8 

 uage was to be brought into ]>lay in case of a parley with the 

 irate Indians. 



A detention of two weeks at Georgetown waiting for some 

 small portions of machinery, however, saved us from difficulty 

 with the Indians, none of whom we saw on our guarded pas- 

 sage dovvn the liver, they having probably gone back to their 

 hunting gi'ounds near Red Lake. 



Pembina was reached, then only half a dozen houses ; the 

 boundary line was crossed, then Fort Pembina, (the Hudson's 

 Bay Company's wooden stockade) came in view. Thirty miles 

 below we reached the tirst of the Red River settlements, the 

 inhabitants congregating on the banks to see the st)-ange 

 steame:' passing ; and it was with intense interest that we 

 reached at last the bend of the river which disclosed the twin- 

 towered cathedral of St. Boniface ; another bend, and Fort 

 Garry came in view ; a straight run along the present course 

 of the Winnipeg Rowing Club was traversed, when, turning 

 up the Assiniboine to land where Main Street bi'idge now is, 

 the groves, church and tower of St. John's could be seen across 

 the almost blank intervening space ; and the steam whistle 

 once belonging to a very much larger steamer, which had been 

 blowing almost continu(JUsly for the previous half hour, 

 brought, I think, what must have been very nearly every 

 living human being for two miles around to the sloping bank 

 where the steamer landed. Ascending this bank, Foit Garry, 

 so often heard of, was inspected ; and even then time and an 

 imperfect foundation had left cracks in the stone walls. It 

 seemed, however, a place which a very few men could hold 

 against a number unprovided with artillery ; for the bastions 

 were pierced on all sides, not only for small arms, but carron- 

 a.lts were mounted at each embrasure. The front gate was 

 massive, like the front wall, which faced towaids the Assini- 

 boine, and was entirely flanked and protected by bastion pro- 

 jections, so that there was no chance for any force unprovided 

 with artilleiy to make a rush on the gateway. This gate, 

 however, was only open on special occasions, the business gate 

 of the Fort being on its eastern side, and was simply a sally- 



