73 KXPEDITION TO THE 



wishes which he manifeslcd for their success; he expend- 

 ed a large fortune, and, what is a better test of his sin- 

 cerity, he underwent many personal hardships and dan- 

 gers, to protect his settlers against those whom he con- 

 sidered as the persecutors of the colony. Whatever opi- 

 nion may therefore be entei'tained of the expediency of his; 

 measures or of the policy of his colonial system, all must 

 acquit him of any selfish or interested motives, or of any 

 abandonment of those whom he had induced to settle on Red 

 river. It is not from the success or failure of a measure, 

 that the motives of its promoters are to be deduced ; and 

 in this case it appears to us by no means improbable, that 

 if the colonists had not been involved in the quarrel with 

 the North-west Company, the Red river settlement might 

 have realized the hopes and washes of its founder. 



One of the principal hardships which the colony had to 

 undergo was from the severity of the winters. The maxi- 

 mum of cold, or lowest point to which the thermometer 

 descended in the winterof 1822-23, was -52° (F.) Butthis 

 is amply compensated by the warmth of the summer ; and 

 the rapidity of the vegetation makes up for the shortness 

 of the season. From the quantity of wild fruit about here, 

 we are led to believe, that with a little care, good orchards 

 might be obtained. The fruit consists of apples, plums, 

 pembina, and several varieties of raspberries, one of 

 which is deeper coloured, smaller, and more oval than the 

 domestic raspberry of our gardens ; it partakes of the fla- 

 vour of the strawberry. 



We were detained several days at the settlement, by the 

 preparations required for our navigation; but the time 

 spent there was rendered very interesting, by the singu- 

 lar association of features which the country presented, as 

 we observed it while seated on the elevated bank upon 



