak in another chapter. The
movement, headed by Isbister, still continued, and led to the serious
consideration by the British Government of the whole situation 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 influence
sufficiently the British authorities, they forwarded a petition, signed
by five hundred and seventy English-speaking people of Red River
Settlement, to the Legislative Assembly of Canada. The grievances of the
people 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 unfailing respect and
gratitude, not only of his own race, but very generally of the people of
the Red River Settlement. Ten years after the petition of Isbister and
his friends had been presented to Earl Grey, a committee of the House of
Commons was sitting to investigate the affairs 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 Canada, 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
descendants as well as the University of Manitoba 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."
CHAPTER XX.
SAYER AND LIBERTY.
Stone forts and ermined judges were not, to the mind of the unbridled
and ungovernable Metis. True, the French mind has a love for show and
circumstance and dignity of demeanor, but the conviction had taken hold
of the people of Red River, and especially of the French half-breeds,
that these meant curtailment of their freedom. They felt the dice were
loaded against them.
But, now, in the year after Sinclair and his friends had shown such a
firm front to Governor Christie, and when something like a feudal system
was being introduced into the Red River Settlement, a new surprise came
upon French and English alike. This was immediately after the terrible
visitation of a plague, which had cut down one-sixteenth of the whole
population. It was the arrival of a party of the Sixth Royal Regiment of
Foot, along with artillery and engineers, amounting in all to five
hundred souls. The breath of the people was taken away by this
demonstration of force, and a chronicler of the time says: "From the
moment they arrived the high tone of lawless defiance and internal
disaffection raised by our people against the laws and the authorities
of the place were reduced to silence." Colonel Crofton, in command of
the troops, was appointed Governor of the Settlement, and he proved a
wise and honorable administrator. The regiment gained golden opinions
from the people, and as they spent during their short stay of two years,
a sum of £15,000 in supplies, it was, indeed, a golden age for the
hard-working Colonists. The leaving of the regiment was regretted by the
Colony.
Having now entered on a career of government by force, it would not do
to let it drop. Hence the authorities enlisted in Britain a number of
old pensioners, and under command of Major Caldwell, who was also to act
as Governor of the Settlement, sent out, in each of two successive
years, some seventy of these discharged soldiers to act as guardians of
the peace. It was pretty well agreed that these men, to whom were given
holdings of small pieces of land to the west of Fort Garry, now in the
St. James District of Winnipeg, were simply imitators in conduct and
disposition of the De Meurons, who had so vexed the Colonists. Major
Caldwell, too, by his lack of business habits and his selfishness,
alienated all the 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 Company
said, "We have more trouble with the pensioners than with all the rest
of the Settlement put together." The pensioners were certainly
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.
[Illustration: PLAN OF FORT GARRY]
In the year following the removal of the troops the policy of preventing
the French 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 developing among the
Metis.
A brave and restless man was now growing to have a dominating 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 authorities was a most unfortunate one. It was on May 17th, which
on that year was Ascension Day, a day of obligation among the Catholic
people of the Settlement. It was noticeable that there was much ferment
in the French parishes. Louis Riel, who was a violent, but effective
speaker, of French, Irish and Indian descent, 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. Boniface 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 service, Riel, "the miller of
the Seine," made 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 concerted action, movement of the
whole body was made to cross the Red River and march to the Court House,
which stood beside 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 mile or two to the Court
House.
[Illustration: PLAN OF FORT GARRY South portion with stone wall
and bastions built in 1835. North portion with wooden wall and
stone north gate still standing, built in 1850.]
Though somewhat anxious, the Governor and Court officials passed through
the excited crowd which surrounded the Court House. It was expected that
the Governor would order out a guard of pensioners to protect the Court,
but he had dispensed with this, and so he, Recorder 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
suppressed. The Court then sent a 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 accepted, and James
Sinclair, the English half-breed leader, undertook the duty. Sayer was
then brought in, guarded by twenty of his compatriots, 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
fruitless. 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 Harriott, had given him authority to
trade. The other three cases against the Metis were not proceeded with,
and Governor, Recorder, officials 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 the welkin
ring with shouts (Le Commerce est libre, vive la liberté) "Commerce is
free, long live liberty."
The Metis then crossed the river to St. Boniface, and after much
cheering, fired several salutes with their guns. It was their victory,
but it was one in which the vast mass of the English-speaking rejoiced
for the bands of tyranny were broken. Judge Thom, under instructions
from Governor Simpson, never acted as Recorder again, but was simply
Secretary of the Court, and another reigned 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 XXI.
OFF TO THE BUFFALO.
Alexander Ross was a Scottish Highlander, who came to Glengarry in
Canada, quite a century ago, joined Astor's expedition, went 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 was 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 passed us, many
things were discovered to be still wanting, to supply which a halt had
to be made at Fort Garry shop; one wanted this thing, another that, but
all on credit. The day of payment was yet to come; but payment was
promised. Many on the present occasion were supplied, 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 occasions. When the hunters leave the Settlement it enjoys that
relief which a person feels on recovering from a long and painful
sickness. Here, on a level plain, the whole patriarchal camp squatted
down like pilgrims on a journey 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 were
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 tents. This is the order
in all dangerous places: but when no danger is feared, the animals are
kept on the outside. Thus, the carts formed a strong 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 belonging to the expedition, and to
every expedition 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 animals a day, for, like their masters, they
dearly relish a bit of buffalo meat.
These animals are kept in summer as they are, about the establishments
of the fur traders, 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 costume,
tackles two or three sturdy curs into a flat sled, throws himself on it
at full length, 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 camp without disturbing the
band.
But now to our camp again--the largest of its kind perhaps in the world.
A council was held for the nomination of chiefs or officers for
conducting 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 occupied
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 signal for encamping, while it is up the
guide is chief of the expedition, captains are subject to him, and the
soldiers of the day are his messengers, he commands all. The moment the
flag is lowered his functions cease and the captains and soldiers'
duties commence. They point out the order of the camp, and every cart as
it arrives moves to its appointed place. This business usually occupies
about the same time as raising camp in the morning, for everything moves
with the regularity of clockwork.
The captains and other chiefs have agreed on rules to govern the
expedition, such as, that no buffaloes are to be run on Sunday, no party
is to lag behind or to go before, no one may run a buffalo without a
general order, etc. The punishment for breaking the laws are for a first
offence: the offender had his saddle and bridle cut up: for the second,
to have the coat taken off his back and cut up: for the third, the
offender was flogged. Any theft was punished by the offender being three
times proclaimed "THIEF," in the middle of the camp.
On the 21st of June, after the priest had performed mass, for many were
Roman Catholics, the flag was unfurled at about six or seven o'clock and
the picturesque line was formed over the prairie, extending some five or
six miles towards the southwest. It was the ninth was gained. This was a
journey of about 150 day from Pembina before the Cheyenne River miles,
and on the nineteenth day, at a distance of 250 miles, the destined
hunting grounds were reached. On the 4th of July, since the encampment
was in the United States, the compliment was paid of having the first
buffalo race.
No less than 400 huntsmen, all mounted and anxiously waiting for the
word "Start," took up their position in a line at one end of the camp,
while Captain Wilkie issued his orders.
[Illustration: HERD OF BUFFALOES FEEDING ON THE HIGH PLAINS]
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 approached 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 upon them, shots are heard, and all is smoke, dust and hurry,
and in less time than we have occupied 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 animals 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 buffaloes 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 moment all 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 bull. In the evening no less than 1,375 tongues were brought
into 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,
surprises the runner at his work. What then remains is lost and falls to
the wolves. Hundreds of dead buffaloes are often abandoned, for even a
thunderstorm, in one hour, will render the meat useless.
The day of a race is as fatiguing 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 that much of the meat is wasted. Our expedition
killed not less than 2,500 buffaloes, and out of all these made 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 encamped there. A few traders
went to the nearest American fort, and bartered furs for articles they
needed.
After passing a week on the banks of the Missouri we turned to the West,
when we had a few races with various success. We were afterwards led
backwards and forwards at the pleasure of the buffalo herds. They
crossed and recrossed our path until we had travelled to almost every
point of the compass.
Having had various altercations with the Indians, the party reached Red
River, bringing about 900 lbs. of buffalo meat in each cart, making more
than one million pounds in all. The Hudson's Bay Company took a
considerable amount of this, and the remainder went to supply the wants
of the Red River Settlement for another year.
CHAPTER XXII.
WHAT THE STARGAZERS SAW.
