The Governor replied, that the withdrawal of the rum was _not_ to save
expense but to benefit them. He then gave them his advice on temperance,
and promised them a small quantity of rum every autumn. He also promised
a present for their civility in bringing their packet of furs, for which
they should receive payment besides. Then followed a general and final
shaking of hands, and the Congress between the English and Chippaway
nations broke up to their mutual satisfaction.
The Red River settlement, of which we heard so often during the quarrels
between Lord Selkirk and the Company, will yet be a great colony; the
soil is very fertile (one of the most important elements of
colonisation,) its early tillage producing forty returns of wheat; and,
even after twenty years of tillage, without manure, fallow, or green
crop, yielding from fifteen to twenty-five bushels an acre. The wheat
is plump and heavy, and, besides, there are large quantities of other
grain, with beef, mutton, pork, butter, cheese, and wool in abundance.
This would be the true country for emigration from our impoverished
islands, and will, of course, be crowded when conveyances shall become
more manageable. A railroad across Canada must still be a rather Utopian
conception, but it might be well worth the expense of making by
government, even though it produced nothing for the next half-dozen
years, for the multitudes whom it would carry through the heart of this
superb country in the half-dozen years after, and for the wealth which
they would pour into England in every year to come.
The settlement, however, meets, in its turn, the common chances of an
American climate. In winter the cold is intense. The summer is short,
and the rivers sometimes overflow and drown the crops. Still what are
these things to the population, where food is plenty, the air healthy,
and the ground cheap, fertile and untaxed. In fact, the difficulties, in
such instances, are scarcely more than incitements to the ingenuity of
man, to provide resources against them. The season of snow is a time of
cheerfulness in every land of the north. In Denmark, Russia, and Canada,
when the rivers close up, business is laid by for the next six months;
and the time of dancing, driving, and feasting begins. Food is the great
requisite; when that is found, every thing follows.
In addition to agriculture, or in place of it, the settlers, more
particularly those of mixed origin, devote the summer, the autumn, and
sometimes the winter also, to the hunting of the buffalo, bringing home
vast quantities of pemmican, dried meat, grease, tongues, &c. for which
the Company and voyaging business affords the best market.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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