Along the banks of the Red River, over those fruitful
plains brightened with wild flowers in summer, and swept
with fierce storms in the winter-time, is written the
life story of Louis Riel. Chance was not blind when she
gave as a field to this man's ambition the plains whereon
vengeful Chippewas and ferocious Sioux had waged their
battles for so many centuries; a country dyed so often
with blood that at last Red River came to be its name.
But while our task is to present the career of this
apostle of insurrection and unrest; stirred as we may be
to feelings of horror for the misery, the tumult, the
terror and the blood of which he has been the author, we
must not neglect to do him, even him, the justice which
is his right.
He is not, as so many suppose, a half-breed, moved by
the vengeful, irresponsible, savage blood in his veins.
Mr. Edward Jack, [Footnote: I cannot make out what Mr.
Jack's views are respecting Riel. When I asked him, he
simply turned his face toward the sky and made some remark
about the weather, I know that he has strong French
proclivities, though the blood of a Scottish bailie is
in his veins.] of New Brunswick, who is well informed on
all Canadian matters, hands me some passages which he
has translated from M. Tasse's book on Canadians in the
North West; and from these I learn that Riel's father,
whose name also was Louis, was born at the island of
La Crosse, in the North-West Territories. This parent was
the son of Jean Baptiste Riel, who was a French Canadian
and a native of Berthier (_en haut_). His mother, that
is the rebel's grandmother, was a Franco-Montagnaise
Metis. From this it will be seen that instead of being
a "half breed," Louis Riel is only one-eighth Indian, or
is, if we might use the phrase employed in describing a
mixture of Ethiopian and Caucasian blood, an Octoroon.
Nay, more than this, we have it shown that our rebel can
lay claim to no small share of respectability, as that
word goes. During the summer of 1822, Riel's father, then
in his fifth year, was brought to Canada by his parents,
who caused the ceremony of baptism to be performed with
much show at Berthier. In 1838 M. Riel _pere_ entered
the service of the Hudson Bay Company, and left Lower
Canada, where he had been attending school, for the
North-West. He was stationed at Rainy Lake, but did not
care for his occupation. He returned, therefore, to
civilization and entered as a novice in the community of
the Oblat Fathers, where he remained for two years. There
was a strong yearning for the free, wild life of the
boundless prairies in this man, and Red River, with its
herds of roaming buffalo, its myriads of duck, and geese
and prairie hens, began to beckon him home again. He
followed his impulse and departed; joining the Metis
hunters in their great biennial campaigns against the
herds, over the rolling prairie. Many a buffalo fell upon
the plain with Louis Riel's arrow quivering in his flank;
many a feast was held around the giant pot at which no
hunter received honours so marked as stolid male, and
olive-skinned, bright-eyed, supple female, accorded him.
Surfeited for the time of the luxury of the limitless
plain, Riel took rest; and then a girl with the lustrous
eyes of Normandy began to smile upon him, and to besiege
his heart with all her mysterious force of coquetry. He
was not proof; and the hunter soon lay entangled in the
meshes of the brown girl of the plains. In the autumn of
1843 he married her. Her name was Julie de Lagimodiere,
a daughter of Jean Baptiste de Lagimodiere.
Louis _pere_ was now engaged as a carder of wool; and
having much ability in contrivance he constructed a little
model of a carding mill which, with much enthusiasm, he
exhibited to some officers of the Hudson Bay Company.
But the Company, though having a great body, possessed
no soul, and the disappointed inventor returned to his
waiting wife with sorrow in his eyes. He next betook
himself to the cultivation of a farm upon the banks of
the little Seine; and his good, patient wife, when the
autumn came, toiled with him all day, with her sickle
among the sheaves.
Tilling the soil proved too laborious, and he determined
to erect a grist mill; but the stream that ran through
the clayey channel of the _Seine petite_ was too feeble
to turn the ponderous wheels. So he was obliged to move
twelve miles to the east, where flowed another small
stream bearing the aesthetic name "Grease River." This
was not large enough either for his purposes, so with
stupendous enterprise he cut a canal nine miles long,
and through it decoyed the waters of the little Seine
into the arms of the "Greasy" paramour. At this mill was
ground the grain that grew for many a mile around; and
in a little while Louis Riel became known as the most
enterprising and important settler in Red River. But he
was not through all his career a man of peace. The most
deadly feud had grown up through many long years between
the Hudson Bay Company and the Metis settled upon their
territory; and it is only bald justice to say that the,
reprisals of the half-breeds, the revolts, the hatred of
everything in official shape, were not altogether
undeserved. Louis Riel was at the head of many a jarring
discord. How such an unfortunate condition grew we shall
see later on, and we may also be able to determine if
there are any shoulders upon which we can lay blame for
the murder and misery that since have blighted one of
the fairest portions of Canada.
