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Extent.—Population.—Land
claims of original settlers.—Sale of Lots in Winnipeg-Hudson Bay
Company.—Clergymen of the settlement.—Military camp.—Archbishop Taché.—United
States Consul.—Conflicting opinions respecting the Fertile Belt.—Our
outfit for the Prairies.—Chief Commissioner Smith.—Hudson's Bay Company.—Lieut-Governor
Archibald.—Departure from Silver Heights.—White Horse Plains.—Rev. Mr.
McDougal.—Portage la Prairie.—The last settler.—Climate, etc., of Manitoba
compared with the older Provinces,—Sioux Indians in war paint.—General
remarks on Manitoba.—Emigrants and the United States' Agents.—Treatment of
the Indians.
August 1st.—Fort Garry.—The
Province of Manitoba, in which we now are, is the smallest Province in the
Dominion, being only three degrees of longitude, or one hundred and
thirty-five miles long, by one and a-half degrees of latitude, or a
hundred and five miles broad; but, as it is watered by two magnificent
rivers, and includes the southern ends of the two great lakes, Winnipeg
and Manitoba, which open up an immense extent of inland navigation, and as
almost every acre of its soil is prairie, before many years it may equal
some of the large-Provinces in population. At present the population
numbers about fifteen thousand, of whom not more than two thousand are
pure whites. One-fifth of the number are Indians, either living in houses
or wanderers, one-third English or Scotch half-breeds, and rather more
than a third French half-breeds. "Order reigns in Manitoba," though wise
ruling is still required to keep the conflicting elements in their proper
places. By the legislation that made Manitoba a Province, nearly one-sixth
of the land was reserved for the half-breeds ; owing to some delay in
carrying out this stipulation, the Metis, last year, got suspicious and
restless, and the Fenians counted on this when they invaded the Province
from Pembina and plundered the Hudson's Bay Company's post near the line.
As the half-breeds live along the Red River from Pembina north, the
situation was full of danger; had they joined the Fenians, the frontier
would have been at once moved up to Fort Garry. Everyone can understand
the serious consequences that would have followed the slightest success on
their part. Happily the danger was averted by prompt action on the part of
the Governor. The whole population rallied around him, and the Fenians,
not being able to advance into the country, were dispersed by a company of
United States regulars, after being compelled to disgorge their plunder. A
Battalion of Canadian militia, stationed at different points along Red
River, now keeps the peace and guarantees its permanence. The land
difficulty has been settled by faith being kept with the half-breeds; a
treaty has been made with the Indians that extinguishes their claims to
the land; and, as the whole of the Province has been surveyed, divided off
into townships, sections, and sub-sections, emigrants, as they come in,
can either get accurate information in the Winnipeg Land-office as to
where it would be best for them to settle, or they can visit and then
describe the piece of land they wish to occupy. There is room and to spare
for all, after doing the fullest justice to the old settlers. Even the
one-sixth reserved for them cannot, in the nature of things, be
permanently held by those among whom it may now be divided. There is no
Jewish law preserving to each family its inheritance forever. The French
half-breeds do not like farming, and they therefore make but poor farmers;
and, as enterprising settlers with a little capital come in, much of the
land is sure to change hands. The fact that land can be bought from
others, as well as from the Government, will quicken instead of retarding
its sale.
After breakfast this
morning, we had an opportunity of conversing with several gentlemen who
called at Government House: the United States Consul, the Land
Commissioner, Officers of the Battalion, Dr. Schultz, and others. All
spoke in the highest terms of the climate, the land, and the prospects of
the Province and of the North-west. Nothing shows more conclusively the
wonderful progress of Manitoba and the settled condition into which it has
emerged from the chaos of two or three years ago, than the fact that the
Hudson's Bay Company sold at auction, the other day, in building lots,
thirteen acres of the five hundred of their Reserve around Fort Garry, at
the rate of $7000 per acre. At half the rate, for the rest, the Hudson's
Bay Company will receive for this small reserve more than the money
payment of £300,000 stg., which Canada gave for the whole territory ; and,
if a few acres favorably situated bring so much, what must be the value of
the many million of acres transferred to the Dominion ? The policy of the
Company now is exactly the opposite of what it used to be; formerly all
their efforts were directed to keep the country a close preserve; now they
are doing all in their power to open it up. The times have changed and
they have changed with them. And, regarding them merely as a Company whose
sole object has been and is to look after their own interests and pay good
dividends to the shareholders, their present policy is as sagacious for
to-day as the former was for yesterday. While a fur trading Company with
sovereign rights, they did not look beyond their own proper work; they
attended to that, and, as a duty merely incidental to it, governed half a
continent in a paternal or semi-patriarchal way, admirably suited to the
tribes that roamed over its vast expanses. But, as they can no longer be
supreme, it is their interest that the country should be opened up; and
they are taking their place among new competitors, and preparing to reap a
large share of the fruits of the development. For many a year to come they
must be a great power in our Northwest.
