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1 2 3

32X

•^

W Jir^-'^

LOUD STKATIK'ONA AND MOKNT HOYAL

(DoiutM A. Snill/i).

'I-.

Wi !

UnXK^v;

\ r \

L(.'l 1> -^ii

'>t4nth ).

THE MAKING OF THE

CANADIAN WEST

RKINd THK

REMINISCENCES OF AN EYE-WITNESS.

REV. R G. Macbeth, M.A.,

Pantor of Augmtine Church, Winnipeg; Author o/ " The Selkirk Sfftlera

in Real Life," etc.

S$Ut^ |]ortrails nnb illustrations.

TORONTO :

WILLIAM BRIGGS,

Wesley Buildings.

Montreal : C. \V. COATES. Halifax: S. F, HUESTIS.

1898.

F ■: :

h-5

A^c f>e^ ^\^'^ ■

i3Co:o

Rntkrki) acr.irdiiiK to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year
one thousand ei^ht hundred and ninety-eight, by William
niuooB, at the Department of Agriculture.

PRH PACH.

When the fow short papors on the first
colony in the Nortli-West were pnt into hook-
form, under the tithi oF "The; Selkirk Settlers
in Real Life, " the hook received a welcome far
beyond its intrinsic deserts, because it gave
some idea of how the early settlers lived in
their homes rather than the ordinary history
of contemporary events. Letters received from
readers far and near, as well as verbal commu-
nications, have given me to feel that people are
anxious to get glimpses of the moving actors
in the human drama as an aid to understanding
the events commonly known as the history of
the country.

Fl'f'l'ol'p.

Hence, iiiuiiy who t(K)k deep interest in tlie
simple story ol' the early colony on the Ke<l
Hiver, were jinxious that ?i record of* tlu^ lile
succeeclin;^' those early days should he written
hy some one who was an eye-witness of the
change i'rom the old life to the new, as wi'll as
of the sul)se<|Uent stirring events in the forma-
tive period of West<'rn history. In answer to
these recpiests, and with a desire to preserve a
life-story of the land in which I was born anrl
in wdiich I have thus far spent iny life, these
chapters have been written. I have had neither
the time nor the desire to write a compendium
of all the events that have transpired in the
country, nor to give minute details of all I have
mentioned. I have sought rather to dwell upon
men and events only so far as a record of them
seemed to me to be relevant to my purpose, as
expressed in the title of this book. I have
simply gone back and lived through the past
again, seeing the faces and hearing the voices

Vrt'fuce.

of other days, aiul what I have seen and heard
I have lierein written.

It is hoped that the present work will
jrive a .sufficiently succinct account of the pro-
<rr»'ss of the country tln*ou<^]i its formative
staires, and at the same time have encjuj^h of
personal reminiscence ahout it to make the
dry hones of history more palatahle to the
taste of the ordinary reader than they mit^ht
otherwise be.

Should it appear to some that certain thin<;s
they deem of importance have been omitted,
such will kindly hear in mind the scope this
book contemplates, and they can till out the
incompleteness by themselves takin*; up the pen
and traversintr fields which this work does not
occupy. It is in such way after all that a com-
plete history is secured, for every man has his
own peculiar point of view, if he has realized
the meanino- of individuality. The Canadian
West has little more than l)e<run a (^reat history.

vi Vi't'Jaoi'.

m^ -^ - ■ r — — » [---■■- ■ ■

We who have lived here ahvay.s have but
heanl by anticipation,

• •

the trojul of piinieerH
Of iiHtioiiH yot to he,
riiu first low vvii.sh of wiivi's whi'iv yet
Shall roll H huiiiaii huh" —

and perliaps tlie present writin<^ by one who
was at tlie very be^iiniin^ may be ot* interest.

R. (i. MacHktii.

Wi.NMi'Ku, April, 18U8.

conti:nts.

(ilAPTKK I.

MuMingH oil the Old

CHAITKK II.

'I'lie l'iitlu»M and IVril of Chtiiige

CHAITKK III.

Aniied Kehellioii

I'AOK

:v2

CHAPTER IV.

The Plot Tlii.;kens

CHAPTER V.

Some Counter- EffortH and Their Results

CHAPTER VI.

Collapse of the Rebellion •

CHAPTER VII.
The Making of a Province

•

viii Contents.

CHAPTER VIII.

PAOR

Contact with the Outside World

115

■J

CHAPTER IX.
A "Boom" and Another Rebellion -

CHAPTER X.
Campai^^ning on the Prairies

134

153

CHAPTER XL

Rebellion at an End

1 mm

CHAPTER XII.
Religious and Educational Development

209

PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

AL ( Donald A.

Lord Strathcoxa and Mount Roy
Smith) -

Old Fort Kdmon'tok -

Louis Riel -

Ambroise Lei'ine

Ho.v. A. a. B. Bannatvne

James Ross -

Senator Sutherland -

Riel and Hls Council (1869-70)

Lord VVolseley - - . .

CJroup of Karly (Governors : Hon. A. (J. ArchiliaKl,
Hon. Alex. Monis, Hon. David Lait-d, and Sir
John Schidtz

Hon. Donald (Junn

Hon. John Norvuay

F. H. Francis, M.P.}»

Hon. Joseph Martin, Q.C

Rev. Georoe McDoudAM

Lord Dufferin -

PAOR

19
35
44
53
67
70
73
86

89
100
102
l(»s
IKJ
114
118

Portraits and Illustrations.

Hon. Thomas Greenway

Hon. Edgar Dewdney

(tabriel Dumont

Lieut. -Col. Osborne Smith

North-West Le(;islative Assembly, 1886

Chief Crowfoot

Interior of Hudson's Bay Co.'s Fort at Edmonton

(iRoup of Officers, Canadian Forces, 1885: (ieneral
Middleton, Major-Oeneral Strange, Lieut. -Col.
Otter, and Major Steele . . . . .

Interior of P'ort Pitt just before Rebellion of
1885

Chief Poundmaker

Kiel's Councillors in 1885

Tom Hourie, Scout

Hon. Hugh John Macdonald, Q.C. - - - -

LiEm-.-CoL. Williams

(iRoup OF Pioneer Cler(jymen : Archbishop Tache,
Archbishop Machray, Rev. John Black, D.D. ,
and Rev. (xeorge Young, D.D.

Rev. George Bryce, LL.D. ....

Hon. Clifford Sh-ton

Hon. F. W. O. Haultain

D. J. GoGGiN, M.A.

Hon. Gilbert McMicken - . - - -

PAQK

134
139
146
151
153
157
164

165

174
186
187
188
201
202

209
216
221
223
226

THE MAKING OF THE
CANADIAN WEST.

CHAPTER I.

MUSIXaS ON THE OLD.

It was not to be expected that the great
domain of British America west of tlie inland
sea of Superior would remain for an indefinitely
long period under the sway of a fur-trading
company, however paternal and beneficent to
those under its care that sovereignty might be.
Nor was it likely that the westward course
of empire would fail to exten<l over the vast
area which has been aptly described as the
very home of the wheat plant, and which has
become in its several parts the great producer
of the staff of life, the grazing ground for in-
numerable herds, as well as the cynosure on
which the eyes of the mineral-seeking world
are now fixed. I never have had any sym-
patliy witli the somewhat generally accepted

The Makinr/ of the Cnnadiaii West.

view tliat the Hudson's Bay Company, who
since the year 1670 had jmrtiall^^ and from
1821 had absohitely, controlled most of this
wide re<^ion, was the determined and active
opponent of its settlement and proj^ress.

Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal (Donald A.
Smith), in his excellent preface to my former
book on "The Selkirk Settlers in Real Life,"
puts the matter in such capital form that I
cannot do better than reproduce here his para-
graph on the point : "It has been the custom,"
says His Lordship, " to describe the Hudson's
Bay Company as an opponent of individual
settlement and of colonization. To enter into
a controversy upon this point is not my
purpose, but it may be proper to state that the
condition of affairs at the time in question in
the country between Lake Superior and the
Rocky Mountains does not appear to have
been sufficiently appreciated. Owing to the
difficulty of access and egress, colonization in
what is now Manitoba and the North-West
Territories could not have taken place to any
extent. Of necessity, also, the importation
of the commodities required in connection
with its agricultural development would have
been exceptionally expensive, while, on the
other hand, the cost of transportation of its

Miisiiiffs on f/ir Old.

possible exports must have been so ^reat as to
render competition witli countries more favor-
ably situated at the moment difficult if not
impossible. The justice of theso contentions
will l)e at once realized when it is remembered
that the Red River valley was situated in the
centre of the continent, one thousand miles
away in any direction from settled districts.
. . . Personally, it is my opinion that the
ac(|uisition and development of the Hudson
Bay Territory was impossible jn-ior to the
confederation of the Dominion. No less a body
than united Canachi could have acjjuired and
administered so large a domain, or have under-
taken the construction of railways, without
which its development could only have been
slow and uncertain. It was not until 1878,
eight years after the transfer, that Winnipeg
first received railway communication through
the United States. Tliree or four more years
elapsed before the completion of the line to
Lake Superior, and it was only late in 1885 —
sixteen years after the Hudson's Bay Company
relinquished their charter — that the Canadian
Pacific Railway w\as completed from ocean to
ocean, and Manitoba and the North-West
Territories w^ere placed in direct and regular
communication with the dififerent parts of the
Dominion."

Thp Mnkivff of the Caimditin Wpst.

In addition to what His Lordsln'p thus tolls
us, in a statement wliose form and contents will
commend it to every sensible person who is
at all cognizant oF tlie conditions referred to
therein, it remains to be said, from the stand-
point of the people who then lived in the country,
that so far as my recollection and information
go, they made no active effort to remove what
might be called by some the " invidious bar" of
their isolation, if we except the action of a few
of the adventurer class — a class always ready
to exploit frontier communities for their own
glory. Why should it be reasonably thought
that the people of that time, along the banks of
the Red and Assiniboine rivers and out on the
great plains, would make any special effort to
bring in the flood of that larger life which, from
the older settled portions of the continent, was
beginning to beat up against their borders ?
The conditions under which those people lived
w^ere for the most part the best they knew, and,
speaking generally, they were contented and
happy under the regime of the Hudson's Bay
Company, especially as that company did not
latterly insist on monopoly in trade. The com-
munity, before the transfer, might be roughly
divided into two classes, if we except those wdio
during the sixties had come from without into
their midst.

Musinys on the Old.

Tlu' Selkirk .settlers and those of their class
(who composed the one part) would not, so far
at least as the older generation was concerned,
l)e eaj^er for more strug<^les and wrenchinj^s.
For years after coming to the country their
life had l)een one of grim and incessant con-
flict with all manner of ditticulties. Not oidy
were they met again and again by the deadly
hostility and persecution of the North-West
Vwv Company, who were determined to destroy
thi^ colony brought out under the care of
their rivals in trade; not only had locust
plagues and e[)idemics assailed them with
ruinous force, but the very elements seemed
so unfriendly to people unaccustomed to the
climatic conditions, that uK^re than ten long
years from their first coming had passed before
they had any means of livelihood other than
the fish or fowl or products of the chase they
might ofttimes with great hardship and suffering
seciu'e. Even following those ten years they
had scarcely got their homes built and their
little plots sowed, when, after the " long and
cruel winter" of 1826, the raging Red swei)t
everything they owned before its frothing cur-
rent into Lake Winnipeg. Is it any wonder
that when they got fairly settled, the old men
who had come through this magnificent struggle

in The Mnkiiiff of the Cavfulinn West.

felt that now when tlieir sinew.s had been tamed
by age and trouble and their lieads frosted with
the unnielting snows, they were entitled to that
decade (jf rest that rounds out tlie threescore
years and ten :*

And so it was that the older of them, while
loyal to every British institution that might
be set up in tlieir midst, and while anxious to
do what was best for their children, waited in
the lengthening shadows for the sunset, and
neither clamored for changed conditions nor
took much active part in them when those
conditions began to obtain. The younger people
amongst them, it is true — many of whom, as I
have said in my former volume, had gone to
eastern institutions of learning and had come
back with some knowledge of life's possibilities
under different conditions ; and others of whom
had, in freighting expeditions, tapped the
arteries of business and got the taste of com-
mercial blood — were not averse to the incoming
of the new life when circumstances would be
ripe for its advent.

The other part of the community w^as com-
posed largely of the bois-brules — the adven-
turous hunters and traders of the time — and
these could have no special interest in pressing
for the opening of the country to the newer

Mnsinffs OH th»' Ohl.

civilization. From their cliildhood these men
had roamed over this t,neat area witli a lordly
sense of ownership. Without an}' let or hind-
rance they had followed the huttalo over the
trackh'ss prairie; they had trapped the fur-
hearin<; animals in the I'orest and on the ])lains;
they had tisheil in the ji;reat lakes and rivers,
and in the midst of it all had lived in the enjoy-
ment of a satisfying, if rude, ahundance. No
one who ever saw one of these plain hunters
come in to Fort (iarry after the season's work
on the Saskatchewan, could fail to see that he
was a person in exceedin<5ly comfortable ma-
terial circumstances. In his train he had any
luimber of carts (with ponies for each and to
spare), and these were laden with the choicest
viands in the shape of buffalo meat, marrow fat,
beaver-tail, etc., while he also had a j^oodly
supply of furs that would bring handsome
prices. Besides his ponies, he had several choice
horses of the larger breed for buffalo runners ;
and camping with his family and following in
their cosy tents on the prairie, he was as in-
dependent as a feudal baron in the brave days
of old. Under such circumstances these men
were not likely to be active in securing the
advent of conditions that would circumscribe
their domain; but neither they nor any other

chiHs of the population were predisposed to put
obstacles in the way of any incoming system
that would pay due re<;ar<l to tlie rights of those
who were in the country t)efore its advent.

Summing up tlie whole situation, then, it
would seem that things ha<l to take their normal
course, and that circumstances wert? shaping
so that in the fulness of time the West was
to come to its majority and clothe itself in the
garments of national citizenship. The number
of people from the eastern provinces who began
looking westward, and the increase of publica-
tions concerning the country by those visiting
it, directed the attention of statesmen to its
great possibilities, and prepared the way for
the movement that secured the " Great Lone
Land " as a part of the Dominion of Canada.

to put

ystein

those

en, it
oriiial
apiiii^
t waf<
in the
niiber
began
blica-
siting
to its
y for
Lone
(la.

■,*

i%:

.'.:

'?,

'..'

i'. -^

o =

ClIAPTEU IT.

I'ATIKiS ANh rKlilLS OF CI! ASHE.

TllKHK is jilwjiys a stron;;: fleinunt ol* pathoH
ill till! way ill wliich the people who have been
in undispiitLMl and ahsolutc posscHHioii of a
country, realize that liiiiitatinn.s are beiii^ put
upon tliein by the incoming of new |)opuhiti()n
and iKJW conditioiiH. A few years a<(o it was
my privile<^e to be present on an ishmd in one
of our western hikes when the Indians of the
district were assenil)led for tlie annual ti'eaty
payment an<l the usual sui)ply of rations.
Everyone knows how fairly an<l honorably
the Indians of the West have been treated by
the (iovernment, and, for the most part, by
their a<,'ents, and we all realize how the pro-
«^ress of the world and tlio <^ood of mankind
necessitate the ac([uisition of the land from
those who have not had the training or the
oj)portunity re(|uired to fully develop its re-
sources : but, withal, the scene at one of these

The } faking of the Canadian West.

Indian treaties 1ms its sadness for tlie tliou<)^htt'ul
onlooker. As the men who had once been lords
of the isles antl lakes sat meekly round in a circle
to receive each his handful of flour and piece of
bacon for the mid-day meal, one could not lielp
feelint^ that our duty as a Christian people is
not wliolly done when we bestow a meal, pay
a few dollars and provide a reservation. The
cliildren of the wild, upon whose heritai^e we
have entered, must become the wards of the
nation and the charge of the Church of Christ,
that their declining days may be cheered and
briii'htened in the noblest sense.

As one of an armed force I have witnessed
the surrender of princely Crees and Chip-
pewyans beyond the banks of the North
Saskatchewan — many of them men of magnifi-
cent mould and royal bearing — who had been
incited to rebellion by people who should have
known better. When these miscjuided men laid
down their arms and were guarded by our
wakeful pickets, thoughts of pity for their
unhappy predicament filled the minds of their
guards in the watches of the night. These
Indians must be taught by force, if need be,
the wrong of rebellion against a rightly consti-
tuted authority that is disposed to treat them
fairly : and above all, they must be taught the

-'^

??ji

Pathos (ind Perils of Chanye.

sacredness of liuinan life. But seeing tluit in
the interests of progressive civilization we have
policed the plains over which they once roamed
as " nionarchs of all tliey surveyed," that we
have placed limitations upon them to which
they were wholly unaccustomed, and which
were not provided for in their own dark code
of ethics, we ought to be more ready to follow
them with the blessings of peace than with the
waste of the sword.

These somewhat extreme examples will serve
to illustrate our opening sentence as to the ele-
ment of pathos present when people who have
iiad illimitable range begin to find themselves
circumscribed, even though this narrowing of
the field is for their own ultimate good. They
give us to understand how the white settlers by
the banks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers,
though perfectly ready to accpiiesce in the new
order of things beginning to obtain amongst
theui, would feel that a great change was coming
over the spirit of their dream. Those who know
what the old order had been realize how com-
pletely in many ways it was to be reversed, and
hence how carefully and judiciously the Govern-
ment of Canada, and those who professed to be
its agents, should have acted in bringing the
change to pass. For those settlers, once they

22 The Making of the Canadian West.

had conquered their earlier difficulties, life had
been singularly peaceable and uneventful. Its
central points outside the home, with all its
guileless hospitality and simplicity, were the
church and school, both of which bulked far
more largely with them than some people in
these days of complex society seem able to
understand.

They were without the vexation and the
heart-burning of active politics, they were
ignorant of taxation in any form, while the
rivalries that existed were in keeping with
their simple life, and had nothing of that tierce
element of competition into which the newer
civilization was to hurl them. The contests
that had been most in evidence were over such
matters as the speed of horses, in regard to
which the settlement would often be deeply
stirred, especially if the horses were owned in
ditferent parts of the colony. There was some-
times a great deal of strength put into etforts to
be tirst with the seeding, harvest, hay-cutting,
hay-hauling or freighting expeditions. It was
the ambition of many households always to have
breakfast by candle-light, that they might have
a good deal done before their more tardy neigh-
bors arose. In the matter of hay- hauling we
used to get up in the night, and going out to the

/'(ifhoii (i)ifl peril ft of CJioiii/c.

its
the
tar
in
to

yard, where the oxen had l)een tied to the carts,
grope round in the darkness to <^et tlieni hitclied
up, now and tlien pausing to listen whether we
could liear the creaking nuisic tliat betokened
the departure of our neiglibor's cart-train to
the hay swamps. Friendly contests in feats of
physical strength were very connnon. The
lunuber of bags of wheat a man could carry on
his back, the (piantity of shot-bags he could lift
over his head, the weight he could hang to his
little finger and then write his name on the wall
with a coal, the number of loads of hay he could
cut with a scythe in a day, or the number of
" stooks " of wheat he could handle with a
sickle — these were some of the rivalries that
gave zest to the simple life of the early days.
The school was another field for competition,
and on the great days of oral examination the
parents and friends were present as eager and
interested spectators of the contest which decided
who was the best reader, writer, etc., in the dis-
trict.

In the business life of the people there was
nothing tumultuous. There were no banks and
no promissory notes — on the latter of which
they would have looked with contempt as on
something implying distrust in a man's word
of honor. The general stores, either of the

24 The Making of the Canadian West.

I I

Hudson's Bay Company or of individual dealers,
were not clamorous for business, as there was
no compelling force of competition. Frequently
on going to one of these stores you had to look
up the proprietor, who, leaving tlie store to take
care of itself, was out attending to his horse,
or something of that sort. When you went into
a store there was no modern clerk to advance
with an alluring smile ; indeed, the proprietoi*
or clerk might even say that he had not the
article asked for, until the customer would
wander round and find it for himself. No
wrapping paper was used, and you had either
to bring {», bag with you, buy some cotton, or
leave your tea and sugar on the counter.

Think of a community like that being suddenly
confronted with the necessity for political strife,
with the prospect of municipal government and
taxation, with all the keen and sometimes bitter
rivalries of present-day business methods, and
with, alas, some adventurers all too ready to
take advantage of their simple-heartedness, and
no one will wonder if it took the people some
little time to gather themselves up and accom-
modate their lives to such new conditions.

But more important in its bearing upon the
reeling of the people was the sudden realization
of the fact that, after long years of undisputed

P<ithnx (tufl Per if s o/' ('hau(/f\

•_>.')

possession of large privileges on the great areas
around them, limitations were being put upon
their operations by the incoming of strangers,
who, driving stakes here and there, barre<l the
old ways and the old fields— sometimes unjustly
— against a people who could only be expected
to learn slowly that their domain must some
time be curtailed. There was an element of
pathos, and yet, withal, of sound reason in all
this, in view of which those who were bringing
in the new conditions would have done well to
exercise a caution and care they did not always
manifest. Add to this the fact that ofttimes it
was discovered that the persons who, by show of
authority, sometimes excluded the settlers from
places, had themselves no rightful claim, and
one should not be surprised if the settlers under
such circumstances w^ere in some unrest as to
the future. I remember, for instance, how the
hay meadows to which the settlers had come
for many years, with the marking out of
a " circle " as the only condition precedent to
holding all within it, were closed against them
by people who, coming from the village around
Fort Garry, desired to hold these meadows for
their own profit. If they had just claim it
was all right, but if they had not their action
was resented. The settlers, however, were

7%p, Milking of the Cnnadian West.

I !

not slow to .seize the situation, and some in-
cidents took place which showed, to the disgust
of the discomfited, that they could hold their
own. The " ^reen knoll swamp," lying between
the Kildonan settlers and Stony Mountain, was
a favorite source of liay supply, and new-comers,
finding this out, often came round with formi-
dable papers to frighten the settlers away from
their accustomed haunts. A friend of mine still
relates with great relish that one day, just as
he and the people of his immediate neighborhood
were starting into hay-cutting there, an impor-
tant-looking stranger with a large retinue of
men, mowers, rakes, etc., bore down upon him,
and with book in hand asked him in great
wrath who the people were who dared to come
upon this land, as lie wished to have them
arrested for trespass. The settler, standing upon
his mower, told him that the Gunns, McDonalds,
MacBeths, Pritchards, Harpers and Sutherlands
were visible. All these names were taken down
with tremendous emphasis by the irate gentle-
man, who expected that the settler would at
once warn his neighbors, and that he and they
would " fold their tents like the Arabs, and
silently steal away" from the coveted hay-
fields. In this, however, the new-comer was
mistaken, for the settler coolly went on to say,

Pathos (ind Per Us of Ch(in(ft\

" You have not yet taken me down in your
book. My name is Francis Murray," upon which
the man " with curses not loud but deep," see-
ing that his game was understood, took himself
away and was not again heard from.

Besides all this, some of the new arrivals,
who liad been hospitably entertained by the
settlers with their best, wrote to eastern papers
ridiculinfj the manner of life and the accommo-
dation they found amongst them, and made
reference to the dark-skinned people under the
somewhat contemptuous name of " breeds."
The number, of course, who did any of these
things was small, but their conduct offended
and estranged many who, ignorant of the fact
that sucli people were only the excrescences on
the better life of the older provinces, somewhat
guardedly awaited further developments.

In the meantime matters were shaping in the
direction of a confederation in Canada, — and
when that movement, beginning in the Maritime
districts, had spread westward, the great states-
men of all parties, dropping their minor differ-
ences, united nobly in accomplishing it, so that
in the year 1867 the older provinces came
together into one federation with provincial
autonomy in regard to certain matters. This
task once finished it would seem as if Canadian

28 The Muk'uKj of thf Canadinn UV.v/.

Htatesinen looked round for fresli worlds to
contiuer, and as the groat West was bi^ginning
to attract attention, steps were taken in the
Dominion Parliament to secure through the
Imperial Government the surrender by the
Hudson's Bay Company of their charter in
Rupert's Land. This charter they had held for
some three hundred years, and they naturally
declined to give it up without compensation
for the loss they would sustain by relinquish-
ing claim to the vast territory it covered.
Instructed by the Dominion Government, Sir
George E. Cartier and the Hon. William Mac-
dougall proceeded to England, and arrange-
ments were concluded for the transfer of the
North- West to Canada. The Hudson's Bay
Company were to receive £800,000 sterling, cer-
tain reservations around their posis, and about
one-twentieth of the lands in the territory as
thereafter surveyed, and were therefor to sur-
render their charter to the Imperial Govern-
ment ; the latter were to transfer the territory
to the Governmci t of Canada, who in their turn
undertook to respect and conserve the rights
of the people in the area thus added to the
Dominion. This arrangement was concluded
in the spring of 18G9, and it was then expected
that the purchase money would be paid on

Ptithox tinti Prrils nf i'lunui''

the 1st of October following, and that probahly
on the 1st clay oF Deceniher the Queen's
Proclamation would issue, settinfj forth these
facts and fixing the <late of the actual transfer
of the North-West to Canada.

So far all was well. The ideas leadinix to the
accjuisition of this great territory were in every
sense statesmanlike, and if carefully carried out
were calculated to be of the greatest benefit to
the people in the new territory and to the
Dominion as well. We cannot too thankfully
pay tribute unstinted to the men whose ideals
were for an ever- widening horizon, and who felt
that " no pent-up Utica should confine the
powers " of the young nation just beginning to
stretch out and exercise its giant limbs. Once
the older provinces were brought into a
Confederation it was wise to look forward to a
Canada extending from ocean to ocean, and to
take the necessary legal steps to secure the
West as part of the Dominion. But just there,
after the negotiations with the Hudson's Bay
Company through the Imperial Government
were well in hand and were being wisely con-
cluded, the Canadian authorities seem to hav^
blundered by overlooking the fact that the new
territory had a population of some ten thousand
people, who ought at least to have been

The Makiny of the Cnnn<H<in Wext.

inForine(l in hoiuc official way of tlu^ bargain
that was being made, and of the Htep.s being
taken to secure and guard their riglits and
privileges.

Rumors of the transaction eertaiidv reached
the Red River through unauthoritative sources,
only to produce uneasiness there. Before the
transfer was completed men were sent out to
open roads from the Lake of the Woods into the
settlement. Surveying parties entered the new
territory and went hither and thither, driving
their stakes and erecting their mounds, to the
bewilderment of the people, and, to cap all, a
governor was despatched to the Red River
before the old Government was in any sense
superseded and l>efore a Queen's Proclamation,
which would have been instantly recognized by
all classes of the connnunity, was issued. The
Selkirk settlers and other people of that class,
however perplexed at the procedure, had the
utmost conHdence that the Canadian authorities
would ultimately do substantial justice in the
recognition of all just and lawful claims and
privileges enjoyed by the inhabitants of the new
territory, and hence awaited patiently, though
somewhtit anxiously, the developments of time.
But the French half-breeds (commonly called
"the French" in the Red River Colony)— more

Piithitti II ml /'trifs of Chanye,

fiery and msily excited, more turlmlent of
si)irit and warlike in disposition, accustomed to
passa^'es at arms with any who would cross their
path, and withal, as a class, less well-informed
on current events than their white brethren-
were not satisfied with a com-se that seemed to
them to place their rij^dits in jeopardy, and so
they rose up in a revolt that, alas, while possibly
accouiplishing some of the objects which should
have been reached by constitutional means, left
its red stream across the pa^'e of our history.

CHAPTER in.

.1 HMKI> HEIiELl.loX.

"The French are off to drive back the
(jfovornor ! " Tliese words, .somewhat excitediv
uttered by one of my brothers, and addressed
to my father, madt^ up the first intimation I, a
hid of ten sununers, had that sometliing* serious
was on foot ; yet I recall the exact words as
distinctly as if they had been spoken yesterday,
and most of the acts in the drama of the
rebellion whose actual outbreak tht / announced
are indelibly stamped upon my memory. It
was in October, 1809, and my brother ha«l just
come home from the morning service in Kil-
donan church, over which upon that day the
shadow of the situation had been cast, perhaps
to the serious detriment of <levout and undi-
vided worship. The fact that the news first
came to us in this way throws a curious side-
light on the primitive life of the time. The
churchyard was the n: dern representative of

Avmi'd liihtflinv.

the Atlu'iiinn innrket-pljice, so far ti.s the ^ivinj^
anfl roccivinif of news was eoiu'tTucd. Tlic
settl«Miu'nt Iwul no tt'lf^^raphit! communication
with tlu' outsichi worl<l : tlic solitary j)ost-ortico
was milrs away, and mails, in any case, wen;
fow and far apart. A few (jf the people suh-
scrihed for an eastern paper, which was com-
paratively old Ijofore it reached its destination,
and th<' local paper was doul)tless often greatly
at a loss for " co})y. " Moreover, it must he
rememhered tliat in certain seasons of the year
the settlers were away froni home hayin^^
wood-cuttin<^^, etc., durin«,' tiie whole week.
Saturday evenin;^, however, they were all l)ack.
A general hinisliino-up was in order, and on
Sabbath mornin*;, except in cases of sickness or
some similar cause, they were all wending their
way in ^^ood time to the clnircli.

" VVliat's the latest news;"' was a (piestion
requently lieard, and the men often gathered in
knots in the churcliyard before the service that
they miglit get abreast of the times. Some
stay-at-home man, perhaps tlie scliool-teacher,
who was always looked upon as a species of
encyclopjedia, or someone who was in touch
with the inhabitants of Fort Garry, "held the
floor," and gave wliat informaticn he could as to
cun-ent events. The Sabbatarian ideas of these
3

34 The Makintj of the Canadinn lle.sV.

people were, for the most part, strict enough ;
but I suppose they looked on this parliament as
a sort of family gathering to talk over family
affairs, and as a general thing the news imparted
was not startling enough to disturb that air of
devoutness which they sought to cultivate when
they entered the portals of the place of worship.
But on the day just mentioned the intelligence
was of unusual moment, and, perchance, may
have deepened the earnestness with which they
joined in the prayer for the preservation of
peace to Him '* who breaketh the bow in sunder
and burnetii the chariot in the fire."

"The French are off to drive back the
Governor 1 " repeated my brother, fresh from the
churchyard conclave, and though it was the
first I recall hearing of active trouble, doubtless
the announcement was not wholly unexpected
by my father. It seemed that for some weeks
previous to this Louis Riel, who was to have
the " bad eminence " of leading two rebellions,
had been holding meetings amongst the French
half-breeds, and, doubtless, moved by others far
and near, had been delivering fiery orations in
regard to the rumored changes which he claimed
were to put in jeopardy all the rights they held
clear. It mav as well be admitted that the
situation, as they saw it, gave him

4.,

some

Armed Rebellion.

plausible ground on which to work. The diffi-
culty of conveying reliable information from
the outside world to the settlement must not be
overlooked ; but we repeat that it now seems
passing strange that the Government of Canada
did not in some way get official word to the

LOUIS KIEL.

settlers before sending forward a governor, and
letting loose in the territory some not over-
prudent persons who claimed to be the agents
of the Dominion. Had some man as widely
known and respected in the country as Donald
A. Smith, who, coming afterwards, even when
the revolt was at white heat, did so much to

The Mnkiny t\f the Comididii West.

secure peace — had such a man been sent at
that stage, the face of our history might have
been changed.

But these are large provisos; and, in the
absence of any such precautions, the signal
tires for rebellion were lit on the ba^nks of
the Red River, and called sympathizers from
out on the gieat plains. Add to the situation
as it was the fact that Riel had commanding
influence over those French half-breeds, and we
find additional explanation for the uprising.
His father, who lived many years in St.
Boniface, and was sometimes called " the Miller
of the Seine," from his having a mill on that
little tributary to the Red, had been an idolized
leader amongst them, and the son inherited
much of his innnense energy and elotjuence.
Moreover, it must be remembered that Riel's
liery speeches fell upon very inflammable
material. These men were naturally of stormy
spirit — daring rough-riders of the plains, who
brooked no interference from anyone, and who
had passed through many a conflict with their
darker brethren on the wild wastes of the West.
Once get men of that sort to feel that they are
fighting for their homes and the rights of their
families, put modern weapons into their hands,
and in their own kind of warfare they are

»y.

Armed Rebellion.

(lan<4erous men to attack. IJcin^jj of tlwit .stamp,
and heino; made to I'eel that thev were to he
trodden upon, they rose in armed insurrection:
and, as a first step went on the errand noted in
the openint^ words ot tliis chapter. No one can
defend an act such as theirs, even liad it not
led to some of the deplorable events which
followed. Though many can see exteriuating
circumstancoj, armed rebellion is a serious busi-
ness : and if there is a place for it in the present
state of the world, it is when all constitutional
means have been exhausted, and people accom-
plish a revolution in the face of some ini(|uitous
and tyrannous government. Tubal Cain's offen-
sive weapon is an instrument of last resort, only
to be taken up when every other arbitrament
has failed ; and this we say, though we agree

" That while Oppression lifts its heatl.
Or a tyrant would be lord,
While we may thank him for the plough,
We won't forget the sword."

But the case before us was far short of that.
At best Riel and his men were startini; to fiefht
the shadows of events which might never come,
even though those shadows seemed to their
kindled imaginations to be portents of dire
disasters heading in their direction. No threat

M
U
n

i-'AS

Tlie Afakinf/ of the Canadian West.

had been made agiiinst these people, and they
should have known that no act of robbery or of
deprivation of rights had ever been permitted
ultimately by the flag under whose folds they
were to be governed. Besides, they had no
right to assume to speak for the whole country
before consulting "nth others who lived in it.
Why did they not take counsel with the Selkirk
settlers and men of that class who, being of less
nomadic habits, had larger settled interests in
the territory, and who, moreover, had always
been better informed as to events that were
transpiring ? Why did they not see whether
some concerted and peaceful action on the part
of the whole population could not be planned
to attain the ends in view and conserve the
rights of the inhabitants which seemed to be
threatened ( And yet, though we ask these
questions, we cannot be justly bitter towards the
mass of the rebels at that stage. They were
easily imposed upon and led by many who
should have counselled peace, and notably by
the ill-starred man who, twenty-tive years after-
wards, selfishly offered to give up the struggle
for alleged popular rights in exchange for a sum
of money for himself. Whether Louis Riel had
all his senses or not God only knoweth, and now

Anncff liflxUlo}!,

that lie lias gone beyond the bar of human judg-
ment, we pronounce not whether in our opinion
he was knave or lunatic, or partly lioth. We
give some of the facts concerning him in the
following pages, and let the reader bring in a
verdict if he chooses so to <lo.