Louis Riel the elder was in due time blessed with a son,
the same about whom it is our painful duty to write this
little book. Estimating at its fullest the value of
education, the father was keenly anxious for an opportunity
to send _Louis fils_ to a school; but fortune had not
been liberal with him in later years, though the sweat
was constantly upon his brow, and his good wife's fingers
were never still. This son had unusual precocity, and
strangers who looked upon him used to say that a great
fire slumbered in his eye. He was bright, quick and
piquant; and it is said that it was impossible to know
the lad and not be pleased with his person and manners.
One important eye had observed him many a time; and this
was the great ecclesiastical dignitary of Red River,
Monseigneur Tache. He conceived a strong affection for
the lad and resolved to secure for him a sound education.
His own purse was limited, but there was a lady whom he
knew upon whose bounty he could count. I give the following
extract, which I translate from M. Tasse's book, and I
write it in italics that it may be the more clearly
impressed upon the reader's mind when he comes to peruse
the first story of blood which shall be related: _The
father's resources did not permit him to undertake the
expense of this education, but His Grace Archbishop Tache
having been struck with the intellectual precocity of
Louis, found a generous protector of proverbial munificence
for him in the person of Madame Masson, of Terrebonne._
In later years it was reserved to the same bishop to go
out as a mediator between Government and a band of rebels
which had at its head a man whose hands were reddened
with the blood of a settler. This rebel and murderer was
the same lad upon whom the bishop had lavished his
affection and his interest.
Louis, the elder, was travelling upon the plain, when he
met his son, bound for the civilized East, to enter upon
his studies. He had pride in the lad, and said to his
companions that one day he knew he would have occasion
to glory in him. They said good-bye, the father seasoning
the parting with wholesome words of advice, the son with
filial submission receiving them, and storing them away
in his heart. This was their last parting, and their last
speaking. Before the son had been long at his studies he
learned that his father was dead. His nature was deeply
affectionate, and the painful intelligence overwhelmed
him for many days. At school he was not distinguished
for brilliancy, but his tutors observed that he had solid
parts, and much intellectual subtlety. He was not a great
favourite among his class-mates generally, because his
manners were shy and reserved, and he shrank from, rather
than courted, the popularity and leadership which are
the darling aims of so many lads in their school-days.
Yet he had many friends who were warmly attached to him;
and to these he returned an equal affection. One of his
comrades was stricken down with a loathsome and fatal
malady, and all his comrades fled in fear away from his
presence. But Louis Riel, the "half-breed," as the boys
knew him, bravely went to the couch of his stricken
friend, nursing, and bestowing all his attention and
affection upon him, and offering consoling words. It is
related that when the last moments came, the sufferer
arose, and flinging his arms around Louis' neck, poured
out his thanks and besought heaven to reward him. Then
he fell backwards and died.
Frequently young Riel's school-mates would ask him, "What
do you intend doing when you leave school? Will you stay
here, or do you go out again into the wilderness among
the savages?"
His eye would lighten with indignation at hearing the
word "savages" applied to his people. "I will go out to
the Red River," he would reply, to follow in the footsteps
of my father. He has been a benefactor of our people,
and I shall seek to be their benefactor too. When I tire
of work, I can take my gun and go out for herds upon the
plains with our people, whom you call "savages." I know
not what you mean when you say "savages." We speak French
as you do; our hearts are as kind, as noble, and as true
as yours. When one of our people is in affliction the
others give him sympathy and help. We are bound together
by strong ties of fraternity; there is no jealousy among
us, no tyranny of caste, but we all live in peace and
love as the sisters and brothers in one great household.
My eye deceives me if like this live you. You are divided
into envious, brawling factions, each one of which tries
to injure, and blight the reputation of the other. If
one of you fall upon evil times he is left without the
sympathy and succour of the others. In politics and in
social grades you are divided, and in every respect you
are such that I should mourn the day when our peaceable,
simple, contented people on the banks of the Red River
should in any respect choose your civilization for their
model.
He often spoke of a burning desire which he had to be a
political as well as a social leader in the Colony of
Red River. He frequently, likewise, muttered dark threats
against the overbearing policy and dark injustice of "The
Great Monopoly," as he used to characterize the Hudson
Bay Company. Occasionally he would burst out into passionate
words like these:
"They treat us as they would blood thirsty savages upon
the plains. They spurn us with their feet as dogs, and
then they spit upon us. They mock at our customs, they
regard with contempt that which to us is sacred and above
price. They are not even deterred by the virtue of our
women. Now witness, you God who made all men, the white
man and the savage, I will, if the propitious day ever
come, strike in vengeance, and my blow will be with an
iron hand, whose one smiting shall wipe out all the
injustice and the dishonour."
Filled with these sentiments, when his school days came
to an end, he packed his portmanteaus and took his way
by stage and boat for the region that not many years
hence was to ring and shudder with his name.