480 



MANITOBA. 



am." Had it not been for this eminence, the 

 history of at least tne first settlement on Red 

 river would have baen short and tragic. There 

 Nature had provided for the unfortunate people 

 an asylum against the fury of the floods, and 

 there they waited until the subsidence- of the 

 waters enabled them to return to their desolated 

 homes and begin anew the struggle of life. 

 With experience, the inhabitants learned to 

 prepare, to some extent, for these floods. The 

 catastrophe was regarded as an annual proba- 

 bility. Owing mainly to engineering provisions 

 connected with railway works, these inundations 

 are not likely to recur. 



These Selkirk settlers found themselves afflict- 

 ed from time to time by a plague of locusts or 

 grasshoppers, which swept northward into the 

 Red river and Assiniboine settlements in im- 

 mense clouds and devoured every green thing 

 before them. On each of these occasions the 

 agricultural crops were almost entirely con- 

 sumed, and the people were driven to the verge 

 of starvation. There were years in which actual 

 famine was only averted through charitable aid 

 from abroad. 



The Earl of Selkirk died in 1820, and in 1835 

 all his claims upon the Red river were by his 

 legal representatives transferred to the Hud- 

 son Bay Company. The population of the 

 somewhat scattered settlement was then esti- 

 mated at 5,0t)0. This comprised a motley of 

 Scottish Highlanders and their thoroughbred 

 descendants. French half-breeds (otherwise called 

 Metis, or Bns-brule), English half-breeds, and 

 officials of the Hudson Bay Company. The 

 latter class had now come to regard the Selkirk 

 or Port Garry settlement as the capital of their 

 domains, and the whole colony a dependency of 

 the Hudson Bay Company itself. Fort Garry 

 had been built in 1821, concurrently with the 

 amalgamation of the two fur companies. This, 

 known as "the old Fort." was replaced in 1835 

 by the more capacious and substantial and not 

 unpicturesque New Fort Garry, on the north 

 bank of the Assiniboine. only a few rods above 

 the point of its junction with the Red river. 

 This, in its turn, was razed, in 1882. to make 

 way for the requirements of a growing city. 



About the time that the settlement had com- 

 pleted its fourth decade people in the eastern prov- 

 inces of British North America began to make 

 inquiries about this great and almost unknown 

 region. Expeditions were sent out by them to 

 spy out the land, and enterprise and curiosity 

 sent many private explorers upon the same track. 

 It was soon made known to all that the Hudson 

 Bay territories comprised industrial resources of 

 enormous value, especially for agriculture and 

 mining that, in short, within themselves they 

 embraced the elements of an empire. The Do- 

 minion of Canada was founded in 1867, and one 

 of the earliest resolves of its government was, 

 that the Hudson Bay Company "must go," or 

 agree to some reasonable arrangement for sur- 

 rendering the soil of this vast territory. In 18(19 

 the Hudson Bay Company sold out all their ter- 

 ritorial right and claim to the British Govern- 

 ment, acting for Canada, for the sum of 300.000 

 and certain land reservations ; and Canada paid 

 that money and entered into possession. The 

 population of the whole territory was then esti- 



mated at 12,000, but this must have been exclu- 

 sive of the Indians. 



As it now turned 

 out, the French half- 

 breeds had arrived at 

 the conclusion that 

 this large portion of 

 the world was made 

 solely for them ; and 

 in this same year(1869) 

 they, under the inspi- 

 ration and leadership 

 of Louis Riel, raised 

 a rebellion, put forth 

 manifestoes, and in- 

 dulged in all the dem- 

 onstrations usual on 

 such occasions. "Riel's 

 second rebellion," in 

 1885. was a natural 

 sequel of the first. Its 

 main interest was ex- 

 cited by the prompt- 

 ness and spirit with 

 which the Canadians 

 of every province, from 

 Nova Scotia to British 

 Columbia, sprang to 

 meet the occasion, 

 while yet unaware of 

 the magnitude of the 

 defection. (See " An- 

 nual Cyclopaedia'' for 

 1885, page 124). 



Description and 

 Recent Progress. 

 The area of Manitoba, 

 as finally determined, 

 is 123,200 square miles. 

 Its progress in popu- 

 lation and industrial 

 pursuits in 1881-'82 

 were phenomenal. In 

 1871 the village about 

 Fort Garry contained 

 241 souls. This num- 

 berhad so far increased 

 within the two ensuing years that in 1873 it was 

 deemed advisable to have the place incorporated 

 as a city, under the name of Winnipeg. In 1881 

 the census return gave the population of the 

 young city as 7.985. In the spring of 1882 it was 

 over 25,000, and the fail way trains were bringing 

 population into the province at the rate of over 

 1.000 a day ; and to facilitate this movement the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway Company's employes 

 were laying down rails on their now celebrated 

 line at a rate of speed which had no precedent 

 By the census of 1891 the population of the 

 province amounted to 154,442, and that of Win- 

 nipeg to 25,642. 



Legislation. On Feb. 26. 1891, the fourth 

 session of the seventh Legislature of the province 

 was opened at Winnipeg (after the election of 

 Samuel Jacob Jackson, Speaker, vice Hon. Will- 

 iam Winram, deceased) by His Honor John 

 Christian Schultz, with the following speech : 



Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Legislative As- 

 sembly : 



While I have much pleasure in meeting yon on the 

 opening of this the fourth session of the seventh Legis- 



MONUMSNT IN WINNIPEG TO 

 THE SOLDIKES THAT FELL 

 IN THE RED RIVER RE- 

 BELLION. 



