Читать книгу A Critical History of the Red River Insurrection - Rev. A. G. Morice - Страница 10

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Having afterwards surrendered to the authorities, he endeavoured to convince them of their wrong position. But, deaf to his remonstrances, they finally consigned him to the local jail. He had not been there more than four hours when he allowed his friends to release him “after they had torn down the gaol walls and battered in the prison door.”[53]

In his Life of Lord Strathcona, Beckles Willson, referring to a later period, has it that “the notorious Schultz [at the time of a small-pox epidemic among the Indians, scarcely two years after the events we shall relate in these pages] . . . took upon himself to supply this surgeon with a large quantity of brandy and rum to the value of £120. When Capt. Butler got into the country, this handsome supply of fire-water[54] had been distributed, and he found the Indians and half-breeds, affected or otherwise, were for the most part in a brutal state of intoxication.

“Butler found it necessary personally to destroy a large quantity of this liquor, spilling it upon the ground to the great chagrin and regret of the thirsty aborigines. As he said to Mr. Smith, ‘there I go with a law passed prohibiting this thing, and, behold, only to find an officer of the Dominion using it very freely and giving it liberally to all about him.’”[55]

It is but right to add that when years afterwards “Mr. (D. A.) Smith openly accused Schultz of this strange conduct,[56] the latter vigorously denied it.” But, as the biographer of the former, remarks, “Mr. Smith had made sure of his facts.”[57]

Strange to say, the only author we know who has a kind word for Dr. Schultz is one of those belittled French Catholics he disliked so cordially, Judge L. A. Prud’homme who has it, probably from some contemporaneous Métis, that “he was a good physician and very charitable.”[58]

Of Scandinavian descent, Schultz had been born in 1840 at Amherstburg, Ontario, and he had been practicing medicine ever since 1860,[59] joining, in the Settlement, the career of a journalist to the profession of a doctor of medicine. In the former capacity, through articles in the Nor’wester[60] and letters to the eastern press, he had endeavoured to create a flow of emigration from his native province to the plains of the West.

In 1867 his efforts at colonizing had resulted in the coming of a score of Ontarians, a feat which naturally rendered him all the bolder in his struggle against local authorities, that is of the Hudson’s Bay Company, which he detested with all his heart. A few more were to follow later on, with, or in the wake of, the surveyors of whom we shall have much to say.

The newcomers from the East went mostly west of the Settlement properly so called, to a region sixty miles off known as Portage la Prairie, on the Assiniboine River, as well as nearer the Red to a place called Headingly, while a few Americans, who had crossed the frontier in the path of the freighters hailing from St. Paul and way points, had remained in the immediate vicinity of Fort Garry, forming with some natives of English speech the embryo of what has become Winnipeg.

As to the original English or Gaelic-speaking settlers and their descendants, they had their farms just north of the confluence of the two streams, close to which were most of the Scotch half-breeds, some of whom, however, were scattered throughout the country while the main body of the Métis, or at least of those with whom this book will deal,[61] occupied the other side of the Red, up and south of the same, forming the groups of St. Boniface, St. Vital, St. Norbert, or Rivière Sale, Ste. Agathe, and inland Ste. Anne des Chênes, Lorette, as well as St. François-Xavier, just above Headingly, St. Paul, still farther up, and St. Laurent, on L. Manitoba.

The Protestant population had for religious and civil centres St. John, where stood the cathedral of the Anglican bishop, St. Andrews, St. Clements and Kildonan, on the Red River, together with St. Mary’s, St. Margaret’s, St. Ann and St. James, on the Assiniboine.

Just close to Fort Garry, an extensive stone wall enclosure with bastions, which sheltered quite a number of buildings for trading, storing and residential purposes, were to be seen some twenty-five houses, put up with scarcely an eye for symmetry or regularity, except along what was then called Main Road, few of which served exclusively as residences.

There were five stores, two hotels and one saloon, a butcher shop occupied by the only French Canadian in the place,[62] a large public hall and block, one mill, the post-office and a little church, Holy Trinity. This was Winnipeg.

Humbler still was St. Boniface, just across the Red. It consisted of the Catholic cathedral, a rather modest edifice with its tower unfinished, which replaced the church “with the turrets twain” sung by Whittier,[63] yet solidly built of stone as was the bishop’s palace immediately to the east of it. Then there was the Grey Nuns convent, a somewhat more pretentious building still extant in its essential parts, as the adjoining girls’ school and even the College,[64] not far off.

To the north of the cathedral, near what we now call Provencher bridge, stood the humble home of a Métis and a boarding-house kept by a French Canadian, while the site of the present hospital was occupied by two private residences, and another, that of a Victor Mager, a Frenchman who was to live till 1930, stood just opposite the mouth of the Assiniboine.

In Winnipeg, the most important building seems to have been the Ermatinger hotel, in the possession of a German whose sister was to marry above mentioned Victor Mager. This was situated a short distance north of what we now call the corner of Portage and Main, on the west side of the latter.

