AND UC-NRLF SB 72M IQT ,v*fai jE 'I made a fire, and by melting snow boiled my kettle." —Page 33. SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE: PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN IN THE SIXTIES. BY JOHN McDOUGALL, Author of " Forest, Lake and Prairie : Twenty Years of Frontier Life in Western Canada," etc. 0777/ ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. E. LAUGHLIN. CINCINNATI : JENNINGS AND GRAHAM. NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS. Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, by William Briggs, at the Department of Agriculture. T> (*l& 3 CONTENTS Chapter L Paob Old Fort Edmonton — Early missionaries — Down the Saskatchewan by dog-train — Camp-fire experiences — Arrival at home — Daily occupations . . .11 Chapter II. A foraging expedition — Our hungry camp — A welcome feast — Dogs, sleds and bufiklo bull in a tangle — In a Wood Cree encampment —Chief Child, Maskepe- toon and Ka-kake — Indian hospitality —Incidents of the return trip 19 Chapter III. Scarcity of food — The winter packet — Start for Edmon- ton for the eastern mails— A lonely journey — Arrive at Fort Edmonton — Start for home — Camp- ing in a storm — Improvising a "Berlin" — Old DrafFan — Sleeping on a dog-sled en route — A hearty welcome home 30 Chapter IV. Trip to Whitefish Lake — Mr. Woolsey as a dog-driver — Rolling down a side hill — Another trip to Edmon- ton — Mr. 0. B. as a passenger — Perils of travel by ice — Narrow escape of Mr. 0. B. — A fraud exposed — Profanity punished — Arrival at Edmonton — Milton and Cheadle — Return to Victoria . . 41 iC5f;5*2<*4! IV CONTENTS. Chapter V. Page Mr. Woolsey's ministrations — An exciting foot-race — Building operations — Gardening — Stolen (?) buffalo tongues — Addled duck eggs as a relhh — A lesson in cooking — A lucky shot — Precautions against hostile Indians . • . . • • .51 Chapter VI. The summer brigade — With the brigade down tb« Saskatchewan — A glorious panorama — Meet witii father and mother on the way to Victoria — Priva- tions of travel— A buffalo crossing — Arrival ac Victoria — A church building begun— Peter Erasmus as interpreter ,60 Chapter VII. In search of the Stoneys — An Indian avenger — A Sun- day at Fort Edmonton — Drunken Lake carousals — Indian trails — Canyon of the Red Deer — I shoot my father — Amateur surgeons —Prospecting for gold — Peter gets "rattled'* — A mysterious shot — Friends or foes? — Noble specimens of the Indian race — A "kodak" needed — Among the Stoneys — Prospecting for a mission site — A massacre of neo- phytes — An Indian patriarch —Back at Victoria again 66 Chapter VIII. Provisions diminishing — A buffalo hunt organized — Oxen and Red River carts — Our "buffalo runners " — Meet with Maskepetoon — Maskepetoon shakes hands with his son's murderer — An Indian's strange vow — Instance of Indian watchfulness — " Who- Talks-Past-All-Things " — Come upon the buffalo — An exciting charge — Ki-you-ken-os races the buffalo — Peter's exciting adventure — Buffalo dainties—- CONTENTS. Paob Return home — War parties— Indian curiosity — Starving Young Bull's " dedication feast" — Mis- sionary labors 80 Chapter IX. The fall fishing — A relentless tooth-ache — Prairie and forest fire— Attacked by my dogs — A run home — A sleepless night — Father turns dentist — Another visit to Edmonton— Welcome relief — Final revenge on my enemy 96 Chapter X. Casual visitors — The missionary a "medicine man" — "Hardy dogs and hardier men" — A buffalo hunt organized — "Make a fire ! I am freezing !"— I thaw out my companion — Chief Child — Father caught napping— Go with Mr. Woolsey to Edmonton — Encounter between Blackfeet and Stoneys — A "nightmare" scare — My passenger scorched — Roll- ing down hill — Translating hymns . . . 104 Chapter XI. Visited by the Wood Stoneys— " Muddy Bull"— A noble Indian couple — Remarkable shooting — Tom and I have our first and only disagreement — A race with loaded dog-sleds — Chased by a wounded buffalo bull — My swiftest foot-race — Building a palisade around our mission home — Bringing in seed potatoes 1 17 Chapter XII. Mr. Woolsey's farewell visit to Edmonton — Preparing for a trip to Fort Garry — Indians gathering into our valley — Fight between Crees and Blackfeet — The " strain of possible tragedy" — I start for Fort Garry — Joined by Ka-kake — Sabbath observance — A camp of Saulteaux — An excited Indian — I dilate on the numbers and resources of the white man — We pass Buck Lake — A bear hunt — " Loaded for Vi CONTENTS. Pag* b'ar" — A contest in athletics — Whip-poor-wills — Pancakes and maple syrup — Pass the site of Birtle — My first and only difference with Ka-kake - - 128 Chapter XIII. Fall in with a party of "plain hunters" — Marvellous resources of this great country — A "hunting breed" — Astounding ignorance — Visit a Church of Eng- land mission — Have my first square meal of bread and butter in two years — Archdeacon Cochrane — Unexpected sympathy with rebellion and slavery — Through the White Horse Plains — Baptiste's recklessness and its punishment — Reach our des- tination — Present my letter of introduction to Governor McTavish — Purchasing supplies — "Hud- son's Bay blankets " — Old Fort Garry, St. Boniface, Winnipeg, St. John's, Kildonan — A "degenerate" Scot — An eloquent Indian preacher — Baptiste sue- cumbs to his old enemy — Prepare for our return journey . . 140 Chapter XIV. We start for home — A stubborn cow — Difficulties of transport — Indignant travellers — Novel method of breaking a horse — Secure provisions at Fort Ellice — Lose one of our cows — I turn detective — Dried meat and fresh cream as a delicacy . . . 151 Chapter XV. Personnel of our party — My little rat terrier has a novel experience — An Indian horse-thief's visit by night — I shoot and wound him — An exciting chase — Saved by the vigilance of my rat terrier — We reach the South Branch of the Saskatchewan — A rushing torrent — A small skin canoe our only means of transport — Mr. Connor's fears of drowning — Get our goods over ....... 160 CONTENTS. vii Chapter XVI. Pa«i A raft of carts — The raft swept away — Succeed in re- covering it — Getting our stock over — The emotion- less Scot unbends — Our horses wander away — Track them up — Arrive at Carlton — Crossing the North Saskatchewan — Homes for the millions — Fall in with father and Peter — Am sent home for fresh horses — An exhilarating gallop — Home again 172 Chapteb XVTI. Improvements about home — Mr. Woolsey's departure — A zealous and self-sacrificing missionary — A travel- ling college — I feel a twinge of melancholy — A lesson in the luxury of happiness — Forest and prairie fire — Father's visit to the Mountain Stoneys — Indians gathering about our mission — Complica- tions feared 182 Chapter XVIII. Maskepetoon — Council gatherings — Maskepetoon's childhood — "Royal born by right Divine" — A father's advice — An Indian philosopher — Maskepe- toon as ■ ■ Peace Chief " — Forgives his father's mur- derer — Arrival of Rev. R. T. Rundle — Stephen and Joseph — Stephen's eloquent harangue — Joseph's hunting exploits — Types of the shouting Methodist and the High Church ritualist . . . .193 Chapter XIX. Muh-ka-chees, or "the Fox" — An Indian "dude" — A strange story — How the Fox was transformed — Mr. The-Camp-is-Moving as a magician ♦ , . 207 Chapter XX. Victoria becomes a Hudson's Bay trading post — An adventure on a raft — The annual fresh meat hunt vill CONTENTS, Paoi organized — Among the buffalo — Oliver misses his shot and is puzzled — My experience with a runaway horse — A successful hunt — My "bump of locality" surprises Peter — Home again .... 217' Chapter XXI. Father and I visit Fort Edmonton — Peter takes to him- self a wife— Mr. Connor becomes school teacher — First school in that part of the country — Culinary operations — Father decides to open a mission at Pigeon Lake — I go prospecting — Engage a Roman Catholic guide — Our guide's sudden " illness" — Through new scenes — Reach Pigeon Lake — Getting out timber for building — Incidents of return trip . 228 Chapter XXII. Another buffalo hunt — Visit Maskepetoon's camp — The old chief's plucky deed — Arrival of a peace party from the Blackfeet — A "peace dance" — Buffalo in plenty — Our mysterious visitor — A party of Black- feet come upon us — Watching and praying — Arrive home with well-loaded sleds — Christmas festivities 237 Chapter XXIII. We set out with Maskepetoon for the Blackfoot camp — A wife for a target — Indian scouts — Nearing the Blackfeet — Our Indians don paint and feathers — A picture of the time and place — We enter the Black- foot camp — Three Bulls — Buffalo Indians — Father describes eastern civilization — The Canadian Gov- ernment's treatment of the Indians a revelation — I am taken by a war chief as a hostage — Mine host and his seven wives — Bloods and Piegans — I witness a great dance — We leave for home — A sprained ankle — Arrival at the mission .... 264 CONTENTS. IX Chapter XXIV. Pa«i We visit the Cree camp — I lose Maple and the pups — Find our Indian friends " pound-keeping" — The Indian buffalo pound — Consecrating the pound — Mr. Who-Brings-Them-In — Running the buffalo in — The herd safely corralled — Wholesale slaughter — Apportioning the hunt — Finis . . . .271 ILLUSTRATIONS. Ram "I made a fire, and by melting snow boiled my kettle " . . . . . . Frontispiece "The dogs and sleds went sliding in around him " . 23 " There he sat, his eyes bulging out with fear " . .48 "The discharge of shot, bounding from this, struck both father and his horse " 70 "To save my life I had to climb to the top of the " I got Tom up, and held him close over the fire " ,107 " I bounded from before him for my life " . .124 " I headed her out again into the lake "... 155 " I took deliberate aim, and fired at him " . . .165 " We went at a furious rate on that swirling, seething, boiling torrent " 173 Rev. Thomas Woolsey 184 "Tying our clothes in bundles above our heads, we started into the ice-cold current " . . . .219 "Slapping his head, I turned his course to smooth ground " . . 224 " Maskepetoon calmly . . . took out his Cree Testa- ment . . . and began to read " 239 " This strange Indian, without looking at us, sang on " 247 " Slapped-in-the-Face, take that one" . . . .279 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE CHAPTER L Old Fort Edmonton — Early missionaries — Down the Saskatchewan by dog-train — Camp-fire experiences — Arrival at home — Daily occupations. In my previous volume, "Forest, Lake and Prairie," which closed with the last days of 1862, I left my readers at Fort Edmonton. At that time this Hudson's Bay post was the chief place of interest in the great country known as the Saskatchewan Valley. To this point was tributary a vast region fully six hundred miles square, distinguished by grand ranges of mountains, tremendous foot hills, immense stretches of plain, and great forests. Intersecting it were many mighty rivers, and a great number of smaller streams. Lakes, both fresh and alkaline, dotted its broad surface. Over the entire length and breadth of this big domain coal seemed inexhaustible. Rich soil and magnificent pasturage were almost / 12 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHO& universal. But as yet there was no settlement The peoples who inhabited the country were nomadic. Hunting, trapping, and fishing were their means of livelihood, and in all this they were encouraged by the great Company to whom belonged the various trading-posts scat- tered over the wide area, and of which Fort Edmonton was chief. For the collecting and shipping of furs Ed- monton existed. For this one definite purpose that post lived and stood and had its being. A large annual output of the skins and furs of many animals was its highest ambition. Towards this goal men and dogs and horses and oxen pulled and strained and starved. For this purpose isolation and hardship almost inconceivable were undergone. For the secur- ing and bringing in to Edmonton of the pelts of buffalo and bear, beaver and badger, martin and musk-rat, fisher and fox, otter and lynx, the interest of everyone living in the country was enlisted. Thirteen different peoples, speak- ing eight distinct languages, made this post their periodic centre; and while at Edmonton was shown the wonderful tact and skill of the Hudson's Bay Company in managing con- tending tribes, yet nevertheless many a fright- ful massacre took place under the shadow of its walls. PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 13 This was the half-way house in crossing the continent. Hundreds of miles of wildness and isolation were on either hand. About midway between and two thousand feet above two great oceans — unique, significant, and alone, without telegraphic or postal communication — thus we found Fort Edmonton in the last days of the last month of the year 1862. Edmonton had been the home of the Rev. K. T. Rundle, the first missionary to that section, who from this point made journeys in every direction to the Hudson's Bay Company's posts and Indian camps. Following him, later on, the Roman Catholic Church sent in her missionaries. These, at the time of which I write, had a church in the Fort, and the beginning of a mission out north, about nine miles from the Fort; also one at Lake St. Ann's, some forty miles distant. When the Rev. Thomas Woolsey came into the North- West, he too made Edmonton his headquarters for some years, and, like his predecessor, travelled from camp to camp and from post to post. Even in those early days, one could not help predicting a bright future for this important point, for in every direction from Edmonton, as a centre, Nature has been lavish with her gifts. The