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THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 IN REAL LIFE. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. R. G. MacBETH, M.A., 
 
 w 
 
 Pastor of Augustine Church, Winnipeg. 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 HON. SIR DONALD A. SMITH, K.C.M.G. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 
 WILLIAM BRIGGS. 
 
 Montreal: C. W. COAXES. Halifax: S. F. HUESTIS. 
 
FlOfo3 
 
 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one 
 thousand eight*hundred.and eieety-sjevsn, by William Briggs, at the 
 Department o£,Agricutyirt#. * I* I •. ,* 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In common with others who have been interested in, 
 and connected with, the development of the territories 
 formerly under the administration of the Hudson Bay 
 Company, I heard with much pleasure of the intention of 
 my friend, the Rev. R. G. MacBeth, M.A., to place on 
 record an account of the genesis and development of the 
 Selkirk Settlement in the Red River Valley. The longer 
 such a work is postponed the more difficult must it be to 
 carry out, and it would be a thousand pities if a descrip- 
 tion of the pioneer attempts at colonization in the great 
 North-West were not given to the world. This is neither 
 the time nor the place to enter upon a discussion of the 
 motives which influenced Lord Selkirk in his enterprise. 
 He may have been somewhat in advance of the times in 
 which he lived, but he had the courage of his convictions, 
 and his efforts deserve the fullest recognition from those 
 who believe in the great future in store for Western 
 Canada. 
 
 Looking back to the period when the movement was 
 initiated, it is not surprising, in view of the then com- 
 parative inaccessibility of the country, or of the inexper- 
 ience of the settlers of the climatic and other conditions 
 then obtaining, and of other circumstances, that for 
 
 M 8802 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 many years the progress of the Settlement was retarded. 
 There can be no doubt, however, that its gradual de- 
 velopment had an important bearing, both directly and 
 indirectly, on the events which led to the surrender of 
 the Charter of the Hudson Bay Company, and to the 
 acquisition of Rupert's Land by Canada, through the 
 Imperial Government. 
 
 It has been the custom to describe the Hudson Bay 
 Company as an opponent of individual settlement and of 
 colonization. To enter into a controversy on 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 difficulties of access and egress, colonization in 
 what is now Manitoba and the North- West Territories 
 could not have taken place successfully 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 possible 
 exports must have been so great as to render competition 
 with countries more favorably situated at the moment, 
 difficult, if not impossible. The justice of these conten- 
 tions will be 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. Events, however, were shaping them- 
 selves all the time, in no uncertain way, and when the 
 proper moment arrived, the great North-West was thrown 
 open to settlement, railway communication became 
 assured, and the country has since progressed, in view of 
 all the circumstances, in a remarkable manner. Person- 
 
PREFACE. v 
 
 ally, it is my opinion, that the acquisition and develop- 
 ment of the Hudson Bay Territory was impossible prior 
 to the confederation of the Dominion. No less a body 
 than united Canada could have acquired and administered 
 so large a domain, or have undertaken the construction 
 of railways, without which its development could only 
 have been slow and uncertain. It was not till 1878, eight 
 years after the transfer, that Winnipeg first received rail- 
 way communication through the United States. Three 
 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 Bay Company relin- 
 quished their Charter — that the Canadian Pacific Railway 
 was completed from ocean to ocean, and Manitoba and 
 the North-West Territories were placed in direct and 
 regular railway communication with the different parts 
 of the Dominion. There is no question, also, that the 
 policy of the Hudson Bay Company in regard to the 
 Indians, and the intercourse which the aborigines had 
 been accustomed to with its officers, made the transfer 
 infinitely easier than would have otherwise been possible. 
 In fact, it may be said that the Hudson Bay Company, 
 while conserving its own interests, as long as was desira- 
 ble, yet prepared the way for the Dominion, and for the 
 colonization and settlement which is now taking place. 
 
 The record of the real life of the Selkirk settlers will 
 be especially interesting to the inhabitants of the various 
 Provinces of the Dominion, to the early settlers in Mani- 
 toba and the North-West, and to those millions who are 
 destined to follow them in the future, and establish for 
 themselves happy and comfortable homes on the grand 
 western prairies. Many of the original Selkirk settlers 
 and their descendants have been personally and intimately 
 
vi PREFACE, 
 
 known tome, including one of the most respected of the 
 pioneers, the father of Mr. MacBeth ; and I have always 
 respected and admired their sterling qualities of head and 
 heart. I know how they have worked and how they have 
 lived, and, in my judgment, Manitoba owes more to their 
 efforts and to their example than is generally admitted, or 
 can well be conceived by the present generation of Cana- 
 dians. One illustration of their simple character and 
 honesty occurs to me at the moment of writing. Nothing 
 further was required of them, in connection with the 
 transfer of land, than a personal appearance before the 
 Registrar, and an oral intimation of the transaction to be 
 effected. No deeds or documents were completed in 
 such cases, and no conveyance of the kind was ever ques- 
 tioned. Lord Selkirk is represented to have said that in 
 the Red River Valley alone there is room for many mil- 
 lions of people. More modern authorities claim that the 
 prairies are destined to provide homes for as many mil- 
 lions as now inhabit the United States. The extension 
 of the railways in the different parts of the country is 
 opening up yearly more extended fields for settlement, is 
 providing the facilities for placing families all over the 
 country, and for marketing the produce they will be 
 enabled to raise. All these results may be traced to the 
 Selkirk Settlement, and to the Hudson Bay Company, 
 and they will tend to give additional interest to the 
 entertaining and instructive volume Mr. MacBeth has 
 written, for which I venture to predict a wide circulation. 
 
 Donald A. Smith. 
 
 Victoria Chambers, 
 
 London, Eng. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page 
 
 Introductory . . . . . . 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Genesis of the Selkirk Colony . . .15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Settling under Difficulties .... 22 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Settled and at Work . . . . . .31 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Horse-raising and Hay-making .... 40 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Social Life 50 
 
vm CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Page 
 
 Some Peculiar Local Customs .... 57 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Civil and Commercial Life 65 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Educational Facilities 76 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Religious Life ....... 87 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Religious Life — Continued 97 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Missionary Outposts 106 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 83, line 10 — after "Alexander Ross," read "James A. 
 Murray." 
 
 Page 100, line 16— after "long distances," read "on horse- 
 , back." 
 
THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 IN REAL LIFE. 
 
 chapter i. :, :; % \„\>\, 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Histories of Manitoba and the North-West 
 exist in plenty, and the number is being con- 
 stantly added to as the growing importance of 
 the country attracts the attention of the world. 
 The work of recording the leading historical 
 facts concerning the West has been so ably and 
 so exhaustively done by such men as Ross, 
 Gunn, Hargrave, Bryce, Begg and others, that 
 the present writer would not, under ordinary 
 circumstances, attempt to add anything in the 
 same line to what has been already w r ritten. 
 But it has for years seemed to him, as the son 
 
10 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 of a Selkirk settler, born and brought up amid 
 the primitive life and the simple surroundings 
 of this " Western Acadia." that very little, if 
 anything, has been made public of the altogether 
 unique and peculiar life and customs character- 
 istic of those who for nearly half a century, 
 apart from the rest of the world, fought and 
 conquered ^the difficulties of settlement in a 
 wilderness wild. More than once has he re- 
 solved to essay this unwritten chapter in the 
 history of his birthplace, and more than once 
 have friends, old and new, urged the task upon 
 him; but the fear of failing to do adequate 
 justice to the work has up to this date laid an 
 arresting hand upon his pen. He feels that this 
 lost chapter should have been written years ago 
 by some one to whom the life to be depicted was 
 less than a memory and more of an actual 
 experience than it has been to him. But alas ! 
 no one undertook the work, and as the time 
 goes by, the fear that it may never be touched 
 at all becomes more real and painful. Hence, 
 though his actual experience in the life related 
 was not many years in duration before that 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 11 
 
 unique life began to undergo a change with the 
 advent of new conditions, yet those few years, 
 together with tales told by prominent actors in 
 the drama, lead the writer to hope that he may 
 furnish some facts and sketch some characters of 
 note and interest. He feels the more encour- 
 aged to take up the task, because amongst those 
 who urged him to undertake it was one who, 
 up to the time of his death, took the deepest 
 interest in the country in whose earlier a,nd 
 later history he himself was so outstanding and 
 forceful a figure. The reference is to the late 
 Sir John Schultz, who took such an active part 
 in the tumultuous troubles attending our entry 
 into Confederation, and who, when escaping 
 from Louis Riel and hard hunted by enemies, 
 found asylum in my father's house at Kildonan. 
 On New Year's eve of 1893, Sir John forwarded 
 to the writer an excellent engraving of old Fort 
 Garry, inscribed by his own hand (trembling 
 with sickness) as follows : " For my esteemed 
 friend of many years, Rev. EL G. MacBeth, of 
 Augustine Church, from Lieutenant-Governor 
 Schultz, Government House, Winnipeg, in grate- 
 
12 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 ful memory of my brave old friend, the Hon. 
 Robert MacBeth, and as a souvenir of stirring 
 events in other days." Accompanying this was 
 a letter in which the following sentences occur 
 in reference to a lecture or paper on the subject 
 of the early days : " I am entirely at one with 
 the wish that you may undertake this work — 
 no one more capable — and I only hope that I 
 may be granted life and leave to preside at a 
 meeting when you give the first-fruits of this 
 most interesting subject. The people, the cir- 
 cumstances of their coming and their surround- 
 ings were altogether unique and should be 
 recorded. There is too much of a desire nowa- 
 days to ignore the past and the services in it 
 that men like the Selkirk settlers rendered ; so 
 by all means carry out your half -formed design. " 
 Besides this, some time ago the Rev. W. D. 
 Ballantyne, Editor of the Canada Presbyterian, 
 requested an article for the semi-jubilee number 
 of his paper, and having received one (somewhat 
 hurriedly written) wrote suggesting a series in 
 the same line. After making the suggestion 
 Mr. Ballantyne says, "It is very important, you 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 13 
 
 will agree with me, that those early days, and 
 the men who lived in them, should not be for- 
 gotten; and you ought as far as possible, in jus- 
 tice to the brave men who toiled and bore so 
 much and so nobly kept the faith, to help rescue 
 their names from oblivion." 
 
 With this view then before him, and with the 
 hope of writing some chapters on the inner life 
 of the old settlers and a few character sketches 
 that may be of interest, the writer essays the 
 agreeable but perhaps too ambitious task which 
 the necessities of the case, the requests of friends, 
 and his own desire to be of service in preserving 
 some record of a vanished life seem to lay before 
 his hand. 
 
 After writing this chapter and outlining the 
 others, it occurred to me that it would immeas- 
 urably increase the interest and value of the 
 volume if a Preface could be secured from Sir 
 Donald A. Smith, High Commissioner for 
 Canada, who has been so long and honorably 
 connected with the history of this country, 
 and who, moreover, was a personal friend of 
 my father, from whom I have had much of 
 
14 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 the letter and the spirit of the book. I accord- 
 ingly wrote to the worthy knight (who, it is 
 needless to say, has not seen this paragraph), 
 and take this opportunity of acknowledging 
 the gracious and courtly kindness of his consent 
 to write " a few words of preface." From one 
 of Sir Donald's letters the following extract is 
 made : 
 
 "Your father . . . was one of my most 
 esteemed friends, and it is indeed well that his 
 life-work and that of other Kildonan men, who 
 so materially aided in the opening up of the 
 great North- West, should be given to the public, 
 and it is certainly appropriate this should be 
 done by one so fully conversant with the whole 
 subject as yourself." 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 GENESIS OF THE SELKIRK COLONY. 
 
 With the main historical facts leading to the 
 planting of a colony from the north of Scotland 
 in the midst of the American continent, it is rea- 
 sonable to assume that the most of our readers 
 are fairly familiar, and it is not the purpose of 
 these papers to go at length or in detail into 
 such matters. But the drift of events may be 
 noted in order that the actual situation of the 
 colonists may be understood before we pass into 
 the study of personal life and immediate sur- 
 soundings in their new home. " The Governor 
 and Company of Adventurers trading into Hud- 
 son's Bay," or, as they were better known, the 
 Hudson's Bay Company, had from about the year 
 1670 practically controlled the whole of America 
 west of the great lakes. We are in the habit 
 
16 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 now of commiserating the French king who, 
 adopting the sneer of Voltaire, spoke of the 
 cession of Canada to England as the surrender 
 of " a few hundred arpents of snow," but there 
 have been a great many people besides Louis 
 XV. who looked upon the territory which to-day 
 furnishes the finest wheat in the world, exports 
 the cattle from a thousand plains, and holds the 
 richest mines yet discovered, as a region afford- 
 ing a sphere of operations only to the hunter and 
 the trapper. But the Earl of Selkirk, who at 
 the opening of this century practically controlled 
 the Hudson's Bay Company, though he doubtless 
 saw in this great region the field for an 
 immensely profitable fur trade, seems to have 
 had a more prescient understanding of its future 
 possibilities. Moreover, all we have heard of the 
 man from those who knew him leads us to 
 believe that he was actuated by higher than self- 
 ish motives for himself or his company, when, at 
 great personal cost, he brought to the banks of 
 the Red River the company of his fellow-country- 
 men known to history as the " Selkirk settlers." 
 It is true that at the time there was keen and 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 17 
 
 sometimes bloody rivalry between the Hudson's 
 Bay and the North- West companies for the 
 trade of the region, and that the Earl's move in 
 bringing out the first group of colonists as a base 
 of supply in food and as laborers for his company 
 might have been looked on as highly prudent 
 and strategic ; but in regard to the main body 
 of the settlers, evidence is not lacking to show 
 that the Earl, whose name was held in sacred 
 memory by them, and who spent and was spent 
 in efforts to establish them in a new land, was 
 greatly impelled to this by seeing these unhappy 
 people turned out of their homes in Scotland 
 that their holdings might be turned into sheep 
 tracts. The question, " Is not a man better than 
 a sheep ? " is supposed to admit of but one 
 answer amongst the generality of mankind, but 
 the landlord of that day and place had a different 
 view, and hence the man had to give way and 
 make room for the more profitable sheep. Back 
 there first of all began the' sufferings and pri- 
 vations of these people. Doubtless their life had 
 been strenuous and struggling enough under a 
 system of landlordism which we have never 
 
18 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 known on these free prairies; but up to that 
 point it was the best they knew, and when the 
 fiat went forth that they must vacate their 
 homes and holdings, many a heart-rending scene 
 can be imagined. I have often heard my father 
 speak of the cruel evictions he witnessed as a 
 boy, when whole families were turned out on the 
 strath with their poor " gear " to witness the 
 burning of their dearly beloved, if humble, cabin. 
 To such a persecuted people Lord Selkirk came 
 as a rescuing angel, and though, as we have said, 
 he may have had some regard to the advantage 
 of his company, and though some promises he 
 made to the settlers he did not fulfil, owing to 
 many entanglements in the conflicts for the fur 
 trade, yet on the whole his treatment of the 
 colonists and his efforts on their behalf were such 
 that, when he returned with ruined health and 
 shattered fortune to die in Scotland, in 1820, his 
 loss was deeply mourned by the settlers, whose 
 descendants have delighted in giving his name 
 to points and places all over the West. 
 
