The Great Lone Land: A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of AmericaButler, William Francis, Sir
History
The Great Lone Land: A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America
Butler, William Francis, Sir
Northwest, Canadian -- Description and travel
Up to this time no intimation had reached the Lower Fort of pursuit by
the myrmidons of M. Riel. But soon there came intelligence. A farmer
carrying corn to the mill in the fort had been stopped by a party of men
some seven miles away, and questioned as to his having seen a stranger;
others had also seen the mounted scouts. And so while I slept the sleep
of the tired my worthy host was receiving all manner of information
regarding the movements of the marauders who were in quest of his
sleeping guest.
I may have been asleep some two hours, when I became aware of a hand laid
on my shoulder and a voice whispering something into my ear. Rousing
myself from a very deep sleep, I beheld the Hudson Bay officer in charge
of the fort standing by the bed repeating words which failed at first to
carry any meaning along with them.
"The French are after you," he reiterated.
"The French"-where was I, in France?
I had been so sound asleep, that it took some seconds to gather up-the
different threads of thought where I had left them off a few hours
before, and "the French" was at that time altogether a new name in my
ears for the Red River natives. "The French are after you!" altogether it
was not an agreeable prospect to open my eyes upon, tired, exhausted, and
sleepy as I was. But, under the circumstances, breakfast seemed the best
preparation for the siege, assault, and general battery which, according
to all the rules of war, ought to have followed the announcement of the
Gallic Nationality being in full pursuit of me.
Seated at breakfast, and doing full justice to a very excellent mutton
chop and cup of Hudson Bay Company Souchong (and where does there exist
such tea; out of China?), I heard a digest of the pursuit from the lips
of my host. The French had visited him in his fort once before with evil
intentions, and they might come again, so he proposed that we should
drive down to the Indian Settlement, where the ever-faithful Ojibbeways
would, if necessary, roll back the tide of Gallic pursuit, giving the
pursuers a reception in which Pahaouza-tau-ka, or "The Great
Scalp-taker," would play a prominent part.
Breakfast over, a drive of eight miles brought us to the mission of the
Indian Settlement presided over by Archdeacon Cowley.
Here, along the last few miles of the Red River ere it seeks, through
many channels, the waters of Lake Winnipeg, dwell the remnants of the
tribes whose fathers in times gone by claimed the broad lands of the Red
River; now clothing themselves, after the fashion of the white man, in
garments and in religion, and learning a few of his ways and dealings,
but still with many wistful hankerings towards the older era of the paint
and feathers, of the medicine bag and the dream omen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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