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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent ia mAthode. irrata to pelure, nd □ 32X 12 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^ ^ THE CANADIAN DOMINION j.'—j..tu^t-,.:,:^t.imMsi LONDON : PRINTED BV Sl'OTTISWOOUE AND CO., NEW -STREET SyUAKE AND PARLIAMENT STREET i rrr- ,^^:iA\ PREFACE. I AM not conscious that this book is written with undue partiality. I am certain that I entered Canada without prepossessions in favour of the country. During a tour of five months through the Dominion, I endeavoured to judge fairly of the present condition — social, commercial, religious, and political— of the country, and of its future prospects. I have tried to give the result of my im- pressions and inquiries in the simplest and most condensed manner possible. I believe that, to estimate Canada justly, the country must be compared not only with England, but also with the United States. The contrast which Canada presents to the garden-like condition of the old country and VI PREFACE. the highly-developed state of English society, is calculated to startle and sometimes to ag- grieve the sensitive observer. These impres- sions are modified when it is perceived that the crudity and roughness of the civilisation are not peculiar to the British provinces, but are incident to the youthfulness of the civilisation of the whole of this new continent. I had the advantage of passing into Canada from a tour through the Eastern States of the American Union, and of preparing this volume after the completion of a visit to the Western States. The Author. April, 1 87 1. CONTENTS. CHAP lER Preface . , , I. • . . The Dominion II. . ■ . Quebec . III. . . . The ' Habitans ' . IV. ■ . . Lumber . V. . . The Free-Grant Lands VI.. • • The Farming Interest . VII.. . . Niagara .... VIII. . . . Oil Springs and Salt . IX.. . . Little Africa X. . . . The Indians . XL. • • Across the Prairies . XIL. . . The Red River Revolt Jan.. . • The Great Nokth-West TACJE V I 12 31 37 49 70 85 93 99 . 120 • M5 . 174 nHSB" Vlll CONTENTS. I' I CHAPTER XIV. , . . The Air-Line to China XV. . . . The Maritime Provinces XVI. . . . Inter-Continental Communication XVII. . . . Immigration XVIII. . . . The Political Question XIX. . . . Canadian Defence . . . PAGE 199 206 , 217 220 239 . 254 XX. . . . The Future of Great Britain and her Colonies 270 Appendix 275 V i LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. The Author in a Red River Costume Frontispiece. 2. Quebec FROM Point St. LfivY .' . To face page, 2 3. The Falls of the Chaudi£re . 4. The Falls of Montmorenci 5. Fort Garry, on the Red River . 6. The Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, from ABOVE the RiDEAU CaNAL »7 20 M3 • • 283 i it'i I' i" 1^ l: I t -{ THE CANADIAN DOMINION. - ■■•»i»qtfc«f»-«— CHAPTER I. -i THE DOMINION. Centuries ago a few wigwams on the shore of one of the magnificent rivers of the New World gave a characteristic name to the strip of land on which they stood. The Indians called it ' Kanata,' the Place of Huts. The French applied the name to a wide piece of country ; the English to a great territory. The term now includes an empire stretching from ocean to ocean. The Dominion of Canada is the Land of Homes.* The settlement of the country by Europeans is scarcely two centuries old. The English occupation dates from 1 760. The first explorers of the New World supposed, from the appearance of the indigenous races, that ^ r > See Note III., at the end of this volume. B r ^TT^T^ THE CANADIAN DOMINION they were the * Indians ' of that rich country of the east, which was sought by the long westward voyage. The name still clung to the red men, after the discovery that a greater India had been found. The native races hesitated whether to unite against the intrusion of the pale-faced races from across the great sea, or to bid for their aid in their own inter- necine wars. Champlain, one of the earliest and most distinguished explorers of Canada, leagued with the Hurons and Algonquins, put an army of their foes, the warlike Iroquois, to flight, by suddenly appearing in the midst of a battle in glittering armour, with miraculous firearms. A god in re- splendent light with uplifted thunderbolts could not have produced greater dismay before the walls of Troy. But the Indians soon learnt that their new foes were mortal. Traders from the seas sup- plied them with fire-arms for the slaughter of the white settlers, and with fire-water for their own swifter destruction. The diminished tribes fought on both sides in the fierce struggle for supremacy on this continent, waged by French ar d English. Now they have for the most part settled down to habits of peace. Under the wise and kindly policy persistently followed towards them by the English Government, they live in security on their settled reserves. By mixture of blood, and the agency of teachers and missionaries, the Indian tribes are slowly approximating to the condition of the white races. We may watch in Canada the interesting FRENCH DISCOVERY OF CANADA. experiment of a fairly-conducted effort to elevate a lower race of people ; meanwhile their presence in the country adds to the picturesqueness of life. It is a fact of more interest, however, and of much greater importance, both social and political, that in Canada at this time a large proportion of the white population, perhaps even one quarter, under the English domination, is composed of a race foreign in blood, speaking a strange language, professing another religion, and yet living in assured content and peace. The French are the discoverers of Canada. In 1534 Jacques Cartier appropriated its unknown ex- tent to France, by erecting on the shore of the coast of Gasp^, a cross thirty feet high, inscribed with the arms of Francis I. Champlain established the first colonies. Colbert organised a great scheme for strengthening ' La Nouvelle France.' War-captains by sea and land, and martyrs tortured to death, make a long list of French names to emblazon ' the heroic age of Canada.' The gallantry of Montcalm, glad that his wounds should kill him before the English entered Quebec, fitly closes the period of French rule over the country. The people learnt quickly to acquiesce in the new order. They refused all solicitation to fight against the English during the war of American Independ- ence. In 18 1 2 and the following years, when the American forces invaded Canada for its conquest, the French shared with the English the honour of B 2 ^^ THE CANADIAN DOMINION. ! I ! I making a successful defence of the country. At this moment French Canada is as loyal as any part of the English dominions. The French do not forget their past ; they do not lose their distinctness of race ; they retain fondly their language, their old customs and social order, their separate system of law, and their ancient faith. But they are pros- perous and contented. They have been treated by the Imperial Government with fairness and con- sideration. They have responded with good-will, and have learnt to feel an attachment to the English rule, and a deep devotion to the country of their birth. The French are as thoroughly Canadian as the English. But the country has been conquered not only from the Indians, and from the French, but with severer effort from the tyranny of Nature herself. The fertile lands of the Dominion, covered with homesteads, villages, and towns along a measureless network of railways, roads, rivers, and canals, once formed part of the limitless northern forest wilds. With infinite labour vast forests have been hewn down, and their tangled growths of interlacing roots torn up from the soil. Free way has been made for the sunlight and air, and the climate meliorated. Countless streams and rivers have been spanned with bridges. The rapid waters have everywhere been made to repay the damage of their tumultuous overflows by working the saws and hammers, the looms and mills of the settlers. FERTILITY OF CANADA. The labour of making this country habitable has been beyond all estimate; but the result is a full compensation. The older-settled districts have be- come a fair garden. The farmsteads are homes of comfort and ease, and often of culture and refine- ment. The log-hut gives place to the frame-house, and this to a substantial building of stone or brick. Meanwhile the line of invasion on the old realm of forest everywhere extends. The lumberman ad- vances further and further north with his axe, and removes by the snow- roads of winter and the great water highways a mass of choice timber for all the markets of the world. The backwood's-man, more than reconciled to his life of excitement and variety, clears a space for his log-hut, fires the useless timber, and sows his first irregular crop. The cleared land is worth all the pains. The Ontario wheat is one of the finest in the world. Oats, barley, maize, and other grains, yield excellent crops. Fruits and vegetables grow generously. The Canadian apple is the standard of excellence. Melons and the tomato grow equally with the potato, pea, turnip, and the rest of the vegetables known in England. The grape thrives well. Rasp- berries, cranberries, cherries, and other fruits grow wild. Orchards everywhere prosper. But the great labour demanded in settling the country has produced a further result of great con- sequence. It has developed a fine race of people. The Canadian, whether French, English, Irish, or THE CANADIAN DOMINION. i' Scotch, is well-proportioned and vigorous, often tall, with broad shoulders, sinewy frame, and capable of great endurance. He may not have much book- learning, but he is quick of resource, and apt at many things. He is enterprising, but unhurried. He does not move in his affairs over-fast, but very surely. He is sober-minded, persisient, and trust- worthy. The races of the British isles and of Nor- mandy have certainly not degenerated here. The remarkable advance in material prosperity made by the country may be indicated by a com- parison of statistics. In 1 85 1, the export returns of the four provinces of Quebec (then Lower Canada), Ontario (then Upper Canada), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, amounted to four millions of dollars. In the following ten years the exports of these provinces increased more than tenfold ; in 1 86 1 the returns were «S^43 millions. For the past year, 1869, the exports came to Bdo millions, or twelve millions sterling. For the same provinces the imports were : — In 1851, seven millions of dollars; in 1861, fifty-one millions; in 1869, seventy millions. The increasing quantity of land brought under cultivation — one of the most important elements in the well-being of a new country — is shown to be eminently satisfactory by the Government returns. In 1 85 1 the extent of land actually under culture in the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada was HESOUJiCES OF CANADA. seven million acres. By the year 1861 the amount had increased to eleven millions. It is estimated that the returns to be made at the next census will show a corresponding increase to the present date. The returns of population afford significant proof of the rapid progress of the country. In 1841, the date of the union of Upper and Lower Canada, the population of the two provinces was i,090, lines of smoke pass up and down the river, or rapidly across, or tug with much noise and short breath the heavy rafts of wood, acres wide, covered with hut villages that float down from the inland waters. At Point St. L^vy, opposite the citadel, lie stranded or lazily floating incalculable masses of this lumber, waiting for transit to the British Isles, South America, or Australia. The abrupt or gently undulating* banks of the opposite shore, of the Island of Orleans, and of the northern bank of the St Lawrence, are fringed with rich woods, except where spaces have been cleared for villas and country houses, and for the long line of farm houses of the habitans of the country. As I stood within this citadel made famous for ever in the annals of English war, the place seemed to me a fitting one for some reflections on the policy which has been lately adopted by the home Govern- ment. At the quay below lay a ship loading with old war material for England. * A ship load of stores goes home now every week,* an officer of the garrison told me. ' And very much of it not worth carrying on to the ship,' exclaimed a Quebec gentleman, somewhat querulously. ' If your Government has determined not to use it for the defence of the country, then in the name of common sense let it be sold to the Dominion Government here ! * * Don't appeal to common sense, pray,' said another Canadian with good humour. ' Do you remember if fi DEFENCES OF QUEBEC. IS the story of the shanty guard-house brought here from Australia ? ' ' The home policy is an admirable one,' said the officer ; ' it is to teach the colonies self-reliance, and compel them to develop their strength.' * Well and good,' was the reply. * But it would be better to tell us this plainly instead of making us think we are to be thrown off altogether.' My attention- was directed to a long line of earth- works thrown up on the heights on the further shore of the St. Lawrence. Modern warfare demands another system of defence than that of stone ram- parts. But I learned that the progress of the works was interrupted, and that it was not known whether the proposed line of defence was to be completed. At the time of my visit one regiment only re- mained in garrison at Quebec. I visited one day the convent of the Ursulines below the citadel. A mild-eyed nun passed me a key through the guicfiet in the wall, and left me to wander about the chapel at my will. I found a few indifferent paintings, and a tablet on the wall that arrested my attention : — Honneur "k Montcalm ! Le destin, en lui derobant La Victoire, L'a recompensee par Un Mort Glorieuse. I wondered if, when the time comes for England to fall from her place among the nations, she will make an end worthy of her past. 'I i6 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. \\\ In 1 86 1 the population of the city of Quebec was 51,109 souls. The census to be taken next year will show a large increase. The building of wooden ships for the carrying trade was formerly the chief industry of the place, but has greatly decreased since the introduction of iron vessels. The annual returns that were formerly 100,000 tons, sank in 1869 to 27,000 tons. But other industries will fill up this loss. Quebec has a large operative class in its population, and many advantages for the manu- facturing trades. As an inland port Quebec must always remain a place of great importance. Though it stands two hundred miles up the St. Lawrence, the city is still full three hundred miles nearer to Liverpool than New York is. In proportions always increasing, the export produce of the west is finding its way down the St. Lawrence to Quebec for ocean transport. At the St Charles river, which has a tidal flow of fourteen feet, Quebec possesses the means of con- structing docks that may one day equal those of Liverpool. For picturesque beauty the environs of Quebec vie with those of any city in the world. A short drive will take the visitor to the Plains of Abraham, where he will wish to see a nobler monument to Wolfe than that at present erected. Or he may proceed along the picturesque St. Foy road, and pause at another monument in memory of the men who fell on this spot at the second batde of the iv bee was xt year wooden he chief ^creased e annual sank in , will fill ; class in e manu- remain a ands two ty is still tool than ising, the ^ay down transport, al flow of IS of con- those of f Quebec A short Abraham, lument to • he may road, and f the men de of the i. i FALLS OF THE CHAUDIERE. n Plains, when the brave De L^vis snatched a victory from the English, and almost succeeded in winning back the great citadel lost the year before. A sunset seen from the heights above the wide valley of the St. Charles, bathing in tender light the long undulating lines of remote hills, and trans- figuring with glory the great chain of the Laurentides, is a sight of beauty to rest in the memory for ever. Crossing the St. Lawrence ferry with a light calccfie, or with one of the handsomely appointed carriages that wait for hire in the open squares, the visitor will pass in an afternoon's drive through a wild and romantic piece of country along the St. Lery river to the highly picturesque Falls of the Chaudiere. For the last half-mile you wend your way afoot across fields and through a small wood, and then find unexpectedly a scene of bewildering beauty. In a long still reach of waters, where the bending forest trees and the clear sky overhead reflect themselves, the river sleeps in dreams of profound tranquillity, then suddenly leaps a pre- cipice jagged with projecting masses of rock, and falls white and foaming a hundred and thirty feet into the seething caldron below. The spray rises in a thin mist to cool your brow where you stand in the hot sun. Below stretch the gleaming reaches of the winding river, and around a wide range of undulating country soothes and satisfies the eye. It may add to the traveller's interest in this river to know that it flows with gold. At one spot near c i^' ■^ •¥ |8 T//E CANADIAN DOMINION. ■ ,' ! i' l'' its source a mining company obtained last year 838 ounces of the precious metal. At a similar distance of an afternoon's drive from Quebec to the north, lies the picturesque Indian village of Lorette. I had the pleasure of making a visit to this place in company with the Honourable Mr. Chauveau, the Minister of Instruction for the province of Quebec. The tribe settled here is of the Huron race ; but a glance at the features of the people proves that there has been a considerable intermixture of white blood. The chief of the tribe, M. Paul, a finely-made middle-aged man of much intelligence and good humour, introduced us to his family, and courteously conducted us through the settlement. All traces of the old savage life have disappeared. The people live in neat, well-made frame-houses, each with its garden or piece of culti- vated land. Many of them are well-to-do farmers ; others make a comfortable living by the manufac- ture of snow-shoes, canoes, basket-work, and Indian curiosities. The people all speak French. We attended divine service at the Roman Catholic chapel ; here the prayer was intoned in the old Huron language, but not a soul in the congregation, I was assured, understood a word. Over the altar was a painting, done, I should think, by one of the Indians, of the very house of Lorette, miraculously removed from Jerusalem to Rome, from which this village has its nar ;. The people, old and young, attended to the service with devotion. INDIAN VILLAGE OF LORETTE. 19 Many of the houses we visited had an appear- ance of comfort, and even of elegance. The rooms were carpeted, and tastefully furnished. In some a piano would stand open, with a piece of classic music on the stand. In such a room as this the good-natured chief showed us a collection of Indian dresses and war implements ; then suddenly swing- ing aloft his tomahawk, he shouted the war whoop, and performed one of the old dances. In conclusion, of course, the sacred pip«^ of peace was fitted to the war weapon, and offered to each of us. At another house we found a well-to-do Frenchman from Quebec, who introduced us with pride to his pretty Indian wife and two of the loveliest children in the world. The Indians were nearly all dressed in the ordi- nary costume of modern civilisation, but a few of the women wore short skirts, with full trousers, and a graceful short cloak. The name by which the Indians call my friend Mr. Chauveau, not without a just appreciation of his character, is ' Hodilonrawasti,' or ' Le bel esprit,' as it was explained to me. The name given to me at once was no less than * Alonhiawasti Chialontarati,' which I shall find too long for customary use. The village is built on the St. Charles river, and here, too, are some exceedingly pretty falls. It is not too much to say that the Lorette cascades would give fame and fortune to any spot in England or France ; yet here, dwarfed by grander waters, they remain comparatively unknown. C 2 If 1 " ] 1 111 r 1 ■ :i,! ■•" 'A , \ i4l.. 20 T//E CANADIAN DOMINION For, after all, the great pride of Quebec is the Falls of Montmorenci. Nine miles from the city, the Montmorenci river, escaping from the tangled network of rocky pools through which it has forced its crawling way, plunges magnificently, in a snow-white mass, a sheer depth of 250 feet into a dark chasm below, where, stunned and broken, it slowly melts into the great St. Lawrence. A few stray silver lines of the river descending on either side suggest the great width of the Fall ^ else lost in their extreme height. The roar of waters is deafening ; you cannot speak to your friend ; but perhaps you grasp his hand to stjiy the strange impulse that seizes you to fling yourself on the madly hurrying waters, and feel for one supreme instant the ecstasy of their frightful leap. The white waters fall into a black gorge of utter desolation. Here the glowing iris spans the rolling clouds of foam, turning the spray to jewels. A rocky ridge from the coast-line bends round in front of thr great Falls, as if expressly to afford a perfect view of their majesty. m m <'\- THE FALLS OF MONTMORENCI 21 CHAPTER III. THE 'HABITANS: I WAS ushered one morning into the reception-room of the Laval University. One end of the hand- some apartment was occupied by two paintings not badly executed, and the space for a third. In the centre appeared the Holy Virgin, robed in fair white and pink, standing on massive clouds that hung over the long line of the city and shipping of Quebec. The painting on the right was a full- length portrait by Pas-qualoui of His Holiness Pope Pius IX., in gorgeous robes. The vacant space was for Her Sacred Majesty, Victoria, Queen of the British Empire. ' The Blessed Virgin, the Holy Father, and Her Majesty, they are our three patrons,' the attendant explained to me. I was presently conducted by many corridors up to the private apartment of the Abbe Brunet, to whom I had letters of introduction. ' Entrez, entrez !' cried the good father from within at the knock of my guide. The door opened, and discovered the holy father, t.'Jti ■A, 23 rif£ CANADIAN DOMINION. 1 t ! i U -• ll'lf- razor in hand, half-way through the delicate opera- tion of shaving. Wholly unembarrassed, the abb6 welcomed me heartily, and proceeded to give me all kinds of information, with such breaks as the em- ployment of the moment necessitated. The French population of Canada, he assured me, was prosperous, contented, and eminently loyal. On the cession of the province to England, the integrity of their institutions, social order, language, and religion had been secured to the inhabitants ; Eng- land had scrupulously respected these treaties, and had won the attachment and gratitude of the people. They had no causes of discontent, and prospered to the extent of their ambition. The Confederation of the Provinces had been attended with one great advantage to the French race. Formerly, while Upper and Lower Canada had been united under one Government, there had been a constant struggle for rule between the two provinces, the occasional diversity of interests and the general difference in religion often causing strife and ill-will, and leading sometimes to a political ' dead-lock.' All this was changed. The province of Quebec, like that of Ontario, had now its own local legislature, and unseemly strife for power had given place to a wholesome rivalry in advancing the general good. I have subsequently met on all sides with con- firmation of these statements. At two o'clock I found the Rev. Mr. Laverdiere, Librarian of the Laval University, in readiness for H ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. n me. We took one of the quaint Quebec cars, and drove to the Custom-house landing-stage. He-e we were joined by another priest, M. Roussel. We descended a perpendicular ladder to a boat waiting at the quay. In a few moments we rigged the sails, pushed her off, and were speeding before the wind on the wide St. Lawrence. The little yacht was the private property of M. Laverdiere, in which he and his brother priests were accustomed to make excursions thirty-five miles down the river to an old chateau under Cape Tourment, the summer resort of the professors and students of the University. The day was perfect. Gleaming waters with rafts and shipping, fair hill-slopes dotted with farms and villages, the magnificent pile of the mountain city, a heaven overspread with fleecy clouds and full of sunlight, made up a scene of enchantment. We passed along the channel between the Island of Orleans and the north shore. Till the chaloupe grated on the shallow bottom, we crept in closer and closer below the magnificent Montmorenci Falls. The wind grew perverse and coquettish, changing its mind every moment. It was an odd sight to watch the two tall thin priests, in their long black robes buttoned to the feet, and their tall black beaver hats, made for dignity rather than conve- nience, managing the boat, nevertheless, with a skill that would have done credit to practised sailors. We lifted a wooden plank in the stern seat, and pro- duced a repast which I considered one of the most 1 li ■ * I hi ^ ii - ; 'i . I h m , i : m Hi ,& $ »4 THE CANADIAN DOMINION delicious I had ever eaten. It consisted of cold ham served on white bread for plates, and of excel- lent claret drank from a piece of delf as a loving cup. We lay in the sun, and talked, and sang. Then the wind, tired of coquetry, pretended an absurd modesty, and left ua ;»ltogedier. We reefed the sails and took to the oars. The tide was changing, and our progress was slow. Evening fell, and we doubted if we could reach our destined resting-place for the night. The wind laughingly took pity on us, let us put in our oars, and carried us swiftly, without pausing once to take breath, on to tf pirturesque French village of Chateau Richet. On the further shore we cast anchor. Two of us stripped, aii i pl'ingov! into the delicious waters. Then we sped straight across to the village. M. le Cur^, with smiling face, stood on the shore to welcome us. We walked through the village, touch- ing our hats to the salutations of the pleasant- looking people, and pausing at times for talk. A simple but most hospitable supper was pre- pared for us at the curb's house. Good-natured gossip about Church matters and the affairs of the village finished the day. In the morning we went to see, and seeing to admire, the new church of stone just erected through the indefatigable exertions of our host. The walls of the interior were still bare, showing the lines of the great stones. The open timber VILLAGE OF CHATEAU RICIIET. 