The writer remembers meeting in Boston, a good many years ago, a
scientific explorer, who along with two companies, one of whom is the
greatest astronomer in the United States, as an astronomical party in
1860, made a visit through Red River Settlement, on their way to the
North Saskatchewan to observe an eclipse. The disappointment of the
party was very great, for, after travelling three thousand miles, their
fate was "to sit in a marsh and view the eclipse through the clouds, so
heavy was the rain."
The three astronomers have given their account under assumed names in a
little book, of which there are few copies in Canada. Their view of Red
River Settlement in 1860 is a vivid picture.
What an extraordinary Settlement! Here is a Colony of about ten
thousand souls scattered among plantations for thirty miles along the
Red and half as many along the Assiniboine River, almost wholly
dependent for intelligence from the outer world on one stern-wheeled
steamer. That breaks down; and before word can be sent of their complete
isolation, weeks must pass before the old and painful canoe-route by way
of Lake of the Woods can be opened, or the wagon make its tedious
journey to the headwaters of the Red and back, improvising on the way
its own ferries over the swift and deep streams which feed it.
Finding haste of no avail, and despatching our luggage on carts to the
Upper Fort and centre of the Settlement, twenty miles away, we start
there on foot the next day to view the land and its inhabitants. The
road, "the King's road," is a mere cart-track in the deep loam, taking
its independent course on either side of the houses, all of which front
the river in a single wavering line; for the country is given up
absolutely to farming, for which the rich mould, said to be three or
four feet deep, eminently fits it; and the lots each with a narrow
frontage at the bank of the river, extends back two miles into the
prairie. All is at a dead level. John Omand had asked us to dine at his
house; but accidentally passing it without recognizing it from his
description, we select a fair representative of the common class of
houses, and ask for dinner. It is a log-cabin, like all of this class
(some far better ones have walls of stone) with a thatched roof and a
rough stone and mortar chimney planted against one wall. Inside is but a
single room, well whitewashed, as is indeed the outside and
exceptionally tidy; a bed occupies 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 compensation 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 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 nineteen, are at home, the
others being off at the other end of their small farm, where they have
temporary shelter during the harvest.
We have each a chamber to ourselves in the garret, reached in the same
primitive method as 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 water 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 besprinkled 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 instructive information as an answer to the
question, "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 disaster fishing and hunting stood
them in good stead. When they hunt, they go accompanied by Indians, who
live on the outskirts of the Colony. Further and further they have been
compelled to go, until at our visit no buffalo could be found within a
hundred miles at nearest.
The hunt is just over as we reach the Settlement, and every day carts
come in laden with the buffalo meat, hides, and pemmican. The prairie,
back from the river, by Fort Garry, is dotted with carts, lodges and
tents. Many are living in rude shelters formed of the carts themselves,
placed back to back, and the sides secured by hides.
These carts illustrate well the primitive nature and the isolation of
the Colony. They are the vehicles in universal use, and are built on the
general pattern of our one-horse tip-carts, though they do not tip, and
not a scrap of iron enters into them. They are without springs, of
course, and rawhide and wooden pins serve to keep together the pieces
out of which they are constructed. As they have no tires, and the
section of the wheel part or crowd together, according to the moisture,
a train of these carts bringing in the products of the hunt is a strange
sight. Each cart has its own peculiar creak, hoarse and grating, and
waggles its own individual waggle, graceless and shaky, on the uneven
ground. To add to its oddity, the shafts 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 approaching
the description of one, 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 bandanna handkerchief, so that purchases have to be small
and frequent; not all of one sort, however, 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 portage 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
by McKinney, the host of the Royal Hotel of the village of Winnipeg.
Three large 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
theological student for Toronto University, a gentleman 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 ladies 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
horsemen, and for the first day a cavalcade of friends giving a Scotch
convoy to those who were departing. 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 banished 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. Marrying, after his
arrival, a daughter of one of our best native 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 purpose, and at times some divergence from the views expressed,
scenes of the Red River Settlement, in which he, for more than a
generation, dwelt.
BRITAIN'S ONE UTOPIA--SELKIRKIA.
That brave old Englishman, Thomas More--afterwards, unhappily for his
head--Lord High Chancellor of England--wrote out, in fair Latin,--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
mankind.
The primitive history of all the colonies that faced the Atlantic--when
the new-found continent first felt the abiding foot of the stranger--from
Oglethorpe to Acadia, reveals, alas! no Utopia. It remained for a
later time,--the earlier half of the present century, amid some severity
of climate, and under conditions without precedent, and incapable of
repetition,--to evolve a community in the heart of the continent, shut
away from intercourse with civilized mankind--that slowly crystalized
into a form beyond the ideal of the dreamers--a community, 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
unthought of by themselves until they had passed away.
THE UTOPIAN COLONY.
A people, whose name in the vast domain, was in days by gone, sought out
and coveted by all. Unknown races had rested here and gone away, leaving
only their careful graves behind them. The "Mandans"--the brave, the
fair, the beautiful, and the "Cheyennes," pressed by the "Nay-he-owuk,"
and the "Assin-a-pau-tuk," had quitted their earthen forts on the banks
of the streams and urged their way to the broader tide of the Missouri.
More fatal to the conquerors came afterward, the white man, "Nemesis" of
all Indian life, spying with the instinct of his race, a spot of
abounding fertility, where the great water-reaches stretched from the
mountains to the sea, and southward touched almost the beginning of the
great River of the Gulf.
Quick changing his errant camp for barter into a stronghold for the
trade, making the "Niste-y-ak" of the "Crees" his settled home, the
white man's grasp of the fair domain but grew with years. From the seas
of the far north came with the men, fair-haired, blue-eyed women and
children. The glamour of the spot, the teeming soil, the great and
lesser game, that swam past,--or wandered by their doors--soon drew to
this Mecca of the Plains and Waters--the roving, scattered children of
the trade--Bourgeois and voyageur alike heading their lithe and dusky
broods. Here touched and fused all habitudes of life, the blended races,
knit by ties conserving every divergence of pursuit, all forms of faith
and thought, free from assail or taint begotten of contact with aught
other than themselves. A people whose unchecked primal freedom was
afterward strengthened by the light hand of laws that conserved what
they most desired; whose personal relations with their rulers were of
such primitive character as to make the Government in every sense
paternal; the petty tax on imports attending its administration one
practically unfelt!
A people whose land was dotted with schools and churches, to whose
maintenance their contributions were so slight as to be unworthy of
mention. The three separate religious denominations, holding widely
different tenets--elsewhere 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, "upon 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
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--honesty became
a necessity. Lawyers were none. Law was held to be a danger. Still the
importance attached by simple minds to an appearance 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
moment, "the like never heard before." None can read the quaint,
minutely-detailed record of these "causes celébres" 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.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER ROSS Sheriff and Author. Came to Red River
Settlement in 1825 from British Columbia. Died in 1856.]
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 other was simply universal--their kin ties
almost as general. These ties were brightened and friendships reknit in
the holiday season of the year, the leisure of the long winters, when
the far-scattered hewn log houses--small to the eye--were ever found
large enough to hold the welcome arrivals,--greeted with a kiss that
said, "I am of your blood." These widespread affiliations broke down
aught like "caste." Wealth or official position were practically
unheeded by a people in no fear of want and unaccustomed to luxuries,
who sought their kinswoman and her brood for themselves, not for what
they had in store. The children and grandchildren of men, however
assured in fortune or position, wove anew equalizing ties, seeking out
their mates as they came to hand; hence a genial, not a downward level,
putting to shame fine-spun theories of democracy in other lands--spun,
not worn.
This satisfaction of station--as said--grew out of the slight exertion
necessary for all the wants of life, with unlimited choice of the finest
land on the continent; the waters alive with fish and aquatic fowl;
rabbits and prairie fowl at times by actual cart-load; elk not far, and
countless buffalo behind,--furnishing meat, bedding, clothing and shoes
to any who could muster a cart or go in search; the woods and plains in
season, ripe with delicious wild fruit, for present use or dried for
winter,--the whole backed by abundant breadstuffs. The quota of the
farmers along the rivers, whose fertile banks were dotted by windmills,
whose great arms stayed the inconstant winds, and yoked the fickle
couriers to the great car of general plenty.
A LAND OF PEACE.
Poverty 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, incidentally, 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 underrated the assiduity of his friends. His recourse
in such case being the more carefully estimated 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 countryman.
This practical communism--borrowed 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 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 travelling. 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! Smacks not this of Arcady?
