i.:>lJ,I^li:|N|-C^ ^$:^!EiieiG ' dcr^mir BERKELEY LIBRARY UH'Vr?5ITY OF CALIf-CRNIA Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/comingcanadaOOgoodrich IbM II M K \\(.i: Ctie lOotlD Co=Dap ^etieg THE COMING CANADA BY JOSEPH KING GOODRICH Sometime Professor in the Imperial Government College, Kyoto WITH 40 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & CO. 1913 COPYRIGHT, I913 BY THE PLIMPTON PRESS PUBLISHED, OCTOBER, IQIS Copyright in England AH rights reserved THE'PLIMPTON«PRHSS NORWQOD'MASS'U'S'A PREFACE I WISH to express my thanks to the heads and sub- ordinates of the various departments and bureaus of the Dominion Government, at Ottawa, for the assist- ance rendered in procuring afresh much of the material used in preparing this book. I add my thanks to many officials of provinces and cities who displayed kindly interest in my effort and also gave assistance. The number of individuals who helped me in many ways is too great for me to name all of them; and if I mention Arthur George Doughty, Esq., C.M.G., LL.D., Deputy Minister and Dominion Archivist, and Martin J. Griffin, Esq., C.M.G., LL.D., Parliamentary Librarian, it must not be assumed that the others are not gratefully remem- bered. Let me say "Thank you" to the Canadian people. The officials of the great railway systems have been most liberal in supplying the photographs which have been reproduced as illustrations, and most generous in allowing me to make such use of the pictures. In the list of illustrations letters indicate from whence the origi- nal photographs came. Here I say that D.I. indicate those reproduced by permission of F. F. C. Lynch, Esq., Superintendent, Railway Land Branch, Department of the Interior; I.C, those reproduced by permission of 4 «. VI PREFACE the Intercolonial Railway of Canada ; G.T., those repro- duced by permission of the Grand Trunk or the Grand Trunk Pacific; C.P., those reproduced by permission of the Canadian Pacific; C.N., those reproduced by permission of the Canadian Northern. That they add much to the interest of the book need not be stated. I wish I could feel that I have done justice to my subject; I can truthfully say I have done my best. J. K. G. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Early History i II. Colonisation — The Folklore of Canada 17 III. The Beginning of New France ... 27 IV. The Great Hudson's Bay Company . . 47 V. Conflict: Wars in America between France and England 64 VI. The Dominion of Canada 83 VII. The Government of Canada and Cognate Subjects 94 VIII. The Wealth of Canada no IX. Physical Canada 127 X. Ca-nada for tite Tourist and the Sports- man 138 XL Canada and the United States . . . 150 XII. The Lure of Canada 164 XIII. Development of Railways i77 XIV. The Great St. Lawrence Basin . . . 192 XV. The Canadian Rocky Mountains ... 205 XVI. The Hudson Bay Territory 215 XVII. The Canadian Wheat Fields .... 229 XVIII. A Model Province: Manitoba .... 239 vii Viii CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XIX. Canada in Winter 249 XX. Some Canadian Towns 261 XXI. A Few Canadians 271 XXII. Reciprocity . . . . .^ 281 XXIII. Canada and the British Empire ... 291 Bibliography 301 Index 3^5 ILLUSTRATIONS Turn Turn Range. Canadian Northern Railway . . . Frontispiece Boat Landing, Tete Jaune Cache, Fraser River, British Columbia. Grand jyiuik Pacific Railway . . Facing page 6 Laying Rails, Tete Jaune, British Columbia, July 17, 191 2. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 6 Restigouche Club House, Metapedia River, New Brunswick. Intercolonial Railway 10 Entrance to Resplendent Valley, British Columbia, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 16 ** Pierced Rock." From Steamer, Intercolonial Railway ... 24 Preparing Fish, Pierced Rock, New Brunswick. Intercolonial Railway 24 Meadow Land, British Columbia. Canadian Norther 71 Rail- way 34 Fording Moose River, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 34 Canadian Northern Railway Elevator, Capacity 7,500,000 bushels. Port Arthur, Ontario 44 Beach at Little Metis, Quebec Province. Intercolonial Rail- way 44 Prince Rupert Harbour. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway ... 60 On Moose Trail River, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 60 Farm Scene, Bic, Rimouski County, Quebec Province. Inter- colonial Railway 68 Orchards at Summerland, British Columbia. Canadian Pacific Railway 84 Mount Robson and Berg Lake, British Columbia. Gratui Trunk Pacific Railway 92 Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick. Intercolonial Railway . . 100 Wheat Field and Summer Fallow, Saskatchewan. Grami Trunk Pacific Railway 110 X ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Berg Lake, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 120 Mount Robson, altitude 13,700 feet. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 128 From Echo Rock, Lake Cecebe. Grand Trunk Railway System 140 Fishing Camp, Northern Quebec Province. Canadian Pacific Railway 146 SpeckJed Trout Fishing, Algonquin National Park. Grand Trunk Railway System 146 Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Grafid Trunk Pacific Railway 150 Fossil Hunting, Mt. Robson District, British Columbia. Grajid Trunk Pacific Railway 158 Transport, Athabaska River, 56 40' N 160 Transport, Athabaska River 160 Typical Saskatchewan Valley Homestead. Canadian Northern Railway 166 Portage La Loche, Peace River Country, Athabaska . . . .194 Potato Crop, Lake La Loche, 56 30' N 194 Hudson Bay Post, Lake Athabaska, 59 N 224 Clearwater River, Athabaska River, 57 N 224 Reaping Oats, Western Canada. Canadian Pacific Railway . 228 Waterfront Terminals, Port Arthur, Ontario. Canadian Northern Railway 240 Ploughing at Fort Smith, 60 N 250 Smith Landing, Great Slave River, 60 N 250 Empress Hotel and Plarbour, Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Canadian Pacific Railway 26S On Skeena River, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 268 Mt. Stephen and Mt. Stephen House, Field, British Columbia. Canadian Pacific Railway 270 Emperor Falls, Grand Fork River, British Columbia. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway 280 THE COMING CANADA CHAPTER I EARLY HISTORY I DO not intend to limit myself to the Canada of which most people think when they hear or speak the word. That narrow use of the name generally includes no more than the eastern provinces, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, etc., the lower St. Lawrence basin, and a strip of indefinite width, north of the United States boundary, reaching westward to the province of British Columbia and the Pacific shores. The Dominion of Canada, to my mind, includes the whole of the 3,603,910 square miles, approximated, from the long Atlantic seaboard, stretching from Cape Chud- leigh, at the extreme northern end of Labrador, to Cape Sable, the southernmost end of Nova Scotia, to the Alaskan boundary, and from the United States frontier northward far into Arctic regions. I shall, probably, include the island of Newfoundland in my consideration of the early history of the Dominion, because that island is so intimately associated with the beginnings of European effort to establish colonies in the New World. It is true that Newfoundland is not a part of the Dominion, and, if I may depend upon the 2 THE COMING CANADA vehement declarations of the islanders with whom I have discussed the possibility of entering the Dominion, as well as those of many other Canadians, it is extremely unlikely that the island will give up its semi-independ- ence. In this broad view of the Dominion of Canada, we must, of course, think of the bleak, inhospitable Labrador as being a part thereof, and its earliest history antedates that of what I may, just for convenience, call Canada proper. Yet, at the very outset, I must say that obser- vation and investigation, as well as the statements of others, justify the opinion that Labrador may erelong prove to be not altogether the abomination of desola- tion that the name usually connotes. The historian may well take a good deal of comfort from the fact that recent research and effort have tended to increase our knowledge of what the brave, indeed venturesome, sailors of northwestern Europe did several hundred years before Christopher Columbus sailed from Palos, Spain, on the 3rd of August, 1492, to try to find a direct westward route to the Far East. Reference to the bibliography at the end of this volume may serve to emphasise what I have just written, and the titles of some of the books there mentioned may prove an incentive to learn yet more of these earliest precursors of Columbus, the discoverer of the New World, and of Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of Canada. It has long been admitted by historians that sailors from the north of Europe crossed the Atlantic Ocean, at least as far as Iceland, several hundred years before the beginning of the eleventh century of our era. That EARLYHISTORY 3 island had, of course, long been known to Europeans, even when the Irish Culdees, those primitive and enthusiastic monks, made their way across the sea in the sixth or seventh century, seeking to secure abso- lute solitude for their meditations. If those monks carried with them a form of Christianity untainted by the influence of the Romish schism, the purity cannot have persisted very long. The hope, cherished for some time, by certain Protestants — Presbyterians especially — that in Iceland there had been preserved an abso- lutely primitive Christianity, has long since been dis- pelled. Just when Rome asserted supremacy in those regions, then so remote from European centres, is not clear, but in 1492, the very year of Columbus' first voyage. Pope Alexander VI issued a Bull * appointing a bishop of the see of Gardar, in Greenland. From about the middle of the eleventh century, Iceland had two bishops and doubtless from them went forth the influence into Greenland. But inasmuch as the entire population of the island now belongs to the Lutheran Church, it is evident that shortly after the Reformation the Roman Church lost its hold in Iceland. From Iceland to Greenland is such a short span, it is inconceivable that those hardy Norsemen did not * Bulla; the most authoritative ofl5cial document issued by the pope of the Roman Catholic Church, or in his name. It is usually an open letter containing some decree, order, or decision relating to matters of grace or justice. It derives its name from the lead seal (Latin bulla) appended to it by a thread or band, which is red or yellow when the bull refers to matters of grace, and uncoloured and of hemp when it refers to matters of justice. On one side of the seal is the name of the pope who issues the bull, and on the other are the heads of Saints Paul and Peter, 4 THE COMING CANADA soon cross the intervening sea. But even after it was discovered, Greenland was for a long time supposed to be a remarkable extension westward of the continent of Europe; and this belief was, for some centuries, strengthened rather than refuted by the experience of the explorers who, in the early years of the sixteenth century, reasoned that because the coast trended back- ward, that is towards the east, from Cape Dan, it would eventually join the European mainland. Greenland may have been seen by the Norwegian Gunnbjorn, son of Ulf Kraka, very early in the tenth century; at least he is alleged to have declared he did so. It is admitted that in 982 a.d., "Eric the Red {Eiriki hinn raudi Thorvaldsson) sailed from Iceland to find the land which Gunnbjorn had seen, and he spent three years on its southwestern coasts exploring the country." Eric returned to Iceland in 985, and there is no accepted tradition that he or any of his followers crossed Davis Straits; but from what we know of the habits of the Greenland Eskimo, it is not unreasonable to suppose that those people knew of the land to the westward and told Eric about it. But his son, Leifr Eriksson (Leif Ericsson of history) visited the Court of Norway in 999, when King Olaf Tryggvason was on the throne, and told the monarch about the new land in the far west. When Leif left Norway the king commanded him to proclaim Chris- tianity in Greenland; the name having been chosen with the purpose of deceiving people into believing that the new country was an attractive place for colonists. It was on this outward voyage in 1000 a.d., when EARLYHISTORY 5 bound for Greenland direct, without touching at Ice- land, that Leif's ship was driven out of her course by heavy weather, and eventually reached the continent of North America, where he found wheat growing wild, vines, and ''mosur" (maple ?) trees. To this yet newer land he gave the name "Vinland," ''Vineland," or ^'Wineland the Good." It is, however, to the account of Thorfinn Karlsefni's (flourished 1002 to 1007) expedition and his attempt to establish a colony somewhere in the region of Nova Scotia, that we must turn for the most plausible story of these early Norse discoverers. This twentieth century has added considerably to the literature that deals with the subject of the Saga of Eric the Red, and that known as The Flatey Book. The former is the more consistent of the two, and may now be read in an English transla- tion, accompanied by copious notes. These sagas are supplemented, and their history measurably verified, by the narrative of Adam of Bremen, a student of history, who ''visited the Danish Court during the reign of the well-informed monarch Svend Estridsson (1047 to 1076) and writes that the king ' spoke of an island (or country) in that ocean discovered by many, which is called Vinland, because of the wild grapes i^oites) that grow there, out of which a very good wine can be made. Moreover, that grain unsown grows there abundantly (fruges ibi non seminatas abundare) is not a fabulous fancy, but is based on trustworthy accounts of the Danes.'" * This passage offers important corroboration of the Icelandic accounts of the Vinland voyages, and ♦ J. E. Olson, Enc. Brit. Xlth, ed. 6 THE COMING CANADA is, further, interesting ''as the only undoubted refer- ence to Vinland in a mediaeval book written beyond the limits of the Scandina\qan world." * It is contended by some writers that these Norse discoveries exerted no real influence upon European knowledge of the world's geography in the Middle Ages, and that undoubtedly is a fact. It is declared that whatever information there was about new lands in the remote west (from Europe) was hidden away in sagas which very recent research has brought to light, translated, and edited so that we of the twentieth century possess knowledge which was not imparted to many Europeans of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This, too, is quite correct; but if Adam of Bremen, ''beyond the limits of the Scandinavian world," knew of Vinland, there was no substantial reason why others should not have had the same knowledge. The suspicion is growing unto something approxi- mating conviction that the famous navigators of the south of Europe ignored the efforts of the Norsemen, and persistently held that the Western Ocean washed the shores of Asia and that it was a determination to demonstrate the correctness of that opinion, thus refuting the Norsemen, which influenced them. I am not dis- posed to belittle in any way the grand achievement of Christopher Columbus, nor would I detract at all from the credit due to Giovanni Cabot; but I do think that had the exploits of Leif Ericsson and Thorfinn Karlesfni been given the publicity in Europe that they deserved, both the Italians, who have been named, would have * John Fiske, The Discovery of America. Boat Landing, TiIte Jaune Cache, Frasek Ri\er, B. C Laving Rails, Tete Jal ne, B. C, J LEV 17, igi2 EARLYHISTORY 7 been in possession of information that would have assisted them materially. I do, however, take the responsibility of contradicting Mr. H. P. Biggar's state- ment, ''The European explorer who at the close of the fifteenth century first sighted that portion of North America subsequently called Canada, was Giovanni Cabot, of Genoa." * It may be objected that I am trying to judge Europeans of the fifteenth century from the standpoint of one who has all the advantage conferred by the knowledge gained in the whole of the intervening four hundred years. This I disclaim, although — as a matter of fact — I do not see how we to-day can have any real information about the earliest visitors from Europe to our North American shores, which might not have been secured by the European who would take the trouble to get it. We must remember, however, that towards the end of the fifteenth century all of southwestern Europe, includ- ing England, was keyed up to the highest pitch of excitement concerning geographical discoveries, and especially over-seas exploits, while there was strange apathy as to this subject when the Norsemen sailed across the Atlantic. Conditions were exactly reversed from what they had been about the year looo a.d. It was then northwestern Europe that was interested, while England, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy were indifferent. These states of affairs would tend to make the Norsemen's discoveries pass almost unnoticed; while they assured for Columbus' and Cabot's the utmost enthusiasm and publicity. * The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, Ottawa, ign. 8 THE COMING CANADA Is it, furthermore, absolutely certain that those earliest Norse adventurers left no traces of their visits to North America? In 1908, Dr. Vilhjalmar Stefansson, of Norwegian ancestry although a Canadian by birth, and educated at Harvard, went down the Mackenzie River to its mouth; thence into Victoria Land, along both shores of Dolphin and Union Straits and Corona- tion Gulf, well to the eastward. In Victoria Land, almost the most inaccessible part of the Arctic Dominion, he found a previously unknown band of about two thousand blonde Eskimos; many of them have blue eyes, light eyebrows, and the men sandy beards. Their whole appearance differentiates them distinctly from the typical Eskimo. Their presence in that remote region — for it is alleged that their existence was not even suspected by the Dominion authorities — may be accounted for in several ways. Dr. Stefansson's own opinion is that they are descendants of the lost Scandi- navian colonists who had settled in Greenland about the year 1000 a.d. He admits the possibility that these people may owe their being to the visits of whalers and sailors to the Greenland coast in modern times; but he discredits this theory because *'in the summer time, when vessels were enabled to reach these regions, the Eskimos had pushed farther inland." Another cogent reason for giving these people a beginning far back of recent times, is the fact that they show no traces of European influ- ence, either physical (that is, disease,) or mental (that is, language). The former of these is, unhappily, the most conspicuous evidence of foreign association wliich ethnologists now find among uncivilised peoples. EARLYHISTORY 9 We must respect the recognised histories of Europe and admit that nothing was done towards western exploration for nearly five hundred years after the Norsemen had found Greenland and Vineland. If the curtain was raised for a moment, it was allowed to fall again so promptly and so effectually that the good lands were so completely forgotten as to make it seem as if they had never been known. The incentives to go out into the Western Ocean appear to have been the same with several would-be explorers, and it was a desire to secure a share of the rich trade with the Indies that seemed likely to be held as a monopoly by the Portuguese, now that they had succeeded in finding a sea-road to the Far East. Before passing on to the facts accepted by historians of the discovery and occupation of Canada, it will be interesting to discuss briefly the efforts which were made prior to 1492 to discover something in the Atlantic which myth and legend declared to be there. In 1480 an expedition was sent from Bristol, England, to dis- cover, if possible, the Island of Brazil, or the Island of the Seven Cities, or Antilia (Atlantis). Again, in 1491 and 1492, vessels were sent from that same port for the same purpose. This last mentioned expedition, there is good reason to believe, was placed under the command of John Cabot. It gave him his English name. That nothing came of these efforts need not be stated; but they indicate clearly the opinion which prevailed in Europe in the fifteenth century as to there being some wonderful islands in the ocean far away from the main- land. So firm was this conviction that it was not until lO THE COMING CANADA 1876 that ''the official sepulture of the old tradition of the Island of Brazil took place." Returning to history, we find that in March, 1476, Giovanni Cabot was given the privilege of citizenship (we should call it ''naturalised"), both internal and external, by the City of Venice, after fifteen years resi- dence. Inasmuch as the same privilege was granted his sons, the brothers Giovanni, Sebastiano, and Stephano, on the 28th of September, 1484, only six years later, it is reasonable to suppose that the father Giovanni was born some years before Christopher Columbus, whose birth year is usually accepted as having been 1446 (although we do not know this). Both Columbus and Cabot were firm believers in the theory that the earth is round. It will be remembered that this idea was not then endorsed by all navigators and cartographers: the religious danger of insisting upon it will also be known to all. Those two men were equally convinced that the rich merchandise and the coveted gems of the farther Indies, might be brought to western Europe in vessels crossing the Western Ocean direct from Asia. Cabot's conviction was based upon something more practical than Columbus' speculations. In a letter which Raimondo di Soncino wrote to the Duke of Milan, 1 8th December, 1497,* there is given a brief account of Cabot's reasons for his belief. He claimed to have visited Mecca, ''which city was then the greatest mart in the world for the exchange of goods of the west for * Original in the Reali Archivi di Stato, Milan. Translation in H. P. Biggar's Tlie Precursors of Jacques Car tier. EARLYHISTORY II those of the east." There is no doubt but that Cabot did make several trading voyages to the Levant, and that he inquired whence came those precious wares. He was told that they were brought by caravans from north- eastern Asia. Arguing that this meant Cipangu (Japan), he wished to make the attempt to reach that country by sailing westward from a port of Europe. The same reasons were assigned by Columbus for his desire to sail to the west, and with precisely the same results so far as reaching Japan was concerned ; although the Indies which Columbus discovered served better to satisfy the preconceived notions of Cipangu, than did anything which Cabot found in the bleak north. Columbus' return in 1493 ^-nd his report that he had reached the Indies, created a great sensation at the English Court, and on the 5th of March, 1496, letters patent were issued by Henry VII granting to John Cabot, Lewis (the first son, otherwise known as Giovanni 2d), Sebastian, and Santino, his sons, authority to sail "to all parts, countries, and seas of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners and ensynes," but "upon theyr own proper costs and charges." They were to take possession of all newly found lands in the king's name, and "as often as they shall arrive at our port of Bristol, at the which port only they shall be holden to arrive," they were to pay unto the king, after deduction of their necessary expenses, "the fifth part of the gain of all fruits, profits, gaines and revenues accruing from said voyage." Comment upon the Uberality (?) of this concession is unnecessary. . Columbus having returned in June, 1496, from his 12 THE COMING CANADA second voyage with much gold and valuable merchan- dise, the English king and the merchants who financed the enterprise, were hopeful that Cabot would meet with like success. On the 2nd of May, 1497, Cabot sailed from Bristol in a small vessel, the Mathew, with eighteen men in his company. Much controversy has been had as to the time and place of Cabot's landfall; but I think the Rt. Rev. M. F. Howley, Bishop of Newfoundland, has satisfactorily demonstrated that it was June 24th, 1497, and that — after sighting Cape Farewell, Green- land — he steered westward (as he thought), but be- cause of the remarkable variation of the compass needle, being then 66 f° West, and of the set of the ocean cur- rent, he actually took the true course from Cape Fare- well to St. John's, Newfoundland, although he supposed he was saiHng due west. This statement directly con- tradicts Mr. Biggar, who thinks the landfall was Cape Breton, but I must give my allegiance to the Bishop. Cabot was convinced that he had reached the north- eastern extremity of Asia, but conditions disappointed him greatly. He cruised to the southward and a little to the westward along the southern coast of Newfound- land. From Cape Race he shaped his course for Eng- land, arriving in Bristol harbour on Sunday, August 6th, 1497. His enthusiasm led him to promise that on his next voyage he would reach Cipangu, and then ** London would become a greater depot for species than Alexandria itself." In May, 1498, the second expedition, two vessels and three hundred men, sailed from Bristol. In their com- pany were several vessels that were engaged regularly EARLY HISTORY I3 in the Iceland trade, fishing smacks probably. With Cabot was a Portuguese, Joao Fernandez, called Llav- rador, who had been from Iceland to Greenland in 1492. Early in June the east coast of Greenland was sighted, and inasmuch as Fernandez was the first to report the landfall, Cabot named the country ''The Labrador's Land." The ships first cruised to the northward, but the increasing cold, the ice, and the fact that the land bore ofT to the eastward, discouraged Cabot and he turned westward again. After rounding Cape Farewell, he went up the west coast of Greenland to the Sukkertoppen district, in latitude 66°, and was again blocked by the ice. Altering his course once more, he sighted Bafhn's Land, passed into Hudson's Straits, and then turned back and went along the coast of modern Labrador. The Strait of Belle Isle, between Labrador and Newfoundland, was assumed to be a bay, and the east coast of Newfound- land merely a prolongation of the Labrador coast. Some parts of the country that had been seen on the first voyage, were revisited; but the disappointment, at finding no evidence of the Wealth of Ind, was even greater than it had been before, although the expedition went as far south as 38°, nearly opposite the Capes of Chesa- peake Bay. Thence the course was shaped for home, and the reception accorded the explorers on their arrival at Bristol was nearly as frigid as the Greenland icebergs. The English king and merchants were disgusted with American exploration, and no further expeditions were sent from Bristol until 1501, and that was not led by the Cabots. 14 THE COMING CANADA The Portuguese enterprise in 1500, under the command of Caspar Corte Reale, achieved practically nothing new, and about the only evidence remaining of it are some geographical names. We may, too, pass by the Bristol venture of 1501, since it accomplished nothing beyond \dsiting Newfoundland. In 151 1, Spain entered the list of those seeking advantage in these northern parts of the North American continent, and during the next decade many European fishing vessels made yearly voyages to the Newfoundland Banks. In 1520, a Portuguese, Joao Alvares Fagundes, of Vianna (probably Vianna do Castillo in the province of Entre-Minho Eduardo) explored the coast of Nova Scotia as well as Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. He missed the chance to identify the Culf of St. Lawrence and perhaps discover the river. King Manoel gave Fagundes title to the islands from Chedabucto to Pla- centia bays; a grant that was simply productive of needless compHcation. In 1524-5, the Portuguese, Stephen Comez, although in command of a Spanish vessel, applied to the Spanish Court for permission to seek, between Newfoundland and Florida, for a passage to the East Indies. He explored the coast as far south as the island of Nantucket, at least, and then went south to Santiago in Cuba, where he replenished his stores and then sailed for Corunna, reaching that port in June 1525. In 1527, two vessels, the Samson and the Mary Guild- ford, fitted out at London to try to find a northwest passage to the Far East by way of Davis Straits. The former ship probably foundered with all on board, since EARLYHISTORY 15 nothing was ever heard of her. The latter did nothing to add to our fund of information, and when she returned to England is not known. From 1527 until Jacques Cartier began his explorations in 1534, fishing vessels visited the coasts of Canada, Newfoundland, and Green- land annually; but there are no authentic records of further attempts to find a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific until Cartier's effort. Although unsuccessful in his prime desire, yet he was really the first European to discover the territory which was the nucleus of the great Dominion. In 1534, Jacques Cartier (sometimes written Quartier), an experienced navigator of St. Malo, France, was recommended to Francis I, King of France, as being competent to secure for his sovereign some advantage from the effort of his predecessor, Verrazzano. I have omitted previous mention of this man, because on his expedition of 1524, for Francis I, he discovered nothing. He *' approached to the lande that in times past was discovered by the Britons," and after *' being furnished with water and wood," he sailed away to Dieppe. Later, when pilot of the Mary Guildford, he was killed in a fight with some Indians. On the 20th of April, 1534, Cartier's two small vessels, the combined crews numbering some one hundred and twenty men, sailed from St. Malo. Little was accom- plished on that first voyage. In the second, which sailed from the same port on the 19th of May, 1535, there were three ships, one hundred and ten sailors and a number of *' gentlemen volunteers." The great river, St. Lawrence, was discovered and ascended to Hoche- l6 THE COMING CANADA laga; that is, modern Montreal. To the hill from which he had a grand view that assured him of the rich possi- bihties of the surrounding country, he gave the name of Mont Royal, around which has grown up the city of Montreal, one of the world's great ports. Limitations of space forbid carrying on the historical record, and already we have reached the time when Canada began. It is interesting to note that the Indian word Canada meant simply a village. That it has developed into an Empire, almost, is one of the astounding facts of history. CHAPTER II COLONISATION — TEE FOLKLORE OF CA NADA ON May 23, 1541, Cartier sailed again from St. Malo upon his third voyage to Canada. He had been commissioned Captain-General, and the phrase- ology of his appointment indicates the French King's appreciation of the discoverer's merits, for tribute is paid to ''the character, judgment, ability, loyalty, dignity, hardihood, great diligence, and experience of the said Jacques Cartier." While, as his title implies, the actual navigation of the fleet was entrusted to Cartier, yet the chief command of the expedition was given to Jean-Francois de la Roque, superior of Roberval, who by a royal commission dated January 15, 1540, was appointed Viceroy and Lieutenant- General of Newfound- land, Labrador, and Canada. He was empowered to engage volunteers and emigrants, and if these did not come forward in sufficient numbers, he might take persons from the prisons and hulks. Roberval could not complete his arrangements in time to satisfy Cartier's impatience, who sailed without his superior officer. When the two met in the harbour of St. John's, Newfoundland, the Captain-General homeward bound after a very trying winter for which he held the other responsible, and the Lieutenant- General outward bound to take up his work, Cartier l8 THE COMING CANADA deliberately disobeyed the order of his superior to return with him to the St. Lawrence. Thus it seems that about sLx years after the French had formally taken possession of Canada, an attempt was made to colonise this New France. It was a failure, however, as were others until the time of Samuel de Champlain who made his first voyage to the St. Lawrence in 1603. In 1604, Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts, sailed from France with four vessels, well manned and supplied with whatever was required, both for carrying on the fur trade and for starting a colony. Two ''were destined to commence the traffic for the company in peltry at Tadousac; thence proceeding to range the whole seaboard of New France, and seize all vessels found traf- ficking with the natives, in violation of the royal pro- hibition. The two other vessels were destined to bear the colonists embarked to such landing-places as should be agreed upon, and to aid in suitably locating them afterwards. Several gentlemen volunteers, some soldiers, and a number of skilled artisans, were embarked in these vessels." * De Monts was a Huguenot, and it was ordered that all French Protestants were to enjoy in America, as in France at that time, full freedom for their public worship. It was distinctly asserted, however, that they should take no part in native proselytising; the privi- lege and duty of converting the Indians being reserved exclusively for the Roman Cathohc clergy. Under De Monts, who had been appointed Lieutenant- Governor by King Henry IV, were de Champlain, Pont- * History of Canada, Andrew Bell, Vol. I, p. 74- THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 19 Grave (a mercenary wretch), Poutrincourt, a nobleman who had decided to take his family and settle in America, and a lawyer who was subsequently to become a cele- brated historian, Lescarbot. This expedition did not go direct to the St. Lawrence, or Canada proper, but to that part of New France then called Acadia (Nova Scotia). Even this beginning did not develop into a colony without undergoing many discouraging vicissi- tudes, and later attention was almost concentrated in the valley of the St. Lawrence. It must be admitted that so far as Canada was concerned, the French did not display great ability in colonisation; for on the loth of February, 1763, when by the terms of the Treaty of Paris, all French possessions in North America, east of the Mississippi were transferred to Great Britain, the navigation of the river being thrown open to the subjects of both Powers (the city of New Orleans was excepted), the total population of New France did not much exceed 80,000 souls, and even this estimate is declared by some authorities to be over liberal. When from that number are subtracted those representing the civilian officials and their families, the members of the rehgious orders, the officers and men of the army and navy, and the many others who cannot be classed as immigrant settlers, the number of actual colonists is reduced to insignificant proportions. These French settlers, habitants they call themselves, brought from their European homes the folklore tales, songs, legends, etc., of their native places. While these have, naturally, undergone some modification, they even now betray distinct signs of their origin, so that 20 THE COMING CANADA as Dr. Benjamin Suite says, when a person listens attentively to the stories told at the hearth of the habitant's home, he can quickly determine from what part of Old France the ancestors of that particular farm or hamlet came, centuries ago. As a consequence, therefore, none of the French Cana- dian folklore gives any suggestion of originality or spontaneity. It is all exotic; but it has frequently been given a touch of local colouring which may readily deceive the uninitiated into assuming that the stories are indigenous. Hence it is not surprising that in the different districts of the province of Quebec, where the direct descendants of the original French colonists are more numerous than in any other part of the Dominion, there are variations of the story of Le Loup Garoux, that French tale which either owes its being to the influence of the old Norse legend of ''The Were Wolf," or which had its origin in the same primary source. Conditions of life in the earliest days of New France were just such as would tend to make the unlettered peasants find in their surroundings everything needed to bring up the machinations of a fiendish Indian to take upon himself the shape of the Were Wolf and bring terror to themselves. There was the snow of winter; there was the mysterious death of someone who ventured into the forest; there were the bloody tracks of the wolf; and there were the prints of other, human, footsteps. Perhaps, too, even one of their own people might have committed some crime that, until expiated and absolved by the priest, would condemn the unfortunate person to carry out all the horrible details of the dreadful THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 21 story. It is, perhaps, a little too much for one who has not had the opportunity for thorough study, to say that the preponderance of the weird and alarming in the French Canadian folklore is noticeable; yet such has seemed to me to be the case. I have never known people who are seemingly so con- tradictory as the Canadian habitants. They are friendly, polite, hospitable, and industrious of course. They give a welcome to any stranger who can converse with them in the language they still love, even though they are loyal British subjects; and rarely have I found any of them who have the slightest desire to return to French allegiance. Upon the possibility of transfer to citizen- ship in the United States, they look with scorn and horror. But he who wishes to get them to talk about themselves, their myths, and their interesting folklore, must prove himself to be a Frenchman or a very exceptional English- man, and then make it clear that his sympathy is the sterling article. If the folklore of the Canadiens is rarely anything more than the transplanted legends of northwestern France — Brittany most especially — there are some stories which these people still tell that have a distinctly local origin and colouring. When sailing up or down the St. Lawrence River below Quebec, the steamer passes, about thirty miles down stream from the old city, a group of islands, most of them small. As these are just about the middle of the stream, it is very necessary to navigate cautiously and the attention of the pilot is therefore concentrated upon the task in hand. But when he has a few minutes leisure, and if he is a French- 22 THE COMING CANADA Canadian (as is very likely to be the case), he will doubtless tell the following story. The largest one of the group of islands is now called Crane's Island, and from a time in the early days of New France until not so very long ago, there was a handsome chateau near the western end of the island. At least it was, no doubt, a handsome structure when first built; but after the episode, upon which this tale is founded, it was neglected by everybody and the habi- tants looked upon it as haunted. Therefore they shunned it, and as there was no one to care for it, it must have gone to ruin very fast so that there is now no sign of it. When New France was beginning to lose some of its horrors, and had gained a somewhat better reputation than it had had in the days of Jacques Cartier and his immediate successors, the attention of even the French nobility was sometimes turned towards America. One of these courtiers was a young nobleman who is said to have been very handsome, very popular at Court, and very gay; and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that meant a good deal at the Court of France. This gay young courtier married a lady of good family. She was his equal in rank; she was renowned for her great beauty; but she was equally famous for her imperious disposition. She would not put up quietly with the pointed and open attentions that her husband showed the other ladies of the Court, and she took her lord sharply to task for his unseemly behaviour. He met her complaint with the rather startling proposition that they leave Old France and settle in New France, where, he said, there would be little danger of anything happen- THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 23 ing in the way of gallantry to arouse the jealousy of either one. To his surprise, and quite likely to his disappointment, the lady accepted the suggestion and they soon sailed for Quebec. As they passed up the beautiful St. Law- rence, the romantic wildness of the valley fascinated the lady, and she chose the Isle des Grues, only a short distance below the much larger Isle d' Orleans, as the place for their future home. In due course of time Le Chateau le Grand, as they called it, was finished and the couple took possession. For several years the idyllic beauty of the spot, the novelty of the Hfe, and the occupation of conquering wild Nature seemed to satisfy both Monsieur and Madame; but bye and bye her ladyship came to note that her husband was frequently absent from home at night, and although his reasons for doing so appeared to be plausible, Madame was not satisfied with them, therefore she determined to find out something for herself. One evening she followed him to the southern shore of the river and found him taking part in an Indian dance accompanied by decidedly Bacchanalian revels, and disporting himself in an altogether unseemly fashion with an Indian beauty. Madame had partly disguised herself with a long cloak, and as she stepped into the circle of dancers, the Indians thought her something uncanny and every one of them fled, leaving my lord and my lady facing each other and alone. With her characteristic imperiousness, but without speaking a wordj she waved her hand towards the river bank and 24 THE COMING CANADA he followed her to the boats. They returned to the chateau where Madame exacted from her lord a promise that he would never again leave the island. He agreed, and there they lived for the few years that remained of the man's life. But the place was no longer the bower of bliss it had been and they were unhappy. When the husband died, the widow promptly returned to France and the chateau was abandoned. The Indians looked askance upon it, and their prejudice was com- municated to the French immigrants, so that even to this day Crane Island is not liked so well as the neigh- bouring country. Mothers sometimes quiet fractious children by threatening to leave them at the end of the island where there are ghosts. Then, still farther down the river, indeed now well into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there is another spot about which les habitants tell a weird story. South of Gaspe Peninsula, near the shore of the bay where Jacques Cartier planted a cross in 1534 and took possession of the whole country in the name of the Kjng of France, there is an enormous rock called Le Roche perce, because the breakers have bored a hole through it, leaving an arch which easily suggests the name, ''Pierced Rock." It is some two hundred and fifty feet or more high, and between live hundred and six hundred feet long. The top is fairly level and the sides are very steep, almost perpendicular. Of itself, the rock is sufficient to attract attention, and it lends itself readily to the strange stories that are told about it. One of these is that among the members of one of Cartier's later expeditions, there was a young man of "PlLKClJ) KoCK," I KOM SniAMER Preparing Fish, Pierced Rock, N. B. THE FOLKLORE OF CANADA 2$ Brittany who was engaged to a maiden at home. He did not care to take her with him when he first went to America; but upon arriving in Canada he concluded that it was quite safe for her to join him, and so he wrote for her to come to Quebec. She compHed promptly; but the vessel on which she took passage was captured by a Spanish pirate and every soul on board, except herself, was put to death. The Spanish captain was so enamoured with her beauty that he vowed she should be his wife. The girl refused to listen to him, and then the brute declared he would sail up the St. Lawrence right past the town of Quebec, and there, where her lover could see, he would kill her. This fiendish threat so affected the maiden's mind that, as the ship came near the mouth of the river, she threw herself into the sea. The Spaniards lowered boats and tried to save her but she had disappeared and they put the ship on her course. Presently, however, a sailor reported to the skipper that he could see the form of a woman swimming ahead of the vessel and drawing it off the course towards a great cliff. All effort on the part of the helmsman to hold the ship away from the rocks was unavailing, and in spite of all that the officers and crew could do, the vessel crashed against the cliff and instantly ship and crew were all changed into stone and became a part of the great rock itself. The people of the neighbourhood will tell the visitor that until not very many years ago the shape of the ship could be distinctly seen on the face of the cHff. They still declare that one bit of rather pointed rock is the 26 THE COMING CANADA bowsprit of the vessel of that Spanish abductor who, with his cowardly crew, was so justly punished, hundreds of years ago. The faithful maiden's ghost is declared to haunt the spot; yet — strange as it must sound — this wraith is not thought of or spoken about as some- thing awful by the habitants. They say she is very beautiful, but sad, of course; and when the last trace of the unlucky ship disappears, the ghost will be seen no more. She appears at sunset only; for that was the time of day when she threw herself into the sea. The Gaspe folks declare that no fisherman would dare to set a line for fish at that hour; because if he did mis- fortune would be sure to follow. Of the folklore of Canadian Indians and Eskimos, there is such an abundant supply in English translations at the command of my readers, that I shall not introduce any here. The field has not yet been exhausted, how- ever, because there are still some which have not been put into English; while there are others that are yet in French only. As acquaintance is made with Indians and Eskimos of the far north, who have not hitherto been visited by competent observers, we shall probably have interesting additions made to our stock of folklore. Those who desire to pursue this entertaining subject, are referred to the bibhography, wherein they will find a number of titles of books which will fully satisfy them. So far as purely Indian folklore alone is concerned, it must be remembered that there is much mingling of myths and legends of the Indians in the United States with those of the Dominion. CHAPTER III TEE BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE FRANCIS PARKMAN, in his volume Pioneers of France in the New World, devotes ten chapters to the European explorations into the southern part of the continent of North America, and especially to vari- ous sections in the southern portion of what is now the United States. These chapters cover the period from 1512 to 1574 A.D. In the second part of the same volume, Parkman, taking the general title of Cham plain and His Associates, discusses traditional French discoveries as far back as 1488, and continues his narrative down to the death of Champlain at Quebec, on Christmas Day, 1635. It should be borne in mind that several recent Cana- dian historians differ somewhat from Parkman as to statement of facts; and some of these take issues openly with him as to the correctness of conclusions drawn. These Canadians are not in the least influenced by patriotic jealousy; they write or speak with the more exact knowledge gained from superior opportunity. As a concrete example of this, may be cited the credit that Parkman seems to give to Father Marquette, in his volume La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West. All competent authorities with whom I have conversed on this subject, Frenchmen and Englishmen, Anghcans 28 THE COMING CANADA and Romanists, are vehement in denouncing the palpable effort of the priest to magnify his own importance in the expedition which Louis Joliet undertook, in 1672-3, for the discovery of the Mississippi River, and in which he was successful. Marquette does not explicitly claim anything; but he is thoroughly Jesuitical in his narra- tive, Voyages et decouverte de quelques pays et nations de VAmerique Septentrionale, and makes collaboration con- spicuous. Whereas the fact is that he forced himself upon Joliet, who was thoroughly trained for his enter- prise ; while Marquette was constantly an embarrassment and impediment to the real explorer and discoverer. To Joliet and to him alone belongs the credit of having dis- covered the Mississippi. The claim at one time brought forward in La Salle's behalf has been sufficiently and finally discredited. But with Parkman's book to give a general outHne and many interesting particulars, it is hardly necessary to do more here than run rapidly over the list of those whose names are conspicuous among the pioneers of France in trying (most of them unsuccessfully) to gain possession of the great territory which had been added to French dominions, north of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. Besides, it is not so much my purpose to discuss further the scanty successes and the greater failures of the French, as it is to attempt to deal with the more successful efforts of the British to create the Dominion of Canada. Roberval, the first to give what was apparently any- thing but serious attention to the scheme of colonising New France, had a string of grandiose titles conferred BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 29 upon him, and he was, moreover, aided in his enterprise by a substantial grant from the royal treasury of France. Yet, looking back upon the record of his acts, it is now a simple matter of fact to say that his efforts resulted in absolute failure. This is not surprising, for Roberval manifestly possessed none of the attributes of a successful pioneer and coloniser of the wild region which Canada was in the first half of the sixteenth century; even when we restrict that name to the shores of Nova Scotia, Acadia, and the narrow fringes along the St. Lawrence River hardly reaching beyond Montreal. Roberval was totally devoid of tact. He was a stern man without proper control of his temper, as is clearly indicated by his cruelty to his own niece, Marguerite. This young woman, to be sure, had passed beyond the bounds of decorum in her love for a gentleman in her uncle's company. This was a grave offence, and her punishment was to be marooned on the dreaded Island of Demons in the Straits of Belle Isle; a lonely spot that was supposed to be the haunt of evil spirits and wild beasts. It was intended to leave her there with only an old nurse who had lent her assistance in promoting the illicit intercourse of the young people. Her lover, however, followed her by swimming to the island. He died, as did the child who was born, and the old nurse, leaving Marguerite alone. After an experience which is horrible in the narrative, she was at last rescued and returned to France. It is certain that Roberval's effort to plant a colony at Cape Rouge, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence, was a ghastly failure; whether we accept Thevet's 30 THE COMING CANADA account in his Cosmographie or the more lenient one of others. The iron hand of the Viceroy bore so heavily that ''even the Indians were moved to pity, and they wept at the sight of the colonists' woes." The King of France, Francis I, needing the services of Roberval, sent Cartier to fetch him home in 1543. *'It is said that, in after years, the Viceroy essayed to re-possess himself of his Transatlantic domain, and lost his life in the attempt. Thevet, on the other hand, with ample means of learning the truth, affirms that Roberval was slain at night, near the Church of the Innocents, in the heart of Paris." * For many years after this disastrous failure, nothing was done to develop New France. Then, in 1598 according to the best authorities, Marquis de la Roche made a bargain with the King of France, Henry IV, by which he covenanted to colonise New France in return for a grant of the monopoly of trade. As usual, the concession from the king was accompanied by a profusion of worthless titles and empty privileges. We may gain a very good idea of what was likely to be the result of La Roche's effort, when we know that his colonists were a gang of thieves, murderers, and first- class villains, dragged from the prisons of France and left on Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia. Per- haps it was an accident that La Roche's ship and his few reputable followers were driven out to sea and clear across the Atlantic; but we may have our doubts. The outcasts were rescued in September, 1603, but only eleven survived. * Parkman, op. cit. BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 31 The expedition of Pontgrave and Chauvin was not a serious attempt at colonising: it was simply a com- mercial venture. A company of sixteen men was landed at Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay River, and left there with the expectation that they would accu- mulate a large number of furskins. This was in the autumn, and being insufhciently supplied with stores and having no adequate means of contending with disease — the scurvy especially — a number of them died during the winter. In the spring all the rest went into the forest and were cared for, after a fashion, by friendly Indians. With the advent of Champlain (in Canada 1603 to 1635), whose untiring efforts at exploring, surve>ang, and sounding were the beginning of Canadian cartog- raphy, we may say that the colonising and developing of Canada commenced. It was, however, a very feeble effort as compared with what was soon to be done by the English in their colonies to the southward. Indeed, there runs through the whole of the history of the French regime in Canada, a complaint of lack of well-directed colonising effort on the part of the home government; of rapacity by civiHan officials in New France; and of seeming inability on the part of the colonists themselves to adapt themselves to new and strange conditions of life. All these combined to retard colonisation and to make the limited success more conspicuous by contrast with the mammoth failures, than because of their own merit. French historians do not hesitate to declare that English effort, in colonising North America, was far more successful than that of their own countrymen; 32 THE COMING CANADA and this not alone because of an advantage for the former m situation and climate. Remembering the zeal displayed by the Roman Catholic Church in the matter of religious propaganda amongst the heathen peoples in all parts of the world to whom access had been given its missionaries by the discoveries and explorations of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, it is a little surprising that in none of the earliest companies of adventurers going from France to North America, were there any priests or evangelists. Apparently, not until April, 1615, when Champlain sailed from Harfleur on his third voyage does it seem that there was any effort made to spread a knowledge of the Christian religion among the Indians. What is more astonishing, however, is that the small companies of traders and settlers which had gone to America before that date, seem to have been neglected in this important matter. When Champlain left France at that time, there were in his company four members of the subdivision of the Franciscan order of monks. This branch were called Rccollets. They were noted for the great strict- ness which ruled their lives, and especially for the im- portance which they attached to preaching the Gospel as well as ministering to the body and soul. The Recol- lets who accompanied Champlain at that time were declared by him to be the most intelligent persons in the colony. They took with them all the appurtenances, ornaments, and sacred vessels needed for use in the permanent places of worship which they intended to BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 33 establish at once. They had, besides, other similar material for the portable chapels they would take with them into the wilderness. Champlain at once gave consent to the opening of regular Church services at the three principal trading posts of the colony, Quebec, Three Rivers, and Tadousac. From that year, 161 5, the history of the French colony in Canada, as well as that of the gradual extension of discovery and occupation westward, is closely con- nected with the efforts of the Roman Catholic mission- aries, to whose ministrations alone — it will be recollected — was entrusted the sacred privilege of trj'ing to convert the Indians. The colonists themselves were permitted to conform to any ritual they chose; but no Protestant was officially deemed competent to proselyte. One of the RecoUets, Rev. Father Joseph le Caron, was sent, soon after his arrival, into the distant regions held by the Huron tribes, a section of the continent that, until then, had never been visited by Europeans. When Le Caron started from Quebec on his mission, Cham- plain accompanied him for a time. But the mission of the Viceroy was not of the same peaceful nature as that of the priest. Champlain went for the purpose, he hoped, of chastising the Iroquois, and this was the third expedition against these troublesome natives. We may well read a lesson in this singularly contra- dictory aUiance, for it is typical of the whole history of Canada until well into the nmeteenth century. The missionary was to preach the doctrine of peace; the soldier was attempting to control or punish the Indians with sword and shot. There is temptation to dwell 34 THE COMING CANADA Upon the respective rights of white man and red; the latter dispossessed of his estates by the former without adequate compensation: but history has been made, and history repeats itself all the world over. Le Caron's first mission outpost was probably at the northern end of Lake Simcoe, which is connected by a broad channel, or river, with Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. It was at or near the modern village of Orillia. Here he settled down to study the Indian language and to do what he could, through example, to interest the natives in the services of his Church. It was a most intrepid thing to do; many would then have called it foolhardy, just as some do similar effort to-day. In going by the Grand Trunk Railway from Toronto north to join the Canadian Pacific's transcontinental line at North Bay (before the latter had built its own connection from Toronto to Romford Junction), I passed through the territory in which the priest Le Caron had laboured nearly three hundred years previ- ously. Shorn as all that part of the Province of Ontario now is of timber, and traversed by railways or abundantly supplied with good roads, it was impossible to form even a faint idea of the difficulties which that missionary must have overcome; first to reach that remote out- station, and second to maintain himself and his mission. It was a comparatively easy matter to go from Quebec to Montreal by canoe or larger boat, provided no war- party of the Iroquois molested. Above Montreal, it was difficult to get past the Lachine Rapids, although it was done frequently; and until reaching about to the site of the present town of Prescott, navigation was Meadow Land, B. C. Fording Moose River, B. C. BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 35 not altogether easy. But after that, by the river, through The Thousand Islands and along the northern shore of Lake Ontario, the voyage was again easy. But from the lake shore, even the forty miles to the southern end of Lake Simcoe was, in 16 15, a task from which most people would recoil. Because, not only was there an almost impenetrable forest, but the swamps and numer- ous watercourses added enormously to the difficulty. A few years later, the Recollet mission was strength- ened numerically by the coming of more priests and some lay brothers, who pushed forward to stations even beyond Lake Simcoe into the remotest Huron settlements. One of these newer priests was the Rev. Father Gabriel Sagard, who later wrote a history of Canada. To the efforts of those two, Le Caron and Sagard, was due the measure of success which was achieved in securing peace between the Iroquois and the Hurons, and, incidentally, reheving the French settlements for a time from the depredations and mur- derous onslaughts of the former. The Recollets — for the branch was a mendicant order — were hampered by their poverty; and when the Due de Ventadour obtained King Louis XIII's authority to assume temporarily the viceroyalty of New France, a union was effected between the Recollets and the wealthy Jesuits. In the first company of the latter that went to Canada, was the famous Charles Lallemant (variants of spelUng), who became the inti- mate friend and spiritual adviser of Champlain when he was again made viceroy. Lallemant attended his patron and charge at the time of his death. 