HISTORIES of Manitoba and the North-West exist in
plenty, and the number is being constantly added to as the growing
importance of the country attracts the attention of the world. The work of
recording the leading historical facts concerning the West has been so
ably and so exhaustively done by such men as Ross, Gunn, Hargrave, Bryce,
Begg and others, that the present writer would not, under ordinary
circumstances, attempt to add anything in the same line to what has been
already written. But it has for years seemed to him, as the son
of a Selkirk settler, born and brought up amid the
primitive life and the simple surroundings of this "Western Acadia," that
very little, if anything, has been made public of the altogether unique
and peculiar life and customs characteristic of those who for nearly half
a century, apart from the rest of the world, fought and conquered the
difficulties of settlement in a wilderness wild. More than once has he
resolved to essay this unwritten chapter in the history of his birthplace,
and more than once have friends, old and new, urged the task upon him; but
the fear of failing to do adequate justice to the work has up to this date
laid an arresting fiand upon his pen. He feels that this lost chapter
should have been written years ago by some one to whom the life to be
depicted was less than a memory and more of an actual experience than it
has been to him. But alas! no one undertook the work, and as the time goes
by, the fear that it may never be touched at all becomes more real and
painful. Hence, though his actual experience in the life related
was not many years in duration before that unique life
began to undergo a change with the advent of new conditions, yet those few
years, together with tales told by prominent actors in the drama, lead the
writer to hope that he may furnish some facts and sketch some characters
of note and interest. He feels the more encouraged to take up the task,
because amongst those who urged him to undertake it was one who, up to the
time of his death, took the deepest interest in the country in whose
earlier and later history he himself was so outstanding and forceful a
figure. The reference is to the late Sir John Schultz, who took such an
active part in the tumultuous troubles attending our entry into
Confederation, and who, when escaping from Louis
Riel and hard hunted by enemies, found asylum in my father’s house at
Kildonan. On New Year’s eve of 1893, Sir John forwarded to the writer an
excellent engraving of old Fort Garry, inscribed by his own hand
(trembling with sickness) as follows: "For my
esteemed friend of many years, Rev. R. G. MacBeth, of Augustine Church,
from Lieutenant-Governor Schultz, Government House, Winnipeg, in grateful
memory of my brave old friend, the Hon. Robert MacBeth, and as a souvenir
of stirring events in other days." Accompanying this was a letter in which
the following sentences occur in reference to a lecture or paper on the
subject of the early days: "I am entirely at one with the wish that you
may undertake this work—. no one more capable—and I only hope that I may
be granted life and leave to preside at a meeting when you give the
first-fruits of this most interesting subject. The people, the
circumstances of their coming and their surroundings were altogether
unique and should be recorded. There is too much of a desire nowadays to
ignore the past and the services in it that men like the Selkirk settlers
rendered; so by all means carry out your half-formed design." Besides
this, some time ago the Rev. W. D. Ballantyne, Editor of the Canada
Presbyterian, requested an article for the semi-jubilee number of his
paper, and having received one (somewhat hurriedly written) wrote
suggesting a series in the same line. After making the suggestion Mr.
Ballantvne says, "It is very important, you will agree with me,
that those early days, and the men who lived in them, should not be
forgotten; and you ought as far as possible, in justice to the brave men
who toiled and bore so much and so nobly kept the faith, to help rescue
their names from oblivion."
With this view then before him, and with the hope of
writing some chapters on the inner life of the old settlers and a few
character sketches that may be of interest, the writer essays the
agreeable but perhaps too ambitious task which the necessities of the
case, the requests of friends, and his own desire to be of service in
preserving some record of a vanished life seem to lay before his hand.
After writing this chapter and outlining the others, it
occurred to me that it would immeasurably increase the interest and value
of the volume if a Preface could be secured from Sir Donald A. Smith, High
Commissioner for Canada, who has been so long and honorably connected with
the history of this country, and who, moreover, was a personal friend of
my father, from whom I have had much of the letter and the spirit of the
book. I accordingly wrote to the worthy knight (who, it is needless to
say, has not seen this paragraph), and take this opportunity of
acknowledging the gracious and courtly kindness of his consent to write "a
few words of preface." From one of Sir Donald’s letters the following
extract is made:
"Your father . . .
was one of my most esteemed friends, and it is indeed well that his
life-work and that of other Kildonan men, who so materially aided in the
opening up of the great North-West, should be given to the public, and it
is certainly appropriate this should be done by one so fully conversant
with the whole subject as yourself."