CHAPTER iV.

THE PLOT T///CKEXS.

{

fl*'

i! ill

The first overt act ot* rebellion was committed
when an ariinetl and oroanized force, on the 21st
of October, 1869, took possession of the high-
way near the Salle River, l)etween Fort Garry
and the international boundary. By this route
the Hon. Wm. Macdougall and his staff would
have entered the territory in the normal course
of things, but the rebels put an effectual stop
to trha programme by interposing on the one
great roadway an obstacle which the Governor's
aide is reported as having somewhat irrever-
ently designated **a blawsted fence." A fence
extending only a few yards each way across a
roadway in a prairie district that can be travelled
in almost any direction need not necessarily pre-
vent people from traversing the country, but
this one erected upon that highway was in
tangible form a declaration that the armed men
who erected it had made up their minds to

il.

Th' Plot Thickens.

oppose the ciitrancu of the new mfitiw into the
territory. At this primitive ])arrica(h' a large
body of men were camped, with liorses at hand
for service at any moment, and they let down
or put up the bars according as they viewed
with approval or otherwise the passi ; of any
wlio came that way.

It was the regular travelled route of the
freighters from the United States to Fort Garry,
and the force at the fence examined all the cart
and waggon trains. The commissariat had to
l)e supplied, and while dry goods were allowed
to pass without much detention, the articles of
moister texture and of editle description w^ere
quite freely confiscated to the use of the camp.
The mail-bags they also diligently examined in
search of documents that might furnish plausible
excuse for the uprising, and to prevent any
communications with whose contents they were
unacquainted reaching the friends of the new
regime in the settlement. The new governor, of
course, was the especial object of their search,
and every equipage about which a governo/
could be concealed was scrutinized by them as
keenly as the cars are explored by lynx-eyed
trainmen in the season when tramps are steal-
ing free rides across the country. One of the
Kildonan settlers found this out one day, some-

42 The Makiny of th' Canadinn West.

what to liis alai'in, when he tried to pUiy a
harmless joke after tlie elephantine manner
supposed to be characteristic of us Scotchmen.
It appears that the settler was bringing in
from St. Cloud a Presbyterian missionary who
was coming out for the first time to take part
in the church work of the West, and upon
their arrival at the fence they were stopped
and interrogated in the customary way. The
missionary being a somewhat magisterialdook-
ing man, it occurred to the settler that the
obstructionists were eyeing him with consider-
able suspicion, and so thinking to have some
diversion he waited for the question, " Whom
have you here ?" " Our governor," he replied.
The words were scarcely out of his mouth before
there was such a " mustering in hot haste," and
such a threatening display of fire-arms that the
settler thought the joke had gone about far
enough, and so, without nmch loss of time, said :
" Perhaps I had better explain for fear we mis-
understand each other. If you are looking for
the new governor of the country I haven't got
him, but this gentleman here is a governor in
our church." After a little parley the settler,
who was quite well known to some of the party,
was allowed to pass through w^ith the nan of
peace, the latter, perhaps, more thanknd than

The Plot Thirh'ns.

ever before that he held a coinnuHHioii I'roin
higher authority tlian that of eartlily potentates.

Every effort short of force was being used by
the local authorities, the Governor of the Hud-
son's Bay Company, and his C(juncil, to secure
a peaceable solution of the difficulties impend-
ing, but to all these the rebels turned a deaf ear,
and a few days after the erection of the barricade
a mounted troop of them, under command of
Ambroise Lepine, rode to the place where (}ov-
ernor Macdougall had come upon British terri-
tory, and warned him to leave before nine o'clock
next morning. They returned the following day
at eight to see this programme carried out,
and the Governor, having no other recourse in
the presence of arms than to obey, recrossed
the boundary line to Pembina, in the State of
Dakota.

A striking figure was this Ambroise Lepine, as
I remember seeing him in Fort Garry in the
heyday of his power (and even as I saw him at
the market-place in Winnipeg a few days ago,
unbroken by the weight of sixty years or more)
— a man of magnificent physique, standing fully
six feet three and built in splendid proportion,
straight as an arrow, with hair of raven black-
ness, large aquiline nose and eyes of piercing
brilliance; a man of prodigious strength, a skilled

i, I

44 Thr \fakitty of the Canadian Wfsf.

rou^li rider ami, witlwil, a (lan<^«'rons subject to
Jiieot in conflict. Ha liad great influence aujon^Ht
his compatriots, and ])y reason, <lonl)tles8, of his
physical prowess and strikin*^ military a})pear-
ance, soon o])taine(l control of their armed
moN'ements. No excuse can be made for his

)

AMBROISK LEI'INE.

complicity in some of the events that transpired
later, but of all the leaders of the rebellion he
was the only one who manifested anything like
manliness after it was over, by refusing to stay
abroad and by submitting to arrest, saying that
the law could take its course with him seeing
he had only done what he thought was his duty.
Speaking of that arrest by anticipation, it is

)

The /'/of Thii'krntt,

told that wIk'II the two men who were entrusted
with the (hity of executin<,^ the warrant went
to his house in tlie nif]rht, Lepine took a look at
them, and remarking' that he could knock their
heads together it' he wished, nevertheless got
ready and went unresistingly along with them.*
To revert to the barricade again, we are not
surprised to find that, as winter was coming on,
the rebels began to look around for more com-
fortable quarters, and that accordingly, on the
3rd of November, they rode down to Fort Garry,
and in spite of the protest of the Hu<lson's Bay
officer in change, entered upon possession of it,
with all its stores and abundant supplies. It is
quite well known that some (amongst them
certain old pensioners from regiments formerly
in the country) had expressed opinion that such
a movement as this would take place, and liad
ottered to garrison the fort, but there being
difference of mind upon the point, nothing was
done. Riel accordingly entered without forcibh;
opposition, and proceeded to make himself com-
fortable by utilizing the furniture intended for
Governor Macdougall; and as the provision of the
fort was ample, the rebel chief and his followers

* Lepine was tried and sentenced to death, l)ut the sentence
was commuted ])V Lord Dufferin to two years' imprisonment
and permanent forfeiture of liis civii- rights.

The Mnkhuj of tlti' Cavndinv Wrat.

worn fine linon, the best of cloth capots, silk-
workod inoccaHins, etc., and fared Humptuously
every day.

It lias been faHhionable, in Home (quarters,
to accuse the Hudson's Bay Company of con-
niving^ at this seizure and at the rebellion
generally, but the utter absurdity of assertions
like these is apparent to anyone who thinks
upon the subject. The company had parted
with their control of the country, which indeed
was, in the nature of things, getting beyond
their domination. They had nothing to gain
and everything to lose by having the whole
territory in a state of unrest, to the serious
detriment of their trade, and were certainly to
suffer a loss that could not well be appraised, by
having Riel and his following (quartered upon
thenj for )iearly a year. Besides this. Governor
]\IcTavi.sh, the head of the company in the
country, on the 16th of November, in view of the
fact that Riel had called a convention from all
parts of the settlement, issued a proclamation
denouncing in the strongest terms the insurrec-
tionary movement, calling upon those engaged
in it to disperse to their homes, and with all the
weight of his authority asking the convention
to employ, in any movement in which they
might engage to secure their rights, only such

Thf J 'lot Thicki'HH.

iiitviiis as were " lawful, constitutional, rational
and safe." I remember, too, hearing my father,
wlio visited (lovernor iMcTavish in his sick-
room about this time, say that he never witnessed
anythinff more pathetic than the way in whicli
the Governor referred to the fact that the
insurgents liad hauled down the Union .Jack
and hoisted an ensij^n of their own device with
ffeur-de-lis and shanu'ock, and liow he said,
" As I saw, through my window, the hoisting of
their rag on our old Hagstaft", I almost choked
with mortificati' ii and shame." Add to these
things, also, the fact that Riel, in the general
convention held in February, after his entry
into Fort (Jarry, made, according to the report
in his own paper, the Neiv Nation, a most
bitter attack upon the Hudson's Bay Company,
saying, amongst other things, that instead of
having the prefix " lionorable ' they should have
the title " shameful," — consider all this and the
theory as to collusion between them becomes
exceedingly chimerical.

One of the first acts of Riel was to issue,
under duress, from the Xor-Wester office, a
circular addressed to the people of the eountry,
asking them to a convention to consider the
situation of affairs ; but in regard to this and
any later convention called, if we can judge

■M

48 The Making of the Canadian West.

from his conduct as reported in his own organ,
it seems as if he wished to give the outside
world the impression that all the people of the
country were in sympathy with him, while at
the same time he was determined to have his
own way, whatever the others advised.

If it be asked how it was that the other
inhabitants of the country did not rise up and
put the rebellion down at that stage or later,
various answers might be given in the presenc.
of some abortive efforts made by certain well-
meaning people so to do. It is quite safe to say
that the white settlers, at first, never dreamed
that the movement would be carried as far as it
was eventually, and we are equally safe in
asserting that the leaders of the movement
tliemselves went far beyond their original
intention as they became the more intoxicated
with power and success. It nmst be borne in
mind that to these settlers Canada was practi-
cally an unknown quantity, and that they
looked upon the quarrel as not theirs to settle
in view of the circumstances that brought it
about.

In the report of Colonel Dennis, chief of the
staff of survey ers, and Governor Macdougall's
<leputy in the new territory, the matter is put
in concise and very intelligible shape. The

The Plot ririrkens.

Colonel Lad i»'oiio aloiiii' tlio \\v(\ River to raise
a foi'ce t) escort the new (Jovernor in, and Ik;
^dves the fo]lo\vin(^ as thi- <4enei'al expression of
feeling: "We (the English-speakino- settlers)
feel confidence in the futnre administration of
the government of this conntry nnder Canadian
rnle ; at the same time we have not been con-
sulted in any way as a people on entering into
the Dominion. The character of the new
goverinnent has l)een settled in (^anada without
our being consulted. We are ])repared to accept
it respectfully, obey the laws and bect^me good
subjects ; but when you present to us the issue
of a conflict with the French party, with whom
we have hitherto lived in friendship, backed up
as they would be by the Roman Catholic
Church (which seems probable by the course
taken by the priests), in which conflict it is
almost certain the aid of the Indians would be
invoked, and perhaps obtained by that party,
we feel disinclined to enter upon it, and think
tliat the Dominion should dssume the fcsponsi-
hility of establishing amongst us ivhat it and it
alone has derided upon."

Who is there whose calm C(3nniion-sensc will
not say that this position was a reasonable one
to take ? As to the references made in the
statement, that concerning the part taken by

l^he Making of the Canadian West.

the priests had ground in the fact that the
])lockading party at tlie Salle River were
quartered in part at Pere Ricbot's house,
that seditious meetings had been held on Sun-
days almost, if not altogether, in connection
with the church services, and that O'Donoghue,
perhaps the deepest and most dangerous of
all the rebel leaders, was studying for the
priesthood in St. Boniface. The reference to
the probability of Indian aid being invoked
and obtained is show^n to have been reasonable
by the fact that such aid was invoked and
obtained with terrible effect under much less
favorable circumstances, and against heavier
odds, by practically the same parties, some
fifteen years later, in the second rebellion.

So much in explanation of the position taken
by the settlers other than the French at the
outset. Later on, when the temper and attitude
of Riel and his followers w^ere such as to estrange
from them any sympathy they might otherwise
have had, the settlement was utterly unable to
make any successful move against them, how-
ever much the people may have desired so to do.
The rebels held a stone-w^alled and bastioned
fort, built for defence ; they held all the military
stores of the country in Enfield lifles and can-
non, and, as the New Nation said in one of its

■X

The riot Thickens.

Feln'uary iniinbcrs, tliey had all the |)0\V(ler in
tlio territory except a .small and daniai^ed lot afc
Lower Fort Garry. With all the Hudson's Bay
stores in tlieir power, a siej^'e a(^ainst the I'ehels
would have been hopeless, even thoujjjii the set-
tlers could have left their homes in the dead of
winter and camped around the fort, while to
have attempted an assault with sliotguns and
scant annnunition would have been absurd.

As an example of the kind of arms some of
the loyalist settlers were provided with, I
myself saw more than one man at the rendez-
vous afterwards in Kildonan armed only with
a bludgeon weighted with lead. We give due
credit for good intention and even for valor
to those who carried them, but to suggest an
attack upon a fully-garrisoned fort such as
we remember Fort Garry to have l)een at
the time, with sucli weapons, was certainly
giving small evidence of possessing that dis-
cretion which is valor's better part. And yet
there were attempts made against the rebels,
as we have already implied, but although
the men who engaged in them doubtless meant
well, it has scarcely required the after-light of
twenty-five years to show that these attempts
did more harm than good. They certaiidy
led to the death o.'' two excellent young men

TJk' }f((kuKi of thj> Cnnrt'Iiait ]VesL

— tin; OHO C)f the older, tlie otlier of tlie newf^r
settlers — tind to the iiit(Mise suffering of many
more ; to the exas[)er{ition of the whole situa-
tion, and to the creation of a race and creed
clcava<^e from which we have not yet wholly
recovered.

There liad been a time when a lar<^e portion
of the French po[)ulation did not follow Kiel
in his resort to arms, thou^^h they, in com-
mon with nearly all the people of the country,
felt somewhat keenly anxious as to their rights
under the incoming (Government. On looking
up records I find that my father, then a
magistrate and a mendx'r of the Council of
AssiniVK)ia (the governing body in Hudson's
Bay Comi)any <lays), seconded, with the Hon.
A. G. B. Bainiatyne as mover, the fcjllowing
resolutiim : " That IMossrs. Dease and (Joulet
be appointed to collect as many of the more
respectable of the French conniuniity as pos-
sil)le, and with them proceed to the camp of
the party who intend to intercept Hon. Mr.
Macdougall, and endeavor to procure their
peaceal)le dispersion." That the men sent failed
in their mission does not disprove the fact that
they had large loyal support amongst their own
people. Moreover, we find that after Kiel had
seized Fort Garry he was at one time on the

;

Th; Plot Thkhnis.

point of conseiitinf»' to the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany continuing;' in autliority till a committee
of French and English could treat with Mr.
Macdougall or with the Dominion direct, when a
rumor that the Canadians around were altout to
move on Fort Garry put an end to the matter.

HON. A. (i. 15. I'.AN'NA'l'VNK.

Besides all this, there was a time, even after
the rebellion ha<l iionc some lentrth, when,
through the intervention of Mr. Bannatyne, three
well-known French half-l>reeds, Francois Nolin,
Augustin Nolin, and one I\'rreault, agreed to
have a meetino- ol" ICuii'lish and Fiench to discuss
their riiihts and sen<l a statement oi' these to

■..V ■

54 The Making of the Canadian West.

Mr. Macdougall, whom, if he granted them, they
would bring into the country in spite of Riel,
It is said on good authority tliat these men with
others were aetuallv in council on the matter
when a report reached them that the Canadians,
together with the Knglish-speaking settlers, were
combining to attack the French. This seemed
to the friendly half-breeds to mean that the
French element was to be coerced without
regard to their rights, and hence, though some of
the French half-breeds never joined Riel, the
opposition ottered b}'- these movements against
him practically soliditied the great body of
them in sympathy with his position, and led
to serious conse(|uences.

These movements, however, though in some
cases irresponsibly organized, were doubtless
entered upon with the best intention on the part
of those engaged in them, and we shall give
a few reminiscent sketches of them in the next
chapter.

CHAPTEK V.

'^OME COUXTER-KFFORTS A XI) TUFAU
RESULTS.

Lauue " ifs" always stand stiffly in tlio way,
and therefore we f^ain little now by sayinf^ that
if the Hon. William ]Macdou<^all had returned to
Ottawa, instead of reniainin<^ on the frontier,
and if his deputies and at^ents within the new
territory liad been more discreet, we might have
been spared some of the deplorable scenes that
followed. The Governor on the frontier was an
irritant to the rebels, and the agents or alleged
agents within were a ferment in the midst of
the elements composing the population. Both
parties were doubtless actuated by the very
best motives and most loyal intentions, but the
retirement of the one and the silence of the
other would have left the incensed and (in
their own view) wronged rebels without any
excuse for openly assailing the residents of
the community and depriving some of their
liberty and others, alas, of their lives. The

Ill

Tho Mahiiif/ of f/ir Crtuadidn H' .s7.

I ii

Governor was ill-advised by t'riendH in the
territory, "on no account to leuve Pembina,"
and by communication between them the
uiu'easonable idea o*^ some forcil>le effort U) put
down tlie rebellion was k<'pt alive, witli tlu
irritatin<;- results already noticed. On the 1st
day of December it was expected tliat the new
turritfny would have been Cormally transferred
to Canada, and so upon that day Governor Mac-
dou^^all issued what purported to be a Queen's
Proclamation appointing him as Governor of the
territory, and another proclamation, signed by
himself as Governor, appointing L'ol. ])einiis his
Deputy within the territory, with power to raise
and equip a force wherewith to overcome the
rebellious element. No one feels dis|)osed to
impugn Mr. Macdougall's good faith and good
intention in taking this course, but it turned out
to have been taken without due authority, and
for the unwarrantable use made of the Queen's
name he was severely censured by the (Canadian
Government.

When it was discovered that what was
called the Queen's Proclamation was not so
in realit^^ the situation became more chaotic
than ever; but in the meantime Col. Dennis
thought he was justified in raising an armed
force to overturn the rebel power, and with the

Some Conntet'-Kjfm'ts u)u/ Their Results. 57

aid of otliers proceeded so to do. One of the
first results was the fj^atherinn^ of some forty-
five men in tlie house of J)r. Seliultz, in the
vilhij^e near Fort (iarry, to protect some i\ow-
ernment supplies; but this han<li'ul was practi-
cally nothini^^ aj^ainst the rebel force in Fort
(Jarry. Accord int^ly, when, a few days later,
a force of some three hundred rebels, well
armed and with several pieces of artillery,
came towards the flimsy buildin<j^, the pooi'ly
e(|uipped little garrison did the only sensible
thini; under the circumstances and surrendered
without resistance. They were disarmed and
imprisoiKMl in Fort (iarry, some, amon^^st them
Schultz himself, being placed in solitary confine-
ment.

Schultz was a man his captors feared with a
wholesome dread. For a number of years he
had been active in the affairs of the country,
especially in connection with the agitation for
free trade and for closer connection with the
Empire, and was know^n as a man very impa-
tient of restraint and in many ways difficult to
handle. Physically he was of giant staturt; and
possessed of almost incredible strength, as some
who attempted his arrest in corniection with
the free-trade and other s(|ual>bles in the
countr}' had found to their cost. I remember

Th' }fakin(j of thf Cnnadii.ii )IV'>»/.

I 1

when a boy running bcKido liim, as witli power-
ful stride he walked from our liomo to the river
wlien 1 was sent to direct liirn to
lie was to visit on a medical con-

(!•

on an occasion
a house which

snltation, and I can yet see the oars hendin
like willows in his sti'onfi^ hands as h(» pi'opelhMl
the rouoh boat against the waves. I recall, too,
hearing how once at a mec^ting in the town a
riot was f sired, and how Schiiltz, who was
soat(!d on a great home-made oaken chair, rose,
and putting his foot on one of the bars, wrenched
the chair asunder as if it hud been made of pipe-
stems, after seeing which the crowd decided that
if they were going to do any rioting they would
leave him unmolested at any rate. A man of
that physical stamp and, withal, of somewhat
inflammatory cnst of mind, the rebels thought
they had better keep apart and well guarded :
hence they placed him alone, and, as afterwards
appeared, they fully intended to put a sudden
end to his career.

But they were to be baulked of their prey.
Certain delicacies from friends were allowed
him, and it is said that in a pudding one day a
knife and a gimlet were concealed. With the
knife he cut into sti'ips the buffalo robe he
slept upon and such clothing as he could spare,
and having with the aid of the gimlet fastened

S()))i*' CountfrEllortx and Tneir H^'snltn. oD

the line thus made to the wall, he let hiinselt'
out of the window on the nif^ht of the 2lk'(l
of January. His ponderous w<M;;;ht was too
much for the slender rope, and while yet (piite
a distance from the ;,^round the line })roke
an<l the escaping prisoner came to the earth
with ^reat force, injuring- his ley" somewhat
seriously. A less d«;termined man would have
*;iven up, as thtn'e was still the hii^h stone wall
to scale, but in some way he mana«^ed it and in
due time w?is on the outside of the iort. The
ni^ht was dark and stormy, with cold wind and
whirlin^^ snow, and Schultz, somewhat dazed hy
the fall, missed his beariuii's, onlv realizino* his

' n't/ cn

whereabouts when he came on landmarks which
told him he was makinij for St. Bc^niface. That
was not \iivy satisfactory, so he turne<l nnd
nearly ran up a<j^ainst a sentry at one of the
fort <^ates 1 But by this he had found his lati-
tude and as rapidly as he could walk and run
he made his way to my father's house in Kildo-
nan, about six miles away from the place of his
captivity.

I have heard it said on ffood authority latelv
(thou<i;h I have no personal knowledtije of the'
fact), that up to that time the relations subsist-
ino' between Schultz and mv father were not
the most cordial, perhaps because the foi'mer

^H|j

Mil

Thi: J/okuHj of till'. CanaJinn W^esf,

was bitU'i'ly oppoHcd to tin; lliulson's Vuxy Com-
pany, wliilu my t'atlier would not allow anythin;^'
.said a^^ain.st the Company in lii.s presence. U'
any .such coldneH.s did exist hetwt.'en them
previous to that ni<;ht, the coming of Sehultz
for reru«^^e to my lather's hou.se was hut another
instance of tliat shrewd, rar-si<;hted knowled^re
iA' human nature for which he was always
noted. A[)art altogether fi'om my father's well-
known contempt for the alle^^ed f^overnmeiit of
lliel, he was too much of a Hi;^hlander to close
his door amiinst even an enemy when he was
wearied and hard-hunted, or else he would have
been unworthy of the nanu; that has become
synonymous with hospitality, an«l has 1>een im-
mortalized by Scott in the famous meeting" of
Fit/- James and Roderick ])hu.

I remember well the arrival of Schult/ at
our house. It was in the grey dawn, and a
cold morning- at that, when a knockino- came
at the door, wliich my father rose and oi)ened.
I can recall his surprised exclamation, " IJlcss
me, doctor, is this really you ^ " Then I can
see the fu<;itive enter, thinly clad, tall, hag-
gard and gaunt, and as soon as he had
assured liimself that there were no servants
in the house who miglit betray him, he told
the story of his escape as we have just related

Snnir CiiHnfi r /yfl'offs (imf Tin ir lirsuhs. 61

it. My fatlwi* cseoi-tiMl his ^^nicst ujKstairs,
wjitc'li<'<l oxer liiii) while he sh-jit, uiid all that
ai'toi'iioou th(! two ri'iiiaiiK'(l there, conversiii;;-
only in whisjKTs so that their voices woiiM not
)»e heanl hy any who nii^ht conio into the
house. Ajjain an«l aiiain that <lav Ixiol's scouts,
(HI their ie<l-l)lanket('<l horses, |>asse«l l»y the
door lookin/'" I'or tlieii* cscaiKMl piisoner, con-
cerninji' whom Kiel said to tlu' Kev. ( Jeori^e
Voune-, "The euards are out looUin^^ I'or him,
and they have oi'deis to shoot him on si^ht."
Meanwhile my ))rother Alexander had e()ii(»

into town and secunMl fi-om his iViends

a pa

or two of pistols, which were duly l)rou<,dit and
handed upstairs, where a wvw pro^^ramme was
made out. Schult/ was <letermined that he
would never be taken alive, hence he deci«led
that ii' the scouts entered the house h<' would
sell his life as «h'arly as possiljle an<l neither (^ive
nor take (juarter. For two days he remained
there, and on the second ni<jjht my father's
favorite horse, " Barney," was hitched up, and
the Ijrother above mentioned (b'ove the hunt(Ml
man, by an nnfre((uented road, to the Indian
settlement near Selkirk, whence, accompanied
by the faithful Joseph ^lonkman. In; made
that terrible mid-winter journey on foot to
eastern Canada. Afterwards we heard that

The Making of the Canadian West.

! 1

some of the scoutn had located him when in our
house, Imt that either out of respect to my
father, who liad doubtless befriended many of
them, or from dread of the desperate man they
were hunting, they concluded not to enter.

In after years when I heard Sir John Schultz
say that he " had still the shattered remnants of
a good constitution," I used to account for the
" shattering '" by thinking of the desperate leap
from the prison, the running with maimed limb
and scanty clothing six miles in an arctic atmos-
phere, and then the fearful journey on foot
across the rocky shores and wind-swept bays
of Lake Superior to the cities of the East.
Whether he and my father were warm friends
before or not, they certainly were after that
experience in the "City of Refuge:" and born
orator as Sir John was, he never made a more
graceful allusion in spoken words than he did
when, at the unveiling of the Seven Oaks
monument, he spoke of the man who at great
personal risk opened the door of welcome to
him in his extremity.

Meanwhile, the other prisoners were detained
in Fort Garry, Riel was taking steps to form
a provisional government, and Mr. Donald A.
Smith (now Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal)
had arrived from the East as a special com-

Some Counter- Efforts and Their Results. 63

missioiier from the Doniiniuii Goveriniient to
settle tlie existing ditficulties. By reason of liis
lont^ experience in tlie country and the great
respect in wliich he was held hy all classes, Mr.
Smith's arrival was hailed with ])leasure. ^ex-
ercising rare skill and tact, he secured from Kiel
the calling of an assemblage of all the settlers
on the 19th of January, for the purpose of hear-
ing the connnission read as to the piu-pose and
scope of Mr. Smith's mission. About ten days
before thi3 Riel had caused to be published the
slate of the so-called Provisional Government,
the principal part of which consisted in the
declaration of himself as President, O'Donoghue
as Secretary-Treasurer, and Ambroise Lepinc as
Adjutant-General.

Many racy incidi nts are related by those
who were present at the Assembly on the 19th
of January to hear ]\Ir. Smith's commission.
Probably a thou :and or more had gathered,
so the meeting had to be held in the open
air. An open-air meeting witli the ther-
mometer over twenty degrees below zero
could hardly be called a deliberative assembl}'-,
as the conditions were not favorable to ab-
sorption in the subject. Mr. Smith is said
to have refused to read his papers under the
hybrid ensign of the rebel government, and so

64 TJte Making of the Cunadian West.

the Union Jack had to be disphiyed. Then
Riel, who was l)ecoinin^^ more and nicjre of a
"megalomaniac," wishe<l to prevent tlie pa])ers
being read at all, on which a well-known srttler
caught the redoubtable Prc-iident by the back of
the collar and pulled him down the steps on
which he was standing. lliel immediately
threw ofi' his coat (which in falling sti'uck my
father, to whom Kiel, true to his French polite-
ness, even in his rage, said 'Pardon, monsieur"),
and called out tlie guard. The gates were closed
and things generally looked ugly, but finally
quiet was restored and the papers read. At the
close of the reading, on motion of Riel himself,
seconded by Mr. A. G. B. Bannatyne, it was
resolved that a convention consisting of twenty
men from the En<>;lisli and twenty from the
French side be called for the 25th of January to
ccmsider the whole matter of Mr. Smith's mission,
and to fornmlate such a programme as seemed
best for the country.

This meeting on the 19th January was the
first direct blow given to Kiel's position ; or,
changing the figure, it was the first real under-
mining of his authority, and Mr. Smith,
as Commissioner from a Government which
now showed every anxiety to do what was
fair to all classes, scored a most decided and

Some Counter- Efforts and Their Results. 65

influential victory. One cannot help feeling
now that had counter-movements against Riel
(which could not possibly succeed under the cir-
cumstances) ceased, there would have been a
bloodless settlement of the whole business ; but
the irritation caused by military movements
against him, coupled with the fact that his star
was on the wane, led doubtless to the horrible
murder he shortly afterwards committed in the
vain hope of establishing his authority beyond
dispute.

The convention of forty French and English
representatives met as called on the 25th of
January, and continued from day to day
till the llth of February. The best exist-
ing report of tLp,t convention is found in the
New Nation, Kiel's organ, which is in the
possession of Mr. J. P. Robertson, in the Pro-
vincial Library of Manitoba. The file, which
was purchased from Mr. Wm. Coldwell, the
ablest newspaper man of his time, tells an
eloquent tale even in its appearance. The first
page of it is called The Red River Pioneer, Vol.
I., No. I.; the next page is blank, and on the
following one we read, TJte New Nation, Vol.
I., No. I. The explanation is that Mr. Coldwell
was just beginning the publication of the
Pioneer when Riel came down upon him, and
6

Wit

The Makiny of the Canadian West,

vi et armis nipped it in the bud and estab-
lished with its phmt the New Nation, under
control of one of his own following. Whoever
reported the proceedings of the Convention of
Forty for the Netv Nation did it well, not only
as wielding a facile pen, but wielding it impar-
tially, since several things not at all flattering to
Kiel are preserved, We have, too, the record of
some hot passages-at-arms in which Iliel was
distinctly worsted.

The chairman of the convention was Judge
Black, head of the law courts in the territory,
a man of commanding intellect, of great forensic
ability, and such noble bent of character that
he had the utmost confidence of the whole com-
munity. During the convention we find he
made several speeches of considerable length,
in which occur passages of lofty and impas-
sioned eloquence. Next to Judge Black, whose
oflficial p ^sition gave him prominence, the most
infiuent and distinctively directing spirit was
James 1 ss, a man of singular ability, deep
learning and rare fiuency of utterance. He was
a son of Sheritt* Ross, who had been famous as
a leading man and an historian in the early
days of the country. James Ross, who was a
native of Red River, had graduated with high
honors from Toronto University, had been a

Sovfe Convtir-Efforts <nul Their Kt'tsult)<. 67

leadintjj writer on tlie Globe there, and was an
aMe lawyer. J)espite tlie slanders of adven-
turers, he is remembered as one who had at lieart
the hit^liest good of the country in whicli he was
l)orn. His legal accomplishments and intiniate
knowledfife of the Canadian constitution made

JAMES KdSS.

him a most indispensable monber of the con-
vention, and to his opinions the greatest defer-
ence was paid. Amongst the other members
were several who afterwards became prominent
in the history of the country, and who even
then showed remarkable acquaintance with
public questions.

This convention was of great importance, and

■'f

*'J

The Making of the Canadian West.

hence the full list of members selected for it is
here given, with the sections of the country they
represented.

French Representatives.

St. PavVs—

Pierre Thibert.
Alex. Page'.
Magnus Birsfcon.

St. Francois Xavier —
Xavier Page.
Pierre Poitras.

St. Charles —

Baptiste Beauchemin.

.S*. Vital—

Louis Riel.

Andre Beauchemin.

Point Coupee —
Louis Lacerte.
Pierre Delorme.

St. Norhert —

Pierre Paranteau.
Ncjrbert Laronce.
B. Touton.

St. Boniface —

W. B. O'Donoghue.
Ambroise Lepine.
Joseph Genton.
Louis Schmidt.

Oak Point —

Thomas Harrison.
Charles Nolin.

Point a Groiiette
George Klyne.

English Representatives.

St. Peter's—

Rev. Henry Cochrane.
Thomas Spence.

St. Clemenfs —
Thomas Bunn.
Alex. McKenzie.

Kildonan —

John Fraser.
John Sutherland.

St. James' —

George Flett.
Robert Tait.

t%me Counter- Effiyi'tx and Their Results. 60

St. Andrew's —
Judge Black.
Donald Gunn, sen.
Alfred Boyd.

St. PuhVs—

Dr. C. J. Bird.

St. John's —

James Ross.

St. Mary's—

Kenneth McKenzit

Jleadiniflij —

John Taylor.
Wni, Londsdjile.

St. Mar(j((ri'fs —

Wni. Cuniniings,

St. Anne's —

George Gunn.
D. Spence.

Winnipeg —

Alfred H. Scott.

As there are some people even to this day
who claim that Riel was loyal to British inter-
ests, though anxious about the privileges and
rights of his countrymen, it may be worth while
to give a few extracts from the report in his
own paper: " For my part I would like to see
the power of Canada limited in this country ;
that's what I want." " England chose to neglect
us for one or two centuries back, and I do not
suppose we are under any very great obliga-
tions to keep her laws." " For my part I do not
want to be more British than I can help."

Amongst the incidents of the convention we
notice in the report an attempt on the part of
Riel to rebuke Mr. John (afterwards Senator)
Sutherland, of Kildonan, who hotly replied that
he had been giving his time all winter without
fee or reward to efforts for the good of the

70 77i6 Makinif of the Canadian West.

country, that he was tliore to speak for the
people who sent him and did not propose to be
taught his duty by Louis Riel. At another
point three of the Frei^ch half-breed representa-
tives, Nolin, rvlyri' ^ino Harrison, incurred the
displeasure ol llii I \-}7 voting against a motion

SKNATOK SUTHKRLAND.

he had submitted suggesting that the Hudson's
Bay Company be ignored in all bargains made
as to the transfer of the country. Nolin replied
defiantly, which so angered Riel that he made a
number of unaccountable arrests during the few
following days, and even started out after Nolin,
whose relatives, however, were so numerous,

{

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Some Countt'v- Efforts and Tloir Iiesuifn.

powerful and determined tliat Kiel desisted in
time to save himself from annihilation.

In the convention every phase of the country's
future was discussed, and every (juestion from
railroad construction to a standin«( army was
canvassed. A very elaborate Bill of Ri<^hts was
framed and submitted to Connnissioner Smith,
who replied on behalf of the Dominioi vn- ern-
ment as far as he was able within tl sc ; o of
his commission, after which he invi^'^ 1 he con-
vention to send delegates to confor ith the
authorities at Ottawa. This jn !at'on was
accepted, and thus an important stage of pro-
gress was reached. One cannot study closely
this portion of our country's history without
feeling what a lasting <lebt the country owes
to the courage, tact and patience of Mr. Donald
A. Smith, who has been so deservedly raised to
the peerage for his eminent services to the
Empire.