Early and universal 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 fraught 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 indeed.
To the Hunters accepting their fall in the chase no wilder thought could
scarce be broached than that of solicitude as to the future of their
young. Boys who sat a horse almost as soon as they could walk, whose
earliest plaything was a bow and arrows; girls as apt in other ways,
happy; sustained in their environment with a faith truly simple and
reverent.
With so large an infusion of Norse blood and certain traditions anent
"usquebae" and "barley bree" it would--with so large a liberty--be
naturally expected, a liberal proportion of drouthy souls, but with an
abundance of what cheers and distinctly inebriates in their midst they
were a temperate people in its best sense, with no tippling houses to
daily tempt them astray their supplies of spirits were nearly always for
festive occasions. "Regales" after a voyage or weddings that lasted for
days, and these at times under such guard as may be imagined from the
presence of a custodian of the bottle, who exercised with what skill he
might his certainly arduous task of determining instantly when hilarity
grew into excess.
This novel feature applies, however, almost entirely to the
English-speaking part of the people. The Gallic and Indian blood of the
Hunters disdained such poor toying with a single cherry and drank and
danced and drank and danced again with an abandon, an ardor and full
surrender to the hour characteristic alike of the strength of the heads,
the lightness of their heels and the contempt of any restraint whatever.
These were, however, but the occasional and generous symposiums of
health and vigor that rejects of itself continued indulgence. Our Utopia
would be cold and pallid indeed lacking such expression of redundant
strength, and joyful vigor.
Certainly the greatest negative blessing that this exceptional people
enjoyed, was that they had no politics, no vote. The imagination of the
average "party man" sinks to conceive a thing like to this; yet, if an
astounding fact to others, no more gracious one can be conceived for
them selves. In the unbroken peace in which they lived politics would be
but throwing the apple of discord in their midst, an innoculation of
disease that they might in the delirium that marked its progress
vehemently discuss remedies to allay it.
Another great negative advantage was the peculiar and admirable
intelligence of the great body of the population. The small circulating
collection of books in their midst attracting little or no attention,
their own limited to a Bible or prayer book,--many not these. With
their minds in this normal healthy state, unharassed by the sordid
assail of care, undepressed by any 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
master 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 every thing 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 graphic as
to commend themselves to every ear.
The tender heart and true of the brave old knight, Sir Thomas More, put
a ban upon hunting in his Utopia. Alas and alack for the wayward
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 "Chasseurs of the Great Plains," tell
of the gathering of the mighty Halfbreed clan going forth--each spring
and fall--in a tumult of carts and horsemen 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--man.
What a going forth was theirs! 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 bestrode. 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 landscape 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 own.
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
_melee_!--drifting from the camp the carts appear piled red in a trice
with bosses, tongues, back fat and juicy haunch, a feast unknown to
hapless kings.
We but glance at this great feature, that fed so fat our Utopia, leaving
to imagination the return, 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 rivers, but also
the diffusion of a sunshine, a tone of generous serenity that sat well
on the chivalry of the chase--the bold riders of the Plain.
THE SUMMER PRAIRIES
Beneficent nature nowhere makes her compensations 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 profusion
rivaling their exquisite beauty. Green waving copses dot the level
sward, and rob the sky line of its sea-like sweep. The winding rivers,
signalled by their wooded banks, upon which rest the comfortable homes
of the dwellers 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 spaces--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
gossip--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 homeward, bearing their
heavy udders to the house-mother, who, pail in hand awaiting their
approach, pauses for a moment to mark the feathered boaster at her feet,
as he makes his parting 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 trimmed with the hush of night, and effort healthful and
cool as the freshening airs of morn.
L'ENVOI.
Longfellow--moving all hearts to pity--has painted in "Evangeline" the
enforced dispersion of the French in "Acadia." Who shall tell the
homesick pain, the vain regrets, the looking 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! 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 "minutæ." Joy is immortal! sorrow dies! the petty features are
absorbed in the broad ones; those capable only of conveying truth.
The Red River Settlement in the days adverted 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 refreshment: a dream
made possible, called by those who shared in its great calm, "Britain's
One Utopia--Selkirkia."
CHAPTER XXIV.
PICTURES OF SILVER.
Lord Selkirk's Colonists never had, as have seen, a bed of roses.
Adversity had dodged their steps from the time that they put the first
foot forward toward the new world--and Stornoway, 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
beginning of the Colony, yet the Colonists were not satisfied in this
respect till forty years had passed. It was a generation before the
Roman Catholic Church had a Bishop, who held the See of St. Boniface
instead of the title "in the parts of the heathen." It was not before
the year 1849 that a Church of England Bishop arrived, and it was two
years after that date when the first Presbyterian minister came to be
the spiritual head of the Selkirk Colonists. Before this the education
and elevation of the people was represented by a few schools chiefly
maintained by private or church effort. The writer intends to bring out,
from selected quotations from different sources, the few bright spots in
the gloom--the pictures of silver--on a rather dark background.
ABBE DUGAS' STORY.
The good Father's story circles around the first Canadian woman known to
have reached Red River. This was Marie Gaboury, wife of J. Baptiste
Lajimoniere, who reached the Forks in 1811 in the very year when the
Colonists were lying at York Factory. The Lajimonieres spent the winter
in Pembina. It was the brave husband of Marie Gaboury who made the long
and lonely journey from Red River to Montreal. The Abbe says: "J.B.
Lajimoniere was engaged by the Governor of Fort Douglas to carry letters
to Lord Selkirk, who was then in Montreal. Lajimoniere said he could go
alone to Montreal, and that he would make every effort to put the
letters confided to his care into Lord Selkirk's hands. Being alone,
Madame Lajimoniere left the hut on the banks of the Assiniboine to
become an inmate of Fort Douglas. Lajimoniere is reported to have urged
upon Lord Selkirk in Montreal to send as 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 petition asking the Bishop of Quebec to send
missionaries to evangelize the country. He presented 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 religion. Should his
application succeed the missionaries 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 loneliness 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 region and moreover the voyageurs were
often exposed to delays.
"After waiting patiently, one beautiful morning on the 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 neighborhood that two canoes bringing the
missionaries were coming up the river, and that all the 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
Lajimoniere 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 persons 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
religious 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.
"The canoes landed in front of Fort Douglas, M. Provencher and his
companion both invested in their cassocks stepped on shore and were
welcomed with outstretched hands by this family, which was henceforth to
be theirs.
"They were admired for their manly figures as much as for the novelty of
their costumes. M. Provencher and his companion, M. Severe Dumoulin,
were both men of great stature and both had a majestic carriage. They
stood at the top of the bank and after making the women and children sit
down around them M. Provencher addressed some words to this multitude
gathered about him. He spoke very simply and in a fatherly manner.
Madame Lajimoniere who had not listened to the voice of a priest for
twelve years could hardly contain herself for joy. She cried with
happiness and forgetting all her hardships, fancied herself for a moment
in the dear parish of Maskinongé where she had spent such happy peaceful
years.
"The missionaries arrived on Thursday, July 16th. M. Provencher having
made known to his new family the aim of his mission wished immediately
to begin teaching them the lessons of Christianity and to bring into the
fold the sheep which were outside.
"While waiting till a house could be built for the missionaries, M.
Provencher and his companion were hospitably entertained at the Fort 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 under six years of age to the Fort on the following Saturday
when they would receive the happiness 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 could be baptised, the others being nine and eleven years of age.
On the following Saturday Madame Lajimoniere with all the other women
came to the Fort. The number of children, including Indians and Metis,
amounted to a hundred and Madame Lajimoniere being the only Christian
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 next day the missionaries would
begin their work and that the settlers ought to begin at the 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 progressed
so rapidly that the house was ready for occupation by the end of
October.
"Madame Lajimoniere rendered every assistance 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 regarded in the Colony as the founder of the
English Church in Rupert's Land, and from the date of his arrival till
1849 all the principal ecclesiastical business done may be said to have
received its impetus from his personal energy. The church in which he
began his ministrations was replaced by the present Cathedral of St.
John's. Mr. Cochran then built the first church in St. Andrew's, at the
Rapids, and besides gathered the Indians together and erected their
church at St. Peter's."
In 1849 arrived Bishop David Anderson, an Oxford man. He settled at St.
John's, now in the City of Winnipeg, and occupied "Bishop's Court."
After occupying the See for fifteen years, he retired, and was succeeded
by Bishop Machray, whose commanding figure was known to all early
settlers in Winnipeg. He revived St. John's College and gained fame as
an educationalist.