36 THE COMING CANADA The reception given the Jesuits when they landed at Quebec was extremely cool. On arriving in June, 1625, no one offered to shelter them, and they were on the point of accepting the offer of Emery de Caen, then Governor of Quebec, to send them home. But at last the Recollets tendered them hospitality, and very soon they set about creating their own establishment, chapel, residences, fields, orchards. In 1629 Champlain was compelled to surrender Quebec to the three English brothers. Sir David, Louis, and Thomas Kirke, who promised that the churches, build- ings, and property of both Jesuits and Recollets, as well as certain other property of exceptional non-combatants, should be respected and protected. Three years later, when by treaty with England New France was restored to France, the great Cardinal Richelieu decided that it was not expedient to have in the colony more than a single order. Preference being given the Jesuits, the Recollets withdrew for the time being. It is a heavy indictment against our much vaunted civilisation, but we must admit that we have to skip over three centuries, before we find any great deal of fairness in the treatment which Europeans generally gave to the Indians of North America. There are, it is pleasing to admit, several exceptions to the rule. Those will at once be recalled by students, but they seem to make the general fact all the more discreditable and unsatisfactory. For the last hundred years, it is to Canada's credit that official, collective, and individual treatment of the Indians has been in nearly every way better than the similar record in the United States. BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 37 We speak of "The Noble Red Man" as if that descrip- tive title had been devised originally by Europeans. But the appellation ''Red Man" or ''Red People" was used by the American savages long before the arrival of the white men, who are admitted by all historians to have been the first European visitors. Passing by every- thing that the Norsemen may have done in bestowing names which described people or places, it is clear that when the first French explorers came in touch with the Beothiks or Red Indians of Newfoundland, they already called themselves "Red." The title is a translation of the Micmac name for themselves, Maqnajik, which means "Red Men" or "Red People."* If, and the fact is hardly to be disputed, Verrazzano, Cabot, and others perhaps, made the acquaintance of the North American Indians, they did very little that redounds to their credit when dealing with the naked savages. So far as Canada is concerned, we may say that Jacques Cartier's act on Friday, the 24th of June, 1534, was the beginning of actual intercourse between civilised Europeans and wild Americans. The episode is treated in the most opposite ways by historians; some condemn, others approve. The fact seems to be that, after ha\dng explored the coast of Labrador as far north as a place he called Bld7ic Sahlon (probably the narrow strip of sandy beach below the mouth of the Hamilton River), discovered the insular character of Newfoundland, seen Cape Breton and New Brunswick, Car tier passed along the southern coast of * Conf. Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, Sec. II, 1891. Rev. George Patterson, D.D., The Beothiks or Red Indians oj Newfoundland. 38 THE COMING CANADA Gaspe Peninsula. He was so much better pleased with the appearance of the country and the character of the soil including even the Magdalen Islands, that he said of Isle Byron, " one acre of it is worth the whole of New- foundland." Of Labrador, he had declared *'it might, as well as not, be taken for the country assigned by God to Cain." He concluded that it was his duty towards his king, as well as in the interest of religion and for the welfare of the savages, to take formal possession of the whole country, and he probably had in mind all there was of the New World to the north and to the west. To what extent he recognised the claims of others to the south- ward, is not very clear. He therefore had a great wooden cross, thirty feet high, raised at the entrance to the Bay of Chaleurs. Many Indians witnessed this ceremony and looked with astonished interest upon the three fleurs de lys, which were carved on the cross, and the inscription "Vive le Roy de France,'' that was cut in the wood. The French- men all fell on their knees in a circle about the cross and united in prayers, raising their hands towards Heaven, "as if to show that by the cross came their redemption," that is, to the heathen savages. After the Frenchmen had returned from tliis ceremony to their vessel, some of the natives went alongside in their canoes, among them being the chief, his three sons, and his brother. The cliief protested, as well as he could, against the act of the strangers, and indicated by his gestures that he and his people owned all that territory. He made it clear that the Indians considered BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 39 the French had no right to plant that cross and seem to take possession of everything. Whether, as some authorities state, Cartier placated this chief and persuaded him to allow two of his sons to accompany him to France, in order that they might be shown at Court and trained to act as interpreters; or, as the less charitable contend, he forcibly abducted the two young men, is not clear. It is agreed by all, however, that two young Indians did go to France when Cartier returned from his first voyage to Canada, and that it was from them he heard of the great St. Lawrence River. His effort to confirm or disprove their statement led to the discovery on the next voyage, when the two Indians, now. competent to act as interpreters and guides, were returned to their friends. Again Cartier was received amicably by the Indians, (a fact which tends to discredit the statement that he had used force and treachery to get possession of the two young men), and at first he himself seems to have tried to give the natives no good reason to fear the Europeans. Yet he mistrusted the Indians, and prob- ably that mistrust was reciprocated by the savages, for they kept a close watch upon the intruders. But at the conclusion of his second visit, Cartier abandoned his policy of uninterrupted kindness; for in May, when ready to sail for home, after another cross-planting and possession-taking, he induced a chief — who is called Donacona — and several others to go on board. Then he seized him, the two interpreters, and seven warriors, whom he proposed to carry off to France to present them to the King. This was a piece 40 THE COMING CANADA of crass stupidity, and utterly obliterated the good effect of whatever tact, prudence, and sense of justice Cartier had previously displayed. As all the captives had died in France, when Cartier returned to Canada after an absence of five years, the reception given him by the Indians was distant, sullen, defiant, as was but natural on learning that their chief and their friends had not been returned to them. I pay no attention to the dissimulation about the fate of those Indians which Cartier is said to have resorted to. If that was the beginning of intercourse between Frenchmen, contemplating settlement in New France, and the natives, we have no reason to be surprised that the success which marked the effort was as small as it is stated to have been. Whichever record we read, we must admit that intercourse was, as a rule, not happy. The constant effort of the missionaries may have been along better lines; and there are exceptionally bright cases among the officials; but the motives which gov- erned the average Frenchman, and the inherent character of the Indian, made assimilation and concord as difficult as is the mingling of oil and water. When British rule in Canada was firmly established, and after the Indians were chastised into showing fear and respect for the power of their conquerors, condi- tions mended. The Dominion Government has for a very long time exercised the most admirable care in protecting the Indians, in trying to elevate them socially, and to preserve them physically. It is, however, an almost hopeless task. For one reason, the average Indian maiden, if she possesses any charm of mind or BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 4I manner, is sought in marriage by white men, and when allowed to make her own choice gives preference to the white man over her own people. The Noble Red Man does not always thrive in modern civilisation, and slowly but surely the pure strain of blood is flowing away. The behef — or perhaps it would be more charitable and equally exact to say, the hope — that the much desired passage to the East Indies, might yet be found through or around America to the northward, obsessed the French Canadians for a very long time. Even Champlain, practical as he was in most matters, listened only too willingly to the declaration of the impostor, Nicolas du Vignau. This fellow declared he had, in part, discovered such a route in 161 2, by going from Lake Nipissing to Hudson's Bay. Champlain, on the strength of this statement, went to the lake determined to prosecute the search. But the friendly Indian chief, Tessouat, proved conclusively that Vignau was a liar, and he demanded that Champlain punish the deceiver with death. The governor con- tented himself with administering a sharp rebuke, and then he returned disappointed to Quebec. Yet it could not be that the French would remain passive while there stretched before them the great western and northern parts of the continent. It would be tedious to mention all the efforts of the colonial government in erecting frontier forts, those of the mis- sionaries in establishing remote stations, and of the coureurs des hois, as well as other traders, in making more or less permanent trading posts. All of these were gradually pushing forward the line of civilisation. 42 THE COMING CANADA The most important move in conquering the wilder- ness, was the discovery of the Mississippi River. Joliet, with his Httle company, including Father Marquette, descended the great stream to the mouth of the Arkansas. It may be interesting to note here that had Joliet's right, as discoverer, to christen the river been recognised, it would now be called the Colbert River, for, when mak- ing his report to Governor Frontenac, he wrote, ''this great river, which bears the name of Colbert, from having been discovered lately in consequence of the orders given by you, passes from beyond lakes Huron and Michigan, and flows through Florida and Mexico into the sea, intersecting the most beautiful region there is to be seen in the world." The name was, of course, a compliment to Jean Baptiste Colbert, the French states- man and financier. If we deny to Robert la Salle the honour of discovering the Mississippi, by that means being the first to know the stream, we cheerfully accord him the distinction of being the first to navigate the river from far in the north to the sea, in 1682. It was he who claimed the entire basin for his King, and in honour of that sovereign, he named it Louisiana. La Salle also established many outposts and greatly extended French importance among the western Indians. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, unmis- takable signs of friction between the French and English became evident, and this prevented official effort to extend western exploration. It was about this same period, too, that the family name, Le Moyne, appears conspicuously in Canadian records. While the two BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 43 brothers, Charles and Jacques, born in France, were the Canadian progenitors of tliis remarkable family and themselves entitled to much commendation, it is to the members of the second generation in Charles' family that most credit is due. There were fourteen children in this brood, all of whom achieved fame or died gloriously in the cause of their country. To each of the eleven sons was given, in addition to the family name, a surname taken from a village or noted place near Dieppe, the ancestral home. It is the third, Pierre Le Moyne, as Sieur d'Iberville, who has been given, by an admiring historian, the added title of ''The First Great Canadian." The Le Moynes, however, had less to do with extending the frontiers of New France than with defending the borders from what they considered to be unlawful incursions by other European nations; as will be seen in the next chapter. The progress made by the French in proper western extension, was exceedingly slow. When the historian and Jesuit missionary, Pierre Frangois Xavier de Charle- voix, visited Canada in 1720, and after giving a consider- able time to carefully observation, he stated that the colony was virtually restricted to narrow fringes along both shores of the St. Lawrence River and the few settlements in the maritime provinces. Above Montreal, he declared, the country was entirely unsettled by Europeans, excepting some small, inadequately fortified posts and blockhouses; such as Frontenac, at Catara- coni, just below the present Kingston, Niagara, at the mouth of the river, Detroit, and IMichillimakinac, on the St. Mary's River where it empties into Lake Huron 44 THE COMING CANADA from Lake Superior. Of the character of the people in the towns and settlements along the St. Lawrence, this entertaining observer writes intelligently and in quite a complimentary manner. The comparison which he draws between EngHsh and French colonists is not only correct, but instructive. He probably did not reaHse, when he penned his analysis, that the very traits which he lauds in the French and condemns in the English, thrift, acquisitiveness, energy, were to be the potent factors in the downfall of French Canada. About the middle of the eighteenth century, there were three recognised lanes of communication between Canada and Louisiana. One went from Lake Erie by the Riviere aux Boeufs and the Allegheny River to the Ohio, and down that stream to the Mississippi. Another left the southern end of Lake Michigan, at a point about where Chicago now stands, and after a portage to the navigable waters of the Illinois River, followed that stream to the Mississippi. The third passed from Green Bay, Lake Michigan, into Fox River, and by portage from Lake Oshkosh and its tributaries, reached the Wisconsin River and so into the Mississippi very far up stream. Fort de Chartres, in the vicinity of the present town of Chester, Illinois, some distance north of the Ohio's mouth, was the most advanced outpost of the Louisiana settlements. The first of the intercommunicating lanes which have been mentioned, and by far the most im- portant, was protected by a number of fortified posts, stretching southward and westward from Lakes Ontario and Erie; and it was along this road that troubles were ^ ' ' ' 'P ^ 'jkJ aj^=iJg^5rr"^I2r Canadian Northern Railway Elevator, Port Arthur, Ont. Capacity, 7,500,000 bushels Beach at Little Metis, Quebec Province BEGINNING OF NEW FRANCE 45 doomed to occur very soon between the French and the EngKsh. It will be c\ident, however, that the most westward forts of New France had not begun to reach half way across the continent. In 1 73 1, the Canadian authorities determined to put into effect a plan that had been discussed as far back as 1 7 18. This was an attempt to send an expedition overland to the Pacific. Governor de Beauharnais, after consultation with Pierre- Gauthier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye, appointed him to take charge of the venture. This was not only because of the gentle- man's personal traits, but for the added reason that experience in trafficking \nth the western Indians had brought him considerable knowledge of that remote country. In an incidental expedition, before the main object had been fairly undertaken, the eldest son of M. de la Verendrye, the Jesuit priest Father Alneau or Auneau, and twenty voyageurs were murdered by Sioux Indians on an island in the Lake of the Woods. But the remainder prosecuted the exploration, and on Janu- ary I, 1743, they were the first Europeans to see the Rocky Mountains: thence they returned to Quebec. The expedition had lasted from April 29, 1742, to July 2, 1743. Although the senior Verendrye endeavoured to push his claim to be allowed to continue the explora- tion, it was disallowed. So far as the French were con- cerned, it does not appear that they went to the top of the mountains, or beyond them. This is a very brief, but reasonably complete sketch of French effort at western exploration. The more successful attempts of the British will appear from time 46 THE COMING CANADA to time in subsequent sections. But I cannot close this chapter without reference to Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee's paper, The Lake of the Woods^ Tragedy,* and his monograph on La Verendrye and the discovery of the Rocky Mountains, one volume in the forthcoming History of Canada, now being written imder the direc- tion of Dr. Arthur G. Doughty, C.M.G., Dominion Archivist, as editor in chief. To the latter monumental work, all students of American history will be ever- lastingly indebted. * Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., Sec. II, 1903. CHAPTER IV THE GREAT HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY BEFORE discussing the English company, it is interesting to consider the efforts of the French and others to reach the North Sea, as they called Hud- son Bay. Sebastian Cabot discovered this body of water in 15 12, but after that it was so completely for- gotten or overlooked, that it is said to have been re-dis- covered by Henry Hudson in 16 10, when he was trying to find a northwest passage through to the Pacific Ocean. It was not on Hudson's first voyage to this part of the world that he pushed as far westward as the bay which deservedly bears his name. In 1607, he had made, in the employ of the Muscovy Company, an unsuccessful effort to get round Greenland. At that time his vessel was the Hopewell, sixty tons burden, and carrying a crew of ten men and a boy. This little craft had been to the same region twenty- nine years before, under Sir Martin Frobisher's com- mand. The temptation to dwell upon Frobisher's voyage must be resisted; for while it is interesting, it is somewhat irrelevant. In 16 10, Hudson made another attempt. This time his vessel was the Discoverie, of seventy tons and with a somewhat larger crew than the EopeweWs. He reached the bay; but the next summer the majority of his crew mutinied, put liim, his son, and seven men into a small boat and set them adrift. 48 THE COMING CANADA What became of these unfortunates no one knows, but imagination can readily supply the conclusion of the awful story. The leaders of the mutiny and most of the remainder of the men died, but the Discoverie safely reached England, and she was again used by Sir Thomas Butler in a similar enterprise a few years later. Again, in 1 6 13 and 16 14 Hudson Bay was visited by English- men, and the place surveyed. In 1 65 1, the Jesuits, after having gone up the Saguenay River to Lake St. John four years before, made their way overland from the lake to a point about half the distance to James Bay, the deep, southern bight of Hudson Bay. Their object was to reach the natives who had asked that missionaries be sent to them. In 1 66 1, the unsuccessful expedition under M. la VaUiere, Father Dablon, and others, was sent to try to reach Hudson Bay by the same route; but the dread of the Iroquois discouraged the Indian guides, who pretended ignorance of the country, and the party returned. In 1656, Jean Bourdon, in a small craft of only thirty tons burden, had entered Hudson Bay and reached the southern extremity, where he trafficked with the natives. His success seems to be reflected in the narrative of the next venture to be mentioned. There is some doubt as to whether or not Pierre- Esprit Radisson, a voyagetir, reached James Bay; but some Canadian students who have given careful atten- tion to the subject, are of the opinion that he did. Dr. Benjamin Suite* says: *' Whatever may be said of the * Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., Vol. X, Sec. II. Radisson in the Northwest, 1661-63. Hudson's bay company 49 whereabouts of Chouart (Radisson's brother-in-law) and Radisson during the summer of 1662, whether they went to James Bay or to Lake Winnipeg, is open to discussion, although I believe they visited James Bay." This assumption is based mainly upon the fact that Radisson declared the people of Chagouamigon (on the northern shore of Lake Superior?), where he spent the winter of 1662-63, "after his return from James Bay," had been told by him of his promise to ''the Indians of James Bay of his intention to go back to them by the Atlantic Ocean, as they occupy the territory of the beaver, par excellence ^ It is but right, however, to give what Dr. Suite him- self quotes and says, which seems to contradict his own opinion. Father Jerome Lallemant, in the Journal des Jesuites says: ''I left Quebec on May 3rd, 1662, for Three Rivers. I came across des Groseilliers, who was going to the North Sea. He passed during the night before, Quebec, with ten men, and, having arrived at Cap Tourmente, he wrote to the Governor." Dr. Suite adds: ''If the date of this note is correct, the voyage of Radisson may be open to doubt." Father Louis Hennepin, in his edition of 1698 (Nouveau Voyage) writes: "The Great Bay of the North was discovered by Monsieur Desgroseliers Rochechouart (sic.) with whom I often travelled in canoe when I was in Canada." But Father Hennepin is not absolutely infallible as an historian. The claim which he puts forward in his Nouvelle Decouverte d'un tres grand Pays, of ha\ing descended the Mississippi, in 1680, is known to be false. 50 THE COMING CANADA M. Talon arrived in Canada in 1665 bearing the appointment of Royal Intendant. By provisions of the French Constitution of 1663, this ofhcial was placed in charge of the police, finances, and general administra- tion of justice throughout the whole colony. Talon was called ''The Colbert of Canada," and this sobriquet indicates something of his ability. He is described as a man of high character and an official of lofty probity. He is credited with having promoted expeditions for extending the boundaries of New France towards the northward and westward. These efforts, it is declared, subseque7itly resulted in the discovery of the North Sea; as if the success were something new. On June 28, 1672, one expedition which Talon pro- moted, went from Quebec by way of Tadousac, the Saguenay River, and Lake St. John to the southern shore of James Bay. The leaders of this company were St. Simon and La Couture, with whom there was Father Charles Albanal. They found the country to be a desolate region, yet they took possession in the name of the King of France; and in proof of this, they buried a brass plate, on which were engraved the royal arms. This act, confirming the previous assertion of proprietary rights by France to all the continent, certainly north- ward from the St. Lawrence Basin and the Great Lakes — if nothing more — was the ground upon wliich the French took their stand before long in almost constant efforts to dislodge those whom they called "English intruders;" until the peace of Utrecht, April 11, 17 13, confirmed the title of Great Britain to the Hudson's Bay Territory. Hudson's bay company 51 In 1670, Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, and sixteen other noblemen and gentlemen received from Charles II of England a charter creating "The Gover- nor and Company of Adventurers of England trading to Hudson's Bay." The charter seems to have been all that monopoly could ask: ''the sole trade and com- merce of all those seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits commonly called Hudson's Straits, together with all the lands and territories upon the countries, coasts, and confines of the seas, bays, etc., aforesaid, that are not already actually possessed by or granted to any of our subjects, or possessed by the subjects of any other Christian prince or state." Besides the fullest governing and administrative powers over these undefined regions, ''which the Company finally agreed to accept as meaning all lands watered or drained by all streams flowing into Hudson's Bay," and a good deal more, the Company was given the right to "the whole and entire trade and traffick to and from all havens, bays, creeks, rivers, lakes, and seas into which they shall find entrance or passage by water or land out of the territories, limits, or places aforesaid." A map drawn some time ago of "British America to illustrate the Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company," * shows a line lea\ang the head of Committee Bay and going southwesterly to Wallas ton Lake, around the headwaters of all streams flowing east into Hudson * See Canada tinder British Rule, 1760-igoo, by Sir John G. Bourinot, p. 222. 52 THE COMING CANADA Bay. Thence, inclining more to the west, it reaches the summit of the Rocky Mountains at the source of the North Branch of the Saskatchewan River. Then south along the crest of the main ridge, extending about one hundred miles into the United States. It then turns to the northeast and re-enters Canada, but soon bends south and re-crosses the boundary in order to take in the headwaters of the Red River of the North. It then follows the divide of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence to the headwaters of the Saguenay River, and thence bears up sharply to the north, reaching the ocean again at Cape Chudleigh, Labrador. Within this area there are millions of square miles. In this immense region, which was called Riiperfs Land, in honour of the prince concessionaire, the first attempts at settlement were on the shores of James Bay and the mouth of the Churchill and Hayes (or Nelson) Rivers. Had it not been for the attacks of the French and the heavy losses they inflicted, the profits of the Company would have been so enormous from the traffic along shore, that it is probable no attempt would have been made to exploit the interior. So negligent was the Company in this respect that, in 1749, some envious people attempted to secure the passage of an act of parliament, forfeiting the charter on the ground of " non user." This attack was thwarted, by means that are not unfamiliar to the champions of *'big business" to-day; but the investigation that was forced developed the fact that the Company had less than a dozen trading places, called — and not altogether without reason — *' forts." These were all scattered HUDSONS BAY COMPANY 53 along the coast and were maintained by a few regular employees, who resided in them throughout the winter, and were aided in the ''open" season by the crews of the visiting ships. These vessels were always heavily armed. It was inevitable that individual fur-traders and small companies should attempt to break in upon the monop- oly of the great Hudson's Bay Company, and these in turn effected a combination to work territory which they justly claimed was outside the concession of their predecessor. The competition which this developed was, for a time, most disastrous, and after varying vicissitudes, the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1838, again secured a monopoly; this time over the whole of Canada. The Company's licenses to trade, which had never been affected, were transferred, in a manner, to the British Government in 1869 for the sum of £300,000, and a shareholder's interest of one-twentieth of the entire grant. Even to-day, the traveller's eyes fre- quently fall upon the sign "Hudson's Bay Company" over a furrier's shop in some city, or a ''general store" in a small place far out west. If he has taken more than superficial interest in the history of the Dominion, these signs will recall some stirring scenes in the past, and will bring to mind the names of many true heroes. But let us first turn to some of the encounters between the Frenchmen who made life a burden for the Hudson's Bay Company people, at the stations along the coasts of Hudson Bay. In this connection, we must almost necessarily think of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iber\ille. Governor Frontenac was in most ways an admirable official — invaluable, in fact, as we know because of 54 THE COMING CANADA re-appointment; but he was rather arbitrary and dis- posed to arrogate to himself authority which was properly deputed to others, who claimed the right to administer certain affairs of the colony. He got into disputes with the clergy and laity as to the relative powers of the three important officials, Governor, Bishop, and Inten- dant. He was disposed to usurp wholly the functions of the intendant, and he refused to permit the clergy to have anything to do with civil affairs, even when such came properly within their province: the liquor traffic, for example. Matters came to such a pass that the Bishop, Laval, a name that is now held in high esteem by all Canadians, went to France to try to sustain his position. Fron- tenac, however, had influential friends at Court, and the appeals of both parties were almost negative in their direct results. The upshot of the matter was that the Court, being unable to effect harmony, recalled both Frontenac and Duchesneau, the Intendant; the Bishop it could not touch. M. de la Barre was appointed governor and M. de MeuUes intendant. The former was before long suc- ceeded by M. de Denonville. In 1683, the great Colbert was succeeded in office as Minister of Marine by his eldest son, Jean Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seigneley, who held office until his death in 1690. Inas- much as the colonies were all under the control of this department of the French administration, de Seigneley interested himself, both from necessity and because of personal ambition, in the affairs of Canada. He gave orders to Governor Denonville to take active Hudson's bay company 55 measures to decide the long standing dispute as to the rights of France or England in the territory around Hudson Bay, which was by him considered to include all of Labrador as well as the precise Hudson Bay basin. The French government looked upon this region as of great importance strategically; but of greater economic value on account of the fur- trade. Whether Radisson, who has been mentioned, actually made his way to Hudson Bay or not, it is certain that it was because of his representations and persuasions that ''The Com- pany of English Adventurers " came into corporate being, and estabHshed trading posts at places where the very best of fur-trade was exploited. These "forts kept the current of skins flowing steadily toward England." Radisson was supposed to be a Frenchman; and of this there is little doubt, even if his original Journal is written in quaint old English. He had a position under the French colonial government, but he betrayed his post and an entire shipload of valuable furs to the English. It was this particular act which roused the indignation of the Canadians, and made them call upon the Home Government to bestir itself in asserting and upholding French rights in the Hudson Bay territory. Erelong a number of Quebec merchants formed an association which they called, "La Compagnie du Nord." The promoters intended, with government aid, to attack in every way the monopoly of the great Hud- son's Bay Company. Just at that moment, it happened that France, under King Louis XIV, and England, under James II, were officially at peace. But the former argued, not un- 56 THE COMING CANADA naturally, that inasmuch as he was giving the latter large sums of money each year, in satisfaction of the terms of what was then a secret agreement between the two monarchs, mainly in the interests of the Roman Cathohc Church, his beneficiary would hardly resent militantly the attempt of the patron to occupy the dis- puted Rupert's Land. Besides, there was a semblance of right on the French monarch's part. Hudson, it is true, was the re-discoverer in 1610; but Cabot was the original discoverer, and nobody from England, or anywhere in Europe for that matter, had taken the slightest notice of this God- forsaken land for nearly eighty years after Hudson had told about it. At length Radisson and Groseilliers, Frenchmen, made an establishment at the mouth of the Hayes River, 1661-1663. That was from five to eight years before the English had founded a trading station on Rupert River, 1 668-1 669; and from seven to nine years before the Hudson's Bay Company was chartered. There were, however, other reasons more cogent than the peltry trade, enormously profitable though it was, which doubtless influenced the French King in his desire to get the English away from Hudson Bay. His servants in New France were looking with alarm upon the fact that English settlements were likely to press upon Canada from both south and north, if the trading- posts on Hudson Bay were permitted to remain and to follow the natural law of extension. It was not so very far from the head of James Bay to the St. Lawrence watershed, and each year it would be easier to pass from Hudson's bay company 57 the Hudson Bay posts into Canada. Of course at that time, the much easier routes by the Severn or the Nelson River and Lake Winnipeg, were not open. In obedience to Seigneley's orders, Governor Denon- ville mobilised at Montreal a company of regular soldiers and voyageurs, thirty of the former and seventy of the latter, under the command of Captain de Troyes, an officer in the celebrated Carignan Regiment. There were, besides, a large body of Indians, guides, canoe men, and hangers-on generally. Among the Canadians were three young members of the Le Moyne family, de St. Helene, that is Jacques, the second son, dTberville, Pierre, the third, and de Maricourt, the fourth. They had volunteered to act as guides, interpreters, and scouts ; but they were very quickly made leaders; and before long Pierre was next in command to De Troyes. There were then — as, indeed, we may say there are now — three canoe routes, in the right season not involving any exceedingly difficult portages, betwxen the St. Lawrence River and Hudson Bay (briefly — the Saguenay River; the St. Maurice River; and the Ottawa River — Lake Abillibi). This ^'troup of daredevil bushrangers sweeping down the forested waterways of the North," chose the third; hoping to keep the English from getting warning in advance, and also to evade the watchful eyes of any wandering band of Iroquois. The time, the circumstances, and the customary hap-hazardness of such enterprises being considered, this expedition was remarkably well organised. Every white man was a fighter, first of all; but each one had, besides, some accomplishment or trade that was to be 58 THE COMING CANADA useful in carrying out the minor object of the enterprise, that is the establishing and maintaining permanent stations after the main purpose of dislodging the English had been accomplished. The full narrative of this expedition is absorbingly interesting to adults; while it makes the heart and muscles of a strong, venturesome boy tingle to-day; and it is not surprising that it has been given in detail.* The full company heard mass early in the morning of March 20, 1686, and then "departed bravely through the eager throng of relatives and friends who collected at the shore to look long and anxiously after them as they ascended the frozen channel of the river." On June i8th, they were within sight of Hudson Bay. "In three months the hardy voyageurs had covered six hun- dred miles of new trail, through a most rugged part of Canada by snowshoes." It was not in midwinter, as some writers state; for at that season it would really have been an easier task — so far as actual travel is concerned — than the one they performed in the late winter and spring, when the snow was soft and the ice breaking. At that time the English had but few posts along the Hudson Bay Uttoral: Moose Factory, called Fort Mon- sipi by the Indians and Fort St. Louis by the French, at the mouth of Moose River, southwestern end of James Bay; Fort Rupert at the southeastern corner of the same bay; Fort Kitchichouane or Fort Albany, at the mouth of the Albany River, called Fort St. Anne by * Charles B. Reed. The First Great Canadian: the Story of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d' Iberville. Hudson's bay company 59 the French; New Savanne or Severn, at the mouth of the Severn River, called by the French Fort St. Therese; and Fort Nelson, afterwards Fort York, which the French called Fort Bourbon. This last named was the strongest and best of all, and its location, at the mouths of the Hayes and Nelson Rivers, the most important strategically and economically at that time, as it has always been ever since. Radisson and GroseilHers had made a station near this same place and it was this fact which gave the French the only basis for their claim to the territory. The French, under the direction of DTberville and De St. Helene, attacked Moose Factory and were promptly successful, although the commandant. Governor Bridgon, had left the previous evening, June 17, 1686, with fif- teen men for Fort Rupert. The Frenchmen followed them, and it is said that DTberville, with only a small squad, opened a trail across the neck of land — between Hannah and Rupert Bays — that is used to this day. The attacking party covered the one hundred and twenty miles in five days. Again they were at once successful, and after resting four days, they returned to Moose Factory, and thence went on to Fort Albany. When the French arrived before this post, the garrison had been informed of the impending attack by some friendly Indians, and should have been prepared to resist. Partly because of the fierce assault, but mainly through treachery within, the governor, Sargeant, was compelled to capitulate, and for his weakness was severely censured later by the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company. But apparently he had no alternative. 6o THE COMING CANADA This victory gave the French large supplies of pro- visions, trading stores, ammunition, and a ship loaded with fifty thousand valuable furskins. It also made them masters of Hudson Bay. The ship and most of the Englishmen were sent to France in charge of a prize crew. Although not yet officially constituted by royal charter, ^'The Governor and Company of Adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay" seems to have been at that time an organised body; for on receipt in London of the news from the bay, the directors sent a petition to King James praying for redress because "the French of Canada, this yeare, have in a piraticale manner taken and totally despoyled youre Peticioners of three of theyre Fortes and Factories on Hudson's Bay, three of their shypes or vessels, Fifty Thousand Beaver skins, and a grete quantity of provisions, stores, and marchandises laid in for manye yeares trade, and have in a small vessel turned out to sea above Fifty of Youre Majestic 's sub- jects who were then in youre Peticioners service, to shifte for themselves or perish miserably, besides those whome they have kylled or detayned Prisoners." It was some years, however, before anything was even contemplated. When ships were sent to attempt the recapture of Fort Nelson, news of the expedition was communicated to the French authorities in Canada and to D 'Iberville, who not only harassed the English, but by a clever coup gained possession of the vessel that had the cargo of furs and carried her off to Quebec; thus further "despoyling" the Company. When Frontenac was again sent as Governor to Prince Rlpert Harbour On Moose Tkaii. Ri\er, B. C Hudson's bay company 6i Canada, in 1689, William of Orange and Queen Mary were on the English throne, and all pretence of friend- ship between the English and French Courts had ceased. It was the beginning of the long struggle between New France and New England, and the Hudson's Bay Com- pany was made to bear its full share of the burden. The Peace of Utrecht brought a little respite, so far as open hostilities went; but it was not until the transfer of Canada to Great Britain, 1763, that the Company was relieved from all anxiety due to French interference and depredations. But there came other causes for anxiety. The Hud- son's Bay Company maintained its American head- quarters at York Factory (Fort Nelson) ; its employees going along all the shores and as far inland as necessary to gather up the pelts. In 1783, The North West Com- pany was organised by some Montreal merchants, most of whom were Scotchmen. They contemplated working in the North West Territories, going in from the south and diverting a part of the furskins from going north into the Hudson's Bay Company's hands. Its adminis- trative headquarters were at Fort William on the Kaministiquia River. This name has disappeared from our modern maps, but the location of Fort William, on Thunder Bay, Lake Superior, is readily established, and its advantages as a shipping point are conspicous. The North West Company's men became explorers of the then unknown lands away off to the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans. Alexander Mackenzie, afterwards knighted, was the first white man to follow the great river which bears his 62 THE COMING CANADA name, from its source to its mouth. He was, too, the first European to cross the Rocky Mountains and reach the Pacific shores in that latitude. Another employee of the Company, Simon Fraser, in 1808 found the river which bears his name, and which, for a long time, was confused with the Columbia, or at least supposed to be an affluent of that stream. Later, David Thompson, whose name is given to another important river in British Columbia, crossed the Rockies farther south of ]\Iackenzie's trail, and descended the Columbia to its mouth. He also was probably the first European to see Puget Sound. These are but a few of the pioneers; yet their exploits give an inkling of what competition the Hudson's Bay Company was made to face. The culmination of the rivalry was reached about 18 18, and is attributable to the effort of Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of Selkirk, to establish a colony in the Red River of the North basin. His settlers were under the protection of the Hudson's Bay Company; while opposed to them were squatters and others, "Northwesters," who were supported by the North West Company. Governor Semple, of the Selkirk colony, and twenty-six persons connected there- with, were murdered by half-breeds, and justice was thwarted by false swearing. Then, in 182 1, the North West Company made over all its property to its rival, and thus were the fortunes of the Hudson's Bay Company retrieved, and prosperity came again to its shareholders, but it was at the expense of the public. Practically all clearheaded Canadians (who were not personally interested in the company) Hudson's bay company 63 saw that its monopoly was acting as a serious deterrent to the proper development of the west and north, and a movement was started to break up the monopoly. The Company's directors were sagacious enough to see that they could not indefinitely withstand public senti- ment, and this facilitated the negotiations between Sir George Cartier and the Hon. William Macdougall, Colonial commissioners, and representatives appointed by the Company. These brought about a transfer of all the Company's imperial domains, excepting small areas at factories. Into further details I cannot go, although there is yet much of interest to narrate. CHAPTER V CONFLICT: WARS IN AMERICA BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND FOR the causes of the really important wars between France and England in North America, we must of course look to conditions in Europe. But there were sundry minor belligerent affairs in the earlier years of Canadian history which demand a few minutes consider- ation. From the time of the settlement at Jamestown, Vir- ginia, 1607, England claimed the whole territory of northeastern America from the Florida seaboard up to the 45th parallel of North latitude. That line takes in about one-half of Nova Scotia, the southern one-third of Maine, is the northern boundary of Vermont and of New York east of the St. Lawrence River at Cornwall, Ontario, includes more than one-half of the province of Ontario as it was until recently, cuts across the tip of the southern peninsula of Michigan, bisects Green Bay, and passes west through St. Paul and Minneapolis. France, however, contended that her rights extended down to the 40th parallel : that is to say, to Philadelphia, Wheeling, West Virginia, Columbus, Ohio, Quincy, Illinois. It is for convenience only that modern names are used, because they help the reader to understand more clearly the conflicting claims of the two Powers, WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 65 France and England, in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Upon the strength of France's claim, an expedition under the command of La Saussure headed for the Penobscot River, with the intention of establishing a colony of Jesuits and their followers. But the foggy weather that is so prevalent in that section during the summer, prevented their finding the mouth of the river and a landing was made on Mount Desert Island, where a settlement was begun and called Saint Sauveur. It was a thrifty colony for a time, but it was crushed out of existence by the English before long. The English declared that the central portion of Acadia belonged to them, and Mount Desert of course. Capt. Argall appeared off the coast of the island, in a vessel mounting fourteen guns, and demanded the sur- render of Saint Sauveur. Some sHght show of resist- ance being made — so he claimed — he assaulted and sacked the place, taking most of the inhabitants prisoners while a few escaped in a small boat. Argall deliberately stole La Saussure's commission and then declared that he and his people were unaccredited adventurers. There is not space to give full attention to the consequences of this cruel and dishonourable act; but when the facts became known to the English gov- ernment of Virginia, it was necessary either to support Argall or repudiate him as a pirate. The former course was chosen and it was determined to drive all French- men from every post occupied by them south of 45° North latitude. Sainte Croix and Port Royal were destroyed and 66 THE COMING CANADA Acadia was devastated. Poutrincourt, the founder of Port Royal and even of Acadia itself, fled to France. Some compensation for the loss inflicted by the illegal acts of Argall and the other Virginians, was subsequently made by the British government. The episode can hardly be dignified by the appellation of *'war, " yet it served to show the jealousy between the peoples of the two nations which early asserted itself in North America, and that feeling never was allayed until one of the Powers was driven out. After Argall had razed Port Royal, the English left Acadia without maldng effort to substantiate their claims to any part of the region. In 162 1, Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of StirHng (by which title he is better known), was given a grant of the province by James I of England. The next year a company of emigrants left Scotland with the intention of planting permanent colonies in the section which thereafter was to be called Nova Scotia, ''New Scotland." As they arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland, late in. the autumn, they were obliged to pass the winter there. In the spring of 1623, their vessel sailed again and they coasted along the southern shore of Acadia to Cape Sable. The Frenchmen being again in full possession, the Scots turned about and returned home. In 1626, Alexander received from King James a grant conferring upon him "the Lordship of Canada." This was at the time of the war in France between Roman Catholics and Huguenots. To understand clearly the bearing of this matter upon Canadian liistory, careful attention should be given to the siege of La Rochelle, WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 67 and the anger of the English Duke of Buckingham at the relief of the town by Cardinal Richeheu, as well as to Buckingham's success in persuading the King of England to declare war against Louis XIII of France. Hostilities speedily spread to America and a naval expedition, under command of David Kirke — with whom were associated his brothers, Louis and Thomas — appeared in the St. Lawrence and Quebec surrendered in July, 1629; but was promptly restored to France upon re-establishing of peace between the parent countries. During this time it was not only the English from whom the Roman CathoKc French in Canada suffered attack (religious freedom was \irtually suspended in 1628); but there were French Protestants who harassed them. The most formidable of these was Claude de La Tour, a ''baronet" of Nova Scotia by letters patent from the English king. His ships flew the English colours and were manned principally by EngKshmen. A sentimental episode in connection with this enter- prise is the fact that when La Tour arrived before the French fort at Cape Sable, it was commanded by his own son. The father tried to persuade the son to accept the same favours from the King of England that had been bestowed upon the senior; and then he sought to induce his son to hold the fort as an English possession, not French. The young man refused to do anything of the kind. After a few feeble and unsuccessful attempts at assaults, the elder La Tour gave up the task. But he dared not return either to England or France, so he simply deserted, letting his ships make their way back to England as best they could. The son refused to admit 68 THE COMING CANADA his father into the fort, but he erected for him a small house nearby which he furnished completely. There his father and his stepmother, who had been a Maid of Honour to the Queen of England, lived for several years. The demand for the restitution of Quebec was not favoured by all members of the French council of state, and for some time the fate of New France trembled in the balance; but probably the argument that carried most weight with those who were disposed to give up the attempt to create a realm in that inhospitable region of ice and hostile Indians, was the declaration that it was of the utmost importance to retain possession of all of New France in order to counterbalance the increasing importance which England was gaining through the expansion and increase of population in her American plantations. The demand was therefore pushed \agorously. Car- dinal Richelieu, to stimulate negotiations, equipped a fleet of six men-of-war, which he put under the command of Admiral de Razilli, and let it be known throughout France and in England that they would soon sail for the St. Lawrence, if negotiations were not speedily and satisfactorily brought to a conclusion. The treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye was signed March 29, 1632. By its terms England renounced all pretensions which had ever been made by her subjects, and promised not to permit them to interfere with French administration in Canada, so long as peace lasted. The historian Chalmers, when discussing this episode, says: ''We may date from this treaty the conmience- ment of a long series of evils for Great Britain and her WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 69 colonies, the difficulties with the provincials afterwards, and, in some measure, the success of the American Revolution." It is probable that this event had some influence in weakening the allegiance of the British colonies in North America to the mother country. There is strongly suggestive evidence of this in the fact that in 1648 an envoy from New England arrived at Quebec, charged with a proposal to negotiate, between the British colonies in North America and the colonial administration of New France, independently of their respective Home Governments, a treaty of commerce and perpetual amity between the two sets of colonists. The most important suggestion was that both French and English subjects in North America should remain neutral in all quarrels between their respective mother countries, and, so far as the two colonists were able to do so, not permit European quarrels to be fought out in America. Although the proposal was seriously con- sidered by the French, the negotiations ended in failure to accomplish anything. The main reason for this was the counter proposal of the French, who demanded that a special alliance should be entered into by the two contracting parties to punish the Iroquois and reduce those pestiferous savages to absolute harmlessness. It is suggested by some writers that the French even insisted upon the absolute extermination of the Iroquois. The comment of the New England envoy upon this miHtant proposal is entitled to consideration. It was that such action would seem to stultify the declaration of perpetual amity by compelling the two parties to the compact forthwith to engage in war, although against 70 THE COMING CANADA a third party. Yet in view of the damage to life and property which those Indians were constantly inflicting upon the French, it is not altogether surprising that the latter should seek to secure relief through the co-operation of their proposed allies. We must, however, remember that the Enghsh settlers in New England and New York were disposed to look rather leniently upon the depreda- tions upon the Canadians by the Iroquois, provided their own settlements were not molested. We may pass with little more than mention, the civil war in Acadia about 1647. Isaac de Razilli had been appointed governor-general of the three subdivisions: first, Port Royal with all the territory westward as far as New England (an indefinite line of demarcation, as we know from negotiations in the nineteenth century); second, the country between Port Royal and Canso, the extreme eastern end of Nova Scotia; and third, the rest of Acadia, from Canso to Gaspe, Chevalier de La Tour and M. Denis being lieutenant-governors of the second and third. De Razilli no doubt committed an overt and unfriendly act in taking possession of the fort at Pemaquid, on Booth Bay, Maine, which the Massa- chusetts colonists had built as a storage place for their furskins. This act the New Englanders justly resented, and when La Tour and de Charnisey (who had suc- ceeded de Razilli, after the latter's death) disagreed to the point of fighting, they promptly acceded to La Tour's appeal for assistance. Ohver Cromwell also took a hand in an attempt to recover Acadia; but the effort and its negative results can hardly be said to have attained international importance. WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 71 In spite of the unsatisfactory conditions which are indicated by the minor episodes that have been men- tioned, and other similar affairs which may be passed over, the two nations, France and England, maintained the peace contemplated by the treaty of St. Germain- en-Laye until 1689. On the 12th of May in that year, an alliance between the Emperor of Germany, William III of England, and the Dutch States-general was concluded at Vienna; and as a result war was declared between France and England. In 1688, Major, afterwards Sir, Edmund Andros was appointed governor of New England with New York included in his jurisdiction. Of Andros' character much might be said, but it is sufficient to state here that most historians describe him as tyrannical, vindictive, and implacable in his hatred of the French. Certainly, the annexation of New York to the neighbouring colonies was particularly odious to the people of that colony. Andros is not to be blamed for the fact, however just it may be to criticise adversely the interpretation he put upon his authority and powers. He followed the policy of his predecessor. Col. Richard Nicolls, in his treatment of the Indians. Not only did he foment the deadly enmity of the Iroquois for the Canadians, but he tried, unsuccessfully, to detach the Abenaquis (Abnakis) from their allegiance to the French. ''For this people honoured the countr>TQen of the missionaries who had made the Gospel known to them, and their nation became a living barrier to New France on that side, which no force sent from New England could surmount; insomuch that the Abenaquis, some 72 THE COMING CANADA time afterwards, having crossed the borders of the English possessions, and harassed the remoter colonists, the latter were fain to apply to the Iroquois to enable them to hold their own." * The retort of the French was a suggestion of Chevalier de Callieres to Governor Denonville that an assault be made upon New York. This would divert invasion by a direct attack upon the enemy; a popular device in certain circumstances. In order to secure the sanction and support of the government at Paris, de Callieres sailed for France to assure the King, Louis XIV, that it was the only way to save Canada to France. For several years there had been quiet in New France, and incompetent officials had failed totally to compre- hend that the calm was portentous. A storm was gathering and in August, 1689, it broke. A band of I4CX5 Iroquois warriors fell upon the little hamlet of Lachine, at the western end of Montreal Island, and the frightful "Massacre of Lachine" was perpetrated. On the 1 8th October, 1689, de Frontenac, accompanied by de Callieres, landed at Quebec and found himself, upon taking up again the administration of the colonial government, obliged to contend both with the English colonists and The Five Nations. Later, about 17 13, the Tuscaroras were received into the Iroquois con- federacy, which was thereafter called *^ The Six Nations." France, in Europe, was now engaged in conflict with other Five Nations at once. Great Britain, the German Empire, Holland, Spain, and Savoy; because the Revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes had aroused the Protestant ♦ Bell, Hist, of Can. WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 73 nations to action against France.