35 

 tion : "Erected in 1891 by the Manitoba Historical Society, 

 through the generosity of the Countess of Selkii'k, on the site 

 of Seven Oaks, where fell Governor Robert Semple and twenty 

 of his officers and men, June 19th, 1816." 



The ceremony of the unveiling was followed by several 

 short addresses. 



Rev. Canon Matheson spoke as follows : As a native of 

 Manitoba, and one born within a few rods of this historic 

 spot, I have been asked to say a few words on the occasion of 

 the unveiling of this monument. Three-quarters of a century 

 ago to-day my grandfather took p&vt in the unfortunate con- 

 flict which occurred on the banks of this ravine, and was one 

 of the few who survived that sad and fatal day in the annals 

 of the Red River colony. He owed his life to the clemency 

 and intercession of a friendly French-Canadian, and his I'ecord 

 of the affair, known as Pritchard's narrative, is perhaps the 

 most accurate which we possess to-day. As the adopted son 

 in the home of that grandfather, I well remember what a 

 close friendship was cherished and maintained to the relatives 

 of that French Canadian for his kind deed to the head of our 

 family in this land. Being, then, one of the direct descendants 

 of a family so intimately connected with the history of the 

 event which we mark to-day, my nature w'ould be impervious 

 to all sentiment were there not something stirred up in my 

 breast by the ceremony of this afternoon. My feeling is one 

 of thankfulness, and that thankfulness is of a three-fold 

 nature. I am thankful, first of all, that we natives can claim 

 such close kinship with the distant past of a country which is 

 destined to have such a glorious future. I am thankful, in 

 the scond place, that a wise Providence overruled the disunion 

 of that past, and so soon welded the discordant and oppress- 

 ing elements of those early days in a community of a happy, 

 contented and self-reliant people. It was well, perhaps, that 

 our colony was thus at its inception baptized in struggle. It 

 tended to make those pioneer forefathers of ours staunch men, 

 staunch and true to lay broad and deep the foundations of 

 that God-fearing little community in which it was our privi- 



