The summer brigade--With the brigade down the Saskatchewan--A
glorious panorama--Meet with father and mother on the way to
Victoria--Privations of travel--A buffalo crossing--Arrival at
Victoria--A church building begun--Peter Erasmus as interpreter.
Along about the latter part of July, the "Summer Brigade," made up of
several inland boats left at Edmonton, and manned by men who had been
on the plains for the first or summer trip for provisions and
freight, now returned, passing us on its way to Fort Carlton to meet
the regular brigades from Norway House and York Factory, as also the
overland transport from Fort Garry, which came by ox carts. Mr.
Hardisty was with the boats, and he invited me to join him until he
should meet the brigade in which my father and mother had taken
passage from Norway House. Mr. Woolsey kindly consented, so I gladly
took this opportunity of going down to meet my parents and friends.
I had come up the Saskatchewan as far as Fort Carlton, and had gone
three times on the ice up and down from Victoria to Edmonton; but
this run down the river was entirely new to me and full of interest.
The boats were fully manned, and the river was almost at flood-tide,
so we made very quick time. Seven or eight big oars in the hands of
those hardy voyageurs, keeping at it from early morning until late
evening, with very little cessation, backed as they were by the rapid
swirl of this mighty glacier-fed current, sent us sweeping around
point after point in rapid succession, and along the lengths of
majestic bends. A glorious panorama met our view: Precipitous banks,
which the rolling current seemed to hug as it surged past them; then
tumbling and flattening hills, which, pressing out, made steppes and
terraces and bottoms, forming great points which, shoving the
boisterous stream over to the other side, seemed to say to it, "We
are not jealous; go and hug the farther bank, as you did us just
now;" varied forest foliage, rank, rich prairie grass and luxuriant
flora continuously on either bank, fresh from Nature's hand,
delightfully arranged, and most pleasing to the eye and to the
artistic taste. No wonder I felt glad, for amid these new and
glorious scenes, with kind, genial companionship, I was on my way to
meet my loved ones, from some of whom I had now been parted more than
a year. At night our boats were tied together, and one or two men
kept the whole in the current while the others slept. At meal times
we put ashore for a few minutes while the kettles were boiled, and
then letting the boats float, we ate our meal _en route_.
Early in the middle of the second afternoon we sighted two boats
tracking up the southerly bank of the river. Pulling over to
intercept them, I was delighted to find my people with them. The
Hudson's Bay Company had kindly loaded two boats and sent them on
from Carlton, in advance of the brigade, so that father and family
should have no delay in reaching their future home. Thanking my
friend Hardisty for the very pleasant run of two hundred miles he had
given me with him, I transferred to the boat father and mother and my
brother and sisters were in. We were very glad to meet again. What
sunburnt, but sturdy, happy girls my sisters were! How my baby
brother had grown, and now was toddling around like a little man!
Mother was looking forward eagerly to the end of the journey.
Already it had occupied a month and more on the way up--half that
time in the low country, where water and swamp and muskeg
predominate; where flies and mosquitoes flourish and prosper, and
reproduce in countless millions; where the sun in the long days of
June and July sends an almost unsufferable heat down on the river as
it winds its way between low forest-covered banks. The carpenter,
Larsen, whom my father was bringing from Norway House, met with an
accident, through the careless handling of his gun, and for days and
nights mother had to help in nursing and caring for the poor fellow.
No wonder she was anxious to reach Victoria, and have change and
rest. Forty days and more from Norway House, by lake and river, in
open boat--long hot days, long dark, rainy days--with forty very
short nights, and yet many of these far too long, because of the
never-ceasing mosquito, which, troublesome enough by day, seemed at
night to bring forth endless resources of torture, and turn them
loose with tireless energy upon suffering humanity. But no one could
write up such experiences to the point of realization. You must go
through them to know. Mother has had all this, and much more, to
endure in her pioneering and missionary life.
Only a day or two before I met them, our folks had the unique sight
of witnessing the crossing through the river of thousands of buffalo.
The boatmen killed several, and for the time being we were well
supplied with fresh meat. Our progress now was very much different
to mine coming down. The men kept up a steady tramp, tramp on the
bank, at the end of seventy-five or one hundred yards of rope from
the boat. Four sturdy fellows in turn kept it up all day, rain or
shine, and though our headway was regular, yet because of the
interminable windings of the shore, we did not seem to go very far in
a day. Several times father and I took across country with our guns,
and brought in some ducks and chickens, but the unceasing tramp of
the boats' crews did not allow of our going very far from the river.
I think it was the tenth day from my leaving Victoria that I was back
again, and Mr. Woolsey welcomed his chairman and colleague with great
joy. Mother was not loath to change the York boat for the large
buffalo-skin lodge on the banks of the Saskatchewan.
The first thing we went at was hay-making on the old plan, with snath
and scythe and wooden forks, and as the weather was propitious we
soon had a nice lot of hay put up in good shape; then as father saw
at once that the house we were building would take a long time to
finish, and as we had some timber in the round on hand, he proposed
to at once put up a temporary dwelling-house and a store-house. At
this work we went, and Mr. Woolsey looked on in surprise to see these
buildings go up as by magic. It was a revelation to him, and to
others, the way a man trained in the thick woods of Ontario handled
his axe; for, without question, father was one of the best
general-purpose axemen I ever came across.
It was my privilege to take a corner on each of these buildings,
which is something very different from a corner on wheat or any such
thing, but, nevertheless, requires a sharp axe and a steady hand and
keen eye; for you must keep your corner square and plumb--conditions
which, I am afraid, other cornermen sometimes fail to observe.
Then father sent me up the river with some men to take out timber and
to manufacture some lumber for a small church. While we were away on
this business, father and Larsen, the carpenter, were engaged in
putting the roof on, laying the floors, putting in windows and doors
to the log-house, and otherwise getting it ready for occupancy.
Despatch was needed, for while a skin lodge may be passable enough
for summer, it is a wretchedly cold place in winter, and father was
anxious to have mother and the children fairly housed before the cold
weather set in.
In the meantime Peter Erasmus had joined our party as father's
interpreter and general assistant, and was well to the front in all
matters pertaining to the organization of the new mission.