* The French-Cana- dian colonists had no personal interest in that European contest, but they were expected to render assistance, and did so, by fighting with the New Englanders, who, on their part, were but too willing to attack New France. De Callieres' plan was put into operation, and Admiral de la Caffiniere, with two men-of-war, was ordered to scourge the Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to New York, inflicting whatever damage he could to shipping and settlements. He was then to blockade the port of New York, "and there wait the results of an invasion of the province, on the land side, by the Canadians. If, as was expected, the province of New York fell into French hands, its Roman Catholic inhab- itants were to be allowed to remain, after having sworn fidelity to their new masters; but the chief functionaries and principal colonists were to be kept prisoners till they were ransomed. As for the commonalty, they were to be transported to New England and Pennsylvania. De Callieres was then to be installed as governor of the province." f One of the ghastly incidents of the campaign from the north was the assault and massacre at Schenectady (Corlaer) in reprisal for the Lachine Massacre. Another was the attack upon Salmon Falls (New Hampshire). A third was the expedition from Quebec to Casco at the mouth of the Kennebec River. Subsequently came the renewal of attack upon Quebec, and the siege of that * I do not take time to explain the seeming incongruity of Roman Catholic Spain joining a Protestant coalition against France. She did not remain long in that opposition. J. K. G. t Bell, op. cit. 74 THE COMING CANADA place by a fleet under command of Sir William Phipps, a New England born British subject, after his capture of Port Royal in 1690. Appearing before the town on the 1 6th of October, he sent to de Frontenac a somewhat bombastic summons to surrender. To this the governor returned a very tart reply and the attack began: but nothing important was accomplished, and after a few days the British fleet sailed away, October 21st. When Phipps' ships opened the bombardment of Quebec the batteries in the lower town promptly returned the fire and fairly effectively. ''Some of the first shots fired brought down the flag of Pliipps' own vessel. Seeing this, some of the men on shore swam out and fished up the prize, despite a discharge of small arms directed on them by the enemy. This flag, which was afterwards suspended to the ceiling of Quebec Cathedral, as a trophy, there remained till the edifice was consumed during the siege of 1759." With the characteristically varying chances of w^ar, this conflict in North America lasted until the Peace of Utrecht. The Hudson Bay campaign has been already alluded to. French historians claim, and this is not seriously disputed by English authorities, that de Fron- tenac's energy and skill overcame all obstacles; ''that the war was most glorious for the Canadians, so few in number compared with their adversaries; and that, far from succumbing to their enemies, they carried the war into the adversaries' camp, and struck at the heart of their most remote possessions." Were space available it would be proper to discuss other events until "The Treaty of Ryswick" (September WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 75 21, 1697), which really brought about no substantial cessation of hostihties between the French and English in North America. The powerful fleet of warships and transports carrying five regiments, sent from England to Canada by way of Boston, in 171 1, was to have co-operated with a land force of several thousand New England regular and irregular troups, with Indian aUies, who were to march by way of Lake Champlain, and all combine for an attack upon Quebec. The fleet, how- ever, met w^ith serious misfortune almost immediately upon entering the river, and what vessels escaped ship- wreck returned home with their own crews and the few who were saved from the ships that had been driven on the rocks. When the land forces heard of the disaster that had befallen the fleet, they too retraced their steps. Thus Canada was saved from further invasion for the time being, and in January, 1712, negotiations for peace were commenced. These were procrastinated until March, 17 13, when the plenipotentiaries of France and Spain on one side, and those of England, Holland, Prussia, the German States, Savoy, and Denmark, signed the ''Treaty of Utrecht." It is declared by some writers that the important matter of definite boundaries of French and English claims in North America was intentionally left undecided in this treaty, in order that this omission might serve as a pretext at any future time for going to war again in that part of the world. This seems hardly to be a fair view of the matter. In the first place it is extremely doubtful if either England of France gave much concern to such limitations; and 76 THE COMING CANADA in the second place, neither one probably knew just what it did claim. In the year following the execution of that treaty, France gave great attention to fortifying Louisbourg, and it is said that the equivalent of something like ten million dollars were spent upon this undertaking. The place certainly was, after Quebec, the strongest fortified seaport in America, and when the British forces under- took to capture it in 1745 and 1758 immensely powerful fleets and armies were fitted out, indicating the opinion strategists held of it. In 1744, France again declared war and the American colonies, both French and British, were speedily involved in the conflict. A force from New England, militia, artisans, and farm hands, attacked Louisbourg and secured its capitulation, in April, 1745- This was in retaliation for the capture and burning of the British settlement at Canso (Canseau), Acadia, by Duquesnel, governor of Cape Breton. The conquest of Louisbourg was due more to lack of discipline, absence of competent commanders, and inharmony within, than because of effective attack from without. France made several ineffectual attempts to recover tliis important post, which was, however, restored to her by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, October, 1748, much to the disgust of the New England people. In 1753 may be said to have begun the hostilities which were to culminate in the expulsion of France from North America. It began through disputes as to rights in the Oliio Valley, from which region the French strove to exclude English traders; wliilc English colonists WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 77 persisted in assuming that it was British territory. It was at this time that George Washington made his appearance. He was then an officer in the Virginia militia and only twenty- two years of age. But Wash- ington's regrettable attack upon M. de Jumonville, as well as his subsequent discomfiture at Fort Necessity, with many other episodes, must be passed over. It is well, however, for the reader, who wishes to understand clearly the details of this final conflict be- tween France and Great Britain in North America, to know something about the various posts held by the contending parties; from Acadia, or Nova Scotia, to Louisbourg on Isle Royale (Cape Breton Island). Also of the many frontier forts from Lake Champlain through New York to the Lakes and down into the Ohio Valley at Duquesne (on the site of the present city of Pittsburg: a part of the old fort is still standing). This was the nearest to the British posts. Fort Necessity and Fort Cumberland, on the Potomac River. Also the French posts along the north shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie, and those which served to keep open the line of com- munications between the Lakes and the first outpost of Louisiana, Fort de Chartres. Montreal was scarcely furnished with any fortifications at all. ''The city has notliing but a terraced wall, built for the sole purpose of preventing a surprise or coup de main, and quite incapable of resisting artillery." Quebec was, however, considered by the French to be virtually impregnable. The plan of campaign decided upon after Gen. Brad- dock's arrival in 1754 to take supreme command, was 78 THE COMING CANADA to despatch four expeditions: the first to the Valley of the Ohio; the second against Fort Niagara, at the mouth of the river; the third to Lake Champlain, with the intention of capturing Crown Point; and the fourth to drive the French from those parts of Acadia which remained in their possession. The French resolved upon counter attacks. One of these was to drive the EngHsh back from the south shore of Lake Ontario by a furious rush against Oswego. All commanding officers at military posts throughout French territory were instructed to be vigilant and, in case of attack, to maintain their position to the last extremities. Because of ^'Braddock's Defeat," as his failure is commonly called, the second of the English expeditions hkewise failed to accomplish its purpose. That against Crown Point was partly successful; while the Acadian enterprise was entirely so; the forts surrendering with scarcely a pretence of resistance. As one of the conse- quences of this British success, came the deportation of the Acadians. Of Longfellow's use of this episode in his poem, Evangeline, nothing need be said; but a more practical aspect of it is one that is not so well known. "Scarcely had the Anglo-American troops dis- charged the lamentable duties which had been assigned to them, when the soldiers were struck with horror at their situation. Standing surrounded by rich and well- cultivated fields, they found themselves, nevertheless, in the midst of profound sohtude. They beheld no enemy to attack, no friend to succour. Volumes of smoke ascending from the sites of the burnt habitations marked WARS or FRANCE AND ENGLAND 79 the spots where, a few days before, happy families dwelt. Domestic animals, as if seeking the return of their mas- ters, gathered and moved uneasily around the smoking ruins. During the long nights the watch-dogs howled among the scenes of desolation, and uttered plaintive sounds, as if to recall their ancient protectors and the roofs under which they had been sheltered." * The campaign of 1755 was, in its general results, not unfavourable to the French. They were undisputed masters of the Ohio Valley, and they still held their positions at Niagara and Crown Point. The most disastrous effect of the campaign upon the English came as a consequence of Braddock's defeat; because during the winter and spring of 1755 and 1756, war- parties, composed for the most part of Indians, went from Fort Duquesne to ravage the settlements in Penn- sylvania and Virginia. The English colonists were most cruelly treated: more than a thousand of them, men, women, and children, were killed or carried into captivity that was worse than death. The economic condition of the French colony was at that time most unsatisfactory. The Intendant Bigot and his creatures were administering affairs solely for their own pecuniary benefit, and prices of food stuffs were raised by Bigot, who had the power to fix prices, until the common people could scarcely buy anything. As for government stores, including suppHes for the army and navy, ammunition, etc., the rapacity of these leeches was insatiable. After Gen. Dieskau had been defeated at Fort Carillon * Ferland et Laverdiere, Cours d'histaire du Canada. 8o THE COMING CANADA (Ticonderoga) by Gen. Johnson, the French officers reported to the Home Government that their effective force of regulars was reduced to 1680 men, and they added most discouraging statements about the colony. The French Government responded by sending one thousand regular troops and over a million and a quarter francs in money. With these soldiers and supplies there came to Canada the famous General, De Montcalm, and in his staff were a number of distinguished officers. Montcalm promptly decided to carry out the plan of attacking Oswego, and this was successfully accom- plished, the result adding greatly to his prestige. In 1757, the French captured Fort William Henry, on Lake Champlain, and the English were subjected to all the horrors of Indian warfare. In 1758, Louisbourg was taken by the English under the command of Gen. Wolfe, and then Montcalm began to realise that the dreams of generations of Frenchmen of establishing the trans- Atlantic "Empire of New France" were never to become anything tangible. There were, to be sure, some successes by the French arms, but they were not sufficient to check the tide of defeat. In 1759, it may be said, France abandoned the colony to its fate; that is, to fight for its own exist- ence. Most of the Indian allies had been seduced from their allegiance to the French; frontier posts had been captured by the British or abandoned by the French, and slowly but surely the war was narrowing down to the short stretch of the St. Lawrence River from Quebec to Montreal. The naval contingent furnished to effect the capture WARS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND 8l of Quebec comprised a fleet of fifty vessels, commanded by Admirals Saunders, Holmes, and Durell; the fighting force consisting of 7600 regulars and 1000 marines. On land, Wolfe — then only about thirty-two years of age — was in supreme command as Major-General, and under him were Brigadier- Generals Monckton, Town- shend, and Murray. There were eight full regiments of the line, two battalions of Royal Americans, companies of light infantry, grenadiers, engineers, artillerymen, and some more marines. For a full account of the siege of Quebec, the reader must refer to some other authority, in which all the intensely interesting episodes are given in deserved detail; it is too long to insert here. Montcalm refused to be drawn from his fortifications until that memorable scaling of the clifi's by the British troops, who made their way up from the river by what was assumed to be an impassable trail. Then the French were compelled to leave their fortifications, being threatened in their rear, and there ensued the battle on the Plains of Abraham, September 13, 1759, in which both commanders lost their lives. Although not strictly the end of the war, nor indeed of French offensive, that battle put the seal upon New France's fate. Quebec was surrendered to the British on September 18, 1759; but in the following winter the new garrison was in rather sore straits; not so much for want of supplies, but because of the rigorous chmate to which the British were not enured. The troops suf- fered much more, on account of necessary exposure, than did the supernumeraries and the women. Chevalier de Levis, upon whom devolved the chief 82 THE COMING CANADA command of the French after Montcalm's death, harassed the British; and there was considerable fighting the next year, the French essaying to re-capture Quebec. On April 28, 1760, the battle of Sainte Foye, some- times called ''The second battle of the Plains of Abra- ham," was fought. The French were victorious; but were not able to follow up their success with the re- capture of the town. De Levis besieged Quebec for eighteen days, until May 17th. On the 9th of May, however, it began to look very dubious for the French, because a British warship appeared below the place. On the 15th, the first division of the fleet came up the river, and on the 17 th arrangements were made to raise the siege; de Levis retiring to Montreal. In September that place capitulated, upon honourable terms, and thus ended the French regime in Canada. The resident population, although chagrined as to the failure of French arms, were not at all displeased to be relieved from the burdens of active warfare, even if it did mean their transfer from French to English allegiance. The active military forces and the civil authorities who decHned to take the oath of allegiance to King George II were sent to France. The war in Europe continued until near the end of 1762. Negotiations for peace were then entered upon with such favourable results and prehminaries were so promptly agreed upon, that on February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed by Great Britain, France, and Spain. CHAPTER VI THE DOMINION OF CANADA KING GEORGE II, who was on the throne of Great Britain and Ireland when the French regime in Canada ended, died on the 25th of October, 1760, and was succeeded by his son, George HI. The latter issued a proclamation on the 7 th of October, 1763, which was intended to give vitality to the terms of the Treaty of Paris, February loth of that year. In this document he constituted ''within the countries and islands, ceded and confirmed to Us by the said treaty, four distinct and separate governments, styled and called by the names of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada." We have to do only with the first of these; yet it may interest the reader to know that ''the govern- ment of Grenada was in the West Indies, and the govern- ments of East and West Florida, excluding a debatable strip of territory which was annexed to the State of Georgia, were co-extensive with the new province which had been acquired from Spain." * The student who thinks of Canada as the great dominion which it now is, will be surprised when he looks at a map of the Government of Quebec for which that proclamation provided. Towards Labrador, it * A History of Canada 1763-1812. Sir C. P. Lucas, K.C.M.G., C.B. 1909. 84 THE COMING CANADA was bounded by the river St. John, a small stream which empties into the St. Lawrence opposite the western end of Anticosti Island. From the headwaters of the St. John a straight line was drawn to the southern end of Lake Nipissing, passing through Lake St. John, whence issues the Saguenay River. It may be remarked that as a geographical or surveyor's feat, this is impossible. It was manifestly the intention to have this line approxi- mately parallel to the St. Lawrence River. From Nipissing, the line turned sharply to the southeast and crossed the St. Lawrence some distance above Montreal, at about the present town of Cornwall. Then it fol- lowed the 45th parallel of North Latitude, across the outlet of Lake Champlain, across Lake Memphre- magog and the headwaters of the St. Thomas River to **The Land's Height;" that is the watershed between the lower St. Lawrence and the Atlantic basins, to the Restigouche River, which is followed to the head of Chaleur Bay, and along its north shore to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The government included Gaspe Penin- sula; but excluded Anticosti Island, which, together with all the Labrador country east of the St. John River and northward to Hudson Strait, was placed under the jurisdiction of Newfoundland. Practically, then, this government was about the same as the province of Quebec until greatly enlarged two years ago. The territory which subsequently — for a short time — came to be known as British America, was not an acquisition to the British Empire that was gained with- out a struggle. British Canada was not born without severe pains of parturition, and the Dominion did not THE DOMINION OF CANADA 85 attain maturity without ills in childhood and adolescence. Nor was its development into what it is, geographically, to-day an absolutely peaceful progress of events. Prob- ably the record of ills and struggles which mark its history from 1763 to 1867 and again from that latter year until the present time, have had much to do with moulding the character of the people. It must not be understood that this Government of Quebec is all there was of Canada in 1763. Cape Breton Island, St. John's Island (now Prince Edward's), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were already in a separate government styled the Government of Nova Scotia. The northern limit of the province of Canada marched with the boundary of Rupert's Land, under the adminis- tration of the Hudson's Bay Company, yet reckoned a part of the imperial domain. Canada did not, therefore, in 1763 really extend west of the western boundary of this Government of Quebec ; for no provision had been made for administering the great territory which included the whole basin of the Great Lakes and reached thence down to the Mississippi River. Although issued in October, 1763, the proclamation did not reach America and become operative until August 10, 1764. Inasmuch as the document made no mention of the great country west of the Alleghany Mountains, which Pennsylvania, Virginia, and other colonies claimed with practically no western limits until the shores of the Pacific were reached, the proclamation was far from being satisfactory to the Atlantic coast colonies; that is New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. 86 THE COMING CANADA Within Quebec itself, too, the proclamation was calcu- lated to do much harm, and scarcely any good. For while religious liberty was guaranteed to all the inhab- itants, yet an oath was required in certain circumstances which, it will presently be seen, no Roman Catholic could possibly take. The governor was ordered to summon a general assembly '4n such manner and form as is used and directed in those colonies and provinces in America which are under Our immediate government," as soon as the state and circumstances of the colony admitted. Yet persons who might be elected to serve in such an assembly were required, before they could sit and vote, to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and sign a solemn declaration against the doctrines of tran- substantiation, the adoration of the Virgin, and the Sacrifice of the Mass. This effectually excluded the men of the seventy thousand French-Canadian Roman Catholics, and would leave the government in the hands of the Protestants, who then numbered, men, women, and children, only about three hundred souls. Further- more, the governor was authorised, until the afore- mentioned assembly could be called, to create courts for the trial and determination of all civil and criminal cases, "according to law and equity, and as near as may be agreeable to the laws of England." This was a measure extremely offensive to the French people: to the Romanists on the ground of religious discrimination; to the few French Protestants because of loyalty to their compatriots. Just about this time, in 1766, Gen. Murray, who had been in Canada since Wolfe's arrival, and in command THE DOMINION OF CANADA 87 after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, was made provisional governor by royal warrant. He gave his approval to the election by the chapter of the Roman Catholics of Quebec of Monsigneur Briand to be the Bishop of the newly created Government. This was a most politic measure; it went a long way towards recon- ciling the French Canadians to their changed conditions, and it led them to think that in time they might receive full consideration in other important matters. It is hardly necessary to state that in the ten years which followed the creation of the bishopric of Quebec, the British Government was greatly concerned about the condition of affairs in the English colonies south of Canada. I cannot do better than to quote again from that eminent historian Sir C. P. Lucas: ''It was said of the Spartans that warring was their salvation and ruling was their ruin. The saying holds true of various peoples and races in history. A militant race has often proved to be deficient in the qualities which ensure stable, just, and permanent government; and in such cases, when peace supervenes on war, an era of decline and fall begins for those whom fighting has made great. But even when a conquering race has capacity for gov- ernment, there come times in its career when Aristotle's dictum in part holds good. It applied, to some extent, to the EngUsh in North America. As long as they were faced by the French on the western continent, common danger and common effort held the mother country and the colonies together. Security against a foreign foe brought difficulties which ended in civil war, and the Peace of 1763 was the beginning of dissolution." 88 THE COMING CANADA In the circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the Home Government could not give sufficient attention to its newest American colony, and that, as a consequence, conditions in Canada were far from being satisfactory to all interested parties. There was every disposition on the part of the British Secretariat of Colonial Affairs to do for Canada whatever might be for the good of all. It meant, of course, a blending of English and French laws in a manner that was an exceedingly difficult matter at times. The Quebec Act of 1774 was a most important law passed by the British parHament, and it ''has always been considered the charter of the special privileges which the French Canadians have enjoyed ever since, and which, in the course of a century, made their province one of the most influential sections of British North America." * The preamble of that Act made radical changes in the extent and boundaries of the former Government of Quebec. Eastward, it was made to include all that portion of the mainland (Labrador) which had previ- ously been assigned to Newfoundland. To the west and southwest, the Ohio and Mississippi regions were included, so that the older colonies' claims were now delimited at the crest of the Appalachians. This action roused much protest from the colonies which had asserted a right to territory westward perhaps to the Pacific Ocean, and their cause was championed by the Earl of Chatham, William Pitt, who had assumed to make himself the advocate for the older colonies. • Bourinot, op. cit. THE DOMINION OF CANADA 89 It was considered inexpedient just then to convoke a general assembly for Quebec, and accordingly the administration of the province was placed in the hands of a governor and legislative council, the latter com- posed of twenty-three members, residents of the province. Both governor and council were to be appointed by the sovereign. Sir Guy Carleton was the first governor under the Quebec Act. He returned to Canada from England in September, 1774, but the legislative council associated with him was not appointed until the follow- ing August. Among its twenty-two members were eight French Canadians whose names appear conspicuously in the contemporaneous history of Quebec Province. The first meeting of the council was held on the 17th of August, 1775, but it was compelled to adjourn on the 7th of the following month because of the invasion of Canada by troops of the Continental Congress from the thirteen colonies then in open revolt, but not yet fight- ing for Independence. This is not the place to discuss the War for American Independence; yet a calm and dispassionate view of it in the light of history, compels the admission that had there been energy and ability in the British leaders, the result (that is victory for the United States) would have been greatly deferred, or the war would have involved more of Europe than it did. As it was, during the last years of the war, Great Britain was compelled to fight not only the American colonies, openly assisted by France, but France, Spain, and Holland as well; and in all Europe, Great Britain had not a single ally. It was a condition of affairs which amply justifies the go THE COMING CANADA declaration of all patriotic citizens of the United States, that the God of battles was on the side of their fore- fathers from 1775 to 1783. In the success of the three millions of people armed in the sacred cause of Liberty, we must recognise the hand of Providence, or else we must impugn the sincerity of the British statesmen and commanders, by declaring that they were not fighting to win. But we must give some thought to the connection of the War of American Independence with Canada. Great Britain had no reason to thank her sovereign or his ministers for saving Canada in 1775. The credit for that was due only to the sentiment of the colonists them- selves and to the calmness and good judgment of Gov. Carleton. The lack of policy in coupling the Quebec Act in parliament with the obnoxious Boston Port Bill, and other measures especially intended for the discom- fiture of Massachusetts, amounted to crass stupidity. All the colonists, save the Loyalists (a very large pro- portion, it must be admitted), looked upon this group of parliamentary measures as indicating a fixed policy of the British Government to crush the English-speak- ing colonists in North America. The invasion of Canada by Benedict Arnold in 1775 was, therefore, a very popular effort with all revolutionists in the older colonies. Chambly and St. John's, the keys of Canada by the way of Lake Champlain, were captured and Montreal surrendered. The governor retired to Quebec, and there made preparations for a vigorous defence. Just at this critical moment Bishop Briand issued an episcopal letter in which he drew the attention of the THE DOMINION OF CANADA QI French Canadians to the many benefits they had derived from British rule, and he called upon his followers to unite with the English in defending the province. The effect of this monition was excellent (from the British point of view) and rendered totally ineffective the effort of Chase, Franklin, and the Carrolls of Maryland to persuade the Roman Catholic French in Canada to give their support to the revolutionary colonists. It must not be forgotten, however, that many individual habitants gave material assistance to the colonial in- vaders; yet this was entirely a sordid matter. "The Fourteenth Colony" was saved to Great Britain, and it is probable that few even patriotic Americans now regret it. At the close of the Revolutionary War, many who are called United Empire Loyahsts left the United States and settled in Canada; others went back to England. Their loss was a serious one to the new nation, for as a rule they were people of substantial means. After the Revolution, when Canada's independence of the United States was assured, the development of representative institutions was rapid. The provinces of New Brunswick, Lower and Upper Canada were created: the first on August i6, 1784, the other two on March 7, 1791. The progress of political development in Canada, from 1792 to 181 2, was not absolutely peace- ful, and there were premonitions of that racial strife — between the weak French majority and the strong British minority — which later caused serious trouble. The statesmen and historians of Canada look upon the war of 18 12 with anything but a kindly feeling, and 92 THE COMING CANADA with satisfaction that the attempt to conquer their country was so unsuccessful. After that unpleasant episode, the development of Canada was rapid, although as long ago as 1789 Chief Justice Smith, first president of the legislative council of Lower Canada, wrote to Lord Dorchester (Sir Guy Carleton had been raised to the peerage with that title), sketching a plan for uniting all the provinces of British North America under one general administration. Other Canadian statesmen and jurists expressed themselves as in favour of such a movement and gradually the desire for fusion came to be something more tangible than merely ''in the air." In 1 86 1 the maritime provinces. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, took active measures to effect union; and in 1864 a convention was called at Charlottetown, P.E.I. , to arrange for this. Canada sent a delegation and to its representations of the desirability of the larger scheme, of union of all the provinces, favourable consideration was given. In 1864 a general convention at Quebec passed seventy-two resolutions which formed the basis of the Act of Union, subsequently passed by the imperial parliament, West- minster. Addresses supporting the resolutions to Queen Victoria were submitted to the legislature of Canada in 1863, and passed by large majorities. The progress towards com- plete union was not absolutely clear and free; but there is not space to consider all the difficulties. On the 17th of February, 1867, a bill entitled ''An Act for the Union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the Government thereof, and for purposes connected there- THE DOMINION OF CANADA 93 With," was submitted to the British House of Lords by the Earl of Carnarvon, then Secretary of State for the Colonies. It passed both houses with but little dis- cussion, and on March 29th received Queen Victoria's signature as "The British North America Act, 1867." The Dominion of Canada thereupon stepped into the list of the federal states of the world on July ist, 1867, when the Act was promulgated throughout all the interested provinces. British Columbia held back for a time, until given assurance of railway connection with the eastern provinces. Prince Edward Island was for a time outside the Dominion, and the great North West Territories remained to be organised. In 187 1, British Columbia threw in her lot with her sisters; in 1873, Prince Edward Island followed suit; and gradually the organisation of all British possessions on the continent of North America, save the little strip of Labrador littoral which is still politically annexed to Newfound- land and excepting, too, the great island itself, came into the list, and the administration of the Dominion of Canada was perfected. CHAPTER Vn THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA AND COGNATE SUBJECTS OTTAWA, the capital of the Dominion, is one of the most attractive cities in North America, but in its physical and social aspects it will be considered in a later chapter. The place dates from the year 1826 only. At that time Col. By, of the Royal Engineers, commenced the cutting of the Rideau Canal, which connects the Ottawa River with the St. Lawrence at Kingston. This canal makes use of the chain of lakes and small streams which intervene between the two greater rivers. The little hamlet which naturally sprang up and gave shelter and habitation to the force of workmen, was at first called By town; but this name was changed before long to Ottavra. It owes its promotion to the dignity of being first the colonial and then the dominion capital to circumstances that were not altogether cred- itable. When the union of Upper and Lower Canada was effected in 1840, Kingston was made the provincial capital. After a while the seat of government was transferred to Montreal, and that city held the honour for some time. But while parliament was sitting at Montreal, a bill was passed which provided for compen- THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 95 sation for damages unflicted upon those whose property had been destroyed or injured during ''the patriots' rebellions." There were two of these unpleasant episodes. The first broke out in Lower Canada soon after the close of the war of 181 2-1 5, and culminated under the leadership of Louis J. Papineau in 1837. The second was in the following year, and occurred in Upper Canada. Both were in the nature of turbulent protest by the French Canadians against what demagogues led them to believe was unfair and unlawful race discrimination. The first was for some time a very serious matter, causing — directly or indirectly — the loss of many lives and the destruction or injury of much property: the second was less important and was promptly suppressed. In 1839, the special council of Lower Canada and the legislature of Upper Canada, passed acts providing for the compensation of those loyal inhabitants of these provinces who had sustained loss during the rebellions and because of those outbreaks. Eventually a com- mission was appointed to consider the claims, and it reported favourably upon a considerable number of them. Inasmuch as the Treasury funds did not permit of an appropriation in money, provision was made for paying those approved claims by the issue of debentures to the amount of $400,000. The bill was passed by the legislature by a large majority and Lord Elgin, then Governor-General, signed it on April 25, 1849, ^-nd affixed the great seal. The bonds were promptly taken up and it looked as if all were going well. Suddenly, however, a fierce storm of opposition broke out. A mob g6 THE COMING CANADA insulted the Governor-General and even threatened his life. It broke into and practically destroyed the house of parliament — which had formerly been St. Anne Market House — and with it the State papers and many precious relics, valuable books, pictures, etc. Montreal could no longer be permitted the dignity of being the capital, and the seat of legislature became peripatetic for five years, meeting alternately at Toronto and Quebec. When Queen Victoria was requested to designate a fixed capital, she chose Ottawa, in 1857. The place had grown to be a lumber town of some impor- tance, but the situation is such a splendid one that all concurred in approving the wisdom of Her Majesty's choice. In these incidents, we have a very clear hint at the progress of the great Dominion development; and it is hardly necessary to state that there has been much of storm and stress. A brief summary of the original elements of the Canadian State, and its development into the Dominion, is advisable. At first there were Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, created under the Act of March, 1867. Provision was made in the Act for a constitution ^'similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom." The executive authority is vested in the sovereign of Great Britain, and it is carried on in his * name by a Governor- General and a Privy Council. The legislative power is exercised by a Parliament of two houses, the Senate and the House of Commons. * The Salic Law not having been adopted by Great Britain, the masculine pronoun includes the feminine, as is provided in all laws, I believe. J. K. G. THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 97 Provision was made for the admission of Prince Edward Island and British Columbia, the North West Territories, and Newfoundland. As has been stated, Newfoundland is the only one of these which has not availed itself of this privilege, and it is not likely to do so. In 1869, the great North West Territories were admitted into British North America by purchase from the Hudson's Bay Company. From a portion of this acquisition, the province of Manitoba was created and admitted into the confederation on July 15th, 1870. On May i6th, 1871, Prince Edward Island was admitted by an Imperial Order in Council (London) and British Columbia on July 20th, 187 1. Certain other provisional districts were created out of the southern portions of the purchase from the Hudson's Bay Company, Alberta, Athabaska, Assini- boia, and Saskatchewan. These were later combined into the two provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, wliich were admitted into the Dominion on Septem- ber I, 1905. The Dominion Senators are appointed for hfe ''by summons of the Governor-General under the Great Seal of Canada." Provisions for their impeachment for cause and cancelling of their appointment are made. There are now 87 Senators, 24 from Ontario, 24 from Quebec, 10 from Nova Scotia, 10 from New Bruns- wick, 4 from Manitoba', 3 from British Columbia, 4 each from Prince Edward Island, Alberta, and Saskat- chewan. It will be seen at once that the composition of the Upper House of the Dominion Legislature is very different from that of the United States Senate, and that 98 THE COMING CANADA it is not representative of provinces or population in the same sense. Each Senator must be thirty years of age. He may be either a native born or a naturalised British subject. He must be an actual resident of the province from which he is appointed, and therein be possessed of property, real or personal, of the actual value of $4000. Change of residence of course operates de facto to invaHdate his appointment. Members of the House of Commons are elected by the people for a term of five years, unless ParHament is sooner dissolved, when a new general election is ordered by the Governor- General's writ. At present, the ratio of representation in this Lower House is one member for 25,637 of population. The province of Quebec is always to have 65 members, and the other provinces proportionately, according to their popula- tions at each decennial census. At this time, the House of Commons consists of 221 members: Ontario 86, Quebec 65, Nova Scotia 18, New Brunswick 13, Manitoba 10, British Columbia 7, Prince Edward Island 4, Saskat- chewan 10, Alberta 7, Yukon Territory i. As the popu- lation of those portions of the Dominion which are entitled to be represented in the House of Commons is only about 5,500,000 (an approximation that is some- what hazardous, because the immigration has been very great during the past two years), it must be admitted that the complaint that the body is cumbersome and disproportionately large in numbers, seems to be well taken. The 48 States of the United States have a population of something like ninety millions, and the members in the House of Representatives number 400. THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 99 In the Dominion the ratio is one to 25,637; in the United States it is one to 193,284. "The members of the House of Commons are elected by constituencies, the electors of wmch are supplied by franchises under the control of the several provincial assembhes. The qualifications for voting at pro\dncial elections vary in the several provinces. Voting is by ballot." There is a small property qualification for the right of suffrage; it varies in the different provinces and territories. In the North West Territory there is no property qualification. The Speaker of the House of Commons (elected by the members) receives an annual salary of $4000, and each member an allowance of $2500 for the session, from which, in the case of ordinary members, a deduction of $15 a day is made for absences. One curious phase of emoluments is that the Leader of the Opposition is paid $7000 in addition to the allowance made for the session. This important official is also recognised in other ways that are quite novel to states- men and politicians of the United States. He has his own private office in the Parliament building, as well as his own corps of clerks and messengers. The Speaker and members of the Senate have the same allowances as are made to the members of the Lower House; but they receive no extra allowances. The present Governor- General is His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught and Stratheam, brother of the late King Edward of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, and therefore uncle of the reigning monarch, .King George V. The Governor-General's Privy Council comprises the Premier and President of lOO THE COMING CANADA Council, the Secretary of State and thirteen other Ministers; their portfolios are Trade and Commerce, Justice and Attorney-General, Marine, Fisheries and Naval Service, Railways and Canals, Militia and Defence, Finance, Postmaster-General, Agriculture, Public Works, Interior, Customs, Inland Revenue and Mines, Labour. There is besides, a SoHcitor-General who is adviser to the Governor- General, but who is not in the Cabinet. Furthermore, there is a Department of External Affairs, whose head is Hkewise not a Cabinet officer, which has charge of all Imperial and inter-colonial correspondence passing between Ottawa and Downing Street, a name which has come to connote the British administration. It must seem to the American publicist that there is needless differentiation in this multipHcity of Cabinet officials. I fear the alleged British fondness for red- tape and its tendency to circumlocution assert them- selves in the composition of the Governor-General's Privy Council. Just why the functions of the Depart- ments of Trade and Commerce, Fisheries and Marine Service; or those of Railways and Canals, and Public Works; or those of Finance, Customs, and Inland Revenue and Mines, should not be consoHdated into three offices, it is not easy to see. Each of the nine existing provinces has its own separate parliament and administration, at the head of which is a Lieutenant-Governor appointed by the Governor-General. The provinces have full powers to regulate their own local affairs and to dispose of their own revenues, provided always that there shall be no interference with the action and policy of the central Dominion Government. |r • .^aUf^ftk J^ 1 '^J^^K^r ''^^^^^^^MWC^.' A 1 |4 wL J r *' 1 ^■^ ^^n^ ' i J i J ^ . ^ ^ r 1^ V K^IIH H i ?^^^B^V ; »1 i^H P*4 1 ^^^^^^Ci .i'^^H -.did t \^'> .— "-^^SA ^^^Bl jE w "^ ^.^^^ '^?*^ Hopewell Rocks, N. B. THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA lOI Quebec has two Chambers, a Legislative Council and a Legislative Assembly, and a responsible Ministry. Nova Scotia has the same. The oiher provinces have but one Legislative Assembly, and a responsible Ministry. All readers are probably famiHar to a certain extent with the working of such a government as that of Great Britain and other States wherein there is a '^responsible ministry." Such readers may have noted that when the Cabinet of such a country is defeated by the legislature in the vote upon a bill which it has introduced, the Cabinet resigns en bloc, and somebody from the Opposi- tion is called upon to form a new Cabinet. It is doubtful, however, if all comprehend just why this is so, and what a ''responsible ministry" is: the responsibility is to the State not to the ruler. In such a nation, or state, or province, the official head, be he king, president, gover- nor-general or lieutenant-governor, is assumed to be without political affiliation. Furthermore, he is entirely relieved of all responsibility for the actual legislation. When a general election has declared the wish of a majority of the electors, the head of the State calls upon the leader of the party in the majority to form a Cabinet, and it is assumed that the head of the State will approve of the selection of individual members, no matter how distasteful to his personal views may be the poHtical opinions of the majority: as an example, refer to Queen Victoria and Mr. Gladstone. This being done and (if provided for by constitution or according to custom) the Cabinet being confirmed by the legislature, the head of the State is personally irresponsible for all legislation. Taking a concrete example: "as now interpreted, the I02 THE COMING CANADA leading principles of the British constitution are the personal irresponsibility of the sovereign, the responsi- bility of ministers [Cabinet officers], and the unquestioned and controlling power of parliament." If the ministry fails to receive the support of the national legislature, its power is at an end and it must resign. This rule of a responsible ministry holds good in Canada, from the Dominion Government at Ottawa to every province which is politically and independently organised. It even exercises surprising influence in smaller political divisions and in municipalities. The North West Territories, comprising all the regions formerly known as Rupert's Land; and the North Western Territory, excepting the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta; the district of Keewatin; * and the North West Territory, are governed by a com- missioner and council of four appointed by the Governor- General, by and with the consent and approval of his Privy Council at Ottawa. The Territory of Yukon is governed by a Commissioner and an executive council of ten members, elected by the people. In the Domin- ion, the appointments made by the Governor- General are not submitted to the Senate for confirmation, as would be the case with corresponding Presidential ap- pointments in the United States. The Governor-Gen- eral's appointments may, however, be reviewed by the King and his Privy Council, and they may be thus revoked; but there are few (if any) instances of this action. There is a Supreme Court at Ottawa having appellate, * Keewatin and Ungava have disappeared. THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 103 civil, and criminal jurisdiction in and throughout Canada. There is an Exchequer Court, whfch is also a colonial court of admiralty, exercising povvers as provided for in the Imperial *' Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act, 1890." There is a Superior Court in each province; County Courts, with Hmited jurisdiction, in most of the provinces; some of the judges of these courts are appointed by the Governor- General; the minor ones by the Dominion parliament. The latter, even, cannot be removed unless by impeachment before the parHa- ment. This involves an elaborate process which has not yet been attempted, although it has been threatened more than once. Police Magistrates and Justices of the Peace are appointed by the governor of the province. The dispensing of justice in the Dominion is marked by a promptness which might well be emulated in her southern neighbour. Mr. Albert J. Beveridge — for- merly U. S. Senator from Indiana, in 1910-11 prepared a series of articles about ''Our Northern Neighbors" for The Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia, in which he discussed, as a competent jurist, the methods fol- lowed by the Canadian Courts in such important matters as controlling trusts, etc. Those articles were most instructive and illuminating. To Canada's credit it may truthfully and cheerfully be said that the law is effectively, promptly, and im- partially administered throughout the entire Domin- ion. It would be, I think, impossible for the most searching investigation to reveal a state of affairs in the courts of Canada, such as has seemed to justify the attacks upon the bench in the United States of America I04 THE COMING CANADA which have appeared in some of the magazines of the latter country within the past year or two. In consequence there is, even in the remotest mining camps of the Yukon Territory or among the rough lumbermen of other regions, less turbulence than is often reported from similar districts in Australia or the United States. A concrete comparison might be drawn between conditions in the mining camps of the Yukon Territory and those in Alaska, which would be not at all unfavourable to Canada. In the distant western and northwestern portions of the Dominion, great credit for general order, security of Ufe and property, and the prompt arrest, conviction, and punishment of criminals is due to the North Western Mounted Police, also called "The Riders of the Plains," who are entitled to more consideration than the limitation of space puts upon me. This is an efhcient body of picked men, preference being given to those who have had some military training, although this is not considered absolutely essential. But strong, healthy, resourceful, tactful, courageous, and good horsemen they must be. The full force com- prises 700 men and officers, under the control of the Dominion government. They are well paid and are given such effective support that the esprit de corps is very high. Roughly speaking, they patrol the entire territory north and west of Ontario and Quebec provinces (although they are not, I believe, supposed to go into Ungava and Labrador). That is from Hudson Bay to the Rocky Mountains and including all of Yukon Terri- THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA I05 tory, and from the United States boundary all the way to the northern limits of the Dominion in Arctic lands. This great bailiwick, not very much smaller than the entire area of the United States, is apportioned — for police service — into twelve divisions with a superin- tendent for each. These divisions are further subdivided into one hundred and fifty smaller administrative districts, in charge of lieutenants or sergeants, or it may be just a corporal. The functions of these Mounted Police are most varied. Not only are they first and foremost preservers of the peace and effective executors of justice, but they are also census officers, registrars, rural postmen, etc.; they may be called upon to record a birth, or register a marriage, or certify a death, wherever there happens to be no competent civil official. Many an outpost of civilisation would be entirely without means of com- municating with the rest of the world, were it not for the occasional visit of a, Mounted Policeman. One must know from actual experience of the winter in Canada's northwest how to appreciate what such a visit sometimes means; and at that season the visiting policeman is not mounted. Versatile they are, of course: expert horsemen, crack shots, good on snowshoes, skilful with a paddle and in managing a canoe, in fact handy at everything. Besides all these things, they are constantly engaged in breaking out new trails, in recording experiences and observ^ations which are valuable or suggestive to scientists in deter- mining the agricultural, grazing, mineral, lumber value of new territory. To their efforts is due much of the Io6 THE COMING CANADA credit for pushing back the line which had previously marked off the ''unexplored" regions of the north. An entire volume might be filled with accounts of the bravery and self-sacrifice of these men. As the traveller by train sees an occasional Mounted Policeman at a station, he may often be inclined to mis- judge their ^' smart" appearance as indicative of fop- pishness which strives to imitate the gorgeousness and manner of the regular army. But let a call come to arrest a drunken bully who is threatening to "paint the town red" and shoot at sight; or let it be a summons to head off a band of turbulent Indians, or to fight a prairie fire, or any one of a hundred other things which demand quick judgment, prompt action and entire forgetfulness of self, and the seeming fop is instantly metamorphosed into a vigorous, self-reliant, absolutely fearless upholder of the peace, or a kind-hearted rescuer of the suffering. After the transfer of French control in 1759 or 1763, the British Government maintained garrisons at Quebec and Hahfax for a time, as well as smaller contingents at a number of posts. Still later, Esquimault, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, was made a large and impor- tant naval base and dockyard. Quebec was the first of these to be transferred to the confederation: more recently, 1905, Halifax and Esquimault were also handed over to the Dominion's care. The sovereign of the British Empire is nominally commander-in-chief of all the military and naval forces of Canada; but the actual control rests entirely with the federal parliament. Until 1903, the mihtary forces of the Dominion were commanded by a British regular army THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 107 officer; but in that year the service was reorganised and locaHsed, the command being given to a military council, of which the Minister of Militia and Defence became president. When Halifax and Esquimault were transferred to the Dominion, it became necessary to increase the militia by about 5000 men, in order to provide the neces- sary garrisons at the three important strategic points and the few forts that are still maintained. On a peace footing, however, the Canadian army is not a great burden on the finances, being only about 6000 all told, including the three principal branches, infantry, artillery, and cavalry. The former one thousand were mostly commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the regular (British) army who were occupied as instructors of the militia. All male citizens between the ages of eighteen and sixty are nominally enrolled for militia duty, and may be called to the colours at once should occasion demand. It may be noted that the maximum age indicates the conviction that a man retains his vigour longer in Canada than he is assumed to do in some other countries. The actual militia, regularly drilled and given practical training in camp and the like, comprises about 45,000, officers and men; all of whom are volunteers. The service is a popular one and not seriously engrossing. The government has no difficulty in keeping the ranks of the militia companies filled. This militia cannot be called upon for active duty outside the Dominion; but we know that there have been several occasions when special corps Lave volun- I08 THE COMING CANADA teered for foreign service; the expense attending this has usually been borne by patriotic citizens. In 1883, a company of Canadian wyageurs offered themselves for service in Lord Wolseley's Nile expedition. These men were of the greatest assistance in helping the army to pass the Rapids, as well as in other ways because of their general handiness; a characteristic which is declared to be not marked in the average "Tommy Atkins." Again, during the South African War, 1902-4, several contingents of Canadian troops were enlisted and gladly accepted by the Imperial War Office. These troops gave an excellent account of themselves, and their action, taken in connection with the manner in which the heavy expense of their equipment and main- tenance was provided for, as well as the expressions of sentiment by the French-Canadian (Sir Wilfred Laurier) who was then Premier and who spoke for all his fellows, went a long way towards strengthening the bonds which unite the Dominion to the Empire, After the close of the South African War, another thorough reorganisation of the militia took place, and it is now considered to be in excellent condition both as to efficiency and popularity. The Royal Military College at Kingston is well attended and admirably conducted. Each year, a certain number of the successful graduates are given commissions in the Imperial army of Great Britain. Nearly all the schools in cities of size, as well as some of those in smaller places, have their cadet corps, neatly uniformed, carefully drilled by competent militia officers, and supplied with arms and ammunition, either by the central or the local government. THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA lOQ The Dominion government maintains an arsenal and factories for the manufacture of rifles, small arms, and ammunition at Quebec. The arsenal is within what is popularly known as ^^The Citadel;" but for a time the other useful estabHshments, as well as a rifle-range that was constantly in use, were allowed to encroach upon what all loyal Canadians consider to be the sacred Plains of Abraham; but this profanation has been stopped, and the most hallowed portion, the eastern end where stand the monuments, on the actual battlefield, is now preserved as a pubhc park. There is no State Church in the Dominion; although in the Province of Quebec certain religious privileges have been permitted to the Roman CathoHcs ever since the conquest in 1759, and these have brought about conditions which seem to suggest an estabUshed church. The Church of England has two archbishops (Rupert's Land: archbishop, metropolitan, and primate of all Canada; and Ontario: archbishop and metropoHtan), nineteen or twenty bishoprics, and something over 1000 clergy. The Roman Catholic Church has one cardinal, seven archbishops, 23 bishops, and about 1500 clergy. The Presbyterian Church has about 1400 ministers, and maintains some 2500 churches and stations; the Metho- dists 1950; and the Baptists 500. Besides the older divisions of the Christian Church, there are almost innumerable sects. The utmost freedom is permitted, and Russian dissenters are made to feel as much at home as are the strictest churchmen. CHAPTER VIII THE WEALTH OF CANADA BEGINNING in the extreme eastern part of the Dominion, with Nova Scotia, I purpose giving a very little attention to Canada's mineral wealth, because it seems to me that this is not now such an important factor as is that other which is to be taken from the surface of the ground. In agricultural products, live stock, and kindred industries, I am convinced, the greatness of The Coming Canada is to consist, and that conviction is strengthened by what I have seen and heard during another visit to the Dominion which I have recently made. It is not because I do not appreciate fully Canada's mineral wealth, but because I believe more in something else. With the natural products of the ground, I shall class the marine products in this hasty and general pre- liminary sketch. All who have enjoyed the delight of coasting along the shores of Nova Scotia, New Bruns- wick, Prince Edward Island, Anticosti, eastern Quebec, and even the bleak Labrador, as well as other parts of Canada's littoral, Atlantic or Pacific, have been impressed with the economic and financial importance of the fisheries; both those of the deeper seas and those of the lobstermen in the bays and bights of the east. Or, jumping across the continent, the salmon fisheries of > «.;■■ ',,''>■• •- H ■*■ ■ ' . •■'. .'■ ^ ^ -'',-.„•.• ■. . ^- ■"•- '-w ■ ••A - PI r ■*:•- ■'•■.^;'' ^ w . ; ' " '^ > ■ .' ■ . V ■— -: D cn r \C^V-J^r^'' : >• *LV'' v. "■ >; /. \. ■ \^ r; 7; -V ' . . ; ■ ■ -J ^ P^».>-_;., '.■"•,\ > r *fe ''-i^.' ; ■■' r :, "" "-'■ -..- C !i' " ^ '.'' • ;•"-■' > 7: > ■1.