It was not within the province of the conven-
tion, nor was it contemplated in the summons
calling it, to take any steps towards confirming
or approving the Provisional Government that
Kiel had already formed, but the oj^iortunity
was too good a one to be lost, and so he intro-
duced the question when the oiher business was
concluded. Most of the Enolish delea'ates at

72 The Making of the Canadian West.

once took the position that they liad no instruc-
tions from their constituents on that point, and
that therefore they could take no action upon it
that would bind those who sent them to the con-
vention ; but Riel was anxious to have the matter
pressed so that he would seem to have the appro-
val of the country. The representatives froin
Kildonan, John Fraser and John Sutherland,
declined to be parties to it till it seemed in the
interests of present peace. They, having no
time to consult their constituents, went to see
Governor McTavish, and he, wearied with the
protracted strife, said : " Form a government of
some kind and restore peace and order in the
settlement." And so with that end in view the
delegates, without professing to bind their con-
stituents, consented to the formation of a Pro-
visional Government, whose personnel as to the
chief officers was as stated above, though there
was some hot feeling in the convention over
continuing Riel in the presidency.

'II

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CHAPTER VI.

COLLAPSE OF Till': liElilCLLlOX.

\VuK\ tliu Convention of the Forty adjourned
they left such organization as undertook to carry
on the government of the country, and from that
time President Riel and liis Council becan)e the
body that aliened to have the ri*,dit to make and
administer law in the connnunity. Concurrently
with the adjournment of the convention nearly
all the remaining prisoners were released. The
(juestion as to why the English-speaking mem-
bers of the convention did not refuse to sit
except on the condition that they would all
be released occurs most naturally here, and the
only possible reply that can be given is that
they had agreed to meet with the French and
discus the political situation, and that if they
had withdrawn the latter w^ould have remained
and give n the business whatever turn seemed
pleasing to themselves, regardless of the views
and wishes of any other portion of the com-
munity. But on the close of the convention

i 73

ill]

74 The Makbir/ of fhf Cdwidlan Wf^^f.

!•'

tlie me'ijority of the prisoners wore relccaHccl,
and in all probability there would have been
a general gaol delivery had not some develop-
ments taken place outside. Another warlike
expedition began up the Assiniboine River, in
Portage la Prairie, High Bluff, Poplar Point,
White Horse Plains and Headingly, and a body
of men numbering seventy-live or eighty, poorly
enough armed, started on the march, intending
to rendezvous at Kildonan an<l enlist the settlers
along the Red River in the movement. The
occasion of this was probably the delay in
releasing the balance of the prisoners, and, on
the part of the leaders, a certain amount of
impatience with existing conditions. On the
way down several of the houses were searched
for Riel, who sometimes visited them, and iliough
certain of those engaged in the search claimed
that they only intended to hoVi him as a hostage
for the release of the remaining prisoners, others
openly '■idid they would have made an end of
liim.

When this was reported to Riel he was once
more at white heat. Many of his men had gone
to their homes, but runners were quickly sent
out, and until the counter-movements ceased
Fort (Jarry was garrisoned by between six
and seven hundred well-armed men — a force

Collapse of tJie Rehellion.

li)

HO great as to render attack by tlieir poorly
armed opponi'nts on the stone-walled, bastioned
and artilleried redoubt utterly futile. Never-
theless the body of men above referred to
came on to Kildonan, where the most of them
bivouacked in the historic church and school. 1
remember well when thev arrived at the school,
the morninij;' of, I think, the 14th of February.
The younger fry amongst us thought the
whole thing a splendid idea, on the same
principle that actuated the boy who fiercely
rejoiced at the burning of his school because
he did not know the geography lesson.

To the older people, doubtless, the situation
was much more serious, and large numbers of
men, not only from Kildonan, but also from
St. Paul's, St Andrew's and St. Peter's, gath-
ered together to discuss it. The consensus of
opinion amongst them seems to have been
that any movement of the kind contemplated
would not only be futile, for the reasons
above given, and likely to end in a useless
shedding of blood, Init that it was als(3 inop-
portune, inasmuch as the species of union
effected between the opposing parties by the
convention just h<'ld would be the most certain
means of preserving peace until tiie Dominicjn
Government, with whom the dek'gates from

<-i\

"'!'.

The Making of the Canadian West.

that convention were treating, would take the
whole matter in hand. In the meantime, those
assembled at the rendezvous received every
hospitality from the people of Kildonan, who
entertained as many as they could in their
homes, and provided food for those quartered
in the church and school.

On the second day after the arrival of the
party a very distressing incident took place
in the shooting of one of the most prom-
ising young men in the parish. I remember
as it were yesterday how onje of the neighbor
boys rushed into our house, exclaiming,
"John Hugh Sutherland is shot!" and how
the news fell upon us likt, lead. It ap-
peared that on the night bifore a young
French half-breed named Parisien, suspected
of being one of Kiel's spies, was takon prisoner
by the men in the school-house, and the next
day, when out with a guard he made a dash
for liberty, snatching a double barrelled gun
from one of the sleighs as he went. He ran
swiftly down the river-bank, and there met
young Sutherland, who was riding on liorse-
back toward the school. Parisien either feared
that he would be intercepted, or perhaps he
hoped to get the horse and so escape ; but
at any rate, he sliot at Sutherland full in the

C<>/fnp.'<e of the RehelHon.

breast. The horse swerved and the rider fell,
but Parisien continued on. Lookintx back, he
saw Sutherland rising to his feet, when,
without stopping, he swung the gun over his
shoulder (such was the deadly skill of these
men) and discharged the second barrel, the
contents entering the back of the unfortunate
youth, wdio staggered and fell upon his face.
Strong hands raised him and bore him to the
hospitable manse of the Rev. John Black, near
at hand, and on Sutherland's recovering con-
sciousness and seeing the venerable face of his
old minister, his first words were, " Pray for me."
He lingered on into the night, and then one of
the brightest lives of his time went out into the
unseen with the prayer upon his lips, not for
vengeance upon his murderer, but for mercy
upon all. Meanwhile the horse, w^ith empty
and blood-stained saddle, had run back home
to carry the tale to the parents ; while the
desperate spy, narrowly escaping lynching,
linfjered on to die from natural causes a few
months afterwards. The effect of this kimen-
table affair was sobering in the extreme, and
revealed, as by a startling providence, what
might be the fate of others and what untold
sorro\v^ might come upon many homes without
a'lo([uate cause and without connnensurate
results.

7.S

The J/nkin;/ of the Catiddian West.

iii

Some incssa<^es passed between Kiel {in<l tlio
.'isseniblud force, and it seemed to be understood
tliat the latter liad liberty to return to tlieir
homes without any let or hindrance, and that the
prisoners still ludd would be released. Accord-
ini^dy, those <^^at]iered at Kildonan dispersed
t|uietly to different parts of the parishes north-
ward, but those from up the Assiniboine, who
had bet^un the movement, did not fare so well.
I have heard it said that Kiel was an<cered at
tlieir exliibitin^" distrust of his word by making
a detour to avoid passing Fort Garry, instead of
going home by the usual travelled highway, but
1 think the story extremely improbable. It is
more likely that he was enraged because some
of those in the party were for the second time
engaged in efibrt against him, and because, as
referred to above, he had a livelv idea of wdiat
might have befallen him had he been found by
them on the way to the rendezvous. Whatever
the reason may have been, the upshot was that
as this handful of men w^ere making their way to
their homes across the deep snow of the prairie,
the\' were intercepted by a large force of Kiel's
men, mounted and well armed. No resistance
was made, as it was represented to them that
Kiel wisiunl to see them at the fort, and they
aover <h'eamed of innrisonment. In any case,

Collapse of the Jiehellion.

neither in numbers nor e(|iiipment would they
have heen any niatcli for tlie rebels : but from
personal ac(|uaintance with many of those men,
1 feel sure that if they had known the indi<^nii-
ties they were all to suffer, and if they could
have seen the causeless and cruel mui'ch'r of one
of tlieir number, they would have made then
and there a last desperate stand against the
enemy. As it was they went (piietly to the
fort, wliere to their surprise they were " thrust
into the inner prison," and several of them —
Boulton, Scott, Powers, McLeod, Alexander and
(jleorge Parker — were specially sin<j^led out and
the sentence of death by shootin<^ susjiended
over their heads.

Kiel was exceedi'i<^ly desirous of securing" the
recoirnition of the Pnjvisional (fovenniient bv^
the En<;-lish-speakin<jj settlers, and took this
method of forcing;* their hand, promisi , to
spare the lives of these men if all tlic ttle-
ment would fall into line and send epre-
sentatives to his "parliament." This, or the
sake of peace, 8i)ecial Conuiiission* Smith,
aided by the clerv^y of various denominations,
persuaded the people to do, and but for this it is
exceedingly probable that Riel would have begun
a series of murders whose end no one could
foretell. CV)ncerning JJoulton (who way a) do

\ I V I

• 'it!

The Making of the Canadian West.

I !

signal service in the field against his captor
fifteen years later), Riel remained obdurate, and
indeed decided that he sliould be shot on the
night of the 19th of February, as having been
the chief military director of the counter-move-
ment. It has not been generally known, but the
fact is that Boulton's life was finally spared at
the intercession of Mr. (now Senator) and Mrs.
Sutherland, of Kildonan, who had known Riel
from his childhood, and who had come almost
direct from the grave of their slain son to plead
for the life of the condemned man. Riel was by
no meancH without heart, and when he saw the
earnestness as well as the grief of the parents,
who had been 30 recently bereaved but who in
their sorrow were thinking of others, he said,
placing his hand uj)on the shoulder of the
mother, " It is enough — he ought to die, but I
will give you his life for the life of the son you
have lost through these troubles."

And still the clouds had not all lifted. Riel's
"parliament" met on the 26th of February, and to
this, in the interests of peace, the English-speak-
ing settlers, true to the promises they had made
Commissioner Smith, sent representatives, who
began forthwith to enact such legislation as the
requirements of the time demanded. But there
was withal a sullen feelinfj of unrest in the

C of lapse of the Rebellion.

country, and a growing, even though unex-
pressed, discontent with the continued domin-
ance and arbitrary methods of the so-called
President, who played fast and loose with
pledges and had such utterly un-British views
as to the liberty of the subject. Doubtless
Riel felt this atmosphere and tried a desperate
remedy to change it, when on the 4fcli of March
he caused the wanton murder of Thomas Scott,
one of the prisoners.

I recall the first announcement of this tragedy
made at a meeting in the Kildonan school by
one who had come from Fort Gt try that day
— " There's been a man shot at the fort." That
was all, until questioning drew from him such
information as he had been able to gather ; and
that Riel had taken a mistaken means of
impressing the settlers with his absolute
authority was evidenced by the imprecations
invoked upon his arrogant insolence. It is
true that no means of taking steps to put an
end to his lease of power were at hand, and as
the best means in their judgment of keeping
a madman quiet, the representatives of the
settlers continued to sit in Council with the
Provisional Goverinnent : but from that time
the sympathy of the English-Kpeaking people
was completely estranged, and many of Kiel's
6

:ai

'The Makiny of the Canada ' Wast.

own class openly repudiated complicity with
him in the killintj; of Scott.

Kiel's paper, the New Nittiori, styled tlie
murder of the young man a "military execu-
tion," and " re<^retted its necessity," which was
sai<l to be on account of Scott's alleged (juarrel-
some spirit which led him to insult tlie guard
and even defy the Presi<lent himself. There is
no need now to canonize Scott, nor to claim
that he possessed all the virtues and none of
the vices of life ; but so far as we can gather
from those who knew him well, he was a young
man of rather (^uiet habits, indisposed, as most
men of Irish blood are, to be trodden upon, but
not given to aggressive and unprovoked offend-
ing. Perhaps it was more by what we call
chance than otherwise that he instead of
Parker, or some of the others, was singled out
for slaughter by the man who hoped through
his death to strike terror into the community.
It seems almost incredible now that after a
mock trial, without any specified charges
against the prisoner, without any opportunity
for defence either in person or by counsel,
against the protest and pleadings of the Rev.
George Young, Connnissioner Smith and others,
a British subject in a British country should
have been condemned to death and shot in the

Co/lapse of the lii'hi'lUini.

most brutal and bungling way at a few hours'
notice.

However peacefully inclined one may be, he
cannot picture the scene of the shooting and
see this young man led out blindfolded to the
shambles without feeling his blood move in
fiercer thrills, and without ada{)ting to the
situation the sentiment of a verse written long-
ago in another connection :

" Had I been there witli swurd in h.md
And Hfty CfuneronM by.
That day through high Uunedin's streets
Had pealed the sh)gHn cry.

"Not all tlieir troctps <>f trannjling horse
Nor might of niaded men,
Not all the rebels in the South
H;td b(»rne us backward then.

" Once mure his fi>ot (Mi Highland heath
Had trod as free as air,
Or I, and all that I led on,
Been laid around him there."

Certain it is, as we have said, that from that
hour the n.ajority of people, however much
they felt themselves obliged to remain passive,
utterly disapproved of Kiel's course ; and some
there were who told liim to his face that for

I'll

The Making of the Canadian West,

that and other reasons they would have noth-
ing to do with hiui. Of this hitter number was
my fatlier, as I recall from an incident that took
place on the Queen's birthday, 1870. On the
20th of May, as appears from the files of the
New Nation, he, with one or two others, was
appointed by the Provisional Government a
magistrate for the Fort Garry District. On
May 24th the Queen's birthday was celebrated
near Fort Garry with the usual sports, though it
had been extensively reported that Riel was to
seize the horses brought there for the races that
he might have the best mounts for his cavalry.
In the afternoon of that day I remember stand-
ing with my father on the roadside (now Main
Street, Winnipeg) opposite the post-office, then
kept by Mr. Bannatyne. It was quite custom-
ary in those days of limited correspondence and
primitive postal facilities for the postmaster or
his assistant to go out with a letter after anyone
to whom it was a<ldressed, as otherwise it might
remain there uncalled for during many days.
On this occasion Mr. Dan. Devlin, the assistant,
seeing my father across the road, came over and
handed him a large official envelope which had
been recently dropped in the office. My father
opened it, read the contents, and said to me,
" We will go up to the fort." The envelope

Collapse of the RfbeUion.

contained liis coniuiisHion from the Provisional
Government as magistrate. He said little to
me about it, as I was of but few years at the
time ; but I remember that, as we drove in
through the gateway of Fort Garry, the guards
were very polite to him, and one was detailed
to hold his horse. My father went straight to
the council-room, where Riel was found, and
laid the commission down before the President.

" What is wrong with that ? " asked Riel.
" Isn't it properly signed and sealed ? It is
intended for you."

" I suppose it is properly signed," said my
father, " but I do not wish to keep it. The fact
is, Mr. Riel, I do not recognize your government
as having any right or authority to make
appointments like this. I am already a justice
of the peace by the Queen's appointment through
the Hudson's Bay Company, and so do not desire
to keep this document, which has to me no
value."

Riel seemed rather nettled, but brushed the
paper aside with a " Very well, please yourself ! "
and then began to talk on other matters.
Amongst other things, he said : " We had a
Council meeting last night, and were talking
about the soldiers who are coming from Canada.
Poor fellows! they will have a hard time of it.

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Th- Makirnj nf the Canndian Wt'.sf.

They will not reacli hero till the winter, and
we were thinkin^^ of sendintr a party of men
out to meet them with snowshoes." At this
stage my father remarked that tliis would be
needless trouble, as he thought they would be
here sooner than some people wished. This did

LOKD WOFXKLKY.

not seem to improv^e matters much, and so
shortly afterwards a somewhat ceremonious
good-bye was said, and we drove away, the
guards with much civility turning the horse
and leading him out through the gates.

The summer w^ore on without much excite-
ment, the prisoners having been all released,
and the settlers going on with their usual work,

Co] laps)' <t/ thf! Rf'hi'Ulon.

while all the time looking eagerly for the
troops. The first «k'tachinent of these, under
Col. Wolseley (now Conmiander-in Chief of the
British army), arrived in the district on the
24th of August, when they came up the river
and camped near Kildonan on their way to
the fort. Many of the settlers went down to
see them, but once they got within the picket
lines they stayed there, nmch to their surprise,
all night. Col. Wolseley, so far as he knew, was
in the enemy's country, and was not going to
run any risks from possible spies ; hence every
man that came within reach was held and ex-
amine I by him. Of course, the people who were
satisfied as to their own loyalty and knew noth-
ing of militar}' rules were considerably incensed,
and one of the older men of the Selkirk settlers
is said to have waxed perilously near the pro-
fane as he wrathfuUy assured the gallant
Colonel that he was just as loyal as that com-
mander himself. Wolseley, however, remained
provokingly unmoved, and so quite a number
of the settlers remained in " corral " till next
morning, when he moved on to Fort Garry. I
remember the day as one of drenching rain, when
partly by boats on the river and partly by land
as mounted scouts, the soldiers proceeded to the
rebel stronu'hold. A iroodlv number of the

88 The Making of the Canadian West.

settlers followed in their wake, expecting to see
a " clash at arms," but they were all doomed to
disappointment on that score, for when Wolse-
ley's men reached the fort they found that
Kiel, O'Donoghue, Lepine and the rest liad
vacated in favor of the new-comers the very
comfortable (juarters they had occupied for so
many months.

II- '

Hon. A. C. Arcliiltalfl.
Sir .lohii Siliult/.

lion. AU'X. Morris.
Hon. Ihivid Ltiinl.

EAHLY rJOVKRXOHS OF THE WEST.

CHAPTER VII.

THE MAKING OF A PHOVIXCE.

With the leading historical facts concerning
the formative period immediately succeeding the
first rebellion most of our readers will be more
or less familiar, but they are only the centre of
a great deal in the life that was unique and
peculiar. On taking possession of Fort Garry
Col. Wolseley very wisely refrained from assum-
ing a military dictatorship, but called upon Mr.
Donald A. Smith to act as the administrator of
Government until the arrival and installation of
the Hon. Adams G. Archibald, the first actual
governor of the country under Canadian rule.
The interregnum was not altogether devoid of
excitement, nor were indeed many of the suc-
ceeding days commonplace or monotonously
quiet.

For the maintenance of law and order a
mounted police force was organized under com-
mand of Capt. Villiers, of the Quebec Rifles,
and as this was the first regular police force

I I I

The Makiiuj of the Cnnaduin Wnnt.

in tlie West, and as some of tlic nieinbers in
after year.s became prominent and wealth}' men,
we crive tlie list in full : \V. F. Alloway, James
Cross, William Montj^omery, Timothy Carroll,
Edwin Doid^e, Elijah Ketts, (ieor<je Kerr, John
Melanson, John Stevenson, Le(m Hi vet, George
Nicol, H. M(mt«^omery, Robert Power, Maxime
Villebrun, W. Miller, John Paterson, Andrew
Persy, Neil McCartliy, Michael Fox. These
policemen had no sinecure, as may easily be
imaj^ined when the condition of thint^s is
consi<lered.

The Kjldiers, release<l from the struggle of
the half-military, half-voyageur life they had
led for the past few months, were more or less
disposed to take advantage of any opportunities
that oH'ered themselves for the somewhat fast
and furious pace allowed by the codeless life of
a frontier, and as they looke^d with some bitter-
ness upon the half-breed population, as on those
whose compatriots had imprisoned many and
murdered one of their countrymen, conflicts
more or less sharp were not infrequent on the
streets of the straggling village. In one case
a French half-breed, who had hot words with
some of them in a saloon, was chased by an
excited crowd to the river, and was there
drowned in eflbrts to escape from them, though

Tht' Mahimj <(/' a /^rorlw'f.

it was not likely they would liave <loiu' him any
HerioUH injury. On another occasion a hu^'e
(Irunnner had a ])itche<l hattle on the stnu't with
a PVench halF-hreed of colossal size and stivnj^th,
who, however, having' nevei- heen trained in the
" manly art, " 8uccumbe«l to the superior skill of
the new-comer.

One of the results of this latter encounter was
that the aforesaid drummer established a noto-
riety as a fi<^hter, thereby comin*,^ into demand
for the stormy political meetin^^s of that primi-
tive time, and more than once have I seen him
alert and I'eady to ply his pu^^ilism at the
signal of his political leader. Meetin<^s of the
kind in<licated were not infrequent, «as nearly
every aspirant for political lea«lership was
accompanied on his stumpintr tours by a " bully"
with such help as he could gather, and I
remember once seeing a meeting pass off
peaceably, owing to the presence of the big
drummer on the one side and an ecpially
redoubtable cham])ion on the other, each fear-
ing to provoke active hostilities.

The beginnings of political life \vere crude
enough. (Jovernor Archibald simply chose a
small " Cabinet " somewhat representative of
the English and French elements in the com-
munity, then a census of the new province was

't,.

The Making of the Canadian West.

rapidly taken, a (HHtri))ution into constituencies
was made, and the first election to the Local
Legislature held. The Province was named
Manitoba after the lake bearinjr that name, the
word being derived from two Indian words,
meaning together " the straits or narrows of the
Great Spirit, " and though usage has placed the
accent on the third syllable, it should properly
be pronounced with the accent on the last.

As "first things" are always of interest in
later days, it might be well to say that the
census in 1870 showed a population of 11,963
in the new province — of whom 1,565 were
whites, 578 Indians, 5,757 French half-breeds,
and 4.083 English half-breeds. There were
6,247 Catholics, 5,716 Protestants, and the
nationalities of the whites were as follows : 747
born in the North- West, 294 in eastern Canada,
69 in the United States, 125 in England, 240 in
Scotland, 47 in Ireland, 15 in France, and 28 in
other countries. The first local election was
held on the 30th December, 1870, and the
following is a list of the members elected to the
first Legislative Assembly of the Province of
Manitoba, with the constituencies they repre-
sented :

Bate St. Paul Joseph Dubuc.

Headingly John Taylor.

Thfi Making of a Provhicc.

Hitjh Bluff . John Norquay.

Kildonan John Sutherland.

Lake Mdiiitithft Angus McKay.

PopUtr point David Spencc.

Portmje lit Prairie F. Bird.

8t. Aijaihe (Jeorgo Klyne.

St. Andretr's North Alfred Boyd.

St. Andrews South E. H. G. G. Hay.

St. Anm J. H. McTavish.

St. Boniface East M. A. Girard.

St. Boniface West Louis Schnii«lt.

St. Charles Henry J. Clarke.

St. Clement's ThonmH Bunn.

St. Francois Xarier East . Pascal Breland.

St. Francois Xarier West. Joseph Royal.

St. James' E. Burke.

^7. Norljert North Joseph Leinay.

St. Norbert Sonth Pierre Delorme.

St. PanVs Dr. C. J. Bird.

St. Peter's Thomas Howard.

St. Vital A. Beauchemin.

Winnipeff Donald A. Smith.

The first regularly constituted Government
consisted of the following members :

Hon. Henry J. Clarke, Q.C., Attorney-General.
Hon. Marc Amable Girard, Treasurer.
Hon. Thomas Howard, Secretary.
Hon. Alfred Boyd, Public Works and Agri-
culture.

Hon. James McKay, witliout portfolio.

' I

'ii

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Tin'. Afokim/ of On C'oninfinn Wisf.

bl I

It was Home yc^JU'H before |)arty politics eouM
be <levelo|)t'«l, and henc«', durin;^ the meetiti^s
al)ove referred to, tb«' «|UeHtions di.scUMsed were
of a vtiyy local eliaracter, and in tlie end tlie
can<lidate wbo had the hirj^est family coiniee-
tion in the nei;^hltorhood was <;eiierally I'lecb'd.
For Honie time rebellion echoes were iieard at
all the meetin^'H, like the war issues in United
States |)(jlitics, and in t]?e Kn«^lish-speakin;^
constituencies any suspected complicity in the
misdeeds of the j)ast and any heresy as to the
amnesty of the rebel lea<lers would contribute
powerfully to the overthrow of the suspected
party. These meetings were not without their
humorous side, and ofttimes somewhat peculiar
situations arose out of the unfamiliarity of the
settlers with the methods and expressions of
parliamentary debate. I recollect once when a
school-teacher had framed a motion and ma<le a
speech as to the leniency with which we should
view those who, as mere dupes, had been (h'awn
into the rebellion, that the reporter ^ave out
that he had made a motion as to the hrutes who
liad <ijone into tlie rebellion. The chagrin of the
school-teaclier may be ima<^ined. I also recall
seeintr a man who ha<l occupied the chair during
a meeting leaving it in high <ludgeon on a motion
to vacate, which he was not aware was made

77/'' Mitkimj n/' It /*rnritit'i'

'.>:»

pn'punitory to mo iu<; liiiii a vuto of tluinks.
On iinotlx^r occiiHioii oin' oinhryo stutoHimin, who
was lioiiHn;; bct'oie his a\uliriic«' tlie hope of
Hotiio cliant^t' in j^ovorninental methods, an<l wlio
sou<^ht to clinch his spt'ccli hy the use ol* a
proverb, <;ot tlie two sayings, "Every (|o;r luis
his (hiy " and " It's a lon*^ lane tliat has no
tni'nin^" sli^litly mixe<l,an<l vehemently assurtMl
the people that " It was a lon^ do^f that had no
turninjf."

The votin;^ was all doiiQ openly, and hence it
was not surprising that in the older settled
districts an election threw apples of discord into
re»;ions where formerly the inhabitants had live<|
ill peace and (|uietness, while the ties which
fre(juently occurred during the polling-day sent
the pulse of the connnunity uj) to fever ])it(h.
Canvassing was of the most personal kind, and as
we then had no legislation in regard to corrupt
practices to reveal the sin, it was considered a
sign of n»eanness on the part of a candidate not
to ])rovide a somewhat elaborate meal at every
committee meeting, and ample refreshments
in some house near the ])olling- place on elec-
tion day. Kiots were not altogether unknown
and at the Hrst election in Winnipeg wagon-
spokes were freely used, the Chief of Police was
rendered /tors de comhaf, a printing office was

The Making of the Canadian West.

li^

wrecked, and finally the military had to be
called out to overawe the noisy multitude.

When the first legislature met, it could not
reasonably be expected that the same dignity
and decorum, the same acquaintance with par-
liamentary methods or the same breadth of
statesmanship would be manifested as in older
lands. The appearance of the early House was
peculiar and characteristic of a transition stage.
I recall seeing in the old legislative chamber
men clothed in the faultless Prince Albert black
beside men in a curious compound of the old
and the new, having the long curled hair of
raven hue, wearing the moccasins to which they
had always been accustomed and which cer-
tainly had the advantage of silence over creaky
boots ; coats open, displaying the colored flannel
shirt without a collar, and across the waist,
picturesquely slashed, the French belt or sash
commonly worn on the prairies. The literary
education of some of these men had been of the
scantiest, and when one day a n ember sent a
note across the floor asking a member of the
Government to move the House into a " com-
mitty of the hole," it was taken jocularly as a
deep-laid plot to entrap the Executive unawares.
In a case under my own observation a newly-
elected member, whose sudden elevation had

Th>' JfttliJif/ of n Prnrinr«\

induced thr too free use of stinnilants, was
inakiuiT liiiusclf so ohjioxiors tliat lie had to
be sliarply called to order l»y the S})eaker with
threats of expulsion from the precincts. 'I'he
nieniher, unahashed, told the Speaker, in efiect,
that he (>u<;ht to renienibei' the ])riniitive con-
dition of thin<;'s in the country ; and desiring
to injpress the Speakei* witli the fact that
thoun;]! he (the ineinher) was not a tinishecl
stat(*sinan, he was fairly representative of, if
not superioi* to, his constituents in attainnicnts,
said : " Vou may think I am a fool, Mr. Speaker,
but I am not such a fool as the people v.lio sent
me here:" in which savinn- the mendier Ituilded
better than he knew, an<l aptly descril)ed what
has])ecn witnessed fre(|uently enouoli in political
life.

That early House, too, had, in tlie person of a
mend)er of oreat avoirdupois, an inveterate
iokcr, who, beinu;; somethinofof an artist, used to
sketch his bdlow-niembt-rs in their various
attitudes and confront them with the pictures
that the}' mii^ht see themselves as others
sa\v them. Xotwithstandinu^ these peculiariti(Ns
much soli<l work was done and many a thrillini,^
speech made. The foundations were laid in
much iijood le;j;islation, and sjiecial attention
was oivc'i to the reliijious, educational and

1* {

''■ i

The Making of the Canadian West.

benevolent projects of the time. Back there
the enactments that gave rise to the famous
School Question were passed, though it is no
secret now that the House had no intention of
committing the young province to the dual
system of schools abolished by the famous
statutes of 1(SJ)0. Proceedings were conducted
in the Legislature, the courts, etc., in both
English and French for many years, and one of
the most impassioned and elocpient speeches of
the time was made by a Frenchman on behalf
of retaining his mother tongue in public and
official use : albeit that same speech was made
in English, and the absurdity of wasting time
and money in using two languages in a British
coimtry, where all who took an intelligent in-
terest in affairs spoke English, soon became
apparent. Moreover, it was found that while
the appropriation was duly made, there were
cases in which the French printing of the. pro-
ceedings was not done for years after the sessions
of the House. There was, too, a somewhat ridi-
culous side to the matter. Speeches from the
throne were always rea<l in both languages.
Some of the governors could read in both ;
others, who only read English, had the good
sens(^ to hand the speech for reading to the
French clerk ; but when English-speaking gov-

■

Th'' M<(ki)uj of a Prnri

nrr

01)

eriiors, for fear of shatterin*; tho Constitution,
persistt'cl in reading' tho Frencli speech witli
En^ijlish pronunciation, the effect was so distress-
iniT tliat the French themselves were doubtless
ii'lad when their beautiful laniiuajxe could no
lon«,a^r ])e nian<j^led so heartlessly before the
public.

Chan<;es other than the abolition of the dual
lauiiuao-e system were also made at an early
date. " Dualities" have had a hard time in the
West, for shortly after the be^iiniini;- of our his-
• tory dual re[)resentation in local and Dominion
Houses had t(j succumb. Next in order the
" Uppei* House " was foi'ced to <;'o.

The Le<4islative Council (as our " Cppei*
House" was called) had come into existence on
the 10th March, IJSTl, and was composed of the
followin<j^ j^entlemen appointed by the Lieuten-
ant-Governor in Council: Hons. Donald (iunn,
Francois Dauphinais, Solomon Hamelin, Colin
Inkster, Di*. J. H. O'Doiniell, Francis 0(^letre<'
and James McKay, the latter bein<( Speaker
of the House. This institution, intended, I
sup[)OHe, as " a check on hasty le(^islation," was
not easily ainiihilated, for the members in full
enjoyment of its titles and emoluments were
not likel\' to approve any bill for theii* own
decapitation: but after some new ;ipj»ointments

! }

li'

■li

riia

100

Till' Mokimj of ill'- Cciitiifitnt, ]Vtsf.

the body finally lapsed out of existence l)y tlie
castin<^' vote of the Speaker. It was only hy
decrees tliat tin,' party element came into
western politics. The natives of tlie country
had no hereditary tendencies in that direction,
luit nr.'Khially tlie presence of Fe<leral ditter-
ences bei^an to he felt in local circles, and under

v.-

ll(»N. DONALD (MNN

that pressure men were soon found arrayed in
opposin*;" lines of battle. Amono-.st the politicians
of the early yeai's were many who had won
their spurs in the older provinces, and whose
names will be in memory there; but of those
indiii-enous to the soil of ^lanitoba were several
who took a prominent part in shaping the

Till' Miik'itK/ of a Prorinri'

101

(k'stinies oF thoir native lan«l, an<l around these
more especially interest for our present purp(jse
centres.

In this number by Far the most prominent
and powerful ti^^ure was that of John Nonpiay,
;• man who ma<le liis inlluence felt far beyond
provincial bounds. He was what was called a
Scotch half-brl'ed, unitin<i: in himself the strain
of the Orkneys with a mixtui'c of Indian blood
which he was always proud to own. He was
educated whollv at the Anuflican school and
colle<re at St. John's, through the benevolence
of the Church, became a school-teacher in early
life, and at the tirst local election became a
member of the Local Leoislatui'*', and so n;-
mained till his death in 1801. For some seven-
teen v<-'iiis he was a member (jf the (Jovermnent,
and durin<; nearly all that time he was First
Minister of his native province. Physically, he
was a man of tremendous si/e and strength,
standino- some six feet three in height, and
broad r»nd stron*^ in proportion. As an indica-
tion of his physi(|ue, I recall seeing* him at a
political meeting, when a fi<;ht was innninent,
thrust himself between the cond)atants, who
found themselves as much apart as if a rock
ha<l dropped between them. He nuist have
been a dili<^ent student to secure the' complete

' 1

ill

10"J Thr Mdkiiitj of tlw Caiuulinn West.

inastt'iy of Englisli he manift'sted in his public
adiJi'e.s.se.s, as well as the thorou^di ac(juaintaiice
with public (juestionH that <;ave his speeches
authority. As a speaker he was at his i.vjst.
He had a voice of clear and resonant force, and
a fluency which carried everything before it
without de<i;eneratinir into wordiness, while his
vocabulary was that of one who had <^ained it
by wide reading and keen study. I heard him
speak on almost every kind of theme, on a great
variety of platforms, and never knew him to
disappoint the expectations of liis listeners.
Wherever he spoke in the native parishes he
would naturally have a specially sympathetic
audience ; but as an example of his influence
on other audiences, I remember hearing him
speak with great effect in nn immense hall
in St. Paul, Minnesota, on the occasion of a
concert given there during an ice carnival
by the St. (George's Snowshoe (Mub, of Win-
nipeg. He was on his way home from
Ottawa to Winnipeg when we secured him
at St. Paul, knowing that his presence would
redeem our concert from possible failure. The
gathering of several thousands was representa-
tive of many parts of the United States, that
nation of public speakers, and they looked with
somewhat critical gaze upon our burly Premier

IIOV. JOHN NOHt/L'AV

The Mnkimj of a Pro vine f\

103

when lie was introduced as an extra on the
proj^rannne. He had no special text i^iven him,
but dwelt chiefly upon the tViendly relations
and close connection which had alwavs subsisted
between the Red River colonists an«l the cities
of the western States, whence he passed to the
wider (piestions of international fellowship,
evokinjr rounds of applause by the rollin«^
periods of his ehxpience.

