On tbe $t Paul trail in tbe Sixties 



(Biographical Note. — Mr. W. G. Fonseca, the writer of 

 the following paper, is a pioneer of the old Red River days. 

 A native of Santa Croix, he was attracted to St. Paul, Minn., 

 many years ago, and seeking new scenes, found his way to 

 Red River Settlement in 1859. Here he engaged in busi- 

 ness, married one of the Logan family, and settled on Point 

 Douglas, now a part of the City of Winnipeg. Mr. Fonseca 

 has ever been a public-minded citizen, and this paper is a 

 reminiscence of the cart-trail from Fort Garry to St. Cloud, 

 or St. Paul, and return in the days when Winnipeg had not 

 yet come into existence.) 



The following paper was read in the City Hall, Winni- 

 peg, and before the Historical Society, on the evening of Jan. 

 25th, 1900, in the absence of the writer through sickness, by 

 Mr. K. ]Sr. L. Macdonald, a Vice-President of the Society. 



"Tempora mutantur" comes to the writer's lips as he sees 

 to-day the railways running over the prairies, parallel to the 

 ruts of the Red River cart, and thinks of the slowness and 

 difficulty of travel mingled with a strange romance and in- 

 terest attaching to the trail and its primitive life, as compared 

 with the present hurry, bustle, and commonplace of the puf- 

 fing engine and the Pullman car. 



One such journey comes to the writer's mind, surrounded 

 with more incident than others on which the writer crossed 

 the plains. While in those days supplies still came by way of 

 York Factory, brought by the Hudson's Bay Company's ship 

 from Britain, and were carried by bands of hardy voyageurs 

 in York boats by way of lake, river and portage, in the 

 early sixties of the century the cart route over the prairie to 

 St. Paul, Minnesota, was largely availed of by the Red River 

 settlers. The Red River cart — aptly called the "prairie 

 schooner" — took out loads of fur for the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany to St. Paul, and came back laden with supplies for the 

 Company or for the settlers. 



BEFORE STARTD^G. 



For company and safety many carts went on the same ex- 

 pedition and for days before the start all was activity. As 



