The approach of the time when the twenty-one years' lease of the Indian territories granted by the Imperial Parliament to the Hudson's Bay Company was drawing near a close in 1857, when the Committee of the House of Commons met in February of this year to consider the matter. A vast mass of evidence was taken, and the consideration of the Blue Book containing this will afford us material for a very interesting chapter. The interest in the matter, and the necessity for obtaining expert information, led the Imperial Government to organize an expedition under Captain John Palliser, R.N.A., of the Royal Engineers. With Captain Palliser, who was to go up the Canadian lakes to the interior, was associated Lieutenant Blakiston, R.N., who received orders to proceed by ship to York Factory and meet the main expedition at some point in Rupert's Land. The geologist of the expedition was James Hector, M.D. (Edin.). J. W. Sullivan was secretary and M. E. Bourgeau, botanist.
After the usual incidents of an ocean voyage, some difficulty with the Customs authorities in New York arose as to the entry of astronomical instruments, which was happily overcome, and after a long journey by way of Detroit, Sault Ste. Marie was reached, where Palliser found two birch bark canoes and sixteen voyageurs awaiting him, as provided by the Hudson's Bay Company. Sir George Simpson had lately passed this point. Journeying along the fur traders' route, the explorers found themselves expected at Fort Frances, on Rainy River.
Here a deputation of Indians waited upon them, and the old chief discoursed thus: "I do not ask for presents, although I am poor and my people are hungry, but I know you have come straight from the Great Country, and we know that no men from that country ever came to us and lied. I want you to declare to us truthfully what the Great Queen of your country intends to do to us when she will take the country from the fur company's people. All around me I see the smoke of the white men to rise. The 'Long Knives' (the Americans) are trading with our neighbours for their lands and they are cheating them and deceiving them. Now, we will not sell nor part with our lands."
Having reached Fort Garry, Captain Palliser divided his party, sending one section west, and himself going south to the boundary line with the other. Going west from Pembina, Palliser reached the French half-breed settlement of St. Joseph (St. Jo.), and some days afterwards Turtle Mountain. Thence he hurried across country to Fort Ellice to meet the other portion of his expedition.
While the tired horses rested here he made an excursion of a notable kind to the South-West. This was to the "Roches Percées" on the Souris River. This is a famous spot, noted for the presence of Tertiary sandstone exposures, which have weathered into the most fantastic shapes. It is a sacred spot of the Indians. Here, as at the "Red Pipestone Quarry," described by Longfellow, and not more than one hundred and fifty miles distant from it, Sioux, Assiniboines, and Crees meet in peace. Though war may prevail elsewhere, this spot is by mutual agreement kept as neutral. At this point Palliser saw a great camp of Assiniboines.
Returning from this side excursion, the Captain resumed his command, and having obtained McKay, the Hudson's Bay Company officer at Fort Ellice, with Governor Christie's permission, set off by way of Qu'Appelle Lakes for the elbow of the Saskatchewan.
On the South Saskatchewan Palliser came to the "heart of the buffalo country." The whole region as far as the eye could reach was covered with the buffalo in bands varying from hundreds to thousands. So vast were the herds, that he began to have serious apprehensions for his horses, as "the grass was eaten to the earth, as if the place had been devastated by locusts."
Crossing the Saskatchewan the explorers went northward to Fort Carlton on the north branch, where the party wintered while Captain Palliser returned to Canada, paying 65l. to a Red River trader to drive him five hundred and twenty miles from Fort Garry to Crow Wing, the nearest Minnesota settlement. Palliser's horse, for which he had bargained, was killed at Pembina, and he walked the four hundred and fifty miles of the journey, which was made with painful slowness by the struggling horses and sleds of the traders.
In June of the following year Palliser left Fort Carlton, part of his command going to the Red Deer River, the other part to visit Fort Pitt and Edmonton House. From Edmonton the explorer reports that during the summer, his men had succeeded in finding a pass through the Rocky Mountains, one not only practicable for horses, but which, with but little expense, could be rendered available for carts also.