-'; ■ H (-) t-- - . .. ,. I ^ R ^- 2.; % THE WEALTH OF CANADA Til British Columbia have interested every visitor. The fishing industries bring to the people of the Dominion many millions of dollars every year. Of the river and lake fishing, I shall speak in another ^place. In Nova Scotia there are great coalfields, and Sydney, Cape Breton, is one of the most important coal-shipping ports on the Atlantic coast. Twenty million dollars a year is said to be the amount which this one industry represents. Naturally, since the other required raw material, iron ore, is at hand, this little town is also a producer of iron and steel; the place has aptly been called ^'A transatlantic Birmingham" ; and indeed, it is not quite so absurd as it sounds to liken the com- paratively new, Httle Nova Scotia town of a few thou- sand population, with the long established Midland city of half a million. The rest of this Acadian region is rather poorly off in minerals. The Cape Breton coal seams re-appear as far north as the St. Lawrence River. The coal seams of New Brunswick are thin and unim- portant. There are some fairly productive veins of quartz bearing precious metals. The southern part of Quebec pro\dnce is placed by geologists in the Acadian region; in that part are some copper and asbestos properties of value. Geologists consider the Dominion as dixided into five areas. One has been barely alluded to; but there is little more to say. The next is an enormous territory, technically designated as the Archaean protaxis. Within its boundaries there must be more than two million square miles. In the east it embraces Labrador, Ungava, and most of Quebec province; its southern 112 THE COMING CANADA boundary may be defined by a line including the northern part of Ontario province; while west its limits run from the Lake of the Woods northwesterly to the Arctic Ocean near the mouth of .the Mackenzie River. What the northern limit is, it would be venturesome to say; it certainly includes many of those bleak, ice-bound islands which intervene between the mainland of the North American continent and the North Pole. Hudson Bay is at about the centre of this gigantic V; but even on the latest maps which the Dominion Government has prepared, giving data to the end of 191 1, vast tracts are yet branded as unexplored, or as barren. Much of the foundation is Lauren tian gneiss and granite; but there are other rocks which bear deposits of most of the im- portant minerals; principally iron, nickel, silver, copper. If Ontario has been almost deforested — and the lumbermen long since passed into the newly created northern section — there yet remains in the cobalt mines of the province a source of great wealth which is being realised very rapidly. From those silver-bearing ores something like forty million dollars' worth of metal have been extracted. The range of these ores has recently been demonstrated to be much wider than it was supposed to be. The nickel mines of Ontario are extremely valuable; so much so indeed that those at Sudbury are said to produce a large proportion of the whole world's output. Of the 87 million dollars which all Canadian mines produced in 1909, Ontario's cobalt- silver and nickel mines represented nearly thirty millions. The next geological area, the Interior Central Plain, would not naturally be considered of importance for its THE WEALTH OF CANADA II3 minerals. There is some coal and lignite, and as one draws towards the Rocky Mountains, near Medicine Hat, a station on the Canadian Pacific Railway in Alberta province, for example, natural gas-wells have been bored and the gas put to use as fuel. In certain places, the presence of '' tar-sands" indicates that petroleum exists, but these ''prospects" have not yet been followed up. In the northern part of Alberta natural gas has been found and there must be a good deal of this natural asset all along the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. In the western mountain region, The Cordilleran Belt, as it is technically called, large fields of coal, both bituminous and semi-anthracite, have been opened. The mines supply fuel for the different railways, for the settlers along the lines, and for the cities and towns farther to the east. The best coal, down to the present time, is found on the Pacific slope. From the mines of that region comes the coking coal which supplies fuel for the famous Kootenay district in extreme southern British Columbia, and to the mines and smelters of Montana. The Selkirk Mountains and the Gold Range are two short chains parallel to the main Rockies, in southeastern British Columbia. In these two ranges are, at present, the most important gold, silver, copper, and lead mines of the Dominion; and their output has placed British Columbia far in the lead of all other provinces as a producer of the precious and useful metals. In the early days of the province's history, the placer mines along the Columbia and Fraser Rivers, in southern 114 THE COMING CANADA British Columbia, and in the lower parts of the Yukon Territory in the north, attracted much attention; but in these districts the precious metals are now almost entirely mined from lodes and reduced by smelting. The placer mines of the Klondike, still farther north, have furnished many million dollars' worth of gold, and will doubtless continue to be productive for some time to come. The mineral wealth of the Canadian Rockies has not yet been determined. Geological and mineralogical surveys are being made yearly; but this research into the material wealth of the Dominion is being directed more towards the soil in its various phases. Gold mines, working either on ledges or by hydrauKc washing, are to be seen along many river bottoms. From them gold to the value of hundreds of million dollars has been taken. Who will dare to guess at the milHons upon millions more that may be extracted? Yet, again, who will tell just what each dollar's worth of gold has cost? Economically, morally, physically, socially — gold mining is more costly than wheat growing! Other parts of British Columbia are so rich in metals that one writer asserts, ''corundum and nickel seem to be the only mineral products that are not found in this highly metalliferous region." Several towns in this province have gained a reputation that is world-wide because of the great value of their metal output, precious or merely useful ; and the plants of some include smelters that are among ''the largest and most complete of their kind in the whole world!" All the British Columbian littoral as well as the adjacent islands seems to be rich 1 THE WEALTH OF CANADA II5 in minerals, from the prosaic coal to the ghttering gold. The total output of the mines has reached hundreds of millions of dollars in value. Besides great wealth in the ground, this Pacific province has enormous wealth above ground, for there is the greatest compact area of merchantable timber in North America. But it is not only in mines and lumber that the extreme western section of the Dominion possesses great wealth; there are other sources which are really more satisfactory and, in the long run, more remunerative to labour and to the State: of these I shall speak presently. We may say of the Cordillera belt, as a whole, that within its borders are most of the best coal mines in Canada; that there are also immense deposits of the precious and some of the useful metals, for iron-ore of a good quality and readily mined has not yet been found. But our knowledge of this great Cordilleran belt is still anything but complete. It extends from the United States boundary far into the Arctic regions, and from the eastern foot of the Rocky IVIountains to the Pacific Ocean. Explorations are being prosecuted, and it is not unreasonable to expect that this great area will prove to be ''the counterpart of the great mining region of the Cordillera in the United States to the South." If confirmation were demanded for the statement that the government of the Dominion of Canada looks more favourably upon the development of those resources which depend upon the soil, rather than upon the ex- ploitation of mineral wealth, it is to be had in the suc- cessful efforts which have been made to increase the Il6 THE COMING CANADA population and to extend the area under cultivation in the great Interior Central Plain. Less than forty years ago, our school atlases showed British North America to be practically a complete blank from the Great Lakes to the Pacific, from the Inter- national boundary northward indefinitely. Prior to 1858, the Hudson's Bay Company had a trading-post where Victoria on Vancouver Island, B. C, now stands. The city was incorporated in 1862. In 1886 its popula- tion was 14,000, and this included Chinese and a large number of Indians; now there are 50,000 inhabitants. In 1870, Winnipeg began its existence as a village. Prior to that date there had been at least five fur-traders' *' forts" on sites that are now within the city's limits. In 1873, it was incorporated as a city, and in 1881 the population was 7985, now it is over 200,000. Scarcely another one of the innumerable, flourishing cities and towns were in existence forty years ago. In the northern sections of this great area, it was the dotted line which confesses geographical ignorance that map-makers were compelled to use. Here and there, at wide intervals, *' forts" were marked. These denoted trading stations of the Hudson's Bay Company, or — ■ very rarely — posts where small garrisons were main- tained for the purpose of keeping a watch on the Indians and checking their disposition to go on the war-path. Now, the maps which the Dominion Government issues to show the land that is available for homestead pre- emption in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta provinces, indicate that agricultural and stock-raising settlers in great numbers have availed themselves of the THE WEALTH OF CANADA II7 opportunity to secure homes upon the favourable terms that are granted. This, however, is not at all astonishing, because the land is good, the climate healthy, even if the winters are rigorous, the faciUties of access are satisfactory and are being rapidly extended, and the advantages of schools and social intercourse are admirable. These, and other phases of life in those western provinces, will be con- sidered more fully in the chapter, ''The Lure of Canada." What is amazing, and it is something which strongly emphasises the importance of agriculture as the leading factor of Canada's wealth, is the story told by a map of the Dominion to show points far to the north of what was for a long time considered the limit of the grain belt, where wheat has been grown. The most northern of these points is Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie River in the North West Territories, lat. 61° 8'. Here barley always ripens and wheat is sure to mature four seasons out of five. Melons, if started under glass, ripen well and frost seldom does them much damage. One visitor * wrote: "While at this post we enjoyed the fine potatoes, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, and peas grown in the Com- pany's garden. They were as large and as fine flavoured as the best in any part of the country. Barley is yearly grown here and it may be said successfully, for any fail- ures have been due to drought or too much rain of tener than frost. Wheat has been tried several times, often successfully, but as it cannot be utilised except through grinding with a handmill, it is not considered desirable to grow much of it," * William Ogilive, In Northern Wilds. Il8 THE COMING CANADA At Fort Providence, on the same Mackenzie River, but near its exit from the Great Slave Lake, lat. 6i° 4', on July 15th, 1906, an inspector reported *^the garden contained peas fit for use, potatoes in flower, tomatoes, rhubarb, beets, cabbages, onions. Besides vegetables^ there were cultivated, flowers and fruits, such as red currants, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries, and sackaloons. But most surprising of all was a small field of wheat in the milk, the grain being fully formed. This was stated to have been sown on May 20th, and harvested before July 28th, slightly over two months from sowing.'* In 1905, in the vicinity of Fort Vermilion, on Peace River, northern Alberta, lat. 58° 4', 25,000 bushels of wheat were raised. There is a modern equipment (roller process), electric-lighted flour-mill at this place. At that time the capacity of the mill was 35 barrels per day; but the wheat crop in the neighbourhood has been so much increased, and the promise of permanency is so good, that this mill has been enlarged and now its capacity is 125 barrels of flour a day. The quality of this flour is declared to be fully equal to that of any produced in other parts of the world. There are a number of other places north of the 54th parallel of latitude, where wheat has been successfully raised, while barley and oats actually thrive. Fruits and vegetables, such as have been already mentioned, are grown at nearly all of these far northern posts. Experiments were made during the summer of last year (191 2) at some stations even farther north than Fort Simpson. The results of these tests are not available at the time of writing; but officials of the departments. THE WEALTH OF CANADA II9 Ottawa, expressed themselves with pleasing confidence. What has been said of Siberia * of the power of the sun during eighteen to twenty hours of cloudless days that are the rule during the short summer, applies with equal force to Canada. For the purpose of visual comparison, an outline of the Russian-Siberian Government of Tobolsk has been superimposed upon this map in its correct position as to latitude. Its southern point reaches down nearly to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Province: its northern limit, nearly 70°, corresponds to the southern portion of Vic- toria Island, Wollaston Land, in the Arctic sea. In 1907, Tobolsk produced 11,779,000 bushels of wheat, 4,344,000 bushels rye, 829,000 bushels barley, 13,818,000 bushels oats. In 1901 there were nearly four million head of live stock, and from the Kazan district, in the extreme southwest along the line of the Trans-Siberian Railway, nearly twenty million pounds of butter were shipped, most of it being sold in the markets of Great Britain. Now, the cultivated sections of Tobolsk are all well to the south of the 58th parallel of North lati- tude, and the northern boundary of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia is the 6oth parallel. The arable and grazing lands of the Siberian pro\'ince are considered to extend not much to the north of the town of Tobolsk, 58° 20' N., and then only in exceptional places. Whereas, it is being demonstrated more and more each year that the North West Territories of Canada can successfully produce grain north of the 6oth parallel. * See Russia in Europe and Asia. \ I20 THE COMING CANADA In the provinces of Manitoba (its area was much in- creased towards the north by the Boundaries Extension Act of 191 2), Saskatchewan, and Alberta, the area under grain cultivation in 1909 was 11,960,000 acres; the wheat area was 6,878,000 acres, and the total wheat produced was 147,000,000 bushels. All of these figures must be greatly added to for the current year, 191 2. In this year it is estimated that the grain acreage in those three provinces alone was 15,728,900 acres; the area under wheat cultivation was 8,951,800 acres; the wheat crop 189,585,400 bushels. The total wheat crop for the whole Dominion was estimated at 216,498,000 bushels, because Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime provinces all contribute an appreciable quantity. That the interest, which newly arrived settlers who contemplate engaging in occupations that are connected with the cultivation of the soil or stock raising, is great and increasing as the influx of new-comers grows, is shown by the fact that a report upon lands in north- western Saskatchewan Province, of investigations made there in 1908, was in such demand that the large issue, printed for public information and gratuitous distribu- tion, was speedily exhausted. This report was reprinted in 1910, and with it was incorporated another similar report of investigations made in 1909. Copies of this double report are not now easily procurable because the demand for them has been so great. They deal with those portions of Saskatchewan and Alberta Provinces north of the surveyed area, up to "the Clearwater River [say lat. 55° N.], and extending from Green Lake, the Beaver River, and connecting waters THE WEALTH OF CANADA 121 as far north as Portage la Loche, on the east, to the Athabaska River, on the west." It should be explained that ''surveyed area" means land which has been marked out by townships of thirty-six sections; each section being one mile square, and each section subdivided into quarter sections of i6o acres each. The town- ship is, therefore, six miles square; its lines run north and south, or east and west; and the system corre- sponds closely with the public lands surveys in the United States. The area, covered by the two reports which have been mentioned, is approximately thirty-four miUion acres, and the greater part of this enormous tract is shown to be admirably suited to mixed farming. Scattered over the map which accompanies the combined reports are such legends as, ''prairie; very good soil," "rolling land; good soil," "barley, oats, and good gardens," "burnt over; good soil," "well timbered." There are abundant natural resources of timber, hay, fish, and game, which are of much value to intending immigrants. A good many of the early settlers have practically given up the cultivation of grain and devote their energies to cutting and curing hay, for which the local demand is so great as to ensure large profits. Results of actual operations in cattle raising are of a most encouraging nature. In Saskatchewan Province, as far north as about the 52nd parallel of latitude, there are large herds of cattle and good-sized droves of horses in a thriving condition. Similar reports are made from various other parts of this same region. The Dominion Department of Agriculture, through its 122 THE COMING CANADA Bureau of Plant Industry and its Experimental Farms Branch, has made investigation of wild grasses growing in Siberia, Mongolia, and Northern Manchuria. Three varieties of yellow-flowered alfalfa, called also lucern, lucerne, and luzerne, were ''found growing and thriving in a wild state under conditions of climate much more severe, both as to cold in winter and snowfall, than are to be found in any part of Northwestern Canada as far north as there are any claims made as to probabilities of settlement. It may therefore be considered reason- ably probable that whatever advantages alfalfa has over our native grass as fodder are assured for all habitable parts of our north country." A careful perusal of these two reports which have been mentioned certainly gives a very different idea of Canada's northern land than that which most people have hitherto had. A number of illustrations from photographs of actual fields, etc., tend to emphasise the astonishment that farming can be possible so nearly up to the Arctic Circle. One of the reproductions shows a field of oats at La Plonge Mission station, about 56° N. lat. A man, nearly six feet tall, stands among the stalks, the tops of which come to his chin. This is mentioned as an example of what has been actually done, and much other evidence of arable land in regions that were, but a few years ago, looked upon as desolate and practically uninhabitable, might be added. While grains are undoubtedly the main factor in Canada's agricultural wealth, there are other crops which are exceedingly profitable. Fruits of various kinds are one source of revenue which is already large and is THE WEALTH OF CANADA 123 steadily expanding. Apple orchards are being set out farther and farther north each year, and the extreme limit at which this fruit can be advantageously grown has not been finally determined. London, Eng., now takes a large part of Nova Scotia's milHon barrels of apples. This is now considered an average crop for the province, with probabilities of material increase. In the St. Lawrence Valley, although apple-trees are fairly plentiful and fairly proKfic even in the lower parts, among the habitants, it is not until one reaches the Lake Ontario region that the orchards become conspicuous. In the Niagara district, from the river to and around the western end of the lake, and spread out well towards the west, there are miles of thrifty peach and apple orchards, and acres upon acres of luxuriant vineyards. If the fruit orchards are found to be not continuous as the traveller passes across the great prairies from Winnipeg to the foot of the Rockies, it is not because fruit will not thrive there, but for the reason that the farmers have elected to concentrate their efforts upon growing grain or raising stock. But when once the southern Rocky Mountains region is entered — and one must deflect to the southward from the main Hne of the Canadian Pacific Railway, taking the new branch — orchards re-appear. The Okanagon Lake district is deservedly famous for its orchards. "Along the beautiful sheet of water lie the new fruit growing centres of Kelewna, Peachland, Summerland, and Penticton — musical names all. To be privileged to eat real apples from a British Columbia 124 THE COMING CANADA orchard, or to pick real rosy-cheeked peaches from a Peachland tree, to see pear and plum trees laden to their limit, and flourishing amid their irrigation channels, is to be impressed with the fact that in this great timber and mining province of Canada fruit-growing is already an established industry, where you may pay up to 500 dollars an acre for choice orchard lands." * In 1903 the experiment of shipping apples from British Columbia abroad was first tried as a commercial venture, although I know — from delightful personal experience — that the C. P. R. steamers have been bountifully supplied with apples and other fruit for many years. Some were sent to Glasgow, carried well across the conti- nent and the Atlantic, and sold profitably. Some went to Australia, and some gained a gold medal at a London, Eng., exhibition. However, the home demand is not yet so over-supplied that orchardists need send their apples all over the world to find a market. There is one Canadian fruit that is peerless of its kind; only it must be eaten on its native heath to get all the delight for the palate that it holds. This is the ''Mon- treal melon." Its 'appearance tends rather to dis- courage the American epicure who has for his ideal the rough, rusty little canteloupe, because the Montreal melon is somewhat suggestive of the poorer quality of muskmelon. But when once the gourmet listens to the praise of the waiter who places the half of one of these melons before him and tastes — he is a convert at once and a devotee forever after. It is a pity this fruit will not stand transportation when ripe, else would * Frank Yeigh, Through the Heart of Canada. THE WEALTH OF CANADA 125 its sale in cities of the United States add many a dollar each year to Canada's wealth. Of the Dominion's wealth in timber and merchantable lumber, there are abundant evidences on every hand. At the docks of Montreal and all river ports where deepwater craft can load, the immense piles of sawn lumber, vanishing by day to be replaced by others in the night, speak for themselves. It is true that each year adds a little to the cost of producing this lumber, because the lumbermen must go a little farther away for the logs, and in many places the deforestation has been shamelessly complete. Statisticians claim to have fixed the limit of time for the best Canadian white pine to be procurable, unless the government gives great attention to conservation and reforestation. Officials have taken these matters well in hand and the Forestry Bureau of the Interior Department is now organised and vested with authority to preserve and renew. It seems hardly necessary to dwell at any length upon the Dominion's wealth in fur-bearing animals. It is still great, but not comparable with what it was in the halcyon days of les voyageurs et les coureurs des hois. That there is profit in the fur business, and revenue for the government, are clearly indicated by the competition which private firms and indi\iduals are now waging with the Hudson's Bay Company. There is little danger that the profit-yielding shore and deep-sea fisheries will greatly decrease; because of Nature's generosity in replenishing the supply. His- torically, the beginnings and growth of the earliest 126 THE COMING CANADA trading companies of New France — those that had to do, first with the cod-fishing on the Newfoundland Banks, and later with the fur-trade — are subjects of great interest, and the stories are filled with incidents that are distinctly thriUing.* The Coming Canada has little to fear for its future wealth, if the present intelli- gence in developing now displayed is maintained, and the prosecution watched by competent officials. * H. P. Biggar. The Early Trading Companies of New France. CHAPTER IX PHYSICAL CANADA THE eastern three-fourths of the Dominion, from Labrador in the northeast to Nova Scotia in the southeast, and westward until the great central plains have been crossed, have no mountains of very great altitude. I should, perhaps, say ''excepting the extreme northern part of Labrador." But our knowledge of that peninsula is still far from satisfactory. Indeed, I do not hesitate to say that beyond a smattering of information along the coast, we do not know anything at all about that region. It may be — as has been asserted — that there are peaks which rise to a height of from 7000 to 8000 feet above sea-level; but from the best information I could gather, I am rather incHned to doubt it. In the extreme southeastern section of Canada, the highest peak is Bald Mountain, in New Brunswick, 2460 feet. Besides this there are rarely any hills w^hich attain to 3000 feet above the sea. The Shicksock moun- tains of the Gaspe peninsula attain to 3000 feet in certain peaks. If it does not tower to great heights, yet the Lauren- tian plateau, along Georgian Bay, the upper end of Lake Huron, and the whole of the north shore of Lake Superior, is extremely interesting to the geologist, since it is con- 128 THE COMING CANADA sidered to represent the oldest rock formation of the globe. In this aspect of the relative ages of the two hemispheres, it is manifestly a misnomer to call America ^'the New World." This hard, close-grained Lauren- tian rock presented a very serious problem to the engi- neers who built the first trans-continental railway in Canada, the Canadian Pacific. It was a most difficult matter to cut the road-bed; because the charges of explosives, no matter how carefully set and tamped, blew straight out of the drill-holes as from a gun-barrel, without shattering the adamantine rock at all. It was only when heavy charges of nitro-glycerine were used that the work was successfully accomplished. When I passed around the southern end of Lake Baikal, Siberia, by the Trans-Siberian Railway, I was reminded con- stantly of this section of the Canadian Pacific. Con- ditions were singularly parallel in both places. The almost imperative necessity for double-tracking the Canadian line, eastward from Port Arthur, in order to facilitate the getting of the yearly increasing grain-crop of the North West to market, when navigation on the Great Lakes is closed, is a task from which the engineers of the Canadian Pacific naturally shrink : but it has got to be faced and accompHshed. It is not surprising that this Laurcntian belt for a long time presented a serious obstacle to the development of regions to the west thereof; and it was many years before settlements began to spread northward from the one available thoroughfare. But now that it is found that regions which had been considered too remote, too unsuited to husbandry, and too inhospitable for perma- PHYSICAL CANADA I29 nent settlements are really desirable in many ways, the newer railway lines, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the National Trans-continental, and doubtless others have been or will be located north of the Laurentian belt. Construction will be a much easier problem than was that which faced the Canadian Pacific engineers. When the Rocky Mountains are reached, there is presented to the visitor's eyes a wealth of mountain scenery that is with difficulty matched in any other part of the world. From the International Boundary along the main range away up to Mackenzie Bay, in the extreme north of Yukon Territory, above the Arctic Circle, and in the whole of British Columbia, including the islands off the coast, there is *'a world of mountains." There are, besides the parent range, the subordinate chains, the Selkirks, the Coast, the Cascades, and spurs that bear local names. In the first are peaks such as Sir Donald, over 10,000 feet; and glaciers such as the Illicillewait. Here is a Hst of names of mountain peaks in the Canadian Rockies, any one of which will give all that alpinists can ask in the way of difficulties to sur- mount, and a reward that thrills: Aberdeen, Assiniboine, Baker, Cathedral Spires, Cougar, Logan, Robson, St. EHas, Temple, Vice-President, Victoria. But I wish to give a full chapter, later on, to this subject of the Canadian Rockies. Canada is most bountifully supphed with lakes and rivers; taken together, these afford facilities for inland navigation and intercommunication that are almost unique. Most of the lakes have outlets, and therefore their waters are fresh; but in the southern part of 130 THE COMING CANADA Saskatchewan Province is one of the very excessively dry regions; here there are some lakes which are not drained. The water is strongly alkaline and the shores of these land-locked lakes are heavily incrusted with mineral deposits. ''It is interesting to find marine plants, such as the samphire, growing on their shores a thousand miles from the sea and more than a thousand feet above it." In many places the water, which settles in one basin to form a small lake, overflows and meanders down the next lower level until again it settles into another lake. There is not always a well-defined channel. As a consequence, the river systems are frequently complex and tortuous. The successive links between the lakes have been given different names by the Indians or the European discoverers, and this adds to confusion. The Great Lakes, with the St. Lawrence River, are deferred to another chapter. A glance at the map shows that Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, northern Saskatchewan and Alberta, and the whole of the North West Territories, are honeycombed with lakes. Indeed the low and generally level character of the land, which make these lakes and rivers inevitable, is one of the embarrass- ments that confront the Dominion Government. The waterlogged land is dif!icult to drain, and yet the soil itself is admirably suited to husbandry and stock-raising. In the Canadian folk-lore, there is hardly a lake, from St. John, in eastern Quebec, to the Great Bear, in the North West Territories and crossed by the Arctic Circle, that has not figured in one or more of these stories. There are besides these many historical tales which relate the hardships borne by coureurs des hois or mission- PHYSICAL CANADA 131 aries in their efforts to conquer the wilderness or uplift the savage inhabitants: all are pathetic; many are tragic. I cannot imagine a more tempting summer expedition for strong young men who love to get back for a while to Nature now and then, than to start from Winnipeg, Manitoba, go by canoe the full length of Lake Winnipeg, because its shores give the most entrancing spots for a camp; then make their way by the smaller lakes and charming connecting streams, with here and there a portage that adds spice to hfe, to Nelson River, and down that stream to its mouth in Hudson Bay. Once there, I should not be happy unless I could take a good look at the two shores of the bay. For those who like to combine exploration with recreation, there are excellent opportunities, especially on the eastern side of the bay, north of the Hudson's Bay Company's post at the mouth of Great Whale River. Some way of getting round the Ungava peninsula and Labrador will present itself; and at the end of the summer, I should return to dull civi- lisation by way of Newfoundland. But the Canadian lakes are not all in the low country: some of them are so high up in the Rocky Mountains that they are truly amongst the clouds. Travellers by the Canadian Pacific Railway get ghmpses of some of the mountain lakes while comfortably seated in a palace- car, or while eating a most delicious breakfast in a dining- car as it runs along the shore of Kootenay or Sicamous lake; and it is not unUkely one item of the meal will be fresh fish taken just a few minutes before from one of those lakes. I have many times had that tantalising 132 THE COMING CANADA pleasure; and always there has been a fierce protest that the demands of profession or business prevented my leaving the sybaritish luxury of the train that I might tramp and climb and for an indefinite period live. One envies the surveyors and builders of the railway who first forced their way through some of these mountain canyons, past the lovely lakes, along the tumbling streams. Remnants of their trails are here and there to be seen, and often they make one catch one's breath, when they seem to be just scratched on the face of a precipice. After having crossed the continent by every one of the principal lines of railway, both in the United States and in Canada, I still thinlc there is less of monotony along the Canadian Pacific Railway than there is in the United States west of the Mississippi until the Rocky Mountains are reached. When the Grand Trunk Pacific is finished it will, probably, make the prairie lose even more of its dreariness and sameness. Although the traveller reaHses some time before reaching Winnipeg, westward bound, that the mountains and hills have been left behind, he does not really begin to see ''the boundless prairies" until after passing well to the west of Winnipeg. When I first made that journey, I must admit that the settlements were few and far between: now they are many. Yet even twenty- five years ago, it did not seem tedious to cross the prairies. The railway was rarely a long straight stretch, so long that the rails seemed to come together in the distance as I looked back from the rear end of the train. It wound about the low, rolling mounds that seemed to PHYSICAL CANADA 133 be like billows of a great green or brown sea, suddenly deprived of motion. There was plenty of vegetation and the wild flowers were innumerable. In the lush grass there were herds of antelopes feeding, or frightened into panic by the noise of the swiftly moving train. But even then the buffaloes had been so nearly exterminated, or driven far away by the advance of civilisation, that nothing remained as a reminder of them but skulls and heaps of bleached bones. Coyotes, jack rabbits, prairie-dogs, and other smaller animals were plentiful, and the co-tenants of the prairie-dogs, the owls and the rattlesnakes, were to be seen whenever we passed a ''colony." So that had the land itself been entirely uninteresting — and it was rarely that — there was sufficient Kf e to make the trip anything but tedious and monotonous. Always there were the most wonderful atmospheric effects; deceiving the eye as to distances. Now the settlements are so numerous that the express trains pass many stations without stopping — something that was never done twenty-five years ago — and farmhouses are rarely out of sight. The prairies are great grain fields or stretches of grazing land. The latter, however, are yearly shrink- ing in size along the railways; for to the husbandman, the bona fide householder especially, is given the right of way, precedence, and government protection against aggressive stockmen. But the most conspicuous change in the Canadian prairies is the development of railways throughout southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and almost equally so in Alberta. Where, only a very few years 134 THE COMING CANADA ago, there was but one railway in this entire region, the main line of the Canadian Pacific, there are now three trunk lines, the C. P. R., the Grand Trunk Pacific, and the Canadian Northern, to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains; while Manitoba and Saskatchewan, as far as Regina, are almost as much cut up by subordi- nate and branch lines as is the state of Indiana. Inasmuch as railways are not often built merely for the pleasure of constructing them, and because there is no strategic demand for any of the numerous tributary lines, the fact that there are so many in this region indicates more clearly than words could how complete has been the transformation of the prairies, from lonely desolation to active life. Aside from the economic aspects of Canada's coasts and bays, these outlying bounds demand a little atten- tion because of their association and physical features; more than I can give, I am sorry to say. Sufl&cient has been said of the history of the eastern part of the Domin- ion, although that little can give but a hint of this inter- esting subject. It is perhaps unwise to say that it was the fisheries of the American coast which first directed considerable attention to the New World; yet it is certain that the efforts of the first trading companies of New France did something to stimulate further exploration and effort to maintain possession of new territories. It is rather with physical features that we are now to deal. The province of New Brunswick has something like four hundred miles of coast, sometimes rocky, in other places marsh. The local names recall the aborigines, PHYSICAL CANADA I35 who are now of really small importance in the active life of the province. Some of the place names remind us of the struggle between France and England: struggles that ended only a century and a half ago, and yet how dim is their history! The coast of New Brunswick, especially along the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay, is very popular with Canadians who wish to get away from the cities during the summer; and not a few citizens of the United States have followed the lead of their northern neighbours in establishing summer homes in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. There would probably be more, were it not for the annoyance to which they would be subjected by U. S. Customs officers when they return in the autumn. St. John, christened by Champlain, and the oldest incorporated city in Canada, is of most importance as a commercial centre. It is at the mouth of the deep estuary which penetrates far into the province, to Queens, Sunbury, and York counties: a trip by steam- boat up this estuary — called St. John's River — to Fredericton, the provincial capital, is a popular excursion ; the quaint old town of Fredericton being attractive in many ways. St. John's River is bordered with villages and towns of some importance. Many visitors are seen there during the summer. The feature of this part of the coast which is most famous is the Bay of Fundy, about 170 miles long and from thirty to fifty miles wide. Its greatest fame, with boys and girls studying geography, is its rushing tide, rising some sLxty to seventy feet. At the northern end 136 THE COMING CANADA of Chignecto Bay, an arm of Fundy, stands the town of Amherst. From this place across to Port Elgin Bay, off Northumberland Sound (which is between the main- land and Prince Edward Island), the distance is only about fifteen miles; and yet the tides on the Sound show nothing of the surprising phenomenon that is witnessed in Fundy waters. Nova Scotia's southern coast is indented by many estuaries; the most important being Halifax Harbour, on which stands the city that was for a long time a port of call for so many lines of trans-Atlantic steamers. It is still an important place, but its glory has been tem- porarily dimmed since the large steamers pass by with- out stopping for coals and water. As it is open all the year round, Halifax's importance is likely to be recov- ered as the Dominion's maritime trade expands. As a strategic point its value will always be great. The coasts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador, and the north must be passed by; not because they are not important — at present or prospectively — but for lack of space. The coast of British Columbia, from the southern end of Vancouver Island to the 55 th parallel of North latitude (where it joins Alaska), is an extremely interesting section. The scenery is grand, the natural resources wonderful, and the natives are still a subject that claims the attention of ethnologists. The student of mankind will find the Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte Islands an attractive subject, even if their arts have been greatly modernised. The totem-posts and huge canoes, most elaborately and symbolically carved, are familiar objects PHYSICAL CANADA 137 in all ethnological museums. After what has been said of the natural wealth, this part of the Dominion is especially interesting to the tourist and the sportsman, whose claims are to receive attention in the next chapter. CHAPTER X CANADA FOR THE TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 1MUST ask pardon of my Canadian friends for appro- priating the word '' American" to designate specific- ally the citizens of the United States. I fully respect the right of those who were born and brought up in the Dominion to consider themselves as much "American" as anyone hailing from the southern side of the St. Lawrence River or the International Boundary. Most Canadians are willing to let their ''Yankee" friends call themselves "Americans" and to speak of them as such. I differentiate for convenience only, and I do not wish to hurt anyone's feelings. After all, I have noticed that a good many faithful subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George, sojourning in Canada, insist upon being differentiated as "Enghshmen," "Scotchmen," "Canadians." A tourist may be defined as one who travels for the pleasure of doing so merely to widen his horizon or with a dilettante desire to increase his fund of information about the world and its inhabitants. This description being accepted, the American tourist is too prone to consider it his duty to rush over to Europe. As soon as Fortune has smiled upon him so kindly as to leave him with more ready money than suffices to provide abun- TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 139 dantly for those dependent upon him, he books his passage for the Old World, before he knows anything about his own country. Very often it is a teacher who turns tourist during the summer vacation, in which case the pronoun must, more than half the time, be made feminine, or inclusive of both sexes, if a general state- ment is made. I remember being told by the captain of a Pacific liner, that long experience and close observation justified his saying that very few Americans (and he meant both Canadians and people from the United States) had earned the right to travel abroad, because not one in a hundred knew his own country at all. On the voyage, when he made that remark, there were a number of tourists on board the steamer, going to Japan, China, the Philippines, the East Indies, British India, on to Europe by the Suez Canal, and then home to settle down again. As I was disposed to think as the captain did, we agreed to interrogate our fellow voyagers to see how much they knew of their respective countries by actual travel. I must say, on my own behalf, that the captain had previously admitted I had gained the right to see all the rest of the world, because I had already been in all but two or three of our states at that time, as well as into the four divisions, Oklahoma, Indian, Arizona, and New Mexico, which were then territories, but have now been admitted into the Union of States. I had, too, been in Canada, from east to west. When we compared notes towards the end of the voyage, I was astonished to find that not one American I40 THE COMING CANADA or Canadian had travelled anytliing like thoroughly in North America. Most of my fellow passengers had seen Niagara Falls; one or two had entered the Mam- moth Cave; a few had crossed the Mississippi River; several had been to the Yosemite Valley; one or two had gone through the Yellowstone Park; not one, besides myself, had been in the Gulf States, and therefore they knew nothing about New Orleans. Many of the Ameri- cans had never been to their National Capital, Wash- ington. Few of the Canadians had travelled in the United States. Not any of the Americans had ever been in the Dominion until they joined the Canadian Pacihc train at Montreal, North Bay, or Winnipeg, or boarded the steamer at Vancouver or Victoria. Yet those who were really tourists seemed to feel that they must go abroad in order to see something of the world. I am now more than ever convinced of the wisdom of that captain's remark, because I have had greater oppor- tunities to widen my own horizon, and to observe my fellow countrymen as tourists in many parts of the world. American tourists (the word is now used in- clusively) have a great deal to see and do between the Isthmus of Panama and the Arctic Ocean, before they need cross either the Atlantic or the Pacific for the mere pleasure of traveUing. Of course I would not be understood as being disposed to hinder the student or the teacher from going to the Old World for research, experience, or broadening; the personal pleasure and benefit are compensated by the ability to help others. I am speaking of the tourist, the "globe trotter." It is not my province just now r-^... o m n o ::c c n r > n n PI o M n TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 141 to discuss the enormous wealth of material for the tourist in the United States of America. But even the Ameri- can who has fairly well explored the States, has yet a good deal that he may do in the Dominion of Canada, before he has exhausted the resources of home, and must turn to Europe, Asia, or Africa for new worlds to conquer. Several suggestions have already been given in these pages; but perhaps the touring that they connote may be a little too strenuous for the average traveller who is solely on pleasure bent. For such, there is hardly a railway line in the Dominion which does not offer attractions. Every one of the principal railway com- panies advertises summer, or winter, or all the year round resorts that are alluring, and the corporations have made effort to enhance natural charms by providing facilities for getting to these places, and for looking after the creature comforts of patrons. As yet, the Canadian Pacific Railway is in the lead, with Banff, Revelstoke, Glacier House, and minor points on the main line, or newer ones on some of the branches. But the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Canadian Northern, the Intercolonial, and other lines now offer their attractions, and these are being added to each year. There are several sections of the Dominion that possess great attraction for the tourist and the sports- man. Some of these I wish to discuss specifically in separate chapters, such as the Great St. Lawrence Basin, from the Httle lake. Bear's Head, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence; the Canadian Rockies; the Hudson Bay territory, and the pro\'ince of Manitoba. But there is much left even after cutting off such large slices. 142 THE COMING CANADA The tourist who takes his pleasure in yachting has almost infinite possibilities along the eastern coasts of the Dominion, where there are plenty of good harbours, excellent fish, and suppHes of all kinds to be had for reasonable prices. Such a traveller should prepare him- self for the cruise by reading about the places he is going to visit, for they are rich in history and sentimental or romantic association. If the land of Evangeline has been transformed beyond physical recognition, there still remain the romance and perfume of bygone times. Grand Pre is still on the shore of Minas Basin, Nova Scotia: to be sure, it is now a railway station and the forest primeval has disappeared forever. A word of warning, based upon personal experience, may not be out of place here. It is, to watch the weather carefully, especially if cruising in a sailing craft. In the summer, when the yachtsman is sure to seek the Canadian coast, the fog often comes in quickly and is so dense as to make navigation exceedingly dangerous. Then, too, the wind frequently plays awkward tricks, either in rising to a sudden gale, intro- duced by violent squalls, or in dropping to a calm just when the sailing craft is in a tight place. The important provinces. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland of course, have been so thoroughly described, that all needed information is readily procured; but one of the most attractive bits of the Dominion, for the tourist, is not so well known as are the other eastern portions. Just about the centre of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there is a group of thirteen rocky islets, the Magdalen Islands. They are TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 143 fifty miles from Prince Edward Island to the eastward; and Newfoundland is ninety miles still farther east. Although these seemingly bleak rocks have a popula- tion of some eight thousand souls, they are not well known and are rarely visited. Yet their history is interesting, ''for they were involved in the various conflicts between England and France, and were fre- quently the subject of treaties and conventions between the two Powers." It is not impertinent to remark here that some WTiters still insist upon speaking of Newfoundland as the oldest British colony. That honour, I am sure, belongs to the Bermudas. Newfoundland came into the British colonial system at the same time as Nova Scotia, not earlier than 162 1. On a Spanish map of 151 1, the Bermudas are marked as a British colony. E. J. Payne, a careful student of British North American history, says of the Bermudas: "EngHsh colonists estabhshed themselves on St. George's Island in 161 2 under a grant from the Virginia Company. Fresh relays of colonists arrived and after the settlement of a large body in 161 9, the administration became vested in a governor, council, and elective assembly." The visitor to the Magdalen Islands who is so fortunate as to make friends with any of the older residents, will gain a rich reward in the tales of the sea which most of those folks can tell. It will be the sportsman, probably, who is more likely to push his way up the Labrador coast, for to that country more and more fishermen are going each sum- mer. The accounts of sociological and ethnological study with which we have been favoured by several 144 THE COMING CANADA writers lately, indicate that the good work of evangelisa- tion and civilisation, already more than well begun, offers a rich field for the philanthropist. It would be ungracious not to mention the name of the Rev. Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, to whom not only I am greatly beholden, but all who have visited Labrador are equally indebted. The northern portions of the Dominion offer endless attractions to the tourist. Not only is the scenery varied and rarely tame, but the successful effort which is being made to extend the limit of the inhabited and cultivated zone far into those north lands appeals strongly to all visitors. By the time this book is in the hands of readers, it will probably be possible to go by train from Winnipeg all the way to the shores of Hudson Bay. It will almost certainly be possible to cross the Rocky Mountains by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway through the more northern pass which it has selected for its right of way. Besides, there will be other branch lines of the various great railway systems built into this Wonderland of the North. With all these facilities at his service, the tourist or sportsman will have his horizon much expanded. It is a httle difficult to write of the attractions which British Columbia holds forth to the tourist and the sportsman, without seeming to indulge in extravagance which taxes the credulity of those who have not had actual experience. Mountains, lakes, glaciers, canyons, babbling brooks, mighty rivers, primeval forests, land- scape and marine view, all phases of natural scenery are presented in magnificent quantities. Then the pleasing TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 145 results of man's effort in availing himself of agricultural possibilities have developed great orchards and culti- vated fields which speak for themselves. Of big game and little game, feathered and four- footed, there is an abundance; although, as is but natural, each year necessitates going a little farther afield to secure the gratification of killing the big ani- mals. The ambitious tourist who likes to blaze his own trails will find that a considerable part of extreme northern British Columbia has not yet been explored thoroughly. He may easily add a valuable page or two to the records which will hereafter be utiHsed by writers who will do justice to the trails among the world full of hills within the Hmits of British Columbia. There may yet be glaciers hidden away in those mountains that are not known, but a word may be said of one which is easily accessible. Soon after the traveller by the Canadian Pacific line has crossed the crest of the Rockies and entered the Selkirks, the train stops at Glacier House, usually for a meal, because the heavy gradients and sharp curves make it unadvisable to add a dining-car to the weight of the train, and whether it be breakfast, dinner, or supper, the meal is a good one. From the station platform or the hotel verandah, one sees a great glacier stretching back far into the moun- tains; and in summer it looks rather grimy for each passing engine adds a Httle to the soot upon it. This ice- river, like all those on the western slopes of the Cordil- leran system of which we know anything, is technically said to be ''in retreat." That is, it is evident, from the moraines which continue far down below the present 146 THE COMING CANADA end of the ice, that all these glaciers formerly reached down much farther than they do now. The slow movement downward is not sufficient to compensate the loss by melting. Unless conditions change, all these glaciers will disappear. The great Muir Glacier in Alaska may be an exception, but I am not certain; it gives birth to a goodly number of icebergs each year! It is astonishing how the ice-river at Glacier House holds the gaze of those who look at it for the first time, particularly young people and children, as if they were fascinated. I have known such to stand gazing in silent wonder until the bell rang for passengers to entrain, and thus miss the meal that had been waiting for them. I have known, too, older passengers who were booked for passage to Japan or China by the connecting steamer, to telegraph to Vancouver to transfer their reservation to the next steamer, a fortnight or three weeks later, in order that they might stay and make the intimate, famiUar acquaintance of the glacier. In the summer, when the salmon are running, there is good sport for the fisherman in all the lower reaches of the British Columbia rivers. As this is the season when the ablebodied men and women are likely to be engaged in the hop-fields or other harvesting work, the sports- man may have to depend upon an old squaw to take him in a canoe. I remember an amusing incident which came as part of my first summer in British Columbia waters. It was August and the salmon were plentiful and in prime condition as they came in from the sea. The old dame who had contracted to paddle while I trolled, when she found that her ''King George Man" Fishing Camp, Nokthern Quebec Province Speckled Trout Fishing, Algonquin National Pari TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN I47 (the Chinook, lingua franca, for an EngKshman and therefore all white men) knew how to wield a paddle, was inclined to shirk her duty. When called upon to resume her paddle, which she had laid down for a few minutes to tidy up the little craft, at first she attempted by pantomime to flatter. That failing, she demurred volubly and vehemently, but unavailingly. She had to paddle and let the King George Man fish! The visitor to the remoter sections of Canada, those which are really the most attractive to the thorough tourist and keen sportsman, will surely have the pleas- ure of making acquaintance with some of the Mounted Police, those original ''Rough Riders" from whom Colonel Theodore Roosevelt borrowed the title for his regiment during the Spanish-American war. They know the country as no other man can; they are ac- quainted with the best hunting, shooting, and fishing grounds, and willingly give useful "tips" to anyone who asks for information. If the visit of the stranger happens to be at a time when the demands of duty are momentarily relaxed, no guide can be found comparable with a Mounted PoHceman: they are experts in every art which contributes to the gratification and comfort of tourist or sportsman. Then too, if these guardians are not of direct, personal aid to the visitor, the influ- ence of their presence is felt everywhere and contributes greatly to his comfort. This is illustrated by the state- ment that on the three hundred mile road from White Horse to Dawson, the traveller is as safe as in any part of Canada. I wish the same thing might be said of the Alaskan side of the Klondike region. 148 THE COMING CANADA If anyone can read Mr. Frank Yeigh's account of a trip along the trail from Glacier House station, Cana- dian Pacific Railway, to the Cougar Caves, without longing for the opportunity to enjoy that experience for himself, I shall be greatly surprised. From the railway a small mule pack-train starts for Deutsch- man's Cabin far away to the north, near the head of Cougar Valley. It descends into the Illicillewaet River gorge, and then goes up and up to the cabin. Thence a stiff scramble brings one to the caves, bored by the rushing river deep down through the limestone. It is said that until Charles Deutschman discovered these Selkirk caves in October, 1904, the one natural curiosity that the Dominion seemed to lack was caves. The stigma is now completely removed, for the three superimposed sets of caves, at different levels, are not by any means contemptible rivals of the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, or the Luray Caverns, Virginia. ''One of the three series of caves is, curiously enough, practi- cally filled with ice, and this fact produces some striking effects. Instead of limestone stalactites, here there are stalactites of purest ice and of wondrous beauty, espe- cially when illuminated with the magnesium light. Ice deposits fill the crevices of the rocks, making other strange animal and bird forms. One such ice-bank resembles a gigantic sea-lion vainly trying to scale the dark wall overhead. From a cavernous opening there hung suspended an ice Niagara — a fall transfixed in the grasp of the frost king, and a more beautiful object could not well be imagined in the thick darkness beneath or in the sunlit world above. One ice-filled gallery TOURIST AND SPORTSMAN 149 ended in a perfect fireplace, as if to mock the chill of the glacial interior." * These wonderful caves are still inaccessible to all save those who are able to rough it and do some very hard climbing. I must bring this chapter to a close with a recommendation to both tourist and sportsman to make personal acquaintance with the Mackenzie River and all the streams of British Columbia. All of them will well repay the labour involved in getting to them, and they are sufficiently off beaten tracks to give the compensation of novelty wliich most travellers enjoy. * Through the Heart of Canada. CHAPTER XI CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES IF there were sufficient space at my disposal, I think it would be right to begin this chapter with some consideration of the intercourse between the British colonies in North America, from the founding of Virginia and the landing of the Pilgrims, and the French colony in Canada until the transfer of France's rights, in 1763. There should then follow a discussion at some length of the relations between the older and the newer British colonies during the brief interval until the breaking out of the War of American Independence in 1775. Limi- tations are put upon me, however, and I must pass over those most interesting one hundred and sixty-eight years. The action of the General Congress of the thirteen colonies, in October, 1774, presaged the independence which was soon to follow, and I think this may be taken as a starting point for a discussion of the intercourse between the United States and Canada. It is not at all surprising that British writers call John Dickinson's address to the inhabitants of Quebec '*a high sounding appeal." Dickinson was a member of the first Conti- nental Congress, when the people were already girding up their loins for a struggle with England. He drew up a communication from the colonists to their "friends CANADA AND UNITED STATES 151 and fellow subjects" inviting the Canadians to join in opposing English tyranny. But if we put ourselves, as much as possible, in the position of the American colonists at that time, we cannot endorse this severe criticism. It was, I admit, rather grandiloquent, yet thoroughly consistent with forensic eloquence of the time, to depict the shade of the great Montesquieu as saying to the Canadian habitants: ''The happiness of a people in- evitably depends upon their Hberty and their spirit to assert that liberty. The value and extent of the ad- vantages tendered you are immense. This work is not of man; you have been conquered into hberty, if you act as you ought. Seize the opportunity presented to you by Providence itself. You are a small people, com- pared with those who, with open arms, invite you into fellowship. The injuries of Boston have roused and associated every colony from Nova Scotia to Georgia. Your province is the only Unk wanting to complete the bright and strong chain of union. Nature has joined your country to theirs; do you join your political inter- ests; for their own sakes, they never will desert or betray you." The appeal failed entirely in its object, even if the American leaders had reason to expect a different result by arguing from the first display of feeHng on the part of the French Canadians, immediately after the break- ing out of hostihties in New England. Canada was almost totally indifferent when the Revolution com- menced, and therefore the Continental commander, General Richard Montgomery, wdth a body of troops from New England, had httle difficulty in invading 152 THE COMING CANADA Canada, capturing Chambly and Montreal and carry- ing the attack right up to the walls of Quebec. During this episode many French Canadians and even some British malcontents, openly or secretly gave assistance to the Americans; "but even then the large majority of the French Canadians remained neutral, and, if some joined the ranks of the invaders, others, including especially the higher ranks of the population, supported her cause. Here was a people lately con- quered, under the rule of an alien race. A golden opportunity was given them, it seemed, to recover their freedom. Why did the French colonists not throw in their lot whole-hearted with the EngHsh settlers in North America? Why did they prefer to remain under the British Crown?"