physical foundations of empire are here to be found in rich profusion, and in 1862, having 14 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. gone into and come out of Edmonton by several different directions, I felt that I would run but little risk in venturing to prophesy that it would by-and-by become a great metropolis. The second day of January, 1863, saw a con- siderable party of travellers wind out of the gate of the Fort and, descending the hill, take the ice and begin the race down the Big Sas- katchewan; Mr. Chatelaine, of Fort Pitt, and Mr. Pambrun, of Lac-la-biche, with their men, mak- ing, with our party, a total of eight trains. There being no snow, we had to follow the windings of the river. For the first eighty or ninety miles our course was to be the same, and it was pleasant, in this land of isolation, to fall in with so many travelling companions. It was late in the day when we got away, but both men and dogs were fresh, so we made good time and camped for the night some twenty-five miles from the Fort. Climbing the first bank, we pulled into a clump of spruce, and soon the waning light of day gave place to the bright glare of our large camp-fire. Frozen ground and a few spruce boughs were beneath us and the twinkling stars overhead. There being at this time no snow, our home for the night is soon ready, the kettles boiled, the tea made and pemmican chopped loose, and though we are entirely without bread or fruit PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 15 or vegetables, yet we drink our tea, gnaw our pemmican and enjoy ourselves. The twenty- five-mile run and the intense cold have made us very hungry. Most of our company are old pioneers, full of incident and story of life in the far north, or out on the " Big Plains " to the south. We feed our dogs, we tell our stories, we pile the long logs of wood on our big fire, and alternately change our position, back then front to the fire. We who have been running hard, and whose clothes are wet with perspira- tion, now become ourselves the clothes-horses whereon to dry these things before we attempt to sleep. Then we sing a hymn, have a word of prayer, and turn in. The great fire burns down, the stars glitter through the crisp, frosty air, the aurora dances over our heads and flashes in brilliant colors about our camp, the trees and the ice crack with the intense cold, but we sleep on until between one and two, when we are again astir. Our huge fire once more flings its glare away out through the surrounding trees and into the cold night. A hot cup of tea, a small chunk of pem- mican, a short prayer, and hitching up our dogs, tying up our sled loads and wrapping up our passengers, we are away once more on the ice of this great inland river. The yelp of a dog as the sharp whip touches him is answered from 16 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. either forest-clad bank by numbers of coyotes and wolves ; but regardless of these, " Marse!" is the word, and on we run, making fast time. On our way up I had found a buck deer frozen into the ice, and had chopped the antlers from his head and " cached " them in a tree to take home with me ; but when I told my new companions of my find, they were eager for the meat, which they said would be good. I had not yet eaten drowned meat, but when I came to think of it I saw there was reason in what they said, and so promised to do my best to find the spot where the buck was frozen in. As it was night — perhaps three o'clock — when we came to the place, I was a little dubious as to finding the deer. However, I was born with a large " bump of locality " and a good average memory, and presently we were chopping the drowned deer out of the ready-to-hand refrigerator. This done we drove on, and stopped for our second breakfast near the Vermilion. We were through and away from this before daylight, and hurry- ing on reached our turning-off point early in the afternoon, where we bade our friends good- bye, and, clambering up the north bank of the Saskatchewan, disappeared into the forest. Taking our course straight for Smoking Lake the whole length of which we travelled on the ice, we climbed the gently-sloping hill for two PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 17 miles and were home again, having made the 120 miles in less than two days. When I jumped out of bed next morning my feet felt as if I were foundered, because of the steady run on the frozen ground and harder ice; but this soon passed away. Mr. 0. B., whom we had left at home, was greatly rejoiced at our return. He had been very lonely. I described to him our visit, and told him of the nice fat, tender beef on which the Chief Factor had re- galed us on Christmas and New Year's day ; and surely it was not my fault that, when the por- tion of the meat of the drowned deer which had been brought home was cooked, he thought it was Edmonton beef, and pronounced it u deli- cious/' and partook largely of it, and later on was terribly put out to learn it was a bit of a drowned animal we had found in the river. Holidays past, we faced our work, which was varied and large : fish to be hauled home ; pro- visions to be sought for, and, when found, traded from the Indians; timber to be got out and hauled some distance ; lumber to be " whipped," — that is, cut by the whip-saw; freight to be hauled for Mr. Woolsey, who had some in store or as a loan at Whitefish Lake — all this gave us no time for loitering. Men, horses, dogs, all had to move. Moreover, we had to make our own dog and horse sleds, and sew the harness for both dogs and horses. That for the dogs we 2 18 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. made out of tanned moose skins ; that for the horses and oxen, out of partly tanned buffalo hide, known as " power flesh," the significance of which I could never comprehend, unless the sewing of them, which was powerfully tedious, was what was meant. Turn which way you would there was plenty to do, and, from the present day standpoint, very little to do it with. Mr. Woolsey and Mr. 0. B. kept down the shack, and the rest of us — that is, Williston, William, Neils and myself — went at the rest of the work. First we hauled the balance of our fish home, then we made a trip to Whitefish Lake and brought the freight which had been left there. Mr. Steinhauer and two of his daughters accompanied us back to Smoking Lake, the former to confer with his brother missionary, and the girls to become the pupils of Mr. Woolsey. The opportunity of being taught even the rudi- ments was exceedingly rare in those days in the North- West, and Mr. Steinhauer was only too glad to take the offer of his brother missionary to help in this way. The snow was now from a foot to twenty inches deep. The cold was keen. To make trails through dense forests and across trackless plains, to camp where night caught us, without tent or any other dwelling, and with only the blue sky above us and the crisp snow and frozen ground beneath, were now our every- day experience. PIONEERING! ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 19 CHAPTER H. A foraging expedition — Our hungry camp — A welcome feast — Dogs, sleds and buffalo bull in a tangle — In a Wood Cree encampment — Chief Child, Maskepe- toon and Ka-kake — Indian hospitality — Incidents of the return trip. About the middle of January we started for the plains to find the Indians, and, if possible, secure provisions and fresh meat from them. William and Neils, with horses and sleds, preceded us some days. Williston and I in the meantime went for the last load of fish, then we followed our men out to the great plains. In those days travelling with horses was tedious. You had to give the animals time to forage in the snow, or they would not stand the trip. From forty to sixty miles per day would be ordinary progress for dogs and drivers, but from ten to twenty would be enough for horses in the deep snow and cold of winter ; thus it came to pass that, although William and Neils had preceded us some days, nevertheless we camped with them our second night out, close beside an old buffalo pound which had been built by the Indians. v 20 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. It was said by the old Indians that if you took the wood of a pound for your camp-fire, a storm would be the result; and as we did take of the wood that night, a storm came sure enough, and William's horses were far away ^next morning. As we had but little provisions, Williston and I did not wait, but leaving the most of our little stock of dried meat with the horse party, we went on in the storm, and keep- ing at it all day, made a considerable distance in a south-easterly direction, where we hoped to fall in with Indians or buffaloes, or possibly a party bent on the same errand as ourselves from .. the sister mission at Whitefish Lake. That night both men and dogs ate sparingly, for the simple reason that we did not have any more to eat. In these northern latitudes a night in January in the snow with plenty of food is, under the best of circumstances, a hardship; but when both tired men and faithful dogs are on "short commons" the gloom seems darker, the cold keener, the loneliness greater than usual. At any rate, that is how Williston and I felt the night I refer to. The problem was clear on the black- board before us as we sat and vainly tried to think it out, for there was very little talking round our camp-fire that night. The known quantities were : an immense stretch of un- PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 21 familiar country before us ; deep, loose snow everywhere around us ; our food all gone ; both of us in a large measure " tenderfeet." The un- known : Where were the friendly Indians and the buffaloes, and where was food to be found ? But being tired and young we went to sleep, and with the morning star were waiting for the daylight in a more hopeful condition of mind. Driving on in the drifting snow, about 10 a.m. we came upon a fresh track of dog-sleds going in our direction. This, then, must be the party from Whitefish Lake. The thought put new life both into us and our dogs. Closely watch- ing the trail, which was being drifted over very fast by the loose snow, we hurried on, and soon came to where these people had camped the night before. Pushing on, we came up to them about the middle of the afternoon. They turned out to be Peter Erasmus and some Indians from Whitefish Lake Mission ; but, alas for our hopes of food, like ourselves they were without pro- visions. However, we drove on as fast as we could, and had the supreme satisfaction of kill- ing a buffalo cow just before sundown that same evening. Very soon the animal was butchered and on our sleds, and finding a suitable clump of timber, we camped for the night. Making a good large camp-fire, very soon we were roasting 22 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. and boiling and eating buffalo meat, to the great content of our inner man. What a contrast our camp this night to that of the previous one ! Then, hunger and loneliness and considerable anxiety ; now, feasting and anecdote and joke and fun. Our dogs, also, were in better spirits. There was one drawback — we had no salt. My companion Williston had left what little we had in one of our camps. He pretended he did not care for salt, and he and the others laughed at me because I longed for it so much. The fresh meat was good, but " Oh, if I only had some salt ! " was an oft-repeated expression from my lips. Later we fell in with old Ben Sinclair, who sympathized with me very much, and rummaging in the dirty, grimy sack in which he carried his tobacco and moccasins and mend- ing material, he at last brought up a tiny bit of salt tied up in the corner of a small rag, saying : "My wife Magened, he very good woman, he put that there; you may have it;" and thankful I was for the few grains of salt. As Williston had lost ours, and had laughed at me for mourn- ing over the loss, and especially as the few grains old Ben gave me would not admit of it, I did not offer him a share, but made my little portion last for the rest of that journey. Six hungry, hard-travelled men and twenty- four hungrier and also harder- travelled dogs "The dogs and sleds went sliding in around him." — Page 23. PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 23 left very little of that buffalo cow (though a big and fat animal) to carry out of the camp. Supper, or several suppers, for six men and twenty-four dogs, and then breakfast for six men, and the cow was about gone ; but now we had pretty good hope of finding more. This we did as we journeyed on, and at the end of two days' travel we sighted the smoke of a large camp of Indians. Nothing special had happened during those two days, except that once our dogs and an old buffalo bull got badly tangled up, and we had to kill the bull to unravel the tangle. It happened in this wise : We started the bull, and he gal- loped off, almost on our course, so we let our dogs run after him, and the huge, clumsy fellow took straight across a frozen lake, and coming upon some glare ice just as the dogs came up to him, he slipped and fell, and the dogs and sleds went sliding in all around him. Thus the six trains got tangled up all around the old fellow, who snorted and shook his head, and kicked, but could not get up. We had to kill him to release our dogs and sleds. The camp we came to had about two hundred lodges, mostly Wood Crees. They were glad to see us, and welcomed us right hospitably. We went into Chief Child's tent, and made our home there for the short time we were in the 24 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. camp ; but we may be said to have boarded all over this temporary village, for I think I must have had a dozen suppers in as many different tents the first evening of our arrival; and I could not by any means accept all the invita- tions I had showered upon me. While eating a titbit of buffalo in one tent, and giving all the items of news from the north I knew, and ask- ing and answering questions, behold! another messenger would come in, and tell me he had been sent to take me to another big man's lodge — and thus, until midnight, I went from tent to tent, sampling the culinary art of my Indian friends, and imparting and receiving informa- tion. I had a long chat with the grand old chief, Maskepetoon; renewed my acquaintance with the sharp-eyed and wiry hunter and war- rior, Ka-kake, and made friends with a bright, fine-looking young man who had recently come from a war expedition. He had been shot right through his body, just missing the spine, and was now convalescing. My new friend, some four or five years after our first meeting, gave up tribal war and paganism, and heartily em- braced Christianity. He became as the right hand of the missionary, and to-day is head man at Saddle Lake. Without recognizing the fact, I was now fairly in the field as a pioneer, and taking my first PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 25 lessons in the university of God as a student in a great new land. Running after a dog-train all day, partaking of many suppers, talking more or less all the time until midnight, then to bed — thus the first night was spent in camp. Next morning we traded our loads of provi- sions — calfskin bags of pounded meat, cakes of hard tallow, bladders of marrow-fat, bales of dried meat, and buffalo tonguea In a short time Williston and I had all we could pack on our sleds, or at any rate all our dogs could haul home. And now it required some skill and planning to load our sleds. To pack and wrap and lash securely as a permanent load for home, some four hundred pounds of tongues and cakes and bladders of grease and bags of pounded meat, on a small toboggan, some eight feet by one foot in size ; then on the top of this to tie our own and our dogs' provisions for the return journey, also axe, and kettle, and change of duffels and moccasins; and in the meantime answer a thousand questions that men and women and children who, as they looked on or helped, kept plying us with, took some time and patient work; but by evening we were ready to make an early start next day. In the meantime the hunters had been away killing and bringing in meat and robes. With the opening light, and all day long, the women 26 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. had been busy scraping hides and dressing robes and leather, pounding meat, rendering tallow, chopping bones wherewith to make what was termed " marrow-fat," bringing in wood, besides sewing garments and making and mending moccasins. Only the men who had just come home from a war party, or those who came in the day before with a lot of meat and a number of hides, were now the loungers, resting from the heavy fatigues of the chase or war. The whole scene was a study of life under new phases, and as I worked and talked I was taking it all in and adapting language and idiom and thought to my new surroundings. Another long evening of many invitations and many suppers, also of continuous catechism and questionings, then a few hours' sleep, during which the temperature has become fearfully cold, and with early morn we are catching our dogs, who are now rested, and with what food we gave them and that which they have stolen have perceptibly fattened. Our Whitefish Lake friends are ready also, and we make a start. Our loads are high and heavy. Many an upset takes place. To right the load, to hold it back going down hill, to push up the steep hills, to run and walk all the time, to take our turn in breaking the trail (for we are going as straight as possible for home, and PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 27 will not strike our out-bound trail for many miles, then only to find it drifted over) — all this soon takes the romance out of winter trip- ping with dogs ; but we plod on and camp some thirty-five or forty miles from the Indian camp. The already tired drivers must work hard at making camp and cutting and packing wood before this day's work is done ; then supper and rest, and prayer and bed, and long before day- light next morning we are away, and by push- ing on make from forty to fifty miles our second day. That night we sent a message back to the Indian camp. The message was about buffaloes, of which we had seen quite a number of herds that afternoon. The messenger was a dog. Peter Erasmus had bought a very fine- looking dog from an old woman, and I inci- dentally heard her, as she was catching the dog, say to him : " This is now the sixth time I have sold you, and you came home five times. I expect you will do so again." And sure enough the big fine-looking fellow turned out a fraud. Peter was tired of him, and was about to let him go, when I suggested using him to tell the Indians about the buffaloes we had seen; so a message in syllabics was written and fastened to the dog's neck, and he was let loose. He very soon left our camp, and, as I found 28 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. out later, was in the Indian camp when the people began to stir next morning. We let him go about eight o'clock at night, and before day- light next morning he had made the two days ' journey traversed by us. As an Indian would say, " The old woman's medicine is strong!" There were six very weary men in our camp that night, thirty-three years ago. Floundering through the snow for two long days, pushing and righting and holding back those heavy sleds, whipping up lazy dogs, etc, chopping and carrying wood, shovelling snow — well, we wanted our supper. But after supper, what a change ! Joke and repartee, incident and story followed, and while the wolves howled and the wind whistled and the cold intensified, with our big blazing fire we were, in measure, happy. Three of the six have been dead many years ; the other three, though aging fast, are now and then camping as of old, still vigorous and hale. During the next morning's tramp we separated, each party taking the direct course for home. That afternoon we met William and Neils, who had been all this time finding their horses, which strayed away the night of the storm, when we camped together by the old pound. Surely the spirit of the old structure had been avenged be- cause of our burning some of it, for the storm had come, the horses had been lost, and qui PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 29 men had been in a condition of semi-starvation for some days. We told them where they could find buffaloes and the Indian camp, gave them some provisions and drove on. Having the track, we made the old pound the same evening, and, nothing daunted, proceeded to make fire- wood of its walls. To our camp there came that night the tall young Indian Pakan, who is now the chief of the Whitefish and Saddle Lake Reserves. He seemed to resent the desecration of the pound, but our supper and company and the news of buffaloes made him forget this for the time. He and two or three others were camped not far off, on their way out to the plains. Two long days more, with the road very heavy, and sometimes almost no road at all, brought us late the eecond night to our shack, where Mr. Woolsey and Mr. 0. B. were delighted to greet us once more. They had been lonely and were anxious about us. / 30 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. CHAPTER III. Scarcity of food — The winter packet — Start for Edmon- ton for the eastern mails — A lonely journey — Arrive at Fort Edmonton — Start for home — Camp- ing in a storm — Improvising a " Berlin" — Old Draffan — Sleeping on a dog-sled en route — A hearty welcome home. That trip with dog-train was enough for Wil- liston. He did not want any more of such work, so I took an Indian boy who had joined our party and started out again. Later on I traded Williston to William for Neils, the Norwegian, who made several trips with me. During that winter the Indian camps at which we could obtain provisions were never nearer than about 150 miles, and were sometimes much farther away; and as we intended building the next spring on the site of the new mission, at the river, we had to make every effort to secure a sufficiency of provisions. When we had neither flour nor vegetables, animal food alone went fast. Then, besides the hauling of food long distances, we had to transport lumber and tim- ber and other material from where we were PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 31 living to the new and permanent site on the river bank, which was some thirty-five miles distant. Sometimes with the dog-teams we took down a load of lumber to the river and returned the same day, thus making the seventy- mile round trip in the day. The horses would take from three to four days for the same trip. It was some time in February that, having started from our first encampment on the way out, long before daylight one dark morning we saw the glimmer of a camp-fire, and wondered who it could be ; but as the light was right on our road, we found when we came up that it was the one winter packet from the east on its way to Edmonton. Mr. Hardisty was in charge of the party, and the reason they had stopped and made a fire on our road — which they should have crossed at right angles — was that through the darkness of the winter morning they had missed their way, and were waiting for daylight to show them their course. Mr. Hardisty gave me some items of news from the outside world, and also told me, what was tantalizing in the extreme, that there were letters for Mr. Woolsey and myself in the packet, but that this was sealed and could not be opened until they reached Edmonton. How I did long for those letters from home and the loved ones there. But longing would not open the sealed packet box, 32 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. With the first glimmering of day we parted, the winter packet to continue its way through the deep snow and uncertain trail on to Edmon- ton ; we to make our way out to the Indian camps. These were continually moving with the buffalo, so that the place that knew them to-day might possibly never know them again forever, so big is this vast country, and so migratory in their habits are its peoples. In due time we found one of the camps, and trading our loads made for home; but as this was the stormy and windy season of the year, we made slow progress. Finally we reached Mr. Woolsey, and I importuned him to let me go for our mail, which he finally consented to do, but said he could not spare anyone to go with me. However, I was so eager that I resolved to go alone. My plan was to send Neils and the boy Ephraim out for more provisions, and I would accompany them as far as the spot where we had seen the packet men some two weeks before. Then I should take their trail, and try and keep it to Edmonton. Mr. Woolsey very reluctantly assented to all this. About three o'clock one dark, cloudy morning found us at the " parting of the ways," and bid- ding Neils and Ephraim good-bye, I put on my snowshoes and took the now more or less cov- ered trail of the packet men. I had about 250 PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 33 pounds of a load, consisting of ammunition and tobacco that Mr. Woolsey had borrowed from the Hudson's Bay Company, and was now returning by me. I had great faith in my lead dog "Draffan," a fine big black fellow, whose sleek coat had given him his name, " Fine-cloth." In fact, all four of my dogs were noble fellows, and away we went, Draffan smelling and feeling out the very indistinct trail, and I running behind on snowshoes. It was my first trip alone, and I could not repress a feeling of isolation ; but then the object, "letters from home," was constantly in my thoughts and spurring me on. By day- light I came to the snow-drifted dinner camp of the packet men ; by half-past ten I was at their night encampment. I am doing well, thought I, and here I unharnessed my dogs and made a fire, and by melting snow boiled my kettle, but did not feel very much like eating or drinking. The whole thing was inexpressibly lonely. The experience was a new one and not too pleasant. My dogs hardly had time to roll and shake themselves from the long run of the morning when I was sticking their heads into the collars again, and away jumped the faithful brutes, Draffan scenting and feeling the much-blinded road. On we went, the dogs with their load, and I on my light snowshoes, keeping up a smart run across plains, through bluffs of willow 3 34 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. and poplar, over hills and along valleys. About the middle of the afternoon, or later, I noticed the snow was lessening, and presently I took off my snowshoes, and also my coat, and tying these on the sled, started up the dogs with a sudden sharp command, and away they jumped. We increased our speed, and went flying west- ward toward the setting sun ; for though I had never been over this country before, I had an idea that Edmonton was about on our course. On towards sundown I noticed a well-timbered range of dark hills in the distance, and said to myself, "There is where we must camp," and I could not help already feeling a premonition of great loneliness coming over me. On we sped, the dogs at a sharp trot, with an occasional run, and I on what you might call two-thirds or three-fourths speed, when