Fort Garry—by which we mean the building itself, for the name of the Fort is frequently used for the settlement generally—is situated on the north bank of the Assiniboine river, a few hundred yards above its junction with Red River. It consists of a square enclosure of high stone walls, flanked at each angle by round towers. Within this are several substantial wooden buildings—the Governor’s residence, the gaol, and the storehouses for the Company’s furs and goods. The shop, where articles of every description are sold, is thronged from morning till night by a crowd of settlers and half-breeds, who meet there to gossip and treat each other to rum and brandy, as well as to make their purchases.
The Red River settlement extends beyond Fort Garry for about twenty miles to the northward along the banks of Red River, and about fifty to the westward along its tributary, the Assiniboine. The wealthier inhabitants live in large, well-built wooden houses, and the poorer half-breeds in rough log huts, or even Indian “lodges.” There are several Protestant churches, a Romish cathedral and nunnery, and schools of various denominations. The neighbouring country is principally open, level prairie, the timber being confined, with a few exceptions, to the banks of the streams. The settlement dates from the year 1811, when the Earl of Selkirk purchased from the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Cree and Sauteux Indians a large tract of land stretching along both banks of the Red River and the Assiniboine. The country was at that time inhabited only by wandering tribes of Indians, and visited occasionally by the employés of the North-West and Hudson’s Bay Companies, who had trading posts in the neighbourhood. Vast herds of buffalo, now driven far to the west of Red River, then ranged over its prairies, and frequented the rich feeding grounds of the present State of Minnesota, as far as the Mississippi.
The first band of emigrants—Scotch families, sent out under the auspices of Lord Selkirk—reached the colony in 1812, and were reinforced by subsequent detachments until the year 1815. Never did the pioneers of any new country suffer greater hardships and discouragements than were experienced by these unfortunate people during the first seven or eight years after their arrival. They were attacked by the Canadians and half-breeds in the employ of the North-West Fur Company, who looked on them with jealousy, as protegés of their rivals of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and were compelled to flee to Pembina. Here they spent the winter living on the charity of the Indians and half-breeds, and suffering the greatest hardships from the scarcity of provisions, and want of proper protection against the severity of the climate. When they returned to the colony they were again attacked by their persevering enemies, the North-Westers, many of their number shot down, the rest driven a second time into exile, and their homes pillaged or burnt. They went back a third time, but their attempts to live by the cultivation of the soil were defeated by various misfortunes. Crops promising to repay them a hundred-fold were devoured by swarms of grasshoppers, which appeared two years in succession, and all they were able to save was a small quantity of seed collected by the women in their aprons. These insects came in such armies that they lay in heaps on the ground; fires lighted out of doors were speedily extinguished by them, the earth stank, and the waters were polluted with the mass of decomposing bodies. The grasshoppers disappeared, and have not since re-visited the colony; but they were succeeded by myriads of blackbirds, which made terrible havoc with the grain. It was not until the year 1821, nine years after the first establishment of the colony, that these unfortunate settlers succeeded in reaping to any extent the fruits of their labours. The North-West Company was at that time amalgamated with the Hudson’s Bay Company, when the colonists were left in peace, and have steadily, though slowly, progressed up to the present time. The only misfortune which has since occurred to them was a disastrous flood, which swept away horses, cattle, and corn-stacks, as well as several of the inhabitants.[2]
In 1862 we found them a very heterogeneous community of about eight thousand souls—Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, English Canadians, French Canadians, Americans, English half-breeds, Canadian half-breeds, and Indians. Nearly the whole population, with the exception of a few storekeepers and free-traders, live by the Company, and the Company is king. The Company makes the laws, buys the produce of the chase and of the farm, supplying in return the other necessaries and the luxuries of life.
The farmers of Red River are wealthy in flocks, and herds, and grain, more than sufficient for their own wants, and live in comparative comfort. The soil is so fertile, that wheat is raised year after year on the same land, and yields fifty and sixty bushels to the acre, without any manure being required. The pasturage is of the finest quality, and unlimited in extent. The countless herds of buffalo which the land has supported are sufficient evidence of this. But, shut out in this distant corner of the earth from any communication with the rest of the world—except an uncertain one with the young State of Minnesota by steamer during the summer, and with England by the Company’s ship which brings stores to York Factory, in Hudson’s Bay, once a year—the farmers find no market for their produce.
It is the interest and policy of the Company to discourage emigration, and keep the country as one vast preserve for fur-bearing animals. The colony has therefore been recruited almost entirely from their own servants, who settle at Fort Garry on their retirement from the service. It is also their interest to prevent any trading except through themselves. In 1849 they attempted to enforce their monopoly of the fur trade, and four half-breeds were arrested for infringement of the laws by buying furs from the Indians. The half-breeds rose in arms, and a revolution was imminent. The trial was not proceeded with, and since that time they have been content to put every obstacle in the way of free-trade, by tabooing the offender, and refusing to furnish him with anything out of their stores. This obstructive policy keeps up a continual ill-feeling amongst the independent population of the settlement, who naturally enough have little belief in the justice of laws framed, as they imagine, for the protection of the Company rather than for the general good. The members of the Legislative Council, the magistrates, and all other public officers, are nominated by the Governor.
The Hudson’s Bay Company have, we believe, exercised their almost absolute power well and justly, in so far that they have administered with impartiality the laws which they have made. They have gained the affection and respect of the Indians by kindly intercourse and just dealing. But the day of monopolies has gone by, and it seems strange that the governing power of this colony should still be left in the hands of a trading company, whose interests are opposed to its development. It is time the anomaly should cease, and a proper colonial government be established, whose efforts would be directed to the opening out of a country so admirably adapted for settlement.
From Red River to the Rocky Mountains, along the banks of the Assiniboine and the fertile belt of the Saskatchewan, at least sixty millions of acres of the richest soil lie ready for the farmer when he shall be allowed to enter in and possess it. This glorious country, capable of sustaining an enormous population, lies utterly useless, except for the support of a few Indians, and the enrichment of the shareholders of the Last Great Monopoly.
Since the time of our visit the Company has passed into other hands. The fact that the new directors sent out Dr. Rae to survey a route for a telegraph line through their territories into British Columbia, redounds greatly to their credit, and induces a hope that their policy will be more liberal than that of their predecessors.
The stationary condition of the Red River colony is not, however, to be entirely attributed to the despotic rule of the Hudson’s Bay Company, but in some measure also to the incorrigible idleness and want of thrift exhibited by the French Canadians, and their relatives, the French half-breeds, who form the largest section of the inhabitants. The latter, the most numerous of the two, are also the most unreliable and unprofitable members of society. Desultory, fickle, mercurial, and passionately fond of gaiety and finery, they have an utter distaste for all useful labour, and rarely succeed in raising themselves into any permanent position of comfort and independence.