There can be only one first party of those who laid the foundation of collective family life in what is now the Province of Manitoba—­and what is wider—­in the great Western Canada of to-day.  There may have been not many wise men, not many mighty, not many noble among them, but the long and stormy voyage which they made, the dangers they endured on the sea, the marvellous land journey they accomplished, and their taking “seisin of the land,” to use William the Conqueror’s phrase, entitles them to recognition and to respectful memory.

CHAPTER VI.

“Three desperate years.”

Pioneering to-day is not so serious a matter as it once was.  To the frontiers’ man now it involves little risk, and little thought, to dispose of his holding, and make a dash further West for two or three hundreds of miles across the plains.  When he wishes more land for his growing sons, he “sells out,” fits up his commodious covered wagon, called “the prairie schooner,” and with implements, supplies, cattle and horses, starts on the Western “trail.”  His wife and children are in high spirits.  When a running stream or spring is reached on the way he stops and camps.  His journey taken when the weather is fine and when the mosquitoes are gone is a diversion.  The writer has seen a family which went through this gypsy-like “moving” no less than four times.  At length the settler finds his location, has it registered in the nearest Land Office and calls it his.  With ready axes, the farmer and his sons cut down the logs which are to make their dwelling.  The children explore the new farm lying covered with its velvet sod, as it has done for centuries; they gather its flowers, pluck its wild fruits, chase its wild ducks or grouse or gophers.  Health and homely fare make life enjoyable.  Subject to the incidents and interruptions of every day, which follow humanity, it seems to them a continual picnic.

But how different was the fate of the worn-out Selkirk Colonists.  The memory of a wretched sea voyage, of a long and dreary winter at Nelson Encampment, and of a fifty-five days’ journey of constant hardship along the fur traders’ route were impressed upon their minds.  The thought of fierce rivers and the dangers of portage and cascade still haunted them, and now everything on the banks of Red River was strange.  On their arrival the flowers were blooming, but they were prairie flowers, and unknown to them.  The small Colony houses which they were to occupy would be uncomfortable.  The very sun in the sky seemed alien to them, for the Highland drizzle was seen no more.  The days were bright, the weather warm, the nights cool, and there was an occasional August thunderstorm, or hailstorm which alarmed them.  The traders, the Indians, the half-breed trappers, and runners were all new to them.  Their Gaelic language, which they claimed as that of Eden, was of little value to them except where an occasional