Montreal to Fort Garry.
While John Black was wondering what special duty the Lord would lay upon
him he was startled by a cry for help from the wilds of Rupert's Land.
Forty years before this an enterprising Scottish nobleman, Lord Selkirk,
became a leading partner in the Hudson's Bay Company, and shortly after
undertook to settle a colony of Highlanders on the banks of Red River.
The colonists had come in three separate companies, by way of Hudson
Bay, and by a difficult route ascended the water courses to the very
heart of North America, and settled on the banks of Red River. With true
Highland fervor they longed for a minister and a place of worship. A
Highland elder, James Sutherland, had accompanied one of the parties,
and he had been given power to marry and baptize. He had gone east to
Canada, and no minister of their own land had ever come to these
Highland exiles. As we shall see, a Church of England minister had been
sent to them, and yet they remained Presbyterian. After many
disappointments their cry had reached Scotland, and had been referred to
Canada to Dr. Robert Burns, minister of Knox Church, Toronto. We shall
enter more fully into the steps they had taken to secure a minister, but
at last the Hudson's Bay Company Governor at Fort Garry, Mr. Ballenden,
as he was passing through Toronto, had urged the matter upon Dr. Burns.
The heart of the good man was touched, and he fixed upon John Black as
the missionary. The following extract of a letter to Mr. James Court,
the secretary of the French Canadian Missionary Society, speaks for
itself:
Toronto, 27th June, 1851.
MY DEAR SIR,--"In the name of our Synod's Home Mission, and for
behoof of our poor brethren at Red River in the Hudson's Bay
Territory, I have to solicit your aid in obtaining for a time the
services of Mr. John Black, whom we have fixed on as a fit person
to make an exploratory visit to the settlement. We would not have
asked this could we have avoided it, but our fixed pastors and
professors are difficult to move; and we know Mr. Black's peculiar
qualifications. The truth is I was so impressed with the importance
of such a visit, both for our people and the red men, and the
French speaking settlers in that region, that I gave the pledge as
chairman of the committee, and Mr. Ballenden will be entitled to
hold me good for it personally, if I cannot get a substitute. If
necessary I am ready to resign my charge here and throw myself on
the far west, for I am clear that our Church is called to do some
good work in those regions; and if we lose the present opportunity,
when may we have another?
"If you agree, as I trust you will, Mr. Black should come direct to
us."
"Most truly yours,
"ROBT. BURNS.
"Mr. Court, Montreal."
On the following day Dr. Burns wrote a letter to Mr. Black himself. Of
this we give a portion:
"Toronto, 28th June, 1851.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I send you a scroll sketch of instructions, or hints
rather, for your guidance in your important mission, _but your own
judgment_ and good sense will be the best guides.
You are called at an early period of life to a most important duty,
and on the manner in which you shall discharge it will depend,
under God, the position which we as a Church may be called upon to
occupy in regard to the progress of Christ's kingdom in these
western regions. You will find in Bishop Anderson a pious and
liberal Episcopalian and a Bishop--yea, _The Bishop_! You know what
I mean. Already you know something of Popery and its steps, open or
close. The Sabbath observance subject I commend to your serious
notice. The company like hunting on the Lord's day! The range is
wide and long; but if you can get from the United States boundary
to York Fort, it will be desirable. Your object being exploratory
keep note of all. Preach and exhort and expound, and conduct
devotional exercises wherever you have an opportunity--Sabbath days
especially.
* * * *
"Our prayers will accompany you, and our most fervent desires that
your way may be prospered before you, and that you may be hailed by
the settlers as a messenger of good tidings and a pioneer of
salvation.
"Come up as soon as you can.
"Yours, etc.,
"ROBT. BURNS."
The young missionary engrossed in his French Canadian work received
this communication. He was at the same time earnestly sought for by the
congregation of North Georgetown in Lower Canada. After due
consideration, he refused Dr. Burns' offer to go to Red River. He did
this not because he was lacking in the true spirit of the missionary,
but because he felt anxious about his old father and mother still alive
in New York State. They were now left without any of their children
beside them, and John Black, as their eldest son, felt it to be his duty
to be within reach of them. He therefore felt justified in declining the
earnest call to visit the Northwest. It is stated that on his refusal
application was made to one who has since become known as one of the
staunchest theologians and best preachers of the Church, the Rev.
Professor MacLaren, D.D., of Knox College, Toronto. He, however, was not
able to accept. Very strong pressure was again brought to bear upon John
Black, and as the season was advancing his answer had to be given
without delay. The following letter written to his brother explains his
action in the matter:
ON TO RED RIVER.
