30 The Winning of the West 



in the way the work has had to be done in different 

 parts of the country, since the close of the great 

 colonial contests between England, France, and 

 Spain. 



The extension of the English westward through 

 Canada since the war of the Revolution has been in 

 its essential features merely a less important repeti- 

 tion of what has gone on in the northern United 

 States. The gold miner, the trans-continental rail- 

 way, and the soldier have been the pioneers of civ- 

 ilization. The chief point of difference, which was 

 but small, arose from the fact that the whole of 

 western Canada was for a long time under the con- 

 trol of the most powerful of all the fur companies, 

 in whose employ were very many French voyageurs 

 and coureurs des bois. From these there sprang 

 up in the valleys of the Red River and the Saskat- 

 chewan a singular race of half-breeds, with a unique 

 semi-civilization of their own. It was with these 

 half-breeds, and not, as in the United States, with 

 the Indians, that the settlers of northwestern Cana- 

 da had their main difficulties. 



In what now forms the United States, taking the 

 country as a whole, the foes who had to be met and 

 overcome were very much more formidable. The 

 ground had to be not only settled but conquered, 

 sometimes at the expense of the natives, often at 

 the expense of rival European races. As already 

 pointed out the Indians themselves formed one of 

 the main factors in deciding the fate of the conti- 

 nent. They were never able in the end to avert 



