CONTENTdm
British Columbia Historical Books Collection
Howay, F. W. (Frederic William), 1867-1943
"Intended for the young reader, this work includes sketches of prominent people in the colonial period and a chapter on Metlahkatla."-- Lowther, B. J., & Laing, M. (1968). A bibliography of British Columbia: Laying the foundations, 1849-1899. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 187
213 pages ; 21 cm
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A THE LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA BUILiKSRS OF TH3 7380?. A Book of Heroes* Bdited By His Honour Judge F. 7. Eovray, L.l. I* th:: nazgsoB ph::33 Toronto Canada IV } ITQR CANADA. lord of the lands, beneath Thy bending skies On field and flood, where'er our banner flie Shy people lift their hearts to Thee, Their grateful voices raise: Hay our Dominion ever be :x temple to Thy praise. Thy will alone let all enthrone, lord of the lands, make Canada Thine own. Almiphty love, ly Thy mysterious power, In wisdom guide, with faith and freedom dower, Be ours a nation evermore That no oppression blights, Where Justice rules from shore to shore, From lakes to Northern lights. May love alone for wrong atone, Lord of the lands, make Canada Thine ownl Lord of the worlds, with strong eternal hand, Hold-us in honour, truth, and self-command, The-loyal heart, the constaxit mind, The courage to be true, Our wide-extending Umpire bind, ilnd all the earth renew. Thy name be known through .every zone, lord of the worlds, make all the lands Thine owni Albert Bur rant 'Yatson. ^ CONTENTS . Part 1 THE RED RIVER. W.J.Healy. *r --The First White Women in the "test—W.J.Healy 8 --Chief Pequis of Red River W.J.Healy 12 —The Man Who Taught the Indians how To Make Birchb :.rk Talk W.J.Healy 22 —James Sinclair * W.J.Healy 26 --The Red River Settlement in 1869-70--W.J.Healy 31 --Colin Sinclair W.J.Healy 39 --Louis Riijs. and the Troubles of 186i^70--W.J.Healy 42 Part 11 LIFE IN AND ABOUT THE FORTS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. By 7/inifred M, Stevens. 3- 0- -Life In and About the Forts of The Hudson's Bay Company—WiH.i£a?ed-M*«"-Stete'ns- -The Royal North West Mounted Polic§4-The~8,a-de9?g*.of the Plr.ins--Norman Fergus Black, M.A.., D.Paed page -58 -Peace on the Plains; The Blackfeet Indian Treaty- A Hero of the Plains; -Sabariel-Dumont Norman Fergus Black, M.A., D.Paed --Charlotte Gordon 79 3N THE COAST. By His Honour Judge Howay. apter -Quadra- page --His.Honour Judge Howay 109 The British on the Coast Winifred Li.Stevens 114 The Opening of the Land Fur Trade—Winifred M.Stevens 128 Fur Trading Days 1812-1849 His Honour Judge Howay 138 Colonial Days Prof .W.N. Sage 150 Mining, Ro-ads and Development Noel Robinson 172 The Struggle for Representative Gov't.--Noel Robinson 176 The First Chief Justice; Sir Matthew Begbie R.L. Reid, K.C. -184 tfetlakatla; An Ideal Missionary Settlement--R.K. Reid.K. C-192 -Literature and Authors; Sir Clive Phillips Wooley and D.W. "iggins D.a.Mc Gregor 202 } TEE RED RIVER. 7. J. Healy Provincial Librarian of Manitoba. I "I THE FIRST WHIT We left The silent forest, and day after day, Great prairies swept beyond our aching sights Into the measureless West, uncharted realms, Voiceless and calm, save when tempestuous wind Rolled the rank herbage into billows vast, And rushing tides, which never found a shore. And tender clouds, and veils of morning mist, Cast flying shadows, chased by flying light Into interminable wilderness, Flushed with firesh blooms, deep performed by the rose, And nurnurous with flower-fed bird and bee. The deep-grooved bison-paths like furrows lay Turned by the cloven hoofs of thundering herds Primeval, and still travelled as of yore. Charles Mair. TtT FIRST VHITE.lJtM.-IN THE WEST.'- H?*^ ^ 5 Three hundred and twenty miles south of the. Manitoba border, in South Dakota, is the village of St. Pierre, on the west:bank of the Missouri. On the day in March, 1913, a ..little, girl playing with her companions'.near-'the public school, in. that, village found, in the hank af a small stream flowing into the Missouri there a tablet of lead eight inches'long, six inches wide- and nearly half an inch thick, with inscription on both sides. The washing,,away..c"f the bank by the spring rains had uncovered it after .a-hundred and'aevehty years. ;lt was buried there on March'30, 1743, by the Chevalier de la Vere'ndrye, 'as ; evidence'that for the King.'..pf France he had. taken'possession by right of discovery as far as-the Rocky: Mountains, of'a-large part of what is'now Western-Canada-, and. the northwestern part of the United States. He and his brother were on their journey- to rejoin their father at a little stockaded, trading.;post built;-of-logs caulked with clay quad, roofed with strips of birchbark' on.the Assiniboine. It was to be the.site of the future town of - Portage la.Prairie. Sixty miles west of the junction of that river with* the "Red, the city of. Winnipeg was' to have-its beginning a hundred and thirty, years later. , In the journal of the Chevalier -de la Vferehdrye, which in its. original deerskin wrapper (..in Paris), the place- is described where he buried that tablet, which is now in the possession of the Government of the State of North Dakota. "The" Indians' had no knowledge ' of the plate of lead which I placed in the earth,-with the Royal arms and an inscri-pticn", says the journal. ■■ Mere than seventy years before, May 2, 1670, the^Chevalier,made with the point of his dagger the inscription on the back of'that plate of lead, King Charles 11 in London by a few strokes ."of his,'royal quill in signing, the char-, ter of the Hudson's Bay Company had made -Prince Rupert and the 'others "the true lords .and proprietors1' cf most cf the immense extent __ of territory which the -Chevalier took .-possession' cf for King Louis XV. The only payment required by the: chapter- given by King Charles in return for the vast territorial rights- conferred on Prance Rupert and his associates Was. " the. yielling arid paying-, yearly to us," our heirs and.successors., for the same, two elks and, two black beavers, whensoever and', so often as we,' cur heirs- and successors, shall happen to enter into the said'-countries, regions -and-territories hereby granted "-. . .;.-,' ;;■-' ' -".'- . ;-...'. - " '• .. ': "The said countries, regions and territories" were lands unknown to the geography of'that!age. They: were fabulous regions. It was :'believed that ■ what''-was : Spoken of as the. Western Sea-was-'no farther froa ivfrntreal, -;-t -mestt,-. than- wo riow ,k jhewan to be, and th." t £t-«'s Vo .viler 'tfa'a rashed thf. shores .of- .China*; Like-. La Salic, ca-.l for the Orient ( ti;.o rv.imory of >.ig or ;rvV in, the a-.mc; lachln-'., of the to,m an md explored the valley of the-. ...ississi. yi. sons' were led on-by thd ;ao/-o...of reaching the Western ] iho first white men to s.-se-.the VI River aad the prairies spro* >cean-like from the Red to the ,-Rockies. . ;':. Piei-re Gaul tier de-Vareanes,.Siour de la.Verendrye w-s born in L6«5 at Three River3, in Quebec, wliire his father was Governor.' as a ronng man he had a notablyjesreer in the French,army; he was left-for Lead on the battlefield of ^alplaquet, where'Marlborough won a famous victory. After his return to■Canada he was.from 1726 until 1729 in ;harge of a trading post at Ni^igon, on Lake Superior, from the Lallans who came from .the West to trade.there he heard much talk about ;he Western Sea. Ee believed that the Western Sea would' not only open i -way to the Orient, but would also connect the French domain oh the hijf of Mexico with the New France of Canada. The Marquis- de Beauhars, wis, who was Governor of Canada, recognized the importance of la rerendrye's projects of exploration, but he could not persuade the ad- Isers of the French King to providea-hundred mSn and the necessary tanoes, arms and provisions which la Ver'endr'ye needed. All that the L'arquis de Beauharnois could secure for him ..from x'aris was the grant >f a monopoly of the- fur trade in the regions he proposed to explore. aaVerendrye thus was compelled to. see,k hepl from the merchants of [ontreal , who were induced by the profits to be made from trading with he Indians for their furs to „'inves% mpjaey in the undertaking. This leant that exploration could go "forward' only slowly, m. profitable ;rade had to be built up at each post, before the next advance west- ■ard could be made. It was in 1731 that la Verenlryc, his three'sons, Jean-Baptiste, lerre (known later as the Chevalier)'and Francois, and his nephew .a Jemeraye, with a x.,arty of soldiers and v.:yage^"~» - ■*-±-*--±-<*f- -*- ^ 1 ilai iitob a or .Saska t- ierdlt crraj l^'.-n :; nd •Oct. fo rth trom j.; ont- l::i proj -ct 1 rc-iiig pres- pi. ts ub ove.. .ontro mh "Vr rend rye md hi W*' estern 3ft a * They wo re 6* Montreal on his western explorations. Ml the rainbow Wfjffas of "la gloire" lighted their hopeful dreams of reaching the Testern iiu ox-age ujl i/xie oueutea in oiiexr usuai winri/er riu_ui/ing "gruuna, and believing that the Snakes had made a long detour to massacre the Bow women and children left with Francois de la Ver- endrye in the valley to the rear, they hastened back in panic. The Chevalier had to return with them, but first he buried one of the lead tablets he carried with him. A mountain blizzard pursued them, and they arrived at the winter camp in the valley, more dead than alive," says the journal, to find that their fears about the Snakes had been groundless. The Chevalier and his brothers returned along the valley of the Upper Missouri, through the country of the Sioux/ After burying the lead tablet on March 30, 1743, they journeyed back to the junction of the Red and the Issiniboine, and up the Assiniboine to the post which their father had established and named Fort laReine, where he was waiting for them, having heard nothing of them for two years. Following their dream if the Western Sea, the laVerendryes had found a sea of prairie, several great rivers, including the Saskatchewan and the Missouri, and the edge of what they did not know to be a sea of mountains. It remained for later explorers to arrive at the Pacific "the great water, too bitter to drink, beyond the mountains of the setting sun." The little trading post which the father built in 1737 at the junction of the Red and the Assiniboine and named Fort Rouge, and abandoned for Fort laReine, was the first building on the site of the future city of Winnipeg. Not until more than seventy years had passed did the Hudson's Bay Company extend its operations inland from the Bay as far as Red River. I but misfortune dogged them constantly. They were misrepresented and intrigued against during their livesi and after their strenuous lives were ended, it was long before they were given the place they deserve in the history of this continent. They were the discoverers of the great North-West. On January 1, 1743, the Chavalier de la Verendrye, travelling with a party of warriors which he names in his journal the Gens de l'arc, or Bow Indians, saw for the first time in the western horizon "more like clouds than mountains", the high-piled masses of the Rockies. That first view of the far skyline of the mountains increased greatly his eagerness to press on, and made him fret at the wary slowness with which the Indians companions were advancing. He and his brother Francois had pushed on from tribe to tribe, until at last they were with the Bow Indians, a war party of whom against the Snake Indians the Chavalier joined, leaving his brother at the winter village of the Bows in a sheltered valley. Opinions differ as to the route travelled by the Chavalier and his brother. The commonly received belief is that of the historian Parkman, that the mountains the Chavalier saw on the first.day of the year 1743, were the Bighorn range, east of the Yellowstone Park. Judge Prud'homme makes out a case for believing that it was from the neighborhood of the present city of Calgary that Chevalier first saw the Rockies. On January 15 he and a band of Bow Indians were at the foot of the mountains; against the sky soared the snowy heights, an impassable barrier between the plains and the ":estern Sea. Verendrye believed that if he could climb to a mountain peak he would look down on the Western Sea, which had lured his father and his brothers and himself on for more than ten years. Never suspecting that hundreds of miles lay between him and the Western Sea, he was eager to cross the great divide. Destiny decreed otherwise. The raiding party of the Bow Indians found no trace of the Snakes in their usual winter hunting ground, and believing that the Snakes had made a long detour to massacre the Bow women and children left with Francois de la Verendrye in the valley to the rear, they hastened back in panic. The Chevalier had to return with them, but first he buried one of the lead tablets he carried with him. js. mountain blizzard pursued them, and they arrived at the winter camp in the valley, more dead than alive," says the journal, to find that their fears about the Snakes had been groundless. The Chevalier and his brothers returned along the valley of the Upper Missouri, through the country of the Sioux/ After burying the lead tablet on March 30, 1743, they journeyed back to the junction of the Red and the Assiniboine, and up the Assiniboine to the post which their father had established and named Fort laReine, where he was waiting for them, having heard nothing of them for two years. Following their dream if the Western Sea, the laVerendryes had found a sea of prairie, several great rivers, including the Saskatchewan and the Missouri, and the edge of what they did not know to be a sea of mountains. It remained for later explorers to arrive at the Pacific "the great water, too bitter to drink, beyond the mountains of the setting sun." The little trading post which the father built in 1737 at the junction of the Red and the Assiniboine and named Fort Rouge, and abandoned for Fort laReine, was the first building on the site of the future city of Winnipeg. Not until more than seventy years had passed did the Hudson's Bay Company extend its operations inland from the Bay as far as Red River. airs 'Mi 13 U TiV By 7. J. Hexly. Foothills to tha RockiS3 lifting Bro ,vn, tJ t blu^, ml gr ; |n, Warm Alb rrta suffli'igiat Irifting Over leagues between. That's the country of the range Plain, anl priirie-1 ml, And the God who never changes HoiIs it in His hand. Pauline Johnson The first .rhito woman of whom there is record, is not known. Little is known of her beyond that she cxme cut from the Orkney Islands in 1806 in a Hudson's Bay Company's ship, disguised as a young man. She was on this side of the Atlantic only two or three years, then she went home. In the summer of 1907 there arrived at the Red River the second white woman to set foot on . the pr.lries. S^e came with her husban.. in one of the can.-es of a fur tr< ler's brigade from Montreal. Each cance w*s paddled by eighteen men, it took eight men to carry a cxnue over a portage. The canoes were adorned at each end with designs in bright colors. They were manned with French-Canadian voyageurs and Ir- oqufcis Indians from the St.Lawrence, the most skilful of all the canoe men. In starting out, they arrayed themselves in bright- huei shirts -and tied red sashes around their wlsts as belts, and before their arrival at the end of a journey they would bedeck themselves again in all their finery, and come in at their top speed, singing their paddle songs. The woman who came to the West in one of these canoes in 1807 was the wife of Jean-Baptiste Lagimonierem an adventurous young man, who after spending five years in the wilderness cf the Ncrth-'"est with the fur traders, had returned to his home be- . low Three Rivers on a visit. On the next farm lived a family named Gabcury. Ycung Jean-Baptiste was a romantic figure in the eyes of his native parish on the St.Lawrence, there were many parties in that winter of 1806-1807, at which he had to tell of his adventures. His family decided that he had enough cf the Northwest, and that the time had come for him to marry and settle down on a farm in Quebec. It seemed that he wis of like minds with his family. He and Marie Ann Gaboury were married in April, 1807. But they had not been married many days when the young husband told his wife that the longing to go back to the North-West was more than he could resist. She decided to go with him. It took the brigade'of canoes more than a month to make its way up the Ottawa river and across by a succession of waterways to Lake Huron--the regular fur-trader's rcute--and then un to Saulte St.Marie and around the north coast :f Lake Superior. Travelling by way-of Rainy Lake and Rainy river, Lake of the Woods, Winnipeg river, lake Winnipeg and the Rej. river, which they arrived at a trading post known as Fort Pembina, the headquarters cf the buffalo hunters* where the town of Pembina, in North Dakota now stands. There the young couple lived for several months in a wigwam. At the end of their first winter in the West, the Lag-, imonieres decided to cross the plains to the Saskatchewan river with three of the hunters who had wintered with them. Chalifou, Belgr.de and Paquin, who took with them their wives, all of the Cree tribe. They started out late in May in four canoes, travelling down the Red river to Lake Winnipeg, and skirting the western shore of that great body of water until they came to Grand Rapids at the mouth of the Saskatchewan. Marie Anne Lagimondiere's bag-age had to be reduced to the smallest bulk and weight, she carried her baby in a moss bag, after the manner of the Indian women. Here was the only baby in the party. The news ran ahead that a whiite woman was coming with a white baby, and at Cumberland House, a Hudson's Bay Company's post at Sturgeon Lake, on the Saskatchewan, where the oarty made a st ~y, a great assemblage of Indians gathered to see the wonderful sight of the white woman and the white baby. Belgrade, who had arrived there a little in advance of his companions, told the Indians that the white woman wis good and kind, but wis aa powerful medicine woman, and by looking intently at any person who had offended her could cause that person's death. This increased the excitement immensely. Speeches and presents were prepared for the white woman, and the Indians did her the greatest honor and shewed extraordinary pleasure in look's- ing at her and at the wonderful white baby. Not many days after they had left Cumberland House and were journeying westward towards the Fort of the Prairies, where the city of Edmonton is, a man named louvier who had joined their oarty went a little way from the camp fire one night and was attacked by a mother bear with two cubs. His cries for help brought the other men to his aid. The bear was dragging him into the w.o-ds, on seeing the other men, she struck Bouvier savagely in the face and stunnded him, her claws tearing him. Lagimoniere shot the bear, and his wife attended to Bouvier's injuries as well an rbs could. His eyes and nose were gone, and his whole face horribly mangled. She nursed him all the way to the Fort of the Prairies, where he lived in the house of Bishop Provencher at 'it. Boniface, where he died a very old man. "Very well," said the Indian, when this had been interpreted to him. "Take all the horses and one of my children." "Nol Nol" cried the mother. "Neverl" And taking the child in her arms, she began to cry. The Blackfeet chief said no more, but went on his way with ,':j his people and his horses. '" „ In 1811 the Lagimonieres heard at the Fort of the Prairies! a that Lord Selkirk was about to bring out settlers from Scotland to form a colony on the banks of the Red River, and late in the summer of that year they arrived at the site of the future city of Winnipeg. The first of the Selkirk settlers did not arrive until the following year. John Tanner, the explorer and fur trader, was at the Red river in the summer of 1813. "The Scots people to the number of a hundred and more arrived to settle under the protection of the Hudson's Bay Co.pany," he wrote in his journal. Band among these I saw, for the first time since I had become a man, a white woman." The Lagimonieres were then living near Fort Pembina, where they had passed their first winter in the West. At the beginning of the winter of 1815 the man whom Lord Selkirk had left in charge of Fort Douglas, his stockaded stronghold on the Red river, desired to have important messages carried to Lord Selkirk, who was then in Montreal. The warfare between the fur companies w=.s then being waged. lagimoniere undertook to carry the messages, and on Nov. 1, setforth on the long and perilous journey on foot and alone. His wife and children were talren into Fort Douglas, to stay there until his return. In June, 1816, a few days before the massacre at Seven Oaks, which was followed by the capture of Fort Douglas by the men of the North-West Companym Chief Pequis came to the Fort and persuaded Marie Anne Lagimoniere to take her children and go with him to his camp, where he promised them safety with his people. She had almost given up the hope of ever seeing her husband again, when he arrived just before Christmas, 1916, after having been Eventually he returned to the Red River, and liv.d in the house of Bishop Provencba.r at ;it. Boniface, where he died a very old man. For four years /a_ie \iuie Lagimoniere wintered at the Fort of the Prairies. ..very sprint., when her husband returned from his trapping expeditions, she accompanied him to the -Plains with the buffalo hunters. She was an excellent horsewoman, and could ride all day vrithout tiring. On one occasion 3he was riding a horse that was a trained, buffalo rider; she had a bag hung at each side of her saddle, with her child in One of them. When the horse caught sight, of the buffvlo he galloped after them. Lagimoniere, by wheeling and cutting across the horse's path succeeded ^t last in stopping aim and helping to the ground his wife, who had clung to the horse's inane with one hand, clutching her child to her with the other. One day in the following spring the little boy;baby whom she described, in telling her recollections lon.£ afterwards, as being blue-eyed and fair-haired, was stolen by the wife of a chief of the Blackfeet Indians, who made off on horseback with him. Marie Anne Lagimoniere mounted a horse and followed her, after a race of several miles she overtook the Indian woman, who pretended that she was carrying the child away to ylay with him. A year later, the Blackfeet chief, whose wife had attempted to kidnap the infant son of the Lagimonieres arrived with some horses. He led the finest of his horses to Marie Anne Lagimoniere, and asked her for the boy in exchange. The mother, who did hot know his language, made signs that she would never consent to give away her child. The chief, thinking that she was not content with one horse, drew up a second and placed the thong the buffalo hide by which that one was led in her hand, as he had done with the first. "Tell him," she said to her husband, "that I will not sell my child, and that my heart would have to be torn out before I would part with himi" "Very well," said the Indian, when this had been interpreted to him. "Take all the horses and one of my children." "Nol Nol" cried the mother. "Neverl" And taking the child in her arms, she began to cry. The Blackfeet chief said no more, but went on his way with V his people and his horses. _ In 1811 the Lagimonieres heard at the Fort of the Prairies! a that Lord Selkirk was about to bring out settlers from Scotland to form a colony on the banks of the Red River, and late in the summer of that year they arrived at the site of the future city of 7/innipeg. The first of the Selkirk settlers did not arrive until the following year. John Tanner, the explorer and fur trader, was at the Red river in the summer of 1813. "The Scots people to the number of a hundred and more arrived to settle under the protection of the Hudson's Bay Co.pany," he wrote in his journal. Hand among these I saw, for the first time since I had become a man, a white woman." The Lagimonieres were then living near Fort Pembina, where they had passed their first winter in the West. At the beginning of the winter of 1815 the man whom Lord Selkirk had left in charge of Fort Douglas, his stockaded stronghold on the Red river, desired to have important messages carried to Lord Selkirk, who was then in Montreal. The warfare between the fur companies was then being waged. lagimoniere undertook to carry the messages, and on Nov. 1, setforth on the long and perilous journey on foot and alone. His wife and children were taken into Fort Douglas, to stay there until his return. In June, 1816, a few days before the massacre at Seven Oaks, which was followed by the capture of Fort Douglas by the men of the North-West Companym Chief Pequis came to the Fort and persuaded Marie Anne Lagimoniere to take her children and go with him to his camp, where he oromised them safety with his people. She had almost given up the hope of ever seeing her husband again, when he arrived just before Christmas, 1916, after having been m gone fourteen months. In st.-.rting on his journey t south to Pembina, --.& if he Were g expedition. 1 he h,d first gone an ordinary hunting T* He went as far southward as Detroit, in Michigan, after many hardships, trusting to his gun for his food, -arrived in Montreal on New Year's Eve, on the sixty-first day after leaving Fort Douglas. Lord Selkirk immediately set about organizing a body of aicmed men to send to the West. Lagimoniere, after delivering his message, started homeward from Montreal. The heads of the North-West Company hid issued orders that he was to be captured, rewards of rum ..nd tob .ceo being offered to the Indians in the neighborhood of Fort William, the Northwest Company's headquarters in the West. He made a detour to avoid Fort William, but was taken prisoner by .. party of Indians and was confined for several months. When Lord Selkirk in the summer of 1817 arrived at Fort Douglas, which had been retaken by his people, he rewarded Lagimoniere by giving him a grant of land opposite the Fort. The Lagimonieres lived on their homestead on the bank of the Red river until 1850, when Marie Anne Lagimoniere wasrleftLaawidBw*!.AHeherachlift^ &fc&k""fcad£'m&.to»iS'&iaH.d"egtettelished themselves on farms near Sti Boniface, one of her daughters married Louis Riel, known as "the miller of the Seine" from a woolen mill he set up o& the bank of a small stream of that nsime which flows into the Red. He was a notable man in his settlement, his son and namesake was the leader of the rebellions of 1869-1870 and 1875. Marie Anne Lagimoniere lived until 1878, when her long life came to a peaceful ending in the house of her youngest son. From the time of the return of the Orkney girl to Scotland until the arrival of the first women among the settlers sent out by Lord Selkirk, she was the only white woman on the northern half of this continent west of -the Great Lakes of whom there is a record. The first white women who crossed the continent south of the international line were the wives of the two Pfesbyter- ian missionaries, Marcus Whitman and Henry Spalding, who accompanied their husbands to Oregon in 1836, twenty-eight years after the journey made by Marie Anne lagimoniere with their first child across what is now Western Canada to within sight of the Rocky Mountains. She was in her ninety-sixth year when she died, from that time she left her childhood home for the West in 1807, a young bride with her adventurous husband, she had never heard anything of her relatives in distant Quebec. 44¥1 1 1 CHIEF PERQUIS OF RED RIVER By W. J. Healy. As I stood on the bank of the river that runs by Saskatoon, I saw the incredible happen in the sober light of noon. I looked out over the prairie as far as the e: could see, .And never a stone as big as your hand, and never the sign of a tree, Only the golden stubble with the first light snow between, In the fairy light of the primal world where beauty first was seen.... And I beheld no longer the voyaging clouds hull-down, But towers of beautiful cities and homes of many a town, And over them all was gladness and peace and freedom from care And I heard the laughter of children ring on the frosty air* PTRQUIS OF RED RIVER. When Manitoba, the first of the Prairie Provinces, was established in 1870, all the area between Ontarij? and British Columbia was then a wilderness upon which, save in a few isolated localities, no mark had been made by man. The distinguished suoldier and writer, General Butler, who as a young man was in Red River with the Wolsey Expedition in 1870, described that empty vastness by the title he gave his famous book which he published in 1872, "The Great Lone Land." The West was held in fee simple by herds of buffalo and wandering tribes of Indians. The only records left on the prairies by other activities than those of the changing seasons were the permanent buffalo trails. There was but one place where settlement had passed beyond the stage of being ho more than a few hunter's families clustered about a trading post. This was on the banks of the Red and the Assiniboine rivers in the neighborhood of their junction, where the settlement known as Red River had grown up during the preceding half-century, until it had come to number about 12,000 people in all, of white and of mixed blood. Of the Metis, or Bois Brules—a nickname which the French-speaking people of mixed blood used themselves, proud of their "burnt wood" hue of skin—there were not a few frugal, thrifty families, who had comfortable on their farms; there were others who were roving and were less provident. They loved the excitement, adventure and the freedom of the great buffalo hunting expeditions, which set forth every spring and fall from Red River, where they provided themselves with all things needful. The settlers sent out by Lord Selkirk found both the Meiris and the Indians friendly from the first. The friendliness between all classes was strong. The Metris who relied on the proceeds cf the buffalo hunterasfor their livelihood, and had no liking for the toil of tilling the land, used to call the Selkirk settlers, who worked hard on their long, narrow lots, running back two miles from the river frontage, "the gardeners". When the settlers were harvesting their crops, the women working in the fields with sickles, by the side cf the men, they sometimes hired Indians and men of the mixed blood as helpers; and when the buffalo hunting expeditions went out on the plains in the spring and in the fall there always went with them adventurous young men from the Selkirk settler^s families. In the early years of the settlement the lack of food in the winters drove the settlers to take refuge at the trading post at the junction of the Pembina river with the Red, which was the headquarters of the buffalo hunters; on that journey of more than sixty miles. Indians carried the little children of the.settlers on their ponies, and treated them with all kindness; thcugh the mothers, when the „Indians rode off at top speed, were terrified, thinking they might never see their children again* The friendly relations between the Indians and the Selkirk settlers were in a great measure due to a notable Indian, Chief Pequis, of the Saulteaux tribe, whom Lord Selkirk found to be the most powerful chief in the region. He w.'.s born about 1774 at Sault St.Marie, and as a young man, he led a band of his tribfc westward to the Red river, where they established themselves; the other tribes whom they found settled on the banks of the Red were the Crees and the Assiniboine. The Assiniboines soon afterward suffered many deaths from small sox. The survivors of that tribe, believing that the Evil Spirit was the cause of that terrible visitation and that it was the will of the Master of Life that they should move away, went west and were seen no more in the Neighborhood of the Red River. Chief Pequis was a man of great strength of body, and remarkable resoluteness and courage. He possessed the gifts of an orator, and was looked up to by the Indians for his wisdom. From the first he was the unswerving of the white people and during the fur trade hostilities he gave convincing proof that he had athheatt the safety of the settlers. I He was the principal one of the five chiefs with whom Lord Selkirk on July 18* 1817, made the treaty "at the Forks uf the Red and the Assiniboine," by which the Indians gave up their title to the land "extending to the distance of two English state- ute miles fro, the banks of the said rivers on each side, as far as the "Greu-t Forks at the mouth of the Red Lake River" (in what is new Minnesota), in consideration of a quit-rent of "two hundred pounds weight of good merchantable tobacco, to be paid on or before October tenth cf each year." The Indians' version of the "two English statute miles" was that they gave the Silver Chief, as they named Lord Selkirk, the land back from the river banks as far as daylight eould be seen under the body of a pony standing on the level prairie. One of the earliest descriptions of Chief pequis was written by Alexander Ross, who, for many years was Sheriff of Red River. In his book, "Fur Hunters of the Far West," he records that as he came up the Red River he met some Indians, who took him to their Chief Pequis. He and Chief Pequis remained friends for forty years. At that first meeting he failed to catch the Chief's name accurately, and wrote down jocularly "Seigneur Pigwise" in his notebook. Pequis lost the tip of his nmse, which was bitten off in a fight when he was a young man; but Alexander Ross made a note cf the "expressive countenance" of that "short, stout, middle-aged man"'. The Chief showed Ross his treaty medal and the document lord Selkirk had given him, dated Fort Douglas, July 20, 1817, which testified that he was a "steady friendMof the settlement ever since its first establishment," and "had never deserted its cause in its greatest reverses." The documents said further: He has often exerted his influence to restore peace, and having rendered most essential services to the settlers in their distresses, deserves to be treated with favor and distinction by the officers of the Company and by all friends of peace .and good order. After leaving Chief Pequis, Alexander Ross, who was on horseback, jogged on. Farther up the riverjae "met a fellow .:.;.! dressed in red leggings, with a bunch of feathers stuck in his cap, and in his hand a coil cf shaganappe, like a piegan horse- thief." Ross asked the man in the red leggings to direst him to the road to Fort Garry. The man pointed southward. "I see no road," said Ross. "There is no road," said the man "but we go that way." Farther on Ross saw " a small isolated dwelling among the trees skirting the river. Presently he met one cf the Selkirk settlers, who, in answer to a question, said "There are no towns, or villages, or merchants in the colony. "Are there any magistrates, cr any gaols?" asked Ross. "No." replied the settler. "Then," said Ross, "ycu must consider honesty a virtue. "There is hardly a lock and key, bolt or bar on any dwelling h-.use or barn among us," returned the settler, "and our windows are parchment, without any shutters." "That," said Ross, "speaks'well for the honesty of the inhabitants." The conversation recorded by Ross gives us a glimpse of the peaceful, pastoral community life of the Selkirk settlers, far cut cf the world, like a little island in mid-ocean,, and aac- essible in their remoteness only by long journeyings through wild regions. In 1855 Sir George Simpson, the Governor cf the Hudson's Bay Company, gave Chief Pequis a document testifying anew to the value of his constant friendship to the settlers, and containing the notification that the Company would pay him thereafter fin annual pension. He was taken to the annual Council at Norway House that year, and sat at the table with Sir George and the Chief Factors assembled there from all the principal posts cf the Company throughout the West. No other Indian Chi^f was over honored in that way. sai 15 The methods of Pequis in dealing with the Indians were methods capable of other methods; as hevproved by his manner of disposing of a difficulty that arose'in the 1850's. Thomas xruthwaite, the son of a retired officer of the Company, farmed a river lot at At.Andrews rapids on the Red. He asked the Chief if he might have permission to fence in a field of the Indians' land adjoining hie lot, and sow it with wheat. Pequis after considering the matter briefly, said; "My son, you may fence in a field and plough it, and plant wheat in it and have the crop". In the following year some of the Indians went to Truthwaite and demanded part of his crops in payment for the land he fenced in. Ee gave them presents of pork and flour, and put them off; and then he went to Chief pequis. The Chief sent a message to all the bands, calling them to meet him in council. When the hour came which he had fixed for the council, he arrayed himself in his war bonnet with feathers and the warrior's garb he had worn as a young man, and put on his war paint, and came to the council' with his scalping knife in his belt. He lighted the council pipe, and it was duly-passea around and smoked in silence; and after the other preliminaries had been observed, Chief Pequis spoke. "I have given the use of some land to my adopted son", he "If anyone troubles him in*any ^r_-andL M chief snatched the scalping knife from his belt and brandished it over his head—"I will rip up the trouble maker." There was no further discussion of the matter. The council broke up. That brandishing of the scalping knife was a flash of the Pequis of the old times before he was converted by the missionaries. There is an interesting record of the process of his conversion. It is in a little book entitled "The Rainbow in the North," which was published in London in 1852 by the Church Missionary Society. In the Journal of Rev. John fest, the first Church of England missionary in the West, it is related that when the brigade of York boats in one of which John West was a passenger arrived from Hudson Bay-entered the Red river on the morning of October 13, 1820, the first stop was made at the camp of Chief Pequis, who was invited to join the party at breakfast. There is frequent mention of Chief Pequis in the Journal of John West; for instance, on November 2, 1821, West, being then on his return from a journey to the north of Lake Winnipeg, writes; ""e arrived at the camp of Chief pequis at Net- ley Creek, having been delayed for several days. Food had run short, and we were nearly famished. When he had returned to England in 1823, his succesaor, Rev. David Jones likewise found in Chief Pequis a firm friend, aa did all the succeeding clergymen in Red river during the following forty years, including the first Bishop of Rupert's Land, Right Rev.David Anderson, who came out from England in 1849. Archdeacon Cochrane records in his narrative "the sound of the conjuror's drum and rattle" in the camp of Chief Pequis, who for all his friendship for the missionaries, held for several years to the old Indian beliefs and observances. He allowed, however, one of his children to be baptized. The child died o soon afterward, and those of the Indians who refused to listen to the missionariea said that the death of the child was a manifestation of the anger of the Master of Life, and begged pequ*s to have the Indian rites performed over the child's body. But Pequis refused, and announced to them that he had made up his mind to become a Christian. The missionaries, however, insisted that before he could ■ baptized he must amend his way of life, which was not with- "■■-^ained earnest- W Soon afterwards a son of his died out on the plains, and the body -was brought to the banks of the Red river for burial. The face was painted red, red feathers were stuck in the hair, and beads were put in the ears and nose and a necklace around the neok, and the body thus arrayed was sewed up in a blanket with the weapons and the hunting and fishing gear of the young man, in accordance with the ancient Indian custom. Chief Pequis asked that the body might be buried in the churchyard, next to the ploice he had selected for his own grave; Rev. John Smith- hurst, who was then in charge, found it hard to refuse that request, but felt that he had to -do so; he suggested that the body be buried just outside the boundary of the churchyard. After a silent struggle with himself, Pequis consented. "He had the body stripped of every badge of heathenism," says the missionary narrative in "The Rainbow in the North" and. put in a coffin, and employed Christian bearers to carry it to the ground." It was in January: the wind was blowing a hurricane, the air was darkened with drifting anow,. the thermometer stood at eight degrees below .zero, and Mr. Smithurst, who could see the whole proceedings from his window, concluded that as soon as the grave was covered in, the party(for many heathen relations had come to attend the funeral) would disperse. But they still stood round the grave, and preaently he saw that the Chief was addressing them with great earnestness; the faith and love of the good old man rose above his grief, and he wvas taking advantage of the solemn occasion to invite his unbelieving countrymen to Christ." The narrative says that "the feelings of the poor father were deeply wounded" by the refusal to allow the body of his son to be buried in the churchyard, which he could not understand. We may believe that it was no less difficult for Pequis to bring himself into complete understanding with that refusal than for a white man to think himself inside the red skin of Pequis and in imaginative sympathy lock out through the eyes cf Pequis on the body of his dead son. Chief Pequis lived to his ninetieth year. He died in 1864. At the funeral Archdeacon Cowley and Hunter officiated. On May 24, 1924, a monument in Kildonan Park, in Winnipeg, erected by the Lord Selkirk Aasosiation in memory of his staunch friendship for the white people of the Red river and the national import.^<*e of the services he lid the colony in its early years, was urns veiled. The Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, Sir James Aikins, Archbishop Mathescn, Eon.Colin Inkster, Sheriff cf Winnipeg, one cf the oldest survivors from the Red River era, and Chief Henry Prince, a grandson of Pequis, were present at that veremony and made addresses. "Chief Pequis was a friend of my father," said the Archbishop. "They hunted together and visited each ether. I can remember of the Chief only that he was a fine, noble, Christian gentleman. He called my father 'Little Brother', not because my father was small, but because, as he himself said, he was so big." The grave of Chief Pequis is in the burying of St.Peter's Church, below the town of Selkirk, not far from where he had his camp on that October morning in 1820- when the brigade of York boats arrived and he saw John West set foot for the first time on the bank of the Red river. iW^^ IV EHE MAN WHO TAUGHT THE INDIANS HOW TO MAKE BIRCHBABK TALK. By W.J. Healy. I lift the Lord on high Under the murmuring hemlock b&ughs, and see The small birds of the forest lingering by And making melody. These are mine acolytes and these my choir And this mine altar in the cool green shade Where the wild soft-eyed does draw nigh Wondering, as in the byre Of Be+hlehem the oxen heard the cry And saw Thee, unafraid. Marjorie Pickthall THE MAN WHO T.OJGHT THE INDIANS HOW TO "MAKE BIRCH- BARK TALK" The first missionaries to set foot on the banks ofathe fied river were two Roman Catholic priests, Fathers provencher and Dumoulin, who arrived in July, 1818. Before the summer was over they were lodged in a log house, part of which was used a3 a chapel, on land given by Lord.Selkirk at the mouth of a stream, known afterwards as the Seine, flowing into the Red not far from Fort Douglas. Rev. John West arrived two yeaais later to make a beginning of the Church of England mission, which by the middle of the century had established seven churches along the Red and the Assiniboine, with parochial schools, a collegiate eSKoBl'.'for boys and one for girls. In 1844 Bishop Mountain of Quebec, the first Church of England bishop to visit the West, spent several weeks in Red River. He and Father Provencher, who became Bishop of St.Boniface'in 1847, exchanged visits. In 1849 the West had its first Church of England bishop, Right Rev. David Anderson, who was consecrated Bishop of Rupert's Land in Canterbury cathedral, on the eve of his sailing in a Hudson Nay Company ship for his remote diocese. In 1853 Bishop Provencher died, and was succeeded by Bishop Tache, who was destined to play a notable part in Western history. The year after he became Bishop of St.Boniface he made a journey to Lake Athabaska. In a letter written from the mission at lie a la Crosse (in that remote region) he described the mission building there. "It is twenty feet by twenty," he wrote "and seven feet high, and ameared all over with mud." This mud is not impermeable, ao that rain, wind and other atmospher- ic elements have free access. Two windowssashes, comprising six panes light the main apartment; two pieces of parchment serve for the remainder of the lighting system. In this 'palace' where everything seems small, everything is, on the contrary, a-- stamped with a character of greatness. For instance, my secretary is a Bishop. My chamberlain is a Bishop. And at times even my cook is a Bishop. These illustrious employees have numerous defects; nevertheless, their attachment to my person renders them dear to me." Another devoted missionary who in later years worked on the Athabaska, the Mackenzie and the Yukon, was Rev. William Bompas, who became the first Anglican Biahop of Athabaska. The people of the different denominations in the West were all on the friendliest terms with one another. In the records of the Souncil at Red River we read that in May, 185i, Archdeacon Cochrane moved and Father Lcfleche seconded in resolution for .'. grant of one hundred pounds to be divided between the two bishops "to be applied by them at their discretion for the purposes of education", and in the following ye^r Father Lafleche seconded a resolution proposed by Jr. John Bunn that a grant for the same purpose should be made to Rev. John Black, the first Presbyterian minister in the ''est, then newly arrived, for whom his flock in Kildonan had waited so long. Until his arrival the Presbyterian people attended the .-aiglican church which afterwards became 3t.John's cathedral in Winnipeg. One of the first infants baptized in the Kildonan Kirk by John Black was Samuel Pritchard Matheson, who had been left motherless and was brought up by his uncle, Hugh Pritchard. The Pritchards were Anglicans, the Mathe sons-'-Presbyterians. And so it was that Samuel Pritchard Matheson, the youngest of the family and the only one baptized by a Presbyterian minister, grew up an Anglican and became Archbishop of Rupert's Land and Primate of All Can-. ada, and all his brothers and sisters, baptized in St Johns before there was a Presbyterian minister in the West, grew up Presbyterians. The earliest Methodist missions were in the northern region of what is now Manitoba. James Evans, an Englishman by birth who had done twelve years' misaion work among the Indians in Canada West waa chosen in 1840 to superintend a Methodist mission to the Crees north of lake Winnipeg. He established ,a mission village, which he named Rossville, near Norway House. within a few months of his arrival there he devised a system' of nine syllabic characters for writing the Cree language. He found in the 2&st that to teach the'Indian to read his own ^ language by the Roman alphabet was a more tedious and difficult undertaking than to teach him to speak English. Each of the nine characters devised by Evans stood, in itself, for a consonant; but the manner in which it was turned, up,'down, right or left made it stand for a consonant with a vowel added. Evans made the Cree syllabic system of writing simply to teach the Indians to read and write their language; he aid not at first realize.how remarkable a thing he had achieved. The Cree language is understood by the Indians of all the Algonquin tribes; the supremacy of the Cree in this-respect is the explanation of the name the Crees themselves give their tribe, which means "the exact people". On October 10, 1840, Evans wrote in his diary: "Several of the boys are beginning to read the written hymns in the Cree character." On December 3: "The Indians and children sing these hymns well, and several read with some fluency. The short time which is required to learn to read and write arises from there .being no such thing as learning to s^ell, every character in the alphabet being a syllable; so that when these are learned, all is learned. Several of the boys and youn." men can write any word in the language, seldom committing any error." And on June II, 1841, he wrote: "The men, women and children at Norway House write and read it with ease and fluency; as do some European gentlemen, who speak the language of the Indians in different parts." Among the "European gentlemen" at Norway House at that time waa young Robert Michael Ballantyne, who was then a junior clerk in the service of the Company; he left that service after a few years and travelled widely, and became celebrated as a writer of stories of adventure. In the first of his many books, "Hudson's Bay, or Life in the Wilds of North America, he tells of a Christmas feast at the mission village: I entered the schoolroom, and beheld two long rows of tables covered with puddings, les, tarts, stews, • hashes and.vegetables, smoking thereon. A large shell was sounded after the manner of a bugle, and all the Indians of the village walked into the room and seated themselves, the woman on the one side of the long tables, and the men on the other. Mr. Evans stood at the head and asked a blessing, and then commenced a work of demolition, the like of which had not been seen since the foundation of the worldI One old woman, cf a dark brown complexion, with glittering black eyes, and awfully long teeth, set up in the wholesale line, and demolished the viands so rapidly that those who sat beside her, fearing a dearth in the land, began to look angry; fortunately, however, she gave in suddenly, while in the middle of a venison pasty, and reclining languidly backward with a sweetly contented expression cf countenance, while her breath came quickly through her half-opened mouth, she gently fell asleep, and thereby, much to her chagrin, lest the tea and cake which were served cut soon afterwards by way of dessert. When the seniors had finished the juveniles were admitted, and they soon cleared away the remnants of the dinner. The dress of the Indians on this occasion was generally blue cloth capotes with hoods, scarlet or blue cloth leggings, quill-worked moccasins, and no caps. The ladies had short gowns without plaits, cloth leggings of various colors, highly ornamented with beads, cottom handkerchiefs on their necks, and sometimes also on their heads. The beys and girls were just seniors in miniature. After the youngsters had finished dinner, the schoolroom was cleared by the guests; benches were ranged along the entire room, excepting the upper end, where a table, with two large candlesticks at either end, served as a stage for the young actors, "/hen all was arranged, the elder Indians seated themselves on the benches, while the boys and girls ranged themselves along the wall behind the taoPe. 