Swim horses--Cross in small boat--Dine at officers' table on pounded
meat without anything else--Sup on ducks--No carving.
Swimming our horses, and crossing in a small boat, we resaddled and
repacked and rode into the fort, where we were received kindly by the
Hudson's Bay Company's officers and invited to partake of their fare,
which was just then pounded meat straight--no bread, no vegetables,
nothing else. Pounded meat with marrow-fat is very good fare, but
alone it becomes monotonous, even before you get through the first
meal.
At this time Edmonton was without provisions, and only now was
sending a party out to the plains to trade with the Indians for some.
The next meal we dined on duck straight. No carving by the gentleman
who served; he put a duck on each plate, and we picked the bones
clean--at least, I did those of mine.
Edmonton then consisted of the Hudson's Bay Company's fort, and this
was all in the vicinity. Out north, about nine miles distant, was a
newly commenced Roman Catholic mission; but here the four walls of
the fort enclosed everything. Stores and dwelling-houses were packed
in a small space, and when the trip-men and voyageurs were home for
the winter the post would be crowded.
I had now seen three Hudson's Bay Company's forts in the
Saskatchewan--Carlton, Pitt, and Edmonton--all situate in one of the
richest agricultural districts in Canada, but each and all striking
evidence that the Hudson's Bay Company was nothing more than a
fur-trading organization; they were not settlers nor farmers. Pelts
and not bread, furs and not homes, were what they aimed at.
Though only a boy, I could readily see that before many years this
would be changed, for no power under heaven could keep settlement out
of this country I had already been privileged with seeing a portion
of.