To-day was spent in seeing men and things, the
land and the rivers, in and around Fort Garry. The Chief drove twenty
miles down the Red River, to the Stone Fort, the Governor and the rest of
the party accompanying him five miles to Kildonan, where they called on
the Rev. Mr. Black. The farms have a frontage of eight chains on the
river, and run two miles back, with the privilege of cutting hay on two
miles more in the rear. The people are Highlanders from Sutherland shire,
and, though they knew but little about scientific farming when they
settled, the excellence of the land and their own thrifty habits have
stood them in good stead. They have all saved money, though there was no
market for produce, except what the Hudson's Bay Company required, till
within the last two or three years. Mr. Black has been their minister for
twenty years. He mentioned the curious fact that all the original
emigrants were Presbyterians, but that, as no minister was sent to them
from the Church of Scotland, the missionaries of the Church of England
attracted great numbers to their communion, by wisely adapting their
service to Scottish tastes. Till recently, the Scottish version of the
psalms was sung in the Cathedral, and the afternoon service was altogether
on the Presbyterian model. The Missionaries, Archdeacons, and Bishops have
been earnest evangelical men, several of them Scotchmen too. It is,
therefore, no wonder if even Scottish dislike of prelacy gave way before
such a combination. There are now Methodist and Presbyterian clergymen in
the Province, as well as Roman Catholic and Episcopal. They all have
missions to the Indians, and report that, while the great majority of the
Crees and other tribes to the north-west are Christianized, the majority
of the Ojibbeways around Fort Garry and to the east are still pagans. The
Ojibbeway seems to have more of the gipsy in him than any of the other
tribes, and to cling more tenaciously to the customs, traditions, and
habits of life of his ancestors. It may be that the rivalry of the
Churches that he sees at Red River, and the vices of the white men that he
finds it easy to pick up—drunkenness especially—have something to do with
the obstinacy of his paganism. The drunkenness of Winnipeg is notorious;
the clergy do all in their power, by precept and example, to check it, but
they accomplish little. The Roman Catholic Bishop and his priests, all the
Presbyterian and Methodist Ministers, the Episcopal Archdeacon and several
of his clergy are teetotallers; but the "saloons" of Winnipeg are stronger
than the Churches. In
conversation with the Archdeacon and Mr. Black, we learned that the
various denominations were building or preparing to build "Colleges." A
common school system of unsectarian education has been established by the
Local Government, one-twentieth of the land reserved as a school
endowment, and power given to the townships to assess themselves; but,
strange to say, nothing has been done to establish a common centre of
higher education. The little Province with its fifteen thousand
inhabitants will therefore soon rejoice in three or four denominational
"Colleges." We called
on Archdeacon McLean, who declared his intention of spending the next
twelve months in England, and giving lectures there on the North-west, as
a field for emigrants. He is the right kind of man for such duty, and will
do more to make Manitoba known than a dozen ordinary emigration agents. We
also called on the Wesleyan Minister and Archbishop Taché; but,
unfortunately, both were from home, so at 3 P. M. we went to the camp and
saw the battalion reviewed. After the review, the Adjutant General
complimented the men, and most deservedly, on the admirable order and
cleanliness of the camp, the excellence of the "galley," and their good
conduct in their relations with the citizens. The men were smart, stout,
clean-looking soldiers, and went through various movements with steadiness
and activity. Many of them settle in the country as their term of service
expires, free grants of land being given to all who have served for a
year. August
2nd.—Having arranged to leave Fort Garry to-day, we did so, but with
extreme reluctance, so great was the kindness of the Governor, his private
Secretary, and indeed of all classes. Archbishop Taché called this
morning, and delighted us with his polished manners and extensive
knowledge of the country. He does not think very highly of the
Saskatchewan valley as a future grain-producing country, differing in this
respect from every other authority; but he speaks in glowing terms of the
Red-deer Lake and River which runs into the Athabaska, sometimes called
Lac la Biche, a better name because there are innumerable 'Red deer'
lakes. In that far away country, extending to the north of the North
Saskatchewan, the wheat crops of the mission have never suffered from
summer frosts but once. It certainly is one of the anomalies of the
North-west, that the way to avoid frosts is to go farther north. To hear
on the same day the U S. Consul and the Archbishop speak about 'the
fertile belt' is almost like hearing counsel for and against it. The
Consul believes that the world without the Saskatchewan would be but a
poor affair; the Archbishop that the 'fertile belt' must have been so
called because it is not fertile. But how explain the Archbishop's
opinions? The evidence he adduced in support of them suggests the
explanation; he confined himself to facts that had been brought before
him; but his induction of facts was too limited. It, doubtless, is true
that at Lac la Biche wheat is raised easily, and that at the R. C.
Missions, near the Saskatchewan, it suffers from summer frosts ; but the
only two R. C. settlements that we heard of in the Saskatchewan country,
viz. those at St. Albert's and Lake St. Ann's, we visited, and could
easily understand why they suffered. They are on the extreme north-west of
the 'belt,' at an altitude above sea-level of from 2000 to 2500 feet, and
were selected by the half-breeds not with a view to farming, for the
French half-breed is no farmer, but because of the abundance of white fish
in the lake, and sturgeon in the river, and because they were convenient
for buffalo hunting and trapping, as well as for other reasons. The
substance of the disputed matter seems to be this: every one else believes
in 'the fertile belt' of the Saskatchewan; the Archbishop believes that
there is a belt farther north much more fertile.
At Fort Garry, farewell greetings had to be
exchanged with the colonel and his son. Military duties required his
presence in the Province for ten days, and we could not wait.
M------and L------also parted with us here;
and Horetski, who had been sent on ahead to make the necessary
arrangements for the journey westward, joined us; so that our party from
this date numbered six. A French half-breed, named Emilien, had been
engaged to conduct us across the plains, as far as Fort Carleton, after
the approved style of prairie travel. Emilien's cavalcade for this purpose
was, in our ignorant eyes, unnecessarily large and imposing ; but before
many days we found that everything was or might be needed. The caravan is
not more needed in the East, across the deserts, than it is in the West,
across the fertile but uninhabited prairies. Provisions for the whole
party and for the return journey of the men must be carried,—unless you
make frequent delays to hunt,—your tents and theirs, in other words, house
and furniture; kitchen, larder, and pantry; tool-chest and spare
axle-trees; clothes, blankets, water-proofs, arms and ammunition,
medicine-chest, books, paper-boxes for specimens to be collected on the
way, and things you never think of till you miss them.
Our caravan consisted of six Red River wooden
carts, in which were stowed the tents, baggage, and provisions; a horse to
each cart, and three drivers, one of them the cook for the six carts; two
buckboards, or light, four-wheeled waggonettes, for any of us to use when
tired of the saddle; saddle horses for the party, and two young fellows
with Emilien to drive along a pack of eighteen horses, as a change of
horses is required once or twice a day when it is intended to travel
steadily at the rate of two hundred and fifty miles a week. The native
horses are small, except those that have been crossed with Yankee or
Ontarian breeds; but, though small and often mean-looking, it is doubtful
if the best stall-fed horses could keep up with them on a long journey.