Toronto, July 31st, 1851.
MY DEAR JAMES,--"You will no doubt be surprised to learn that I am
so far on my way to Red River. I am to be ordained to-night and go
on to-morrow morning at half-past seven o'clock. I have been forced
into it against my will. It is a very important mission, but I
leave one important also, and what grieves me much is that I go
without seeing friends--yourself and family at home. Nobody else
would go and so I am called on to do so. I shall not be able to
return before next spring--be a good boy till I come back. Write
frequently home and comfort them. I doubt somewhat if I am in the
way of duty in leaving father and mother now in their old age.
* * * *
I have no time to write more. May God bless you and keep you! Do
not cease to pray for my preservation and success and I shall do
the same for you. God bless you, dear brother."
Yours, etc.,
J. BLACK.
P.S. Now mind you write often home, or if you could possibly go
over I should like it very much.
J. B.
On the following day, August 1st, the young missionary who had been
ordained for the work of the ministry on the evening before, in Knox
Church, Toronto, started on his long journey to Red River. Twenty years
afterward the writer left Toronto for Red River, and could not find
before leaving how he was to accomplish the journey after St. Paul, in
Minnesota, had been reached. How much more difficult when the long
journey of eight hundred miles to St. Paul had to be performed over bad
roads by stage coach and Mississippi steamboat! The journey that now
takes thirty hours from Toronto, _via_ Detroit, Chicago, and St. Paul,
then took two full weeks. The young missionary arrived at where the city
of Minneapolis now stands, and wrote the following letter.
Falls of St. Anthony, August 15th, 1851.
DEAR JAMES: "I am so far on my way and hope to begin another stage
of my journey on Monday next. My journey has yet been comparatively
pleasant, though diversified with a good deal of the disagreeable,
owing chiefly to bad roads and anxiety as to being too late. I am,
however, here and well, and hope to get through. Pray for strength
and protection and faithfulness and success. There is now to be a
regular monthly mail and so I hope you will write regularly. The
mail starts from here on the 1st of the month. To be in time you
must post in the middle of the month previous. I add no more at
present. May God bless and keep you evermore. Do not forget me at a
throne of Grace."
Yours, etc.,
JOHN BLACK.
When the traveller reached the capital of Minnesota he was in the
greatest perplexity. His coming had been anxiously looked for by a
deputation of the Scottish settlers from Red River. But they were nearly
five hundred miles from home and a tedious cart journey lay before them,
so that the time of the year did not permit their delaying any longer.
On the 1st of August, just at the time their long-looked-for missionary
was leaving Toronto, the deputation left the Falls of St. Anthony to
return to Red River.
A FRIEND IN NEED.
At this most important point a happy deliverance came to the young
missionary. He learned that Alexander Ramsey, the Governor of Minnesota,
was soon to set out to the north of Minnesota, attended with a mounted
escort. Governor Ramsey had organized the territory of Minnesota two
years before, and had the year before negotiated a treaty with the Sioux
Indians, by which they ceded a large tract of land in southern
Minnesota. He was now to proceed northward to Pembina, to make a treaty
with the Chippewa Indians. Mr. Black, though, as he tells us, at a
considerable expense to himself, was given the privilege of going to his
northern home along with this party.
We are fortunate in having two camp-fire sketches written by Mr. J. W.
Bond, who was also one of the party. He tells us that the party met from
several different points near the Sauk rapids, on the Upper Mississippi.
Besides the governor and his staff there were Rev. John Black and Mr.
Bond. The escort consisted of twenty-five dragoons from Fort Snelling,
commanded by an American military officer, and accompanied by six
two-horse baggage wagons. The baggage of the party and the provisions
were carried in light Red River carts, with eight French-Canadian and
halfbreed drivers. In number there were comprised about fifty souls in
all. John Black and Mr. Bond, each mounted on an Indian pony, became
companions during the journey, and Mr. Black won the regard of all the
members of the party.
EN ROUTE.
We may give a few notes of the journey over the prairies:
Sauk Rapids, August 21st, 1851: "Fine, clear, cool day. We struck tents
and went away early. Passed over the worst piece of road between the
Rapids and Pembina. The dragoons were busy for several hours in
repairing the 'corduroy' for the passage of the teams."
August 23rd: "We to-day rode over the rolling prairie, full of strips of
marsh, when, after a march of ten miles, we came to an almost impassable
swamp. We crossed with some difficulty by pulling the carts and horses
across by ropes, during which Rev. Mr. Black and Mr. Bond completely
mired their ponies, and came near going with them to the bottom, if
there was any. After this we took a cup of tea to refresh ourselves."