In his home life, John Norcpiay was a lov-
able man, and 1 have more than once seen him
lay aside the cares of state and play like a
school-boy with his children, who clambeied
delightedly upon his stalwart person. His
tenure of political power closed in 1(S80, when,
weakened from without by conflicts with the
Federal authorities on (piestions of provincial
rights as to railway advantages and other
matters, and from within by the overcrowd-
ing of government departments by men to
whom he was too good-natured to say " no,"
he resigned the premiership into the charge
of Dr. Harrison, who shortly afterwards
met defeat at the hands of the Greenwa}-
Martin forces. At the next session, Mr. Nor-
quay returned to the House as leader of a
" corporal's guard " in Opposition. His s])(M'ch
in self-defence, as he stood almost alone like

: n

101

77/'' Mnk'nuj of tlir Caiindhin Wrst.

a W()Uii(l('(l Htaj^ at bay, I'ciiinins us tlio one
j)aH.sa;4(! oi* ^rmiliu' and lol'ty ('l(H|n«'nc(' that has
('ch()('(l ill tlif Iialls of our I^coislaturo. In tliat
spcceli In; reviewed his loiio- ti'iiiirc of otlicc,
without clainiin;^^ iiirallil)ilitv, hut showiujL;" how,
witl» ahusuhint o[)|)oi'tuuity Tor rin-icliiu;;- hini-
Hcir, ho lia<l suiT('ii<h'i'('(l in coinparativ*' |)ovuity
the seals ol' ollice, ami dcelarin;;" how he was
satisfied in hcin;^^ able to hand down an unsul-
lied name to his children. Durin*;' the delivery
of his s|>eeeh a member thou<^htlessly tainited
him with his Indian blood, and few will l'or»;'et
the thrillin;;ly dramatic etiect of Mr. Nonjuay's
action as he thi'ew up his hand to reveal the
dark skin of which he said \w was pioud, and
how he sent l»ack with stunninii- force a rebuke
for the unhappy sneer.

Not many months after that INFr. Norquay
died of a sudden inlhunmation. The recol-
lection is yet vivid of how the news sped to
the starth'il hearts of the peopK', €T,nd of tlie
way in which, re<^ardless of party, they united
in mourninjx foi" one who had done siirnal
service t) the Province in which he was ])orn.
The (Jreenway (Government <^ave him a state
funeral, and friends all over Canada contril)-
uted to the erection of the handsome monu-
ment which stands over his dust in the old

'A>

The Mtiki)iu of a l^mrinc*'.

105

jijravoyanl at St. John's, No t-laini is nuulc l»y
anyouL' that lie was a raultlesH man, nor even
that lu! t'ouM luive tak«'n the hi;;li('st phicc in
till' highest Hpherc, luit fonsith'rin^ his oppor-
tunities and the hitent'ss of* the hou»' in his life
when he came, witliout any experience what-
soever, into tlie new career of polities, .fohn
Noi'(|Uay's name stan<ls as that ol' one of the
most remarkable men we have yet seen in
Canada.

Beside Mr. Xonpiay for some years in |>nhlic
life stood another of the native-horn, the lion.
A. M. Sutherland, a brother of the youn^- man
who was shot by one of Kiel's spies during- the
first rebellion, as already recorded. One of my
tii'st recollections of Sutherlan<l <^()es back to a
day at the Kildonan school in 1870, when a Ijoy
came over to the icy play-<:jround and said,
"Aleck Sutherland has come to attend school."
When the bell rani; and the school assemblrd
we saw, with the admirino- nraze of small l>oys,
a powerfully l)uilt, broa<l -shouldered, athletic
and handsome man, wIkj had come back to
school after years of absence with the view
of receiving higher education and going (jn to
the legal profession. And so in that school, in
Manitoba College and in Toronto University he
pursued his studies to graduation, and in due

I ,

•A.

^1
1

: :

1
i i

' 1

: '

)•

•mm

lO*) 77/'' Mah'ni'f nf' lltt: ('nHttilinn W^fMf.

[

tinic was ndmittiM] to tlir practice of* law in
\Vimli])(';,^ Duriu;; l>is law stu'lics lie nm Tor
tlu' Local liC^islatiii't' in KiMoiian, his hirth-
])lac<', was clcctcfl and iT-drctcd, holdiii;; the
scat till his death in 1884, and in tlu; nicantinic
occupyiiifr the posts of Attorney-! Jcncral and
I'lovincial Secretai'V with marked success. His
most outstandini,^ characteristic was a manly
straiehtloi-wardne^s which made him a universal
I'avorite, a fair, it' loreiblc opponent, and a factor
in a political contest that no one could i«,niore.
His untimelv death cut short what would douht-
less have been a notable cai'eer, and the letters
from all (piar^M's that poure<l in u])on his sor-
rowin*»" parents, to the si/e of a small volume,
were an index of the esteem in which he was
held far and wide.

At the time of tlu; death of Mr. Sutherland,
John MacPjeth, an almost insei)aral)le personal
friend, held the position of Clerk of the Execu-
tive Council, which he; unselfishly resio-ned at
tint call of his lea<ler, Mi*. Nonpiay, to contest
the constitui'ucy of Kildonan, he bein<i^ also a
native of that parish. He was elected for tlie
unexpired term, and returned acrain at the
following' election, holding* the seat till a redis-
tribution took place, when lie, witli e(|ual loyalty
and unselfishness, retired in favor of Mr.

Thr Makitnj ii/' II J'nirini'f.

lUi

Xc)rt|uay, who contestrd tlu* nrw «li\i.si()n. His
wiiniith of heart coniplctrly disaniinl the |M'r-
Honal enniitv ol' his l)ittert!st political oppmieiits.
so tliat when the news of his death, whieh took
plaee in Octoher, 1.S07, reached Manitol>a. there
were fonnd aniontrst his most sincere mourners
many to whom he had stood diametiically
(jpposed on many a hotly contested poiiticjil
hattletield.

In the history of every count I'V there ai'e
found the names of some who have apparently
taken hut a small part in puhlic athiirs, and are
soon forgotten in the rush of events, hut who,
nevertheless, formed an imj)ortant link in the
chain of the country's pro<,n'ess : and as 1 look
hack over tlie death-roll of Manitoha, the some-
what ohscure name of F, H. Francis apjx'ars as
one occupying' this uni()Ue place. Mr. Francis
was an En<j;lishman hy hirth, an educate* 1 and
cultured man, and a fhient s[)eak«'r as far as
delicate health permitted. When Mr. Noi'tpiay
resigned the ])remiership in favor of his
colleague, Dr. Hai'rison, the latter took into his
Cabinet as representative of the French element,
Mr. Burk, a merchant at St. Charles, who
offered himself for re-election in the constitu-
ency of St. Francois Xavier. To (Appose him
with all the Government presti<(e ami patrona<j;e

-nr

>M»JMiaii» fhlTltlfTimifUli ir

108 The Makiny of the Canculian West.

at his back .seemed a forlorn liope, but tin; then
Opposition persuaded Mr. Francis to make tlie
effort. It was in Mr. Francis' I'avoi' tliat lie was
ecjually at home in .speakin<( En^di.sh or French,
and that as a merchant within the con.stituency
he i)ersonally knew nearly all the electors. It is

"^1

HON. K. II. FKAN(IS.

almost certain that he was the only man at that
time who could «;ain sufficient support from the
different elements to defeat Mr. Burk, as he did,
to the orreat surpri.se of the (Jovernment.

By that defeat the Harrl.son (Jovei'nment was
overturned, the present Greenway administra-
tion took office, and ere lono- the famous school

Till' Mnkini/ <>/ <i /'rurinn'.

100

'11
le

li,

(|\U'sti()n, whicli cliaii^ctl the political face of
all Canada, came into heino^. 1 have had many
conversations with people who took ]»art in that
election, but there seems to he a <;reat (liver<r-
ence of o[)inion as to what actually took place
in regard to this special matter. It ap})ear.s
cei'tain that for some reason or other the
IFarrison party assured the electors that if the
(Jreenwav l»artv succeeded the French Romfin
Catholic Separate Schools would he aholished,
and as to what the (Jreeiiway party sai<l in reply
there is remarkable lack of unanimitv. What
reallv took place duriii<:; the election is matter
of controversy, but not many days elapsed
thereafter before Mr. Joseph Martin, the
Attornev-Ceneral in the new administration,
announced the intention of the (lovernment
to abolish Separate Schools and inaugui'ate
,•1 national system, which was accordingly done
by the now famous Act of 1890. The St.
Francois Xavier election, which was won by
Mr. Francis, was the pivotal point in the whole
matter.

Another of Mr. Francis's achievements was
tne buildinn- of the ])eaf and Dumb Institute,
now one of the best ecpiipped institutions in
the Province. At an early staije in the session
he secure<l a commission to take a census of

: i

■

no Tic- Mdkiii'j of th' Canadian Wei^t.

the deaf and dumb in the Province, and there-
after, even at his own expense, secured rooms
and a teacliei', but lived to see this work for
the unfortunate on wliicli lie had set his heart
an accomplished and successful fact. And so
with <jnly a few months of political life, for

HON. .lOSKl'll MARTIN, (,•.(.

which he had no special love, Mr. Francis was
able to briuii' about chauiies with results of
extraordinarily far-reaching character. Other
names of those who took part in the formative
period of our history readily occur, but of these
1 hav(^ little personal reminiscence, while any
detailetl sketches ot* our living statesmen on
both sides of ])olitics are omitted for obvious
reasons.

Th'' MakiiKj <>/' a /^-orinrr.

Ill

Aiiioiif^'st the Dominion statrsnion wlio hnvv
^^one from us tlu' nann' of tlio late 8ii* flolni
Sclniltz survives with tlie foremost hv reason of
his comman(lin<r ability and his close connection
with the most stirrin*^ events of <»ur history.
What we have already wi'itten in rc'ranl to him
will g'ive some idea of his strikiui^ appearance,
his loyalty, his indomitahle will and courai;»\
But we would l)e <^ivin<j^ an imperfect poi'trait
of him did we not cause him to stand out in the
memory of the country Ik; love<l as a man of
culture and refinement as well as of courami an<l
strength. As a puhlic speaker he excelled hy
reason of his pei'fect coolness, his musical, well-
modulated voice, his choice 1 iniiuairc and clear-
headed statesmanship. As a member of the
House of Connnons he exerted ^reat inthience
on all legislation affecting this country, and did
much to direct the attention of Canada to the
great domain now being opened up in the far
North-West. The knighthood conferre<l upon
him was a fitting recognition of tlu' perils ami
sufferinii's he had undergone in the country's scr-
vice, to the complete ruin (jf a onc<' s[)lendid
constitution. While Lieutenant-( Jovernor of
Manitoba he did sin^nal servic*' in the way of
inculcating lessons of pati'iotism amongst tlu;
school childi'cn of the l'r()vincr, as well as by
throwing the full weight of his influence on tlu'

■ : •■

00iegitttmmtui

112 7'hi' Mdkin;/ (ff flic ('on<t(/l<iv, IIV.sV.

side of temperaiice and other moral I'efoniis.
In private life lie was courtly an<l <iji*aoeful,
considerate of the comfort and feelini^s of those
he met, and from an ahnndant store of informa-
tion always a ready and interesting^ conver-
sationalist. From intimate intercourse with him
in the closing years of his life I was ^iven to
feel that he was realizinij: to the full the earnest-
ness of life with all its opportunities, and the
solenniity of l)ein<^ called upon to exert an
inHuence on one's day an<l jxeneration.

Hack somewhat farther in the history of the
West we find the name of the late Hon. James
McKay, of Silver Hei<;hts, as one who, in the
interests of Canada, wielded a marked influence
on the comitry when it was passino- from the
old to the new. He was what we call a Scotch
half-hreed, his father a Scotchman who had
taken a share in one of the Sir John Fraidvlin
expeditions, and his mother havin<; the hlood
of the Frencli and the Cree in her veins. As I
rememher James McKav, in the last decade of
liis life, he was a man of innnense size and
weight, but his width of shoulder and general
strength were so extraordinary that he ^Cciiied
to carry himself lightly enough. From early
custom on the plains he always wore moccasins,
an<l I have seen somewhere a note by a traveller
who met him in the corridor of a hotel, and

The Makiiiij nf ti /'rot'liiri'

\:\

who coiiM not help contrast in<^ the sol't footfall
of the niaii'iiiHcu'iitlv niasKivc man with the
noisy step of sonic fnssy little hody who j)ass<'(l
with creakin<4' boots at the sjinic timo. McKay
was a nicnihcr of sonic of the early Cahinets,
and afterwards Speaker of the Le<;islative
Conncil in jManitoha, but his conti-ihution to the
national history was not made so much in le^-is-
lative halls as out on his native prairies in
connection with the treaties arrantred l)etween
the Government and the Indians all over the
West. He knew the Indians and they knew
him, hence he became a medium of communica-
tion, ensurin*;' the conclusion of treaties wise,
liuniane and lasting;;. The Dominion will never
wholly realize liow much of the comparative
peace she has enjoyed on the vast plains of the
West she owes to the statesmanship of Gov-
ernors Morris and Laird, aided by such men as
James McKay, the Revs. John IVFcKa}', Georf^e
McDou(;all, Father Lacombe, and others whom
the Indians loved and trusted The last time I
recall seeino* James ]\IcKay was din-in;,^ Lord
Dutierin's visit to this country in 1(S77, when in
Deer Park, near his own place, McKay was
master of ceremonies in a reception to the
Governor General which took the form of a
wild- west entertainment. McKav had a butlalo
8

[: ' 1

: ri-i

i ji i i i jiUtt i

114 7'hfi Mok'nuf of tJtp (.'(otof/inn Wpsf.

herd there, witli bronclio-brcakers from the
frontier, and as the inaKsive man drove his
famous cream horse liere and there t(j regnhite
matters, tlie Governor-General perhaps realized
the peculiar value of having such men to stand
between tlie old life and the new — a fact to

REV. (JEORCiE M'DOrCALL.

which he made reference afterwards in many a
public address. Throuoh the action of a limited
number of them, many people think of the
name " half-l)reed " only in connection with
western rebellions, whereas the real history
shows that the presence of men with Indian
blood in their veins has been a most important
factor in the peaceful making of the West into
a part of Canada.

CHAPTER VITT.

CONTACT WITH THE OUTSIDK WORLD.

»^

From tliu ciirliest times tlu; (|U<*.sti()n of coni-
iiiunication with the outsi(h3 world liad hceii ;i
burning i)robleui. Tlie first settlers, who had
bef»'Uii their isolation by t'ailin*^ to hear ol"
Waterloo lor loni»; months after that famous
battle took place, had become more or less
reconciled to living "far from the madding
crowd's ignoble strife.' These pioneers grew
content with the bi-annual trip to York Factory
for merchandise and mail, and with the commerce
and communication that percolated through the
western States. They were not (juite so solitary
as uhe Hudson's Bay Company's officer at a
remote point, who received his copies of the
London T'lineH once a year with the annual
packet, and who began always at the farthest
back number and read right through to get
abreast of events, though even then he left ott"
about a year behind. But while the condition

115

',\t\

f .,

•f

110 Tin' Mnklnq of Uir Cannilian West.

of th(3 first .settlers was, soon Jiftor their arrival,
a little better than his, it was not wholly
satisfactory to the <jjrowing colony on the K(.'(l
River, and especially was it unsatisfactory to
those who in the sixties be<^an to come more
rapidly into the settlement. Hence, as soon as
the rebellion had (piieted down, people be^an
to look around for inlets for population and
merchandise and outlets for produce. The old
steandtoat, Hat-bottomed and stern- wheeled, was
one of the prized institutions of the time. It
ran from near the " head waters " in the western
States down the Red River to Fort Garry, and
on rare occasions down past the lower settlement
to Lower Fort Garry. These latter occasions
were reddetter d-iys for the connnunity : schools
were dismissed while the boat was passin<^, and
f:jrown-up people <,^athered on the bardvs, greet-
inu* her with shoto;un salutes, and elicitinfj
responses from the boat whistle, to the half-
terror, half-delight of the children. When
merchants began to open stores in some num-
bers on the present site of Winnipeg, the
advent of "the first boat" after the long winter
was the goal to which the hopes and the long-
ings of people most turned. The merchant of
to-day who has "just sold out," but assures the
customer that he has some of the desired goods

Contact irith the Outside Wnrf I.

117

the

Dods

" on the way," is distinctly of tlic sjinie j;»'nus
UH the ancient and veracious mercliants of
\Vinnipe<^, who invariably assci-ted conceniin;^
everythin<^ that they did not have on liand,
that "it would be in on the first ijoat." Some
mathematical t^enius, who peihaps desired to
keep liis mind en;^ai^e<l in arithmetical ;^ym-
nastics durin*:" the lonj"" winter, made much
in([uiry lor (^oods, keepin;;' note of the stereo-
typed reply, and towards spi'in^" ^^ave in miles
wliat lie considered the dimensions •)!' " the first
Itoat" would be if the pnjmises of the merchants
lia<l any tangible foundation.

One of tlie Mrst in(hcations we had of swiftei-
connnunication with the outside woi'ld was the
erection of telegraph poles and lines across our
farms in the early seventies. The proceedings
were more or less shrouiled with that mystery
anrl occultness which pnnokes the iiKpiiiy of
boys ; and like the man who, seeing the electric
li<dit for the first time;, womlered "how they
could get sucli light from a hairpin in a bottle,"
we used to wonder how men sent messam's on
tliose wires twisted round a 'bottle" at intervals.
We tried to examine as far as ])o.ssible, and
althoutih warned as to the daiiiicr of m(!ddlin<'-
with the strange machinery, son»e boy of sur*;
eve and hand wouM kn<jck one oC the "bottles"

Hi '

11:

lis Th>' ^flll^ln^| (tj thf Cnuntlinn ]Vi''<f.

off ocTsisioiiallv ; but it refused to viuM U]> tlio
secret of tele<^rru|)liy, and repbiciiif^' it. we would
take our seats upon the fence and watch whetiu'r
any of the darin<^ birds that took tlieir places
on tii<! wires would be " shot " by the passin;^'
telegrams.

LOKI) DIKKKKIN.

IJy de<^-rees railroads pushed their way west-
ward through the States to the boundary line,
and the Pembina brancli of the Canadian Pacific
Railway v/as built to connect witli Winnipeg in
187>S. The first spikes in this road were driven
in Septend)er, 1S77, by the Governor-General
and the Countess of ])utierin, whose visit in that
year to the North- West marks a new era in the

Contact trit/i thf Outnidi' Wio'/d.

11!)

history of the country. Tlu'y caiiu' hy way of
Toronto, Chica;;() and St. Paul, takin^^ the last
staj^e of the journey from Fishci"'.; Landinj^^ to
Fort Garry on the steauii^r Mimu'sota. 'I'h«'y
were received with inilioundcd enthusiasm in
the new West, and there, as elsrwhrre, the tactful
(iovernor-General did much to oil the machinery
of Confederation and remove })articl('s likely to
cause fricti(in. They had many uni(|Ue «'\peii-
ences durin<^ their tour and their camping" out,
amoui^st them l^eini;" shootine- the (Jraiul Kapids
ahove Lake Winnipeg in a Y(jrk l»oat, and
ridintf in a Red River cart drawn hv thirtv
j^arlanded oxen at Stony Mountain. The
speech given by Lord Duti'erin at a diinier in
Winnipeg, before returning east, has always
been regarded as one of the best inniiii'iation
agencies the West has hail, and we give a por-
tion of it as bearing on the subject in han<l. On
rising Lord Duti'erin .said :

" J//'. Mayor, Your Honor, Ladi's and (ientJi'nwn :

" In rising to express my ackiioujedginoiits to the
citizens of Winnipeg for thus crowning the friendly
reception I have received throughout the length and
breadth of Manitoba by so noble an entertainment,
I am painfully impressed by the consideration of the
many respects in which 1113' thanks iiie due (o you

III

• m

I'JO 7'/if Makimj of t lot CiUKulian l\'*'s(.

and to so iiwuiy oIIkt {xMsons in tlic I'i'ovincc. l''roni
out* first l.indini,' on your (|Uays until tlu; pn'sj-nt
inoiucnt, my j»i'ojL,'n'ss tiinjui,'li the country has brcn
one «'«)ntinuai (l<'li;,dit, nor has tin' slii;lit«'st hitch or
incon;,MUous incident marred the satisfaction of my
visit. 1 hav(! to thank you foi' the hospitalities f
liJiV(M'njoyed at tin; hands of your individual citizens,
as well as of individual connnunities -for the tasteful
and in^'enious decorations which adorned my loute
— foi' th(! (juarter (»f a mile of CN'enly-yoked oxen
that dr(!W oui* triumphal car — -for the univeisal pioofs
of your loyalty to th(^ throiu; and to the Mother
Country, and foi- your personal <,'ood-will to Her
iMaj(;sty's repros<'ntative. Above all, I have to thank
you for the evidences produced on either hand aloni,'
our march of your prosperous condititm, of your per-
fect contentment, of your confidence in your future
homes ; for 1 need not tell you that to anyone in
my situation, smilinj^ cornfields, cc- 'y liomesteads, the
joyful faces of j)rospei(»us men and women, and the
lau^diter of healthy children are the best of all
triumphal adornments.

'* Jiut there are other things for whicli I ought to
bo obliged to you ; and first, for the beautiful weather
you have taken the precaution to provide us with
during some six weeks of perpetual camping out,
for which attention I have i-eceived Lady Dufferin's
esjuicial orders to render you her peivsonal thanks —
an attention which the phenomenon of a casual
waterspout enabled us iily the better to appreciate;

Cioitact with thi' Ou(si(/r Worhl.

121

and lastly, tlioii^^li c<»rtaiiily not h-ast, f(»r not having'
^«'n«'rat«'(l ainon;,'st you that fcart'ul j'ntity, 'a Pacific
Hallway (jin'stion ' at all «'V«'nt.s not in tiios** din'
and tiaj^ic jtrojt<»itions in which I have encountered
it elsewhei-e. Of c(jui'Me, I know a certain pliasc of
the railway ([uestioii is a;,dtatin;< ev»!n this com
inunity, hut it has assumed th(^ mild character of a
domestic rather than an int«M' provincial controversy.
Two <listin«,'uished memlx'rs, moreover, of my ;,'overn
ment hav«^ been lately amon<^st you, and have douht
less actjuainted themselves with your views and
wishes. Jt is not necessary, theicfore, that \ shouhl
mar tln' hilarious character of the present festival l»y
any untimely allusions to so <^rav(^ a mattei",

" Well, tluMi, ladies and j^eiitlemen, what am 1 to
say and do to you in retui'n for all tlu' pleisure and
satisfaction I have received at your ha!ids ? I fear
there is very little that 1 can say, and scarcely any-
thing that I can do commensurate with my ohliga-
tions. 8tay! There is one thing, 1 think, I hav(?
already done for which T am entitled to claim your
thanks. You are doubtless aware that a great politi-
cal controversy has for some time raged between th»;
two great parties of the State as to which of them is
responsible for the visitation of that termor of two
continents — the Colorado bug. The (me side is dis-
1 to assert that if thei

)pp

acceded to power the Colorado l>ug would nevei
have come to Canada. I have reas(in to believe,
however, though I know not whether any sul)stantial

K'K!

!i.

■p

122 The MakiiKf of the Catiadian llW.

evidence has ])een adduced in support of this asser-
tion, that my j^overnment deny and repudiate having
any sort of concert or understanding witli that irre-
sponsible invader. It would be highly unconstitu-
tional if T, who am bound to hold an impaitial
balance between the contending parties of the State,
were to 2)ronounce an opinion upon this momentous
(juestion. But, however disputable a point may be
the prime and original authorship of the Colorado
bug, there is one fact no one will (juestion, namely,
that to the presence of the Governor-General in
Manitoba is to be attributed the sudden, total, other-
wise unaccountable, and, I trust, permanent disap-
pearance, not ordy from this province, but from the
whole North-West, of the infamous and unmention-
able 'hopper,' whose visitations in the past have
proved so distressing to the agricultural interests of
the entire region.

" But apart from being the fortunate instrument
of conferring this benefit upon you, I fear the only
furthtM- return in my power is to assure you of my
great sympathy with you in your endeavors to do
justice to the mat(Mial advantages with which your
Province has been so richly endowed by the hand of
Providence. From its geographical position and its
peculiar characteristics, Manitoba may be regarded
as the keystone of that mighty arch of sister prov-
inces which spans the continent from the Atlantic
to the Pacific. It was here that Canada, emei'ging
from her woods and forests, first gazed upon her

('ontacCirith the Outside World.

1 2:\

rolling pi'uiiies and unexplored North-We^st, and
learned, as l)y an unexpected I'cvelation, that her
historical territories of the Canadas, her eastern
seaboards of New Brunswick, Labrador and Nova
Scotia, her Laurentian lakes and valleys, lowlands
and pastures, thou,i;h themselves more extensive than
half a dozen European kingdoms, wer<' but the vesti-
bules and ante-chambers to that till then undreamed-
of Dominion, whose illimitable dimensions confound
the arithmetic of the surveyors and the verification
of the explorer. It was hen -e that, counting her
past achievements as but the j)reface and pielude to
lier future exertioiis and expanding destinies, she
took a new departure, received the afflatus of a more;
important inspiration, and felt herself no longer a
mere settler alonii the banks of a single river, but
the owner of half a continent, and in the magnitude
of her possession, in the wealth of her resources, in
the sinews of her material might, the peer of any
power on earth. In a recent remarkably witty speech
the Mar(|uis of Salisbury alluded to the geographical
misconceptions often engendered by tlu^ smallness of
the maps upon which the figui'e of tlu; woild is
depicted. To this cause is proljably to be attributed
the ina<le(juateopini(m of well-educatecl persons of the
extent of Hei- Majesty's North American j)oss<'Ssions.
Perhaps the best Wfiy of coriecting such a univei'sal
misa})prehensic)ii would b(» by a summary of the
rivers which flow tlwough them, foi' \\<' know that as
a poor man cannot afford to \i\v in a big house, so a

< S I

^ki

^p*^

124 The ^faking of the Canadutn West.

small country cannot support a big river. Now, to
an Englishman or a Frenchman, the Severn or the
Thame>!, the Seine or the Rhone would appear con-
siderable streams, but in the Ottawa, a mere affluent
of the St. Lawrence — an affluent, moreover, which
reaches the parent stream six hundred miles from its
mouth — we have a river nearly five hundred and fifty
miles long, and three or four times as big as any of
them. But even after having ascended the St. Law-
rence itself to Lake Ontario, and pursued it across
lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron and Superior to Thunder
Bay, a distance of one thousand five hundred miles,
where are we "? In the estimation of the person who
has made the journey, at the end of all things ; but
to us, who know ])etter, scarcely at the commence-
ment of the great tluvial system of the Dominion,
for from that spot, that is to say, from Thunder Bay,
we are at once able to ship our astonished traveller
on to the Kaniinisti(]uia, a river some hundred
miles long. Thence, almost in a straight line, we
launch him upon Lake Shebandowan and Rainy
Lake and River, a magnificent stream three hundred
yards l)ioad and a couple of hundred miles long,
down whose tranquil bosom he floats into the Lake
of the Woods, where he finds himself on a sheet of
water which, though diminutive as compared with
the inland seas he has left behind him, will probably
be found sufficiently extensive to make him fearfully
sea-sick during his passage across it. For the last
eighty miles, however, he will be consoled by sailing

Contart wifh the Outside World.

1-J5

through a succession of land-locked channels, tlio
l^eauty of whose scenery, while it resembles, certainly
excels the far-famed Thousand Islands of the St.
Lawrence. From this lacustrine paradise of sylvan
beauty we are .;ble at once to transfer oui* friend to
the VV^innipeg, a river whose existence in the very
heart and centre of the continent is in itself one of
nature's most delightful miracles, so beautiful and
varied are its rocky banks, its tufted islands ; so
broad, so deep, so fervid is the volume of its waters,
the extent of their lake-iike expansions, and the
tremendous power of their rapids. At last, let us
suppose we have landed our protaj*' at the town of
Winnipeg, the half-way house of the continent, the
capital of the Prairie Province, and, I trust, the
future 'umbilicus' of the Dominion. Having now
had so much of water, having now reached the home
of the buffalo, like Falstatl' he naturally ' babbles of
green fieius ' and careers in imaguiation over th(^
primeval grasses of the prairie. Not at all. Escoited
by Mr. Mayor and the Town Council we take him
down to your quay, and ask him which he will
ascend first, the Red lliver or the Assiniboine — two
streams, the one five hundred miles long, the other
four hundred and eighty, which so happily mingle
their waters within your city limits. After having
given him a preliminary canter on these respective
rivers, we take him off to Lake Winnipeg, an inland
sea throe hundred miles long and upwards of sixty
broad, during the navigation of which for many a

120 Tlw Makiiif/ of tho, Caimdinn ]yest.

woaiy hour he will find himself out of sight of land,
and pi'ol)al)ly a good deal more indisposed than ever
h(! was on the Lake of the Woods or even the
Atlantic. At the north-west angle of Lake Winni-
peg h(5 hits upon the mouth of the Saskatchewan,
the gateway to the North- West, and the starting point
to another one thousand five liundred miles of navi-
gable water flowing nearly due east and west between
its alluvial l)anks. Having now reached the Rocky
Mountains, our * ancient mariner,' for by this time
he will be (juite entitled to such an appellation,
knowing that water cannot run up hill, feels certain
his aquatic experiences are concluded. He was never
more mistaken. We immediately launch him upon
the Athabasca and Mackenzie rivers, and start him
on a longer trip than he has yet ever taken, the navi-
gation of the Mackenzie River alone exceeding two
thousand fi\e hundred miles. If he survives this
last experience, we wind up his peregrinations l)y
a concluding voyage down the Fraser River, or,
if he prefers it, the Thompson River, to the coast;
whence, having provided him with a first-class ticket
for that purpose, he will probably prefer getting
home by the Canadian Pacific.

" Now, in this enumeration, those who are
acquainted with the country know that, for the sake
of brevity, I have omitted thousands of miles of
other lakes and rivers which water various regions
of the North-West, the Qu'Appelle River, Belly River,
Lake Manitoba, the Winnipegosis, Shoal Lake, etc ,

i i

> I

Contort irith t/tr Oiittihh' Wnr/ff.

\2:

along whifh T might Iwive dragged, and finally oxtrr-
minated, our way-worn guest. J>ut the sketch T have
given is more than sufticient for my purpose ; and
when it is further rememhered that the most of these
streams flow for their entire length through alluvial
plains of the richest description, where year after
year wheat can be raised without manure, or any
sensible diminution in its yield, and where the soil
everywhere presents the appearance of a highly
cultivated suburban kitchen-garden in England,
enough has been said to display the agricultural
richness of the territories I have referred to, and the
capabilities they possess of affording happy and pros-
perous homes to millions of the human race."

After referring to thi^ many different nation-
alities composing the population of the West, to
the problems yet to arise, and dwelling elo-
quently upon the future destiny of the Dominion,
Lord 13utferin closed a great speech by express-
ing the hope that the finances of the countiy
would soon provide for the West a railway to
carry out the surplus produce, " which," said he,
" my own eyes have seen imprisoned in your
storehouses for want of the means of transport."
The Governor-General's hope in this regard soon
found fruition.

This was the decade when efforts were made
to construct a transcontinental line tiu'ouLdi

-:i'

; 1 1 'J

1 28 The Mdkiiiy (tf the Cunadlan WeM.

Ciinaflian territory by utilizing "the magnificent
water stretclies," of vvliicli the (jJovernor-General
liad Hpokeii so elo<|uently, and hence eastward
from Winnipeg beginnings were made somewhat
to tlie bewilderment of the old settlers, through
whose growing crops ciie roadway of the iron
horse was relentlessly pushed. The Federal
Government of the day felt inclined to cross the
Red River about twenty-two miles north of
Winnipeg, where the picturescjue town of Selkirk
now stands at the head of Lake Winnipeg navi-
gation, but to that course it was objected that
crossing at Selkirk would ignore the growing
centre at W'amlpeg, would miss the fertile plains
Just west of tiiat city, as well as necessitate the
great expense of construction over certain dis-
tricts north-west of Selkirk, where morasses
alleged to be l)ottomless existed. However that
might be, the fact is that Winnipeg eventually
(h'ew the main line of the great railway through
her borders. Not many of us have found common
ground on all points with Mr. Debs, but most
of us will agree with him in preferring Govern-
ment ownership of railroads to railroad owner-
ship of Governments; and yet in the light of the
history of the time we know that it was not
till the Canadian Pacitic Railway had passed
out of the immediate control of the Government

fUnitort frifh thi> Oiitshh, Worhl.

129

)st
n-
er-
he
lot
ed
3nt

into the hands of a company that its construction
and operation became a success. Tliat may be to
the discredit of the Government and to the credit
of the company, as the case may be, but I am
now simply statin*^ the fact. It is true that the
company received from the country cin enormous
bonus in money and lands, but it sliould not be
forgotten that they faced enormous ditticulty in
attempting to build a road, ottering the most
amazing engineering problems, across a vast
area of country at tiiat time only partially
settled, and a great part of which will, so far
as we see, remain unsettled and non-producing
for all time. It was, perhaps, fortunate that
most of the Canadian directorate hailed from
the land of the saying, " a stout heart to a stey
brae," and few w^ho know the way in which
these men pledged their private fortunes and
hazarded their business reputations will grudge
the joy that must have been theirs when one of
the most distinguished of their number, Sir
Donald A. Smith, at Craig Ellachie, in 1885,
drove the last spike in the band uniting oceans
which lave the opposite shores of Canada. In
fact, one cannot read the name of the place
amidst the great mountain ranges where that
notable act was done without thinking of the
legends of Highland seers concerning thf " grey
9

t I

1.".0

The Mukinij (tf llm (JaiHulnnt West.

frontlet of rock " whicli stood in the j^lun of
Stratlispey, and from wliose sinnnut tlie scat-
tered firs and wind-swept heather in war time
whispered to the clansmen, "Stand fast," for
only by the most deterniined steadfastness eonld
men have completed the task of which we have
just spoken.

