Doctor King impressed upon the committee the fact that in going through that country his position was that of a naturalist; he “came away certainly with the impression that it was a very magnificent country in many parts of it; of course there were barren portions, but upon the whole, up to Athabaska lake, it appeared to me to be capable of any extent of cultivation.”
Doctor King said that some time previous to his visit to that locality there had been some agricultural activity at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s post at Cumberland House due to the enterprise of Governor Williams. Doctor King found capacious barns, and implements in fields which had evidently been placed under culture. On approaching Cumberland House, he had found a little new colony of thirty persons established, a Canadian, an Englishman, and half-breeds. They had their fields divided out into farms, and other things. It was described to him that they had formed a little colony at Cumberland House but had been
Ordered from the Immediate Vicinity
by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The settlers told Doctor King that “at the time they were ordered off, the Company would not allow them to go on cultivating; that it was against the Company, and that therefore the thing was to be broken up, etc., etc.”
As to the little new settlement, Doctor King stated that it appeared to him, in going over the colonists’ farms, that they were very highly cultivated. There was corn, wheat, and barley growing. He bought a calf from them; he gave seven shillings for it. A fat bullock sold for twelve shillings.
Haying near Green lake.
Doctor King testified that when he went on to Cumberland House, he found that the settlers were really borne out in what they had stated, for he found that the barns and implements were in the fields, and that the cows, oxen, and horses had all gone wild. He enquired the reason of it and was told that Governor Williams had a penchant for farming and that the Company had ordered him off somewhere else.
Hon. William Christie, formerly Inspecting Chief Factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, before the Senate committee of 1888, explained that there was a vast extent of splendid country from Prince Albert on the whole north side of the Saskatchewan, going away up until the traveller came near Fort Pitt, keeping a little to the north. Then, when he would come to the route of Green lake, there was two days’ journey through a magnificent country, beautifully timbered, well watered and supplied with abundance of fish. As he once travelled through it, he remarked to one of his men,—
“What a Splendid Country To Settle In.”