The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1859-09-16

open new and cardinal epoch IN the his
tory of Minnesota.
When 1 met ANsoN NoRrHUp and his
party at Alexandria, after the. compile
tion of the round trip to Fort Garry,
on his return to St. Paul, with load of
lady passengers from Selkirk, you will
comprehend the chagrin felt on being
so atrociously cheated out of the romance of
that first voyage on the secret waters of the
north. 1t was some compensation for the
loss of personal share in the glory of the
affair, that my friend WOODBURY. was on
board the Anson Northrup, to fill the part
of historian, and had taken ample notes for
the benefit of the press. But, with the
heavy imprint of Burbank & Co.'S coaches
before US, to mark our way to the Red
River, and the secret of the river stolen by
the Anson Northrup, all sense of novelty
seemed banished from the route. All the
freshness had died out of the solitudes when
Capt. BLAKELY had marked out stations
and stables for stage route; and the waters
of the river, in the prospect of unwinding
link by link the mystery of whose ways
had found strange fascination, now, once
ravished of their virgin charm, seem stale,
and old, aud dull. All about the voyage of
the Anson Northrup, and-as your cores
pondent, Mr.. TAYLOR, came by stage-all
about the adventurous opening of the stage
through sloughs and woods, and over, and
sometimes under rivers without bridges, you
know, of course, already. If you think
BLAKELY came by Abercrombie in any one
horse hack concern, you must have
"mighty" poor opinion of Burbank & Co.'s
resources four-horse coaches, and two of
them at that-nothing less than the best
turnout of the establishment-to carry the
mail weekly, as per contract, to Fort Aber-
crombie; with precious burden, beside, of
rosy Scotch lassies, looking for their lovers
among the icebergs, and of certain lazy,
rollicking English boys, of whom, think, I
made mention in their place, before.
And if you are indulging, Gentlemen
Editors, in the arrogant delusion, which
would be just like you by the way, that the
" Anson Nortbrop" is mere scow, with an
improvised attachment of engine and wheels,
you will be, as usual, nightly mistaken,
Gentlemen. The Anson Northrup, to be
sure, is not as large nor as magnificent as
an ocean steamship of the Collins line, but
in her dimensions she is exactly suited to the
capacity of the stream and in her appoint
ments to the immediate necessities of the
travel and trade hitherward. Everybody
acquainted with the circumstances under
which she was fitted up, and the materials
at hand, expresses an unaffected astonlsh-
ment at the neatness and finish of the joiners'
work. Her cabin is contracted to be sure,
and without carpet or gliding, or paint out
side or in but these luxuries are not indis.
pensable in country where the prevailing
carpet is the green grass of the prairie, and
where the voyage is performed almost with
out spectator for five hundred miles. The
cabin is without staterooms but the smooth
board hunks with their calico hangings,
may be supposed to meet every demand of
luxury, in country where a buffalo robe
spread upon the ground is couch for
lord.
Rough place, this Abercrombie !! Ten
thousand dollars expended to make one
moderately sized cottage on the prairie, for
the quarters of commanding officer-which,
by tie way, absorbs eight. tenths of the ap-
preparation in universal ceiling, and square
edging and joining from top to bottom, and
is not yet half finished-and the residue
gone into number of low mud -cLinked log
huts for the subordinate and private fry, ar
ranged in the form of square under the
big trees of Graham's Point, to frighten
the Indians.
This is no place to requite with compli-
ments the graceful hospitality and courtesy
of the officers whom we found at the fort.
with one company of infantry, all which
the caprices of the War Department have
left there. Captain DAVIS was in expecta-
tion, with every mail, to receive orders to
vacate the premises. Unless the govern
ment intended to plant fort somewhere on
this unprotected frontier over which it is ex-
tending its surveys, there should surely be a
strong effort made by the friends of pro-
gress in this direction to impress upon the
federal authorities the serious impolicy of
this movement.
1t was interesting to observe in the hum
BILE rooms, which serve for the temporary
quarters of the oficers-how an educated
taste can develope an air of comfort and even
luxury from the rude materials of frontier
life, and this too, in the quarters of jolly
set of bachelors-in which no part of the
credit is to be awarded to the tact, the
inventiveness, the refining influence offemale
supervision.
We found the English party encamped
just above the fort, and the bonnie Scotch
lassies assigned, by the politeness of Capt.
DAVIS, to comfortable lodgment in some
of the finished rooms of the commanding
officers unoccupied quarters-the whole
party deeply disappointed that the " Anson
Northrup was not to proceed for time
upon her second trip. Capt. BLAKELY how.
ever, was energetically engaged in building
a batteau for the transportation of the party,
with their innumerable trunks and other in.
dispensables Of English and Scotch comfort.