24. i^-Ul^-T^ J*,G5 began by causing a little boy about four years ol.,. to recite a long comical piece of o-r-.-se in English. Having been well drilled fof weeks%efore- hand, he did it in the.most laughable style. Then came forward four little girls, who kept up an animated discussion as to,the difference of the days in the moon and on theoearth. Then a bigger boy made a long speech in the Salteaux language, at which the Indians laughed immensely. Then the whole of the little band, upon, a aign given by Mr. E%rans, burst at once intc a really beautiful hymn, which was quite unexpected, and consequently all the more gratifying. After a short prayer, the In liana departed to their homes, highly delighted with their entertainment. Such was the Christmas feast at Rossville, and many a laugh it afforded us that night, as we returned home in our moose-skin coats across the frozen lake on our snowshoes by the pale moonlight. Evans left in his diary a record of how he devised a way of printing his Cree syllabic characters* Donald Ross, the Chief Factor at Norway House, who was interested in what the missionary was doing and helped him had the lead lining of the tea chests which came from England in the Company's ships saved for him. This was the only lead obtainable, ex- ceptthe lead of bullets. He melted it again and again, to harden it; and he mixed soot with sturgeon oil. A jackpress at Norway House, which was used in making up the bundles cf furs, served as his printing press. The first product of his press was a little hymn book of sixteen pages, which, Mrs. Evans stitched together. Paper was not plentiful at Norway House, and he used sheets of birchbark to,print on. Some specimens of his printing were sent to Evans by his brother in England, who brought them to the attention of the people there, with the result that a sum of money was raised by public subscription to provide a small printing press, which was sent out to Norway House, together with type for the printing of the Cree syllabic characters and a supply of paper and rinter's ink. Some hf the Indians were able to master in a day or two the art of "making birchbark talk". Many were able to do so within a week. It added $.0 the attractiveness of the new and wonderful inventidn that it was net a thing of hidden mystery, forbidden to any but the few. Al were invited to know it. The only materials needed in the practice of the art were birchbark and charred stick. It appealed strongly to the imagination of the Indians, as Evans found not only in his mission tillage but when he went on his missionary travels. He made many missionary journeys. He started out on one of them in a canoe of sheet tin made fey himself -and the Company's tinsmith at Norway House. The Indians, on account of its shining brightly in the sunlight, gave it a name which meant "the island of light". On a journey in a birchbark canoe strips of birchbark.and a supply of spruce gum were always carried, in readiness for repairing an injury to the canoe e..sily and quickly; the Indians, when they first saw the tin canoe asked h.w a rent in it could be mended. Evans carried solder and a soldering iron for that purpose, and when the Indians saw him patching a small hele which a sharp rock had made in the tin canoe, they marvelled at hia ingenuity. But the tin cance, when it filled with water, sank. A bark canoe full of water flcats. At the end of the. journey the missionary told the Indians that his experiment with "the island of light" had served only tc prove that their canoes were to be preferred for service. Evans' companions on his journeys was Thomas Hassell, a young Indian man, who spoke both English and French in addition to.Cree, his mother tongue. On a morning in the fall of 1845, when the missionary, Eassell and another Indian were crossing a small-lake in a birchbark canoe, seme two hundred miles west of Norway House, Hassell, who eas in the front of the canoe, said he saw some ducks in the reeds near the shore, and asked that the gun be passed to him. The leaded gun was in the back of the canoe. The other Indian, who was paddling'in the stern, quickly took it up, turned it so that the muszle pointed forward, drew back the hammer to half-cock, -and passed it to the missionary. 25. who, intent of looking for the ducks, t ..k the gun by the barrel with The right h ail, with.ut turning his head* As he was drawing it forward to give t; Hossoll, the hammer struck sthwart of the canoe, the gun went off, she-.ting Eassell, who fell forward and died without speaking again. The missionary and the other Indian could do nothing but - bury the body by the side of the lake. They returned in.grief to the mission village. To the sorrow of the missionary was added concern for his safety, when he announced that he was going to Hassell's family, to tell them of the untimely ending of the young man's life. It was a long.journey northward. Hassell's family belonged to a band of Indians of which he was the only member who had been converted to Christi.-i.nity. James Ev.?ns knew how quick the Indians were in avenging the killing of a relative. He wis advised not to go, but he believed it to be his duty to do so. When he came to his joumney's end and told of the death of Thomas Hassell, there were angry words at first; some of the men of the band were for killing the missionary in requi$fc|i. for the death of the young man. But in the end it was decided that he Should be adopted into the bereaved family and take the young man's place. The ceremony of adoption lasted several days; when it was ended,'he returned to the mission village, from which he sent gifts regularly to the Indian family of which he was now a member. He died in the following year. The use of the Cree syllabic characters spread rapidly to all the .dlgonquin tribes, from the head waters of the Ottawa river across the continent to the Rocky Mountains, and far up into the Arctic circle. It supplanted the "picture writing" which the Indians had used from a time before the coming of the white man. The "picture writing" was an imperfect means of communication; the characters devised by James Evans gave the Indians a meana of putting their spoken language into written furm. They made a post office system of their own by "blazing"gntree and marking the characters on the white surface, or by leaving a mesaage on birchbark under 3 fdw stones, with a peeled branch of a tree set up to attract attention. By 1860 the missionaries of all the denominations were using the Cree syllabic system. The most celebrated of all the Roman Catholic missionaries in the West, Father Lacombe, who first arrived at St.Boniface in 1852, and ten years later established in a log house inside the stockade of Fort Edmonton the first regular school west of Manitoba, testified early to its great usefulness and the the quickness with which the Indians learned it while he was at work on his grammar dictionary of the Cree language, a book of nine hundred pages; he translated a hymn book, a book of prayers, a catechism and the New Testament into Cree, and had the tranalations printed in the syllabic characters, with certain additions. In 1861 the British and Foreign Bible Society did likewise with the whole Bible. Bishop Horden, whose name holds a high place in the history of the Anglican missions in the West, wrote a book about the Cree syllabic system, and made a translation of the Book of Common Prayer, which was printed in the characters of that syatem. In more recent years Archdeacon Macdonald took the Bible and other books printed in those characters to the tribes on the Arctic Ocean, including some of the Eskimos; and the Canadian Bible S -ciety has sent such books to the Chipewayans, to the tribes on Slave Lake, to the Tinnes on the lower Mackenzie and to the Eskimos in Baffin'a Land. When Lord Dufferin visited the West in 1877, as Governor- General, he paid an extraordinary tribute to the memory of , James Evans. "What a blessing to humanity was the man who first invented that alphabet!" he s:aid at Winnipeg. "I profess to be a kinu of literary man myself, and try to keep up my reading of what is going on, but I never heard of this before. A title and a pension have been given many a man, and then a resting place in Westminster Abbey, who never did half so much for his fellow-creatures." JAMES SINCLAIR By W.J. Mealy "Bite deep and wide, 0 axe, the tree, ■'.hat doth they bold voice promise me?" "I promise thee all joyous things Thatfurnish forth the lives of kings: "For every silver ringing blow Cities and palaces shall grow." "Bite deep and wide, 0 axe, the tree.1' Tell wider prophecies to me." "When rust has gnawed me deep and red A nation strong shall lift its head." "His crown the very heavens ;shall smite Aeons shall build him in his might." "Bite deep and wide, 0 axe, the treely Bright, Seer, help on thy prophecy." Isabella Valancy Crawford JAMES SINCLUR. Until the nineteenth century h..d run the first quarter of its course, the history of the Selkirk settlers wcs a history of toils and hardships and sufferings. After their return to their Lands, from which they had been driven away by the "Nor-"-'esters" in the fighting ag-inst the Hudson's Bay Company, their calamities were not yet ended. Their crops were destroyed by grasshoppers, and as the crowning disaster crane the great flood of the Red river in 1826. But after the flood waters receded, good times began. The whole population of the settlement known as Red River at that time was less than two thousand. The merging of the North-West Company with the Hudson's Bay Company had brought peace to the Weat. The remoteness and isolation of Rupert's Land were, in -a measure, increased, and Red River felt itself to he more a colony of Great Britain than of tn, Canada, T^e fur traders' route from Montreal was used no more for heavy freighting; the commodities needed were brought from England in the Company's ships,,and came inland from the bay in York boats, which returned northward from Red River to the Bay laden with furs. Summer travel over the vast plains westward and southw-r-1 from Red River was by Inlian ponies and Red River carts. In the winter there was no other way of travelling from Red River than by dog carriole, or going en foot, as Jean-Baptiste Lagimoniere lid on his journey from Fort Douglas to Montreal. The main settlement of the French-speaking people in Red River, the voyageurs and ccureurs de boisfrom Quebec, the buffale-hunters and cart-drivers and fishermen, including many of mixed French-Canadian and Indian blcod—was along the Assiniboine and on the right bank of the Red above the junction with the Assiniboine. One the left bank cf the Red, below "the Forks" were the retired officers and servants of the Company--nearly all Orkneymen—who had settled with their families on river lots. Below them were the Selkirk settlers in Kildonan, which extended nearly four miles along the Red. Their river lots were in many cases -divided among the sons of the families, with a river frontage for e ..ch son, so that when the Ontario people "the Canadians", aa the Red River people called them—came to Manitoba and saw the narrow farms in Kildonan, they said that the Selkirk settlers' families "farmed on lanes". The Selkirk settlers were from Sutherlandshire in the highlands of Scotland; where they had been evicted from their little holdings to make room for large sheep farms. In two parishes one sheep farm displaced a hundred.crofters. Their language' was"the Gaelic", and until the Selkirk settlers had begun to pick up English, converse between them and the people of Orkney blood in Red River was difficult. The Kildonan people while quick to learn English, cherished their mother tongue; When^Eev. John Black arrived from Canada in 1852. and they had their own minister and kirk at last, his lack of "the Gaelic" was a grievous disappointment to the older people among them. %s the years went on, some Scottish people of lowland stock settled in Red River. "My grandfather, James Fraser," aays Mrs. Neil Campbell, cne of the oldest survivors from the Kildonan of the Red River time, "came of lowland people, like Dr. Black, -and my grandmother, 'onne Bannerman, was of highland stock and apoke the Gaelic when she was young. I remember when I was young and there -were some girls cf neighboring families at our house, one of them said to my grandmother, teasing her, ''Then you and Mr. Fraser did not understand each other's language, how did you know what he meant when he told you he loved you and wanted you to be his wife?' My grandmother said, 'Wait until your own time comes, my dear, and you will know- howl ' among the people cf Orkney blotd who lived in Red River were several Chief Factors and Chief Traders, whose accumulated wages and profits from the Company, greatly, increased in some cases by investment in Montreal or in Great Britain made them men of wealth. Content to end their days in famil-' iar scenes and under an agreeable jurisdiction, they had married wives of the country, and on retiring to the banks of the Red, they built large, substantial houses, in which they lived in comfort. They farmed their own land. In their houses was furniture brought out from England. They sent by the ship fro, York Factory orders for things needed for their households; the things ordered were brought out by next year's ship. In the later years cf the Red river era many commodities were brought in from th south by Red River carts travelling in long trains across the plains. 3alled, who lived on ons and daughters of nany years at York "The Company People," as they wi the banks cf the Red, included marri William Sinclair, who was Governor f Factory, where he died in 1818. Governor Sinclair was a notable figure in the Company's history. He was said to be of the family of the old Earls of Orkney. Among his grandsons may be mentioned the late Sir Edward Clouston, President of the Bank of Montreal, and Hon. Colin Inkster, who was President cf the old Legislative Council of Manitoba and has been Sheriff of Winnipeg since 1876. Among his granddaughters is the oldest woman aurviving from the Red River era, Mrs. William Cowan, of Winnipeg, whose ninety- fourth birthday was on July 9th l^st. ivfra. R. A. Rogers, another grandchild, is the first woman elected to the Legislature of Manitoba, in which she sits as one of the representatives of the city of Winnipeg. Governor Sinclair sent all his sons at anyearly age to school in Scotland. He intended his second son, James, after his schooling in Edinburgh was ended, to go into business in England; but the young man preferred to return to Rupert's Land and join the service of the Company. He was ambitious and energetic; anl after a winter at Moose Fort, on James Baym his ambition and his energy would not let him be content with the prospect of winning his way gradually by promotion as an officer of the Company. "Why should I not leave the service and go to the Red river and strike out for myself as a fur trader?" was the question he kept turning over and over in his mind, with the coming of spring. gone from the waterways he wrote his rein the hands of the Chief Factor at t on the journey of twelve hundred miles ""hen the ice was signation and left it Moose Fort, and set ot by canoe to Red River. He was a young man of remarkable ability. He had the pres tige of the Sinclair name and the advantage cf his Scottish education, and was soon launched oh his successful career. For a time he. was in partnership with Andrew McDermot, an Irishman who had come out in theoship which brought the second party for the Selkirk settlement; he arrived in Red River in 1812, and before 1840 had made himself the wealthiest man in the settlement; McDermot ovenue in Winnipeg bears his name. "Andy McDermot", said his closest friend, Sheriff Ross, the Gaelic from the people of Sutherlandshire on the voyage out, can speak the language of the Indians better than the Indians themselves. He can run like a deer -^nd endure cold like an eskimo dog, and there isn't a judge cf a man and of a horse in Red River better than he." James Sinclair, when he became an independent trader after his partnership with dndrew McDermot, used to take his furs to St.Peter's on the Mississippi, and to St.Louis. He was the first man in Rupert's Land to send furs to England independently of the Company, by way of New York. Sir George Simpson, the Governor of the Company, tried in every way to induce him to rejoin the Company's service, but Sinclair preferred to be independent. But he joined hands with Sir George Sirroscn in the rndeavor to colonize Oregon with Brit- i'sh settlers, in the hope of holding that territory under the British flag. In the winter of 1840 they persuVed twenty-three Red River families t'o move to Oregon, with their hes-ges-^'Md cattle and their household belongings. Settine forth in the spring of 1841, James Sinclair led the party acc- roas the plains and through the pass he discovered in the Rocky Mountains, which is still known as Sinclair's Pass. His daughter, Mrs* Cowan, remembers hearing him tell of the happenings on-that long journey, of which no written narrative has been preserved. One result of that first visit of James Sinclair s to Oregon was that he entered into business relations with John Jacob ".stcr; and soon afterwards the growth of his busineaa affairs made it necessary for him to visit England. In the spring of 1848 he took Airs. Cowan, then a girl of sixteen, and her younger sister with him on his way to St. Louis, and left them at Knox College, in Galesboro, Illinois. The party had three Red River carts, with horses, and a force cf six men; they were three weeks in crossing the plains to St.Paul, They sow the newly-built log cabin cf Pierre Bottineau, which was then the only building on the site of Minneapolis, now a city cf 400, 000 people. In that whole cast area of the unorganized Territory of Minnesota, greater by a third than the area of ingland and Section!, the white people and those of mixed blood numbered at that time enly a few hundreds. Two years later, on his journey homeward to Red River from a trip to St.Louis with furs, he brought back his two daughters with him from Galesboro. -It that time he was preparing to move his family tc Oregon, where he had already bought timber lands and ranching lands. Among the household goods he had taken down to St.Louia in 1850, on their way to be shipped around Cape Horn to Oregon, was the first piano in Red River, which had been brought from England. The ship in which it was sent was lost in a storm after rounding Cape Horn, and the first piano in Red River found its last resting place on the bottom of the Pacific. ney to Oregon, go- ich, after his ent out by the 1858. "Th 3 time daughter, frs. ay between Can- tockies it will go ontinental rail- coasts of the ed cf in h ls time, t and West were that he ever im- eels whose tires air, wcul I speed re autcmob Lie high the summer of 1923 In 1852 James Sinclair male another j:ur ing again by way of Sinclair Pass — through wh death, the Palliser exploration expedition, s British Government, travelled in the fall of will come" James Sinclair often said, as his Cowan, remembers, "when there will be a railw ada and the Pacific coast. In crossing the R through Sinclair Pasa." His visi.n of transc way-building to link the Atlantic and Pacific Canada of the future which few, if any, dream came true; but the links of steel between Eas not laid through Sinclair Pass. We may doubt agined that horseless vehicles, running en wh contained rubber tubes filled with compressed through Sinclair Pass. The Banff-to-Wir" way through that Pass was formally cpene In 1853 James Sinclair returned to Red River from Oregon by way of the Isthmus of Panama, Cuba and J^'ew York; and in the following year he left Red River for the last time, taking with him several members of his own family and fourteen other families. Sir George Simpson at 1xst hal persuaded him to rejoin the Company's service, but it was only on condition that he should be free to carry on his own lumbering and ranching and other business in Oregon. The letters he wrote on the last journey he made across the plains and through Sinclair Pass are preserved as family records, some, in Oregon and So-me in Manitoba. -The endeavor to hold under the British flag the disputed Oregon area by "effective occupation" had not aucceedel. The number of United States settlera was more than ten times greater than of British settlers, (the few hundreds); and ike inflow of United States citizens was increasing rapidly. There MSdlfFJ&stffSS? of i^m-ation-al VViculty over the Oregon James Sinclair wu:-: appointed in charge of the settlement of the Hudson's .tsay company's affairs in the ref-,l,a which was declared finally to be United States territory, iror some time the Oregon Indiena had been tnreatening to go' on the warpath; in 1805 they began hostilities. In a letter ..ritten fcom ^ort Vancouver in January of thai teear James Sinclair said that he w s about to return to the company's post at Walla Walla, in the region of dispute."Sir George writes me, "he wrote in the letter, "that I am to assume charge also of the Snake coTintrym jj't. «oise and rL.Hall—these have -11 gone wrong— completely disorganized, those in charge having'ettended on; y to their own private affairs, ahe Americans and Snakes are at war, and soon both regulars and volunteers will move up into that country, r'-iis will keep me in hot water. La the meantime ammunition is not sold to the Indians. -:That is to be the end of all this, ti.-ne alone can tell." urde -3 weie received fro;n the united States military headquarters in uregon to abandon ,rort 'Vails "-'alia, vvhich was in the heart of that portion of territory where the Indian danger was the greatest. So,hurriedly were the Fort ana the settlement abandoned that the cattle and the household belongings that could not be easily transferred, were left behind. On February 19th James Sinclair wrote; "In my last letter I mentioned that I was on the eve of starting for 'valla "alia with 150 mounted rifles, who 'were to occupy the Fort. Oa our way up we were met with an express with tns intelligence that a few days after 1 left, a large party of Indians, about 1000 strong, had plundered the Port, and acre tnen in possession. Deeming our force inadequate to retake it, -we -.cere compelled to make a ■ halt 25 miles away and wait, for reiniorcem^nto. In the meantime we fortified our position, and built a stockade. ?ere we were cooped up for fifteen days, surrounded by a large body of Indians. After receiving reinforcements, we made a night march upon the Fort, which we found in ruins, '.ve had pretty hard fighting for four days;however, we ousted the Indians from their position and drove them before us for forty miles In -.j, few days there will be 3,000 regulars and ii.OOO volunteers in the field. The whole country is in an uproar from the California frontier- to the British boundary. The Indians attacked the town of Seattle in open day, and would have destroyed it, had not the Dacatur sloop of war got her got her broadside on, and with shot and Shell driven them off. I was within a yard of two of the great Walla '"alia chief, Peu-yeu-: ox-Mox, when he was shot. The whole scalp was taken off his head, and cut up in twenty pieces; his skull was divided equally for buttons, his ears preserved in a bottle of spirits, and large strips of akin cut off his back to be made into razor strops. Such is Indian warfare." Tn the following month he started up the Columbia river to go to ".alia ".alia. .t the eascades on that river a tramway was'being constructed in order to expedite the carrying of supplies around the rapids. ?- number of log houses und a large storehouse haa been built there. James Sinclair and his p^rty were at the Cascades on r.iarch 26th., when a sudden attack was made by a large force of Jakimas and other Indians. Cn the first morning'of the fighting he was killed. The siege lasted two days, and was ended by the arrival of lieutenant ihil Sheridan, (afterwards the famous General Sheridan;, of the Civil Par), with a force of United States cavalry. James Sinclair's body was taken to iort Vancouver, &&u buried in the military graveyard there. The n-.-.vs of his death came to Red river the following June, on the morning of the arrival of °-ir George Simoson's party of express canoes from Montreal. The letter from'the coast was Mnded to !^rJforge a3 he walked up the bank towards the gateway of lower Lort Garry. "'Ve have lost our best man*" he said, after reading it. xhe Company has lost its ablest officer.n THE RES MtE£ SETTLEMENT if 1851. . By 7. J. Healy. THE RED RIVER SETTLEMENT IN 1851. Let us, in imagination, :-.pproach the Re--. River settlement in the late afternoon of -a day in '.ugust, 1851, -with a train of Re^ River C-mrts, which st..-.rteu from St.Paul f .ur weeks ago .and has been travelling northward ever since. During several days of its journeying the caravan has had to keep on the lookout and guard againat Indians, especially at night; It is while the caravan isatrsvenging the territory of the Chippewas, usually called the Pillagers, a region of lakes and forests, that there is need of special watchfulness. Each cart is drawn by an ox; the load is about ninr hundred pounds of merchandise; Rivers and streams have had to be forded, and in swampy places the men have had to toil in helping the oxen; some days' journeys have thus been much less than twenty or twenty-five miles which the whole train of nearly a hundred and fifty carts has travelled between morning and sunset on the dry, level prairie. The Red River carts were two-wheeled, and were made wholly of wood, axles mi. broad rims of high wheels and all; not until the closing years of . the Red River era was any part of a cart iron. ". cart that looked new was unusual; the average cart showed that breakages had been patched and mended and tied together with rawhide thongs. No grease waa used on the acles. because experience had taught )or so it was believed) that the fine dust along the prairie trails lodged in the grease and wore the axles and hubs down. In order to make the axles and hubs give longer service they were kept greaseless.AsAaloaded cart joggled along it made loud squealings that on a still day could be henrd for over a mile. "The creaking of the wheels ia indescribable", wrote the poet Charles M--.ir, when he came to Red River in 1868. "It is like no sound you aver heard in all your life, and makes your blood run cold." The driver strapped a scraped buffalo skin, or a piece of oiled canvas over his cart at night with a raw-hide thong, and made it a tent. He could take off the wheels, which were of a "dished" shape (that is to say the broad rims were farther out from the body of the cart than the hubs were), and by lashing them together and fastening the buffalo skin ardprefar^ly a piece of oiled canvas, he could make a boat in which to cross a river too deep to ford. The "dished" shape of the wheels was of advantage also in making the carts go better along uneven and alippery ways, and in preventing them from toppling over. As we approach the Red River settlement, from the cart on that dugust afternoon more than seventy years ago, we begin to see the small log houses of the French-speaking settlers iagji^0.thet^reest5,loa|i,tfcev.?il?^ !S§NL K°W ^ they are nea:r" ing home the Metis cart-drivers don the new red sashes they have bought in St.Paul, and knot bright-colored handkerchiefs about their necks; some tie the gaudy handkerchiefs round their heads like turbans. They begin to take from under their carts their private packages of bright-hued feathers and ribbons, and other presents they are bringing home. Presently friends come riding on ponies to meet them. One of these riders is Joe Amyot. After travelling along the line of carts, he finds the friend he is looking for, who was to bring him a bright-colored shirt. Joe dismounts and trudges by the side of his friend, leading his pony. They have come to the part of the trail that is now St.Mary's road, 'in asphalted thoroughfare, along which run the electric etreet cars that come and go from Winnipeg over the bridges spanning the two rivers. Presently, as the trail neara the high river bank of the Red, Joe and his friend come in full view of three large buildings which look westward across the Red to the mouth of the Assiniboine. The nearest of the three buildings is a white- washed dwelling house, the home of hospitable Narcigse Marion, the wealthiest French-Canadian resident of, the^Red itiver. .The second is the convent of the Grey Nunsm a broad-fronted builo- ing, which haa two rows of windows an"., unlike the other ftii&J**! o%MldsllHem^lnI^rahitrlh^cMt!r!i 8? $f JonI- lace -built of 3tone. Only one of ita two steeples, in which 3 chime of bells ic. o.ung, i :■. finish"1. Pacing b'--.ck -in; forth on the river bonk before the cath- elral is a black-gowned priest, reeding his breviary, which at intervals ho holds behind his back between his h..nds, with his right finger botwe :no the 1 -e.v- s .- s a marker. If wc stand no.ar him and look across to the ssiniboine, shading our o,ycs -gainst the sun, we see r little v: ;/ up tho far bank cf that river the grey stone wall that goes oil round Fort G-rry, gabl-o-hifrh to thr buil ■i.nr.-j it r-nclcs<js; r-.t the corners of the wall are cone-sh:;pea bastions. Joe Amyot is riding horn? past the cothedrfl, when the priest calls him. Re dismounts, leads his pony over, and struias, cap in hand. "There --re visitors at the Port," s-.ys the priest. "They vrill wartt a guide tomorrow to the Jjtone Port, perhaps." Joe makes his thanks, cna rides back prst the fence of poplar rails in front of the i arion house to the road down the river bank to the ferry, which ia c simple cable-and-scow affair. !?any of the carts which have arrived have to cross this evening, and the river bank is crowded. Joe rides back past the cathedral to the log house of a friend, where he leaves his pony and burrows a dugout canoe, in which he crosses to the Fort. He climbs the bank and goes to the river-gate in the wall facing the Assiniboine. Once inside the Fort, he soon learns from friends of his who paddled a Company canoe which arrived from dembina only a couple of hours ago, that there came in that canoe two young Englishmen, who are now in Governor Caldwell's house. Joe finds out that they came across the plains to Pembina with a party on horseback, with pack horses. Leaving their horses aa Fembina, the two young men seized the chance to go to Fort Garry in a Company canoe. They have some to Rupert's Land for the great buffalo hunt in the fall. Joe's face has its friendliest smile when he sees Dr. Cowan, the young medical officer of the Fort, riding in at the river gate with a young horsewoman in an English riding habit, /■fter the Doctor and the young lady have gone into the Governor's house, Joe, who has been the doctor's guide on more than one hunting trip and knows himself to be a privileged character, goes to the door and asks if he may speak to Dr. Cowan. When Dr. Cowan comes out, Joe asks him if the visiting gentlemen are likely to want a guide to the Stone Fort tomorrow. The good- natured Doctor goes back into the Governor's house. Joe, whom ae has told to wait at the door, has a glimpse of the living room, where Mrs. Caldwell, wearing a lace cap and dressed as she nrould be if she were in England, is chatting with the young lady In the riding habit and the two young Englishmen, who are telling about their journey §@roV§1:the plains';— The young lady made the same journey to Pembina last year with her father and sis- ber, in returning from a two years' stay at a college in Illin- The room is bright and pleasant, with house plants in the slndows, a framed steel engraving of Oueen. Vistoria and the Prince Consort, with the little Prince of Wales and the princess Royal and two other Royal children, over the fireplace, another large engraving of one of Landseer's pictures of stags in the highlands of Scotland on the wall opposite the windows, m& several watercolors. A melodeon stands in one corner, and there is a music box on a side table. Through an open door foe sees part of a handsome sideboard in an adjoining room. Dr. lowan comes out through the hall, where there are riding whips and guns and paddles and snowshoes, horns of elks and moose on the walls, and tobacco jars^and.pipes,on the side table, and^ells Joe that "'he is to rlde^aowiTtb the stone Port with the visitors tomorrow. As Joe passes out through the river gate on his way to the dugout canoe. Or. Cowan and the young lady ride out of the Fort, on their way back to the young lady's home, which is on the bank of the Red about a mile downstream. And now let us go with the two young Eno-iiahmen and their f.uide, as they set forth from irort Garry of which only the western gate is standing today, for Lower Fort Garry, twenty- miles down the river called then the Stone Fort, It still stands complete and perfectly preserved, as it stood on that day in August, 1851. We ride northward alon,.. the river road, which is no., Pain street in ''innipag. Half a mile from Fort Garry we pass a point which in time to come is to be the junction of Main street and Mortage Avenue. Where the Bank of Montreal buildina stands now we see a smoke-browned, 3inew-siitehed Indian tent. The Indian stands watching us as we pass. $ squaw is busy loading a dog %*aye!sf and a boy who stands staring at us as silently as his father is holding a snared go_her squealing and clawing at the end of a buffalo-skin string. A little north of here, between us and the river, is the house in which 'ndre.T McDermot lives. It stands, facing the river, in a grove of trees, with a windmill at the back of it. There are several buildings. The place is known as Emerald Grove. Nearby is Mr. MeDermot't tradin. store, which looks like a weather-beaten barn. Joe tell a the visitors that olr. McDermot is a man of importance and wealth, a freight&rgacross the plains and a merchant who does more business than anybody else except the Company. The visitors go to Mr. McDermot's house to present the letter which the governor has given them, and they are told he is at the store. On entering the store, they walk into an interior tnrough which clear air and sunshine comes only through a few small windows. There are mingled 3mells of dried hides, Indian dressed skins and groceries. Mr. i&cDermot; a brisk little man of sixty, with twinkling blue eyes, rather long qhitish hair which was originally red, and a fast and humorous tongue, is unrolling a web of plain cotton for two women who have 3pread before them red flannel and navy blue print with a yellow pattern. "Come in, r-entl':man* Come inl£he calls out to the vioitors. "I'll be with you in e jiffy." The two Englishmen look about them and see large roe,.lily made tables heaped with merchandise. There are shelves which likewise are filled with goods; the floor is piled with boxes, barrels and bales. There are dressed buffalo hides, and near them on the floor bundles of buffalo meat which has been dried on the plains in long slices streamed with fat. There is pemmican, which is the staff of life on the plains and a staple food in Red uiver, in packages (one huadred pounds) covered with buffalo skin, rhere are moccasins in bundles, boots many chests of tea, boxes of tobacco, rice and raisins, loaf sugar and other commodities. All these boxes are strongly made, lined with tin, and strengthened with iron bands, d'here are kettles of various sizes and frying pans, all of iron, hanging from the roof beams are a pair of large balmiees and a pair of small balances. The visitors tell S!r. licuermot that they are surprised not to see more furs than a few buffalo skins and one of two fox skins and be-.ver skins. "Those few skins you see have come in during the last day or two," Mr. ;:cDermot explained. "The furs are collected only in the winter time, or the early.spring, and are alwa,/s sent away in the spring." T'e shows them j- collection of Mm sown aork in beads silk and dyea quidls, tone by Indian women .mm the wemo,.. of mi:-ed blood, While they tare ts-li.'ing, the door opans taid a tall, elderly man, with a shrewd coltish face ,.-nd a mou of brindlod' hair, comes in. !' f, is Sheriff hoss. The visitor' o-.es that he and 'ndrevv . cDermot are close friends, 'heni-r. ..o.-.-ermot tells them that the .heriff was for years in the Company's service on the lacific coast ond has travelled through the Pocky - ouu- tains, thoy are keen to have him tell them of his adventures; ^nd on his inviting thorn to come to his house, th-..y promised they will do so when they return from the. Stone Port. "and mind that you've promised to come 'ndre-w AcJa-imot. to ] hous The visitors toko the road again. ",hen they art passing the house next to Andrew i.cDovmot 's on the- livei bonk, Joe Arayot tells them that it is the home of "the. doctor's young lad^", Miss Sinclair, whom thoy met in Covornor Caldwell's noose Her father, James Sinclair, is away from .'.ed Pivor, on one of journeys. Kaxt alon^ the river is Sheriff Ross's place, Colony -.s the riders towards the Ltone port follow the river trail, which takes them past groves of Manitoba maple and thickets cf shrubbery through which at every bend of the river they have glimpses of fields of wheat or potatoes or oats or barley, their view to the right is bounded by the elms along the river bank, and to their left are harvestt'fields, and pasture land beyond, extending to the skyline. They are hardly ever out of sight of houses along the river, surrounded by their well- thatched outhouses and haystacks and wheatstacks, which are increasing daily now as'the crops are being gathered, ^s the result of what they have seen already of Red River since their arrival at Iort Garry, and of what they are seeing now and will see when they have gone farther down the river and are in Kildonan, where the farms of the families of the-Selkirk settlers are, the pictures of Red River which will remain in their minds will be a moving panorama of glim^-ses of river, whitewashed stone houses, whitewashed log houses with thatched roofs and green window-frames, barns, stables, harvest fields, with the level lines of the pictures broken by church spires and the long arms of windmills, some swinging around, others at rest, waiting for a grist. In the harvest fields they see scores of carts, each drawn by a single ox or horse, moving with their loads, each like a travelling stack on its way to join the assembled haystacks and wheatsta'eks near the barns. Joe Amyot directs the attention of the two visitors to what is left of Fort Douglas, where a wuarter of a century before stood the colony's stockaded stronghold. They see a few small, whitewashed houses, which are all that was left in 1851 of that establishment; there is not a trace of Fort Douglas- left now. Before long steeple and bell, st<;ep-roofed hous apart is a two-st walls of Re ledge of the whol that the house is in the garden are man in charge of Peter's, down the ment. The Bishop has won him the 1 black- 3ilk apron buckles. Mr. Coy, years he is to be John's cathedral; also physician er. ^hen they : they enter his ho locked, make thai through the ceili ing that Mr. Cowl they come in sight of a stone church, with Nearby, on the bank of v creek, are the two es of the Red River Academy, and a little ory house with the narrow'eaves and plain white r architecture. Priding himself on his know- settlement, Joe Amyot informs the visitors Bishop's Court, and that the two gentlemen Bisho^ Anderson and Mr. Cowley, the clergy- he Church of England Indian mission at St. river, below the end of the Red River settle- a dignified, portly man, whose kind heart iking of all in Red River, is wearing his :nd his .gaiters, and his shoes have silver ley is a tall man, with red hair. In a few made Archdeacon Cowley and moved up to St. at present/he not only is a missionary, but judge and advisor of the Indians down the rived his services as doctor during the night, ouso quietly, the. £.:or of which is never y straight tc the stovepipe which goes c his bedroom above, end t.-.p on it, know- Ill coma down imm«di tf ly. 36 well nol^vM^u^twwg^nl SSg^SlM? "M§£ R^^SlSoSe^t-- Bishcp's Couft, and they are token ever to see the cathedral and the Academy. On their return to Bishop's Curt, Miss Anderson,, the good Bishop's sister, who keeps house for him and his three small motherless children, insists on their having a biscuit and sherry before they go on. again, is an expanse 1 '..in; and ae points S;von Orks took place, To their left, as they take the road which Joe Amyot tells them is caled Frog out to them the place where the affray at on that day of bloodshed in June, 1816. Thoy are now in the district occupied by the families of the Selkirk settlers. The Kildonan kirk, which in years to come is to be known as"John Black's church ", has yet to be built. The arrival of Rev. John Black, the first Presbyterian minister in Red River, is to be next month. The Kildonan people, who are to be his flock, are now at work busily, building a mcanse for him; they have it almost finished; It is to serve as their meeting place for worship until the kirk la built, for which the stone already has been quarried at the hill twelve miles westward known as Stony Mountain, an^. most of it brought by Red River carts in summer and sledges in winter to the chosen site. This summer the work has been carried on with increased enthusiasm, in the spirit of the time when "the people g .thered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem" and"the builders laid the foundation cf the temple of the Lord." Our travellers have now been for some time passing fielas in which sturdy women^jare at work. The younger women and some of the older ones ".rear sunbonnets; the heads of the others are bare, and their faces a.re burnt dark by the harvest sun. Some are cutt- ting the wheat with sickles, others are raking anl binding. In fields where the cutting is being done with scythes men are doing the work. To Joe Amyot there are "the Scotch", a st.aid, toiling people. His grandfather used to speak of the Selkirk settlers"as "the gardeners", who woull rather drudge on the land than hunt the buffalo. As for Joe, he will tell you they are good people; some of the younger men of Kildonan who-g& ont^S- the plains with the buffalo hunters are special friends of his. But the Kildonan men do not weoor buckskin trousers and brightly-colored sashes, as the Bois Brules do up the river; they are clad soberly in trousers of faded amber cord, or gopher-striped homespun, and instead -f the red-checked shirts of the French-speaking people, they wear shirts that are lrah as Joe probably thinks their lives must be--except for their weddings, at which, he kn ws, they d.'-nce all night. He and his people talk fast, and laugh a great deal, -.n.. "have their dances and sing paddle songs, and go into their cathedro-.k, with its gay chimes on Sundays and saint's ..ays and the call of the angolus bell at morning, noon and sunset on all days, with its high, arched, decorated ceiling, its pictured Stations of the Cross en thew- walls, .nctuary lamp keeping vigil day and night before the alt.or, -s solemn services with shining c ondles and the smell of oe is glad he was born to bo a buffalo hunter .aid If for many of his people, wh,. ..re not persevering s the Kildonan people are, there is between the buffalo hunts, it is well worth w those hard intervals to enjoy the excitement plenty cf food and the material to be traded ior things needed, when the hunters find the buffalo in the spring fall. its and incense, voyageur. riculturis . le.an time e going through the glo-ri- us ••all other the plains again when the buffalo running begins in the A few miles along the ro anglican church, St.Paul's, Ihey are new at the north end families of the Selkirk settl d our travellers pass another oe speaks cf it as Middle-church. of the district peopled by the rs. They continue on, and have journeyed some sixteen miles from Fort Garry when they come to the Rapi&§, where there are several stone houses of retired Company's officers. On rising gre.und near the river, they catch sight 'cf St.Andrew's church, whlcb>$hey declare the best built church in Red River --nd the dme having the finest situation. It is true cf St.Andrew's, as of all the churches in Red River, that they have been biilt by the devoted and enthusiastic labor of the people. When the lines for the foundation cf St.Andrews 37. were marked, sever; 1 of the parishionerssorosc before ddwnj of tho day when the work -,w a to be begun., e-ch hoping to be the first to turn a sod. "'hen the earliest of them arrived on the ground they found that Archdeacon Cochrane was there before them and^hid already done more than an hour's work with his spade, '.'.'hen the wo.lis were being built the heavy stones were carried up by men who used harness around their shoulders for the work. Vfc the Rapids the two young Englishmen coll feSbotheuhouse' of Thomas Sincl-lr, r younger brother of James Sinclair's. They ha.vo many questions to ask about his trips to and from Norway House and the Bay with his brigades of York boats, and he insists on their staying for dinner before they go on to the Stone Fort. Mrs. Sinclair, a tall, handsome, dark-eyed woman, with her brown hair in ringlets, who as Caroline Pruden was the ■prettiest girl in Red River, joins in her husband's invitation. Joe takes the horses to the stable, and Mr. Sinclair tells him to have his dinner in the kitchen, where he soon makes himself welcome. In the evening, after Joe Amyot has left the two visitors at the Stone Fort, where they are staying the night, he is riding home alone along the river road back to "the Forks". There is a harvest moon. As his pony jogs on, he thinks of the coming buffalo hunt. He halts his pony for a moment to listen to a sound that comes from one of the Kildonan houses. It is the sound of the u^per stoxie of a quern being ground round upon the fixed nether stone. The woman of the house always does the grinding; it is her laat work before she goes to bed. Her husband and the children are already in bed. Children abound in Kildonan. In many of the Kildonan families, as in many of the families of Joe Amyot's own people, there are orphaned children, children whom the good-hearted householders have taken in and made their own. When a mother is ill, the neighbors take her children into their houses. In this second decade of the twentieth century there are pioneer women in the remote parts of the West for whom life means loneliness as well as hard work and privations. The pioneer families of Red River never knew the loneliness of isolated homesteads; the very isolation of the settlements made the Red River people draw closer together. The low gtnanddQf grinding, which Hoe Amyot hears is the sound Jesus had in his mind when he said"Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left." The Kildonan woman whose grinding at the mill Joe Amyot hears has worked today in the field, she has milked the cows and fed the calves, she has churned the butter in the dasher-churn, and now she is breaking the grain for the morning meal tomorrow, which will be another like today. But when Sunday comes there will be no work dene in Kildonan. VI1 CCIIj si ;ul*ir aly There's e thing we love to think of v&xen summer days are long, When the summer winds are blowing, ...nd the summer sun is strong; When -t^e orchard > nd the meadows fling their sweetness on the sir, And the grainfields flaunt their richesm one the. glow is everywhere: Something sings it all the aay, ■oanada, fair uanadai And the pride thrills through and through us; 'Tis our birthplace--Can:M3. Jeen Blewett. On the west bank of the Red river in the grounds surrounding Seven Caks, the house Sherli'i Inkster built in 1874 and has Jived in ever since, is the old Inkster house, which his father had built in 1851. The Seven Oaks property is just outside the north limit of the city of Winnipeg. The oak logs of which the old Inkster house is made, all squared to g size and fastened together with oak pins, areaas sound as they were seventy years ago. The locks and door handles, and other fittings which came out from England in the Company's ship for the house in the year it was built are still in use. There are no sagging timbers in the house; the floors are level, and the whole house is well preserved. In that old house the grandmother of Sheriff Inkster, Mrs. William Sinclair, the wife of Governor Sinclair, lived the closing years of her life as a widow; and in it she died. She v.