The peculiarly situated nature of the Settlement, extending in a long
line of isolated houses along the banks of the river, and in no place
stretching back any distance on the prairies, render a succession of
churches necessary to bring the opportunity of attending within the
reach of the people. Ten Church of England places of worship exist
(1870) on the bank of the river. Of these, eight are within the legally
defined limits of the Colony.
About the middle of December, 1866, Archdeacon John McLean commenced the
celebration of the Church of England service in the village of Winnipeg.
The services were for a 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
referred to Dr. Robert Burns, of Toronto, who was further urged to
action by Governor Ballenden, of Fort Garry. In August, 1857, the Rev.
John Black, then newly ordained, was sent on by Dr. Burns to Red River.
He was fortunate in becoming attached to a military expedition led by
Governor Ramsey, of Minnesota, going northwest for nearly four hundred
miles, from St. Paul to Pembina.
Leaving the military escort behind, in company 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 they reached the Marion's House in
St. Boniface. It is said that it was from Bond's description of this
voyage that the Poet Whittier 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 pine land
And gusty leagues of plain.
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,
And heavy the hands that row.
And with one foot on the water,
And one upon the shore,
The Angel's shadow gives warning--
That 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
Of 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.
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 City--
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 Rev. Dr.
Black, went to the hospitable shelter of Alexander Ross, whose daughter
he afterward married. Three hundred of the Selkirk Colonists and their
children immediately gathered around Mr. Black, and though interrupted
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 Company, the Selkirk Colonists erected, free from debt, their church
which still remains. Two other churches were erected by the
Presbyterians, and beside each a school. For several years before the
old Colony ceased Mr. Black conducted service in the Court House near
Fort Garry, and in 1868, with the assistance of Canadian friends,
erected the small Knox Church on Portage Avenue, in Winnipeg. This
building, 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 community. 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 supplied by the
Red River Library produced a people 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 Company officers and clerks of
keeping for the benefit of their employers a diary recording everything
at their posts that might make one day differ from another, or indeed
that often made every 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 Washington. Valuable
collections in natural history have been forwarded to the institution by
such observers as the late Hon. Donald Gunn, the late Mr. Joseph
Fortescue, and Mr. Roderick Ross Macfarlane.
Mr. William Barnston, a son of the Mr. Barnston, already mentioned, and
a chief factor at Norway House, about 1854, was very fond of the
cultivation of flowers and the study of botany, and some very valuable
specimens of natural history in the British museum are said to have been
of his procuring.
LIBRARIES.
Collections of books were a great means of providing knowledge and
contributing to amusement in the isolated northern trading posts.
The Red River library had its headquarters in St. Andrew's parish, and
was for circulation in the Red River Settlement. It seems to have been
chiefly maintained by donations of books by retired Hudson's Bay Company
officers and other settlers. The Council of Assiniboia once gave a
donation of £50 sterling for the purchase of books to be added to the
library. There was one characteristic of this library that it contained
in its catalogue very few works of fiction.
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 mutual improvement, for which the leading magazines
were ordered.
EDUCATION.
But we must now speak of more decided organization for the promotion of
culture in Red River. The Selkirk settlers had now (1821) gained a
footing in the land and the banks of the Red River had become the
paradise of retired 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 indebted for the first educational efforts made.
COMMON SCHOOLS.
The Rev. John West, the first Episcopal missionary who arrived, in 1820,
and his successors, the Rev. David Jones and Archdeacon Cochrane, as far
as they could, organized common schools on the parochial system. A
visitor to the Settlement in 1854, John Ryerson, says that there were
then eight common schools in the country--five of them wholly, or in
part, supported by the Church Missionary Society, two of them depending
on the bishop's individual bounty, and one only, that attached to the
Presbyterian congregation, depending on the fees of the pupils for
support. The Governor and Council of Assiniboia had, a few years before
made an appropriation of £130 sterling in aid of public schools. The
Hudson's Bay Company may be said to have given aid to these schools
indirectly by making an annual grant to each missionary of an amount
varying according to circumstances from £150 to £50 sterling. The
Catholics had similar schools for the French population along the banks
of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, and the writer already quoted says
that there were seminaries at St. Boniface, one for boys and one for
girls, under the Grey Nuns from Montreal.
Bishop Anderson, the first bishop of Rupert's Land, was not specially an
educationalist. He turned his attention more to the evangelical work of
the church. Bishop Machray, who came to the country in 1865, has, on the
contrary, whilst not neglecting the duties of a bishop of the church of
Christ, always given great attention to education, and the country is
greatly indebted to him for the foundations laid. It was his endeavor
after entering on his bishopric to have a parish school wherever there
was a missionary 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 inaugurated.
Mrs. Jones, the wife of Rev. David Jones, the missionary of Red River,
joined her husband 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 factors and other settlers in the Northwest. A school of this
kind was opened and in addition to the mission work in which she
assisted her husband, Mrs. Jones devoted herself to the training of the
young people committed to her charge until her death, which occurred
somewhat suddenly in 1836. Mr. and Mrs. Jones were assisted by a
governess and tutor from England and the Church Missionary Society gave
financial assistance.
Mr. John Macallum, who was afterwards ordained at Red River, arrived
from England in 1836, as assistant to Mr. Jones. He took charge of the
school for young ladies and also the classical school for the sons of
Hudson's Bay factors and traders. He was assisted by Mrs. Macallum and
also had teachers brought out from England. He had two daughters who
were pupils 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 building 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 our public streets. It consisted 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 captivated by the beauty of
the site, and indeed nowhere could the love of nature be better
cultivated than along the bends of the Red River near St. John's, where
groves of majestic trees succeed each other, where the wild flowers
flourish 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 silence.
Among other schools was one commenced in the early thirties by Mr. John
Pritchard, at one time agent of Lord Selkirk, at a place called "The
Elms," on the east side of Red River, opposite Kildonan Church. Mr.
Pritchard was entrusted with the education of the sons of gentlemen sent
all the way from British Columbia and from Washington and Oregon
territories, besides a number belonging to prominent families of Red
River and the Northwest. The Governor and Council of the Hudson's Bay
Company granted to Mr. Pritchard a life annuity of £20 on account of his
services in the interests of religion and education.
On coming to the diocese in 1865 Bishop Machray reorganized the boys'
classical school, and it was opened as a high school in 1866. The bishop
gave instruction in a number of branches himself, paying special
attention to mathematics. Archdeacon McLean had charge of classics and
the Rev. Samuel Pritchard conducted the English branches in what was now
called St. John's College.
In connection with the parish school of Kildonan the Rev. John Black,
who was, as we all know, a scholarly man, gave instructions in classics
to a number of young men, who were thus enabled to take their places in
Toronto University and in Knox College, Toronto.
In addition to these schools, Mr. Gunn, of St. Andrew's, afterwards Hon.
Donald Gunn, had for a time a commercial school at his home for the sons
of Hudson's Bay Company factors and traders, so that they might be
fitted 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 further down the river to which was given the name of St.
Cross. This was the same building enlarged with which we were familiar a
few years ago as St. John's Boys' College, and which has lately been
taken down. Mrs. Mills is said 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 modern
languages. Miss Harriet Mills, being younger, was more of a companion to
the girls, and accompanied them on walks, in winter on the frozen river,
in summer towards the plain, and unless her maturer years belie the
record of her girlhood we may imagine she was a very lively and
agreeable companion. In addition to her regular school duties Mrs. Mills
had a class for girls who were beyond school age. She also gave
assistance in Sunday school work.
The pianos used in these schools 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 Settlement. 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.
CHAPTER XXV.
EDEN INVADED.
The conception of Red River Settlement being an Idyllic Paradise was not
confined to the writer, whose picture we have described as "Apples of
Gold." It was a self-contained spot, distant from St. Anthony Falls (now
Minneapolis) 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 enclosed behind
the Chinese wall of Hudson's Bay Company exclusiveness, and thus as
hopelessly 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
troublous waters. Certainly, to the old people, there was a feeling of
freedom from care, as of its being a lotus-eater's land--an Utopia; an
Eden, before sin entered, and before "man's disobedience brought death
into the world and all our woe."
We are not disposed to press Milton's metaphor any further in regard to
the disturbers who came in upon Frank Larned's peaceful scene.
