THE OLUEN TIME Wlaalpfc • HuBilrrd l>an* Thr Karly MUtary mt ihp K0 oh tne 'point about where the tludaon'a Bay Co. 'a mill now atanda. So we may aay that La Verendyre waa the Hrat real eacate owner in WiunipeK, after the aboriginal in- habitanta. In 17*3^ occurred thecon>)ueat of Can- ada by Great Britain, and aeme fifteen or twenty yeara after fur tradera from Canada began to aeek the Northwest for trade with the Indiana. In 178:t a powerful company c' fur tradera waa formed in Montreal, coL^olidating the in- tereaia of aeveral amall pifvato concerns who had keen struf^gling with each othtir for ao.ne tune. Thia company bjre the title of the fiOKTHWI.iT Kt'K fOMPANY, and it aoon began to puah ica operationa inland to even the Athabaaca and Mc- Kenzie rivera. The trade of the Red River aeema to have been, for aome unac Gou>'.table reaaon, quite neglected, and it waa only towanla the very cloae of the last century that we tind luention made of the eatabliahment of pogta on the upper war«r8 of what we now call the Red River. The point between the Red and Aaainiboine Rivera waa known to the fur tradera at that time, and for fully twenty five yeara after, aa "THE FOKKS," ao that the aecond name s;iven to thia aite waa rer;jrded. The Hudaon'a Bay Company had long conhned their trade to the neighborhood of Uudaou'a Bay — indeed, from 1670 to 1774, they had not eatabliahed poeta on the banka of the atreama Ho wing into Lake Winnipeg. It la moat likely that their hrat poat on the Rrd River waa eatvbliahed aa 'ate as 1 70)). For soma yeara The Forka waa reaorted to aimply aa a camping place for the boat brigaUea paaaiiig up the Aaai'-.^oine River, whereon numeroua fort) were errc ed by the Nonhweat Compai/, the Hudaon'a Bay Company, and a new bodv of tradera who atyled themaelvea the \. Y company. The laat company waa ahort- lived, amalgamating with the Northweat Company iu 1804. About 1803 Alexander Heniy, of the Northweat Company, who waa in charge of the Red River diatrict, aent a party of hia men to build at Tne Forka the poat afterwarda named. r08T (ilBKALTAK, which waa at hrat probably only conaiated of one or two buildinga, for there ia a re cord, later on of a more extenaive eatab liahment than exiated at thia time. That a poat of the Northwi at Company waa raaiiiUined at the Forka in 1803 and 1804 ia aettled by the Journal of Alexander Henry, which ia atill in manuacript. The writer extr .. t«d from that journal amonat oth^r itema, the following atate- ment of the trade of The Forka eatabliih- during the wintera of 1803 and 1804, when Mr. Dorion waa in charge: 36C beaver. 10 black bear, 1 brown bear, 76 wolvei, 8 foxea, 25 raooona, 'Ut hahera, 2b ottera, 2(* martena, 13 mink, 3 wolve- rinea, 15 lynx, mooae akina, etc., 22 parchrment, etc. Va trading poata exiated at Roaaeau River and Pembina the aame ysar, it may bs accepted that the abcva fur* were obtained from animala killed in the vicinity of Winnipeg. By the erection of Oibralter, the foundation of the future <0.«Mekc KL oKI!AT.\EH.S of tbs town waa laid iii 1803 aa wall, for ever aince that date mercantile buaineaa haa tlijuriahed within what are now the Itmitaof the es^y of Winnipeg. The old Fort Oibr.iltar had both parka and natural farma eighty yeara. Henry informa ua inciden'Ally, on two or three occaaiona, that he viaited the forka to enjoy hiraaelf. Afier deacribing the heavy wooda which c >vered the country aiitith from the Aaainiboine, near the forka to the Salle river, he aaya he caught a number of whitehah, aturgeon and eoid eya. chilr the women gathered hazel nuti., red and ohoke oherriea, Pembina berrie2. three kinda nf pluina, and wild grapea, >h? men going ou*. on the prairie "towards little Sumj Mountain" and returning »'ith the carcaaaea of cow buf - faloa, which they had killed, varying thia amusement by bringing in red deer and beara, ''which were herein great abund- aii^e. Wild fowl in great numbera fre- quented the mouth of the A«ainiboine and the rapida at St. Andrew'a waa a favcrite reaort of pelicana. Nature evi- dently boomed the wild animal, water fowl and fruit featurea of Winnipeg at that early date. That the preaent aite of Winnipeg waa early recognized aa a cen- tral one for the tllSTKiaiTIOK OF 8Ci>(>un ia ahown by the cuatani puraued by the tradera of landing here to aaaort and re- pack the outtita for diatriburion to the poata aouth and weat The Ojibway and Snake Indiana, who frequented the coun- try bordering about the mouth of the Aaainiboine during the hrat part of the preaent century, at ieaat on one occaaioii, entrenched themaelvea in pica at The Forka ou account of a threatened attack of the Sioux, which ia the first military oueration recorded in the hiatory of Winnipeg. The Hudaon'a Bay Company bi>i;an to push up the Red River about l~'M), and during the next decade had placed trading pcata in the vicinity of those of the Northweat Company, with the exception of at the Forka. In 1811 LORD SELKITK after controlling a large share of the atock of the Hudaon'a Bay Company, aecure from it a grant of land along the Had and Aaainiboine rivers, covering an area of aome llti I'OO square milea under the claim of that company, that their charter gave them control of the country deacribed, which claim was conteated by the Canadian fur tradera. Lord Selkirk iaaued a moat glowing deacription of the land, climate, and general advantages to be gained by peraona joining with him in aettliiig in thia