144 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



they were segregated as a people in the parish of Kildonan, which dif- 

 fered in faith from the other English parishes. Among the Hudson's 

 Bay officers, sixty-five per cent were Scotch, and notable names 

 among them were Pruden, Bird, Burns, Stewart, Lillie, Campbell, Chris- 

 tie, Kennedy, Heron, Eoss, Murray, Mackenzie, Hardisty, Graham, 

 McTavish, Bannatyne, Cowan, Eowand, Sinclair, Sutherland, Fin- 

 layson. Smith, Balsillie, Hargrave and others. The people of Kildo- 

 nan bore the ordinary Highland names. 



CONCLUSION. 



Some 50,000 Indians stiJl remain in the old limits of Eupert's Land. 

 The original settlers of Eupert's Land have now been overwhelmed by 

 hundreds of thousands of new comers, and the old life of Eupert's Land 

 has gone never to return. Along with the new settlers, younger Kildo- 

 nan has spread itself out into Springfield, Sunnyside, Millbrook, Grass- 

 mere, Brant and Argyle, and elsewhere; a Metis overflow has taken 

 place to St. Albert, Batoche, and Qu'Appelle and to many a lonely lake 

 and river in the NorthweBt Territories; the English half-breed has in 

 many cases hurried west to Edmonton, Prince Albert and Battleford to 

 find a home like to that of his fathers on Eed Eiver; and the Saulteaux 

 on St. Peters, on Eed Eiver, the Crées and iVssiniboines on numerous re- 

 serves scattered over the plains are becoming less picturesque but more 

 civilized and comfortable; Ojibways and Swam(pjy Crées are still hold- 

 ing their settlements on the Laurentian belt, making a living by fish- 

 ing, hunting, and labouring for the white settlers and lumbermen. 



It will never be quite appreciated by those from abroad who have 

 come to the western province and territories, how much they owe to 

 those who preceded them in old Eupert's Land. That earlier occu- 

 pation meant the occupation of the land by Indian hunter and English 

 and Canadian fur trader. In time by a slow but sure process came the 

 gradual introduction of Christianity and the attainment of a semi-civi- 

 lization; thus the barbarous and wandering life of the savages grew 

 into habits of order and settled work. By this means a valuable 

 pioneering and trading agency was provided for the fur trade, for sur- 

 veying the plains and for Canadian exploration. This early occupa- 

 tion by the whites gave us the nucleus of our present educational and 

 religious organization. These influences made the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany not only a band of traders, but a company which helped forward 

 in different lines the improvement of the Indians, and led them to be 

 the friends of education «and religion. If the writer reads the story 

 aright, all this jonduced to save to Britain and Canada the vast north- 

 west which would otherwise not unlikely have met the fate of Oregon. 