25 work supporting the roof was all exposed. I am not sure that I succeeded in proving to my friends that my admiration of the effect was sincere. M, le Cur^ listened at first with incredulity and then with pity to the expression of my strong abhorrence of plaster. They meant to get the whole place finished off smooth and white as soon as ever they could, he assured me, and then, when they had funds enough, they might fresco it with columns and cornices of marble. We went to inspect, too, the alterations in pro- gress at a large stone house below the church, to fit it for an educational establishment, under the management of the Sisters of the Society of Le bon Pasteur. This was also one of the pet projects of our kind host. ' M. le Cure is a very good man, and we all love and respect him very much,' said one of the vil- lagers to me ; ' but what with the new church and the new convent, and other things, he burdens us heavily and keeps all the village poor.' A little sparkling stream coming down from the Laurentian chain forces for itself with difficulty a way into the St. Lawrence at this spot, and makes the Falls of La Puce prettier than their name. At eleven a.m. we resumed our course. There was more sun and wind than on the previous day, and we reached Cape Tourment quickly. With sails all set we drove the little chaloupe as far as she could go into a swamp of waving rushes on the '^ %. , i 1 1 I : J 4 *-^ s ,1 ■ 111' 1 26 77/i5: CANADIAN DOMINION river shore. Then, with our light baggage in the hand, with boots off, and with trousers (and robes) rolled up above the knees, we waded cheerfully through the sludge to the firm land. This was the ordinary means of disembarkation at this spot. Half an hour's walk, by pretty French farmsteads and through a scented pine wood, led us to the Chateau Bellevue — a long, square, massive mansion, built of the dark limestone of the district. We were received, literally, with open arms. At dinner we sat down to a well-served and tastefully- appointed table. In the reading-room I found a large collection of religious periodicals, mostly French ; but among them * The Tablet.' A quaint old billiard-board, evidently much used, stood in one of the great rooms. Twenty of the professors and about as many students are accustomed to spend the summer vaca- tion here. One party had gone away this day fishing ; another to make the ascent of Mount Tourment. Two priests, coming home from some religious duty, splashed to the hat-top in mud from a swamp, were received with hearty laughter. The whole company showed an extraordinary gaiety of heart, simplicity, and kindliness. Half a dozen of us strolled out into the noble woods surrounding the cluster of buildings. We came presently to a small shrine, erected by some pious brethren to the honour of St. Joseph. A white plaster image of the saint himself stood inside, A SPHINGLESS CART. 87 profusely decorated with vivid artificial flowers. I was informed that the figure was taken within doors in the winter, to save it from being cracked by the frost. Further on we came to a still prettier shrine, erected to Our Lady ; but unfortunately the frost, or some strange lack of care, had slightly interfered with the regularity of the Virgin's features. The glory of the day was still undimmed when M. de Laverdiere and I got into one of the small springless carts of this country, and were driven to the woods by a man sitting on a kind of undeveloped splash-board, with his legs stretched forwards on to the shafts. The roadway wandered across country and into the cool depths of the forest, over most irregular ground, filled with blocks of stone, and broken with gaps and ruts. ' As this car has no springs,' said my kind friend, * I fear the jolting will shake you.' I suggested that the motion might be beneficial to digestion, or to the liver, or to something or other inside us. ' But if you would like to ride easy,' he resumed, ' don't hold on to anything at all, but let your body go freely with the motion of the cart' I tried this plan, and found the exercise quite ex- hilarating. During the ride M. de Laverdiere advised me on no account to omit a visit to the church of St. Ann, which I should pass on my way home on the morrow. ^^ ^'u t s U i < a8 77/£ CANADIAN DOMINION, \ ■' 'M\ i It was the only place of pilgrimage in all Canada, he explained, — being the chosen spot for the per formance of miraculous cures. He kindly informed me of the whole supernatural history of the place : how a little child had received the honour of a heavenly vision on the identical spot where the church now stands ; how this was repeated a second and yet a third time, when the Virgin commanded the child to tell the people of the village that a church was to be built in that place ; how, when the church was ready, the first beggar threw away his crutch in the midst of a great assembly of people, and so became the first of a line of cured cripples which remains unbroken to the present date. The priest proceeded to tell me of a number of extra- ordinary and interesting cases of cure, some of which he had heard of from actual spectators. And then he argued philosophically on the great question of miracles. * It showed absurdity,' he said, 'and, what was worse, a tendency to infidelity, when people urge that the cures of the church occur through occult but simply natural causes. Some cases there might be of that order, but all were not ' For instance, when a man with a shrunken limb, in which there remains no use or life, suddenly stretched it out sound and well, or when a man stone dead is brought back to life, what power can have done this short of a true miracle ? Must not a cause be always sufficient for the result } ' A SPLENDID WATER.FALL. 99 We left the car in the heart of the woods, and proceeded along a faintly-traced pathway, till the roar of falling waters told us we were near the object of our search. A magnificent spectacle burst upon our sight. A rapid stream, breaking its way through the dark woods, and from pool to pool among masses of jagged rock, suddenly cleaves for itself a narrow chasm, over which you may spring if you have an iron nerve, and then falls, broken into a thousand fantastic forms of spray along the steep face of the rock, into a deep gorge of horrid darkness. I do not know the volume of water ; I forgot to guess the height — it may be two hundred feet. Figures are absurd in the estimate of the beauty and grandeur of a scene like this. I only know that the whole impression of the scene was one of the most intense I have ever experienced. The disposition of the mass of broken waters is the most graceful conceivable. The irresistible might of the rush of the fall, the stupendous upright masses of black rock that form the chasm ; the heavy fringe of dark woods all around ; the utter solitariness and gloom of the scene — all add to impress the imagination. An artist might prefer this spot to Niagara. The precarious footway down which we climbed half-way to the bed of the gorge was fashioned in part by the labour of my companion in former days. Climbing back and beyond the Falls, we reached a sheltered pool, and bathed in the icy waters. We i I i ■ \ . ■ V , \ » t i ■!■ r •! .: 1 1 if / /.v /)o.\nx/o\. occupy liair a-(.lo/(Mi sliaiUics in a dislricl. At soiiu* cciUral s|K)t a 'llclu^t' is built, where tin* hcail ilircclor lives, where a ^cueral store t)f implements ant! clothing is kept on haml. and from which the supplies of pork, (lour, molassi's, ?-J f 42 THE CANADIAN DOMINION }. \\ \ I % !'i: 1 luUed to dreams by the light motion of his floating home. Very often he does not even guide the great raft ; a steam-tug saves him the trouble. Sometimes the logs are not fastened into ' cribs * at all. On rivers where the course is easy and unob- structed the logs are simply gathered within great booms, formed by attaching a number of the logs together end to end, inclosing the rest ; and so the heavy mass floats lazily down or is tugged by steam. The saw-mills are built where a great water-power can be obtained, and consequently are found in the most romantic situations — at Montmorenci, the Gatineau Trails, and the Phandiere on the Ottawa, for example. The operations of a lumber-mill present an extraordinary spectacle. By a more or less com- plicated system of dams and flumes the danger of inundation is averted, and a sufficient water-power is ensured to work the mills through the season. The buildings, often picturesque in their variety and strange outline, press close upon the very edge of the falls. Up the stream, in some sheltered reach of water, float whole fields of loosened logs, awaiting now indifferently the fate for which they have been brought so far. One by one they are fixed to the endless chains that dip down for miles, and are dragged up a wooden slope on to the floor of the mill. There work incessantly, with a perpendicular motion, the multitudinous sets of glittering teeth of the eager saws, hungry and insatiable for ever. A stalwart workman fixes the dripping log with an i \ ». THE LUMBER TRADE. 43 iron Icvcr, and before the prcccdinjj log is two-thirds cut dexterously turns the new one on to an endless platform that passes beneath the gleaming saws. Without the loss of an instant the fresh log follows along the platform ; four, six, sometimes eight saws bite, and rend, and sunder it remorselessly, and the log has become planks. These are examined, marked, measured, and cut up for the different markets. The best is set aside for the English trade; the rest goes to the United States, to South America, Australia, and all parts of the world. The smaller pieces are worked up for rail-fences, ' shingles,' fire-wood, and matches. The refuse, ground to chips, not to impede navigation, falls into the hurrying stream below. Summer is over before the last raft reaches Quebec. With the first snow-fall the mills close, and the scattered army of axemen make their way back to the woods. The valley of the Ottawa is at present the prin- cipal seat of the lumber trade. It was my fortune to be making a somewhat long stay in the neigh- bourhood at a time without parallel, happily, in the history of the district. The Ottawa is but a tributary of the magnificent St. Lawrence ; but it is no less than six hundred miles in length, it drains 80,000 square miles, and will one day support a population to be counted by millions. Already settlements are spreading far up the course of the river, and invading the depths of ft.! m .'fl r ...M^JU».v>.> 44 Till': C ANA PI AN DOMINION. u ( . |i(: j ^ , f the primeval forests by the tributary streams ; while villages and towns are springing up in lower districts. Beyond question the Ottawa is one of the most picturesque rivers of the world ; in other words, it is not easily navigable. It is one long succession of reaches studded with islands, narrow passes, fair lakes, impetuous rapids, and magnificent falls. The voyage on its waters, day after day, is a succession of charming surprises. At one time a wide prospect of open lakes reaches almost to the horizon ; at an- other, you look over an endless undulating extent of hill and dale ; then you are shut up in a narrow gorge without visible escape. To increase the feeling of exhilaration which variety gives, the traveller is com- pelled to change perpetually his mode of conveyance — from steam to stage, from boat to ferry, from car to scow. At some intervals the traveller may have to walk ; for instance, where the narrow platform, thirty feet high, crossing a rocky valley, has been burnt by a fire in the woods. At present the steamers plying on their several reaches of water go up as far as Deux Joachims, three hundred miles by water above Quebec. Be- yond this place the canoe is used. The steamers are constructed expressly for this traffic ; some of them have a draught of but two feet six inches. The captain does not scruple t'^ bring his boat gently on to the mud of the short where there is no wharf or landing-stage, to land or take up freight and passengers. i OTTA \VA. 45 Where the steamboat runs you are still within the ranj;e of civilisation ; on board an excellent English dinner is served at a moderate price. The inns ashore are well kept, and will supply unexpected delicacies in drinks and meats, if you wish. The back-woods are not barbarous. In a remote inn by one of the portages I noticed among a collection of books on the landlady's table Faber's • All for Jesus,' ' Gil Bias,' and the Waverley novels. Oii special occasions the farmers and settlers will dress wonderfully. It was my happy fortune to fall in with a large pic-nic party at the limits of civilisa- tion. The young men were dressed like Hampton Court dandies, and the girls in short flounces, coloured scarfs, tiny hats, and shoes with two-inch heels. The staying-power of their gaiety was ex- traordinary. After dancing all night they danced all the next day, on a poop without rails to save the giddy couples from a waltz into the river. A prosperous little city on this river has been made the capital of the Dominion. The Canada Central Railroad passes through it. It is on the highway of the projected trans-continental route, along which the commerce of Europe and Asia is destined to pass. The place was not formerly called own because it was out of the way of traffic, but onour of Colonel By, the superintendent of the r. ignificent military canal uniting the Ottawa at this point with the St. Lawrence at Kingston, one of the finest engip'-cring works in America. '1 1 1 ! 1 .- i!^ 4« T//£ CANADIAN DOMINION. On one of the many fine sites of the picturesque city of Ottawa stand the Parliament buildings — the noblest pile on this continent, with the exception of the white marble capitol at Washington. Wide streets of fine buildings are rising in all directions through the city ; and pretty villas and cottages are spreading over the suburbs. On the termination of the Reciprocity Treaty in 1864 the United States imposed a heavy duty on lumber, the principal article of Canadian export, with the view of influencing Canadian feeling in favour of entering the American union. This policy does not appear to have had the effect intended. Meanwhile the Canadian merchants have asked and obtained higher prices than before. Within the past few years the rates of lumber have increased fifty per cent, and still promise to rise. The figures of the lumber businesr are not with- out interest and importance. On the Ottawa River 250,000,000 board measure (i.e., superficial feet) are prepared for the American market alone. A similar quantity is sent to the English market, in the follow- ing proportion : 50,000,000 superficial feet and 1 8,000,000 cubic feet of square timber. From one of the principal merchants engaged in the American trade I obtained the favour of the following singular figures, the result of careful in- vestigation and estimate : — For the business alone of the 2^0,000,000 board measure above-named — STATISTICS OF THE LUMBER TRADE. 47 5, OCX) men are employed in taking out the logs ; 2,000 teams used ; 9,000 sleighs used ; 2,500 tons of hay consumed ; 3,500 barrels of pork ; 4,000 barrels of flour ; 23,000 lbs. of tea; 14,500 lbs. of soap consumed ; 400,000 lbs. of iron chain used ; and 2,000 men further employed in sawing and ship- ping the lumber. But far larger figures are needed to express the amount of the whole of the Canadian lumber trade. It is estimated at 700,000,000 feet for the Ame- rican market, and an equivalent quantity for Eng- land, South America, Australia, &c. Or a grand total, in a row of ten figures, of 1,400,000,000 feet. To carry on this trade, over 30,000 men are em- ployed, at an average of probably a dollar a day. The present prices average nine to ten dollars a thousand feet for America, and twelve dollars and over for England. In point of fact, Canada possesses a great staple which all the world requires, and which must be obtained at any cost. The lumber will remain a vast source of national wealth to the Dominion in perpetuity. Immense tracts of rocky territory, stretching northwards towards the Pole, and wholly unfit for agricultural productions, may continue to rival lands m I '< i 48 7y//i CANADIAN DOMINION. of wheat for use and value. As the great trees are thinned out young ones grow to take their place. As prices hicrease, and labour becomes more abun- dant, it will be found advisable to promote the growth of the large timber by thinning the over- crowded woods. And, still later, it will even become profitable to encourage artificially, by planting or other means, the superior qualities of wood in the place of less valuable kinds. The lumber trade of Canada will remain, there- fore, to increase the national wealth, and — a result of greater importance — to promote the growth of a hardy, adventurous race. 49 CHAPTKR V. THE FREE GRANT L.IXDS. It was my pleasant fortune to be invited by the Premier of Ontario to join him, with several members of the Government, uj)on a tour of inspection throuj^h the Muskoka district, a wide region of romantic lakes, and streams, and woods in the nt)rthern part of the province of Ontario. The object of the (iovernment was to see the conditit)n of the roads and bridges lately constructt.'d under their order, to observe the suitability of the country for immigra- tion, and to make themselves acquainted with th.e condition and wishes of the settlers. I*\)r myself. I wished to see something more of back-woods life, and to know what kind of lantl was given away without payment to the settler. We proceeded from Toronto fifty-two miles by the Great Northern Railway to Belle luvart, a pic- turesque little town of frame houses s|)ringing up with a rapid growth on the bordc.-rs of the beautiful Lake Simcoe. This district is already settled. Along both sides of the railway farmsteads and villages occur in cpuck succession through the dense woods, E ^^ . ■ « » r 1! •■ m < ' i: ' : • V;: \ I n 50 TJ/£ CANADIAN DOMINION. with fields bearing a rich produce, despite the un- sightly slumps which had not yet had time to rot away. This railway is to be carried on at once to Gravenhurst, the door of the free-grant district ; and subsequently, without any question, it will pro- ceed north to Lake Nipissing, to tap the line of rails that will cross the continent direct to Fort Garry and the Pacific. This line, therefore, through the free-grant Muskoka district, appears destined to be the direct channel for the north-west, and for the Asiatic trade with the province of Ontario, and with the New England States of the American Union. However, we are concerned at present with narrower prospects. A large steamer took us, with a number of settlers and immigrants, and their multifarious wares and baggage, across Lake Simcoe. On the further side a miniature screw-steamer waited to take us over the narrow, winding, lovely lake, Couchiching. This little boat, after the excellent fashion prevailing here, and more or less all through Canada, is named, from an Indian tongue, 'Winonah' (the first-born). Other steamers we subsecjuently used or met were the • Wanbuno,' the * Chicora,' the ' Macinac' On this Lake Couchiching — the Lake of Many Winds — we stopped at a new-born town, Orillia. The town- ships near by were named Rama, Mara, Vespra, and Oro. These beautiful nan cj everywhere abound, and the country is worthy of them. It is a pleasant indication of a natural apprecia- SCENERY NEAR LAKE COUCIIICHING. 51 tion of the graceful in this transplanted English race that sonorous and significant names are being every- where chosen throughout the Dominion, and are even displacing old names of a vulgar sound. A certain spot on Lake Ontario — the Beautiful — could not prosper while it was styled York, or contemp- tuously Little York ; named anew Toronto — the Meetinyf- Place of the Tribes — it has advanced to dignity and importance with a rapidity scarcely rivalled on the whole American continent. There are not wanting people who say that Kingston, better named, need not have sunk to an insignificance corresponding with that of our old Saxon Kingston on the banks of the Thames. I have been told of a newly-born city which, on being called Victuallersville by a vote of the inhabitants, in grateful memory of a licensed association, perished miserably in the christening, and was aban- doned by its ashamed inhabitants. From the depths of my soul I invoke a similar fate on the Pickwick- villes, Yow-Bets, Big-Jerichos, and Ulysses-Cities on this continent ! From Washago on Lake Couchiching to Graven- hurst the route passes for fourteen miles through a singularly picturesque tract of savage scenery. Precipitous broken hills, crowned with dense pine and beech, rise on every side ; abrupt masses of granite block the way. The ragged road-track plunges violently down the hill-slopes to the cordu- 'M ) r! 1 S ': '• 1 i ■ * ,, 52 TI/E CANADIAN DOMINION. roy bridge over a stream at the bottom, and toils painfully up the opposite slope. Within view we frequently pass clear lakes, as yet unnamed, reflect- ing the true Muskoka sky, — the name of the district being another example of the happy choice of Indian words ; it means the Lake of Clear Skies. Every bend in the road opens a fresh prospect of singular beauty ; but no traveller here has ever come in search of the picturesque. I believed the Minister of Crown Lands when he told me that an intending setder has been known to stop midway along this road with his family and goods, and return dis- heartened or resentful. But the man was wrong. Proverbially, the entrances to all lands of promise are difficult, to test the courage of the pilgrim and prepare him for his home of rest. Midway along this road at a point named by the settler Gibraltar, from the extremely rocky character of the ground which he had chosen for his home, we found ourselves exposed to a direct fire of a battery of six mounted guns, made of the trunks of fallen trees. A defiant soldier, cut out in profile, and rather larger than life, kept ceaseless guard. These precautions were taken lo overawe a Fenian invasion, should the rebels ever be absurd enough to advance so far into the heart of the country. As our straggling cavalcade approached the spot, a brawny Highlander, in kilt and tartan, sprang from rock to rock to the battery height, and saluted our arrival with several discharges of his gun. We PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FENIANS. 53 dismounted, and made our way to his \o'g shanty. The place presented many appearances of comfort. The furniture was old-fashioned, but ample. Prints adorned the boarded walls. A small side room pos- sessed a considerable library of works of piety, fiction, and history. Mr. Cuthbert had been settled for several years on this spot, had cleared a good deal of land, and, like all the other settlers through this region, was content with his rough but free life, and extremely hopeful of the future. We were presented to his wife and sister, who told us they were entirely satisfied with their new home. ' If those rascally rebels should ever come this way, gentlemen,* said our host, * you may rely upon us here to give a good account of them.' The Commissioner of Public Works informed him that a small brass cannon was on its way, and would be sent up to strengthen his battery with all convenient dispatch. ' I am obliged to you, sir,' said Mr. Cuthbert ; ' but pray don't let it be sent up yet. All the boys about these parts are going to turn out to welcome it, and we're going to have a procession to bring it home. The boys here are much interested in my place, gentlemen.* We said that we could not have the least doubt of that. The Attorney-General, the Hon. Sandfield M'Donald, talked with his fellow-Scot in Gaelic, and then continued in English : * Now, I hope you IP w # ;* !r m p 1 I ., 1: f!! m •iiit iii'i 54 TJ/£ CANADIAN DOMINION. peopl(i about here don't neglect your religion. You read the Holy Scriptures, I trust, aye ?' • I do,' was the answer. ' I read the Holy Scrip- tures — and " the Globe " ! ' Our procession made a sufficiently characteristic appearance. We used the ordinary conveyances of the route. I^^irst came a roughly-made wagonette, bearing several members of the Government, an English clergyman, and one or two more invited guests. Then followed a stage with cross seats, almost as grand as may be seen at Eppigg on a popular English holiday. This bore several M.P.'s, some railway directors, and the rest of our party. Next came a ' buggy ' that had once known the life and fashion of some large town — like the family of immigrants whom it carried. Then a road-wagon of the simplest construction of unpainted planks. On one of the cross benches of this vehicle sat a fine-looking elderly man, with a young wife and a lovely child — people of education proceeding finally to a piece of uncleared land on which a log-hut had been put up for them. They were by no means unhopeful of their future ; but rougher-made people were naturally disposed to estimate more lightly than they could the probable hardships of their new life. Other vehicles followed, of any description that would go on wheels without jolting to fragments on the rocks. Men, women, and children all carried bundles of every size, shape, and hue. A baggage cart brought up the rear. At the time of our visit BRACEBRIDGE. 