Emilien started from the Fort with his carts
and band of horses at 10 A.M. We followed at mid-day, the Governor
accompanying us to "Silver Heights," six miles up the Assiniboine. This
had been his own country residence, but is now owned by D. A. Smith, Esq.,
M. P., the head of the H. B. Company in America. We met here Mr. Christie,
late chief factor at Edmonton, Mr. Hamilton, of Norway House, Mr. McTavish
and others from different parts of the great North-west; and received from
Mr, Smith assistance and highland hospitality, of the same kind that every
traveller has experienced, in crossing the continent, wherever there is an
H. B. post.
A few words about this Hudson's Bay Company
may be allowed here, not only because of the interest attaching to it as
the last of the great English monopolies, but because, to this day, it is
all but impossible for a party to cross the country from Fort Garry to the
Pacific without its co-operation. Its forts are the only stations on that
long route where horses can be exchanged, provisions bought, and
information or guides obtained. The Company received its charter in the
year 1670. The objects declared in that charter were fur-trading and the
Christianising of the Indians. The two objects may be considered
incongruous in these days; but history must testify that the Company as a
rule sought to benefit the Indians as well as to look after its own
interests. At first, and for more than a century, it displayed but little
activity, though its profits were enormous. Its operations were chiefly
confined to the shores of Hudson's Bay; but in 1783, a rival Company
called "the North West"—consisting chiefly of Canadians—disputed their
claims, entered the field, and pushed operations so vigorously, that the
old Company was stirred into life and activity. A golden age for the red
man followed. Rival traders sought him out by lake and river side; planted
posts to suit every tribe; coaxed and bribed him to have nothing to do
with the opposition shop; assured him that Thomas Codlin and not Short had
always been the friend of the Indian; gave him his own price for furs,
and—what he liked much better—paid the price in rum. Over a great part of
North America the conflict raged hotly for years, for the Territory over
which the Hudson's Bay Company claimed jurisdiction was the whole of
British America,—outside of the settled Eastern Provinces of Upper and
Lower Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,—a territory twenty-six
hundred miles long and fourteen hundred broad. The rival Companies armed
their agents, servants, and half-breed voyageurs, and many a time the
quarrel was fought out in the old-fashioned way, in remote wildernesses,
where there were no Courts to interfere and no laws to appeal to. In 1821
the two Companies, tired of this expensive contest, agreed to coalesce,
and the present Hudson's Bay Company was incorporated Some details as to
its constitution may be gleaned from a work published in 1849, entitled
"Twenty-five years in the Hudson's Bay Territory," by John McLean. The
shareholders elected a Governor and Committee to sit in London and
represent them. This body sent out a Governor to the Territory, whose
authority was absolute. He held a Council at York Factory in Hudson's Bay,
of such chief factors and chief traders as could be present; but these
gentlemen had the right only to advise, they could not veto any measure of
the Governor. The vast territory of the Company was divided into four
departments, and those departments into districts. At the head of each
department and district a chief factor or chief trader generally presided,
to whom all officials within its bounds were amenable. The discipline and
etiquette maintained were of the strictest kind, and an esprit de corps
existed between the 3,000 officers,—commissioned and non-commissioned,
voyageurs, and servants,—such as is only to be found in the army or in
connection with an ancient and honorable service. The Company wisely
identified the interests of its agents with its own, by paying them not in
fixed salaries, but with a certain share of the profits ; and the agents
served it with a devotion and pride honorable to all parties. The stock of
the Company was divided into an hundred shares, sixty of these belonging
to the capitalists, and forty being divided among the chief factors and
chief traders. The
first territory lost by the Company was two-thirds of that lying between
the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific. Oregon was lost to them when yielded
in 1846 to the United States, after the ten years' joint occupancy; and
Vancouver's Island and British Columbia, when they were formed into
Provinces. The fertile plains along the Red River, the Assiniboine, and
the two Saskatchewans ought to have been opened up by the Empire and
formed into Colonies long ago: but their real value was not known. It was
not the business of the Company to call attention to them as fitted for
any other purpose than to feed buffalo: for those plains were their
hunting grounds, and their posts on them were kept up chiefly for the
purpose of supplying their far northern posts with pemmican, or preserved
buffalo-meat. The Company did what every other corporation would have
done, attended simply to its own business. The more sagacious of its
leading men knew that the end was coming, as the country could not be kept
under lock and key much longer. They could not enforce their monopoly; for
they had no authority to enlist soldiers, they were not sure of their
legal rights, and the tide of emigration was advancing nearer every day.
Eight or nine years ago, when Governor Dallas was shown some gold washed
from the sand-bars of the Saskatchewan, his remark was, "the beginning of
the end has come." Gold would bring miners, merchants, farmers, and
free-trade, so that fur-bearing animals and monopolies would need to fall
back to the frozen north ; still, the end would have been longer delayed
had the British Provinces not united. But, in 1869, the Company's rights
to all its remaining territories were bought up, under Imperial authority,
by the Dominion of Canada, and, as a monopoly and a semi-sovereign power,
the Company ceased to exist.
To return to our diary. A walk in the garden
at Silver Heights was sufficient to prove to us the wonderful richness of
the soil of the Assiniboine valley. The wealth of vegetation and the size
of the root crops astonished us, especially when informed that no manure
had been used and very little care taken. The soil all along the
Assiniboine is either a dark or light-coloured loam, the vegetable or
sandy loam that our gardeners are anxious to fill their pots with; a soil
capable of raising anything. After dinner, we said 'good-bye' to the
Governor, a statesman of whom even opponents will hereafter record that he
deserved well of the country, because, on all great occasions, he
preferred country to self or party, and of whose work in Manitoba we ought
to say and would say much more, were it not for the fact that we had
partaken of his hospitality. Driving rapidly on for five or six miles, Mr.
Jones of the Railway Commissariat accompanying us, we overtook our
cavalcade, which had made but indifferent progress on account of sundry
leave-takings by the way. The country along the road is partly settled,
but, with few exceptions, the farmers evidently do not farm. Till lately
they had not much inducement, for there was no market: but they have
neither the knowledge nor the inclination to farm systematically ; and, in
a few years, most of the present occupants will be bought out and go west.
As specimens of what may be done here, the
farm of one Morgan was pointed out. He had bought it some years ago, for
£50; and this year, he had already been offered £450 for the potatoes
growing on it. A Wesleyan Missionary told us that, last year, he had taken
the average of ten good farmers near Portage la Prairie, and found that
their returns of wheat were "seventeen bushels to one,"—and that on land
which had been yielding wheat for ten years back, and which would continue
to yield it, on the same terms, for the next thirty or forty.
We drove on in the quiet, sunny afternoon, at
a pleasant rate, over a fine farming but unfarmed, country, to the "White
Horse Plains," and rested at "Lane's Post," about twenty-five miles from
Fort Garry. Lane is a North of Ireland man, a good farmer, and, like all
such, enthusiastic in praise of the country. "What about wood and water?"
we asked. "Plenty of both everywhere," was his answer. Wherever wells had
been dug on the prairie near to his place, water had been found. On the
Assiniboine and the creeks running into it, or north into Lake Manitoba,
there was abundance of good timber; and, where none existed, if aspens
were planted, they grew, in five years, big enough for fence poles.
Our first evening on the prairie was like many
another which followed it. The sky was a clear, soft unflecked blue, save
all around the horizon, where pure white clouds of many shapes and masses
bordered it, like a great shield of which only the rim is embossed. The
air was singularly exhilarating, yet sweet and warm, as in more southern
latitudes. The road was only the trail made by the ordinary traffic, but
it formed nevertheless an, excellent carriage road. Far away stretched the
level prairie, dotted with islets of aspens; and the sun, in his going
down, dipped beneath it as he does beneath the sea. Soon after sunset, we
reached our camping place for the night, an open spot on the banks of the
river, thirty-three miles from Fort Garry, on the east side of Long Lake,
with plenty of dry wood for our fires, and good feed for the horses near
at hand. Scarcely were our fires lighted when another traveller drove up,
the Rev Mr. McDougal, Wesleyan Missionary at Fort Victoria near Edmonton.
We cordially welcomed him to our camp, and asked him to join our party. He
was well known to us by reputation as a faithful Minister, and an
intelligent observer of Indian character. He had been nine times over the
plains, and evidently knew the country better than our guides. On this
occasion, he was accompanied only by his Cree servant Joseph, or, as it is
pronounced in Cree, "Souzie."
