The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-19
=. Finance, Real Estate Insurance =.
THE CONQUEST
 OF MANITOBA

One of the most picturesque and thrilling chapters of North American
 history Is that which deals with the conquest and civilizatio of Manitoba and the other western provinces of Canada. Now one of the great gran aries of the world a land of plenty girdled with railways and supporting hourishing cities, it was only a, cen tury ago that this vast section was a wilderness inhabited only by Indians Canadian voyagers in the employ of the fur companies, with but single tiny settlement on the Red River in what is now Manitoba.
 Today marks the centenary of one of the most thrilling of the incidents which characterized the early history of Manitoba. The battle of Seven oaks, fought on June 19, 1916, result ed in the death of Robert Semp1e, the governor of the Red River country by appointment of the Hudson's Bay Company, and twenty of his follow CTS, who were slain in conflict with a party of the Northwest Companys s traders and haIf-breed adventurers, led by Cuthbert Grant.
 The Hudson Bay Company which had long exercised complete control over the whole country, had had since 1774 a bitter rival in the Northwest Company of Montreal. In 1911 Lord Selkirk, a Scottish peer, obtained a
 grant of land from the Hudson Bay Company, proposing to establish a colony. The first settlers left Sligo that year and after many hardships reached the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the site of the present city of Winnipeg. The agents of the Northwest Company bitterly re- scented the invasion of these farmers, who were under the protection of the rival fur company, and from the first eIoacy. T~ 14 l Nor 'westers induced a number of the
 settlers to depart for Canada, while l those who insisted upon remaining g
 were deported to the foot of Lake Win
 nipeg.
 In the spring of 1916 Lord se1kirk appealed for troops to protect his col
 ony, but Sir Gordon Drummond, gov 1 ernor of Lower Canada, refused the
 request The Canadian commander 1 instead, addressed a letter to the heads of the rival companies calling upon | them to restrain their agents from fur ther acts of violence such as had l brought dishonor on the name o1 Englishmen.'' In the meantime Rob- ert SempEe had been appointed gov ernor of the settlement, and was ac- tcompanied by a number of Scottish settlers. At Norway House he was met by band of settlers who had beer driven from their homes by the Nor
 westers. Semple and his followers re. ltaIiated by seizing Fort Gibraltar, g
 post of the Northwest Company. The Nor westers turned the tables wher
 they advanced on Fort Douglas, the
 Hudson Bay Company's headquarters
 Semple and a few followers advanced
 to meet them, and at Sevenoaks 2 pitched battle was fought, in whict ISemp1e and most of his followers were
 'slain, and Fort Douglas was captured The unfortunate settlers were agair
 driven from their homes.
 The warfare between the companie:
 continued until 1821,' when they were
 ama1gamated. In the meantime tht coIonists suffered about every conceiv able hardship. Twice their crops were
 completely destroyed by grasshoppers
 Blizzards and famine often brough
 the project to the verge of failure, ana for years thereafter pessirnists declar
 ed that Manitoba was uninhabitablt
 by white men and agricultural.
 worthless. In the end man triumph
 ed over the hostile forces of nature and the Red River settlement became
 the nucleus of the rich agriculture
 province of to-day.