55 fifty or sixty people were arriving by this route every clay. Another steamer took us over Lake Muskoka, a lovely sheet of water dotted with picturesque islands, with steep, hilly, winding banks, dense with forests to the water's edge. The shades of night were falling as we reached Bracebridge. The moon rose above the great pine trees, and made a wide path- way of silver across the dark waters. Near the landing-stage, a mass of blazing pine-logs revealed the black shadows of the surrounding woods, and flecked the waters below with red and gold. The news of our visit had preceded our arrival. A group of thirty or forty big, rough men welcomed the Attorney General with ringing cheers. A second bonfire lit up the village itself. In a short time a supper, with ales and wines, was prepared for fifty or sixty persons. The reeve presided, and speeches, patriotic, and humorous, and explanatory, and promissory, were made up to two o'clock in the morning. The people wanted roads, railways, and a separate township, and were willing to tax themselves to assist in getting what they wished. They spoke good sense, in good Plnglish, some with a Scotch accent, and showed some natural pride in recounting what they had done within the past four or five years, and a great confidence in the future prosperity of the district. In the morning we could see that a most romantic spot had been chosen for the little town. The Vr. 1 t !f; i; ■W: l\ f' .; '1 !■ II ^ ■■: 56 T///i CANADIAN DOMINION. narrow but deep and very lively Muskoka river winds round the place, with a set of falls in full view, and another at a short distance. Of course, saw-mills were in busy operation. At a bend in the stream floated a quantity of saw-logs. The log huts, and wooden cottages, and frame houses two or three stories high, at different elevations on the hilly ground, with a great variety of outline, gave the most picturesque views. All around were clearings in the wood, and fields still choked with stumps. There were a number of stores, and all were bustling and prosperous. Anything conceivable, apparently, was to be obtained there, and, as I discovered, at but a trifling advance upon Toronto prices. The artisan here has a hundred acres in the bush. Free public schools are opened. Presbyterian, Methodist, and P2piscopal churches are already formed. ' The Northern Advocate* has a circulation of 1,100 a week. The hotels — Victoria, the Royal, and the Dominion (signs significant) — at present sleep their superabundant guests in rows upon the floors, while their accommodation is being increased. The emi- grant agent here had disposed of 60,000 acres of land within the past two months. Muskoka is but one of a series of lakes affording a natural communication through the Free Grant district. Rousseau, beyond, is an eminently pic- turesque sheet of water, of irregular shape, filled with islands, large and small, with hilly, well-wooded shores ; and yet perhaps Lake St. Joseph, still more LAKE ST. JOSEPH. 57 north, may boast even greater beauty. This region is destined one day to be visited by summer tourists, as Lakes Georji^e and Champlain now are in New England, or our own small lakes in Old England. We bathed in each, and fished from canoes or row- boats lent us by the settlers. A considerable pro- portion of the land with a water frontage is already taken up. In a few years all the land will be settled, at least up to Lake Nipissing, where the Pacific route will cross. The proportion of land capable of cultivation through the district is probably fifty per cent. In some sections it was estimated at sixty or even at seventy per cent. Scotch settlers often told us that the most stony districts were no worse than those parts of the old country from which they cai'ie; and if half the extent of a farm can be used for purposes of agriculture it is abundantly sufficient. The wooded half will supply the settler with material for his out-buildings, barns, and fences, and with the important article of fuel. In the wildest parts, too, a rank grass grows freely round the stones, on which the cattle feed well. Tht settlers send out their beasts into the woods in the spring, and find them in the fall in excellent condition. We frequently met with roaming cattle, marked and belled, and always plump and healthy. Hears are now very rarely to be met. Moose and elk are occasionally stalked. Partridge, duck, and various small game are common. The lakes f. •. •r.h- 'S¥f -, I':- I.*! 1 ! 1 1, 1 •i - 1 i; > 1 H • 1 f 9 1 •1 1 ' ss 77//i CANADIAN DOMINION. ami streams affonl an extraordinary abundance of fine trout, bass, white fish, and what is here called herrinjr. We constantly met parties of two to half a dozen men makinj^ their way with ^uns throujijh the woods, with the view of choosin}^ settlements. Sometimes one or two of these would be commissioned to select, lots for friends at home who intended to join them. Some were Canadians, others old country folk ; they camped out in rough style in the woods, or made their way at night to a settler's house or a shanty tavern. I had the honour of suggesting a name for a spot that may possibly attain to importance. At a cer- tain point the waters of St. Joseph approach within about two hundred yards of Lake Rousseau ; a strip of sand, easy to work, forming the division. Some thirty men were at work cutting this through, and embanking the channel solidly with stone. We encamped here one night on a wooded knoll over- looking the two lakes. I took a lesson in wood- chopi ing, and felled, but with many a wasted stroke, two trees. It was a pleasant experience to stand back, just after the last blow, and see the tottering tree sweep down from among its fellows with a thundering crash. It was more difficult to stand on the trunk afterwards and cut it into logs by strokes directed between the outstretched feet. Before our canvas tents blazed a magnificent fire of pine logs. Here we broiled our fish and pork PORT SAND FIELD, s» ami cooked our tea. A recent settler prayed our acceptance of the first jjotatot-s j^rown on Lake Joseph ; they turned out from our pot whit<-', flaky halls of unecjualled deliciousness. Another settler brouj^ht out from his pocket a s|)eclmen ear of Indian corn about a foot lon^, and excellently .ripened. We ate suppers hearty enoujjfh to have ^iven us all nij^htmare in any sj)ot less free and wild than this. Then members of Government sanj^ patriotic sonji^s, and some backwoodsmen, and the men on the works close by, attracted to our camp, sang sonj^s, sentimental and comic. The stars were lonj^ out when we crawled into our tents, rolled ourselves in blankets, and fell asleep. In the middle of the night our quiet was dis- turbed by a wild cry of alarm. I sprang up, and found the place at my side vacant At the tent door loomed the spectral figure of the Attorney- General, dark against the glowing light of the camp fire, with extended arms and wild gestures. The cry of fire died on his lips. ' I thought I was in a house in flames,' he said penitently, and crept quietly back. In the morning a great plank was procured. In open block letters I inscribed on it the name newly decided on for the place. The plank was nailed up to a pine before the assembled party. In the name of Her Majesty Queen Victoria and of the Dominion of Canada, the Reverend Mr. Herring m 'I' Vv ff 1' - ; ^ " 'i i •■^! ■ 11 ■ \l I III il 6e T//£ CANADIAN DOMINION Christ ned the place Port Sand field. We added our acclamations. We visited a great number of the houses of the settlers up to Parry's Sound on the Georgian Bay. In no instance did we find anyone disheartened or faring ill. No doubt their life was hard, and labo- rious, and somewhat solitary ; but they had all apparently come to like it. Every man knew his neighbours and received help from them, giving his own assistance in turn. We met at different points the son of a Devonshire clergyman and the nephew of a Lord Mayor of London, each contented and resolved to stay. We found also a number of Lon- doners who had been assisted out by Mr. Herring, and who were overjoyed at the unexpected sight of the face of an old friend. Without any exception, such settlers from the old country expressed their .satisfaction at the change in their condition, and declined the thought of returning. I do not question that, on the whole, they were getting on as well as the Canadians from the old province. Now that roads and steamboats are opening com- munication through the country, the coarse of rais ing a new home in the back-woods is by iio means so arduous an undertaking as it may appear to our imagination at home. The first thing to be done is the selection of a piece of land. The Government agent for the district will always assist intelligently with his advice. Sor:c old settler or hotel-keeper can always be found, for a dollar or a dollar and a WORK IN THE BACKWOODS. 6t half a clay, to go out with a new comer, and show him the country and the most eligible plots. The allotment decided on and secured at the agent's office, the settler must find a lodging till his own house is up. But this is no difficult matter ; all the people are neighbourly, and will gladly offer what accommodation they have for a small remu- neration for the short time the new comer remains houseless. Not far from the roadway, and, if possible, near some stream or lake, the settler fi.xes upon tiie site for his dwelling. Then he strips to his shirt sleeves, and falls to work vigorously with his axe. At fell- ing two men should work together, for the saving of labour and for company's sake. If the .settler has no friend or sturdy son with him, he can hire or borrow help near by. It is a pleasant sight to sec a good a.xeman at work. He stands erect ; with well planted feet, with throat bare, and probably with bare arms, lie lifts his axe aloft against the towering majesty of the forest- tree. The Canadian axe is small and very thick, and seems a ridiculous weapon against its great opponents. The handle is very long and bent in shai)e. The man swings the axe high aln>ve his head ; his right hand, sli|)ping down tht: long handle, guides the stroke; the weight of the falling blow, with little muscular effort, drives the axe edge deep into the trunk. After some practice not a stroke is lost. The woods resound with the gay rhythm of % 'ck is enormous. The figures for 1861 stood as follows for the provinces now included in the Dominion : Horses 11 1 /'-..I \ Milch cows . Horned Cattle < ^, I Neat cattle . Sheep Swine Total animals 706,979 966,875 1,309,070 1,207^164 6,600,624 A carefully compiled estimate of values made at the date of the last census, 1 86 1 , gave the following particulars : Value of farms |$(546,ooo,ooo = £109,000,000 „ Agricultural imple. ments } 25,000,000 ss 5,000,000 „ Horses, cattle, &c. 1 20,000,000 ss 24,000,000 Beyond all question the return of 1871 will show a great increase on all these items. In one important respect — the quantities of land brought under cultivation — the progress made by Canada in the ten years preceding the last census can be made easily apparent. In 185 1 the quantity of acres occupied in the two provinces Upper and Lower Canada were 17,939,825 ; in 186 1 the figures were increased to 23,730,325. In 1851 the number of acres under actual cultivation in the two Canadas were 7,300,930; in 1861 the figures had risen most satisfactorily to 10,855,854 acres. v.^; li- ■^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) k A %^ M^.. ■f .%^ '""^^ i; . "ii^ :a ^^ f/, 4a 1.0 I.I itt IIIIIM lis IM 1.8 1-25 U 11.6 ■• 6" ► Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 /.. ^ vV ^ 72 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. It is safe to predict that the next returns will show at least a corresponding advance. For the most part the land is owned in properties of moderate extent. A numerous class of working farmers, somewhat like the yeomen of Old England, is springing up to be the strength and health of the country. The following table, in which the returns of the two provinces Upper and Lower Canada are combined, may possess in this view a peculiar in- terest : Properties of lo acres and less . . 11,246 From ID acres to 20 . 5,861 » 20 „ „ 50 . 46,704 „ 50 „ „ 100 . . 108,932 „ 100 „ „ 200 . • 53,075 Over 200 • 11,836 The large proportion of farmers of about a hundred acres will, without doubt, still be shown in the census figures for next year. The policy adopted by the government in the disposal of the Crown lands distinctly favours the increase of farms of about that size. There has been but little scientific farming as yet in Canada. The men have been too busy, the capi- tal employed has been too small, the necessity for immediate returns from the soil too great. In all the newly-settled districts the most rough-and-ready style of farming will prevail for a considerable time to come. In some sections of the country injury has resulted to the land from the farmer's lack of knowledge. This appears to be notably the case in CANADIAN FARMING. 73 some parts of the lower province, among the French Canadians, whose disposition and habits dispose them to an existence of content and quiet rather than to enterprises demanding risk. But an era of improvement has already come. In the older-settled districts a scientific system of farm- ing is being adopted. Even in the conservative lower provinces several schools of agriculture have been established, and a system of rotation of crops is becoming general. One of the most palpable signs of this improve- ment is found in the greatly increasing use of excel- lent farming implements. Factories for improved ploughs, mowers, and reapers are everywhere spring- ing up. The farmer has too much work to do in so short a season in Canada, and has such extreme difficulty in obtaining all the assistance he could use, that labour-saving machines have become a great necessity. Canada claims to have passed both England and the United States in the value, per head of the population, of the agricultural implements employed. The virgin soil of the country is ordinarily so rich that the settler finds no inducement to treat it with consideration. W/heat crops are frequently raised in constant succession, and with little or no diminution of return, for over a dozen years. An utterly systemless style of farming has in conse- quence prevailed in many districts. Farm manure is frequently thrown away, to save the trouble of •■■mk ■i"^ ': I'M 74 TIf£ CANADIAN DOMINION ^A :". I I' carrying it to the land. When the soil at length becomes too impoverished to yield a paying return, farmers of the old-fashioned type sell out at low prices and move to new ground. A farmer knowing his business buys the place, and quickly makes it pay better than before. The draining of the land in the old-established districts is now proceeding in all directions. Several draining-ploughs, or ditch-excavators, have been in- vented, and are coming into use, for running the lines for the draining-pipes. These implements are, I understand, expressly of Canadian invention and manufacture. Throughout Canada farmers' societies have now been formed for the discussion of agricultural matters and the dissemination of intelligence. A number of agricultural journals are also in general circula- tion. But perhaps the most effective, as it certainly is the most popular, means of improving the farming of the country, is to be found in the agricultural fairs that have lately become general through the Dominion. Almost every township, in Ontario at least, has its annual show of farming implements and produce ; each district has its show in addition, sometimes an annual one ; and, besides these, the great Provincial Agricultural Exhibitions are held annually, moving the place of exhibition each year. A District Agricultural Fair was held in London, Ontario, during my stay there. London the Little the energetic town is called, to distinguish it from AGRICULTURAL FAIRS. 75 another London, by the people who have heard of both. The fair was held for three days towards the end of September. Nearly ten thousand persons passed within the grounds during the last day. The scene presented a fair picture of prosperity, content, and advancement. The stalwart, burly, jovial farmers would have compared favourably with any similar gathering in the old country. Their wives, plainly dressed, absorbed in examining improved butter- churns and wringing machines, looked cheerful and well-to-do, but sometimes rather too sun-dried. The daughters, plump and rosy-cheeked, daintily trimmed from feather to shoe-buckle, casting demure glances from the calves and sheep among the crowd, in search of acquaintances, seemed the very models of young housewives to make a new farm complete — as many of the tall young farmers, in cut-away coats and astonishing caps, evidently concluded. There appeared little danger, I thought, of the farming lands being less well- managed by the new generation. The fine display of produce surprised me. Wheat, barley, oats, and other cereals were well represented. Maize, or corn, as it is uniformly called on this con- tinent, though less grown than in the United States, showed excellent samples. The roots and vegetables were surprisingly fine. A field pumpkin which I measured was four feet ten inches in circumference ; a squash eight feet three inches, weighing one hundred and fifty pounds. The potatoes were the ■,• -Ma V !;■;■■, .1 K t. '1 'PI '.• .'V '•V -■: 1 %• ■I .1 J I"* T * if'-' ti it \ai 76 7W^ CANADIAN DOMINION. finest I have ever seen, but were too large to be ornamental on a dinner-table. There were a great number of varieties ; the meshamoc, ruby seedling, and early rose being perhaps the best. Citrons, melons, marrows, and tomatoes were also exception- ally large and fine. Many of the fruit specimens would infallibly have taken prizes at an English show. Upwards of a hundred varieties of apples were exhibited. For cooking, there were the Cayuga, Red-streak, or Twenty-ounce pippin, an imposing fruit, measuring sometimes over fifteen inches ; the Alexander, of a glorious crimson ; the Red Astrachan or Snow-apple, so named popularly from the whiteness of the pulp ; the Gravenstein, Baldwin, and many others. For dessert, there were the Fameuse, the Streaked St. Lawrence, the Spitzenburg, the Seek-no-farther, of gold and red. Even in California, the orchard of the Union, the superiority of Canadian apples was, to my surprise, confessed. Vast quantities are exported to England, and sold simply as American, their nationality being lost. In pears we had the musky-flavoured Bartlett ; the red and russet Beurre Clairgeaux, of ideal shape ; the Flemish Beauty, with a fine melting flesh ; the small, fragrant Seckel, the standard of excellence. Plums were good ; the peaches indifferent. Open- air grapes showed to great advantage. I will name a few varieties : the Delaware, a prolific vine, with a lilliii EXHIBITIONS OF LIVE STOCK. 77 honeyed claret-coloured grape ; the Concord, with a compact, shouldered cluster of dark fruit ; the delicious Hertford Prolific ; the sweet Creveling, the strangely-tinted Diana, the Clinton, Catawba, Isabella, and others especially fit for wine. There was a good collection of foliage plants and of flowers. Canada has advanced far beyond the stage in which a people is solely occupied in pro- viding for the necessities of life. At this single district exhibition the following entries in live stock were made : j-**y .■ ( ■ ■ '*j .■ i '. .ni 1, • ■ e; 'vi i- ' ''.-If '"• -i ■ «i' V' *: ' "% ^'^vV •if -m Homed cattle Sheep . Horses . Pigs . Total • 360 . 640 . 200 1.530 There were excellent Durhams, Devons, and Ayrshire cattle ; Cotswold and Leicester sheep ; Essex, Suffolk, and other well-known breeds of pigs ; and many excellent draught and road horses. I had already seen at various farm establishments that much attention was given to stock-raising ; but I was not prepared for the evidence of such a wide-spread interest in this branch of the farmer's occupation and such a general excellence of result as I found here. I was still more surprised at the great variety and excellence of the agricultural implements exhibited. Beautifully made ploughs were priced at fifteen dollars and upwards. A splendid piece of machinery, -'■ I 78 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. a thresher and separator, with ten-horse power enghies, cost 340 dollars, or about 70/. Others less elaborate were offered at lower prices. A newly- invented Canadian drain-tile ditching machine was at work, digging cleanly out a ditch of five or six feet in depth, and was priced at 130 dollars (26/.). But the most interesting pieces of construction were perhaps the hand-raker with mower, and com- bined self-raker and mowing-machines, ranging from 130 dollars to 160 dollars. They were calculated to perform with ease the work of several men. And, however high the cost, it must be soon saved in a country like this, where labour is highly paid, and difficult to obtain at the needed moment. There were, besides cultivators of different kinds, fanning-mills, straw-cutters, grain-crackers, root- cutters, &c. ; and a number of improved gates, pumps, log-raisers, stump-extractors, &c. The fair of which I have been speaking was not the result of unusual efforts. It was but one of many district exhibitions held annually, and was to be followed in ten days by the great Provincial Agricultural Fair, appointed to be held in Toronto, in the same division of the country. At an extremely small town, Chatham, in the south-west of Ontario, I visited, a few days later, another annual exhibition, marked by all the charac- teristics of the Little London one, but on a smaller scale, commensurate with the diminished importance of the place. All the specimens shown of grain. STOCK FARMS. 79 roots, and vegetables were excellent, and the variety and number of improved agricultural implements noticeably large. Increased attention is being shown throughout the Dominion to the raising of stock. Both in Quebec and Ontario there are now large stock-farms which yield heavy returns to their proprietors, and are useful in assisting to improve the breed of cattle, horses, and sheep through the country. Choice animals are imported from England, and stock raised from them is sold freely at high prices. The Cana- dian has the old English love of fine animals about his farm — a fondness that is not diminished by- the fact that superior meat, wool, or capacity of labour more than repays the additional outlay. It is difficult to speak with precision of the returns of grain commonly yielded to the farmer in this country ; the amount varying much, according to the climate, the soil, and the cultivation. I have seen some fields that yielded forty bushels to the acre ; others, not far distant, giving perhaps but fifteen. In one of the southern counties of Ontario I re- marked one morning a particularly poor-looking crop of Indian corn ; on the same day, in the same county, I walked through a field of, I suppose, forty acres of this splendid plant, growing to a height of eighteen to twenty feet, and yielding thirty-seven tons to the acre as a food for cattle. It was then being cut down green. I plucked an ear nearly ripe eighteen inches long, and out of curiosity counted f* ■ ,■' ^ \' lUi!' m^ 80 T/f£ CANADIAN DOMINION. *'■. si r !