August 3rd.—We found this morning that it was
not so easy to make an early start with a pack of horses as when canoes
only were in question. Two or three of the pack were sure to give trouble,
and the young fellows in charge had at least half an hour's galloping
about,—which they didn't seem to regret much,—before all were brought
together. Watering harnessing, saddling, and such like, all took time.
To-day the Chief and Secretary drove on ahead twenty-seven miles with Mr.
Jones to Portage la Prairie, to write' letters that the latter was to take
back to Fort Garry. The rest followed more slowly, and the whole party did
not reunite for the second start of the day till four P. M.
The road and the country were much the same as
yesterday. We were crossing the comparatively narrow strip of land between
the Assiniboine and Lake Manitoba, along which the Railway must run. Long
Lake, or a creek that is part of it, is near the road for the greater part
of the distance. It is difficult to get at the water of the lake, because
of the deep mire around the shores; and so we took the word of one of the
settlers for it, that it is good though warm. Water, from a well by the
roadside, that we drank, was good, and cold as ice. All the land along
this part of the Assiniboine, north to what is called the " Ridge," for
eight miles back has been taken up, but a great part is in the hands of
men who do not understand the treasures they could take out of it; and
there is abundance of the same kind of land farther back, for new
settlers. As we drove past in the early morning, prairie hens and chickens
rose out of the deep grass and ran across the road, within a few feet of
us; while, on mounds of hay in a field lately mown, sat hawks, looking
heavy and sated, as if they had eaten too many chickens for breakfast. On
the branches of oaks and aspens sat scores of pigeons, so unmoved at our
approach that they evidently had not been much shot at. We asked a farmer
who had recently settled, and was making his fortune at ten times the rate
he had done in Ontario, if he ever shot any of the birds. "No," he
contemptuously answered, "he was too busy; the half-breeds did that sort
of thing, and did little else." Day after day, he would have for dinner
fried pork or bacon, and tea, when he could easily have had the most
delicious and wholesome varieties of food. He told us that, in the spring,
wild geese, wavies, and ducks could be shot in great number; but he had
eaten only one goose in Manitoba. Surely it was a fellow feeling that made
him so "wondrous kind."
Portage la Prairie is the centre of what will
soon be a thriving settlement, and, when the railway is built, a large
town must spring up. On the way to the little village, we passed, in less
than ten miles, three camps of Sioux-each with about twenty
wigwams,—ranged in oval or circular form. The three camps probably
numbered three hundred souls. The men were handsome fellows, and a few of
the women were pretty. We did not see many of the women, however, as they
kept to the camps doing all the dirty work, while the men marched about
along the road, every one of them with a gun on his shoulder. The Indian
would carry his gun for a month, though there was not the slightest chance
of getting a shot at anything. These Sioux fled here nine or ten years
ago, after the terrible Minnesota massacre, and here they have lived ever
since. One amiable-looking old woman was pointed out as having roasted and
eaten ten or twelve children. No demand was made for their extradition,
probably because they had been more sinned against than sinning. Frightful
stories are told of the treatment of Indians by miners; and there are
comparatively few tales of Indian atrocities to balance them. When the
Sioux entered British territory they had with them old George III medals,
and they declared that their fathers had always considered themselves
British subjects and that they would not submit to the rule of the "long
knives." They are and always have been intensely loyal to their "great
mother," and, during Riel's rebellion, were ready and anxious to fight for
the Queen. We were told that the United States authorities had offered
pardon if they would return to their own lands for the Government at
Washington is desirous now to do justice to the Indians, though its best
efforts are defeated by the cupidity and knavery of its agents; but the
Sioux would not be charmed back. The settlers all around the Portage speak
favorably of the Sioux. They are honest and harmless, willing to do a
day's work for a little food or powder, and giving little or no trouble to
anybody. The doctor
at the portage entertained us hospitably. He spoke highly of the
healthiness of the climate, showing himself as an example. There seems
nothing lacking in this country but good industrious settlers.
At four P.M. we started for the next post,
"Rat Creek," ten miles off. The sky was threatening, but, as we always
disregarded appearances, no one proposed a halt. On the open prairie, when
just well away from the Hudson's Bay Company's store, we saw that we were
in for a storm. Every form of beauty was combined in the sky at this time.
To the south it was such blue as Titian loved to paint: blue, that those
who have seen only dull English skies say is nowhere to be seen but on
canvas or in heaven; and the blue was bordered to the west with vast
billowy mountains of the softest, fleeciest white. Next to that, and right
ahead of us, and overhead, was a swollen black cloud, along the under
surface of which greyer masses were eddying at a terrific rate. Extending
from this, and all around the north and east, the expanse was a dun-coloured
mass livid with lightning, and there, to the right, and behind us,
torrents of rain were pouring, and nearing us every moment. The atmosphere
was charged with electricity on all sides, lightning rushed towards the
earth in straight and zigzag currents, and the thunder varied from the
sharp rattle of musketry to the roar of artillery; still there was no rain
and but little wind. We pressed on for a house, not far away; but there
was to be no escape. With the suddenness of a tornado the wind struck
us,—at first without rain —but so fierce that the horses were forced again
and again off the track. And now, with the wind came rain,—thick and
furious ; and then hail,—hail mixed with angular lumps of ice from half an
inch to an inch across, a blow on the head from one of which was stunning.
Our long line of horses and carts was broken, Some of the poor creatures
clung to the road, fighting desperately. others were driven into the
prairie, and, turning their backs to the storm, stood still or moved
sideways with cowering heads, their manes and long tails floating wildly
like those of Highland shelties. It was a picture for Rosa Bonheur; the
storm driving over the vast treeless prairie, and the men and horses
yielding to or fighting against it. In half an hour we got under the
shelter of the log-house a mile distant-; but the fury of the storm was
past, and in less than an hour the sun burst forth again, scattering the
clouds, till not a blot was left in the sky, save fragments of mist to the
south and east. Three miles farther on was the camping place. The houses
of several settlers were to be seen on different parts of the creek. One
of them was pointed out as the big house of Grant, a Nova Scotian, and now
the farthest west settler. We were on the confines of the "Great Lone
Land."
August 4th.—Enjoyed a long
sleep this morning and breakfasted at 8 A. M. Had intended to rest all
day, but Emilien refused. He had contracted to do the journey in so many
days, and would do it in his own way; and his way was to travel on all
days alike. He agreed, however, to make a short journey so that we might
be able to overtake him, though not starting till late in the afternoon.
At 10 A. M., we went over to Grant's house to
service. Mr. McDougall and a resident Wesleyan Missionary officiated.
About fifty people were present, and in the afternoon a Sunday School of
thirty children was held in the same room. Some of us dined at Grant's,
and the rest with one of his neighbours— McKenzie. Both these men seem to
be model settlers. They had done well in Ontario, but the spirit of
enterprise had brought them to the new Province. One had come three years
ago, and the other only last year; and now one had a hundred and twenty
acres under wheat, barley and potatoes, and the other fifty. In five years
both will have probably three or four hundred acres under the plough.