-as the daughter of an Englishman, George FLOlden, who was- an officer in the Company's service at York Factory; her mother was of the Cree tribe. Four generations of her family have always spoken of her by her Indian name, Nahoway. Sheriff Inkster, tall, straight, and so active in his eighty-first year that he might easily be believed to be a score of years younger, remembers her well. Governor Sinclair's youngest son, Colin, was born in 1816 at Oxford House, post of the Company between York Factory and Norway House. In his earliest infancy his mother prevailed on her husband to,promise that instead of his*being taken from her while only a child, as his brothers had been sent across the Atlantic to be educated, they should keep him with them. Governor Sinclair died before the child was two years old; and in 1825, when Colin Sinclair was a boy of nine, the officer then in charge at York Factory, upon whom the executors of Governor Sinclair's will had expressed the desire that the boy should be educated in Scotland, was urged by them to send him across in the Company's ship on its return voyage in that year. The ship was anchored several mi&es out from shore,,on account of the shoal water nearer in, and was ready to sail. The nine-year old boy begged to be taken out on the sloop to see the ship, and was happy when he was told that he was to be given his wish. On board the ship he was delighted with everything, and tired himself clambering about. The officer from York Factory and the captain were busy with their papers, and the tired boy fell asleep. The time came for the ship to sail, and the sloop was ready to return to York Factory. The boy was not awakened and the sloop returned without him. "I will give him all the care I would give to my own child", the captain promised, "and deliver him to his relatives in Stromness." When Colin Sinclair came to "innipeg in 1897, a man of eighty-one, he told his grandneice, Margaret Strang, who is now Mrs. Clifford, that when he awoke on the ship and found the sloop had returned to York Factory without him, he cried his heart out. The kindness of the captain and of everybody else on board and his love of ships and the sea which made his life a seafaring one for many years, helped to lessen his loneliness and grief. He was put to school in Stromness. In his eighteenth year he articled on a ship in the coasting trade. His father had made a yearly provision for him, which teas paid at Eudson's Bay Eouse in Iondon. Once when he went to get it, he was stopped on the stairs by a short, brisk, vigorous man, with searching, humorous eyes, who looked at him keenly, and said, "^re you not a Sinclair?" It was Sir George Simpson, who after expressing his surprise that the young man was not in the Company's service, said, "I am sailing for Canada in Wo weeks' time, and I want you to come with me." Yeung Sinclair that had to serve out the term for which he rrticled. "And I would rather follow the sea than be a fur trader, " he told Sir George. "Very well", replied Sir George. "The Company hasoships on sec, as well as trading posts on land. I want you to join the service." But when Colin was twenty-one years of age he received i gum of money provided for him by his father's will; nnd after finishing his educotion in Edinburch, so as to qualify himself fully as a navigator, he bought an interest in a ship xhich was engaged in China and India trade. In time he became captain of the ship, and eventually her owner. On his return to England from one of his voyages he met in London an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, who told him his mother had gone to Red River, had married again, and was now dead. It was true that she had gone to York Factory to Live with son, Thomas Sinclair, near St.Andrew's Rapids, but it was not true that she was dead. Colin Sinclair, who before tiod had been strangely unmindful of his mother, now ceased altogether, it would appear, to think of his relatives in Rupert's Land. In 1849 he took his ship to San Francisco. There the crew ieserted to join the gold-seekers. Ee succeeded in getting another crew, and continued his seafaring life for several years nore. At last he sold the ship, and after many wanderings on land he settled in San Francisco, where he became harbor master. after from that position he continued to live in San Francisco. In 1897 in a hotel in that city he was accosted by H.C.Stanton,, of Roseberg, in Oregon, who had married a daughter of James Sinclair. As Sir George Simpson had done, Mr. Stanton recognized him as a Sinclair. From Mr. Stanton he learned that his mother had lived for years after he had believed her dead. He blamed himself too late for his failure tn duty to her, and resolved to go to Winnipeg and visit her grave. Ee lived the last years of his life in the old Inkster Fouse. Over his mother's grave in the churchyard of St. John's cathedral he had a granite monument placed, with this inscription cut, which he wrote, cut on it;- Si-CRED TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER MARGARET NAEOVPAY SINCLAIR TTI3 LAST TpKEN OF LOVE AND EFFECTIONIS ERECTED BY HER WANDERING BOY?COLIN 1897. Eyes of my childhood days shall meet me, lies of mother's love snail greet me On the day I follow. Oh, what hosts of memories rise; Sadness dims an old man's eyes. ■ It is strange that he had his mother's name lettered bTAHOVWAY; in Governor Sinclair's -will it is written Ih'LEOV^AY, and that is the form in which the name has always been used by lahoway's children and grandchildren. When you go to see lahovway's grave,, by the side of which is her wandering son's, fou will find this inscription on the back of the monument; CAPTAIN COLIN ROBERTSON SINCLAIR Born at Oxford Eouse, Keewatin, August 12, 1816 Died July 22, 1901 In showing the writer of these pages the upstairs room in the old Inkster house in which Captain Sinclair died, a room with windows giving wide views up and down Red river, Sheriff Inkster said,"My uncle uolin had this room fitted up as much like the cabin of a ship as he could make it. Ee had a hammock hung in it,, in which he slept. He ijtsed to say he couldn't be comfortable In a bed." The Sheriff was silent a while, standing at one of the windows which was open, and looking at the wide curve of the river. "My grandmother U3ed to keep among her treasures," he said, "in a silk bag, a lock of flaxen hair she had cut from Uncle Colin's head when he was a child. 'She had it until she died." LOUIS R'lSJS. AJQ) OTE TROUBIo-'S OF 1869-70 By -mm Eealy. FOR DOMINION O.'.Y. (Charles 0. D. Roberts.) Father of Nations I Help of the feeble hand, strength of the strong! to whom the nations kneelI Stay and destroyer^ at whose just command Earth's kingdoms tremble and her empires reel! 7ho dost the low uplift, the small make great, '.nd dost abase the ignorantly proud; Of our scant people mould a mighty state, To to strong stern, to Thee in meekness bowed! Father of unity, make this people one! Weld, interfuse them in the patriot's flame,- Whose forging on Thine anvil was begun In blood late shed to .purge the common shame That so our hearts, the fever of faction done, Banish old feud in our young nation's name. - ~ 43 louJ3 Eiel and the Troubles of 18C9-70 >, General Sir Sam Steele, who came to Red River as a private in the expedition of 1870 under command of Lolone^ V.ol- aeley, used to tell a story about a discussion in Fort sGarry one day during the following winter over the distance to Headingly, which is fourteen miles. In order to settle the matter it was decided that Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, a runner with a dog carriole, who was about to take one of the Company's officials to L'eadingly, should wear a surveyor's pedometer fastened to his belt. At Eeadingly Jean-Baptiste met some friends before the official had a chance to examine the pedometer. The next day, when the official found Jean- Baptiste, he pointed to the pedometer, which Jean-Baptiste was still wearing, and said,"I told you when we were leaving ihg Fort that I wanted you to let me look at that when we got here." Ee looked at it,,and found that it showed Jean- Baptiste had travelled nearly seventy miles. Ee then looked at Jean-Baptiste in bewilderment. Jean-Baptiste, twisting his hat in his hand, said he was sorry, and then with an ingratiating grin he explained that when he had arrived some friends of his told him there was to be a dance, and he had gone off with them, and the dance had been kept up nearly all night. General Steele used to tell this story when he was speaking of the happy-go-lucky fondness of the Metis for merry-making, their pleasure in singing their paddle-songs and their delight in dancing. There were frugal and thrifty families among the Metis. There were many Metis who were roving rind improvident buffalo hunters and fishermen and drivers of Red River in the freighting trains. As many as fifteen hundred of the Metis, huntsmen, women and children, used to go out on the plains for the buffalo hunting. An outstanding figure among the- Metis in the late 1860's was Iouis Eiel, whose father had likewise been a leader among the French-speaking people of the Red River. Iouis Riel had been sent to college in Montreal; his father desired him to hecome a priest, but Louis returned to Red River with other ambitions. Mrs. W. R. Black, of Winnipeg, the widow of the eldest son of Rev.Dr. John Black, of the Kildonan Kirk, whose recollections are given in the chapter on Kildonan in the book "Women of Red River." remembers well the house of the fr.ther of Iouis Flel, which was across the Red river from the house of her grandfather at Point Douglas, near where the louise Bridge stands now, over which the Canadian iacific railway enters Winnipeg. "Iouis Riel, pere, as he was known, was born in the far Northwest, "Mrs. Black said, in speaking of the Riel family. " had been for years in Lower Canada, __where he had worked in a woollen mill, and came back to the West in the service cf the Company which he soon left, to enter the church. But after a few years he gave that idea up too, and took to the plains as a buffalo hunter and then he'went to sea' which meant making the journey to the Bay. After that he built a little mill on the stream known as the Seine, for carding wool,_ and he gave that idea up too. Then he took to farming, and stuck to it. But he used to be called 'The miller of the BeineV I con shut my eyes now see the whitewashed log housefc-of the Riels. Thoy were all French-speaking people in that neighborhood i-.cross the river from us. Mear the Riels lived one of the Lagim.aiores on the river lot Lord Selkirk had given his father, Jean-Baptiste Lagimonieres, in reward for the; import- ta&t service he had done in carrying a message to Montreal from Fort Douglas in the winter before the S-'ven Oaks mass-Ore. We often hear 1 as children the story of that. Louis Riel, pdre, was married one of Joan-Baptiste Lagimoniere'a daughters." "I often saw Louis Riel, when I was a girl," says Mrs, Henry Donald xdacDonall, of St .Boniface, in telling her recollections. "We all thought he was very handsome. Ee had fine wavy hair, and was distinguished looking, and was always polite. Ee was the only man among the uetis who had been at college. Ee was a very fine horseman. Louis was on orator as his father before him. I remember my father used to say that Louis Riel pere, was full of plans for the betterment of Sad- River, and was full of energy, too, but lacked good judgment. tti And poor Louis, I am afraid, inherited that lack from his father." I It is not necessary to recount the'series of misfor- tunea and miahaps and errora and worse than errors which made it necessary for the expedition under command of Colonel Wolseley fc come to Fort Garry in 1870. The French-speaking people imagined that the ending of the old regime of the Hudson's Bay Company and the incorporation of the whole V/estern area as far as the Rockies into the new Dominion meant that they were in danger cf being deprived of their farms and suffr ering other wrongs. "A knowledge of the true state of the case and of the advantages -they would deprive from union with Canada had been carefully kept from them, and they were told to judge of Canada generally by the acts and bearings of some of the unreflec- tive immigrants who had denounced them as cumberers of the ground, who must speedily make way for the superior race about to pour in upon them." So wrote Donald A. Smith (who was afterwards Lord Strathcona), in reporting upon the mission to Red River which he undertook for the Dominion Government in January, 1870; and he added that adventurers had marked off for themselves large and valuable tracts of land in Hed River, and had made it believed among the Metis that they were going to be dispossessed. In 1868 clouds of grasshoppers arrived in Red River, like the locusts in the land of Egypt, they darkened the sun and "ate every herb of the land." There was shortage of food. Relief funds for the distress in the settlement were subscribed to generously in Canada and in the United States, and the Dominion Government decided to furnish help by means of road- making work to provide employment, which should be paid for in ■ provisions. But mistakes and oversights by those sent from the East to have charge of the road-making operations resulted in serious trouble; at one time several of the assistants who had come from the East, including Thoiaus Scott, a young man from Toronto, threatened to seize the officials!, in charge and "duck him in the river." Letters written by some of the newcomers from the West were sent to Canada (of which Ontario was then the westermost province) and were published in the newspapers, though some of them, containing descriptions of the people cf Red River written with lively ridicule and sarcasm, were not intended for publication. There was indignation and resentment in Red River when the newspapers in which those offensive letters were printed arrived from the East. Many influences combined to increase the distrust among the credulous Metis, who, lacking other guidance and control, fell under the influence cf Louis Riel. Early in November, 1869, having gathered about him a force of followers, he marched in thrugh'the open gates and took possession cf Fort Garry, pro#$* testing to the Company's official who protested (Governor McTavish was ill and nearing his death) that he and his associates had seized the Fort to "guard it against a danger." When they were'asked to explain *hat the danger was, Riel said that the danger would be explained later. But neither "the President and Representatives of the French-speaking population of Rupert's Land, in council", nor later "the Provisional Government" which raised its flag over the Fort, explained what the danger was. Whatever may be said in defence of the resistance of the Metis at first to the incorporation of-Rupert's Land into the Dominion, Riel and his colleagues in "the Provisional Government" must have been convinced by the explanations of Donald A. Smith and the documents from Ottawa which he brought to Red River that all the people of the West were to be dealt iwht justly and asffree men entitled to the full rights of Canadian citizenship. But Riel, who a few days before taking possession of Fort Garry had declared that "the Metris wer uneducated and only half civilized," and felt that if there was to be a large immigration, they would probably be crowded^out", was headstrong, impetuous, inexperienced .and incapable cf wise leadership. His flatterers proclaimed him "the young Napoleon of,Red River", and he let their flattery mislead him from one false step to another, until what Bishop Tache described as his "thirst for power" and his "insensate pride" made him guilty of a crime by which he destroyed all prospects of having an honourable place in Canadian history. That crime was the murder of Thomas Scott, the young man from Toronto of whom mention has been made. Scott was one of those imprisoned in Fort Garry for resisting the regime of Riel, who accused him of hoving been ".abusive and insulting to the President", dfter a mockery of .-;■ trial, Scott w.*s- condemned to be shot. Donald A. Smith and others implored Riel not to be guilty of such a crimo, but ho refused even to delay the shooting, "'/a mu3t moke Gonad.-, respect us!" he exclaimed. Scott w; s led blindfolded outside the eastern g .te of Port G- rry on March 4th, 1870, and shot by six men of the armed force of "the Provisional Government," several of whom were drunk. One of the sixteen refused to prime his rifle. After the volley was fired, one of the firing squad discharged his pistol at poor Scott as he. lay in his death struggle in the snow. "This is a cold-blooded murder" were the last words of Scott, the instant before the order to fire was given. The news of that outrage caused many more volunteers to come forward to the East than were required for the Red River Expedition, which was equipped and despatched without delay, and travelling by steamer to prince Arthur's Landing, which is now the town of iort Arthur, and from there by the fur traders' route—the Kaminis- tiquia river, the Rainy river, the Lake of the Woods, the Winnipeg river, lake Winnipeg and the Red river—arived at Fort Garry on August 24th, to find that Riel, Ambroise Lepine, his adjutant-General, and W.B. O'Donoghue, another member of his Council, had fled not many minutes before their arrival. Fifteen years later Louis Riel, who having been adjudged an outlaw for felony, had been living in the Western States, returned to Can-da to take part in the Saskatchewan rebellion. After that trouble was ended, Riel, who had been t.aken prisoner, was tried at Regina on a charge of high treason and was found guilty, and was hanged there on September 8th, 1885. Such was the ending of "The young Napoleon of Red River, of whom Bishop Tache had written; "Gifted with brilliant qualities of head and heart, he had unbridled ambition, which poisoned his intelligence." Captain Huyshe, of Colonel Wolseley 's staff, has left it-} on record that when the expedition arrived at Fort Garry, the house within the walls of the Fort in which Iouis Riel and his Council had been living was found in a state of confusion."The breakfast things on the table and the documents of all kinds and private papers of the ex-President lying about betokened a hasty retreat." Riel, Lepine and O'Donoghue, it was learned, "had hurriedly galloped off about a quarter of an hour before." Captain Huyshe writes that "inside the Fort were found several field guns, some of which were mounted in the bastions and over the gateway, a large quantity of ammunition and a number of old pattern muskets, many of which were loaded .and capped, showing that the intention had been up to the last moment to resist the entry of the troops". And he adds: "It is evident that Riel would have fought it out, if his men had' stuck to him. He is reported to have said that every morning that it was as well to be shot defending the Fort as to give it up and be hanged afterwards." Riel and his two companions of his flight rode cut through the river g^te of Fort Garry .and across the pent to on bridge the xdssinibcine. Crossing the Red by the ferry, they rode southward all day, and when night came they selpt on the river bank. They were not pursued. Next morning they found their horses had disappeared. Continuing their .Journey en foot, they decided before long that it would be better to cross to the left bank of the Red and follow the main-travelled trail to Pembina. They took branches of dead trees and tied them together with their braces and some of their garments, to moke a raft, and with it they managed to get across the river. No one of the three could swim. As they were scrambling cut of the water, Riel lost one of his boots, which stuck in the muddy bottom. They had had nothing to eat since they left Fort Garry. Now they breakfasted on log cabin of a Metis on from where they had cros dried fish, goldeyes and suckers at the the river bank a few miles up the river sed. On their way along the Pembina trail towards the inter national boundary, they met a man in a Red River cart travelling north to the settlement. "Tell them," exclaimed Riel, whose iastinctofor dramatic utterance and gesture did not fail him even when he was bedraggled, "that he who ruled Fort Garry until yesterday is now a homeless outcast, with nothing to eat by dried sucker!" Ee and his two companions journeyed on and arrived at last at the hamlet of St.Joseph's, south of the international line, where some of Riel's relatives lived. So ended the Red River rebellion, which apart from the murder of Thomas Scott, was, after all, ajftcomparatively small affair. But it was of great importance: it fixed the attention of Eastern Canada on the West, and the ready response to the call for volunteers for the Red River expedition disclosed and strengthened the spirit of Canadian national unity. ~cZ^c~c*st~ ^ ^yJt ^r£. life in and about the Ports of the Hudson's Bay Company By Winifred M* Stevens "Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant, En roulant ma boule roulant, En roulant ma boule." French-Canadian chanson. Life in and about the Forts of the Hudson's Bay Company. w The great ocean itself does not present more infinite variety than does this prairie ocean ... In winter, a dazzling surface of purest snow; in early summer, a vast expanse of grass and pale pink roses; in autumn too often a wild sea of raging fire. No ocean of water in the world can vie with its gorgeous sunsets; no solitude can equal the loneliness of a night-shadowed prairie; one feels the stillness, and hears the silenee, the wail of the prowling wolf makes the voice of solitude audible, the stars look down through infinite silenee upon a silence almost as intense." In the midst of the solitude stands a Hudson's Bay fort, a small establishment of perhaps half a dozen wooden houses and a dozen men, separated from their nearest white neighbours by two or three hundred miles of forest or prairie, untenanted save by scattered tribes of Indians and vast hordes of wild animals. But these men represent THE COMPANY, and no monarch ever ruled with more autocratic power. In a country devoid of any form of government, The Company is King. A handful of whites among wild and unruly savages, they reign by moral courage and force of character. The Chief Factor is King and Parliament, doctor, quartermaster, judge,and police: he must be prepared to prevent or quell mutiny within the fort or sudden attack from without, to attend to wounds or ^ight epi- « demies, to lay down laws and see them carried out; and all this in addition to his main task of forwarding to headquarters the maximum yield of furs from his district. The vast Hudson's Bay Company's territories, stretching from Hudson Bay to the Pacific and from the Great Lakes to the Arctic, are divided into four departments, and these again subdivided into districts. At the head of each district is a Chief Factor, with authority over every officer and servant within his jurisdiction; he,- in turn, receives instructions from the superintendent of the department. The general policy of the company is regulated by the Governor and Council, and their decisions are again referred to the Governor and Committee in London. The Council is held at York Factory, and consists of the Governor and such Chief Factors as can arrange to be present; Chief Traders may also attend, but are not considered members of the Council. During the long, long winter the monotony is broken only by the arrival of Indians with their peltries— beaver, otter, muskrat, marten, bear, fox, lynx, fisher, mink, wolf, buffalo, badger, and deer. Let us watch the arrival of a band of Blackfeet at the Rocky Mountain House. They are in large numbers, for they have traversed the country of their enemies, the Crees and Stonies. A long cavalcade is seen approaching the fort, the braves dressed in their best, with skin ahields •n their arms, full quivers at their sides, and eagle feathers in their hair; their furs and provisions are, with the horses, in charge of the women. The trader goes out to meet them; speeches are made and gifts exchanged. The head chief, to show his big heart, piles on a horse buffalo robes, dried meat, and pemmican — all of which, including the horse, he presents to the trader. Having received in return similar proofs of the I equally large heart of the white man, he addresses his braves, cautioning them against violence or rough behaviour, then the trade begins. Within the fort all is in readineas: the Indian room ahut off from the reat, men and guns prepared for action in case of trouble . The excited bravea rush up with their peltries and small groups of three or four are admitted at a time to the trading room. Their furs are valued at so many "skins", the beaver skin having been the original standard of trade. Thus a horse is worth sixty skins, a blanket ten skins, a gun fifteen skins, a black fox twenty skins. Each Indian receives wooden counters to the number of his skins, and proceeds slowly and carefully to make his purchases, cutting his needs to suit his credit, dividing his oounters into little groups denoting the value of the articles he desires, until he is quite sure that he is getting maximum value for his "pile". The white man's weights and measures are to him "great medicine". Having at last made up his mind, and received the blankets, beads, knives, guns, powder, tea, sugar, or whatever may have been his choice, he retires to the outer room to show his treasures to his. friends, who in their turn pass in, in small groups, till all the peltries are gone. During the years of rivalry between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company rum was freely used, the Indians demanding "fire-water" in preference to any other article of trade. Although freely diluted (to one part of spirit three of water for the Crees,'seven of water for the Blackfeet) the results were frightful: grim tragedy too often following the wild fury of the intoxicated brave. After the union of the two companies in 1821 the use of intoxicating liquor in the Indian trade was discontinued. The rivalry while it lasted was keen in the extreme, and many lawless deeds were committed. "Might is right" in a country devoid of any real mo -ns of enforcing the law. But in spite of the ruthless commercial warfare, the individual traders and clerks were often the closest friends and best of neighbours. Wherever one company planted a fort the other would soon settle, alongside, and (except where furs were in question) much friendly intercourse took place. But each company strained every nerve to get beforehand with the Indians and secure the coveted peltries. Thus on one occasion the Hudson's Bay scouts discovered tracks of Indians in the snow, and surmised that they had just returned from a hunting expedition. Immediately preparations were made for a grand ball, to which the Nor'Westers were invited. When evening came the fort resounded with music, laughter, and song, as the men of both posts joined in dancing lively Scotch reels to the strains of a native fiddle. But in the shadows.without a few men were eagerly and hurriedly packing their trade bundles on dog-sledges, patting the dogs to keep them quiet, and even removing the bells from their necks and slipping them into the sledges. In secrecy and silence the trains set out, the fort all the while re-echoing with mirth and revelry. On the morrow the North West look-outs reported tracks of Indians, and trains were despatched from their fort. After a long march of forty miles they came upon the Indian camp only to find that all the furs were gone and all the braves dead drunk. Then they understood the raison d'etre of the ball! Opportunity for revenge was not long in coming. One of their parties met a Hudson's Bay train, all ready equipped for trade. The day was bitterly cold and the Hudson's Bay men gladly accepted their invitation to rest and refresh themselves. Trees were cut down and soon a huge log fire crackled and roared, the traders meanwhile sitting around, telling tales of adventure, and plying each other with liquor. Having reduced the Hudson's Bay men to a state of helpless intoxication, the Nor'Westers tied them to their sledges, and turned the dogs in the direction of the fort; they arrived there in due course, the traders still fast asleep. The Nor' Westers proceeded unopposed to the Indian camp and this time had the trade all to themselves. The forta were all built on the same general plan, varying in size according to their position and the consequent amount of trade. The most important post in the West was Fort Edmonton, which is thus described in 1852: Within a palisaded enclosure are a number of small buildings grouped around a large one. The palisades are twenty feet high, made of trees split in two and driven into the ground, the whole strengthened by binding timbers. A sentinel's gallery runs all around, and at each corner is a strong bastion with cannon. The enclosure is three hundred feet long by two hundred and ten feet wide, entrance• being gained by two massive gates. Two small cannon mount guard in front of the Big House, which stands in the centre of the enclosure, a massive building of squared timber, three storeys high, seventy feet deep and sixty feet wide. On the ground floor are the office, armoury, and store-rooms; on the first floor the gentlemen's mess-room .and hall and the living-rooms of the Chief Factor's family; above are offices and bed-rooms. In front is a grassy court-yard, round which are ranged "Bachelors' Hall" (where the clerks live), the Indian Hall, the men's quarters, and warehouses. Behind the house are a small building which serves the priest as residence and chapel, and barns, stables, gristmill, kennela, and more extenaive ware-housea. The resident population in the winter of 1852 was about one hundred and fifty, including the gentlemen, interpreter, boat-buildera, coopers, carpenters, hunters, blacksmiths, and the boat-men who had come in to winter quarters and were employed cutting and hauling fire-wood, re-covering the roofs with hemlock or spruce bark,, re-chinking log walls and securing fresh supplies of buffalo meat and fish. Many of the men had Indian wives, who also with their children lived in the fort. Life there was usually pleasant and harmonious; the winters were cold, but the fire-places were large and fuel abundant, food was plentiful and excellently prepared by a French chef from Montreal. Conditicns were very different in the smaller postsi where there might be only a trader, or, possibly, two men. In such cases the white men would have no intercourse with any save Indians for half a year. It is difficult to realize what the coming of spring must have meant to these isolated traders and clerks so entirely cut off from communication with their own people and the outside world. One can picture the solitary trader, his despatches long since ready, his letters waiting to be sealed, watching day by day for the arrival of the brigade. lor a year he has had no news from outside. What is happening in the great wodld? How fares it with his dear ones? To quote one of them: "No one, indeed, who has passed his life amid the busy haunts of men, can form any just idea of the interest attached by the lonely trader to the most trifling events, such as the arrival of a stranger Indian,— the coming of a new clerk,— I scuffle among the Indians,— or •:. sudden change of weather. No one, unaccustomed to their 'short commons', can conceive the intense, it may be said fearful, interest and excitement - with which the issue of a fishing or hunting expedition is anticipated*" But in the larger forts many a scene of merrymaking, fun, and practical joking did the walls of Bachelors' Sail look down upon. There the nights sped swiftly and pleasantly, the gentlemen finding congenial entertainment reading, smoking, spinning yarns about dog-racing and canoe-sailing, discussing theology or politics, playing chess, backgammon, or whist, playing the fiddle or flute,— their "musical soirees, if not in melody* could at least compete in noise, numbers taken into account, with any aasociation of the kind in the British dominions." Throughout the winter the fura accumulated; with the coming of apring they were packed in bales, ready to be forwarded to York Factory en route to England. The ice having melted and vanished, the brigades began to arrive, sweeping up to the fort, the scarlet paddle-blades flashing and foam spraying, _to the tuneful melodies of the happy-hearted voyageurs* Wild handsome men they were, in their light blue capotes, and corduroy trousers, tied at the waist with a scarlet belt, at the knee with beaded garters; some wore hats with bright feathers* others, caps with gay, tinsel cord, or coloured handkerchiefs tied turban-fashion round their heads; all had their feet encased In moose-skin moccasins. During the summer the lakes and rivers were gay. with the passing and re-passing of brigades, canoes, and boats, with the rousing chansons of these care-free voyageurs. Wild and uncouth as they were, they were yet capable of meeting hardships and danger with patience, endurance, and self-reliance. Waked at two or three o'clock in the morning by the stentorian "Level Level Level" of the guide, they were soon on the water, paddling through the obscure morning haze till eight o'clock, when they put ashore for breakfast. Fires were I lit and over each hung a huge kettle of robbiboo, a very nutritious soup made of pemmican and flour. TWo or three volunteers superintended the cooking, while all around the river banks were gay with the recumbent forms t>f the laighing, chatting, bragging* smoking voyageurs* Then back to the toil on the river, paddling, tracking, portaging, now up to the arm-pits in water, now obtaining a precarious foothold along precipitous banks, again straining every muscle to mount a rapid, ©r with cool nerve shooting over the chaos of boiling waters, dexterously guiding the canoe amid the turmoil, ever alert, ever resourceful, scorning fatigue and danger, daring death with gay insouciance, easy-going but enduring, a laugh, a song, and a pipe ever ready to their lips. So on and on through the long hot day, taking a cold mid-day lunch in the canoe, and not stopping till a suitable camping place for the night was reached. With a joyful cry "A terre! A terrel" the canoes were beached, fires lit, supper (a repetition of breakfast) prepared, after which a chat and a smoke, then '.-each man rolled himself in his blanket, the stony bank for a bed, the starry sky for a roof, and slept soundly in spite of mosquitoes or inclement weather, till the resounding "Level Level Level" once more called him to the toil and the joy of the river. Great care was needed in handling the frail canoes which might so easily be smashed on the rocks. In disembarking the boatmen jumped into the water, two of them held the canoe while the others carried the "pieces" ashore. If there were a trader or clerk on board he was carried on the shoulders of one of the crew. The empty craft was then hauled up and laid gently on the beach, carefully examined, and if necessary repaired; or if the shore happened to be rocky and inaccessible it was held in place on the water by means of branches fastened to each end. When one remembers that these fragile craft were so heavily laden that the gunr.' .1:. was only six inches above the water, one can appreciate, or perhaps merely wonder at, the skill of the voyageurs in guiding them safely over the raging, tcssing waters, past murderous rocks and rapids, hundreds of •oerxlous miles., The "pieces" consisted of goods weighing eighty to one hundred pounds. A novice would carry two of these; but the more experienced hands vied with each other, showing ||| their strength by the number they could shoulder- five or six being, not unusual, and even eight possible. The bundles were oarried on the back, supported by a leather strap from the head. During the winter only did the voyageur rest awhile from his toils. Then the Chief Factor might be called upon to assume yet another role and consent to and record a marriage, after which for tbree consecutive days 1 re was feasting and dancing. During the winter only could the voyageur enjoy a brief spell of home life: sitting with his native wife and children around tne blazing fire he would recount 'with advantages1 marvellous tales of adventure, of wonderful discoveries, and hair-breadth escapes; drudgery was forgotten; glory alone remained. In their eyes at least he was a hero I It was this romance which attracted men to what was after all an extremely arduous calling-- there was never any shortage of would-be voyageurs. It appeared from a distance a life of freedom, ad- - venture, and glory. Once a voyageur, always a voyageur. No man could settle to the dull monotony of farming who had once known the lure of the great wild free unknown. Their happy- go-lucky freedom from care was proverbial; they were almost invariably indebted to the company for goods received in advance; what ready money they could obtain was soon dissipated in feasting and pleasure. They brought to the forts provisions and articles of trade for the ensuing year, and, more important than all to these lonely men, news of home: letters, newspapers, and perhaps even a few precious books to while away the dreary length of those silent winter months. The arrival of the brigades was always hailed with joy— to many isolated posts they sometimes brought actual relief from starvation. The food obtainable in the forts varied according to the district: on the prairies buffalo meat and game; further to the northward fish from the rivers and lakes. Wherever possible vegetables were grown. The hunting, shocting, and fishing afforded welcome variety from the routine of work. In most of the posts even necessaries were scarce, and luxuries, non-existent: where the natural resources, failed and supplies became exhausted before the arrival of the brigade the situation became truly desperate. In such straits cannibalism among the Indians was not unknown; and the whites have been reduced to eating their beaver skins, which, being thick and oily, made a kind of soup, capable at least of staving off starvation. In the Far North they were sometimes driven to eat "tripe de roche" a kind of lichen which only starvation could force a man to ea.t. All readers of Sir John Franklin's voyage overland tc the Arctic will remember "tripe de roche". Here is the actual experience of one trader:— ."The men were dispersed in every direction to shift for themselves, some being supplied with guns and ammunition, others with nets, a lake of considerable extent having been lately discovered which the natives reported to abound with fish. Early in the month of December my fishermen came in with the mortifying intelligence of the entire failure of the fishery; and soon after a messenger arrived from the hunting party to beg a supply of provisions which my limited means, alasl compelled me to deny. Not a deer had been seen, and the partridges had become so scarce of late that they barely afforded the means of sustaining life. All I could do therefore for my poor men was to supply them with more ammunition and send them off again. While their lot was thus wretched mine was not enviable; one solitary meal a day was all I allowed myself and those who remained with me... By stinting ourselves in this manner we managed to eke out a miserable existence until the arrival of the deer in the month of March, when we fared plentifully if not sumptuously. In all the posts Christmas, New Year, and other anniversaries were celebrated with due pomp: extra rations of rum were served out, volleys of musketry discharged, and suitable festivities enjoyed. let us peep at the scene in the winter mess-room of one of the forts on Christmas day. There is no carpet on the floor and the chairs are home-made, but the stove is highly polished, the walls decorated; and the room snug and cheerful. The table is covered with a snow-white cloth and laden with delicious Christmas fare: a beautiful fat plump wild goose, a huge roast of beef (from one of the useless draught oxen), a large piece of salt pork, and a dozen white partridges. With fun and merriment the banquet proceeds till the toast: "Let us drink to absent friends.!" In solemn silence it is drunk, but sadness is dissipated by the sound of a fiddle and the gentlemen troop off to the Hall. They find it lit up with a number of tallow candles stuck in tin sconces around the walls* The boatmen and labourers are already here dressed in their Sunday jackets and capotes, and among them may be seen the swarthy face of many an Indian. Grouped about the stove are the Indian women, dressed in printed calico gowns, bright-hued handkerchiefs on their heads, and gaily decorated moccasins on their feet. Behind them are half a dozen babies, bolt upright, tightly strapped in their cradles. The orchestra consists of a home-made fiddle and a kettle-drum, to the tunes of which the assembled company dance Scotch reels with unflagging energy. About midnight the guests partake of supper: cold venison, bread, butter, and tea; then tying up in their handkerchiefs what remains of the feast they depart in a state of great joy. Such are the glimpses we get of the life of these early traders, the first white men in the West: attending to the daily duties of the fort, bearing patiently when they cannot break its dull routine, before them "stretching far and wide the vast solitudes which await in silence the footfall of the future." •The Royal North West Mounted Police: The Riders of the Plains. By Norman Fergus Black, M.A., D.Paed. "Our mission is to plant the rule Of British freedom here; Restrain the lawless savage And protect the pioneer; And 'tis a proud and daring trust To hold these vast domains With but three hundred mounted men- The Riders of the Plains." T. A. Boys. THE ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE Many years ago an old Indian chief, speaking at a ^council and addressing a representative of Canada's famous Mounted Police, said: "Before you came the Indian crept about; now he is not afraid to walk erectl" From the common treasury of heroic story let us bring forth again a few familiar tales illustrative of the fashion in which that unique organization -- known for a generation as the North West Mounted Police, then by his Majesty's proclamation honored in 1904 with the epithet "Royal", and since the Great War entitled the Royal Canadian Mounted Police — won the affection and respect of all who know how the extraordinary sense of security so long enjoyed in the Great North West has been achieved. The organization of mounted constabulary came under consideration immediately after the annexation of Rupert's Land to Canada. It may be doubted, however, whether the need would have been met so promptly, had not the public conscience been shooked into activity by the culminating atrocity of a shameful series of crimes which threatened to involve Canadian Indians and the whites in general in mutual reprisals and wars of extermination. In this case the outrage consisted in the wanton massacre of thirty-odd defenceless Indians. Probably twice as many were wounded and the other members of the unfortunate encampment escaped only by flight. The criminals had first debauched the Indians with liquor and secured in exchange practically all their valuables* The question for Canada to face was whether these American whisky traders and other desperadoes of their kidney were to be allowed to re-enact on Canadian soil the lawless and bloody scenes for which the adjacent prairie states had been made infamous. Canada's answer was the North West Mounted Police. Under authority of an act passed in 1873. there assembled next year, at Emerson (then called Dufferin) in Manitoba, a force whose first march into its new domain struck the keynote of all its subsequent history. With imagination altjrt let us read a paragraph from the report of the commanding officer, Commissioner French: "At this latter place (Dufferin) the whole force was divided into six divisions or troops, and on July 8 started on an expedition which veteran soldiers might well have faltered at. Tied down by no stringent rules or articles of war, but only by the silken cord of civil contract, these men, by their conduct, gave little cause for complaint. Though naturally there were several officers and constables unaccustomed to command and having little experience or tact, yet such an event as striking a superior was unknown and disobedience to orders was very rare. Day after day on the march, night after night on picquet guard, and working at high pressure during four"months from daylight until dark,- and too frequently after dark,- with little rest even on the day sacred to rest, the force ever pushed onward; delighted when a pure spring was met with, there was still no complaint when acrid water or the refuse of a mud hole was the only liquid available. I have seen this whole force obliged to drink liquid which,, when passed through a filter, was still the color of ink. The fact of horses and oxen falling and dying for want of food never disheartened or stopped the men, but pushing on, on foot, with dogged determination, they carried through the service required of them, under difficulties which can only be appreciated by those who witnessed them. When time was"" so valuable there could be no halting on account of the weather; the greatest heat of July sun or the oold of November in this northern latitude made no difference; ever onward had to be the watchword, and an almost uninterrupted march was maintained from the time the force left Dufferin with the thermometer ninety five to a hundred degrees in the shade till the balance of the force returned there in November, the thermometer marking twenty to thirty degrees below zero, having marched 1959 miles." Gradually the little band of three hundred men was systematically organized into smaller units and distributed far arid wide over the Great New Land, and, as by magic, the previous reign of lawlessness came to an end. In interviews respecting to the full the Indian sense of dignity and love of ceremonial, the chieftains of the savage tribes were patiently taught that the Police came among them as their'friends and for the protection of all good children of the Queen, their Great White Mother, and the confidence skilfully won and amply justified was never lost. This prestige was an important factor in securing the peaceable surrender of the plains for settlement, by treaty between the Indians and the Government. "The advice given to me and my people has proved tc be good," said the Blackfoot patriot and statesman, Crowfoot, when announcing his intention of signing such a treaty. "If the Police had not come to this country, where should we all be now? Bad men and whisky were indeed killing us so fast that very few of us indeed would have been left to-day. The Mounted Police have protected us as the feathers of a bird protect it from the frost of winter." To which Red Crow, the chief of the Bloods, added: "Everything that the Mounted Police have done has been good. I entirely trust Stamix-oto- kan (Colonel MacLeod) and will leave everything to him." Often of course the Police had to protect the savages from each other or to intervene for the prevention of possible insurrection. It will be remembered that in 1876 the Dakotan Sioux, Sitting Bull, having outgeneraled his foes and destroyed a detachment of cavalry under Custer, withdrew into Canada, where he at once attempted to secure the support of the Canadians Indians. He was followed by many other armed refugees, until they totaled some seven hundred lodges, or about five thousand. six hundred souls. During this dangerous crisis a great gathering of many tribes was held among the Cypress Hills, which Major Irvine, with a subaltern and ten men, was instructed to attend. Under date of Fort MacLeod, July 1876, the following amusing despatch appeared in the Toronto Globe, and between its facetious lines may be read a story of courage, shrewdnes's and auccessful audacity highly characteristic of the force: "While the American papers are teeming with telegrams referring to the movement of General Terry's army of four thousand three hundred men, and of the advance of these troops in three divisions against the Sioux in the Yellowstone region, a similar movement of troops on this side of the line has been successfully made, of which no notice has as yet been taken. On July 18 last, Assistant Commissioner Irvine, commanding the North West Mounted Police in this district, advanced on and completely demoralized a large encampment of Indians at Cypress Hills. The camp numbered over one thousand lodges, of which one hundred lodges were of Sitting Bull's band. Colonel Irvine advanced his troops in a mass of columns, the whole numbering ten men. Having successfully pierced the centre of the camp, he threw amongst the Indians, at close quarters, hand grenades of a new pattern, patented by an eminent firm in Canada. These missiles were composed of sea biscuits,tea, sugar and tobacco. The Indians never recovered from the first discharge. On the following day the first wing of the left division, consisting of one man, was despatched to a mixed camp of Indians numbering one hundred and fifty lodges, with orders to seize a certain number of horses stolen by them from the South Piegans; peacefully if possible, but m case of resistance to capture the entire band. The horses were recovered." During the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway it was among the dutiea of the Mounted Police to auppress the traffic in intoxicants among the employees, keep a general oversight over the railroad camps and preserve order along the right of way. In a letter dated January 1, 1883, Sir William Van Home expressed his gratitude for the efficient manner in which these onerous duties were performed. "On no great work within my knowledge where so many men have been employed,"" said he, "has such perfect order prevailed." When the great American transcontinental roads were under construction they were continually impeded by the Indians. A few scattered attempts in this direction were made in Canada, but the energy and boldness of the Police prevented any serious trouble. On one occasion Chief Piapot and his band resorted to the stratagem of passive resistance, deliberately encamping on the right of way and refusing to move. A complaint was duly registered with the police authorities and a sergeant and a constable were sent to move the troublesome band. Accompanied by a jeering mob of barbarians, they went directly