Then there were the post-office block, on a road leading from Main street to the river, in the vicinity of what is to-day Bannatyne East, and another fairly large edifice was the Red River Hall, just opposite the end of Portage avenue on Main street, while, from a business standpoint, the store of the Hudson’s Bay Co., distinct from that of the fort, and that of Bannatyne & Begg were the chief commercial places of the village.[65]

The seat of the civil government was at Fort Garry, which, from a political and material point of view, was the centre as well as the capital of the Colony. Considered as a municipality, or territory more directly under its control, Assiniboia radiated on every side fifty miles from the fort, leaving out some places or minor settlements, such as Portage la Prairie, on the Assiniboine, and St. Laurent, on Lake Manitoba, which were indeed under the jurisdiction of the Hudson’s Bay Co. even as regards civil rights, but did not belong to the little commonwealth which went by the name of Red River Settlement.

A word or two on the history of the country will make it more easy for the reader to understand the conditions of the Colony, even such as they were at the beginning of the troubles we are going to study.

The country had been discovered by Frenchmen led by a noble character, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de Lavérendrye, who first reached the confluence of the Assiniboine on the 24th. of September, 1738, and that same fall erected a trading post at a place on that stream whence the Indians bound for L. Manitoba used to carry[66] their birch bark canoes over land. This was Fort la Reine, the headquarters of the explorer, where is now Portage la Prairie,[67] without counting Fort Rouge, at what is to-day Winnipeg, and Fort Maurepas, near the lake of the same name, etc.

The French occupied the country till the cession of Canada to the British (1763). It is therefore scarcely to be wondered at if, because of their title of pioneers, people of that race have ever felt at home on the western plains, inasmuch as, through intermarriage with Indian women, their own kin became the progenitors of that vigorous population which goes by the name of Métis.

French was the first European language not only spoken in the West, but learnt by western aborigines[68]; the first plot of land cultivated and the first wheat grown there were cultivated and grown by Frenchmen at a spot in the Saskatchewan valley, before any person of British extraction had set foot on its soil[69]; the first minister of any denomination to work there was a priest from old France[70]; the first church of any kind was built by French Canadians at what is now St. Boniface, for a French clergyman, Fr. Norbert Provencher, who started there the first school for boys and established the first college, after which he founded the first school for girls under a Miss A. Nolin, daughter of a French fur-trader.

Speaking of ladies reminds us that the very first white woman who, not only saw the virgin prairies of the West but lived there quite a long time, scoured their immensities from east to west (Pembina to Edmonton) and reared a number of children on the plains[71] was Marie-Anne Gaboury, the courageous wife of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière, who came west in 1807 and died at St. Boniface at the age of 96.

These are so many points of honourable priority which the French in Western Canada have always regarded as giving them at least equal rights on the western plains with those of any other white people.

Under the British regime the descendants of the early French, or their compatriots, identified themselves with the Scotch-Canadian fur-trading company of the North-West, a rival of the Hudson’s Bay Company which, after having had to suffer at the hands of the former, ultimately won the day by absorbing it (1821).

This amalgamation took place five years after a bloody encounter, that of Seven Oaks, which its people had with the Nor’westers, who momentarily destroyed the nucleus of a settlement which was to develop into the modern province of Manitoba.

This settlement had been founded in 1812 by a noble and philanthropic lord, Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, who put it under the direction of a Catholic gentleman, Capt. Miles Macdonell,[72] whose reign was followed by that of eleven governors, culminating in a William Mactavish, the last of them all.

Theoretically, all power was vested in the Hudson’s Bay Company, whose charter granted it sovereign rights and jurisdiction, subject only to the Imperial Government in London. Its head in the West was supreme, even in purely civil affairs; but under him there was another officer called the Governor of Assiniboia, assisted by a council the members of which were appointed by the same corporation. Especially since 1850, these were truly representative of the whole Colony, Catholic and Protestant, French and English, white and half-breed.

It is but right to remark that things were not quite so in the beginning, and that it required an uprising of the Métis in 1849 to snatch from the Company not only the practical abrogation of their fur monopoly, but the right of all the classes of society to representation in the governing body.

This outbreak was headed by Louis Riel the elder.[73] Although it resulted in no written concession, Métis and even natural enemies, or at least competitors, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, such as Andrew McDermot and Andrew Graham Ballenten Bannatyne, were in the course of time admitted into the privileged class of Assiniboia Councillors. The following list of those of the very last years of the Council will show to what extent they represented the various sections of the population.

Chief Factor (the highest grade in the hierarchy of the members of the Company in America) William Mactavish, Governor of Assiniboia since December 9, 1858 and Governor of Rupert’s Land since 1865. Though born in Scotland, he was an Anglican, a quiet and upright man married to a Catholic lady.