all of a sudden we came into a well-beaten road, which converged into our trail, and now, with the solid, smooth track under their feet, my noble team fairly raced away, making my sledge swing in good shape. Thinking to myself that I might catch up to or meet some party travelling in this evidently well-frequented road, I put on my coat, seated myself on the sled, and my hardy team went flying on the best tracked road they had struck that winter. Presently we came to the edge of PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 35 a great hill, which I found to be but the begin- ing of a large, deep valley. Hardly had I time to get astride the sled, and with my feet brake or help to steer its course, when down, down, down, at a dead hard run, went my dogs. Then over a sloping bottom, and to my great astonish- ment out we came on the banks of a big river. " What is this ? " thought I ; " surely I have missed my way." I had never heard of a large stream emptying into the Saskatchewan from the south side. While thus perplexed and anxi- ous, my dogs took a short jump over a cut bank, and I was landed, sled and dogs and all, on the ice of this big river. Then I looked up west- ward, and to my surprise saw in the waning light the wings or fans of the old wind-mill which stood on the hill back of Fort Edmonton. I could hardly believe my eyes, but on sped my eager dogs. Soon we were climbing the opposite bank, and presently, just as the guard was about to shut the eastern gate of the Fort, we dashed in and were at our journey's end. "Where did you come from to-day, John?" asked my friend, Mr. Hardisty. My reply was, " About fifteen miles north of where we saw you the other morning." " No," said he ; but never- theless it was true. They had travelled all that day after we had seen them, as they left us at the first approach of daylight; then they had 36 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. started long before daylight the next morning, and it was evening when they reached Edmon- ton; while I had done the same distance and fifteen miles more — that is, I had made a good round hundred miles that day, my first trip alone. Eight glad I was at being thus relieved from camping alone that night, and with my letters all cheering, and the kind friends of the place, I thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality of Old Fort Edmonton. It was Friday night when I reached the Fort. Spending Saturday and Sun- day with the Hudson's Bay oflicers and men, I started on my return trip Monday, about 10.30 a.m., and by night had made the camp where I had lunched on the way out. To some extent I had got over the shrinking from being alone, so I chopped and carried wood for my camp, made myself as comfortable as I could, fed my dogs, and listened to the chorus of wolves and coyotes as they howled dismally around me. Then the wind got up, and with gusts of wild fury came whistling through the trees which composed the little bluff in which I was camped. Soon it began to drift, so I turned up my sled on its edge to the windward, and stretching my feet to the fire, wrapped myself in buffalo and blanket, and went to sleep. When I awoke I jumped up and made a fire PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 37 and looking at my watch, saw it was two o'clock. The wind had become a storm. I went out of the woods to where I thought the trail should be, and felt for it with my feet (for I had grown to have great faith in Draffan and his wonderful instinct, and thought that if I could start him right he would be likely to keep right), and there under the newly drifted snow was the frozen track. I then went back to the camp and harnessed my dogs, and as I had little or no load, I made an improvised cariole, or what was termed a " Berlin," out of my wrapper and sled lashings, and when ready drove out to where I had discovered the track. The storm was now raging, the night was wild, and the cold intense ; but, wrapped in my warm robe, I stretched myself in the " Berlin," and getting as flat as possible in order to lessen the chances of upsetting, when ready I gave the word to Draffan, saw that he took the right direction, and then covering up went to sleep. With sublime faith in that dog I slept on. If I woke up for a moment, I merely listened for the jingle of my dog-bells, and by the sound satisfied myself that my team were travelling steadily, and then went to sleep again. When coming up I had noticed a long side hill, and I said to myself : " If we are on the right track I will most assuredly upset at that 38 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. point" — and sure enough I did wake up to find myself rolling, robe and all, down the slope of the hill. I was compensated for the discomfort by being thus assured that my faithful dogs had kept the right track. Jumping up, I shook my- self and the robe, righted the sled, stretched the robe into it, and then giving my leader a caress and a word of encouragement, I put on my snowshoes and away we went at a good run, old Draffan picking the way with uner- ring instinct. Thus we kept it up until daylight, when we stopped and I unharnessed the dogs, and, making a fire, boiled my kettle and had breakfast. Then, starting once more, I deter- mined to cut across some of the points of the square we had made coming up ; and for about four hours we went straight across country, and striking our provision trail opposite Egg Lake, I took off my snowshoes and got into the "Berlin." My dogs bounded away on the home-stretch, we still having about forty or forty-five miles to go, and it was already past noon. All day it had stormed, but now we were on familiar ground, and right merrily my noble dogs rang the bells, as across bits of prairie and through thickening woods we took our way northward. I was so elated at having successfully made the trip up to this point, that PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 39 I could not sit still very long, but, running and riding, kept on, never stopping for lunch. Thus the early dusk of the stormy day found us at the southerly end of Smoking Lake, and some twelve or fifteen miles from home. Here I again wrapped myself in my robe, and lying flat in the sled, felt I could very safely leave the rest to old Draffan and a kind Providence, and" go to sleep, which I did, to wake up as the dogs were climbing the steep little bank at the north end of the lake. Then a run of two miles and I was home again. Mr. Woolsey was so overjoyed he took me in his arms, and almost wept over me. He brought dogs, sled and my whole outfit into the house. The kind-hearted old man had passed a period of great anxiety ; had been sorry a thousand times that he had consented to my going to Edmonton; had dreamed of my being lost, of my bleeding to death, of my freezing stiff; but now with the first tinkle of my dog- bells he was out peering into the darkness, and shouting, " Is that you, John ? " and my answer, he assured me, filled him with joy. He did not ask for his mail, did not think of it for a long time, he was so thankful that the boy left in his care had come back to him safe and sound. For my part I was glad to be home again. The uncertain road, the long distance, 40 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHO& the deep snow, the continuous drifting storm, the awful loneliness, were all past. I had found Edmonton, had brought the mail, was home again beside our own cheery fire, and was a proud and happy boy. In a day or two Neils and Ephraim came in from the camp, and we once more, a reunited party, made another start for more provisions, and, later on, yet another for the same purpose, never finding the Indians in the same place, but always following them up. We were successful in reaching their camps and in securing our loads ; so that my first winter on the Saskatche- wan gave me the opportunity of covering a large portion of the country, and becoming acquainted with a goodly number of the Indian people. I also had constant practice in the language, and was now quite familiar with it. PIONEERING* ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 4l CHAPTER IV. Trip to Whitefish Lake — Mr. Woolsey as a dog-driver — Rolling down a side hill — Another trip to Edmon- ton — Mr. O. B. as a passenger — Perils of travel by ice — Narrow escape of Mr. O. B. — A fraud exposed • — Profanity punished — Arrival at Edmonton — Milton and Cheadle — Return to Victoria. Some time in March, Mr. Woolsey, wishing to confer with his brother missionary, Mr. Stein- hauer, concluded to go to Whitefish Lake, and to take the Steinhauer girls home at the same time. He, moreover, determined to take the tr^ain of dogs Neils had been driving, and drive himself ; but as there had been no direct traffic from where we were to Whitefish Lake, and as the snow was yet quite deep, we planned to take our provision trail out south until we would come near to the point where our road converged with one which came from Whitefish Lake to the plains. This meant travelling more than twice the distance for the sake of a good road, but even this paid us when compared with making a new road through a forest country in the month of March, when the snow was deep. 42 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. We were about two and a half days making the trip, travelling about 130 miles, but, burdened as Ephraim and I were with three passengers, " the longest way round proved the shortest way home." Mr. Woolsey was not a good dog-driver. He could not run, or even walk at any quick pace, so he had to sit wedged into his cariole, from start to finish, between camps, while I kept his train on the road ahead of mine ; for if he upset — which he often did — he could not right himself, and I had to run ahead and fix him up. His dogs very soon got to know that their driver was a fixture on the sled, and also that I was away behind the next train and could not very well get at them because of the narrow road, and the great depth of snow on either side of it. However, things reached a climax when we were passing through a hilly, rolling country on the third morning of our trip. Those dogs would not even run down hill fast enough to keep the sleigh on its bottom, and I had to run forward and right Mr. Woolsey and his cariole a number of times. Presently, coming to a side hill, Mr. Woolsey, in his sled, rolled over and over, like a log, to the foot of the slope. There, fast in the cariole, and wedged in the snow, lay the missionary. The lazy dogs had gently accommodated themselves to the rolling PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 43 of the sled, and also lay at the foot of the hill, seemingly quite content to rest for awhile. Now, thought I, is my chance, and without touching Mr. Woolsey or his sled, I went at those dogs, and in a very short time put the fear of death into them, so that when I spoke to them afterwards they jumped. Then I unravelled them and straightened them out, and rescuing Mr. Woolsey from his uncomfortable position, I spoke the word, and the very much quickened dogs sprang into their collars as if they meant it, and after this we made better time. Mr. and Mrs. Steinhauer were delighted to have their daughters home, and also glad to have a visit from our party. We spent two very pleasant days with these worthy people, who were missionaries of the true type. Going back I hitched my own dogs to Mr. Woolsey's cariole, and thus kept him right side up with much less trouble, and also made better time back to Smoking Lake. With the approach of spring we prepared to move down to the river. We put up a couple of stagings, also a couple of buffalo-skin lodges, in one of which Mr. Woolsey and Mr. 0. B. took up their abode, while the rest of our party kept on the road, bringing down from the old place our goods and chattels, lumber and timber, etc. As the days grew warmer, we who were 44 SADDLE, SLED A#D SNOWSHOE. handling dogs had to travel most of the time in the night, as then the snow and track were frozen. While the snow lasted we slept and rested during the warm hours of the day, and in the cool of the morning and evening, and all night long, we kept at work transporting our materials to the site of the new mission. The last of the season is a hard time for the dog- driver. The night- work, the glare or reflection of the snow, both by sun and moonlight; the subsidence of the snow on either side of the road, causing constant upsetting of sleds; the melting of the snow, making your feet wet and sloppy almost all the time; then the pulling, and pushing, and lifting, and walking, and run- ning, — these were the inevitable experiences. Indeed, one had to be tough and hardy and willing, or he would never succeed as a traveller and tripper in the " great lone land " in those days. The snow had almost disappeared, and the first geese and ducks were beginning to arrive, when suddenly one evening Mr. Steinhauer and Peter Erasmus turned up, en route to Edmonton ; and Mr. Woolsey took me to one side and said, "John, I am about tired of Mr. 0. B. Could you not take him to Edmonton and leave him there. You might join this party now going there." In a very few hours I was ready, and the PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 45 same night we started on the ice, intending to keep the river to Edmonton. The night was clear and cold, and for some time the travelling was good ; but near daylight, when about thirty miles on our way, we met an overflow flood coming down on top of the ice. There must have been from sixteen to eighteen inches of water, creating quite a current, and as we were on the wrong side of the river it behoved us to cross as soon as possible, and go into camp. There was a thick scum of sharp float ice on the top of the flood, about half an inch thick. When I drove my dogs into the overflow they had almost to swim, and the cariole, notwithstanding I was steadying it, would float and wobble in the current. Unfortunately, as the cold water began to soak into the sled, and reached my passenger, Mr. O. B., he blamed me for it, and presently began to curse me roundly, declaring I was doing it on purpose. All this time I was wad- ing in the water and keeping the sled from upsetting ; but when he continued his profanity I couldn't stand it any longer, so just dumped him right out into the overflow and went on. However, when I looked back and saw the old fellow staggering through the water, and fend- ing his legs with his cane from the sharp ice, I returned and helped him ashore, but told him I would not stand any more swearing. 