August 24th (Sunday). "To-day our French-Canadians and halfbreeds, who
have charge of the provision and baggage carts, have been shooting
pigeons and ducks, and also making new cart axles. The day has not
seemed much like Sunday."
August 25th. "Mosquitoes are very bad, although the weather is quite
cold and bracing."
August 26th. "We had a very good dinner to-day, consisting of bouillon
(broth) made of geese, ducks, etc., with ham, pork, coffee, bread and
butter, etc."
August 27th. "Cool, cloudy, and quite cold early in the morning; fine
weather for travelling; up at daylight, and away upon our march at
half-past five. We are to-day passing on the dividing ridge between the
head waters of the Red, Minnesota, and Mississippi rivers."
August 30th. "To-day suffered much from mosquitoes. No imagination can
do them justice--they must be seen and felt to be appreciated. Mr. Bond
rode a cream-colored horse, and declared that he was unable to
distinguish the color of the animal, so thickly was he covered with the
pests. During supper they swarmed around like bees hiving, and entered
the mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, and had it not been for a cool fresh
evening breeze they would have been unbearable."
August 31st. "Our hunters discovered two buffalo bulls about two miles
ahead. They immediately equipped and started, and soon surrounded and
killed both. We soon joined them and encamped. The buffaloes were
skinned, the choice parts cut out, and the liver and kidney fried for
dinner. These were our first buffaloes, and there was much excitement
over them."
September 1st. "Another buffalo to-day, but a sad accident. During the
chase Pierre Bottineau, our best French halfbreed guide, was thrown
violently from his horse, which stumbled. Bottineau was picked up
insensible, terribly stunned, though not much hurt. He was bled, brought
to camp in the carriage and put to bed."
September 4th. "The prairie is so bare that no wood is to be had. Having
no wood we were obliged to boil our kettle, and the French boys their
pork and buffalo, over a fire made of buffalo chips, _i.e._, of dried
buffalo manure picked up on the prairie. Only a few mosquitoes troubled
us, and they were driven to leeward by the strong smoke and smell of the
buffalo chips."
September 6th. "To-night there was the finest exhibition of the _aurora
borealis_ that any of us have ever seen. To attempt a description is the
height of vanity. The Rev. Mr. Black and Mr. Bond gazed very long upon
it, as a most remarkable manifestation in the heavens, before they could
tear themselves away and return to rest. Mr. Black, who had seen the
Northern sky in Scotland and Canada, says it was much the finest
exhibition he has ever seen. Bottineau declared that he had never seen
its equal this side of Hudson Bay."
September 7th. "It is three weeks to-day since we left St. Paul."
September 8th. "A furious thunderstorm overtook us. It came down a
deluge, a perfect torrent of falling waters, though the heaviest of the
storm had passed around us to the south."
September 11th. "Arrived at Pembina. The houses were full of
halfbreeds, who saluted us with the discharge of guns, etc. Two of the
staff rode on ahead, and were treated to milk and potatoes--a treat
equal to that of the milk and honey received by the Israelites of old.
Near the village, on the muddy banks of Red River, stood an admiring
group of several hundred whites, halfbreeds, and Indians of all sizes,
with any quantity of dogs, very large and wolfish. Amid this babel of
cries, yelps, barks, and shouts, from the said big dogs and little
papoose Indians, we came to a halt and reconnoitred, standing almost
glued fast in the sticky, tenacious mud caused by the rains and overflow
of the Red and Pembina Rivers for three years past. The journey to
Pembina has been accomplished, including the two rest days, in
twenty-five days in all."
September 14th. "Cloudy, cold, raw, and windy, quite unpleasant and
unseasonable. An overcoat is necessary out of doors this morning, and
fires in the house for comfort. To-day we had preaching by the Rev. John
Black, in the dining-room of the Governor's house; a novelty most
certainly in this far distant region. The congregation consisted of
about a dozen whites and three halfbreeds. The Rev. Charles Tanner, a
halfbreed missionary among the Indians of Red Lake, met us here, and in
the afternoon preached to the assembled Chippewas in their own tongue.
He moved to this place a week ago, and intends farming, teaching school,
etc., for a livelihood after the conclusion of the treaty. His wife is a
halfbreed, and they reside at present in a lodge in the yard at this
place."
DOWN THE RED RIVER.