* The eminent authority answers his own questions, and all students of Canadian history concur in saying that in those few years of British domination, the habitants had already learnt what freedom and sympathy meant as they had never known under French rule. They were too con- tented to take any risk by changing masters! It is lamentable that even in the remote times of one hundred and forty years ago, there were unmistakable signs of animosity between Britons on the Canadian side of the border and their fellows on the southern side thereof. Those Canadian French "did not love the English from England; they loved less their English neighbours in America; and they were not disposed to overthrow the British Government in order to sub- ject themselves to the rule of the English colonists." * Lucas, op. cit. CANADA AND UNITED STATES 153 Yet a little comfort is to be gleaned from even this unsuccessful effort at diplomacy; and it is that there appeared a disposition to lessen, if not to wipe out entirely, the prejudice on the part of the Puritans against the Roman Catholic religion. Of the three commis- sioners sent as avant courriers to induce les habitants to join in revolt, one was a Quaker and two were Romanists. The War of American Independence actually, if not avowedly, began with the famous skirmish at Lexington, April 19th, 1775. Between that date and the first real battle of the war. Bunker Hill, June 17th of the same year, there was begun the effort to effect the conquest of Canada. Ticonderoga and Crown Point, both on Lake Champlain (and considered, as has been already pointed out, the ''Keys of Canada's southern gate"), were surprised and captured without much difficulty, because they were in wretched condition and inade- quately garrisoned and supplied. Governor Guy Carle- ton (afterwards Lord Dorchester) had urged the repair of these posts, and their equipment or abandonment. It was through Carleton's effort that the siege of Quebec failed, and while that siege had lasted five months, he took justifiable pride in the fact that all attempts of the besiegers had been defeated. From the Canadian's point of view, too much importance can hardly be attached to Carleton's success at Quebec. Americans, when considering this important episode, cannot but regret that Benedict Arnold, who had ''dealt the hardest blow to the British cause in Canada," did not share the fate of his associate, ^lontgomery, who was killed in an attempt to capture Quebec by creeping along 154 THE COMING CANADA the river bank from Wolfe's Landing, under Cape Diamond into the lower town. There is little more to be said about relations between Canada and the United States during the rest of the Revolution. A few engagements took place, but they were of no importance, and the close of the war left the boundary practically as it now is from the Great Lakes to Passamaquoddy Bay, except that the Ashburton Treaty of 1842 allowed the state of Maine to project farther to the north in the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick than Canadians declared it should do. By the Treaty of Paris, September 3rd, 1783, the Mississippi River was accepted as the American boundary on the west. I refrain from commenting at length upon the anomalous condition which has arisen because of the declaration that the northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods shall be *'the northwestern point of the United States." The result is that a piece of the state of Minnesota is detached from the main body, and is a sort of ''No Man's Land." From that corner of the Lake of the Woods, the boundary was to be drawn "on a due west course to the River Mississippi." All the parties in interest and the plenipotentiaries were labour- ing under the mistake that the source of the Mississippi was very much farther north than it is. Consequently this determination of the prolongation of the boundary called for a geographical impossibility. Probably there was confusion of the Red River of the North with the Mississippi. The determination of the frontier from the Mississippi westward to the Pacific is likewise a matter which must be deferred for the moment. CANADA AND UNITED STATES 155 The second article of the treaty of 1783 reads: "And that all disputes which might arise in future on the sub- ject of the Boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the following are and shall be their Boundaries." All who are specially interested should read the treaty: it is enlightening to see how small a part of the present domain was included in the United States of 1783. That simple adjustment was but a momentary affair. The control of North America west of the Mississippi River in the United States, and beyond the very vague bound- ary of the Hudson's Bay Company's territory in the north, was entirely unprovided for. That was an almost unknown wilderness. To be sure some of the American colonies, newly born States, claimed jurisdiction west- ward to the Pacific Ocean between certain parallels of latitude or assigned lines which were their northern and southern boundaries. The deHmitation of boundaries as between the United States and Canada was com- plicated by almost indescribably vague conditions. Therefore the "first settlement of the quarrel between Great Britain and her old North American colonies left an aftermath of troublesome questions, causing constant friction, endless negotiations, and a succession of supplementary conventions." * The first boundary dispute was the determination of just which one of three rivers, all emptying into Passa- maquoddy Bay and each claimed to be the St. Croix of Champlain's days, was actually that stream. The boundaries that have been mentioned begin "from the * Lucas, op. cit. 156 THE COMING CANADA North- West Angle of Nova Scotia, viz., the Angle which is formed by a line drawn due North, from the source of St. Croix River to the Highlands." John Jay, then special envoy to the Court of St. James to negotiate with the British Government for more friendly relations, concluded a treaty on November 19th, 1794, by the fifth article of which this matter of determining the source of the St. Croix River was left to three commissioners, one to be appointed by each Government, and the third to be chosen by the other two. The treaty was ratified in August, 1795, and in the following year the commis- sioners began their work; the two appointed by the respective Governments choosing an American jurist as their associate. Another, explanatory treaty had to be signed by the two Governments to absolve the com- missioners from responsibility beyond their specific duty of fixing the river's source. When the boundary was defined, a considerable area was cut off from New Brunswick; naturally to the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants and Canadians generally. This, however, did not settle the boundary disputes in this region, because although the commissioners identified the St. Croix River from its mouth to its source, they did not actually define the boundary down the course of the river and out to the mouth of Passamaquoddy Bay, nor did they attempt the impossibility of estabhshing that line ''due North from the source of St. Croix River to the Highlands"; because those hills do not extend far enough east to meet such a right fine. The dispute about this last mentioned line nearly brought on war between Great Britain and the United States. The CANADA AND UNITED STATES 157 boundary was not settled until sixty years later. Igno- rance of geography that any schoolboy to-day ought to be ashamed to display, was responsible for all this trouble. I have gone into details to show how compli- cated have been these boundary disputes; but I have not given all the particulars of this case. Ashburton's treaty, by which — on January 28th, 1847 — the northeastern boundary between Canada and the United States was delimited, has always been declared by Canadians to give the latter country terri- tory to which Great Britain had an incontestable claim. The determination of the ownership of islands in Passa- maquoddy Bay was another cause of dispute. So far as the islands alone are concerned, the question was settled by arbitration in November, 181 7, but the actual boundary between the two countries out into the Bay of Fundy has not yet been delimited. This awaits action under the Treaty of April 11, 1908, for the de- limitation of International Boundaries between Canada and the United States. In the west, the dispute over lands in the Oregon or Columbia territory was bitter, and the slogan ''54-40 or fight" indicated the American feeling. Calm com- promise or friendly arbitration allayed the tension — even if either rarely gave satisfaction. In time, the extreme northern parts of the International Boundary were delimited. The Klondike dispute was likewise settled without recourse to extreme measures, even if Canada was far from satisfied. The delimitation of the boundary between Yukon Province and Alaska was marked by a joint commission in 191 1 only. The 158 THE COMING CANADA transfer of Russia's rights in Alaska to the United States, March 30, 1867, gave rise to disputes as to fishing-rights in Behring Sea. Arbitration decided that the United States has no exclusive rights. ''The last phase in the evolution of the Boundary line between Canada and the United States is the Treaty of nth of April, 1908, 'for the delimitation of Inter- national Boundaries between Canada and the United States,' by which machinery is provided 'for the more complete definition and demarcation of the International Boundary,' and for settHng any small outstanding points such as, e.g., the boundary line through Passa- maquoddy Bay." * From the close of the War of American Independence, 1783, until President Madison, in 181 2, issued a procla- mation which brought on the "War of 181 2" between the United States and Great Britain, the principal feature that marks the intercourse between Canada and the United States was the action of those who were called United Empire LoyaHsts and their treatment, not only by Canada and the British Government, but by the Government of the United States as well. When the Revolution broke out, with the firing of that first shot by "the embattled farmers" at Concord and Lexington, it was estimated that of the entire white population of the thirteen American colonies, fully one- third, or about seven hundred thousand, were actively or passively loyal to Great Britain. There were fairly reUable authorities who put the number at even higher figures; declaring that they decidedly outnumbered * Lucas, op. lit. Fossil Hinting, Mt. Robson District, B. C CANADA AND UNITED STATES 159 those who were opposed to British methods and eventu- ally in favour of separation from the Mother Country, even if that action involved war. It is certain that a preponderance of those Loyahsts was in New York, the capital of which colony was in possession of the British from September, 1776, until its evacuation after the surrender in 1783. A majority of the white citizens of Pennsylvania, as well as those of South Carolina and Georgia, also were Loyalists; and in all the other colonies a very large number of the better classes of citizens were British sympathisers. Probably there were over thirty thousand of the men in regularly organised military companies, besides those who carried on a guerilla warfare in South Carolina and other colonies. Americans have come only lately to look upon these *' Tories," as they were called contemptuously, with that fairness to which most of them were entitled. Surely no one will charge such a man as the late John Fiske with disloyalty to American institutions; yet he and other reputable writers compare the Loyahsts of 1776 with the Union sympathisers in the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War of 186 1-5. Others refuse to see anything good in the Loyalists and measure ,them entirely by their participation in such outrages as the Wyoming Valley massacre and similar acts which were brutal and indefensible. A long list might be given of names which command respect; men who deprecated separation. It is an interesting fact that the relations between Great Britain and the Dominion of Canada are now regulated by just l6o THE COMING CANADA such principles as were urged in the interests of England and her thirteen original colonies a hundred and thirty odd years ago. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, a great LoyaHst, to whom tardy justice has recently been done by impartial historians in the country wherein his motives and acts were for so long misunderstood and misrepresented, took that position.* During the war both Revolutionists and Loyalists displayed bitter hatred of each other. The latter's estates were confiscated, individuals imprisoned, banished, disquahfied from holding office, and some who ven- tured to return after the war were subjected to severe penalties provided for by legislative enactments. The VI th article of the Treaty of Paris reads: ''That there shall be no future confiscations made, nor any prosecu- tions commenced against any person or persons, for or by reason of the part which he or they may have taken in the present war; and that no person shall on that account suffer any loss or damage either in his person, Hberty or property, and that those who may be in confinement on such charges at the time of the ratifica- tion of the Treaty in America, shall be immediately set at liberty, and the prosecutions so commenced be discontinued." In spite of that obligation, those Loyalists who re- turned failed to secure return of confiscated estates or any generous treatment, and there was nothing for them to do but leave the United States. More than thirty- five thousand went to Canada, and with them a large number of faithful negro servants. Most of the latter * Cf. Canada, lydg-igoo, Sir John G. Bourinot. Transport, Athabaska River, 56° 40' N. Transport, Athabaska Ri\er CANADA AND UNITED STATES l6l were subsequently deported to Sierra Leone, Africa. A majority of the whites settled in New Brunswick; others in the St. Lawrence Valley and along the shores of the Great Lakes. The British Government tried to do its best to compensate these Loyalists for the loss of their property, by making liberal grants of land. Later some of the original refugees, or the descendants of others, made their way back to the United States; while many of the best famiHes in the Dominion trace their ancestry back to these United Empire LoyaHsts. Very briefly stated, the causes which led up to the war of 1812-15, between the United States and Great Britain were, first; the right of search of neutral vessels in time of war for contraband articles; and second; impressment of British sailors who were members of neutral vessels' crews. The United States, with abundant reason, contended that Great Britain was carrying out her alleged rights in these matters with absolute disregard for the rights of others. War was declared and although ultimate victory was gained by the United States, yet the main principles at issue were not formally decided. Impressment has long since been discontinued; but the right of search has not yet been positively fixed. Canada suffered more than did Great Britain in the War of 181 2, and Canadian pubHcists have justly con- tended that it was not fair to attack the proxinces because of faults for which the Canadians were in no way responsible; but this was a weak position. The white population of Canada, in 181 2, was estimated at half a million; that of the United States at six and a half miUions. Yet the results of some of the land l62 THE COMING CANADA engagements were not at all discreditable to Canada. During the war the United Empire Loyalists contributed much to the effectiveness of the provincial militia and to the successful defense of their country. Peace was welcomed by all in America, whether Canadians or citizens of the United States. One of the notable effects of that war was the solidifying of the various racial elements in Canada; all classes, Gaul or Briton, united in support of continued connection with Great Britain. During the Civil War in the United States, the senti- ment of the Canadian people was generally against the Federal Government. Although no open assistance was afforded the Confederacy, yet we know very well that the privileges of Halifax and other harbours were granted to Confederate privateers in contravention of neutrality. Many Canadians looked upon all this as a fair requital for invasion in the past; and their acts did not make for friendly relations. Although a patriotic and loyal citizen, I have no excuse to offer for the failure of my Government to pre- vent the Fenian raids of 1866. In the month of April of that year, a small body of Irishmen made a demon- stration on the New Brunswick frontier. It had no effect in the way the aggressors had hoped; but it did contribute towards rousing into activity the movement for confederation which ere long resulted in the creation of the Dominion of Canada. In June, 1866, a number of Fenians crossed the Niagara River at Buffalo and gained an insignificant victory over a small force of "Toronto Volunteers" (mostly students). A few days later they surprised and defeated a small detachment of CANADA AND UNITED STATES 163 militia. But upon learning that a considerable body of regulars and volunteers under competent officers was coming against them, these Fenians scattered and returned to the United States, where the ringleaders were arrested by order of the Government. Similar raids were made in the eastern townships of Lower Canada, and were equally unsuccessful. The Canadian authorities displayed admirable clemency in their treat- ment of captured bandits; not one of whom was executed, as all might lawfully have been. No indemnity was ever made by the United States for damage inflicted and expenses incurred by a neighbour, although the police responsibihty was indisputable. I am sorry that I must close this chapter by saying that, in my opinion, while personal relations are most friendly, others have not been so since 1775, and a good deal must be forgiven and forgotten on both sides before they can be. CHAPTER XII THE LURE OF CANADA SOME of the attractions of Canada have been already mentioned; but they were of a different nature from the one which is to be discussed in this chapter. We are now to consider a very practical matter; one that has greatly affected the United States and is likely to do so even more, unless measures are taken to counteract the lure of Canada. Investors who seek opportunities to exploit mines, build railways, or engage in any other industrial or commercial enterprise, are made welcome in the Domin- ion and are afforded the fullest protection by the laws, as well as equal opportunity by the people. But the policy of the officials is not to make any stupendous effort to attract such investors; whereas every allure- ment which can be fairly set forth and brilliantly pic- tured is being held up to induce settlers from the United States, from Europe, or from any other part of the globe to come in and possess themselves of some of the millions of acres which are awaiting the farmer or the stockman. These lands are represented, and quite truthfully, as merely waiting to be tickled when they will laugh with plenty. It may be contended that the effort which the Depart- THE LURE OF CANADA 165 ments of the Interior and of Agriculture, especially, are making to induce immigration from the United States, contradicts a statement of the last chapter that there is in Canada a lack of friendhness for her neighbour, to be detected in certain matters. Yet I think such a possible charge will be withdrawn when conditions are carefully considered. After all, is there anything altruistic in drawing away from the United States 175,000 people in one year, as was done by Canada in 191 2? These figures, and they are rather appalhng, represent the emigration from the States into the Dominion, and the people themselves were, without exception, the kind that the United States could least afford to lose. They were nearly all from the territory west of the Mississippi Valley, principally from the northwestern states; and if they did not actually abandon farms, homesteads, or ranches, they certainly left a gap to be filled by people who are, for the moment at least, less desirable than the emigrants, if they are not absolutely undesirable. In newspaper comment upon the scarcity of farm hands in the Middle West, insufficient importance has been attached to this flow of farmers and the like into Canada. As has been said, the pubHc lands of Canada are surveyed in almost precisely the same way as is the similar domain in the United States; technically by base and meridian, township and range. That is, townships six miles square are laid off by Hnes running as nearly true north and south and east and west as may be. This township is marked off into sections of one mile square (640 acres), and the section is sub- l66 THE COMING CANADA divided into quarter sections. A quarter section is taken as the unit for preemption. Of the thirty-six sections in a township, two are reserved from homestead entry, and are designated ''School Sections." That is, the 1280 acres which these sections contain are sold to cash purchasers and the money received is held as a fund to build school houses, maintain them, and generally to defray all the expenses of public, absolutely free education. There are, too, certain sections withdrawn from public entry, because they were granted as a subsidy to rail- ways. The railway lands are sold by the grantee upon favourable terms and the proceeds go into its treasury. In the case of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the original land grant was extremely liberal, and without it the building of the line would have been greatly delayed, if it had not been rendered impossible thirty years ago; but this subject of railway lands economically con- sidered belongs in a later chapter. The public land surveys have not yet been extended north of a hne drawn from the middle of the east bound- ary of Manitoba, northwesterly to the 56th parallel of latitude in Alberta; and there are some unsurveyed tracts in southwestern Alberta. That is to say, only about the southern one-third of these three provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, has been sur- veyed and made available for preemption entry. The total area of Saskatchewan and Alberta is 504,190 square miles. What the area of Manitoba is, since its northern boundary was thrown much farther north, I do not know; previous to that it was 74,000 square miles. Not THE LURE OF CANADA 167 all of the public land within the surveyed districts is open to homestead entry. The Dominion Government has set aside certain tracts as reservations for Indians, or for forest preserves, or public parks, or experimental stations. But all agricultural land in Manitoba, Sas- katchewan, and Alberta which has been surveyed (and not actually occupied or reserved) is open to preemption as homesteads. Every person who is the actual head of a family, and every single man over eighteen years of age, may preempt one quarter of a section (160 acres), provided that person is a British subject, or has declared his intention to be- come such. When making the entry for this preemption, a fee of $10 must be paid, and if the preemptor compHes with the regulations, to be mentioned presently, this is the only money payment required for a bona fide home- stead entry. The provision that the applicant for such entry must be the sole head of a family, manifestly permits a widow, having minor children of her own dependent upon her for their support, to take up a quarter section. The appHcation for this homestead entry is supposed to be made in person at the local Land Ofhce, principal or subordinate. These offices are established through- out the three provinces so numerously as to obviate the necessity for travelhng any great distance: this is a most important consideration. An entry by proxy, upon certain Hberal conditions, may be made by the father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or sister of the intending homesteader. Provision is also made for the preliminary entry to be forwarded by telegram, in l68 THE COMING CANADA case of urgency, the necessary formalities being attended to in person later on. The homesteader acquires no title to his land at once, and he may not dispose of his rights. Cancellation of the entry is provided for in certain circumstances and upon completing proper formalities. The preemptor gets a patent, conferring absolute rights in fee simple, when he has held the homestead for his own exclusive use (or as the head of a family) for three consecutive years from the date of the original entry; provided he has resided thereon at least six months in each of those three years, or from the date when he commenced his residence; provided, also, that he has erected a habit- able house on the quarter section; provided, also, that he has cultivated so much of the land each year as is satisfactory to the Minister of the Interior, the fact being determined by duly appointed inspectors; and provided, finally, that he is then actually a British subject. Actual residence upon this particular quarter section is waived in case the homesteader has been residing on a farm of at least eighty acres in compact area, which is within nine miles of his homestead. Such farm must have been owned and occupied by himself, or by his father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister. Tliis liberal provision secures to a purchaser of a farm his homestead rights, and it also permits a newcomer to make his home temporarily with relatives. There are some districts, where the population is sparse or the preemptions not numerous, in which a homesteader may secure another quarter section of public land adjoining THE LURE OF CANADA 169 his homestead, upon payment of $3.00 per acre. But to secure this privilege, certain duties are required: the applicant must complete the formalities required to secure a patent (title) for his original homestead, before a deed for the additional quarter section is given him, although he may enter upon possession thereof; he must have resided on his homestead or on the additional pre- emption for at least six months of each six years subse- quent to the date of entry upon his original homestead; in addition to the cultivation requirements upon his actual homestead, he must have cultivated fifty other acres satisfactorily, either on his homestead or on the preemption. Furthermore, in certain districts and in particular circumstances, a homesteader may obtain a purchased homestead, upon payment of $3.00 per acre. In this case, the specific duties required are : residence upon the quarter section so entered for sLx months in each of three years subsequent to the date of such entry; cultivating fifty acres thereof in a satisfactory manner; erecting a house of the value of at least three hundred dollars thereon. This, it will be understood, permits of an aHen acquiring a homestead upon very favourable terms. In the case of a British subject, he may secure the privi- lege of a purchased homestead provided he resides on his patented homestead, within nine miles of the pur- chased one. By a combination of all these methods of acquiring public lands, it is a simple matter to secure an estate of 640 acres, or one full section. Thus it will be seen the first lure to the intended settler is made as attractive as 170 THE COMING CANADA possible, in that the possession of a farm is provided for upon easy terms. Before leaving this subject, however, it is pleasing to say that those settlers who have been in residence long enough to secure their patents, have built their residences and farm buildings, and become forehanded through successful cultivation, are always most kind in extending a helping hand to the new- comers who are without the ready cash to purchase building material, implements, and live stock immedi- ately required. I have known of many such cases of disinterested kindness in Alberta province, in the neighbourhood of Calgary and Edmonton. In an emigrants' sleeping car on the Canadian Pacific Rail- way, I once found a number of Welsh people who were going to settle north of Regina and Moosejaw, Saskat- chewan Province. Not one family head had sufficient ready money to do more than pay the preHminary fee for homestead entry and keep souls and bodies together for perhaps a year. But the man who was in charge of the party, himself an old settler, assured me that nobody would come to want; because building materials, farming implements, seed, etc., could he had on credit and upon reasonable terms when he and other home- steaders who had received their patents, stood security. Every resident would lend a hand to put up houses for the newcomers, who, until their own dwellings were ready, would be cared for on the established ranches and farms. A specific case or two will be interesting, and I give them in Mr. Frank Yeigh's words,* although I have • Op. cit. THE LURE OF CANADA 17I myself heard these very same stories from acquaintances in Canada. "In the year 1883 a young man took up a homestead not far from the southern boundary of Manitoba. This was in the early days of the province, when opportunities were not so numerous as now, and wheat brought only forty cents a bushel, compared with nearly three times that price to-day. After locating his quarter section and paying the land fee, the settler in question had scarcely a cent left. By working for a neighbouring farmer, enough money \/as earned to build a shack and buy a supply of provisions. During the first year, five acres of land were broken, a neigh- bour's horses being borrowed for the task. The second year the would-be farmer was able to buy a yoke of oxen, working during the summer for the same farmer. By the third year, however, he put in all his time on his own homestead; at the end of the year his patent was secured and he thus started on a career of independence. Now the settler is worth seventy-five thousand dollars, all made on his quarter section homestead that cost him originally but the ten dollar Government fee. Essential, however, to his success was a determination to win, a pluck that overcame obstacles and a spirit that refused to be daunted by disappointments and discouragements. This t^'pe of settler will always win a competence in Western Canada." Another young man settled in the Riding Mountain district, Manitoba. ''Neighbours assisted in the erec- tion of the Httle structures that did duty as house and barn for the first season, for the settler in this case was practically penniless, besides carrying the burden of a 172 THE COMING CANADA large and growing family. The successive years in- volved struggle and endurance, but happily in ever- lessening degree, until prosperity had fully come, making him the owner of six hundred and forty acres of choice land and a splendid brick house with suitable outbuild- ings, a property valued at twenty-five thousand dollars. One of the daughters has won honours in a Western college, which she entered from the little prairie public school. Before this particular homesteader came to Canada, he was a huckster in an English city, where he gained a most precarious living, with absolutely no pros- pects for an improved condition. But possessing the qualities of frugality, industry, and perseverance, and with no capital except health and strength, yet having a determination to win out, he has proved what is within the range of possibility for others similarly situated.'* Twenty-five or thirty years ago, it was exceedingly difficult and expensive to get building materials to these prairie farms in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and the Land office authorities were very liberal in construing the regulations defining the habitations. Very often the first residence was a sod-covered roof and the house mostly below the surface of the ground. This, however, rarely served after the first year, during which the settler almost always managed to get enough lumber to build a rough shack for himself and family, if he had one. As human beings can, when needs must, better put up with rough quarters than will farm animals, the settler often seemed to give first thought to housing comfort- ably his span of horses or yoke of oxen. When the three years were passed and he came into possession of his THE LURE OF CANADA 1 73 patent, he at once had an asset upon which to raise needed funds. The banks in these cases have always been extremely liberal, and their consideration has been rewarded with prosperity; not only for themselves, but in the rapid development of the country. The astonish- ing number of branch banks throughout the agricultural sections testifies not alone to the need of facilities for moving the crops, but equally to a determination to help the development in every way. The right type of settler will demand something more than his quarter section of land, his residence and farm buildings, his live stock, and his implements. He will think of his children's future; and throughout these agricultural provinces (as in Canada almost everywhere) ample provision is made for education. There is but one school system in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, that of the free public schools. All these schools are free to all children, whether their parents are British subjects or not, between the ages of five and fifteen. Attendance is not yet absolutely compulsory, yet very few heads of families ever neglect to avail them- selves of the great privileges offered their children. In some localities where there are colonies of peasants who do not speak English, the limit of age is conveniently stretched to let older children, and even their parents, get a conversational acquaintance with that tongue. In no settled district is the school house more than a mile or a mile and a half from the home, for the school laws provide that a new school district shall be formed wherever eight or ten children are unprovided with pubHc school advantages. In many districts where 174 THE COMING CANADA farms are farther apart, an omnibus or wagon of some kind is sent around every school day to gather up the boys and girls, and at the dose of school, whether it be one long session or two short ones with noon intermis- sion, the pupils are taken back home. In Manitoba, private schools, business colleges, and public libraries are numerous, and they are quite as well equipped as are those to be found in any similar communities. Of this province specifically I purpose writing at some length in a later chapter. Until about 1900 the settlements in Saskatchewan Province were practically restricted to the belt varying from fifteen to twenty-five miles in width along the main Hne of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was built through this region in 1882. As the land grant gave each alternate section to the railway — the width of the belt varying according to the character of the country and the ease or difficulty of construction — it was necessary to survey this broad belt in order to determine the railway sections. For this reason it came to pass that settlers could make their choice of homesteads definite and get title promptly, as could not be done on the unsurveyed lands. Government sur- veys subsequently were extended into other districts and at present about one-third of the province, from the International Boundary northward, is now surveyed. In the southeastern quarter of the province practically all the land has been taken up either by homesteaders or by purchasers of railway lands. North of the first section, surveys have been gradually extended, and there are now thousands of homesteads on arable land avail- THE LURE OF CANADA 175 able for entry. The rapid development of railways — trunk lines or feeders — has invariably preceded the coming in of settlers, and it has been aptly said that settlement invariably proceeds from railway lines like the unrolling of a carpet. Lumber is readily procurable and coal is mined in abundance in the southern part of the province. It is claimed that Saskatchewan, with its broad acres of prairie in the south and its prairies with their park-like homesteads in the central portion, has within its borders the greatest wheat-producing area of the Dominion. Wheat and beef-cattle are exported. Horses are not yet so numerous as to leave a suqjlus after the home demand is supplied; because a team is one of the first requirements of the new settler. Other farm products are required for local consumption and settlers find a ready market for anything they raise. Saskatchewan has an area of 250,650 square miles, 8,318 square miles being water surface, for the northern half abounds in lakes and rivers. This northern section is not yet very well known, and its systematic survey must naturally be a slow process. There are great forests and open glades, and it is the home of fur-bearing animals. The hunting of these gives sport to many, as well as some wealth to those who prefer a hunter's Ufe. Alberta Province is bounded on the south by the United States; its eastern boundary is the i loth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich (in common with Saskatchewan); its northern boundary is the 60th parallel of latitude, where it marches with the North West Territory; and its western boundary is the crest of the main range of the Rocky IMountains from the 176 THE COMING CANADA International Boundary till that crest intersects the 1 20th meridian, W., which it follows to the 60th parallel. The whole of the western boundary marches with British Columbia. This province is naturally con- sidered in three great belts or districts, southern, central, and northern. The first two are of interest to the settler, the southern prairie section especially. This southern belt, from the United States to about one hundred miles north of Calgary, was a great ranching country. For a long time farming could not be considered sufficiently safe to induce agricultural settlers because the rainfall is light. But since great irrigating ditches have been constructed, bringing an abundance of water from the mountain streams, farming has increased amazingly. The soil, when irrigated, yields splendid crops of grains and vegetables of all kinds. The central belt is particu- larly attractive to settlers who contemplate mixed or general farming. Northern Alberta is undoubtedly a land of great possibilities. Each year is bringing evi- dence that agriculture and stock raising can be success- fully carried on, probably all the way to the northern boundary. The area of Alberta is 253,540 square miles. These three provinces constitute the section to which the Dominion Government is directing its special atten- tion and making every efTort to attract settlers. Experi- mental farms are estabhshed at numerous points, and every information that they are able to impart is at the service of settlers, without fee. Somewhat similar effort on the part of the Central Government is being made to show settlers that British Columbia possesses for them great opportunities. CHAPTER XIII DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS NO new country ever felt more promptly the urgent necessity for railway facilities than Canada did after that modern method of transportation became available in the middle of the last century. As soon as the development of the wonderful resources in forests, mines, agricultural lands, and other productive indus- tries had passed beyond the narrow strips which border the St. Lawrence River and fringe the easternmost of the Great Lakes, became known, this necessity asserted itself with an insistence which could not be disregarded. Although Canada is possessed of a wonderful system of internal waterways, rivers and lakes — and these natural reservoirs in Canada are estimated to represent fully one-half of all the fresh water in the world — yet these same promptly proved to be inadequate for the traffic which immediately developed upon the opening up of the wonderful western section of the Dominion. Besides, although the rivers may be broad and deep and while the lakes seem to afford ample transportation faciUties, yet these waterways are rendered unavailable for several months because of ice, and that, too, just at the time when much of the grain crop is seeking an outlet to deep water. The Canadian captains of industry promptly realised 178 THE COMING CANADA that this new method of transportation — the steam railway — was to be of incalculable benefit to them, and as early as 1835 a charter for a short line was granted; while during the succeeding decade a good many other short lines were so seriously considered that their possi- ble promoters asked for legislative permission to build. But the economic conditions were unsettled and the rebellion of 1837, which has already been mentioned, had a deterrent effect, so that in 1850 there were but fifty-five miles of railway in all Canada, while now there are over thirty thousand miles and the annual increase in trackage is measured by the thousand miles or more. In 1850, when railway construction really began seriously, it was the Northern Railway, connecting Lakes Huron and Ontario, that was first built. In 1852 the Grand Trunk Railway was incorporated — under British charter — and the Hon. Sir Francis Hincks, then Prime Minister and Inspector-General of Canada (as the Minister of Finance was then called), that same year went to England to urge the granting of a guarantee to the Intercolonial Railway. He made arrangements with the Peto, Brassey, Betts, and Jackson Company, contractors and builders, which eventually brought about the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway, 1,100 miles of single-track line, with necessary sidings, and the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence at Mon- treal. The railway itself was completed and opened for traffic in 1855; the Victoria Bridge was used for the first time in i860, when it was described by the Ameri- can Consul at Montreal as ''the greatest work of the age." The actual task, both as to building the railway DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 1 79 and throwing the bridge across the river, is a monument to the skill and energy of Thomas Brassey, who planned and directed the entire enterprise, which was super- intended by Robert Stephenson. A most appaUing commentary upon the construction methods of that time is found in a comparison of the cost of that Grand Trunk bridge and another, only a few miles farther up stream, which was built long after for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Both serve precisely the same purpose and one does not seem to be any better than the other; yet the Grand Trunk's cost $6,300,000, while the Canadian Pacific's was built for less than $1,000,000. Those first Canadian railways were built by British engineers who brought into the new world precisely the same methods as they and their fellow craftsmen had followed in laying railways between the populous cities of Great Britain. Those engineers were without an inkhng of what were the needs of the sparsely populated regions of the New World, where it was far more important to be able to haul freight cheaply than it was to carry passengers quickly and comfortably. Those British constructors built their Hnes permanently, but it was done at an expense which prevented the shareholders seeing any return for their investment in the way of dividends for many years. While the Grand Trunk was under construction, the main line of the Great Western Railway was opened for traffic, January, 1854, and that company continued to build until it had 360 miles of track. These larger enterprises and a number of smaller ones brought up the total railway mileage to about 2,500 when the l8o THE COMING CANADA Dominion of Canada was created in 1867. Other short lines, here and there, were built with local capital helped out by British funds; but I fancy that practically all the railways in Upper and Lower Canada that were opened before the consolidation of the Dominion are now to be found in the Grand Trunk system. As soon as the Dominion was an accomplished fact, it became advisable, if not absolutely essential, that the maritime provinces should no longer be cut off from the rest of Canada, even if the linking up necessitated the building of a railway through what was then a trackless wilderness. There was danger that those outlying units of the Dominion, unless tied firmly by bands of iron to the larger provinces, might be compelled through force of circumstances to ally themselves with the United States. The Trent affair of 1861; the numerous episodes connected with the Confederate privateers, and other unpleasant matters, threatened to bring about hostilities between Americans and Britons. If that had occurred, undoubtedly the scene of the land battles would have been laid in Canada, and almost certainly the already semi-detached maritime provinces would have been cut off from the Dominion. The Imperial British Government, when all these dangers had been demonstrated and conditions clearly explained, granted a loan of the three million pounds sterling needed to build the Intercolonial Railway, from the St. Lawrence River, at Montreal, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with branches to St. John, New Brunswick, and North Sydney, Cape Breton Island, as well as the Prince Edward Island Railway. It was stipulated that the DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS l8l line should follow a strategic route. It must be laid sufficiently far from the International Boundary to ensure reasonable freedom from a sudden raid by Ameri- cans in case hostilities broke out. As a financial investment this railway has not yet been remunerative, and as a commercial or industrial enterprise it is only of recent years that it has promised to be successful. Undoubtedly both imperial and federal poHtics affected it adversely; yet it must be remembered that it was built for a specific purpose which has -been achieved, and it gave the Dominion Govern- ment at Ottawa access to seaports which are open all the year round, and that, too, across its own territory. The two chief problems which faced the Dominion Cabinets for the first twenty years of their official exist- ence, were the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Tariff. This combination emphasised a very curious state of affairs both pohtically and economically. The advo- cates of the railway (which was to be built, it will be remembered, in fulfilment of a promise to British Columbia) were supposed to be Conservatives and Protectionists; and they were under the leadership of Sir John Macdonald, Prime Minister 1857-58, 1868-73, and 1878-91. Yet they were contending for a most progressive matter and to accomplish their purpose they were willing to open the gates sufficiently to let in from the United States material and suppHes for the railway free of duty. The Liberals, who were cautiously opposed to any hasty action as regards the transcontinental rail- way, were then Free Traders. To anticipate a little, because of direct bearing upon l82 THE COMING CANADA the subject now under consideration, I quote from a manifesto which Sir John addressed to the Electors of Canada, February 7, 1891, when there seemed to be danger of his political discomfiture, but not of his death, which occurred on the 6th of the following June. After touching upon the prosperity which followed the inaugu- ration of Protection, or the National Policy as the Con- servatives called it, as against the United States, and the Government's abiHty to carry out the promise to British Columbia, he said: *'To that end we undertook the stupendous work, the Canadian Pacific Railway, undeterred by the pessimistic views of our opponents; nay, in spite of strenuous and even indignant opposition, we pushed forward that great enterprise through the wilderness north of Lake Superior, across the western prairies, over the Rocky Mountains, to the shores of the Pacific, with such inflexible resolution that in seven years after the assumption of ofifice by the present Administration the dream of our public men was an accomplished fact, and I myself experienced the proud satisfaction of looking back from the steps of my car upon the Rocky Mountains framing the eastern sky. The Canadian Pacific Railway now extends from ocean to ocean, opening up and developing the country at a marvellous rate, and forming an Imperial highway to the East over which the trade of the Indies is destined to reach the markets of Europe." In 1870, the great North West Territories were dis- posed of by the Hudson's Bay Company, as has been stated, and the extreme southeastern portion thereof came into the Dominion as the Province of Manitoba. DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 183 A year later British Columbia, which had long been a province with an organised government, although very sparsely settled by white men at least, agreed to listen to Dominion overtures, provided an assurance was given that a railway should be speedily built to the Pacific coast. The promise was given and British Columbia was admitted; but the delay which politics and various other causes made inevitable, so disgusted the people of the Pacific province that they threatened to secede from the Dominion because of broken promises. No thought seems to have been given by the British Columbians to what seemed at the time, to all but the most enthusiastic, a mad undertaking. It meant 700 miles through the rocky, uninhabited wilderness which lay between Montreal and Winnipeg and where — as has already been told — the engineering difficulties were colossal and the construction frightfully expensive. After that came 800 miles across prairies where, at the time, there were practically no settlements and nothing upon which the railway administration could depend for patronage; and then were the hundreds of miles through the Rockies, the Selkirks, and other mountain ranges almost to the water's edge on the Pacific. For it must be borne in mind that this railway had to be built far enough from the International Boundary to give it protection as a mihtary and strategic line. The Canadian Pacific Railway became the chief topic of conversation throughout Eastern Canada, and it would be untrue to say that the discussion did not bring out some poUtical scandals; but they belong in past history and are not pertinent to the Coming Canada. 184 THE COMING CANADA On October 21, 1880, a contract was signed for the construction of this railway, but it was not practicable to begin active work for several months. On the 2nd of May, 1881, the first sod was turned and on the 7th of November, 1885, the last spike was driven in what was then, and which is even now, the only absolutely trans- continental railway in America, north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. On the 13th of January, 1886, the first through train left Montreal for Port Moody, which place was, for a short time, the western terminus; the line was soon extended to Vancouver. As we look back upon the history of that remarkable enterprise, we cannot but be much impressed by the unwavering faith of the men who gave their fortunes to build the line and their unstinted labour to carry their plans to success. Sir John Macdonald, who had been the prime mover in bringing about Federation, that is the Dominion of Canada, was also a champion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. With him were associated two men who were afterwards raised to the British peerage as Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal and Lord Mountstephen; these three were the Hfe and soul of the enterprise. Sir John lived just long enough to see the work completed, for he died in 1891. Strathcona and Mountstephen have not only seen their pet prosper and pay good dividends, for the shares were raised to a ten per cent, dividend basis in January, 191 1 ; but they have realised, long ago, that the development of the Domin- ion, certainly stimulated by the Canadian Pacific, has gone beyond the capacity of one transcontinental rail- way system to supply its needs. DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 185 This corporation has many advantages. Its capitali- sation is less, in proportion to the physical valuation of its properties, than that of any other well-known rail- way and steamship system in the world. It has been fortunate (but in this it is not remarkable as regards all the great railway systems of Canada) from the very beginning in having men to control its interests who were and are conspicuous for energy, integrity and ability. It is true that the breath of slander has not absolutely spared the promoters of this great enterprise; but time showed that the allegations had no substantial foundation in fact, and the future of the Canadian Pacific is very bright. It is prosperous now and will doubtless continue to be so as the Coming Canada advances along the pathway which is manifestly marked out for it. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 191 2, the gross earnings were $123,319,541.23; the working expenses, $80,021,298.40. The Grand Trunk Railway was, in the early sixties of the last century and for many years, satisfied to limit its expansion to the older regions of Quebec, Ontario, the Maritime Provinces, and to connections with Ameri- can Knes. It was not very long, however, until the promise of remuneration induced the directors to extend their system westward in Canada itself. Beyond Toronto, the lines of this corporation come under the management of a semi-independent board, the Grand Trunk Pacific. Its lines, with those of the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian Northern, form a network with a mesh so fine as to cause amazement when one remembers that the pioneer railway Une in this region l86 THE COMING CANADA was opened for traffic only in 1886. The whole district east of the Rocky Mountains and south of the advanced line of settlements is already well supplied with rail- way facilities. The Grand Trunk Pacific will cross the Rockies through the Yellow Head Pass, 200 miles north of the Canadian Pacific, and at a much less altitude than that to which the latter climbs. Once through the mountains, the Grand Trunk bears northwestward through the centre of British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean at Prince Rupert, 400 miles north of Vancouver; but, due to the influence of the Pacific currents, not likely to be inconvenienced by ice more than is Van- couver. At present this region is truly a rugged wilderness, where there are plenty of bears, mountain sheep, moose, wapiti, and other big game to attract the sportsman. Within the sphere of the Grand Trunk Pacific's influence, the mountains are not quite so high as are the loftiest peaks of the Swiss Alps. In the extreme northwestern part of this province, British Columbia, there are moun- tains rising to 19,000 feet, and that section is one where the desolation and absence of human Hfe strike the occa- sional lone visitor most impressively. If history repeats itself, it will be but a few years before even that desola- tion will have been succeeded by a measure of human life and activities which shall transform it completely. The Grand Trunk receipts for i860, the first year after the completion of the line as originally contemplated were £682,658, say $3,304,164. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, the gross receipts were $3^834,- 328.19 and the working expenses $2,793,285.19. DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 187 The Grand Trunk Pacific is treated under two great divisions, eastern and western. The former, Moncton, N. B., to Winnipeg, 1800 miles; the second, Winnipeg to Prince Rupert, 1756 miles. The main Hne of the eastern division is being built by the Dominion Govern- ment and will be leased to the company for fifty years; all branch lines of this division are to be constructed by the lessees. The western division is being built by the company, the Dominion government guaranteeing first mortgage bonds to the amount of $13,000 per mile in the prairie section and for three-quarters of the actual cost in the mountain section; that is, from the eastern foot of the Rockies through to Prince Rupert. Inas- much as this company is still being operated under con- struction account, there are, of course, no statistics of gross receipts and expenses to give. There is but one other railway system in the Domin- ion to which attention need be given here. That is the Canadian Northern, for I look upon the Inter- colonial as a government enterprise whose fate is not directly dependent upon public patronage. The Cana- dian Northern, which is to-day a great railway in a great country, had a very humble beginning. In 1889 the Dominion Parliament granted a charter for the construction of ''The Lake Manitoba Railway and Canal Company." As the original grantees had been unable to do anything with their charter, its rights and privileges were transferred to a small company of optimists, and from that small beginning has grown what is to-day, in mileage and scope, the fourth (if we separate the Grand Trunk and the G. T. Pacific) railway system l88 THE COMING CANADA of the Dominion. It is not necessary to follow the details of an interesting narrative which tells of the vicissitudes of this company, since they are matters of the past and we are concerned with the present and the future. In 1897 the first link of the Canadian Northern's chain was forged. It was a little line from Gladstone to Dauphin, 85 miles, in Manitoba Province; and this little was accompKshed only with the greatest difhculty. Had not the provincial legislature guaranteed the bonds, it is certain they would not have been sold in London, and it was impossible to float them in Canada or the United States. In 1901, the first year of this 20th century, and only four years after that modest begin- ning, the Canadian Northern had 1200 miles of line in operation. On the 30th of June, 191 2, it owned and operated, including leased lines, 4316 miles. As the name impHes, it is to the purpose mainly of developing the prairie and northern regions of the Dominion that this corporation is directing its energies, and a glance at the map shows how much has already been done; although the scope has spread into the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, the territory of Keewatin, and the State of Minnesota, Lake Superior is joined to Hudson Bay (or will be in a short time), and the three central provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta are served from east to west and far towards the north. This last fact has contradicted absolutely the contention that a railway which is virtually restricted to the prairies cannot be considered a profitable investment. But a few years ago, the Vice-President of tliis com- DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS 189 pany made public some statements which showed that the Canadian Northern's earning power had steadily- increased with expansion in just that discredited region. Some 2500 miles of lines west of the Great Lakes and Lake Winnipeg had been guaranteed by either the Dominion or Provincial governments; but, he declared — and his declaration seems to have been verified by facts — *'no one of those Governments had, or ever would have, to pay a dollar on account of those arrange- ments.'