46 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. We then climbed the bank on the north side, and had to remain there for two days till the waters subsided. About eight o'clock the second night the ice was nearly dry, and frozen suffi- ciently for us to make a fresh start. We pro- ceeded up the river, picking our way with great care, for there were now many holes in the ice, caused by the swift currents which had been above as well as beneath for the last two days. My passenger never slept, but sat there watching those holes, and dreading to pass near them, constantly afraid of drowning — in fact, I never travelled with anyone so much in dread of death as he was. Morning found us away above Sturgeon River, and as the indications pointed to a speedy "break up," we determined to push on. Pre- sently we came to a place where the banks were steep and the river open on either side. The ice, though still intact in the middle, was sub- merged by a volume of water running nearly cross ways in the river. Some of our party began to talk of turning back, but as we were now within twenty-five miles of Edmonton, I was loath to return with my old passenger, so concluded to risk the submerged ice-bridge before us. I told Mr. O. B. to get out of the cariole; then I fastened two lines to the sled, took hold of one myself, and gave him the other, PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 47 telling him to hang on for dear life if he should break through. I then drove my dogs in. Away they went across, we following at the end of the lines, stepping as lightly as we could, and as the dogs got out on the strong ice they pulled us after them. Having crossed, I set to work to wring out the blankets and robes in the cariole, Mr. 0. B. looking on. At the bottom there was a parch- ment robe — that is, an undressed hide. This, I said, I would not take any further, as it was comparatively useless anyway, but now, soaked and heavy, it was an actual encumbrance. " You will take it along," said Mr. O. B. " No, I will not/' said I ; but as there was good ice as far as I could see ahead, I told him to go on, and that I would overtake him as soon as I was through fixing the things in the sled. Reluctantly he started, and by-and-by when I came to the hide I found it so heavy that I did as I said I would, and pitched it into the stream. When I came up with Mr. 0. B., instead of stepping into the cariole, he turned up every- thing to look for the hide, and, not finding it, began to rave at me, using the foulest and most blasphemous language. I merely looked at him and said, " Get in, or I will leave you here." He saw I was in earnest, and got into the sled in no good humor, and on 48 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. we drove ; but as I ran behind I was planning some punishment for the old sinner, who had posed as such a saint while with Mr. Woolsey. Very soon everything came as if ready to hand for my purpose. As we were skirting the bank we came to a place where the ice sloped to the current, and just there the water was both deep and rapid. Here I took a firm grip of the lines from the back of the cariole, and watching for the best place, shouted to the dogs to in- crease their speed. Then I gave a stern, quick " Ohuh ! " which made the leader jump close to the edge of the current, and as the sled went swinging down the sloping ice, I again shouted " Whoa ! " and down in their tracks dropped my dogs. Out into the current, over the edge of the ice, slid the rear end of the cariole. Mr. 0. B. saw he dare not jump out, for the ice would have broken, and he would have gone under into the strong current. There he sat, his eyes bulging out with fear as he cried, " For God's sake, John, what are you going to do ? " while I stood holding the line, which, if I slack- ened, would let him into the rapid water, from which there seemed to be no earthly means of rescue. After a while I said, " Well, Mr. 0. B., are you ready now to apologize for, and take back the foul language you, without reason, heaped on 4 There he sat, his eyes bulging out with fear/' — Page 48. PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 49 me a little while since ?" And Mr. 0. B., in most abject tones and terms, did make ample apology. Then slackening the line a little, I let the sled flop up and down in the current, and finally accepted his apology on condition that he would behave himself in the future. My dogs quickly pulled him out of his peril, and on we went. Presently we were joined by Mr. Stein- hauer and Peter, who had gone across a point, they having light sleds, which enabled them to make their way for a short distance on the bare ground. We reached Edmonton that evening, and I was glad to transfer my charge to some one else's care. I was not particular who took him, for, like Mr. Woolsey, I was tired of the old fraud. The Chief Factor said to me that evening, "So you brought Mr. O. B. to Edmonton. You will have to pay ten shillings for every day he remains in the Fort." " Excuse me, sir," I answered, " I brought him to the foot of the hill, down at the landing, and left him there. If he comes into the Fort I am not responsible." Shortly after this Lord Milton and Dr. Cheadle came along en route across the mountains, and Mr. 0. B. joined their party. If any one should desire more of his history, these gentlemen wrote a book descriptive of their journey, and in this 4 50 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. our hero appears. I am done with him, for the present at any rate. Spring was now open, the snow nearly gone, and we had to make our way back from Edmon- ton as best we could. I cached the cariole, hired a horse, packed him with my dog harness, blankets, and food, and thus reached Victoria, which father had designated as the name of the new mission. My dogs, having worked faith- fully for many months, and having travelled some thousands of miles, sometimes under most trying circumstances, were now entering upon their summer vacation. How they gambolled and ran and hunted as they journeyed , hom^ ward! PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 51 CHAPTER V. Mr. Woolsey's ministrations — An exciting foot-race — Building operations — Gardening — Stolen (?) buffalo tongues — Addled duck eggs as a relish — A lesson in cooking — A lucky shot — Precautions against hostile Indians. With the opening spring Indians began to come in from the plains, and for several weeks we had hundreds of lodges beside us. Mr. Woolsey was kept busy holding meetings, attend- ing councils, visiting the sick, acting as doctor and surgeon, magistrate and judge; for who else had these people to come to but the missionary? A number of them had accepted Christianity, but the majority were still pagan, and these were full of curiosity as to the mis- sionary and his work, and keenly watching every move of the "praying man" and his party. The preacher may preach ever so good, but he himself is to these people the exponent of what he preaches, and they judge the Gospel he presents by himself. If he fails to measure up in manliness and liberality and general manhood, then they think there is no 52 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. more use in listening to his teaching. Very- early in my experience it was borne in upon me that the missionary, to obtain influence on the people, must be fitted to lead in all matters. If short of this, their estimate of him would be low, and their respect proportionately small, and thus his work would be sadly handicapped all through. While Mr. Woolsey was constantly at work among the people, the rest of us' were fencing and planting a field, whipsawing lumber, taking out timber up the river, and rafting it down to the mission, also building a house, and in many ways giving object lessons of industry and set- tled life to this nomadic and restless people. It was at this time that I got a name for myself by winning a race. The Indians had challenged two white men to run against two of their people. The race was to be run from Mr. Woolsey 's tent to and around another tent that stood out on the plain, and back home again — a distance in all of rather more than two-thirds of a mile. I was asked to be one of the champions of the white men, and a man by the name of McLean was selected as the other. Men, women, and children in crowds came to see the race, and Mr. Woolsey seemed as interested as any. The two Indians came forth gorgeous in breech-cloth and paint. My partner light- ened his costume, but I ran as I worked. PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 53 At a signal we were away, and with ease I was soon ahead. When I turned the tent, I saw that the race was ours, for my partner was the first man to meet me, and he was a long distance ahead of the Indians. When within three hun- dred yards of the goal, a crack runner sprang out from before me. He had been lying in the grass, with his dressed buffalo-skin over him, and springing up he let the skin fall from his naked body, then sped away, with the intention of measuring his speed with mine. I had my race already won, and needed not to run this fellow, but his saucy action nettled me to chase him, and I soon came up and passed him easily, coming in about fifty yards ahead. Thus I had gained two races, testing both wind and speed. That race opened my way to many a lodge, and to the heart of many a friend in subsequent years. It was the best introduc- tion I could have had to those hundreds of aborigines, among whom I was to live and work for years. A few weeks sufficed to consume all the pro- visions the Indians had brought with them, and a very large part of ours also ; so the tents were furled, and the people recrossed the Saskatche- wan, and, ascending the steep hill, disappeared from our view for another period, during which they would seek the buffalo away out on the plains. 54 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. We went on with our work of planting this centre of Christian civilization. Though we had visits from small bands, coming and going all summer, the larger camps did not return until the autumn. All this time we were living in skin lodges. Mr. Woolsey aimed at putting up a large house, in the old-fashioned Hudson's Bay style — a frame of timber, with grooved posts in which tenoned logs were fitted into ten-foot spans — and as all the work of sawing and planing had to be done by hand, the progress was slow. My idea was to face long timber, and put up a solid blockhouse, which could be done so much more easily and quickly, and would be stronger in the end ; but I was over- ruled, so we went on more slowly with the big house, and were smoked and sweltered in the tents all summer. However, taking out timber and rafting it down the river took up a lot of my time. Then there was our garden to weed and hoe. One day when I was at this, we dined on buffalo tongue. Quite a number of these had been boiled to be eaten cold, and as our sleigh dogs were always foraging, it was necessary to put all food up on the stagings, or else the dogs would take it. As soon as I was through dinner I went back to my hoeing and weeding, but looking over at the tent, I saw Mr. Woolsey PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 55 leaving it, and thought he must have forgotten to put those tongues away. As our variety was not great, I did not want the dogs to have these, so I ran over to the tent just in time to save them. I thought it would be well to make Mr. Woolsey more careful in the future ; so, putting away the tongues, I scattered the dishes around the tent, and left things generally upset, as if a dozen dogs had been there, and then went back to my work, keepinga sharp watch on the tent. When Mr. Woolsey came back he went into the tent, and very soon came out again shaking his fist at the dogs. Presently he shouted to me, "John, the miserable dogs have stolen all our tongues ! " " That is too bad," said I ; " did you not put them away ? " " No, I neglected to," he answered. " I shall thrash every one of these thieving dogs." Of course I did not expect him to do this, but at any rate I did not want to see him touch Draffan, my old leader, so I ran over to the tent, and could not help but laugh when I saw Mr. Woolsey catch one of the dogs, and, turning to me, say, "This old Pembina was actually licking his lips when I came back to the tent. I all but caught him in the act of stealing the tongues." I can see old Pembina as he stood there 56 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHO& looking very sheepish and guilty. Mr. Woolsey stood with one hand grasping the string, and with the other uplifted, holding in it a small riding whip ; but just as he was about to bring it down, the expected