The Buffalo Runners: A Tale of the Red River Plains Read online

  CHAPTER ELEVEN.

  SHOWS SOME OF THE TROUBLES OF PIONEER COLONISTS.

  Okematan was not the only person who opened his eyes on the return ofthe Sinclair boys to camp next day with their heavily laden canoe. TheDavidson and McKay families were much more emphatic in theirastonishment, for the boys, they knew, had not hitherto performed anyexploits in shooting. They had not supposed them gifted with evenordinary powers as sportsmen, and had imagined that the poor invalidlittle Bill was utterly helpless. On the other hand, Okematan was notunacquainted with the sudden rise to unexpected celebrity of Indian boysin his tribe, and knew something about the capacity of even cripples toovercome difficulties when driven by that stern taskmaster, Necessity.

  The abundant supply of provisions thus unexpectedly received was veryacceptable, because during the day on which the boys were absent, afresh band of immigrants had arrived on their way to Red River, and oneparty of these, hailing from Switzerland, had come on to the little lakewhere our Scotch friends were encamped, for the purpose of consulting asto their future movements--for it was evident that it would be dangerousas well as useless for them to proceed to Red River in the existingstate of affairs. The leader of the party was a fair-haired youth, whocould speak English very well.

  The Scotch families were having their mid-day meal around thecamp-fires, when the Switzers arrived and introduced themselves. Ofcourse they were made heartily welcome by Mr Sutherland, who acted asspokesman for his countrymen.

  "We are unfortunate," said the leader of the new arrivals, whose namewas Andre Morel. "We hoped that the severe climate would be our onlyfoe to fight with--especially in a land where the people are so few."

  Sutherland--whose sedate and quiet manner was consistent with hisposition as an elder and spiritual guide of his countrymen at thattime--smiled gravely, shook his head, and stroked his chin.

  "You will find," he said, "that whatever part of this world you go to,the passions of man are always more deadly in their consequences thansurroundings, or climates, or anything else."

  "H'm! what you say iss ferry true," remarked old McKay, who was busypicking the drum-stick of a wild-goose at the moment. "If it wass notfor the jealousy an' ill-will o' the North-Westers we should hev been atthis goot hour in our comfortable houses amang the green fields of RudRuver."

  "Wheesht! faither!" interposed Duncan junior, "Mr Sutherland wassspeakin', an' ye've stoppit him."

  "An' what if I hev, Tuncan? Can he not continoo to speak when I hevdone?" retorted the old man, resuming his drum-stick.

  "You are right, Mr McKay," said the elder. "But for the unfortunatejealousies of the two Companies, we might have been in very differentcircumstances to-day. If the North-Westers could only see that theestablishment of a colony in Red River would in no way hinder thefur-trade, we could all get along peaceably enough together. But itseems to have been ordained that man shall reach every good thingthrough much tribulation."

  "I do not agree wi' you at all, Muster Sutherland," said old McKay."There iss many of rich people in this world, who hev all that hert canwush, an' are born to it without hevin' any treebulation at all."

  "But I did not say `all that heart could wish,' Mr McKay. I said`_every_ good thing'."

  "Well, an' iss not wealth a goot thing, Muster Sutherland?"

  "Only if God's blessing goes along with it," returned the elder. "If itdoes not, wealth is a curse."

  "H'm! I wush I had a little more o' that curse--whatever," answered theirreverent old man.

  "Besides," continued Sutherland, not noticing the remark, "the rich areby no means exempt from tribulation. They are sometimes afflicted withbad children; not infrequently with bad health, which doctors, at two orthree guineas a visit, cannot cure, and many of them are much troubledwith poverty!"

  "You are talking in ruddles now, Muster Sutherland," said old Duncan,who, having finished the drum-stick and its duplicate, was preparing hispipe for action.

  "It is not much of a riddle, Mr McKay. I suppose you consider a manwith ten thousand a year rich, and a man with two hundred poor."

  "Well, yes; I wull not be denyin' that."

  "Well--if the rich man spends ten thousand and fifty pounds a year andnever has anything to spare or to lay by, is he not miserably poor--poorin spirit as well as in purse? For, at the end of the year his purse isempty, and he is in debt. On the other hand, if the man with twohundred a year spends one hundred and fifty, gives away twenty, and laysby thirty every year, is he not rich?"