The (Anglican) Lord Bishop of Rupert’s Land (Robert Machrea) and

Rt. Rev. (Catholic) Bishop Alexandre Antonin Taché, of St. Boniface, two most honourable clergymen at the head of the two chief religious denominations of the Settlement.

John Black, recorder or chief justice, a greatly respected layman and an Anglican from Scotland.

William Cowan, M.D., a Scotch Anglican in the charge of Fort Garry in 1869.[74]

John Inkster, a native of the Orkney Islands, and a Presbyterian, the father of the late sheriff of the same name who was born in the Settlement.

Robert MacBeth,[75] the father of Rev. Mr. MacBeth, likewise a native of the Colony and the first Assiniboian to be promoted to the rank of councillor (March 29, 1853). A Presbyterian.

Maximilien Genton (or Genthon), a French Canadian born in Lower Canada in 1790, therefore old enough to counsel wisely. A Catholic.

A. G. B. Bannatyne, a prominent merchant after whom one of Winnipeg’s streets is named. Born in the Orkney Islands, he was a Presbyterian and became the first postmaster of Winnipeg.

Henry Fisher was a Catholic half-breed.

Thomas Sinclair, a Councillor since 1853, was an Anglican half-breed.

Roger Goulet was a French half-breed born in the Catholic Church.

J. Curtis Bird, an English doctor of medicine,[76] was an Anglican.

Salomon Hamelin, whose name is generally misspelt in the records,[77] was born in Red River in 1810. A Métis and a Catholic, as was also

Pascal Breland, a lovable type of the old generation half-breeds, who had been appointed in 1857.

James McKay, a Scotch half-breed, at first a Presbyterian and then a Catholic.[78]

William Dease, who was considered a French half-breed despite his name, was the son of explorer Dease, and was to become the leader of the French neutrals in the Riel troubles. A Catholic.

Thomas Bunn, a half-breed Anglican.

Magnus Berston, or Bersten, a Catholic half-breed whose father was an Orkneyman. He resided in St. François-Xavier.

John Sutherland, a Presbyterian native of Scotland, who was to become a senator.

William Fraser, or Frazer, the son of a Selkirk Colonist and a Presbyterian.

Under and, as we have seen, with the active co-operation of those councillors, there was a regular judiciary system; customs duties of 4% were levied by official collectors; other functionaries looked after the making and upkeep of the roads; in short, Assiniboia was endowed with practically all the machinery necessary to the good administration of a civilized community.

Two things only were wanting: the determination to see to the strict enforcement of the laws and regulations enacted by the Council and the material means to secure that enforcement.

So far good-will and a strong sense of duty had stood in place of that force which is often required to obtain obedience. Nevertheless in September, 1846, British troops to the number of 500—ten times more than needed—had been stationed in the Settlement; but these had remained only two years, and had been replaced by 140 pensioners who must have been “retired” indeed, as their services were scarcely ever brought into requisition, the authorities preferring the sanction of conscience to the constraint of physical force.

With the advent of the Canadians from the East, this Arcadian simplicity had become unequal to the task of effectively dealing with offenders. Yet those in power had not altered their patriarchal ways. So much so, indeed, that, as we have seen, even jail-breakings had remained unpunished, and things had come to such a pass that the Government of the Hudson’s Bay Company was now regarded as not only feeble, but obsolete and ineffective—others said moribund.

What could be done with new-comers who despised as antiquated the administration of justice in the country, with strangers who missed in the tranquil Settlement the excitement of elections, apart from the recourse to force in the cases of law-breaking?[79] Two reasons militated against these operations. They would have been a source of expense to the Company itself, which was already burdened with other charges, and then there was in the air an atmosphere of political unsteadiness and suspense which worked against over-exertion.

With regard to the first point, expenses, it must be kept in mind that Assiniboia was one of those rare lands where taxes are unknown. There were in the colony but two officials, the Governor and the Recorder, or Chief Justice, who received salaries worth mentioning, and these were paid by the Company. It must be admitted in passing that, with regard to the latter, this financial dependence put it in a rather delicate position whenever its employees were themselves concerned in a lawsuit.

The small salaries of the other officials[80] were derived from the duty on importations, from the granting of special licences, such as that on spirit distilling, as well as from occasional fines.

As to the feeling of unsteadiness we have referred to, we find an echo of it in the following passage of a well-known book by Mgr. Taché, of St. Boniface:

“In the Colony itself, there is some agitation and worry with regard to the future. Some, very few in numbers, who hope to gain by any change, clamour for it; others, who mind more systems than the application of them, would fain try a change, forgetting that people do not return to the primitive state they have abandoned; most of them, the majority, strongly apprehend that change. Many are quite right: those modifications may benefit the country; it will no doubt acquire many advantages which it lacks, but the present population will certainly lose by them. As we love the people more than the land they occupy, as we prefer the happiness of the former to the splendour of the latter, we must repeat what we have already said: we fear very much for our population some of the changes which are promised them.”[81]