relenting came, and he said, as he untied the dog, " Poor fellow, it was my fault, anyway." I let him worry over the thought that the tongues were gone until even- ing, when I brought them out, and Mr. Woolsey, being an Englishman, was glad they were saved for future use. Our principal food that summer was pem- mican, or dried meat. We had neither flour nor vegetables, but sometimes, for a change, lived on ducks, and again varied our diet with duck eggs. We would boil the large stock ducks whole, and each person would take one, so that the individual occupying the head of the table was put to no trouble in carving. Each man in his own style did his own carving, and picked the bones clean at that. Then, another time, we would sit down to boiled duck eggs, many a dozen of these before us, and in all stages of incubation. While the older hands seemed to relish these, it took some time for me to learn that an egg slightly addled is very much im- proved in taste. Our horses often gave us a lot of trouble, because of the extent of their range, and many PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 57 a long ride I had looking them up. On one of these expeditions I was accompanied by an Indian boy, and, having struck the track, we kept on through the thickets and around lakes and swamps, till, after a while, we became very hungry. As we had no gun with us, the ques- tion arose, how were we to procure anything for food ? My boy suggested hunting for eggs. I replied, "We cannot eat them raw." "We will cook them," he answered. So we unsaddled and haltered our horses, and, stripping off our clothes, waded out into the rushes and grasses of the little lake we were then beside. We soon found some eggs, and while I made the fire, my companion proceeded with what, to me, was a new mode of cooking eggs. He took the bark off a young poplar, and of this made a long tube, tying or hooping it with willow-bark ; then he stopped up one end with mud from the lake shore, and, as the hollow of the tube was about the diameter of the largest egg we had, he very soon had it full of eggs. Stopping up the other end also with mud, he moved the embers from the centre of the fire, laid the tube in the hot earth, covered it over with ashes and coals, and in a few minutes we had a deliciously- cooked lunch of wild duck eggs. I had learned another lesson in culinary science. On another horse-hunt we found the track 58 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. late in the day, and, following it up, saw that we must either go back to the mission for the night, or camp without provisions or blankets. The latter we could stand, as it was summer, but the former was harder to bear. While we were discussing what to do, we heard the calling of sand-hill cranes, and presently saw five flying at a distance from us. Watching them, we saw them light on the point of a hill about half a mile off. Laughingly, I said to my boy in Indian phraseology, " I will make sacrifice of a ball." So I got my gun -worm, drew the shot from my old flintlock gun, and dropped a ball in its place ; and as there was no chance of a nearer approach to the cranes, I sighted one from where I stood, then elevated my gun, and fired. As we watched, we saw the bird fall over, and my boy jumped on his horse and went for our game. We then continued on the track as long as we could see it, and, as night drew on, pitched our camp beside some water, and made the crane serve us for both supper and breakfast. I might try a shot under the same conditions a hundred times more, and miss every time, but that one lucky hit secured to us a timely repast, and enabled us to continue on the trail of our horses, which we found about noon the next day. We had to have lumber to make anything PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 59 like a home for semi-civilized men and women to dwell in. In my humble judgment, the hard- est labor of a physical kind one could engage in is dog-driving, and the next to that " whip- sawing " lumber. I have had to engage in all manner of work necessary to the establishing of a settlement in new countries, but found nothing harder than these. I had plenty of the former last winter, and now occasionally try the latter, and, in the hot days of summer, find it desper- ately hard work. In the midst of our building and manufacture of timber and lumber, rafting and hauling, fencing and planting, weeding and hoeing, every little while there would come in from the plains rumors of horse-stealing and scalp-taking. The southern Indians were coming north, and the northern Indians going south; and although we did not expect an attack, owing to our being so far north, and also because the Indian camps were between us and our enemies, nevertheless we felt it prudent to keep a sharp lookout, and conceal our horses as much as possible by keep- ing them some distance from where we lived. All this caused considerable riding and work and worry, and thus we were kept busy late and early. 60 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHO& CHAPTER VL The summer brigade — With the brigade down the Saskatchewan — A glorious panorama — Meet with father and mother on the way to Victoria — Priva- tions of travel — A buffalo crossing — Arrival at Victoria — A church building begun — Peter Erasmus as interpreter. Along about the latter part of July, the " Summer Brigade," made up of several inland boats left at Edmonton, and manned by men who had been on the plains for the first or sum- mer trip for provisions and freight, now re- turned, passing us on its way to Fort Carlton to meet the regular brigades from Norway House and York Factory, as also the overland transport from Fort Garry, which came by ox carts. Mr. Hardisty was with the boats, and he invited me to join him until he should meet the brigade in which my father and mother had taken passage from Norway House. Mr. Woolsey kindly consented, so I gladly took this opportunity of going down to meet my parents and friends. I had come up the Saskatchewan as far as Fort Carlton, and had gone three times on the PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 61 ice up and down from Victoria to Edmonton ; but this run down the river was entirely new to me and full of interest. The boats were fully manned, and the river was almost at flood-tide, so we made very quick time. Seven or eight big oars in the hands of those hardy voyageurs, keeping at it from early morning until late evening, with very little cessation, backed as they were by the rapid swirl of this mighty glacier-fed current, sent us sweeping around point after point in rapid succession, and along the lengths of majestic bends. A glorious pano- rama met our view : Precipitous banks, which the rolling current seemed to hug as it surged past them ; then tumbling and flattening hills, which, pressing out, made steppes and terraces and bottoms, forming great points which, shov- ing the boisterous stream over to the other side, seemed to say to it, "We are not jealous; go and hug the farther bank, as you did us just now;" varied forest foliage, rank, rich prairie grass and luxuriant flora continuously on either bank, fresh from Nature's hand, delightfully arranged, and most pleasing to the eye and to the artistic taste. No wonder I felt glad, for amid these new and glorious scenes, with kind, genial companionship, I was on my way to meet my loved ones, from some of whom I had now been parted more than a year. At night our 62 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. boats were tied together, and one or two men kept the whole in the current while the others slept. At meal times we put ashore for a few minutes while the kettles were boiled, and then letting the boats float, we ate our meal en route. Early in the middle of the second afternoon we sighted two boats tracking up the southerly bank of the river. Pulling over to intercept them, I was delighted to find my people with them. The Hudson's Bay Company had kindly loaded two boats and sent them on from Carl- ton, in advance of the brigade, so that father and family should have no delay in reaching their future home. Thanking my friend Har- disty for the very pleasant run of two hundred miles he had given me with him, I transferred to the boat father and mother and my brother and sisters were in. We were very glad to meet again. What sunburnt, but sturdy, happy girls my sisters were! How my baby brother had grown, and now was toddling around like a little man ! Mother was looking forward eagerly to the end of the journey. Already it had occupied a month and more on the way up — half that time in the low country, where water and swamp and muskeg predominate ; where flies and mos- quitoes flourish and prosper, and reproduce in countless millions; where the sun in the long PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 63 days of June and July sends an almost unsuf- f erable heat down on the river as it winds its way between low forest -covered banks. The car- penter, Larsen, whom my father was bringing from Norway House, met with an accident, through the careless handling of his gun, and for days and nights mother had to j help in nursing and caring for the poor fellow. No wonder she was anxious to reach Victoria, and have change and rest. Forty days and more from Norway House, by lake and river, in open boat — long hot days, long dark, rainy days — with forty very short nights, and yet many of these far too long, because of the never- ceasing mosquito, which, troublesome enough by day, seemed at night to bring forth endless resources of torture, and turn them loose with tireless energy upon suffering humanity. But no one could write up such experiences to the point of realization. You must go through them to know. Mother has had all this, and much more, to endure in her pioneering and missionary life. Only a day or two before I met them, our folks had the unique sight of witnessing the crossing through the river of thousands of buffalo. The boatmen killed several, and for the time being we were well supplied with fresh meat. Our progress now was very much differ- ent to mine coming down. The men kept up a 64 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE steady tramp, tramp on the bank, at the end of seventy-five or one hundred yards of rope from the boat. Four sturdy fellows in turn kept it up all day, rain or shine, and though our head- way was regular, yet because of the interminable windings of the shore, we did not seem to go very far in a day. Several times father and I took across country with our guns, and brought in some ducks and chickens, but the unceasing tramp of the boats' crews did not allow of our going very far from the river. I think it was the tenth day from my leaving Victoria that I was back again, and Mr. Woolsey welcomed his chairman and colleague with great joy. Mother was not loath to change the York boat for the large buffalo-skin lodge on the banks of the Saskatchewan. The first thing we went at was hay-making on the old plan, with snath and scythe and wooden forks, and as the weather was pro- pitious we soon had a nice lot of hay put up in good shape; then as father saw at once that the house we were building would take a long time to finish, and as we had some timber in the round on hand, he proposed to at once put up a temporary dwelling-house and a store-house. At this work we went, and Mr. Woolsey looked on in surprise to see these buildings go up as by magic. It was a revelation to him, and to others, the way a man trained in the thick PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 65 woods of Ontario handled his axe ; for, without question, father was one of the best general- purpose axemen I ever came across. It was my privilege to take a corner on each of these buildings, which is something very dif- ferent from a corner on wheat or any such thing, but, nevertheless, requires a sharp axe and a steady hand and keen eye ; for you must keep your corner square and plumb — conditions which, I am afraid, other cornermen sometimes fail to observe. Then father sent me up the river with some men to take out timber and to manufacture some lumber for a small church. While we were away on this business, father and Larsen, the carpenter, were engaged in putting the roof on, laying the floors, putting in windows and doors to the log-house, and otherwise getting it ready for occupancy. Despatch was needed, for while a skin lodge may be passable enough for summer, it is a wretchedly cold place in winter, and father was anxious to have mother and the children fairly housed before the cold weather set in. In the meantime Peter Erasmus had joined our party as father's interpreter and general assistant, and was well to the front in all mat- ters pertaining to the organization of the new mission. 