The time for opening up Rupert's Land was approaching. The agitation of
the people themselves, the constant petitions to Great Britain and
Canada called for it. The set time had come; 1857 was a red letter year
in this advance. In that year the British Parliament appointed a large
and powerful committee to investigate all phases of Rupert's Land, its
history; government; geological, climatic, physical, agricultural,
social, and religious conditions. The blue book of that year is a marvel
of intelligent work. In this same year the British Government sent out
the Palliser-Hector Expedition to Rupert's Land to obtain expert
evidence in regard to all these points being considered by the
Parliamentary Committee. Also in this year the Canadian Government
dispatched the Dawson-Hind Expedition to obtain detailed information as
to the physical and soil conditions of the prairie region, 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 disturbances 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 pessimist, 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
established that organ for good or evil, the newspaper. This first paper
was called "The Nor'-Wester." It is amusing to read the comments upon
its entrance made by Hudson's Bay Company writers, both English and
French. The constitution and conduct of the Council of Assiniboia was
certainly the weak point in the Hudson's Bay regime, and the Nor'-Wester
kept this point so constantly before the people 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 Community 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 Thom and his policy of repression. Mr. Buckingham did
not remain long in Red River Settlement. Mr. Coldwell became the dean of
newspaperdom in the Canadian West. The great antagonist of the Hudson's
Bay Company, 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 succeeded 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 general its policy was
hostile to that of the Company. 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 form at what
is now the junction of Main Street and Portage Avenue, in Winnipeg.
Certain 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 between the Settlement and the
outside world. The demand for transport led a company to bring in a
steamer, the Anson Northrup, afterwards 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 sounding the death-knell of the Company's hopes of
maintaining supremacy in Rupert's land.
[Illustration: THE ANSON NORTHRUP The machinery was brought from the
Mississippi to the Red River. The name was changed to Pioneer in 1860.
"International", larger boat of similar pattern was built by the
Hudson's Bay Company in 1861. These steamers were run on the Red River.]
Until this time of arrivals there had been no village of Winnipeg. The
first building back from the McDermott, Ross and Logan buildings 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 Company Store at Fort Garry. Another village began a
few years after at Point Douglas on Main Street, near the Canadian
Pacific Railway 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 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 Company 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 beginning 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
encyclopædia 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 years.
One who knew him says: "From his long residence in the Settlement, he
has seen Governors, Judges, Bishops, and Clergymen, not to mention such
birds of passage as the Company's local officers, come and go, himself
remaining to record their doings to their successors."
CHAPTER XXVI.
RIEL'S RISING.
The agitation for freedom which we have described in Red River
Settlement, and the efforts of Canada to introduce Rupert's Land into
the newly-formed Dominion of Canada had, after 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 accepting 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 Colony--especially of the
French-speaking section--the Dominion Government sent a reckless body of
men to survey the lands near the French settlements 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
helplessness of Governor McTavish, whose duty it was to act.
2. The rebellious character of the Metis, now irritated anew by the
actions of the surveyors.
3. The inexplicable blundering and neglect of the Dominion Government at
Ottawa.
4. A dangerous element in the United States, and especially on the
borders of Minnesota inciting and supporting a disloyal band of
Americans in Pembina and Winnipeg.
5. A cunning plot to keep Governor McTavish from acting as he should
have done, and to incite the Metis under Riel to open revolt.
The drama opened with the appointment of Hon. William McDougall as
Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwest Territories in September, 1869, and
his arrival at Pembina in October. Mr. McDougall was to be appointed
Governor by the Dominion Government as soon as the transfer to Canada of
Rupert's Land could be made. McDougall, on his arrival at the boundary
of Minnesota, was served with a notice by the French half-breeds, not to
enter the Territories.
Meanwhile, Louis Riel, son of the old miller of the Seine, and a true
son of his father--but vain and assertive, having the ambition to be a
Cæsar or Napoleon, took the lead. He succeeded in October in getting a
few of the Metis to seize the highway at St. Norbert, some nine miles
south of Fort Garry, and in the true style of a Paris revolt, erected a
barricade or barrier to stop all passers-by. It was here that Governor
McTavish failed. He was immediately informed of this illegal act, but
did nothing. Hearing of the obstacle on the highway, two of McDougall's
officers came on towards 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 protect the Fort, but no Governor spoke; no one even closed
the gate of the Fort as a precaution; 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
possession 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
the President and 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 loyal 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 convention at this
meeting could reach no result and agreed to adjourn to December 1st. The
English 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 fellows insisted on ruling the
meeting and passed a bill of rights of fifteen clauses. The English
representatives refused to accept the bill of rights, and after vainly
trying to make arrangements for the entrance to the country of Governor
McDougall, returned home, ashamed and discouraged.
Turn now to the condition of things in Pembina, from which prospective
Governor McDougall 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 transfer 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 councillor, and an experienced parliamentarian, should,
on a mere supposition, issue his proclamation as Governor. Riel was
aware of all the steps being taken by the Government, and so he and the
Metis laughed at the proclamation. McDougall 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 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 surrendered, 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 fashion, 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 Riel'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 additions. He
also took possession of Hudson's Bay Company funds with the coolness of
a buccaneer, and his manner in refusing personal liberty to people whom
he dared not arrest was overbearing and impertinent.
The inaccessibility of Red River Settlement in winter added much to the
anxiety. No telegraphic 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 situation 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 confidence in the 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 Government at
Ottawa would do in the circumstances.
CHAPTER XXVII.
LORD STRATHCONA'S HAND.
On Christmas Day, 1870, John Bruce, who was but a figurehead, resigned
his office of President of the so-called Provisional Government of Red
River Settlement, and the ambitious Louis Riel was chosen in his stead.
The Dominion Government had at length, been awakened to the danger.
Divided counsels still prevailed. Two Commissioners, Grand Vicar
Thibault 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 element in the hamlet of Winnipeg became very
offensive. Riel's official organ, "The New Nation," was edited by an
American, Major Robinson. This journal was filled with articles having
such head-lines as "Confederation," "The British-American Provinces,"
"Proposed Annexation to the United States," etc., etc. Or, again,
"Annexation," "British Columbia Defying the Dominion," "Annexation our
Manifest Destiny." All this was very disagreeable to the
English-speaking people, and highly compromising 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 holding 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, arrived on
December 27th, and went immediately to Fort Garry. Riel demanded of Mr.
Smith, the object of his visit, but received no satisfaction. 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 Commissioner'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, lying between Pembina and Fort Garry was loyal.
Accordingly, with a guard, Hardisty started to bring the papers. Riel
learned of this, and taking a body guard with him, went to the
Dauphinais house, intending to seize the credentials. Hardisty arrived
with his precious documents. Meanwhile, the Loyalists had made Riel's
men prisoners, and when Riel attempted to interfere, Pierre Laveiller, a
loyal French half-breed, put his loaded pistol to the Dictator's head,
and threatened his life. Sixty or seventy of the Loyalists escorted
Hardisty and his papers to Mr. Smith in Fort Garry.
[Illustration: Train of Huskie Dogs, Fort Garry, north gate
(Governor's entrance still standing), Toboggan with Hudson Bay trader
IN FORT GARRY PARK, WINNIPEG Permission Steele & Co., Winnipeg]
Now in possession of his documents, the Commissioner called a general
meeting of the people for January 19th, and one thousand men appeared on
that day in the Court Yard of the Fort. As there was no building in
which they could assemble, the meeting was held in the open air, with
the temperature 20° below zero. The people stood for hours and
listened to the proceedings. Commissioner Smith then read the letter of
his appointment, and also a letter from the Governor-General, which
announced to the people that the Imperial Government would see that
"perfect good faith would be kept with the inhabitants of the Red River
and the Northwest." The Commissioner then demanded that Vicar Thibault's
commission, which Riel had seized should be read. Riel refused it, but
Mr. Smith stood firm. At length the Queen's message to the people was
proclaimed. One John Burke then demanded that the prisoners be released
and a promise was given. On the second day the people again assembled,
and Mr. Smith then read authoritative letters, one from the
Governor-General to Governor McTavish, and another to Mr. McDougall. It
was then moved by Riel, seconded by Mr. Bannatyre, and carried
unanimously, that twenty representatives should be elected by the
English Parishes and twenty by the French, and that these should meet on
January 25th to consider the subjects of Commissioner Smith's
communications, and decide what was best for the welfare of the country.
Speeches were made by the Bishop of Rupert's Land, and Father Richot and
Riel closed the meeting by saying: "I came here with fear ... we are not
enemies--but we came very near being so.... we all have rights. We claim
no half rights, mind you, but all the rights we are entitled to."