 The work of bringing the colonists to the 
 Red River by way of Hudson's Bay was not 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 19 
 
 the simple task it would be in this day of 
 " ocean greyhounds/' and even when they were 
 landed on the shores of the bay it seemed as if 
 their troubles were deepening darkly. Of the 
 band of colonists that left Scotland in 1813, we 
 are told in Begg's History, " that during the 
 voyage fever broke out amongst the passengers, 
 and when they arrived at their destination the 
 party of Scotch emigrants were in a dreadful 
 condition and utterly unfit to undertake the 
 overland journey to Red River. Many of them 
 died before and after landing, and the remainder 
 were so worn out with sickness that they were 
 obliged to remain at the bay for the whole of 
 the following winter. From all accounts it 
 would appear that these poor people were not 
 properly cared for by the agents of Lord Selkirk, 
 and that the food and shelter provided were 
 totally inadequate for their comfort or protec- 
 tion during the severities of the weather. After 
 spending a most miserable winter at Church 
 Hill and York Factory, the survivors started 
 in the summer of 1814 for Red River, arriving 
 there early in the autumn. A few days after 
 
20 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 their arrival they were put in possession of land, 
 but there were neither implements to till the 
 soil nor a sufficiency of food to be had. Added 
 to this, the settlement was on the eve of a 
 series of disturbances which shortly afterwards 
 resulted in the destruction of the colony by the 
 servants of the North- West Company." The 
 protectorate exercised over the settlers by the 
 Hudson's Bay Company naturally excited the 
 enmity of their rivals, the North- West Com- 
 pany, against the unfortunate colonists. The 
 following extract from a letter written by 
 Mr. Alexander McDonnell, who was one of the 
 leading spirits in the latter company at the 
 time, will show the position of affairs. 
 
 Mr. McDonnell, writing to his brother-in-law, 
 McGillivray, says : " Nothing but the complete 
 downfall of the colony by fair means or foul 
 will satisfy some — a most desirable object if it 
 can be effected. So here is at them with all my 
 heart and energy." 
 
 That the leading spirits of the North- West 
 Company did go " at them with all their heart 
 and energy" the immediate sequel proves, for 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 21 
 
 in the next year they broke the colony up and 
 scattered the settlers to the four winds. Some 
 of the persecuted people entered the service, of 
 the Hudson's Bay Company, some went out for 
 the winter to Jack River on Lake Winnipeg, 
 while a considerable number of families were 
 deported by the North-West Company to east- 
 ern Canada, where their descendants are found 
 to-day at many points. Almost coincident with 
 this breaking up of the colony on the Red River, 
 another party of emigrants (amongst whom was 
 my father, then a lad of sixteen) left Scotland 
 for this place, setting sail early in June, 1815, 
 in pitiful (but to them, perhaps, blissful) ignor- 
 ance of what had happened their predecessors 
 and of what awaited themselves on their arrival. 
 
22 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SETTLING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 As we closed our last chapter we saw a body 
 of colonists leaving the north of Scotland in the 
 early summer of 1815 to join the colony on the 
 far Red River. However strenuous and diffi- 
 cult their life may have been, and however much 
 the struggle to gain a livelihood was accentuated 
 by the oppressive landlordism of the time, it 
 requires no vivid imagination to see how sadly 
 they took leave of their beloved strath. No 
 people in the world are more strongly attached 
 to their native land than the Scotch, and as 
 their vessel, outward bound, carried these emi- 
 grants beyond sight of the heath-clad hills, many 
 a group such as the painter of " Lochaber no 
 more " furnishes us, might be seen on its deck 
 with wistful eyes gazing back toward the coast- 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 23 
 
 line of dear old Scotland. But as the days wore 
 on in that long voyage their expectation would 
 turn also to the new land to which they were 
 going. Some of their kindred had gone before 
 them as if to prepare the way, and those coming 
 now looked forward to finding their friends in 
 free and happy homes in the colony on a new 
 continent. With these friends they might well 
 hope to find a cheerful resting-place, renewing 
 old memories, until they, too, could have homes 
 of their own in the free land of the West. 
 
 But alas ! how cruelly disappointing to them 
 would the scene of ruined homes and desolate 
 hearthstones be, and how deadly a blow would 
 be given to all their hopes when they would 
 find their friends scattered whither not even 
 the few remaining could tell ! It is impossible 
 to let the mind dwell upon scenes like these, and 
 then on the ultimate triumph of these people, 
 without thinking of the splendid valor of the 
 Scottish blood and of the supreme faith in God 
 which carried them through to the end. As 
 they landed on the bleak shores of Hudson's 
 Bay, and after a weary journey stood amidst 
 
24 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 the snow and ice of November on the spot 
 where they had expected to find the homes of 
 their friends, but where they found only a scene 
 of desolation, the very north wind with freezing 
 breath might seem to howl across the bleak 
 plains the old question of infidelity, " Where is 
 now thy God ? " But these people had been 
 from their childhood indoctrinated in a great 
 creed whose central truth was the sovereignty 
 of God, and in many a solitary place the wilder- 
 ness heard from their hearts the old psalm of 
 the fathers : 
 
 ' ' Why art thou then cast down, my soul, 
 
 What should discourage thee ? 
 And why with vexing thoughts art thou 
 
 Disquieted in me ? 
 Still trust in God : for Him to praise 
 
 Good cause I yet shall have ; 
 He of my countenance is the health, 
 
 My God who doth me save." 
 
 Lest it might be supposed that the sympathies 
 of the present writer would lead him to picture 
 too highly the struggles of the colonists, let us 
 hear what Begg, a recent writer, in his "History 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 25 
 
 of the North- West," says at this point : " In- 
 stead of finding a thriving settlement they 
 found only ruins; but, worse than all, there 
 was no food to feed them, and they had to con- 
 tinue their journey, in company with those who 
 had returned from Jack River, in cold and snow 
 to Pembina, 70 miles farther. Here they set to 
 work to erect rude huts to shelter themselves, 
 but in a month or so they had to leave these 
 temporary houses and journey to the plains in 
 the hope of securing food, there being a scarcity 
 of provisions at Pembina, and no means of pro- 
 curing any near that place. These unfortunate 
 people had to journey a distance of 150 miles, 
 and as they were ill-provided with suitable 
 clothes to protect their persons from the cold 
 they suffered dreadfully. Meeting with a party 
 of hunters they remained with them during the 
 rest of the winter, performing such work as 
 they were capable of doing, in return for which 
 they were fed and sheltered till spring, when 
 they returned to Pembina, and from thence 
 descended the Red River to Fort Douglas. 
 They then began to cultivate the soil, and 
 
26 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 everything seemed propitious to their becoming 
 comfortably settled in their new home, when, 
 on the 19th of June, 1816, an event happened 
 which once more brought desolation to the 
 colony." That event was a collision between 
 armed forces of the Hudson's Bay and North- 
 West companies at Seven Oaks, in Kildonan. 
 The actual collision was partly the result of an 
 accident, but it ended in the killing of Governor 
 Semple, of the former company, and the killing 
 or wounding of twenty-one out of twenty-seven 
 men w T ho accompanied him. This gave the 
 North-West Company for a time the upper 
 hand, and the colonists had to abandon their 
 homes once more, and go out to Jack River, 
 where they suffered great hardships during the 
 winter. Next spring, however, the tables were 
 turned, and the Hudson's Bay Company got 
 control, Lord Selkirk, on his way back from 
 Montreal with his hired De Meuron soldiers, 
 capturing Fort William and afterwards Fort 
 Douglas from his rivals. Things had become 
 so bad between these companies that the Impe- 
 rial Government interfered by commissioners, 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 27 
 
 and the settlers once more returned to their 
 holdings. Law-suits innumerable ensued be- 
 tween the two companies until after the death 
 of Lord Selkirk (who had always steadfastly 
 opposed union), when a coalition was formed, 
 the Hudson's Bay Company ultimately absorb- 
 ing the others and continuing unto this day. 
 During all this fighting between the rival com- 
 panies the colonists endured constant hardships, 
 and experienced one set-back after another. 
 The historian before quoted tells us that " in 
 the winter of 1817 they were forced to go again 
 to Pembina owing to scarcity of food, but on 
 their return to the settlement in the spring 
 managed to sow a considerable area of land 
 with wheat, etc. The summer was favorable, 
 and the fields soon assumed a promising appear- 
 ance, but on the 18th of July, 1818, the sky 
 suddenly became darkened by clouds of grass- 
 hoppers, and as they descended on the earth in 
 dense swarms they destroyed every green thing 
 before them. The settlers managed to save a 
 little grain, but not a vegetable was left in the 
 gardens." It seemed as if everything was going 
 
28 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 against them, and once more they went for 
 refuge to Pembina during the winter. In the 
 spring of 1819 they returned and sowed again, 
 but the young grasshoppers in swarms began to 
 appear, and devoured everything on the fields 
 and plains. Again they were forced to go to 
 Pembina, and so continued the struggle, subsist- 
 ing on the products of the chase, until three 
 years afterwards, when they gained sufficient 
 from their fields to keep them from fear of 
 starvation. This was in 1822, or about ten 
 years after the first of them had arrived in the 
 country. Things went fairly well to the year 
 1826, when a winter of great severity and 
 unusual depth of snow led to great distress in 
 the country. The plain hunters, who depended 
 nearly altogether on the buffalo for food supply, 
 were the chief sufferers, for the storms drove 
 the buffalo beyond reach and killed the horses 
 of the hunters. The settlers did all they could 
 to relieve their brethren on the plains, but in 
 the spring they themselves suffered the severest 
 loss in their history. The sudden thaw of the 
 great snow and ice accumulation caused the 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 29 
 
 Red River to overflow its banks and become a 
 raging torrent of wide extent. The settlers 
 barely escaped with their lives and some of 
 their stock, but their houses and stables were 
 swept away in total wreckage into Lake Winni- 
 peg. Yet, when the flood went down, these 
 undaunted men came back and began all over 
 again ; and though we have had floods and grass- 
 hoppers, and civil disturbances, since that time 
 the colony was never again uprooted. When 
 we read over this hurried history of disastrous 
 years, we feel that the most sympathetic and 
 vivid imagination cannot conceive the sufferings 
 these settlers endured, and we know that those 
 who passed through the experience found no 
 language adequate to the task of describing it. 
 In my father's closing years he was often visited 
 by tourists from the Old Country, seeking infor- 
 mation as to the early days, and I recall the 
 attempts he made to depict the scenes, concern- 
 ing which he could say, with the hero of Virgil, 
 " Quorum magna pars fui!' I can see him yet, 
 a strongly-built, massive figure, in the old 
 wooden chair, on the arm of which he brought 
 
30 THE SELKIRK SETTLORS 
 
 down his hand now and again to give Celtic 
 emphasis to his words. I can hear the story 
 flow on till he felt the inadequacy of language 
 as recollections rushed upon him, and then he 
 would stop short, saying, " It's no use talking, 
 gentlemen, I can't tell you half of it ; but I will 
 say one thing, and that is that no people in the 
 world but the Scotch could have done it," and 
 the last party of Englishmen that came to the 
 old farm-house, seeing his earnestness, applauded 
 him with unselfish enthusiasm. Whether my 
 father was unduly partial to his own race or 
 not may be a matter of opinion, but there can 
 be no two opinions as to the difficulties these 
 colonists triumphantly battled with, and if you 
 seek their monument, look around you on the 
 religious and educational as well as the material 
 greatness of the North- West. 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 31 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SETTLED AND AT WORK. 
 