to Piapot's tent, conveying the command to move his encampia At, and informing him that if the orders were not obeyed forthwith, they twain would undertake the task at the end of fifteen minutes. This proposition was received with laughter. The sergeant accordingly took out his watch and he and his companion stood at attention beside the tent door for a quarter'of an hour, much to the entertainment of the Indians. When the time had expired the sergeant returned his watch to his pocket, and without further parley, the two policeman cut the guy ropes of Piapot's tent, causing it to collapse on the heads of its astonished occupants. The whole encampment was instantly in an uproar and nothing but the chief's vigorous personal efforts saved the lives of the white men. Piapot was no fool. He understood well enough that these two audacious red-coats had behind them the whole might of Canada and the Queen, and he promptly ordered his braves to strike camp and leave the railway line free of obstruction. Space does not permit us to tell the part played by the Police in relation to the rebellion of 1885, its oauaes, events and consequences. However, it is now agreed by students of the situation that if the warnings of the police officers had been heeded there would have been no insurrection. Moreover, if when the ill-starred outbreak actually occurred the force had been suitably augmented and given the necessary freedom of action, the Mounted Police, it is safe to say, would have met successfully that great emergency, like so many others, and the rising -would have cost Canada much less 1han it did, both in blood and treasure. As it was, the presence and reputation of the Police, probably more than anything else, prevented it from spreading. As time advanced and the frontiers of settlement extended ever further into the plains, the duties of the Police became increasingly diverse. We find them acting as cow boys, driving back across the boundary vast herds of American ranch cattle which again and again wandered northward in search of better feed and more water; here and there they were in charge of great herds of quarantined cattle, sometimes attending sick milch cows and, at the expiration of the term of quarantine, driving them long distances by trail and loading them on trains; they help in the enforcement of the customs laws, the execution of Crown timber and Dominion Lands regulations; they are game guardians and fire wardens; they take the census,- in 1905 making a house to house visitation of 65,873 whites and 7,633 Halfbreeds, sparsely scattered over an area so stupendous as almost to stagger the imaginat ion; they keep watch over the lonely homesteaders, who would often hav 3 been overtaken by actual destitution but fo r their ai d and familiarity with pioneer conditions; they freely risk their live 3 in public service when epidemics sweep the count ry; they carry the mail ir remote regi ons; and in addition to these thousand and one so necess- ary tasks they carry out their primary duties in the prevention or detection of crime. How successful their preventive influence was is reflected in such reports as that of the Commissioner in 1888. Not a single crime had been committed among the numerous Indians of Prince Albert district, and indeed the Commissioner commented upon an almost total absence of crime throughout the whole of the North West territories. One must use his imagination, supported by a considerable knowledge of the country and of conditions prior to the coming of the Mounted Police, to read into these bare statements their full significance. Some specific incidents may help. Into a matter cf the capture of a criminal no question of risk, cost, time or labor are allowed to enter, and sometimes the remarkably friendly relations between the force and the aborigines has shown itself very effectively. Take for example the Charles King murder, which occurred in September 1904. In October of that year King rode through an Indian reservation in the vicinity of Lesser Slave'Lake, northward bound. The Indians noticed that the white man's dog seemed unwilling to follow him - a circumstance that was aufficient to arouse suspicion on the part of the observant natives'* Chief Moostoos heard shortly after that when.the traveller had been at Swan Hill the Indians there had seen with him a companion. Moreover shooting had been heard, &sSS King had b'een noticed to have built a camp fire ,.f most unusual proportions. Moostoos laid this information before the police"and a careful investigation was initiated. In the ashes of the camp fire were found human remains. There was a marsh near by, and it was searched inch by inch by the Indians. In it was found a pair of shoes, a very peculiar gold nugget . which was later identified as having belonged to King's companion, and a portion of a needle of which the other half had been found in the ashes of the fire. King was promptly placed under arrest, brought to Fort Saskatchewan, tried, found guilty and hanged. The moral effect cf this memorable incident and of the part played in it by the Indians was very important. Of course it would be folly to suppose that in a force so large as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, scattered over so vast an area and necessarily subject to so little immediate supervision by their far-away superiors, mistakes, and episodes more discreditable than mistakes, have not sometimes occurred. The marvel is that they have been so few. Common men, by the silent influence of a noble tradition, are transformed into very uncommon men. Indeed the success of the Mounted Police, particularly in dealing with desperadoes of all sorts, is proverbial. A hundred good and entirely authentic stories could be told by way of illustration. For examplej an interesting police report for 1906 relates to the arrest at North Portal of a notorious bad-man known as "Cow boy Jack". Corporal Hogg was called when a party of riotous cattlemen, under the leadership of this-worthy, were proceeding to enact the customary, melodrama of wild west shows. Hogg induced the ringleader to follow him into an adjoining room. When they had both entered the officer locked the door and threw the key away. These details are omitted in the officer's report, however. Indeed that document is delightfully laconic. "On the 17th inst., I, Corporal Hogg, was called to the hotel to quiet a disturbance! I found the room full of cowboys, and one Monaghan, or Cowboy Jack^ was carrying a gun, and pointed it at me, against sections 1®5 and 109 of the Criminal Code. We struggled. Finally I got him hand-cuffed behind and put him inside. His head being in bad shape, had to engage the services of a doctor, who dressed his wound and pronounced it nothing serious." Whilst the doctor was in attendance, Monaghan remarked that had Hogg not captured his gun another death would have been recorded in Canadian history. An official memorandum also records that "during the arrest of Monaghan the following government property was damaged: door broken; screen smashed up; chair broken; field jacket belonging to Corporal Hogg spoiled by being covered with blood; and the wall plastered with blood." The Toronto Globe, in commenting upon this report spoke as follows. "It is too bad about the chair and screen, and we trust that the Government will promptly see to their proper repair; and perhaps money for a new coat for Corporal Ho6f.02°^ ^oyed out of Mr: Fielding's big surplus of last year. If the Govern- fent should in addition see fit to carry out Commiasioner Perry's lecommendation cf a grant of twenty five dollars to Hogg in re- fjogmtion of his service, the country will not disapprove." In 1906 Canada was startled by the news that the train fobbing fraternity had perpetrated a hold-up, the first event of Its kind to occur in the Canadian West. This was a challenge to the Mounted Police and they were not slow to act upon it. The peply of the violated justice of Canada was given a few days later, jftten after an exciting chase and the effective exchange of bullets, phe notorious American train-robber, Bill Miner, was captured by |he Mounted Police and promptly consigned to a penetentiary. The lasy trade of the train-robber will never gain a secure foothold fihere the Royal Canadian Mounted Police defend peace and property. Some of the reports of the activities of the force are post pathetic, especially those referring to the care of the all poo numerous unfortunates whom the solitude and hardshipa of the wilderness bereave cf reason. Almost all westerners will be familiar with the story of Constable Pedley's heroic conduct on behalf of such an unfortunate, and of the fearful cost at which |e did his duty. This officer was stationed at Fort Chippeweyan, and in that remote region* in 1904, a Presbyterian missionary went Insane. Pedley took him in charge and on December 17 set out with kis demented prisoner for Fort Saskatchewan, five hundred miles away. The madman was refractory in the extreme. For a time he Refused nourishment and had to be fed forcibly. Sometimes he had even to be carried. At all times he had to be watched and guarded jrith the utmost vigilance. Pedley reached his destination on January 7, 19C5. The unhappy missionary was turned over to the care of physicians and in due time he entirely recovered his reason. Meanwhile his rescuer commenced his return trip to Fort Chippeweyan, but before reaching that post the hardships of the trip and his anxiety for the safety of his charge had produced their effect. At Lac la Biche he himself went violently insane. He was committed to the Brandon Asylum. It is a relief to know that kindly care and skill at length restored him to such an extent as to enable him to return to his duties. When his term of service expired he was re-engaged. The official reports record many such cases. On Obtober 5, 1905, a constable by the name of Conradi paw a tremendous prairie fire and learned that in the threatened ' country there was a homesteader with a wife and ten children, but he was warned by other settlers that it would be foolhardy to try to reach the doomed homestead. It was his to make the attempt, however, and fortunately, he arrived at the farmer's dwelling ahead of the conflagration and helped plow a fire-guard. Conradi then started a back-fire with the assistance of the homesteader and his family. This did not prove successful, however, and the torrents of flame rolled on. The smoke was so thick that it was impossible to see more than a- few yards. The constable ran through the fire and found the women and children. Two of them he carried away and the rest he led to' what proved a place of safety, though they were nearly suffocated. Conradi was badly burned himself and lost his own horse. The settler reported the affair to the authorities, stating that he and his family owed their lives to the constable. No where did the Police win laurels better earned than in the Yukon, where the difference between the security of life and property under their protection and the conditions prevailing east of the 141st meridian was so conspicuous that the international boundary line was almost visible. But of all the tales of service and sacrifice perhaps none so impressed the heart of Canada as that of Inspector Fitzgerald, who with three companions died of cold and starvation when on patrol duty in 1911. Nothing in the annals of Arctic exploration exceeds in pathos the record of this ill-fated expedition as contained in Fitzgerald's diary. Ever since 1904 a police patrol carrying mail had been sent from Dawson to Fort McPherson and back; and in 1910 Inspector Fitzgerald, who had had many years' experience in the Far North and had thoroughly proved his fitness for such work, was given command of this patrol. He left Herschel Island at the end of November'and. on December 3 he arrived at Fort McPherson, where he-'8pent a fortnight in making preparations for the journey to Dawson. On December 2* ho left Fort McPherson with three dog- teams of five dogs each, accompanied by Constables Kinney and Taylor and Special-Constable Carter, the last being employed as guide. Carter lost his way; and despite his own heroism and that of his three companions, the price was the lives of all the party. And it is to be remembered that equally dangerous journeys are made by members of the police force every year. In the same report in which the Commissioner tells the story of Fitzgerald's disaster, may be found the record of a journey of seven hundred miles and return made by Sergeant Fullerton, along the west coast of Hudson's Bay to Rankin Inlet, to meet Sergeant Borden coming from Fort Churchill with mail and taking the census of the Eskimos; Sergeant Walker journeyed from Fort Churchill to York Factory and return; Sergeant Nicholls from Norway House to Fort Churchill and return; Sergeant Edgenten from Split Lake to Fort CHurchill,- three days without food; Sergeant Munday, from the Pas to lac du Brochet and return — 900 miles in fifty one days; Sergeant MacLeod from Fort Vermillion across the terrible mountains of Great Slave Lake. All these heroic officers were engaged in definite police duties in the performance of which tragedy is ever an immediate poasibility. During the Great War the jurisdiction of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (as it was now re-ehristened) was extended over the whole of Canada and the force entered upon a new era. Whatever be the future of this famous organization, it can be no more than worthy of its past. The lessons it has taught its country have been many. One is that duty, faithfully performed, can never result in real failure. Who would question the success of the life-work of the dead boy in scarlet and gold on whose body, after a terrible blizzard had swept the region of his patrol, was found the following note? "Lost. Horse dead. Am trying to push on. Have done my best." CHAPTER 111. Peace on the Prairies: The Blackfeet Indian Treaty. By Charlotte Gordon. "Buried was the bloody hatchet, Buried was the dreadful .war-club, Buried were all warlike weapons, And the war-cry was forgotten. There was peace among the nations. Longfellow. THE BLACKFEET INDIAN TREATY. In. the story of the American frontier there is n«r con*rast more striking tiian that to be seen in the relations of the settlers with the Western Indians north and south of the forty-ninth parallel. In the one, peace and harmony, unbroken, save when a religious fanatic hynotizes the Red man; in the other a series of depradations, wars and bloodshed extending over more than twenty years. This could not have been, mere accident. Why the different conditions north and south of an imaginery line? For centuries the Indians roamed the American plains in primitive freedom. The buffalo was their chief means of subsistence, affording them a life of independence and plenty. It ranged over a large part of Canada and the United States, when white men first settled on the Atlantic coast. The country was a vast expanse of millions of acres of luxuriant grasses, sparkling riTers, rolling hills and rich river bottoms. She Indians owned it; countless thousands of buffalo made it their breeding ground. The Indian called the bison his best friend. He depended on it for all the essentials of life and comfort. Its meat was his daily food. What was not eaten fresh was dried and pounded down into pemmican. His noccasins, robes and leggings were made from the tanned skins. From these too, were prepared the tent coverings, the bridle and the lariat. The undressed hide furnished a boat. The horns became powder flasks, the sinews bow-strings, the .bones ornaments* The skin formed a m cradle for the infant, a shroud for the warrior. From time immemorial these children of the plains lived on the buffalo. These animals were hunted and slaughtered incessantly, not only by the Indians but by the Metis and White man. By 1830 the buffalo had been driven far beyond the Mississippi, except in the region of Minnesota. In 1887 there remained in L the United States only a few hundred scattered buffalo. They existed longer in Canada but farther and farther afield did the hunter have to press and always to find his prey disappearing. On both sides of the line the buffalo would have lasted longer had it not been for the operations of the white "skin-hunter" seeking robes for eastern markets. This destructive industry was rendered practicable by the construction of railways in the United States which made the buffalo country more accessible. Tfie Indian saw the advent of civilization; he saw the departure of the buffalo and his heart was filled with fear. In the United States it meant the massacre of the white man and the Indian. There, the white man rejoiced at the disappearance of the bison. "Zill every buffalo you see" said a Yankee Colonel, "for every buffalo dead is an Indian gone." The policy pursued by the United,S^tites government had finally degenerated into a war of extermination. The "clearing out" of the red man became a recognized portion of Indian warfare. The history 8f how the Aborigines in the United States were conquered and dispossessed is a complicated tale of encroachments upon Indian lands, of warfare and broken treaties. At the close of the civil wars the whole western frontier was ablaze with Indian disturbances. Many petty wars occurred in the quarter century following 1865, but the result was inevitable - the red man was forced to accept the guardianship of the United States Government. UndSr treaty conditions the Indians were preyed upon by agents and contractors; unscrupulous white men sold them "fire-water'/1 cheated them in trades and encroached -upon their lands. The .Indians offered fierce resistance. In 1862 the Sioux of tnejupper Mississippi massacred nearly a thousand while settlers on the Minnesota frontier and caused fifty thousand others to flee in terror to places of refuge. One cause of the persistent hostility of the western Sioux was the opening of a new road through their favorite hunting ground to the mines of Idaho and Montana. During the next few years there followed the Cheyene war with Custer's victory on the Washita and subsequent Indian treaties in 1868. But dishonesty still lurked in the Indian bureau and encroachments on the Indian lands continued. In 1874 to 1876 the discovery of gold in the Black hills, on the Sioux reservation, precipitated a great rush of prospectors to that region and helped to bring on the last great Indian war. One of the foremost leaders of the "hostiles", that is the Indians who refused to remain on the reservations as provided by the treaties of 1868, was Sitting Bull of the Sioux tribe* His band, habitually waylaid hunters, trappers and other white men who ventured into the region* In 1876 the United States Government determined to round up these wandering warriors and Custer's small force sought them out in the Little Big Horn Valley. There followed the famous Custer massacre when an Indian force of some thousands surrounded the little band and slew them to the last white man. The Indians gained little by their victory. Sitting Bull and some cf his followers managed to escape into Canada, while the remainder were subjected to such restrictions by reservation-life that further concentrated action against the white man was impossible. So terminated in bloodshed and violence the dispossessing of the Indian, on the American side of the Border. Consider now the conditions north of the forty-ninth parallel-. A wise administration saved the situation for the white man and red man alike. Here also the Indian saw the buffalo decrease and watched the turning of his hunting grounds into wheat fields. He began to realize that he could no longer have the forest and the prairie to himself and was much disturbed in mind. Then occurred a period when the North-West was without responsible government. It was the time between the gradual ending of the sway of the Hudson's.Bay Company and the establishment of authority by the Dominion of Canada. The old company had held the vast domain for two whole centuries. Around it the early history of Canada, to a large ^^^gfe# revolves. Its r#b presentatives were eminently successful in securing the goodwill of the Indians whose rights and privileges they respected. No feeling was stronger in a Hudson's Bay officials mind than- f| that he was in a country without military support, without eodified laws, and that on him rested the responsibility of keeping the peace. Hi3 management of the' war-like Indians was one of the marvels of the pioneer age. There was never an Indian war during the Hudson's Bay regime. There is no doubt that many serious troubles were averted by the• diplomatic handling of what were often extremely difficult situations. The result was that the Indians hud, owing to the manner in which they were dealt with by the company, a greet confidence in the government cf the Queen or great mother, as they called her. Trade wa.s carried on in peace, thousands of miles from the nearest British soldiers. The motto of the company, "Pre Pelle cuten" was the basis for fair dealing and the Indian looked upon the Hudson's Bay official as a benefactor. But the day of the improvised administration was passing* Tales of the riches of the new North-West directed attention to the country; settlement gradually developed until there we're some ten thousand people, apart from Indians, in the region. The company was confronted with new problems and realized that it could not adequately administer for the incoming population. The matter of adapting its agencies to the changed conditions was It^difficult."matter. The officials were rather uncertain of their powers and "the hand of justice was chained". Accordingly the transfer of the North-West to the Canadian Government was finally carried out. After the authority of the Sut^an^s Bay Company ceased, the nev^ Government did not, for some time, establish itself or receive recognition from the trader or Indian as being in control. This transition stage gave great opportunity for lawlessness. The various Indian tribes carried on petty wars with each other. American traders of the most irresponsible and unscrup- ulous type came into the country, sold the Indians "firewater", cheated them in trades, purchased their peltries for a mere song and impoverished the tribes. The indescribable conditions across the border threatened to creep gradually into Canada. Apart from the demoralization of the Indian the rate of extermination of the buffalo by American traders in Canada was becoming a grave problem. In 1873 Governor Morris reported that fifty thousand dollars worth of furs, secured at the very lowest prices, had been shipped out of the country by these men. The Indians were not only discontented but were losing respect for the Queen's orders. The Canadian Government wisely estimated ihe causes of unrest. They had a sense of responsibility to wards of the nation, such as the Indians, to prevent their becoming victims of the lawless. Steps were at once taken to preserve peace in the land. General W. F. Butler so well known as a soldier and a writer was authorized to make an investigation of conditions. Ee advised the establishment of constituted authority M with sufficient force to back it up. The government met the situation by the inauguration of the North-West Mounted Police, whose primary function was protective rather than coercive. Their arrival heralded the coming of law and order. The long arm of justice spread out over thousands of square miles and in a comparatively short time the country again knew fair dealing and fcespect for 14ie rights of others. These civilizing influences ^tended to the Indian, in 1he cessation of warfare between the various tribes, in the prohibition of liquor dealing, and in the protection of rights. All dealings with them were tempered with the spirit of compromise. This wise procedure of the government even included a consideration of the desires of the Indian as to the color of the uniform of the police. The Indians liked the bright colors, placing a certain confidence in the red coats. ."We know the soldiers of our Great Mother", they stated, "wear red coats and are our friends". After the police were well established an intelligent Indian trader said to Governor Morris: "Before the Queen's government came we were never safe and now I can sleep in my tent and have no fear. I can go to the Blackfeet and Cree camps and they treat me as a friend." A Blackfeet chief expressed his satisfaction to Colonel MacLeod, the head of the police: "Before you came t2ie Indian crept along; now he is not afraid to walk erect." However, the chief reason for the success of the police and for the peace that was kept in the Indian country was the recognition of the faot that the Indian had natural and hereditary rights in this Western land. This attitude to the Indian was in marked contrast to the spirit and treatment of them across the border. Yet, even with improved conditions and a certain established friendship with the police, the Indians wore restless. They were very jealous of their lojids. The police, they contended, were in the country, not only to keep the whiskey traders out but also to protect the white people in their encroachments and so gradually to take their lands. Ordinances, dealing with the preservation of the buffalo, framed in the interests of the Indians, were misconstrued. During the agitation over this unpopular legislation, Sitting Bull, the famous American Sioux chief attempted to stir up trouble among the Canadian tribes by urging the Blackfeet to join in the war in the United States. Ihis suggestion was scorned but the law-abiding conditions were further disturbed in 1876 by the advent of Sitting Bull In Canada. His tribe had wiped out Custer's regiment and he fled to Canada with a large camp following. The incursion of the warrior into Canada attracted other Indian tribes to the ricinity of the camp/ Reports grew of the number of bands congregating and their warlike attitude. Only the diplomacy and constant vigilance of the police saved the country from an Indian war at this time. The Blackfeet confederacy, a proud and powerful race, had been very ho stile to the white people. In that they were so hard of approach, they had been very little under control of the Hudson's Bay Company. Living in large camps, they spent a wild, happy, comfortable life among the herds of Buffalo of the district. More than any other Indians they had suffered from the demoralizing influences of the American traders. The whole vast country was technically Indian property and this they gave away for promises and assurances of help when hard times should come. AS the buffalo disappeared they were threatened with starvation* Thus peace with them was absolutely essential if the country was to be safe for settlement! IN view of this surging unrest and of the state of affairs across the border, the government resolved that an alliance with them should be formed. During the proceeding years, there had been treaties and agreements signed with the Indians farther east, and various envoys of the government had discussed the matter of a treaty with the chiefs of the Blackfeet confederacy. The missionaries who were in closer touch with them than any other white people, had impressed the value of an understanding. The chiefs realized the importance of accepting terms. During 1876 the Indians sent to the Lieutenant- Governor of the North-West Territories a letter with regard to the expected treaty, and also by a messenger to a similar effect. They became very eager to learn of the intentions of the Canadian Government in relation to them. Especially were they disappointed at the delay of negotiations when they learned of the treaty with the Chippewa Indians. Many exaggerated stories reached their ears and fostered their discontent. To pacify them, His Honor, Lieutenant-Governor Morris, selected Rev. John McDougall, a resident missionary, stationed at Morleyville, to convey to them the assurance that commissioners would be sent to negotiate a treaty with them as had already been done with their brothers farther east. Mr. McDougall possessed great influence over the Indians, yet his mission was a difficult one. . He found some of the chiefs in very bitter mood. Big Bear, a Salteaux, regarded as the most troublesome chief, said: "We want none of the Queen's presents; when we set a fox-trap we scatter pieces of meat all around but when the fox gets into the trap we knock him on the head; we want no bait; let your chiefs come like' men and talk to us." However, chiefs of the temper of Big Bear were in the minority. The Blackfeet were oppressed with vague fears and readily listened to the Queen's representatives. "That your Honor's message was timely, these are ample proofs," wrote Mr. McDougall as he gave a detailed account of the conditions of unrest. Lieutenant-Governor. Morris sent further recommendations, that these Indians should be treated with, at an early date, stating, "that there was a general consensus of opinion amongst the missionaries settled in the territory and others who are acquainted with those Indians as to the desirableness of having such a treaty made at the earliest possible date, with a view to preserving friendly disposition of these tribes which might easily give place to feelings of an unfriendly nature, should the treaty negotiations be much longer delayed." A definite date for the opening of a consideration of the treaty was finally made and plans were eventually carried out in accordance with the arrangement. There' followed the consummation of Treary Number Seven, known as the Blackfeet Treaty. It was made at Blackfeet Crossing On the Bow River, now the town of Gleichen, Alberta, in September, 1877. The work was entrusted to Honorable David Laird, Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories and to Lieutenant-Colonel MacLeod, in charge of the N.W.M.Police. They Were directed to meet the Indians at Fort MacLeod, the headquarters of the police. But the famous Crowfoot, the leading chief of the Blackfeet, took exception to this arrangement. He considered it in keeping with his dignity to have the white men go to him. As a matter cf sentiment, he wished that the c setting for such a momentous event should be Blaekfeet Crossing. Governor Laird wrote of the change of place, "For satisfactory J reasons, adduced by Crowfoot, leading chief of the Blackfeet, Lieutenant-Colonel MacLeod, my associate commissioner, has consented that the making of the treaty should be held at Blackfeet Crossing on the Bow River, instead of at Fort MacLeod." Blackfeet Crossing has long been a favorite camping ground of the Blackfeet nation. It was known by them as "the ridge under water." The verdant and extensive river bottom, the sheltering hills, the tree-fringed river, offered all that was required for the encampment of the great gathering. The commissioners were much impressed with the advantages and beauties of the situation. "At the Crossing where the Indians had latterly been notified to assemble for the treaty", wrote Governor laird, "There is a beautiful river bottom on the south side of the river. It extends about one mile back from the river, and is some three miles in length. The river, as far as eye can reach, is skirted close to the water's edge by a narrow belt of cottonwood and other trees." "When I surveyed the clear waters of the stream, the fuel and shelter which the wood afforded, the excellent herbage on hill and dale, and the Indians encamped in the vicinity, crossing and re-crossing on the "ridge" with ease and safety, I was- not surprised that the Blackfeet were attached to the locality and desired that such an important event in their history as concluding a treaty with Her Majesty's Commissioners should take place at this spot." The district of these Indians, including about fifty thousand square miles, lay in the south-west angle of the territories, north cf the boundary line, east of the Rocky Mountains. This portion of the North-West was occupied by the Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans and Sarcees while the Stoney Indians were at MOrley in the foothills. It was an epoch in western g development when the Western Indians signed the treaty, deeding these lands to the Canadian Government. Meanwhile, the Indians had been duly notified of the 89. telace of meeting and that, on September 17th, treaty negotiations would be opened. They came to the appointed rendezvous in full •battle array, chiefs, head-men, young braves, squaws and children, kith their horses, car*s, and dogs. Some of the tribes travelled tin carts but most cf them and especially the Blackfeet and their Associates, travelled on horseback* The squaws followed in long procession, riding their ponies, to which were harnessed travois, parrying the younger members of the family as well as the requirements for camp. Extensive preparations were made for the great pcw-wow. &Dhe quantity of supplies which had been delivered at Fort MacLeod, was transferred to Blackfoot Crossing. Some eighty officers and men of the force, the police band, missionaries, government iofficials, interpreters and traders accompanied Lieutenant-Colonel alacLeod to the Crossing where the camp was established. Traders [with large supplies of goods, opened for business, in canvas- covered stores. The various tribes of Indians were allotted distinct Iparts of the meadow and each, under head-men, was divided into ^sections. Thus, for some distance along the river were clusters of tepees. The scene was one of great activity. From the tents issued thin columns of smoke, and in and out moved the Indians f~ with their gay trappings and bright dresses. The buffalo hide [coverings of their lodges were gaudily decorated with paintings of deer, buffalo, eagles, serpents, and grotesque figures. As the growing clusters of tepees gradually covered the camping ^grounds, the animation grew into uproar. Children played about; dogs barked and howled; there was the continual and monotonous sound of the tom-tom. The making of medicine in the various .lodges was. an important ceremony, and it was accompanied by the beating of drums, discharging of fire-arms, singing, dancing, and shouting. Pandemonium reigned. ■ His Honor Lieutenant-Governor Laird had arrived at Blackfoot Crossing on^e7tember\lst, and rested before proceeding to Fort MacLeod. On his return to the Crossing on September 16th, he found that Colonel MacLeod and the police were estab- lished and the commissioners present for business. They were formally welcomed by Crowfoot, head of the Blackfeet tribe and other chiefs and head men. During the first day, most of the Indians on the ground were Blackfeet and Stonies. Several of the Blood 0hiefs had called upon Lieutenant-Governor Laird at Fort MacLeod, requesting that they might be treated there instead of. at Bow River. The desirability of the several chiefs meeting together to talk over the terms of the treaty was impressed upon them and they agreed to go to Bow River. But with the usual vagary of the Indian they were not on the ground at the appointed time; very few of the Piegans and Sarcees were there either. Despite this the commissioners determined to adhere to their arrangement of I7th September. Early in the morning, therefore, a messenger invited the various camps to a great council. Half an hour before the appointed time, a gun was fired as a signal for the Indians to assemble. The meeting was well attended. There was much hand-shaking by chiefs and head men, in accordance with the usual Indian custom. As the business proceedings began, the Indians ranged themselves on the ground, close to the commissioner's tent; the chiefs were in front, wrapped in their blankets of various colors, their heads decorated with feathers, fur tails, and ornaments. Behind them were the head men; seated in a deep semi-circle were the rest of the tribes, the young braves with their long, dark masses of hair over their shoulders, the squaws with their children, decked in bright dresses. In the assemblage were such noted chiefs as Eagle Tail of the Piegans, Rainy Chief of the Bloods, Bull Head of the Sarcees, Old Sun, Heavy Shield, Weasel Calf and many other head men of the Blackfeet as well as Crowfoot, the great chief. He was a strong Indian character, cool, tactful and a wise ruler of an unruly people. Mentally and physically, he stood out from the average members of his tribe. His courage and skill were recognized and gave him an unlimited influence over his people. Above average height, with high forehead, aquiline'nose and iiercing grey eyes, he was a commanding presence. He was counted an orator among his people, and in the confederate tribes. "Crow- loot is a wise man", was the usual conclusion to a discussion of |is mea.sures. In another walk of life he would have been a great Statesman. Chief Weasel Calf, now over ninety years of age, is still In active ruler of his people. He is a yearly visitor at the Calvary, stampede and takes a prominent part in the ceremonies. Now, lis fame rests on the fact that he was a signatory of the treaty if 1877. Among the white people present were Rev. John McDougall, ffesleyan missionary of Morleyville and Rev. Father C. Scollen, gatholio priest, -who were able to speak the Indian languages. Ihey were of great service to the commissioners, not only as interpreters but as councillors to the Indians who had faith in their [judgment. Mrs. John McDougall, Mrs. David McDougall and Mrs. James Hacleod, who are residents of Calgary to-day, were also in attendance at the ceremony. The latter two ladies signed the treaty as witnesses. The introductory proceedings were not marked by special Business accomplishment. It was deemed wise to delay the business lor two days, pending the arrival of other Indians. "I am glad to lee the Queen's chief and Stamixotoken (Colonel MacLeod) who is a Ireat chief and our friend", stated Crowfoot. "I will wait and gold a council with my own children and be ready on Wednesday to Bear the great Mother's message." The other chiefs, with a few exceptions, were of the same mind and it was in this conciliatory Ipirit that the deliberations were opened. From Monsieur Jean 1. Heureux, a French Canadian who had spent twenty years among the Blackfeet, was obtained valuable information respecting the lumber and wishes of the Indians. He made an elaborate list of jhe different chiefs and minor chiefs of the various tribes. It proved very useful to the commissioners and was the basis of their work. Rations, provided by the government, were given out to those who applied. Crowfoot and his chiefs refused to accept them until they could hear the terms of the treaty. The Blackfeet chief appeared to be under the impression that, by receiving food from |he government, he would commit himself to their proposals. At the postponed meeting the terms of the treaty were outlined and the Indians were asked to deliberate on them. On this lay, almost all of the chiefs, including Crowfoot, applied for Nations. Long and tedious delays followed. There were many iuestions to be asked and problems of the Indians to be explained. By long processes, the chiefs gathered together their thoughts. Isually the lengthy harangue that followed contained much flowery language, and it had to be interpreted to the commissioners. A great amount of patience was required on the part of the white man Concerned in the proceedings. Some chiefs made extravagant demands but men of judgment, like Crowfoot, Bull's Head of the Sarcees, jprop-Eared Wolf of the Piegans, were inclined to reason and they overbore the enthusiasts. On the following day the treaty was further explained to ft-much larger gathering of Indians. That their reserves could not be taken from them, occupied or sold without their consent Jfas impressed upon them; they were assured that their liberty of hunting over the prairie would not be interfered with, provided fihey did not molest settlers. A minor chief of the Bloods asked for fifty dollars a year and thirty dollars a year for all others, oaen, women and children. He wished to be paid for the timber taken by the police and white people from his reserve. He also requested that the Crees and half-breeds be sent back to their |wn country. These demands were promptly refused. The services of the police were stressed as well as the freedom which the Queen allowed her people as long as they obeyed the laws. The debate continued en the following day. Crowfoot, wi.th an interpreter, called on the commissioners, requiring explanation of certain points. There was a report to the effect that the Indians, la their own councils, could not agree but no reference tc it was made by the commissioners. At the meeting of the day, Crowfoot, with marked dignity, Expressed the appreciation of the services of the police and sig- jpified his intention to accept the treaty. "Crowfoot spoke well" paid Old Sun, head chief of the North Blackfeet. He agreed to the Commissioners' terms and asked for cattle, guns, ammunition, tobacco, axes and money. The Blocd chief who had made the large aemands, stated that he would £0 as the other chiefs did. Bull's Head cf the Sarcees declared that his people would take the advice of the Queen's representatives. Eagle Head, the Piegan chief remarked: "I give you my hand. We all agree to what Crowfoot says". Rainy Chief, head of the North Bloods signified his intention of fecoepting the white man's advice. Some of the minor chiefs spoke to the some effect. The commissioners set the following day for fche signing of the treaty. In the meantime the difficult matter cf arranging the re- Serves had to be considered. This was done by private discussion With the head chiefs at their camps. Lieutenant-Colonel MacLeod was delegated to do this work and was so expeditious in its accomplishment that the districts chosen were named in the prepared Ifcreaty. The concluding ceremony of the Blackfeet Treaty was an fevent that Canada and the world will never again witness. The proceedings were picturesque and imposing. The Indians had Arrived in numbers since the opening dqv, making a gathering of 45§2. All of the ten chiefs of the several tribes were present; forty minor chiefs and councillors were in attendance. Only two Blackfeet and two Blood minor chiefs were absent. ?he commissioners had a guard of honor of fifty mounted Ired-coats, the "Queen's Own" who gave the necessary military touch I the scene; the music of the police band further marked the ^importance of the occasion. The guns fired a salute as the Lieut- tenant-Governor and Colcnel MacLeod tcck their seats. The chiefs fend minor chiefs were again seated on robes and blankets, close jto the commissioners' tent. Beyond in Irregular formation, were iover four thousand men, women and children. Stretching along the [river were the tents, tepees, stores cf the traders, carriages, ; Red River carts, prairie schooners, and wagons, while cattle and horses grazed in the rich river bottom down the valley. With the autumn tints en the slopes the vast throng made a colorful picture, enhanced as it was by the brilliant red-coats cf the police and the bizarre Indian costumes. Formal elaborate hand-shaking marked the opening of the session. When the chiefs had taken their places the Indians gave the strange and weird sun-dance. Following the grotesque performance which struck fear into the hearts of the white women present, the conditions of the treaty were again interpreted to the Indians, Red Crow, the great head chief of the Bloods who had recently arrived, signified his intention to accept the terms of the treaty. The Blackfeet Indian Treaty was much the same in content as had been the earlier treaties with the Indians farther east. The main features of it were that all lands were to be relinquished to the Canadian Government, save the reservations. Permission was given to hunt over the ceded territory and to fish in the waters' thereof, except on individual property. A perpetual payment was promised of five dollars per head to each Indian, man, woman and child. Each chief was to receive an annual salary of twenty-five dollars and each head man, fifteen dollars. In addition, theaM were given suits of official clothing to each chief and head manVwith British flags, Winchester rifles and medals to the chiefs. These medals are given both in the United States and Canada, in conformity with an ancient custom, and are much prized by the chiefs and their families• The reservations, or lands allotted to the Indians, were set aside for homes and agricultural purposes. They cannot be sold, or alienated without their consent and then only for their benefit. The lands were of sufficient area to allow one square mile for each family of five persons or in that proportion. Her Majesty further agreed to pay an annual sum of two thousand dollars for the purchase of ammunition for distribution among the Indian, There was included a premise of agricultural implements, oxen, cattle, and seed grain. Provision was made for the establishment of schools on the reserves. The sale of spirits on their lands was prohibited. There were many and detailed explanations to be made. It was impressed that the government would not interfere with the daily life of the Indian, except to assist him in farming. "The Great Mother heard that the buffalo were being killed very fast, and to prevent them from being destroyed, her councillors made a law to protect them. This law is for your good," stated Governor Laird. "The good Indian has nothing to fear from the Queen or her officers." In this spirit was the conference conducted. The Indians formally accepted the terras of the treaty. ~~ The seriousness of the occasion was appreciated by them and expressed by the ohiefs in language of high emotion. "I hope you look upon the Blackfeet and Piegans as your children now", said Crowfoot, "and that you will be indulgent and charitable to them..* the advice given me and my people has proved to be very good. If the police had not come to the country, where would we all be now? Bad men and whiskey were killing us so fast that very few indeed of us would have been left to-day. The police have protected us as the feathers of the bird protect it from the frosts of winter. I wish them all good and trust that their hearts will increase in. goodness from this time forward* I am satisfied. I will sign the treaty." Button Chief of the Bloods agreed to sign as did Red Crow of the Bloods. He stated: "I entirely trust Stamixo- tokon (Colonel MacLeod), and will leave everything to him. I will sign with Crtrwfoot. "Crowfoot spoke well", said Old Sun of the Blackfeet everything you say appears to be very good,and I hope "you will give us all we ask, cattle, money, tobacco, guns, and axes, and that you will not let the white man use poison on the prairies." Several of the minor chiefs present expressed their satisfaction with the terms of the treaty which was to be signed on the following day. The treaty was finally signed. The commissioners put their signatures first to the document. The interpreter then inscribed the names of the chiefs," at their request and witnessed their marks. Crowfoot waited until the last and stated, as he affixed his mark: "I have been last to sign; I v.111 be last to break.