Begg, an eye-witness, says: "Immediately after the meeting the utmost
good feeling prevailed. French and English shook hands, and for the
first time in many months a spirit of unity between the two classes of
settlers appeared. The elections took place in due time, but in Winnipeg
Mr. Bannatyne, the best citizen of the place, was beaten by Mr. A.H.
Scott, and the greatest annoyance was felt at this by the better
citizens on account of his being an American, and because of the 'New
Nation' continuing 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. Commissioner Smith addressed the
Convention. Riel wished 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
Hudson's Bay Company 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. Bannatyne, 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 delegates to Canada to meet
the Government at Ottawa. Two English delegates, Messrs. Sutherland and
Fraser, not quite sure on this point, visited Governor McTavish for his
advise. "Form a Government, for God's sake," said the Governor, "and
restore peace and order in the Settlement." Being asked, if in such
case, he would delegate his authority to anyone, he hastily replied, "I
am dying, I will not delegate my authority to anyone."
The Convention then proceeded to elect a provisional government. Most of
the officers were English, they being better educated and more prominent
than the French members. But when it came to the election of a
President, to their disgust Riel was chosen. Immediately after this,
Governor McTavish, Dr. Cowan, and Mr. Bannatyne were released as
prisoners, but Commissioner Smith was a virtual prisoner in his quarters
in the fort, though his influence was still felt at every turn.
[Illustration: LORD STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL. Governor of the Hudson's
Bay Company]
Among the earliest acts of the new provisional government was on
February 11th, the confiscation of Dr. Schultz's property, and of the
office of The Norwester newspaper. The type of The Norwester was said to
have been melted into bar lead and bullets. Judge Black, Father Richot,
and A.H. Scott were chosen as delegates to Ottawa, though the
appointment of the last of these, the "American delegate," was very
distasteful to the English-speaking people. The success of Riel led him
to dismiss about a quarter of the prisoners in Fort Garry. The fact that
he seemed to hold the remainder as hostages stirred up the English
people living along the Assiniboine.
What is usually called the "Portage la Prairie" Expedition was now
organized, to secure the release of the remaining prisoners. A body,
varying from sixty to one hundred, marched down to Headingly, and were
there joined by a number of English-speaking Canadians and others. They
then pushed on to Kildonan Church, where they were increased by a number
of English half-breeds from St. Andrew's and adjoining parishes. The
proposal was to attack the fort and set free the prisoners. Alarmed at
the movement, Riel released all the prisoners in the fort. Their object
being gained, the men of the Kildonan Church camp, who had grown to be
six hundred strong, dissolved, and were proceeding to their homes, when
Riel, by an unheard of act of treachery, arrested some fifty of the
Assiniboine party. Among them was Major Boulton, a former officer of the
100th Regiment. Riel again sought out a victim for revenge, and intended
to execute this prominent man. It was only on the persistent request of
Commissioner Smith and the urgency of Mrs. John Sutherland, whose son
had been killed by an escaping French prisoner at the Kildonan Church
camp, that Boulton's life was spared.
Riel, however, seemed to feel that power was slipping from his hands. He
was criticised on all hands for his treachery and for his arrogance. It
is said his followers were dropping off from him, notwithstanding the
luxurious lives they had been living on the Company's supplies in Fort
Garry.
He determined, though with a divided Council, to make an example, and
despite the solicitations of Commissioner Smith, the Rev. George Young,
and others, publicly executed, on the 4th of March, outside of Fort
Garry, a young Irish-Canadian named Thomas Scott. It was a cold-blooded,
cruelly-executed and revolting scene--it was the act of a mad man.
"Whom the Gods destroy they first make mad." The execution of Scott was
the death-knell of Riel's hopes as a ruler. Canada was roused to its
centre. Determined to have no further communication with Riel, and
feeling that he had done all that he could do, Commissioner Smith, on
the 18th of March, returned to Canada. On the 8th of March, Bishop Tache
returned from Rome. A few days after Chief Factor Smith's departure, he
was followed to Canada by Father Richot and Mr. Scott, and they shortly
after by Judge Black, accompanied by Major Button. The conflict of
opinion was transferred to Ottawa, and the act constituting 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, posing
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 nature 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
dangerous 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 Settlement. 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 the two battalions of volunteers that went out to Red
River, one was from Quebec, but one military authority states that there
were not fifty French-Canadians all told in the Quebec battalion. It had
been proposed that Col. Wolseley, who was to command the Red River
Expedition, should be appointed Governor of the new province of
Manitoba, but this was sturdily opposed by the French-Canadian section
of the Cabinet, and Hon. Adams G. Archibald, a Nova Scotian, was
appointed to the post of Governor. Hampered thus, in so far as exercising
any civil functions wereconcerned, Col. Garnet Wolseley was chosen by the
British officer in command in Canada--General Lindsay--to organize this
expedition. Wolseley was very popular, having served in Burmah, India,
the Crimea and China. The Ontario battalion soon had to refuse
applications, and from Ontario the complement of the Quebec battalion was
filled up. It was decided 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 together and put at the
disposal of Colonel Wolseley. 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 numbered some four hundred men. No sooner did the Fenians
in the United States hear of this expedition than they threatened Lower
Canada, and spoke 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 compelled 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 declaring "our mission is
one of peace, and the sole object of it is to secure Her Majesty's
Sovereign authority." Some time was lost in endeavoring to use land
carriage up from Port Arthur as far as Lake Shebandowan. The
difficulties were so great that the scouts were led to find another
route for the boats up the Kaministiquia 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 Shebandowan shore on the evening
of July 16th; by the 4th of August Rainy River was reached, and at Fort
Frances Colonel Wolseley 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 "Wolseley would never reach Fort Garry." Crossing
Lake of the Woods the regular troops were pushed ahead, and on
descending Winnipeg River they reached Fort Alexander and Lake Winnipeg
on August 20th. Here Commissioner Donald A. Smith, having come through
in a light canoe, met Colonel Wolseley. After a short delay Colonel
Wolseley's command 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 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
the Riel regime was at an end. The militia regiments arrived on the 27th
of August, and two days afterwards the Imperial troops started back to
their headquarters in Ontario. Captain Buller, who afterward became so
celebrated in South Africa, took his company down the Dawson 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 afterward, on September 2nd, Lieutenant-Governor
Archibald arrived by the Winnipeg River route, and began his work.
[Illustration: WINNIPEG IN 1871]
[Illustration: WINNIPEG IN 1870]
The joy of all classes of the people was unbounded. The English
halfbreeds had been loyal through the whole of the disturbances.
Kildonan Church had been the headquarters of the Loyalists in their
attempted rally, and after the execution 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 character, 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 government began at once. The first Government Building stood
back from the street in Winnipeg on the corner of Main Street and
McDermott Avenue East, of the present-day. The Legislative Council--a
miniature House of Lords--of seven members, was appointed, and electoral
divisions for the election of members to the Legislative Assembly were
made to the number of twenty-four--twelve French and twelve English. The
time for the opening of Parliament was the spring of 1871. It was a
notable day, for the citizens were much interested in scrutinizing those
who were to be their future rulers. The opening passed off with eclat.
During the first session certain elementary 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 Westminster were evolved
and Manitoba--the successor of our Red River Settlement--had conceded to
it the right of local self-government.
In the year of the first parliament of Manitoba 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 time well-nigh forty years has passed away. The stage coach,
the Red River cart, and the shaganappi pony are things of the past, and
several railways with richly furnished trains connect St. Paul and
Minneapolis with the City of Winnipeg. More important, the skill of the
engineer has surpassed what we then even dreamt of in his blasting of
rock cuttings and tunnels through the Archæan 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 tributary to
Winnipeg, the enormous ascent of the four Rocky Mountain ranges, rising
a mile above the sea, have been crossed by the Canadian 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
strength to pierce the passes of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific
Ocean. We see to-day scenes more after the manner of the Arabian Nights
Entertainments than of the humble dream that Lord Selkirk dreamt one
hundred years ago.
[Illustration: HON. JOHN NORQUAY A native of Red River Settlement.
Became Cabinet Minister in 1871, afterward Premier of Manitoba.]
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 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, susceptible 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 threshers, driven by steam power, pour
forth the precious grain, which is hurried off to the high elevators 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 Clydesdale, and that nothing could result
from the straggling flock of foot-sore and dying sheep, driven by Burke
and Campbell from far-distant Missouri, we look with astonishment at the
horses now taken away by hundreds to supply with chargers the crack
cavalry regiments of the Empire, at the vast consignments of cattle
passing through Winnipeg every day to feed the hungry, and flocks of
sheep supplying wool for Eastern manufacturers to clothe the naked.