 The great flood of 1826 passed over, and the 
 colonists at once returned to their farms on the 
 Red River, and settled down to the regular 
 routine of work. The real purpose of these 
 papers can now be fairly entered upon, for it 
 was only after this flood that the settlers were 
 able to cease from the running fight for life and 
 take up in some steady way the business of 
 colonizing and the purpose of living. To write 
 on the life they were to lead till the advent of 
 new conditions changed it, to write on this life 
 as seen from the inner side, is to make an effort 
 at reproducing on paper scenes long since van- 
 ished, and no more to be reproduced in actuality 
 on the globe. There is no spot left upon our 
 continent, at least, where, for well-nigh half a 
 
32 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 century, a colony could remain practically un- 
 touched by the rest of the world, unvexed by 
 its artificial troubles, and unspoiled by its mad 
 racing after material greatness. Speaking to 
 his class one day as to the way in which men 
 find that some one has preceded them every- 
 where, a keenly humorous professor, for illus- 
 tration, said that, " thanks to the enterprise of 
 the modern advertiser, the legends of the patent 
 medicine man now haunted us in the deepest 
 solitudes of nature;" and that is but one way of 
 saying that in our time we cannot, if we would, 
 isolate ourselves from a telephoning, telegraph- 
 ing, railway and steamship travelling humanity. 
 It was far otherwise in the days of the Selkirk 
 Colony, for I have often heard my father (who 
 left Scotland, as we have said, in the opening of 
 June, 1815) say that they never heard of the 
 battle of Waterloo until late in the following 
 autumn. Think of the solitariness such a state- 
 ment implied, for while the cannonade of " that 
 loud Sabbath " might have almost made itself 
 felt through vibrant air across the globe, a con- 
 siderable number of British subjects remained 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 33 
 
 for months uncertain as to how the long strug- 
 gle on the battle-ground of Europe had even- 
 tuated, and unaware of the fact that Napoleon, 
 the troubler of the world's peace, was immured 
 on a lonely rock safely guarded by the restless 
 sea. From that date onward for nearly fifty 
 long years that little band of Highlanders 
 remained shut out from the rest of the world, 
 till through freer communication with "the 
 States " to the south, and " Canada " to the 
 east, the tide of a larger life rolled up against us, 
 and prepared the way for our entry, " not with- 
 out tumult," into Confederation. It shall be 
 our effort in the few chapters that follow to 
 give those interested an idea of what these 
 hermit settlers were doing in the meantime. 
 
 They chose to settle along the banks of the 
 Red River on narrow farms (the general width 
 being ten chains frontage on the river), running 
 back at right angles from it on the prairie. 
 These farms extended back two miles, as a free- 
 hold, with an additional two miles as a "hay 
 privilege." Ultimately, these "outer two miles" 
 were given in fee simple to the owner of the 
 
34 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 frontage, except in cases where others by actual 
 occupation had secured possession of them in 
 part, in which case the frontage owner got an 
 equivalent elsewhere. These ten-chain lots, 
 owned by the head of the family, were fre- 
 quently subdivided among the sons, so that 
 when Ontario people, accustomed to square 
 farms, began to come amongst us, they were 
 greatly amused at our " farming on lanes," and 
 pointed out the disadvantage of having to go to 
 work on the cultivated plots (" parks," we called 
 them) at the outlying ends of these river strips. 
 But there was " much method in the madness " 
 of long narrow farms, or, to be plainer, there 
 were many good reasons to justify that plan of 
 settlement. To begin w T ith, the settlers built 
 along the river banks for convenience in obtain- 
 ing water, which, at that date, before there were 
 any cities along its banks, was more drinkable 
 than it is now. Outside the swamps and 
 sloughs the river was practically the only re- 
 liable source of steady water supply. Wells 
 were little known, suction pumps were unheard 
 of, and I remember that a a chain-and-wheel " 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 35 
 
 pump, which my father imported from "the 
 States," was one of the seven wonders even in 
 my time. Then, again, settlement by the river 
 had food as well as water supply in view, for, 
 unvexed by the present-day hindrances to fish- 
 culture in rivers, large numbers of fish, from the 
 " gold-eye " to the sturgeon, offered a provision 
 by no means to be despised. As to the narrow- 
 ness of the farms, it can readily be seen that the 
 colonists settled close together for mutual de- 
 fence in troublous times, and for the advantages 
 of social life, as well as for church and school 
 facilities ; and if the sons, settling on subdivi- 
 sions, seemed lacking in ambition, it must be 
 remembered that to go outside the settlement in 
 the early days was to exile oneself absolutely 
 beyond the pale of these advantages. 
 
 From the beginning of settlement, farming 
 was the principal occupation of the colonists. 
 Buffalo-hunting, fishing, etc., were incidents in 
 the life of somewhat rare occurrence thereafter. 
 Some of the younger men did follow the buffalo, 
 but for the most part the delicacies of buffalo 
 meat, moose nose, beaver tail, etc., were obtained 
 
36 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 by trading with the half-breeds and Indians, 
 who had no taste for agriculture but had an 
 unquenchable love for the plains and rivers. 
 The facilities for farming, as may be supposed, 
 were not of the best. The implements (spade 
 and hoe for planting and sowing) were almost 
 as primitive as those which might have been 
 used by the "grand old gardener," but with 
 these by dint of great toil the settlers soon 
 managed to make a livelihood. The reaping 
 was done with the sickle and the cradle. Then 
 the age of machinery came in, and the hoe gave 
 place to the old wooden plough, whose oaken 
 mould-board was pointed with such an iron 
 attachment as Tubal Cain might have made 
 "in the days when earth was young." The 
 sickle and cradle gave way to the first cumbrous 
 reaper, which had to be put in and out of gear 
 by lifting the machine with a fence rail and 
 moving the big wheel into or out of contact 
 with the smaller cogged one. Behind the plat- 
 form of this reaper a stand was placed for 
 the able-bodied man who " forked off" the 
 grain in sheaves as it fell, and to do this with 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 37 
 
 regularity and neatness in heavy crops tested 
 even the brawniest Highlander of them all. 
 
 The same cumbrous machine was used for a 
 time in hay-cutting, and it is said in the case 
 of the first one imported, lest the evident design 
 of the maker should be interfered with, and 
 lest any dislocation of the parts might be 
 attended with serious results, the platform was 
 retained and the hay " forked off" in the same 
 manner as wheat. However, the cutting of 
 the wheat was only the beginning of a series 
 of difficult processes through which finally 
 bread was reached. The threshing was carried 
 on at first with flails, with the use of great 
 "fans" and winnowing riddles to separate the 
 wheat from the chaff, a process which enables 
 us to understand the scriptural figures of 
 the fan and the threshing-floor. Shortly after 
 this era of flails the two-horse tread-mill 
 was introduced, by means of which threshing 
 became a comparatively easy and uneventful 
 process, the only occasional excitement being 
 caused when one of the horses, growing wearied 
 with the monotony, would vary proceedings by 
 
38 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 breaking his halter-line and turning a somer- 
 sault on the fanning mill, or when the band 
 would fly off the drive-wheel, and the horses 
 would be forced to run until the ever-useful 
 and ever-ready fence rail introduced below the 
 treads brought matters to a standstill. To get 
 the wheat into flour was the next difficulty. 
 First of all the " quern" was used, two flat 
 stones (the upper and the nether) — the upper 
 having a handle which turned it upon the 
 wheat and brought the grain into some sem- 
 blance of flour, not over white, but in the 
 best degree a health-producing and dyspepsia- 
 obliterating substance. We do not know how 
 far oriental customs prevailed, but it was in 
 view of such a scene as might be witnessed at 
 these " querns " that our Lord spoke of identity 
 of occupation and diversity of character in the 
 words, " Two women shall be grinding at the 
 mill ; the one shall be taken and the other left." 
 In time the Hudson's Bay Company sent out 
 an expert, and built a windmill at Point Doug- 
 lass, in working at which Hugh Poison, one of 
 the settlers, took such careful observation of the 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 39 
 
 process that he afterwards built one for himself 
 and several others at different points in the 
 settlement. These mills did fair work, but 
 when a long calm prevailed there was always 
 danger of a flour famine, unless by borrowing 
 from one another the supply could be eked out 
 until the wind arose. Next in order came 
 water-mills, of which we remember Inkster's, 
 Matheson's and Tait's. Hydraulic engineering 
 was not in a very advanced stage ; there was 
 generally trouble with the dam, and except 
 during freshets that were strong* enough to 
 drive the wheel, the mill-ponds fell into the 
 somewhat ignominious use of vessels in which 
 to wash the sheep before shearing. But the 
 era of steam was at hand, and if the early 
 settlers grew strong on brown bread with a 
 marked tendency to blackness, their descen- 
 dants were to have the doubtful advantages 
 of the maximum of whiteness with the mini- 
 mum of nourishment from wheat whose life 
 is crushed out by modern methods and the 
 exactions of the "five o'clock tea." 
 
40 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HORSE-RAISING AND HAY-MAKING. 
 
 Western politicians are proverbially fruitful 
 of phrases, but one of them outdid all the rest 
 when he introduced in the Speech from the 
 Throne here a year ago the phrase " diversified 
 agriculture." In the language of the common 
 people, the phrase was intended to mean " mixed 
 farming " and was used to describe farming in 
 which not only the tilling of the soil but the 
 raising of stock finds a place. Viewed in that 
 light the farming of the old settlers was " diver- 
 sified agriculture," and in that, as in many 
 other respects, the principle on which they 
 worked is a valuable one to people who desire 
 to make a good living on western prairies. In 
 the days before the incoming of machinery the 
 colonists raised horses principally to supply the 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 41 
 
 buffalo hunters, and also to serve their own 
 amusement . and love of simple sport. Splendid 
 horses they were, as I remember them, imported 
 from England and acclimatized in process of 
 further breeding, swift of foot, strong of mus- 
 cle, deep-chested and mettlesome. The prices 
 realized for buffalo runners in the early days 
 were not so large as might be expected, and 
 I often heard that, when my father sold a 
 famous running horse for the sum of £14, it 
 was said of him by some that " he sold his con- 
 science " when he asked such an extravagant 
 amount. It was customary when the plain 
 hunters came in and encamped on the prairies 
 around Fort Garry, for the settlers to take up 
 such horses as they had to sell. These were 
 tested with the racers of the camp, and if 
 the results w T ere satisfactory a sale readily fol- 
 lowed. A brother of mine once took up a horse 
 of a strain noted for fleetness to the camp of an 
 old hunter named Acapot, and though horse and 
 rider were without special training he easily 
 outran the horse put up by the hunters. A sale 
 for £30 immediately followed, my brother 
 
42 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 scarce realizing how good a horse he had. After 
 the sale, however, the old hunter told my brother 
 that his horse had outrun the most famous run- 
 ner in the camp, and though shortly afterwards 
 Acapot retired to live near Prince Albert, no 
 amount of money ever tempted him to part with 
 the horse he had purchased on such easy (though 
 to us extravagant) terms. 
 
 The " Queen's Birthday " was the great holi- 
 day of the year (no people were more loyal), and 
 as soon as we could ride each of us had a horse 
 (often without a saddle) to go up to the fort 
 and witness the contests of speed between 
 the best horses of the settlers and the plain 
 hunters. The present day gambling of the race- 
 course was practically unknown, and for the most 
 part the races were honestly run with utilitarian 
 ends in view for the speediest animal. Besides 
 horses the settlers had cattle and sheep on the 
 farm. Oxen were largely used in the operations 
 of the farm down to a recent date, and for pur- 
 poses of hay and wood hauling were " hitched " 
 single in the Red River cart or sled, both of 
 which in their primitive state were made entirely 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 43 
 
 of wood. Sheep were useful in the extreme as 
 affording clothing in " hodden grey." The pro- 
 cesses from sheep-shearing to the home-made 
 suit were slow and primitive in the light of 
 modern machinery, but the article was good, as 
 we know from personal experience. 
 
 The other day the writer got word of what 
 remained of his grandfather's sword in the old 
 house of one of the settlers who died some years 
 ago. This settler (Angus Poison by name) was 
 a famous worker in wood, and amongst other 
 things was the chief maker of spinning wheels 
 in the colony. The broken fragment of the 
 sword-hilt that remains tells an eloquent and 
 pathetic story. Doubtless the old soldier (who 
 was one of the survivors of the Black Hole of 
 Calcutta, and who died at Kildonan, aged 107) 
 prized greatly the sword he had carried on the 
 hot plains of India, but to help his fellow-colon- 
 ists he gave it to the maker of spinning wheels 
 that the brass basket-hilt might be broken and 
 used in their construction. The old weavers 
 loom, too, was a familiar figure, and the sight of 
 the weaver throwing the flying shuttle with its 
 
44 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 crossing threads has always enlarged before me, 
 as the years have grown, into the vision of Him 
 who sits at the " roaring loom of time " and 
 weaves with warp and woof the web of human 
 life. Since then I have always understood more 
 clearly and entered more fully into the words of 
 the great hymn : 
 
 u With mercy and with judgment 
 
 My web of time He wove, 
 And aye the dews of sorrow 
 
 Were lustred with his love, 
 I'll bless the hand that guided, 
 
 I'll bless the heart that planned, 
 When throned where glory dwelleth 
 
 In Immanuel's land." 
 
 After the weaving of the cloth came the "full- 
 ing," done in primitive but vigorous style by the 
 kicking of it by barefooted boys, who found it 
 one of the amusements of the winter evenings ; 
 though it is a tribute to the hardiness of High- 
 land blood to say that after this heated exercise 
 the moccasin was put on and the way home in 
 the snow and bitter night was taken scathless. 
 Speaking of winter-night occupation for the 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 45 
 
 boys, I may say that another one was " knock- 
 ing barley ," as we called it, preparatory to its 
 use in soup-making. A large block hewn from 
 the tree was hollowed out in a somewhat circu- 
 lar form. This was partly filled with barley, 
 which we took turns in pounding with a long- 
 headed wooden mallet, while some one more 
 daring than the rest kept turning the grain 
 with a stick or long-handled spoon, to the immi- 
 nent and constant risk of his fingers. When the 
 grain was thus well hulled, it was winnowed 
 and ready for soup, compared with which some 
 of the spiced transparencies which now pass by 
 the name would be tame and insipid. 
 
