Peeps at Many Lands: Canada

by J. T. Bealby

The central, or prairie, basin has a large number of rivers, of which the best known are the Saskatchewan and the Assiniboine, running east to empty through the Nelson River into Hudson Bay, and the Peace, and the Mackenzie, which drain a number of large lakes to the Arctic Ocean. On the Pacific Slope are the Fraser and the Columbia, noted for the great salmon fisheries, and the gold found among their sands. When the salmon are running—that is, coming up the river—one sees the whole river bright with the gleam of their scales, and in shallow places even the flow of the water is impeded. Ten million fish are canned each year.

Curiously enough, all these water basins are connected, and in the early days, before the railway was dreamed of, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, a famous explorer, from whom the great Mackenzie River takes its name, traced out the water-route from the head of Lake Superior via the Saskatchewan and the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean. When we trace up the Saskatchewan, we find it beginning in the Rockies in one branch of a little stream; the other branch runs west to the Pacific by the Columbia River. With the hand, one can direct the water now to the setting, now to the rising, sun. The drops beginning together reach the ocean thousands of miles apart. This is known as the "Great Divide." Though the coming of the steam-engine has made this route of little value, still the hunter or tourist may trace his sinuous path for weeks or months over this silver network.

CHAPTER XIII

FIGHTING THE IROQUOIS INDIANS

The earliest white inhabitants of Canada, who have remained and helped to build up the Canadian nation, were settlers from France. There were, indeed, earlier arrivals from Europe, but they did not make anything like a permanent settlement. These were certain adventurous Norsemen who sailed out from Iceland in the year 1000, or even a little earlier, and returned with tales of a fertile country which they had discovered somewhere across the Western sea, and to which they gave the name of Vinland (which means the "Land of Wine"), but a country inhabited by Skraellings, which may be interpreted as meaning "Wicked Men." This Land of Wine is supposed to have been what is now Nova Scotia, or the country to the south-west of it, and the Wicked Men are believed to have been American Indians, who gave the hardy Icelanders a hostile reception, so that they did not obtain any real footing in the country.

The intrepid leaders of the earliest adventurers from France who attempted to establish themselves permanently in what is now Canada were a Breton sailor named Jacques Cartier, who set sail from St. Malo in April, 1534, and Samuel de Champlain, who, towards the close of the same century, and well on into the next, spent nearly forty years in devoted labour for the planting of a French colony on the banks of the St. Lawrence, founding the city of Quebec, exploring the rivers and lakes which help to make the great river the magnificent stream it is, assisting the Huron Indians to fight their inveterate foes, the intrepid and brave Iroquois, and striving to convert the Indians to the faith of Christ by sending French Catholic missionaries in amongst them.

For many a long year, however, the new colony, weak and scattered, had to wage a harassing war against the fierce red men—to wit, the Five Nations of the Iroquois. The stirring history of this frontier warfare is braided with many a tale of bravery, many an heroic episode. But of all the great deeds of this long, persistent struggle none shines with a more radiant glory than the self-sacrifice of Adam Dollard, or Daulac, the lord of the Manor of Des Ormeaux, and commander of the garrison of Montreal.

For more than twenty years the Iroquois had waged unrelenting war upon the colonists. These last were few in number, and were only able to hold their ground at all in the vicinity of the three fortified posts of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. Outside their stockades and away from these three fortified posts there was no certainty of safety. Everywhere lurked the Iroquois. Mercy they had none; fiendish they were in their cruelty, and never for an instant did they grant the sorely harassed settlers the least rest or freedom from attack. In fact, they were become a veritable scourge, and a sort of universal panic seized the people. At last intelligence was brought by a friendly Indian of the tribe of the Hurons that a force of 1,200 Iroquois were setting out to swoop down upon Montreal and Quebec with the object of destroying the forts and utterly wiping out the French settlements. When the tidings came to the ears of Dollard, the young commandant of the garrison of Montreal, he was instantly fired with the Crusader's enthusiasm. He conceived the idea of dedicating himself, as Leonidas, the King of ancient Sparta, did, for the good of his country. He called for volunteers to go out with him and waylay the Iroquois on the Ottawa River, and there fight them to the bitter death.

Sixteen of the young men of Montreal caught Dollard's enthusiasm. They sought and obtained the Governor's consent, made their wills, solemnly dedicated themselves in the cathedral to the sacrifice they were willing to make of their lives, received the Sacrament, and bound themselves by oath to fight the Iroquois to the death, and to accept no quarter.