*' During the ceremony, a salute of thirteen guns announced the conclusion of the treaty with one of the most dreaded Indian confederacies of the north-west. Following the payment of treaty money to the Indians, the chiefs presented an address to the commissioners. They declared the satisfaction of the whole nation with the treaty, extended their well-wishes to the Queen and her officers, expressed their determination to adhere to the terms of the treaty, and to abide by the laws of the Great Mother. The Minister of the Interior expressed the opinion that; "The conclusion of the treaty with the warlike and intractable tribes, at a time when the Indian tribes immediately across the Border are engaged in open hostilities with the United States troops, is certainly a conclusive proof of the just policy of the government of Canada towards the Aboriginal population, and, I add, of the confidence of the Indians in the promises and just dealings of the servants of the British Crown in Canada, ancondi- dence that can only be kept by the strictest observance of the treaty." llfesC ? Thus the great North-West was opened tc the settler, the miner, the railroad builder, and all others engaged in lawful occupation. Thus was way made for a new civilization en the broad and fertile lands of Western Canada. Thus it is that the Indian lives in peace and harmony with the white man. CHAPTER IV. A Hero of the Plains: Gabriel Dumont. By Norman Fergus Black,M.A..D.Paed. "Over dim forest and lake, Over lone prairie and brake, The clamor of battle to wake, For kindred and country's sake, Into the North and the Westward. William Wilfred Campbell. A HERO OF THE PLAINS. In 1851 a little caravan of halfbreed trappers and hunters, with their families, was migrating from the vicinity of Fort Qu'Appelle towards Fort Garry. Men, women and children, they numbered slightly mere than sixty, some mounted on bronchos, some riding in creaking Red River carts. Around them seemed nothing but the peace and silence of the illimitable prairie, with no indication cf human presence upon it save the ruts of the Fort Garry trail; and even these, if seen from a few yards aside, could scarcely be distinguished from buffalo paths. In a few places there were streams to be crossed. If the river were too deep to be safely waded, the baggage was bundled into rolls and wrapped in skin tents so as to float and was dragged across by a protesting pony, scrambling through the waters on foot if possible, swimming if necessary. At sunset the little column halted. Its tiny camp fires were soon aglow and the gossiping, laughing, singing party ate their evening meal, and presently settled to rest. Suddenly a messenger arrived with word that the dreaded Sioux were on the war path and had already captured another little group of plainsmen a few miles away. The Wagons had already been ranged in a circle as a barricade around the camp. A trench was now hastily dug for the further protection of the women and children. Half the men were detailed as a camp guard. The ethers, on horse back, advanced in little groups to detect and check any secret approach by the stealthy savages or break the force of a sudden assault. Among these mounted sentinels was a thirteen year old boy who insisted on accompanying his father, saying, "My bullets will hit as well as anybody's!" Every man was at his post through the dragging hours of darkness. Occasionally one could hear the voices cf invisible guards, singing to keep themselves awake. No other sound broke the silence of the night. But with morning a great column cf Sioux was seen advancing. Under pretence cf negotiating peace they approached the camp but all at once the parley was transformed into bloody battle, with pdds fifteen to one. All day long the defenders had no respite, pometimes they were at bay within their barricades, sometimes their horsemen pursued retreating savages across the prairie. There was no time for meals; but cur thirteen year old, who did a man's duty ^.n that scene of fear and bloodshed, "devoured the ramparts themselves", as he afterwaids said, snatching morself from the sacks of dried buffalo meat which formed part of the improvised fortifications. At nightfall the Indians withdrew discomfited and the halfbreeds buried their dead, assisted by a priest who was travelling with the party. Next day the savages returned to the assault but thought better of it when they saw that in the meantime a large body of reinforcements had arrived to succour the besieged voyageurs. The little boy who with such coolness and courage had received his baptism of fire in that heroic defence was Gabriel Dumont, well known in Canadian history as a warrior but still better deserving to be remembered for his share in bringing forever to an end on the Western Canadian plains the era of violence between Indian and Halfbreed and of constant inter-tribal warfare. Meantime he was to become a hunter of whose skill and courage tales were told around many a camp-fire; and buffalo hunting was an occupation calling for skill amd courage in plenty. To better understand such a man as Dumont let us try to picture in imagination scenes that to him were very familiar. Among the Halfbreeds in those days the great events of the year were the buffalo hunts. Early in the summer and again in the autumn, hundreds of oxcarts drifted along the trails to the appointed meeting place, where an encampment of aeveral thousand Halfbreeds gradually came into existence. Here and there among the tents, surrounded by talkative and gesticulating groups speaking many languages, horsedealers and other traders would be vigorously plying their trades. The barking of numberless halfrwild dogs, the lowing of many cattle, the neighing of hundreds of excited horses, the uproar of gambling and drunken carousal, the cheers of spectators as a favorite horse or popular rider won distinction on the race course, the rattle and creaking of carts arriving in a constant stream, noisy greeting exchanged by newly met acquaintances, the busy hum of conversation among a multitude of people of a little world in which all the world knew all the world though since their last exchange of news they had been scattered over vast expanses, such was the babel that all day long and far into the night echoed about the tented city of assembling buffalo hunters. When at last the main body had gathered, the great caravan would start for the wilderness. When his scouts reported to the commander of the hunt the size and position of the buffalo herd, camp was pitched again and the hunters prepared for the onslaught. Mounted on their fleet and highly trained horses and cautiously taking advantage of all possible cover, they advanced regularly under their leader's command until near enough to charge the buffalo herd, whose uncounted battalions extended to the far prairie horizon. At the word of command they then swept down upon the startled bison and poured a deadly volley into their shaggy sides. The bewildered animals, maddened with terror and pain, would stampede blindly, tearing up the prairie sward, roaring in rage and agony, and making the earth tremble with their tramplings. The hunters followed at a gallop, loading and firing while at full speed. A charge of powder would be settled in place by striking the gun against the saddle, the bullets being dropped from the horseman's mouth down the barrel, without any wads. Presently the hunters and the hunted were mingled in a tumultuous charge and amid clouds of dust and smoke each rider chose as best he could the buffalo most' to his liking, shooting when and as opportunity occurred, continually himself on guard against but in constant danger not only of the horns of the wild cattle but also of the horses and firearms of his friends. The wake of the flying herd was marked by piles of dead buffalo and was deluged with blood like a field of battle. The carts followed up to remove the choicer carcasses. Much of the meat was wasted but at all events the hides and tongues were taken. However, great quantities of pemmican were made from shredded meat "boiled with tallow and poured while still fluid into sacks made of raw skins. The tongues were cured and the robes dressed. After the autumn hunt these tasks were lightened by the frost as it was then possible to take meat back to the settlements frozen. It was a life full of adventure, glamour and romance, well fitted to call forth the sterner virtues, and characterized by a boyish commingling of sport and toil. In such surroundings Gabriel Dumond was educated. Of school and the learning of the great and far-away world he got nothing, but the lessons cf his own world he learned thoroughly and into his place in it he fitted as the body fits the skin. A skilled and daring horseman; a swimmer \sho when he chose could frolic in lake or river unwearyingly for hours, like a fish; a hunter and marksman equalled by few; a natural leader, of commanding presence, conciliatory, firm, calm, quick-witted, capable at need of that ImperturVible audacity that so impresses the barbarian, but otherwise as watchful as he was resourceful; a man gifted with an exceptional memory and master of many languages; kin by blood to the French, the Crees', the Sarcees and the Crow Indians; a man of war from his earliest youth and equally distinguished and successful in peaceful negotiation; Dumont was designated in advance as a peace-maker by his gifts and circumstances. When still a mere youth he was often chosen to arranve treaties between different clashing sections of the prairie peoples. His most famour exploit of this sort occurred in 1862, still known amont the Indians and their kinsmen as "The Year of the Great Peace." Under the guidance of this youthful chieftain. J the Halfbreeds and Sioux brought to an end a" century of bloody warfire and agreed to recognize each other as brethren, with brothers' rights in relation tc the land and the creatures of the chase. This remarkable treaty was consummated at a spot with the ill-sounding name of The Dead Men's Isles in Devil's Lake (North Dakota). By this and other treaties peace was established not only between the Halfbreeds and the Indians but very largely among the Indian tribes themselves. Even the hereditary feud of Cree and Blackfoot was quieted. .Dumont the warrior had become Dumond the peace-maker; but back at Fort Garry people wondered. Indeed in the friendly association of the races of native and mixed blood, many saw a new peril to the whites, against whom as the common enemy all the native-born were felt to be in league. The dreadful massacres cf whites by Indians in North Dakota, lent force to these fears. And it is true that such men as Dumond often felt more friendship toward their Indian neighbors than toward the white men. The reasons are not far to seek. The Indians recognized the undoubted superiority of the Halfbreeds while to folk from the East these men of mixed blood were for a long time yet the objects cf indifference if not of contempt. That in point of fact they constituted a unique nation, with very special rights and great possibilities of usefulness to civilization in dealings with the aborigines, government officials seemed unable to recognize. Of the short-sighted policies which caused the Red River troubles in 187«, this is not the place to speak at length. Moreover, Dumont's share in the eVents of those unhappy days was comparatively slight, - not because of any indifference but indeed because his passions were to profoundly stirred. Angry at the Hudson's Bay Company, which in return for Canadian money had surrendered the ten-thousand Halfbreed settlers of the Red River District tc a far away government densely ignorant of their circumstances, needs and character, he was also- full of suspicion in the face of the ready promises <aade on behalf of Canada when a provisional government was set up at Fort Garry. At the same time he was profoundly anxious not to act in open opposition to the views of his revered friend, the peace-loving Bishop Tache. Accordingly Dum'ont left the disturbed settlement to visit among the Crees, whose language, by the way, was his mother-tongue. Later he raade similar visits to various other tribes, welding them together in friendship — and a common distrust. Among tiie Halfbreeds of the Plains society was very simple Until the annexation of the Hudson's Bay Territories to Canada, there existed, beyond a radius of fifty miles from Fort Garry, not even the semblance of government, except such as the Halfbreeds themselves set up wherever they found themselves sufficiently numerous and subjected to a diversity of interests that might engender discord. The "Laws of the Prairie" were intimately associated with the buffalo hunt. At the great encampment described above a president was eledted and a corps of captains was appointed. Each of these chose eight or ten assistants to perform police duties and to enforce the laws of the camp, which varied but slightly from year to year. Those drawn up at Pembina in 1840 were typical and included the following provisions: (1) No buffalo to be run on the Sabbath day. (2) No party tc fork off, lag behind or go before without permission. (3) No person to run buffalo before the general order. (4) Every captain, with his men, to patrol the camp and keep, guard in turn. (5) For the first trespass against these laws the offender to have his saddle and bridle cut up. (6) For the second offence, the coat to be taken off the back of the offender and cut up. (7) For the third offence, the offender tc be flogged. (8) Any person convicted cf theft, even tc the value cf a sinew, to be brought to the middle of the camp, and the crier to call out his or her name three times, adding the word "thief" at each time. Such rules were made by a council which for the time being constituted a sort of provisional government. In ordinary matters this body acted directly on the authority vested in it, but in dealing with exceptional affairs it was guided by the decision of a majority of the hunters, assembled in public meeting. On the basis of these familiar customs Dumont in 1875 set up a non-official government with headquarters at Batoche, where he and many of his Halfbreed friends had now settled. The need for some authority nearer than Fort Garry was obvious and the means taken to establish it were natural, but it brought Dumong again into trouble with the whites. Originally the laws of the buffalo hunt had rested upon voluntary acquescence, but Dumont saw that in a settled community something more than that was necessary. Accordingly fine and imprisonment were meted out to those who disobeyed the mandates of Dumont's council. The recently organized North West Mounted Police and the far-away ruler of the Territories, Lieutenant-Governor Morris of Manitoba, were compelled to interfere and Dumont's provisional government at Batoche Was extinguished, though as yet there was nothing provided which really filled its place. Two years later Dumont and his people commenced the weary and humiliating task of trying by petition to arouse the attention of the Ottawa government to uieir needs and grievances, both of fhiwh were real and numerous. After some seven years of fruitless effort, Dumont, with three other Halfbreeds, was commissioned by his neighbors to invite the assistance of Louis Riel, who had led -their kinsfolk of the Red River in the negotiations which culminated in the establishment of fully representative government under the Manitoba Act. Dumont and his companions carried the invitation seven hundred miles across the prairie to Riel, in Montana, where he was teaching school. This invitation Riel accepted and there followed several months of active constitutional agitation and petition, to which the government manifested an indifference almost impossible to explain and quite impossible to excuse. Feeling ran high and the situation was certainly dangerous but those actually on the ground were unanimous that actual rebellion might easily have been averted but for the folly of a prominent member of the North West Council. This important personage deliverately concocted and set in circulation the mischievtos report that an armed force of 500 was actually marching upon Batoche to answer thetHalfbreed petitions, as he said, "with bullets and chains". This news reached a large company of the extremer element of the Halfbreed party when on their way to celebrate a religious festival, March 18, 1885. A hasty couneil was held which decided upon armed resistance and the re- luatant acquiescence of Dumont was secured. He thereupon became ' the military chieftain of a rising fore-doomed to failure. Nevertheless, though desperately outnumbered, totally unT provided with artillery, and possessed of but a scanty supply of arms and those largely of the crudest and most heterogeneous description, the Halfbreeds made a gallant fight in defence,, as they believed, of their rights, their homes and their leaders. The rebel policy was defensive rather than offensive, .and in more than one crisis Dumont held his men in restraint when a sanguinary blow was possible, - but useless; for this humane policy Riel was chiefly responsible. However, Dumont's military skill was evident at every turn. At Duck Lake, on the day when the first blood was spilt, Dumont at first allowed — or, rather, compelled — a detachment sent from Fort Carlton to secure certain supplies and personal effects, to return baffled but unhurt to their headquarters; and when nevertheless he was attacked a few hours later he decisively defeated the advancing column and, with a loss of four of his own men killed, compelled the police and Prince Albert volunteers to retire, after doing all that was possible for brave men to do but leaving twelve of their comrades dead upon the field. Dumont'.s plans — sound from a military standpoint — for continually harrassing with nightly alarms and constant ambuscade the approaching forces of nilitia under the command of General Middltton of the Imperial Army staff were vetoed by Riel as inhumane. At Fish Creek, however, Dumont succeeded in checking Middleton's column so seyerely as to eause a week's delay in its advance. In this aetion four more of Dumont's Halfbreeds fell, as against ten slain of the volunteers. Afain at Batoche the remarkable ability of the Halfbreed warrior and the courage of his associates were demonstrated. The little village was so fortified by well planned trenches and defended with such spirit that in the end it took four days' fighting for the Canadian militia, though vastly superior to the defenders in number and equipment, to capture the hamlet. Even this decisive vistory was at the cost of forty- five volunteers wounded and nine killed, while Dumont's men were so wisely deployed that even in defeat only eleven of the insurgent Halfbreeds were slain. In addition to the nineteen Halfbreeds killed at Duck lake, Fish Creek and Batoche, four Indians also give their lives at Dumont's side. That, despite Dumont's prestige among them, no general rising of the Indian tribes accompanied the rebellion of the Saskatchewan Halfbreeds is a matter justifying mingled wonder and thankfulness, but on the causes preventing such calamity we cannot enlarge. The reatraining forces included twelve years' faithful service by the North West Mounted Policp. The consummation of a notable series of treaties between the government and the Indian peoples was also a factor of supreme importance. Furthermore, the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway this same year rendered possible the movement of large bodies of soldiers with sufth impressive rapidity as to render the plains thereafter secure from any general conflagration such as could so easily have swept the prairies a few years earlier and could have been quenched only in a deluge of blood. At Duck Lake battle Dumont himself suffered a severe scalp wound and it was said by some that during later actions he was never quite his old self again; however, the chief of a losing cause is sure of abundant criticism. The Canadian soldiers judged him more generously and probably more fairly. As Canada recalls with grateful pride the courage and good conduct of her citizen soldiery, let her not withhold, or grant in scanty measure, the tribute of admiration so well deserved by these others, also her children, the Halfbreeds of the Saskatchewan and their heroic captain, - sinning but so sorely sinned against. Cruel necessity required that this uprising of L_ a handful of miataken and ignorant frontiersmen should be sternly repressed; but it would be an ill day for Canada if ever the vigor or valor which characterized them should be extinguished in any section of her citizens, be they white men or Halfbreeds. On the collapse of the rebellion Dumont escaped to the United States after a flight of six hundred miles, covered in eleven days of stirring adventure. Dumont's simple nature had much of piety in it and in speaking of this dangerous journey he afterwards told a friend; "I used to feel that I was protected; so I never failed to say to the Holy Virgin 'You are my mother: well then, show me the way! '" SPAIN ON THE COAST By His Honour Judge Howay. "I see the dying glow of Spanish glory, The sunset dream and last!" Bret Harte. QUADRA. From the days of Balboa Spain degarded the vast Pacific Ocean as her property -- "A Spanish Lake" — in which no other nation had, or could have, any possessions and on which, therefore, no other nation had any right to show its flag. For over two hundred years the Spaniards relying upon those views (which, however, had been challenged by Queen Elizabeth) remained inert as regards the exploration of the Northwest Coast cf America. But the pressure exerted by the movements of the Russians in Alaska and the consequent danger that unless a barrier were raised the Czar might extend his settlements far down the coast caused the Spanish authorities, in 1774, to despatch an expedition to take possession at about 65 North Latitude and, thus, as it were, set up a boundary post. This pioneer voyage had such poor results that in the following year another expedition was sent out for the same purpose -- to mark a point beyond which Russia should not pass. This voyage of 1775 affords us the first glimpse of the man who is the outstanding figure in the Spanish regime in British Columbia — Den Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra. The expedition consisted of two vessels — Santiago and Sonera. On the latter, the smaller, Quadra, then merely a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, was in command. Owing tc the loss cf some of the crew, delays from contrary winds, the sickness of the sailors, and the unsuitability of the Sonora for such a lengthy voyage many cf the officers cf the expedition were in favour of ordering her return to San Bias. But Quadra insisted that the weather would probably be nc worse and almost begged to be allowed to continue the voyage. His strong will and indomitable purpose bore down opposition; the Sonora was permitted tc pursue her course to the northward. After a week later the officers of the Santiago again wished to abandon the undertaking on account of sickness, -the stormy weather- and the lateness cf the season. Again Quadra opposed any such move and the two vessels still sailed northward. An opportune gale separated them and Quadra was left free to proceed in an endeavor to carry out his master's instructions. &s&» we can see him in his little schooner, which was only 36 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 8 feet deep, with his crew of about twenty men, setting his face towards the mysterious north, resolved to battle with the howling gales of the Pacific and with the fogs and hidden dangers of the shore. These two forces he met and overthrew. Unfortunately there was one, the dread of all ocean navigators until the days of Captain Cook, which was too strong to be completely overcome; and while, thanks to Quadra's bravery and determination, it did not wreck the undertaking, it nevertheless deprived it of many laurels which otherwise would, doubtless, have been won. But how cculd human ingenuity ward off THE SCURVY from the crew cf a tiny vessel, continually drenched as the seas poured ever her, whose clothing, beds, and quarters were wet and dripping, and whose food, under such conditions, was salt meat .and sodden bread? Many a brave man would have abandoned the effort; and no one could have blamed him. We can see Quadra,, when having taken possession in pursuance of his instructions, he turns the prow of the little Sonora southward towards San Bias. The scurvy increases day by day; fastings, bleedings, prayers* avail not* The Jiournal is almost a Book of Lamentations as it speaks of taking care not to approach too closely to the shore lest with so few hands it might be difficult to work the vessel. To adi to their troubles a sea swept over the schooner and broke in and damaged most of the stores. So great are the ravages of the disease that there is only one seaman who can take his trick at the wheel while Quadra himself goes aloft to manage the sails. In these dark days Quadra is everywhere; but he finds time to cheer the sick and finally persuades two of them who are convalescing, to assist in navigating the vessel. And so the Sonora slowly edges homeward over the lonliest sea, carrying but little sail, lest a gale arising suddenly, the skeleton crew might net be able to act quickly. Through it all Quadra continues to cheer up his men, even though he himself is at last caught by the disease. The afflicted Sonora is unable to reach San Bias, but arriving in the harbour of Monterey her sails are furled, her anchor dropped and the journalist writes: "We landed our sick and among the rest the captain (Quadra) and myself, who had suffered oiore from the scurvy than any cf them. Not one of the whole crew indeed was free from this complaint." Seventeen years elapse before we see Quairra again. In thfeot interval he has risen from a mere lieutenant to the position of captain of a man-of-war having the rank of colonel, commanding the marine establishment of San Bias. He has been made a Knight cf the Order of Santiago; and as the culmination of his career, he has just been appointed Governor cf Nootka. Inthat interval, too, many things have happened. Sap- tain Cook has been at Nootka Sound; his vessels on their return have spread the good news: "Sea-otters plentiful at Nootka Sound." "Fortunes to be made in furs on the Northwest Coast." British traders from China, India, and various European ports have arrived to garner the rich harvest. All this has roused Spain to action in support of her claim of sovereignty of the Pacific Coast of America and of her owaiership of the Pacific Ocean itself, As an actual and visible manifestation of her authority a Spanish village is established at Friendly Cove, Nootka, and British ships arriving there to trade are seized and with their crews sent as prisoners to San Bias. Matters assume a very warlike appearance. Britain prepares for war; Spain likewise prepares. Britain calls upon her allies for assistance; Spain similarly calls upon her's. Britain's allies come energetically to her support; Spain's ally, France, owing to internal troubles, Is unable to do so, and advises a diplomatic settlement. This settlement -- the Nootka Convention, 1790 -- provided that commissioners representing Great Britain and Spain should meet at Nootka Sound te determine the lands to be restored by Spain. Captain Vancouver is sent out to represent Great Britaia while to Quadra are entrusteddthe interests of Spain. So we see him at the village of Friendly Cove, the representative of Spanish pride, and pomp, and power. Instead of one miserable 36 foot schooner^drenched and reeking/he now commands all of Spain's men- of-war at San Bias and Nootka. From the masthead of the Activa, lying quietly at anchor in the cove, flutters the broad pennant of "S£nor Den Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, commandant of the marine establishment of St. Bias and Califnrnia." In the background, on the curving beach with its white and sloping sand and pebbles on which in days long past the Indian potentate Maquinna and his summer village there stands a new and totally different arrangement of huts and buildings. It is the first home of civilized man on the Pacific Coast of Canada, the Spanish village at Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound, a village which was a bit of old Spain in the wild west, where the manners and customs of Castile held imperious sway; a village unique in the annals of the Northwest Coast, existing only by and because of official instructions; a village unique also in the fact that it contained no women. Almost in the centre of the horse-shoe stood the most imposing house, the reisdence of Quadra. There he entertained lavishly (so far as the conditions would permit), welcoming with equal courtesy the captains of the royal navies of Britain and Spain, the "Boston Pedlars", and even treacherous old Maquinna, the head chief of the locality. When Vancouver arrived his ships saluted the Spanish flag flying on the ramparts of Fort San Miguel and the fort returned the compliment. Vancouver visited Quadra in the village; and Quadra visited Vancouver in the Discovery. They agreed perfectly upon everything relating to their personal associations; in their representative capacities they could agree on nothing. The two representatives decided to pay Maquinna a visit in state at his principal village, Tashees, some fifteen miles from Friendly Cove. Maquinna's cooks were busily employed, after the arrival of the visitors, in boiling oil of various kinds preparing stews and fricassees of porpoise, whale, seal, and other delicious viands. But their labours were in vain. Quadra very diplomat- A ically informed the old chief that he had taken upon himself to be the purveyor of the expedition. Not only so but he had brought his plate and his cooking utensils. The vessels used for that dinner in the savage's home were the same and as many as Quadra used in his own. With true Castilian kindness Maquinna and his daughter, "the Princess" were invited to dine with them. At the head of the table, which was merely one of the broad planks forming the roof of Maquinna's royal residence, was seated the Princess, who conducted herself with becoming propriety and de-corum. Quadra's kindness and example were felt throughout the whole of that little settlement. Even the native chiefs showed the result of their contact with Spanish civilization. Visiting the Governor's home frequently Maquinna, quick to learn, soon abandoned his natural and uncouth way of eating; he became quite proficient in the uae of his knife and fork; he learned too the courteous forms of greeting, and could say /Welcome Senor" and bow and scrape in the most approved Castilian style. Vancouver and Quadra, having disagreed regarding the land to be restored, they referred the question to their respective governments and departed from Nootka: Quadra for Mexico, Vancouver for the Sandwich Islands. On his way thither the British representative visited Monterey. There he found Quadra as kind and as thoughtful as he had found him at Nootka. Though Spain was very "touchy" about strangers in her American possessions. Quadra allowed Vancouver's ships to enter and anchor and not only supplied all their needs, granting the sailors full liberty to roam the region at leisure, but also permitted Lieutenant Brough- ton to pass through Spanish territory on his way to England with Vancouver's dispatches. These may seem small matters, but they were great concessions in those days, in the eyes of the Spaniard; when Vancouver returned to Mexico a year later a new Governor was in office, who imposed such drastic restrictions, that the British commander left Mexico with curses on his lips against the narrowness of the Spaniard. The last picture we have of Quadra, the genial gentle- man who knew how to maintain his country's honour while himself fulfilling all the duties of hospitality, is when he dines with Vancouver on the Discovery in January 179^, just befere they separated for Mexico and the Sandwich Islands respectively. 'Twas a lovely, calm night, and it must have been an enjoyable dinner, for it was prolonged until nearly midnight. Yet there was a minor tone in the evening's jollity: each felt that they had reached the parting of the ways. Quadra could, however, wish no better testimonial than that which Vancouver has given him. He was, says, Vancouver, "the main spring of a society that hod produced so much happiness, who had rendered us so many essential benefits, and whose benevolence and disinterested conduct had impressed our minds with the highest esteem and veneration." Vancouver and Quadra never met again. Quadra died in March 1794. CHAPTER 11. THE BRITISH ON THE COAST By Winifred M. Stevens. "Beyond all outer charting He sailed where none had sailed, And saw the land lights burning On islands none had hailed." 4* CAPTAIN JAMES COOK. "A great many aanoes filled with the natives were aboard the ships all day; and a trade commenced between us and them, which was carried on with the strictest honesty on both sides. The articles which they offered to sell were skins of various animals such as bears, wolves, foxes, deer, rackoons, polecats, martins; and in particular, of the sea-otter". So began the maritime fur-trade of Northwest America, accidentally and as a by-product as it were of Captain CQok's third voyage, the main object of which was to ascertain definitely ' the existence or non-existence of a navigable waterway from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. When the voyage was first mooted Cook was about to enjoy the rest he had so amply deserved, having, as a reward for his earlier activities, been appointed Captain of Greenwich Hospital. Born at Marston, Yorks, October 27, 1728, and spending his boyhood and youth among the moors and cliffs of the east coast, he early acquired that love of the sea which ruled his life. Entering the mercantile marine at the age of eighteen, and afterwards the Royal Navy at a time when experienced seamen were much needed, he gained rapid promotion. Having proved his ability as astronomer and surveyor in the dangerous shoals of the St. Lawrence before the fall of Quebec and later on the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, he was in 1768 placed in command of a scientific expedition to the Southern Pacific to observe the'transit of Venus. From thi3 time on, practically his whole life was spent in the solitude of unknown seas. He sailed twice around the world, explored the coasts of New Zealand and Australia, discovered the Society Islands and numberless other isles of the Pacific and Antarctic Oceans, and cruised back and forth through the uncharted seas of the* sub- Antarctic regions, thereby disproving the pet theory of the geographers of his time concerning the existence of a great southern continent. He studied and recorded ocean currents and prevailing winds, as well as the plant and animal life of the countries he visited, introduced European seeds and domestic animals wherever there seemed a chance of their surviving and proving useful, and formed bonds of friendship and trade with the natives whom he iiMiar.iab-1-y treated with scrupulous honesty and consideration. But more important than all these was the triumphant warfare he waged against that scourge of seamen -- the Scurvy. During his second voyage which lasted three years and eighteen days (1772-74) he lost only four c£ the crew and not one of these from scurvy; a truly marvellous record compared with that of any preceding expedition. His essay on the prevention of this dreadful disease won him the coveted gold medal of the Royal Society for the best paper presented during the year. Having been invited to dinner by the Earl of Sandwich, then First Lord of the Admirality, to give advice concerning the details of the proposed voyage of 1776 (including the all-important question of leadership),the lure of unknown seas proved too strong for him and springing up he declared he would go himself. His two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery (Captain Clerke) were fitted out with the greatest care and under the personal supervision of the Earl of Sandwich and others of the Board of Admiralty, who come on board to dine with Cook before he sailed to see that "everything was completed to their desire and to the satisfaction of all that were to embark in the voyage." Haying passed the-Cape of Good Hope and esplored among the Pacific Islands, he arrived at Nootka Sound on Sunday, March 29, 1778, and two days later anchored in Resolution Cove. "At length, at nine o'clock in the morning of the 2 9th, we again saw the land. The appearance of the country differed much from that of the parts which we had before seen, being full of high mountains, whose summits were covered with snow. But the valleys between them, and the grounds on the coast, high as well as low, were covered-to a considerable breadth with high, straight trees, that formed a beautiful prospect, as of one vast forest." So 118. British Columbia appeared to the first visitor to its shores from far away Great Britain. He first named the inlet King George's Sound, but later changed it to Nootka believing that to be the Indian name. He remained four weeks in the sound in order to refresh his crew and repair his ships, particularly the rigging which had suffered considerably in the storms that he had encountered since his arrival on the coast. Trees for masts and spars were felled in the woods, the first instance of the use of British Columbia timber by Europeans. The foroe and the observatory were set up on shore; the crew were busy obtaining wood, w:ater, grass for the cattle, and spruce boughs for the brewing of beer — spruce-beer having been .proved by Cook throughout his travels to be a valuable antiscorbutic. "Here I must observe", he remarks, "that I have nowhere, in my several voyages, met with any uncivilized nation or tribe, who had such strict notions of their having a right to the exclusive property of everything that their country produces as the inhabitants of this sound. At first they wanted our people to pay for the wood and water .... there did not seem to be a single blade of grass that had not a separate owner." Here as elsewhere Cook was rigidly observant of the rights of the natives, supposed or real, and his relations with them were extremely cordial. Their chief demand was for brass, and to satisfy them "whole suits of clothes were stripped of every button, bureaus of their furniture, and copper kettles, tin canisters, candlesticks, and the like all went to wreck." Finally, repairs being completed, Cook put to sea and continued his explorations as far north as 71 , charting and naming innumerable islands, inlets, and promontories. Further progress was impossible on account of the fields of ice, and after repeated attempts on both the American and the Asiatic shores of Bering Strait, he turned south to spend the winter in the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Isles, which he had already discovered and which he was now more fully to explore. On account of their situation and productions he considered their discovery "the most important that had hitherto been made by Europeans, throughout the extent of the Pacific Ocean." Thus ends his journal, for it was here in the Sandwich Islands, at Karakakooa (Kealakekua) Bay, on February 14, 1779, that he was slain by the savages, who until the commencement of the sudden fray had shown him remarkable friendship and esteem. Captain Clerke, himself then in the last stages of consumption, committed with military honours to the deep what he could recover of his commander's remains. To quote Captain James King: "Thus fell our great and excellent commander! After a life of so much distinguished and successful enterprise, his death, as far as regards himself, cannot be reckoned premature; since he lived to finish the great work for which he. seems to have been designed; and was rather removed from the enjoyment than cut off from the acquisition of glory* How sincerely his loss was felt and lamented, by those who had so long found their general security in his skill and conduct, and every consolation under their hardships in his tenderness and humanity, it is neither necessary nor possible for me to describe; much less shall I attempt to paint the horror with which we were struck, and the universal dejection and dismay, which followed so dreadful and unexpected a calamity." JOHN MEARES. After the death of COok, another summer was spent by the expedition vainly endeavoring to pierce the icy northern wastes, so that it was not until December 1, 1779, that the vessels reached Macao homeward bound. At Nootka and along the American coast many skins had been obtained in trade from the natives, which were used by the sailors as bedding or clothing; in their ignorance they even cut up the costly sea-otter skins to patch their garments. What was then their surprise to find the rich Chinese merchants eager to purchase the rena.ants at (to them) fabulous prices, and ready to pay as much as $120.©Q for prime skins. "The rage with which our seamen were possessed to return to Cook's river," says Captain King, "was not far short of mutiny", so eager were they to resume this lucrative trade. On their return to England, and particularly after the publication of the official account of Cook's last voyage, public enthusiasm was aroused; and private enterprise, lured by the rich prospects, sent vessel after vessel into the North Pacific, thereby opening up this trade and incidentally throwing light upon the geography of this little-known region. Incidentally, also, this trade created serious international problems. Among the adventurers who thus found their way to the coast was John Meares, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, but now engaged in trade. His first expedition (1785-86) met with tragic failure. Of his two small vessels, the Sea Otter was lost at sea with all hands, whilst himself in command of the Nootka spent a terrible winter in Prince William's S0und, Alaska, "locked in as it were from the cheerful light of day and the vivifying warmth of the sun'-s rays." The men, one by one, fell victims to a virulent form of scurvy, the death of the surgeon deprived them of medical aid, and when in the spring Captains Portlock and Dixon found them there were not enough men left to man the ship, without help from their rescuers, twenty-three having died from exposure and scurvy. In spite of these disasters, Meares had no sooner returned to China than he planned another expedition, and early in 1788 set out in the Felice, accompanied by the Iphigenial (Captain Douglas), bringing with him as an experiment a number (perhaps fifty) of Chinese carpenters and sailors. On May 13, he anchored in Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound, and immediately set about installing himself on shore, for the purpose of constructing a schooner to be used in the coastal trade. He claimed that he purchased from Maquinna, the head chief of the Sound, "a spot of ground whereon a house might be built" and had bargained with him and Callicum for their goodwill and protection for the shipbuilders. Leaving them there, he cruised down the coast exploring and trading, and on his return found the work so far advanced that on September 20, with appropriate ceremony, the. schooner was launched. She was named The N°rth West America, being the first vessel of European construction built on the coast. "It was a moment of much expectation... But our suspense was not of long duration; -- on the firing of a gun the vessel started from the ways like a shot.— Indeed she went off with so much velocity, that she nearly made her way out of the harbour; for the fact was, that not being very much accustomed to this business, we had forgotten to place an anchor and cable on board; the boats,however,soon towed her to her intended station, and in a short time the North West America was anchored close to the Iphigenia and the Felice." Leaving Captain Douglas in charge at Nootka, Meares sailed for China, never dreaming what international tangles were to result from his little venture. The riches of the fur trade attracted not only the English, but also the people of Russia, Spain, and the United States, each of which nations wished to claim the sovereignty of the whole, or at any rate the greater part, of the newly exploited coast. During the absence of Meares, the Iphigenia was seized by Martinez, the commander of a Spanish expedition to the Sound, but was later restored to Captain Douglas. The North West America, on her arrival from the north, was likewise seized, re-named the Gertrudis, manned by a Spanish crew, and despatched on a trading voyage. Martinez then formally and wi^h much pomp and ceremony took possession of the port in the name of "His Most Mighty, Illustrious, and Catholic Majesty, Carlos, the Third, King of Castile, etc."; and proceeded to build a dwelling house, bakery, barracksj workshop, and fort. The fact that Captain Cook had received from the natives two spoons of Spanish workmanship was adduced as proof of the priority of Spanish discovery. (It is doubtful if the house built by Meares still existed at the time cf the arrival of Martinez). Two more English ships, the Princess Royal and the Argonaut, in both of which Meares was interested, were on their arrival seized and sent as prizes to Mexico. Rumors of these events filtered through to the European capitals and notes passed between the ministers of England and Spain J- Florida - blanca demanding the punishment or at any rate the warning of the English traders who had trespassed on well- known Spanish rights, Pitt indignantly replying "satisfaction previous to discussion": the English traders must be indemnified before any question of rights could be debated. Then on April 30, 1790, came Meares' celebrated Memorial to the King, with a biased and exaggerated account cf all that he had suffered,an outrageous claim for damages. Popular indignation was aroused; the two countries were on the brink of war. The British Parliament voted B1,000,0(W, "to enable His Majesty to act as the exigency of affairs might require," and the "Spanish Armament", the greatest display of Britain naval power that the world had seen, was fitted cut and ready to sail at a moment's notice. Both countries called en their allies for help, but whereas England obtained from Holland the support of ten ships of the line, and from Prussia a promise of reinforcements on the outbreak of war, Spain found herself unable to rely en any succor from France, that country being in the throes of the Revolution. Through the summer of 1790 the war clouds hung dark over Europe. The trouble was settled by the Nootka Convention, October 28, 1790, by which Spain engaged to restore the buildings and land of which Meares was said to have been dispossessed and to indemnify Meares for his losses. The historical student can take but little interest in this trader and his excessive claim of damages; but the international aspects of the case were most important and wide-spread — here at last Spain stepped down from her pedestal and abandoned her age-old claim tc the exclusive navigation of the Pacific and cf sovereignty of the lands washed by it, which, on the strength of prior discovery and donation by Papal Bull, she had hitherto so unflinchingly upheld. captain georse Vancouver. Pending the settlement of the Nootka affair, exploration of the coast had naturally remained in abeyance; but no sooner was the convention signed than the British Government took active steps to complete eht work so admirably begun by Captain Cook. , The new expedition was placed under the command of Captain George Vancouver, who had sailed with Cook on his second and third voyages as an able-bodied seaman and as midshipman respectively. Vancouver's ship ft-as Discovery and her consort the Chatham (Lieutenant William Robert Broughton) were fitted out by the Admiralty with the meticulous care which had characterized the equipping of Cook's vessels. On March 31, 1791, they embarked on their long voyage, the main objects of which were (1) to explore minutely the Northwest Coast of America, particularly with reference to any considerable inlet or river which might facilitate intercourse with Eastern Canada -- at the some time taking note of any foreign settlement and the date of its inception; (2) to meet the Spanish representative and receive from him the "buildings and parcels of land" which were to be restored according to the terms of the convention. After visiting Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and the sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, Vancouver sighted the shores of New Albion en April 17, 1792, and continued to sail northward till he reached 48° North Latitude, in which vicinity the supposed Straits of Juan de Fuca, communicating with Hudson Bay, were said to exist. At noon on April 29, Vanccuverls two vessels entered the straits and began 1he minute and accurate survey of a great inland sea, "which interior sea I have honoured", writes Vancouver, "with the name of The Gulf of Georgia in honour of His Present Majesty." The maps of to-day bear in almost every instance the names bestowed by him. Throughout his survey his method was to anchor the ships and use the boats tc prosecute his researches amongst the maze of channels. It is extraordinary that with all this care he should have so signally failed as regards all the rivers of the region, which he either did not see or contemned. Of Burrard Inlet (on the shores of which now stands the city that bears his name), he aaysi "We landed for the night (Hune 13-14, 1792) about hal« a league from the head of the inlet. The shores in this situation were formed by steep rocky cliffs, that afforded no convenient space for pitching our tent, which compelled us to sleep in the boats. Some of the young gentlemen, however, preferring the stony beach for their couch, without duly considering the line of high water mark, found themselves incommoded by the flood tide, of which they were not apprized till they were nearly afloat." Great was his mortification when he met in the vicinity of Point Grey two little Spanish vessels, the Sutil and the Mexicans,, commanded by Galiano and Valdez, and found that the Spaniards had forestalled him in charting these waters. After an interchange of courtesies, Vancouver "having partaken with them a very hearty breakfast, bade them farewell, not less pleased with their hospitality and attention than astonished at the vessels in which they were employed to execute a service of such a nature." He rejoined them very soon and they remained in company for about a month, comparing charts and affording each other mutual help in the survey of this extraordinarily indented and extremely tortuous coast-line. Finally Mr. (afterwards Lieutenant)Johnstone, in one of the boat* of the Discovery reached "an island conspicuously situated, from whence their expectations were gratified by a clear though distant view of the expansive ocean." They had, by regaining the Pacific established the insularity of the land "back of Nootka" and incontestably disproved the existence of any connection with Hudson Bay. • Having learned that Senor Bodega y Quadra awaited him at Nootka, Vancouver sailed for that sound and on August 28, anchored in Friendly Coxfe. The occasion was one of great historic significance and the two men not unworthy of their task. They soon discovered that their views- differed greatly as to the amount of land to be restored, Vancouver claiming the whole port, and Quadra willing to restore only a small portion where the house built by Meares had stood. Vanoouver refused to accept this trifling portion, preferring to salute Nootka as a Spanish port until more explicit instructions should be received from the home governments, Despite their Utter divergence of opinion their personal relations were most cordial. In compliance with Quadra's expressed wish and to perpetuate the memory of their mutual esteem, Vancouver named the large island which both had circumnavigated: "The island of Quadra and Vancouver." Great was Vancouver's disappointment at his failure to reach an understanding with Quadra; still greater was it when in 1794 he left the coast without having brought the matter to a successful issue. The intervening years were spent in further explorations. During the winter months he made more accurate- surveys of the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, cementing his friendship with the various chiefs, who on February 25, 1794, voluntarily ceded to him as representing King George 111 the Island of Owhyhee (Hawaii). As soon as weather permitted he was back on the American coast of which he took possession in the name of His Britannic Majesty. It is interesting to note that in June 1793 he was in the very loaality which MacKenzie reached by land the following month. In September 1794 he was back at Nootka, but no instructions having arrived during the six weeks that he spent there repairing his ships, he took a final farewell of the port on October 16,1794. At Monterey on his way southward he had the satisfaction of learning that "the documents transmitted by the late Sen. Quadra