 In the summer time the farm stock of which 
 we have spoken ran wild on the prairies, horses 
 especially being out of sight for months at a 
 time; and we recall as a great constitution- 
 builder days spent in the saddle in search of the 
 wandering bands. In the long winter, of course, 
 they must be housed and fed, hence "making 
 hay while the sun shone" in summer was a 
 great reality to us all. Hay -cutting began on 
 the 20th (afterwards 25th) July, and the scene 
 
46 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 of operations was the wild prairie. The outer 
 two miles of each river frontage belonged, for 
 hay purposes, to the frontage owner up to a 
 certain date, but for the most part cutting was 
 done on prairie that was free as air to every- 
 body. The best hay meadows were located in 
 good time before the above date, and on the 
 night before people were camped all around 
 them. Each one knew pretty well just the spot 
 he was going to strike next morning, and if 
 more than one had their eyes on the same spot, 
 it became the property of the one who reached 
 there first and made a " circle" by cutting 
 around the field he wished to claim. There was 
 sometimes (in dry years when hay was scarce) 
 great rivalry, and we have seen camps all ready 
 to start on the stroke of midnight, and actually 
 starting to mark out circles in a thunderstorm. 
 We have seen a circle entered by another than 
 the one who made it, but it was in the case 
 of someone who had tried to circle the whole 
 prairie for himself, and in such case the unwrit- 
 ten law of the camp said that it served him 
 right. There was rarely any trouble to speak 
 
IN REAL LIFE. ±7 
 
 of, and we look back to the camp on the prairie 
 with its many tents like a white village as a 
 most delightful and health-giving experience. 
 Practical jokes were common enough, it is true. 
 We have known some of the boys to stampede 
 a band of horses through the camp, to the alarm 
 and even the possible danger of peaceful sleep- 
 ers in the tents. In the matter of selecting a 
 piece of hay -ground we have known a man who 
 located a choice spot the night before, come into 
 camp and turn his cart with the shafts pointing 
 in the direction to which he was to go next 
 morning, but some wag, suspecting the reason, 
 got up under cover of the darkness and turned 
 the cart so as to point exactly in the opposite 
 way. In that case, though the joke was enjoyed 
 by the camp, the party on whom it was played 
 was not allowed to suffer. Mutual helpfulness 
 was constant, and when prairie fires swept the 
 plain and consumed the stacks of a settler, all 
 the rest helped him out. I remember well 
 when this happened once in the case of an 
 uncle of mine, how the neighbors all joined 
 together and put a hundred cart-loads into his 
 
48 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 farmyard next day. The rides home on Satur- 
 day evening after the week's absence were 
 amongst the most exciting and pleasing expe- 
 riences of hay-making time. Sometimes twenty 
 or thirty horsemen were together, mostly on 
 young horses, and races here and there were 
 much in fashion. As we have observed, saddles 
 were not plentiful, but they were improvised for 
 the occasion. Flat bundles of hay, with cord- 
 line stirrups, were considered good, though we 
 have known a case in which a feint to apply a 
 match necessitated the speedy removal of such 
 a saddle — a task, however, not difficult, as no 
 girth was used. 
 
 In the winter the stock, well housed, were fed 
 from the hay-stacks, out of which the hay was 
 pulled with a wooden hook. When the hand 
 " hay-knife" was introduced from the States, 
 it was an exceedingly popular instrument, and 
 the few that could be had made the round of 
 the neighborhood, till it could not well be known 
 to whom they belonged. It was alluding to this 
 perhaps that my uncle (from whom we had 
 borrowed his) one day coming over the snow- 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 49 
 
 drifts into our hay-yard, said facetiously to my 
 brother, "Boy Sandy, would you mind letting 
 me have the loan of my hay- knife ? " But 
 Sandy was not to be outdone, and completely 
 floored my uncle by coolly replying, " All right, 
 uncle, but be sure to bring it back as soon as 
 you are done with it." 
 
50 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE. 
 
 The winters on the Red River are undeniably 
 long, though as land cultivation has extended 
 (so some state as the reason) they are less severe 
 than formerly. But when people can point to 
 the magnificence of the root and cereal crops as 
 resultant in some measure from the depth to 
 which the ground freezes in the winter time, 
 they are not disposed to quarrel with the course 
 of nature. In the early days the problem of 
 how to while away the long winter, when little 
 work beyond the feeding of stock had to be 
 done, was much in evidence, but generally found 
 solution. The nearness of the houses to one 
 another was conducive to much freedom in the 
 interchange of social visits, and stands out in 
 marked contrast to the isolation of people on 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 51 
 
 square farms in the thinly populated districts. 
 " The latch-string was always on the outside," 
 and as for locks they were practically as much 
 unknown as in Acadia, " home of the happy," of 
 whose people it is said : *- 
 
 " Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their 
 windows ; 
 But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts 
 of the owners." 
 
 Hospitality was unbounded, and as no caste or 
 color lines were drawn, not only was the white 
 friend made welcome, but the belated Indian, 
 still far from his wigwam, was sure of a good 
 supper and the warm corner by the chimney as 
 a couch for his innocent sleep. Such things as 
 calling cards were unheard of, and except in the 
 evening time even knocking at the door was 
 dispensed with by near neighbors. The older 
 people delighted principally in long talks to- 
 gether, ofttimes doubtless of the dangers they 
 had passed. Legends of their ancestors far and 
 near, with the struggles of their Fatherland for 
 civil and religious freedom, were recounted 
 proudly and thankfully, and as I, the youngest 
 
52 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 child of the family, was generally in the " old 
 folks " group when these tales were told, there 
 was " poured into my veins a Scottish prejudice 
 which shall never cease to boil along there till 
 the flood-gates of life shut in eternal rest." I 
 suppose Eutychus found Paul's sermon too long 
 because he took no interest in the subject, but it 
 was a farewell sermon, and the last words 
 between people of kindred heart never seem to 
 be enough. Hence it was that these old people 
 never seemed in a hurry to part, and that the 
 way in which they lingered in saying good-night 
 sometimes amused the younger folks who could 
 not enter into their feelings. It is but little 
 more than ten years gone by since my father 
 bowed his grey head to meet the coming of the 
 Lord, and on the day of his funeral one of the 
 few survivors of that early band stood with me 
 beside the coffin and looked upon that worn face 
 marked amidst its massive strength with the 
 deep lines of suffering and toil. And as he stood 
 there, that aged man (Donald Murray by name), 
 with tears streaming down his own deeply 
 furrowed cheeks, said, indicating the body of 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 53 
 
 my father, " It's seventy years since Robert and 
 I have been friends together." Threescore 
 years and ten ! What a retrospect ! and across 
 what a rugged plain of hard experience ! I 
 knew then in the light of that statement how 
 those long talks and slow leave-takings were to 
 wear in my memory henceforth a halo of 
 sacredness, as I would see those two, who had 
 clung together during the long years and 
 fought their trials with the splendid valor of 
 their race and a noble faith in God, standing 
 where the ways parted down near the sunset of 
 life. Amidst such scenes as these the old sur- 
 vivors of the colony waited for the end undis- 
 turbed by the newer conditions beginning to 
 obtain around them. 
 
 The younger people had in the winter time 
 their social gatherings and their literary and 
 other meetings. The question of dancing is 
 much discussed in the abstract, and we are not 
 going to enter upon a discussion here, but the 
 dancing of those days in a simple and pure state 
 of society was practically as much an outlet for 
 the physical exuberance as were the games of 
 
54 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 ball, etc., in the summer, and no more harmful 
 morally so far as we know. Round dances had 
 not come in, and the reels, strathspeys, etc., were 
 a test of physical endurance as well as of skill, 
 A special dance known as the "Red River jig" 
 we have never seen any one but a native of the 
 country do to perfection. The music was always 
 the violin played to the vigorous accompaniment 
 of the foot, and we have known men carry with 
 them an extra pair of moccasins, so that when 
 one pair was worn out on the rough floor they 
 might not be at a loss. New Year's Day calling 
 was much in vogue, and without any impartiality 
 every house in the settlement was visited. It 
 was a great day for the Indians, who in bands, 
 firing off their shot-guns occasionally, went 
 from house to house, and were feasted to a 
 dangerous degree. The New Year's dinner was 
 a feature in every house, and the skilled makers 
 of plum-pudding displayed their talent with- 
 out stint. In the evening many social parties 
 were held as a close to a busy day. 
 
 The " oft- told tale " was doubtless repeated in 
 effective ways, for " marrying and giving in 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 55 
 
 marriage " became the order of many a day. 
 All efforts at "surprise weddings" were rendered 
 futile by the necessity of publishing the banns 
 in church, and the parties had all the celebrity 
 that this public disclosure of their plans could 
 give them. Invitations were given verbally 
 from house to house, generally by the bride's 
 father. Marriages were as a rule celebrated in 
 the church, and all the guests drove there often 
 to the accompaniment of shot-gun salutes of 
 honor by the way. This drive to and fro was 
 yar excellence the time for displaying fast horses, 
 whose decking in gay ribbons called " wedding 
 favors," took up more attention than the adorn- 
 ment of the person. The speediest horses were 
 secured for such occasions. We have known 
 men go long distances to secure some noted horse, 
 and consternation reigned when it leaked out 
 that some one had secured so and so's li Charlie " 
 or " Tom " for the wedding. On the way home 
 speeding could be indulged in to any extent, 
 with one well-defined limitation, namely, that no 
 one was to pass the bridal party on pain of 
 social ostracism. On the Sabbath succeeding 
 
56 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 the wedding the " kirking n took place, the 
 bridal party and " best young people " in all 
 their wedding bravery of millinery driving 
 together with their gaily decked horses to 
 church and there occupying a special pew. 
 When the groom brought his bride to his ances- 
 tral mansion, a " home wedding " was given with 
 practically the same amount of social function as 
 had attended the ceremony of the marriage. As 
 a general thing the dowry was not large when 
 the people were poor, but in addition to the out- 
 fitting such as the custom required a few choice 
 cows were driven over to the bridegroom's 
 farm as a nucleus for future wealth in flocks and 
 herds. 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 57 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOME PECULIAR LOCAL CUSTOMS. 
 
 There are some phases of experience that can 
 be looked at under the heading of the social 
 life, though they might possibly be considered 
 with equal appropriateness in connection with 
 the religious services of the time, and such may 
 be the case with the matters touched upon in 
 this chapter. The wide-reaching import of the 
 sacrament of Baptism we sometimes think is not 
 sufficiently understood in some quarters in our 
 time, and this may be due somewhat to the lack 
 of solemnity noticeable in its celebration. In 
 the early days the settlers on the Red River, in 
 their social life and their service of worship, 
 made much of it. Parents, except in cases of 
 sickness, always presented their children for 
 baptism in the church at the regular forenoon 
 
58 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 service. Of course, there was a certain amount 
 of preparation beforehand that partook some- 
 what of the frivolities of this world. The 
 " christening robe " (the word survived from a 
 former ecclesiastic connection) was a matter of 
 much concern, and any specially good one, hand- 
 embroidered, etc., was passed around from one 
 family to another in the succeeding generations. 
 It was well understood that the sacrament 
 meant much more than the giving of a name to 
 the child ; nevertheless the name was not by any 
 means without great importance. The practice 
 of naming the child " after " some one was much 
 in vogue, and led sometimes to dilemmas and 
 difficulties. For instance, when two or more 
 near relatives on either side were to be con- 
 sidered, the parents were in serious straits lest 
 they should give offence to the one or the other. 
 The difficulty had to be faced, and the danger 
 braved, or else the child had to be encumbered 
 with a string of names such as only foreign 
 princes can boast, and we have even known an 
 irate friend or relative mollified by the promise, 
 that on a similar occasion in the future he or 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 59 
 
 she should not be overlooked. Another of the 
 difficulties resulting from the now (fortunately) 
 almost obsolete custom of " naming " was not 
 only the duplicating but the quadruplicating of 
 names in the one neighborhood. The people got 
 over that part of the trouble by introducing the 
 use of " nick-names," derived either from 
 personal characteristics or by prefixing or affix- 
 ing some ancestral family name. This was well 
 enough for the people themselves who knew 
 locally " Black Sandy " and " Red Sandy," but 
 since people at a distance did not know these 
 fine shades of distinction, the primitive post- 
 office or the mail-carrier confronted " confusion 
 worse confounded" when a letter came addressed 
 to a name owned by half a dozen different 
 people in the parish. The difficulty was gener- 
 ally solved by some one of the name opening it, 
 and if it was not for him he passed it on till the 
 right party was reached. A " christening feast " 
 often followed the " bapteezment of the bairn " 
 (on a week-day of course), and to this the 
 numerous relatives and friends were asked. 
 If we pass over now to the sadder side of life, 
 
60 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 we shall find there also many customs peculiar 
 to those early times. Death then, as now, 
 claimed its victims (once or twice in great num- 
 bers, when in the dry years or the locust days 
 epidemics swept the colony), and many prac- 
 tices strange to later years gathered around the 
 dying and the dead. To begin with, there was, 
 without doubt, amongst the people of that time, 
 a certain dread of the supernatural, which gave 
 rise to what was well-nigh, in some cases, super- 
 stition. Certain signs and portents as to the 
 approach of death were not without direst sig- 
 nificance to many ; and the same state of mind 
 and feeling likely led to the custom of holding 
 wakes being persevered in down to a recent 
 date. There may have been extravagances in 
 these directions, but does not a vivid sense of 
 the supernatural imply, where the Bible is held, 
 a corresponding depth in religious life ? And is 
 not the effort to eliminate the supernatural, so 
 noticeable in our day, and to substitute for it the 
 blind working of impersonal force, accountable 
 for much of the irreverence and even the scepti- 
 cism prevalent amongst us ? Only let men feel, 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 61 
 
 like the Philippian jailer, that the Power whose 
 hand is shaking the foundations is the immanent 
 God, and the question, " What must we do to be 
 saved ? " will come up from hearts that, awak- 
 ened to a sense of sin, will not rest till they find 
 the Cross, and will follow the light and leading 
 of Christ into valorous deeds for God and for 
 humanity. If there was a suspicion of super- 
 stition in the religion of those early people, it 
 was begotten of a profound reverence for the 
 Almighty and a deep sense of the mysteries of 
 infinite things. Like the Puritan and the 
 Covenanter, they w T ere always listening for the 
 voice of God, and feared it with a noble dread 
 that made them fearless of anything finite and 
 earth-born. 
 