There is no limit to the amount they may break up except the limit imposed
by the lack of capital or their own moderation. This prairie land is the
place for steam ploughs, reaping, mowing, and threshing machines-With such
machinery one family can do the work of a dozen men. It is no wonder that
these settlers speak enthusiastically of the country. The great
difficulties a farmer encounters elsewhere are non-existent here. To begin
with, he does not need to buy land, for a hundred and sixty acres are
given away gratuitously by the Government to every bond fide settler; and
one third of the quantity is a farm large enough for any one who would
devote himself to a specialty, such as the raising of beets, potatoes, or
wheat. He does not need to use manure, for, so worthless is it considered,
that the Legislature has had to pass a law prohibiting people from
throwing it into the rivers. He has not to buy guano, nor to make compost
heaps. The land, if it has any fault, is naturally too rich. Hay is so
abundant that when threshing the grain at one end of the yard, they burn
the straw at the other end to get rid of it. He does not need to clear the
land of trees, stumps or rocks,—for there are none. Very little fencing is
required, for he can enclose all his arable land at once with one
fence,—and pasture is common and illimitable. There is a good market all
over Manitoba for stock or produce of any kind, and, if a settler is
discontented he can sell his stock and implements for their full value to
new comers. And what
of the Indians, the mosquitoes, and the locusts? Myths, as far as we could
learn, with as little foundation as myths generally have. Neither Crees
nor Sioux have given those settlers the slightest trouble. The Sioux ask
only for protection, and even before Governor Archibald made the Treaty
with the Sauteaux and Crees by which they received a hundred and sixty
acres of land per family of five, and three dollars per head every year
for their rights to the country, they molested no one. "Poor whites," were
they about in equal numbers, would give ten times as much trouble as the
poor Indians, though some of the braves still paint ferociously and all
carry guns. And the mosquitoes, and the grasshoppers or locusts, no one
ever spoke of, probably because the former are no greater nuisance in
Manitoba than in Minnesota or Nova Scotia, and the latter have proved a
plague only two or three times in half a century. Every country has its
own drawbacks. The question must always be, do the advantages more than
counterbalance the drawbacks? Thus, in returning home through California
we found that the wheat crop, this year, amounted to twenty millions of
bushels. The farmers told us that, for the two preceding years, it had
been a failure owing to long continued drought, and that, on an average,
they could only count on a good crop every second year, but, so enormous
was the yield then, that it paid them well to sow wheat. Take, too, the
case of the great wheat-raising State of what, as distinguished from the
Pacific, may be called the Eastern States. The wheat crop of Minnesota
this year amounts to twenty millions of bushels. But, up to 1857, enough
wheat was not raised in the State to supply the wants of the few thousands
of lumbermen who first settled Minnesota. Flour had to be sent up the
Mississippi from St. Louis, and the impression then was very general that
one hall of Minnesota consisted of lakes, sandhills, sandy prairies, and
wilderness, and that the winters were so long and so cold in the other
half that farming could never be carried on profitably; and, doubtless,
severe remarks could be made with truth against Minnesota, but it is also
the truth that twenty years ago its population was five thousand, and that
now it is five hundred thousand. The soil of Minnesota is not equal in
quality to the soil of Manitoba. Calcareous soils are usually fertile. And
Manitoba has not only abundant limestone everywhere, but every other
element required to make soil unusually productive. Whereas, when you sail
up the Red River into Minnesota, the limestone disappears, and the valley
contracts to a narrow trough, only two or three miles wide, beyond which
the soil is thin and poor. But, notwithstanding all difficulties, most of
the emigrants to Minnesota are prospering. Hundreds of thousands of hardy
Welshmen and Scandinavians poured into the new State, secured land under
the Homestead Acts or bought it from Railway Companies, lived
frugally—chiefly on a bread and milk fare—for the first few years, and
they are now well-to-do farmers. Seeing that all the conditions for
prosperous settlement are more favourable in Manitoba, is it not easy to
foresee a similarly rapid development, if those entrusted with its
destinies and with the destinies of our great North-west act with the
energy and public spirit of which our neighbours show so shining an
example? It is not
hard to trace the sources of all those alarming rumours, that we heard so
much of at a distance, concerning the climate and soil of Manitoba. Our
friends on Rat Creek gave us an inkling of them. On their way from St.
Paul's, Minnesota, with their teams and cattle, at every post they heard
those rumours in their most alarming shapes, all of course duly
authenticated. They were repeatedly warned not to impoverish their
families by going to a cold, locust-devoured, barren land, where there was
no market and no freedom, but to settle in Minnesota. Agents offered them
"the best land in the world," and when, with British stupidity, they shut
their ears to all temptations, obstacles were thrown in the way of their
going on, and costs and charges so multiplied, that the threatened
impoverishment would have become a fact before they reached Manitoba, had
they not been resolute and trusted entirely to their own resources. Even
when they arrived at Winnipeg the gauntlet had still to be run. In that
'saloon'-crowded village is a knot of touters and indefatigable
sympathizers with American institutions, men who had always calculated
that our North-west would drop like a ripe pear into the lap of the
Republic, who had been at the bottom of the half-breed insurrection, and
who are now bitterly disappointed to see their old dream never likely to
be more than a dream. These worthies told Grant's party quite
confidentially that they had been "so many years" in the country, and had
not once seen a good crop. Who could doubt such disinterested testimony?
It may be asked, what object can these men have in slandering the country
and retarding its development? Is not their own interest bound up in its
prosperity? Whatever the motives, such are the facts. But the man who
would indignantly deny that there is any connection between great schemes
on the other side of the boundary line and Winnipeg pot-house politicians
has a very poor idea of the thorough-going activity of American Railway
directors, and Minnesota land agents.
But what of the terrible
frost, the deep snow, and the long winters? These must be stern realities.
The answer of every man and woman we spoke to, in town or country, was
that the winter was pleasanter than in Ontario, Quebec, or the Maritime
Provinces. There is no severe weather till the beginning of December. The
average depth of snow from that time is two feet, and there is no thaw
till March. The severity of the intervening months is lessened by the
bright sun, the cloudless skies, the stillness and dryness of the air. On
account of the steady cold the snow is dry as meal, and the farmers' wives
said that "it was such an advantage that the children could run about all
winter, without getting their feet wet." They certainly could not say as
much in Nova Scotia. This dryness of the snow is also an important fact as
regards Railway construction. Let the rails be raised two or three feet
above the level of the prairie, and they are sure to be always clear of
snow. In fact there is much less risk of snow blockades in the winter on
our western plains than in the older Provinces or in the North-eastern
States. In March, and even in April, there are sometimes heavy
snow-storms. But this snow soon melts away. It is what was intended for
spring rain. Hay is needed in these months more than in the winter, when
the horses and even the cattle can paw off the snow and eat the nutritive
grasses underneath; whereas, in March and April a crust is often formed,
too hard for their hoofs to remove ; and the more hay that is cut in the
autumn the less risk from prairie fires, as well as the better provision
for the live stock.