and myself had enabled our respective courts to adjust that matter in an amicable way, and nearly on the terms which I had so repeatedly offered to Sen. Quadra in September 1792." He then sailed for hom by way of Cap* Horn and Saint Helena, arriving in the Shannon, September 13, 1795, and proceeding thence direct to London, where the Discovery arrived on October 20, 1795. During the voyage of nearly five years, thanks to the researches of Captain Cook, he had not lost a single man by scurvy. The remainder of his life was passed in England prepar- ing his journal for publication. The proof-reading was almost completed when he died at the early age of forty years* He was buried at St. Peter's, Petersham, Surrey, where the Hudson's Bay Company have erected a tablet to his memory. THE OPENING OP THE LAND FUR TRADE By Winifred M. Stevens. "Even now perhaps as there some pilgrim strays, Through tangled forests, and through dangerous ways; Where beasts with man divided empire claim, And the brown Indian marks with murderous aim." Goldsmith. SIR ALEXANDER MacKENZIE. "Alexander MacKenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty- second cf July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three*" Such was the brief memorial inscribed by MacKenzie in vermillion mixed with melted grease on the face of the rock that marked the westernmost point of his journey. This rock has been identified as being near the entrance to Elcho Inlet on Dean Channel. But what a tale of heroic resolve and dauntless perseverance lies behind these simple words! For this intrepid Scot was the first European to pierce the Rockies, to see and navigate the Fraser, and to cross the great continent from east to west. He had already, in 1789, traced the MacKenzie to the A Arctic Ocean. In the following year he went to England to study latitude and astronomical observations, lack of which knowledge had hampered his previous calculations: for from the moment of his first sighting the mighty Rockies the explorer's heart within him had yearned to pierce their fastnesses and discover what lay beyond. This fascination of the unknown had been luring adventurous traders ever westward since the days when the sons of La Verendrye had reached the foothills and caught a glimpse of the "Mountains of Bright Stones." On May 9, 1793, he at last embarked on his great enterprise. The party consisted of ten men: MacKenzie himself, Alexander Mackay, six French-Canadian voyageurs, and two Indians: their equipment, all told, amounted to 3,000 pounds, the whole carried in a light canoe twenty-five feet long within, twenty- six inches deep, and four feet nine inches widr. So this little band fared forth into the unknown and met and overcame the dangers and difficulties which beset their path — dangers from flood and rock, from famine and foe, dangers unforeseen and unforeseeable, demanding unwearying alertness and infinite resource. Their way lay through country never yet visited by 130. civilized man — through the upper reaches of the Peace and the canyons of the Fraser where they could have little warning of the treacherous rocks, rapids and overfalls which would suddenly confront them and threaten them with instant destruction. MacKenzie's energy and determination were inexhaustible* "At 3 a.m. we were on the river" is a frequent entry in his journal, and he constantly refers to the haze which in those early hours obscured the landscape. This, together with the fact that the Fraser was in flood at the time, rendered his voyage all the more dangerous and his achievement all the more remarkable. As they advanced their difficulties increased: the canoe, from being so light that a couple of men could carry it three or four miles without resting, became so heavy from the constant "gumming" and patching that the crew would incur almost any danger in the rapids rather than carry it over a precipitous portage. Finally it was necessary to construct a new one, the bark and other materials for the purpose being with difficulty gathered in the woods. Their way, moreover, lay through tribes of Indians whose superior numbers could at any moment overwhelm the little band; MacKenzie owed much of his success to the tactful combination of kindness and firmness which he displayed in dealing with them. Perhaps this is only saying that he was an experienced Nor'Wester. They believed him superhuman, and he was at-no pains to undeceive them, realizing what a safeguard such superstitious awe of him must prove to his party. At his first meeting with them on the Fraser, in spite of their threats and volleys of arrows, he calmly left his canoe and advanced a: one towards them, displaying looking-glasses, beads, and other irrestible trinkets. Their fears thus overoome and their curiosity aroused, the way was opened for friendly intercourse and peaceful introduction to the neighbouring tribes. From them he obtained valuable information concerning his route. They unanimously discouraged his hope of reaching the sea by following the Fraser, declaring that even should the party survive the perils of the long way, they were sure to fall a sacrifice to the barbarity of the savages below. In accordance with their advice and by the help of their guides he followed the native trails overland to Bella Coola, abandoning his original intention of tracing the "Great River" to its mouth. The warnings of the natives and MacKenzie's change of plan completely disheartened the crew, exhausted and unnerved as they were after their many miraculous escapes from drowning and total destruction. In these times of crisis, with the outlook apparently hopeless and his men on the verge of mutiny, MacKenzie showed his mettle. He tactfully reasoned with and encouraged them, but he never left them in any doubt as to his own fixed resolve: "At all events I declared, in the most solemn manner, that I would not abandon my design of reaching the sea, if I made the attempt alone." And reach the sea he did — not alone -- but with his entire party, and returned, after making the "brief memorial" with which this sketch opened. The return journey followed the same course as the outward journey: — from the Bella Coola River, overland to the Fraser, thence by the Bad River to the height of land, down the Parsnip and the Peace to Fort Fork on the latter river, whence he had started on his search for the Western Sea. A triumphant return. Having achieved his aim he was to reap the honours and rewards that he had so amply merited. He amassed a comfortable fortune, became a member of the Legislature of Canada, published the "round, unvarnished tale" of his travels including his voyage -- the first voyage -- across the continent of North America, was subsequently knighted, retired permanently to Scotland in 1806, bought an estate, married, and lived there in peace and prosperity enjoying his well-earned rest until his death in 1820. SIMON FR1SER. Twelve years elapsed before the country explored by MacKenzie was again visited by the North West Company; but at last in 1805 the young partner, Simon Fraser, was despatched to establish posts beyond the Rockies. Fur trading activities in the mountains and on the upper reached of the Fraser and its tributaries occupied him until May 1808, when he at last set out en his "sortie" tc the sea. "Having made every necessary preparation for a long voyage, we embarked at 5 o'clock at Fraser's River. Our crew consisted of nineteen men, two Indians, Mr. Stuart, Mr. Quesnel, and myself, in all twenty-four.w His journal, the trader's every-day statement of bare facts, reads like a fairy tale, with its vivid descriptions of dangers defied: the scaling of precipices with scarce a foothold, or trusting tc the rude native ladders "like the shrouds of .a ship"; groping around rocks where the slightest slip meant a fatal plunge into the chasm hundreds of feet below; daring death in foaming cascades, whirlpools, and rapids; placating or overawing hostile savages who outnumbered his band by hundreds to one. Each day brought also its own petty worries and annoyances: the uncertainty of procuring food, the discontent cf the men, the treachery of even friendly natives, and the constant accidents to crew and craft. The description he obtained of the river was forbidding , in the extreme, but ir proved to be only too exact: a mighty torrent, hemmed in by sheer precipices, forcing its way with terrific speed in rapids and cascades through perilous canyons — the river unnavigable, the mountains impassable. Like MacKenzie he descended it in flood time when it was at its worst. In one place, he says: "We were obliged to carry among loose stones in the face of a steep hill between two precipices. Near the top, where the ascent was perfectly perpendicular, one of the Indians climbed to the summit and by means of a long rope drew us up one after the other. This work took three hours, and then I we continued our course up and dcwn hills and along the steep declivities of mountains where hanging rocks and projecting bliffa, at the edge of the bank of the ri*er, made the passage so small as to render it, at times, difficult even for one person to pass sideways." And again: rtAs for the road by land we could scarcely make our way with even only our. guns. I have been for a long time in the Rocky Mountains, but have never seen anything like this country. It is so wild that I cannot find words to describe our situation at times/ We had to pass where no human being should venture. " In spite of these almost insuperable obstacles, they were obliged to choose the land route as passage by i;itf£jfer was utterly impracticable. The native guides who accompanied them and who had been brought up among these mountain fastnesses were a great help to them. They also saved them much inconvenience, delay, and danger by introducing them to the Indians below; but each successive tribe warned the travellers of the ferocity of the Cowichans whom they would meet at the mouth of the river, and who in fact proved their most formidable assailants.y^\ But all these difficulties which beset their path were only as waves beating on the rock of Eraser's dogged determination. Reach the sea he would and did, but only to meet with disillusionment: "This river is therefore not the Columbia", for it was to reach the mouth of the Columbia that all his efforts had been directed. Like MacKenzie too he had the disappointment cf not seeing the main ocean. He reached salt water and the shores of the Strait of Georgia; but the violence of the natives, the uncertainty of supplies, and the almost mutinous terror of his men prevented his proceeding, further. An Indian who guided them through the village of Musqueam at tfte mouth of the Fraser "desired us to go away, as otherwise the Indians would be apt to attack us. About this time those that had followed us from above arrived, howling like so. many wolves and brandishing their war-clubs." Even those who had before appeared friendly joined with the more hostile in an endeavor to annihilate the whole party. "At last it .was with difficulty - -yt a we could prevent them with the muzzles of our guns from seizing upon the canoe." On his return journey the hostility of the Indians increased, and with it the panic of his men, until they absolutely refused to continue by water. "After much debate on both sides, they yielded and we all shook hands, resolved not to separate during the voyage, which resolution was immediately confirmed by the following oath taken on the spot by each of the party "I solemnly swear before Almighty God that I shall sooner perish than forsake in distress any of cur crew during the present voyage." When they at last reached the territory of more friendly tribes, the latter regarded their return as almost miraculous. Eventually all obstacles were overcome and within three months of their departure the adventurers regained Fort George. Simon Fraser subsequently devoted his attention to fur trading in more settled districts, being rewarded with the charge of the Red River District, then a vast region; but he will be forever remembered for his exploration cf the great river that bears his name, and which he lived to see recognized as one of the great gold-bearing streams of America; Retiring on the coalition of the two companies in 1821 he married and settled down in Gornwall. Because of insufficient income he refused the knighthood which was offered to him in recognition of his merit. He died in 1862 at the age of eighty-six, and was buried at St. Andrews, Cornwall County, Ontario, where the Hudson's Bay Company have erected a monument to his memory. DAVID THOMPSON In 1784 a fourteen-year-old boy from the Grey Coat School, London, entered 1he service of the Hudson's Bay Company. His sole assets consisted of seme rude astroncmical instruments and some slight knowledge of mathematics and surveying. But what was of infinitely more importance, he was possessed of a consuming passion for scientific investigation and assurate calculation. So the charity school boy, David Thompson, achieved fame as explorer and surveyor and is conceded to be the greatest cartographer Canada has ever known. After thirteen years with the Hudson's Bay Company, finding their restrictions irksome, he joined the North West Company, who gave him freer scope for prosecuting his researches. In personal appearance he is said to have been very like John Bunyan: in strength and uprightness of character he certainly resembled "Christian". A man cf firm religious principles and fixed determination he is an eutstanding figure among the explorers and traders of the West. His constant references to reliance on God and his expressions of thankfulness to Him are no mere trite utterances, but the natural and sincere outpourings of a truly God-fearing spirit. Characteristic of him is his attitude toward the liquor question. He strongly deprecated the then prevalent use of spirituous liquors in trade with the Indians. The agents cf the company insisted on sending them, so he packed them on vicious horses that soon had the kegs in fragments and the liquor spilt. He then advised the agents of what he had done, promising to repeat the experiment should they forward .any more. It should, perhaps, be added that this use of intoxicating liquor in the fur trade was largely the result of the competition between the two companies, and was abandoned, to a very great extent, after their union in 1821. This same spirit cf determination and strength of will was at the root cf his successful dealings with the Indians, who could not but be influenced by his superior force of character. At the same time he took pains to understand their methods and made use of them wherever he thought the conditions were suitable* "I followed the Chipewyan's advice and was mere successful", he writes! His instruments inspired them with the greatest awet they attributed to supernatural power what was in reality the result cf scientific research coupled with his extraordinary faculty for observation and deduction and his wonderful knowledge of woodcraft, nature-craft, and the laws of the wilds. And there was after all something almost uncanny in the achievements of this remarkable man; nothing escaped him; he records in his journal the social and religious customs of the natives, their language, handicrafts, and methods in peace and war, full details of animal, bird and plant life, and geological • and topographical information, in addition to all that pertained to his particular profession as cartographer — his discoveries, explorations, geographical, and astronomical observations and calculations. In view of these amazing contributions to science, one almost loses sight of the fact that he was a partner in the North West Company and as such his time was chiefly employed in the establishment, operation, and management of the company's forts in a new and particularly difficult and dangerous region. His first ten years with the North West Company were occupied in surveying the vast expanse of little-known territory, with its intricate network of lakes and rivers, lying between Lake Superior and the Rockies from the Missouri to the Peace. He visited the Mandan villages in mid-winter, discovered the source of the Mississippi, explored the headwaters of the Saskatchewan, travelled thence to Rainy River and Lake Athabaska, advancing everywhere with amazing celerity despite all hardships and dangers. ; . In 1807 he crossed the Rockies and built "Kootenae House". This was the first post to be erected on the Columbia, the great river which is inseparably connected with his memory, and which he traced to its mouth in 1811. He made that trip through the state of Montana by way of Salish House to Spokane House and thence to the Columbia at Kettle Falls where he built a canoe of .cedar boards and embarking therein with his companions, arrived on July 15, 1811, at the r'ecently-built Fort Astoria. The years 1807-12 were spent by him making history in British Columbia: to him we owe our early knowledge of the southeastern portion of the province. He explored the upper reached of the Columbia and its tributaries, built posts, ascertaining their exact geographical position, and travelled to and fro among the defiles of the Rockies on expeditions connected with the fur- trade with marvellous speed and success. He was thus employed when Simon Fraser named in his honour the great tributary of the Fraser, still known as the Thompson. "From an idea that cur friends of the Fort des Prairies department are established upon the source of it among the mountains, we gave it the name of Thompson's River". In this surmise Fraser was, of course, mistaken. As a matter of fact Thompson never saw the river which bears his name. Beinv relieved of his arduous service among the mountains he retired at the age of forty-two; spent the years 1813- 14 in the preparation of his great map of British North America; and from 1816 until 1826 was connected with the survey of the boundary between Canada and the United'States* Then from position and affluence came a gradual decline tc misery and want. Financial losses and loss of eyesight overwhelmed him. We catch sad little glimpses cf him selling his instruments, pawning his coat, borrowing a small sum and "thanking God for this relief". He died, forgotten and in povertyv, at Longueuil, February 10, 1857. It is only within recent years that, thanks to Mr. J- B. Tyrrell, Thompson has come into his own and received the appreciation he deserved. In 1822 a memorial fort was opened at Lake Windermere on the site which he had first selected in 1807 for his"Koctenae House." FUR TRADING DAYS 1812-1849 By His Honour Judge Howay. "I hear the tread of pioneers Of nat ions yet to be; The first low wash of waves where soon Shall roll a human sea." Whi ttier. DANIEL WILLIAMS HARMON. After the discoverer and the fort-builder come the men who are to carry on the daily round of trade. For them fame blows no trumpet. It is only now and again that one of them stands out plainly from the mass of the rank and file. Yet their life was the story of British Columbia for fifty years. In 1810 John Stuart, who had accompanied Fraser in his exploration of the river, was in charge of New Caledonia, that vague region west of the Rocky Mountains, embracing more than one half of the present Province of British Columbia. Now just at that time there was at Dunvegan, -on Peace River, a Connecticut Yankee, shrewd and pious, Daniel Williams Harmon, then thirty-two years of age. He had been with the North West Company for ten years and had gained such a reputation that his partners selected him to go to New Caledonia to assist Stuart. Harmon kept a diary from his entrance into the fur trade in 1800 until he quitted it in 1819, and from that book we obtain a good view of the daily life of a Nor'West trader. In his day only two forts were continuously operated in that region: McLeod and St. James. Fort Fraser, which lay fifty miles west of the latter, was merely opened for a few months each winter. All the trading goods were brought over the long route from Montreal with its innumerable portages and decharges. It needs no vivid imagination to realize that luxuries could find no place in the traders' menu. No one even thought of carrying food over that immense distance; the forts must live, as Napoleon said an army should, off the occupied country. So, Earmon's diet was salmon -- and salmon continually. Occasionally it was varied with sturgeon, or white fish, or a little game; and the wild plants and roots made a desirable addition. In the spring after his arrival (1811) he planted potatoes and other vegetables "the first that we ever sowed on this west side of the mountains." We can see him watching them grew, tending them, and enjoying in anticipation the delightful change that they would make. Great quantities of salmon.were dried and smoked for winter use; but these disappeared rapidly, for the rate of consumption was four per man per day. We are not surprised to meet entries like■this : "Our whole stock of provisions in the fort for ten persons consists of five salmon only ... Unless the salmon from the sea soon make their appearance our condition will be deplorable." To save his people Harmon sent them to a village where berries could be gathered. A fortnight later the diary says: "One of the natives has caught a salmon which is joyful intelligence to us all; for we- hope and expect that in a few days we shall have them in abundance." Indians and whites alike welcomed the advent of the salmon. The person who first saw one in the river always cried out: "The Salmon have arrivedI" "The Salmon have arrived." and the joyful news re-echoed through the village and the fort. The fur trader's work only occupied one-fifth of his time; the other four-fifths were at his ow*n disposal. Some played chess, checkers, backgammon, or cards; many spent their time writing diaries and letters, producing those intimate accounts which enable us of a later generation to understand the life; a few whiled away the leisure with cornet, or fiddle, or flute; and others, of course, merely wasted it. Taken as a whole, however, the traders seem to have been inveterate readers; each of the forts had a fair number cf good bocks and how well read and well thumbed they werei. Harmon, deeply religious, meditated much on the great questions of life, death and eternity. He was pleased tc talk on these subjects with his friends; and after such a conversation he records his thankfulness that one whom he had thought careless and dissolute had definitely reformed. In that rough life and amongst those rough men Harmon seems to have made his influence felt for good and for God. The trader did more than merely exchange his commodities with the Indians: he often guided their conduct. One day a band of five savages, who were setting out to take a scalp or two from another tribe, called at Fort St. James. In answer to his en- quiries Harmon found that the intended victims had dene them no injury. "But", said their war-chief, "We have lost a relative and we must try to even up his death by the death of some one." This gave Harmon his opportunity: "Why do you think," cried he, "I have come so far to bring you guns, and powder, and ball? Is it to help you to kill Indians or to help ycu to kill beaver? You know that if you returned with a hundred scalps I would not give ycu a pint of rum nor a pipeful cf tobacco for them; but if you bring back beaver skins ycu can get .'anything ycu want." After a little reflection the war-chief said that they would accept the advice, abandon their scalp-hunting expedition, return to their own grounds, and hunt the beaver. And so for nine yea.rs Harmon carries on the fur trade, principally at Fort St. James. As one follows his movements in his diary, he seems tc disregard entirely both distance and season. We see him in mid-winter journeying to Fort McLeod, and hundreds of miles further to Rocky Mountain Portage and Dunvegan; we see him guiding and directing the conduct of the natives; employing simple remedies to cure them of their illnesses; chastising some baggadocic fellow for his loud-mouthed vaunting; explaining to the Indians the mystery of an eclipse of the sun; like Pepys making good resolutions, but, unlike him, keeping them; composing, like Doctor Johnson, prayers for special occasions; looking forward anxiously, counting over the twelve months until the brigade shall arrive, bringing letters from the outside world, and then weeping over the news that it brings of the death of some relative in Connecticut; and striving at all times to make plain to his dusky helpmate and their dusky offspring the eternal truths of the Christian religion. Finally in 1819 Harmon passes off the stage of British Columbian history. In that year accompanied by his Indian spouse and his family he leaves New Caledonia to take up his residence and enjoy a well-earned repose amongst his own people in Connecticut- r PETER WARREN PEASE. This man first comes into view west of the Rocky Mountains when he is in charge of the small establishment of Fort McLeod. At that time the trade route to New Caledonia ran along the Peace River, and Fort McLeod, being the point where land and water met, was, though a solitary place, one of considerable importance. In 1823 Dease handed over the command of this pest to John Tod and the next time we see him he is prominent in the expedition of Sir John Franklin, 1825-27. In the latter year he returned to the west of the Rocky Mountains and was in charge of the Flathead post. In 1828 we catch a glimpse of his stalwart figure, as he travels with the brigade from Fort Colvile to Okanogan with a crate containing three pigs for New Caledonia. In 1830 he became Superintendent of New Caledonia. The chief interest in him in that capacity is that he improved the conditions of life in the interior forts by the introduction of cattle. This was to the fur trader as great a service as the discovery of a remedy for scurvy was to the seaman. The staff of life in New Caledonia was salmon. In Harmon's day, as already mentioned, a little garden truck had been added, but the ground soon ceased to yield. McLean says: "A few carrots and cabbages were this year (1834) raised on a piece of new fround, which added to the luxuries of our table. Heaven knows they were much wanted, for the other fare was scarcely fit for dogs!* In the early part cf the season it consisted entirely of salmon, which this year was of the worst quality, having been two years in the store." Dease bore the reputation of being one of the kindest and most considerate of men. It is interesting to read in a wailing letter, dated at Fraser Lake, in March 1831: "We have P.W.Dease, Esquire, as our leader and all anticipate he will make out situations as comfortable as possible; that is to say, bring us a trifle cf douceurs from Fort Vancouver which was not done before." Then the writer laments that twenty pounds of sugar which had been despatched to him from that fort in the preceding spring had been lost on the road. Oh I how much that sugar meant to a fur trader in New Caledonia!I He continues. "I have had a viait from Mr. Dease and find him a most pleasant man, free and easy, and I think he will improve New Caledonia; he seems to encourage farming. We can grow any quantity of barley and with an iron mill make fine meal of it." The last sentence is grandly eloquent cf the conditions under which the fur traders were living. Immediately upon his appointment Dease imported cattle and placed them at every post that could grow enough food to maintain them/ Thus a wondrous change was effected in the fort life in New Caledonia, and it was brought nearer the standard prevailing in the more favored posts. The letters from New Caledonia rhapsodize over the fact that the different forts now began "to set a table", and the traders to enjoy the luxury of milk and butter, potatoes and cabbage. McLean says: "To Mr. Dease, however, the praise is due of having introduced this new order of things; he it was who first introduced cattle from Fort Vancouver; it was he who first introduced farming and recommended it to others." Dease's reign was only of four years' duration, 1830-34, but these improvements made him almost beloved. After leaving New Caledonia he succumbed again to the lure of the Far North and in 1837-39 was engaged in tracing the Arctic coast from the MacKenzie River to Point Barrow, and in exploring the country between the Great 3§&ve Lake and the Coppermine River. On his return from this successful expedition, which, according to Sir George Simpson, had achieved more than all his modern predecessors put together, he was offered a knighthood, but refused it. He retired from active service in 1842 when, Malcolm McLeod, tells us, the British Government tendered him a pension of a hundred pounds sterling and he settled in the vicinity of Montreal. "Even among the other tall Nor'Westers that used to walk the streets of their old emporium, Mr. Dease, tall, straight, and strong and of noble mien, towered above the rest. He was of a class great and grand in many respects, but they are gone, as warriors of olt, and we this younger generation at least are reaping the fruits 3f the*r conque< ':,'' John Tod, a really unique character in the fur trade, was born in Leven, Scotland, in 1791 or perhaps 1793. He seems to have emigrated to the Hudson's Bay Territories with lord Selkirk's colonists. Later he entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company and was stationed at several of the eastern posts. Bancroft tells the following'story: In 1823, after a quarrel with one of Governor Simpson's servants, Tod received a message requiring his presence before the Governor. "Sit down, Mr. Tod", smilingly said he, "I have to inform you, my dear sir, of a new appointment by the governor- in-council." "Ah, indeed!", returned Tod, "Where to, may I ask?" "New Caledonia", was the laconic response. "The very place of all in the world that I should like to go to," Tod answered, his beaming countenance showing not the least sign of disappointment in being sent to the place that was regarded as the Botany Bay of the company. He reached Fort McLeod in 1823. There Tod had leisure to indulge his fondness for music and for letter-writing. His faithful flute — albeit a trifle discordant — could be heard at almost any hour of the day. If, in his spare time, he was not playing he w^*s writing long epistles in which he sometimes sees himself meeting his friends over a social pipe or bowl in convivial and unrestrained conversation, or dreams of the time when he.will be able to retire and settle down as a farmer near other retired traders, or in a different mood growls at the country because of its lonesomeness, or at the*company for its long delay in granting him a commission as Chief Trader. And then when the brigade does arrive to give a moment's life to the lonely spot, he complains of the "landing of the noisy brigade of canoes; men, women, and children clamoring for potatoes and fish." About 1826 the route of travel was changed from the Peace River to the North Saskatchewan. This left Fort McLeod off the line of the brigade and its lonesomeness increased tenfold. Tod's willing and fluent pen, his faithful flute and fiddle, all combined could not drive away that lonesome feeling. In September 1828 Governor Simpson reached Fort Mcleod on his celebrated canoe voyage. His arrival was quite unexpected and Tod, quite unprepared. Nevertheless the genial Scot smiled the guests a Highland welcome, though the fort contained nothing to eat, for the fish had failed him. More interesting than the arrival of the Governor or the question of food were the letters which the party brought. Tod says: "I locked myself up and became not only invisible but to some degree insensible to the unusual concourse which had just assembled at my solitary habitation, and, though the reiterated cries of 'Mr. Todi' 'Mr.Todl' resounded from various parts of the fort I lent a deaf ear to the whole. A visit in the spring of 1829 to Fort Vancouver was followed in 1832 by his departure from New Caledonia for England, . though on the way he remained some time at York Factory. Returning in 1838 in company with the first Catholic missionaries -t and we can well believe that Tod seized the opportunity to discuss religious questions with them on the route — he lived for a short time at Fort Vancouver, where the "Grand Old Man of Oregon", Dr. McLoughlin, held undisputed sway. In 1839 and 1840 he was at the company's farm at Cowlitz Prairie, in the present State of Washington, gaining, as he says, "considerable practical knowledge of farming which I trust to make good use of hereafter." But the company sent him on to his "stepmother, New Caledonia." He was only ensconced at Fort Alexandria when, in March 1841, he learned of the murder of 3«jpel Black, the Chief Factor at Kamloops. Being, himself now a Chief Trader, Tod, without waiting for orders, set off at once to take temporary charge at that post. There he spent some months, directing the pursuit of the murderer, who hunted from.place to place like a wild animal, was finally run to earth and killed on the banks of the Fraser. In 1844 Tod was sent to take charge at Kamlo^s. This part of his life is filled with adventure and many are the stories of his bravery and resourcefulness in handling difficult situations. He combined good executive ability with a thorough understanding of the Indian character. Bancroft tells the following story which illustrates his fearless nature and his knowledge of the Indian. From Lolo, a friendly chief, Tod learned of a plot of the Shuswaps to capture the fort while many of its company were absent. Already a war-party, three hundred strong, had started; it might be too late to avert the danger, but the effort must be made. Leaving Lolo in the fort Tod set out and soon reached the Shuswap warriors. He rode at full speed towards them. While they menacingly raised their guns as he approached, he threw down his sword and his pistols. He made his horse caracole again and again and finally rode into their midst, enquiring what they wanted. "We want to see Lolo. Where is he?" they demanded. "Why* haven't you heard the news? Poor Lolo is in the fort, sick." He then went on to tell them that "poor Lolo" had the smallpox. Now, if there was one disease more than another which the Indians dreaded, it was the smallpox. He told them how much he loved them, how much he would like to see them at the fort, but they must not come until he notified them that it was safe. Then producing vaccine he said that he had brought this "good medicine" to keep them from dying of the dwful disease. The change was instantaneous. They welcomed now the man they had set out to kill. So with his tobacco knife as a lancet Tod played the surgeon, vaccinated all the chiefs and great men, and showed them how to vaccinate the others from the vesicles when they became ripe. So ended- in comedy what had been conceived as tragedy. Tod remained at Kamloops until about 1850 when he retired from the service and settled near Victoria. He was one of the council appointed by Governor Blanshard on the eve* of his departure in 1851. He spent his remaining years near Victoria where he died on 31st August 1882. John Tod was tall, spare, and wiry, — a commanding figure, though in a different way from either McLoughlin or Douglas. His curly, usually dishevelled hair, his glittering gray eyes flashing fun -and intelligence, his strong, if irregular features, his nervious eccentric actions in conversation combined to make a striking, if not an imposing, picture. RODERICK FINLAYSON Roderick Finlayson was connected with Victoria from its earliest days. No man saw more of the process by which Victoria and the colony grew and developed than Mr. Finlayson whose con- - nection with the Hudson's Bay Company brought him closely into touch with all that pertained to their welfare and upbuilding. Born in Ross-shire, Scotland in 1818 he entered the Hudson's Bay company's service in 1837, Two years later he was sent out to the Columbia District. In 1840 he accompanied the party which took over the "pan-handle" strip of Alaska, that had just been leased to the company. He remained for three years in the forts of that region; but in 1843 after Douglas had selected the- site of Fort Victoria and commenced the work Finlayson was brought down to aid in its construction. When it was completed he became the second in command. In the spring of 1844 his superior officer died and he was placed in sole charge. The Indians admired the horses and oxen which had been imported for the company's farming operations and which roamed freely in the vicinity of the fort. Needing meat it seemed to them easier to kill an' ox than to search the woods for deer or elk. As a result some of the sleekest found their way into the stewing pots of the natives. The loss was at once discovered and-soon traced to the Cowichans. Finlayson sent a messenger demanding payment. Tsouhalem, the chief, took high ground. "Are these animals yours? Did you make them? Is the grass yours that fattens them? These things are the property of nature and I kill and eat them where I find them, asking no questions and paying no damages." The messenger tried to make him see that the tame animals were the company's property and must be paid for. In vain. Finally he threatened to close the fort against the Indians. This was too much. "Close your gates if you like", exclaimed the angry chief, "and I will batter them down. We lived before you came. If you go we won't die." A period of non- inter course followed. Then the Indians 148. attacked the fort* A shower of musket balls rattled against the stockade and the roofs cf the houses. With great difficulty Finlayson restrained his men who did not relish the idea of being attacked and not returning the fire. When at last, for want of ammunition the fusillade ended he went up on the parapet and beckoned to Tsouhalem to approach. "What would you do?" exolaimed the angry Scot, "Do you think your muskets can destroy our stronghold? Why, with my big guns I can blow your houses to pieces. Yes, and I will do it." The "great guns" -- nine pounders -- blazed, and the wooden houses on the opposite shore of the harbour flew into atoms. Loud cries from the astonished savages who thought their people destroyed. But Finlayson, who had planned the whole thing, had sent messengers to warn the women and children from the ran- cheria before he fired a shot. After a short interval the Indians came to the fort seeking a parley. Finlayson was firm: before friendly relations could be renewed the cattle must be paid for — and they were. A little later the natives returned to ask that the "big guns" be fired again. Seemingly they had some suspicion of trickery. At Finlayson's suggestion an old canoe was procured. The gun was aimed and fired. The ball cut a great hole in the canob and ricochetted across the harbour in continuous splashes. After that, little difficulty was experienced with the Indians of Victoria. The importance of Victoria increased as the time drew near for it to assume its intended position as the principal post of the company. In 1845 Captains War re and Vavasour visited the fort which they say is "under the superintendence of a civil but hard Scot named Finlaison." A year later Paul Kane, the artist, was at Fort Victoria. He gives a picture of a different Finlayson. Kane happened to see, while sketching, the body of a female slave thrown out on the rocks for the carrion birds. He told Finlayson, who at once put aside his work, and accompanied the artist to the lodge of the mistress, accusing her of the murder. She admitted and justified it. Finlayson told her that the dead slave was far better than she. "I, the daughter of a chief", exclaimed she, furious with rage, "no better than a dead slave I" and, wrapping herself in her blanket, she strode from the lodge and disappeared. In 1849 the headquarters of the company were removed from Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River to Fort Victoria. The presence of his superior officer naturally reduced the burden of responsibility. When Douglas was appointed Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1851 Finlayson became one of the legislative Council,while at the same time occupying the position of Treasurer of the company. With the advent of the gold-seekers in 1858 came | great change. Victoria was transformed, almost in a night, from a fur trading post into a bustling business centre. At that time, there being no banks in the colony, the miners left their money and gold dust with Finlayson for safe-keeping. In later years he referred with justifiable pride to the fact that no difficulties had arisen in any of these transactions. This speaks volumes for the reputation for fair dealing that he had acquired. After the retirement of Douglas in 1858 the Hudson's Bay Company's affairs were in the hands of a board of management, of which Finlayson was a member. In 1872 he retired from the company's service and spent the remaining twenty years of his life in dignified and respected leisure. CHAPTER V. COLONIAL DAYS By Professor W. N. Sage, University of British Columbia. "Each rude and jostling fragment soon Its fitting place shall find, The raw material of a State, Its muscle and its mind"I Whittier. RICHARD BLANSHARD. The fur trader had blazed the way through the wildernesses of Now Caledonia, and had founded forts on Vancouver Island and along the Pacific coast. It was not time for the colonist to finish what the fur-trader had begun* If Britain wished to hold her territory north of forty-nine and keep all Vancouver Island, it was thought necessary for her to plant a colony on the Pacific coast. There was one obstacle in the way, the trading rights of the Hudson's Bay Company. If a colony was formed it would interfere with those rights, since the trader in furs and the settler who tills the soil can never live long together. Agriculture always kills the fur trade. But after consideration, the British Government accepted a suggestion, offered by the heads of the Hudson's Bay Company, that the company undertake to colonize Vancouver Island. One of the terms was that a royal governor be sent out to the new colony. The governor chosen was Richard Blanshard. Blanshard was a very fine E nglish gentleman, by profession a barrister, and he probably expected to be kept very busy governing Vancouver Island. He was doomed to disappointment. When he arrived at Fort Victoria on March It, 1850, on board H.M.S.Driver, he found that he was a governor without a colony. Everything was controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company. But he put on a bold face, and read his commission to what James Douglas termed "the assembled states of the Colony". The "states" on that occasion consisted of Commander Johnson of H.M. S.Driver, and the officers and servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. Thereafter Blanshard returned to the warship, no accommodation being ready for him on shore. Quarters were, however, soon found for the Governor within the fort, and there Blanshard lived, paying his board, until a house was constructed for him by chief factor Douglas. According to Douglas's description, the house was forty by twenty feet, "with a kitchen eighteen by twelve feet and a house twenty- four by eighteen for his servants." It was ceiled and painted inside, and was claimed to be "the best furnished in Oregon." Blanshard seems to have been satisfied with his residence, but his position within the colony remained unchanged* The real ruler of Vancouver Island was chief factor James Douglas, who was in charge of the fur trade west of the Rocky Mountains. On one occasion Blanshard attempted, at Douglas' expense, to vindicate his authority as governor. The chief factor had given a clearance to the Hudson's Bay ship Cadboro, a privilege which,Blanshard claimed, belonged to the governor alone. So he summoned Douglas and the master of the Cadboro to his presence, pointed out the illegality of Douglas' action, and bound both "in their own personal security to appear if called upon again, and then discharged them." Blanshard could do nothing else. He had neither constable nor gaol. All he could do was to apply to the officer commanding the fort, James Douglas, for leave to imprison chief factor James Douglas and the ship's Master in the Hudson's Bay Company's fort, and to appoint one of the servants to guard them. So ended Blanshard's attempt to enforce his authority. When Blanshard accepted the appointment to Vancouver Island he had been promised by the Hudson's Bay Company, as he claimed, 1000 acres of land in the colony. He had-also agreed to serve without salary from either the British Government or the Hudson's Bay Company. Before he left the colony he attempted to secure one hundred acres from the company, but was unable to do so. Living expenses were very high, all prices being regulated by those charged in California. Blanshard later stated Wt it cost him about $5,500 a year to live in Vancouver Island. He resigned and left the colony in 1851, leaving behind him a council of three, headed by James Douglas. The royal governor had been a "fifth wheel to the coach", and the Hudson's Bay Company's officials breather more freely after he had gone. I . A visitor Who met Governor Blanshard at Victoria in March 1850, just a few days after he had arrived, has left us the following amusing account of the governor's attempts at becoming acquainted with the neighbourhood of Fort Victoria* The "Benson" referred to was Dr. Benson, the medical officer of the fort. "We found Governor Blanshard smoking a very thick pipe with a. very long stem. He was a comparatively young man, of medium height, with aquiline, aristocratic features, set off by a large, military moustache. He had arrived only a few days previously, and had been riding. He said, 'Benson, you told me all the trails led to the fort, and you did not tell me that they all led away from it. Now, I got off the trail to wander about, and I lost it; but I found .another, and it led away from the fort. I should not have been here now had I not turned my horse's head and tail - as it is, I have lost my dinner.' He was a very intelligent and affable man. We left him with his pipe -stem still in his mouth." SIR JAMES DOUGLAS. Sir James Douglas has been called "the Father of British Columbia", and certainly he holds a unique place in the story of the province. When, at the age of twenty-two, he arrived in New Caledonia, the whole country west of the Rocky Mountains was a vast game preserve controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company* When he died in 1877 at Victoria, B.C., the Province of British Columbia had for six years been a part of the Dominion of Canada. During the half century that Douglas lived on the Pacific slope, he witnessed great changes. The American settlers came into Oregon and the Oregon Treaty of 1846 fixed the boundary between the United States and the British Possessions. The two colonies of Vancouver Island and British Oolumbia were created by the British Government and he ruled over them; first over Vancouver Island and then, after the formation of British Columbia in 1858, over both colonies until 1864. After Douglas retired separate governors were appointed, but the two colonies were united in 1866 and the united colony joined the Canadian federation in 1871. Before ll^nglas' death negotiations were in progress for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway which was to unite Canada from sea to sea. Born in Scotland in 1803, James Douglas entered the service of the North West Company in 1819. Ee spent nearly a year at Fort WiXHcm, the depot of the company situated at the head of Lake Superior. Then in 1820 he was sent hundreds of miles inland to Fort Isle a la Crosse, in what is now northern Saskatchewan. After five years at that post he was transferred to New Caledonia. The North West Company united with the Hudson's Bay Company in the year 1821, and young Douglas entered the employ of the great fur trading company. He was only a clerk at this time with a salary of less than L100 a year, but he worked hard and finally rose to the exalted rank of chief factor. While in New Caledonia, where he remained from 1825 to 183J, Douglas married Amelia Connolly, a daughter of chief factor r T55T William Connolly, who, then in charge of the district, was residing at Fort St. James. Douglas found that it was a great advantage to have a chief factor for his father-in-law. In 1830 he was transferred to the depot of the Columbia Department, Fort Vancouver, now Vancouver, Washington. There Douglas served under that remarkable man, Dr. John McLcughlin, who from 1824 to 1846 was in charge of all the trade of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rocky Mountains. Douglas became accountant at Fort Vancouver and several times took the annual "express" across the mountains to York Factory on Hudson Bay. The "express" carried the reports of the Columbia Department to headquarters, and brought back official documents and private letters from York Factory to Fort Vancouver. Most of the supplies for the Columbia Department, including New Caledonia, the "outfits" as they were called, were brought by ship direct from England, around Cape Horn, to Fort Vancouver. When Dr. McLoughlin retired from the service of the company in 1846 James Douglas became one of the Committee of Management for the Columbia Department. In 1849 the depot was transferred from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria, a post which Douglas had founded in 1843. In the same year, 1849, the colony of Vancouver Island was formed and Richard Blanshard was sent cut as governor. In 1851 Douglas became governor of the colony as well as chief factor in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company's fur trade west cf the Rockies. He had had no previous experience in the administration of public affairs, but he soon proved himself to be a very conscientious and able governor. In 1858 the great gold rush to the Fraser River occurred and the new colony of British Columbia came into being. Douglas became governor of this colony also, at the same time severing all connections with the Hudson's Bay Company. From 1858 to 1864 he ruled both colonies, very successfully on the whole, although he did not lack critics, especially on the mainland. During these years the famous gold fields of Cariboo were discovered and opened up, and the Cariboo waggon road was built. Much good work was done, by Colonel Moody and the Royal Engineers, who were sent out from England in 1858 by the Colonial Secretary, Sir Edward-Bulwer ---,++. „ +;,„ ^n\T~v-rn-ra n->vel:'=,t. Pt/.vr roads and. trails were alse constructed. In fact Douglas has been called "a King of Roads." A Legislative Assembly was set up in Vancouver Island in 1856, the first popular assembly to be constituted in British North America, west of the Great Lakes. Of this assembly the Honourable Dr. John Sebastian Eelmcken, who died in 1920, was the Speaker. A Legislative Council was established in British Columbia in 1864, just before Douglas retired from the Governorship. Douglas' official career came to an end in 1864. He might have been reappointed, but he was tired of office and wished to spend his old age quietly in Victoria. - He then made a journey to Europe, visiting England, Scotland, France, Italy, and Spain, but he found no part of the world so attractive as Vancouver Island. Returning in 1865 he lived quietly in Victoria, looking after his estates, - for he now was a rich man, - interested in his gardens, his fruit trees, his flocks and his herds, surrounded by his family and his friends, universally respected and beloved, until his sudden death in 1877. The people of British Columbia erected a monument to his memory, which stands in front of the Legislative Buildings at Victoria, B.C., looking toward the site of old Fort Victoria. A charming picture of a dinner in the mess-room of the old fort, as it was in 1850, has come down to us. It was written by the same man who-described his meeting with Governor Blanshard: "After making ourselves decent, for I was told that Mr. Douglas was rather particular about this, the 'bell and the dogs' told us that it was time for dinner, and to it, nothing loth, we went. The mess-room was more than thirty feet long by, say, twenty, wide; a large open fire-place at one end, and large pieces of cordwood burning therein; a clock on the wall; a long table in the middle, covered with spotless linen; the knives and forks clean; decanters bright, containing wine and so forth; the chairs of wood (Windsor), but everything European. I suppose there must have been more than twenty people in the room, when Mr. Douglas made his appearance - a handsome speciman of nature's nobleman, r tall, stout, broad-shouldered, muscular, with a grave, bronzed face, yet kindly withal. After the usual greetings he took the head of the table, Mr. Finlayson the foot. "....Grace having been said by Mr. Douglas (the chaplain did not dine at the mess, but all the other married officers did), on comes the soup, then the salmon, then the meats - venison on this occasion and ducks; then the pies and so forth; and so down they go into their proper receptacle, each one ready and willing to receive them. Having done justice to the dinner, and taken a glass 'to the Queen', many of the junior members left, either to work or to smoke their pipes in their own quarters. We remained. The steward, a Kanaka, (the cook was also a Kanaka i.e., Sandwich Islander), brought on tobacco and long clay pipes, of the kind called 'alderman'. Mr. Douglas took his pipe, which I noticed was beautifully colored, showing slow and careful smoking (the clerks used to like to get hold of his colored pipes). Others took pipes, either from the heap or their pockets. Everybody appeared to smoke calmly and deliberately. During the dinner there was conversation, Mr. Douglas taking the lead....Mr. Douglas asked the doctor why so many of the Hudson's Bay Company's officers-were bald. His answer was 'pro pelle cutem' - 'they had sent their furs home,' - at which some laughed; but Mr. Douglas gravely said, 'perhaps, having given us the poetry of the thing, you will give the prose - the cause.' This non-plussed the doctor, as it was another conundrum. By the Norman Morrison, files -of newspapers, and the four Reviews of latest dates - that is to say, nearly six months old - had come out, and Mr. Douglas commenced about some Scotch battles fought long ago. This brought out Dodd, an Englishman, well read and well educated....Douglas and Dodd seemed to know how many men were engaged in each battle; and all at once they tumbled into the battle of Waterloo - the one claiming that the Scotch did best, ..the other that the English did most execution, while a third claimed that Scotch, English, and Irish would have been beaten had it not been for Blucher and his host coming up, just in the nick of time, to save the lot. THis question was not settled. "'OLD TOD' was chaffed for having fired a salute four years after the victory, i.e. as soon as he heard of it. He was indignant, and contended it was less 1han three years. 