 When the last rites over the dead were to be 
 observed, invitations to the funeral were given 
 personally from house to house by some near 
 relative of the person deceased, and often people 
 felt much hurt if they did not receive a direct 
 invitation, without which they did not always 
 feel themselves at liberty to attend. On the 
 day of the funeral refreshments were served in 
 
62 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 the shape of bread, cake, cheese, and often 
 liquors. It was the custom of the time, and even 
 though in general there was not much consumed, 
 the absence of refreshments in the case of people 
 of means would have been severely commented 
 on, not only as a breach of hospitality, but even 
 as a mark of indifference to the event and to 
 the memory of the departed. We have known 
 of people giving directions as to the conduct of 
 their own funerals in other ways, but not in 
 regard to refreshments, except in one case. 
 An old man, a retired Hudson's Bay Company 
 officer, on his death-bed sent for my father to 
 entrust to him the management of his funeral 
 in this regard, and fearing lest the reputation 
 for lavish hospitality for which he had been 
 noted would suffer through the parsimony of 
 relatives, gave explicit instructions as to the 
 quantity of each article of food and drink to 
 be procured from the Hudson's Bay store at 
 the cost of the estate, and even urged my 
 father to exactness in seeing these orders 
 carried out, with suggestions of post-mortem 
 visitation in case of default. 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 63 
 
 The funeral service at the house was gener- 
 ally of considerable length. Several psalms 
 were sung in long and mournful cadence, very 
 impressive in its way ; passages of Scripture 
 for the comfort of the bereaved and the 
 admonition of all were read and expounded, 
 besides a sermon or address. One thing especi- 
 ally noticeable in these services was the absence 
 of undeserved eulogy, and while, in regard to 
 any who had been careless of religious things, 
 no limitations were ever put, expressly or by 
 implication, on the pardoning grace of God, 
 no countenance was given to the idea of 
 salvation for the persistently impenitent. The 
 religion this implies may have been of a stern 
 type, but it was the religion of people who 
 felt that God could not belie His attributes, 
 and must be just as well as loving. 
 
 Hearses were unknown in those days, and any 
 proposal to put the coffin into any conveyance 
 to be taken to the churchyard would have been 
 looked upon as a mark of disrepect to the 
 memory of the departed. Hence the coffin, 
 shrouded, was invariably borne on a bier by 
 
64 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 four men, who were relieved by other four 
 every few minutes. The order of procession 
 was as follows : The minister, accompanied by 
 one of the elders, led the way ; then the bearers 
 with the coffin, followed by the chief mourners, 
 after whom came all who attended, marching in 
 twos. Four w T ere always walking beside the 
 bearers, and at the word " Relief," spoken at 
 intervals by the elder in front, they took the 
 places of the bearers, who dropped out and fell 
 into the rear. Except in cases where the dis- 
 tance to the graveyard was great, none had to 
 carry more than once or twice. In order to 
 show how much these early settlers were op- 
 posed to having the dead borne to burial in any 
 other way than that described, it is remembered 
 that on the death of Donald Ross, a Hudson's 
 Bay factor, they refused to allow the question 
 of distance to interfere with their paying this 
 tribute of respect to his memory, and so carried 
 his body over eighteen miles, from Little Britain 
 to St. John's. At the slow pace they would 
 travel, this took a whole long day, and at noon 
 they halted where a cart with provisions met 
 
IN REAJL LIFE. 65 
 
 them. Here they had dinner, and again took 
 up the line of march. There may be a medium 
 in such things, but as a solemn and respectful 
 tribute to the memory of the dead, such a 
 funeral stands out strongly marked by com- 
 parison with the confused hurry of people who 
 seem to have no time even to bury the dead 
 with decency. 
 
THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL LIFE. 
 
 To write a chapter on the civil and commercial 
 life of the old settlers would be easy if it could 
 be made purely anecdotal ; but if we are to make 
 it more historical, the task is not so simple. For 
 it must be remembered that the science and art 
 of statecraft had made but little progress on the 
 banks of the Red River, and that laws and the 
 administration of them were primitive enough 
 in those early days. So far as civil government 
 was concerned, as soon as they had secured 
 dominance over all rivals, the Hudson's Bay 
 Company was the local representative and 
 embodiment of British law in the colony. The 
 local governor of that company, assisted by a 
 council of representative men from the English 
 and French speaking residents (the full title of 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 67 
 
 the conclave being "The Council of Assiniboia "), 
 enacted such laws as the circumstances de- 
 manded, and cases left unprovided for in these 
 local enactments were covered by the common 
 law as embodied in British jurisprudence. The 
 criminal law, of course, was that of England, 
 and in all respects as soon as sufficient ma- 
 chinery was available, the practice and proce- 
 dure would be that of the courts in the old land. 
 Most of the real property laws were of local 
 enactment to suit the peculiar circumstances. 
 A great deal of the legislation reads strangely 
 enough now, as it was specially applicable to 
 the surroundings of the time. For instance, 
 when horses by the hundred were feeding on 
 the prairie, it was quite a common thing for 
 any one to catch one and ride him or drive him 
 till he found his own, or till he reached his 
 destination, if not too far away. At first, on 
 the principle of mutual helpfulness, this prac- 
 tice was little resented by the owner unless 
 the horse was abused ; but when the practice 
 became too general, and as some not of the 
 colonist class began to have altogether too 
 
68 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 loose an idea about meum and tuum in the 
 horse line, stringent laws were enacted. For 
 a time it was a settled decision of the courts 
 that the owner of a horse, finding him in the 
 hands of another, could not only have such a 
 one proceeded against, but could seize and hold 
 the saddle or harness, etc., that was upon the 
 horse at the time. The administration of law, 
 when once a real system of administration was 
 established, rested with a judge or recorder, 
 assisted frequently by associated magistrates, 
 and sometimes these magistrates (appointed 
 from amongst the settlers) held court them- 
 selves. Serious offences were not frequent, 
 and those that did come before the magistrates 
 were disposed of in a summary way. In the 
 quarrels that sometimes broke out I have seen 
 my father, who was one of the magistrates, 
 holding court in the house, and when he con- 
 cluded that the parties were about equally to 
 blame, he compelled them to advance from the 
 sides of the room to the centre and shake 
 hands in the presence of the court, as a 
 declaration of their intention to live peaceably 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 69 
 
 from that time forward. I suppose that any 
 breach of the peace afterwards would have been 
 looked on as contempt of court and punished 
 accordingly ; hence the people who had a high 
 veneration for authority generally kept the 
 compact. In cases where threats had been 
 made one against the other, the general practice 
 was to cause the offender " to bind himself over 
 to keep the peace," on the severest pains and 
 penalties if he broke it. I remember the case 
 of a merchant in whose employ, while on a 
 freighting trip to St. Cloud, a young half-breed 
 died of fever. The father of the lad held that 
 the merchant was responsible for the death, and 
 after partaking freely of stimulant visited the 
 merchant's store with a hay-fork, determined 
 to put the slayer of his son to death. The 
 merchant felt decidedly uncomfortable at being 
 hunted around the country by a half-drunken 
 man with a weapon of that kind, and escaping 
 through the back door fled to my father's house 
 and invoked the protection of law against the 
 man-slayer. Not long afterwards the half-breed 
 arrived on horseback* with his hay-fork. He was 
 
70 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 given a bed in the kitchen, while the merchant 
 passed a perhaps somewhat anxious night in 
 another part of the house ; but in the morning, 
 when the half-breed was sober, court was held, 
 and after being shown how groundless his view 
 was, he was bound over to keep the peace under 
 severe penalties, and that settled it. Nowadays, 
 or then, if enforced strictly, the criminal law 
 would not deal so gently with a man who was 
 disposed to prowl after innocent parties with 
 murderous intent and a fork ; but a wholesome 
 dread of the court, if any breach of the law were 
 committed, made the plan effective. Cases did 
 sometimes occur in which the officers of the law 
 found themselves comparatively helpless against 
 crowds, but these were of rare occurrence and 
 were mostly the result of some combination for 
 popular rights, as, for instance, where it was 
 demanded that trade be free to all, instead of 
 being monopolized by companies. 
 
 When we turn to the commercial life of the 
 settlers an equally primitive state of things 
 meets us. For many years, of course, the 
 Hudson's Bay Company controlled the trade 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 71 
 
 of the region, they alone having the right to 
 traffic in furs, skins, etc., and they also supply- 
 ing the settlers with such articles as they 
 needed, in return for such produce as they 
 could raise. So far as their treatment of the 
 settlers in this regard is concerned — and we 
 may say in all other ways — nothing could have 
 been fairer or more liberal. Instead of taking 
 a great quantity of produce from one, and none 
 from another, the company apportioned out 
 what they needed amongst the settlers, and 
 thus gave all a fighting chance for life. The 
 prices paid for produce were good, as high as 
 eight shillings a bushel being sometimes paid for 
 wheat. In regard to the fur and other trade all 
 efforts to preserve a monopoly proved unavail- 
 ing, and after several hard-fought legal cases, 
 and after several popular demonstrations against 
 monopoly, the principle of trade free to all was 
 generally admitted and acted upon. Importa- 
 tions of goods were made chiefly from England 
 via the Hudson's Bay, thence by water to the 
 colony, and from the United States by means of 
 cart trains. . Goods from England were landed 
 
72 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 at York Factory, and were brought thence by 
 row-boats, manned by from eight to fourteen 
 men, who sat on benches and pulled with great 
 long oars, more like beams than modern sculls. 
 No one who knew anything about the extreme 
 toil of that weary life can fail in seeing the 
 marvellous beauty of Whittier's " Red River 
 Voyageur," and feeling how true it is to real 
 life. We can see the bent form, the bronzed 
 face and calloused hand of the boatman as we 
 read the lines : 
 
 44 Drearily blows the north- wind 
 From the land of ice and snow ; 
 The eyes that look are weary, 
 And heavy the hands that row." 
 
 We can see the tired face light up as he hears 
 the sound of the bell from the cathedral opposite 
 the fort to which he is coming : 
 
 44 The voyageur smiles as he listens 
 To the sound that grows apace, 
 Well he knows the vesper ringing 
 Of the bells of St. Boniface. 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 73 
 
 " The bells of the Roman mission, 
 That call from their turrets twain 
 To the boatman on the river, 
 To the hunter on the plain. " 
 
 And we can all, amidst the tug and strain of 
 life, join in the noble allegory at the close : 
 
 11 Even so in our mortal journey 
 The bitter north winds blow, 
 And thus upon life's Red River 
 Our hearts as oarsmen row, 
 
 " And when the Angel of Shadow 
 Rests his feet on wave and shore, 
 And our eyes grow dim with watching, 
 And our hearts faint at the oar, 
 
 " Happy is he who heareth 
 The signal of his release, 
 In the bells of the Holy City, 
 The chimes of eternal peace." 
 
 Not all the voyageurs could have understood 
 the lofty strain of the poet, though they all 
 knew the toil of the life and the joy of arriving 
 home. Burly and able-bodied fellows were these 
 oarsmen of the half-blood, capable of enduring 
 
74 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 almost any amount of labor and fatigue. Light- 
 hearted and playful as kittens were they also, 
 and at night, despite the labors of the day, 
 they often indulged in their wild dances by the 
 weird camp-fires along the shore to the music 
 of the ever-ready violin. Before they started 
 for York, and after they came back, these 
 boatmen had special festivities. My father 
 had a considerable number of boats on the 
 line, and amongst the scenes of childhood pho- 
 tographed on my mind I can see the huge camp- 
 fires on the river bank, and I can hear the wild 
 shouts of these semi-savage men as they cele- 
 brated their outgoing or their incoming. 
 