5 6(j SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. CHAPTER Vn. In search of the Stoneys — An Indian avenger — A Sun- day at Fort Edmonton — Drunken Lake carousals — Indian trails — Canyon of the Red Deer — I shoot my father — Amateur surgeons — Prospecting for gold — Peter gets "rattled" — A mysterious shot — Friends or foes ? — Noble specimens of the Indian race — A " kodak" needed — Among the Stoneys — Prospecting for a mission site — A massacre of neo- phytes — An Indian patriarch — Back at Victoria Father had been much disappointed at not seeing the Mountain Stoneys on his previous trip west, as time did not permit of his going any farther than Edmonton ; but now with temporary house finished, hay made, and other work well on, and as it was still too early to strike for the fresh meat hunt, he determined, with Peter as guide, to make a trip into the Stoney Indian country. Mr. Woolsey's descrip- tions of his visits to these children of the moun- tains and forests, of their manly pluck, and the many traits that distinguished them from the other Indians, had made father very anxious to visit them and see what could be done for their present and future good. PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 67 Accordingly, one Friday morning early in September, father, Peter and I left the new mis- sion, and taking the bridle trail on the north side, began our journey in search of the Stoneys. We had hardly started when an autumn rain- storm set in, and as our path often led through thick woods, we were soon well soaked and were glad to stop at noon and make a fire to warm and dry ourselves. Continuing our journey, about the middle of the afternoon we came upon a solitary Indian in a dense forest warm- ing himself over a fire, for the rain was cold and had the chill of winter in it. This Indian proved to be a Plain Cree from Fort Pitt, on the trail of another man who had stolen his wife. He 1 ad tracked the guilty pair up the south side to Edmonton, and found that they had gone eastward from there. I told him that a couple had come to Victoria the day before, and he very significantly pointed to his gun and said : " I have that' for the man you saw." We left him still warming himself over his fire, and, pushing on, reached Edmonton Saturday evening. Father held two services on Sunday in the officers' mess-room, both well attended. Monday morning we swam our horses across the Saskatchewan, and crossing ourselves in a small skiff, saddled and packed up, and struck 68 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. south on what was termed the " Blackf oot Trail." Within ten minutes from leaving the bank of the river we were in a country entirely new to both father and me. We passed Drunken Lake, which Peter told us had been the usual camping- ground of the large trading parties of Indians who periodically came to Edmonton. They would send into the Fort to apprise the officer 'in charge of their coming to trade. He would then send out to them rum and tobacco, upon which followed a big carousal; then, when through trading, being supplied with more rum, they would come out to this spot, and again go on a big drunk, during which many stabbing and killing scenes were enacted. Thus this lake, on the sloping shores of which these dis- graceful orgies had gone on for so long, came to be called Drunken Lake. Fortunately at the time we passed there the Hudson's Bay Company had already given up the liquor traffic in this country among Indians. We passed the spot where Mr. Woolsey and Peter had been held up by a party of Blackfeet, and where for a time things looked very squally, until finally better feelings predominated and the wild fellows con- cluded to let the " God white man " go with his life and property. Early in the second day from Edmonton, we left the Blackfoot trail, and started across coun- Pioneering on the Saskatchewan. 69 try, our course being due south. That night we camped at the extreme point of Bears Hill, and the next evening found us at the Red Deer, near the present crossing, where we found the first signs of Stoneys. The Stoneys made an entirely different trail from that of the Plain Indians. The latter left a broad road because of the travois on both dogs and horses, and because of their dragging their lodge poles with them wherever they went. The Stoneys had neither lodge poles nor travois, and generally kept in single file, thus making a small, narrow trail, sometimes, according to the nature of the ground, very difficult to trace. The signs we found indicated that these Indians had gone up the north side of the Red Deer River, so we concluded to follow them, which we did, through a densely wooded country, until they again turned to the river, and crossing it made eastward into a range of hills which stretches from the Red Deer south. In vain we came to camping places one after another. The Indians were gone, and the tracks did not seem to freshen. It was late in the afternoon that the trail brought us down into the canyon of the Red Deer, perhaps twenty miles east of where the railroad now crosses this river. The banks were high, and in some places the view was magnificent. In the long ages past, the 70 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. then mighty river had burst its way through these hills, and had in time worn its course down to the bed-rock, and in doing so left valleys and flats and canyons to mark its work. In the evolution of things these had become grown over with rich grass and forest timber, and now as we looked, the foliage was changing color, and power and majesty and beauty were before us. Presently we were at the foot of the long hill, or rather series of hills, and found ourselves on the beach of the river. Peter at once went to try the ford. Father and I sat on our horses side by side, watching hitn as he struck the current of the stream. Flocks of ducks were flying up and down temptingly near, so father shot at them as he sat on horse-back. I attempted to do the same, but the cap of my gun snapped. I was about to put on another cap when my horse jerked his head down suddenly, and as I had both bridle-lines and gun in the one hand, he jerked them out, and my gun fell on the stones, and, hitting the dog-head, went off As there was a big rock between my horse and father's, slanting upwards, the discharge of shot bounding from this struck both father and his horse. " You have hit me, my son ! " cried my father. " Where ? M I asked anxiously, as I sprang from "The discharge of shot, bounding from this, struck both father and his horse." —Page 70. PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 71 my horse to my father's side, and as he pointed to his breast, I tore his shirt open, and saw that several pellets had entered his breast. " Are you hit anywhere else ? " I asked ; and then he began to feel pain in his leg, and turning up his trousers I found that a number of shot had lodged around the bone in the fleshy part of his leg below the knee. In the meantime the horse he was riding seemed as if he would bleed to death. His whole breast was like a sieve, and the blood poured in streams from him. Peter saw that something was up and came on the jump through the rapid current, and we bound up father's wounds, turned his horse loose to die— as we thought — and then saddling up another horse for father we crossed the river in order to secure a better place to camp than where we then were. To our astonishment, the horse followed us across, and went to feeding as though nothing had happened. We at once set to work taking out the pellets of shot. This was of a large size and made quite a wound. We took all out of his chest, and some from his leg, but the rest we could not extract, and father carried them for the rest of his life. We bandaged him with cold water and kept at this, more or less, all next day. During the intervals of waiting on father, we 72 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. burned out our frying-pan, and prospected for gold. We found quite a quantity of colors, but as this was a dangerous country, it being the theatre of constant tribal war, a small party would not be safe to work here very long ; so it will be some time before this gold is washed out. No one can tell how thankful I was that the accident was not worse. The gun was mine; the fault, if any there were, was mine. With mingled feelings of sorrow and gladness, I passed the long hours of that first night after the accident. Father was in great pain at times, but cold water was our remedy, and by the morning of the second day we moved camp out of the canyon up to near the mouth of the Blind Man's River. The next morning we were up early, and while I brought the horses in, father and Peter had determined our course. I modestly enquired where we were going, and they told me their plan was to come out at a place on our out- bound trail, which we had named Goose Lakes, because of having dined on goose at that place. I ventured to give my opinion that the course they pointed out would not take us there, but in an altogether different direction. However, as it turned out, Peter was astray that morning, and got turned around, as will sometimes hap- PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. ^3 pen with the best of guides. After travelling for some time in the wrong direction, as we were about to enter a range of thickly-wooded hills, the brush of which hurt father very much, I ventured to again suggest we were out of our way. Peter then acknowledged he was tempor- arily "rattled," and asked me to go ahead, which I did, retracing our track out of the timber, and then striking straight for the Goose Lakes, where we came out upon our own trail about noon. After that both father and Peter began to appreciate my pioneering instincts as not for- merly. Most of this time we had been living on our guns In starting we had a small quantity of flour, about two pounds of which was now left in the little sack in which we carried it. Saturday afternoon we crossed Battle River, and arranging to camp at the "Leavings," that is, at a point where the trail which in after years was made between Edmonton and Southern Alberta, touched and left the Battle River, Peter followed down the river to look for game, while father and I went straight to the place where we intended to camp. Our intention was to not travel on Sunday, if we could in the meantime obtain a supply of food. Reaching this place, father said to me, " Never mind the horses, but start at once and see what you can do for our 74 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. larder." I exchanged guns with father, as his was a double barrel and mine a single, and ran off to the river, where I saw a fine flock of stock ducks. Firing into them, I brought down two. Almost immediately I heard the report of a gun away- down the river, and father called to me, "Did you hear that ? " I said "Yes." Then he said, "Fire off the second barrel in answer," which I did, and there came over the hill the sound of another shot. Then we knew that people were near, but who they were was the question which interested us very much. By this time I had my gun loaded, and the ducks got out of the river, and had run back to father. Peter came up greatly excited, asking us if we had heard the shots. We explained that two came from us, and the others from parties as yet unknown to us. " Then," said he, " we will tie our horses, and be ready for either friends or foes." Presently we were hailed from the other bank of the river, and looking over we saw, peering from out the bush, two Indians, who proved to be Stoneys. When Peter told them who we were, there was mutual joy, and they at once plunged into the river, and came across to us. Their camp, they informed us, was near, and when we told them we were camped for Sunday, they said they would go back and bring up their lodges and people to where we were. They told PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 75 us, moreover, that there were plenty of provisions in their camp, that they had been fortunate in killing several elk and deer very recently — all of which we were delighted to hear. If these had been the days of the " kodak," I would have delighted in catching the picture of those young Indians as they stood before us, exactly fitting into the scene which in its immensity and isolation lay all around us. Both were fine looking men. Their long black hair, in two neat braids, hung pendant down their breasts. The middle tuft was tied up off the forehead by small strings of ermine skin. Their necks were encircled with a string of beads, with a sea-shell immediately under the chin. A small thin, neatly made and neatly fitting leather shirt, reaching a little below the waist ; a breech cloth, fringed leather leggings, and moccasins, would make up the costume; but these were now thrown over their shoulders as they crossed the river. Strong and well-built, with immense muscular development in the lower limbs, show- ing that they spent most of the time on their feet, and had climbed many a mountain and hill, as they stood there with their animated and joyous faces fairly beaming with satisfaction because of this glad meeting, and that the missionary and his party were going to stay some time with them and their people, they ?6 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. looked true specimens of the aboriginal man, and almost, or altogether (it seemed to me) just where the Great Spirit intended them to be. I could not help but think of the fearful strain, the terrible wrenching out of the very roots of being of the old life, there must take place before these men would become what the world calls civilized. Away bounded our visitors, and in a very short time our camp was a busy scene. Men, women, and children, dogs and horses! We were no more isolate and alone. Provisions poured in on us, and our commissariat was secure for that trip. To hold meetings, to ask and answer questions, to sit up late around the open camp-fire in the business of the Master, to get up early Sunday morning and hold services and catechize and instruct all the day until bed- time again came, was the constant occupation and joy of the missionary, and no man I ever travelled with seemed to enter into such work and be better fitted for it than my father. Though he never attempted to speak in the lang- uage of the Indian, yet few men knew how to use an interpreter as he did, and Peter was then and is now no ordinary interpreter. These Indians