They Are Excellently Adapted To
Prairie Travelling.
How strange it seems!
Here are people who have
been from twenty to thirty days on their journey to the nearest
civilized community. This is their nearest market. Their average rate
of travelling is about fifteen miles a day, and they generally secure
game enough on the way for their living. I have had highly interesting
accounts of the Red River settlement since I have been here, both from
Mr. Ross and Mr. Marion, gentlemen recently from there. The settlement
is seventy miles north of Pembina, and lies on both sides of the
river. Its population is estimated at 10,000. It owes its origin and
growth to the enterprise and success of the Hudson's Bay Company. Many
of the settlers came from Scotland, but the most were from Canada.
They speak English and Canadian French. The English style of society
is well kept up, whether we regard the church with its bishop, the
trader with his wine cellar, the scholar with his library, the officer
with his sinecure, or their paper currency. I find they have
everything but a hotel, for I was particular on that point, though not
intending just yet to go there. Probably the arrivals do not justify
such an institution, but their cordial hospitality will make up for
any such lack, from all I hear. They have a judge who gets a good
house to live in, and L1000 sterling a year; but he has nothing of
consequence to do. He was formerly a leading lawyer in Canada.
The great business of the settlement, of course, is the fur traffic.
An immense amount of buffalo skins is taken in the summer and autumn,
while in the winter smaller but more valuable furs are procured. The
Indians also enlist in the hunts; and it is estimated that upwards of
$200,000 worth of furs are annually taken from our territory and sold
to the Hudson's Bay Company. It is high time indeed that a military
post should be established somewhere on the Red River by our
government. The Hudson's Bay Company is now a powerful monopoly. Not
so magnificent and potent as the East India Company, it is still a
powerful combination, showering opulence on its members, and
reflecting a peculiar feature in the strength and grandeur of the
British empire a power, which, to use the eloquent language of
Daniel Webster, "has dotted over the whole surface of the globe with
her possessions and military posts whose morning drum-beat,
following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the
earth daily with one continuous and unbroken strain of martial music."
The company is growing richer every year, and its jurisdiction and its
lands will soon find an availability never dreamed of by its founders,
unless, as may possibly happen, popular sovereignty steps in to grasp
the fruits of its long apprenticeship. Some time ago I believe the
Canadas sought to annex this broad expanse to their own jurisdiction.
There are about two hundred members in the Hudson's Bay Company. The
charter gives them the power to legislate for the settlement. They
have many persons in their employ in England as well as in British
America. A clerk, after serving the company ten years, with a salary
of about $500 per annum, is considered qualified for membership, with
the right to vote in the deliberations of the company, and one share
in the profits. The profits of a share last year amounted to $10,000!
A factor of the company, after serving ten years, is entitled to
membership with the profits of two shares. The aristocracy of the
settlement consists principally of retired factors and other members
of the company, who possess large fortunes, dine on juicy roast beef,
with old port, ride in their carriages, and enjoy life in a very
comfortable manner. Two of the company's ships sail up into Hudson's
Bay every year to bring merchandise to the settlement and take away
furs. [1] But the greatest portion of the trade is done with
Minnesota. Farming is carried on in the neighborhood of the settlement
with cheerful ease and grand success. I was as much surprised to hear
of the nature of their agriculture as of anything else concerning the
settlement. The same kind of crops are raised as in Pennsylvania or
Maine; and this in a country, be it remembered, five hundred miles and
upwards north of St. Paul. Stock must be easily raised, as it would
appear from the fact that it is driven down here into the territory
and sold at a great profit. Since I have been here, a drove of
fine-looking cattle from that settlement passed to be sold in the
towns below, and a drove of horses is expected this fall. The stock
which comes from there is more hardy than can be got anywhere else,
and therefore is preferred by the Minnesotians.
[1 "The Hudson's Bay Company allows its servants, while making a
voyage, eight pounds of meat a day, and I am told the allowance is
none too much." (Lieutenant Howison's Report on Oregon, p. 7.)]
The following extract from Ex-Governor Ramsey's address, recently
delivered before the annual fair at Minneapolis, wherein he gives some
results of his observations of the Red River settlement during his
trip there in 1851, will be read with much interest:
"Re-embarking in our canoes, we continued descending the river for
some fifteen miles further, through the French portion of the
settlement, lining mainly the west or left bank of the river, until we
arrived about the centre of the colony, at the mouth of the
Assinniboin tributary of Red River, where we landed and remained a few
days, viewing the colony and its improvements. I was at that time, and
am even now, when I look back upon it, lost in wonder at the phenomena
which that settlement exhibits to the world, considering its location
in an almost polar region of the North.
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