• 11 ■ ill it !!l|| 1 1 * II!' the large grains of the ear. They numbered 600 ; an enormous increase on the sown grain. An approximate average, however, of the returns of the soil can be offered. I will quote, as a trust- worthy authority, a pamphlet issued in 1869 by the authority of the Government of Ontario : ' The average yield of wheat in some townships exceeds twenty-two bushels to the acre, and where an approach to good farming prevails the yield rises to thirty and often forty bushels to the acre. On new land, fifty bushels is not very uncommon ; and it must not be forgotten that Canadian wheat, grown near the city of Toronto, won a first prize at the Paris Exhibition. It may truly be said that the soil of what may be termed the agricultural portion of Canada, which comprises four-fifths of the inhabited portion, and a vast area still in the hands of the government, and now open to settlement, is unex- ceptionable ; and when deterioration takes place it is the fault of the farmer, and not of the soil.' An impression, I think, has generally prevailed with us that, as an agricultural country, Canada compares to great disadvantage with the United States. I should not judge this, however, from personal observation and enquiry in the two coun- tries. On both sides of the boundary line the land is cultivated with, apparently, an equal lack of the neatness and care that distinguish the farming of the long-settled countries of the Old World. And on either side of the line the soil seems to give an CENSUS KETURNS. Sr equally abundant return to the slight labour bestowed on it. The Canadian farm looks as prosperous as the American ; the house and farm-buildings and the home comforts of the Ontario farmer compare well with those of the farmer of New York State or Ohio. I have no kind of wish to snatch an advantage for Canada at the expense of the great Republic on her borders. It is perhaps only fair, however, to the younger and smaller people, to allow them to state their own case with the best chance of attracting attention to their position. They claim to be no whit behind their neighbours in agricultural pros- perity ; and dare even to assert, giving openly the figures in proof, that lately their rate of advance has been greater than that of the States. I will quote again from the authorised pamphlet mentioned above, prepared under the management of the Hon. John Carling, the Commissioner of Agriculture for Ontario, and, as I was assured by him, completed with the greatest care, to insure fairness and accuracy : ' Durino; the interval between the last census and the preceding one the decennial increase of popula- tion in Canada exceeded that in the United States by nearly 5^ per cent. ; Canada adding 40*87 per cent, to her population in ten years, while the United States added only 35*58 per cent, to theirs. She brought her wild lands into cultivation at a rate, in nine years, exceeding the rate of increase of culti- G ■ '4 ;4 3< 82 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. l; 1. m ii ■'% vated lands in the United States, in ten years, by nearly 6 per cent.; Canada, in i860, having added 50 acres of cultivated land to every 100 acres under cultivation in 1851, while the United States, in i860, had only added 44 acres to every 100 acres under cultivation in 1850. The value per cultivated acre of the farming lands of Canada in i860 exceeded the value per cultivated acre of the farming lands of the United States ; the average value per culti- vated acre in Canada being iS'20.87, and in the United States ,^17.32. In Canada a larger capita! was invested in agricultural implements, in propor- tion to the amount of land cultivated, than in the United States; the average value of agricultural implements used on a farm having 100 cultivated acres being in Canada iS'182, and in the United States (S'l 50. In proportion to population, Canada in i860 raised twice as much wheat as the United States ; Canada in that year raising 1 1 "02 bushels for each inhabitant, while the United States raised only 5*50 bushels for each inhabitant. Bulking together eight leading staples of agriculture — wheat, corn, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, peas and beans, and potatoes — Canada, between 1851 and i860, increased her proportion of these articles from 57,000,000 to 123,000,000 bushels, an increase of 1 13 per cent; while the United States in ten years, from 1850 to i860, increased their productions of the same articles only 45 per cent. In i860 Canada raised of those articles 49*12 bushels for each COMPARISON OF ONTARIO AND NE W YORK. 83 inhabitant, against a production in the United States of 43*42 bushels for each inhabitant. Excluding Indian corn from the list, Canada raised of the remaining articles 48*07 bushels for each inhabitant, almost three times the rate of production in the United States, which was 1674 bushels for each inhabitant. As regards live stock and their products, Canada in i860, in proportion to her population, owned more horses and more cows, made more butter, kept more sheep, and had a greater yield of wool, than the United States.' The figures for Canada in this statement are ob- tained from the returns of the conjoined provinces of Ontario and Quebec ; the former having, however, a greater prosperity than the latter, which is to a large extent occupied by a conservative French population. The rate of advance, therefore, of the Anglo-Saxon province of Ontario has been still more remarkable than the above comparison in- dicates. The Ontarians may be forgiven for asking our attention to this. I will quote Mr. Carling's pamphlet again : ' Of fall wheat New York sowed within some 28,000 acres of the breadth sown in Ontario, but we reaped over 2,000,000 bushels more than they did. The average quantity of oats raised by us in 1861 was fully more than 31 bushels per acre, but New York only averaged 17 bushels per acre. New York reaped 19,052,853 bushels of oats from 1,109,565 acres sown ; whilst our Western farmers, from : i.: .via .m '^V'^ :M • ■».'''',ivTi G 2 Vv 1 ••: ''; TT- ii •I !' i i I ^•ill Ri ^ifl I. ? 1^ .^y 84 77/i? CANADIAN DOMINION. 678,337 acres, took off no less than 21,220,874 bushels. This fact of itself speaks volumes for the fertility of Canadian soil. The small quantity of turnips raised in New York appears singular, our returns being 18,206,950 bushels as against 1,282,388. Taking the returns all in all, they indicate that our farmers have nothing to envy in the Empire State, and that, either as regards excellent soil or good farming, we can compare favourably with our neigh- bours.' 8s CHAPTER VII. NIAGARA. The Dominion may claim the dignity of possessing the most magnificent spectacle of falling waters in the world. Of the multitudes who have heard of the fame of Niagara, few perhaps are accustomed to associate the name with that of Canada. The Falls of Niagara are shared between the New Dominion and the United States. The boun- dary-linc; passes through their troubled waters ; but from the position of the Falls, broken into by a rocky island dense with woods, the chief panoramic view of the whole mass is to be obtained on the Canada side. The inferior division of the great flood, the American Falls, though within the United States, makes its tremendous plunge in full face of the Canada shore. Then, separated by an abrupt wall of rock, the exposed base of Goat Island, the main body of the river rolls headlong down, forming the world-renowned Horse-shoe Falls which divide Canada from the States. Below the feet of the observer the great river, broken into whirlpools of foam and spray, rushes hurriedly away along the ^?', ..^>^ : ^ ' ♦'' p. '.»*/ I ■:'!■: -t^nh 11 ■■::!;.: 86 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. deep chasm which the Falls have fashioned for it during countless ages. Rolling masses of vaporous spray rise up to the heaven ; sunrise and sunset transform them to clouds of the most delicate hues ; the moonlight lends them a mysterious beauty. The Indian says it is the incense of the world rising to the Great Spirit. The grandeur of the scene is heightened by the wild roar of the Falls, loud as ocean, but with no moment's lull. It is the voice of the waters sounding for ever one unvarying note in the psalm of creation, and the effect on the mortal spirit may well be too exalting. The moment of the vast plunge of the waters, though the supreme instant in the course of the river, is not its only burst of rapture. For a mile above the Falls the river leaps, foaming, thunderous, tossed to billows, lashed to whirlpools, down a long series of falls and rapids. For two or three miles below, the fierce current, hedged to one-half the width which it has wrought for itself at the present Falls, leaps madly forward in long rolling waves that scarcely touch the shore, but dash against «each other in the centre of the current. Niagara fills the senses to intoxication with scenes of awe and magnificence. The art of nature here exhausts itself Night after night during my stay I visited the scene by moonlight. One night I wandered alone, down a precipitous footway on the Canadian side,. to the spot where formerly Table Rock stood. Its shattered masses lay below me, scarcely visible NIAGARA BY MOONLIGHT. 87 through the circling clouds of foam. Above me bent forwards the overhanging mass of the hollowed rock, threatening an overwhelming ruin. In front the great flood of waters rolled headlong down, losing itself in a chaos of surge and foam. The ledge on which I stood continued forwards beneath the descending flood. Wet through with spray, with hands against the rock, and with carefully placed feet, I passed slowly behind the falling waters. The moonlight streamed in through a break in the flood, and I paused to look up. It was a spectacle never to be forgotten. From a cavern of black waters, turned here and there into cataracts of brilliants, I looked out into a strange world as fair but as intangible as seen in dreams. The blue heaven, the round moon and stars, were faint in mist. The outline of the Falls, brightened where the moonbeams fell, and the dark masses of the woods on the opposite shore, rose like a thin vision through the ascending wreaths of spray. Before me the way still led on beneath the body of the Falls ; I followed. A frightful chasm yawned at my feet, up which clouds of spray came drifting against my face. Below I dimly traced the peaks of jagged rocks. Before me the black wall of the cliff struck out into the falling flood, barring further progress. My eyes threatened to grow dizzy ; I closed them for an instant. The earth seemed to tremble where I stood. And, hardest of all to endure, the air was rent with the most hideous and appalling noises. It -i ' \4 1. > < 88 THE CANADIAN DOMINION lilii seemed as though myriads of fiends, or formless creatures of the waters, yelled curses at me from the bewildering floods, or shrieked warnings to the in- truder. I returned with hurried steps. Neither descriptions nor calculations can do more than suggest the vast volume and fury of the waters of these Falls. Professor Lyell has estimated that 1,500,000,000 cubic feet pass every minute; Dr. D wight, of Yale College, that above 100,000,000 tons pass every hour. These figures, if they impress the mind, do as well as any other. The height of the American Falls is said to be 164 feet; of the Horse-shoe Falls, 158 feet; the depth of the water as it makes the plunge 20 feet. Good Father Hen- nepin, the first white man, as far as we know, who saw the Falls, may give us a better idea of them by a certain misstatement of his for which he has, no doubt with perfect complacency, suffered the ridicule of formal observers for two centuries. He thought the Falls were 600 feet high. And they still seem so, whatever they may count. It is one of the delightful peculiarities of the Niagara Falls that you may walk with perfect safety along the brink of the waters, either on the main- land or on the islands that rise from the flood just before it leaps the abyss. You can stoop and cool your hand in the clear water at the very instant it falls from sight. You may stand on the smooth limestone over which the waters roll when a west wind blows, and look straight down into the falling LUNA ISLAND. 89 flood at your side. You may touch with your cane the rock over which the flood is passing, then, letting go, see it instantly disappear. It will come up to the surface of the river at the whirlpool probably, three miles down the river. The beautiful stream permits itself to be toyed with. Its smiling accessibility is most alluring, but is most dangerous. Every rock and ledge has its story of the fatal attraction of the waters. One of the finest points of view is from the little Luna islet, joined by a flying bridge to the island that divides the river. The lunar rainbow is seen to a great advantage here ; and when the sun shines you get a most brilliant arc painted on the rolling clouds of spray. Just here a little girl perished, and a young man in trying to save her. The rocks below have many tragic memories. Half-a-dozen spots on the Canadian side, visible from where you stand here, have been the scenes of sudden death. You see yourself that you have but to take one step. A horrible impression seizes you that more tragedies occur at the Falls than are ever known. The river hides many a mystery in its cavernous depths. A strange story came to my recollection the first time I stood on the spot. An excursion party were visiting the Falls ; among them an engaged couple, the man singularly handsome, the girl a born coquette. She flirted ; he remonstrated. At sunset he was found seated in one of the delicious rocky dells looking on to the Wl ■ -1'- I- .-■/ t * '•M I- :^ -A M <'•! y\ ij jll ! '' '■ 90 T//£ CANADIAN DOMJNION. Falls at Luna Island. His friends intreated him in vain to return with them. His bride-elect sobbed on his shoulder, and prayed him to come away. My informant, a girl-playmate of his from childhood, pleaded with him. No ; he chose to stop there, he said. The waters fascinated him ; he could not go yet ; he would follow presently. An old friend hid in some trees to watch him unperceived. His shat- tered body was found the next day caught in some rocks at the base of the fall. ' And the woman ? Did she recover from her grief and self-reproach ? ' I asked. ' Or has her life been spoilt ? ' ' She was married within three months,' said my informant slowly. One of the best views of the flood is obtained at the extremity of Iris or Goat Island, the wooded mass of rock that divides the Falls. A plank bridge crosses from rock to rock over the foaming cataract to a stone tower built at the verge of the great Horse-shoe Falls. You get here a terrible im- pression of the fury and might of the waters. You do not doubt that Father Hennepin spoke the truth in declaring that 200 years ago there was a third cascade falling from the Canada side. You see that the Falls are changing their form now ; the horse- shoe shape is being broken in the centre by the stress of the flood. The Falls eat away the solid wall of the rock at the rate of a foot a year. You pause and speculate. The line of the Falls perhaps RECESSION OF THE NIAGARA FALLS. 9« passed opposite where you stand when the New World was discovered. It is possible that the great floods were united in one single fall at the time of the birth of Christianity. What vast changes has the stream of time wrought while this river has been carving out its divided course ! The eye glance? on further. Where the fallen river bends round yonder point, and passes from sight, may possibly be the spot at which the Falls stood at the furthest date to which man can trace back his history. Before then — what ? Did fauns and sylphs haunt these scenes ? Or did the great river work on its slow way in utter solitariness through these earlier millenniums ? It is not difficult to believe that the river is glad that young nations are now gathered on its shores to see its splendour. For, with a magnificent vanity, it has spread its charms to the best effect, and offers a grander spectacle than during its earlier course. You turn and look up the course of the river. Many and many a long age must pass before the waters shall have cut their way inch by inch to the back of the island, and the Falls again be united. What will happen to the world through that vast reach of time ? Will not this new continent, great as several Europes, produce a cluster of nations whose fame and power shall vie with that of the peoples of the Old World .-* Will the English language of to-day be understood by the nations of those times, or be dead, like the tongues of the great peoples of old ^ Will the Anglo-Saxon retain its supremacy, and renew here >',j -A \ 'I I .'i; i \ 1 . i J 1! ,*•>■ 92 77/^5- CANADIAN DOMINION the splendour of its achievements, or become modi- fied and changed by the infusion of new elements ? There was a time when the tread of a hoof or the fall of a stone might have deflected the course of the river ; who shall lift it from its bed now ? The destinies of the people of this continent will be de- termined for ever by the influences at work to-day. I (' 93 CHAPTER VIII. 0/L SPRINGS AND SALT. One of the strangest-looking towns in the world is Petrolea, Ontario. A branch line from the Grand Trunk reaches the place from Wyoming Station. The train that takes you has probably one passenger car and a long line of empty oil tanks of thirty-five barrels capacity each. Approaching Petrolea, the train crawls among a heap of vast vats and tanks, and pauses at the first sight of the clustered group of oil-works. This spot is Pithole, the newest of the petrolea districts. I got out from the car here, in company with the editor of the ' Petrolea News.' For a mile on the rough the wooden scaffoldings of the oil-works are scattered irregularly through the open forest ; the older division, above Pithole, is Petrolea. Wherever oil has been ' struck,' hasty structures of wood, have been at once put up for working the well. No clearing is made ; no road. The great forest trees wave their green branches against the * derricks,' the wooden open-work constructions for :m :-*>' 94 THE CANADIAN DOMINION ■■■ sinking the wells. You tread on the brushwood and fern to pass to the furnace or other works. You may count over thirty of these lean, wooden pyra- mids rising amid the forest as you stand at Pithole. Columns of smoke curl upwards still further in the distance. All around you the grace and freshness of nature are befouled past all imagination. At spots convenient for the pumps, the soil, con- sisting of a heavy blue clay, is dug out to make great tanks, sometimes large enough to hold two or three thousand barrels. The underground position is some security against fire. Besides the mounds thus formed, the scene is diversified with vast iron tanks, holding from five to ten thousand barrels each, erected before the simpler plan of the clay tank was thought of. Instead of streams of water, the ground is intersected with rivulets of a black, filthy, pestiferous fluid that runs as refuse from the works. The wells are about four hundred and ninety feet deep, of artesian tubing, cased for about seventy-five or a hundred feet down to the rock. The crude oil is pumped directly into a reservoir, for safe keeping. Thence it is conducted by pipes to a still, to steam off the water which comes up with it. It is then run into the underground tanks, and is ready to be pumped on to the cars for transport. An ingenious process has been adopted for heat- ing the furnaces. The clotted oily refuse from the tank above drips slowly down within the mouth of MINERAL OILS OF CANADA. 95 the furnace, is there met and scattered by a jet of steam, and converted into a blaze of gas. Along the scattered line of oil-works a number of wooden huts have been built for the men employed. At one spot the irregularly placed oil-works and wooden hovels are grouped closely together. The intervals are filled up with provision and clothing stores, drinking and billiard saloons, printing and banking offices, and one or two churches. This is Petrolea. All around stretch wide wastes of uncul- tivated ground and the uncut forest. The place is too wild and singular to be called ugly, and it gives a vivid idea of the easjerness of commercial enter- prise in a new country. The atmosphere reeks with the rank odour of the mineral oil. But, through an accommodating whim of nature, the older residents come to like this — at least they say so, and should know best. A lawyer of the town, for example, assured me that he had lost his health and spirits while away from the oil for a couple of years. No sooner, however, did he return to the richly-lubricated air of Petrolea, than a pro- cess of ' recuperation,' as he termed it, rapidly set in, and he became healthy and happy once more. The discovery of oil here was made, it is said, from observing that Indians were accustomed to resort to a certain spring, at the advice of their medicine men, and to dip their blankets in the oozy waters, for the cure of scrofulous diseases. The present production of the district is esti- .11 • :, ''A' 'm '!!■ 96 THE CAiYADIAJSr DOM/mOiV. i ■ 7 . \[\ mated at 5,000 barrels per week. The crude oil was sold at ffl^i.6o a barrel at the time of my visit, September 1870. The principal export market was Germany. The distilling of the mineral oil is mainly done in the suburbs of London the Litde. The crude oil is heated to steam, condensed, and turned into agitating tanks, where it is moved violently by air ; it is then treated with sulphuric acid, washed with caustic soda, and deodorised in the same agitators with letharge and sulphur ; it is finally bleached in tanks holding about five hundred barrels. In the last stage I observed that iridescent hues of the most delicate tints played on the surface of the oil, and was told that this was the recognised indication of the purity of the fluid. The oil had now become colourless and odourless — but not tasteless. The manufactory I visited turned out 120,000 gallons of refined oil a week, using up 200,000 gal- lons of the crude oil. A great deal of intelligent ingenuity has been expended in extracting the most value from this oil of the earth. After the refined oils have been made, benzine and benzole are obtained from the stills ; paraffine is made ; a lubricating oil for machinery is extracted from the refuse ; the thick tar from the oil is employed in Nicolson pavement ; and the hard coke remaining finally at the bottom of the stills serves as an admirable fuel. The sulphuric acid used in the oil processes is fi i^! BRINE SPRINGS. 97 )il le, (s; Is )il Ird Ills is obtainable at works close by. At one manufactory crude brimstone imported from Italy is used ; at another copper pyrites from Lennox Villa, near Quebec. This ore, stacked in heaps, burns of itself. The sulphuric acid is obtained by a newly-patented 'continuous process' with glass retorts, which ap- pears to answ(T excellently well. The refuse ore contains five per cent, of copper. The Ontarian London seems to cherish an ambi- tion of becoming a city of manufactories. Works for starch making and other factories are in active operation there, besides those already mentioned. When petroleum fortunes were first being made in the United States and in Canada an oil fever set in over the continent. A promising shale was found on the shores of Lake Huron. A company with )S'4,ooo capital was started forthwith to find coal oil. The town of Goderich, Ontario, near which the discovery was made, offered 1^500, and the county i8'i,ooo, to induce the company to descend 1,000 feet. At length water was reached, but brine came up instead of oil. The company were disappointed and resentful. But the brine came up thick and pure, yielding a fine white salt. Fortune had favoured the venture beyond all hopes. Goderich has already become the seat of a con- siderable industry. At the date of my visit a thou- sand barrels of salt a day were being produced ; while the demand is increasing, I was told, far H M 'A m l:-. 11 •f li: r rv *• h HI yy/A CAXADIAX /)()A//X/OM beyond ihc rate of supply. A niiinlHT of roiupanics arc alro;uly at work, aiul others are rorinin^. T\ ic pnKcss is simple I'hel )rine is puinp(H 1 into wooilen vals. and runs Ironi tlu'in ni lo 1( on^ iron pans, about loo feet by lo, with a depth of 3 inches, riie [)ans are lieated from below by steam ; the WI len \vat(M- evaporat(vs ; the pure salt remams cool it is shovelled asiile to fall into the packiujij rooms. 'l"h(M-e it is put up into 280 lb. barrels. One well will supply too barrels a day. The salt deposit is believetl to ho very far spread, stretchinj^ at least sixty miles fri>m Kincardine, above (iodtMMch, to Seaforth South. ber I'here appears to be no reason why the num of salt works here should not In^ multiplied ten times, to the advanlam* of the capitalist and of the country. |i "SV ■1 >!* • I 99 CIIAI'TI'R IX. < 4 1,11 T I. E AriacA. In the soulli west corner of the province of Ontario tiiere still exist, in considrrabh' propor- tions, the remains of a nej^^ro sdtlement which once proniis(Hl to attain to some importance*. The coloured colony dates l)ack to the tinu; when the l''ui;itive Slave Law was enacted in the Stat(;s, and the ncj^ro who had escapeil from a southern master found himself without lej;al |)rotection in the North. One means of safety aloni; remain(!d for him ; to llee a,L;.iin, still further north, to Hritish soil. 