The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists: The Pioneers of ManitobaBryce, George
History
The Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists: The Pioneers of Manitoba
Bryce, George
Red River Settlement
Everybody makes for himself what he wishes in this undifferentiated
Settlement. We return in tatters. Not a tailor, nor anything approaching
the description of one, exists here, and a week's search is needed to
discover such a being as a shoemaker. A single store in the Hudson's Bay
post at each of the two forts, twenty miles apart, supplies the goods of
the outside world, and the purchaser must furnish the receptacle for
carriage. For small goods this invariably consists, as far as we can
see, of a red bandanna handkerchief, so that purchases have to be small
and frequent; not all of one sort, however, for the native can readily
tie up his tea in one corner, his sugar and buttons in two others, and
still have one left for normal uses. How many handkerchiefs a day are
put to use may be judged from the fact that the average sale of tea at
Upper Fort Garry is four large boxes daily--all, be it remembered,
brought by ship to Hudson Bay, and thence by batteaux and portage to the
Red River.
The caravan by which we and a number of others were carried back to
civilization was a stylish enough turnout for Red River. It was supplied
by McKinney, the host of the Royal Hotel of the village of Winnipeg.
Three large emigrant wagons, with canvas coverings of the most approved
pattern, but of very different hues, drawn each by a yoke of oxen,
convey the patrons of the party, with the exception of a miner, who
rides his horse. The astronomers take the lead under a brown canvas; a
theological student for Toronto University, a gentleman for St. Paul,
and others follow under a black canvas full of holes; and the third
wagon with a cover of spotless purity, conveys the ladies of the party
and a clergyman. Behind them follow not only half a dozen Red River
carts, with a most promiscuous assortment of baggage, peltry, and
squeak, but also a stray ox and a pony or two; a number of armed
horsemen, and for the first day a cavalcade of friends giving a Scotch
convoy to those who were departing. The astronomers at length reached
St. Paul, when they declare their connection with the world again
complete, after an absence of about three months, during which they had
travelled thirty-five hundred miles.
CHAPTER XXIII.
APPLES OF GOLD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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