In Grant's house we saw the photograph of an old friend, John Holmes, of
Pictou, Nova Scotia, who has been well called "the oldest and youngest
Senator of the Dominion;" and at Prairie Portage, those of the Governor
General, the Premier, Sir Francis Hincks, Alexander McKenzie, and others
of our public men, adorning the walls, so that we were reminded that,
although in a new land, we were still in our own Country. Everywhere, in
conversation with the people, we found the rising of that national
sentiment, that pride in their Country and interest in their Statesmen,
which is both a result and a safe-guard of national dignity and
independence, as distinguished from a petty provincialism. This Western
country will, in the future, probably manifest this spirit more than even
the Eastern Provinces, and so be the very backbone of the Dominion; just
as the prairie States of the neighbouring republic are the most strongly
imbued with patriotic sentiments. The sight, the possession of these
boundless seas of rich land stirs in one that feeling of—shall we call it
"bumptiousness"—that Western men have been accused of displaying. It is
easy to ridicule and caricature the self-sufficiency, but the fact is, one
feels like a young giant, who cannot help indulging in a little "tall
talk," and in displays of his big limbs. At 4 P. M., we prepared to follow
our party, but, at this moment, a body of sixty or eighty Sioux, noble
looking fellows, came sweeping across the prairie in all the glory of
paint, feathers, and Indian warlike magnificence. They had come from Fort
Ellice, had recently travelled the long road from Missouri, and were now
on their way to Governor Archibald to ask permission to live under the
British flag, and that small reserves or allotments of land should be
allowed them, as they were determined to live no longer under the rule of
' the long knives.' Some of them rode horses, others were in light
baggage-carts or on foot. All had guns and adornment of one kind or
another. A handsome brave came first with a painted tin horse a foot long
hanging from his neck down on his naked brawny breast, skunk fur round his
ankles, hawk's feathers on his head, and a great bunch of sweet-smelling
lilac bergamot flowers on one arm to set him off the more. An Indian has
the vanity of a child. We went forward to address him, when he pointed to
another as O-ghe-ma (or chief); and, as the band halted, the O-ghe-ma then
came up with the usual "Ho, Ho; B'jou, B'jou," and shook hands all round
with a dignity of manner that whites in the new world must despair of ever
attaining. His distinction was a necklace of bears' claws, and mocassins
belted with broad stripes of porcupines' quills dyed a bright gold. Next
to him came the medicine man, six feet three inches in height, gaunt and
wasted in appearance, with only a single blanket to cover his nakedness.
They would have liked a long pow wow, but we had time only for hasty
greetings and a few kindly words with them.
It was late before we reached the tents, for
Emilien had gone on to 'the three creeks,' twenty-two miles from Rat
Creek—or 'crick' as the word is universally pronounced in the North-west.
Every stream, too small to be dignified with the name of river, is a
'crick.' In to-morrow morning's journey, we are to pass out of the
Province of Manitoba. This, then, is probably the best place for a few
additional words on it as a home for emigrants; on the subject of
emigration generally; and on the settlement of the Indian difficulty in
the Province. How is
it that the United States have risen so rapidly from the condition of a
fringe of provinces along the Atlantic to that of a mighty nation
spreading its arms across a continent? The question is one that the new
Dominion ought to ask, for the Dominion also aspires to greatness, and
believes that it has within its borders all the resources required to make
a nation materially great. A principal cause of the rapid development of
the United States is that it has absorbed, especially within the last
quarter of a century, so many millions of the population of the old world.
It had a great West, boundless expanses of fertile land, and had the
wisdom to see that, while the soil is the great source of wealth, untilled
soil is valueless; and that therefore every inducement should be held out
to the masses, overcrowded in Europe, to seek homes within its borders.
Each emigrant who landed at Castle Garden represented the addition of
hundreds of dollars to the wealth of the country. He represented the
cultivation of some land and an increased value to more, additional
imports and exports, taxes and national strength. With the same apparent
generosity, but with as cool a calculation of profits as that which sent
Stanley to discover Livingstone, free grants of land were therefore
offered to the whole world. Homestead laws provided that those farms
should not be liable to be seized for debt. As it was necessary that the
emigrant should be able to get easily to his farm and to send to market
what he raised, companies were chartered to build railways in every
direction, the State subsidising them with exemptions, money bonuses, and
enormous land grants. The ancient maxim had been, ' settle up the country
and the people will build railways if they want them.' The new and better
maxim is, 'build railways and the country will soon be settled.' These
railway corporations became the emigration agents of the United States,
and well have they done the public work while directly serving their own
interests. With the one aim of securing settlers, whose labour on parts of
their land would make the other parts valuable, they organized, advertized,
and worked emigration schemes with a business-like thoroughness that has
attracted far less attention than it deserves. What a proud position the
United States, as a country, was thus made to occupy in the eyes of the
whole world!' Ho, every one that wants a farm, come and take one,' it
cried aloud, and in every language. Poor men toiling for a small daily
wage in the old world, afraid of hard times, sickness and old age, heard
the cry, and loved the land that loved them so well, and offered so fair.
They came in thousands and found, too, that it kept its word ; and then
they came in tens and hundreds of thousands, till now less liberal offers
have to be made, because most of the public domain that is worth anything
has been absorbed. Those hard-working masses prospered, and they made the
country great. Some of them who had been rudely expatriated, who had left
their mother land with bitterness in their hearts, vowed vengeance and
bequeathed the vow to their children. Others, attributing their success to
the new institutions, began to hate the forms of government that they
identified with their days of penury and misery. Others were wiser, but
their interests were bound up with their adopted country, and, when it
came to the question, they took sides against the old and with the new.
Had the State held aloof, maintaining that any interference or expenditure
on its part in connection with emigration was inconsistent with political
economy, that the tide of population must be left to flow at its own sweet
will, and railways be built only where there was a demand for them, the
great west of the United States would not have been filled up for many a
year to come. And had the Imperial authorities thought less about
imaginary laws of political economy and more about pressing practical
necessities, millions, who are now in a strange land, bitter enemies of
the British crown, would have been its loyal subjects in loyal colonies.
The past is gone; but it is not yet too late
to do much. We now stand on a more favourable vantage ground than before,
not only positively but comparatively, for our vast virgin prairies are
thrown open, while there is but little good land left in the United States
available for settlement under the homestead laws. The great lines of
communication from the seaboard are beginning to touch our North-west
territory; and, if we act with the vigour and wisdom of which our
neighbours have set the example, the ever-increasing current of emigration
from the old world must flow into Manitoba, and up the Assiniboine, and
Saskatchewan rivers.