'I'he first spot he cam(! to was this an^le of the Canadian l)rovince, ' The lU!autiful,' dippin^^ tlown into the clear waters of Lake Lric!. The fugitive; here found a liome, the most southerly portion of Canada ; its climate was more tolerable to the sun-darkened negro than oth(;r portions of the dominion. The new settlers were soon to be counted by hundreds and l)y thousands. In a large proportion they con- sisted of the best elements (jf the negro race ; of families that brought away the i)roceeds of their II 2 ,%'. x^\\ /11 ,i f % n ' Ik .1- i ^« \f '• mmt 100 T//£ CANADIAN DOMINION. ii I, Ki • f "I L m industry, to prevent the forfeiture of their property with their persons. They overspread the district — a wide range of marshy land, then little settled — and commenced, with as much energy as their indolent nature permitted, the difficult task of improving and cultivating the soil. The settlement continued to increase in numbers until the outbreak of the late war in the States. The Fugitive Slave Law was repealed in the North ; many of the negroes made their escape immediately from the severe Canadian winter. On the conclusion of the war others went South, to the black man's fitting zone of tempera- ture, to live as free men in the scenes which had witnessed their degradation and misery. At the date of my visit, September 1870, the numbers of the coloured population were regarded as stationary. The natural increase by births made up for the losses by removal. The black race was estimated at one-third the numbers of the white in Chatham, the principal place in the district, and in Brixton and Dresden, towns of very small propor- tions. The negroes were not unkindly spoken of; they were generally regarded as good citizens, quiet and orderly, easily managed, and moderately indus- trious. In the towns their occupations seemed to be mainly the keeping of barbers' shops and apple stores, shoe mending, and washing and ironing. Of course we must add domestic service and the ministry of religion. Most of the coloured people here, as in the States, are Methodists, though not a few are A NEGRO SCHOOL. lOI )f tn re Baptists. Prayer meetings, and other gatherings where the social and rehgious instincts may be gra- tified at once, are highly popular with them. Their piety is sincere, but sometimes lacks reverence. ' I hear de Lord a-comin' t'rough de shingles !' a cracked-visaged, bright-eyed, little, lean old man cried out in a prayer meeting at Chatham (the 'shingles' form the wooden roofing) ; * Come 'long. Lord ! Here's a darkie — dat's me — '11 pay for all dem shingles what gets broke up dar ! ' The nigger quarter of Chatham is popularly known as Little Africa. The houses, generally of wood, are very small and poor-looking ; but the manifest inferiority of the black man in position and in capacity does not distress him greatly. The negro is singularly light-hearted, and forgets, in a burst of easily-provoked laughter, any transient im- pression of his low place in the world. Little Africa swarms with half-naked, grinning imps. I visited one of their schools ; the children seemed merry enough, and certainly not too much in awe of their two worthy teachers. The partiality of the negro race for brilliant colours was manifested singularly in the dress of one of the few well-to-do children ; she shone in more colours than appear in the rainbow. From irregularity in attendance, and other causes, most of the scholars were very back- ward in their learning ; but — as if for the sake of an odd contrast — a dozen boys and girls were being taught trigonometry. Two or three great giggling i'^fi/J-j I02 THE CANADIAN DOMINION W\m \l n m ■■\A girls, with unmended frocks, were deep in the second book of Euclid. While I stood talking in a cottage in Little Africa with the good-natured landlady — a marvel- lously fat washerwoman, with a ridiculously small head — there came in a neighbour, a wrinkle-faced old lady, and we had a discussion on education. The fat washerwoman wished that the coloured and white children should be taught together, and talked profusely, but disconnectedly, in advocacy of the plan. Her friend, jet black except where grey, made strenuous opposition. ' Why,' said she, * can't you jest rec'lect as it used to be so once ? and what did we do then ? Why, we coloured people sent a petition to the Queen of England to get separate schools. And the Queen replied that she didn't know no difference of colour 'mong her subjects, which is to say that she thought all jest alike. However, we did get our schools separate someways, and now you want it back agin ! ' . J-; The fat lady argued that if the two races went to school together they would learn to like each other, and would intermarry. But this was a reason for fresh objections on the part of the old lady. The washerwoman averred that the division was unchristian. * By gar, I'd have the black and white separate, even in heaven,' returned the old lady, with strong to te, NEGRO FARMING. 103 emphasis. ' It ain't good for neither of 'em to get mixed.' Without any doubt there are to be found men of superior intelligence among the coloured race. A gunsmith of this place with whom I had a long con- versation, a man of pure negro blood, seemed to have good natural parts, and to be particularly well informed. He quoted Livingstone and Darwin appositely in illustration of his conclusions. His table was heavily piled with newspapers and re- views. As a gunsmith he is said to have no equal in America. He showed me a pair of silver- mounted Derringer pistols for which he had re- ceived a prize from California, and a double-barrelled shot-gun, of exquisite finish, which contained pro- perly, he said, the work of sixteen kinds of hands, but which he had made entirely himself The negro farms throughout the settlement are but poor. The holdings are commonly small, from thirty to fifty acres. The insignificant farm-dwell- ings, with ragged patches of out-buildings, appeared even more mean and comfordess than the town lanes. Specimens of their crops in the Chatham Agricultural Fair showed to little advantage. The true destiny of the negro race is certainly not farming in a northern soil. However, the settlement must not be regarded as a failure. A great number of the most influential members have gone South, but still the community holds on its way and thrives. It affords one among ■..>;(] 4 :v5jii ■m 104 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. a thousand proofs that the negro race can be trained to order and industry, and to the pursuit of the civiHsing arts of Hfe. Under more favourable con- ditions, in a climate more congenial, and with a longer space of time for his development, the negro will probably attain a position both of usefulness and respect. :ii %i ^■:A- lO: CHAPTER X. THE INDIANS. The statement may be made with some con- fidence that the Indian tribes of British North America are not fated to immediate extinction. Whether they will ultimately survive a close con- tact with the ever-growing white people, it were more hard to say. Observers scarcely disposed to an over-sanguine view of the case have sometimes been disposed to judge of this question very favour- ably. For instance, in a Report to the United States Congress for the current year, 1870, it is said: * It is now an established fact that the Indians of Canada have passed through the most critical era of transition from barbarism to civilisation ; and the assimilation of their habits to those of the white race is so far from threatening their gradual extinction that it is producing results directly opposite.' And it is absolutely a fact, if the provincial statistics are to be depended upon, that the Indians of the old Canadas have been increasing slightly in numbers during the past twenty-five years. The causes are not difficult to discover. They have been saved ■,r.. n m m ii i\ i!^ ^ io6 T//E CANADIAN DOMINION \,\-:, •.! !*; i , ■M'«S from the constant internecine wars which thinned their numbers perpetually in the days of their pure barbarism ; and in Canada they have had to suffer no wars with the whites since the settlement of our provinces. On the contrary, we have followed towards them an undeviating policy of conciliation and protection, which appears to have won the admiration of some of our friends in America. ' The Government has assumed a friendly and painstaking guardianship over them,' says the re- port above quoted. We have carefully respected our treaty engagements with them, and have paid them for the lands we have required of them, or have granted them new reservations. We have supplied them with missionaries and schools, and the elements of instruction in agriculture and in various trades. Of more consequence still in esti- mating the causes staying their extinction, we have provided for them medical aid, and have taken especial pains to save them from the ravages of small-pox, a disease which formerly would destroy whole tribes. The various Christianising and civilising agencies have not been without effect. Large reservations of land for farming purposes and for fishing and hunting are faithfully left to the use of various Indian tribes in Ontario, Quebec, and maritime provinces ; and in each will be found small attempts at farming and the commencement of the arts of life. Some of the Indians have become carpenters, ill. VILLAGE OF LA JEUNE LORETTE. 107 coopers, tailors, masons, blacksmiths, and have ex- hibited creditable skill. The Indian of pure blood, however, makes a far better fisher, trapper, or voy- ageur, canoe-builder, or guide. The Indians of the Canadian provinces are slowly- becoming civilised, and, probably, are not decreasing in numbers ; but they are losing their savage blood. In all the older settlements they are parting with their distinctive character and peculiarities. The native costume is a thing of the past ; they wear a motley dress half English, or else the complete European costume. They learn the English or the French language, and in many instances forget their own. The Indian blood becomes largely mixed with white. It appears likely, therefore, that they will escape extermination simply by ceasing to be Indians. By common consent the most favourable example of Indian civilisation is to be found at the pretty village of La Jeune Lorette, eight miles from Quebec. A small branch of the Hurons retreated here for safety after disastrous wars with other Indian tribes near the great lake from which they take their name. Here are prosperous farms, well- built cottages, handsome houses owned by the richer men, schools, and a Catholic church. But in colour and in type of feature the people have become significantly like the whites among whom they live. The Huron language has fallen into disuse ; young and old alike speak French. Of these Lorette '■':■<» ■I • '■.■■)',< ^^'':^i' 1 *hi' n ■f 1 t^ loS Tim CANAPIAN nO.U/X/ON. ■**■: . .i ;• ''M Ilurons, Professor Wilson, of Toronto University, writes : — • They seem likely to survive until, as a settle- ment of I'rench-speakinjj^ Canadians on the banks of the St. Charles, they will have to prove their Indian descent by the baptismal register or the genealo- j;ical record of the tribe, after all external traces have disa[)peared.' A less atlvanced Indian community is that of the Iroquois at Caughnawauy;a, near Montreal. They farm indifferetuly ill ; a few of them work at trades ; all of them hunt and fish with skill. I remember that during my stay in Ottawa, a gentleman, com- missioned by the Government to make an explora- tion of the north of Lake Superior, determined to enirao-e some Cautihnawauira Indians as boatmen and voyageurs on the expedition. The uses of even the pure Indian will not be readily exhausted. Civilisation finds some unexpected occupations for him. The Indian makes a superb runner, leaper, jockey, and expert at ' La Crosse.' At Montreal I witnessed a series of exciting contests in the favourite Canadian game between a picked com- pany of the city players and a dozen of the Caugh- nawauga Indians. The game is a pretty and exciting one, though inferior in science and order to our cricket. At either end of a laree field double stakes are set up, the 'homes' of the respective parties of players. The ball is started midway, and is pro- pelled solely by a kind of open-work cane bat, with CANA niA N INDIA NSi. 109 which the ball can be caught and fliiii}^ with jijrcat dexterity. In the games which I witnessed the whites, though players of reputation, stood ajjpa- rently no chance. The noted Keraronwe, or some other Indian, would run straight away, with the ball on the ' La Crosse' bat, at will. If intercci)ted, he would leap aside, and fling the ball with a dexterous jerk to some other Indian in the field. Put through the white wickets, the game was won by the red man. In this contest at least Fortune appeared on the side of the fleet, agile son of the woods. One of the most encouraging Indian agricultural communities is said to be that of a tribe of the Six Nations, on a reservation near Brantford, Ontario. If we remember the wandering, houseless, indolent, normal condition of the Indian, and his especial dis- like of plodding, monotonous occupations, like those of the farmer, the results attained in this settlement may seem surprising. Hut again, when the Indian's farming is compared with that of the poorest white's, a conviction is forced on the mind of the hopeless- ness of this attempt at training him. He must have white blood, and cease in part to be Indian, before he can submit to follow the white man's patient culture of the soil. There are many necessary occupations which would be far more congenial to him. The Indian is peculiarly adapted for the care of horses, catde, and sheep. He has a natural love of animals, and in- herits a large amount of sympathy with them and :s;iH I h:^l '*' no 77/^^ CANADIAN DOMINION. understanding of them. The Indian is volatile and versatile. That occupation suits him the best in which he finds a constant change of interest, the varied employment of his highly-trained bodily senses, and the opportunity for long spells of laziness. The care of wandering herds and flocks appears to be the ideal occupation of a civilised but pure Indian ; and no inconsiderable number could thus be provided for. As Canada becomes more popu- lous, as increasing attention is paid to stock-breeding, and as new districts are opened for settlement, it will probably be found advantageous to employ the Indian generally for this business. The breeding of goats in the mountain plains in some parts of the Dominion will probably become a profitable industry, and would increase the demand for herdsmen. Th'i various religious missions, Catholic and Pro- tcstanil:, have without doubt exercised a large in- fluence on the native tribes. The older church, with its many condescensions to an ignorant race, its imposing ceremonialism, resembling but surpassing the Indian rites, and with its many pretensions to miracle, excelling those of the mystic or medicine man, appears to have great advantages in gaining over the superstitious Indian tribes. On the other hand, the reformed churches have directed special attention to the • education of the children and the training of the Indians to trades. Both churches are generally regarded with respect and gratitude. It is a little hard, however, upon the uncultivated 0/iniVAYS. n I Indian, to be besieged, as he sometimes is, by champions of the old nnd reformed faiths, and com- pelled to decide, on pain of his everlasting perdition, between the claims of churches supported by the learned arguments accumulated in long centuries. It is said that, in his excusable indecision, the Indian sometimes finds a welcome suggestion of the right choice in the practical form of the gift of a parti- coloured blanket. Outside the small town of Sarnia, on Lake Huron, I found an interesting settlement of the Ojibways, among whom the English missionaries have laboured with, apparently, considerable success. There are about five hundred Indians on this reservation. They have been instructed in various trades, and some of them make fair masons, car- penters, and tailors. Great pains have been taken to attach them to the cultivation of the soil, with results which the missionaries regard as encouraging. Some of them farm indifferently well as much as thirty or forty acres. Their log-houses are small, squalid, unfurnished, comfortless ; but are neverthe- less considered by the whites a great improvement upon the ever moving wigwam. The Indians and squaws are usually dressed in unpicturesque gar- ments which have been discarded by the whites. Their inborn delight in colours, however, still mani- fests itself occasionally with fantastic effect. A bright handkerchief is twisted in the black hair, a gay scarf disposed gracefully over the head, a quan- >v1 m . f H- If.) .■■:, i.L i .:',i \' If'. - :,':: 1' .'•'ii: : A-':.. 'ii^ ■'■i^' ■ ;^ ' ^Jil rdfi ' IW! 1 -g^jS ' -.f ■ -^S' '" ^ Ma '■ - 1 "*a|[tti ^ 'wi I ' M"- 112 rZ/y? CANADIAN DOMINION. tity of trinkets are attached to ears, neck, and wrists, and gleam against the dark skin. The men are tall, muscular, and well-proportioned. Many of the full- blooded Ojibways, both men and women, have in- telligent and handsome countenances. It is apparent enough, however, that here, as in the other semi- civilised reservations, there has been a considerable mixture of white blood. Many of these Indians speak English. There are two chapels, each with its school-house, on this reserve ; the one Methodist, the other Epis- copal. At first a sharp rivalry existed between the two missions, but now they work quietly, taking no heed one of the other. I attended a Sunday afternoon service at the Episcopal Church. The building was small, but neat, and prettily decorated. The light from the altar window was softened by a chequer-work pattern, apparently of coloured paper. The crimson altar-cloth was inscribed in the Indian tongue, Jehovah Shahwanemeschenaum. The congregation, numbering five-and-twenty souls, was very silent and attentive. Some of the old men had really grand-looking faces, set off with long white hair ; several of the half-blooded young squaws, tastefully attired in holiday dress, had pretensions to great beauty. The form of service was extremely simple. Some prayers, and passages of Scripture were read ; hymns were sung ; and two short addresses were delivered. AN OJIBWAY CHURCH, 113 e s by English and Ojibway clergymen. Here is one of the hymns (' Come, let us join our cheerful songs,' &c.): Nuh qua uh muh wah dah nig suh Ish pe ning a yah jig ; Kuh ke nuh moo je ge ze wug, Koo tah me gwe noo wug. The principal address, or sermon, was spoken in English by the founder of the mission, the son of a well-known London clergyman. It was touching to witness the earnestness of the young minister in an effort apparently so hopeless. He entreated his hearers to be content with no merely formal faith, but to assure themselves of the possession of vital Christianity, One of the arguments he urged upon these semi-savages had a strange sound. The end of the age was apparently approaching. The greatest event since the Incarnation had just happened. The Man of Sin, the son of perdition, had been exalted above all that is called God, and had taken his seat in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Those of his hearers who had studied pro- phecy would perceive that all the Scriptures were being fulfilled, and that only a last opportunity remained for repentance and salvation. The assistant minister, a pure Ojibway, one of the few Indians consecrated to the Anglican priest- hood, spoke afterwards in a rich, soft, musical tongue, not without a deep touch of melancholy in the tones. In conversation afterwards he appeared to be a man of intelligence and earnest piety. ■•■sIr.S-SJL. ''■..■•iVi.^l "-v''ff "'■m t * <,M N ; •*M 114 TJ/Jt: CANADIAN DOMINION. A fair and not untruthful statement of the present condition of the semi-civilised Indian tribes is sub- mitted in an Ottawa Blue Book Report for 1868. Mr. W. Spragge, who prepared the report, says : ' There is reason to believe that there is general evidence of progress among the Indians of the province of Ontario and Quebec, and improve- ment in their habits of life. A portion of this is undoubtedly due to the personal influence of the clergy who minister among them, exercised as it is for the repression of intemperance and vice, and for the promotion of industry and good order. An evidence of this will be found in the population returns, showing that in twenty-two settlements there is an increase in numbers, and in two only of those from which returns have been received is there a decrease. The sanitary condition of the settle- ments is beyond doubt much better than it was some years since. One cause of this is that the contagious diseases, such as small-pox, which at times swept off whole families, have of late been guarded against ; and, at periods sufficiently near to each other, it is our practice to require professional men to make so general a vaccination as to leave little room for ap- prehension of a repetition of such visitations. An- other cause is the improved mode of living in com- fortable habitations, better diet, and better clothing, all of which assist in diminishing the number of cases of pulmonary diseases to which the Indians when in a semi-civilised state become liable.* AMOUNT OF INDIAN POPULATION H5 The total Indian population of Ontario and Quebec, Lakes Huron and Superior, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, was estimated to be 20,612 in 1868. The numbers have probably increased slightly since then. It is on various accounts desirable that the well- meant efforts for their civilisation should be continued. Their chance of surviving the process, as pure Indians, is slight; but their final extinction, if they do not undergo the change, is certain. The effects produced on the Indian by our modern civilisation and Christianity cannot fail to be an interesting study, and, if carefully observed and reported, may lead to some useful results in social science. These missions, too, have a beneficial reflex action on the whites, in preserving our traditions of a generous care for the -weak and ignorant ; and eventually the half-bred Indian race that will survive may prove of great service in the community in a variety of out- door occupations requiring manual dexterity. Still one may perhaps be forgiven a regret that the picturesqueness of the Indian life will be gone. The ancient ' Kanata,' the cluster of wigwams, of boughs or skins, rich in stains of sun and storm, with light smoke curling upwards in the woods, modern Canada will soon know no more. The Indian brave, fierce with tattoo and war paint, dressed in skins of the chase, ornamented with fringes of scalp- locks, and with the feathers of birds of prey, whose 1 2 til ' /6 M ' ■ m ' '••■*»l ■11 ]i6 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. \% h arrangement and stripes of colour tell the whole story of his achievements, will bury both weapons of war and the pipe of peace, and stalk off the scene of living history, followed by his obedient squaw with her painted papoose strapped on the shoulders. But this event is still distant. We have as yet considered only the semi-civilised Indians of the older Canadas. There remain numerous tribes in the Far West in a condition of almost primitive simplicity and unmitigated barbarism. It will be long before the white man will require their vast hunting-grounds. The opportunity still exists for studying the natural mode of life of the red man, his singular and poetic superstitions, and the social and political institutions which he inherits by long tradi- tion, and considers a true civilisation. Their numbers can be estimated with but a faint chance of approximate correctness. There are, per- haps, 1 20,000 on this side the Rocky Mountains ; and possibly 30,000 more on the Western Slopes reaching to the Pacific. One-tenth of them possibly are semi-christianised ; the rest are pagans. They pursue, with their old ardour, fishing and the chase, and engage frequently in those internecine wars which are apparently the chief means of giving interest to existence, and which afford the men their principal opportunity for acquiring distinction and influence. These wars do not appear to be nearly as destructive to the red men as contact with the white race. The diseases introduced with our \\\ TREATMEXT OF TJIE INDIAN TRIBES. 117 id le modern civilisation, and the fire of our ' burning water,' fearfully reduce the numbers of any '-ibes in whose countries the white men settle in amity. As we have already seen in the Canadas, this process appears to be stayed when the Indians have become accustomed to our methods of life, and when the white blood has been mingled with theirs. It is greatly to the credit of the Imperial and Canadian Governments that since the conquest of the country no wars have been waged with the Indian tribes. Treaties have been made for the cession of the tracts of country claimed by the various tribes, and these engagements have been scrupulously respected. Large sums of money are still paid annually, in accordance with the terms of these treaties. To a certain extent these moneys are applied by commissioners to the establishment of schools, &c., on the Indian reservations. The rest is spent readily by the people for food, clothing, and trinkets. This policy of peace and protection towards the Indians has proved a wise one. It has cost far less than the aggressive policy of the United States towards the tribes within their boundaries. Eng- land is regarded with respect and affection by these rude savages. ' King George's men,' as our soldiers are called, are spoken of with admiration, and are believed to be invincible. Medals and buttons, strips of ribbon and bits of accoutrements, relics of the wars when the red men had the honour of fight- '.V»J m m i'^'l \ I - -M { I .••-ti> » -1 I [I , ii« 7///; CAXAVI.4N DOMINION. inyf for ' Kin^ Goor«;{'/ .irc preserved as pr(!cioiis heirlooms, and worn upon great feasts. A very satisfactory jjroof of the attacliment of the Indians to the British rule was afforded durin^^ the current year in circumstances tliat rendered their ijood-vvill of the i^reatest consecjuence to us. All the cost we have incurred in making presents to them, and in purchasing their lands, was more than compensated in this one occurrence. v. hen the English and Canadian forces started across the Continent for the Red River, attempts were made by the half-breed rebels of the settlement to ' • 'lire the Indians to offer resistance. It was an opporJi: ' ^ for the kind of warfare which the braves especially like, and for which they are admirably suited .1 war ^f ambushes and surprises, in a country of rocks Ai\<.