After Sunday was past for two days the weather was bad, but on
Wednesday, 17th, the day was fine, and the two companions of the
voyage, Messrs. Black and Bond, determined to leave the party behind and
proceed down the Red River to the Selkirk settlement, a distance by land
of sixty miles, but not less than three times as far by the winding
river. Astir by daylight, the travellers were soon ready, and in a birch
bark canoe, fifteen feet long and three wide, managed by two French
halfbreeds or Bois-brulés (burnt sticks, referring to their dusky
faces), their bedding, baggage, and provisions, and finally the two
passengers were stowed away for the journey. The voyage was a tedious
one, but not without interest. The canoe was somewhat leaky, and at
times had to be hauled up on the bank, overturned, emptied, and calked
with white spruce gum. Large flocks of ducks and geese were swimming
almost within paddle length from the canoe. Everywhere were to be seen
traces of the high water which had prevailed for several years, and
marks upon the trees thirty feet above the water were seen, where in
spring the freshets had reached.
A NIGHT SCENE.
The party halted for the night some forty miles below Pembina. The
description given by Mr. Black's travelling companion of the camp on the
river bank is graphic: "The night is very clear and fine, the face of
heaven is smiling amid myriads of twinkling stars; the northern horizon
is lit up with the rays of dancing beams of an aurora, while the woods
and silent-flowing river are illuminated by our camp fire; our voyageurs
are fast asleep upon the ground before us, and not a sound is heard save
that of the leaping, crackling flames and the low tone of our own voices
as we chat merrily. And now, as my companion reads a chapter in his
French pocket Bible, and I pencil down these sketches of fact and fancy
by the light of the burning fagots--but hark! we have company, it seems,
and are not so lonely as I thought; that was the hoot-owl's cry, and
sounds like the wailing of a fiend in misery; that was the cry, long
drawn out and dismal, of a distant wolf; and near, the pack like hungry
curs are heard yelping and barking furiously. In the bushes beside the
camp I see two gleaming, fiery eyeballs. "Take that, to light you to
better quarters!" I hurl a blazing firebrand toward the beast, who, with
a dismal cry, leaves us to repose and quiet sleep."
Another day and still another night of camping, and next morning the
party started on the home stretch. With a head wind the voyageurs toiled
on, and both passengers relieved the monotony by landing on the right
bank, walking along it, and cutting off the bends kept ahead of the
canoe. During the day they found by the appearance of houses along the
banks that they were approaching their destination. The vivid
description given by Mr. Bond fell, in some way, into the hands of the
American poet, Whittier, and he has left us a sweet poem, with which we
should be acquainted. The scene is that of the voyageurs coming down the
stream, and as they approach their destination there is first the sound
of bells, and then the sight of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St.
Boniface with the two towers.
A picture much like this was seen as the voyageurs in the old days left
Ste. Anne on the Ottawa, not far from Montreal, and took their leave,
under the protection of Providence, for their long journey to the
interior. Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, was much impressed by the sight,
on his visit to Canada, when he wrote the Canadian boat song:
"Faintly as tolls the evening chime,
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time."
So the weary voyageurs approaching St. Boniface are filled with
expectation and delight at the end of their journey by the cheery chimes
of the Roman Mission.
THE RED RIVER VOYAGEUR
Out and in the river is winding
The links of its long red chain,
Through belts of dusky pine land
And gusty leagues of plain.
Only at times a smoke wreath
With the drifting cloud-rack joins--
The smoke of the hunting lodges
Of the wild Assiniboins!
Drearily blows the north-wind
From the land of ice and snow;
The eyes that look are weary,
And heavy the hands that row.
And with one foot on the water,
And one upon the shore,
The Angel of Shadow gives warning,
That day shall be no more.
Is it the clang of wild geese?
Is it the Indians' yell,
That lends to the voice of the north-wind
The tones of a far-off bell?
The voyageur smiles as he listens
To the sound that grows apace;
Well he knows the vesper ringing
Of the bells of St. Boniface.
The bells of the Roman Mission
That call from their turrets twain;
To the boatman on the river,
To the hunter on the plain!
Even so in our mortal journey
The bitter north-winds blow,
And thus upon life's Red River
Our hearts, as oarsmen, row.
And when the Angel of Shadow
Rests his feet on wave and shore,
And our eyes grow dim with watching,
And our hearts faint at the oar,
Happy is he who heareth
The signal of his release
In the bells of the Holy City,
The chimes of eternal peace!
[Illustration:
The bells of the Roman Mission,
That call from their turrets twain;
To the boatman on the river,
To the hunter on the plain!]
In the afternoon the party disembarked and found a kindly shelter in the
hospitable home of an old French family, the Marions, not far from the
cathedral, opposite the point where the Assiniboine falls into the Red
River, and the stone walls of Fort Garry in view in the distance.