 The other outlet for the development of com- 
 mercial enterprise amongst these early settlers 
 was trade with the United States to the south. 
 Either to bring goods for themselves or for the 
 Hudson's Bay Company, or other merchants, the 
 settlers went every summer with trains of oxen 
 and carts to St. Paul or St. Cloud, Minnesota, 
 and at so much a hundred-weight freighted the 
 merchandise thence to Fort Garry. It was a 
 long and toilsome trip, and at times when the 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 75 
 
 warlike Sioux, red-handed from Minnesota 
 massacres, were hanging on their trail, it was 
 a dangerous one as well. At such times only 
 the fact of their being well armed and strong in 
 numbers, prevented the extinction of the freight- 
 ers at the hands of the Indians. Commerce of 
 the kind described called for more physical 
 endurance and skill in crossing swamps and 
 rivers than for the keen, aggressive education 
 now required, and hence many who had but 
 little learning in letters came to considerable 
 wealth and prominence as freighters. Many 
 of the half-blood were amongst the latter, and 
 out of their prominence as freighters, together 
 with their dearth of education, some amusing 
 incidents took place. On one occasion a number 
 of these freighters were staying (as the wealthier 
 of them did) at a first-class hotel in St. Paul, 
 and of course availed themselves of all the 
 advantages of the reading-room, etc. One of 
 them, quite a well-to do man, but unable to 
 read, was not to be outdone in the presence of 
 strangers, and following the example of others 
 picked up a newspaper, but unfortunately got 
 
76 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 it upside down. With the paper in this position 
 his eye caught the advertisement of some steam- 
 ship company, and of course got the cut of the 
 vessel inverted. Here was something he thought 
 he was quite safe in discussing, for he made sure 
 he could understand a picture, and so he held it 
 up and boldly announced to those around him 
 that the column contained the account of " a 
 dreadful shipwreck." The rest may be imag- 
 ined. Another, who kept a kind of refitting 
 emporium on the way, was accustomed, in the 
 absence of ability to read or write, to keep his 
 accounts in a book by rough pictures, drawing a 
 horse, or harness, or cart- axle, etc., as required 
 by the transaction, and also some distinctive 
 feature of the man to whom he sold them. On 
 one occasion he was closing accounts with a 
 settler after the season's work, and gave a cheese 
 amongst the things he had furnished to the 
 settler. The settler denied having received a 
 cheese, but the " merchant " produced his book 
 showing the drawing. The settler still denied, 
 but looking up some memoranda he had kept, 
 told the " merchant " that he had not received 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 77 
 
 a cheese, but had purchased a grindstone with 
 which he was not charged. The " merchant " 
 at once remembered the transaction, and coolly 
 remarked that he had intended the drawing for 
 a grindstone, but " had forgotten to put the hole 
 in it." The delightfully accommodating proce- 
 dure that could change a cheese intoa grindstone 
 by the addition of a pencil-mark is worthy of 
 a destructive Biblical critic who can make a 
 Hebrew letter mean anything his hypothesis 
 demands by changing its vowel point. 
 
 And thus in a primitive manner of civil and 
 commercial life did the early settlers live, near 
 the spot where the " bull's-eye " city of Canada 
 now stands, with all the equipment of civic 
 organization, and with such a trade as belongs 
 to a place midway along the greatest railway on 
 the round globe. 
 
78 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES. 
 
 From the days of John Knox and his parish 
 school, Scottish people have been noted for their 
 interest in education and their intense desire to 
 secure for themselves and their children the 
 priceless boon of mental training. The colony 
 on the Red River would naturally be unable for 
 some years, amid the struggle for existence, to 
 give much scope to this phase of their national 
 character, but from an early date they availed 
 themselves of the school established by the 
 Anglican Church at St. John's. It was not 
 until 1849 that the Scottish settlers had means 
 sufficient to organize a school district of their 
 own. The first teacher was John Inkster, 
 brother of the present sheriff at Winnipeg, and 
 the school was begun in the dwelling-house of 
 
IN REAL LIFEl 79 
 
 John Flett, one of the settlers. The school, of 
 course, was supported by voluntary contribu- 
 tions, varying according to the means of the 
 people. The amount paid for the teacher's 
 salary averaged about $150 a year, and the 
 caretaking of the school was done by the pupils, 
 who took turns at sweeping and lighting the 
 fires. Text-books were not numerous. After 
 the elementary reading books were mastered, 
 reading and spelling exercises from the Bible 
 were prescribed, together with the systematic 
 study of the Shorter Catechism. In the writing 
 exercise copy lines were set by the teacher in 
 home-made copy-books, and a care was bestowed 
 upon this part of the work which makes the 
 writing of men of the "old school" look like 
 " copperplate " beside much of our present day 
 scribbling. In arithmetic the one text-book 
 was in the hands of the teacher, who " set " the 
 questions for the pupils on slates (thick as a 
 board and without frames) or on the primitive 
 wooden blackboard, where the writing was done 
 with ungainly lumps of chalk. The children 
 sat on long wooden benches without backs, and 
 
80 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 the classes always stood for recitation of the 
 lesson. The practice of " going up" was fol- 
 lowed, and as it was a great honor to be "head " 
 and much disgrace to be " tail," solid work was 
 done. Spelling was especially a field of conflict, 
 and in the rivalry for first place the class must 
 have revolved before the teacher with the be- 
 wildering changeableness of a kaleidoscope. In 
 the matter of arithmetic, as we have said, the 
 teacher " set " the problem, or read it out to be 
 taken down, and the first pupil done had to show 
 the slate with the completed work. Then fol- 
 lowed the clattering of pencils like the sound of 
 runaway horses on a pavement, and we have 
 seen the face of the teacher in imminent danger 
 of disfigurement from the rush of frameless 
 slates to catch his eye. The matter of selecting 
 a teacher was sometimes done at a public meet- 
 ing, but generally by trustees chosen at such 
 meeting from amongst the settlers. Certificated 
 teachers were, of course, unheard of, and besides 
 oral examinations attended by the whole district, 
 the matter of the success or failure of a teacher 
 was decided by the inspection and report of the 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 81 
 
 trustees aforesaid. As these trustees were for 
 the most part " plain, blunt men," whose own 
 advantages had been limited and whose "dialect" 
 was more or less affected by Gaelic, Salteaux, 
 Cree and French influences, the lot of the 
 teacher was not always a happy one. When 
 Inkster was teaching in '49, the trustees came in 
 to inspect, and one of them gave to the leading 
 class in the school the word " pekilar " to spell. 
 It had never been heard of up to that time, and 
 so proved a " poser " for the whole class from 
 head to foot, whereupon the trustee grew some- 
 what indignant and threatened to dismiss the 
 teacher whose leading class could not spell 
 " pekilar." The teacher, however, asked to see 
 the word, and saved his official head by pointing 
 out that it was pronounced "peculiar," which 
 latter word was triumphantly spelled by the 
 class, who thus vindicated the scholarly attain- 
 ments of their teacher. 
 
 Shortly after the school was begun in '49, a 
 log building was erected on the Frog Plain (pro- 
 perty granted by Lord Selkirk for church and 
 school purposes), which continued to do duty till 
 
82 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 some fifteen years afterwards, when a new stone 
 building was erected under the supervision of 
 the Rev. James Nisbet. The old log building I 
 can remember with the shadowy vagueness of a 
 boy who was taken to church from infancy past 
 its door- way. I can see in a dim way its walls 
 of long logs plastered in the chinks and white- 
 washed, and overhead the thatched and mortar- 
 crowned roof. I have a dim recollection of 
 being within the precincts, and of seeing the 
 long benches down the sides of the room, with 
 the famous " cupboard" in which the meagre 
 school supplies were kept, as well as the won- 
 derful globe for the geography class. I have 
 also an idea that I recall (perhaps I only heard 
 of it) a meeting of the settlers called to discuss 
 the advisability of building a new school, and 
 how one of them, a powerful man, gave ocular 
 demonstration of the unsoundness of the old one 
 by driving his axe to the handle in one of its 
 best remaining logs. Not long after came the 
 opening of the new school, a religious exercise, 
 during which the children marched in twos from 
 the old building to the new, singing as they went 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 83 
 
 some psalm of degrees. The new building was 
 divided into two rooms, and it was in the " back 
 room " that Manitoba College took shape in 1871 
 under Dr. Bryce. Up to this era of the college 
 the honor roll of teachers — strong men who 
 battled with difficulties and from whose pupils 
 came many who have made their impress on the 
 history of the country — is as follows : John Ink- 
 ster, Alexander Matheson, Adam MacBeth, 
 Hector MacBeth, Alexander Ross, James Harper, 
 Alexander Poison and D. B. Whimster, some of 
 whom remain to the present time, but the most 
 of whom have fallen asleep. Verily " they rest 
 from their labors and their works do follow 
 them." During all these years many of the pupils 
 of these men went to eastern institutions of 
 higher learning and took high rank, while the 
 general result of their labors was such that the 
 intelligence and culture of the isolated colony 
 was a constant surprise to visitors from the 
 outside world. From the time of the Rev. Mr. 
 Black's coming in 1851 (with which we shall 
 deal in another chapter), he gathered out from 
 the school the most capable and ambitious of the 
 
84 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 boys, giving them instruction in classics, mathe- 
 matics and theology, and thus laid the founda- 
 tions of Manitoba College, which is simply the 
 outgrowth of that parish school and the efforts 
 of Dr. Black. On in the sixties the number of 
 young men who seemed anxious to go on to a 
 higher education than the common schools could 
 give them, became so large that the matter of a 
 college pressed itself more and more upon the 
 settlers. In 1869 Mr. D. B. Whimster, a gentle- 
 man of wide experience as a teacher in Ontario, 
 was sent for, and his arrival, marking a new era 
 in the history of the parish school, finally led 
 to the establishment of the Manitoba College 
 at Kildonan, though it was moved to Winnipeg 
 when that place began to assume the lead in the 
 West as its principal town. 
 
 Besides the school, there existed amongst the 
 settlers from an early date literary societies for 
 the discussion of all manner of subjects and for 
 social enjoyment. These societies were primi- 
 tive enough and not without their humorous 
 side. The old question of the comparative use- 
 fulness of the horse and the ox was the one on 
 
• IN REAL LIFE. 85 
 
 which the younger members generally cut their 
 debating teeth. We remember, too, how one of 
 them in a discussion as to the comparative 
 destructiveness of fire and water, enthusiasti- 
 cally asserted the injurious superiority of the 
 latter, and clinched his argument by instancing 
 how the flood on the Red River had carried 
 their barn down to Lake Winnipeg and that the 
 fire had never touched it ! Recitations in prose 
 and poetry were much in vogue, and special 
 meetings were held sometimes in the schools 
 and sometimes in private houses for their ren- 
 dition. The old " stand-bys " were well to the 
 fore, and as books were scarce some had to 
 content themselves with one selection, which 
 they gave again and again. The staginess and 
 the mannerisms of the imitative elocutionist 
 were all wanting, but a rugged and forceful 
 eloquence was often developed in these minia- 
 ture lyceums. Not long ago there appeared 
 before the Presbytery of Winnipeg six members 
 of the Kildonan congregation in the matter of a 
 call to their minister. All these had been 
 trained in those primitive schools and homely 
 
86 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 platforms, with whatever additional they could 
 learn by further observation and experience. 
 As they presented their views in a simple, 
 manly and straightforward way there was dis- 
 tinctly noticeable a rich flavoring of scriptural 
 phrases, a splendid conception of the oneness of 
 the Church, composed though it be of many 
 congregations, a fine ideal of duty, a loyalty to 
 the minister, which caused you to feel that they 
 were sure that he would obey the high dictates 
 of his own conscience as to his course — and all 
 this with a natural eloquence most pleasing to 
 hear. Veterans in the court said afterwards 
 that they had never heard such power and 
 ability evidenced in men of their class — truly a 
 noble tribute to their native industry, to their 
 indomitable perseverance, as well as to those 
 who had been their teachers in the Church and 
 school of the early days. 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 87 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
 
 When we write a separate chapter on the 
 religious life of the early settlers, we would not 
 imply that these old people severed the sacred 
 from the secular, for never has there been in our 
 land a more conspicuous consecration of the 
 whole sweep of life than in their case. One of 
 the strongest points in their theology was their 
 clear conception of the immanence and sov- 
 ereignty of God ; hence they never considered 
 themselves beyond His presence or outside His 
 control. When we write a chapter on their 
 religious life, we simply desire to indicate the 
 manner and custom of their religious services as 
 well as to sketch in some degree the story of 
 how they kept the faith during the long years 
 of their isolation. It is quite clear that their 
 
88 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 * 
 
 training in Scotland had been of such a kind as 
 to lead them to feel that the exercises of 
 religion must form an integral part of life in 
 the new land, for they made special stipulations 
 before they sailed for a minister of their own 
 Church, and they arranged that an elder who 
 accompanied them should have authority to 
 baptize and to marry. From that time on till the 
 day on which John Black, their first minister, 
 was in their midst, nearly forty years after- 
 wards, they never ceased to importune the 
 authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, on the sub- 
 ject of their own Presbyterian creed, and in their 
 allegiance to that faith they never once failed 
 or faltered. We are not to infer from the men- 
 tion of this long period without a minister of 
 their own, that they were without settled 
 services during all that time. It goes without 
 saying that with such a people the sacred fire of 
 worship would be kept burning on family altars, 
 and that their cottage prayer-meetings would 
 be held ; but in addition, the Anglican Church 
 (partly through the enterprise of their Mis- 
 sionary Society, and partly because favored by 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 89 
 
 certain of the Hudson's Bay authorities) had a 
 minister upon the ground as early as 1820, and 
 of the services of this Church the Scotch settlers 
 availed themselves. But while doing so these 
 settlers never absolutely gave their adherence to 
 that Church, nor accepted the situation as a 
 fulfilment of the promise made them as to 
 church privileges. All honor, however, ought to 
 be given to the Church of England for the 
 manner in which they accommodated their form 
 of service to meet the known opinions of the 
 colonists on such matters. In their regular 
 worship they omitted largely the use of the 
 Liturgy and Prayer-book, and the psalms were 
 sung in the metre and tune to which the settlers 
 had been accustomed. It has been said by some 
 that the Anglican Church expected by this 
 course ultimately to win these people over to 
 their Church, and thus become the sole Protes- 
 tant organization in the country, but we could 
 have no sympathy with that view, for several 
 reasons. To begin with, it would be clear to 
 any one acquainted with the nationality and 
 character of the colonists that any such course, 
 
