The Substance of a Journal During a Residence at the Red River Colony, British North America | Page 6

on the 7th of September, slowly proceeding through
a most difficult and laborious navigation. The men were harnessed to a
line, as they walked along the steep declivity of a high bank, dragging
them against a strong current. In many places, as we proceeded, the
water was very shoal, and opposed us with so much force in the rapids,
that the men were frequently obliged to get out, and lift the boats over
the stones; at other times to unload, and launch them over the rocks,
and carry the goods upon their backs, or rather suspended in slings
from their heads, a considerable distance, over some of the portages.
The weather was frequently very cold, with snow and rain; and our
progress was so slow and mortifying, particularly up Hill River, that
the boats' crews were heard to execrate the man who first found out
such a way into the interior.
The blasphemy of the men, in the difficulties they had to encounter,
was truly painful to me. I had hoped better things of the Scotch, from
their known moral and enlightened education; but their horrid
imprecations proved a degeneracy of character in an Indian country.
This I lamented to find was too generally the case with Europeans,
particularly so in their barbarous treatment of women. They do not
admit them as their companions, nor do they allow them to eat at their
tables, but degrade them merely as slaves to their arbitrary inclinations;
while the children grow up wild and uncultivated as the heathen.
The scenery throughout the passage is dull and monotonous (excepting
a few points in some of the small lakes, which are picturesque), till you
reach the Company's post, Norway House; when a fine body of water
bursts upon your view in Lake Winipeg. We found the voyage, from
the Factory to this point, so sombre and dreary, that the sight of a horse
grazing on the bank greatly exhilarated us, in the association of the idea
that we were approaching some human habitation. Our provisions
being short, we recruited our stock at this post; and I obtained another
boy for education, reported to me as the orphan son of a deceased

Indian and a half-caste woman; and taught him the prayer which the
other used morning and evening, and which he soon learned:--"Great
Father, bless me, through Jesus Christ." May a gracious God hear their
cry, and raise them up as heralds of his salvation in this truly benighted
and barbarous part of the world.
It often grieved me, in our hurried passage, to see the men employed in
taking the goods over the carrying places, or in rowing, during the
Sabbath. I contemplated the delight with which thousands in England
enjoyed the privileges of this sacred day, and welcomed divine
ordinances. In reading, meditation, and prayer, however, my soul was
not forsaken of God, and I gladly embraced an opportunity of calling
those more immediately around me to join in reading the scriptures,
and in prayer in my tent.
October the 6th. The ground was covered with snow, and the weather
most winterly, when we embarked in our open boats to cross the lake
for the Red River. Its length, from north to south, is about three
hundred miles; and it abounds with sunken rocks, which are very
dangerous to boats sailing in a fresh breeze. It is usual to run along
shore, for the sake of an encampment at night, and of getting into a
creek for shelter, in ease of storms and tempestuous weather. We had
run about half the lake, when the boat, under a press of sail, struck upon
one of these rocks, with so much violence as to threaten our immediate
destruction. The idea of never more seeing my family upon earth,
rushed upon my mind; but the pang of thought was alleviated by the
recollection that life at best was short, and that they would soon meet
me in 'brighter worlds,' whither I expected to be hurried, through the
supposed hasty death of drowning. Providentially however we escaped
being wrecked; and I could not but bless the God of my salvation, for
the anchor of hope afforded me amidst all dangers and difficulties and
possible privations of life.
As I sat at the door of my tent near a fire one evening, an Indian joined
me, and gave me to understand that he knew a little English. He told
me that he was taken prisoner when very young, and subsequently fell
into the hands of an American gentleman, who took him to England,

where he was very much frightened lest the houses should fall upon
him. He further added that he knew a little of Jesus Christ, and hoped
that I would teach him to read, when he came to