It was for some time (piite fashionahle to
denounce the rapid construction of the C P.ll. as
conducing; to the scattering of population west-
ward, and to say that the road should have been
built by easy stages, and settlement consolidated
in lateral dii-ections. Apart from the fact that
such a process would have been oblivious of tlie
conditi(jns upon which British Columbia entered
Confederation, there was only a modicum of
truth in the assertitm that slower construction
of the railway would have consolidated settle-
ment, as early settlers who witnessed the move-
ment of population can testify. There seems
always to have been a westward moving
instinct in humanity, and under its influence
men have, from the beginning, been crowding
towards the setting sun. In the West, long
before a railway was dreamed of, I saw my
own kith and kin leave the ^^ed River colony
to travel, amidst great difficulty, with cart-
trains, tive hundred miles north-westward and

,rt-
ncl

Coiihirl ir'ilh till- Ollfsi'h' W'nrlil.

foi'iii a Kcttlenu'iit tlicrc Those wlio were in
tile C(juntry at tlie time know that (hiriii*^ the
coiisti'uction of the C P. K. eiiii^rants hjft its
trains at tlie various tei-mini, and, loailinj; their
effects on " prairie sehooners," pushe<l on, leavin*r
^n)()(l hind unoccupied to the ri^ht hand and to
the left.

For several years the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way was the only railroad traversino; the
prairies west of \Vinni[)e<;'. Then the Port-
afje, Westhourne and North- Westei'u (now the
Manitoba and North- Western) Railway branched
off from the Canadian Pacific Railway at Port-
af^e la Prairie, and took its way over the north-
western part of the Province, lieadin;;- for I^rince
Albert on the North Saskatchewan. From this
road, in turn, there was built last year, bec^in-
nin^^ at Gladstone, the Lake Dauphin Railway,
which strikes northward to tlu; fertile areas in
the direction of Lake Dauphin and Lake Win-
nipet^osis, and which may become a route to the
northern seaboard. Down throu<^h the beauti-
ful districts of south W'-stern Manitoba two
lines of railway run from Winnipeg, tapping
one of the richest tijrain districts of the West,
also the soft coal deposits of the Estevan retj^ion;
while north and north-westward short branches
run to Stonewall and Selkirk. From the south

132 Th*' Miik'nHi of' tlin CiiHul'iu,, Wrst.

:i r '

the Northt'i'ii Pjicific Railway (the tirst to enter
the lieM as a rival of the Canadian Pacific Kail-
way) and the (ircat Northern Railway enter
throu<^di the States, and over the road of the
former the (Jrand Trunk Railway, ea^^er for
its share of western trade, is now running
special colonist trains into Winnipej^. The
Xorthern Pacitic has also ])ushed westward,
by two branches from Winnipeg-, to Brandon
and Portage la Prairie respectively. From
Chater, on the Canadian Pacific Railway, the
North- West Central Railway (;oes northward
to Ham iota. Away out on its line towards the
coast the Canadian P;'.cific Railway sends out
offshoots in many directions. From Brandon
a line runs south into the Souris district ; from
Regina a line goes to Prince Albert ; from
Calgary one strikes north-westward through
the Red Deer country to Edmonton. Soutlnvard
from the great transcontinental road a branch
runs from Medicine Hat to the coal mines at
Lethbridge, and from Calgary through the vast
ranching country to Fort Macleod ; while out in
the rich mining districts of British Columbia
branches tap every centre of any importance.
For a long time the (question of railway com-
munication from the west to the east and south
was a burning one in our politics, and as one

(%)iif<irt fvifli tlw Oiitsiil,- W'orhl.

i;u

eliurtcr after another passed hy i\w Local
Letrislature in Manitoba was tlisallowed hy tiie
Dominion autliorities, on tin; ^n*ouinl that the
Canadian I'aeitic Railway, while still stru^^^din^',
would sutler, I'eelinn- in the West rose some-
times to fever })itch. It was lari^ely throned i a
fruitless tiixhtinir on behalf of Pnnincial ri^ihts
in this matter that the Nc^rtjuay (lovernment
fell, but since the time when, shortly after
the (ireenway Administration took otlic«>, the
Northern Pacitic Railway entered the Pi'ovince,
we have had, as I have shown, railroads numer-
ous enough. There are more to follow, and the
change wrought in the course of a few years
makes a marvellous contrast between the isola-
tion of the early days and our present closeness
of contact with all the great centres on the
continent.

it! I

CHAITKR IX.

A ^'/iOOM AXl) AXOTJ//'JJ{ /fh'/lL'/JJOX

()\('i: coiinmiiiicatioM with tin* outside worM
wjim ('st;il)lish(!(i, tli«' ^Towtli of th(3 country's life
in all lines was coniparatively rapid. We say
" cH)in])aratively " in view of its former isolation,
but there has never heen what in we.stern
])Iiraso would he called " a stampede " of inuni-
^ration towards this country as eompare<l with
the iidlux of pojjulation other new lands liave
st)metimes received. For that reason it is
claimed that the conditicjns of life and work
which now oljtain in the We.st are much more
solid and substantial than mif^ht be expected
from tlie a<^e of its history, inasmucli as the
population came in so (^ra<hially that it has
been readily assimilated and made part and
parcel of tlie institutions of tlie land.

But tliouiih there has never ])een for any
protracted period a rush into this country, our
history is not altoeether destitute of that

I'M

HOV. THUMAS (;HKKN\VAV,

I'lriiiitr iif Mttilitdha.

\-l

i ■ '

i 1

A ^^ lioom" <iinl Another Rcht'Uioii.

l.'if)

a(lj".nct to the progress of all young territories
known as a " boom " time. That particular
epoch came upon the West in tlie fall and winter
of 1882-83. Just what began it we cannot say,
except that there was general prosperity at that
time in many parts of the world, and that
capital looking for investment found its way
to the new land whose resources were beginning
to compel attention from without.

The " boom " opened in tlie fall of 1882, with
the turning over of a few lots in Winnipeg, but
as they went on turning over at considerable
advance in price, men plunged wildly in, and
the young city became in a few weeks a seeth-
ing sea of real estate brokers, speculators and
auctioneers. The auctioneers' rooms were a
sijrht to see, as some man with •' the danirerous
gift of fluency" flourished a pointer with wiiich
he indicateti the choice lots on a nuip, and ex-
patiated on the merits of some coming Chicago
to the men who clambered over each other in
haste to bu3^ Fortunes were made and lost in
a few da3^s' time, figures became meaningless of
real value, and we have known men without
any available money make ten thousand dollars
in a single evening. Fabulous prices were pai«l
for all sorts of real estate, and " towns " with
the slightest possible chance for the future

III

136 The Making of the Canadian \fest.

commanded for their corner lots large figures,
while places long leagues from railway com-
munication were readily sold on the off' chance
of some railroad heading that way.

Great harm was done to the country by all
this " wild-cat " speculation. The people them-
selves got inflated ideas and extravagant habits
which they afterwards tried with disastrous
results to maintain after the means to do so
had been exhausted. The effect outside told
terribly against the country. The many in
different parts of the world who were " bitten "
turned against the West, and denounced every-
thing connected with it as a swindle and fraud.
They themselves were to blame for the haste to
be rich that impelled them to make investments
ignorantly, but the specious accounts given
them by the " land sharks " were set down
against the country. When on a mission field
in southern Manitoba, in 1890, one of my people
received from a lady school-teacher in Ireland
a sum of money to pay her taxes on town lots
in a place called Pomeroy, and she asked on
what street a certain family lived, and would he
kindly send her a copy of the Pomeroy paper.
At that date, Pomeroy consisted (as it still does)
of a farm-house and a lot of surveyors' stakes on
the virgin prairie, and there was no newspaper

: I

A ^^ Jiotnti" and Another Rftipllion.

137

published within fifteen miles of it. This state
of matters was gently hinted to the Irisli school-
teacher, with the result that she, like many
others similarly situated, became the reverse of
an emiorration aofent for Manitoba. But the
" boom " drew widespread attention to the coun-
try, and scattered people far and wide over it
westward towards the Rocky Mountains, and
north-westward along the valleys of the great
Saskatchewan. New territories with ever-
growing autonomy were carved out on the
prairies, with central points such as Regina,
Calgary, Edmonton, Prince Albert, Battleford
and other now thriving communities.

When Canada first took over the great North-
West Territory, only a corner out of its vast
area had been organized into a province, and
called Manitoba; but in 1872 an Act was passed
in Ottawa providing for the government of
the unorganized territory by the Lieutenant-
Governor of Manitoba and a council appointed
by the federal authorities.

The members of this first Council, gazetted in
January, 1878, are herewith given: Hons. M. A.
Girard. Donald A. Smith, Henry J. Clarke,
Patrice Breland, Alfred Boyd, John Schultz,
Joseph Dubuc, A. G. B. Bnnnatyne, William
Fraser, Robert Hamilton and William Christie.

\ 1

'f 1 11

1 'HfL

138 Th. }fnki,uf of ty CHiiUfl'mn II W.

To these were afterwards added : Hons. James
McKay, Joseph Royal, Pierre Delorino, W. R.
Bown, W. N. Kennedy, John H. McTavish and
William Tait. This Council, presided over by
Lieutenant-Ciovernor Morris, of Manitoba, did
exceedingly important service in trying times,
and paved the way for fuller organization.

Acts were shortly afterwards passed by the
Dominion Parliament, establishing the Mounted
Police force and making rules for the regulation
of trade, notably for the suppression of liquor
selling, the Territories being put practically
under prohibition, in order to keep liquor out of
the reach of the inflammable and easily excited
Indian population. Treaties had been made
with tlie Indians far and wide, and such was
the fairness with which the (Government treated
them, and such was the influence of the Mounted
Police, that when the Custer massacre and similar
events were taking place south of the boundary,
on the north all was peace and comparative
(juietness.

In 1875 an Act for the fuller organization
and government of the North-West Territories
was introduced by the Hon. Alex. Mackenzie,
and came into force in October, 1876, the Hon.
David Laird being appointed the first lieutenant-
governor, aided by a small Council consisting

A '* lioom'^ antf Anofhtr Jit'heU'Hui.

1:^9

of Stipendiary Magistrates McLe(xl, Kyan, Ricli-
ardson and Major Irvine (N.-W. M. P.), A. E.
Forget, Secretary of tlie Council; M. St. Jolni,
Sheriff. The position of Governor Laird and
his Council was not an eas}- one, as the chang-
ing conditions, the disappearance of the buH'alo

' In

HON. KIXJ.VR DEWDNKY,

and other means of support, were throwing
upon the Governor the burden of caring for and
arrantrini!: about the future of almost the entire
native population of Indians and half-breeds.

Gov. Laird was succeeded in the governoi'shi[)
by Hon. Edgar Dewdney, in 1881. The Terri-
tories were divided into local electoral districts.

' irt

r i

ki \

140 7%e Miikiuff of the ('unfuliuii W^'nt.

with a legislative assembly iiieetiiio; at Regina,
and into Dominion constitnences, with the privi-
lege of sending four membei's to the House of
Commons. The whole territory was divided
into judicial districts, with experienced and able
jurists at the head of each ; and the vast domain
was becoming the prosperous home of thousands
when a second rebellion broke out in 18tS5, and
for a time checked the progress by disturbing
the peace of the land.

Just what gave rise to the North-West rebel-
lion is perhaps more than anyone can definitely
say. Political gladiators have fought the (jues-
tion over and o/er again to no definite end,
and probably the great parties have their own
opinion in the matter to this day, though they
may be chary about telling all they know. It
appears certain that the Frencli half -breeds who
were settled on the south branch of the Saskat-
chewan River (many of them being the same,
or of the same, families as those concerned in
the Riel rebellion of '69) were determined to
hold to the old system of long narrow farms
fronting on the river, as against the rec-
tangular, or "square," survey proposed by the
Government, which threatened to break up the
homes they had built and overturn the old
social life fostered by contiguous residence ; and

A ^^ /}itom" >nitl Anof/if}' /x^rhf/fion.

it seoins also toleniMy clrar that many of the
settlers had been waitin^^ an extraordinarily
lon^ time for their land patents and scrip.
These things were sutKeient to unsettle the
easily rutiied and somewhat turbulent half-
breed element, and once anything lii\e rebellion
was contemplated, the aid of their <luskier breth-
ren all over the great plains was confidently
expected.

The local authorities seem to have been singu-
larly oblivious of the excitement that was afoot,
and of the meetings that were being held for
the redress of the wrongs alleged. They do not
seem to have ke[)t those at the seat of federal
government properly informed as to the true
state of matters at the scene of the discontent,
nor of the important fact that many of the
white settlers in the region .'sympathized with
the malcontents at the outset, though depre-
cating the use of any but constitutional means
for redress. But it is doubtful whether the
discontent that seethed under the surface would
ever have burst into active rel)ellion had not
the agitators sent for Louis Kiel, who since his
first escapade had been living in the United
States, and who at the time he was sent for
was engaged in the quiet work of school-teach-
ing in Montana. The malcontents felt that,

ill

14;

The MnkiniJ (;/' t/ir di iniilni ii Wrst.

with liis cnor^etic personality at thoir licarl,
thoy could H-'cnnj all the rio;lits thoy claiiuo«l,
and so despatched a deputation askin<;' liini to
come and lead them in their struiiirle. The
reply of Rid was exceedin^dy characteristic of
the man, beino u mixture of the e;^otist, tlie
mercenary and the patriot, and in .lune, 18cS4,
he accomjianied the deputation hnck to the
North-West. The very presence of the man on
the ground should have put the local authorities
on the alert. But either the local powers were
making light of the situation, or else the pigeon-
holes at Ottawa were receiving unread petitions,
and so far as we can gatlier, we incline to the
former as the more correct opinion. Then as
anyone who knew Kiel should have expected,
the inevitable se(|uel came. He was a man easily
excited and inordinately vain ; hence, as he felt
the wine ot a new movement in his system, and
became intoxicated with the success of his fiery
appeals to the meetings that assembled, he broke
out into amazing and extravagant pretensions.
He openly separated from the Chui'ch of Rome,
and such w^as his influence over the French half-
breeds that he drew them from allegiance to
their priests. He added David to his name,
and called himself " Louis David Ii,iel exovede,"
in allusion to both his kingly and his priestly

f»no)n

I Anothi'V l\>l»'J1

\i hi'lltnti.

ii;

claiins : lie cstaltlislu'*! a (Jovcrinin'iit witli
li('a(l(iiiart».'rs at IJatoclu', arr('str<l wlioiu lie
pleased, pliuidered the stores around, and sent
word to Major Ci'ozier, who conunan'Ied the
Mounted Police at Vovi Cai'lton, the nearest
l)Ost, to surrender at once. This was rushin<r
matters with a vent^eance, and it is not sur-
prising that, on the iJ)th of March, Major
C-rozier, hearin<j;' of these things, sent word to
I'l'ince Albert For help, and shortly al'tcrwai'ds
despatched 'i'honias McKay, one of the Prince
Albert volunteers, to remonstrate with Kiel.

The McKay family did si<^nal service; for the
country during the ivbellion, tlusre l)ein<; no less
than five brothers of them enga<;('d in its sup-
pression. Being natives of the country they
were thorouirhly at home in cami) or in saddle,
were deadly shots, had immense emlurance and
unmistakable cout'age. One of them, George, a
canon in the Anglican Church, accompanied our
column as chaplain and scout, ai.^d I can vouch
for it that he could tight as well as pray.

When Thomas McKay reached Kiel's Council
at Batoche, he found things at white heat, and
was told by Kiel that there was to be a war of
extermination during which " the two curses, the
Government and the Hudson's Bay Company,"
and all who sympathized with them, were to be

it;

lU Th>- Miikhifj of thi (Juno, lion Wnnt.

n I

driven out of the country. " \'ou don't know
what we are after," said llicd to McKay. " We
want blood, hhxxl — it's hlood we want." McKav,
barely escaping;- with his life from such a ^^ory
atnios})here, returned to Carlton. an<l the next
<lay, in company with Mitchell, of IJuck Lake,
met Nolin and iMaxime Lepine (brother of
Ambi'oise Lepine, Riels adjutant in '()!)-'70), from
Kiel, demanding' the surrender of Fort Carlton.
This, of course, was refused, and in a few days
rebelii<jn was ramji.int with a madman at its
head.

For many weeks previous Kiel had been
sending his runners amongst the Indians, and
counted on a general uprising nf the tribes,
assuring them that the Govei'nment could easily
be overthrown and that the whole country
would be theirs again. We can forgive Kiel for
a goo(i many things, but to justify his incite-
ment of the Indians to murder and rapine is
more than any reasonable person cares to
undertake. As a rule the Indians were perfectly
satisfied on the splendid reserves the Govern-
ment had provided for them, were well cared
for and taught, but the savage instinct was sti!l
strong in them, and to let them loose on defence-
less homes v ith all the horrors of the scalping-
knife and the toj-ture, seems to take the man

I'l

A '* /y.yom " (Unf Ahothi't' /ifhff/ion.

4')

ItO

ly
11-

je-
Ian

wlio is rcHpoiiaible for it out of the ivach of
ordinary ccMiHideration, and puts a ton<^uo in
every wound of the nmHsacred calling for
justice on the foul compasser of their death.

The first actual collision took place near Duck
Lake, on March 26th, when Crozier, in an eflbrt
to secure stores from that point, met CJabriel
Dumont, the nnloubtable fijjjhter, in command of
a large force of half-breeds and Indians. A flag
of truce was displayed by Dumont's party, but
while parleying with the leaders (,'rozier saw
that tiie rebels were surrounding his force of
police and Prince Albert volunteers, and he im-
mediately gave the order to fire. He, however,
was directly in front, and his men held the fire
of their 9-pounder on that account, though the
gallant ofHcer told them afterwards that they
should have obeyed orders and shot him, if need
be, with the enemy.

Firing became general, and after an hour
Crozier and his men, who had acted throughout
with the utmost coolness, were forced to retire
before superior numbers, leaving twelve dead
on the field and taking with them twenty-five
wounded. They arrived at Fort Charlton, where
they were joined two da^'s afterwards by Col.
Irvine, with eighty police and thirty more
volunteers from plucky Prince Albert, and as
10

HG Tlu' MiikiiKj 1)/' tlif ( 'tiiiiii/iiiH W'sf,

tlnTc WHS IK) }i(lv,'iiit/ii:(i ill lioMiiii"- Fort Carl-
ton, tlicy rutiriMl from it to Priiiro Albert,
wluTc' tli«' ^nvatcr ])ortioii ol* tlifiii rciiinimMl
till the ('los(3 of the rclM'llion.

For this iii;ictioii tlic Mounted Police, tlnin
whom no more ("••illuiit force exists in the world,
liuAo l)een much criticised hy i;^niorant people :
but those wlio know that without them tlic
most })opulous community in that part of the
West would liave been at tlie mercy of the now
sava<xe and excited enemy, honor tlu; brjive men
who repressed their <lesire to be at tlu; front,
and loyally di<l less brilliant but not less
import.'int duty in (lefendinn; the otherwise
defenceless lioiiies of the district.

(}abriel Duniont was certainly the most
strikin^^ tie-ni"e amonost the rebels in all tlie
tifditinii' which followed the battle at J)uck
Lake. }fe was livin<;' (|uietly enou<^]i upon liis
farm on the South Saskatchewan when tlie
agitation l)e<^an, but from liis noted prowess and
activity in the conllicts and hunts on the »;reat
phiins in former years, Ijecame at once tlie
acknowled^'ed military leader of the rebel force.
Ho was a man of magnificent physKpie and
vast strength, a daring rider, a deadly shot,
and, withal, possesse<l of undoubted dasli and
courage. It is not generally known that lie

LiOil, , of ,-il„l fiii-ci'g ill si'riiiiil /,'/./ liihilliiiii^ /^^.■;.

. t

!(!

A ^^ Boom' (ttiil Another Rchrllion.

117

was wounded at Duck Lake by a bullet which
plowed along his scalp and felled him, stunned
and bleeding, to the ground. 'J'here are some
who say that after that experience he was more
cautious .a})out exj)Osing himself. The incident,
however, could not have materially affected his
nerve, for it is well known to some that but for
the interfcn'ence of Riei he would, on a night of
cold and rain, have led a "forlorn hope" in a
midnight raid on Middleton's camp just before
the jfiiiht at Fish Creek. How that raid would
have eventuated it is useless to conjecture, but
one who has ]mssed nights in such a cam]) on
such a night could easily see what confusion
would be causetl by a rush that would stampede
the liorses and proiluce a momentary jianic.
From their bearino- in all situations durint; the
campnign, we know that our boys would have
been ecj^ial to the occasion ; but from the rebel
standpoint Dumont's proposition stamps him as
a man of courage as well as of considerable
strategic ability.*

The news of the <lisaster at Duck Lake sped
like a flash to the hearts of the Canadian people,
and the one thinii- of value that resulted from

* No proceedings were ever taken iigainst Duniont. He
left tlie coiintrv for a time after the rebellion, hut is now a
peaceful resilient.

! 'i

I iiii tnlmJmat^atitSiini^i/itmtlititmt

148 77/c Mith'nuj of the ('ninnlxin IIV.sV.

this wretched rebelHon was the maimer in which
tlie spontaneous rusli to arms manifested the
spirit of the naticm. Procrastinating officialdom
liad had its day. A Coiiniiission, consisting of
Messrs. W. P. R. Street, A. E. Forget and Roger
Goulet, w^as a])pointed, on the 80th JMarch, to
investigate tlie cUiims of tlie lialf-breeds, an<l
wlien the Government, who never before seemed
to be fully seized of the situation, started in
vigorously to suppress the uprising, tliey found
the people of all parties more than ready to
second their cfibrts. The alertness with which
the people answered the bugle's call to arms
reminds one of the incident related by Scott in
" The Lady of the Lake," when in answer to the
slirill whistle of Roderick Dhu the sides of Ben
Ledi swarmed with Highland clansmen, as

" Every tuft of broom gave hfe

To [)l<ii(led warrior armed for strife."

Scarcely had the story of Duck Lake reached
the seat of Government at Ottawa, when from
the frowning fortress of old Quebec to Halifax
away down by the sea, from the populous cities
and backwoods farms of Ontario to the scattered
ranches at the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains,
hosts of armed men sprang up to defend the
laws and liberties of the land they loved. As

A ^^ Ji(K»n ^^ (nnl AnntJter Rrhf/Hmi.

110

wo look into the situation we <lo not wonder at
this swift response to the country's call. There
was something peculiarly touching and pathetic
about the death on that ill- fated field of the
young men from Prince Albert who had gone
outside the ordinary routine of their life to help
the authorities maintain order in the country.
A friend in Prince Albert said to me, on the way
back after the rebellion was over, " If one had
picked out the men we could least afford to
spare from the community, he would certainly
have included the nine who were kille<l at
Duck Lake." And so as the people of Canada
heard of those who fell in the prime and
glory of their young manhood, and thought
that far away from their homes and the peace-
ful graves of their fathers they were sleeping
their last long sleep, wrapped in the snow-
shroud of the western prairies, and that, in-
stead of the accents of those tliey loved, the
last sounds that had fallen upon theii* ears were
the mad rattle of the r'He and the fierce yellings
of a treacherous foe, Ave are not surprised that
a great wave of mingled sorrow and wrath
swept over the country.

To these feelings that humanity would dic-
tate add those of patriotism and national pride,
and it is little marvel that when the uniform

■r

'Mi

'!''

'■■!i' 'Tafrs^'-intE^fj* -*<--■ ■ -'=;T"7' —

150 The Makiii;/ of the diimilhiu West.

. ft

'v
- I

of tlio Queen was fired upon tliere was a nii^dity
and iuunediate answer to tlie country's call.
For sixty long years now the Queen has swayed
a gracious and commanding sceptic over an
empire so vast " that the beat of her morning
drum, following the sun and keeping company
with the hours, encircles the globe with one
continuous strain of the martial airs of Eng-
land." Over all this vast domain the story of
the Queen's life has become one of the prized
possessions of her subjects. Her career, so
blrangely chequered with joy and sorrow, has
brought out perfect types of girlhood, wifehood
and motherhood, while her strong common-sense
has so linked her to the love and esteem of her
people, that we can say in truth of her what
Edmund Burke so vainly hoped for IMarie
Antoinette when he said : "I thought ten thou-
d sw^ords must have leaped from their scab-
l t'ds to avenge even a look that threatened her
,/ith insult."

Hence we find the most strenuous action at
once taken by the Government, who without
delay sent forward General Middleton, the com-
mander-in-chief of the Canadian forces, to take
swift measures for the suppression of the
rebellion.

General Middleton was a man of many battle-

A "/>(>(>//*" tint/ Anotfier RfhuHion.

151

fields, and thoii^di tlio North- Wost Rebellion
provided new experience in a peculiar warfare,
he bore hiniselt' thron<,diout as a man of the
utmost coolness and C()iira<*:e — in short, a true
British soldier of the best tyjje.

He arrived in Winnipe*^ on the 27th of

LIEUT. -COL. OSIiORNE SMITH.

March, and left that same night for the scene
with the 90th Rifles and the Winnipeg Field
Battery. Troops from all parts of Canada,
to the number of five or six thousand, were
hurrying to tlie front, and in the West every
district was furnishing a ready ([Uota to the
various bodies ])eing rais^';d for the occasion.
Winnipeg and the Province of Manitoba, besides

1 \

-•W

[ft]

152 The Maklny of the Canadian ]yest.

the battery, cavalry and Boulton's scouts, fur-
nished three infantry re<^iments, two of them, the
9 1st, under Col. Scott, and the 92nd (Winnipeg
Light Infantry), under Col. Osborne Smith,
being specially enlisted in a few days for the
suppression of the rebellion. With tlie latter
regiment I had the honor to serve, and I purpose
giving some personal recollections of the cam-
paign such as have apparently been interesting
to Canadian audiences at many points.

As indicated in the preface to this book, no
attempt is made to give a complete record of the
military operations of the whole force in the
field. One can only be in one place at a time,
and this volume is chiefly one of personal remin-
iscence ; but it is hoped that the account here
given, as written out from notes made nightly
at the camp-fire, will be in some measure typical
of the experience of all who went to the front.

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1. **«:>'*

CHAPTER X.

CAMrAKlNINi} OX Tin ri UilES.

The regiment known as tlie 'V^ianipeg Light
Infantry may be spoken of ; (Viie recruited out
of almost every nation under lieaven. The main
body of it was made up of men enlisted in the
city of Winnipeg, to which the noise of tumult
had brought adventurers from every point of
the compass, many of whom hailed the rebellion
as a great windfall. Numbers of men just back
from the Gordon Relief Expedition up the Nile
fell readily into the ranks. Some of Indian, Irish,
Scotch, English, Icelandic, German, French, and
I know not what other extraction, were on hand,
and I remember two men who followed our com-
pany to quarters one day and forswore their
allegiance to the United States — till the close of
the campaign, when, with four months' pay in
their pockets, they shook the dust of Canada off
their feet and returned to Chicago. One com-
pany, however, was enlisted in the old pioneer

153

I :

ill

III

M I

154 The }fakiii(j of Ihn Cnmi'liutt l('e«/.

parisli of KiMonan and coiiti^^iious points, from
the fjiruHTH there, andanothei* was eni'oll(Ml from
Minnedosa, a point some !.")() miles distant to
the north-west of the city. To the Kihhjnan
company (afterwai'<ls No. 1 in the re^dment) I,
who was a native of the parish and at that
time a student-at law in Winnipe*^, attached
myself as a fnll private, thou<^h in the jn'ocess of
unaccountable events, and to m}"" own jL^reat sur-
prise, I became shortly afterwards second lieu-
tenant.

It was significant of the times tliat our com-
pany had its barracks in a deserted "boom."
house, whose hardwood lloors made an excellent
|)lace for drill. After some scant preliminary
traininnr we left Kildonan, suitably farewelled,
on the 18th of April, to join our re<^iment in the
city. As we marched up, one of those incidents
common in the experience of amateur soldiers
occurred in passing the cam]) of the 9th Volti-
geurs of Quebec. The guard turned out and
presented arms, but we did not know how to
return the compliment, and so kept on steadily
as if they had not attracted our attention.
Fortunately, however, we happened to be march-
ing "at the shoulder," and I suppose that to this
day the 9th have no idea that it was only by
the merest chance in the world we did the right
thing at the right time.

(.^fnajHiif/fn/Hj an tlw Prtffrlfs.

1 .');>

On W'l'diicsdjiy, tin; l.Hli, after l)('in;,m(Mn'ss('(l
\)y Licuk'niiiit-CJovcnior Aikiiis, our ri'^^imcnt
inarclu'<I to tlio C P. 11. station, and it was i\nm
known that we were under or<lrrs I'oi- the ex-
treme noi'tli-v/est of the Territories, wliere the
Froj^ Lake massacre had just taken |»laoe, and
wliere tlie posts and settlements on the North
Saskatchewan were in dane(>r fi'om the sur-
roundini;' Indians. Soon the final farewells
were said — for how lone* we knew not— and
with many a last word and handelasp the severest
ordeal of all was over, and the tiain moved out
amidst the answering* cheers of those •j;oinL,^ away
and tho.se left behind.

J)oubtless many a stalwart uniformed ti<j^ure
was held in more than necessary military erect-
ness, and many a voice firm enough in command
was hu.shed lest a tell-tale tremor should reveal
to others the sorrow felt at seeino- lost in the
heaving thronrr some dear and well-known face.
But such feelings, however deep and constant,
must be kept in check — soldiers, we thought,
must be made of sterner stuff — and so before
we had travelled many miles the usual gaiety of
spirits, the amusing story and the patriotic song
were in evidence, and no grim forebodings were
allowed to di.splace the enjoyment of the hour.

The car in which No. 1 (Kildonan) C<jmpany

mo Tlu' Miik'niij oj' f/tf CaiHul'iOH ]V,st.

tniV(;ll(3(l was ccrtuiiily a jovial one, and a j^ood
(leal ol' tlu; inirtli was at tluj cxpeiiHo ot" tlu'
<^uai'd at tlu' door, a man who liad l)t'('ii cnli.stod
at tli(» last nionient Troiii soiiir outside point,
wh<»n lie was liurcly rccovcrccl from a ])r()lon^t'd
spree, and who made ^n'ott'sipie efforts to spring
to sober attention whenev(3r the otKcei* of tlie
nit^lit ))assed thron<,di to see that all was well.
The judgment of our color-serj^^'ant, at whose
re(|uest the man was enrolled, was amply vindi-
cated durinor the eampai<;n, for the wild-looking-
soldier of that first ni<»ht, once l.eyond the reach
of li(pior, became one of the finest marchers in
the regiment, and the head navii^ator for our
flat-boat flotilla on the North Saskatchewan.

Our flyino- special " halted " at 1 1 a.m. of the
next day at the town of Mocse Jaw for break-
fast, and the fast from the previous afternoon,
tof^ether with the knowled^^e that we would
soon be beyond the reach of what is ordinarily
called a " scpiare meal," led to such display of
appetite that, when the regiment boarded the
train. Moose Jaw must have somewdiat resembled
a country just traversed by an army of locusts.

Our next stop was at Gleichen, or Crowfoot
Crossing, near the home of Crowfoot, the
redoubtable chief of the Blackfoot Indians,
whose reserve was near at hand. Crowfoot

f '<nii/iiiii/nl>i(/ nil thf /'riilrii's.

IT)'

promised to ho loyal, ami \w kt'pt his wonl ; hut
as the spirit of" j'chrllion was ahroad at tho ('Mu\
and youn;^ hravcs arc I'ftsily revised, tluj Miiuio-
d()HaCoiiij»aiiy was hd't hen* to ropn'ss any unduo
exuherancc. Wo saw Crowfoot sovrnil tiinos
^oing to and from Cal^^aiiy, a storn, stoical man,

<"R<)\VK()»)T.

(FriDii jiliiilii'iraiili hi/ I'm/, llmll.)

whose will was law for his triho, and whoso
consistent loyalty was of ^roat value to Canada
duriiiir that trouhlous time.

To Cal<;aiy wo came on the l7th of April,
amid a drizzling- rain and snow, hut al'tor the
first night the weather, which Cnl<^^aT'ians assuro<l
us was exceptional, cleared and w,is heautif'.il
duriiit^ the remainder of our stay. Some of the

itl

'(^

(Ul

158

TJic M(ik!>i(/ (>/' fill' ('(I iKiiluni Woiit,

prophecies made concerning Calvary have not
yet come true, but it is, nevertlieless, one of the
most perfect sites for a city in the west. We
shall not soon for^'ct the view from tlie great
mound across the Elbow River in those spring
evenings. 'V\\i\ town, on its picturescjue upland,
lay peacefully ([uiet at the close of the day.
Around it twined the olistenini"' coils of the Bow
and the Elbow rivers, wdiich pour their united
waters into the great Saskatchewan, while away
to tlie west the Rockies, mighty monuments of
the Creator's power, reared their snow}' peaks
against the purpling sky, rer '^'nd)ling the vast
tents of some giant host rising majestically
above the plain.

Calgary, on its more material side, seemed
that year the very paradise of cowboys, horse-
men and scouts, for che place was full of the
great rough, gord hearted fellows, fairly bristling
wdth arms. Belts of cartridges round the waist
and slashed across the chest held supplies for
the Winchester riiie and Colt's revolver ; great
leather leggings, called " schaps," bowie-knives
here and there about the person, huge jingling
spurs, immense grey hats turned up at one side,
" the cavalry swagger," and somewhat ferocious
lanjxuao-e were the prevailinuf characteristics.
These men were magniticent ridei's, more at

■

('ti}}ipiii'l)ii iiif an tJi'' Prtiirit'fi.

l.-)!)

home ill the saddle tlian on carpets, and as they
had the run of tlie town, tlie sii?^ht of a luiniber
of tliem, with their wild liorses at full speed
along the principal streets, w^as (piite common.