  "Ferry true, Muster Sutherland," said McKay, with a peculiar smile, ashe emitted his first whiff. "I wull not be arguin' wi' you, for youalways get the best of it. Nevertheless, it is my opeenion that we'vehad treebulation enough in Rud Ruver since we came oot, an' I would beferry gled of a luttle prosperity now--if only by way of a pleesantchange."

  Recurring to this subject a few days later, young Morel asked DanDavidson, while they were paddling back to camp together one eveningwith the proceeds of a day's hunt: "Has your life in the colony, sincethe beginning, been as bad as old McKay made it out the other day?"

  "Well, making due allowance for the old man's use of strong language,his account of matters has not been much overdrawn," answered Dan, who,in virtue of his superior canoe-craft, acted the part of steersman."You see, when we came out here we expected, like you, that all would beplain sailing, except as regarded climate and ordinary difficulties, butour eyes were soon opened to the true state of things. Instead of thewilderness, with a few peaceful inhabitants living under the mild swayof the Hudson Bay Company, we found another company, apparently asstrong as the Hudson's Bay one, in violent opposition. They regardedour coming as likely to ruin their trade, for Lord Selkirk was a shareholder in the Hudson's Bay Company, and it was supposed his object inplanting the colony was to advance his scheme of monopolising the wholefur-trade of the Far West. I cannot myself see how this colony couldinjure the fur-trade; but, anyhow, I know that the opposition hasaffected the colonists very severely, for we have been deceived by thecontending parties, and misled, and delayed or thwarted in all ouroperations.

  "At the very outset, on our arrival, a band of the Nor'-Westers,composed of half-breeds and Indians, warned us that our presence wasunwelcome, and tried to frighten us away by their accounts of the savagenature of the natives. Then the fear of perishing for want of foodinduced a lot of us to take their advice, leave the farms allotted tous, and go to a place called Pembina, about seventy miles distant fromthe colony, there to spend the long and hard winter in tents, accordingto the Indian fashion, and live on the produce of the chase."

  "I should have thought that was a pleasant way of spending the firstwinter," remarked Andre Morel, who, besides being young, was strong andenthusiastic.

  "So thought some of us at first," returned Dan, "but when we found thatthe thermometer fell to somewhere between 40 and 50 degrees below zero;that walking in snow-shoes, trapping, hunting buffalo, and shooting,were not to be learned in a few days; and when we saw our women andchildren dependent sometimes on the charity of Indians, and reducedalmost to starvation, we changed our minds as to the pleasure of thething. However, if the school was rough, it made the scholars all thequicker, and now I think that most of us are equal to the Redskinsthemselves at their own work.

  "When that winter came to an end," continued Dan, "we returned to RedRiver, in the month of May, wiser men, thoroughly determined to plantand sow, and make ourselves independent of the savages. But hungerfollowed us, for fish were scarce that season; so were roots andberries; and, if it had not been for a kind of parsnip which grows wildin the plains, and a species of eatable nettle, I do believe some of uswould have gone under altogether."

  "And did your first sowing turn out well?" asked the young Swiss, whohaving been bred a watchmaker, had only hazy notions as to farming.

  "Ay, there was a gleam of prosperity there that led us to hope greatthings for the future," answered Dan; "but the gleam did not continue.Why, one fe
llow, not far from our place, sowed four quarts of wheat, andreaped twelve and a half bushels; but we had terrible trouble to saveour crops from the birds. In the Spring and Fall, blackbirds and wildpigeons pass over the prairies on their way north or south, in immensenumbers. They pass in such numbers that they could, I do believe,swallow our whole harvest, if they got only a grain a-piece. Theberries failed them that year, an' men, women, and children had to workhard wi' guns, bird-nets, and rattles, from morning to night, to saynothing o' scarecrows. We had resolved never to go near Pembina again,but what we saved of the harvest was little more than enough for seed,so we were forced to try it for another winter. Troubles again awaitedus there. The half-breeds and Indians--who had been kind at first--became jealous. A plot was discovered to murder two of our party whohad undertaken to hunt, so we were obliged to buy our provisions at ahigh price, and even to barter away our clothing to avoid starvation,and we returned half-naked to the Settlement the following spring.Then, coming upon us in armed bands and superior numbers, they drove usout of the Settlement altogether at last, and we came here to Jack Riverto spend the winter as we best could. After that we went back andstruggled on for some time, but now, here have they a second timebanished us! What the end is to be, who can tell?"

  "Truly, if such be the country I have come to, I will go back to mynative land and make watches," remarked the Swiss in a tone from whichthe sanguine element had almost entirely disappeared.