90 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 instead of winning them over, would utterly 
 estrange their sympathies. Moreover, the early 
 pastors of the Church of England, meeting the 
 older people in daily converse, would feel they 
 were immovable as rock in the matter of their 
 creed, and that ere the younger generation grew 
 up there would certainly be a minister of their 
 own faith amongst them. Besides all this, the 
 uniformly kind and grateful manner in which 
 the old settlers always spoke of the Anglican 
 clergy leads us to feel that those early pastors 
 were godly men who sought unselfishly to guide 
 and comfort a shepherdless flock in the way of 
 the Cross of Christ. The settlers were not apt 
 to forget their own creed, because they were 
 diligent students of its standard theology. The 
 libraries in the old houses, circulating libraries 
 truly, were not large but weighty. Besides the 
 Bible, the Catechism and Confession of Faith, 
 there were a few leading books of the strongest 
 Puritan flavor, and these were pored over and 
 afterwards discussed with the ease that many 
 people seem now able to bring to bear only on 
 current gossip. People who thus drank from 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 91 
 
 the fountain-head gained a strength which 
 enabled them to conquer the difficulties of their 
 wilderness life and hold steadfastly the tenets of 
 their own Church with its simple form of 
 worship. Many an incident might be recorded 
 to show the depth and reality of their religious 
 life, and we relate one in the face of present day 
 views of Sabbath observance. A small party of 
 them who had left their families with scanty 
 supply of food, and had gone out on a winter 
 buffalo hunt, were camping one Saturday night 
 along the Pembina Mountains. They had their 
 poor meal of what they brought with them, and 
 gave all they could to their faithful train dogs. 
 Then before retiring to rest under the lee of 
 their toboggans, with the dogs crouched around 
 them in the snow, they held a prayer-meeting to 
 ask Him for food who fed Israel with manna. 
 When they awoke three buffaloes were in the 
 valley below, but it was not until after another 
 prayer-meeting for guidance as to their course 
 on the Sabbath-day that, in view of the necessity 
 and the evident providence, one of their number 
 (an elder in the Church) was appointed by the 
 
92 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 rest to procure for the party a present food 
 supply. He approached the buffaloes without 
 difficulty, shot one, and though the others 
 remained for a time, as they sometimes will in 
 such a case, he did not shoot again, holding that 
 he was only justified in taking what was 
 actually necessary on the Lord's Day. Some 
 people would describe such conduct as extreme, 
 but that God approves of action true to con- 
 science as the needle to the pole, is evidenced 
 by the signal way in which He was with them 
 through all their trials, even unto a peaceful 
 and prosperous old age. 
 
 We have said that the settlers never ceased 
 to importune the authorities, civil and ecclesias- 
 tical, for a minister of their own faith; and any 
 one who studies the history of the time will see 
 that they sent petition after petition to the 
 Church at home (some of them never received), 
 showered them upon the Hudson's Bay Com- 
 pany, and incessantly bombarded every promi- 
 nent officer of that corporation who visited the 
 settlement with reminders of the promise made 
 them. At last the Church in Scotland referred 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 93 
 
 the matter to the Rev. Dr. Burns, pastor of 
 Knox Church in Toronto; and Mr. Ballenden, 
 then the local governor of the Hudson's Bay 
 Company, urged the matter in the same quarter 
 about the same time, with the result that Dr. 
 Burns secured the appointment of John Black, 
 a graduate of Knox College, then working as a 
 missionary in Lower Canada. After some hesi- 
 tation as to his duty in the matter, Mr. Black 
 finally accepted the appointment, and after a 
 long and arduous journey, via St. Paul, Minne- 
 sota, reached Red River in the autumn of 1851, 
 and on his arrival three hundred of the Scotch 
 settlers severed their nominal connection with 
 the Church of England and rallied around the 
 young missionary. Physically, mentally and 
 spiritually, Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Black was the 
 man for the place. No other than a man of 
 great physical endurance could have stood the 
 strain of frontier work as he did for thirty 
 years, and judging from what he was, as I 
 remember him, his compact and strenuous frame 
 gave every indication of his physical strength. 
 Many years after his coming, and when his 
 
94 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 dark locks were plentifully whitened with the 
 snows that never melt, we used to supply him 
 at times with hay for winter use (he always 
 kept a few horses and cows), and when we (I 
 was little more than a child helping my brother, 
 or professing to do so) went to deliver the hay, 
 Dr. Black invariably came out from his study 
 and took a hand in unloading the carts to the 
 stack. My brother always gave him the strong- 
 est fork, for he would snap the handle of an 
 ordinary one ; and it was my delight to see how 
 the minister would bend the fork-handle, and 
 when he had " landed " an exceptionally heavy 
 load, to hear him say that it was a " noble fork," 
 and that the handle was "good stuff." 
 
 From the beginning of his ministry he was a 
 man of exceptional mental vigor and of intense 
 spiritual power. With all this he had a vivid 
 imagination and the free use of language, so 
 that his preaching was full of the fire and 
 eloquence so characteristic of the followers of 
 Knox. Like Knox, too, he would sometimes 
 well-nigh " ding the pulpit into Mads," for his 
 strong hand could well emphasize upon the 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 95 
 
 boards of the high desk the vigorous language of 
 his discourse. His voice was clear, strong and 
 full of resonant force, while his accent, once 
 understood, added a rich flavor to every word. 
 As to the subject-matter of his preaching, my 
 whole recollection of it is that above all things 
 else the doctrine of the Blood was made promi- 
 nent, and that his constant aim was to turn 
 sinners from the error of their way, and build 
 up Christians in the most holy faith. There 
 was no glossing over of sin, no endeavor to 
 blacken into harmless embers the thunder-bolts 
 of God's wrath against iniquity, and no other 
 hope of salvation held out but that by way of 
 the vicarious Cross of Christ. Boy as I was, and 
 too little disposed to appreciate their power, I 
 remember especially his communion services, 
 and to-day I can see his swaying figure and 
 hear the echoing question, " Who can pay that 
 debt ? " as in one of them he elaborated the idea 
 of humanity's debt under the law, and the 
 coming of the rescuing Christ to provide for us 
 a ransom. No one could grow up under that 
 ministry without a creed, unless he threw away 
 
96 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 his opportunity and trampled underfoot privi- 
 leges of an exceeding greatness; and however 
 little I may have evidenced benefit received 
 from it at the time, he stood before me as a man 
 whose righteousness I honored, whose memory 
 I revere, and whose influence upon his own and 
 these succeeding days beside the western sun no 
 man with a merely ethical gospel could ever 
 have exerted. 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 97 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIFE— Continued. 
 
 From what we have already said as to the 
 life and ministry of John Black, those who know 
 the type of character such a ministry is calcu- 
 lated to produce in the people, will be able to 
 imagine this chapter and much more than it can 
 contain, even should they not read it at all. But 
 for many who may not have studied in the 
 religious sphere the history of cause and effect, 
 let it be written for the honor of the pastor and 
 the people and for the glory of God. When 
 the missionary came, as we have said, the 
 colonists rallied around him loyally, and once 
 the flood of the following year had gone down 
 and possibilities of permanence became clearer, 
 they set about the work of building the stone 
 church that still stands on the edge of the prairie, 
 
98 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 unhurt and impregnable against the warring of 
 the elements. In the building of that church 
 one of the most noticeable things was the absence 
 of all adventitious schemes for providing means, 
 for the people, though poor in money, had a 
 mind to work and opened the church free of 
 debt. Building in those days was no easy or 
 inexpensive task. The stones had to be brought 
 across the prairie some fifteen miles, and were 
 hauled on single sleds with oxen, almost one 
 stone at a time, while all the lumber for 
 floors, roof, pews, etc., had to be sawn by hand 
 in the old-fashioned "saw-pit," in which one 
 man above and another below pursued through 
 the livelong day their tedious and laborious task. 
 Yet in due time the church was finished, with 
 walls between two and three feet thick of stone 
 " rough-casted " on the outside ; long pews were 
 made, with a few square ones near the pulpit, 
 the pulpit and precentor's desk were set on high, 
 a gallery was constructed, and the whole work 
 was of such a thorough if rugged kind that it 
 stands unimpaired to this day, except where some 
 alterations have been made. A bell was set 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 99 
 
 in the high steeple, and there for all these years 
 it has rung out its Sabbath summons across the 
 plain, and has tolled the requiem over the young 
 and old who lie buried around the church in the 
 " city of the dead/' Knowing something of the 
 rugged strength and ability of many whose 
 dust lies there, and who, had their environment 
 been different, might have made their influence 
 felt beyond their own circle, I never stand within 
 the precincts of that God's acre without think- 
 ing on those lines in Gray's " Elegy": 
 
 " Some village Hampden who with dauntless breast 
 The little tyrant of his fields withstood, 
 Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, 
 Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood." 
 
 To the people whose bodies were buried there 
 from the homes around, religion was a real and a 
 vital thing. Thoroughly schooled in the stand- 
 ards of their Church, the Bible above all was 
 their Book, and, undisturbed by any critical 
 theories, they believed it as the Word of God 
 from the sublime " In the beginning " clear 
 through to the last triumphal acclaim of the 
 
100 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 Apocalypse. Hence the Book entered into the 
 very fibre of their being, and gave them an 
 unbending strength in life and infinite comfort 
 down in the death -shade at the close. In the 
 matter of their Church and their minister, though 
 differences of opinion would sometimes arise, 
 loyalty and duty had been their ruling ideas, 
 from church attendance right on to such material 
 support as they were able to give. The church 
 services and the prayer-meetings were religiously 
 attended, and in all kinds of weather and at all 
 seasons the minister was sure of a goodly num- 
 ber whenever the time of service came. To the 
 cottage prayer-meetings, held in the farm-houses 
 on the winter nights by the light of tallow dips, 
 we have seen men come long distances in weather 
 severe enough to make that mode of travel very 
 unpleasant. In their midst John Black stood 
 for all that was true and good, and though the 
 younger people may have felt sometimes that 
 his religion was of a stern type, they knew that 
 he was sternest of all with himself, and hence he 
 was regarded by all the people of the district 
 with a love and reverence almost unbounded. 
 
IN REAL LIFE.: \ \\fy 
 
 As an example of his rigid sense of duty, we 
 recall once a literary meeting in which some 
 dialogue was being rendered, and in the course 
 of which some apostrophe to the gods occurred ; 
 but when it was to be repeated Dr. Black said, 
 " Please omit those profane expressions " — an 
 incident somewhat disconcerting to the reciters, 
 but characteristic of a man who felt that homage 
 should be paid to one only, the living and true 
 God. As an illustration of the way in which he 
 was reverenced by all, it is worth while to relate 
 another incident, told by one who was present at 
 the time. A social tea-meeting was in progress 
 in one portion of the settlement, called Little 
 Britain, when a burly half-breed, a man of 
 immense physical strength and, withal, a noted 
 bully, entered in a mischievous state of intoxi- 
 cation, and began by word and act to make things 
 very unsafe for those with whom he came in 
 contact. He was one of those men who become 
 excited almost to madness by liquor, and so all 
 attempts to quiet him only made matters worse, 
 and things were becoming serious when some 
 one thought of Dr. Black being next door. He 
 
102 the Selkirk settlers 
 
 was at once sent for, and coming up to the bully 
 put his hand upon his shoulder and called him 
 by name. The man turned fiercely around, 
 but when he saw the venerable face of the min- 
 ister of Kildonan he sank down with the most 
 profuse promises that he would be quiet, and he 
 kept his word. Verily it must have reminded 
 those present of the fierce demoniac calmed out 
 of his violence at the touch and word of the 
 Christ. 
 
 In their religious life the Kildonan people 
 were not demonstrative, but the opposite. Reti- 
 cence is characteristic of the Scottish nature in 
 any case, and the " bodily exercise " and religious 
 athletics of some present day " evangelistic " 
 methods they did not profess to understand. 
 We remember the first " revival " service held in 
 the old church. Services were being held in the 
 neighboring town of Winnipeg, and when request 
 was made by those in charge to come to Kil- 
 donan, Dr. Black, though not, perhaps, much 
 acquainted with the methods to be followed, 
 consented, so as not to stand in the way of pos- 
 sible good to the young people. The regular 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 103 
 
 service in the church was always conducted with 
 the utmost decorum. At the opening hour the 
 minister, in gown and bands, came slowly up to 
 the pulpit, but I can see the horror and amaze- 
 ment of the people as the " evangelist " came up 
 the aisle pulling off a fur coat and talking 
 volubly about the weather, etc., as he went. At 
 one of the meetings some man from Winnipeg, 
 after a few words, called upon all who were 
 Christians to stand up. No one arose, and when 
 a second and a third appeal were in vain, the 
 man turned to the old minister and said some- 
 thing implying that it was strange he had no 
 Christians there after all those years. An old 
 elder present could stand a good deal, but he 
 could not stand anything like a slur on Dr. 
 Black, and so he arose and addressed the speaker 
 in words to this effect : " There are Christians 
 here, but we do not show our religion in that 
 way. We have not been brought up to it, and 
 what is more we do not want it. If you have a 
 good word of truth for us we will be glad to 
 hear it, but if you have nothing better to say 
 than asking us to stand up you had better sit 
 
104 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 down." It is scarcely necessary to say that the 
 method was not followed at subsequent meetings. 
 The elder referred to in this incident is, in many 
 respects, a type of the character produced under 
 Dr. Black's ministry. He stood by his minister 
 equally in all the circle of his work. He faith- 
 fully seconded the minister's efforts in pastoral 
 visitation, and to this day is one of the first to 
 be found at any sick-bed of which he hears. 
 Somewhat brusque in manner and somewhat 
 unpolished in address, people need to know him 
 to appreciate him, but where he is best known 
 he is most loved. At prayer-meetings we have 
 known him differ from a later minister, a young 
 man whose staunch friend he was, on the inter- 
 pretation of a parable (and we are bound to say 
 the elder was right on the point in our view), 
 but no minister who appreciated true worth 
 would resent the opinion of a loving and devoted 
 helper to whom the Bible was the best beloved 
 and the best known of all books. I remember 
 once, in a neighbor's house, assisting a son to 
 place the body of his father in a coffin which 
 this elder had made and brought to the house. 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 105 
 
 I recall the apparently indifferent manner in 
 which the elder acted and spoke as he was direct- 
 ing us, but the members of that family knew 
 well what a bleeding heart he was hiding under 
 his brusqueness, and how, ere he left their humble 
 dwelling, he would lead them in prayer so that 
 the heavens would seem to open above them in 
 their sorrow. 
 