\ .voods familiar to these sons of the forest, and entirely unknown to the white troops. There was rich booty, of food, arms, and uniforms, to be secured. At some of the portages, where the flat-bottomed boats had to be carried along narrow defiles, a few score of these Indians could have inflicted heavy losses on the troops without exposing themselves to a shot in return. The half- breeds were allied by blood with many of the tribes, and )et fail(*d to obtain their concurrence in the scheme. The Indians had learnt that the advancing troops were ' King George's men,' and refused to molest them. Yet more ; the Red Lake Indians, a body of about five hundred, living to the east of n/sros/T/oN of the Indian trihes. Fort Garry, sent messages to the Red River rebels that tliey intended to resist the i)assa}^e through their country of any half-breeds j)rocecding against the troops. Red River stories are always open to suspicion ; but this one was told nic on the best authority on the spot, and is commonly believed in the country. There is one special reason just now why the traditional policy of a kindly treatment of the Indians should be followed. In all probability the Canada Pacific Railway will soon be constructed. It will pass through i,5CX) miles of Indian country. Some management will be needed to reconcile the Indians to the under- taking, for the railroad and the line of settlements along its route will tend to ruin the great remaining buffalo grounds, and, in doing this, will threaten the continued prosperity of these wild children of nature. For the sake of our own interests, if not from pity for a race destined apparently to extinction, we should deal with these Indian tribes kindly, and let them pass from the world unstained by the shedding of English blood. ■.'' «fj "vife 120 THE CANADIAN DOMINION CHAPTER XI. ACROSS THE PRAIRIES. ,. , . ' 'i^ On the last day of September, 1870, I left Ontario to make my way through United States territory to the new Canadian province of Manitoba. / I should have preferred the route taken by the Red River Expeditionary Force, in order to judge for myself of the suitability of the country for a line of settlements on British soil ; but the last party, proceeding with the Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Archibald, had already passed through, and the season had become too advanced for a single traveller with but one or two attendants to make the journey without extreme difficulty. A day on the cars took me from Detroit to Chicago, across the wooded state of Michigan. We passed no town of importance ; but the country ap- peared to be generally occupied and cultivated. This is but a run of 284 miles, a trifling distance here. Lines of great cars, worn with much use, impressed the imagination by their inscriptions with the true extent of A.eHcan travel They i^ labelled- CHICAGO. lai Great Central Throucfh Route. P- d. New York Omaha Boston Salt Lake Detroit Sacramento Chicago San Francisco I remained in Chicago three days ; but there is really little in the city to detain a visitor. It is built on the flat prairie at the south of Lake Michigan. The streets, of course, are at right angles. Several of them are- very wide, and in these there are some large stores ornamented profusely in stucco ; and there are several fine new comfort- able churches. But the majority of the houses are petty wooden frame structures, and all the streets present an unfinished and slovenly appearance. It is easy enough to understand here how three or four story houses can be moved about without extreme damage ; they are merely big square boxes, with sashes and doors let in. I met such frame houses constantly blocking up the traffic of the larger streets, with wooden rollers placed and replaced under the flooring timbers, as they were being slowly drawn along by horses, towards the outskirts of the city, to make room for more pretentious structures in the older quarters. But the inhabitants are with reason very proud of their city. It has been built up in an incredibly short time, and has increased in population and ■ m ■■vm •iiH • ■'.';..*1 ■■'4 , «• ■ I- ;■-' . iMl « it ! . J" ■'1 liij |!'1 laa 77/i!i CANADIAN DOMINION. in wealth beyond all precedent. The situation is a commanding one, as an entrepot for the through traffic of the continent, and for the supply of the Western States ; and the inhabitants have displayed an extraordinary energy in availing themselves of the natural advantages of the position, by opening up railway and steamboat communication to deter- mine the lines of commerce to their city. * Every other merchant in Chicago has failed twice,' Mr. Wendell Phillips said to me in Boston, in illustration of that restless energy of his countrymen which he termed go-a-headitiveness, and the excess of which he deprecated. ' Or, at any rate, every merchant you see on our streets has failed once,' said a Chicago merchant to me smilingly, in mitigation of the former judgment. No visitor is expected to leave the city without seeing its peculiar sights. These are the corn elevators, that lift the grain from the rail-cars to boats ; the bridges that swing on a pivot to allow barges and schooners to go up the creeks ; and a roadway that runs under a shallow river. Besides these, you may see a pig-killing establishment, and, five miles away, a vast range of out-buildings for Texan and other cattle. This is Chicago, the Queen City of the West. But its great title to distinction remains to be told. Its pride and glory are expressed in a single fact — it has attained a population of 300,000 souls within the duration of a single lifetime. A PRAIRIE JOURNEY. J 23 It seems a pity that so ill an odour should attach to the name of this great city. Chicago signifies, in the Indian, ' The Place of Skunks.' A thousand miles of prairie now lay between me and Fort Garry. But the railway already traversed half this distance, and will be continued over the remaining half, probably before the end of 1872. The rich lands of Wisconsin and Minnesota still wait for the tens of thousands of immigrants needed for their cultivation. Northwards from the pic- turesque station on the Mississippi Prairie du Chien, the railway proceeds through a scarcely broken wil- derness. The small, irregular, hastily-built, but rapidly-progressing St. Paul's is the present limit of civilisation. At this point the traveller bids an un- regretful farewell to the prosaic, ungainly, hideous new clusters of houses which must at present pass for cities on this new continent, waiting blankly the ministry of time to give them picturesqueness and dignity. At St. Paul's the small party had already arrived with whom I was to make the journey to the Red River settlement ; the wife and daughter of the Lieut.-Governor, in charge of an old friend of the family, Mr. Loo Gouge. Sir John A. Macdonald had done me the honour to ask me to render any help that might be in my power on this journey. We were fortunate enough to obtain here the ser- vices of Mr. Robert Tait, of Red River, who was just returning from St. Paul's, and who kindly undertook I III il! v^^ 'sm "4 THE CANADIAN DOMrNIOX. !;'»' i:' to make all the necessary arrangements for our passage across the prairies. We could still avail ourselves of a small piece of railway. Rails laid on the open prairie took us on seventy-five miles to St. Cloud, the last station on the lately commenced St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. There were in all over thirty passengers on the cars, immigrants and other^ wishing to proceed north through Minnesota; but the two lumbering stages that stood in readiness for our further progress would not by any ingenuity of packing hold nearly that number. A dozen rough men, with their non- descript masses of baggage, were left behind to wait the extemporising of ' extra ' stages, or the return of the * regulars ' in three days. The weather-beaten, sun-dried driver, with a mass of dark hair, rough as a buffalo mane, flowing beneath his battered sombrero, got his six horses well in hand, and dashed off on a devious coach-track across the prairies at about one o'clock in the day. When we came to a swamp in the interminable flats, half-a- dozen roadways would break off, and our driver would choose the one he hoped would have the fewest * quags ' and holes. We drove on, with varying speed, for twelve hours. Five times we changed horses, and three times our driver. We passed clearings pretty frequently during this first day ; but the houses of settlers, often Swedes, were miserably small and poor-looking, and the rich SI/.t\TY INNS. "S ;t ground was cultivated apparently with but the most barbarous ideas of farniin' -. At t^»e ro^dsid;- shanty inns where we stopped to water or change horses, our motley crowd of fellow- pass',ngers usually turned out to stretch their legs and ' liquor-up.' They made a most picturescjue group. There were tall, rough, tawny-haired miners from Fraser River and Montana ; thin, hollow-jawed Yankee traders, with hair shaven from the cheeks, but hanging long from the chin, aiding that impres- sion of long-headedness which our American cousins delight to produce. Then we had some fine speci- mens of the F'rench half-breed population of Red River, men of large frame, with swarthy complexion, long coal-black hair, and great black eyes. In our coach we had a big straw-haired Swedish woman, who could not speak one word of English, French, or German, and who was labelled to be taken through about one hundred miles, with her four bundles of fat-faced children, and other baggage. On the other stage, that sometimes followed, sometimes passed ours, were several fur-traders and a govern- ment official, proceeding on a visit to the United States forts scattered through the Indian terri- tories. It is pleasant to be able to say that throughout the journey our fellow-passengers and all the people we met showed the greatest consideration for the comfort of the two lady-passengers ; and, with a larore amount of rough frankness, behaved with the m 111 . * ' 'I *■> .•'■4 I ': . .. '1 <' I « '■■Am 126 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. Utmost good humour amongst themselves. A certain amount of very vigorous language we were com- pelled to hear ; but there never was occasion for an instant's fear of rudeness or incivility. At dusk we stopped at a long rambling frame house for a supper of pork, eggs, bread, excellent potatoes, and strong tea. Our driver from this place had not been over the ground for six years, and heavy clouds perpetually veiled the moon ; our roadway amid the deep ruts had to be guessed at. Besides this, the coach was top-heavy, and reeled at each sudden curve in the most ominous manner. Despite the night cold, we had thought it better that our party should occupy outside seats to escape the peril of asphyxia and paralysis in the interior ; but as we were now in danger of being swung into space on the lurching of the coach, we doubted the wisdom of our decision. Still that night's ride was a grand one. It was our first experience of the open prairie. The moon broke through the clouds and lit up endless tracts of country, sombre-hued with the autumn grasses. Here and there a scrap of scrub-oak served to indicate the receding distances, and impress the imagination with the wide extent of the wilder- ness. At two o'clock in the morning the stages pulled up at a small cluster of log-houses called Sauk- centre. At the * Hotel ' we obtained, with some difficulty, one private room. We men rolled on It he ess Umn ler- on FORT ABERCROMBIE. 137 to a line of rough beds, or on to the floor, in a long garret, as much or as little undressed as we pleased. At half-past five the next morning we were called for breakfast — of course of pork, eggs, potatoes, and tea. At six rang the drivers' cry of ' All aboard,' and we swung off into interminable space again. But the heavy, tall stages were fortunately ex- changed here for light, low, canvas-covered wagons ; the baggage following behiid. Towards midday we passed through a wide straggling wood of scrub- oak, poplar, and birch, where the ground was so broken, and the ruts so preposterous, that our former conveyance would assuredly have met with disaster. We stopped for dinner beyond the wood at a dozen or so of log-houses, called Alexandra Villa ; and rested at night at the city of Pomme-de- Terre, which consists of a single farm-house with its out-buildings in a palisaded inclosure, dating from the time of the Sioux massacres here seven years ago. ' For a city, I consider this here Pomme-de-Terre very small potatoes indeed,' observed one of our fellow-passengers reflectively, as he broke up a mass of stick-tobacco in his hands for a plug. We arrived here at the seasonable hour of 8.30 P.M., having again driven our sixty miles in the day. We started the next morning about six, and in eleven hours reached Fort Abercrombie, the ter- V:m ■•a ,4 -9 taS THE CANADIAN DOMINION. i'f. minus of the stage-route. Our distance this day was probably fifty-five miles. Beyond all question, the country we passed through is eminently suitable for settlement. The farmers with whom we talked along the route spoke in the highest terms of the productive qualities of the soil. The remark of one rough-visaged, keen-eyed, old Yankee may well stand as the expression of the general testimony. ' This prairie land,' said he, solemnly, * is jest about the best there is lying out of doors in the hull creation.* At Pomme-de-Terre the last signs of settlement ceased. During our third day we saw no traces of cultivation whatsoever, nor indeed once again, till we arrived, in five days more, at the Red River settle- ment, with the sole exception of the few farmsteads gathered round the United States Forts Aber- crombie and Pembina. The land waits for the settlers whom it is ready to support and enrich to superfluity. By the third day our travelling companions were reduced to less than half their original numbers, and we could stow ourselves in the wagon with com- parative comfort. One of our remaining acquaint- ances had seen all the course of the Red River troubles ; another had been employed as a govern- ment scout in the time of the Sioux massacres. Not- withstanding our many discomforts, our three days' staging was enjoyed, I suspect, by all of us. We ll A SIOUX WARRIOR. 129 sang songs or hymns, discussed politics, or told anecdotes all the way through. Nothing could exceed the good humour with which the ladies sub- mitted to the rough break in their ordinary life which this journey involved. We were afraid they would find the new experience too barbarous ; but they quickly perceived that the rough manners of the men hid a true courtesy of disposition, and henceforth they felt at ease. In fact, the strangeness of the scene and the people, the singular contrast presented to ordinary life, afforded us all a constant fund of entertainment. One of the stories told us by a travelling com- panion, who had himself witnessed the circumstances, may be found interesting as illustrative of the Indian life. A Sioux warrior had been found guilty of stealing a horse, and was condemned to pay its value in certain instalments. He brought the last sum to one of the Hudson Bay Company's forts, and ten- dered it to the man, a M^tis or half-breed, who had been mainly concerned in bringing him to justice. The transaction was completed, the quittance given, and the Indian withdrew. In a few moments the Sioux reentered the office, advanced on his noiseless moccasins within a pace of the writing-table, and levelled his musket full at the half-breed's head. At the instant of the descent of the trigger the half- breed raised the hand with which he was writing, and touched lightly the muzzle of the gun ; the shot K 1 '* 'J >\ IJO THE CANADIAN DOMINION passed over his head, but the hair was singed off in a broad mass. The smoke cleared away, and the Indian saw with superstitious amazement that his enemy still lived. The other looked up at him for an instant full in the eyes, and quietly resumed his writing. The Indian rushed away for his life without one word. Our informant saw this through the open door and rushed in with some others, offering to follow the fugitive and bring him to justice. * No/ said the M^tis ; * go back and finish dinner ; leave this affair to me.' In the evening a few whites accompanied the Metis to the Sioux encampment, outside the fort, to see how the matter would end. At a certain distance, within sight, he bade them wait The M^tis advanced straight to the Indian tents. The ordinary employments of the encampment were going on — cooking, talking, smoking. No preparations had been made for battle. By one of the tents sat crouched the murderous Sioux, with no weapon in his hand, but the Indian tom-tom, to which he was singing his own death hymn. He mournfully complained that the hour had come when he must say good-bye to wife and child, to the sun- light, to his gun and the chase. He sent messages beforehand to his friends in the spirit-land to meet him on his arrival, and to expect him that night. He told them he would bring all the news of their tribe. He swung his body backwards and forwards as he chanted monotonously the strange song ; the PRAIRIE FIRES. 131 sweat poured from his brow ; he never once looked up. The M^tis stood quietly over him and spurned him with his foot. The crouching Indian sang on, unheeding the insult, and awaiting his fate. His musket, discharged within a foot of his enemy's head, had failed to kill. Some spirit had intervened. The Indian felt himself powerless, and acquiesced in his doom. The Sioux around looked up now and then, but with no pretence of interfering in the affair. It was a private quarrel, with which they had no concern. Still the Metis waited ; still the murderer sang on his death song. Then the half-breed bent his head and spat down on his crouched foe before the tribe, and turned leisurely away. It was a crueller revenge, said our friend, than if he had levelled his pistol and shot him dead. It was not until this third day of our journey that we saw the spectacle of a fire on the prairie. Afterwards we saw fires, near or remote, almost daily up to Fort Garry. But the first fire we en- countered will live the longest in our recollection. Even in the midday the heavens were made red with the flames. For hours we approached the scene of the conflagration, wondering, and in part fearing, whether we should have to pass through it. K 2 II- II i3» THE CANADIAN DOMINION. At length we reached the black and smouldering country ; the fires were passing before us, and away to the right, before a slight wind. Another hour, and we came to the fire in its full glory. A vast line of leaping flames, rendered vivid in the dark rolling masses of smoke, extended before and behind us for a distance of many miles. In some spots the flames, beating back against the wind, came right up to the edge of the track along which we drove. The horses showed no fear. It was singular to notice that all along the line the slightly-beaten track made by the passing of the stages proved enough to stay the progress of the flames. The country on one side was charred and black ; on the other an endless wilderness of brown and russet grasses gleamed wave-like before the wind. In the fires where the grasses were thick the flames leapt up perhaps twelve feet ; but ordinarily the fire ran much nearer the ground. Our drivers were entirely content at the sight The burnt land would prevent an accu- mulation of snow along their track during the winter. Snow-drifts, they explained, cannot lodge except where the grass is thick to hold them. It was five o'clock when we reached the farm- house outside Fort Abercrombie where we intended to pass the night, and where Mr. Tait's wagons awaited us for our further journey. With the falling darkness the magnificence of the fires increased, until the whole horizon became a spectacle of awful beauty. In the west the sun set in calm splendour. FORT ABERCROMBIE. m changing the moveless clouds to the fair image of a world with seas of gold and peaks of translucent glory, with dreamy regions of endless repose. But all the east was reddened with rolling masses of lurid smoke, from which broke forth white leaping flames and circling columns red as blood, — a fearful picture of wrath, desolation, and magnificence ; but on the one side lay the majestic repose of heaven, on the other the mad fury of a hell. Only on the ocean could we have seen such a sunset; but not even a battle-field could have given so vast a spectacle of rolling clouds and blazing fires. Early on the morrow we inspected Fort Aber- crombie, and received much courtesy from the United States officers. At noon Monday, Octo- ber lo, 1870, our small party started over the un- inhabited plains. We had struck the Red River, here a turbid stream of perhaps one hundred yards in width, and were to follow it north direct to Fort Garry, a distance of some two hundred and fifty miles. But the Red River itself, especially through this part of its course, crawls through a flat country with most persistent windings, trebling the distance, as if reluctant to leave a congenial land. Our course lay from bend to bend of the river almost due north. Our processioi was one of picturesque simplicity. First, a light spring wagon, with a canvas awning 8* I'' •.^'^ai m %■%% S??' il jit «34 r/fii CANADIAN DOMINION 1 M for protection against the hot noonday sun and the keen morning winds. In this sat the ladies, care- fully heaped with shawls, buffalo-robes, and rugs, all needed during our starlight journeyings. Next came a baggage wagon, drawn by two long-eared zebra-marked mules, of excellent patience and strength. At the end of our five days' journey of fifty miles a day these creatures still seemed in good condition, though we could afford them little but the prairie grass all the way. They carried, with other luggage, our tent gear and provisions. Then a second wagon, of two horses, piled with many boxes, which we took only as far as Frog Point, about seventy miles from Fort Abercrombie. Paul, a fine, young, strong Indian, a pure Saulteaux, with black eyes and long black hair, a somewhat sallow but intelligent countenance, dressed in the rough wide garments worn by the whites of these parts, proved of great service to us in our campings, and in finding the horses each morning. He always drove the mules. Mr. Tait, Mr. Loo, and myself drove the other wagons, one of us, however, by turns riding a spare horse with a Mexican saddle and a blanket At six o'clock the first evening we struck a bend of the Red River, chose a good spot for wood, water, and fodder, and made our encampment. The horses and mules were unloosened and allowed to roam at their own free will ; Paul cut tent poles, and, with crooked tops and notched pegs, in half an A PRAIRIE ENCAMPMENT. »35 hour our tent was well fixed. We strewed it inside with thick grass, and placed on this buffalo robes and white blankets. Various carpet bags were taken in from the wagon, and .of course wash-basin and towels. Mrs, Archibald was kind enough to say that she found this sleeping chamber extem- porised in the desert as comfortable as it was picturesque. Meanwhile a great camp-fire was built, one of the pleasantest of the day's duties. The fire easily takes in the keen air, and the logs burn clear away. My lumbering experience now proved of service, and I explained carefully the proper method of cutting a log. I was less successful in reducing science to practice. Both Mr. Tait and Paul could use the axe better than could the lecturer. For the sake of neatness, and to prevent a prairie fire spreading from our camp, we burnt the grass for a distance of several feet round the fire. Within the circle we spread on the ground our cloth for supper ; our tin plates and tea-mugs glittered in the warm light like silver. A great saucepan was put into the red flames. Seated on a buffalo robe Miss Archibald graciously plucked a prairie hen, the result of a shot from the side of our wagon while the horses stood still. Another bird, trussed by Paul, and fantastically skewered across a mass of cinders, gave to the air a most delicious evening fragrance. Magnificent slices of ham frizzled in our stew pan ; great potatoes, masses of flaky flour, steamed off their skins. Seats from the wagon 136 THE CANADIAN DOMINION V% !