, 1858-10-22

TO ked river, remltted the price OF their
lands, and re-estabished the Colony on q
new and solid basis.
Still, as farming has been begun too late,
the harvest was scanty, and at the ap-
proach of winter the whole Colony aband-
oned the place. They fled to Pembina,
there hoping to subsist on the product Of
the chase. When they arrived there, they
found they must join party of Indians and
half-breeds which had set out some days
previously. OF they started through the
snow. They were ill-clad and ill-supplied
with food. The thermometer ranged from
$50 10 400 below zero. "Our sufFerings,"
said one of the wretched Highlanders,
were almost beyond human endurance,
and even at this distant day we shudder at
the painful recollection; for many time,
when the last mouthful was consumed, and
our children crying for more, we knew not
how or where the next morsel was to come
from. A rabbit, a crow, a snow-bird, or
even piece Of parchment would be found
perhaps; and thus from time to time we
kept body and soul together. We reached
the camp when the last morsel of food was
gone, and we were at the last gasp on the
eve of Christmas day"
Starvation avoided by entering the ser
vice of the Indian hunters as camp drudges,
the Highlanders returned to Red river in
the spring. This fourth beginning was the
most promising Of ALL The Northwesters
only carried off man from time to time.
The weather was fine; the crops promised
well. Hope began to cheer the settlers;
when alasl "just as the corn was in ear,
and the barley almost ripe, cloud of grass
hoppers from the west darkened the air,
and fell like heavy shower of snow on
the Colony" In one night, crops, gardens
and every green herb in the settlement per-
ished
To Pembina again that fall, and more
Sickening misery there. In the spring a.
fifth attempt to settle Red river. But the
June heats quickened the Larvae the grass
hoppers had left in the ground. They
arose from the earth in masses. They Law
four solid inches deep on some spots They
poisoned the water. Men shoVelsd them
aside with their spades to make way into
their novels. No green thing-neither the
herbs, nor the leaves Of the bushes nor
grass Of the plains-saw the September Of
that year. Even outdoor fires were ex-
tinguished by the shower Of insects, and the
air was infected by the sffluVia from their
pntrefying cOrpsos. To return to Pembina
was necessity.
But the perseverance Of the HighIaRders
grew nobler with obstacles. For the sixth
time, in the spring Of 1890, they returned
to Red river. Lord Selkirk's iren will
knew no such thing failure. The men
had not even saved seed out of the gene
raj ruin. At a cost Of $4,000 be procured
$50 bushels Of seed wheat from Missouri.
Again the land was sowed, and again the
bright days Of June were darkensd with
lgrasshoppers. But man can always live
down obstacles. The plague abatsd. Ear
ly in the season the grasshoppers disap-
peared, never to return, and for the first
time in their eight years experience, the
Red river colonists gathered in their har-
vest safely. More cOlOnists arrived
Swiss, Germans and Scotch. Men still
starved at seed time. The poor Swiss suf-
fered horribly; bartered their all for the
meansst pittancs. Men gave their guns,
women their rings, or what was dearer still,
for catfish. But the colonial roots had
struck, and in comparison with the past,
these seemed very bright times.
After the death Of Lord Selkirk. the
Colony were visited by new plague in the
shape Of his two successors as Governor Of
the settlement, M'Dowell and Pelly. Strug-
Cling on as best they could under such ru-
lers as these, the Red river Colonists reach
ed the year 1926. A fearful storm in De-
cember of 1925 commenced a new cata-
logue of mishaps. The buffalo were driven
from their haunts by the storm; the Geld
was intense;. what from the frost and what
from famine, thirty-three persons perished,
and many others were severely tried. That
winter, the thermometer often marked 45O
below zero, and the snow lay three feet
thick in the level plains On the I'd May
the thaw began, and the river rose nine
feet perpendicular in twenty-four hours
The Indians stood aghast On the 4th, the
water reached the cellars; on the 9th, every
house in the village was abandoned. The
settlers Aocked to the high ground, some
losing all their property. A current set in
toward Lake Winnipeg, and on the sur
face the survivors Of the dsluge watched
their houses, barns, carriages, furniture,
fencing, and everything else that would
float, drift steadily toward the great lake.
For nineteen consecutive days the waters
rose, and every trace Of the Colony was
washed away. On the twentieth day the
people held council on their hilltop, in
order to decide whittier they should sail in
search Of q new home. While they were
debating, with weary hearts, not few
among them yet eliDging to the scene Of
their mseries, news came that the waters
had not risen an inch for many hours. The
council broke up So intense was the anx-
iety that no man spoke. Some seized rods
and planted them in the water to serve as
tide-guages. Others, less hopeful, sat
sternly down by the side Of the deluge,
gazing at it with stony faces. Before long,