AND THE FLOOD CAME.
With fire and flood some of the greatest catastrophies of the world have
been closely connected. The tradition of the Noachian deluge has been
found among almost all peoples. Horace speaks of the mild little Tiber
becoming so unruly that the fishes swam among the tops of the trees upon
its banks. Tidal waves devastated the shores of England and France on
several occasions. It is most natural that prairie rivers should exceed
their banks and spread over wide areas of the land. Old Trader Nolin,
one of the first on the prairies, states that a worse flood than that
seen by the Selkirk Settlers took place fifty years before, and there
were two other floods between these two. Each year, according to the
tale of the old settlers, the rivers of the prairies have been becoming
wider by denudation, so that each flood tends to be less. Several
conditions seem to be necessary for a flood upon these prairie rivers.
These are a very heavy snowfall during the prairie winter, a late spring
in which the river ice retains its hold, and a sudden period in the
springtime of very hot weather, these being modified as the years go on
by the ever-widening river channel.
The winter of 1825-6 was one of the most terrific ever known in the
history of the Selkirk Settlement. Just before Christmas the first woe
occurred. The snow drove the herds of buffaloes far out upon the
prairies from the river encampments and the wooded shelter. The horses
in bands were scattered and lost, dying as they floundered in the deep
snows. Even the hunters were cut off from one another, the hunters'
families were driven hither and thither, and in many cases separated on
the wide snowy plains. Sheriff Ross, who was a visitor from the
Settlement to Pembina in the dreary winter there, describes the scene of
horror. "Families here and families there despairing of life, huddled
themselves together for warmth, and in too many cases, their shelter
proved their grave. At first, the heat of their bodies melted the snow;
they became wet, and being without food or fuel, the cold soon
penetrated, and in several instances froze the whole into a body of
solid ice. Some again, were found in a state of wild delirium, frantic,
mad; while others were picked up, one here, and one there, overcome in
their fruitless attempts to reach Pembina--some half-way, some more,
some less; one woman was found with an infant on her back, within a
quarter of a mile of Pembina. This poor creature must have travelled, at
least, one hundred and twenty-five miles, in three days and nights, till
she sunk at last in the too unequal struggle for life." Such scenes
might be expected in the valleys of the Highlands of Scotland, or amid
the heavy snows of New Brunswick or Quebec, but they were a surprise
upon the open prairie. Some of the settlers had devoured their dogs, raw
hides, leather and their very shoes. The loss of thirty-three lives cast
a gloom over the whole settlement.
Anxiety had been aroused throughout the whole Colony. The St. Lawrence
often overflows its banks at Montreal, the Grand River at Brantford and
the Fraser at its delta, but the rarity of the Red River overflows led
the people, after their winter disaster, to hope that they would escape
a flood.
This was not to be.
As the Red River flows northward, the first thaw of spring is usually
south of the American International Boundary line at the head waters of
the river which divides Minnesota and Dakota. In these States the floods
are always, in consequence, greater than they are in Manitoba. In this
year the ice held very firm up to the end of April. On the second of
May, the waters from above rose and lifted the ice which still held in a
mass together some nine feet above the level of the day before. Indians
and whites alike were alarmed. The water overflowed its banks, and still
continued to rise at Fort Garry. The Governor and his family were driven
to the upper story of their residence in the fort, with the water ten
feet deep below that.
The whole river bank for miles was a scene of confusion and terror.
Every home was an alarming scene as the flood reached it. The first
thought was to save life. Amid the crying of children, the lowing of
cattle and the howling of dogs, parents sought out all their children to
see them safely removed. Parents and grown men and women fled in fright
from their houses, and in many cases without any other garments than
their working clothes. The only hope was to seek out somewhat higher
spots more and more removed from the river. And with them went their
cattle and horses.
To those in boats--the stronger and more venturesome men--the task now
came of removing the wheat and oats, what little furniture they
possessed and the necessary cooking utensils.
Blessed, on such occasions, are those who possess little for they shall
have no loss.
As the waters rose, the lake became wider, and the wind blew the waves
to a dangerous height. The ice broke up and the current increasing
dashed this against the buildings, which at length gave way and all went
floating down across the points--ice, log houses with dogs and cats
frantic on their roofs. One eye-witness says: "The most singular
spectacle was a house in flames, drifting along in the night, its one
half immersed in water and the remainder furiously burning."
As the flood of waters widened into a great expanse it became plain that
it would be some time,--if indeed less than several months,--before the
waters would begin to abate, and in the absence of an Ararat on which to
rest, the settlers occupied the rock-bared elevations, the highest Stony
Mount, only eighty feet above the level, with the middle bluff, little
Stony Mountain and Bird's Hill, east of the river. It is interesting to
know that Silver Heights and the banks of the Sturgeon Creek near its
mouth, were not submerged and at their various points the Colonists
pitched their tents and sojourned.
In seventeen days from the first rise, the water reached its height, and
hope began immediately to return. On the 22nd of May the waters
commenced to assuage, and twenty days afterward the Settlers were able
with difficulty to reach their homes again.
But every disaster has its side of advantage. During the escape of the
Settlers to the heights, the De Meurons, losing all sense of restraint,
stole the cattle of the Settlers and actually sold them meat from their
own slaughtered cattle. So intense was the feeling of the Scottish
Settlers against the De Meurons that the Selkirk Colonists chose another
situation and moved to it.
Now that the flood was over, the De Meurons and Swiss became more
restless than ever. They decided to move to the United States. The
Selkirk Colonists were glad to see them go, and furnished them, free of
cost, sufficient supplies for their journey. They departed on the 24th
of June, their band numbering 243, and the sturdy pioneers who held to
their land shed no tears of sorrow at their going.
With remarkable courage and hope the Settlers returned after what was to
some of them, their fourth Hegira, and immediately planted potatoes and
small quantities of wheat and barley. This grew well and supplied food
for them, and in the next two or three years no less than two hundred
and four houses were built. The Settlement, now freed from dissension,
had not gone through its fiery ordeal in vain. The news of a home for
themselves and their dusky wives and half-breed children, had spread
over the whole of Rupert's Land, and now began, what Lieutenant-Governor
Archibald, the first Governor of Manitoba, afterward spoke of as the
floating down the rivers with their wives and children of the Hudson's
Bay Company officers and men to the paradise of Red River. The great
majority of the employees of the Company were Orkneymen. They gradually
took up the most of the Red River lots surveyed, lying below Kildonan,
and forming the Parishes of St. Paul's and St. Andrew's on Red River,
down to St. Peter's Indian Reserve and St. James' and Headingly up the
Assiniboine. The French half-breeds who removed from Pembina and
different parts of Rupert's Land, made the great French parishes of St.
Boniface, St. Norbert, St. Vital on the Red River, with St. Charles, St.
Francois Xavier and Baie St. Paul on the Assiniboine. And now of
Scottish Settlers with French and English half-breeds, the population of
Red River Settlement had reached the number of 1,500 souls.