Most of us who had been hrouji^ht up in the
West knew something 1)y experience of ])roncho-
breaking, but it was wortli while going to the
corrals to see the broncho broken for use in our
cohimn. The horse, perhaps five or six years old,
had never been handled except to be branded
when a foal. He was dexterously lassoed, and (as
the whole process is one of l)reaking rather than
training) if necessary cli«)ked into submission.
Sometimes the headstall was fastened with a
blindfold, the great saddle was thrown on and
tightly " cinched," then a cowV)oy leaped into
the seat locked his spurs and yelled " Let her
loose !" There was a scattering of those holding
the broncho, and a retrograde movement (piickly
executed on the part of the spectators as the
trouble began. Sometimes the broncho, dazed
for a few moments, stood with hunched-up back
or walked (juietly awa}' for a few yar<ls, then
ijuddenly " ex[)loded " into the air with terrific
violence, and came down facing the op])osite
direction, with a continuation of such "bucking"
as onlv a well-ivo-ulated broncho undt'rstands.
The rider, however, was generally what west-

■'

160

Tht' Mok'nuf <>/ the Catiniluni WcaI.

erners call .a " stayer," and after a half-hour
or so the broncho gave up and wfis pronounced
"broken" ; but we would not advise any of our
tender-foot friends to mount the " hurricane
deck" of a broncho, even thou<;h he may be
broken enou<^h for a cowboy's use.

Orders shortly came that our column was to
march northward to the relief of Edmonton
and the districts on the North Saskatchewan,
which were being terrorized by Big Bear and
his tribe, a portion of whom had massacred
nine men at Frog Lake on the 2nd of April.
Wonl, too, had just reached us of the fight at
Fish Creek between Middleton and Kiel, with
heavy loss to our com -ades.

The Fish Creek fight was evidently planned
by Gabriel Dumont as a surprise for our troops,
and it certainly did come upon them with
unexpected suddenness. It would be utterly
wrong to say, as some have said, that Middleton
walked into a tiap, for he had his mounted
infantry and Boulton's scouts well spread out
in front in proper form. IJuo men who were in
the advance guard of the 90th have told me
that the first indication of the enemy's pres-
ence they had was in seeing several of the
scouts in front fall from their saddles under the
deadlv fire of the half-breeds concealed in the

Crnnpriif/ni)/;/ <ni (he Prairif',^.

161

Muffs. The in.iin 1)0(ly of t!i(* volunteers was
sDon brought up to su]){)ort the scouts, and the
tio-htini;' Itecanie <;"eneral. A ra\iue near \>y
affonled almost jiorleet cover to tlio enemy, and
from it a hot t'usilade was poured upon th(3
advancing;' troops. Dumont's men also set the
praii'ie on fire so that the smoke would conl'ust;
tlie volunteers, l>ut they l)ut out the fin^ and
advanced steadily, ado[)tin^- the enemy's tactics
and takin<^ cover as nmch as ])ossil)le. At'ti'i*
some houi's the half-hi'eeds, except a IV'W in the
ravine, were dislodni'd fi'om their ])()sition, and
as a JH'axy thunderstorm was he<ji;iiniinn" Mid<lle-
lon decided to form camp lor the ni^ht. In
this fiii'ht eleven of our men were killed or died
Hul)se(iuently of wounds, and a laroc- nund)er
were wounde(l more or less seriously. When this
news readied us at (\'ili;'ary, just as we were
under orders for the n(»rth, our letters home
probably took on a final farewell llas'or, and,
withal, contained be(juests (jT our worldly o-oods
as holoo-i'aph Vv'ills.

When we march(,'(l out towai'ds Edmonton on
the .'irterno(jn ol* the 27th we had but I'lf)
men of our own reii'iment, the I'est beinu' on
detachment duty, but we had two small
bodies of Mounted Police and scouts under
connnand of ^b'ljol• Steele, Major Uatton and
U

■llj

1G2

Tho, Miiknni of till' ( 'ti iKdl'ni II Wisf,

Cnpt. Oswiild. About six miles out we crossed
the l)0\v l\i\('r l)y I'onliiii;', .-nid tliis was one of
tlie first of many |)ietnns(|n(' scenes on our
route. Tlic river was wide and s\virt-llowin<j;,
tlic water wlicre we crossed on tlie stony
bottom bt'inij,' rr(jm two to I'our t'cet deep. Tlie
loadeil wa<;"ons, with tour an<l six liorses or
mules driven by skilful th(jUi;'h somewhat
profane teamsto's, the rcibcoateil soldiers, the
Mounted Police in scarlet and i^old, and the
picturesipie corps of scouts, all passing- throu^-h
the water together, made a view worthy of
beinii" i)lace(l on canvas. Occasionally the
scene would l»e si)oiled bv a mule throwin<!;
himself down in the water, but tht' tVee use of
the l)lack-snakc whip, with the fi'eer use of
langua<^-e not t '• be repeated here, o\ercame
the obstinacN' of the animal. A few miles
farther out we camped for the night. A nuir-
vellously beautiful night it was, and I shall not
soon forget how still and white the encanipment
looked under the s])lendor of the moon as it
shone upon the tents grouped together on the
wide ]irairie. It was probably on such a night
tliat the young she|)hei'd watching his Hocks
on the uplands of Canaan saw the infinite
stairways ^'i Stardust that " sloped through
darkness u[) to (Jod." and exclaimed, "When I

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consider tlio lifUNciis, tlir work ol' tin' tiiiot'is,
tiu' moon and the stars wliicli thou hast
ordaiiird, what is man that thou art mindrnl
ol' him. or tlir son of man that tluai visitcst
him:'" Few men remain whollv unmovc*! under
a stu<ly of the starry heavens, and douhtless
many a sentrv beneath those ehxiuent skies
niii'lit after niii'lit drank in new messaws as to
the suhlimitv and ii'oodness of (iod.

The next moriiin<j;' the strident notes of the
hujj^le-hand soumle'd r> rr<//t' at half-past four, and
breaking" ca.iii[) early we marched twenty-five
miles our first da\'. ( )n we went with the usual
round of marchini'' hv <h\y and i-'uard 1)\' nii-ht
till we came to the lie I i)('er River, where, it
being hii^h-water time, we were >to[)pe(l l»y
what Adjutant (J<jnstantine (now in commnid
of the i\rounted Police in the ukon country)
called "a wide, swift-tlowiiiLi ud treacherous
stream." After many futil' ittenijits a rmle
ferry was constructed, upon Jiicli, under the
pilotage of Ser»;t. i^i'itchard 'f No. 1 Company,
we all crossed in safety, a mI set out on our
march of I 10 miles to Kdiiionton.

On ^lay 7th we came u])on die first bands of
Indians, numerous (jnou^'h and of the Cree tribe,
under chiefs bearing' the nf>t \'er\- classical
names of Ermine-Skin, Cayot(', and l')o])tail.

IGt The MiikiiKj of (Jir ('(nniilitni Went.

Wlietlicr tlieso wen; disposed to be liostile or
not we did not know, but oui" Colonel lield tlie
men in readiness for Jinv event; and then, witli
bayonets fixed and riHes at tlie slope, with band
])layini,' and every weapon «'xposed to view, we
niarclied tlironfdi, while the Indians j-atliered in

INTKKIUK or II. II. ( <». S I'OUT AT KDMONToN.

the woods by the roadside and gazed wonder-
ingly at the spectacle.

We readied Edmonton on May Sth, and
encamped sontli of the town in the midst of
wigwams. The Indians were lo^al enongh now,
with llags displayed from tlie tepees, in the
presence of an armed force ; l)ut the Edmonton
people gratefnlly assurer! us that only the

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( '(iiii/xi i)/ii niff nit flii' Priin'i'^.

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tiiML'ly Jirrival oi' our coliinm ]i;i*l pi-cvtMitrd
ivjietitioUH of tlic Fro^;' Luke iiwissaerr at many
points alon;;' (lie North Saskatclicwan. At
Kdinonton wc met tlw cniiiinandrr of our
l)ri;4a(l<*, (}(Mirral Stran<;(', wlio with jiai't <>1' that
phicivy iv^^inicut, the ()">th oi Montreal, and a,
dutachinont of Mount d Pnlicf under Majoi-
Perry, liad ])i'('ced('(l \is a few days. (Jcnri'al
Stranev was a retired l>iMtish arniv otlicej-, who
was liviiie' on a ranch near Calevny when the
rebellion hi'oke out. ami was n-i\-eii coiiiinnnd of
our colunui. We had done sie-nal and distin-
ii'uishei I service as an otlicei- of arlillei'\' in the
Indian nnitiny and elsrwhere, and in exei-y
res|M.'et was a splendid type of the l^i'itish
soldier. Somewhat eeeentrie in (;ei'tain wa\s,
he was. withal, as kindly of heai't as he was
brusqia! of mannei-, and so eool and eourai;-eous
that l>v the end (jf th(.' eami)aie'ii e\-er\' man in
tlui eolunni ha<l personal atleetion foi' him, and
would have ;j,'one at his eommanil wherexci-
men could e(). On this occasion, at I^ilmoiitoii,
(ieneral Strani;'e made a speech compliment int.'"
the men hii^hly on the .swift mai'cli they had
made. The s])eech was deli\-e]'ed in chniac-
tcristic soldiei- styh', with few woi'<is, an<l these
shot out with (piick em))hasis. like the liiine' of
bullets. As we crossed the 'ivvvy and marched

100

The, Md/iiii;/ <>/' tlm Cutiiulidit W'rsf.

into Edmonton, wr saw tlu; ]»i('tui'«'S(|n(' town,
witli its Hudson's Way jiost, tlic ni-cat disti'il)Ut-
in;;- point for tlio (■oinpanys rui'-tr.idc, visino-
liii;'h on tho north \)i\\\k of tlif Xortli Sas-
katclicwjin, .*uid stretching' ont o\ ci" ('onsidt'i'al>h'
territory. Kchiionton liad hoi-iie its ])art in the
" hooin," and was mainly rcsjjonsihlc I'or thr
lircakini;" oi' it, as some men, coniiii'^' to tla-m-
S('l\('s, rcah'ziMl how I'ooh'sh tlicy had Ix'cn to
l»n\' lots at Mil cnoi'mous tiiiure in a idaci', at
tliat (hitc, *210 miles from even a jn-osprctiv ••
railway station (tliouuli it is now connected
])y rail with the (M\R. fj'om Cale-aiy).

We remained at K<hnonton a few da\'s while
Hat-l)oats wei'e heini;' made' to take us down the
river, and 1 esj)ecially remember tliat witli tlie
lavisli liand of tlie soldiei' of E|)icurean [)]iil()s-
opliy, we spent our scanty cash in huyin^j; up tlie
anci(.Mit stock of delicacies (0 from the Hudson's
lUiy store. l)rie<l apple's and ])runes, o-inovr
l)read of I'ocky tirnuiess, canned fruit, and such
like, found their way to our tents, and on tliese
unaccustomed delicacies we fared suiiH)tuously
for several days. On the 14th of May we'
eni])arke<l in open flat-boats to ^o down the
river, ercatly to the dismay of our Edmonton
frien<ls, who asserted tliat the Indians woid<l
enjoy the sport of standiiii;' on the hioh banks

Cintipd i(/n i iiif nil till' /'riiiniff.

^\:

}Uul " !)()ttillL!" " US ns we went ItV. WrII do I

n'iii('iiil)t'i' tlic tii'st iiiLiilt out, wlicii (»ur llat-

Itoats NVrrc tied to tl'ccs ;\]\i\ we (MU'JllMpt'i I in

a storm, liall' rain, liall' snow, I'oi' tlif iii'j,Iit. Tor
I was ollic'cr in conniiand of tli<' ]ii('kt't. 'The
twentv-tivr nim t'rll in as Ix'st thcv conld to
l)r inspected in the darkness and on tlie slidin;^-
mud ol' the liaid\. Then we i-roptMl our \va.\'
throue'll tlie wet hush some distance to the i-eai"
of tile camp, where we jiosted oiu' line of sentries,
whih' tlie rest t)!' the picket huddle<l toi;'ethei'
under the drip])inL;' trees. 'I'lie woi'k of rehex in^'
Heiitri(?s was made ditlicidt bv the vei-\' (hirkness
ol' thu forest: hut tlii' slii;hte'st movement drew
out tlie hoarse challenii'e, and the sentrv thus
found always ^^ladly weh-omed the relief. At
four o'clock we came in, i'onse(l the camp, i^ot
on board breakfastless, and mo\'ed down the
river in a driving snow-storm, with our clothes
standine' upon us like icv coats of mail. (h\
the Kith we landed at F(jrt \'ictoiia, which had
been recently loote(l by Iii<;' I>eai' and his band,
who were nowsullenlv i-eti'eatiiii'' bcl'oi'e ns with
all the prisoners and theii' ill-L;'otten pinndei-.

On Sunday, the 17th, we had three church
services. In the morniiiL,^ CN»I. Smith, assisted
'w Adit. Constantine and Sureeoii Penn\'fath<'i',
read the Church of l^iiiiiand scrx ice. wit', the

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168

The Mnlclitf/ of tloi ('atnulum Wesf.

big drum for a pulpit ; in tlie afternoon tlie
well-known Methodist minister, the Rev. John
McDou<(all, of Morley, who was with our
column, preached in a lon^i^ building near by ;
while Mr. Mackenzie, the Presbyterian cliap-
lain to the Mounted Police, became a " field
preacher," and conducted service in the woods
in the evening.

Reference already has been made to the
amateur drill witnessed on such an expedition
as this, and an incident that occurred at the
close of the morning service was, I fear, more
discussed an<l made more impression than the
service itself. It being the official church
parade, the whole regiment was formed up in
three sides of a square, facing in to the "pulpit."
When service was over the Colonel turned the
parade over for dismissal to another member of
the staft'. This officer faced the situation, and
knew just enough about drill to know that he
should get the men back into line before giving
the "dismiss," but how to get them there in
military order was more than he could tell for
the life of him. But he was a man of resource,
and boldly went at it. " Regiment ! 'Tion ! Men
on the sides, backwards wheel." They, however,
had never heard such an order before and had
never practised circus drill, so they remained

Campnujuhig nit the Prairies.

lf)9

motionless till Ser^t.-Major (now Capt.) Lawlor,
a Crimean veteran, who often had to unravel
tan<(les diirinj^ our campaign, came to tlie rescue
and dismissed the parade in the orthodox way.

While at Fort Victoria, in " the eneniy's coun-
try," orders had been issued tliat no man should
leave the camp ; but failing to understand the
full purport of this, a soldier who was an ardent
disciple of Izaak Walton got an (^Id punt and
pushed across the river to a likely-looking creek
to do some fishing. His return was witnessed
by the Colonel, who happened to be on the
bank, and that officer innnediately sent the ser-
geant of the guard (Sutherland, of No. 1 Com-
pany) to arrest and bring the man before him.
To Sutherland's surprise the " outlaw " proved
to be Pritchard, one of his fellow-sergeants in
No. 1, who subr.iitted good-humoredly to the
arrest, but insisted on bringing his string of fish
with him. The Colonel was ecjually surprised,
Pritchard being a favorite all round, an<l the
very opposite of a wilful offender; but as the
sergeatit had been of prime service to tlu' column
in crossing the Ked Deer River, and as he more-
over gravely avowed that he had been intruding
the best fish for the Colonel's dinner, that officer,
keeping his face (straight with great difficult}',
administered a reprimand and set the offender
at liberty.

170 Tho .UiikliKj uf Iho. (\(mi<l'iaii Wi'xt.

Oil May the 20tli we lot't P^ort Victoria on
our inarch ovorland after Uiii* l>ear, who lia«l
" looted " all the posts ])etweeu Efhnoiiton and
Piattleford, and at Fort Pitt, near the sceiir of
tlie Ki'oi; Lake iiiassaere, had received the sur-
render of Mr. W. J. McLean, the Hudson's Hay
ofhcei" in charge, together with all his family
and <'iu|)loyees, whom he now held as prisoners.
To secure the r<'lease of these prisoners and to
lnvak up the arnu'd force of the Indians became
now the objects of our expedition, and as the
se(|uel showe<l, both these objects were accom-
j)lished, happily without much immediate loss
of life.

Various points iiorthwar«l were passed, such
as Saddle Lake (where some of the atrocities
had been committed, the leader in which, a giant
Indian named Mamanook, was shot with some
others by Steele's scouts a few (hiys after tliis),
Egg Lake and Dog Rump Creek, not far from
Frog Lake. During these days the rain fell
almost incessantly: it was a case of march-
ing in the mud by day and sleeping in our wet
clothes by night. To make matters worse, our
commissariat was not well supplied, and until
further su])plies, which were being l>rought from
Edmonton, would reach us, we were on half
rations. It was an uncomfortable pre(licament

Camjmif/tiittff on (he Prairies.

171

to be in, and I remember standing by a camp-
fire wliich the rain was like to extino;uish, and
distinctly envyin<( two scouts wlio were enjoy-
in^r a repast of " liard tack " and black tea after
a day of hard ridin^r.

On ^lay 23rd, after a long day's march, we
had orders to camp on the low ground beneath
a ridge to avoid advertising our presence to the
Indians, but the place was a shaking bog, and
after a few vain attempts to prevent the tent-
poles and pegs from going through towards the
antipodes, Surgeon Pennyfather refused to risk
the health of the men by asking them to sleep
there, and preferred rightly to have them risk
their lives as targets on the ridge, where we
accordingly encamped.

On the following morning rrvciUn sounded as
usual at 4J^0, and we rose from our cheerless
bivouacs on the muddy ground. At 7).\0 we fell
in camidst drenchin<»; rain and driviuix wind, an<l
were addressed by General Strange as follows:

" Col. Osborne Smith, ofiicers and men of the
Winnipeg Light Infantry, 3'ou have marched
well. I k!iow that you will stick to me, and we
will stick to Bior Bear's trail as lonix as ourirrub
lasts. This is the (Queen's birthday: we have no
time to celebrate and can't have fireworks, but
let us hope we soon will have fireworks with

. :

' \'\

172 Tlui MakiiKj ()/' f/u' Cfttnc/ittii Wcsf.

the enemy. Boys, three clieers I'or the Queen ;
Go<l bless her!"

To my njind no incident during tlie cumpaitrn
more amply d(!monstrat«'d the loyal hearts of
our boys. It is ea.sy to make a fair showin«(
an<l to feel enthusiasm on the ])arade t^n'oinid
amidst a cheerin*^ thron<; of spectators, ))ut
the environment of our boys was different that
morning. They were away out on the hillsiile
in the solitary wilderness, rain-drenchcil in the
drivin<r storm, but at the name of the Queen
they stood in the ranks with heads uncovei-ed,
and when the ol<l Oeneral called for cheers the
shout that went up mit^ht well have i-ent the
concave of the low-haiii^inii" clouds. Then the
(Jeneral, who with all his Vjluti' exterior was an
earnest Christian, said :

" Boys, this is also Sunday, but we have no
time for .service to-day : we must ])ush on the
march. I am reminded of an old soldier, who
on j^oin«jj into battle prayed, ' () (lod, I often
forget thee. I will be very busy to-day. I am
sure to forget thee, but do not forget me.' Hoys,
we will sing together, ' Praise God from whom
all blessings ihnv,' " and this old doxology was
sung by the regiment ere we began another
day's forced march.

That evening we reached Frog Lalie, the scene

(%t)njtn'upihtfj OH thf Prolrles.

173

of tlie terrible massacre some weeks before, ami
by special order slrpt every man on his arms, as
we were reported by the scouts to be surrounded
by Indians who mi^ht attack us durin<^ the
ni^ht. Next mornin<^ Ser«(t.- Major Tiawlor,
with a i'ati;,aie party, buried thi^ luxlies of those
who ha<l been massacred there some weeks
before. The charred remains of the heroic
priests, Fathers Marchand and Fafard, who
had thrown themselves between the savage
Indians and the whites, were recoi^niized by
the beads and crosses they wore, but all the
others were little more than indistin^^uishable
ashes. A look around the reserve showed how
inexcusable was the risin<; of the Indians, who
were treated so well by a paternal Goverinnent,
and caused one to feel how utterly devilish was
the action of thcjse who by plausible messa«;es
had caused these easily excited and merciless
savaj^es to bite and destroy the hands that fed
them. The reserve, as it la}'^ before us that
morninj^, was one of the most beautiful spots in
all the wide country we traversed that year.
" Fair as a nanlcn of the Lord," it stretched
afar, a tlower-tlecked piairie, diversitied by
shady groves and sparklinfjj lakes : but the
houses were all burned or wrecked, all imple-
ments were destroyed, nuu'der and rapine had

171 Tin' }fi(kiiiif nf the ('nniulutii West.

nuule tln'ir iKjrrid havoc, jukI war Ha<,'s of
lildi'oiis colors on cvciy side iiiock«'<l the pun»
hrcczc of licavcn. Sini-dance lo«l;^cs were staiul-
in;^^ there and at sevcrfil points alon;,^ our route
thenceforward, to overawe th^' soldiers with
evidences of the })ravery of those who had taken
])art in the wild orgies these lotlf^es represented.
Fi'oni thei)' rafters still dandled the conls on
which the y()un<^ hraves had \\\\\\<^ hy hooks in
their laerrated flesh till, as they danced wildly
around, tlie poition \^'as torn out, an<l their reck-
lessness of ])ain was admitted heyond a doubt.
It was a niin^ded scene that met our <,^azc as wc
stood on the shores of Fro«;' Lake that day — a
minified sci'Ue of bi'autv an<l desolation, remind-
inn; US a<j;ain of the world, still untouched hy
the (lospel, "where every prospect pleases and
only man is vile."

We left VwY^ Lake and pushed on ly a forced
march of fortv-ore miles to Fort Pitt, which our
scouts reporti'(l the Indians were hurnin^j, and
which we reache«l late in the evenin<^ t->i'ly to
11 nd the fort (except two huildin<^s) a hea]> of
smokiuir ruins and the Indians vanished in
retreat. As we came down over the brow of
the river bank to the fort we found the body
of youn<j Cowan, the mounted policeman, who
had been killed by the Indians some weeks

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('iniipniijiinni mi tin' /'rtilrn's.

175

before. His IkmIv lay nakod nitli face u])-
turucd to the opon sky. The .scalpiiij^-Unile
liad not touched his fair hair, hut from wounds
in the l)reast it appeared that th Indians, wlio
helieve tliat if they eat a hrave man's lieart
tliey will t^et his spirit and eoura^^e, had followed
that course in the case of the youn^ trooper.
They certainly had cause to know of his
bravery. He an<l Constable Loasby had been
out from the fort scoutiuir towards Froj; Lake,
and on their return found the Indians in force
alon<^ the slopi^ towards the place where their
comrades were standin<,' sie^e. Puttin^jj spurs
to their horses tliey ma<le a desperate etfort to
cut their way throujrh to the fort, but the
odds were too <ijreat. They were both shot —
Cowman dead : but Loasby, whose roan c]iar<(er
we found nearer the fort, was only wounded,
and after simulatino' death awliile to deceive
the enemy, he escaped into the stockaded
inclosure.

As soon as possible after ti idling the body of
Cowan, liis comrades of the Mounted Polices du<jf
a grave and reverently buried it, the rattle of
their musketry his only funeral recpiiem, but
nothing could more vividly tell the record of a
man who worthily wore the uniform of his
Queen and died a soldier's death. A few years

'V'

176 77/'' Mok'nuj (>/ ihr Ciniffffhm Wruf.

hIucm', wlicn rclutin;^ tli«' story of tlio n-lxillion,
I was ^la«l to ln'iir, from one wlio stutrd that In*
was yoiin;;- ('owaiiH cousin, tliat tlic l»o«ly thus
huricd on that lonely hanU was cxhuinrd tho
next winter hy oi'th-r of tlic; youn;^ sohlier's
niotlier, an<l taken down to ho hiid in the phice
of his father's sepuleliro liard hy tlie city of
( )ttawa.

Wo hurriedly put in defensihli! shape tlu^
two })uildin^s which n-niMinod, loft a company
of the (j.')th to hold them, and after a swift
march of ahout eijj;ht miles, to a point whore
two Indians had l)eon shot in a skirmisli l»y
Steele's scouts tho nij^ht ])efore, came within
roach of the enemy, as wi; soon leained dotinitoly
hy hearinj^ tho hullets whistlin;;" over our heads.
It had l)oon a lon<^ chas<! from tho point of start-
ing, but despite all Indian expectations to tlie
contrary, our (.jlonoral liad fully made up his
mind to " stick to Bi^- Hoar's trail " and accom-
plish tho breaking up of his band, if it should
take all sunnner. Hence there was great satis-
faction when the routim^ of the long march was
varied on that 27th of May by our coming into
contact with the wily and light-footed foe.

CirAPTKU XI.

HEIiEI.LlOS' AT .L, KXI).

TllK j>la('(! ill wliich wr now int't the enemy
wuH full of ravines and liravilv wcKxletl, Tlie
In<lians wiTc .seen aloni( (he top ot* the hill
in front of us, .seeniin^^Hy lioldinj,' tlie position.
Our little force was thrown into line, with
Hatton's .scouts to (he ri<rht and Steele's to
the left. On our side the old O-pounder, wldcli
Perry's men had l)rou«dit from Fort McLeod,
opened hy sendin;^ a shell screaming into the
thicket on the hill-top, in a way that must have
been extremely unsettlin*^ to the nerves of the
brave.s who occupied the place. Then the order
came to us to advance, and we rushed forward in
.skirmishing order, the Indians meanwhile keep-
in<^ up a .scatterini,' tire. We halted, for breath,
and I remember feelinj; rather amused at Major
Steele, who warned me to take cover, sayinfr,
" If you don't, they will pot you .sure," while at
the same time he seemed to forifct about his

177

178 The Miikiinj <>/ the (J(nnnlu(ti Went.

own colossal figure seated on a horse seventeen
hands hi^h. Once more tlie bu^le broke in
witli tlie " Advance," and the line ruslied up the
hill and over the sunnnit only to find the Indians
retreatin*:,^ and leavint^ us in possession. For
some hours we skirmished through tlie woods,
and then our wa^^on train having; come up we
camped in the forest for the night.

Humanly speakiuf^, I have never heen able to
make out why the enemy, who were in force
outnumbering us three to one, did not make
short work of us in the darkness. The clearing
in which we encamped was small and surrounded
by dense forest, the wagons were in zareba
form with all the men and horses inside, and
the night was intensely dark. The Indians must
have been already in panic, or, with their know-
ledge of the situation, they might have rushed
in, stampeded our horses, and in the confusion
done serious execution. With the sunrise we
moved on again, and soon encountered the enemy
in a position which a glance showed to the
merest amateur to be impregnable to our handful
if held by any considerable force. The Indians
occupied a steep conical-shaped hill, moated by
a deep valley and marshy stream, topped with
forest and fortified with rifle-pits, there being,
as we afterwards found, no less than five rows

J^che/fion at nti Eti<L

170

of rifle-pits Jilong the ravine by wliicli tlioy
expected to be assailed. For some hours the
ti<^ht was kept up sharply. Our men were in
the open, but, strangely enough, only four were
wounded, though afterwards many proudly
exhibited caps shot through, etc , as evidence of
close-enough calls. The enemy were practically
invisible, and little could be seen to indicate
their presence but the putts of smoke from their
rifles and tho " ping " or thud of the bullets
around us. About ten o'clock their tiring had
practically ceased, except for scattering shots
from the pits. We afterwards learned the
^jidians were then in retreat ; but tiie scouts
were of opinion that the retreat was a ruse, and
that the enemv were cominii" round behin<l us (as
some of them actually did) to cut oft' our wag<jn
train and hem us down in the valle\^

In a letter I received from General Strange
some years afterwards, he said in reference to
this enoao'eiiient : " My force would have <ionr
in to a man, if I had allowed them, ))ut I had
the lessons of Kish ('reek and Cut Knife before
me," implying that he did not feel warranted in
risking the lives of his men in a possible trap,
against the opinion and a(Uice of the e(jlumn's
"tentacles." So the njen were slowly retiifd by
companies till the wag(jn zareba was reached,

180

The Mdkniij of the ('(tuatflati West.

wlu'ii a camp was formed and the wounded men
looked after. Woid was then sent down tlie
river to (Jeneral IMiddleton, at Battleford, for
ammunition and reinforcements.

On tlie day following Major Steele offered to
take a llyin^- colunni and follow the Indian
trail, and accordingly, with about fifty i>icked
men out of the Police, the Alberta Rifles and
Oswald's scouts, he left camp, accompanied by
the " f^rey team " and wai;on with amnuuiition
and supplies, I remendjer how these fellows —
ma<j;nificent riders, every one of them — wheeled
out on the gallop, and followe<l where the tracks
showed that most of the Indians had gone. We
saw no more of them for days, but they kept to
t\\v trail and came upon the main body of the
Indians at Loon Lake, where a brilliant dash
was made upon the enemy, who retired across
an almost impassable morass. In this hot, if
l)rief, eniiauement several Indians bit the dust,
and Steele's sergeant-major (Fury by name),
and two of the scouts (Fisk and West), were
woivnded. Fury was very seriously hurt, being
shot through the breast and rendered per-
fectly iielpless. Steele's only course, with these
wounded men on his hands and no transport or
ambulance, was to retire toward the main bodv,
leaving the Indians continuing their journey to
the north.

for

Roltelliou (it (in K)i(t.

181

Another of our own companies havini^ come
down from Edmonton with mucli-needed sup-
plies just as Steele left us, we marche<l hack to
the scene of our encounter at Frenchman's Butte,
only to find that tlie enemy had vanished, leavint^
every evidence that they ha«l Hed in the wildest
panic. The encampment was nearly intact, with
the wio-wams standing-. Great heaps of furs
(which went (piickly we know not whither),
wa<^ons, carts, tlour, hacon, cookin<j^ utensils,
etc., lay around in tlie greatest disorder, as if
they liad become of very secondary importance
in the race for life. Concerninj'" tlie furs a o-ood
deal has been said even in the sober debates of
our Houses of Parliament, but tliere is not much
certainty as to where they were finally bestowed.
The staff officers in all the brigades were
mightily blamed by those who were themselves
angry at not getting a haul, but it is ([uite likely,
according to my observation, that the teamsters,
who had the great a<l vantage of receptacles in
which to carry parcels, could unfold tales that
would exonerate the poor officers from at least
a part of the blame.

Standing that day in a pelting rain-storu), we
surveyed the position recently held by the t'uemy
and wondered whv thev had notkenton holdinir

i^ li

III

it, so excellently was it suited for standing a

182 The Maklnf/ of the Canadian West.

Vm<r sie^^e. Then f^oiiig out to the plain beyond
we encamped to wait for orders from Middleton,
wliile our scouts tried to locate the scatteriufj
ti'ails of the lleein<r Indians. While we remained
there, several of the white pi'isoners who liad
escaped during the fight and confused retreat
were hrouglit into camp ]»y the scouts, rejoicing
at liaviiiiT retrained once more a freedom wliich
they <lou))tless at times li.ad despaired of ever
ol>taining, as from day to day hope deferred had
made their hearts sick.

Here, too, I remendter seeing one of those
touches of natuie which make the whole world
kin. One of the roughest riders and apparentl}'
one of the most reckless of the cowboy scouts
was seen coming into camp, leading his rougher
horse and carrying carefully upon his arm a
small wooden box, such as originally might have
contained groceries of some kind. At once
curious men oathered in a knot at the edge of
the camj), and wondered what find Jack (as we
will call him) had made. As he approached, one
of the men stepped in his way and lifted the cover
of leaves, unveiling the wan dead face of a white
child some few months ohl, whose body had
thus been reverently cofiined and covered by
the hand of the mother and left in the woods as
the iirisoners were drauii'od alono*. The man

Rebellion at an End.

1 83

whose curioHity had tempted liim to discover the
nature of Jack's "tind" started to make some
contemptuous remark to the crowd, ])ut the
scout's eyes Hashed such a (hm^erous fire that
tlie remark stopped sliort, and the rest mach^ way
for that strange funeral procession. Picketing
liis wikl broncho, tlie scout dug a grave with liis
own hands, and witli a gentleness that would
have done that mother's heart good, connnitted
the little body to the ground. After all, we are
every one of us under the influence of an unseen
world. Perhaps tlie ([uiet sympathy Jack had
with the unknown mother's grief, or p<»rhaps
the tender recollections of child-life as he re-
membered it, made that rough scout for the time
being as gentle as a woman, or it may have been
that sometime in an older land he had laid his
own dead under the sod, an<l his heart went 1 tack-
to that God's-acre where a mother was sleeping
with their infant child upon her breast.

On the 21st of May, General Strange, feeling
that we were close on the enemy, had thought it
well to send despatches to Col. Otter at Hattle-
ford, acquainting him with the situation, so that,
if necessary, a junction could be effected between
his force and ours for the hemmiuf; in of the
Inelians and the disposal of the whole question.
Two scouts, George Borradaile (n jw Croftrr

V 1

Il j^'.ll

184 The Mdkiny o/" the Cannflittn Wenf.

Commissioner in Winnipeg) and William Scott
(whose present whereabouts I do not know),
were selected for the difficult and danojerous
enterprise. It was an undertaking re(iuiring
both courage and resource, to go down by the
river through the enemy's country. A some-
what clumsy boat was the means of travel,
and the two scouts made a perilous run in the
shadows of night past Fort Pitt, which the
Indians were even then setting on fire. When
the scouts reached Battle ford. General Middleton
had arrived there from Batoche. The despatch
was delivered, and when next morning the
scouts were to return on the south side of the
river, Borradaile asked for a revolver, as he had
lost his in a mishap by the upsetting of the
boat on the way down. The General, nmch to
Borradaile's disgust, said that he himself would
go through that country with a stick ; but when
he did come, as General Strange said, " he
brought two infantry regiments, a troop of
cavalry, and artillery." The scouts made the
return trip safely, though under considerable
strain, and reached Fort Pitt again on the 29th
of May, the day after our fight at Frenchman's
Butte, but in time to take a hand in the Loon
Lake expedition.