We must act, to bring about such a result. It will not come of itself.
While we stand looking at the river, it flows past. Labour is required to
divert it into new channels, or it will flow over the courses that have
been made for it, or simply overflow them. We are now able to offer better
land, and on easier terms, to immigrants than the United States or any of
its railway companies offer, but they will continue to attract them if we
fold our arms while they work. They have many influences on their side ;
the gravitating force of numbers; past success on a grand scale ; grooves
worn smooth by the millions tramping westward; a vast army of agents paid
in proportion to their success; every principal railway station in Europe,
and even in the Dominion, papered with their glowing advertisements ;
floods of pamphlets in every language; arrangements perfected to the
minutest details for forwarding the ignorant and helpless stranger from
New York and Chicago to any point he desires ; and perhaps a comfortable
log shanty ready for him when he gets there. They offer great inducements
to men to organise colonies ; advise neighbours to club their resources
and emigrate together, so that one may help the other; lay off village
plats and draw beautiful sketches of future cities; and cheer the drooping
spirit of the foreigner, when he is discouraged with difficulties that had
not been advertised, with brilliant prophecies, and an infusion of the
indomitable Yankee spirit. They make the doubter believe that it is better
to pay their company from $5 to $15 an acre for "the best land in the
world," "rich in minerals," with "no long winters," accompanied with free
passes over the railway, and long credits, "one-tenth down, the rest when
it suits you," than to take up free grants elsewhere.
In all this business, for it is purely a
business transaction, though gilded with soft hues of "buncombe,"
references to downtrodden millions, American generosity, free
institutions, and such like, they have hitherto had no competitor; for,
until our Northwest was opened up and proved to contain farms for the
million, we could not well compete. What the mass of emigrants wanted was
prairie soil; land that they could plough at once without the tedious and
exhausting labour of years required in woodland farming, chopping,
rolling, burning, grubbing, stumping and levelling. Such land the Dominion
can now offer, and it is therefore, the great and immediate duty of the
Government to see that it be opened up, and brought within reach of the
ordinary class of settlers.
To what point in the Dominion should the
emigrant turn his eyes? Each Province presents special inducements, but no
part of America now offers so many as Manitoba. The land farther west and
to the north-west is equally good, but, until opened up by railway or
steamboats, it is comparatively valueless to the settler; for there is
little use in raising stock, wheat, or potatoes, if they cannot be
conveyed to market. But Manitoba is now within reach of the emigrant, and
there is a good market in Winnipeg. This little village is becoming a
town; houses are springing up in all directions with a rapidity known only
in the history of western towns; and the demand for provisions, stock,
farm implements, and everything on which labour is expended, is so much
greater than the supply, that prices are enormously high. The intending
settler, therefore, should bring in with him as much of what he may
require as he possibly can.
Besides a rich soil, a healthy and—for the hardy populations of northern
and central Europe—a pleasant climate, law and order, and all the
advantages of British connection, Manitoba offers other inducements to the
emigrant. The
Government of the Dominion has opened the country for settlement on the
most liberal terms possible. Any person, the subject of Her Majesty by
birth or naturalization, who is the head of a family or has attained the
age of twenty-one years, is entitled to be entered for one hundred and
sixty acres, for the purpose of securing a homestead right in respect
thereof. To secure this land he has only to make affidavit to the above
effect, and that he purposes to be an actual settler. On filing this
affidavit with the land officer, and on payment to him of $10, he is
permitted to enter the land specified in his application. Five years
thereafter, on showing that he has resided on or cultivated the land, he
receives a patent for it; or any time before the expiration of the five
years he can obtain the patent by paying the pre-emption price of one
dollar an acre. This farm, no matter how valuable it may become, and his
house and furniture, barns, stables, fences, tools, and farm implements
are declared free from seizure for debt; and, in addition to the exemption
of all those, there are also exempted, "one cow, two oxen, one horse, four
sheep, two pigs, and the food for the same for thirty days."
There are, and can be, no Indian wars or
difficulties in Manitoba. This is a matter of the utmost importance to the
intending settler. When we returned from our expedition, the Chief was
interviewed at Ottawa by a deputation of the Russian sect of Mennonites,
who are looking out for the best place in America for their constituents
to settle in, and one of their first questions referred to this. He
answered it by pulling a boy's knife out of his pocket, small blade at one
end, corkscrew at the other, and told them that that was the only weapon
he had carried while travelling from Ocean to Ocean ; adding that he had
used only one end of even so insignificant a weapon, and that end not so
often as he would have liked.
As the mode of settlement adopted in Manitoba
is based on the system that has been long tested in the older provinces,
and that will probably be extended to the whole of the North-west, a few
words on the general question may not be out of place. There are three
ways of dealing with the less than half-million of red men still to be
found on the continent of America, each of which has been tried on a
smaller or larger scale. The first cannot be put more clearly or baldly
than it was in a letter dated San Francisco, Sept. 1859, which went the
round of the American press, and received very general approval. The
writer, in the same spirit in which Roebuck condemned the British
Government's shilly-shally policy towards the Maories, condemned the
Federal Government for not having ordered a large military force to
California when they got possession of it, "with orders to hunt and shoot
down all the Indians from the Colorado to the Klamath." Of course the
writer adds that such a method of dealing with the Indians would have been
the cheapest, "and perhaps the most humane." With regard to this policy of
"no nonsense," thorough-going as selfishness itself, it is enough to say
that no Christian nation would now tolerate it for an instant.
The second way is to insist that there is no
Indian question. Assume that the Indian must submit to our ways of living
and our laws because they are better than his; and that, as he has made no
improvement on the land, and has no legal title-deeds, he can have no
right to it that a civilized being is bound to recognize. Let the
emigrants, as they pour into the country, shove the old lords of the soil
back; hire them if they choose to work; punish them if they break the
laws, and treat them as poor whites have to be treated. Leave the struggle
between the two races entirely to the principle of natural selection, and
let the weaker go to the wall. This course has been practically followed
in many parts of America. It has led to frightful atrocities on both
sides, in which the superior vigour of the civilized man has outmatched
the native ferocity of the savage. The Indian in such competition for
existence, soon realizing his comparative weakness, had recourse to the
cunning that the inferior naturally opposes to the superior strength. This
irritated even the well-disposed white, who got along honestly, and
believed that honesty was the best policy. It was no wonder that, after a
few exchanges of punishment and vengeance, the conviction would become
general that the presence of the Indian was inconsistent with public
security; that he was a nuisance to be abated ; and that it was not wise
to scrutinize too closely, what was done by miners who had to look out for
themselves, or by the troops who had been called in to protect settlers.