told us that the Mountain Stoneys were away south at the time, and that there would be no chance of our seeing them on PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 77 thw« trip ; that in all probability they would see the Mountain Indians during the coming winter, and would gladly carry to them any messages father might have to send. Father told them to tell their people that (God willing) he would visit their camps next summer ; that they might be gathered and on the look-out for himself and party sometime during the "Egg Moon." He discussed with them the best site for a mission, if one should be established for them and their people. There being two classes of Stoneys, the Mountain and the Wood, it was desirable to have the location central. The oldest man in the party suggested Battle River Lake, the head of the stream on which we were encamped, and father determined to take this man as guide and explore the lake, Monday morning found us early away, after public prayer with the camp, to follow up the river to its source. Thomas, our guide for the trip to the lake, was one of those men who are instinctively religious. He had listened to the first missionary with profound interest, and presently, finding in this new faith that which satisfied his hungry soul, embraced it with all his heart. Thus we found him in his camp when first we met, and thus I have always found the faithful fellow, during thirty-two years of intimate knowledge and acquaintance with him. 78 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOK We saw the lake, and stood on the spot where some of Rundle's neophytes were slaughtered by their enemies. This bloody act had nipped in the bud the attempt of Benjamin Sinclair, under Mr. Rundle, to establish a mission on the shore of Pigeon Lake, only some ten miles from the scene of the massacre, and drove Ben and his party over two hundred miles farther into the northern country. We were three days of steady travelling on this side trip, and reached our camp late the evening of the third day. Two more services with this interesting people, and bidding them good-bye, we started for home by a different route from that by which we had come. Going down Battle River, we passed outside the Beaver Hills, skirted Beaver Lake, and passing through great herds of buffalo without firing a shot — because we had provisions given us by the Indians — we found ourselves, at dusk Saturday night, about thirty-five miles from Victoria. Continuing our journey until after midnight, we unsaddled, and waited for the Sabbath morning light to go on into the mission. Early in the morning, as we were now about ten miles from home, we came upon a solitary lodge, and found there, with his family, "Old Stephen," another of the early converts of our missionaries. I had often heard Mr. Woolsey PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 79 speak of the old man, but had never met him before. As he stood in the door of his tent, leaning on his staff, with his long white hair floating in the breeze, he looked a patriarch indeed. We alighted from our horses, and after singing a hymn father led in prayer. Old Stephen was profoundly affected at meeting with father. He welcomed him to the plains and the big Saskatchewan country, and prayed that his coming might result in great good. As we were mounting our horses to leave him, the old man said : " Yes, with you it is different; you have God's Word, can read it, and under- stand it. I cannot read, nor do I understand very much, but I am told that God said, ■ Keep the praying day holy/ and, therefore, wherever the evening of the day before the praying day finds me, I camp until the light of the day after the praying day comes," and fully appreciating the old man's consistency, we also could not help but feel rebuked, though we were in time for morning service at the mission, and home again once more. 80 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. CHAPTER VIII. Provisions diminishing — A buffalo hunt organized — Oxen and Red River carts— Our "buffalo runners" — Meet with Maskepetoon — Maskepetoon shakes hands with his son's murderer — An Indian's strange vow — Instance of Indian watchfulness — " Who-Talks-Past- All-Things " — Come upon the buffalo — An exciting charge — Ki-you-ken-os races the buffalo — Peter's exciting adventure — Buffalo dainties — Return home — War parties — Indian curiosity — Starving Young Bull's " dedication feast " — Missionary labors. Dried meat and pemmican, with fowl and fish now and then, make very good food, but when you have no vegetables or flour to give variety, you are apt to become tired of them. Our garden on the new land had done very well, but it was a mere bite for the many mouths it had to fill. Our own party was large, and then every little while starving Indians and passing travellers would call, and these must be fed. There was no Hudson's Bay post nearer than Ed- monton and no stores. The new mission, already in its first season, had become the house of refuge for quite a number, both red and white. As near as I can remember, it was about the PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 81 first of October that we organized our party for the plains. To do this there was a lot of work to be done in preparation — horses to hunt up, carts to mend, old axles to replace with new ones, harness to fix. We had one waggon. The rest of our vehicles were of the old Red River pattern, wood through and through, that screamed as it rolled. Some of these wanted new felloes, and others new spokes; another had a broken shaft. Then when all was ready we had the river to cross, and our only means of ferriage was a small skiff. This involved many trips, and when all the carts and our one waggon were over, then came the work of swimming our stock across. With the horses we had but little difficulty, but the* oxen were loath to take the water, and we had to lead them over one by one. Then when all were across and hitched up, we had the big hill to pull up ; for while the north bank of the Saskatchewan at this point has a naturally easy approach, the south bank is almost perpendicular. Even to-day, notwithstanding considerable grading, it is a bad hill, but at the time I write of we had to double up our teams to take a light cart to the summit. Mr. Woolsey remained in charge of the mission. Father was captain of the hunting party, with Erasmus second in command. The rest of us Of 82 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. were teamsters, or guards, or privates, as the need might be. On the second day out we met the vanguard of Maskepetoon's camp on their way to the mission. From them we learned the glad news that we might expect to find buffalo about the fifth day out, or possibly sooner. Our rate of travel was governed by the oxen, but as we started very early and travelled late, we could cover a long distance in a day. In going out I drove the waggon and went ahead. Our " runners * ran and fed beside us as we travelled. Father and Peter were in the saddle, and drove up the loose stock, or were anywhere on the line of march as need might require. The buffalo runners need especial mention. There was Peter's horse, a handsome little roan, full of spirit, and yet gentle and easy to manage. Then there was old " Ki-you-ken-os," a big bay that had evidently been stolen from the Americans to the south and had been brought into Edmonton by a Blackfoot, after whom the horse was named. Later on he had come into Mr. Woolsey's hands, and thus we had him with us. He was a fine animal, but alto- gether too impetuous and strong-mouthed to make a good buffalo horse. I saw him run away with father one day, and although father PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 83 was an exceptionally strong man, he had to let him go ; he could not stop him, pull as he might. Then there was my saddle-horse, " The Scarred Thigh," as the Indians called him, because a mad bull had torn him with his horn. A fine little sorrel he was, and an Al buffalo horse. These we seldom touched on the journey, except to give them a short run by way of exercise and to keep them in wind. About the middle of the afternoon of the second day out, we met Maskepetoon himself. He was delighted to again see father, and said he would send some of his young men with us to help in the hunt, as also to help guard our camp and party. For this purpose the old gentleman got into my waggon and rode with me a mile or two, to where the Indians were that he wanted to send with us. As we drove on, we kept meeting Indians, and Maskepetoon told me who they were, and introduced me to several. Presently I saw an old man, of singular appearance, approaching, and I said to Maske- petoon, " Who is that ? " But he, when he saw who it was, did not reply, but turned the other way, which I thought strange. The old man came up to my side of the waggon, and said: " I am glad to see you, young white man." So we shook hands; and he made as if he would shake hands with the man beside me, for I 84 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. knew he did not recognize Maskepetoon, not expecting to see him in my waggon, and going this way. The chief still kept his face turned away. I saw, however, that after shaking my hand, the old man would also shake hands with my companion, so I nudged Maskepetoon and said, "This man wants to shake hands with you." Then the chief, as if jerking himself from under a weight or strain, turned and gave his hand to the old fellow, who, on recognizing him grasped his hand and uttered the Indian form of thanksgiving, doing this in solemn earnest. It was some time before Maskepetoon spoke to me again : " John, that man killed my son, and I have often longed to kill him ; but be- cause I have wanted to embrace the Christian religion, I have with great effort kept from avenging my sons murder. I have never spoken to him or shaken hands with him until now. Meeting your father and sitting beside you has softened my heart, and now I have given him my hand. It was a hard thing to do, but it is done, and he need fear no longer so far as I am concerned." Later on, I found out that the man we saw and Maskepetoons son had gone across the mountains to trade horses from the Kootenays, and on the return trip the old man had killed PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 85 his companion, and given out that he had been attacked by other Indians; but afterwards - it was found out that he had done the foul deed himself. No wonder my friend felt strongly. Any man would in such a case. Bundle and Woolsey and Steinhauer had not preached in vain, when such evidence of the lodgment of the Gospel seed was so distinctly apparent. Presently we came to the Indians Maskepe- toon was in search of. He sent four with us — his son Joseph, his nephew Jack, a Blood man, and a Swamptree — fine fellows every one of them. Joseph was big, solid and staid — a man you could depend on. Jack was small, quick and wild — fond of war and given to ex- cess. It was a long time before he gave up horse-stealing and polygamy. The Blood and the Swamptree were both typical wood and plain Indians, pagans still, but instinctively kind and well disposed. I had met all four several times during the previous year. They all had great respect for father, and would with alacrity seek to anticipate his wish while with us. The Blood man was under vows to his "familiar spirit/' or "the one he dreams of," and one of the injunctions laid upon him was to give a whoop every little while, a very peculiar semi-peace, semi-war whoop. He said to me, in confidence, "John, you do not mind me, but I 86 SADDLE, SLED AND SNOWSHOE. dare not make my whoop before your father. That is why I go away from camp now and then. I must whoop ; it would choke me, kill me, if I did not." I told him to "whoop it up." I saw no harm in it, and the poor fellow was comforted. / As a sample of the trained watchfulness of the men, I must relate an incident that occurred on our journey. The Swamptree was riding in the waggon with father and myself. On the fourth day out we were passing through bluffs of timber, thickly dotting the prairie, when suddenly I saw the Swamptree string his bow and throw an arrow into position in a flash. So quickly did he do this that I was startled, and exclaimed, "What do you see back there ? " The answer, " Men ! " came in a quiet tone, almost a whisper. " Where ? " I asked. " At that point of bushes is one,'' said he. Looking to where he indicated I caught the glint of an eye, and telling father, our guns were soon brought to bear on the crouching Indian, who, seeing he was discovered, rose, with his hand up. Our friend recognized him as a Cree, and behind him stood \ a noted character who went by the name of \ " Who-Talks-Past- All-Things." He had French blood, was a Roman Catholic, and spent most of his time around the Roman Catholic missions. He sometimes imagined himself to be the Pope, PIONEERING ON THE SASKATCHEWAN. 87 and very often officiated among the Indians as priest. He had come out this time with a team and waggon from the Roman Catholic mission at Big Lake for a load of fresh meat, and was now returning. He and his companion were camped for dinner on the other side of the bluft of timber. They had heard us coming, and were bound to make sure who we were before showing themselves. They told us of buffalo, and we went on gladly; but as we were now outside of the Wood Cree camps we kept a sharp lookout for enemies, and a constant guard at night. The next day — the fifth out from the mission — we sighted buffalo, in "bunches" or bands, about noon. We had been seeing a few all morning,