A^ this point in our campaign some of our

Rebel I ion at an Etui.

185

officers — Capt. Wade, Lieut. Mills and Sergt.-
Major Lawlor — left us, being called back to
Winnipeg by their duties as government officials.
Perhaps there was no man in our regiment so
deservedly popular as the sergeant-major, and
before he went, though not a man given to
speech-making, he responded to the demand of
the boys, and bade them farewell in a few
words. I can still see the scene before me. It
is a dark weird night, with here and there a
glimpse of the moon through the rifts of the
flying clouds. Near the camp-fire is the wagon
which is to carry the officers homeward, and
around it the group of red-coats, which includes
nearly every man off duty. Beside the wagon,
with one hand resting lightly on a wheel,
stands the sergeant-major, his tall, powerful
figure erect as ever, his grey beard sweeping
the broad breast on which glisten, in the flick-
ering light of the camp-fire, three medals, the
rewards of his sovereign for services in the
Crimea and China. After referring to the long
weary marching, and then to the fight which
followed, he said tliat " he was glad that this,
probably the last of his many campaigns, had
been undertaken with men who had proven
themselves of such good stuflf as the men of the
Winnipeg Light Infantry." It was warm praise

18G

The Milking of tho y'nimfVtdn West.

from a man who wa.s in tlie habit of saying
only what he meant, and as the wa^on (h'ove
out and was lost in the darkness, many a poor
fellow who had done his hest felt his heart swell
at the words of the veteran soldier.

While we luul been pushint^ on to this point,

r IMKF I'orSDMAKKK.

our comrades nearer to the centre of the re-
bellion had been doing some very active service.
A brigade under Col. Otter had, after an ex-
ceptionally swift march from Swift Current,
relieved Battleford, which had been in a state of
siege for months, and then, not without severe
loss to themselves, inflicted deserved chastise-
ment on Chief Poundmaker and his maraudino;

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))ainl at Cut Kiiit'e. Farther ea.stwanl, at tlu'
tit'iy lieart of the trouble, (Jenenil Middletoii
had captured Hatoche, the stronj^liold of Kiel.

The advance fi'oin Fish Creek had heen care-
fully made. I^atoche was Kiel's "last ditch."
and after the battle (Jeneral Middleton hinjsilf
expressed wonder at the splendid use the rebels
lia<l made of the means at their disj)osal to hold
the positi(jn. 'I'he ti<^ht contiini«?d for four <lays,
when, the volunteers seemiuf^ly <^rowin<^ restive
under the protracted mano'uvrin^*, made a bril-
liant charn;(' and carried the positicni with a
rush. The i^allantry of all the troops en^a^i'd
is undisputed, and the list of nine killed and
forty-six wounded evidences the keeiniess of
the struggle.

The day after Hatoche Kiel was found by
Scouts Hourie and Armstrong, llomie to(jk
him up on the saddle and brought him into
camp, whence he was sent to Regina, with a
special guard under Capt. Ceorge 11. V(jung,
of the Wiiniipeg Field Hattriy. There Kiel
remained thi'ough tlu; eventful trial, during
which the plea of insanity was raised in vain,
and there he was executed on the Kith of
November, bS85, meetin<»: his death manful 1 v.
His body was given to his friends, and now
rests in the graveyard at Hi. Boniface beneath

18«S Till' }fok'nnj of iho, (%ni<nfiini WphI,

\i <,n'aiiit(3 pillar on wliicli is cn^'ruvcd tlu' .siii^^lo
word " KiMi,." I was present at the t'uneial ser-
vice in the ohl cathedral, and was deeply
impressed hy the evi«lent sorrow of the p<'ople
whose cause he had, with many mistakes,
espoused.

TOM iioruii:.

Returning- to the field, we find Middleton mov-
ing with his column, by way of Prince Albert,
to Battleford, where he demanded and received
the unconditional surrender of Poundmaker on
the 26th of May, the day before our first skir-
mish with Bio" Bear, This left the Commander-
in-Chief free to move in our direction and effect
such a concert w^itli the force under General

lii'hfllioit lit OH Hiiil,

Stnmj^^(^ as would sccim' tlir lu'imniii;^^ in aiwl
CHptui'c! ol' tile rt'tn'jitiii;^' Iinliaii.s. Acconliii^^Iy,
MicMIrton with u stroni; forcf canir on to Fort
IMtt, and Icaviii;^ his iiilaiitry tlirn' in canip,
n^ac'ln'd tlu3 ])oiiit wluTc wo were with liis
nioiintt'd men and aftillorv- 'I'hcrt' a new
])lan of campai^ni was dccidrd on. (Icnrnil
Stran<r(''s cohnnn of infant iv was to niarcli
northward to thr om? (as was thm stipposcd)
crossing; (jf the IJiNivrr Kivcr, wliilr (Jcnei-al
Middlt'ton, with all the niountc"! mm, was
to f(jllow after the main trail of IJi;; Bear
and force liim uj) to lis at tlie crossing, where
between two fires the matter could soon he
settled. Accordin<;ly, we started out next
mornin<ij to ])erform our part of the contract,
and tliat ni<;ht camped at Onion Lake in one
of the iiKjst terrific tliuiKh'rstorms I ever wit-
nessed—an amazinj'" and overwlielminjxlv <£rand
Spectacle. The continuous flashing* of ii^ditnin<^
transformed the ])rairie with its wavin^^ «^rass
into a lleavin^^ tossin*; sea of flame, while the
incessant Ijoom and crash of the tluuuU'r, awe-
inspiring in the extreme, reminded us of the
feeble stren<.(th of all earthly force, the puny
power of boasted arms before the flash and roar
of the artillery of heaven.

x\ll the next day our forced marchin<^ was

"-■ssauttsMK

I DO Hie Jfdkirif/ of tJie ('<in(ul'uin West.

contiimed tlirouoli roads almost impassable and
innumerable places where the wa<^ons had to
be pulled out by the men, and towards evenin<^
Indians were reported ahead near the Beaver
River crossin(»". It was decided to make what
became known in the rebellion annals as " the
silent march," and so leavin<ij our wagon train,
the horses bein<^ completely tired out, we started
marchinjr a";ain about eiji^ht o'clock in the even-
ing. For (juite a distance our way was throuj^h
water knee-deep, and through this swamp I
remember how the Frenchmen of the 65th,
almost shoeless and half-clad though they were,
juore than once helped the horses on Perry's
gun, next to which they were marching. It was
night when we struck the heavy and practically
ti'ackless forest, for there was scarcely any trail
to be found. The darkness <»'rew denser as we
advanced, and the great trees meeting above us
shut out the sky. Sometimes in rank, and
sometimes in Indian tile, we kept on marching
in dead silence, with our arms ready for in-
stant use, until about two o'clock in the morn-
ing, when a halt was oi<lered, and by little twig
tires — larger were not allowed — we tried to dry
our wet and well-nioh fro/en ira-nnents.

As the day began to dawn we moved on
again, and by sunrise arrived at the point neav

Rehellion nt (ui End.

191

and

lie

tlio Heaver River wliere tlie Indians liad been
seen, but Found tliey had vanished. Evidences
of their recent pr«'sence, liowever, were at hand,
for we found a])out one lunidred ba<:^s of Hour
cachrjl in the woods. This was a " windfall," as
bv this time bread was little more than a di'^tant
memory, and even " hard tack " was scarce enou<j^h
to be appreciated. The brigade supply officer,
however, took formal j)ossession of the cache of
iiour, lest the men should o^et enou<^h to eat for
once ; but by various devices known to soldiers,
such as nuttinij two " kits " in one rubber sheet,
and a bag of flour in the other, they rescued
a good deal of it from his ra[)acious clutches,
and fai'ed sumptuously, if somewhat secretly,
for several days.

Next morning we marched to the Beaver
River, where we had orders to wait initil Gen-
eral Middleton, whom we left starting out after
Biii" Bear from the scene of our fiijcht. should
force him up to us. However, had we done so,
we should have had a weary waiting.

The General following" on Steele's trail, met
that officer with his conunand returning from
Loon Lake. The wounded were sent back
to the main column, and Steele, although his
horses and men were nuich spent, turned back
with the (general to the scene of the Jjoon Lake.

i >

192 The Jfakhifj of the Cinuuliitn West.

fight. After careful investig<ation of the ground,
]\liddleton decided that with Iiisguns and lieavy
horsefj he could not cross the shakin^^ boff over
which the liirht-footed Indians with their nimble
ponies had made their way. He accordingly
concluded to turn back, on finding which the
Indians also deflected their course, instead of
running up to receive our welcome.

In the afternoon of tlie day we arrived at the
Beaver River, No. 1 Company was ordered out
under arms to accompany Colonel Smith to the
river, about a mile and a half away, to find a
suitable crossing should we have to go farther.
Here we found another caclie made by the
Chippewyan Indians, filled with articles for
priests' wear and church services, which they
probably thought they could dispense with
while on the war-path. The scenery at this
point is very fine. The river, flowing swiftly
eastward, is joined by a small stream from
the south ; the banks are very high and so
densely wooded from top to bottom that the
foliage seems to be piled in green luxuriance
to the very summit. I got permission from the
Colonel to take the men down to see the river,
and away we went rushing down the steep
to the water's edge. There the place is a
magniflcent natural park. Grand trees, perfectly

Rebellion at an End.

193

straight and with few boughs, tower aloft ;
there is no undergrowth, and the whole place is
a perfect picnic-ground. In fact, it so struck
one of our fellows, who remarked, " Boys, this
would be a great place for the people at home
to hold their Sunday-school picnics " ; but as
we were then nearly two thousand miles from
home by the route we had followed, we did
not think it necessary to discuss the question
seriously.

On coming again to the top and turning
eastward, the view that met our eyes was mar-
vellously beautiful. The sun, which was slowly
sinking, struck his shafts across the river and
lit the tree-tops beyond. The sunbeams glow-
ing and glinting in mellow radiance on tlie great
clouds of foliage on the towering banks, the
river flashing and twining in and out through
the forest like some serpent-fish with silvery
scales, the sparkling of the little tributary
stream, of which one could catch glimpses away
down through a veil of green boughs, all
together made up a scene rarely surpassed even
in the great picture gallery of nature. A few
moments we stood gazing on the wondrous view,
and then the word to fall in being given, we
reluctantly left the scene and marched back

to camp.
13

tfi.

£;

194 llie MnkiiKj nf the Cnyuclinn WcHt.

That night our outlyinj^ picket was fired
upon, but in tlio «leep darkness and fog nothing
could be done except arouse the cainp, keep the
wliole picket under arms, and wait for the day.
On that day a band of Chippewyan Indians,
with a Roman Catholic priest at their liead,
came in, and surrendering unconditionally, laid
down their arms in a heap at the feet of the
General. One could not help feeling sorry for
the poor fellows. They did not appear to be a
])ad lot, but seemed to have been dragged ]»y
threats, rathe, than their own inclination, into
rebellion. From the day they surrendered they
certainly became a great help to us in many
ways, and did their utmost to discover the
whereabouts of the bands who still held certain
of the white prisoners.

On the next day, Sunday, June 14th, we had
service by the Rev. John McDougall inside the
zareba. What a motley congregation was there
assembled ! — some on the wagons, some on the
prairie, and some seated on their saddles on the
ground. Here a mounted policeman in faded
scarlet and gold stood beside a scout with his
wide slouch-hat and general air of carelessness ;
there an infantry man with coal, once red, now
like Joseph's — of many colors — sprawled on the
grass beside some rough western teamster,

fired
ithing
p tlie
3 day.
dians,
head,
y, laid
3f the
y for
be a
:ed ny
n, into
d they

many

^r the

ertain

e had

ie the

5 there

m the

on tlie

faded

til his

hsness ;

1, now

on the

mister,

whose respect for the minister's cloth kept him
(|uiet, but who, if personally interviewed,
might not hesitate to avow heterodoxy in his
favorite terse expression, " ])itterenco here,
pardner." To the credit of these rough men be
it said, I never saw amongst them anything
but the most respectful attention to thesu ser-
vices, and often one could see their bronze faces
light up with a surprising tenderness as they,
perchance, recalled the days when they had
heard from a mother's lips the same old, but
ever new, story of the Cross.

Next day General Strange accepted the otter
made by Colonel Snnth a few days previously,
to take one hundred ])icked num from the
Winnipeg Light Infantry, cross the river and
strike northward to a chain of lakes, where he
shrewdly, and, as the sequel proved, correctly,
thought some of Big Bear's band might have
gone with the remaining prisoners. Regimental
orders ijuickly rec^uired Companies 1, 2 and 3 to
furnish the men, and perhaps the "picking"
consisted larwlv in a selection of those who had
some renniants of boots left, and whose uniforms
could be counted on as likely to hold together a
little while louijer.

We (tor the writer was fortunate enough to
be one of the hundred) were ordered to leave all

ill

196 The Makiiuj of the Cnnndinn Went.

transport except the Indians' pack-horses, and
each nian was to carry his own outfit strapped
upon liis back, as the country through which
we were about to travel was impassable to all
l)ut foot-soldiers and the nimble pony of the
plains. We crossed the river by sections, in
two birch canoes, and there left Color-Sergt.
Sutherland with a party of five men to build
a boat on which to cross the rest of the force if
re(|uired. We then struck north, and made
about five miles that night. Having no tents
or other covering, w^e lay down under the starry
canopy of heaven to sleep upon delightful couches
of pea-vine on a grassy ridge beside a lake.

Next morning we started at 4.30 without
brerkfast, as, according to the map, Cold Lake,
for which we were striking, was only a few miles
distant ; but the man who made that map or
arranged its scale would have fared ill if he
had fallen into the hands of our hungry pack
when some hours later Cold Lake was not yet
reached. The men marched for the most part
in Indian file, threading their w^ay over fallen
trees and through mossy swamps, while the
Chippew^yan Indians (formerly enemies, now
our scouts and guides) foUow^ed in the rear
with the pack-ponies. While passing through
a clearing there occurred one of those amusing

RpheJIion at nn End.

197

, and

ipped

vhich

to all

f the

[IS, in

Sergt.
build

>rce if
made
tents

starry

Duches

ithout

Lake,
miles

ap or
if he
pack

ot yet
■j part
fallen

le the
now
rear

irough

nusing

idents which ab

d to

ys seemed to come
nick of time to relieve the pressure of weariness
and restore the equilibrium of the men. An
Indian pony behind took fright at a tea-kettk^
which fell off his back, and which, being tied,
as everything on a pack-horse is, kept hitting
him on the heels. The pony, after having first
kicked vigorously without being able to break
the tough " shagganappi " line, finally came
tearing along our colunni like a hurricane,
upsetting a captain who had done his best to
get out of the way, and then bowling over a
color-sergeant, who was taken wholly by sur-
prise. The sergeant, who was a middle-aged
and grizzled man, wore his hair very long and
very thick, the military crop not being insisted
on during prairie campaigning, and he was,
moreover, a man of great dignity, polite address,
independent opinioiis and high-toned bearing.
He was not seriously hurt by t)'e cavalry
onslaught, but in taking his involuntary somer-
sault the pack which he carried on his back
was thrown over his head, to the serious detri-
ment of his toilet, and I can still hear the roar
of laughter that made the woods ring as the
wild tangles of his hair appeared above the
long grass, his face wearing the appearance of
a man caught in a cyclone.

198 The .Vnkin;/ of t^ Cnna<Jlan WoM.

On we plo(M<Ml, hun<^ry and weary, tliron^h
the forest, and at leni»'th arrived at tlie lake,
wliich we had ahnost be»^un to tliink was, like
tlie enemy, retirin<^ before us. We hailed with
j(jy the sparkle of water throu<^di the trees, and
as we neared it the <ijrand rei)ose and the vast-
ness of this lake, so far remote from the haunts
of men, struck us with a feelino^ akin to awe.
It stretches away far almost as tlie eye can
reach, the water pure, clear, cohl and deeply
blue; the beach, stone, gravel and sand, the
latter resembling small diamonds ; the woods
by the shore grand, umbrageous, reflected in
the glassy surface. In the stillness of that
sunny June day the lake lay before us like
some gigantic and marvellous mirror, reflecting
the glorious beauty of its Creator's works.

All day long the men were kept busy build-
injij willovv huts in the woods, as we were to
remain here for some time to scout and explore
in the surrounding cointry. I felt, as doubtless
did many others, amply repaid for many a weary
march by coming to this lovely spot. The even-
ing came down in quiet splendor, the lake lying
peaceful and miraged over with the golden,
dusky haze of the sunset coolness. Everything
seemed as hushed and still as the holy calm of
a Sabbath. It was as though conscious Nature,

ReheHio)i (if an En<I.

191)

lake,
4, like;
. with
s, Jind

vast-
launts
) awe.
e can
loeply
l1, the
woods
bed in
• that
s like
ectin<^

build-
ere to
xplore
ibtless
weary
! even-
lying

i^olden,
ything
aim of
s'^atiire,

whicli had shuddered at the deeds of bloodshed
and crime enacted on her bosom, was tlius pro-
phetically manifesting^ forth their speeily close
and exhibitint^ in sublime silence the tranijuil-
izinf^ power of that (Jospel whose spread in those
lonely wilds will put an end to all savagery and
woe — that Gospel whose heralding still rings to
us across the centuries, " Glory to God in the
highest and on earth peace, good-will toward
men."

On the 20th of June Indian scouts from our
column found the portion of the band that
held the McLeans and othe' prisoners, and on
the 23rd, word being conveyed to them to bring
these prisoners in, they were sent in all safe and
sound to Fort Pitt, being met on the way by
Major Bedson and a detachment of the 90th. We
now felt that our campaign was practically over,
and that we could return with the conscious-
ness of having at least tried to do our duty.
We received orders to return to the brigade, our
hundred having penetrated farther than any
armed force of that time, and accordingly
marched back to the Beaver River. There we
found that our boat party had completed a
large boat, made without a nail and capable of
carrying some sixty men. The patriotic souls
of the boys had found vent in the launching.

200

The Makinff of the Cnnarlutn Wfsi.

for with Homo compound of nxlogrease they
had " writ hir^e " across tlie side the name
of their birth-place, the oh) liistoric name of
Kildonan. There on tlie Heaver River the
* Kihlonan " was left, and there for au^ht I
know it may still remain, a souvenir for the
Chippewyan Indians of the sudden and unso-
licited visit of the white soldiers to their far-
distant fastnesses.

We rejoined our regiment and marched toward
the Frog Lake landing of the Saskatchewan,
reaching there about midnight, and amidst
falling rain crowded aboard the steamer, which
passed down the swift-rushing stream to Fort
Pitt, where we were warmly welcomed by the
90th of Winnipeg, the Grenadiers of Toronto,
and the Midland Battalion. There we ascer-
tained that our regiment, partly for lack of
transport, though principally to gather in the
outlaw Indians, was to remain behind for a
time, but some fifty of us (the campaign being
over) got leave of absence, and on the 4th of
July, in company with the 65th, the 90th, the
Grenadiers and the Midland Battalion, left Fort
Pitt for home in three steamers, the MarqwU,
the Northwest and the Baronej^s. That day
Col. Williams, of the Midland Battalion, who
was in the forefront of the chai'ge at Batoche,

lirhflVmn fit an Enrf.

201

died on board the .steamer Northve.sf, and a
private of the Ooth, wlio liad Ixjen wounded at
Frenchman's Butte, died on board the Buroness.
Only a few days l)efore thi.s I liad met Col
Williams at Fort Pitt, bein*' introduced to him

HON. in't;ll JOHN MAODONALD, Q.O.

by Capt. Huf^h John Macdonald, and was much
impressed with his manly appearance and
soldierly bearing. He took some kind of fever,
and, the facilities for nursing not being of the
best, he went down under it with startling
suddenness.

The next day we landed at Battleford, a

202 Tlic .]ftikinf/ of tJu' ('nmul'mn Wi'st.

pictur('H(|U(! tlion^li Hoiiu'wluit Htru^'<^lin<( town
oil lii<^^li upland near the river, and at this point
W(! W(a\' joincMl hy the (^)u(M'n's Own Rifles and
Ottawa Foot (JuanlH, witli (h<' (j)u(bec Hattery.
l're])arationH were liere made I'oi" the funeral ol'

LMur. COLON i:l wh-ijams.

Col. Williams, whose body was to be sent home
overland. It was one of the most impressively
attectin<;' and imposing sights I liad ever wit-
nessed. The plain board cotHn, wrapped in the
folds of the old iiag under whose shadow he had
fought so honorably and well was lifted on a
(•"un- carriage, behind which a s')ldier led his

liehitlllun (it tin Knd.

203

riderlt'Hs horse. His own tine rc^nincnt, now
<:foiii<( homo without a lender, t'(jlIow«'<I as cliiel*
mourners, with arms i-cverscil, ami the roHnjc
numhered fully fifteen hundred aimed men. Ihass
hands were there with nnitHed drums, and the
wild lonely upland echoed the wail ol' the "Dead
March in Saul," as slowly and sadly we con-
ducted the iTftlljint dead to the once l)elea<ruert'd
Tort, where within the stockaded inclosure the
Kevs. D. M. (iordoii and Whitcombe held a most
impressive service. IVrany a stern soldier who
liad stood unmoved amidst dangers <;ave way to
Ids feelings, many a stalwart f i*m heaved with
emotion, and on many a sun-bronzed cheek the
tear was seen as we consigned to his last journey
one of the heroes in the chai't^e that crashed
the centre of rebellion, a man who had i)assed
gloriously through the battle, and who, with a
name that will live enshrined in the memory of
his country, was returning to his home where
loved ones looked for his cominjjf, but had fallen
here so suddenly before the grim King of
Terrors. Escaj)ing the shot that had ploughed
the ranks, he, by a death reached through the
gateway of <luty, had passed into the unseen,
and had added his name to the bead-roll of the
slain whose lives were yielded up in sacrifice on
the altar of their country.

•I •

( .
■I

204 The Makimj of the Canadian West.

" The muffled dniin's sad roll has heat

Our soldier's last tattoo,
No more on life's parade shall meet

That brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camjjing ground

Their silent tents are spread,
And glory guards with solemn round

The bivouac of the dead.
Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead,

Dear as the blood ye gave ;
No impious footstep here shall tread

The herbage of your grave I
Nor shall your glory be forgot

While Fauie her record keeps,
Or Honor points the hallowed spot

Where Valor proudly sleeps."

The solemn service over, we boarded our
steamers again and moved down the broad
stream, passing the ashes of Fort Carlton (burned
just after the Duck Lake fight), and stopping a
few hours at Prince Albert. Here we saw the
place where the people had garrisoned them-
selves, and also the place where our active
enemy, Big Bear, who had been captured a few
days before, was held in durance.* There, too.

* Tho old chief after the Loon Lake affair had separated
from the band with one companion, and being found by the
Mounted Police near the site of Fort Carlton, was taken to
Prince Albert. Personally he was rather a harmless old
man, and but for tw^o of his band, Wandering Spirit and
Little Poplar, would never have been found on the war-patli.

Rf'he/funi nt tut End.

205

we met many old friends of former days, and
as our bands enlivened the day with music
and uniforms were everywhere, the scene was a
brilliant one, broken only by the sadness all
felt as here and there we saw emblems of
mourning' worn for the <!;allant men who from
that })laee had volunteered to maintain the law
and had laid their Ijodies on the fatal field of
Duck Lake. In the afternoon we swung out
from our moorini^s and moved down the river,
the bands playing " Auld Lang Syne " amidst
the cheering of our men, returned by the waving
of innumeraV)le handkerchiefs in the hands of
ladies fair. We made a swift run to the Forks,
where the north and south branches of the
Saskatchewan unite in one gigantic stream, and
at this point we found the hospital barge with
the wounded from Fish Creek and Batoche.
The barge, from which the wounded were then
transferred to one of the steamers, was a model
of cleanliness and comfort, a great credit to the
medical staff and to Nurse Miller, the " Florence
Nightingale " of the rebellion time. The trip
thence was uneventful (save for a storm on
Cedar Lake, which nearly swamped our river
boats), and as we came down the broad bosom of
the magnificent stream we enjoyed the rest, the
meetiniT with old friends and the tellinij one

206

Thp Miikiiiff of the C<(nntUrtn West.

r '

another of " tlie dangers we had passed," and
the story of " how fields were won."

At (irand Rapids, where a liorse tramway
connects the river with Lake Winnipeg, we left
our boats and, passing over to the lake, packed
into every corner of the boats and barges the/e,
and reached Selkirk :n the early morning of
July lotli. Tliere we found many friemls
awaiting us, and these, notwithstanding our
bron/ed and bearded faces, recognized us without
difficulty and bade us a hearty welcome. After
a lunch, provided by the citizens, we boarded
our train and reached Winnipeg in the after-
noon, exactly three months from the time our
regiment had departed for the west.

A magnificent reception awaited the returning
troops. The ti'ain seemed to push its way
throuiih a livinix mass of men, women and
children at the station, and it had scarcely
stopped when the cars were besieged by such a
throng that the disembarking soldiers could
scarcely find room enough to form up. But at
leuiith the lines oot into some semblance of order,
with "Fours, riglit, (juick march" we swung
out to Main Street, and as we passed up towards
the City Hall beneath arches and banners, and
amidst the intense enthusiasm of cheering
crowds we saw che wnuineness of the welcome

tiehrUion at an EivJ.

201

and felt ciniply repaid for all the lianlships and
dangers of the canipai<:jn.

Our own regiment, the Winnipeg Light
Infantry, arrived a few weeks later, being the
last to leave the field, alter receiving the
surrender of enemies to five times their own
number, amongst them some of the worst
Indians in the W^st, several of whom came
under capital sentence at the hands of the
country. The regiment had a fitting reception
accorded it by the city of Winnipeg, where the
e<iual readiness with which these volunteers had
marched through swamps or fought the enemy,
as called upon, was duly appreciated, and when
No. 1 Company marched down to their former
barracks at Kildonan, we were received with
Highland hospitality uy the kind friends whos(^
goodness had cheered us on the weary campaign,
and whose kindness will long be remend)ered
by the boys who w^ent to the fi'ont.

:5 1

The scars left by the rebellion are slowly
disappearing, and little else remains but the
memory of the manner in which a young nation
showed itself ready and able to cope with
serious difficulties within her borders. That
memory is enough to cfiectually prevent any
such unfortunate uiovement ever again taking

I i' 'I
I i ■
1 1

208 The Making of the Canadian West.

place, and, perhaps, in view of the fact that the
pressure of difficulties compacts and solidifies
character, it was well that, before sweeping out
into the great possibilities that lie before this
once "great lone land," it had to pass through
such wrestlings as produce a strength never
reached on the dead level of uninterrupted ease.

ft '

5^..

,t the
clifies
y out
this
ough
lever
ease.

i^'

I ;

! :

'J--

Arcliliisliop TiU'h«5.
An'hhishop Macliray.

kt'V. (Iforjfe Ymiiij;, D.D.
Hfv. John Black, D.D.

rniOUF OF FIONKKH ( LKR(;YMEN.

CHAPTER XII.

RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOP-
MENT.

Without religion an individual or a nation is
a comparative failure, and without education the
means of making the most of our native resources
must be largely lacking. Hence it is matter for
thankfulness on the part of all who are inter-
ested in the West, that the religious and edu-
cational work of the country has always had a
foremost place in the thought and life of the
people. It is a lamentable fact that this has not
always been the case in new countries, where
the ease with which material prosperity can be
attained has often ^ed to more or less serious
disregard of the higher life and the institutions
which are the hope of humanity. The better
state of things in the Canadian West is due
principally to two causes. The first is, that the
early colonists were of a character and a race
always disposed to pay special attention to these

209

It -

1!10 Tke Mnki.iy of tlw Cnnaflinn Wrst.

tliin<^s ; and the .second, that missionaries being
early on tlie ground were a})le to keep the work
of Cliurch and school so well abreast of the
country's progress that few, if any, communities
to-day are out of touch with these advantages.
In the matter of church work, the Roman
Catholics, following the early French ex-
plorers, were first on the ground, though their
people were not of the colonist but the more
noma<lic class. Across the Red River from
where the city of Winnipeg now stands, this
denomination established its headquarters for
church and school, near the opening of this
century, and named the place St. Boniface.
Amongst the early settlers of all creeds their
leading men were well known, and often have
we heard special mention of Bishop Provencher,
a man of magnificent physical mould and states-
manlike ability. It was of his cathedral, with
its turrets twain, that Whittier, the Quaker
poet, wrote his famous and exceedingly beauti-
ful poem, " The Red River Voyageur," in which
he descrilies the hard vo}'age of the oarsman
in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company,
and of the joy that lit up his swarthy counten-
ance as he lieard the " bells of St. Bonifa .e "
that spoke the message of his home-coming.
That cathedral was burned down many years

HfJiu'wHn <nnl /'Jt/firafinHitf Di vcfojunfiit. till

af(o, jiiid on its site was reaiv(l the present one,
From whose tower the hells still rin*; out tlieir
musical chimes.

Some years ago Sir John Schultz (then Lieut.-
Governor of Manitoha) remin(le<l the authorities
of the cathedral of the birthday of the poet,
and asked that the bells be ruui^ in honor of
the day. This being done, the Hon. J. W. Taylor,
the United States consul at Wiiniipeg, wrote
informing Whittier of the fact. The aged poet,
on recovering from an illness with which he was
suffering at the time, wrote to Archbishop Tache,
at St. Boniface, acknowledging the thoughtful
courtesy of the act, and in his letter the follow-
ing sentences of great beauty occur : " I have
reached an age when literary success ami
manifestations of popular favor have ceased to
satisfy one upon whom the solenniity of life's
sunset is resting : but such a delicate and
beautiful tribute has deeply moved me. I shall
never forget it. I shall hear the bells of St.
Boniface sounding across the continent and
awakening a feeling of gratitude for thy gen-
erous act." The letter \v;is scarcely less beauti-
ful than the poem itself, and adds to the halo
of romance which the pleasing incident threw
around the old cathedral.

As already indicated, Bishop (afterwards

! I

212 Thf Mdkiny of the Caunrlifni JVettf.

Archbishop) Tache camo next in the .succession
at 8t. Boniface. He was a man of jrentle, lovable
(lis])osition, and yet of iiuloniitable will and
initirin^ energy. No man conld have exerted
a lar;^a'r control over his own people, and few
had wider influence in the country at large.
Under his direction missi(jns were extended
widely over the whole West, and at St. Boniface
the Colle«(e, which is the principal educational
institution of the Roman Catholic Church in the
West, was built, so that when the present Arch-
bishop Langevin came into office he found a
fully or'/anized and well administered diocese.
Next m the order of their comintj^ into the
country is the Episcopal Church, which, partly
throujxh the inliuence of Hudson's Bav Com-
pany officials, but nuiinly by their own enter-
prise, had a missionary, Rev. John West, on the
banks of the Red River in 1820, and this
(Jhurch continued to be the sole representative
of Protestantism in that part of the West until
the year 1851, when the Presbyterian Church
sent a missionary to the field. This was the
more remarkable by reason of the fact that the
colony on the Red River brought out by Lord
Selkirk '^^■as exclusively Presbyterian, and the
great majority of that colony remained so, while,
to the credit of botii missionaries and people,

H^'lujioaii antf Kdtiittt'iondl Dcvflopntfiit. *J I .'{

fully availin<^ theinselvcH of and HUpportiii*;' tlw
HervicL'H of tho Aiiixlican CImrch foi- nion' than
thirty yoars The Kj)isc*opalinii.s. mnlrj* lii.siiop
Anderson, early est/iltlished a school foi' hoys,
which came to l)e one of the leadini;' factors in
the life of the country, and which under the
present irifitiu' of Archl)ishop Machiay.a distin-
<(uished educationist, ^fvaw into St. John's Col-
le^-e, now the principal seat of learning* in con-
nection with the Ann'lican l)ody in the West.
Archbishop Machray deserves more than passin^^
mention in connection with any I'eminiscences
of Western history. He is a man of exceedin<;ly
striking- appearance, bein^- of ^i^^antic stature
and build, with a stroni^iy-mai'ked and leonine'
face. An Aberdonian by birth, he was educated
in his native land and in Cand)ridtre, and it is
generally believed by the students under his
care that what he does not know, especially
about mathematics, is not worth knowing. Hut
it would be a mistake to suppose that he is oidy
fitted for residence " within the studious c'oistiM's
pale." He is a man of affairs, wlio had nnich to
do with maintaining the e([uilil)rium of the
country in the stormy days of the '()!) Re])ellion,
and who proved himself so etiicient an adminis-
trator of church matters in his immense diocese
that he has been honored Ijy the C'hurcli with

'2\{ Thi' Mnkiny of tlut Cawullaa MV.s/.

first phice as Piiinatc; ol' all Caiunla. His influ-
ence luiH bt'cn widely felt in educational inatterH,
and especially in connection with tin; Provincial
University, of* which he has been Chanci'llor
sinc<^ its fomidation. 'I'Ik.' missions of* the ChiU'ch
of Kn;;Iand extend all over the West, and ap-
proach ahout as near to the North Pole as it is
possible to <lo and live, (ireat dioceses l)eai*in<^
such names as Moosonee, Athabasca and Mac-
kenzie Kiver, ;4i\e an idea of the far-extended
character of this (Miurchs work, and it may be
safel}' said that no denomination has striven
more faithfully oi- more I'fl'ectively to I'aise the
standanl of true liviuii' amon<rst the aborii^iual
tribes of tlie North -West.