■('! -I; were drawn up, but naturally we fell into recumbent attitudes, after the fashion of a civilisation older than chairs. It was a veritable gipsy pic-nic. We were content gind without care. The freedom and ease and independence of our prairie journey came in delightful contrast with the cramped and ordered staging; and we were proving how prac- ticable the new mode was. The scene around us, too, was strange. The flickering fire-light touched everything with romance. The sombre trees rose up around us weird, though protectingly. Behind stretched away the endless, silent, melancholy wilderness. No human soul was near, save perhaps some traveller like ourselves. We were scores of miles from even a log-house ; hundreds from the last trace of civilisation in a shanty town. The ladies retired. We men sat still awhile, to fill or finish a pipe. Then we put down buffalo robes on the ground, removed coat and boots, and rolled ourselves in blankets, with our feet to the fire. Good-nights were said, and a fearful stillness followed. I could easily distinguish the breathing of each of my companions. One by one all slept. It was too strange for me to sleep, feeling for the first time the great night close over me, the great earth spread close around me. The hours^assed in waking dreams. Great stars glittered cold above. The moon rose high, and filled the dark scene with mysterious beauty, and with a stillness more intense 'm n GEORGETOWN. «37 than before. At one o'clock I woke and re-made the fire. At four, in the chill dawn, our camp broke up, and we resumed our desolate way. We en- deavoured to arrange the wagon so that Mrs. and Miss Archibald might still find some snatches of sleep, if the roughness of the prairie road would allow it, or at least be sheltered from the bitter night wind. At six the sun rose in splendour, with a vast horizon, on which to make a scenic display. By ten we reached Georgetown, at present a cluster of five wood-huts, but the place which the United States Northern Pacific Railroad is to reach in the course of 1871, on its way from Duluth on Lake Superior to the western coast. There were no signs of preparation for the railway at the time of our visit ; but the energy of American enterprise may well be counted on to carry this work through by the time arranged. At six o'clock in the evening we encamped at the junction of the Goose River with the Red River, a distance of about forty-seven miles from our morning starting point. The next morning we again started at four ; pre- pared our breakfast at Frog Point, a shanty station of the Hudson Bay Company, where we left the luggage of our second wagon, to be sent on by a steamer, the * International,' on her last trip for the season down the river. At sundown we camped at Grand Forks, by a wild patch of scrub poplar, at the junction of the Red Lake River with our own stream. P. .;\\ mW ■ m U8 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. At two in tho morninjx. while Loo was ft-ctlinjj the fire, a mounted horseman approached our en- campment from out of the darkness. We watched his cominji^ with some uneasiness, unable to con- jecture a reason for the appearance of a solitary rider on these desolate j)lains at such an liour. Stories of Indian atrocities came to our minds, with keener recollections of warnings which we had re- ceived of the scattered Red River rebels. Loo had his revolver in readiness ; I looked to my i^un. Our precautions were unn(!cessary. We soon recojvnised a friend of the mornini;;, an employe of the Hudson Bay Company at I'^roj^ Point, i lis story was characteristic. He had missed the two hi^rses we hail left with him, with our second wai^on. From the * bull-punchers ' of an ox train crossinjj^ the prairies he had learnt that the horses had been seen with a certain party of travellers j^oinii^ north. * They have chosen a jj^ood chance for a bullet,' he said, with siii^nificant emphasis. We took note of his detailed descrii)tion of the party supposed to have ' conveyed ' the horses ; but saw nothings of them. Our acquaintance sat and smoked by the fire ; then smoked and took breakfast with us ; and finally rode away puffing dense clouds to his melancholy musings. The next day, Thursday, we had our loivest stretch of travel to do, having to cross t^ streams before we could encamp for the nighi We started, therefore, at 3 a.m. At 8.30 we prepared our mmmm mtm A PRAIRIE ADVENTVRF.. »39 breakfast, and of course j^avc the horses a lonj^ rest, havinjjf already come some twenty-five miles. At 6 P.M., havinj^ travelled twenty-s(!vcn miles further, we encamped at a bend in the Red River just past the Lon^ Trevasse. 'I'his afternoon I had a small prairie adventure to myself. I threw a blanket over the saddle of our spare horse, and went with my gun to seek game. My intention was to keep our wagons in sight, but in an hour's time they were far in the distance. I imagined that, with a little coaxing, my horse would stand fire ; and, at any rate, I was willing to run the risk of the creature's starting in some alarm. I was not, however, prepared foi what happened. A second hour elapsed before I found a chance for a second shot. I sprang off, held the horse with a long cord, and raised my gun. But my over-curious horse turned his head to see what I was doing, and instantly started away in frantic alarm. Perforce I followed. The scarlet blanket fell from the saddle. I could not drop the gun, for a sudden whirl of the brute had entangled the cord with it. We went plunging over the prairie, until presently the un- reasonable creature struck at me with his heels. At all hazards of the discharge of the piece, I threw it down, and seized the horse's head, I have never seen such a look of fear and agony as shone in that brute's eyes. It was an odd position for a man unaccustomed to the idea of crawling a score of miles with frac- i 140 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. if*. It 1* tured ribs. We were now far beyond sight or help. If the horse had succeeded in breaking away, I might have followed him in vain for hours. I talked to the poor beast in an unreasonable manner, suited possibly to his demented condi- tion. By degrees I coaxed him to quietness. I led him back in search of the blanket; its colour aided me. When I mounted the horse, pretending that he had no further cause of alarm, I showed him my hands, empty of the gun, and assured him in plain words that I had no intention of firing again in the solitary company of a horse who showed so vehement a dislike of the sport. Then I traced my way back to a clump of bushes which I had marked near the spot where the gun fell, and, dismounting, and patting the brute, I suc- ceeded in drawing the weapon, unobserved, by his side. Once again mounted, I struck my heels into the horse's flanks, and had the finest gallop of my life. Evening was hastening on, but we had a splendid sunset. The travelled track, which I soon struck, was unmistakably distinct. The camp fire was lit and the tent pitched when I got in. The smoke had guided me to the spot by the woodside. The next morning we started at 3.30. There were several reasons for the urgency with which we made our journey. Mrs. Arch'bald felt anxious to reach the Red River settlement with the least pos- sible delay. Besides, the brilliant weather with which MANITOBA. i4f we were favoured was likely to fail us at any day on the route. More than once a slight storm-shower fell. Sometimes we could see along the horizon half-a-dozen vast vaporous clouds discharging their rain in trailing lines of blackness. A night encamp- ment in storm would have occasioned us real incon- venience. In the advanced season hail and snow were by no means improbable. We prepared breakfast eighteen miles on, at Big Point. At noon we passed the American outpost Fort Pembina. We took dinner in the Hudson Bay Company's fort, in the small room in which Mr. McDougal had received the peremptory notice of the Red River Provisional Government that he would not be permitted to proceed forward to the seat of his Governorship. Since that time the United States surveyors have discovered that the boundary line of the British possessions lies some- what further north than had been presumed. In half an hour we passed the new post just set up, and reverently saluted British soil. In the evening we encamped on Little Lake, seventeen miles on, in the new province of Manitoba. The most magnificent spectacle we had ever be- held in th(^ heavens was displayed for us this evening, as if in celebration of our arrival on our national soil. At a quarter past six a vivid belt of rosy light grew out of the still darkness in the north-east, and spanned the heavens from the horizon to the zenith. All the sky around was cloudless, but filled with a '1 . *i IB H ■ H I4« THE CANADIAN DOMINION faint mist of vapour, obscuring all but the brightest stars. To the east and to the south new belts of light appeared, flame-coloured, saffron, opal, sapphire, and orange. One-half the celestial vault was ablaze with colour ; the other side still black with darkness. Then the splendour of mingled colours poured slowly down on the western slopes of heaven, until the whole earth was enshrined in a gorgeous canopy of light Broken sheets of flame, varying streams of liquid colours of the most delicate hues, descended from the zenith to the edge of the world, save at one spot due north, where 'he stars still shone in utter darkness. Our little camp was hushed to stillness. No word was spoken until one of us repeated the words of a sacred scene for which the spectacle alone seemed worthy : — ' Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn : and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.' The next day, Saturday, October 5, completed our journey. We started at 4 a.m., and in eighteen miles reached the first house on British soil, the hut of a kindly French half-breed, five miles from the boundary line. Here we found waiting us, with a large travelling carriage, the private secretary of the Lieut-Governor. Twelve miles further on we partook of a civilised luncheon, sitting without re- luctance on chairs round a table. At four o'clock we were met by the Hon. Mr. Archibald himself g^htest ilts of phire, iblaze cness. lowly 1 the pyof ns of nded t one utter ness. 1 the tacle sign Ithe the with eted teen hut the h a the we re- ock !elf. I ♦T if V M|iw'^<*f: ,„„„„„ '^'-iiipi^ I ' '; r' I'll ill' ' ' if I*' ..I , J II f ' .ii;:..:# tl;i: :^'lli;illlji:| ''I'll ..iiii ilii'" i! f «■" Ilia;: ,,l',l! Ill III lir m< 111 > i Q UJ o: III z I- z o V < o t- a: O u. FORT GARRY, U3 Ul > o u a: UJ X I- z o > < o t- d: o u. This part of our way led through a belt of scrub poplar, with an occasional clearing and a settler's log-house. At dusk we descried the long lines of the now celebrated Fort Garry, built at the confluence of the Assineboine with the Red River, with the straggling town of Winnipeg, a cluster of wooden houses, scattered over the plains close by. Our pleasant journey was done. There are no difficulties on the route even now that need prevent the immediate entrance of Cana- dian and English immigrants. From the experience of our party I can confidently assert that the journey may well be made a continuous pleasure excursion. No intending settler need hesitate to bring out his wife and children. The freedom and novelty of camp life for a few weeks in good weather would fully compensate for a few slight inconveniences. Let no traveller, however, of delicate organisation willingly undertake this journey in a period of winter storms, as I perforce did, in the middle of November, on my return. The travelling would have been more agreeable in the settled, intense cold, a month later, when two feet of snow would have covered the prairies, and the jolting wagon have been ex- changed for the gliding sleigh. The farmer proceeding now to the Red River country shoultl certainly take through his own horses and wagons, his farming implements, and household goods. If he need extra draught after '• 1 ■» ■;• ^if \: ':... »!-■. n 144 TBE CANADIAN DOMINION. i ffi '■ leaving the railroad, let him buy more horses and carts, or oxen and the charettes of the country. Everything he takes to Red River will be worth twenty-five to fifty per cent, in advance on its cost upon arrival ; and if he travels with his own teams, the expense of transit will be nothing. With each year, however, the facilities of com- munication will increase. By the close of 1871 an American railroad will probably strike the Red River, meeting a line of steamers running to Fort Garry. One or two years later, the iron rails will be laid all the way. Long before this, however, a new route will be opened through British territory, saving several hundred miles to the immigrant from Canada. First the stage and steamer, and finally continuous rail- road, will render communication easy by this route also. The interior country will be developed rapidly to a condition of great prosperity ; but the romance of travel will be gone. M5 CHAPTER XII. THE RED RIVER REVOLT. EvKRYTiiiNG connected with Red River is excep- tional. The country is unHke any other in the world ; its settlement differed widely from that of any colony ever established ; its mingled races of people form a community unrivalled in eccentricities. The variety of divergent interests here — social, com- mercial, political, and religious — presents one of the most intricate puzzles ever offered for the ingenious treatment of politicians. The settlement has attained a world-wide fame ludicrously disproportioned to its positive achievements. Its wars have been more innocent than school-boy sports ; its heroes young men of absurd insignificance, its revolutions the by- play of the oddest chances. It has been the appro- priate theatre of the most ridiculous mistakes ever made in the blundering art of politics. Statesmen even of acknowledged ability have, in dealing with Red River, lost all regard for e.Kpediency, policy, or common sense. Its recent troubles, the direst tempest in a wash-pot ever known, have attracted the attention and consideration of the American L '.^V'-'f/ M 'm Vj ! !i 146 ruh: CAXADiAM no.u/x/ON. coiuiiuM^t aiul of l''.uro|)(>. Its iniiuitc parish .S(|iia1)- l)l<'s liavi' lucomc <|iicstion.s «»f imperial lua^nitiuK'. \Vlu*n tin* history ol" kcil Kivt-r shall some day be wriltrii j^ravfly, it will In* roail as an extravagant Imrlesque. The settlement has existetl for half a century in the centre of a vast continent, remote from all external 'nlhienct*. A circle drawn rounil it with a ratlins of a thousanil miles wouKl scarcely touch civilisation anywhere in its sweep. Norlhwanls lie great lakes and streams w ithout a solitary sail, vast plains and wtunls without a settler, the inlaiul ocean (.)f I ludson Hay. aiul the frozen wiKlerness that reaches to the I'ole. Ti* the south stretch boundless uninhabited pr.iiries to the Hritish frontier, and t-ndless ()nuries still throui^h Unileil States territories downwards for hundreds o( miles. ICastwanls reaches a vast coun- try i)f dense wootls. reekinj^ swamps, tortuous streams broken with rapids, irrej;ular lakes, and wilderness of rock, far beyoi\d Lake Superior, in a line that twelve lunulreil miles would not measure. To the west stretches the mat^nificently fertile, but utterly ilesolate. X'alley of the Saskatchewan, w ilh verdant slopes anil navij^able rivers, up to the base oi the Rocky Mountains ; and then a vast wiKlerness of rock, woodland, and prairie, on to the l\icitic. The ne.xt settlement in this direction counts tit'teen hundred miles from Winnipeg. The only routes of travel through the country are the trails opened by the Honourable Hudson Bay Till: WARS or Till-: RIVAL COMPANIES. 147 Company for the conduct of their business in furs. In the suinintT months the trailer and the occasional travclhT (liul their way to the setthMuent in th(; Indian hark-canoe, or in h^ht fiat bottomed boats, which may l)e carried over the jiorta^es in order to pass the rapids ; or li^ht wagons and ox-carts brin^ them over the prairie. In the winter tiie sleigh is used, with horses, or pref(;rably with a lon^ train of doj^s. I''ort (iarry is th<; principal station of the Hudson IJay Company, and the seat of the former j^overnment, and has therefore become the terminus of tlieir wanderin)^ lines of travel. This strangely-isolated colony owes its origin to the ancient feud that subsisted between the Iluilson Hay Company and its French rival the North-West Company before their amalgamation. With the view of opposing the influence of the I^'rench com- pany, Loril Selkirk brouj^ht out in 1813, by way of Hudson IJay and York-I'actory, 300 Scotch fami- lies, mostly from the Orkneys. All kinds of Macs flourish to this day etjually amonj^ the white settlers anil the half-breeds. The North-West Company refused to submit tamely to this intrusion. War was declared. A conflict took place, known in the history of the Territory as the Battle of Red River, in which no fewer than twenty-two lives were lost, including that of the Hudson Bay Governor. This is the most bloody encounter known through all the wars which have signalised the history of this settlement. I. 2 .-.'fi •^•<.' "'■h 5, -.a. ',^^ ■•--^ 148 THE CANADIAN DOMINION I.; This Ijattlc is supposed popularly to have taken place in the year, clay, and hour of the Battle of Waterloo, which name has consequently found a place, through the power of association, in the memory of the people. I shall not be unj^cnerous enouj^h to attempt to disturb so innocent and natural an illusion. The troops of the Hudson Hay Company sub- sequently gained some com[)cnsatinj^ victories in the capture of various rival forts ; and finally an amalgamation of the two companies was effected, as a result of which the efforts of the allied belligerents Wiixii turned to the trapping of moose and mink, and to trading with the Indian tribes with flour and blankets for the winter furs. Peace reigned in the settlement ; prosperity followed. Lord Selkirk had brought his Scotch settlers to Red River partly on account of the amazing fer- tility of the soil, and partly because the position was a very central one for conducting the operations of the fur company. In a long line of farms with river frontage the Scotch have mainly settled on the left or west bank of the Red River, northwards from I'ort Garry to the Lower or Stone Fort, a distance of fifteen miles. The French and French half- breeds have settled on the right bank and up the Riviere Rouge. The English residents, generally old servants of the Company, and the English half- breeds, have scattered themselves along the Assine- boine for a distance of sixty miles to 1 he Portage. SOIL OF THE RED RIVER TERRITORY. 149 Speaking in general terms, no care has been ex- pended on the cultivation of the soil. In a slovenly manner, with miserable implements, its surface has been scratched over and grain sown, with a total heedlessness of any order of rotation of crops. In some instances wheat has been put into the same ground year after year since the commencement of the settlement ; yet such is the richness of the land that the farmer tells you he knows of no falling off in the quantity or quality of the crop. The peculiarity of the Red River farmer is to pitch all his manure into the river ; it is his way of getting rid of a nuisance. To save himself this trouble, however, he adopts sometimes another ex- pedient. He piles his cattle dus^g round his roughly-built log-barn and stables till the light is shut out and the wood has rotted to tottering ; then he makes a sudden escape from the accumulated filth by raising new frame buildings, or possibly by removing to some fresh tract of land. He can pre- sent, however, one single excuse for his neglect of valuable manure — the whole soil consists of a rich compost. The less said about the dwellinnf-houses of the old settlers the better. There is a complete dearth of large timber throughout the district, and the cost of transport on the rivers has hitherto been very heavy. The extensive woods on the river banks are composed of small trees growing much too densely to allow of the formation of larg'j tim'jer. ';^t^ . ■, »■■ c'. tit ISO THE CANAniAN DOMINION. In ohtaininj^ fiu,'l and wood for fences it has never been the fashion here to thin these w(kx1s, so as to let the larjrer trees jjrow to a fit size for building purposes ; but insteatl of this successive strips are cleared wliolly away— and this in pure despite of the fact that the chief disadvantajjc of the country is its scarcity of timber. Of course, no one lias ever yet been jjuilty of the prudence of planting trees. When this is done on a larj;e scale, the climate will be ameliorated, greater ihimpness secured, and the crops of the farmer reiulered as secure from early frosts as in the oliler Canadas. But though timber for buiKling is scarce, lime- stone abounds within easy access. Two or three of the many churches of the settlement are built of this, and it is used in the foundationjiof some of the woollen houses ; but no quarry is regularly worked. I'^xcellent brick-clay occurs constantly through the country ; but not a single kiln is in operation. A small attempt at brick-making was made some year or two ago. and the bricks sold readily at 3/. a thou- sand. T'our stout English brick-labourers here, with 10/. a piece in their pocket, might make a com- petency in a few years, and a large fortune, if they had wit and enterprise. A fair idea may now be formed of the character of the Red River settlers for business activity and intelligence. I am delighted to allow that a number of examples are to be found of another order of men ; but they are exceptional. It is also certain RED RIVER JUSTICE. »5» that a number of excellent virtues may be dis- covered in men who may disdain to devote them- selves to the material improvement of the country. The Red River settlers claim to be singularly moral, sober, relij^ious, and jiatriotic. I for one shall not venture to question the propriety of the claim. Hut the mode in which the jrrcat qualities of the inhabitants of Red River have displayed themselves has occasionally been somewhat singular. We should not be speaking of Red River if this were not so. Some years ago, a clergyman, found guilty of a very grave offence before the highest court of justice in the land, was sentenced to six months' im- prisonment ; but the gaol at Fort Garry was broken open by his sympathising friends, and the reverend gentleman set at liberty. One of the leaders in this brilliant cx|)loit was secured, by order of the autho- rities, and imprisoned, with the view of asserlmg the injured majesty of the law. Ikit this imprison- ment could no more be tolerated in Red River than the other. The friends of the gentleman collected, broke open the prison again, and set the captive free. From this time the Hudson Hay Company be- came increasingly anxious to hand over the go- vernment of the country into stronger hands. At a later date a professional gentleman, whose name afterwards became a rallying cry for one of the parties in the late disturbance, had the misfortune to be sentenced to imprisonment for debt Once again ;v,. ?5 <^< : I to. rsa 77/A CANADIAN DOMINION. the prison was brokcMi, and the j^entlcman quietly resunieil his position in the town of Winnipeg, under Fort Garry, without molestation. Of the one town of the settlement a word should be saiil. It is nanu>d Winnipeg, though forty miles from the lake of that name, and still more distant from the river ; but this strikes no one in the place as incongruous. It is composed of fourscore wooden buildings, tl;c stores, dwelling-houses, and barns all counted ; and no one will lightly venture the calumny that any of these show tlu? least preten- tiousni'ss of style, or betray any uiuhu; regard to outwaril appearance. The; uniformity of an Ame- rican town is happily avoitleil. The houses might very well have been shaken carelessly out of a magician's bag, who hail done with them for old boxes. It remains only to state the estimated numbers of the population. The figures are — 2,000 Pure WMiites, b'nglish -speaking Protestants. 5,000 I'jiglish Ilalfbreeds, Protestants. 5,000 P'rench Half-breeds, Catholics. Within the settlement are scattered also a few scores of semi-civilised Indians, whose bits of farms do not compare to such disadvantage with those of the whites ;is one might beforehaiul have e.xpected. These families all migrate during the summer for the chase, as do many among the half-breed popula- tion. All around the settlement, especially n<»rth OR/CfiW OF TIIR INSURRECTION. «5J ami west, roam wandcrinjj tril>cs of Saultcaux, Sioux, Swainpies, Crccs, Chippcwyans, and Hlack- fcot. TliL'sc are mostly Pajraiis, ami may number throuj^hout the whole North- West 150,000 souls. The scent! is now sufficiently i)re|>aretl before tluj reader for an account of the ht.Toic events which have ^iven Red River its fame with the Canadian and I'^n^lish public. The outside world knows the main course of the history. Under th(r j^uidance of ICn^lish statesman- ship, a transfer was arranj^eil, to In; compUtltrd at the close of 1869, of the North-VVest Territories of the Hudson Hay Com|)any to the Dominion of Canada. A j^entleman, Mr. McDouj^mII, was selected by the Canadian administration to occu[)y the j)osi- tion of tlu! first Lieutenant-(iovernor of Manitoba, the name by which a new province, including the old R(h1 River Set-lement, was to be known. At the close of iS09he proceeded by the easiest route — that throuj^h the United States — to b<: ii, ihe place of his government at the; time when, by iht." ^JuecMi's Proclamation, it should become a j)ortion of the Dominion of Canada. On November 2, 1869, Mr. McDou^all's pro^nrss was arrested at the British boundary line, by a small force of I'n.'nch half-brecxls, and he was i^nominiously driven back lo l'nit(rd States soil, in obt^dience to a brief rerpiisilion which may be <^\\vw here as commencinj.j the documentary history of the insurrection : — *..?« /^' <1 '« '» fl :i! »54 77/i^ CANADIAN DOMINION. A Monsieur W. McDougall. Monsieur, — Le Comitd national des M6t\s de la Riviire Rouge intime ;\ Monsieur W. McDougall I'ordre dc ne pas cntrer sur le tcrritoire du nord-ouest sans une permission spi^ciale de ce Comitc*. Par ordre du President, John Bruce, Louis Riel, Secretaire. Date k St. -Norlicrt, Riviere Roujje. Ce 21* jour (I'oclobre 1869. The English-speaking population of Red River appear to have been taken completely by suprise by the energetic action of their French neighbours ; but they declined to make any effective efforts for the re-estahlishment of order. Mr. McDougall waited vainly at Pembina for his friends within the settlement, and notably for one Colonel Dennis, whom he constituted his representative, to prepare by a counter display of arms for his entry within the country. The authority of the Hudson Bay Company, disrespected in the former days of peace, now fell utterly into contempt. Mr. McTavish, the governor of the Hudson Bay Company, issued a proclamation calling on the people to lay down their arms, to which no one gave the slightest heed. Mr. McDougall issued proclamations, though he was not yet constituted the governor, nor held any legal status of authority. Louis Riel issued proclamations on his side, which had the one merit of getting re- sj)ectcd. I'ive or ten score rebels — a disorderly, ill- armed rabble of French half-breeds — walked into FORT GARRY JJICLD HY THE REHKLS. 