One of the greatest trials of the early Selkirk 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, unaided by Government help, to give some
opportunity to their children. It is a notable fact which emerged in the
great School Contention of twenty years ago in Manitoba, that not a
dollar 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
unsurpassed in any country, and the same is true of many other places in
the Province. Two Winnipeg schools bear the names of Selkirk and
Isbister. The University of Manitoba, with its seven affiliated colleges
and twelve hundred and forty candidates in 1909 for its several
examinations 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.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER ISBISTER, LL.B. Red River
Patriot and Benefactor of University of Manitoba.]
One of the most continued and aggressive struggles which Lord Selkirk's
Colonists maintained was seen in the efforts put forth to worship God
according to the dictates of their own consciences, and after the manner
of their 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 estimate what their religious
disposition did in a miscellaneous gathering of people who had, being
scattered over the posts of the fur traders, been in most cases, without
any religious opportunities whatever, before their coming to settle on
Red River. The sturdy stand for principle which the Selkirk Colonists
made created 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
hundreds of new communities. The generosity of the people in erecting
churches for themselves in maintaining among themselves their cherished
beliefs, is in striking contrast to the new settlements of the United
States. In the new Western States the religious movements fell behind
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 layman as their religious 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 in that righteousness which
exalteth a nation.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXX.
How strange and wonderful is the web of destiny, which is being woven in
our national, provincial and family life, which we poor mortals 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 tree under whose leaves and under whose
branches the fowls of Heaven find shelter. How passing strange it was to
see the seed-thought rise in the mind of Lord Selkirk, that suffering
humanity transplanted to another environment might grow out of poverty,
into happiness and content. See his sorrow as he meets with undeserved
opposition from rival traders, from slanderous agents, from bitter
articles in the press, from Government officials and even police
officers who strive to break up his immigrant parties. Recall the
troubles of the Nelson 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, seduced 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.
[Illustration: MARBLE BUST OF EARL OF SELKIRK, THE FOUNDER
By Chantrey, obtained by author from St. Mary's Isle, Lord Selkirk's
seat.]
The world looked coldly on and said, "A visionary Scottish nobleman! a
dreamer a hundred years 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 attacked upon his return to Upper Canada, in law
suits, and illegal processes, so that his estates became heavily
encumbered, so that he went to France to pine away and die. The world
failed to see any glamour in him, and carelessly 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 province 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 Selkirk
Colonists. It was as we have seen a struggle of an extraordinarily
bitter type. To us it seems that no other American Colony ever had such
a continuous distressing and terrific struggle for existence as had
these Scottish Settlers, but we say it was worth while, judging by the
loss to Canada of the northern portions of the tier of states of
Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and Washington, which a line from Fond
du Lac (Duluth) to the mouth of the Columbia would have given to us, and
which should have been ours. We say that had it not been for the Selkirk
Colonists we would have stood to lose our Canadian West. It was a
settlement nearly a hundred years ago of families of men and women, and
children that gave us the firm claim to what is now the three great
provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Was it not worth while?
Was it not worth ten, yes, worth a hundred times more suffering and
discouragement than even the first settlers of Red River endured to
preserve our British connection which the Hudson's Bay Company, loyal as
it was, with its Union Jack floating on every fort, could not have
preserved to us any more than it did in Oregon and Washington. It was
the Red River Settlement that held it for us.
We are beginning to see to-day that Canada could not have become a great
and powerful sister nation in the Empire had the West not been saved to
her. The line of possible settlement 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 Hudson's
Bay railways in prospect. In territory, 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 nationality. Very willingly will we observe the Selkirk Centennial
in 1912. "Many a time and oft" it looked in their case to be one long,
continued 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
The author notes the fact that the agents sent out by Lord
Selkirk engaged (1) Labourers for the Company, (2) Settlers for the Red
River Settlement. On this account in the lists given in the archives and
other official documents, the labourers were often sent to the Posts of
the Company, and after serving several years often became settlers.
(List given in Manitoba Historical Society Transactions, 33.)
A.
List of men who arrived at Hudson Bay in 1811 and left York Factory for
the interior in July, 1812:
Names. Age. Whence.
1 Colin Campbell 21 Argyle
2 John McKay 22 Rossshire
3 John McLennan 23 Rossshire
4 Beth Bethune 19 Rossshire
5 Donald McKay 17 Rossshire
6 William Wallace 21 Ayr
7 John Cooper 26 Orkney, came to Upper Canada.
8 Nichol Harper 34 Orkney
9 Magnus Isbister 21 Orkney, probably father of A.K. Isbister
10 George Gibbon 50 Orkney
11 Thos. McKim 38 Sligo
12 Pat Corcoran 24 Crosmalina
13 John Green 21 Sligo
14 Pat Quinn 21 Killala
15 Martin Jordan 16 Killala
16 John O'Rourke 20 Killala
17 Anthony McDonnell 23 Killala
18 James Toomey 20 Killala
The Author is not aware of the existence of any list of the first
settlers other than these.
B.
Owen Keveny's party (list found in Archives, Ottawa). The total list of
seventy-one was engaged by Keveny in Mull, Broan, Sligo, etc. The
following are known to have come. They reached York Factory 1812, and
arrived at Red River October 27th, 1812:
1 Andrew McDermott, became the famous Red River merchant.
2 John Bourke, a useful man.
3 James Warren, died of wounds in 1815.
4 Chas. Sweeny.
5 James Heron.
6 Hugh Swords.
7 John Cunningham.
8 Michael Hayden Smith, evidently Michael Heden, blacksmith.
9 George Holmes.
10 Robert McVicar.
11 Ed. Castelo.
12 Francis Heron.
13 James Bruin.
14 John McIntyre.
15 James Pinkham.
16 Donald McDonald.
17 Hugh McLean.
C.
The Churchill party, which landed from "Prince of Wales" ship convoyed
by H.M.S. "Brazen," at Churchill in August, 1813, and some, marked C-Y.,
who walked overland on snowshoes to York Factory in April 14th, 1814,
and reached Red River Settlement in 1814. This whole list is from
Manitoba Historical Society Transactions, 33. Those marked C-Y. are from
Archives, Ottawa.
Names. Age. Whence.
1 George Campbell 25 Archurgle Parish,
Creech, Scotland
2 Helen, his wife 20 Archurgle
3 Bell, his daughter 1 Archurgle
4 John Sutherland 50 Kildonan, died 2nd Sept.,
at Churchill (a very
respectable man)
5 Catherine, his wife, C-Y. 46 Kildonan
6 George, his son, C-Y. 18 Kildonan
7 Donald, his son 16 Kildonan
8 Alexander, his son 9 Kildonan
9 Jannet, his daughter, C-Y. 14 Kildonan
10 Angus McKay, C-Y. 24 Kildonan
11 Jean, his wife, C-Y. .. Kildonan
12 Alexander Gunn, C-Y. 50 Kildonan
13 Christine, his wife 50 Kildonan, died 20th Sept.,
Churchill
14 William, his son, C-Y. 18
15 Donald Bannerman 50 Died 24th Sept., Churchill
16 Christine, his wife 44
17 William, his son, C-Y. 18
18 Donald, his son 8
19 Christine, his daughter, C-Y. 16
20 George McDonald 48 Died 1st Sept., 1813, Churchill
21 Jannet, his wife 50
22 Betty Grey 17
23 Catherine Grey 23
24 Barbara McBeath, widow 45 Borobal
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 Borobal
30 Margaret, his wife 15
31 Christian, his sister 24
32 Donald Gunn 65 Borobal
33 Jannet, his wife 50
34 Transferred to Eddystone, H.B. Co.
35 George Gunn, son of Donald, C-Y. 16 Borobal, Parish Kildonan
36 Esther, his sister, C-Y. 24
37 Catherine, his sister 20 Died 29th August
38 Christian, his sister 10
39 Angus Gunn 21
40 Jannet, his wife ..
41 Robert Sutherland,
brother of William, C-Y. 17 Borobal
42 Elizabeth Frazer, C-Y. 30
43 Angus Sutherland 20 Auchraich
44 Elizabeth, his mother 60
45 Betsy, his sister 18 Died of consumption, Oct. 26th
46 Donald Stewart .. Parish of Appin, died 20th
August, 1813, Churchill
47 Catherine, his wife 30
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, C-Y. ..