The third CMiuich to enter this part of the
country, as already intimated, is the Presby-
terian, whose first missioiiaiN", the Rev. John
IJIack, came to the Selkirk colony on the Red
River in 1(S')I. For many years he alone up-
held the banner of his denomination in the West;
then l;e was joined by the Rev. James Nisbet
(who in 1(SGG founded Prince Albert, on the
Saskatchewan), the Rev. Alexander INFathescju,
William Fletcher, John McNabb and others, till
to-day the Presbyterian is the most powerful
church oroani/ation west of Lake Supei'ior.
Its i)re-eminent place is due lar<.»ely to the

lir/lt/louft mid Kihtcnt'ioiud D»'i't'lttjnnfnf. "Jl")

clmnicter of its uiirly niisHionarics and iikmii-
bei'H, to its ('(lucational iiistitiitious, ami to tlic
Hplendid <)r<^anization of its missionary cM'oits
in tlu' newer districts, John P>laciv was a man
of ^ivat cner^ry, as well as of ripe schoiaiship,
and his peoph^ in Kihlonan hecame tlie pioneers
in church extension and also the founders of
the educational institutions which have done so
much for the Presbyterians, and in which have;
l)een trained for various walks in life many
\'vi)u\ other churches, Protestant and Koman
Catholic alike. The parish school at Kildonan
fed the <lemand of the early Scotch settlers for
education, and fron» it Mr. Black out^athered
those wdio sought for higher instruction, until
the people's m^eds demanded a college, and Mani-
toba College was founded by the l*resbytei-ian
Church in 1871. The first professors were the
Revs. George (now Dr.) IJryce anjl Thomas Hart.
Dr. Hryce has taken an exceedingly active and
vifj^orous part in all the affairs of the country,
and has by voluminous writings contributed
much to the diffusion of information as to the
West. Prof. Hart is a specialist in classical
study, a cultured, gentle and lovable man, wlio
has always exerted marked influence for good
on his students. Later on, when the Theological
Department of the College was to be strength-

h .
I' ■

21 G The Making of the Canadian West.

ened, Revs. Dr. King, the present Principal, and
A. B. Baird, men of strong personality and ripe
scholarship, were added to the staff. With this
staff, assisted by several lecturers in certain
branches, Manitoba College has made abundant
progress, and has become a strong force in the

REV. <iE()R(JE BRYCE, LL. D.

upbuilding of the new West. This college alone,
of all educational institutions of its class, has a
sunnner session in theology in order to provide
opportunity for summer study to the students
who man the mission fields through the long
winter.

Speaking of mission fields brings us to the

work that has beei. done in the way of keeping
abreast with the needs of a grcwini^ countiy in
tlie matter of rehgious services: and w^hile many
men have done much in this regard, tlie man wlio,
next to tlie pioneer, deserves to have his name
honored, is the Rev. ])r. Robertson, Superin-
tendent of Presbyterian Missions in the North-
West. A man of Higldand blood, full of intense
energy, equally at home in the abode of the
millionaire and in the ranch of the pioneei-, an
indefatigable w^orker and a powerful pleader in
public and private. Dr. Robertson has made an
ideal superintendent. He was the first regularly
settled pastor of Knox Church, Winnipeg, where
he was in charge from 1874 to 1881, wdien the
General Assembly, recognizing the importance
of the work and his peculiar fitness for it, ap-
pointed him to direct the Home Missionary work
of the Church w^est of Lake Superior. The
growth of the Church from three preaching
places in 1870 to 840 in 1897 attests the earnest-
ness of the people, and speaks forcibly as to the
work done by the Superintendent. As iiinni-
gration flowed westward over the great i)lains
and through the mountains, the heralds of the
Cross were sent onward, the last achievement
being the despatching of three missionaries to
Uie Klondike. What has been done in the

218 The Jfakiiiff of the Canadlnn Went.

Presbyterian Church has been done also in
others, tliough no other man, so far as we
know, lias been so long in special touch with
this particular work as ])r. Robertson.

Where work is to be done one can safely
count on findinjj: the Methodist Cliurch in active
operation, and so it has proved in the Canadian
West. From about 1840 and onward, mission-
aries of that denomination, Rundle, Evans,
Woolsey, (ioorge McDougall and others, had
been at w^ork farther west, and just before the
Rebellion of '69 the Methodist Church in Canada
sent the Rev. George Young to begin work in
the Red River country. Mr. Young ( quickly
found his way to the heart of affairs, and was
eminently successful in laying the foundations
of prosperity in a new domain. In the stirring
days of the first rebellion, no minister of any
denomination exhibited more courage and none
had more intimate connection with the unfor-
tunate men who fell under the imprisoning
power of Louis Riel. Mr. Young will be especi-
ally remembered in the West, not only as the
founder of Methodism in Manitoba, but as the
man who, after all efforts to secure his pardon
were unavailing, was the spiritual a<. . iser of the
unfortunate Thomas Scott in his last hours.
Since tlie days of Mr. Young, tlie missions of

ReUijionx awl Educational Dt'velopment. 219

the Church Imve made giant strides, and few
places can be found where some of their workers
have not gone at some time or other. With
the Anglican and Presbyterian churches the
Metliodists have done much missionary work
amongst tlie Indians, and each of these bodies
has charge of Indian Industrial Schools at dif-
ferent points in the country. Under the prin-
cipalship of Rev. Dr. Sparling, a Methodist
college was begun in Winnipeg a few years ago,
and now Wesley College, as it is named, possesses
one of the most strikingly handsome buildings
in the city, and has upon its stall' able and
influential men.

Other Protestant l)odies in the West are tlie
Baptists, who have shown great energy in the
extension of their church work, and the Con-
gregational ists, the latter Clnn-ch only working
thus far in the larger centres. Neither of these
churches has, as yet, any educational institu-
tions, and hence tliev are somewhat at a dis-
advantage in having to di-aw their trained
workers from distant centres.

When we turn to consider the educational
system of the country we find remarkable ex-
cellence, consideriiiLT the newness of thino-s. The
Province of Manitoba started out with a separate
school system, Protestant and Roman Cath<jlie,

220 The Making of the Canadian West.

and this state of affairs continued until 1890,
when the famous Greenway-Martin Act was
passed, aboHsliinf^ the separate and establishing
a national unsectarian public schoijl system.
To recount the controversy that raged around
this Act for the six years following would be
beyond the purpose of the present writing,
and would, in fact, make a literature to the
extent of a library. The Roman Catholics
claimed that, by a clause in the Manitoba Act
providing for the perpetuation of any rights
existent, by law or practice, as to denomina-
tional schools amongst the people of the country
at the time of the transfer, they were entitled
to se})arate schools for all time. Against this
people who were familiar with the state of
matters when Manitoba entered Confederation
could say that if the clause was valid the
Episcopalians and Presbyterians had the same
rights as the Roman Catholics, and if all pressed
their claims a remarkable confusion would
soon ensue. It was also said by Mr. Martin,
who was the father of the Act of 1890, that
if the constitution required the separate school
system (which he denied), it would be better in
the interests of moulding the people of a new
country into one homogeneous mass, to seek
amendment to the Constitution rather than

..^

Religions and Edumtional Development. 221

perpetuate the double system. Finally, it is
now very generally conceded as discovered
during the pi-ogress of the controversy (if
not known for certain before), that the real
Bill of Rights as presented by the people of

llOiN. CLIFFORD SIFTON.

Minister of the Interior ; J'onnerbi Attorneiz-Gencral of Manitnha.

the country did not ask for the enactment of
the clause above referred to in the form in
which it was, after some doctoring, enacted. In
any case the Act of IcSOO gave great offence to
the Roman Catholics, who for the most part
persisted in maintaining their own schools out

222 Th/i Mnkmy of the (JaimiVmn West.

of private subscriptions vvliile paying their
taxes like others, and at the same time carrying
tlie case without success tlirough every court in
tlie hind, and tlien to tlie Imperial Privy Council.
In the process of a few years tlie Manitoba
school question became a public nuisance, inas-
much as it monopolized the attention of poli-
ticians and electors all over Canada, to the
almost total exclusion of trade and other
weighty issues. Hence there was very general
relief when the Governments of the Hon. (now
Sir) Wilfrid Laurier and of Hon. Thomas
Greenway came to a basis of settlement shortly
after Mr. Laurier came int j power at Ottawa in
1890. The settlement perpetuated the national
system of schools, and has been accordingly
resisted by the Roman Catholic hierarchy,
though many of the people of that Church
seem disposed to accept it and come under tlie
operation of the Act and the settlement, which
are intended to be enforced in a considerate and
conciliatory spirit. The latest development is
the somewhat irenic encyclical of the Pope,
who adheres to the justice of the claim made
by Roman Catholics, and advises continued
effort in the course they have been pursuing,
but after all practically tells them to take what
they can get. Whatever be the intent of the

ReUfjinvs anil EfhtmtwvnJ DrrcJofmient. 223

f their
irrying
ourt in
Council,
mi tuba
i, iiias-
\i poli-
to the
other
Ljeneral
1. (now
rhoinas
shortly
-awa in
ational
rdingly
rarchv,
Church
ier the
which
itc and
lent is
Pope,
made
itinued
rsuing,
e what
of the

encyclical it is highly probable that with
possible slight modifications to render the
acceptance of it more agreeable to the Roman
Catholics, the system will continue for all time
to be in essence a national system of public
schools.

HON. K. W. (;. HAULTAIN,

Premier of the Narih-Wext Territories.

In the North-West Territories the educational
system is under the control of a Council of
Public Instruction, consisting of the four mem-
bers of the ExecutivB Committee, ex-offirio, and
four appointed members (two Protestants and
two Roman Catholics) without votes. The

i ''

224 The Makhtg of the CmwrHon ]Vesf.

provisiofiH of the School Ordinance, 1890, in this
respect are : —

Tlie members of tlie Executive Committee of
the Territories, and four perscjns, two of wliom
sliall be Protestants and two Roman Catholics,
appointed by the Lieutenant-(jiovernor in Coun-
cil, shall constitute a Council of Public Instruc-
tion, and one of the said Executive Committee,
to be nominated by the Lieutenant-drovernor in
Council, shall be Chairman of the said Council
of Public Instruction. The appointed members
shall have no vote, and shall receive such
remuneration as the Lieutenant-Governor in
Council shall provide.

(1) The Executive Committee, or any sub-
committee thereof appointed for that jnirpose,
shall constitute a quorum of the Council of
Public Instruction, but no general regulations
respecting :

(a) The management and discipline of schools;

(b) The examination, grading and licensing of

teachers ;

(d) The inspection of schools ;

(e) Normal training ;

shall be adopted or amended except at a general
meeting of the Council of Public Instruction
duly convened for that purpose.

I^t'lupotix <nnl E'hii'ofwvnl Dt'velopmfivt. 225

T]>e fV)ll()\viii<j^ para;;raplis from tlie last report
of tho Council of IiiKtructiou will give further
insi(rlit into the system : —

"The classes of schools established are Public
Schools and Separate Schools, The minority of
the ratepayers in any organized pul)lic school
district, whether Protestant or Roman (^atholic,
may establish a separate school therein, an<l in
such case the ratepayers establishinii- such Pro-
testant or Roman Catholic sepaVate school shall
be liable oidy to assessments of such rates as
they impose upon themselves in respect thereof.
Any person who is le<4ally assessed or assessable
for a public school shall not be liable to assess-
ment for any separate school established therein.
Provision is made for Night Schools for pupils
over fourteen years of age who are unable to
attend school during the day.

" Inspectors are appointed by the Lieutenant-
Governor in Council, and report to the Council
of Public Instruction and the trustees of each
disti'ict on the scholarship, behaviour and pro-
gress of the children, teaching and governing
power of the teacher, condition of the buildings,
grounds and apparatus, and state of the treasur-
er's books. They are expected to give any
advice and instruction neces.sary for the success-
ful conduct of the schools. They have nothing
to do with religious instruction."
If)

2'2(\ Till' Mnknii/ of the ('niid^Hini I(V.,7.

1' loni tills it will 1)(' seen that the systcin is a
soiiu'wliat coiiiplcx one us c<nii)>ai*('<l with tliMtoF
tlic i*r<)viiic(' of Mjiiiitoha, where, as iiidieatefl
ah-eady, there is a national inisectai'iaii ])iililic!
school system estal)lishe<l, and where an Advis-
ory jioard has control under the Guvorninent.

1-1

D. .). ( ;()(;( a N, m.a.

'I'he Superinten<l( nt of Kiliication in the Terri-
tories is ]\Ir. 1). J. (Joge'in, i\I.A., a gentleman
ol' large experience and special talents foi' the
work. The comparative smoothness with which
the educational machinerv ot' the Territories has
heen working is due lar<^ely to his wisdoir an«i
aimndant lahors.

Reliijio}is titnl f'jiliii'df loiiiil I)»'n lojnui lit.

'I'll

III tlio matter of lii^Mior ('(liicfition the Univrr-
sitvot' Manitol»a, thconlvthMqTJ'-conl'crriiiiX hodv
in Arb's is a Homcwliat uni(|ii(' institution in tlie
e«lucational world. It is constituted Ky an
affiliation of all the denominational colleoos in

■?^'W^t^^

HON. (llMiKHT M'MK'KKN,

Fifxt A'jvnt of Doniinio)! Lands in Manifoha, am! one tiin>'
Speaker of tlw Loral Leijlxlature.

the West, Protestant and Roman Catholic, as
well as the Medical College. It is still without
buildin<^H, an examinin<; body principally, the
teaching except in one or two departments
beinfif done in the collews maintained bv the
several churches. Notwithstandini^ this com-

22H Till" Miikhui of fhf Camullnn Wrnt.

|)()sitc cliaivictcr of tli<' institution, tlio nianinT
of its adnniiistnition luis evidenced such an
adniindtlc spirit of nintnal j^ood-will, and such
an cniMHfHt desire to a«lvanc(^ the connuon cause
of hi^dier e(hication, that tlie University has
heen a signal and unbroken success. All tht;
colleges and tlie ^rachiates eh'ct representatives,
wlio fonu the Council, which is tlie ^overninj;
body of the TTniversity. Altogether we can
say, in closin*,^ this l>rief chapter on the religious
and educational life of the country, tliat in an
eminent dejL^ree for anew land the West furnishes
advantaj^es in these directions to all who come
within her borders.

! I ;i

■ '

! 1

As we close this volume and pause a moment
to tak(i another h^ok Ijack over the way l)y
which we have come, we are impressed with the
marvellously I'apid strides that have been taken
in the march of the country's progress. Prairies
over which not many years ago we liave ridden
for days in succession without meeting a human
being except the roving Indian, or seeing a
dwelling other than his wigwam, now are trans-
formed into thriving farms, where in autumn
the wheat fields wave and toss like a golden sea.
\'erily the wilderness has been made glad, and
the desert has rejoiced and blossomed like the

Jit'lilfiouH (itid hjiliiiiitlnnid l)i I'tlopuu'tit. 220

rose. Railways now run like a network over
tlie once vir<^in plains, and alonj^ the various
lines towns have risen from the level sod as if
by nm;^ne. At these towns, which are jjjrowini,^
with a rapidity sui'i)risin(j to anyone who visits
them t're(|uently, hu<^e elevators in lar^e num-
bei's receive the finest wheat in the world and
send it abroad into ready markets. On the wide
plains, once the home of roamin«»* herds of
bufi'aloes, vast numbers of tlx'ir tamer species
feed on the richest grasses, and from every
station these cattle are shipped by the hundred
to the i^reat food-devouriny,' centres of the world.
Away on our Pacific shore the Orient and the
Occident stand face to face, and great ships
from every (pnirter of the globe drop anchor
in the harbors (^f our coast cities: while rush-
intf on to the wondrous fjold fields, throniiiiiii"
multitudes pass with eager tread. Thus from
tlip isolation of a few y«'ars ago has the (Jana-
d,;'n West come into touch with the bus\' haunts
01 men, and instead of the feeble throbbings of
a primitive trade, the blood of a world's com-
merce, that "calm health of nations," now flows
steadily throuii'h the oiant arteries of a new
nation. From what has been related in the
closing chapter of this book, it may justly be
inferred that those who believe that without

•*^

230 Tlie MakitKj of the Caitadian West.

reli<j;ion and education the material greatness of
a country is but dust and aslies, are doing their
utmost to keep all tlie nobler ideals of life before
tlie people and uplift the truest standards of
success in the presence of all who come into our
midst. If Canada knows her opportunity and
the day of lier visitation, if slie holds this vast
domain for (iod and liome and truth and purity,
there are limitless possibilities of noble endeavor
and hiiih achievement before us.

i,i

!SS of
tlieir
efore
Is of
3 our
and
vast
u-ity,
'avor

Cbe Selkirk Settlers in Keal Cife

By REV. R. 0. MacBETH, M.A.

WITH INTRODUCTION BY

HON. SIR DONALD A. SMITH, K.C.M.G.

(Lord Stralhcoiia and Mount Royal).

PRICE, ... 75 Cents, Postpaid

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Winnipeg Tribune.

WILLIAM BRIGGS, Publisher

29-33 Richmond Street West, - - TORONTO, ONT.

Manitoba
Memories

LEAVES FROM
MV LIFE IN.^.^
THE PRAIRIE
PROVINCE. ^ ^

By REV. GEORGE YOUNG, D.D.,

Fonndtr of M( I hod Is/ Missions in the, " liul h'inr Stfth nynt.''

WITH INTRODUCTION BY
REV. ALEXANDER SUTHERLAND, D.D.,

General Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church.

In Extra English Cloth Boards^ with \5 Portrai'cs and Illustrations.
PRICE, Si. 00, POSTPAID.

i 'I

1
1

i 4

« « Pmonal and Press Comments « «

'•Tlie hook is of fascinating interest, and <,'ives authentic information not else-
wliere to he ohtained on tlie slirrinj,' events of tlie early history of Manitoha. It
is handsomely printed, with numerous portraits and otheren;;raviti}is.'- O/ucarf/,

"The reader will readily perceive that > ne who has lived so long in such
varied scenes as have fallen to the lot of l>r. Voun^' must have witnessed many
tirm;{s worthy of record, and will rejoiie with the i)resent writer that the \ener-
ahle author, notwithstandinj; his characteristic modesty, was ))revailed upon, after
much entreaty, to send forth this charmin;^ volume." — Ahiil and Empire.

" An iiitcrestinjj chapter is devoted to the IVnian Raid of 1871 ; another to
l>r. Lachlan Taylor's tour anion;; the missions in the '(Jreat Lone Land,' taken
from Dr. Taylor's own re))ort and journal ; and still another chapter recounts the
history of the early educational niovemeni in the West. v)n the whole the hook is
a very interestin;^ and indeed valuahle one. not only to memhers of the author's
Chur(!h, hut also to the <,'encral reader."— O/^ncrt Citizi'ii.

S. R. PARSONS, Esq., writes:

"Oidy one who has lived in that land of ' illimitulile possihilities,' and
experienced the hri^htncss of its winter and summer sunshine, and tasted of the
water of the Hed Kiver, that ever after leaves an un(|Uenchahle thirst, and sniffed
the ozone of the prairies, and mingled with liie heartiest and most frientil\ i)eoi)le
on earth, can fidly appreciate this hook. The hiyii respect \v which the autlKjr is
deservedly held will, nodouht, ensure a lar^^e sale for the work. Fn the North-
West, particularly, it should he in every home and Sunday School lihrary."

WILLIAM BRIGGS, Publisher,

29-33 Richmond St. West, TORONTO, ONT.

Forest. \M

Prairie

TWENTY YEARS OF FRONTIER LIFE IN
WESTERN CANADA, 1842-1862.

By JOHN McDOUGALL.

With 27 Full-Page Illustrations bv J. E. Laimmilin.

FRIOE, Sl.OO-
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Road tho followlugr
coininents :

"This is a true boy's book, and
equals in stirrin;^ interest any-
thiiij,' written by Kin;,'sloii or
Ballantyne. It oiifjht to sell by
the thousand."— Mrs. y. A. Ciir-
zon, in Orillia Packet.

" Possessed oi an intimate ac-
quainlunie with all the varied
aspects of frontier life, Mr. Mi--
l)oni;aIl has i>roduied a hook that
will (k'liyht the heart of every
boy reader." — Endeaivr Ileiuld.

" There are many Rrai>lii(' des
criptions of scenes in that vust
fertile rej;ion in those early days
V lien tra\ ellini; was ditlictilt and
daiiirerfius, but most fascinatinj;
to a yovith f John McI>o\i>,Mirs
teni|ieranient and trainin^,^ He
lives those stirrinj;' tinies over
apiin in his lively narrative, and
relates his personal exjieriences
with all the j.'low and vividness
of an ardent, yoiithfiU hunter."
— Caiuuliitn Baptiift.

WILLIAM BRIGCiH, Fublisheiv Toronto.

PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN
IN THE SIXTIE3

By JOHN McDOUGALL,

Author of "FOSEST, LAZS AND FSAIBIZ."
With lu Full-Pa(;e Illustrations r.v J. E. LArciiiux.

FI^IOE, Sl.OO-

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

"... If it be their <;ood fortune to obtain it, ' Saddlk, Sled and Sxowshok'
will not disappoint their most sant^uine expectations. . . . AVhile hard wirk, hard-
ship, and plucky endurance
claracterize and j^ive \ini and
go to the story, the incidents in
which the love of fiui, inherent
in e\ery boy's nature, find;*
opportunity of play, add inueii
to the brii^htnos and realistic
value of the boftk. 'J'he hnok is
well illustratcil, the drawini;"'
bcin^' faithful to the renlity, and
the scenes well chosen."— 77(^
Week.

Press Comments on "Forest.
Lake and Prairie."

" Mr. McDou<rall is a true child
of nature. He has passed thrnuvli
scents that w^nld stir the pulsi ;•
of Ic-^s iiu])ulsi\e men, and lie
writes with the kci nest enthu-
siasm : and this sj)irit iiossc-se!-
the reader of histhriiliiiy^ paj;es.'
— Cf) riKt ian (1 nard in n.

"I have read no book bcttci
ntt(d to inspire (Uir Canadian
boys with a healthy interest in
their own undisco\ cred couiUry
nor an\ more calculated to ]Mit
into our (.'rowin;; .Aonth tlu
strong,', sturdy, self-reliant s) irit
of a real nuuibood, an heroic,
muscular Christianity."— t'a/ia-
dian Home Jvurual.

WILIilAHI BKI<;<;S, Publisher, Toronto.

The Warden of the Plains

AND OTHER STORIES OF LIFE IN THE
CANADIAN NORTH-WEST.

By JOHN MACLEAN, M.A., Ph.D.,

A iif/ior <>/ " < 'iiiKd/ldii Suni'ii FolL\" > Ir.
Illjstrated by J. E. LAUGHUN.

CLOTH, $1.25, POSTPAID.

Contents: Tlie Wurden of the I'lains— Asokoa, tlie Chiefs I);uij,'ht(i-The
Sky I'ilot — The Lone I'iiie-The Wriliii',' Stone — Aksj>ine — <>l(i C!l;ul - Tlie
Spirit (luide -Alahciislu The Hidden Treusnre -Tiie Wliile Man's lliide —
The Coming,' of Apauakas.

(S)(«)(«xix«)®®(i!X«xsxsx?:^^^

^.,a«l?#m^

" l»r. Maclean's finiiliarily willi
western life is e\i<icnt in lliis col-
leciiun of stories. All are vscil told."
-Till' Wvxtiiiiiisti'r.

" Dr. Maclean has rendere<l a distinct
ser\ ice to Canadian literature liy
Ijhoto;,^^]*!^!!;^ in this^eries (^f picliires
al\i)- of Canadian life \\hicli is ia»t
passing,' as\.i\." I\ii\ l( . //. Wilhrmr,
D.D.

"These s'ories are a<hiiiraM> urillen.
They iiresent tlie life and liuends of
the vrreat .North-West in a manner cal-
culated 10 excite a sincere and u-eful
interest iinion^,' stranj,'ers." Mull iiml
Kiiijiiir.

" .\ collcciioii of short stories, some
dramatic, some pathetic, all s. rious.
. . . The Indian taU'S are \ci\ jia-
th«'tic and most interest in^' from an
ethiioKiuiciil ^latldpojllt. . . The

stories are accutate pictures of Nuiiii-
WesL life."— Victaria Tinn's.

WILLIAM BRIGGS, Publisher,

29-33 Richmond St, West, TORONTO, ONT.

Canadian $ai)age folk

i^iiUhUiliCir .

KjEjIj

!' : ^^ANADlAN 1

SjXvage Folk |

, JohkMwxeaN.Bujx 1

lili'iiilj:}

IBM

.1 iii. !

^«

£■

■-:■

' ,■"';

imrir IBi ' ^L t£_~" ..^sf^lHil'

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:: :::««;- ;s^« ,f^sw?«««fl

igMliaUliLiit!PJ.!iHL'i i>^'ijlW|III^J51'^J>!M.W^*"'WS^

By JOHN MACLEAN,

M.A., Ph.D.

Aiifhor of " 77<r huUdus of

Canada," *' 77(r ir«/vA-/(

of (he P/aliis,^' (-(('.

641 pages, more than 100 illus-
trations, complete index,
well annotated, beau-
tifully bound.

Cloth, $2.50 ; Half-
Morocco, S3. 50.

personal ant) pvess IRotices.

" The liook is full of romance from lic^iniiiiifjf to tiud."—C(inn<lian Maijuzine.

"The most comjilete work on the Indian raees in Canada .\et issuetl. -No
more enlertaininjj hook has heen published." — Vitnadinn liiKikxcller.

"This book will be a permanent authority on tliis subject,"— .l/t;^/((H/i,s^
Magazine.

" ' Canadian Sava','e Folk ' will be a standard work for all time in the history
of Canada." — The Week, Toronto.

" A Ucseful and entertaining l>ook." — Mimtreul Witness.

" It is the best volume that has been written ui>on the subject of the Cana-
dian Indians."— J?/(«'r/f«;i Aniiqiiaeian.

" It is well put tojjether, and will beastandard woik."— iitc. Dr. Peet, Editor
of American Antiijiiarian.

"The work, which is i!0i)ii)usly illustrated, is a most able and interestin}^ one,
not oidy for the specialist, but for the yeneral reader aho."- -Juttriuil o/Moyal
ColiiniaJ In,stitiite.

" This is, we believe, the larj^est find niostimi)ort.int book on the native races
of Canada that has yet been published. It is the roiilt of a careful and thorough
study of many years."— iJey. W. II. Withruw, 1).I>., in Onward.

WILLIAM BRIGGS, Publisher,

29-33 Richmond St. West, - - TORONTO, ONT.

Across the Sub-Arctics of
Canada<^

3.200 \flLES BY CANOE AND SNUWSHOE
THROUGH THE BARREN LANDS (•{•<•)•

By J. W. TYRRELL, C.E., D.L.S.

Illustrated by Engravings from Photographs and from Drawings

by ARTHUR HEMING.

CLOTH, $1.50. POSTPAID.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

^j<v*e PRESS COMMENTS .<*« ^ .-*

"A story of immense scietitilh? vahie."
— Toronto (Hohe,

"A ino«t valuable contrihutioii to
the literiUiire of the ureat North-West.
. . . Mr. Tvrreir.s touches of descrip-
tion are (leli«htful." -\'icf()n'n TinieK.
" .\s a mere record of adventure, of
imminent peril and hair-i)rtadth
escapes, of luintiri!,' jiolar hears, and
takin^f a winter tramp of a thousand
miles, we know no narrative of more
ahsori)in(f character," .W(7/i(*(/iVt^ Ma;ja-
zinc.

" I'pon the whole, no honk of travel
and e.xploration in Canada has ap-
peared siiure Huller's 'Kreat liOiie
liand ' was published, that combined
the interest and value of Mr. Tyrrell's
])on'K."— Hamilton Herald.

"A remarkable trip of exploration,
one of the most im|)ortant of recent
years."--/Ji///r»/() I Hunt rated Hxprom.

"The tale is a marvellous one; the
only wonder is the jtarty ever suc-
ceeded in returning to civilization." —
Christ inn Giianlian.

" The record of their journey will
he found delightful readinj^ by those whu feel the peculiar fascMtiation of the vast
melancholy Northland. . . . Altojjetlier • he volume is one of solid merit."—
ChriKtian Advocate (Sew York).

"There is a variety in this narrative which those of strictly AriMic expeditions
lack. It leads throu<;h wonderful lakes and rivers hitherto unvisited by white
men, with ihrilliii'.^ adventures in runnmjjf unknown and perilous rapids."- 77/«
Bookman (New York).

" The illustrations have the flouble virtue of illustrating,' the subject anrl of
beinj,' trustworthy; and this final remark applies to the whole book.'— V. }'.
Independent.

WILLIAM BRIGGS, Publisher,

29-33 Richmond St. West. TORONTO, ONT.

Overland to Cariboo

An Eventful Journey of Canadian Pioneers to the Gold-
Fields of British Columbia in 1862.

By M. M-NAUGHTON.

With Portraits and
Illustrations.

Price, $1.00,
Postpaid.

PRESS OPINIONS.

" A tiint'ly coritribution to the literature of the farthest West."
— Afo nf re.aJ Wil n rss.

"(Jives 11 Iji-oad idea of this western part of our young (country as
it was l)efore (;ivili/ation puslied wtistward." — Cnnaiflaii MfVfadiir.

" A story of uiillaj,'giiig and often thrilling interest, told in a sini-
)>le, pleasing and vivid style.'" — Xciv ]Vi-s/iniii-^f«-r JhiUy Coli(mlnan.

"The nariati\-e teems with interesting details of travel thirty
years ago. . . . The work is highly entertaining and well worth
j)crusal." -./o/nvif(/ of /lie Roi/al Colonial Instil iil(.

"This modest expedition, luitrumpeted, unljooined, did more
for the |)rogrcss of humanity than all tlie Are ie exploring expedi-
tions ever did or ever could aeeomplish." — iJinxlo- Ailriyrtist ,-.

" Tlu! jouiiiey deserihed was an iiistoric event in the development
of the VVest, and as such is worthy of the perusal of everyone
intei'ested in the progress of the countvy.''— Ed nionf on Bulletin.

" iSiU'h hooks as these throw a clearer light on the rapidity of
the advancement which Canada is making, l)esi(les j)aying a just
tiil)Ute to the memory of those intrepid individuals who lai<l the
foundations of a new Westein (^AWinhx.'' -Caiindl'in Mmja-^inc.

" It is not only a gra])hic account of hazardous enterprises suc-
cessfully accomplished, hut also ])urp()ses to show tlie resouices of
a region whose vast tei-ritory and ])ractically limitless possibilities
are even yet hardly a))p;eciated l»y jK'oplc at lioiue or abroad." —

M(( N-.sv //".s Ma; fa :: ini: .

WILLIAM BRIGGS, Publisher,

29-33 Richmond St. West, - - TORONTO, ONT.

ald-

00,
i.

West."

imtry as

n a sim-

1 thirty
1 wortli

id inorc
expedi-
' /■.

loinnent
veryone

(tut.

idity of

g a just

aid the

lie.

ses suc-
ui'ce.s of
nihilities
oad." —

)NT,

Some Notable

Canadian ^

OOOlCS l>i$toric<il

Canadian Men and Women of the Time. r>,\ iitmy .i. .Moii;an.

Clolli .«:• INI

Haliburton: A Centenary Chaplet. a Series ct nit.j-nvpiiiral and

Critieiil I'lipers, with I 'cut rait ami lliust rat inns i ■_'.'

Life and Times of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, r.v l>. U. Uvw.

(,».('., witii portrait and I'iiistrations ■ ."lO

Life and Work of D. J. Macdonnell. iviited i.v I'mf. .i. r. .MeCui'iv,

LI-.l). With l'urlr;iits, <ic .-.ii

Popular History cf Canada. i!.\ \v. ii. withrcu, i>.i». iihistrat • uo

History of Canada. r..\ w. ii. i'. cienicni, LL.ii. with Maps ,.iid

lliu>tralii)Ms (I .'.(1

History ot British Columbia. \'y .\U\. I'.eu-, i'.r. with I'ortr.iii

and Ilhistrations :; (hi

la the Days of the Canada Company. r>y Kohina and Kathleen m.

lii/.ais. Ilhistrated -J mi

Humours of 'o7, Grave, Gay and Grim. KeheUion Times in the

C'anadas. Uy Uohiiia and Kathleen .M. Lizars | -J,'.

The Story of the Union Jack. i'>\ r.arlnw rmnl)erland. Illnstraled ill

( 'oImi's .... 1 ."id

Ten Ye'rs of Upper Carada in Peace and War 180:-15. i'.\ .Mis.

.1. I). Kd-;ir 1 .Vi

The Selkirk Settlers .^n Real Life. My n. (;. .Ma( lieth. .M..\ u 7,-,

The Makin? of the Caiadian West. Hy it. <; .Ma.Ueiii, .M..\. with

I'oi traits and lllusf aliiuis 1 (mi

The History of Annapolis County, iieiudin- dd I'.iri i;i>\al .ind

.\eadia. I!y .Indue S^.ivaiN . Wi' h I'mtiails .; -J,')

The History of Lunenburg County. i'>.\ .lud-e n. -Urisav. with

llhist rations •_' .Vi

Canadian Savage Folk. I'.\ .lohn .Maelean, I'h.l). Illu-lrated -J ."ill

The Forge in the Forest. -\ Historical Hoinaine of .\eadia. |{\ ('has

C. I). Roberts. Illustrated " lii.'.

Postpaid to niiLj Address.

WILLIAM BRIGGS, Publisher,

29-33 Richmond Street West, - TORONTO, ONT.

Books on the Canadian North-West

liV

REV. E. R. YOUNG.

By Canoe and Dojc-TraJn amon^: the Cree and

Salteaux Indians. Illustr.iird .^ii no

Stories from Indian Wigwams and Northern Camp-

Fires. lilustiatcd )•_>.")

Oowikapun ; or, How the Gospel Reached the Nel-
son River Indians. Illustrated |(M>

Three Boys in the Wild North Land. Illustiatcl ,. 1 J,-)

On the Indian Trail. lilustiatcd 1 :J.')

W'oiiKs i;v Tin; l,\TK

HON. ALEXANDER MORRIS.

LieuU'iiant-dovoriior of .Miiiiit"lia.

The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of
Manitoba and the North=West Territories.

Including the negotiations on which they arc hascd,
and othci" iuf'ii ination relating thereto.

CLOTH, $1.00.

Nova Britannia ; or, Our New Canadian Dominion

Foreshadowed.

Being a sci'i"s of lA'cturcs. Speeches and Aildresses.

CLOTH, 75 Cents.

WILLIAM BRIGGS, Publisher,

29-33 Richmond St. West, - - TORONTO, ONT.

^est

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