^ The confidence of Canadians in the management of the various railways which have been built, in the prairie and mountain sections especially, is admirably illustrated by the experience of the Canadian Northern: in 1909 the Central and Provincial governments united in granting two million acres of land, the proceeds of which were to be used in constructing a railway between Sudbury and Port Arthur. In the same year the Prov- ince of Saskatchewan gave a guarantee of $13,000 a mile for the construction of 11 75 miles of main line and feeders, the work to be finished in three years. Alberta Province gave a similar guarantee for 920 miles of the same sort. Manitoba guaranteed $30,000 per mile for 210 miles, the work being considerably more difficult and expensive. This guaranteed work has all been completed and a good deal besides. In British Columbia, the Dominion government has agreed to guarantee bonds to the amount of $21,000,000 for 600 miles of line from the crest of the Rockies, in Yellow Head Pass, by way of Vancouver (ferry to Victoria) to Nanaimo on the western shore of Vancouver IQO THE COMING CANADA Island. With this work carried out and the Nova Scotia lines connected with the main system at Quebec, a third ocean to ocean railway will be opened in Canada. The Canadian Northern owns two or three large steamers which are running regularly between Bristol, England, and Halifax and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The management has declared that just as soon as this company is prepared to give railway service to the Pacific coast, it will launch first-class steamships, equal — all things being considered — to anything afloat on either the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. Although simply astonishing, yet the following figures have been audited by the Dominion government and may be depended upon implicitly: on June 30, 191 2, the Canadian Northern's gross earnings for the preceding year were $20,860,093.63; the operating expenses $14,979,048.52. In 1897 the Gladstone-Dauphin line, the nucleus of the company, earned $60,000. Of the two hundred odd railway companies which have received charters, more than one-half have been amalgamated with one or another of the great systems, the Grand Trunk, the Intercolonial, the Canadian Pacific, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Canadian Northern. There seeems to be no objection to one company acquir- ing competing fines; but this apparent disposition to facifitate the monopoly of great railway systems is not likely to bring disaster, for the Dominion and Provincial legislatures are so constantly on the watch and are armed with such disciplinary power — backed by means to enforce mandates — that conditions can hardly become subversive of pubHc rights. DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAYS I9I In closing this chapter, I refer to an article in the Toronto News for March 31, 191 1, giving the following reasons for the advance in Canadian Pacific Railway Company's shares, and other things being equal, a similar advance in Canadian railways generally. First, the company has advanced its dividend rate from seven to ten per cent. Second, the company's possessions in lands and other property are enormously valuable. Third, the company is undisturbed by the pursuit of American courts and legislatures to which United States railways are subjected. Fourth, these conditions have led to a gradual transfer of investors' money from United States railways to Canadian Pacific. CHAPTER XIV THE GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN IT is no doubt correct to say that the St. Lawrence begins at Kingston where the shores of Lake Ontario draw in and a broad river is born; but there are many miles to be travelled westward before we come to the little lakes, Bear's Head, whence issues Embarrassment River, and Beaver Lake, the apparent source of the Saint Louis River, in the State of Minnesota: these are the actual beginnings of the St. Lawrence Basin. In that section of Minnesota, it is evidently a difhcult matter for a drop of rain water to determine whether it will go east or north. Separated by a ridge so low as scarcely to be perceptible, are streams which flow in exactly opposite directions: on the east they run south until they bend and mingle with others making their way into Lake Superior: on the west and but a few rods away, they take a northerly course, reach Vermilion Lake and thereafter are a part of the Hudson Bay Basin. It is there we should look for the beginning of the St. Lawrence Basin and its end in Labrador, on the north side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Gaspe Peninsula on the south. If we were to measure from the entrance to the Straits of Belle Isle, which separate Newfoundland from Lab- rador, and take the middle of the true St. Lawrence GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 193 River, then follow the middle of Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Superior, up the httle St. Louis River to its very source, we should have an approximate length of the St. Lawrence Basin of something like three thou- sand miles. But it is not necessary to be so precise as that. Within the great St. Lawrence Basin, taking the phrase in this most liberal sense, there are physical variations so numerous as to be indescribable. At its remotest beginning this great basin is in a region which geologists describe as having sunk so rapidly from its former elevation that the animals had to skurry away to higher lands to save themselves from being caught in swamps and tamarack bogs. Of course this is a bit of extrava- gance, yet it is geologically certain that not very long ago Minnesota was higher than it now is; and it is true also that only in the northern section have the rocks been hard enough and sufficiently high to resist the rubbing away which has converted so much of the rest of the state into the level that is generally conspicuous. The forests of Minnesota must have been grand at one time, or until the state dropped from being the third in output of lumber to fifth. The subsiding and wear- ing away which have just been mentioned were not so absolute as might be inferred, because Minnesota's position as a contributor to the iron ore supply of North America is a most important one, and this fact gives to the very beginning of the St. Lawrence Basin a place in the economics of Canada as well as the United States. I must, for several reasons, keep myself to the Canadian side of the great Basin. When the Httle St. Louis River 194 THE COMING CANADA has emptied itself into Lake Superior near Duluth, we pass along the northern shore of the lake and having left the United States, we presently come to two towns, Fort WiUiam and Port Arthur, which are the termini of several railways, and they are, from the beginning of harvest until the frost has closed navigation on the lakes, among the greatest grain shipping ports in the world. Back of them, or near them, are famous lakes, the Lake of the Woods and Nipigon, and from the former there is a chain of waterways which make the line that separates the St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay basins very faint indeed. But soon the north shore of Lake Superior takes on a vastly different appearance as we come to the stern, dark, forbidding Laurentian rocks, through which the railway lines have been bored with infinite trouble and enormous expense: as the trains pass along this section the reverberation is deafening. When the Laurentians are passed and the eastern part of Ontario Province is reached, again it is apparent that the line of demarcation between the St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay basins is not at all sharply drawn. There are several streams which may be ascended in canoes almost to their head- waters; and when such navigation becomes no longer possible, there is but a short portage to some other stream which carries the canoe down — although north- ward — to James Bay. In the province of Quebec the St. Lawrence Basin widens at first very much, and the land is generally level, although not prairie-like in its smoothness. Now, the basin includes both shores of the river which has Portage La Loche, Peace River Country, Atiiabaska Potato Chop, Lake La Loche, 56° 30' N. GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 195 grown to be a mighty stream; for at Montreal begins the navigation which permits large ocean-going steamers to make use of it. I suppose we must conform to general usage and say that when we have reached Gaspe Peninsula, or certainly Anticosti Island, we have come to the eastern end of the St. Lawrence Basin; but as a matter of fact all the north shore of the gulf should be included in it. From the beginning of French occupation until some time after the transfer to Great Britain, the civilisation of Canada kept so closely to the basin of the St. Law- rence, in its restricted sense, that back of a fringe of widely separated settlements right on the banks of the river up as far as Montreal, there was no European population at all. Conditions during this long period have aptly been likened to the civihsation of the Nile valley by the Egyptians from prehistoric times even to the present day; and it was truly on the St. Lawrence banks that the life of the infant Canada beat. I shall mention here an anomalous state of affairs which existed for a while in the St. Lawrence Basin because of the provisions of what was known as Lord Stanley's Act of 1843. Canadian wheat and flour were admitted into British ports at a nominal duty. ''This made it profitable for Canadians to import from the United States grain which was then ground into flour in Canada and shipped to the Enghsh market. For this trade large mills and storehouses had been built in Canada, and a very considerable trade had grown up. It was an advantage also to the provinces, since western produce gravitated to the St. Lawrence, with a corre- 196 THE COMING CANADA spending increase in canal dues." * But in 1846 the British Parliament passed the Imperial Free Trade Act, and immediately all those artificial advantages were cut away; many commercial men were ruined; the capital invested in mills, etc., was threatened, and the merchandise reverted to its natural channels. This is but one instance of the vicissitudes of commerce in the St. Lawrence Basin. The scenery of this great region is of a character which tends to increase the scepticism of the reader directly as the description is accurate. Going back again to the western end of Lake Superior, the coast line along the northern shore is generally of the boldest character. A most striking object is the Great Palisade. This is thought by many to have been, probably, a huge detached rock standing alone, when the waters of the lake stood at a higher level than they now have. It is from nine hundred to a thousand feet high, and the top is covered with trees. As the traveller by steamer passes on towards the east, the beauty and wonderful features of the shore continue to grow until it becomes difficult for the eyes to take in all that is presented. The face of the shattered cliffs is often dressed with trees which cHng in the most sur- prising way; frequently these grow right down to the water. Sometimes the precipice is rent from top to bottom and a deep, narrow gorge is formed. As the steamer slips past one of these ravines, the visitor gets a glimpse of a foaming torrent plunging down to the lake. The largest of these streams is called Beaver * W. L. Griffith, The Dominion oj Canada, igii. GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 197 River, Lake county, Minn., and at its mouth is Beaver Bay, one of the very few harbours on the north shore. At the entrance to Thunder Bay, on which are the towns of Port Arthur and Fort William, stands Thunder Cape (sometijnes called "Thunder Head"), which rises sheer to a height of very nearly 1400 feet above the sur- face of the lake, and the water at its foot is probably deeper than in any other part. It is not surprising that the Indians had a wholesome dread of Thunder Cape. They gave it a wide berth, for the wind plays mad tricks about it, and the dashing of a frail canoe against that grim basaltic precipice meant certain death to all on board. On still farther east comes the river to which the Canadians give the name of Nipigon, as well as to the lake from which it flows; but some who Uke to be very precise in their terminology and who, not improperly it must be admitted, contend that if an Indian name is to be appropriated it should be the correct one, say that this name must be Alemipigon, which means " the lake of the myriad rocks." It is an appropriate title, for there are almost innumerable small islands scattered all over it. In some there are caves, large or small, into many of which it is possible to take a canoe; but this is rather risky, because when the breeze is strong the waves rush in and imperil a birch bark canoe that is easily upset or more easily punctured by a projecting rock. As the waves rush into these caves they make a booming sound which is reverberated from the walls and roofs in a most eerie fashion that would fill the superstitious Indians with panicky fear. 198 THE COMING CANADA From my own experiences and observations of Lake Superior, I am strongly inclined to add my testimony to that of Mr. Paul Fountain * when he says: ''So far as I can discover there is very little recorded of Superior and some of that does not quite agree with my experi- ence. For instance, an American writer says that the navigation of Superior is not so dangerous as that of the other great lakes, and says that there is more 'sea- room ' here than in the other lakes. I can say, from my experience, that this is not correct. Superior is cer- tainly by far the largest of the five great lakes, but its larger islands are so placed that there is less actual sea-room, as understood by sailors, than in either Michigan or Huron. As to storms, they are as violent, but I think not more so, as in any of the other lakes; that they are more frequent I am sure. As I have already said, I do not think that dangerous gales are ever absent, in winter time, from some part of the lake." Besides Thunder Cape, there are a number of cliffs on the north shore of Lake Superior which rise, more or less sheer, to a thousand feet or over. What a change has come in the opinion which Cana- dians hold of the country north of the great lakes and tributary to them. I can remember when it was all considered a sort of desert, certainly uninhabitable because assumed to be unproductive; now the rail- ways have stations at short intervals and those stations are used by farmers who have a surplus to sell. As this region becomes better known, it is certain to be more and more attractive because of its scenery. ♦ The Great Northwest and the Great Lake Region of North America. GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN I99 Excluding the Laurentian district, there is very little of Ontario Province that is not arable land. When the War of American Independence had been fought and the United Empire Loyalists betook themselves to Canada, it was to the unbroken forest region of bleak and unattractive Ontario that a large number of these refugees were compelled to go because, with the best intentions as to hospitality and generosity, it was impossible for the Colonial government to make pro- vision for them elsewhere. At that time it was con- sidered a great hardship; to-day Ontario is the most populous province of the Dominion, yet comparatively few of its two and a half or three million souls hve beyond the St. Lawrence Basin. The peninsula bounded by Georgian Bay, Lakes Huron, St. Clair, Erie, and Ontario, and the connecting river, is the garden of the Dominion. Its scenic attractions are not remarkable, but the evidences of thrift, comfort, and culture are most pleasingly apparent. Statisticians quite logically and very consistently consider this great province, which is 1000 miles east and west and a thousand miles north and south, in three sections — eastern, western, and northern. The eastern embraces all the land between the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario; the western Hes north of Lakes Erie and Huron until Superior is reached. Northern Ontario, or as it is sometimes called "New Ontario," is all the rest, from the Quebec boundary to James Bay, along Keewatin to Manitoba and Minnesota and Wisconsin; but of course some of northern Ontario is not in the St. Lawrence Basin. It would be somewhat difficult to say just what — of the products of land and 200 THE COMING CANADA fresh water — Ontario does not possess; but it is reason- ably safe to declare that husbandry is going to continue the important enterprise. Yet this occupation must be considered in its widest aspect — grain, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, Hve stock — must all be included. These, directly or indirectly, require the co-operation of all kinds of manufacturers, and as a consequence, the cities are in eastern and western Ontario. These are, after Montreal and Quebec, the largest and most important places in the Dominion — Toronto, Hamilton, London, Kingston, Brantford, and others. The latest report of the Department of Indian Affairs * gives the number of Indians in the Dominion as 104,956. Of these the 26,393 who are residing on the twenty- three reservations allotted to them in Ontario, or culti- vating (with official permission) their own farms, are the most advanced in every way. A great many of them are Chippewas or Ojibbewas; but a good many are survivors of the Six Nations, those Iroquois who, it will be remembered, were so much dreaded by the French and afterwards by the English, until they were effectually crushed in the i8th century. In his annual report for 1884, Sir John Macdonald, then premier, referring to these Indians, said: ''Many of their farms are well cultivated and the products of the soil and dairy exhibited at their annual agricultural exhibits command the admiration of all persons who attend *This is for the year ended March 31, 1912, and I am indebted to the courtesy of Robert Rogers, Esq., Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, and Frank Pedley, Esq., Deputy Superintendent General, for a copy. GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 20I them. Their exhibit of this year was remarkably suc- cessful, and they combined with it the centennial cele- bration of the grant made to them by the Crown of the tract of land of which their reserve forms a part, in recognition of their loyalty and valour as practically proved on numerous occasions on the field of battle in defense of the British flag." It would be an unpardon- able omission not to mention these Indians as an ethno- logical feature of the St. Lawrence Basin. As an indication of the ease with which the St. Law- rence and Hudson Bay blend, it may be stated that Chapleau, a station on the Canadian Pacific Railway's main line, Ontario Province, is a post of the Hudson's Bay Company. It is on the waterways which flow through Moose River into James Bay. The country lying between Lake Superior and James Bay is one of the best regions for the trapper, and the Hudson's Bay Company is naturally availing itself of all the facilities which the railway affords for getting into these hunting grounds. If the many interesting and attractive islands of the Great Lakes which are within the Dominion borders are passed by, it is not because they do not appeal to tourist and sportsman, but because of the limitation of space. When the geographical St. Lawrence River begins, at the outlet of Lake Ontario, the Basin narrows very much. Here, in the opinion of those who are specially seeking the picturesque, commences the most attractive part of the valley. The Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence are so well known, either by actual acquaint- 202 THE COMING CANADA ance or by description, that little remains to be said about them. It is estimated that there are upwards of Two Thousand of these islands and islets, instead of a thousand. If we accept the statement of some authori- ties, then Wolfe Island, just south of Kingston, is the largest, while the smallest are ''mere dimples on the surface of the broad river and supporting not the least verdure on their barren rocks," serving no purpose save that of being a danger to navigation. Many of the islands are the private property of Canadians or Ameri- cans who have their summer homes thereon, and find the situation one which contributes much to pleasure and recuperation. To the average traveller, the modest shooting-box is more in harmony with the surroundings than is the would-be grandeur of an imitation of an old- world castle. The section of the St. Lawrence River, from Lake Ontario to the last of the Thousand Islands, was called by the Indians Manatoana, ''The Garden of the Great Spirit." That it is brimming over with legend, need not be afhrmed.* The last of these islands are a small group which is called "The Three Sisters," from their resemblance to one another and because they are so close together. Not far below The Three Sisters the rapids begin: the Gallops, Rapides du Plat, the Long Sault, Coteau, Cedar, Split Rock, Cascade, and finishing with Lachine. When this last one is passed, the steamboat is at Montreal and the most romantic parts of the river are behind the tourist. These rapids do not come quite so consecu- * Conf. Clifton Johnson, The Picturesque St. Laurence, chap. II. GREAT ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 203 lively as their enumeration might suggest. Between some of them are long stretches of clear water and in places — such as Lake St. Francis, just below the Long Sault, and Lake St. Louis, below the Cascade, the river spreads out to such width as to make the names quite appropriate. It is impossible to do more than give a suggestion of the Saguenay River, the lovely Lake St. John from which it flows, and the country tributary to lake and river. As a freak of Nature, the rift in the black rock down which the stream flows is one of the most marvel- lous things I know. Probably the most effective brief description of the Saguenay is contained in these woods: Is it a disappointment, or is it overwhelming? This is the question that nearly every visitor asks himself after going up to the lake and returning. The answer comes slowly but surely and the remembrance of that strange river never leaves one; its awful immensity and majesty grow forever. One writer contends that there is reason to believe the old Iberian ships were on the Saguenay before Christ was born. ''The climax of this awe-inspiring scenery is reached at Trinity Bay, where the stupendous height of Cape Trinity frowns down upon the intruder, a bare wall of limestone that towers nearly two thousand feet into mid-air. Its frowning brows, thrust out three hundred feet over the water, give the beholder a dread lest it tumble upon him. Rent asunder by some far-distant glacial power, the great column is really made up of three sections so placed that at first sight they look Hke huge steps leading to a mighty flight of stairs, such a 204 THE COMING CANADA ladder as the ancient Titan, warring here against the elements, might be expected to climb in his ascent to strive with the gods for a supremacy. In marked con- trast to this gloomy giant of Three in One — a trinity — stands Cape Eternity, within a hundred feet as high as its sombre brother, but clothed in a warm vesture from foot to crown, and looking calm and peaceful. Wrapped in never-fading vestments drawn closely about its huge body, well may it defy the storms of this wintry region for all time." * Only a mere suggestion of the Great St. Lawrence Basin has been given in this chapter; for there is not one of its three thousand miles that does not offer some attraction. * George Waldo Browne, The St. Lawrence River. CHAPTER XV THE CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS THE region which I have chosen to include in this chapter has, along the International Boundary, a broad base which measures something Hke ten degrees of longitude, if we include the Cascade Mountains of British Columbia, and this may very properly be done. It is not always safe to depend upon whatever atlas or book of reference comes to one's hand, for informa- tion about countries which have not yet been settled as to boundaries and fixed as to government. I hap- pened, when looking up some data pertinent to this chapter, to turn to Col ton's Atlas of the World, bearing the date of 1856. That was only fifty-seven years ago, and yet there is hardly any name on the map of Canada — beyond the limits of Canada East, Canada West, and the Maritime Provinces — which is to be found in any atlas now used in the public schools of the Domin- ion; or in the United States, for that matter. British Columbia, which is of so much importance when we think of the Canadian Rockies, is called New Georgia on that old map; the central prairie section and the northern districts are chopped up into a great number of small tracts that are given names so fantastic that I am sure the draughtsman who prepared that map simply let his pen run riot and gave free rein to his 2o6 THE COMING CANADA imagination. Very few, of what I suppose were intended to be political divisions, were ever known to the Cana- dian officials by the names which appear on that map. From the broad, yet not continuous, base along the American frontier, the mountains trend off towards the northwest, and they include of course the Selkirks, the Cascade Range, many spurs in the south, and the semi-detached range of the St. Elias Alps of southern Alaska. Broadly speaking, the Canadian Rocky Moun- tain system embraces the mountains of the islands stretching along the coast of British Columbia: the system finally runs out in the remotest Klondike district of the Yukon Territory. The average width of the mountain belt, from the International boundary to the Yukon Territory line, is about four hundred miles, and in the south it takes in pretty nearly the whole width of British Columbia. The tallest peaks in the whole section are found near the southern end of the boundary — determined by jo'nt commission only a couple of years ago * — separating Alaska and Yukon territories. In Canadian territory there is Mt. Logan, 19,540 feet; while Mt. St. Elias, 18,000 feet, from whose summit starts the international boundary along the 141st meridian west of Greenwich, is common property. It is hardly fair to include Mt. McKinley, 20,000 feet, in this knob of mountains, for it is ten degrees west of the boundary and in Alaska. But the group may properly include Mt. Natazhat and Mt. Wrangle; nevertheless it is fully one thousand miles northwest of the Rocky Mountains proper. All these peaks I have just named * See American Geographical Magazine for September, 1912. CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 207 and others in their immediate or proximate neighbour- hood, are encoated with glaciers and snow-capped perennially, save in a few open nooks looking towards the south. In the Rocky Mountains proper, the southern section along the boundary between Alberta and British Colum- bia, there are peaks cUmbing up to ten or twelve thou- sand feet above sea-level; but they are not covered with snow all the year round, and while there are plenty of glaciers, most of them are small; while even these must be rather exceptionally located. Owing to the influence of the mild air from the Pacific Ocean, the snow line in southern British Columbia is remarkably high, and even in what we think of as '^ Arctic Alaska" it is from two to three thousand feet above the sea. For the same reason, the British Columbia timber line is high, 7500 feet in the south, and 4000 feet in Alaska. Indeed, the western slopes of the Canadian Rockies — especially the Selkirks and the Coast Range — show a vegetation that is almost tropical in its luxuriance and density. The grand cedar forests, as well as those of the Douglas fir, are well known to all botanists and lumbermen, and they have justly aroused the admiration of all visitors. Many of those trees are quite ten feet in diameter and they tower up as straight as a ship's mast to the height of one hundred and fifty feet. Throughout the whole region that is included witliin the bounds of the Canadian Rockies, it is no exaggera- tion to say that everyone whose interest or occupation is related to the earth itself may find a place where his particular bent can be followed to the fullest extent. 2o8 THE COMING CANADA The lower valleys offer to the husbandman farms, vary- ing in extent from a few acres up to wide domains which satisfy the ideals of the most ambitious ranchman. The foothills of the western slopes have already been demon- strated to be as well adapted to the fruit grower's needs as any part of the world. The miner has a choice amongst such a variety of metals and minerals as scarcely admits of enumeration. The lumberman, as has been stated, may still wield his axe in what is the largest tract of virgin timber to be seen in North America, and therefore in all the world. The trapper may yet pursue his avocation most profitably. But I imagine that it is for the tourist the Canadian Rockies will be an attraction par excellence; although of course the sportsman will demand the right to share the privileges with the visitor who is mainly on pleasure bent. Until the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is pre- pared to run passenger trains into and through the Rocky Mountains along its more northern pass, the stations of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Banff, Laggan, Field, Donald, Glacier, Revelstoke, Kamloops, and doubtless some others, will be the objective point of tourists and sportsmen who contemplate excursions into this world of mountains. Banff is, however, the most important and popular of these places, because it is the central point of the Canadian National Park. Within easy reach of this station there is so much charming scenery and natural beauty that the Dominion Government, co-operating with the Railway Company, has set apart a tract of about 260 square miles for the purposes of this Park. CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 209 Good roads have been made to all places which are accessible by wheeled vehicles; and to those that are in wilder districts, bridle-paths have been cut. A detachment of the efficient Northwest Mounted PoUce maintains order and watches the careless visitor to see that fires do not spread and that wanton destruction is not committed. It is a strange commentary upon human nature that some people who are so well provided with means as to be able to take these excursions, must nevertheless be watched to see that they do not deface Nature. One would naturally suppose that at least a measure of culture and consideration would go with ability to travel; but it is starthng how often there is an absolute lack of such blending. In the summer Banff is, in a small way, one of the most cosmopohtan places. Travellers bound for the Far East often give themselves an extra day or two for the overland journey to Vancouver, in order that they may ''stop over" here; while those who have come from Japan are seldom in such a desperate hurry to go on to eastern Canada, the United States, or Europe, as to be unable or unwilUng to lay over here and rest or revel in the nearby attrac- tions. Then, too, the number of those who have come here specially is always considerable in summer. In July and August, Banff is one of the most delight- ful places in all North America. It stands 4500 feet above the sea and in that latitude this ensures cool nights; and cool days, too, for it is unusual for the mercury to go as high as 80° F. in the shade. During midsummer there is very little rain, and for this great dryness one is sometimes punished because of the smoke 210 THE COMING CANADA which blows down into the valley from forest fires that, despite the care of guards, do ravage the timber. This smoke sometimes becomes so thick that the mountains are obscured and through the yellow pall the sun shines in an uncanny way. When the weather is clear, the atmosphere plays some queer tricks upon the strangers; what is really very far away seems to be brought quite near; and the in- experienced tourist, who refuses to Hsten to the advice of guides, will tramp off to ascend a ''nearby" mountain to return for lunch, when the experienced know that the jaunt is really a three days' trip. Mr. Walter Dwight Wilcox * tells of some visitors who started from Banff Springs Hotel one afternoon to ascend Cascade Moun- tain, which does seem to be very near, and return the next morning. They refused guides, and at the end of three days turned up begrimed with soot and dirt, having wandered about in the burnt timber without even getting near to Cascade. This experience can be matched by similar ones of those who have been deceived by the clarity of Colorado's atmosphere. Lake Louise is well said to be one of the most beauti- ful sheets of water in the Canadian Rockies, and it is just sufficiently difficult to get to it to add zest to the undertaking. It is only a mile long and at its widest only a quarter of a mile across. The forests surround it, coming down to the water's edge save for the merest fringe of shingle. The brilliant green water is so clear that the sand and stones and the sunken logs at the bottom can be distinctly seen. Through a deep notch * Camping in the Rockies. CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 211 at the lower end of this lake, Mount Lefroy pokes its head high up into the sky; this is one of the boldest peaks of the great central watershed. The melting snow and the rain on its eastern sides run off into the Saskatchewan River and thus reach Hudson Bay; while the western side is drained by streams which eventually carry their waters to the Pacific Ocean. Within a few miles of Mt. Lefroy and Lake Louise there are many other peaks and mountain tarns which make this little section one well worthy the careful attention of travellers. Although far from being abso- lutely difficult of access, the district is not at all well known, and indeed one may truthfully say that from the original line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, that which still uses the Kicking Horse Pass, southward to the new route which is to avoid some of the heavy work of the present main line, and to the American boundary, there yet remains something for the explorer to do. A careful observer has said that in mountainous regions, where the air is very dry, as in Colorado or in certain parts of the Andes, there is a wide belt, some- times a thousand feet of altitude or more, between timber line and snow line. In that belt there is not sufficient moisture to develop tree growth, and yet not enough snow falls to admit of glacier formation. In the Canadian Rockies the air is wet enough to let these lines, timber and snow, approach; and in the Selkirks the humidity is so great that the snow line actually intrudes upon the timber. In these conditions, it is not surprising that in the western valleys of the Canadian 212 THE COMING CANADA Rockies there are many glaciers already known, and it is reasonable to assume that there are more which have not yet been discovered; but with such exceptions as the glacier at Glacier House on the C. P. R. most of these Canadian ice-river? are small. If my reader wishes to get an idea of how much there is for the adventurous tourist to do in the Canadian Rockies, or for the careful, scientific explorer to discover, let him read some books like those which have been mentioned (and made use of) in these pages, and then turn to what is claimed to be a fairly up-to-date map of the Dominion. He will learn that even in the southern part of the Cordillera Belt, the writer is far ahead of the cartographist. As to the northern part, the little information we have is that to be gleaned from an occasional book telling of some small section. Saint Piran is a mountain peak, of no astonishing altitude, 8000 feet only, but interesting because it was a useful triangulation station for the engineers who laid out the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rockies; and doubtless the survey and location reports for the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern will add something to our fund of information concerning mountain peaks and other matters of importance. Saint Piran has further interest because its round dome- like summit, far above the timber Hne, is, like many another ''Bald," a favourite haunt of butterflies. Some of the rarest and most beautiful of these creatures gather here in great numbers during the long, bright, sunny days of summer, attracted by the gaudy alpine flowers which have devoted all their plant energy to producing CANADIAN ROCKY MOUNTAINS 213 large, brilliantly coloured blossoms that lure and nourish the various winged creatures. Not far from Laggan, a small station thirty-seven miles west of Banff, is a mountain with a depression between its two peaks; one of which is higher and sharper than the other. The conformation gives the appearance of pommel and crupper, so that the mountain is called The Saddle. A trail has been cut and this topical alpine, or elevated mountain, meadow is a popular jaunt with tourists. The ''long, rich grass waves in the summer breezes, beautified by mountain flowers, anemones, sky-blue forget-me-nots, and scarlet castil- leias. Scattered larch-trees make a very park of this place, while the great smiHng slopes rise in graceful curves toward the mountain peaks on either side." About three miles beyond The Saddle stands Mount Temple, the highest peak at all near the C. P. R. Its summit is 11,658 feet above the sea, and because the mountain is surrounded by valleys that are rarely more than 6000 feet, its appearance is rendered all the more effective. The precipitous walls breathe defiance to even the most adept alpinist on all sides save the south; and even there the ascent may not be made too easily. The partly melted and re-congealed snow has made a remarkable glacier on the summit, and because there is no overhanging peak from which may fall stones and debris, the ice is of singular purity. "On the west face, the glacier overhangs a precipice, and, by constantly crowding forward and breaking off, has formed a nearly vertical face of ice, which is in one place three hundred and twenty-five feet thick. I have seen passengers on 214 THE COMING CANADA the trains who were surprised to learn that the ice in this very place is anything more than a yard in depth, and who regarded with misplaced pity and contempt those who have any larger ideas on the subject." * In confirmation of what I have said about the possi- bilities for explorers and tourists, I add that in 1895 only, Mount Assiniboine (some insist upon the older, Indian, form Assiniboia), a remarkable peak south of Banff, was stumbled upon by chance. Its height has not even yet been accurately determined, and from the few accounts given of the wonderful mountain, it is not likely to be done by actual ascent very soon. It is probably the highest peak that has yet been found between the International Boundary and Mounts Brown and Hooker (52° 30' N.). The mountain is so unusually steep on all sides that no one has yet, I believe, gained the top. There are so many small, beautiful lakes in the neighbourhood that the locality — it is five or six days by camping and pack outfit from Banff — must be exceptionally attractive. The trail which has already been made from the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway is said to -lead through meadows that are carpeted with wild flowers in summer, and among them are some rather rare orchids, the Calypso for example. The view of Mount Assiniboine from Summit Lake must be most exhilarating, and the excellent photogravure in Mr. Wilcox's book very distinctly recalls the Matterhorn by its sharp pinnacle form. * Wilcox, op. cit. CHAPTER XVI THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY A GOODLY portion of this formerly great domain, almost imperial in its dimensions, has recently been annexed to the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. Some was previously set off as the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The remainder is now included in the North West Territories and Yukon Territory. The geographical names, Ungava and Kee- watin, have disappeared from the map, if not perma- nently, at least until development and increase of population justify the Dominion Government's creating additional political divisions. If I were a cartographer, I should hesitate a long time before designating any part of this earth's surface as desert, or inhospitable, or barren; unless it were such a section as Arabia, the African deserts — Sahara and Libya — and others, concerning which our information is adequate and precise enough to justify the condem- natory designation. I make this prefatory remark because on the maps that I studied as a schoolboy, and even on those which were given to children of the gener- ation following me, much of this great Hudson Bay Territory was branded inaccurately because of the ignorance of those who were required to make maps, 2l6 THE COMING CANADA and yet were not furnished with proper data for carry- ing out their work correctly. The portion of the Dominion which is to be considered in this chapter is really that territory which was included in the original charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, or appropriated by the Company's officials without precise warrant. For rather more than half of the territory over which the Company eventually claimed jurisdiction, their title was legally only that of squatters; but it was found easier to recognise that title than to incur the expense of disputing it. I was much surprised to be told by the Right Honourable Sir Wilfred Laurier, who was for many years — and until two years ago — Prime Minister of Canada, that the history of the Hud- son's Bay Company is but little known; and yet, when I came to investigate the subject, I found the statement to be quite accurate. Undoubtedly there is a great deal of interesting infor- mation hidden away in the archives of England and Canada, that is waiting for some competent scholar to digest and publish it. When this is done, we shall be astonished more by the delicacy and precision of the internal mechanism than by any external aspects of the giant monopoly. It was certainly one of the most perfectly organised commercial enterprises that ever existed. Although the Company came to be, in the i8th century, perhaps the biggest bone over which France and England contended, yet its inception was undoubtedly due to explorations and activities of the French. Very few of the French people who left Europe in the THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 217 17 th century to make for themselves new homes in America, settled down as farmers or tillers of the soil in any way, or as tradesmen. Nearly all of the men, and I believe I am correct when I say all the young men, became hunters and trappers; and for this avocation the young French immigrants displayed remarkable qualifications. They appear to have adapted them- selves more readily to the ways of the Indians than did any other Europeans; and it cannot be denied that, at first certainly and for a long time, the French were more successful in gaining the friendship and confidence of the savage Red Men than were their EngUsh competitors. In the introduction which Sir Wilfred Laurier wrote for the second volume of Mr. J. Castell Hopkins' En- cyclopaedia of Canada, he makes a statement which I think no competent observer will deny: ''It would seem that the very wildness of the forest exercised a strange fascination over the men of the Gallic race, which made them cling to the adventurer's life for the very love of it, when it had been first embraced for profit and lucre. There sprang into existence a class of men who became and have remained famous all over the continent under the name of coureurs des hois; rovers of the forest, im- patient of the restraints of civilisation, delighting in the freedom of the Indian whose hut they shared and whose garb they adopted — a garb under which there often coursed the best and proudest blood of old France." When Radisson and de Groseillier came back to Quebec after having made their way to James Bay (Hudson Bay), they offered to take ships through Hudson's Straits into the very heart of the fur country; for it 2l8 THE COMING CANADA will be remembered that Radisson had declared the streams which empty into James Bay to be the beaver country par excellence. Had the offer been accepted, not only would the difficult and dangerous canoe route by way of Lake Superior, or the shorter but rather more hazardous one from the Ottawa River, have been avoided, but the priority of occupation thereby gained for the Frenchmen would have prevented, in all prob- ability, the expense, destruction of property, and loss of life which the subsequent rivalry between the English and French caused. The plan of the voyageurs was rejected in both Canada and France, and therefore the two men went to London, because the British ambassador at Paris told them they would be reasonably sure to gain a favourable hearing. The proposition was entertained, and a preliminary expedition was sent to Hudson Bay by some merchants then connected with the Newfoundland trade. This initial venture was so very successful that the incorpora- tion of the Hudson's Bay Company promptly followed. It was a long time, however, before the Company was firmly estabHshed throughout the vast region which came to be known as Rupert's Land, and later The North West Territories; but eventually all the continent from Canada west to Russian possessions was appropriated. Hudson's Bay Company's posts, or ''forts," were to be found along all the northern coast of the mainland, and upon some, at least, of the Arctic islands, as well as on the Labrador coast. From the icy streams which flow into the Arctic Ocean and their tributaries, those posts spread out over the great territory, and were pushed on THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 219 and on until they were to be found on the Pacific's shores, in regions that even the wildest fancy of H. R.H. Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland, and his titled or humble colleagues of the ''body corporate and politic" styled "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading in Hudson's Bay," had never in- cluded within the scope of their monopoly. When, after the middle of the nineteenth century, the Company had attained its widest range and most com- plete organisation, all its parts were working with that precision which can be secured, in the affairs of such a gigantic enterprise, only when the controlling power is absolute and either individual or corporate in the closest sense of that word. Doubtless a very large part of the Hudson's Bay Company's success was due to the fact that every one of its post traders (or Company's agents or factors) had been born in the Company, so to speak, or had gone to America from the northern part of Scot- land as a lad, had toiled steadily, grown old, and been forever faithful to the interests of the great corporation whose servant he was. "Connecting all these posts was a vast, complete, sure system of communication. Furs were collected from post to post, provisions and merchandise dis- tributed, and mails conveyed and distributed, with less celerity, no doubt, but with as much security as in the most advanced times of our own country in our own day. Dog teams were in constant motion during winter, flotillas of birch canoes during summer. For two hun- dred years or more a ship especially constructed for the hardy service and as regularly as the course of the 220 THE COMING CANADA planets, crossed and re-crossed between England and Hudson's Bay, bringing with it provisions and articles of exchange, taking to England the furs collected from all over the continent. What a fascination there is in that history! Of what development it is susceptible! What a strange alliance it exhibits of cold, systematic organisation and of adventurous, romantic experience!" * Exceptions could hardly be taken, with propriety that is to say, to considering the Hudson Bay Territory as identical with the claims of the Company; for when the final negotiations were carried out it was the ''North West" — or, in other words, the territory of the Hud- son's Bay Company which was transferred, and it was looked upon as including practically everything north and west of Quebec and Ontario Provinces to the North Pole, exclusive of Greenland, to the Pacific Ocean and the Alaskan frontier. It had reached out far beyond what was originally contemplated; because in 1814, when there was a dispute as to the rights of the Com- pany in the Red River of the North Valley, an opinion was given by learned counsel which, in part, read thus: ''We are of the opinion that the grant of the soil con- tained in the charter is good, and that it will include all countries the waters of which flow into Hudson's Bay; that an individual, holding from the Hudson's Bay Company a lease or grant, in fee simple, on any portion of their territory, will be entitled to all the ordinary rights of landed property in England." Either as servants originally and continuously of the Hudson's Bay Company, or because of their association * Laurier. THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 221 with that Company after the absorption by it of the North West Company — for some time a most formi- dable rival in the peltry trade — there are several men of importance to be mentioned. Donald A. Smith, after- wards first Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal; Alex- ander Mackenzie, afterwards Sir Alexander; James Douglas, afterwards Sir James; The Right Honourable Edward Ellice; Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of Selkirk, Simon Eraser, and others. Individually some of them will be mentioned again in a later chapter. Just here it is sufficient to note that they were influential in expand- ing British authority throughout the great region of the Hudson's Bay Company. At the time of the transfer of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany's titular rights to the Colonial Government, when the North West Territories became a part of the official British possessions in North America, this vast region was looked upon as truly an unknown land, and as such was spoken of by all. It was assumed to be an inhos- pitable country, adapted solely to the Indian amongst human beings as a place of residence, and yet of some economic value by reason of the buffalo, other game, and many fur-bearing animals. It is needless to say that its purchase was vehemently opposed by many Canadians. Yet as soon as the Dominion Government had made even a little progress in its systematic explorations and surveys, it was found that much of this inhospitable region is admirably suited to agricultural and pastoral pursuits. It is very surprising that the topographical and meteorological conditions are comparatively Httle varied, when we bear in mind the great differences in 222 THE COMING CANADA longitude and latitude. Even what were long called the monotonous stony tracts and mossy wastes of frozen soils, known comprehensively as "The Barren Grounds," are not so utterly devoid of economic possibiHties as was at first assumed. The grass covered plains of the southern sections quickly came to be known the world over, and their advantages promptly proved to be attractive; while experiment and practical demonstra- tion have pushed northward and still farther north the bounds set upon the farming lands of the North West. A glance at the map will reveal the fact that the Mackenzie River and its tributaries drain a very large part of the Hudson's Bay Company's territory. In 1888, a select committee of the Dominion Parliament was appointed to enquire into the resources and eco- nomic value of the great Mackenzie River Basin. The report submitted as a result of this committee's investi- gation is a tremendously bulky document and is remark- ably thorough in scope and incisive in detail. The committee undertook, successfully, to give information relating to a tract amounting to one million two hundred and sixty thousand square miles in area, yet did not include any of the islands in the Arctic Sea, although some are so near the mainland as to make them seem to come within the realm of the report. To the Basin a coast line was assigned of about 5000 miles on the Arctic Sea and Hudson Bay, but excluding all inlets and deeply indented bays; and more than one- half of this coast is readily accessible by whaling and sealing craft, as well as by merchant steamers. The lake area is estimated as exceeding, in the aggregate, I THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 223 that of the Great Lakes. 2750 miles of the Mackenzie Basin rivers are navigable in a way: 1360 miles for small sea-going steamers, 1390 for light draft stem- wheel steamboats. One paragraph of the report affirms that there is a possible area of 656,000 square miles fitted for the growth of potatoes; 407,000 square miles suitable for barley; and 316,000 square miles, adapted to wheat. 860,000 square miles are well suited to stock raising, 26,000 of which are open prairie with occasional clumps of trees, the remainder being more or less wooded. 274,000 square miles, including the prairie, may be considered arable land. The committee gave it as their opinion that 400,000 square miles, or one-third of the total area comprehended in their report, is useless for the pasturage of domestic animals or for cultivation; this area compris- ing the so-called Barren Grounds and a portion of the lightly wooded region to their south and west. In the arable and pastoral areas, latitude seems to have no direct connection with the summer isotherms: the spring flowers and the buds of deciduous trees appear as early to the north of the Great Slave Lake (say lat. 60° N.) as they do at Winnipeg, St. Paul and Min- neapolis, Kingston or Ottawa, and earlier along the Peace, Liard, and some minor western affluents of the ^lackenzie River, where the climate resembles that of Western Ontario. The native grasses and food-plants (vetches) are always equal, where they grow, to those of Eastern Canada, and in many districts they are decidedly superior. The prevailing southwest summer winds bring the warmth and moisture wliich make it 224 THE COMING CANADA possible to cultivate cereals at points which seem to be abnormally far north; they likewise affect the cHmate as far north as the Arctic Circle, and eastward to the very limits of the Mackenzie Basin. Subsequent experience has shown that the general tone of this report was over-conservative, for the opinions and forecasts have been rather more than confirmed by practical efforts of agriculturalists and stockmen. Some of the ''useless" square miles have been made to yield fairly remunerative returns; and this being the case, it is not altogether unreasonable to expect that intelli- gent effort will result in changing some of the legends on maps of the eastern parts of the Hudson's Bay Territory, now northern Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, possibly up to the Labrador border: the most favourable term formerly applied to these sections was hardly com- mendatory; the general one was condemnatory. If a quarter of a century has sufficed to show that much of what was considered ''impossible" land in central and western Hudson's Bay Territory is not such; it may be that there is hope for what was until recently Ungava. There remains one section of the Dominion (it was a part of the Hudson's Bay Company's jurisdiction) concerning which I wish to say something more. It is now called British Columbia; but it was formerly — and I bcHcve originally, so far as Britons were concerned — given the name of New Caledonia; in imitation, one is disposed to think, of the title which was devised for the bonnie province at the other end of the American possessions. Nova Scotia. I am indebted to the Rev. A. G. Morice, O.M.I., who expanded an original paper Hudson Bay Post, Lake Athabaska, 59° N. Clearwatek Rivek, Athabaska River, 57° N. THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 225 on Aboriginal History into an interesting volume of several hundred pages filled with information about British Columbia.* It is unnecessary to name Mr. Morice's ecclesiastical allegiance; but I may say that he writes with no sectarian prejudice. So far as a some- what extensive experience enables me to check his statements, I find him remarkably accurate. I am truly sorry to admit that Mr. Morice is quite correct when he says, in his Preface, " The record of those times and ways of life which are irrevocably past has never been written, not to say published, and the only author who has ever touched on some of the events with which we will soon entertain the reader, Hubert Howe Bancroft, is so irretrievably inaccurate in his remarks that his treatment of the same might be con- sidered well-nigh worthless." North of the International Boundary, Bancroft's information seems to have been gathered from strangely unreliable sources, so that the volumes of the series. Native Races of the Pacific Coast, which deal with British Columbia, etc., are in unhappy contrast with the rest of the great work. It has been intimated herein that some time before the province of British Columbia consented to cast in its lot with the rest of the Dominion, there had been a provisional form of government; but according to ^Ir. Morice very few citizens knew that long before Victoria (chartered 1862) and New Westminster (dates from 1859, incorporated i860) had been called into existence, the province had been settled in a way, and had possessed * The History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, formerly New Caledonia, 1660 to 1880. 226 THE COMING CANADA a regular capital — at Stuart Lake, in the southern end of what is now Cassiar County, and far away from the present settled portions of the province. At that post a representative of the British people ruled over reds and whites. One would naturally suppose that the officials of the Hudson's Bay Company, still in corporate existence and very active and prosperous, would know something of the history of their own Company, or would, at least, not permit any statement to be made officially without estabhshing its accuracy; and yet, according to Mr. Morice, in 1905 it issued a pamphlet at Vancouver con- taining this statement: *' Although McKenzie came west in 1793, it was not until thirty years later (or in 1823) that the first post was established in British Co- lumbia." Now, in the first place, the famous explorer's name was not McKenzie but Mackenzie; and in the second place, long before 1823 six of the most important Hudson's Bay Company's trading posts had been established in the northern part of New Caledonia, and their contributions to the stocks of the Company were such as to make the province one of the most valuable districts in the Company's territory. On June 9, 1793, Mackenzie fell in for the first time with some Sekania Indians. They had heard of white men but had never before seen any, and they at once ran away. When Mackenzie sent men to parley with them, the strange Indians were very boisterous and wary; but presently their fears were allayed and the explorers discovered that they had some iron implements. They said they got iron from other Indians living up I THE HUDSON BAY TERRITORY 227 the valley of a large river; these obtained it from others who lived in houses; and these last procured the metal from men who were Kke Mackenzie. The river Indians were Carriers; those who had houses were Coast Indians, and the great river was the Fraser, as it was to be called later. A Sekania agreed to go with the strangers to act as guide; but he promptly bolted and Mackenzie was left to get along as best he could. Mr. Morice gives almost the full account which Mackenzie himself wrote of his first encounter with the fierce Carriers; and I should like to insert it here, but it is too long. It shows the man's intrepidity and also his success in gaining the confidence of these people which later he secured by going alone and unarmed into their midst. Eventually, and without coming to blows with any of the natives, Mackenzie and his whole party reached an arm of the sea, now called Bentinck (Dean) Inlet, where he cut this legend on a rock: "Alexander Mackenzie from Canada by land the twenty second of July one thousand seven hundred and ninety three." Thence the party returned to Fort Chippewayan (Chipe- wyan, on Lake Athabasca, Alberta Province), which they reached on August 24th. It will thus be seen that it is not correct to say, as do some writers, that "Simon Fraser . . . appears to have been the first white man to cross the Canadian Rockies in charge of an expedi- tion." * Nor is it any more accurate to say "the Rocky Mountains formed an impassable barrier until Sir Alexander Mackenzie crossed them in //po." * Dr. A. Rattray, History of the S. S. "Beaver," Vancouver Island and British Columbia. 228 THE COMING CANADA In 1809 Simon Fraser descended the river which bears his name, from Fraser Lake (Lat. 54° N. Long. 126° W.) to the Gulf of Georgia, and ascertained that the river he explored empties itself into the ocean, about four degrees of latitude north of the Columbia's mouth. It was his purpose to distinguish the two streams; and that he accomplished. David Thompson, for whom another important British Columbia river is named, discovered the upper Columbia, and on July 9, 181 1, near the Snake River set up a pole to which be afiixed half a sheet of paper bearing this notice: *' Know hereby: this country is claimed by Great Britain, and the North West Company from Canada do hereby intend to erect a factory on this place for the commerce of the country. D. Thompson." CHAPTER XVII THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS AN idea of what the title to this chapter means, and an inkling of what it may indicate within a very few years, are very neatly put by Agnes Deans Cameron.* *' Place a pair of dividers with one leg on Winnipeg and the other leg at Key West, Florida. Then swing the lower leg to the northwest, and it will not reach the limit of good agricultural land." It would be rash to say that the prime wheat fields of the Dominion are to be defined by the eastern boundary of Manitoba Province. What may be the possibilities in regions that are now condemned as severely as was so much of the whole North West only a few years ago, it is not for me even to guess. But I may take for my beginning that Vv^hich now marks the eastern boundary fence of "Canada's One- thousand-mile- wheat-field." At Winnipeg there is now a choice between three trunk lines which cross or skirt this pretty little tract; while of shorter lines that penetrate it for from a few scores of miles up to several hundreds, there are so many that their time-tables add just so many more to the puzzles which these well- meant (but often badly executed) helps to the traveller * The New North, Being Some Account of a Woman's Journey through Canada to the Arctic, igio. 230 THE COMING CANADA create. The southern border of this huge wheat field may be called the International Boundary. Its western runs along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Its northern: well that is something for our grandchildren, or perhaps our great-grandchildren to determine; and if the next century holds within its still sealed up mysteries as many surprises as the nineteenth gave to humanity, it may be that the sons of the present Canadian's grandchildren will be holding the plough — or whatever "sharp-edged instrument with which the Theban husbandman lays bare the breast of our good Mother" — along the very shores of the Arctic Seas themselves ! I wonder if Gen. Wilham T. Sherman would have injected quite so much of annoyance and sarcasm into his synonym for Canada, "the sleeping nation beyond," as he did when he spoke it thirty or forty years ago, were he alive to-day? In its way, the awakening of Canada and the lure which she is holding forth to our husbandmen, are capable of doing us more harm than could a successful war: but is that fact one which can be resented by armed force? If "we are on the heels of the greatest economic treck this world has ever seen," it would be churlish on the part of the people of the United States to harbour any hard feelings if it means still further drawing off of a population which they most regret to see going over to an economic competitor; but one who will not, I feel sure, ever be more than a very strenuous and (may be) troublesome agricultural, industrial, and commercial rival. As an illustration of the hazard which attends the THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 231 limiting of these agricultural possibilities, I quote from Mr. John Macoun * who wrote just thirty years ago. "If 150,000,000 acres be given as the approximate number of acres suited to wheat culture, another 100,- 000,000 acres could be added if the raising of barley be taken into account." The estimates of the Dominion Department of Agriculture for the season of 191 2 gave, as was stated in Chapter VIII, the area under grain cultivation as 15,728,900 acres in the three provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and the same Department estimates the arable land in those provinces at upwards of 300,000,000 acres. In what was the Territory of Ungava, now northern Quebec and Ontario, and including that portion of Labrador which belongs in the Dominion, experts in matters pertaining to agricultural possibiHties are satis- fied to say that while vegetables are successfully grown in certain places, and that in the middle of the Labrador peninsula there is some fairly good agricultural land, yet on the whole the climate is considered too cold for successful agriculture. In the former Territory of Keewatin, which has had to bear a very bad reputation, it has been ascertained that there are over 6,000,000 acres adapted to agriculture. Wheat has been grown successfully as far north as Norway House, about 53° 20' North lat. As to the vast region north of the Saskat- chewan Valley and west of former Keewatin, which may be described somewhat broadly as the Great Mackenzie Basin, thoroughly authentic and well substantiated evidence shows that this section is much more valuable * Manitoba and the Great North West, 1883. 