58 Betsy McKay, his niece ..
59 George Bannerman, C-Y. 22
60 John Bruce 60 Parish of Clyve
61 Alex. Sutherland, C-Y. 24 Parish of Kildonan
62 William, his brother 19 Died
63 Kate Sutherland, his sister 20
64 Haman Sutherland, C-Y. 18 Kenacoil. Settled in Upper
Canada in West Gwillimbury.
He and his sister were children
of James Sutherland, catechist
65 Barbara, his sister, C-Y. 20
66 James McKay, C-Y. 19 Cain
67 Ann, his sister, C-Y. 21
68 John Matheson 22 Authbreakachy
69 Robert Gunn (piper), C-Y. .. Kildonan
70 Mary, his sister, C-Y. ..
71 Hugh Bannerman, C-Y. 18 Dackabury, Kildonan
72 Elizabeth, his sister, C-Y. 20
73 Mary Bannerman, C-Y. ..
74 Alex. Bannerman, C-Y. 19 Dackabury, Kildonan
75 Christian, his sister, C-Y. .. Died January, 1814,
from consumption
76 John Bannerman 19 Died January, of consumption
77 Isabella, his sister, C-Y. 16
78 John McPherson, C-Y. 18 Gailable
79 Catherine, his sister, C-Y. 26
80 Hector McLeod, C-Y. 19
81 George Sutherland, C-Y. 18 Borobal
82 Adam, his brother, C-Y. 16
83 John Murray, C-Y. 21 Sirsgill
84 Alex., his brother, C-Y. 19
85 Helen Kennedy .. Sligo
86 Malcolm McEachern .. Skibbo, Isla (deserted)
87 Mary, his wife .. Skibbo, Isla (deserted)
88 James McDonald, C-Y. .. Inverness, to Fort Augustus
89 Hugh McDonald. .. To Fort William, died
3rd of August, at sea
90 Samuel Lamont, C-Y. .. Boromore, Isla
91 Alex. Matheson, C-Y. .. Kildonan
92 John Matheson, C-Y. .. Overseer
93 John McIntyre, C-Y. To Fort William (entered
service of H.B. Co.,
.. July, 1814)
94 And. Smith .. Son of No. 31, Isla
95 Edward Shell .. Balyshannon
96 Joseph Kerrigan .. Balyshannon
Mr. P. La Serre Surgeon, died at sea
D.
List of settlers who came with Duncan Cameron from Red River to Canada,
1815. List prepared by Wm. 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 WOMEN, UNMARRIED.
Jane Gray.
Elizabeth Gray.
Esther Bannerman.
Elspeth Gunn.
Jannet Sutherland.
Isabella McKinnon.
---- McKinnon.
Catta McDonell.
Elizabeth McKay.
V. YOUNG MEN, NOT MARRIED.
John Murray.
Alexander Murray.
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 York and
Newmarket. The old people are stationed at Newmarket for the present.
Some of the settlers who have gone to Montreal not included.
E.
List of passengers, chiefly from Old Kildonan, landed at York Factory,
August 26th, 1815. Reached Red River Settlement in same year.
Names. Age. Remarks.
1 James Sutherland 47 An elder who was authorized by the
Church of Scotland to baptize and marry
2 Mary Polson 48
3 James Sutherland 12
4 Janet Sutherland 16
5 Catherine Sutherland 14
6 Isabella Sutherland 13
1 Wm. Sutherland 54
2 Isabell Sutherland 50
3 Jeremiah Sutherland 15
4 Ebenezer Sutherland 11 At school
5 Donald Sutherland 7 At school
6 Helen Sutherland 12 At school
1 Widow Matheson 60
2 John Matheson 18 School master
3 Helen Matheson 21
1 Angus Matheson 30
2 Christian Matheson 18
1 Alex. Murray 52
2 Ebz. Murray 54
3 James Murray 16
4 Donald Murray 13
5 Catherine Murray 27
6 Christian Murray 25
7 Isabella Murray 18
1 George McKay 50
2 Isabella Matheson 50
3 Roderick McKay 19
4 Robert McKay 11 At school
5 Roberty McKay 16
1 Donald McKay 31
2 John McKay 1
3 Catherine Bruce 33
1 Barbara Gunn 50
2 Wm. Bannerman 55
3 Wm. Bannerman 16
4 Alexander Bannerman 14
5 Donald Bannerman 8 At school
6 George Bannerman 7 At school
7 Ann Bannerman 19
1 Widow Gunn 40
2 Alex. McKay 16
3 Adam McKay 13
4 Robert McKay 12
5 Christian McKay 19
1 John Bannerman 55
2 Catherine McKay 28
3 Alexander Bannerman 1
1 Alex. McBeth 35
2 Christian Gunn 50
3 George McBeth 16
4 Roderick McBeth 12
5 Robert McBeth 10
6 Adam McBeth 6
7 Morrison McBeth 4
8 Margaret McBeth 18
9 Molly McBeth 18
10 Christian McBeth 14
1 Alexander Mathewson 34 Sergeant of the passengers
2 Ann Mathewson 34
3 Hugh Mathewson 10 At school
4 Angus Mathewson 6
5 John Mathewson 1
6 Cathern Mathewson 2
1 Alexander Polson 30
6 Catherine Mathewson 2
3 Hugh Polson 10 At school
4 John Polson 5 At school
5 Donald Polson 1
6 Anne Polson 7
1 William McKay 44 Brought out millstones, embarked at
Stromness
2 Barbara Sutherland 35
3 Betty McKay 10 At school
4 Dorothy McKay 4
5 Janet McKay 2
1 Joseph Adams 25 Embarked at Gravesend
2 Mary Adams 23
1 Reginald Green 31 Sergeant of passengers
2 George Adams 19
3 Henry Hilliard 19
4 Edward Simmons 20
5 Christian Bannerman 22
6 John Matheson 22
7 Alexander Sutherland 25 Sergeant of passengers
8 John McDonald 22
Total--84
F.
THE HONOUR ROLL.
In Martin's "H.B. Co. Land Tenures" is found a petition to the Prince
Regent, after the troubles of 1816, asking for troops and steps to be
taken for their preservation. As these are those, from all the different
parties, who held fast to Red River Settlement, they are worthy of
highest honour. These were the real Kildonan settlers whom Lord Selkirk
saw on his visit in 1817.
Donald Livingston
George McBeath
Angus Matheson
Alex. Sutherland
George Ross
Alexander Murray, lot 23
James Murray
John Farquharson
John McLean
John Bannerman
George McKay
Alexander Polson
Hugh Polson
Robert McBeath
Alexander McLean
George Adams
Martin Jordon
Robert McKay
Wm. McKay
Alex. Matheson
John McBeath
John Sutherland
Alex. McBeath, an old soldier, 73rd Rgt., lot No. 3
Christian Gunn (widow)
Alex. McKay
William Sutherland
Alex. Sutherland, Sr.
James Sutherland
James Sutherland
William Bannerman, father of lot 21
Donald McKay
John Flett
John Bruce
Robert MacKay
William Bannerman, Jr.
Roderick McKay
Ebenezer Sutherland
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 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 Douglas; 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."
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Addenda and Errata above, incorporated, as well as:
Page 13. added ) after fishing
Page 33. importants [removed s]
Page 36. removed " after Lake Winnipeg.
Page 41. comma changed to period: obnoxious. The
Page 41. the the [changed to the]
Page 44. Alexander Mackenize [changed to Mackenzie]
Page 44. Porvince [changed to Province]
Page 61. removed " after summer." The
Page 64. crystalized [changed to crystallized]
Page 69. thaat [changed to that]
Page 118. daughers [changed to daughters]
Page 122. calvalcade [changed to cavalcade]
Page 123. Cat-Fsh [changed to Cat-Fish]
Page 130. lfe [changed to life]
Page 134. collison [changed to collision]
Page 139. solider [changed to soldier]
Page 147. steathily [changed to stealthily]
Page 151. pasionate [changed to passionate]
Page 184. setters [changed to settlers]
Page 196. couuld [changed to could]
Page 204. delivry [changed to delivery]
Page 267. as as [changed to as]
Page 275. schools -- added s to "school"
Page 286. Noebert changed to Norbert
Page 319. The English half-breeds [added hyphen]
Page 337. H.M.S.[added period] Brazen
Page 309. Begg, an eye-witnss [changed to eye-witness]
Page 309. C.-Y. [changed to C-Y.]
Appendix, Page 329. changed Settle-Settlement to Settlement
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