1*His post had been somewhere near the North Pole. I was informed that no frivolous conversation was ever allowed at table, but that Mr. Douglas, as a rule, came primed with some intellectual and scientific subject, and thus he educated his clerks. All had to go to church every Sunday, the mess-room serving every purpose - baptism marriages, funerals, dances, theatricals, or other amusements - and did not seem tl*|: worse for it." Douglas was especially successful in his handling of the Indians who came to trade at Fort Victoria. On one occasion, having observed that trouble was brewing, he at once took pains to allay it. He ordered that a keg of molasses, or treacle, and a box of biscuits be brought and opened in the presence of the natives. Instantly the Indians tossed aside their knives and -muskets, and started in at the biscuits and treacle. Calm was restored and the wise governor was heard to remark; "Dear mei dear mei there is nothing like a little molasses." An old-timer tells the following apocryphal story: "At one time during Douglas' governorship it was suggested that he should enforce an export-tax on gold, which was on the statute book, but which it was almost impossible to collect, Bir James replied in his remarkable deliverate voice, "My dear sir, it is one of those wonderful productions which Nelson could have looked at with his blind eye.' It was no use pressing him after that. It was 'an infallible sign when his deep black eye withdrew its keenness - withdrew, as it were into itself - that all discussion was over for that time." .2. 1. This story should not be taken too literally. The Hudson's Bay Company sent "expresses" inland every year with letters and dispatches. News of Waterloo was probably sent out with the 1816 "express", but even then it would have been between a year and eighteen months after the battle that Tod received news of the victory. 2» As a matter of faot Douglas1 did not place an export tax on gold, although he talked of doing so. The tax was levied by his successor, Governor Seymour, but the remark attributed to Douglas is so typical of the man, that the story, although apocryphal, is worth preserving. r i FREDERICK SEYMOUR. Sir James Douglas' successor as Governor of British Columbia was Frederick Seymour. Seymour had already held positions in the British colonial service in the West Indies and in British Honduras, where he seems to have done well enough. British Columbians were very pleased with his appointment; they had been agitating for a long time to have a governor of their own resident in New Westminster. Seymour was a most courtly gentleman, much given to hospitality, and so became very popular for a time. But the new Governor had not the necessary strength of character to enable him consistently to pursue any definite policy, and the people of British Columbia soon learned, to adopt the language of Aesop's Fables, that in place of King Stork they had obtained King Log. From 1864 to 1866 Seymour was governor of the mainland colony, while Captain Arthur E. Kennedy ruled Vancouver Island. The British authorities wished to have the two colonies united, largely on account of the expense of keeping up two administrations for a total population of not more than 15,000, only half of whom could be classed as permanent residents. The project of union was unpopular in British Columbia but was supported by Vancouver Island. Seymour at first opposed, but later supported it. At that time British Columbia was a "colony in name only." "There was a gold mine at one end of a line of road, as Governor Seymour expressed it, and a sea-port town under a different government at the other." In 1866 the British Parliament passed an Act of Union forming the united colony of British Columbia. Kennedy was recalled and Seymour became governor of the new colony. Both Victoria and New Westminster claimed to be the capital, but in the end the island city prevailed .and in 1868 Seymour left New Westminster to take up his residence in Victoria. The next question which arose was Confederation with Canada. The mainland favoured Confederation, but on the island there was a large annexationist group which desired union with the United States. Seymour was at first undecided about Confederation, but at length become a strong opponent of the movement, and it was not until after his untimely death in 1869 that, under a new governor, the Legislative Council of British Columbia voted, in 1870, in its favour. Seymour was, therefore, at the helm of the ship of state in British Columbia during a very important period. But he was not a leader like Sir James Douglas. Too often he was content to follow, not tl lead, public opinion* 'Twas easier. But, although he was not a strong governor, Frederick Seymour was a very kindly man. There still lives in Victoria a lady who remembers a birthday party which Governor Seymour gave in her honour at New Westminster many years ago. She remembers him as a very nice, courteous gentleman, who loved children, and made her on that occasion an object of envy to all her little playmates. CHAPTER VI. MINING, ROADS AND DEVELOPMENT By Noel Robinson. "The strength to dare, the nerve to meet Whatever threatens with defeat Its all-indomitable will." JOHN A. CAMERON: "CARIBOO CAMERON" From the time that the Californian miners arrived in British Columbia in 1858 they followed, relentlessly, the trail of the Gold ever northward and eastward until It led them to Andvari's Hoard hidden in the jumbled region called Cariboo. Of all the g*old bearing creeks of Cariboo the most famous, as well as the richest, is Williams Creek; and of all the miners who there burrowed in the ground for the "yellow root of evil" the best known is John A. Cameron, otherwise "Cariboo Cameron"* His life is, in some respects, typical of the Cariboo miner's life. Cameron, who was a native of Glengarry, Ontario, had mined in California in the early fifties and about 1859 had revisited his home, married, and returned to California, where he continued to mine until 1862, when the yellow magnet drew him Cariboo-ward. He did not tramp to Cariboo with a pack on his back. He had made a little money in California, and, buying two horses, he and his wife (who was one of the first white women to reside in Cariboo) rode them all the way from Yale to Williams Creek. At the same time, with an eye to resale, Cameron bought a considerable quantity of goods and forwarded them to the mines. When he reached Williams Creek all the mining was in the shallow diggings above the canyon. Claims had been staked below the canyon, but no one had "Struck" anything in that part. In August 1862 he with six others located seven hundred feet of abandoned ground lying between the Raby and the Moffit claims. This was afterwards the celebrated Cameron claim, situated about a mile below the canyon. A fortnight after the claim had been staked Cameron and his friends were much enheartened by the news that "Billy Barker" had struck the lead below the canyon at a depth of fifty-two feet obtaining five dollars to the pan. Still it required money to sink a shaft fifty or sixty feet in those days when ordinary laborers were receiving $10.00 to $16.00 a day and other expenses on the same high scale. One by one the others dropped out until Cameron became the principal owner. In October Mrs. Cameron died of mountain fever, as typhoid was called there. Her body was temporarily buried by being placed in a cabin - the temperature hovering around thirty below zero. All through the winter the work on the claim underground went on, though under many difficulties because of the low temperature. Fortune smiled on the persevering man and on December 2,1862, the Cameron claim "bottomed", that is, reached the bedrock, and struck it rich, thirty-five pans giving $155.00. In January 1863 Cameron with his trusty friend, Robert Stevenson, brought his wife's body out from Cariboo over the snow, dragging it on a toboggan as far as Beaver Lake ~ seventy- two miles — in eleven days with the thermometer ranging around forty below zero. There a horse was purchased to draw the toboggan and in this way the body was brought to Douglas and on to Victoria where it was embalmed and buried. Cameron returned with his friend and partner, Stevenson, to continue the worte on the claim/ Williams Creek was then a busy hive. For a distance of about two and a half miles it was dotted with claims, covered with shacks and shaft-houses, criss-crossed with flumes and sluice boxes, and filled with "tailings" and debris of all kinds. The shafts were sunk usually about fifty or sixty feet to the 3late bedrock upon which the paystreak lay. That streak was a stratum of blue clay, from three to five feet thick. In many places as one crawled or stooped moving along the low dripping chambers of the mine one could, in the very rich claims, see the glistening yellow, peppering the sides of the drift, but usually it was imperceptible. The pay dirt, brought up in buckets raised by a windlass was emptied into the dump-box. A stream cf water carried in a flume was discharged into that box and ran off in a long series of sluice boxes. The gold thus separated from the accompanying clay was caught by some arresting device in the bottom of the box usually transverse bars called "riffles." The mines were kept free of water by pumps driven by great overshot water- wheels which creaked and groaned through all the twenty-four hours. The dump-boxes in which the gold had been caught were regularly emptied each day at noon. The record of the Cameron I claim showed that the yield varied from 40 to 112 ounces per shaft per day; as there were three shafts that would make the weekly output range from $10j000 to $25,000. But as eighty men were employed the weekly expenses were heavy, averaging about |7,000. Yet even at that there would appear to be a good profit left for the fortunate owner. During the summer of 1863 the claim continued to produce on the same lavish scale. Cameron personally superintended its working. In October 1863 hoping to spend his remaining days in affluence he resolved to return to Glengarry with his' wife's body and the fortune that in less than a year's operations he had accumulated. He retained, however, an interest in the mine which was still producing about f25,000 per week. On leaving Camerontown, Williams Creek, he was escorted by a procession of 200 persons as far as Berkerville, about 100 of whom accompanied him four or five miles further, when they returned after giving three hearty cheers for the fortunate miner. It is not known how much money Cameron had sent out before he left the creek; but it is know how much he took with him on leaving. Milton and Cheadle on their way to Cariboo met in the vicinity of Lac la Hache "a small bullock-wagon, escorted by about twenty armed miners on foot. This proved", they say, "to contain 630 pounds weight of gold, the profits of Mr. Cameron, the principal shareholder in the noted Cameron claim". The value of this gold as shown by the mint's assay was about $150,000. Reaching Victoria he exhumed his wife's body and, taking it with him and accompanied by his friend, Robert Stevenson, he commenced the long journey-homeward by way of San Francisco and the Isthmus of Panama. Arriving at last at Cornwall, Ontario his wife's old home, he buried her for the third time. Cameron was then forty-three years of age, with this (then) enormous fortune and his interest in the mine. Ee gave generously; spent lavishly; and invested somewhat recklessly. All this in combination with his business losses and losses by fire so depleted his capital that by 1888 his vast fortune had completely van- ished. Ee returned to British Columbia to make another^ but the field had been reaped and gleaned; there was nothing for him. He arrived at Barkerville, Williami! Creek, in September 1888, and died there about a month later -- November 7, 1888. And his body lies to-day in the quiet little cemetery at Williams Creek, almost overlooking, as it were, the scene of his unparalleled succeas. WALTER MOBERLY In the exploration of British Columbia and just a little lower than the names of those giants in the work, MacKenzie, Fraser, and Thompson, stands the name of Walter Moberly. "He a was,born explorer", observed Mr. Henry J. Cambie, himself Canada's greatest surviving pioneer railway builder and explorer, upon one occasion when discussing the history of exploration in the province. Coming from such a source no man need wish for higher praise. A nephew of Bishop Moberly of Salisbury and son of a retired post-captain in the British Navy, who had fought in many of the struggles of the Napoleonic wars, Walter Moberly was brought tc Canada as a child of three years of age. After some strenuous exploratory and engineering experiences in Eastern Canada and a period as one of the assistants of that distinguished engineer Sir Sandford Fleming, Moberly, who had heard cf the discovery of rich gold deposits in the bars of the Fraser River, came out to the then Infant colony of British Columbia. He brought a letter of introduction from Sir George Simpson, the head of the Hudson's Bay Company, to Sir James. Douglas, the Governor of the colony. His medium height and build and his intellectual cast of countenance hardly suggested the iron physique and tremendous powers of resistance to hardship which subsequently enabled him to accomplish more in the matter of continuous exploration than any other man who has engaged in this work in British Columbia. When seventy years of age he was still an expert axeman. Sometimes at government expense and often at his own, this intrepid explorer would disappear into the sea of uncharted mountains and valleys, accompanied by a few Indians or white men, to emerge six or eight months later with information and plans actually prepared with meticulous care during the exploration. His field books contain many examples of the manner in which he worked out his notes on the ground. Fond of entertaining he would, during the intervals of his explorations keep open house in Victoria, or perhaps visit Ottawa where he was a frequent guest of sir John A* Macdonald/ Walter Moberly had vision and in most of his explorations had one end in view: the discovery of a suitable route for a railway through this sea of mountains j Long before rail* way connection was spoken of he had dreamed of a solution cf the North West Passage by connecting the East and the West with bands of steel. Ever he sought a pass through which that railway should come. Ultimately his efforts were rewarded and he placed the crown upon his explorations. This was in June 1865 when, after having sat for a session in the legislative council as the representative of Cariboo West, he left New Westminster with Mr. Albert ("Mountaineer") Perry and two Indians. One of them was Victor, an interior Indian-, who had been his companion upon many expeditions and cf whom he always spoke very highly. This was his first exploration of British Columbia east of Kam- loops and it occupied many months. He crossed the Gold Range to the Columbia River about two miles below the Dalles des Morts ("Death Rapids") where he built a canoe and descended the river for some distance before he determined to make his way back again over the Gold Range, seeking The Pass. Ee climbed a high mountain and from its summit had a magnificent view of Eagle River and Shuswap Lake. From the top of that mountain, which he named Mount Moody after his friend Colonel Moody commander of the Royal Engineers in British Columbia, he first saw The Pass. "It was the eagles that gave me the idea that were was a pass there", he explained when describing the exploration. "I watched them as they flew up the Columbia River and I saw them make a big bend off. I knew that eagles always follow a stream or make for an opening in the mountains, and I just followed the direction they took and found and I think very appropriately named the 'Eagle Pass'". There he blazed a tree and, with prophetic vision, wrote upon it with red chalk: "This is the route for the Overland Railway." At the Big Eddy in the 169. Columbia Valley he posted a notice that all land in that immediate vicinity had been reserved by the Crown. Much of his exploration was carried on in spruce bark canoes. The Indians were expert in the manufacture of this kind of cance, which was very light, not weighing, when empty, more than one hundred pounds, and easily portaged by one man. So lightly was it constructed that it was necessary to reinforce the interior with cedar bark to prevent the canoeist's - foot from accidently going through. Holes were naturallyof frequent occurrence but these were quickly repaired. The canoeist always carried gum, collected from a tree, and as this was brittle mixed some bacon grease with it. This, and some rags to paate over the hole, constituted a simple .lending outfit. Many a grizzly bear fell to the explorer's unerring rifle. Referring to an adventure with one of these monarchs of the mountains he tells of a curious custom that his Indians adopted. Tearing pieces of red flannel from their shirts and decorating the head cf the grizzly, which they had severed from the body, they climbed a stout spruce tree, cut off the top, and, having with difficulty fixed the head upon it, they, as they descended, lopped off all the branches below The bear was their totem, and, in their belief, by so honouring him he gave them in return the right to hunt and the power to slay his species readily. But Walter Moberly was not only an explorer. He was a builder of roads also. He had in association with Mr. Edgar Dewdney built the "Dewdney trail" from Hope eastward. He had, moreover, played a prominent part in the conveption and construction of that remarkable pioneer highway through the wilds of the colony, known as the Caribo'o Road, the greatest piece of pioneer road-building that this Dominion has witnessed. It is not easy for those who do not know the rugged country through which a large part of that road passed to realize the stupendous nature of the task that the builders set themselves. It cost about $1,000,000 and was four hundred miles in length, reaching from Yale, the head of navigation on the Fraser, to Barkerville, the centre of the gold-mining region: the population of the colony at that time was less than 35,000. Few made money out of its construction and at least one man, Moberly himself, finished "broke". Gold had been discovered in Cariboo, and the only way that the miners could reach the mines at the outset was by pack trail. This meant much hardship, delay, and inconvenience; it meant besides inordinate prices, Moberly advocated the building of this road by way of the Fraser and the Thompson. Again and again he urged its construction upon Governor Douglas, pointing out the great relief it would afford to the one industry of the mainland. The Governor having gone over the ground with him was eventually persuaded. The story of the building of the road and the various forms of early traffic upon it is one of the most picturesque and vivid stories of early British Columbia. Governor Douglas could get no assistance from the Home Land and in consequence had to resort to many different arrangements to secure its completion; sometimes a section would be paid for in cash, at other times an arrangement would be made whereby the contractor obtained the right for a certain time to collect specified tolls to recoup himself. The Royal Engineers built two pieces; Sir Joseph W. Trutch, later the first, esteemed, and able Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, built the suspension bridge and at least two portions; and Moberly, himself a practical engineer, undertook to build'a part; but Gustavus Blinn Wright, a remarkable pioneer contractor, trail-blazer, and store-keeper built by far the greater part of it. Some idea of the cost of transportation in the early sixties may be gained when it is mentioned that it cost as high as fifty-five cents a pount to convey supplies from Yale to Lytton, a distance of about fifty miles, for the use of the builders of the road. Large numbers of Indians regularly packed supplies over the trails before the advent of the road and while it was under construction. This road was the first public work 1 in which the Chinese were employed; it was almost impossible to secure white labor owing to the Cariboo gold excitement. Moberly -- after whom Moberly Lake and River in the eastern part of the province and Moberly School in Vancouver are named — had a varied career outside of British Columbia. His adventures in Utah, where he met the famous Mormon leader Brigham Young, his mining experiences at Mountain City in Nevada, and other episodes of this part of his life constitute a picturesque and intensely interesting story. He was one of the first two men to commence clearing the site of the City of New Westminster. He claimed to have been the first white man, after Captain Vancouver, to enter Burrard Inlet when the site of the future City of Vancouver was giant forest. He laid the first sewer system in Winnipeg and was the architect of some of its chief pioneer buildings. For many years in his old age he was completely forgotten by the powers that were, and, like David Thompson, lived almost in poverty until the last two years of his life when his services and his ability were finally recognized. He lived to read about the opening stages of the Great War and to express, during his last illness and in very vigorous language, his opinion of the Kaiser and his war lords. He was eighty-three years of age when he died, but his mind was clear and he refused to take to his bed until the day that he passed away. He was accorded a public funeral, at which both the Dominion and and the Provincial Governments and the Canadian Pacific Railway, which he had done so much to make possible, were represented. Walter Moberly was of the true pioneer bre^d;.. HENRY J. CAMBIE. After the builder of roads comes the builder of railways, Mr. Henry J. Combie, ono of Canada's grand old men of railway construction, and explorer to boot, is still living in Vancouver, hale, fresh-complexioned, snow-white haired and blue- eyed, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years, when this history goes to press. An Irish youth raised in an old, battlement ed residence, Henry Cambie accompanied his parents to Canada when in his teens. He seems to have been a bom builder of railways, for we find him in early manhood in charge of the construction of the Windsor and Annapolis railway (subsequently taken over by the Canadian Pacifia Railway) in the beautiful valley in Nova Scotia, rendered famous by Longfellow's "Evangeline" Subsequently he was in charge of an important part of the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. During the interval-he spent some years in exploring in the wilds of, Ontario. In 1874 he entered upon his real life work when he was sent out as one of those to "spy out the land'.? and its possibilities for a transcontinental railway which should have its terminus on one of the numerous inlets that ramify from the Pacific. Upon arriving at what is now the City of Vancouver he was informed by that bluff old sea-dog, Captain Raymur, then manager of the Hastings Mill -- which is still in operation — that no one but the veriest fool would think of making Burrard Inlet the terminus of such a railway. Cambie thought otherwise and so reported to his superior officer. It was the Honorable Alexander MacKenzie, then Premier of Canada and Minister of Railways, who sent Mr. Cambie the telegram which gave him authority to survey the Fraser River route. He still has that worn and yellowed telegram among his most prized possessions. That survey was to extend from the Yellowhead Pass to Port Moody at the head of Burrard Inlet, now Vancouver Harbour. The work was completed in the following year. All the fine staff of engineers, except. Mr. Cambie, have passed on; and yet he was the oldest of them all. The information obtained by that survey was embodied in a lengthy report by Mr. Cambie and published by the Canadian Government. It practically settled the location of the railway through the canyons of the Fraser. But many people still believed that the route should be by way of Bute Inlet. Mr. Cambie was, therefore, sent to gain further information concerning the country between the Rockies and the coast and especially to explore a line by way of the Skeena valley and the Peace and Pine rivers. The experiences of this intrepid explorer upon this and other explorations would fill an interesting volume. Once at Fort McLeod he and his companions patched up an old boat which had been abandoned by the Hudson's Bay Company and drifted in it down the Parsnip and the Peace to the Rocky Mountain Canyon, a distance of over two hundred miles. There they met a family of Indians hunting who helped them to portage the ten miles around the canyon to the Hudson's Bay post known as Hudson's Hope (one of the many "Rocky Mountain Houses") where they made a raft and drifted another one hundred and fifty.miles to Fort Dunvegan. "The last part of thetrip was in August", Mr. Cambie recalls, "and, as the berries on the southern slopes of the hills were beginning to riped, the number cf bears —grizzlies and others ("berry-pickers") surpassed anything I have ever known or heard of. Often we would see on the banks of the river three or four bears together." Upon one of these explorations Mr. Cambie had an exciting experience with Indians -- some of the same Indians, who more than ten years before, had murdered the Waddington party — but, thanks tc his nerve and his presence of mind, he managed to escape with his life. Then followed the great construction period when the dream of years slowly changed to on actuality. Mr. Cambie is a very modest man. "Please make it clear that, although I explored and surveyed and planned the course of the Canadian Pacific Railway through a large portion of this province, the only part that was built under my direct^supervision was that running through the canyons of the Fraser," he insisted upon one occasion. The "only part". I These who know the "awe-inspiring canyons of the Fraser with their towering rampart-like rock-ma3ses through which and cut into which the parallel rails wind their sinuous course, alternately far above or close heside the turbulent Fraser as it rushes tc the Pacific, will realize that this part of the work was the piece de resistance when the line was driven through the province. Those were great days. Many of the scenes of vivid life which had marked that picturesque period in the history of the province referred to in the story of Walter Moberly were re- enaeted along part of the same route — though with pronounced differences. Nearly every nationality in the world was'represented, and for the first time in the prosecution of a public work in the province Chinese were imported and employed in large numbers to assist. "It will never be known how many violent deaths took place during that dangerous construction period", Mr. Cambie freely admits. In order to lay out the work Cambie and a few of his assistant engineers, steadying themselves by ropes which had been strung by two sailors from rock to rock and from tree to tree, went along in their bare feet with, first, a precipice, and then Kamlobps Lake, of unknown depth, immediately below them. One engineer was killed. No such mountain work had ever been attempted in Canada before, and the engineers were confronted with new problems every day. "One of our great troubles", says Mr. Cambie, "was the old Cariboo wagon road which ran for miles alongside the railway, above and below it, crossing and recrossing, and which had to be kept open as it was the only means of access to the upper country or, indeed, beyond the "end of steel**. The difficulty of accomplishing this may be realized by people who have seen 'Prairie Schooners', which usually consisted of two wagons coupled together and drawn by nine yoke of oxen or teams of mules or horses -- the whole over one hundred feet long. It will be gathered what this meant where a crossing was on a curve." r "I remember upon one occasion near the Alexandra Suspension Bridge in the vicinity of Spuzzum", MT. Cambie recalls, "that a fine old fellow named Dave McBeth, who was well-known in British Columbia, had got the slide partly cleaned away when a coach came along the road driven by that notable whip, Steve Tingley. Among the loose stuff a rock, of which Dave was unaware, had been left, and the coash, in vvhich was Judge McCreight, upset. The judge was very irritated and told Dave, much to the amusement of the passengers, that if he was ever brought before him he would have no compunction in having him hanged for his carelessness in allowing such an accident to happen." It is not difficult to imagine the overwhelming sense of responsibility that Mr. Cambie must have experienced until this great work was brought to a successful termination and the last spike was driven by Sir Donald A. Smith, later lord Strath- cona, in 1885, at Craigellachie. Before, during, and after construction this railway builder was more or less intimate with Sir William Van Home and Lord Shaughnessy, the first and second presidents of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and with Sir John A. Macdonald, and he therefore knows, as does no other living man, the inside, as well as the constructional, history of that stupendous work which resulted in binding Atlantic and Pacifio together with twin bands of steel. r CHAPTER Vll. THE STRUGGLE FOR REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT By Noel Robinson. "New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncou They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth." JOHN ROBSON. One of the most attractive features about the pioneer stage of any country is the opportunity that is afforded to any man of enterprise and ability to rise from the foot to the top of the tree. An outstanding example in the early history of British Columbia of a man who took advantage of this opportunity to benefit himself and his adopted province is to be found in the story of the Honorable John Robson, for some years its most able premier. Born in Perth, Ontario, in 1824, and smitten with the gold fever in his early manhood, he came to British Columbia in 1859. We first find him mining for gold on Hill's Bar, about a mile below Yale, the richest, longest-worked, and best-paying of all the bars of Fraaer River. We see him next, stalwart and striking, wielding axe and froe in making cedar shakes, or clearing lots, or building roads in and about the forest site of the future City of New Westminster. This is a part of his career upon which he always looked back with pride. Our next glimpse of the future premier is when, in 1861, he takes charge-as proprietor and founder of the British Columbian newspaper, of which he is both business and editorial head. In his hands it was a fearless newspaper, fighting at all times the battle of the people; and to-day it is still a power in the community. One December day in 1862 in the little old Court House in New Westminster John Robson sprang at a single bound from the unknown newspaper man to a patriot entitled to stand side by side with Joe Howe. Having published an item reflecting on Judge Begbie's conduct in speculating in land the title to which was before the courts, Robson was haled into the presence to answer to a charge of contempt of court. He stated to the judge that he could not get in touch with the writer of the item, "and hence", he continued, "I am'unaware what evidence he may possess in support of the implied charge against your Lordship." Here the judge r directed him tc confine himself to giving some reason why he should not be sent to gaol for contempt. Mr. Robson then replied:. "My Lord, the communication in question was received in the ordinary manner from a gentleman in whom I have the utmost confidence and was published en the usual way. If, however, the implied charge is untrue, all I can say is that I regret its publication." At this the Judge excitedly declared that the word 'if cast a doubt en the explanation of the matter which he (the Judge) had just given and that its use was only an aggravation of the offence. In vain Mr. Robson urged that it was impossible for him with his present knowledge of the affair to say that the charge made by his correspondent- was untrue and that he could not therefore offer to his Lordship other than a conditional and qualified apology. In the end the Judge ordered the officers to remove the editor to prison. The people sided with Robson in this struggle between the press aid the bench. In public meeting they approved of the editor's conduct and called upon the Home Authorities to investigate the speculations of officials in the colony. In a few days Robson was released; and, while the facts regarding the land transaction are somewhat uncertain, enough exists to show that Robson was not altogether wrong in his stand. He carried on his newspaper with success until, after the union of the two colonies (Vancouver Island and British Columbia) in 1866 and the removal of the capital to Victoria in • 1868, he determines to take the Columbiam with him to Victoria. This was a period of marked depression and Mr. Robson, finding the change a losing venture, ceased publication and became one of the editors of the Victoria Colonist. From 1866 to 1870 he was a member of the Legislative Council of British Columbia and from 1872 to 1875, a member of the Provincial Legislature. During the stirring days of the struggle for Confederation John Robson was one of the foremost supporters of that movement. In season and out of season he preached union with the new Dominion. The columns of the Columbian are filled with arguments in favor of that step. From 1875 to 1879 Mr. Robson occupied the office of pay-master in connection with the surveys for the Canadian Pacific Railway. When that position was abolished he returned from Victoria to New Westminster and obtained control of a newspaper, the name of which he soon changed to the British Columbian. For four years he published his paper, always writing its informed editorials in terse English and making it a power in the affairs of the province. In the election of 1882 the Beaven Government was defeated and John Robson, now well-known throughout the province and recognized-as an able public speaker and writer was elected to represent New Westminster District. The Smythe Government was formed and Mr. Robson took in it the portfolio of Provincial Secretary. In 1889 on the death of Mr. A. E. B. Davie, Mr. Robson reached the highest office that his adopted province could offer him, that of premier. He passed away in London, England, three years later at the age of sixty-eight years. This in brief is an outline of the story of the Hon. John Robson; but it would be difficult to overestimate the influence of this sterling type of public man upon the destiny of British Columbia during those difficult formative years when the young province was finding its feet. Able, modest, genial, but very firm when he had made up his mind,— and a man of vision, to boot — he was popular amongst his friends and respected by his opponents. Besides advocating union with Canada he was a consistent, courageous, and outspoken champion of responsible government; his editorials on that subject during the strenuous years of the struggle were beyond all praise as an influence awakening the people to the importance of the question. Upon his election in 1882, after an absence of seven years from the Legislative, halls, the Victoria Post described him as, without exaggeration, the ablest orator and debater in British Columbia, and the British Columbian, his old paper, but at the time of his death his ablest and strongest opponent, referred to him as "the most experienced, astute, and able politician and parliamentarian in the Provincial Assembly, and, almost without exception, its ablest, most eloquent, and most effective debater". Dying sudlenly in office as he did, in the history of the province the passing of no public man has ever been more deeply, genuinely, or widely mourned. AMOR DE COSMOS. ' In the administration of affairs in British Columbia in the pioneer lays no figure stands out more picturesquely and prominently than that of the Honorable Amor De Cosmos, at one time its premier, .and at the same time - dual representation being then permitted — one of its representatives both in the Dominion House of Commons and in the Provincial Legislature. De Cosmos' original name is believed tc have been Smith — plain Alexander Smith. He was born at Windsor, Nova Scotia, and educated there and in Halifax. When California was lavishly pouring out her millions he decided to try his fortune there, but after spending six years under I strange flag he caught the Fraser River gold fever and emigrated to Victoria, Vancouver Island. He soon commenced the publication of the British Colonist, a small sheet issued three times a week, the. first number of which appeared in December 1858. WHile he was resident in California he is said to have obtained an Act of the State Legislature changing his name from the plebian "Smith" to the grandiloguent "Amor De Cosmos", which, being interpreted, is "Lover of the World". And Amor De Cosmos was he always thereafter, though the wags sometimes dubbed him "Amor De Polyglot^. One of the most amusing ef the amy stories told in connection with this change of name has reference to a miner who had known De Cosmos in his Califcrnian gold-digging days as Bill Smith, and who, lately arrived in the colony, went tc the polls to vote for his quondam friend who was running for parliament. This was in the free-and-easy days cf no voters' lists and open voting. It was explained to the miner that De Cosmos was the name of the candidate and that, in response to the enquiry for whom he voted, he must say: "De Cosmos*. This changed name did net appeal I him; "Confound it", said he, "if I can't vote for my old friend Bill Smith I won't vote at all." Nor did he; and De Cosmos was returned with one vote less- than he would othez have had. L De Cosmos was a man cf striking presence, tall, swarthy, black-bearded, almost Spanish in appearance. He stood high as a public speaker. It is clear, too, that he was a man of vision. No one worked harder to secure the union of Vancouver Island with the mainland colony of British Columbia; and he and the Honorable John Robson were the two great protagonists in favor of the entry of British Columbia into Confederation. Though their characters differed in many respects, yet De Cosmos and Robson had strikingly similar careers and numerous qualities in common. Both were journalists and wielded trenchant pens; both were but little short of being classed as orators; both had come into conflict with the authorities — Robson with Judge Begbie, and De Cosmos with the Colonial Legislature; both were champions of responsible government and union with Canada — Robson on the mainland and De Cosmos on the island; and both became premier of their adopted province. The stand cf De Cosmos as a public man maybe best given by quoting the editorial with which he greeted the public in the first number of the British Colonist, December 11, 1858. Laying down his policy he said: "Particular interest will be taken in the absorbing questions now before the British North American colonies: The union of these colonies, representation in the Imperial Parliament, the Pacific railroad, and the overland wagon road and telegraph. In local politics we shall be found the sure friend of reform. We 3hall aim at introducing such reforms as will tend to government according to the well understood wishes of the people. It will be a primary object with us to advocate such changes as will tend to establish self-government. The present constitution we hold is radically defective, and unsuited to the advanced condition of this colony. We shall counsel the introduction of responsible government — a system long established in British America, by which the people will have the whole and sole control over the local affairs of the colony." De Cosmos, then a member of the Legislative Council of British Columbia, moved on March 10, 1867, the resolution asking for the admission of the colony into the Dominion of Canada. Nothing came cf that owing to the inertia of Governor Seymour. About this time the people of the United States began to regard union with them as the manifest destiny of British Columbia: this was, indeed, advanced by their Senate as one of the reasons for the early construction of the Northern Pacific Railway. Annexation dangled the bait in a bit of dofferel in which the following lines occurred: "You want the mail, You want the rail, You want the cars to hie on, Cornel Join us and we'll thread your land With passage ways of iron." De Cosmos, as editor of the Standard newspaper, vigorously combat ted this attitude. Early and late, in his paper, on the stump, in the halls of legislature — everywhere and at all times he preached Confederation. In January 1868 at a great public meeting in Victoria he brought forward a resolution asking admission into the newly-formed Dominion of Canada and urging as an essential condition of such admission the construction by the Dominion Government, within two years, of a transcontinental wagon road to connect Lake Superior with the head of navigation on the lower Fraser. In the Legislative Council a short time later he brought forward a scheme of union dealing with the terms which would be acceptable to the colony. And so from year to year he worked to accomplish that end. The history of the struggle for union shows De Cosmos always in the vam. De Cosmos won 'the friendship of Sir John A. Macdonald, who was evidently attracted by his picturesque personality, as well as by his ability. After the union with Canada he served the province as premier and as a member of the Dominion Parliament. Later he was engaged as the special commissioner of the Provincial Government in pressing the claims of British Columbia arising out of the delay in construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway; and later still, in the same capacity, in urging the construction by Canada of the Island Railway. He continued to pay a part in public affairs until his active mind became .overclouded. He died in retirement while stil-l in his prime. I CHAPTER Vlll. THE FIRST CHIEF JUSTICE: SIR MATTHEW BAILLIE BEGBLE By R. L. Reid, K. C. "The greatest firmness is the greatest mercy. Longfellow. SIR MATTBEW BAILLIE BEGBIE. In 1893 I saw coming down the steps of the New Westminster Court House a tall, old gentleman whose appearance struck me as out of the ordinary. I inquired of a person long resident in the city who this might be; he replied with astonishment: "DOn't you know him? That is Chief Justice Begbie. I thought everybody in British Columbia knew him." And indeed there were few in the province during its earlier years who had not seen or did not know the old Chief Justice and who could not repeat some interesting story illustrative of his peculiar wit or manner. To tell the story of Chief Justice Begbie is to tell the story of British Columbia from his arrival at the commencement of the colony in 1858 until his death. He came during the year in which the first tide of.motley, gold-seeking adventurers flowed to the banks of the Fraser River. With him came the real establishment of law and order in a virgin land; it was his duty to see that punishment followed crime, and that the loose ideas of life and property which existed in California should not take root under the British flag. It was his duty to enforce the law during the hectic days that followed the diseoveiy of vast riches in Cariboo — to "Make sure to each his own, That J&e reap where he hath sown", and to preserve "the peace among our peoples". That his iron hand was heavy on the wrongdoer in those early days is proven by the witness of the pioneers and by the comparative peace and freedom from crime in the mines of British Columbia -- a condition the more outstanding when compared with the lawlessness that prevailed in other gold camps in western North America. Not that the people who flocked to the Fraser River and Cariboo mines were any better than those who rushed tothe other diggings in search of gold — on the' contrary a large proportion of them had come from California and other parts of western America — but, because they feared what Bancroft calls "the fiery justice cf Begbie". Even Ned McGowan, the Califor- nian outlaw, when for a moment he forgot himself and where he was and shot at a man, even though he failed to hit the living target, remembered in time "the cut of Begbie's features" and left the country. The terror of his name was felt throughout the province and few thers were who dared to take the chances of having to face him from the prisoners' dock. He was born in England in 1819; was graduated from Cambridge; and in 1844 was called to the Bar. He practised in London until 1858. In that year Sir E. B. lytton, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, was under the necessity of sending out a Judge to the new Colony of British Columbia. He had been advised by Douglas of the condition of things in that remote corner of the earth: that gold had been discovered on the Fraser River and that, from