232 THE COMING CANADA agriculturally than was supposed. It is capable of sus- taining a large, prosperous, and permanent population. As yet the settlements in this distant region are insignif- icant in number and ridiculously disproportionate to the area of the Basin; nevertheless they are of impor- tance as indicating practically and unquestionably the great possibilities of this region as an agricultural and industrial community. These known conditions emphasise the necessity for technical investigation and of surveying such areas as are likely to attract the stream of settlers who are bound to go there soon. According to one witness, who had had exceptional opportunities for famiharising him- self with the country and its resources, there is, in the Peace River Valley, as much good agricultural land suited to the settler's needs and not yet occupied, as there has been taken up by homesteaders and purchasers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta Provinces. Mr. W. F. Bredin, who was examined before a Senate committee, resides near Lesser Slave Lake. After a careful computation, he estimated the area of agri- cultural lands available in Mackenzie territory and in northern Alberta (not yet surveyed and thrown open to settlement), say north of the 55th parallel of lati- tude, at not less than 100,000,000 acres.* It will be remembered that the Arctic Circle is 66° 31!' North Latitude, or 691! geographical miles north of 55°, and it has already been stated, in a previous chapter of this * See Canada's Fertile Northland. Evidence heard before a select Committee of the Senate of Canada during the Parliamentary Session of 1906-7, and the Report based thereon. Edited by Capt. Ernest J. Chambers, Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 233 book, that much farther north than that parallel, wheat has been successfully grown. What a contrast do the methods employed by the newly arrived settler present to those which the estab- lished husbandman follows! In a former chapter it was shown how generously the Dominion Government permits a widow, having minor children dependant upon her, to take up a homestead. This is a verbal picture of one such mother going to work to secure a home for her flock: *'As day breaks we catch a glimpse of a sunbonneted mother and her three Httle kiddies. An ox is their rude coadjutor, and through the flower- sod they cut their first furrow. It is the beginning of a new home." But almost better yet is it to think of the crowded cities of the Old World; and may we not say of the New World too? In both there are so many prematurely old men and women; so many anaemic children; such sweltering, fetid slums! '^Surely in bringing the workless man of the Old World to the man- less work of the New, the Canadian Government and the transportation companies are doing a part of God's work." Now to carry out the contrast. It sounds a little Miinchhausen-like to say that on some of the great estates, the gang-ploughs, drawn by a dozen horses, deploy off en echelon after breakfast and make but one furrow out and another back in the forenoon, getting home in time for dinner, and another pair of furrows in the afternoon; yet the exaggeration gives an idea of what is the size of some of the great Canadian wheat fields. But in all parts of the three great grain prov- 234 THE COMING CANADA inces, steam is largely replacing animal power, not only in ploughing but for reaping and harvesting. The usual way of handling this motive power, is for two traction engines to pass along parallel borders of the tract to be treated, and to haul, by long steel ropes, the great gang-plough back and forth, or the harvester, or the combination reaper, thresher, and binder. When a grain field is a mile square (and there are plenty which are much larger than that), it is easy to see that the apparent expense of such methods is quickly offset by the economy of time and manual labour. Further- more, the work is better done! The province of Saskatchewan was either untilled prairie or unbroken wilderness only a few years ago; but thousands of industrious immigrants have transformed great tracts into fruitful farms which are principally devoted to wheat. In harvest time it is an exhila- rating sight to look at the machines passing through the great fields, in which the wheat ears stand up to the horses' shoulders. Not only in Saskatchewan, but in Manitoba and Alberta, of course, are such scenes common. Forty bushels of wheat to the acre is not too high an average to put upon the crop of Canada's wheat fields; that is, in the west and northwest. After all expenses have been met and the grain delivered at the ''elevator," when it is paid for and the farmer receives the reward for his toil, there will be from $15 to $17.50 per acre for him. I should not like to say how many cases in the western provinces are similar to this one, I know there are many: one man, the fortunate possessor of ^~ THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 235 some ready money, secured a farm of 640 acres at a cost of $5,000. In three years' time he had cut from it sufficient wheat to repay him in full; and all the while it gave him and his family a most comfortable hving, besides leaving a surplus which enabled him to buy adjoining land. It is not surprising that land in the southern half of those three grain provinces is so valu- able that it rarely changes owners, and that already the quarter sections available for homestead entry are scarce indeed. Someone has said that the distinguishing mark of an EngHsh city is the consecration of a Bishop of the Church of England. I do not believe I should dare to make a guess as to what distinguishes the American city; and as for the town in either country, it would be difficult to say just what is the trademark. But in the wheat field regions of the Dominion, after the railway company has knocked together the Httle shanty, which at first does duty as a station, and built the long plat- form for the accommodation of — no, not passengers at all, my readers — but the freight cars that are to be loaded with sacks of grain; the next thing to appear is the red grain-elevator. It will usually precede the canvas hotel; there is rarely a store until some time after the elevator has been in commission; and, best of all, the gin-palace that may be looked for with entire confi- dence in an American frontier settlement as the next human sign after the railway station, is not seen in Canada until the place has attained some size and the populace persuades the county officials to grant — what is not easy to get — a license. 236 THE COMING CANADA If the traveller is so fortunate as to pass through these great Canadian wheat fields when the grain is in full head and coming to richest maturity, because of the long, bright, sunny days and cool nights (that meteoro- logical combination which is ideal for ripening and mellowing), it will be no uncommon sight to see the sturdy grain stretching away to right or left from the railway's right-of-way until its farther limit seems to blend with the horizon, and apparently not coming to an end even then. A few words should be said about a grain crop in these prairie provinces which has already attained great volume and is certain to be of even more value to the farmers than it now is. It is barley which, as a crop, cannot be over-estimated in its economic values when writing of this section; for in spite of the increasing employment of steam, the growing number of motor- cars, and the other apparent causes for the passing of the horse, that animal is increasing in numbers and barley is considered as being as good food for the horse as oats. The successful cultivation of wheat may be problemat- ical in some parts of that northern belt which experts have agreed is the probable limit of this crop economi- cally; but in that same section and even farther north there is no doubt about barley being a profitable crop. It is essentially a northern grain, and in the far North West it attains its highest development. It ripens, as a rule, fifteen days earHer than wheat and resists the frosts of early autumn better. In the Peace River Valley, and even farther north, barley weighs nearly, or quite, sixty pounds to the bushel (the maximum weight THE CANADIAN WHEAT FIELDS 237 of barley, given in Haswell table, is fifty lbs. per bushel for California grain), and it is so plump and firm that it is attractive to everyone. Brewers have said that barley from Manitoba is, for malting purposes, fully equal to that from any other part of the world, and if this is true of the Manitoba barley, it must surely apply to that which comes from still farther north. Experts say that barley in the United States is ripened by the great heat of the sun before it has reached full maturity, and therefore the grain is somewhat shrivelled. This objection cannot be raised against barley from North Western Canada, because there the sun's heat during the long bright days and the short cool nights operate to bring the grain to fullest development and yet cause it to ripen slowly. The valley of the Red River of the North was thus described in 1874: ''Of the alluvial prairie of the Red River, much has already been said, and the uniform fertility of the soil cannot be exaggerated. The surface for a depth of from two to four feet is dark mould com- posed of the same material as the substratum, but mingled with much vegetable matter. When the sod has rotted, the soil appears as a light, friable mould, easily worked and most favourable for agriculture. The marly alluvium underlying the vegetable mould would in most countries be considered a soil of the best quality, and the fertility of the ground may therefore be con- sidered as practically inexhaustible." With reasonable allowances for local conditions, this description may be appplied to most of the hundreds of million acres of the arable soil in Canada's Fertile 238 THE COMING CANADA Northland. But that same characteristic of seeming inexhaustibleness was likewise attributed to California wheat fields, to Virginia tobacco lands, and to other agricultural regions, not only in America but in other parts of this Earth as well. Yet carelessness in culti- vating, disregard of rotation, constantly taking away and never restoring, neglect to let the fields lie fallow, have proved disastrous elsewhere; and the same mis- fortune must follow even in the fertile North West of Canada, if the same course is followed. CHAPTER XVIII A MODEL PROVINCE: MANITOBA THE first permanent white settlement in the district which is now the Province of Manitoba, was the Selkirk Colony which was founded by immigrants from Europe; most of them being Scotchmen. It was located on both banks of the Red River of the North, a short distance below the centre of the present city of Winnipeg, and at that time, 1812, was called Fort Garry. Many lineal descendants of those first Selkirk settlers still live on the homesteads which their ancestors acquired a century ago; but their comfortable dwellings and the spacious appointments of their households are in marked contrast with the conditions under which the Earl of Selkirk's immigrants at first struggled. I do not overlook the fact that nearly eighty years before Lord Selkirk commenced his colonising efforts, Pierre-Gauthier de Varennes, Sieur de la Verendrye, had made his way northward and westward from Lake Superior, reaching Lake Winnipeg in 1733. One year later he built a fort near the site of the present Fort Alexander, which is just up from the mouth of Winnipeg River, that empties into Travers Bay, the southeastern part of the lake. Four years later, October, 1738, Verendrye established another trading post, which he 240 THE COMING CANADA called Fort Raye, at the junction of the Red and Assini- boine rivers, on the site of the present city of Winnipeg. After the transfer of proprietorship from French to British hands, 1763, this nearer region of the west rapidly developed as a fur-trading centre, and it was there that the rivalry between the Hudson's Bay and the North West companies was probably as keen as in any part of British America. There were a very few traders, both French and British, the latter mostly Scotchmen, in the region. Gradually, however, other immigrants who were satisfied to make their living by farming came into the Red River region. These men frequently took Indian girls as their wives (the word is used somewhat euphemistically) and from these unions sprang a race of Metis, or half-breeds. The Hudson's Bay Company had been very gentle in its treatment of all people within its jurisdiction, whether European, Indians, or half-castes; but when its rule was supplanted by that of the Canadian officials, the zeal of these last led them to act somewhat hastily, causing eventually a revolt of the Metis under the leadership of one of their number, Louis Riel. The *'Riel Rebellion," as it is called, had much influence upon the early history of Manitoba (and it contributed not a Httle towards strengthening the bonds of the then newly founded Dominion). It would be interest- ing to consider the rebellion fully here, but space for- bids; yet I recommend my readers to look it up. Through its resident agent at Fort Garry, the Hudson's Bay Company continued to exercise control over the Selkirk colony (as well as over all its vast possessions) d A MODEL province: MANITOBA 241 until 1870, when the whole northern and western parts of British North America, excepting British Columbia which had already attained the dignity of being an independent colony, came under the control of the Dominion Government. The colony (Manitoba) was then known as Assiniboia (a name which was subse- quently applied, for a short time, to part of the country immediately west) . The Hudson's Bay Company received a million and a half dollars for its landed rights; but it stipulated for two sections (one mile square each, i.e., 640 acres) in each of the six-mile square townships which were to be surveyed and set off in thirty-six sections as the basis of title for private ownership in the future. It was also given small tracts at each of its trading-posts. Thus, in addition to its liberal money indemnity, the Company retains, in the enormous territory over which it was permitted by the terms of an elastic charter to exercise proprietory rights, about one-fifteenth of the land all told, and much of Manitoba is in this chain of title. When Manitoba was made a Province in 1870, and became a political unit of the Dominion, its area was much smaller than it now is. Indeed, the boundaries have been changed several times in these forty-three years. At present they are: on the south, the 49th parallel of N. lat., which divides Manitoba from Minne- sota and North Dakota; on the west, the meridian of ioi°2o' W. northward to the 60th parallel of lat.; on the north, that 60th parallel to Hudson Bay, the shore of which is followed southeasterly until the northwestern boundary of Ontario Province is reached, at a point 242 THE COMING CANADA which is about 56° 40' N. and 89° W. The line then goes southwest to the meridian of 95° 12' W., and thence the eastern boundary goes due south to the Lake of the Woods, and the United States. This very great expansion, whereby the area of the Province is nearly quadrupled, was made by the Domin- ion Government in 191 1, and has not yet appeared on the general maps. The area of the Province, before the expansion, was 74,000 square miles; about one-fifth was water; what it is now has not yet been accurately determined, but it must be considerably over one- quarter of a milHon square miles. ^'The name Manitoba sprang from the union of two Indian words, Manito, Hhe Great Spirit,' and Waba, * the Narrows ' of the lake which may readily be seen on the map. The well known strait was a sacred place to the Crees and Saulteaus who, impressed by the weird sounds made by the wind as it rushed through the narrows, as superstitious children of the prairie, called them Manito-Waba, or 'The Great Spirit's Nar- rows.' The name, arising from this unusual sound, has been by metonymy translated into 'God's Voice.' The word was afterwards contracted into its present form." * The general physical character of the Province is that of a level plain sloping gently towards the north. The whole district, of which Manitoba forms but a part, was evidently at one time a vast lake basin. The present rich soils, which are such an important factor in the economics and wealth of Manitoba, were derived * Enc. Brit., nth ed. A MODEL province: MANITOBA 243 from the silts deposited during that long period of time when even what is now dry land was under water. Apparently somewhat incongruous as it sounds, yet there is undoubtedly much logic in the statement that the cause of the poor water and alkaline soil in numerous locahties can be traced, in every instance, to the exceed- ing richness of the soil; and so long as it retains its salts, so long will it be noted for fertility. It is amusing to recall the fact that less than a score of years ago, there met in the city of Chicago a com- mittee of wheat growers who gravely, but no doubt honestly, recorded their opinion that ''Our Northern tier of States is too far north to grow wheat successfully," and yet they spoke from experience. Now, about a decade before that Committee put itself on record, a competent observer had expressed his opinion of the Red River of the North Valley thus: "Take one-half of the entire area, or 3,400 square miles, equaUing 2,176,000 acres, and for simplicity of calculation, let it be supposed to be sown entirely in wheat. Then, at the rate of seventeen bushels per acre, which, according to Prof. Thomas, is the average yield for Minnesota — the crop of the Red River Valley would amount to 40,992,000 bushels." But the experience of twenty years and longer has proved that when intelHgence is combined with energy in cultivating this land, the average crop of wheat runs higher than seventeen bushels to the acre; and what is more important, the northern limit of wheat cultivation has been pushed so much farther north that the conclusion of the committee, to which reference has just been made, seems almost 244 THE COMING CANADA laughable. Mrs. Cameron * says: *'For years Winnipeg was considered the northern limit of wheat-growth, the Arctic Circle of endeavour. Then the line of Kmitation was pushed farther back until it is Edmonton-on-the- Saskatchewan that is declared ' Farthest North. ' To-day we are embarking on a journey which is to reach two thousand miles due north of Edmonton." Impossible is an elusive word when we wish to Hmit man's potentialities in some directions, even if he is a miserably weak creature with but a brief span of life; and this province of Manitoba stands out conspicuously as a monument to what man's determination, when pushed along the line of little (not least) resistance, can accomplish. A Winnipeg policeman gave a pithy and characteristically witty definition of that success when he answered an Englishman's drawled out question: ^'What makes Winnipeg?" The visitor's astonishment at the size and activity of the "city in the wilderness" could not be suppressed, although he had tried hard to do so. Bobby looked at his interlocutor with a quizzical smile, stooped to scrape a lump of mud from his boot- heel, and replied: ''This is the sordid dhross and filthy lucre that kapes our nineteen chartered banks and their wan-and-twinty suburbhan branches going! Just be- yant is wan hundred million acres of it; and the dhirty shtuff grows forty bushels of whate to the acre. Don't be Hke the remittance man from England, son," with another quizzing look at the checked suit of his ques- tioner; "shure they turn up the bottom of their throwsies so high that divil a bit of the dhross sticks to them ♦ Op. cit. A MODEL province: MANITOBA 245 anywhere!" I may explain that a ''remittance man" is usually a younger son who has been shipped away from England to get him out of bad company. He is provided with sufficient money just to clothe and feed him; and ninety-nine out of a hundred never amount to anything. Manitoba owes no part of her importance to the ''remittance man." The staunch Canadian does not adopt the Encyclo- paedia's phraseology when discussing Manitoba and call it one of the western provinces of the Dominion. He speaks of it as the middle one or the middle western one, or "The Model Province." When it was admitted into the Dominion in 1870, it was the fifth province in numerical order. It then had an area of only 13,500 square miles, and extended just far enough northward from the International Boundary to take in the southern- most bights of lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba; its popu- lation was then but about 12,000, and nearly all of them were Indians or Metis. There must now be well on towards half a million inhabitants (quite likely more, since the increase in size), and the Indian element has so shrunk in ratio that it is almost negligible. The government of the province is administered by a Lieutenant-Governor, who is appointed by the Governor- General for a term of five years. With the lieutenant- governor is associated an executive council of six members, selected by himself with the approval of the Ottawa Government, who are responsible to the local legislature. This is a single body chosen by the franchise holders, and at present consisting of forty- two members; but this number will doubtless be increased in order to 246 THE COMING CANADA permit of representation from the great territory which has been added. Manitoba sends four members to the Dominion Senate and ten representatives to the Dominion House of Commons. What provision will be made for readjusting the provincial representation in the Dominion Parliament, now that the areas of Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba have been so greatly increased, I am not prepared to say at this moment. The province's position, both socially and pohtically, is almost unique. Because of the astonishing mixture of nationalities which the population indicates and the consequent differences of religious belief, either intense or mild, there have been frequent explosions which have had wide-reaching influence. Furthermore, because of the geographical position, making the province truly the gateway to the great west, there have been many political agitations which have made the district a veri- table storm centre. Added to these facts is the further one that the phenomenal progress during the last decade or so has raised up many important local economic disputes which have yet to be solved — education, municipal ownership, further railway and waterway expansion are some of these. The development of Manitoba, region and province, from the very beginning of British administration was rapid; but as soon as the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway was assured, progress in every aspect became so phenomenal as to make conservative people gasp. The Fort Garry of less than half a century ago has been transformed into the City of Winnipeg with a population of over 100,000, which presents in its streets, A MODEL province: MANITOBA 247 buildings, municipal facilities, industries of every kind, railways — for the city is now a division headquarters for the three great transcontinental systems discussed in a previous chapter — and in fact every essential, all the aspects of a city which is, and is recognised as, an important economic centre. This importance of the capital is reflected in many ways throughout the entire province, only two of which I shall mention. Since grain, and especially wheat, is the foundation of the province's prosperity, we find innumerable elevators and flouring-mills in all parts; even the smallest town is, in its way, a miniature Win- nipeg. The local branches and agencies of the char- tered banks are so numerous in the smaller places that they indicate somewhat of the volume of busi- ness. An illuminating evidence of Manitoba's mate- rial development is to be found in the fact that in 1906 a pamphlet of some thirty pages, illustrated with several scores of plates, was issued to show the ^'Pub- lic Buildings erected and improved by the government of Manitoba." A few of the widely scattered fur-trading posts of half a century and more ago have been developed into towns besides the provincial capital. Brandon is approaching the 25,000 mark. Portage la Prairie and St. Boniface will soon have more than 10,000 each; and a number of towns along the railways, the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern especially, are growing so rapidly that statistics cannot be penned. One of the most pleasing evidences of the well-being of this province, is the fact that while there is a strong 248 THE COMING CANADA liking for municipal ownership of various public utilities, the tax rates are still comparatively low. I do not wish to intimate that pleasing hospitality is not a conspicuous trait with all Canadians — my own experiences and the testimony of many others would contradict any such imputation, were it made. But I have good reason for saying that throughout Manitoba, and especially at Winnipeg, the stranger who brings letters of introduction is received with open arms and the entertainment ofifered will be hearty and varied. Whatever the visitor's particular taste may be, there will be found plenty of ways to cater to it. If it is outdoor sport, there is fishing, shooting, big game hunt- ing, coursing, and cross-country riding, at the proper season. If the guest's taste inclines towards athletics, in summer there are cricket, lacrosse, golf, baseball, all the games that appeal to the younger; but cricket in Canada, as in Great Britain — and indeed throughout the British Empire — is not at all monopoKsed by the youngsters. One often sees men whose years are counted by the three score or more, batting, bowling, and field- ing with the best. The winter sports are all that the Dominion can offer, as will be suggested in the next chapter. The clubman can have no cause to com- plain of lack of opportunity at Winnipeg. The scholar and literary man will be sure to make the acquaintance of congenial spirits. Those who like to sip from the cup which the frivolous forms of society hold forth, are welcomed and may dance and flirt to their heart's con- tent. In fact, Manitoba is a surprise and a delight in every way. CHAPTER XIX CANADA IN WINTER IT is, I think, recognised as a fact that if the stranger wishes to see the people of a given country in their true social environment, he must visit that country during the season in which the leisure or semi-leisure classes, *' society" in one word, give themselves up to social gatherings and festivities which are either im- possible or unpopular at other times. This rule, if it is admitted to be such — and I am assuming it, at any rate — applies to regions of the globe in which there are marked climatic changes. In the tropics, there is practically no such change: there may be a rainy season alternating with a dry one. During the former the natives may or may not be active, but it is usually not the time to see equatorial regions in the greatest luxury of their vegetation, when fruits are ripe and the people are enjoying the good gifts which bounteous Nature lavishly bestows upon them. I know, from personal experience, that the most favourable time to visit the semi-tropical regions is mid- summer; while to study the life of those people in Russia and Canada who figure in society, the proper season is precisely the opposite one; in other words, it is mid- winter. I am quite aware that some peoples exactly reverse this order of procedure, fl>ing from Russia, when 250 THE COMING CANADA the first hard frost and snow come, to the soft, balmy airs of the Mediterranean Rivieras, and seeking winter sunshine on both coasts of the tideless sea, even going well into Africa in their quest. I know, too, that some Canadians and New Englanders seek reHef from the bitterness of winter in their homelands, by going to Florida, California, Mexico, or elsewhere. But it needs no declaration from me to show that these quests are entirely subjective; they do not contemplate mingling to any great extent in the life of the peoples amongst whom the seekers are to sojourn for a short time in their selfish desire to secure personal comfort. Let us entirely leave out of consideration the unfortunate invalid who must try to escape the clinching, shrivelling chill of winter or the enervating heat of summer. The peoples of both Canada and Russia who are able, because of wealth and position, to make society, are the very ones who go away from their homes during the short summer. They do this for two reasons: first, because in that brief summer the heat is often trying and not infrequently the physical arrangement of domiciles makes it difficult to be really comfortable at home; second, that is the time when travelKng is least liable to the interruptions of the weather which the gales and snowstorms of winter often bring. I know that many of my countrymen go to Canada for the summer to the coolness, comfort, and freedom of out- door life. I have done it myself several times; but it is not the right time to see any of the Canadian social centres at their best. The Dominion capital, Ottawa, is a pleasant place in Ploughing at Fort Smith, 6o° N. Smith Landi.ng, Great Slave River, 6o° N. CANADA IN WINTER 251 summer; the days are warm (sometimes they are piping hot!) and one can go abroad unhesitatingly, while the nights are cool enough to make at least a thin blanket agreeable; but there is Httle to be seen of the official social life. Almost surely the Governor- General will be absent; for at that season — when Parliament is in recess — he is making official visits to the provinces in order that he may see for himself — not how the people hve and move and have their being — but how the local affairs are being administered. The Depart- ment Chiefs will equally surely be absent; either seek- ing relaxation with their famihes at seacoast, lakeside, or river resorts or in Europe, or imitating the example set by their official head, and making tours of inspection. The society leaders beyond the charmed circle of department life follow these examples, and so it goes. What has been said of the capital appHes, in a general way, to the other cities: even the mere sightseer will notice that in summer his opportunities to see the people are not so good as in winter. Is it Montreal, the com- mercial metropolis? The streets, the parks, the churches, the resorts seem to be singularly deserted. Is it the picturesque, quaint Quebec? There is a marked apathy to be noticed in and about the citadel, and the crowd on DufTerin Terrace is palpably not composed of resi- dents. If there is a semblance of gaiety at other places, it too often betrays the mark of ha\ing been arranged for the special benefit of the tourist, who is expected to pay for the extra effort : there is none of the spontaneity of custom. Is it the active, scholarly Toronto? The silence which overhangs the deserted University campus, 252 THE COMING CANADA is to be noticed as spreading throughout the residential sections, and even to penetrate into other parts of the city. It is the same wherever the visitor goes. He can see the country and the natural sights; the lakes, rivers, waterfalls, mountains and forests, all such things will be attractive; and because the farmers may have a little leisure, perhaps the visitor will have the oppor- tunity of meeting some of them, and they are always interesting. But there is another phase of social life which asserts itself only in winter; this life does not appear in its fullest glory until the snow has come in quantity suffi- cient to make the roads fitted for the sleighs and the hills ready for the toboggans. Then the bustle and crowds in the city streets and along the suburban roads are most exhilarating. The motor car is put out of commission save when the street-cleaning force in the larger cities has swept away the snow and such locomo- tion is again possible. The horse comes once again to his own, and it really seems as if he understands his privileges and restored importance. From the dainty, saucy cutter, drawn by a single steed, to the great omni- bus-sleighs with two or four horses, or the even larger box-sleigh piled up with straw and buffalo-robes, and filled with a party of merry youngsters off for a ''straw- ride," there is to be seen somewhere every conceivable form of vehicle that can be put upon runners. The princely sledge of the Court nobles in Russia, with tall plumes waving from the sleigh itself and from the shoulders of the three horses, driver and footman resplendent in Astrakan and bright colours, is matched CANADA IN WINTER 253 by the equipages of the Canadian official and aristocrat. The liveries are as effective, even if widely different in character. The furs of the occupants of the sleighs are as luxurious at Ottawa as they are at St. Petersburg, and the gaiety is equal in every way. Every Canadian city asserts itself when the jollity of winter is the topic of conversation; and in a way each is right. But it has always seemed to me that Montreal's claim has the most substantial foundation. The business section may be made just as disagreeable and quite as dirty by a fall of snow, as any place one knows; yet Montreal is singularly fortunate in having, almost at its centre, such a magnificent winter play- ground as Mount Royal. The drives approaching it and all round its sides are so nicely graded that when the snow is properly packed, the cutters, family sledges, box-sleighs, and all vehicles of the kind go spinning along as if it were no effort at all for the horses to draw them. Sometimes a reckless or incompetent driver lets his horse go too fast along a downgrade at the end of which is a sharp curve: then there is a spill, but inas- much as the snowbank into which the occupants of the sleigh are pitched makes a soft bed upon which to fall, these mishaps are not often attended with serious consequence. The lower slopes of Mount Royal, in all directions, are taken possession of by the children, who are con- tented with mild coasting; but the more adventurous youths of both sexes and indeed (ought it to be whis- pered?) many grown men and women who might be supposed to have reached such discretion as not to take 254 THE COMING CANADA unnecessary risks, drag their toboggans far up towards the summit of the mountain, where there is one of the best sHdes in all the Dominion. It carries the toboggan down the southern slope, that is for the most part gentle; but there is a jump or two which make the novice catch his breath as the sled plunges down. Long ago, this slide used to reach far out upon the plain stretching off towards the river; but the growth of the city and the extension of tramway lines have necessitated restricting it to Mount Royal Park; there is even yet enough of it to give the rarest, most exciting few minutes. One of the most popular and exhilarating winter sports has been adopted from something which was a very stern and hard necessity to traveller, voyageur, or coureur des hois in former times. I mean snowshoeing. Every village and town in the Dominion seems to have its snowshoe club, and the larger cities count them by the scores. There are more than twenty-five in Montreal and its immediate suburbs. Each club has its own distinguishing uniform. Most of us know what it is generally: for the young women (because the club membership is rarely restricted to one sex) there is the long, Neapolitan, knitted cap which often pulls down quite to the shoulders, leaving only a part of the face visible; a thick, warm jersey; a jacket made from a bright-coloured blanket, and a short, warm skirt. The stockings, usually uniform in pattern and showing the Club colours, must be thick and warm; and the feet are encased in moccasins, because a stiff-soled boot is an impossibility for comfortable snowshoeing. The men are pretty much the same in appearance, so far as CANADA IN WINTER 255 head and body go; but the skirt is replaced by warm knickerbockers. Stockings and moccasins are again similar. Nowadays, some of the most sensible girls are wearing a regular bloomer costume. Snowshoeing is a most delightful winter sport and frequently the club will go out ten or fifteen miles in the afternoon, sup at some jolly little country hostelry — or maybe the club will "have its own clubhouse away from town for such rendezvous — and come back in the dazzHng moonlight or beneath the twinkling stars and the Aurora borealis of a Canadian winter's night, with which nothing in the south can compare in brilliancy. Snowshoeing, with its shuffling, sliding motion, looks to be a very easy tiling to do ; but let none of my readers jump to the conclusion that it is something anybody can do without half trying; although that is precisely what every novice does. When a person has the snow- shoes tied to his feet for the first time, his first convic- tion is that the wretched things are insecurely fastened, they wobble so at the heels, and he feels sure they will come off at the first movement. When assured there is no danger of this, he next proceeds to attempt to walk, gets his feet hopelessly tangled up, and promptly comes a cropper, while the experienced onlookers laugh in pleasant derision. The necessary shuffle is one of the most difficult feats to accomplish that feet ever essayed. Once mastered, however, there are few motions so delightfully exhilarating, and the speed with which one can move over the snow, particularly when it is Hghtly crusted over, is astonishing. I have known plenty of men and women who think that snowshoeing is better 256 THE COMING CANADA sport than skating. Certainly it possesses the great advantage of having a much wider horizon than the ordinary river, lake, or pond gives the skater. Ski-ing (pronounced skee-ing, see dictionary) is, of course, first cousin to snowshoeing. Skating is so universal that I hardly take the trouble to mention it. Not only on open ponds and rivers do the crowds gather for this popular sport, but there are, in the cities certainly, covered rinks which either belong to exclusive clubs, or are reserved on certain afternoons and evenings by a club for its members only. Of course hockey asserts itself when skating is mentioned; and other sports on the ice, such as Curling, are suggested. It is presumptuous for an American to describe this game, when competent Scots have exhausted their efforts to laud it, both in prose and poetry. Yet since many people do not know just what the game is, I give a brief description. A rink is 42 yards long and 4 yards wide. The tees, or goals, are 40 yards apart. The stones were originally waterworn boulders or granite blocks bored through to let the player's thumb get a grip. These primitive stones are now replaced by beautifully rounded, flattened, and highly polished ones into which a handle, turned at a right angle to the diameter, is set. A stone may not be more than 50 pounds in weight; the circum- ference not over 36 inches; and the thickness must not be less than one-eighth the greatest circumference. These stones, for each player must be supplied with two, cost, including handles, from $10 to $25 a pair. The object of the game is to curl or slide the stone from behind and to the side of one tee and make it stop as I CANADA IN WINTER 257 near as possible to the centre of a six-inch circle at the other tee. Stones that go out of bounds or stop short of the *' Hog-score," a line defining the limits of the tee, are ''dead," and must be removed. It is a man's game, and a strong man at that. Many songs have been written in praise of it; the authors contending that it is a promoter of mental enjoyment, bodily health, and the best of good fellowship. Where the game originated is not known; but it is associated in our minds with Scotland, and it is in the land of heather that it is most popular. There are so many Scots in Canada that it is not surprising to find hundreds of curling clubs in the Dominion. It will be noticed that I say nothing about the ''Ice Palace" when writing of Montreal in winter. The omission is intentional. The beautiful and novel structure of crystal ice, reared at a great expense on the frozen surface of the St. Lawrence River, was never a profitable investment, and it advertised Canada in the wrong way. It has not been made for several years and I think will not be again. If the visitor wishes to see the St. Lawrence River in the perfection of its winter aspect, he will go to Quebec, which is farther north than Montreal, and where the cold is steadier and lasts longer. The ups and downs, the ins and outs of the town lend themselves admirably to picturesque winter effects; but they also add to the difficulties of getting about by both man and beast; how the horses manage to negotiate the steep and narrow roadways is a marvel. Life is even now more primitive in Quebec city and province than elsewhere; few of the elegant sleighs of the political or commercial 258 THE COMING CANADA capital are to be seen. In the country there are grand opportunities for enjoyment, only the stranger must be able to speak French if he is to get the best from the habitants. The view (from Dufferin Terrace) over the frozen St. Lawrence, rigid above the city, broken and churning it may be below, is a rare one. If the stranger seeks the American maxima in winter scenery and snow effects, and has time and means, let him take a Canadian Pacific Railway train and go well into the Rocky Mountains or the Selkirks. He need have no apprehension as to physical comforts. The train is entirely vestibuled — for I am assuming that the tourist travels by an express so that passing from end to end involves no exposure. When there is not a dining-car at his service, the train will halt at a station where there is one of the Company's hotels or restaurants which serve a meal to satisfy the veriest Lucullus. If ''Lucullus does not sup with Lucullus," the companion at table will be an interesting feature of a remarkable journey. Let the traveller aHght, to stay a day or two, at one of the stations near the snowsheds. Here, again, there is no danger that physical comfort will not be admirably cared for, even if the accommodations are not quite the same as those which the Chateau Fron- tenac or the Place Viger supply. Imagine, then, a rather steep mountain side covered with snow so deep that all traces of the great snowsheds are absolutely obliterated, the smooth white surface spreading downward as if there were nothing to break the contour, save the bushes and small trees which must be pictured in fancy, for they are out of sight. Remem- CANADA IN WINTER 259 ber that these snowsheds are built of heavy timber, strong enough to support the weight of this mass of snow and to resist the impact when the sliding snow drives down in a tremendous avalanche. They are tall enough and sufficiently wide to admit the largest engine and the broadest coach or freight car, and yet leave space above the smokestack to let sparks fly freely, and for all ordinary oscillation. This gives an idea of the size of these structures; and thus it is possible to con- ceive of what must be the depth of snow to obhterate them completely. There will be other awe-inspiring snow and ice effects to interest the visitor. There is little doubt that for the young and active, and for the old who are vigorous and hearty, the Cana- dian winter offers plenty of opportunity for sport and pastime in the open. I imagine that many of my readers will recall pleasing demonstration of this in books and magazine stories which tell of Dominion life in that season. Why Americans should go to the Tyrol for winter sport, I cannot imagine. But there is another phase of winter's social life which appeals with almost equal force to old and young, although of course each class looks upon interior festivi- ties from a different standpoint. Winter is the time when most Canadians are at home. I know there are some who hke to get just as far away as possible from the searching, marrow-curdling cold; but these are the anaemic or sybaritish; and the true Canadian does not hesitate to sneer at them. The capital, Ottawa, shows many forms of winter's social gaieties. Around the Governor-GeneraFs home gathers the exclusive and 26o THE COMING CANADA official set: yet the democratic spirit has so pervaded this circle, that it includes some who are not distinguished by any high-sounding titles; and there is really less of snobbishness about it than was conspicuous at the ''White House Court" within recent years. Americans of social position and culture are made most welcome, and I cannot imagine any more delightful winter life than Christmastide at Ottawa offers. As with the capital, so with all the large cities, only there is lacking in each that special glamour which shines from delightful Rideau Hall. There is, however, just a suggestion of that semi- Court Hfe at each of the Provincial capitals, provided the Lieutenant-Governor is disposed to have it so. The residences of those who make any pretence to social life are all well provided with heating-plants; and there will always be found that almost indispensable accessory to aesthetic comfort, the open fireplace with its blazing logs, about which hosts and guests gather when the function is of smaller dimensions than a ball or rout. If the stranger is so fortunate as to receive an invitation from a British or French host who is interested in the history or folklore of the Dominion, it will be round the hearth that the past will be made to live itself over again. I know that while I am always glad to go to Canada at any season, it is upon my winter visits that I look back with greatest pleasure and most satisfaction. CHAPTER XX SOME CANADIAN TOWNS THE number of really old towns in the Dominion is not very great. How could it be, when we consider the methods followed by the French in their attempt at colonisation? But if we bear in mind the measure of interest that hangs round the half-dozen or so places which are to be considered in this chapter, there is material enough to fill a dozen volumes. Of Quebec alone so much has been written — and the subject has not yet been exhausted — that there are books enough to fill a small bookcase. There is a period of more than a century and a half from the date of Quebec's birth, 1608, until — I am not going to say death — her marriage to Great Britain, in 1763, by the old custom of capture. The story of this " Great Mother of Canada" is alive with thrilling, dramatic incidents for the pen of historian, the verse of poet, the plot of novehst. Individual impressions of to-day seem to be but tame and uninteresting, when we have at our dis- posal for a study of Quebec's creation, development, and vicissitudes, such material as the Relations of Jesuit Fathers, who were pioneers both in evangelisation and in discovery. Of Francis Parkman's books, although some of his statements are criticised adversely and his conclusions disputed, it is but truth to say that they 262 THE COMING CANADA did for Canada as much as Prescott's volumes did for Mexico. I mention only a few more writers who have gleaned from earlier ones, yet added picturesque touches of their own: William Kingsford, Sir James Macpherson Le Moine, Dr. A. G. Doughty, Sir Gilbert Parker.* Beyond this I dare not go, for a complete bibhography of Quebec alone would cover pages. Many important names are omitted, not from lack of appreciation or willingness to comment, but because of the limitations of space. The narrative of the five sieges that the old town has sustained — 1629, 1690, 1759, 1760, 1775 — would fill several volumes; and that of probably the most famous of all, the great Battle of the Plains of Abraham, when both victorious and vanquished leaders lost their Hves, is so overflowing with interest, event, tragedy, victory, discomfiture, that it has served as the subject for a whole volume unto itself. Still, is it not correct to say that never yet has the fortress of Quebec succumbed to actual capture by assault? If Quebec no longer alone guards the gateway to Canada, it is because the developments of the last quarter of a century have opened to the visitor other means of ingress than that of the St. Lawrence River; but if that stream is ''the fife of Canada," as it has been aptly called, it is at Quebec the pulse still beats; and there need be little regret on the part of her citizens as they see the trans-Atlantic steamers pass on their way to or from the commercial metropolis of the Dominion, Montreal. If the birth of Quebec was in the year 1608, the con- * For titles of their books, see bibliography at end of this volume. SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 263 ception may be said to have taken place more than half a century before, when, in 1535, Jacques Cartier wintered at Stadacona. That was an event of great importance for the future of Canada. It takes us back to a date only forty-three years after Columbus' first memorable voyage. It antedates by seventy-two years the found- ing of Jamestown, Va. (it was nine years later than the settlement of the Spanish colony on the site of James- town, soon abandoned), by eighty-eight years the found- ing of New Amsterdam (New York City). It was before the date of St. Augustine, Fla., 1565. Quebec has the right, therefore, to call herself one of the oldest cities founded by Europeans in America, if she may not boast of being the very oldest. Certainly there is no city in North America that is more famous historically, and in all the world there are few more picturesquely located. From the promontory where stands the Chateau Frontenac, one of the Cana- dian Pacific Railway's hotels, and especially from the windows of one of the towers, there is — on a fair day — a view that is not surpassed easily and is rarely matched. Down the river over Isle Royale, with a hint of the Falls of Montmorency; across the St. Law- rence into the rolling country that stretches away to the Height of Land forming the International Boundary; up the river past the Plains of Abraham; northward into the Laurentian Hills; on every side there is scenery in which grandeur and pastoral simplicity are blended with historical recollections that form visual and mental pictures of unequalled brilliancy. The bold promontory, on which the Chateau stands. 264 THE COMING CANADA naturally divides the city into two parts, the Citadel and the Lower Town. If there is perhaps a hint at regularity in the streets of the former, those of the latter are a maze so intricate that none but the habitue can safely trust himself alone in them. But getting lost in the streets of Quebec is half the fun of a visit : the old and the new jostle each other in strange propinquity, and yet at every turn there crops up something which recalls an event of years ago. With modem Quebec is closely associated the history of the reigning house of the British Empire, for the Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father, when com- manding the 7th Royal Fusiliers, Hved for four years in the city. It seems a pity that De Monts and Champlain should have discarded the pleasing Indian name, Woolastook, for the principal river of New Brunswick, and rechrist- ened the stream St. John, just because they chanced to discover it on the anniversary of St. John, June 24th, in 1604, and that the English did not restore the original name. Just where the town of St. John stands, river and tide waters meet, and such is the strength of the latter's flow — for it rises thirty-five feet in the har- bour — that when nearly full it turns back the stream, making even the river proper appear to flow upstream. Near this intermittent fall or rapid is a promontory on which stands the older and more important part of the City of St. John. It extends onto other heights, and St. John may truthfully be called a city built on hills. From many points charming views are had of distant heights crowned by buildings which recall old times. SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 265 These vistas are rendered particularly effective when, at sunset, the eyes look through the forest of masts, spars, and rigging of the vessels in the docks. Mr. Allen Jack writes: "It is almost, if not quite, certain that for centuries before the coming of Europeans the Indians, temporarily or permanently, used some portion of the shores of the Harbour of St. John as a resting or dwelhng place. The French, almost from the discovery of the locality, occupied one or more sites contiguous to the harbour, partly for commercial or missionary purposes, but mainly for military reasons. Of all the Frenchmen who lived there, the Sieur la Tour, whose noble wife once fiercely defended, and afterwards heroically failed in defence of, the Fort at St. John bearing her husband's name, was probably the only one who possessed true commercial instincts and capacity." St. John's right to a place in this chapter comes as much from the interest which attaches to its neighbour- hood as from the record of the town itself. The real history of the place begins with the arrival of some United Empire Loyalists, about 5000 of whom came there from the United States after the Revolution, 1783. A number of St. John's citizens have achieved distinction in Canadian society and politics. It is not a place of conspicuous wealth, although many citizens are possessed of means: on the other hand, there are few abjectly poor. It is really amazing that, where there are at all times sailors from all over the world, one policeman for every thousand persons is sufficient to preserve the peace. Hochelaga, the Indian village which stood on the site 266 THE COMING CANADA of the lower part of Montreal, but which disappeared quickly, was known to the early French. It was intended that Montreal should be "Ville Marie," when, in 1642, Paul Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, one of the Associates of the Society formed to colonise the Island of Montreal, and his companions, clerical and lay, took formal possession. The most conspicuous feature in Montreal's early history is the constant annoyance to which the settlers were subjected by the Indians. In 1689, ^^^^ place the dreadful massacre at Lacliine, near the upper end of the island, and the citizens of Montreal were not permanently reUeved from anxiety caused by threatened attacks upon themselves, until the Iroquois were suppressed. The antiquarian and historian find valuable material in Montreal; yet its strongest claim upon our attention is its remarkable growth as a commercial centre. The figures which measure its trade cause those of pretty nearly all the rest of the Dominion to sink into insignifi- cance. I must, however, warn my readers that Mon- treal's trade returns may include statistics of interior towns; because grain, lumber, etc., destined for foreign ports and transshipped here, can easily appear twice. After the British conquest, the French population of Montreal, relatively to the British, was very large; yet to their credit let it be said that, in spite of the fact that it was a very disorderly period, but few French names appear in the magistrates' records. During 1775-6 the city saw many changes, and doubtless some of the French hated to see the British flag flying where the French had been; but before the score of years between SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 267 the British conquest and the American Revolution had passed, even these had come to reahse how much their position was improved. ''They had better markets, better crops in those days of peace, and securer privileges every way, and now to be subjected to the sway of the New England Puritan Colonists would be one of times as bad as ever." Although this is the opinion of a Canadian divine, the Rev. J. Douglas Borthwick, I have no disposition to contradict him. Halifax is the capital of the maritime Province of Nova Scotia. It is undoubtedly now and will continue to be the chief Atlantic seaport of the Dominion, because it is "an all-the-year-round harbour"; for in spite of the high latitude it is so free from ice that ocean-going vessels may enter at all seasons. With Halifax are associated in the history of Acadia, Louisburg, Annapohs, Beausejour, and other places. When Louisburg was dis- mantled, Halifax arose and from its birth its lullaby has been martial music on land and sea, for the garrison has never been discontinued, even if its maintenance has been transferred from Imperial to Dominion charge. The town stands on a pear-shaped peninsula about five miles long and three wide. At Citadel Hill this promontory rises to about 250 feet above the harbour. It is rather a striking coincidence that Hahfax, on the Atlantic, and Vancouver, on the Pacific, should both be famous for their magnificent seaside city parks. Ottawa is said to be the offspring of two very bad parents, War and Political Faction: a suggestion of what this means has been given in a previous chapter. Yet had an alliance, itself displeasing, not brought about 268 THE COMING CANADA this birth, it is certain that physical and industrial conditions would have ensured the growth of a city on this attractive site. The town stands on a natural route from the middle St. Lawrence River to the upper Great Lakes, as is evident from the fact that Indians used it when only they and wild animals inhabited these forests. If Ottawa was for some years Uttle more than an enclosure for the Dominion Government buildings and the homes of Civil Servants, it has passed beyond that stage. It is a prosperous, progressive city of 100,000 inhabitants. Its lumber trade, including that of the suburb, Hull, is about the only thing which gives it commercial or industrial importance. It is essentially a city of homes; but since ''homes" naturally means children, and children require education, Ottawa offers such attractions and advantages as would properly be expected. The piece de resistance is of course the Parliament Buildings, three — the main, legislative assembly halls, offices, libraries, etc., and two flanking edifices for the headquarters of Dominion officials and others. These three stand in a beautiful park on a high bluff above the Ottawa River. Looking up towards the park from the city along Metcalfe Street is a fine sight. At the other end of that street, and about half a mile from Parlia- ment Park, is the Victoria Memorial, in another park. This is a Museum which promises to give citizens and visitors admirable opportunities to study the natural resources, natural history, ethnology, etc., of the entire Dominion. The three Parliament Buildings are inade- quate for all departments of government, and conse- Empress Hotel and Hakholk, Viciohia, Va.ncolvek Island, B C. On Skeena River, B. C \ SOME CANADIAN TOWNS 269 quently there are bureaus housed in public or private buildings all over the city. Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor- General, is in the outskirts. It is a large, rambling, but comfortable domicile and stands in well-kept grounds which have not been shorn entirely of natural beauty. The Hall overlooks the river, and the Laurentian Hills are seen far away in the north; the views are superb. In the early years of the nineteenth century, the Hud- son's Bay Company estabhshed a trading-post, Fort Comosun, on the site of the present city of Victoria, Vancouver Island, at almost the extreme western end of what was to be the Dominion of Canada. In 1849 the island was formally proclaimed a British possession and thrown open to colonisation; James Douglas, after- wards Sir James, being the first governor. In 1856 he called together the first Pro\dncial Parliament which met in a room of the fort. To-day Victoria, "The Queen City of British Columbia," is one of the most beautiful and salubrious residential towns in the Domin- ion. The rush of miners to the Fraser River gold fields, in 1858, and lately a small part of a similar skurry to the Klondike, have caused ripples upon the placid life of the Httle city; but usually it has preser\'ed the quiet of a combination business town and military post. Many well-to-do families have made their homes here, attracted by the natural surroundings, the commercial and educational advantages, and the temperate climate. Being a port of call for steamers to and from Asia and Australia, there is always a sense of being in touch with 270 THE COMING CANADA the world; and this is a satisfaction to those whose affluence relieves them from active avocation. Vancouver has lost the mushroom appearance it wore for some years after the Canadian Pacific transferred its western terminus to this place from Port Moody. It is now the principal shipping port on the Dominion's Pacific coast, and a substantial town of more than 100,000 inhabitants. It is admirably equipped with the facilities that make life comfortable: its schools, homes, hotels, churches, public and commercial buildings have a look of permanency and prosperity that is pleasing; while the captious critic can find little fault with its commercial and industrial activity. Stanley Park, the complement of the one at Halifax, is at the extreme western end of the bold peninsula on which Vancouver stands: in it are some of the largest trees in British Columbia; while its fern-carpeted glades, traversed by excellent drive- ways, bridle-paths, and walks, make it a most charming city breathing-place. From Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, up the St. Lawrence to the lakes, and on at least as far as Toronto and Hamilton, there are quite two score places that I should like to mention in this chapter, for they all deserve it; but I am not writing a book about Canadian towns. CHAPTER XXI A FEW CANADIANS TO do even scant justice to all Canadians who have contributed much towards the conquest of the Dominion, to its political creation, its development, and who have marked out clearly the pathway along which The Coming Canada shall progress to even greater things than those which have been, so completely exceeds the possible in one short chapter as to make the small effort upon which I venture seem ridiculous. If I shall be so fortunate as to secure some Canadian readers, I beg that they will not consider the omission of very many names which should be here, as altogether a sign of ignorance, but attribute it to the limitations of space. I shall say no more of the French pioneers, both lay and clerical, but pass on to the time when British policy asserted itself, and then to the time when the conduct of affairs was left entirely in the hands of Canadians themselves. Naturally, then, the men who first made known to their fellow countrymen something of the magnitude and economic possibilities of the vast estate which had fallen to them, claim precedence, and in Mr. J. Castwell Hopkins' Encyclopaedia, I find abundant material from which I have, in part, drawn. Alexander Mackenzie (the name is sometimes im- 272 THE COMING CANADA properly given as McKenzie) was probably born at Inverness, Scotland, about 1755. He must have been still very young when he yielded to the temptation to leave home, because in 1779 he appears to have been in Canada, for he entered the offices of the North West Fur Company at Toronto in that year. In 1787 he was entrusted with a small stock of goods which he took to Detroit, and he was given permission to trade, provided he penetrated into the Indian territory, beyond that frontier, in the spring of the next year. He succeeded in establishing barter with the Indians, although they were disposed to resent his efforts. In 1789, Mackenzie was sent to explore the un- known region far to the North West, which was even at that time supposed to be bounded by the Frozen Sea. This expedition, which was much condemned at the time, was looked upon as an exploit of sheer hardihood. He accomplished it in less than three and a half months, most of the time he and his companions being in birch- bark canoes. He made his way to Great Slave Lake and thereafter discovered the river which bears his name. Having descended this noble stream to its mouth, he returned to Toronto, where, for a short period, he attended to post-trading. In 1792, he began the expedition across the prairies and the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, which has already been mentioned. From the Pacific shores, he once more retraced his steps and again settled down for a short taste of comfortable home life. The narrative of his explorations in the North West, which he published in 1 80 1 and dedicated to King George III, is most fasci- ^ A FEW CANADIANS 273 nating reading. The next year the King conferred upon him the honour of knighthood. Sir Alexander continued to be a partner in the North West Company; yet with somewhat curious ideas of commercial ethics, he organised a rival firm which was called Sir Alexander Mackenzie & Co. The competition did not last long, for in 1805 the firm was absorbed by the older company. Like so many successful Britons, Sir Alexander became possessed with a desire to sit in Parliament, and for some years he represented Hun- tingdon County, in the Provincial Parliament for Canada East (now Quebec). During this time he was involved in much litigation with Lord Selkirk concerning the Red River Settlement in what is now the Province of Mani- toba. In 181 2, Sir Alexander returned to Scotland, where he purchased an estate at Avoch in Ross-shire. On a journey to Edinburgh in 1820, he was suddenly taken ill and died at Mulnain, near Dunkeld. The narratives of Sir Alexander's two great expeditions may be read by all who care to do so. The details show the character of the man as an explorer, and as an adept in accommodating himself to circumstances until he could compel those circumstances to conform to his wishes. They also indicate a remarkable capacity for dealing with all classes of men; his own determined fellow countrymen, Europeans of various nations, the fickle voyageurs and coureiirs des hois, or the "^ily, cun- ning, often tricky Indian. But another phase of this man's character appears in the fact that he was made a partner in the North West Company when comparatively young. As Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal says: 274 THE COMING CANADA ''It was not an easy matter to obtain admission into this partnership. It could be accomplished only by long and arduous service; money was no object, abihty was everything. It was what the candidate could perform, not his relationship, which secured him the position." It is little wonder that Canada pays high honour to the memory of Sir Alexander Mackenzie. At the same time that Mackenzie was cutting that inscription on the rock at Dean Inlet, mentioned in a previous chapter, another venturesome explorer, Capt. George Vancouver, was making his way up the Pacific coast of North America, less than two hundred miles north of where the first Briton to cross the continent had reached the strand. Vancouver had already visited the very same spot that Mackenzie subsequently reached; but he seems to have left no sign, and it is a strange thing that these two explorers did not meet each other in that remote region. Thirteen years after Mackenzie reached the Pacific, Simon Fraser crossed the Rocky Mountains, south of Mackenzie's trail, and reached the river which was named after him. It is hardly correct to claim that he was its discoverer, but there is Httle doubt that he was the first white man to descend it. As one gazes upon the foaming rapids and boiling whirlpools of that wild river, one can readily believe that Eraser's exploit has not been repeated by many, even Indians. One Canadian, however, George Simpson, Governor in Chief of Rupert's Land and General Superintendent of the Hudson's Bay Company's offices in North America, who was afterwards knighted, took canoe at York A FEW CANADIANS 275 Factory on Hudson Bay, in 1828. He went up Nelson and Churchill rivers, reached Lake Athabasca, went up the Peace River as far as possible, then carried his light craft to the great northern bend of the Fraser, down which he made his way safely to the Pacific. Simpson made another famous journey in 1841. He went up the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, across Lakes Nipissing, Huron, and Superior to the portage between the affluents of the last and those of Lake Winnipeg. Then he went up the Saskatchewan to its headwaters, crossed over the Rockies, and descended the Kootenay to the Columbia River. Of Simpson "It is stated that he was the first Hudson's Bay Governor who fulfilled, on behalf of the Company, the duty imposed upon them by its charter — the task of explora- tion and geographical discovery." Turning from the brave explorers whose labours laid the foundations of the Dominion, that is almost an empire in itself, I mention the name of one who added to that foundation a stone of great importance. I do not know that I can correctly call the Hon. Sir Francis Hincks the father of the Canadian banking system, but he was assuredly an important factor of it. Nor would it be truthful to say that the very foundations of that system have never been severely shaken; for they have, and sometimes the shock has been one from which the re- covery was slow and discouraging. When such financial disasters have come, they were always traceable to causes which showed that Sir Francis' principles had been departed from. Canada presents to the obser\ing American a combi- 276 THE COMING CANADA nation in one and the same man of politics and literature, or finance, or commerce, or industry — or sometimes of three or more of these together, which seems to be undesirable south of the border. Sir Francis Hincks, when a young man, was supercargo of a vessel to Bar- badoes; then he went to Canada, "where he soon won a high reputation in business circles, and a permanent place in political councils." He was a member of the Provincial Parliament, Canada West; afterwards Minis- ter of Finance; and later Prime Minister. From Canada he returned to Barbadoes as Governor, and was subse- quently Governor of British Guiana. Before this he had been intimately associated with Lord Elgin in negotiating, at Washington, the famous Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. In 1873, he retired from public life after having had much to do with the moulding of Canada's banking system. So many prominent men have been associated with the railways of Canada, that it is awkward to pick out just a few for mention here. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that many Canadians have risen to prominence because of their successful administration of these great enterprises. Henry Fairbairn is a name that is, I am sure, not known to all Canadians, and south of the border it is practically unknown. Yet it was he who, in 1832, made the statement: *'I propose: first, to form a Railway for wagons from Quebec to the harbour of St. Andrews upon the Bay of Fundy, a work which will convey the whole trade of the St. Lawrence in a single day to the Atlantic waters." He purposed, further, extending the line eastward to connect with the A FEW CANADIANS 277 railways of the United States. Bearing in mind that the first railway of the world, the Stockton and Darlington, England, was opened February 27, 1825, it will be seen that some Canadians v/ere prompt to realise the benefits of this new method of transportation. When Fairbairn's suggestion was at length acted upon, it gave rise to what is now known as the Intercolonial Railway. With the name of Fairbairn should be coupled that of the Hon. Edward Barron Chandler. Sir Francis Hincks, who has just been mentioned, had almost as much to do wdth the railway development of Canada as he had with its banking and financial system, and especially with the early history of the Grand Trunk Railway. The Hon. John Ross, a Cana- dian Senator, who was actively engaged in the organisa- tion of that company and with the construction of the Victoria Bridge, at Montreal, was an Irishman by birth. He did not live to old age, but he did much for Canada, and an appropriate monument to his memory stands in St. James' Cemetery, Toronto. As part of the early history of the Grand Trunk Railway, must be mentioned the names of Walter Stanley, constructing engineer, and Sir Joseph Hickson, President; and there are others, too numerous to be mentioned. Long before the project of laying a trans-continental railway had taken form, in the building of the Canadian Pacific, the desirability of such a line had been advocated. In 1829, Mr. McTaggart, a civil engineer, had proposed such a highway. In 1848, ^lajor Carmichael-Smyth had recommended the construction by convict labour of a railway to the Pacific by way of the Kicking Horse 278 THE COMING CANADA Pass. While these names should be remembered, they are not those of whom the Canadians speak as their great men. In 1872, when Parliamentary action was taken, the names of D. L. Macpherson, afterwards knighted, and Sir Hugh Allan come to mind, with those of the men who were mentioned when writing of the Canadian Pacific Railway, in a previous chapter: all of these are justly considered great in their way. Later, when the construction along the north shore of Lake Superior and the piercing of the Selkirk Mountains were causing bitter discouragement, there were two men who came forward and turned threatened defeat into glorious victory. Mr. W. C. Van Home, afterwards Sir William, and Major A. B. Rogers, whose name has been very properly given to the pass through the Selkirks which he found, appeared and made themselves masters of the situation. In a way, the surveyors and constructors of the railways which are penetrating the remote sections of the Dominion, and crossing the continent by other routes than the pioneer, are doing great work; but the glory of initiative is not theirs. If the demands of modern life give precedence to rail- ways, because of the rapidity with which they carry passengers and freight, it would be unfair to pass by the names of some men who have increased the capacity of the grand natural means of internal communication which Canadian waterways furnish. To give credit to all would logically require that the first who marked out the useful portages, linking up the open streams or lakes, be mentioned; but that is manifestly impossible — partly because the names of many of those pioneers A FEW CANADIANS 279 are not known; principally because there were too many of them. The Hon. William Hamilton Merritt, after sundry failures due to lack of technical skill in making preliminary surveys, secured a charter for what is now the Welland Canal, connecting lakes Erie and Ontario and permitting vessels to pass round the impassable Niagara Falls. From this beginning has grown the system of canals which now permit ocean-going steamers to load at Fort William, Port Arthur, and all the Ameri- can lake ports; go down to the deep sea, pass onward, and discharge cargo at any port in the world. How fev/ people know that Samuel Cunard, erelong Sir Samuel, Baronet, the founder of the great Cunard Steamship Company, was a Canadian! Yet he was born at Halifax, November 21, 1787; and what is more interesting to Americans, he was the son of a Phila- delphia merchant whose business connection took him to the Nova Scotia town where he decided to remain. When Samuel Cunard was fifty-one years of age, that is in 1838, he interested British capitalists and succeeded in having built four steamers of 1200 tons burden and of 440 horsepower each. The first of these, the Britamiia, made the voyage from Liverpool, whence she sailed on July 4, 1840, to Boston, at which port she arrived on the 1 8th. But this was not the first steamship to conquer the oceans; and the honour of having accom- plished this marvel also belongs to Canadians. In 1833, a vessel was built at Quebec and christened the Royal William. William IV was then on the English throne. The Royal William made the first complete passage between the American and European coasts 28o THE COMING CANADA of the Atlantic, under her own steam solely. In the list of this steamer's owners appeared the names of Joseph, Henry, and Samuel Cunard. She was designed by James Goudie, who superintended her building, equipping and launching, in the yards of Campbell and Black, Quebec. Surely the pioneer of the builders and owners of the Lusitania and Mauretania, who organised the com- pany which was the prototype of the hundreds whose steamers now cross the seas, may be given a place in the list of a few Canadians. I know that not one of the great Canadian states- men is mentioned here. It is not necessary for me to do so, because all know and honour them. My purpose is to direct attention to a few who have done good work for the Dominion in quiet ways that do not win the vociferous applause of the world. I do not mean to insist that those whom I have named, and the thou- sands others like them, were absolutely altruistic; but this I think: they were, or are, typical of that spirit which has been conspicuous in a majority of Canada's prominent men ever since 1763. It has led men to work for the whole country, and if it is fostered it will make the Coming Canada all that loyal Canadians wish. CHAPTER XXII RECIPROCITY AFTER having had abundant opportunity to learn the feelings of Canadians who are competent to express an opinion upon this important subject, I feel that I may safely say that a majority of the Dominion's citizens would be glad to have a certain form of reci- procity; one which would enure to their benefit, and at the same time would, in their opinion, confer a com- mensurate advantage upon citizens of the United States. I may seem to wish to wound the vanity of my fellow countrymen (although I deny any such intent) when I say that they must not assume it is we only who would be doing a favour in re-enacting a Reciprocity provision which Canada would ratify; because American econo- mists would not have advocated the measure of two years ago, had they been altogether unselfish. Philan- thropic sentiment has very little to do with such matters. In the last chapter I expressed the opinion that most Canadians are disposed to work for the good of their whole country, and I think their action in rejecting the Reciprocity Treaty does not at all contradict my opinion. I am aware that there were some who took a perverted view of their responsibilities when they insisted upon distorting certain rather ill-considered (yet not inten- tionally offensive) expressions by a few prominent 282 THE COMING CANADA Americans, as indicating a desire on the part of the United States to unite the Dominion to their own country, and thus have one great Anglo-Saxon govern- ment from the Mexican frontier away to the North Pole. So far as the Reciprocity Treaty of 191 1 was concerned, there were not many Canadians who were not pleased with the prospect of securing the commercial benefits which it promised; it was the bad politics, infused into the proposition by sensation-mongers south of the boundary and timid alarmists to the north, which brought about its rejection and the downfall of the Laurier Government. After a reasonable time has been permitted to elapse so that the influence of those bad politics may pass away, there is no reason to believe that a Reciprocity Treaty or Agreement, drawn up on very much the same lines as those of the rejected one, will not prove acceptable to the Canadians and bene- ficial to all parties concerned. Canadian manufacturers are pushing ahead most actively; yet there is not apparent any marked tendency to the form of concentra- tion or monopoly which our leading publicists (that is the few who are really disinterested) deplore as threaten- ing the democratic principles upon which our social, economic, and political systems are supposed to be based. . ' • An indication of this seeming opposition to doubtful, not to say dangerous, concentration may be seen in the fact that the .Canadian Government and people are firm in their opposition to allowing any single railway system to exercise monopolistic or exclusive rights in RECIPROCITY 283 a particular territory. If a railway map of the Domin- ion is carefully studied, it will be seen that every one of the three great private systems, the Grand Trunk, the Canadian Pacific, and the Canadian Northern, is per- mitted, and even encouraged by local or State aid, to construct lines into regions which, but for this apparent desire to discourage monopoly, might easily be con- tended are in the nature of ''preserved domain." I do not hesitate to say, and my conclusion is based upon very close study of conditions in all parts of the Dominion, that the Central Government and the people themselves would not tolerate such apparent assump- tions of exclusive rights as have been conspicuous in various parts of the United States. To be specific, I mention the successful efforts in the west to prevent construction of parallel lines so close to established ones as to furnish absolute competition; equally successful efforts in the eastern states, Pennsylvania for example, to exclude competitors from profitable territory; and other similar cases might be cited, although I have no doubt every reader will think of many. It is impossible for any poKtical economist to conceive of conditions in Canada parallelling the brazen monopoly of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford system in its appropriated territory, southern New England; or the treatment of the city of Pliiladelphia by the Penn- sylvania Railroad. Our apparent inability to release ourselves from the clutches of the giant railway corpora- tions is amazing to the Canadians, and their open derision of the inefficient Interstate Commerce Commission is humiliating. They say of this bureau that it is mani- 284 THE COMING CANADA festly intended to give sinecures to political friends of the administration, and to promote Ktigation so that attorneys may have employment; that it accomplishes aught for the real benefit of the public, they vehemently deny. Unless a remarkable change takes place in the views of economists and the methods of doing business in Canada, it is hardly conceivable that such monopolies as the Standard Oil Company, the Steel Trust, the Harvester Trust, and — to use a vague and rather inaccurate term to denote a very tangible fact — the Money Trust, could be organised in Canada. If Reci- procity is again contemplated in which the initiative must be taken by the United States, and the effort should bring promise of greater success than marked the last one, all these conditions will be thoughtfully con- sidered by the Canadians, and every possible precaution will be taken to make it impossible for these objection- able combinations, in restraint of legitimate trade and healthy competition, to find a loophole in convention or treaty through which they may carry their operations into the Dominion. It is not, however, as producers of manufactured goods that Canadians could be specially interested in the re-enactment of a Reciprocity treaty: for in the very nature of things it must be a long time before such industries shall have developed sufficiently to make it possible for Canadian goods to be sent profitably into the United States, even if the present prohibitive Ameri- can tariff were removed entirely or reduced materially. It is from the United States into Canada that such things RECIPROCITY 285 must pass, certainly until the number of workmen to be herded in factories and trained to turn out great quantities of all those articles for which the material is to be had in abundance in the Dominion, has been increased far beyond anything which the immediate future promises. Furniture and woodenware of all kinds are present exceptions to this statement. Reciprocity means to the Canadian, the privilege of sending raw materials into the United States, either free of duty or at such a reasonable tariff as shall ensure profit to the shipper; and the possibly greater privileges of bringing the many manufactured articles from the States which cannot yet be produced so cheaply in the Dominion. Every American who has travelled in Canada, or Mexico, or any other foreign country, knows very well that there is hardly an American manufactured article, from a steel pen or a watch to a combination reaper and binder, which cannot be bought cheaper abroad than at home, because those articles must meet the competition of similar articles made in other countries. The travesty of **the export price" of our manufac- tures, often less than one-half the home price, indicates clearly that profits are illegitimate, or economic condi- tions altogether distorted. I myself am wearing Ameri- can underclothing which I bought in a foreign country for about one-half the price that is demanded for it in our retail stores. Such unfair profit wall not be permitted in Canada, and Reciprocity will not be considered if conditions are to be such as to make it possible. If the Canadians should detect in any proposed movement 286 THE COMING CANADA towards Reciprocity a possibility that such a concern as the Harvester Trust might gain a footing, and be enabled to dictate to the husbandmen of the growing North West as it does to the American farmers, the opposition to such a proposition would be far wider and fiercer than was that displayed two years ago, and it would not be necessary for political demagogues to assert that there is a purpose hidden in the terms of the con- vention or treaty which assaults the integrity of the Dominion. Reciprocity between the United States and Canada would be of great benefit to both countries, if wisely conceived and fairly worked out. The terms proposed two years ago were generally satisfactory, although experience will have taught how even that treaty can be expanded and improved; and I fail to see any menace to the agricultural, industrial, or commercial inter- ests of the people on either side of the International Boundary. Consequently, I am strongly in favour of securing for ourselves whatever benefit such legislation or diplomatic negotiation would bring; and of giving to our northern neighbours whatever advantages can be conferred by our longer established and more perfected industries. It is, however, rather as an economic proposition than as a political move that it should be considered. As for the annexation of the Dominion of Canada by the United States of America, I cannot conceive of it as possible, nor do I believe it is desirable in any way. In 1783 the barrier was raised between the two countries which I feel sure can never be thrown down. Even RECIPROCITY 287 before the close of the War of American Independence, British statesmen had come to see the folly of that course which they had pursued towards those thirteen American colonies until their stupid arrogance had driven them into revolt; and they had already changed in their attitude towards "The Fourteenth Colony," as Canada was then sometimes called. The opposition of the French-English colonists in Canada to the overtures made by the representatives of the southern colonies; the vigorous and successful effort to resist armed invasion from the American side of the line and conquest by the belligerent colonists, taught the Court at London that it was well worth while to see to it that no conditions should arise which might provoke the Canadians to assert their indepen- dence as the lost colonies had done. Canada remained British, the thirteen separated colonies promptly developed new characteristics, be- coming American. If in 1783, there was little if any- thing in speech, habit of thought, social and communal customs, and all else save political opinions, to distin- guish the citizen in the United States from the subject in Canada, that similarity was of but short duration. With every year the lines of divergence separated more and more until they may be said to have turned in absolutely opposite directions — the Americans go their way, the Canadians go theirs, and it is well for the world, North America especially, that it should be so. With the development of facilities for intercommuni- cation and the ease with which the people of either country pass over into the other, has come a semblance 288 THE COMING CANADA of once more drawing together. This appearance is merely social and commercial; there is nothing political about it. One of the conspicuous features of this seeming drawing together is to be noted in speech: the people of either country pass over the border, unmarked by armed sentries — as one often sees at European frontiers — without detecting any great difference in intonation or locution. If the American rarely evinces any conspicuous tendency to be British in these traits, it is very certain that the Canadian often seems to speak ''United States" with precisely the same intona- tion and forms as are used to the south of the border. In commercial matters the Briton in Canada long ago gave up the cumbersome sterling currency and now thinks and speaks in dollars and cents, as regularly converting pounds, shillings, and pence into the decimal notation, in order to comprehend values, as does his Yankee neighbour. In many other matters there is little, often nothing at all, to differentiate the two peoples; but the moment the realm of government and political institutions is entered, it at once becomes apparent that the two are farther apart than ever, and that there is no likelihood of there being a revival of the spirit which, perhaps, in 1849 murmured for annexa- tion to the United States. If there were no unyielding limit to the space which I may give to this interesting subject, it would be prof- itable to consider the seeming resemblances and the apparent community of interests which deceive some people in the United States (I doubt if there are really any in Canada) into believing that the Canadians are RECIPROCITY 289 disposed towards casting in their lot with the citizens of the great and successful Republic on their southern border. As a matter of fact nearly all of those appear- ances are utterly fallacious: they are extraneous, not fundamental. In the matter of government, it would be well-nigh impossible to convince a Canadian that he enjoys less freedom than his American neighbour, because it would be positively incorrect to make the assertion; the mere fact that there is, in the ''British North American Act" of 1867, of the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain, which created the Dominion, a proviso that it shall be administered in such a way as not to conflict with Eng- lish law, amounts to nothing as limiting the power of self-government in Canada. In the security which Dominion and local government affords to life and property, the Canadian will not be far wrong when he contends that he is the better off of the two. If the government of borough, municipality, township, county, territory, and province in Canada is not as truly repre- sentative — of the people, by the people, and for the people — as is that of any commonwealth or minor political subdivision in the United States of America, I do not know what "representative government" means. If Canada is wiser than the United States in slightly limiting the suffrage, by property qualification in some places, by a literacy test generally, and in mak- ing it impossible for a batch of alien immigrants to be marched to the polls within a month after their arrival and for them to cast their ballots, this in no way im- pugns her representative government; rather does it 290 THE COMING CANADA make the government more lawfully representative: it is an example that the elder republic would do well to follow. In the matter of the administration of justice and court procedure, I am compelled to admit that the Canadian is better off than I am; and I blush with mortification as I pen the confession. As to promptness, I recall a phrase in a magazine story I have just read which exactly describes it: ^'They'd give you twenty years for that job, and they'd do it in twenty minutes. You buck against British justice up here!" An eminent American jurist and statesman, Hon. Albert J. Beveridge, in a series of articles which has already been mentioned, has shown conclusively that in promptness of action and in ability to enforce judgment, the Canadian courts are far ahead of ours. These conditions give a sense of security alike against highwaymen and grinding monopo- lies, for Canadian judges are quick in harnessing trusts. In the administration of public utilities, there seems to be a similarity in methods on both sides of the border; yet a superficial investigation of these services, let us take a railway for example, shows that in Canada these public servants do not dare to act in the autocratic manner which is characteristic of all of them in the United States. With pleasing resemblances in peoples and customs in many ways, there is then a fundamental difference between Canada and the United States which will make annexation not only impossible but in nearly every way undesirable so long as the British Empire remains intact. CHAPTER XXIII CANADA AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE I COMMENCE this chapter with an extract from the Introduction to a very valuable and scholarly work.* "In 1840, when responsible government may be said to commence, there were prevailing two main principles of law with regard to the position of the British Colonies. In the first place, it was held by the Crown lawyers that it was not possible to deprive an Englishman of the inestimable advantages of English law, and that there- fore, if he settled in parts abroad which were not under a legitimate foreign sovereignty, he carried with him so much at least of the English law as was appropriate to the circumstances in which he found himself. But obviously, the mere carrying with him of the pro\dsions of such law would not have been adequate to meet the circumstances of a new Colony. It was impossible to expect the Parliament of England to legislate effectively for distant territories concerning which it had, and could have no information, and it was therefore necessary that there should be passed by some competent authority legislation adapted to the needs of the new Colony." It is manifest at a glance that the writer of these remarks had specifically in mind the Canadian colonies; * Arthur Berriedale Keith, Responsible Government in the Dominions, 3 vols. 191 2. 292 THE COMING CANADA and also that the British sovereign, parliament, and statesmen were giving to those colonies a large measure of careful consideration, because it needs no statement by me to show that at that time, the British colonies in other parts of the world had not attained the impor- tance of Canada. Most of the others were "Crown Colonies"; administered by Governors appointed directly by the sovereign and responsible to him and his Privy Council. These conditions indicate clearly the impor- tance, as a unit of the British Empire, which Canada held in the opinion of the Home Government, seventy and more years ago. In that same year, 1840, was passed by the British Parliament the " Union Act" which united — only tem- porarily, however — the two provinces of Upper Canada (a part of what is now Ontario) and Lower Canada (the southern portion of the present Quebec), under a repre- sentative legislature. The political aspect of this Act and its unsatisfactoriness have been considered in a previous chapter. But simultaneously a new start was given in constitu- tional history by the enunciation and adoption of the principle of responsible government. From that begin- ning, as has been shown, the same principle was extended to each of the provinces which were original, "charter," if I may use the expression, members of the Dominion, as well as to those which have since been admitted; and undoubtedly it will be applied to the territories when population and development justify their promotion. By responsible government in this sense is to be under- stood: first, that the head of the executive government CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 293 of a province, being, within the Umits of his jurisdic- tion, the representative of the sovereign, is, through his intermediary the Governor-General, responsible to the Imperial authority alone. But this Lieutenant-Governor cannot satisfactorily conduct the affairs of his prov- ince without the assistance, counsel, and information of subordinate officials chosen from the resident popu- lation. Second, that these chief advisers of the Imperial representative ought to have the confidence of the people's representatives in the local legislative assembly. Third, that the people of the province have the right to expect from such provincial administration the exertion of their best efforts that the Imperial authority within its constitutional limits should be exercised in the manner most consistent with their well-understood wishes and interests. It thus becomes evident that the Dominion of Canada is looked upon by the Imperial government as an im- portant factor in the British Empire. Nothing has been done for more than half a century which might tend to the arousing in Canada of the same feehngs which incited the people of the thirteen southern colonies to assert themselves so vehemently that opposition finally led to revolt, revolt to war, war to independence, whereby England lost her most valuable over-seas possessions. It is not at all inappropriate to repeat here that had the King of England, in 1773 to 1775, and his immediate advisers been inspired with the same feelings towards ''parts abroad which were not under a legitimate sovereignty," and over which England claimed dominion, as those which have influenced the 294 THE COMING CANADA British Government since 1783, or certainly since 1840, it is hardly too much to say that there would probably never have been a Revolutionary War at all. That those thirteen colonies would have demanded indepen- dence eventually, was possibly inevitable, our fuller knowledge of social, poHtical, and religious conditions in the eighteenth century seem to justify that assump- tion; but it would have come and probably been granted without such serious rupture as is connoted by a long war. If the whole is equal to the sum of its parts; and if those parts interact, the one upon the others; then if by reason of her units in various sections of the world Great Britain is a World Power, so Canada, too, is a world power both directly and indirectly, and each year seems to bring out more clearly the willingness of the Canadians to accept the responsibility which the position carries with it. To take for a pleasing illustration of the sentimental bond by which the British Empire is now tied together and the close intimacy which exists between the English mother and the Canadian offspring, I may refer to the fact that on October 21, 1909, the Royal Edward Tuberculosis Institute at Montreal was opened by King Edward in person, by means of special electric connection between the Library at West Dean Park, Colchester, England, and the Institute, thousands of miles away at Montreal. By this wire a cablegram was sent direct from King Edward, in which he de- clared ''the Royal Edward Institute at Montreal is now open." It may seem to be a small matter to mention here, yet I think it is filled with suggestiveness. CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 295 The keen and intelligent interest which the Canadians took in the British general election of 1909 spoke for the fact that the Dominion considers itself a part of the Empire; while the respect shown by British statesmen for Canada's opinion at that time was an admission that the Dominion's assumption of sympathy and responsi- biUty is based upon a sound foundation. . Certainly one part of the definition which Mr. Asquith gave of Liberal- ism, in a speech made before the " Eighty Club," London, on July 22, 1909, met with cordial approval throughout Canada. He said: "As regards the Empire, to secure real unity by allowing the freest diversity and the fullest liberty to self -development in all its parts." That the Dominion of Canada holds a great position and that it fills a wide arc in the Imperial horizon, was demonstrated by the official and social events con- nected with the coronation of King George V. More than one hundred Canadians, officials and the wives of those who were accompanied by their spouses, were invited to Westminster Abbey. Sir Wilfred Laurier, at that time Prime Minister, but very soon to be deposed by Mr. Borden, was the only Canadian who was honoured by being entertained as a Royal Guest. In this, however, there was nothing invidious, for it was impossible to extend the courtesy beyond Sir Wilfred without making the list of those who were recognised as deserving it altogether too large. The importance which the Imperial Government ascribes to the Dominion is indicated still further by the gradual advance in rank and dignity of the person appointed to represent the Home Government as inter- 296 THE COMING CANADA mediary between it and the local administration. It has now reached as high socially and officially as seems to be possible. The present Governor- General is a member of the Royal Family of Great Britain, the uncle of the reigning monarch, the personage who, had the late King, Edward VII, left no children, would now be himself upon the throne. We cannot therefore wonder very much that there are those, both in Canada and in England, who have advocated making the Governor- Generalship a permanent, life appointment, the post to be filled by a member of the Royal family, probably one who is not directly in the line of succession. From what I have seen and heard, I think this would be a mistake. The Duke of Connaught is immensely popu- lar, I know, and remarkably affable, yet somehow I doubt if the atmosphere surrounding him is just the right one for the Canadians to breathe all the time. Yet with this sentiment existing, be it powerful or weak, developing or decreasing, there cannot be, I am sure, any sincere desire on the part of even official Canada, and certainly not generally, to have established in Canada, at the Governor- General's residence, something like unto — or imitative of — a Royal Court. It would be difficult to persuade the present Governor- General, Field Marshal, His Royal Highness, the Duke of Con- naught and Strathearn, to lend himself to such a scheme. He is a son of Queen Victoria, who was the very per- sonification of conservatism in matters pertaining to Court form, ceremony, and punctilio. But the Duke's own tastes (and they seem to betray a trace of paternal heredity), encouraged by his own experiences, convince CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 297 many observers that he will be a democratic Governor. A year's experience appears to have strengthened this opinion, and there is throughout Canada a conviction that the Duke's sojourn has tightened the bond which unites the Dominion to the Empire. Everywhere, one hears regrets that the Duchess' health demands that she return to England for a time next year, and the earnest hope that she may speedily come back for a long stay in Canada. Almost the first official utterance of the Duke, as Governor- General, shows a combination of that demo- cratic idea with an appreciation of the growing impor- tance of the country which he had been appointed to govern. At the luncheon given His Royal Highness immediately upon landing at Quebec, October 13, 191 1, and taking the oath of office, he said, in response to the official welcome voiced by the Right Hon. Robert Laird Borden, Prime Minister and President of the King's Privy Council for Canada: "I have been specially asked by the King, my nephew, to express to the Canadian people a personal message of affection and ever abiding interest in all that concerns the welfare of this great Dominion. I am not certain of the number of times the King has visited Canada, but certainly on many occa- sions, and the last on the great historic occasion ^when you celebrated the Quebec Tercentary. Each time His Majesty's interest has grown, and I need scarcely assure you he now takes the same profound interest, but in degree ever increasing, and the most fervent wish to-day of King George is that the prosperity of Canada may continue and flourish more and more." 298 THE COMING CANADA The Dominion of Canada is fully alive to its imperial responsibilities. For a time, some other units of the British Empire, the one which for so long was heralded as the only one upon which the sun never sets, were somewhat disposed to claim much for themselves be- cause they had contributed directly to the defence of the Empire by giving men-of-war. To this Canada retorted that in providing means for crossing the conti- nent rapidly on British territory, from Atlantic to Pacific, she had not thought alone of her own material development and commercial advantage, but had thereby contributed a vital link in the All Red Route which now encircles the Globe. Do all my readers realise that a British subject can take a steamer at any one of several ports in the British Isles, go to Canada, cross the continent on British soil; take a steamer at Vancouver or Victoria, and by way of Fanning Island go to Australia; thence to Cape Town, South Africa; up the west coast of Africa, touching at Wolfish Bay, and perhaps other British colonies and Atlantic islands; thus back to the port of departure, without having entered a single port or set foot on land over which King George does not reign? I think I am correct in saying that it would be difficult, if not impossible for any other national to do this; the necessity for a steamer coaling being considered. The Dominion of Canada justly takes pride in the reflection that it is her transcontinental railway which has contributed much to this possibility that is pleasing to the patriotism of a loyal British subject. But Canada recognises that her indebtedness to the Empire demands CANADA AND BRITISH EMPIRE 299 that she shall bear a greater share of the burden than the building and maintenance of one or three or half- a-dozen transcontinental railways. She has recognised her obhgation by launching vessels of war, and by agreeing to build, equip, and maintain several Dread- naughts that are to be units of the Imperial Navy. Not for years has there been in Canada any serious talk of independence, although in the year 1849 some discontented and disappointed people were disposed to discuss the advisability of asking to be annexed to the United States. I do not find, however, that even then there were many who were willing to bear Canada's share of the expense, in men and means, of the war with England that would probably have been the outcome of such a move. That evanescent murmur was due to depressed agricultural, commercial, and industrial con- ditions, and the added fact that the British Government, by giving up a slight tendency towards preferential tariffs in favour of the colonies, had seemed to desert the young, weak, and struggling members of the family, Canada being one of these. Before long, however, British statesmen perceived their mistake, and while they did not recede altogether from their position apropos free trade versus protection or preferential tariffs, they did set themselves to the task of showing Canada, and not Canada only but, other things being equal, all the colonies, that they were considered members of what ought to be a happy family. It should be noted that it had been prophesied by many that the result of the British conquest of Canada would be independence for the British North American 300 THE COMING CANADA colonies. This prophesy was made to include even Canada itself, and it has to be admitted that ^'the Fourteenth Colony" was not saved to the British crown without much trouble and expense. The lesson learnt by the British Government was a profitable one, and care was taken that Canada should not have the same provocation to seek independence that the thirteen colonies had. I see no sign of Canada's wishing to be independent. Those who really are at the head of local affairs seem to me to echo, practically unanimously, the sentiment of Sir John Macdonald: "A British subject I was born; a British subject I will die!" When the question of annexation to the United States is broached, many Canadians now laughingly retort: ''When you Ameri- cans really wish to come back to your mother, we are ready to join your country to our own!" What a con- trast is presented by conditions on our southern and northern borders! Of the former who shall dare to say what the outcome will be? Of the latter no one need hesitate to prophesy a great future for The Coming Canada. BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, Kjrkland B. Log of the North Shore Club. igii. Allen, Cephas Darnel. Annexation. 191 2. Ballantyne, Robert Michael. Hudson Bay, or Everyday Life in the Wilds of North America. 191 2. Baxter, James Phinney. English Version of Cartier's Bref Recit de la navigation faicte es isles de Canada, 1545. 1906. Begg, Alexander. History of the North-West. 1894. Begg, Alexander. History of British Cohunbia. 1903. BiGGAR, Henry Percival. The Early Trading Companies of New France. 1900. BiGGAR, Henry Percival. The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, 1497-1534- iQii- BoURiNOT, Sir John G. Canada under British Rule, 1 760-1900. 1900. Bourinot, Sir John G. Historical and Descriptive Account of Cape Breton. 1893. Bourinot, Sir John G. Builders of Nova Scotia. 1900. Bradley, Arthur Grenville. Canada in the Twentieth Century. (Illustrated.) 1903. Bradley, Arthur Grenville. The Fight with France for North America. 1909. Bradley, Arthur Grenville. The Making of Canada, 1763- 1814. 1909. Brown, George Waldo. The St. Lawrence River. 1905. Browne, Patrick William. Where the Fishes Go: the Story of Labrador. 1909. Bryce, George. The Scotsman in Canada. 191 1. Bryce, George, and Campbell, William W. The Hudson Bay Company. 191 1. Burpee, Lawrence J. The Search far the Western Sea. Burpee, Lawrence J., and Morgan, Henry J. Canadian Life in Town and Country. Butler, Sir William Francis. The Great Lmie Land. 19 10. Cameron, Agnes Deans. The New North. 1909. Campbell, Duncan. Nova Scotia. 1873. 302 BIBLIOGRAPHY Campbell, Duncan. History oj Prince Edward Island. 1875. Champlain Society, Toronto. Publications. Charlevodc, Plerre Francois Xavier de. History and Gen- eral Description of New France. 6 v., tr., with notes by J. G. Shea. 1872. Chase, Eliza B. In Quest of the Quaint. 1902. Colby, Charles W. Canadian Types of the Old Regime , 1608- 1698. 1908. Coleman, A. P. The Canadian Rockies. 191 2. Copping, A. E. Canada To-day and To-morrow. 191 2. Copping, A. E. The Golden Land. 191 2. Costa, B. F. de. Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen. 1901. Cox, J. J. The Journeys of Renh Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle. 1905. Cran, Mrs. George. Woman in Canada. 1910. Cumberland, Stuart. The Queen's Highway. 1887. CuRWOOD, James Oliver. The Great Lakes. 1909. CuRWOOD, James Oliver. Gold Hunters: a Story of Life and Adventure in the Hudson Bay Wilds. 1910. Dawson, Samuel Edward. The Voyages of the Cabots. 1896. Dawson, Samuel Edward. The St. Lawrence Basin and its Border-lands. 1905. Dent, John Charles. The Last Forty Years to 1880 (continua- tion of William Kingsford's History of Canada). 1882. Doughty, Arthur George, and Parmelee, G. W. The Siege of Quebec and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. 1901. Doughty, Arthur George, and Dionne, N. E. Quebec under Two Flags. 1903. FiSKE, John. The Discovery of America. 1891. Fountain, Paul. The Great Northwest and the Great Lake Region. 1904. Gagnon, Ernest. Louis Jolliet, ddcouvreur du Mississippi. 1902. Gosling, W. G. Labrador. 1910. Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason, and Others. Labrador: the Country and the People. 1909. Griffith, William Lenny. The Dominion of Canada. 191 1. Hanbury, David. Sport and Travel in the Northland of Canada, 1904. BIBLIOGRAPHY 303 Harrisse, Henry. John Cabot. 1896. Harrisse, Henry. Decouverte et evolution cartographique de Terre-neuve. (Illustrated.) 1900. Haydon, Arthur Lincoln. Riders of the Plains: Adventures and Romance of the North-west Mounted Police. 19 10. HiGGiNSON, Ella. Alaska: the Great Country. 1909. Hopkins, J. Castell. The Canadian Annual Review of Public A fairs. Janvier, Thomas Alliborne. Henry Hudson. 1909. Johnson, Clifton. The Picturesque St. Lawrence. (Illustrated.) 1910. Johnson, Clifton. Highways and Byways of the Great Lakes. (Illustrated.) 191 1. Keith, Arthur Berriedale. Responsible Government in the Dominions. 3 v. 191 2. KiNGSFORD, William. The History of Canada, to 1841. 10 v. 1898. Laut, Agnes Christian. The Conquest of the Great Northwest. 2 V. 1908. Laut, Agnes Christian. Canada, the Empire of the North. 1910. Le Moine, Sir Jami:s M. Maple Leaves. 1864. Le Moine, Sir James M. Quebec Past and Present. 1876. Le Moine, Sir James M. The Legends of the St. Lawrence. 1898. Lucas, Sir Charles Prestwood. A History of Canada, 1763-- 1812. 1909. Mackenzie, Alexander. Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence. 1801. Miles, Emma B. The Spirit of the Mountains. 1905. MoRiCE, A. G. The History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia. 1906. Munro, William Bennett. The Seignorial System in Canada. 1907. Murdoch, Beamish. History of Nova Scotia or Acadia. 1865. Olson, Julius E., and Others. The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, g8j-i^oj. 1906. Osborn, E. B. Greater Canada. 1900. OuTRAM, J.A.MES. In the Heart of the Canadian Rockies. 1905. Parker, Horatio Gilbert, and Bryan, Clalt)e G. Old Que- bec, the Fortress of New France. 1903. Pike, Washburton. Through the Sub-Arctic Forest. 1896. 304 BIBLIOGRAPHY Publications of the Champlain Society, Toronto. Reed, Charles B. The First Great Canadian; the Story of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d' Iberville. 1910. Reeves, A. M. Finding of Wineland the Good (originals, photo- graphic facsimiles, English translations and commentaries). 1895. Rickard, Thomas Arthur. Through the Yukon and Alaska. 1909. Robertson, W. G. French Songs by Old Canadians. 1904. ScHAFFER, Mary T. S. Old Indian Trails. 191 1. Schmitt, J. Anticosti. 1904. Sheldon, Charles. The Wilderness of the Upper Yukon. 191 1. Stretfield, H. E. M., and Collie, J. N. Climbs and Explora- tions in the Canadian Rockies. 1903. Talbot, F. A. The New Garden of Canada. 191 2. Vernede, R. E. Fair Dominion. 191 2. Whitney, Harry. Hunting with the Eskimo. 1910. Wilcox, Walter D wight. The Rockies of Canada. 1909. Wood, William Charles Henry. Log of the Conquest of Canada. 1910. Wrong, George McKinnon. A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs; the story of a hundred years, 1/60-1861. 1905. Yeigh, Frank. Through the Heart of Canada. 191 1. INDEX Abraham, Plains of, 8i Acadia, civil war in, 70 Adam of Bremen, 5 Agricultural resources and develop- ment, no, 116 Alberta Province, 175 Alexander, Sir Wm., Earl of Sel- kirk, 66 Andros, Maj. Sir Edmund, 71 Annexation to U. S. A., 286 Antilia (Atlantis), Island of, 9 Argall's attack on Mt. Desert and Acadia, 65 Army and Militia, 106 Assistance to railways, 189 Atlantic Islands, myths and legends, 9 Bancroft, H. H., 225 Banff, 208 Barley, 237 Bay of Chaleurs, Cartier at, 38 Beauharnais, Gov., expedition to Pacific, 45 Biggar, H. P., 7 Blending of St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay basins, 201 Boundary disputes with U. S., 155 Braddock's defeat, 78 Brazil, Island of, 9 Bredin, W. P., 232 Briand, R. C. bishop, his caution, 91 Britannia, S. S., 279 British Columbia, 144, 224 British Government's attention to Canada, 88 British treatment of Indians, 40 Bull, a Papal, defined, 3 Bytown, afterwards Ottawa, 94 Cabot, Giovanni, John, 6, 9, 10, 12 Cabot, Sebastian, discoverer of "North Sea," Hudson Bay, 47 Cameron, Mrs. Agnes Deans, 229 Canada and Louisiana, communi- cation, 44 Canada in 1763, 85 Canada's one-thousand-mile- wheat-field, 229 Canada's relation to British Em- pire, 291 Canadian geography, former, 205, 215 Canadian Northern Railway, 187 Canadian Pacific Railway, 181 Canadian towns, their develop- ment, 235 Carleton, Gov. Guy, 153 Carmichael-Smyth, Maj., 277 Cartier, Jacques, 15, 17, 37 Chalmers, historian, 43 Chartres, Fort de, 44 Chateau le grajid, legend, 22 Christianity in Iceland, 3 Cities in winter, 251 3o6 INDEX Civil war in U. S., 162 Coast scenery, 134 Columbus, C, 2, 6, II Commercial methods, 288 Communication, Canada and Lou- isiana, 44 Conditions in Canada, common carriers, 283 Cordilleran Belt, wealth, 113 Corte Reale, Caspar, 14 Cougar Caves, 148 Coureurs des bois, 217 Courts of law, 102 Culdees, Irish, 3 Cunard, Sir Samuel, 279 • Curling, 256 De Callieres, 73 De la Roche, P., 30 Demarcation, Can. and U. S., 154 De Monts, P., 18 Denonville, Gov., 55 Dickinson, John, address to Cana- dians, 150 Discoverie, mutiny on, 48 Dominion, creation of, 92; defined, i; responsibilities, 298 Doughty, Dr. A. G., 262 Douglas, Sir James, 221 Douglas, Thos., Earl of Selkirk, 62, 221 Duke of Connaught, Gov. Gen., 296 Elgin, Lord, Gov. Gen., 95 EUice, The Rt. Hon. Edward, 221 England's claims in N. A., 64 English discoveries, 14 Eric the Red, Norse discoverer, 4; saga of, 5 Eskimos, blonde, 8 European ideas of exploration, loth and 15th centuries, 7 Expeditions to Hudson Bay, 57 Fagundes, J. A., 14 Fairbanks, Henry, 276 Fair profits, 285 Fenian raids, 162 Fernandez, J., Llavrador, 13 Fisheries, 125 Flatey Book, The, 5 Folklore, exotic, 20, 26 France's claims in N. A., 65 Eraser, Simon, 62, 221, 274 French at "North Sea," Hudson Bay, 47 French colonisation, 18, 19, 28, 30, 40 French-English wars, causes of, 64 French reprisals, 72 French rights on Hudson Bay, 56 Friction, French and English, 42 Frontenac, Gov., 72 Fruits, 123 Fur- trade, 18 Garrisons, 106 Geological areas, iii George III., constitutes and defines Canada, 83 Glaciers, 145 Governments, a contrast, 289 Governor- General, 295 Grand Trunk Railway, 179 Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, 186 Great Lakes, 130 Great Western Railway, 179 Greenland, 4, 9, 13 GrenfeU, Rev. W. T., 144 INDEX 307 Groseillier, explorer, 217 Gunnbjorn, Norse discoverer, 4 Habitants, 19; traits, 21, 152 Halifax, 267 Hennepin, Father Louis, 49 Hincks, Sir F., 275 Hochelaga, Montreal, 16 Hopkins, J. C, " Canadian Ency.," 271 House of Commons, 98 Howley, M. R., R. C. bishop, 12 Hudson Bay, 57; Jesuits on, 48 Hudson's Bay Co., 51, 52, 53, 54, 60, 211, 216, 218 Hudson, Henry, re-discoverer of Bay, 47 Iberville, attacks on Hudson Bay posts, 59 Iceland, Christianity in, 3 Immigration, 165 Independence, not considered, 299 Indians, 200; Carriers, 227; Coast, 227; Sekania, 226; taken to France, 39; treatment of, 36, 40 Influence of early Norse discov- eries, 6 Intercolonial Railway, 180 Interior Central Plateau, wealth, 112 Investors, foreign, 164 Jesuits, 35, 42, 48 Joliet, Louis, 28 Justice, administration of, 290 Karlsefni, Thorfinn, Norse dis- coverer, 5 King of England, interest in Canada, 294 Kingsford, Wm., historian, 262 Kirke, the brothers, 36 Labrador, 2, 127, 144 Lachine massacre, 72 Laggan, 213 Lakes, Fraser, 228; Louise, 210; Nipigon, 194; of the Woods, 194; Stuart, 226; Summit, 214; Superior, 198 Lakes and Rivers, 129 Lallemant, Father Jerome, 49 La Salle, Robert, 42 La Tour, Claude de, "baronet" of Nova Scotia, 67 Laurentian Rocks, 128 Laval, R. C. bishop, 54 Le Caron, RecoUet missionary, S3 Legislative council, 89 Leif Eriksson (Leif Ericsson), 4 Le Moine, Sir J. M., 262 Le Moyne family, 43 Lescarbot, 19 Louisbourg, 76 Louisiana and Canada, 44 Loup garoux, le, 20 Lucas, Sir C. P., historian, 87 Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, 61, 221, 271 Mackenzie River, basin, 223; vegetation, 223 Macoun, John, 231 Macpherson, D. L., 278 McTaggart, 277 Manitoba, 173, 239, 245, 247; derivation of name, 242 3o8 INDEX Marquette, Father, not a dis- coverer, 28 Merritt, The Hon. W. H., 279 Mississippi River, discovery, 42 "Model Province," 245, 247 Montreal, seat of government, 95 Mount Royal, Montreal, Hoche- laga, 16, 265 Morice, Rev. A. G., 224 Mountain Peaks, Assiniboine, 214; Lefroy, 211; Logan, 206; Mc- Kinley, 206; Natazhat, 206; St. Elias, 206; St. Pierre, 212; The Saddle, 213; Wrangle, 206 Mountain region, wealth, 113 Murray, Gen, first provisional gov., 87 Navigators, early, 2 Neutrality, France and England in N. A., 69 New Brunswick, wealth, in Newfoundland, discovery, 12; in- dependent, i; not the oldest Brit, colony, 143 Norse discoverers, 4, 5; influence, 6 North West Company, 61, 63 North West Mounted Police, 104, 147, 209 Northern grain and fruit sections, 117 Northern St. Lawrence basin, 199 Nova Scotia wealth, in Ontario, etc., wealth, 112 Original elements of Dominion, 96 Ottawa, 94, 250, 267 Papal Bull defined, 3 Parker, Sir Gilbert, 262 Parkman, Francis, 27 "Patriots' Rebellions," 95 Phipps, Adl., Sir Wm., 74 Pont-Grav6, 19 Portuguese discoveries, 14 Poutrincourt, Gov., 19 Present government, 99 Provincial governments, 100 Provisional districts, 97 Public lands, how acquired, 165 Qualifications for civil office, 86 Quebec, 36, 68, 81, 261 Quebec, Act of, 1774, 88 Radisson, P.-E., 48, 55, 217 Railways, 178; development, 133 Rapids, St. Lawrence River, 202 Razilli, Isaac de, 70 Reciprocity with U. S., 281, 282, 284, 286 "Red Man," derivation of term, 37 Religious liberty, 86 Representative institutions, de- velopment of, 91 Responsible government, 292 Richelieu, Cardinal, 67 Riel, Louis, his rebellion, 240 Roberval, 17, 28 Roche perc6, le, 24 Rocky Mountains, 206; scenerj', 129; in winter, 258 Rogers, Maj. A. B., 278 Roman Catholic missionaries, 33 Ross, The Hon. John, 277 Royal William, S.S., 279 Rupert, Prince, 51 Ryswick, Treaty of, 74 INDEX 309 Saguenay River, 203 St. John, town, 264 St. Lawrence River, 192, 201, 257; discovery, 15 Saga of Eric the Red, 5 Salmon, 146 Saskatchewan Province, 174 Scenery on Great Lakes, 196 Schenectady, assault, 72 School houses, 173 Senators, 97 Settlers, early, 240 "Seven Cities," Island of, 9 Sherman, Gen. W. T., 230 Simpson, Sir George, 274 Skating, 256 Smith, Donald A., Lord Strath- cona and Mt. Royal, 221 Snowsheds, 258 Snowshoeing, 254 Snow sports, 252 Social life in winter, 259 Soncino, Raimondo di, 10 Successful labour, 170 Suite, Benjamin, 20, 48 Summer expedition, 131 Stefansson, V., recent explorer, 8 Stories, Chateau le grand, 22; Le Roche perc6, 24 Talon, Royal Intendant, 50 Tardiness in evangelising, 32 "The Barren Grounds," 222 "The Fourteenth Colony," 91 Thirteen Colonies and Canada, 150 Thompson, David, 62 Thousand Islands, 202 Thunder Bay, 197 Timber, 125; line, 207, 211 Tobogganning, 253 Toronto, 96 Tourist in Rocky Mts., 208 Travelling in eastern Canada, 142 Treaty of 1783, Paris, 155, 150 United Empire Loyalists, 159 Utrecht, Peace of, 74 Vancouver, 270 Vancouver, Capt. George, 274 Van Home, Sir William, 278 Varennes, P.-G., 45 Verendrye, discoverer of Rocky Mts., 45 Victoria, Fort Comosun, 269 Vineland, 9 War, 1744-48, 76; 1753-63, 82; of American Independence, 89, 153; of 1812, 92, 161 Western exploration, 41 Wheat crops, 231, 233, 236, 243 Wheat regions, 120 Wilcox, Walter D., 210 Winnipeg policeman, 244 Winter in Canada, 249 Yeigh, Frank, 148