The Indians had no newspapers to tell how miners tried their rifles on an
unoffending Indian at a distance, for the pleasure of seeing the poor
wretch jump when the bullet struck him ; or how, if a band had fine
horses, a charge was trumped up against them, that the band might be
broken up and the horses stolen; or how the innocent were indiscriminately
slaughtered with the guilty; or how they were poisoned by traders with bad
rum, and cheated till left without gun, horse, or blanket. This policy of
giving to the simple children of the forest and prairie, the blessings of
unlimited free-trade, and bidding them look after their own interests, has
not been a success. The frightful cruelties connected with it and the
expense it has entailed, have forced many to question whether the 'fire
and sword' plan would not have been 'cheaper and, perhaps, more humane,'
The third way, called, sometimes, the
paternal, is to go down to the Indian level when dealing with them; go at
least half-way down; explain that, whether they wish it or not, immigrants
will come into the country, and that the Government is bound to seek the
good of all the races under its sway, and do justly by the white as well
as by the red man; offer to make a treaty with them on the principles of
allotting to them reserves of land that no one can invade, and that they
themselves cannot alienate, giving them an annual sum per family in the
shape of useful articles, establishing schools among them and encouraging
missionary effort, and prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors to
them. When thus approached, they are generally reasonable in their
demands; and it is the testimony of all competent authorities that, when a
treaty is solemnly made with them, that is, according to Indian ideas of
solemnity, they keep it sacredly. They only break it when they believe
that the other side has broken faith first.
Such has been the policy of the old Canadas
and of the Dominion, and it is now universally adopted in America. True,
the agents of the United States Government have often defeated its
attempts to do justice and show mercy, by wholesale frauds; and the
Indians, believing themselves deceived, have risen with bursts of fury to
take vengeance; and, like all children, if deceived once, they are very
unwilling to believe you the next time. General Howard has therefore
advised this year the removal of many of the Indian agents, with the
remark that "when agents pay $15,000 for a position, the salary of which
is only $1500, there must be something wrong," But this corruption of
individual agents is a mere accident, an accident that seems to be
inseparable from the management of public affairs in the Republic. The
great thing is that the United States Government has taken its stand
firmly on the ground that the Indians are to be neither exterminated nor
abandoned to themselves, but protected and helped. In a letter to George
II. Stewart, dated October 28th, 1872, President Grant writes with his
customary directness and plainness of speech: "If the present policy
towards the Indians can be improved in any way, I will always be ready to
receive suggestions on the subject; but if any change is made, it must be
made on the side of the civilization and christianization of the Indians.
I do not believe our Creator ever placed the different races of men on
this earth with the view of the stronger exerting all his energies in
exterminating the weaker."
It may be said that, do what we like, the
Indians as a race, must eventually die out. It is not unlikely. Almost all
the Indians in the North-west are scrofulous. But, on the other hand, in
the United States and in Canada, they exist, in not a few cases, as
christianized self-supporting communities, and have multiplied and
prospered. These are beginning to ask for full freedom. It was all right,
they argue, to forbid us to sell our lands, when we did not know their
value, and to keep us as wards when we could not take care of ourselves;
but it is different now; we are grown men; and it is an injustice to
prevent us from making the most we can out of our own.
At all events, there are no Indian
difficulties in our North-west. For generations the H. B. Company governed
the tribes in a semi-paternal way, the big children often being rude and
noisy, sometimes plundering a fort, or even maltreating a factor, but, in
the end, returning to their allegiance, as, without the Company, they
could not get tea or tobacco, guns or powder, blankets or trinkets.
Since the transfer of the country to the
Dominion the Indians have been anxious for treaties, except when operated
on by foreign influences. In the year 1871, Governor Archibald made a
treaty at the Stone Fort, or Lower Fort Garry, with the Ojibbe-ways and
Swampy Crees, the only two tribes in his Province, and a second treaty
with the Indians further north, as far as Lake Winnipegosis and Beren's
River, and to the west as far as Fort Ellice. This second treaty comprises
a tract of country two or three times as large as Manitoba. About four
thousand Indians assembled on those occasions, and, after a good deal of
preliminary feasting, consulting, and pow-wow'ing, arrangements were made
with them. The objects aimed at by the Governor and the Indian
Commissioner were to extinguish the Indian title to the land, and, at the
same time, do substantial justice and give satisfaction to the Indians.
These objects were accomplished.
The treaty-making process is interesting, as
illustrative of several points in the Indian character. Though it took ten
days to make the first, yet, in the light lately thrown on the
difficulties of drawing up a treaty that shall express the same thing to
both parties, the time cannot be considered unreasonably long.
The Indians first elected chiefs and spokesmen
to represent them. On these being duly presented and invited to state
their views, they said that there was a cloud before them which made
things dark, and they did not wish to commence the proceedings till the
cloud was dispersed. It was found that they referred to four Swampies who
were in prison for breach of contract, and the tribe felt that it would be
a violation of the brotherly covenant to enter upon a friendly treaty,
unless an act of indemnity were passed in favour of the four. As they
begged their discharge on the plea of grace and not of right, the Governor
acceded to their petition; and the Indians thereupon declared that
henceforth they would never raise a voice against the law being enforced.
The real business then commenced. Being told
to state their views on reserves and annuities, they did so very freely
and, substantially, to the effect that about two-thirds of the province
should be reserved for them. But when it was explained that their great
mother must do justly to all her children, "to those of the rising sun as
well as to those of the setting sun," and that it would not be fair to
give much more than a good farm for each family, they assented.
Fortunately the Governor could point out to them a settlement of
christianized Ojibbeways, numbering some four hundred, between the Stone
Fort and the mouth of Red River, as a proof that Indians could live,
prosper, and provide like the white man. This mission was established by
Archdeacon Cochrane, and has now a full-blooded Indian for its clergyman.
Many of them have well-built houses and well-tilled fields, with wheat,
barley, and potatoes growing, and giving promise of plenty for the coming
winter. The Indians
of this district form a parish of their own, called St. Peter's, and
return a member to the House of Assembly; they have the honour of being
represented by a gentleman who has successively held the offices of
Minister of Agriculture, Provincial Secretary, and who is now Provincial
Treasurer. In the
end, it was agreed that reserves should be allotted sufficient to give one
hundred and sixty acres to each family of five; that the Queen should
maintain a school on each reserve when the Indians required it; and that
no intoxicating liquors be allowed to be introduced or sold within the
bounds of the reserves; also, that each family of five should receive an
annuity of $15, in blankets, clothing, twine, or traps; and, as a mark of
Her Majesty's satisfaction with the good behaviour of Her Indians, and as
a seal to the treaty, or Indian luckpenny, a present of $3 be given to
each man, woman, and child. Every one being satisfied, the treaty was
signed, the big ornamented calumet of peace smoked all round, and the
Governor then promised each chief a buggy, to his unbounded delight.
One important consequence of these Indians
being pleased is that the Indians farther west having heard the news are
all anxious for treaties, and have been on their good behaviour ever
since. |