106 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MISSIONARY OUTPOSTS. 
 
 The Indian Mission at Prince Albert, on the 
 Saskatchewan (where there are now several 
 thriving churches) was an overflow from the 
 religious and educational life of Kildonan. In 
 1861 the Rev. James Nisbet came from Oak- 
 ville, Ontario, to help Dr. Black in the growing- 
 work of the West, and after five years in and 
 about the colony, where he is still affection- 
 ately remembered, went 500 miles north-west- 
 ward and founded a mission, to which he gave 
 the name of the Prince Consort. With that 
 mission the old home of the writer was closely 
 connected, for to it there went at that time two 
 sisters and a brother : Mary, the wife of Mr. 
 Nisbet, the missionary; Christina, the wife of 
 John McKay, then the interpreter; and Adam, 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 107 
 
 who was to teach the school, together with other 
 relatives and connections. When the whites had 
 settled around Prince Albert, John McKay went 
 farther afield as an Indian missionary, and a 
 few personal recollections of James Nisbet and 
 John McKay may fittingly close the present 
 volume. 
 
 My earliest recollection of Mr. Nisbet is on 
 the day of my mother's funeral, which took 
 place on my fifth birthday, but some scenes 
 of which are indelibly photographed on my 
 memory. I can see yet the old house crowded, 
 and then the long procession that carried out 
 with it the dust of her whose death made a 
 blank in my life, whose greatness I realized, 
 not then, but more and more as the years have 
 flown. My father, who was heart-broken, was 
 not able to go to the churchyard, but as the 
 funeral procession passed out he went down a 
 little way on the field to have a last look at 
 the coffin borne away on the shrouded bier. I 
 can see him returning bent and in tears. With 
 him was Mr. Nisbet, and as they walked Mr. 
 Nisbet took the Scotch plaid he himself wore 
 
108 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 (for it was early winter) and placed it around 
 the stooping shoulders of my father. Even 
 then it impressed itself on my mind as a 
 thoughtful, kind act, but as I grew in years 
 and knew Mr. Nisbet more intimately, I feel that 
 it was a pre-eminently spontaneous deed, and 
 thoroughly characteristic of one who to the end 
 of his days was a " son of consolation." I next 
 remember him at the carpenter's bench, engaged 
 in making the desks for the present Kildonan 
 school, one day on which I was sent for him 
 from his home, failing an elder messenger. I 
 can see him, hatless and coatless, with the beads 
 of perspiration on his brow, doing his own work 
 and directing the other workmen how to follow 
 the plans he had prepared. Next I can remem- 
 ber vaguely (for all these intermittent photo- 
 graphs are not equally distinct) the preparation 
 for the outgoing to the Indian mission, and on 
 the day of the departure I recall seeing my 
 sister, Mrs. Nisbet, in the old home, giving a 
 glass of milk to their eldest born, little more 
 than an infant, with whom they were setting 
 out on a wagon and cart journey they knew 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 109 
 
 not whither. There, in that Indian mission, Mr. 
 Nisbet toiled, erecting buildings with his own 
 hands, teaching and preaching as he had oppor- 
 tunity, struggling amidst the lights and shadows 
 of a difficult life, till he and his wife returned 
 to my father's house utterly broken down by 
 the strain of their labors, and died there only 
 a few days apart. During the years at Prince 
 Albert they made several trips home, and one 
 winter was spent in Oakville, where his sisters 
 lived, and where he left two of his children at 
 school ; but the journeys across the great plains 
 were more wearing almost than the work at the 
 mission. It would appear from the experience 
 of Mr. Nisbet that the best people in the world 
 are liable to be misunderstood — the servant is 
 not greater than his Lord— for even when his life 
 was being slowly worn away by his missionary 
 toil, certain people, in the press and elsewhere, 
 made attacks on his method of work at the 
 mission. I remember well how heavily this lay 
 upon him, and with what warmth of conscious 
 innocence he publicly and privately defended 
 his course and the action of those associated 
 
110 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS ' 
 
 with him. Next I recall, his coming back to 
 my father's house for the last time, both he and 
 his wife worn out and run down as those who 
 had worked beyond their strength and time. 
 They had both been ill before they left Prince 
 Albert, and the long trip of 500 miles across the 
 prairie in the jolting canvas- covered wagons 
 was a trying one even to people who were 
 strong. When they arrived, Mr. Nisbet, though 
 weaker than any one knew, was riding slowly in 
 front on horseback, while his wife was in the 
 wagon just behind. He rode up to the door and 
 dismounted, and I remember well how he tried 
 to engage my father's attention, and stood 
 between him and' the wagon when my brother 
 went and carried from it the frail body of my 
 sister, who was scarcely able to put her arms 
 about his neck as he lifted her from that poor 
 bed and carried her into the old home to die. 
 For her the end was not long delayed, and after 
 she had lost consciousness I remember how 
 calmly, to outward appearance, her husband 
 waited for the end, counting her feeble pulse- 
 beats with his watch in hand, while all the 
 
IN REAL LIFE. Ill 
 
 while the sword of a great sorrow was slowly 
 piercing through his heart. When all was over 
 the husband rose, and as he and my father 
 stood together I remember how Mr. Nisbet said, 
 " I hope you all feel that I acted for the best 
 when I brought Mary back home," and the 
 answer of my father, whose heart had yearned 
 to see her ere he died, need not be recorded. 
 Long years before he, too, had stood beside a 
 Mary (that was my mother's name), and had 
 watched the passing of her spirit into the 
 unseen, where his gaze was fixed with a 
 growing home-sickness as the shadows were 
 lengthening around him and the ties of earth 
 were being broken one by one. Not many 
 days after that Mr. Nisbet gave way before the 
 brief illness that carried his frail life out also. 
 His room was in one end of the big farm-house, 
 and when he fell ill at night no one knew of it 
 till the daybreak, for all had thought that he 
 but needed rest to restore him to full strength. 
 In the morning, as he came out to the dining- 
 room, I recall how he told of suffering during 
 the night, and how he, who always looked for 
 
112 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 opportunities to enforce the teaching of the 
 Word, said, "I can understand now what the 
 Psalmist meant when he said, l My soul waiteth 
 for the Lord more than they that watch for the 
 morning, yea, more than they that watch for 
 the morning.' " A few days later he died of a 
 diphtheritic trouble, which his weakened system 
 could not resist, and in the newly-covered grave 
 of his wife his dust was laid to rest. Over 
 them the General Assembly of 1887 erected a 
 granite column, such as their relatives, poor in 
 worldly goods, had never hoped to see, but in 
 the immeasurable influence they exerted on 
 many whose lives have been consecrated to the 
 service of God, in the noble record of their self- 
 denying labors, and in the enduring work at 
 Prince Albert, we see their grandest and divinest 
 monument. 
 
 Beside Mr. Nisbet, as we look back along the 
 line of our church history in the West, we see 
 the figure of the late Rev. John McKay, at one 
 time the interpreter and general provider at 
 Prince Albert, and latterly the missionary on 
 the Mistawasis Reserve, near Fort Carleton. 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 113 
 
 From my earliest childhood I remember his 
 physical appearance and the characteristics 
 which made him so successful in the Indian 
 work. A powerfully-built man, with great 
 breadth of shoulder and immense depth of 
 chest, muscular and athletic, dark-skinned and 
 raven-haired, with aquiline nose and piercing 
 black eyes — his whole physical make-up com- 
 mended him to the Indians, who adore physical 
 strength and prowess. Moreover, he was of 
 the half-blood — his father Scotch, his mother a 
 pure Cree — and united in himself the courage 
 and energy of the white with the skill and 
 endurance of the Indian. This made him one 
 of the class whose presence in this country has 
 been invaluable as, standing midway between 
 the white and the red man, they constituted a 
 medium of communication and a guarantee of 
 good faith that led to peaceful solutions of the 
 questions that arose between them. In the case 
 of John McKay himself, every one who is famil- 
 iar with the history of this country knows how 
 he assisted the late Governor Morris in arranging 
 the Indian treaties in the West, and in securing 
 
114 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 a peace and good-will that would have been 
 impossible without his help and the help of 
 men of his class. Down to the time of death 
 he retained an unrivalled influence over the 
 Indians, as witnessed by the fact that in 1885, 
 though the rebellion broke out at Duck Lake, 
 not far from the Reserve, the old chief Mista- 
 wasis not only resisted the incitement of Kiel's 
 runners and remained loyal, but with a picked 
 band of men escorted the missionary's family to 
 Prince Albert, and there offered his services to 
 the Government. When John McKay first went 
 to Prince Albert his main duty was to supply 
 the mission with the products of the chase, and 
 since he had been used to the prairie from his 
 childhood, he found this a congenial task. He 
 was an experienced buffalo hunter and a dead 
 shot, though I often heard him express his 
 abhorrence of the way in which the buffalo 
 were slaughtered for the love of gain by hunters, 
 who simply took the tongue and hide of the 
 slain animal. All these qualities, with his in- 
 timate acquaintance with the language and 
 customs of the Indians, gave him unbounded 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 115 
 
 control over them in ways which proved of 
 great service in all lines of his work. The 
 possession of courage is always a sure passport 
 to the respect of the Indians, and that John 
 McKay had that courage they were taught in 
 a great many ways. In the earlier days of 
 Prince Albert, roving bands of strange Indians 
 used frequently to come to the mission and 
 make heavy and peremptory demands for food 
 on the meagre supply, with threats of extermina- 
 tion if they were not satisfied. One springy 
 when preparations were on hand for the sowing 
 season, and the oxen were tied in the hay-yard, 
 a large crowd of Indians from a distance came 
 and demanded an ox for a feast. One young 
 animal was given them, but after a while they 
 came back, and indicating a certain ox, the 
 choicest and biggest of all, and hence the most 
 prized for the spring work, they requested 
 that he be given them. The demand was re- 
 fused — for to give way there meant, to any one 
 who knows the Indian, a giving way all around 
 — and explanation made that this ox could not 
 be spared. But the Indians " uncoated " their 
 
116 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 guns, strung their bows, and with violent 
 demonstrations (such as they calculate will 
 frighten people), said they were going to take 
 the ox in any case. McKay reasoned with 
 them as long as he could, but in vain, and 
 when further parley was useless, he stepped 
 within his door and returned rifle in hand. 
 Indicating a certain post between the Indians 
 and the coveted ox, he spoke to them as follows : 
 " I have your blood in my veins and you are my 
 brothers ; but I have also the blood of the white, 
 and therefore I am more prudent than you are. 
 We must have food here for our families, and 
 cannot give away all our animals, or we cannot 
 sow our fields. We have always done, and will 
 always do our best for you; but now, I have 
 drawn a line at that post ; you know my rifle 
 never misses, and I tell you that the first man 
 who crosses that line will drop." None of them 
 made the attempt, and from that time onward 
 McKay had more influence over them than ever 
 before. 
 
 Some years afterwards, w T hen Prince Albert 
 became largely a white settlement, he moved 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 117 
 
 out to the Mistawasis Reserve (for his heart 
 was in the Indian work), was ordained by- 
 permission of the Assembly a minister of the 
 Gospel, and ministered there till his death with 
 great success. He was a natural-born orator, 
 and had all the dramatic eloquence of the Indian 
 with the fire and intenseness of the Celt. The 
 old chief Mistawasis was his sworn friend, and 
 the work done on the reserve has on it the 
 stamp of enduring reality. An incident I heard 
 him relate on his last visit to Kildonan has 
 always seemed to me a striking instance of 
 the way in which the psalmody and hymnology 
 of the Church attests its oneness. After the 
 1885 rebellion a number of the loyal chiefs, 
 amongst them Mistawasis and his old friend 
 Star Blanket, were taken to the East, and were 
 greatly impressed with the evidences of power 
 and progress they saw in the haunts of the 
 white man. On his return, Mistawasis met 
 John McKay at QuAppelle, and they spent the 
 night together. Mainly, their talk was on re- 
 ligious work, and Mistawasis told the missionary 
 how they had attended some great meeting and 
 
118 THE SELKIRK SETTLERS 
 
 afterwards were invited to a reception in the 
 home of one of the Christian workers. The 
 chief said there were many ladies and gentle- 
 men present who sang and played on " singing 
 machines " (pianos), and that finally they asked 
 him and Star Blanket to sing. "I thought," 
 said Mistawasis, " I should have sunk into the 
 ground for bashfulness, but I said to Star 
 Blanket that we must sing after all their kind- 
 ness to us. I told him we would sing the church 
 song the missionary taught us, and so we began, 
 but what do you think ? I had scarcely begun 
 when one of the ladies ran to the singing 
 machine and began to play, and all the people 
 joined in the same song, but I was leading the 
 whole band. Now what puzzles me is how these 
 people there knew the same church song we 
 sing away out on the prairie." The expla- 
 nation the missionary gave, and which greatly 
 delighted the chief, was that God s children are 
 everywhere a singing people, because their 
 hearts are glad, and that the song was the 100th 
 psalm which they had learned in Cree to the 
 
IN REAL LIFE. 119 
 
 old tune, and which the people in the East had 
 learned in English to the same. 
 
 John McKay died a few years since as the 
 result of exposure to the great hardships of his 
 life on the plains, but his influence for good 
 lives on amongst the dusky tribes of the 
 Saskatchewan. 
 
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