tract of country, and in- uuced a number of peraona in Scotland and Ireland to avail themaelvea of what a writer in 1817 deacribea aa the benefita of "Liberty of conacience, freedom from taxea and tithes, and all the temptations of a LAND OF I'ROMISE painted in moat glowing colors." The oarty sailed in the spring of 1811 for York Factory, but on arriving there found the aeaaon too far advanced to pro- ceed on their journey to Red River. They accordingly wintered at Y'ork Factory, and autfered SD-'erely before *'hey arrived at the Red River during ':ho next year M-'ea Mac jonell waa in charge of the party, and on their arrival in the vicinity of the Forka, he paraded them, and ex- hibited hia commiaaion aa governor of the colony, which, apparently waa the tirat occaaion of such an official making hia debut in thia diatrict. Other partiea were sent out in 1813 and 1814 to augment the number of the tirat amvala. arbitrary manner to the Northweat Com- pany's people, which waa at once resented by them, aa they viewed the aettling o' the country and claims of Lord Selkirk, aa iliegrl and unjuatitied, claiming that they had taken poaaeaaion of the Red River oountrp aa traders from Canada half a century before the people of the Hud- aon'a Bay Company had ventured into it. A atruggle at once began between the RIVAL COMrASIES for aupremacy and resulted in bloodshed on more than one ocoaaion, and the total destructl"n of the property of the Selkirk settlers, who were generally aimply on lookera < )n the I7th March, 1816, the Hudaon'n Uay Company people who had a fort at Point Douglaa, about three-quar- tera of a mile below the forka, attacked Fort Gibraltar of the Northweat Company at the mouth of the Aaainibjine, captured the inmatea. ranaacked their atores, and finally razed the buildinga to the ground, carrying away the timbera to Fort Doug- laa to use for their own purpoaea. Five daya later they at^«cked the Northweat Company'a fort at Pembina anddeatruyed it alao It the following apring the em- ploy . jt the Northweat Company came into collision with the Hudaon'a Bay Com- pany'a ' jople, under Governor Semple, a few m aa north of the preaent city iimits, and it reaulted in the DEATH OF OOVEKNOK SEMrLE and about twenty ol hia oi in. while only one Indian on the aide of i he Northweat era waa killed Then mat'ars were in a very disturbed state until the coalition of Ibeae two powerful companiea in 18'20 1- when the united Hudaon'a Bay Company eatabliahed theuiaeWea at the forka and opened atorea to aupply the aettlers, trad- era and ladiana with gocda, ao another era in the trade of Winnipeg waa entered on. The present Fort Garry was erected in 1835 by Governor Christie. The people who from time to timb came to the country aetiled along the banka of the Red and Aaainiboine rivera, thoae of the aaa nationaltiea generally aettling in lo- ctliti by themselves. The Hudson's Hiy Co^ \ny had repurchased in 1836 all Lird Selkitk'a righ'a in the aettlement for the aum of £2.'), 000, and accarding to Sir George Simpson, afterwarda sold land to aettlera for seven ahillings and six pence, or five ahillinga an acre, aeording to location. The land was conveyed under leaaea for 990 yeara, and the hold- er agreed not to trafiic in fura, violate any of the chartered privilegea of the com- pany, evade any of the restrictiona gov- erning the law relating to the diatillation of spirits, etc. Owing to dis3atisfaction in the settle- ment and of American intrigues of a body of BRITISH REUDLAB TROOI'S was sent out from England to Fort Garry in 1846, under command of Col. J. F. Crofton, consisting of 383 parsons, cov- ering detachments from rhe 6th Foot, Royal Artillery and Civil Eagineers. Of theae, twenty men remained in the coun- try. Jaa Irwin, of Winnipeg, Ohaa, Lant, of St. Jamea. and Richard Salter, of the Boyne, are the only autvivora to- day. Theae troops returned to England in 1848, and in that vear were succeeded by a corps of 56 penainers under the command of Lt. Col. Caldwell, many of whom afterwards settled in the country, with Lt.-Col. Caldwell as governor of the colony. Again, in the ysar 1857. one hundred men ef the Royal Canadian Rifles, were aent round by the Hudaon'a B'iy, like the othera, leaving Canada for that purpoae, and werelikewise quartered at Fort Garry. It ia not known, to moat people at leaat, that three difl^erent ex- peditiona of troopa were aent to Fort Carry before the RIEL REBKLLIOM of 1869 70, when what is called the first Red River Expndition, composed of regu- lar troops and Canadian volunteers, waa despatched from Ontario and Quebecand arrived here in Auguat, 1870, to find that Riel had Hed. It waa from this date that Winnipeg, as a place distinct from the Hudson's Bay Co 's Fort (J irry, be- came known. On the arrival of the troops in 1870, the village consisted of • collection of about twenty seven houses, centering about the preaent aite of the post oflice, the population only number- ing about one hundred or one hundred and fifty souls. Under the terms of the agreement be- tween the Dominion (iavemment and the Hudson's Bay Co., a large block of land about Fort Garry was reserved by the latter for their own purposes, the balance of the territory included within the ill- defined limits of the village of VYinnipeg, being owned by McDermot, Bannatyne, Schultz, Rosa, Logan and others, who had the river lotH, which, with a few chaina frontage on the river, ran back two mUee.