California, men who belonged #4 -^3L1 quarters of the globe were hastening to share in the riches which were supposed to exist in its bars; that no government had been constituted to control such a heterogeneous collection of people; and that the only semblance of authority was that exercised by the officials of the Hudson's Bay Company, with himself as de facto Governor. He recognized that the man for the position must be no light-handed, easy-going dilettante, but a regular two-fisted "he-man", as some American storytellers say. In a quandary, he sought the advice of the Solicitor- General, Hugh M. Cairns, afterwards Lord Chancellor. On his recommendation the Secretary of State selected Begbie for the position. The new Judge was then in the prime of life, strong, athletic, and physically and mentally fitted for the task confided to him. He arrived at Victoria the 15th November, 1858, and the next day embarked with Governor Douglas and party for Fort Langley where the ceremonies in connection with the formation of the colony were to occur. On the 19th the official party landed at Fort Langley and were met by a guard of honour, composed of Royal Engineers, as they climbed the slippery bank in the rain. When they reached the top a salute of eighteen guns boomed out from the nine-pounders of the fort and the Union Jack rose, dripping and drooping, to the top of the flagpole. In the large room of the principal building there, with "becoming solemnity", in the presence of "Her Majesty's troops and the inhabitants of the place, the officers holding appointments from Her Majesty were installed in the usual manner, and with the accustomed forms", to use Douglas' words in reporting to Sir E. B. Lytton, Proclamations were then issued, the revocation of the exclusive privileges of the Hudson's Bay Company read, and the next day when the Governor and his party left the fort they were honoured with a salute of seventeen guns. Although he was sent out as Judge, his duties at the beginning were not entirely judicial,. He was instructed, for the present, to lend the Governoe "his general aid for the compilation of the necessary laws and other legal business." In other words he was to act not only as Judge but also as Attorney- General until such an officer was duly appointed. It is understood that all the early ordinances promulgated by the Governor, who was the sole law-making authority, were either prepared or revised by the Chief Justice. He continued to act in this advisory capacity until the early part of 1859 when George Hunter Caiy was appointed as Attorney-General. In 1859 Begbie commenced his judicial duties by holding courts at Langley, Fort Eope, Fort Yale, and Lytton. Eis report of this first judicial circuit, made to Governor Douglas, was transmitted to the Home Authorities, by whose courtesy it was published in the London Geographical Society's Journal. This document is interesting as showing the condition of the country and the difficulties encountered, even by the judiciary, in traversing it. To reach Langley, Hope, and Yale was easy; but then the trouble commenced. From Yale northward there were no means of travelling but on foot. So, off he went in this manner, accompanied by the Sheriff, the Registrar, and some Indians carrying the baggage of the party. If it had been later times quite properly, but sometimes most dictatorially. It is said that on one occasion when a jury had brought in a verdict in favor of one of the parties, the Judge immediately entered judgment for the other. The jury was astonished, and the foreman indignantly asked the Judge: "If the judgment is to go contrary to cur verdict, what is the Use of our being brought here?" The Judge smiled at the foreman and in his thin, high- pitched voice replied: "A mere technicality, my friend, a mere technicality!'J Vancouver Island being a separate colony with a Judge of its own, Begbie's jurisdiction was confined to the mainland colony. When the colonies were united in 1866 considerable trouble was experienced in delimiting the powers of the Vancouver Island Judge and the Mainland Judge; but this was remedied in 1869 by providing that one should be "Chief Justice of Vancouver Island" and the other "Chief Justice of the Mainland cf British Columbia." When Chief Justice Needham of Vancouver Island resigned in 1870, Begbie became "Chief Justice of British Columbia" with jurisdiction over the whole colony. His relations with the members of the legal profession were not always of the most cordial kind. In one celebrated case after hearing the ruling of the Court, two of the best* known lawyers of the colony (one of them in after years a ce-member of the Supreme Court) indignantly told the Registrar to strike their names from the list of barristers of the Court, and were congratulated by a mass meeting of the residents of the city in which the trial had been held for their manly course in sacrificing their income to their principles and their duty. He was impatient cf criticism and at times had difficulties with the press when his actions or motives were impugned by it. But at all times he was so picturesque, his wit so caustic, and his actions so determined that he is a figure in the history of British Columbia that will not soon be forgotten. Innumerable are the stories which are told of him. The most characteristic is his remark to a jury which had found in the year he could have followed the mul : , a much higher elevation; but as this snow he was obliged to keep neh was at ffas then blocked with en the west bank of the river till within a short distance of Boston Bar Yale. Begbie does not enter in ir, twenty-five miles above Into details of the dangers and difficulties of this trail - an old Indian trail - as other travellers over it have done, but sums it up succinctly and gives us a vivid picture, when he says that it was "utterly impassable for any anin&L but a man, a goat, or a dog". Suffice it to say that any person who went that way must have been something of an athlete, with a cool head and a sure foot, especially in the early spring when the melting snow made the travelling mere than ordinarily difficult. From Boston Bar to Lytton was an easier road to travel. At Lytton he obtained horses and the party rode thence to Cayocsh, now Lillooet. He tried to hold Court there, but unsuccessfully, for he could not find enough British subjects to enable him to empanel a Grand Jury. From Lillooet he returned by canoe and on foot via Seton, Anderson, Lillooet, and Harrison Lakes to the Fraser River. The final sentence of his report is illuminating as showing that the conditions of travel at that time were marked by "The absence of all means of communication, except by foaming torrents in canoes or over goat tracks on foot, which renders all productions of the country -- except such as, like gold, can be carried with great ease in small weight and compass, — practically valueless." From that time until his death he exercised his judicial functions in a land of "magnificent distances". In those early days his heavy hand was of the utmost value in preserving order. But the very talents that rendered him a terror tc the evildoer in those lawless times, acting on a temperament naturally autocratic, made him very difficult to deal with when the country became peaceable and settled. There was no Court of Appeal, nearer than London, and Begbie was often a law unto himself. He would often set aside the verdict of a jury, some- a prisoner guilty of manslaughter when he thought that the verdict should have been one of murder. He Is reported to have said to the prisoner: "It is not a pleasant duty for me to have to sentence you only to imprisonment for life. Your crime was unmitigated murder. You deserve to be hanged. Had the jury performed their duty, I might now have the painful satisfaction of condemning you to death." And then, turning to the jury, he said: "And you gentlemen of the jury, permit.me to say that it would give me great pleasure to see you hanged, each and every one of your, for bringing in a murderer guilty of manslaughter." In another case it is told that when sentencing a prisoner for some minor offence, after making some remarks about the case, he said, "And, sir, for your offence I wil* only fine you fifty dollars" and paused. The culprit, overjoyed at the small punishment awarded by the redoubtable Begbie, reached down into his trousers' pocket for the money, saying gleefully, "That's all right, Judge. I've just got tho.t in my pants' pocket." The Judge, as if completing the sentence went on in even voice, "and six months in gaol", and then, with a snap, "have you got that on your pants pocket?" That he was not always harsh, but could sympathize with and under stand the feelings of others is shown by his many quiet, hidden acts of benevolence, and wide charity; but especially by his wonderful address to some Indians who were before him in 1872 on trial on the charge of murder. Having been found guilty, he was forced by the law to record a death sentence but on, his recommendation their punishment was commuted to five years imprisonment at Metlakatla, under the jratc hful eye of the good mi s s i on ary, William Duncan. It is too long to quote in extc mso, but scm 3 excerpts will show the man fr om a ncthor angle. He said in part " If a white mz „n kill an Indi an, the Indians desire that white man to be put to death. Now my people eomc to The law among the me and ask for satisfaction. whites is that they can not have revenge unless I permit ' camp and ask me for revenge. it. Now my people t many snows have fallen on this bl >od\ and th ey h ide it from my "sight. Many snows have also fallen on my head; my head is white., and I have seen many things. When the head is white the heart ought to be prudent and moderate... My head is white, but my hand is strong,and my heart is not weak... I wish to change their hearts, and to let them see that our laws are good and our hearts are good, and that we do not kill, even when we have a right to kill and when we have the power to kill.... They must at present go back to prison until I speak to the other great chiefs of my people and see what is best tc be done. I shall try and persuade the other chiefs to send them away to Metlakatla, to do what Mr. Duncanshall tell them, and to live as he shall direct. And so long as they live well and quietly, and learn and labor truly to get their own living, I shall not remember the blood which they have spilt." And then he expounds his ideas of the enforcement cf the criminal law and his duty as a Judge. "There are some bad men, who would, perhaps, steal or commit violence, if they were not afraid. They are afraid of our law, which fills me and gives me strength, so that if I fall on a man I break him to pieces..But even bad white men, through fear, are restrained." So he believed, and so he acted. The fear of Begbie was abroad in the land, and it had its effect by reducing lawlessness to a minimum under circumstances and conditions which, otherwise, would have been fruitful in disturbances and crime. It is true that the majority of the miners and other adventurers . were good men, as in other mining camps. But times like those in other lands attracted also "rustlers" and lawless persons, who took advantage of the unsettled condition to enrich themselves, unlawfully, at the expense of their associates and who lacked respect for law in general. In British Columbia during the exciting days when Cariboo was producing its millions each year, this disturbing element was held in check lest the stern Begbie should fall on them and, as he himself said, "break them to pieces." Judge Begbie received the honour of knighthood in 1871 and died in harness in 1894, full of years and of honours, I CHAPTER 1Z. METLAKATLA: AN IDEAL MISSIONARY SETTLEMENT By R, L. Reid, K.C. "Till the Black-Robe chief, the Pale-face, Withthe cross upon his bosom, Landed on the sandy margin." Longfellow. In 1858 at Port Simpson, B.C., a short distance from what is now the site of the ambitious City of Prince Rupert, there existed a post of the Hudson's Bay Company consisting of a few houses, stores, and workshops surrounded by a palisade twenty feet high made of trunks of trees. Nearby stood a well-built Indian village of about two hundred and fifty wooden houses, some of them of considerable size. The Tsimshean Indians who lived there were a fine, robust, intelligent people, but barbarous, cruel and bloodthirsty. Thither had come a short, thickset, blue-eyed Englishman,whose purpose it was to teach them the truths of Christianity and the arts of peace. With the assistance of an Indian whom he had made his friend, he acquired,with infinite patience, a smattering of the Tsimshean language and succeeded in gathering around him a few halfbreed and Indian children whom he taught. In November he induced the Indians to build for him a school-house in which to carry on his work; everything seemed to be progressing favorably. But the Medicine Men of the tribe resented the new teaching. The month of December was the season when, according to custom, the heathen rites and ceremonies were to be performed. Demand was made en the missionary to close the schoolhouse for a month so as not to interfere with the celebration. The officers of the fort urged him to consent for fear of the Indians' anger, but he absolutely refused to do so saying that Satan had reigned there long enough and it was high time his rule should be disturbed. He was warned that bloodshed might result from his refusal. Still he refused to give way even should it be his own blood, for he said he could not afford to compromise with the devil and he never would. Surprised at the stand taken by the lone missionary, for he could not expect protection from the fort, his ■ friend Legaic, one of the head Chiefs, came to him and besought him to change his mind in part and close the school for two weeks. Legaic up to that time had assisted him in his work, allowing the school to be held at first in his dwelling, and later taking part in the construction of the very schoolhouse in question. The missionary would be no party to the Indian orgies, directly or indirectly; and again refused. Legaic could not understand him and became furious at his obstinacy. With a cohort of Medicine Men, painted and masked) he descended on the schoolhouse and with menaces and threats demanded that it be closed for at least four days. The missionary could not be moved. Legaic worked himself into a fury, threatening to kill the children if they came to school, storming at the shame which would be put on him in the face of his visitors; but without success. Calmly and distinctly, the missionary gave the angry chief to understand that his mind was made up and that nothing could change it. At last the Chief, exasperated by the calmness of the unarmed man before him, drew his knife and threatened him with death; but as he stepped forward to execute his murderous design, he saw Clah, the missionary's friend, standing near holding a pistol under his blanket, ready to protect the threatened man. Clah's attitude had its effect. The Chief stopped, glared at the intruder, and in speechless wrath stalked silently away followed by his savage allies. The missionary had won the day; the school remained open. But how cams this man in such strange surroundings, venturing his life in his endeavor to benefit this savage folk and lift them from their degradation. The tale is an interesting one. From 1858 to 1856 E.M.S. Virago had been patrolling the North Pacific coast under the command of Captain (afterwards Admiral) J. C. Prevost. Captain Prevost was a splendid type of the cultured Christian gentleman. Ee had been struck by the physical perfection of the native population and also by their ignorance and debased mode of life. Be foresaw the dangers which were aprr caching owinp to the cominh of the white men to the West and the effect which immorality .and drunkenness, the vices of the white race, would have upon them* He felt a duty laid I L upon him to bring them aid before it was too late. In 1856 the Virago returned to Enf.l nd and Captain Prevost immediately communicated with the Church Missionary ' Society. At its request, he prepared a memorandum for publication in the Society's journal. This had its effect at once. "Two Friends" immediately donated L500 to start the work. Soon after Captain Prevost was ordered to return to the northwest coast of America in the Satellite, and with the sanction of the Admiralty, he offered a free passage to the teacher, selected by the society to go to the Tsimsheans. The opportunity was ready for the man. The man was also ready for the task. A few years before Captain Prevost's return a representative of the Church Missionary Society was to speak to the people of St. John's Church in Beverly, Yorkshire, on missionary work. Owing to the inclement weather the attendance was so amll that the Vicar suggested an adjournment, but the speaker insisted on making his aldress notwithstanding the small audience. Amongst his hearers was a young man, then engaged in mercantile pursuits and fast climbing the ladder of success. He was deeply moved by the words of the speaker, and, then and there, determined that at all costs he would be one of those to carry Christ's message to the heathen. He gave up his business, offered himself to the Society, and was sent to the Highbury training College to complete his education. This young man was William Duncan, better known in British Columbia as "Father Duncan," the first person who was effective in civilizing the Indians of the North Pacific coast, and one of the most picturesque figures in our history. Duncan accompanied Captain Prevost to the Far West and arrived in Victoria in June 1857. On his arrival he met the chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, James Douglas, knighted for his services to the Empire in later days. Douglas and others attempted to dissuade the young man from going further pointing out the dangers he would incur among the savage peoples of the North and the inability of the Hudson's Bay Company to J give him protection of any kind. Duncan was obdurate. To the Tsimsheans he had been sent, and to them he would go. The more savage they were the greater the necessity for his presence among them. But he could not go at once for there were no means of reaching his destination until the Company's vessel should go north in the autumn. In the meantime he remained at Victoria, learning the ways of the West, studying the Chinook jargon, the lingua franca of the coast, and preparing himself for his great task. On arriving at Fort Simpson in October 1857 he found the state of things there had not been exaggerated by his Victoria friends. On the contrary, it was even worse than he had anticipated. The gruesome scenes, viewed from the Hudson Bay Company's fort and pictured in his early reports to the society, paint a lurid picture of the life of the natives of that locality. So much were the Indians feared by the company's employees that only two were admitted within the palisade at any one time. The fort had been built about seventeen! miles from the chief village of the Tsimsheans at Metlakatla, but soon after it had been established, the Indians had left their old home and grouped themselves around its walls. The young missionary was not daunted by what he saw and heard around him. On the contrary, his urge to help the natives increased. It was necessary for him first to learn their tongue in order to be able to teach them in their own language. He had the good fortune to meet a- friendly Indian, one Clah, who wanted to learn to speak English and the two labored together to teach each other. The Tsimshean language was difficult to master, but after eight months cf diligent perseverance Duncan succeeded in writing down and memorizing 1500 words. He then began to teach the natives the message he had brought from over seas, and soon was able to obtain to some extent their confidence and attention. His work was from the beginning hampered, by the association of those who were willing to follow the paths pointed out by the missionary and thode who were determined to follow in the footsteps of their fathers. Converts, or those who seemed to be inclined to be converts, relapsed into their old ways again and again. Duncan soon saw that he must separate his flock from the other Indians and in 1862 he induced those who were under his influence, 300 in number, to leave Fort Simpson and return with him to their old home at Metlakatla. In 1864 he obtained a grant from the Provincial Government of fifty square miles around the village for the Indians, two acres of which were to Jbe held for the use of the Church Missionary Society and here he formed a colony of Christian Indians, as he said, "out of the miasma of heathen life and away from the deadening and enthralling influence of heathen customs." Under these conditions he was able to shut out the evils of intoxicating liquors and educate his flock, free from the debasing influence of either white or red. He succeeded beyond his highest hopes. He opened and maintained a store, built a Church and Mission Eouse„ and the necessary dwellings for his people. Ee was Lay Pastor and Missionary, Treasurer, Chief Trader, Clerk of the Works, the Father and Friend of the community. The Government recognized his position and made him a magistrate. Ee organized a Village Council to assist him and under his guidance the Indians built and operated a sawmill for their own purposes. Bishop Bills of Victoria made several visits and baptized those whom Duncan recognized as truly converted. Bishop Bompas of Athabasca also visited the settlement for the same purpose. Lord Dufferin, Governor-General of Canada, and Lady Dufferin visited the Mission. The Church Miss- ionary Society, prou i of th e success of its efforts, publ Lshed glowing accounts of Duncan' s work. It seemed as .if a new era had dawned in the relations between the red race and the -shite. It will b 3 rem em bered th at a 1though Mr. Duncan was carrying on the work of the church is a missionary, he was not a clergyman in the t 3chnica 1 sense. He had at various times, been pressed to take holy orders and if he had done so he prob- ably would have been appoin ted Bish rp o f the Diocese when it was formed. This 1 le si* rays re fused to do, feeling that he could be of more use to his people, as a lay teacher than as a clergyman. Eis isolation from the Church World of England and his long continued association with the motives caused him gradually to lose interest in the forms .and ceremonies of the Anglican Church and tc teach Chris ti-onity in a general way, without vexing his pupils' minds with ideas of sect which they could not understand. This course seems tc have found favor with the society under whose auspices he labored, at least we find no objection made to it until after the arrival of Bishop Ridley. Until 1879 the whole of British Columbia had been but one diocese of the Anglican Church. In that year it was divided into three, the northern portion where the missionaries cf the Church Missionary Society were laboring being constituted the Diocese of Caledonia. Rev. Wm. Ridley, an English clergyman, at one time a missionary in India, and afterwards vicar of an English parish, was appointed Bishop. On his arrival at Metlakatla he was apparently well pleased with the condition of things, for his report to the Church Missionary Society written shortly after, glows with appreciation. He says,: "The church bell rings, and from both wings of the village, well-dressed men, their wives and children, pour out from the cottages, and the two currents meet at the steps of the noble sanctuary their own hands have made to the honour of God, our Saviour...... Inwardly, I exclaimed 'What hath God wrought'". At the same time he assured the Indians that he had not come to interfere with Mr. Duncan but to aork wi th him. But this idyllic state did not long continue. Bishop Ridley and Mr. Duncan could not agree. It was in the nature of the two men to be antagonistic. Duncan was determined and had a knowledge of his people which the Bishop could not have. He was no longer an Episcopalian in the sectarian sense of the word; and ritual, forms, and ceremonies lacked meaning for him. The Bishop was just as determined as Duncan, but without that knowledge of Indian character which the latter had imbibed from his long years of experience at Fort Simpson and Metlakatla. He was a thorough churchman to whom the ritual, forms, and ceremonies of the Anglican Church were as vital a part of his Christianity as the essential beliefs thereof. He appeared at the church services in his full episcopal regalia; he demanded his proper title as "My Lord" when being addressed. He failed to see any necessity for the plain and simple services to which the Indians had been -accustomed under Mr.Duncan's regime. He suggested that the services might be improved by following more closely the ritual of the church . Then he desired that the Indians be allowed to take the sacrament in both bread and wine. This, Duncan strenuously opposed, pointing out that ceremonial cannibalism had until lately been practised to some extent by the Indians and that they had been taught that this was a heinous sin. How could theynow be taught that in partaking of the sacrament they were partaking of the body and blood of Christ? Could they understand that this was merely sumbolic and not an approval of their old heathenish customs? The Queen's law forbade any one giving them intoxicating liquors. They were taught that it was wrong for them to touch them, and this made it impossible for the church to give them wine, even in a religi&us ceremony. The Bishop was anxious that the ceremony of baptism should be more liberally administered; Duncan insisted that great care should be taken that those who received th .t rite, should be fully qualified for it and competent to discharge the religious duties imposed thereby. Both men were sincere, no doubt, in their views; both sought the same goal; but neither would yield and so a time of trouble commenced which promised ill for the little community. There is no space here to go into the details of the strife which arose from the disagreements between the leaders. Out of it sprang a division among the Indians. The Bishop and those who supported him founded their claims on the rights of the Church Missionary Society under which the settlement had grown up. The others asserted the ancient rights of the Indians to the soil. The vexed question of the Indian rights to the two acres which had been reserved for the society and on which buildings had been constructed by the Indians added to the flames. There was a small riot in which the Bishop took a leading part. News of trouble brought a gun-boat from Victoria to find on arrival that it was not needed. A commission of leading men came from Victoria to investigate the whole affair and after hearing evidence for several days returned and made a lame and impotent report which in no way mended matters. So the affairs of Metlakatla drifted on. Nothing was done and Duncan, seeing his life's work ending in failure and strife, took a drastic resolution. He, with those who adhered to him, would leave Metlakatla, and in some other place carry on his work without interference. He went to Washington, D.C., and obtained from the Government of the United States for his Indians a grant of Annette Island just across on the Alaskan side of the boundary. Thither he went, followed by some eight hundred followers and with them he built a new home where he carried on his work unmolested and undisturbed until his death a few years ago. The settlement at Metlakatla did not die, though sadly dimished in numbers. A community remained, steadily increasing in numbers, working Out under Bishop Ridley himself and the late Bishop DuVernet, who passed, away a short time ago, the lessons taught by Mr. Duncan. Not only in Metlakatla, but on the Naas, the Skeena, and on the Queen Charlotte Islands, the work of the society and of the church has prospered and great good has been accomplished for the native population. Duncan's claim to remembrance is that he first saw the means by which the Indians could be fitted into the scheme of eivil- ization and taught that lesson to those who shared his labors. I It is to their credit that they and their successors, after he had left them, recognized and followed his example and his ' teaching. And while we regret the strife which grew out of the differing ideas of two determined but conscientious Christian men, each trying to do God's work but in conflicting ways, and the voluntary exile of Mr. Duncan and his adherents, British Columbia will never cease to be proud of the work and character of our first missionary on the North Pacific coast, commonly called, as a mark of affection and respect, "Father Duncan." LITERATURE AND AUTHORS: SIR CL1VE PHILLIPS-WOOLEY AND D.W.HIGGINS. By D. A. McGregor. "The experience of each new age requires a new confession, and the world seems always waiting for its poet." SIR CLIVS PHILLIPS-WOLLEY Clive Phillipps-Wolley was made a writer through his interest in activities which have commonly little to do with the pen or with books. Sport and hunting launched him on the sea of letters, and, once afloat, he quickly found himself and, before the end of his career, had achieved considerable distinction as a novelist and a poet. Clive Phillipps came of a family which gave to the Empire the victor of Plassey. As a youth in England, he was- passionately fond of sport, and, at one time, was middle-weight champion of several counties. In his early twenties, he went to the Crimea as British vice- consul at Kertch, and there his fondness for out-door life led him into the hunting-field. There was good fowling nearby, and across the Sea of Azov was a royal forest where he sometimes ranged through fairylands of frozen oaks. There, on one memorable occasion, he had the assistance of a Cossack colonel and a hundred beaters. On longer holidays, he went farther afield, shooting antelope, bear and wild boars in the Caucasus and following chamois and goats over the slippery and almost perpendicular grass slopes cf the Lesghian mountains. The outside world knew little of the Caucasus at the time -- about 1876 -- and to the ardent young hunter, his adventures seemed worth recording. He was a close observer, with a particularly keen eye for color, and description came easily to him. He had had plenty of thrilling experiences to add interest to his narrative, and, as he had made it a practice, in his wanderings, to travel light, to sleep in the hut of the shepherd and eat the black bread of the moujik, he was more than competent to write of the habits and customs of the people . Two books from his pen appeared in the early eighties, "Savage Sventia" and "Sport in the Crimea and Caucasus". As an indication of the weight these volumes oarried, it may be menfi&aed that "Savage Svenetia" is still listed in the Encyclopedia Britannica as an authoritative work on the Caucasus, while, when Theodore Roosevelt visited Vancouver Island a year or two before his death, the first man he asked to see was Phillipps-Wolley, of whose hunting books he had pleasant recollections. As it was hunting that had led young Phillips into authorship, it was hunting that brought him to British Columbia. While still in his twenties, he had inherited the Wolley estates in Shropshire and had taken the family name and orest. He had quit the consular service, had done some writing on sport for the Badminton Library and had studied law and been called to the bar of the Middle Temple. Three years on the Oxford circuit, and he felt the call of the mountains agfin. As his wife put it, "he was pining for barbarism." The Canadian Pacific had just been completed, and the young barrister thought he would like to see the great North-'Jest "before it became as trite and commonplace as a London suburb." The trip was made in the late summer of 1887, and while the husband, hunting bighorn and goats in the snows of the Hope Mountains, found the big game and the unspoiled wilderness he sought, the wife lingered in Victoria, where the sunshine and sea-breezes, the riotous natural beauty and the homey English society of this western outpost so captivated her thai she wrote to friends in England that she would be only too glad to give out the rest of her life on the Pacific Coast. So, both members of the family having been won, it was only to be expected that, as soon as things at home could be conveniently arranged, they should seek the New World again. One of the matters to be looked after at home was the publication of a book describing the Canadian excursion. This volume, "A Sportman's Paradise", was the first of many books by various authors describing the big game of British Columbia, and it had the effect of making the game resources of the Pacific Coast widely known among British sportsmen. In British Columbia, Phillipps-Wolley took full advantage of the sporting opportunities which offered. But he was a man of too serious a turn of mind to spend an undue share of his time on pleasure. Besides, there was a living to earn. For a time, he held a government post as sanitary inspector of mining oamps. His duties in this connection brought him into close touch with the widely-scattered mining population, and the contacts thus made furnished him with much of the color and material of the novels which he later wrote, dealing with miners and mining life on the Pacific Coast. Our author also took a "flyer" in journalism. He was owner and editor of the Nelson Miner for a while, and, in the late nineties spent some time in the Press Gallery in Ottawa. He tried his hand at politics, too, and was Conservative candidate in Nanaimo in the Dominion election of 1904. In connection with his political efforts, it is told that, on one occasion, at a meeting in a lumber camp, a man with some local reputation as a fighter provoked Mr. Phi Hipp s-Wol ley so persistently and was evidently desirous of creating a row that the candidate accommodated him to the delight of the spectators and with disastrous results to the interrupt or. The knowledge of boxing proved an ssset in other ways, too. Mr. Phillipps-Wolley took a keen interest in sport in Victoria and, on several occasions appeared in the ring as referee. And in his novels, whenever the course of the action makes a fight necessary, it is a real fight to which the reader is treated. A strong and rugged man, virile, outspoken and straight-forward, Phillipps-Wolley did nothing by halves. It was not in his nature to be luke-warm or perfunctory in any of his activities. So, when he became a Canadian, he became a thorough one. He studied our history and our problems and came to appreciate our past as few even of our native-born are able to do. He loved our varied landscape and took pleasure in describing.it. Best of all, he learned to appreciate and admire cur people, particularly the rugged out-of-door type whom he found doing the real work of Empire-building. But, though a Canadian to the core, he remained an ardent imperialist. Perhaps it is more just to say be became an imperialist because he was so good a Canadian and had so broad an understanding of what Canadianism, in its larger sense, could be made to mean. It was in Canada, at any rate, that he developed his ideas regarding the defence of the Empire and its formal organization which, in his later years, became practically a religion with him. Much of his imperialism is embodied in his poems, but he was too practical a man to trust everything to poetry, and the support he gave the Navy league was self-sacrificing and unstinted. He wrote a pamphlet on naval defence, and, in 1910, toured the Dominion, speaking on the question. Years before the Panama Canal became an actuality, he foresaw the expansion of trade on the Pacific and sought to reserve as large a share of it as possible to Britain by urging the exclusion of Chinese and the development of a large British population in British Columbia. Eis lively interest in and unsparing work for the navy brought Mr. Phillipps-Wolley a knighthood in 1914, but it had a tragic sequel, too. Sir Clive's only son, Lieutenant- Commander Clive Phillipps-Wolley, R.N., had joined the navy as a lad and was commander of the British cruiser Eogue when it was torpedoed in the North Sea in the fall of 1914. Ee was the first of Ca nada's native-born sons to lay down his life in the Great " ar. In 1917, when the father came to issue his "Songs from a Young Man's La nd", he dedicate 1 the volume to his lost- boy. Sir Slive Phillipps-Wolley b egan his writing in the Old Land, but a s fey far the greate r part of his adult life was spent on this side of the Atl antie, most his lit- erary work was done in British Columbi a. Three of his books on hunting have all eady been mentioned There was a fc urth, "Big Game Shooting' . Then followed a number cf novels "Trottings of a Tenderfoot", "Snap", "Gold, Gold in Cariboo'.", "The Remittance Man", "One of the Broken'Brigade", "The -Queens- bury Cup", and "The Chicamcn Stone". Two books of poems were issued, "Songs cf an English Esau" and "Songs from a Young Man's Land". The latter, published a few months before the author's death, included the earlier work. Both the poems and the novels bore testimony to the author's appreciation of the romance in the development of British Columbia. There was something of the old-time Norseman in Sir Clive. The pioneering, roving spirit was in his Dorset blood. He was kin to the "Vikings and conquerors and pioneers Whose oaken keels plowed roads through seas unknowai To shores unnamed." He loved to hear about the gold rushes to the Fraser River, to the Cariboo, and to the Klondyke, aad to tell about them. He gloried in the stern determination which led the hardfist on and the singleness of purpose, the energy, and the fortitude which characterized him. He loved and understood the prospector and the lone frontiersman who feared the fat, smug cities, who "wanted no other's smoke across his sky", who found the sweetest of music in "the drone of the foaming crik an' songs of the chickadees", and who, too often, after years of the hardest kind of toil, passed on "with nothing but his trail to leave behind. Another type he was. interested in was the exile from the Motherland, the remittance man, a familiar figure in many parts of the West. Sir Clive made himself, in some degree, the historian of this type and treated it with a broad sympathy. The hero of "One of the Broken Brigade", a story of the ranching country in southern British Columbia, is a remittance man who sacrifices himself to save another from disgrace. The exile's longing for his homeland touches a sympathetic chord in the author's own heart, and he sang in "Cawling Out": "Greey-gray is the sea of sage brush, Gray-green as the waves of the sea; Gray-green are the hemlock and cedar; And gray is the heart in me. "I long for the choir of skylarks, For the coo of the mating dove, For the liquid note of the throstle's throat, For the songs of the land I love. "For the hum of the mighty cities, For the faces which come and pass, For the voices of spring when streamlets sing, And the murmur of life in the grass. "For the sweet, sweet breath of the beanfields, The scent of the tresh-turned sod, For arms which wait by my cottage gate, And the bells which cry to God." "The Chicamon Stone and "Gold, Gold in Cariboo." are both tales of gold rushes on the Pacific Coast. They are purely stories of adventure, and the love interest does not enter at all.. "The Chicamon Stone" ('chicamon' is Chinook for 'gold') is a vividly told story of the Cassiar district in Northern British Columbia, and is filled with thrilling incidents having to do with Indian treachery, tribal wars, shipwreck, and the search for a mother-lode mine. "Gold, Gold in Cariboo I" details the adventures of a young Salopian and an American in the rush to William's Creek in the early sixties. Sir Olive's fondness for the British Columbia*landscape has been mentioned. He never tired of referring, in one form or another to "the armies of silent pine which climb and climb on forever from gulch to timberline. "He loved the Dry Belt, too, where the safe-brush rolls, in an infinite flood, as far as the eye can see." And the autumn maples, with their wine-red leaves, were a constant joy to him. Here is an excerpt from "A Sportsman's Eden" which shows his eye for color:- "The year has as many ways of dying as men have. Here, the year's death is a red one. Caught by the first chill of winter, in the full foliage of summer, the leaves, instead of shrivelling and dropping, one by one, in a sobbing November wind, burst into a crimson glory, more beautiful in death than they were in springtime. There are no colors on the artist's palette in which to paint the autumn foliage in the Hope Mountains, no words in the Anglo-Saxon language in which to describe them. The trims on of port wine against the light; the glow of sunlit windows by Albert Durer; the red glow of embers in a frosty night — all these pale beside the burning October bushes on the mountain-side, lit by a late September sun, and vividly contrasted with the sombre pines and gray rains with which they are surrounded. Of all these bushes, the brightest is the crumson sumach, but maple and dogwood and a score of others display the purest, most transparent tints of every hue, from golden green to royal purple. Summer dies herewith a smile, under clear skies which seem to bring heaven very near, and then a wild wind sweeps off the leaves at a coup, the snow falls thick and heavy, covering all with its beautiful wreaths, and the year is dead, by a beautiful 'sudden death', dead before it has got old and feeble, sere and yellow, and the onlookers are spared the dull yellow fogs, and the agony of tears through which an English summer lingers to its grave." Nature in another mood is described in a short peem, "Spring in Hiding":- "Are you hiding from us, Springtime, hiding in the slashing? Coming from the mountain, I saw your tracks go down In among the willow swamps, I heard your young feet splashing Saw - among the alder stems - the glitter of your gown: All but caught you peeping; caught the corner lifted Of that dainty veil you weave, of cedar lace and mist; The shadow of your flying robe across the ploughland drifted, The ridges blushed to purple where your little feet had kist. A more robust note is struck in "A Sou'-West Storm" :- "From the brooding gloom of the wild Sou'-West The scuttering black duck come, While the wheeling mallards drop in to rest In the whispering sedge where they had their nest, .And our loosened shingles him. There's a threat in the tops of the swaying trees, And the sea's skin seems to crawl, The sheep and cattle are ill at ease, A blind swell travels before the breeze And tosses my anchored yawl." The extent and might of the British Empire appealed strongly to Sir Olive's imagination, and none knew better than he how to lift the soul with stirring verse and to suggest great spaces and great deeds: "Through mountain barriers clang our iron wheels, Wastes infinite drink up our broadcast wheat. Through cumbering forests our axe chorus peals, Our trails are all athrob with coming feet." "Far and lone, like fledgling eagles, England's outpoaes sit", he wrote in another place, and in one of the farthest of these outposts he passed his latter days. The outer lands he regarded f as more or less the heritage of the disinherited younger sons, "the English Esaus, outlanders who make new world's", and to these Esaus, "The seed-corn of England"! he never wearied of ' singing of their high privilege and their unlimited freedom to dare and to do : "Colonial Esau, wouldst thou change thy pottage For Jacob's birthright? morning air for smoke? Take Jacob's palace for thy backwoods cottage? His fettered feet for thine which know no yoke? His victories won for thy delight in winning? His wedded fortunes for the fate you woo? His work well ended for thy work beginning — Memories of deeds for deeds still left to do? The British creed of service touched him too, and into its cause he threw all his genius, his energy and his enthusiasm. Nor did he ever miss an opportunity of preaching in his verse the gospel of imperial federation'. "Why is it that he grieve, P weak in faith, Who turn toward high heaven upbraiding eyes? Think ye that God will count your children's death Vain sacrifice? Half-mast your flags? Nayl fly them at the head. We reap the harvest where we sowed the corn. See from the red graves of your gallant dead An Empire bornl Do ye not know ye cannot cure a flaw Unless the steel run molten-red again? That men's mere words could not together draw Those who were twain? Can ye beat steel from iron in the sun? Or crown Earth's master on a bloodless field? As Abram offered to his God his son, Our best we yield. Lift up your eyes. Your glory is revealed. See through war's clouds, the rising of your sun. Hear ye God's voice. Your testament is sealed, And ye b e one'." DAVID WILLIAMS HIGGINS. The history of British Columbia is teeming with romantic interest. Indeed, the story of the province's growth is a series of romances. The romance of exploration is first, and that of the fur trade follows. Next is the romance of the gold rushes and then the romance of railroad-building, of settlement, and of the development of commerce and industry which leads down to our own day. The story of exploration is gathered from old-time records and from the logs of the navigators, Spanish, British, Russian, and American. Eudson's Bay men and Nor'-Westers were traders and explorers both, .and the journals of forts and factories tell the tale of business faithfully pursued, of difficulties overcome, of rivals out-witted, and of clashes and threatened clashes with the native races. The navigators and traders did something toward preserving the records of their own day. But the gold miner did nothing. Wealth was the thing he sought, and it never occurred to him that in his breathless chase from bar to bar and from creek to creek, there was anything that could possibly interest posterity. But though the miner himself was careless, there was, here and there, a by-stander who observed and made notes, and so, numerous tales of the early days on the Fraser River, in the Cariboo, .and about Victoria, have been handed down to us. Chief among these chroniclers of the fifties and sixties is David Williams Eiggins, whose two books, "The Mystic Spring" and "The Passing of a Race", are rich in romantic interest. Higgins was a Nova Scotian who made'his way to San Francisco sshen he was only twenty-two and there founded the Morning Call. This was in 1856. Two years later, when news of the discovery of gold in British Columbia reached the Californian city, the young editor sold his paper and joined in the rush to the North. Arrived at Yale, he thought he saw more money in merchandising than in actual mining. So he opened a general store and become agent for Ballou's Express, which carried to the coast most of the gold mined on the Fraser bars. He had claims on the river, too, and when he left Yale in 1860, to return to newspaperdom at Victoria, the young man was the possessor of a snug fortune. Eiggins, who lived until 1917, had a life which was unusually varied and which was in almost constant touch with adventure and romantic incident. For more thanquarter of a century, he was in journalism at Victoria, founding a paper of his own, and later securing control of the Colonist* He sat on the Victoria city council and school board; he had large express and transportation interests; he was organizer of the Victoria fire brigade; he owned a theatre and managed theatrical companies; he went into politics and for nine years wore the cocked hat and black silk gown of Mr. Speaker. Later, he founded the National Tramways Company which built Victoria's first street railway, and in the venture, he sank a fortune. As he, himself, described it, the golden butterfly which he had followed from California and had captured at Yale, escaped him after many years and was killed by a tram-car. During sixty yeara, Mr. Higgina was - one of the makers of history on the Pacific Coast. He knew the miners and prospectors of '58 and the sixties, because he was of them. But he observed them as an outsider, too, studying their habits and modes of life, watching them at work and at play, and making note cf their peculiarities, their frailties, and their virtues. In Victoria, his work as a journalist and legislator brought him into close touch with all the interesting acid important people of the day and gave him constant opportunities of viewing things from behind the scenes. Mr. Eiggins had a very excellent memory, and his detailed knowledge of scenes and occurrences in early British Columbia and of the people who played a part in them was unsurpassed. When he came tc write his reminiseenses, therefore, there was no dearth of material* The plan he adopted was unusual. He made no attempt to give I history cf his own life or a connected chronicle of the times he knew. Instead, he wrote a series of stories, part fact, part fiction,in which he sought to recapture the atmosphere of the days he wished to recall. Most of the characters in "The Mystic Spring and in "The Passing of a Race" are real, and they are connected with real places, and, for the most part, with real incidents. But, here and there, names have been changed and imaginary incidents and fictitious characters have been introduced. The stories do not suffer from this. They are well conceived and capitally told, and though they can not be called real history, they serve the purpose they were meant to serve. They give the reader of today, better than any accurate chronicle could, a vivid picture of life as it was lived in the mining districts . and vin Victoria in the stirring days when British Columbia was young, and the West was wild and not a little woolly. tin
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Original Format: University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special Collections. F5512 .H88 1929a
Canada--Biography
Builders of the West. A book of heroes
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