155 I'ort Garry, took possession of the cannon, small arms, and ammunition, and henceforth held the inconstant, divided, ill-armed mob of the English- speaking population at a great disadvantage. At any time before the taking of the P'ort a dozen determined men might have overawed the incipient rebellion. At any time after the capture two score of English soldiers could have retaken the Fort by a night assault, and probably without effusion of blood. Hut this c(ndd only have been done at one risk of great magnitude. It might have led to a con- flict of races through the bitter winter — a miserable calamity in an isolated province like this, cut off by distance from all interference and succour. The Indians, appealed to, as it were, on both sides, might have made an effectual clearance of the whole white population. At the very least, a deep sense of injury and of hatred would probably have been established between the rival races here which years or centuries might have failed to lemove. As the event has proved, the sensible men of each party are disposed to bury the ridiculous errors of the past in a speedy oblivion. To appreciate at all the inner history of the Red River revolt it is necessar)' to observe the excep- tional variety and intricacy of the interests that were involved. Never was tliere such a mixture of elements in such a little pot before ! No wonder it ■ ril 1'! i I ! * \ t li .1 \\ I*! 156 77/i? CANADIAN DO Af IN JON. came to spasmodic ebullition, and boiled over in wide-spread confusion. First must be named the difference of race, divid- ing the little community with natural rivalries. Next the difference of religion, separating the people into two antagonistic parties. Then must be considered the separate interests of the powerful Hudson Bay Trading Company, with its own policy to pursue and its great profits to make — an associati<»n sur- rounded, of course, with enemies, as every monopoly is sure to be. With all ♦Sis, however, it must be remembered that the isolated condition which the people here all shared tended strongly to unite all interests against the outside world of foreigners. Hut to assist the complication we must take into account the divergent interest of a number of energetic American residents, and their sympathisers within and without the settlement, who covertly or openly avowed a policy of annexation to the United States. Add still the influence of a restless but imbecile Fenian party, whose aim was to establish an Inde- pendent Republic, from which they might make wars upon Canada and Great Britain. The im- broglio is not yet complete. It is no secret that the (jovcrnmcnt at Ottawa were themselves divided as to the policy to be adopted in Manitoba. The Quebec party wtTe naturally for increasing their own influence, |)erpetuating the Catholic religion, and strengthening the I*>ench interests in the new country. The Ontario part)- were equally deter- STATE OF PARTIES AT WINNIPEG, 157 •r- mined to prevent the growth of a second Quebec in the Dominion, and set themselves in unreasoning haste to secure Protestant and English ascendency. Here are the ingredients of our olia podrida : Rivalries t)f race and of creed ; Orangeism, Ultra- montanism, Rcil-rcpublicanism, Monopolies, Feni- anism. Spread- Kagling and Annexation; and, not least active, Ishmaelism, the natural sentiment of the country. Hach party had representatives in the disturbances, while some of the prominent actors, however, represented especially themselves. It would recjuire infinite patience and the rarest powers of discrimination to determine which party acted with the most, and which with the least, in- discretion. Now, of course, each one seeks charit- ably to distribute the burden of blame among his choice enemies. The present government shows admirable sense in devoting its energi<*s to the pacification and development of the country, and in avoiding intpiiry into past affairs. The only tribunal fit to deal with these is one of Omniscience, No practical good could be gainetl by distributing e(pial doles of censure all rouml. The initial and chief blunder in the Red River affairs was, without thuibt, committed by the states- men of Canada anil Mnglaiul. The Territories, with their populations, were made over to a new govern- ment without c(»nsulling the people in the slightest ilegree. And this omission occurred notwithstanding the obtrusive fact that in recent annexations of :m • V- > 4' 'IP ]^ 158 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. territory — of Nice, of X'enetia, of Rome, for instance — a vote of the peoples was considered a political necessity. Their destiny may have been pre- ordained and \}^M pUbiscite a managed formality ; but nevertheless it was permitted in deference to an international sense of justice, and as a show, if an empty one, of rej^ard for the wishes of the people. In the present case, if, as it has since been urj^ed in extenuation of the mistake, the Governments were possessed with the conviction that the population of Red River were eager for the projected chanj>e, the more reason surely existed for allowing them an exercise of the privilege of professedly disposing of their destiny. But no commissioners were app«»inteil to inquire into the wishes of the people ; no votes were taken ; no representatives called for to express the popular feeling. It is a singular fact that no official communication of the transfer of the Territory was ever sent to Red River. No official notice was sent even to the resident governor of the Hudson Bay Ci>mpany ; nor was there any formal announce- ment made to the settlement that a Lieut-Governor was to assume authority over it, or that Mr. McDougall was on his way to his seat of govern- ment The people learnt tht; fate prepared for them through the news|)apers. The Ishmaelism of the whole community felt itself outraged. ' We are sold as a flock of sheep.' was everywhere said. The first popular expression of displeasure was made by a party which, although it afterwards con- MISTAKES OF CANADIAN GOVERNMENT. 159 sidered itself expressly loyal, publicly avowed its persuasion that, since the people of Red River had been sold for 300,000/., they ought to adopt mea- sures for securing the division of the purchase- money among themselves. A second blunder was made by the Canadian Government in a generous eagerness to improve their new possessions. A Mr. Snow was sent in the fall of 1 869 to prepare a road between the Lake of the Woods and I'ort Garry before the transfer of the Territory had been made. The Hudson Bay '-ompany and the Red River people, at one in indignation at this interference with their prescrip- tive rights, made urgent remonstrance against the premature action of the Government. A worse mistake followed. A number of surveyors appeared in the settlement, running lines through the claims of the inhabitants and marking off fresh plots. With or without reason, the people imagined that their property would be appropriatctl at the caprice of a crowd of new-comers. Ishmaelism revolted. Hut perhaps the most extraordinary mistake com- mitted throughout these transactions was the issuing of a bogus proclamation by Mr. McDougali. Wiiilc in retreat at Pembina, before the transfer of the Territory by Her Majesty, without any official notice of his actual status as Licut.-Governor, and »>f course without having taken the oaths of office, Mr. McDougali judg«!d it well to issue a Proclamation in the Oueen's name announcing himself as the "'■"til 3 ': t -. • .' » ' .^ . ■ i ■ I 1» ■ ^il ■% f ' 1 60 r//£ CANADIAN DOMINION Lieut-Governor of the North-West Territory, and requiring * our Loving Subjects of our Territory, and all others whom these Presents may concern,' to govern themselves accordingly. It is understood that on the night of the first of December, the ap- pointed day of the transfer, Mr. McDougall stole down to the boundary line and signed this manifesto on British territory. But far more than this was needed to make the thing legal. The occurrence of the disturbances had rendered a delay in the transfer imperative, in the opinion at least of the Govern- ment which Mr. McDougall served. Another extraordiiiary document of these days was this gentleman's Commission issued to Lieut- Colonel Dennis, authorising him to commence civil war in the disturbed district After a long recital of particulars, it proceeds in the following manner : — ' Know you that, reposing trust and confidence in your courage, loyalty, fidelity, discretion, and ability, and under and in virtue of the authority in me vested, I have nominated and appointed, and by these presents do nominate and appoint, you, the said John Stoughton Dennis, to be my Lieutenant and a Conservator of the Peace in and for ihe North-West Territories, and do hereby authorise and empower you as such to raise, organise, arm, equip, and provision a sufficient force within the said Territories, and with the said force to attack, arrest, disarm, or disperse the said armed men so unlawfully assembled and disturbing the public MISTAKES or 77 fE LOYAL PARTY. i6i peace ; and for that purpose, and with the force aforesaid, to assault, fire upon, pull down, or break into any fort, house, stronghold, or other place in which the same armed men may be found ; and I hereby authorise you, as such Lieutenant and Con- servator of the Peace, to hire, purchase, impress, and take all necessary clothing, arms, ammunition, and supplies, and all cattle, horses, waggons, sleighs, or other vehicles, which may be required for the use of the force to be raised as aforesaid ' — and so on to double this length. But injustice would be done to the other actors in the comedy if it were supposed that the blunders made were all on the side of the Canadian Govern- ment and its representatives. The Hudson Hay Company's officials received notice in advance of the intended attack on Fort Garry by the insurgents, and yet took no precautions for securing the place. This fault has perhaps been expiated by the loss of 50,ocx3/. worth (so the figures have been estimated) of provisions and stores appropriated by Mr. Riel and his party during their half-year's occupancy of the Fort. The Canadian or loyal party, through disunited counsels and the want of a leader, failed to do anything but make themselves ridiculous. Their impotent displays of force served to encourage rather than to check the rebels. .Some forty of tliis party, well armed, assembled in the house of Dr. Schultz in Winnipeg, while the main body gathered, and talked, and disputed at the Lower or Stone M ! -'♦ <■: .A^ ,'.♦• Li 1 '^' il^ill ii t6t T/fE CANADIAN DOAflNION, Fort, twenty miles off, under Colonel Dennis. Three separate orders were sent from Mr. McDougall's Lieutenant and Conservator of the Peace, requiring this detached force to fall back and join the main body. The orders were ignored. Out came the rebel Conservator of the Peace and the military generals from Fort Garry, with a small field-piece, which they trundled in front of Dr. Schultz's house, and waited there for a couple of days, demanding submission. On the third day the garrison yielded. Quarter was given. The forty men were disarmed and marched into Fort Garry as prisoners. This affair is known as the Siege of Winnipeg. Not one fired shot mars the glory of the victory. Colonel Dennis issued more proclamations, and suddenly disappeared from the country. Mr. McDougall wrote some more papers, and then returned to Canada. Mr. McTavish, the Governor of the Hudson Bay Company, grew more sick and ill at the indignity of his position as a prisoner in his own house, and at the miserable issue of events which he could no longer control, and eventually obtained permission to leave the country and die. The rebel party reigned. A lull took place in the tea-pot tempest. The less obno.xious of the prisoners were set at liberty. The most obnoxious of them. Dr. Schuitz, effected his escape in a singu- larly daring and ingenious manner. The self-elected Provisional Government occupied itself over Fort RIEL AND HIS ASSOCIATES. '6j in the Lious ingu- tcted iFort Garry wine with discussions on the fate to be chosen for their country. The first president, Mr. John I3ruce, was early supplanted. I found him in the parish of St. Honiface, near the Fort, usefully en- gaged in his proper avocation as a journeyman car- penter. He speaks only French, but told me that his grandfather was Scotch. His persistent idea, he assured me, had been the establishment of the pro- vince as a Crown Colony. Hut the fame of Mr. Bruce has failed before that of the triumvirate, Kiel, O'Donoghue, and Lepine. Louis Ricl was born in the province ; had shown some ability at school ; and had been sent by Bishop Tachc to the Montreal Roman Catholic College for the completion of his education. The young man, however, eventually declined to enter the priesthood, and wandered into the States for a fortune or a living. Shortly before the Red River outbreak he was • clerking ' in a store in some small State town. But he was back in Red River in good time. This young man is 'the Little Napoleon ' of Red River fame. It is not known, how- ever, to what circumstance he owes the flattering title. The Honourable \V. B. O'Donoghue, .Secretary of the Treasury, was an escaped lay brother from one of the Roman Catholic Red River schools. It is understood that he chiefly represented the I*'enian party in the insurreclit)n. The Honourable Mr. Lepine was only the Adjutant-General. It was believed, however, that he would have been made Commander-in-chief, or M i ^:^ .1i I: '1 ■i • IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V. /> (/ /jk"4L <;' <5? i /- >^/. ^ 1.0 .50 '""^ !!■■ == itt lii 12.2 I.I iii lift i ■« lllig 111'-^- III '-^ K25 V vl ^J^/ *^''^' ^ > Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WiST MAIN STRUT WMSTM.N.Y. 14580 (716)872-4503 4r ^ r"' 1 1' ■ t ; i 8 ' 164 TJIE CANADIAN DOMINION. at least a Lord Marshal, after the murder of Thomas Scott. Popular expectation was disappointed. Even at Red River courage and generosity would go un- rewarded. The Provisional Committee found time for some pieces of business. To imitate other great States, a Convention of Representatives was called at Winnipeg. It consisted of forty members. For the sake of present quiet the English-speaking districts sent delegates with the rest. By this as- sembly Riel was recognised as President of the Provisional Government, and a Chief Justice, a Secretary of State, and various other high function- aries were elected. After fifteen days of talk the Convention broke up in February 1870, having pro- duced a long Bill of Rights. And now occurred one of the greatest events of this history. The columns of the rebel newspaper, the ' New Nation,' containing the thrilling story, are headed in startling type, ' The Revolution ! Battle of Winnipeg ! ' But, as the excitement of the conflict has now passed away, I shall content myself with a condensed and unimpassioned narrative. During the sitting of the Convention the Canadian or loyal party had a second time assembled in arms — on this occasion at Kildonan, the Scotch settlement par excellence^ about six miles north of Fort Garry. Their purpose appeared to be the overawing of the Riel party, the storming of Fort Garry, the RENEWED AGITATION. 165 overturning of the Provisional Government, and the establishment of a new one of their own. But they could onlyagree positively on one thing — the peremp- tory demand of the release of the remainder of the prisoners captured in the Siege of Winnipeg. Awed by the Kildonan demonstration, the Little Napoleon agreed to the demand, and let the two dozen re- maining prisoners free. The whole country trembled to hear what desperate thing would next be done. Nothing the first day. The suspense grew fearful. Nothing the second day. Men breathed. Nothing the third day. The women laughed in scorn. The Kildc lan army, of perhaps five hundred men, broke up and dispersed. The leaders could not agree that a sufficient cause existed for embroiling the settlement in strife, with murder, and pillage, and fire. And possibly they were right. The Little Napoleon and his court of generals plucked up heart. From the wall of the Fort a soldier descried a small party of men making their way across the prairie in the snow. They were proceeding from the direction of Kildonan, and •were apparently on their way to Portage la Prairie. The conviction flashed upon some man of genius in the Fort that this was the detachment from Portage Ja Prairie that went up several days before to swell the number of the loyal army. The wild clarion of the bugle sounded ; every available horseman was urged fopward. Adjutant-General Lupine and the redoubtable O'Donoghue headed the tumultuous ♦ .^,\ m ''■ f.if ■j-4i '% i66 T//£ CANADIAN DOMINION. charge. The horsemen stood in a ring round the entrapped party. The loyalists were called upon to surrender ; they obeyed. Forty-eight fresh prisoners were conducted into the Fort. This was the great Battle of Winnipeg, fought on Thursday morning, February 1870. Once more a complete victory had been gained without the expenditure of one ounce of powder. Some remarks of a writer in the ' New Nation' may find a place here, for, rebel as he probably was, the fellow had a stroke of wit in him : — * Between 500 and 600 of the English people sprang to arms to liberate the prisoners, and about 24, all that remained, were set at liberty by the President. Thirty-six hours subsequently a whole detachment, en route home to the Portage, was gobbled up by the French. Here, then, is a summary : English prisoners released, 24 ; made prisoners, 48. If we were not a peculiar people this result would astonish us. But in this country we have learnt to be astonished at nothing. The war of proclama- tions inaugurated by Dennis & Co. has been followed up by a series of campaigns — the principal feature of which is that nobody was hurt {sic)^ A fortnight after this capture the Riel Govern- ment perpetrated their one damning fault in the cold-blooded murder of one of these prisoners, a young man named Thomas Scott. He gave offence to the petty usurpers of a little power by a dangerous firmness of character and a remarkable plainness of MURDER OF THOMAS SCOTT. 167 speech. To quote a representation made in the behalf of the rebels, ' He was very violent and abusive in his language and actions, annoying and insulting the guards, and even threatening the Presi- dent' For these offences the young man was sentenced to death by a court-martial held March 3, 1870. Until ten o'clock the next day was given him for preparation for his end. Mr. Donald Smith, a Commissioner recently sent out by the Ottawa Government, and held in semi-captivity in his own house in the Hudson Bay Company's Buildings, made the most strenuous efforts to show the rebel leaders the character of the deed they were com- mitting, and to obtain at least a delay of the sentence. Clergymen and priests also entreated in vain. * During all this time nothing could convince the prisoner that his sentence would be carried out.' On the fatal morning, the Rev. George Young, the minister chosen by the prisoner to attend him, earnestly urged delay, on the ground that the con- demned man * was not prepared to die.' An extra- ordinary piece of generosity was now shown on the part of the rebel government. In deference to this statement the execution was postponed from 10 a.m. to noon. The prisoner was then led out into the court-yard within Fort Garry, and shot down like a dog. The miserable playing at government of the rebels has a certain fit culmination in the cold- m 'If % m t68 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. blooded murder of a powerless prisoner with an aping of the forms of military law. All previous mistakes by other parties were diminished to insignificance before this malignant and imbecile blunder. But for awhile peace reigned — a very still quiet — for the people were seized generally with an invincible fear. That one murderous volley, the only shots fired in the rebellion, woke in every home echoes of indignation and dread. Riel's cause and that of his party received its death that morning in the Fort It is not difficult to conjecture the underlying reasons for this so-called ' military execution.' The rebel Government wished to strike awe through the settlement, and prevent any further attempts against their usurped authority. It was their purpose, further, to commit their party irrevocably to a policy of op- position by some deed not to be lightly passed over by the Canadian Government. A temporary success attended their plan. Five days after the execution of Thomas Scott Dr. Tache, the Roman Catholic Bishop of St. Boniface, arrived in the settlement. News of the disturbances in his diocese had been sent to him at Rome, where he was assisting at the CEcumenical Council ; and a special telegram from the Ottawa Government urged his immediate return. With extreme anxiety the prelate set out, crossed half the world, and came back to his people— unfortunately, INFL UENCE OF ROMAN CA TIIOLIC CLERG Y. 1 69 ^ith the too late to prevent their crowning bkmder and crime. It is morally certaii that if Bishop Tachd had been present Scott would have been saved. Among the French of the settlement the Bishop's influence is supreme. On his arrival he set himself to moderate parties, and to prepare for the friendly reception of the Imperial and Volunteer Expeditionary Force. It is probably owing especially to this one man's influence that the playing at war did not eventually become a grave reality, and that our NorthrWest Territory has been saved from wide-spread calamity. Having said this, I must in candour add my convic- tion that, but for the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, the Red River difficulty would never have occurred at all, or, at least, would not have attained serious dimensions. The most mischievous element in the first excitement of public feeling in the settle- ment was a wide-spread alarm that the interests of the Romish Church were to be sacrificed, and that the Catholic religion was to be forced into the holes and corners of the provinces by the horde of English adventurers that would come in with the new order of things. The priests themselves were afraid of this, and increased the alarm of their flocks. It is, unfortunately, certain that several of the Catholic priests openly abetted the acts of the insurgents ; and I have reason to know that at one moment, at least, the Catholic clergy hesitated in their loyalty to the English rule, and questioned if annexation to the United States might not be a better fate than ■''■^^ W: 'i • " , !t ! !'■ ! 170 TIf£ CANADIAN DOMINION. the treatment they were likely to receive from the Canadian Government. A month after Scott's murder, Mr. Riel issued a proclamation to the population of the North- West which is one of the choice literary curiosities in Red River history. I will quote some of the characteristic sentences : — Elevated by the Grace of Providence and the suffrages of my fellow citizens to the highest position in the Govern- ment of my country, I proclaim that peace reigns in our midst this day. Happy country to have escaped many misfortunes that were preparing for her ! O, my fellow countrymen, without distinction of language or without distinction of creed — keep my words in your heart ! If ever the time should unhappily come when another division should take place amongst us, such as foreigners heretofore sought to create, that will be the signal for all the disasters which we have had the happiness to avoid. Louis Riel. Government House, Fort Garry, April % 1870. The spring of 1870 came hastily on. Red River heard the news, at first with incredulity, of the starting of the expeditionary force. It was proposed by the rebels to equip and discipline an army in opposition. They debated on the advisability of raising the wild Indians on the line of march against the coming troops. Fenian aid was talked of, and indeed was to have been tendered, if Canada had first been conquered. It was agreeable to Fenian imbecility to neglect a practicable opportunity for LUDICROUS END OF THE REVOLT. i7« W^ EL. iver the osed in of linst and had tiian for striking a blow at England on this remote expedition of our troops, where, at some of the portages, a hundred men might have occasioned a great, or even a fatal, disaster. And of course it was the fitting thing in Red River to depend on these Fenians, and on the action of the United States, and on the intervention of the gods, and on big talk, to stop the English force. Up to the end the rebels did nothing ; the empty wind-bag of the revolution had not one last breath left in it. On August 24, 1870, at ten o'clock in the morning, the first detachment of English troops entered Fort Garry. At nine o'clock Mr. Riel and the honour- able gentlemen of his government left by the back door. Up to the last moment resistance appears to have been intended, or at least dreamt of. The rifles flung down by the rebel soldiers on their retreat were found ready loaded. But, agreeably to the peculiar genius of the Red River warfare, not one shot was fired. Little Napoleon and his army ignominiously disappeared. The farce ended befittingly ; the Red River Revolt was done. Despite the ludicrous aspect of this burlesque of a revolution, it is only too certain that at one time it threatened to involve the empire in serious difficulty. A certain party of American political agitators were in active correspondence with sympathisers within the settlement. An incursion of filibusters to aid Riel, and then to take the conduct of affairs, was by no means a distant probability. It is happily be- % ■■ X-'W »T J72 THE CANADIAN DOMINION. ! 'I'll yond question that the Government of the United States would have considered seriously any repre- sentations En