RUNNING THE DOURO RAPIDS. BY M. E. MUCHALL. Three cheers for the lumbermen, wild and free, For then I know that a crib is near. Hurrah! I am off to Otonabee's side, Not far from its steep banks I care to roam ; They'll come in a moment to take the long slide Right over the rapids and down through the foam. They're heaving in sight, see the brave pilot stand, All covered with spray see their forms now appearing; The Frenchmen are tossing their caps up on high ; The poor shivering fellows, how loudly they're cheering, "Twould only be civil to join in the cry. They laugh at their ducking when danger is o'er, Is manfully rowing to keep off the rocks. But swift runs the stream, such a stiff breeze is blowing, The timbers are parting, the waters are rushing Up, up through the opening, and off go the men; But still, 'tis far better than if they were crushing Amongst the great timbers just closing again. Come, landsmen, make ready, push quickly 'long side. Keep cool, my poor fellows, one short moment more. Cling to the timbers-soon out of the tide We'll bear you in triumph and joy to the shore. THE HALF-BREEDS OF RED RIVER. THEIR HABITS AND CUSTOMS. causes a great deal of from post to post. These men, after a ser FROM different causes a been directed vice of from twenty to forty years, becom to the Red River Territory, which before had been a "terra incognita." Although we cannot but regret some of the events, they served to advertise the country to the world, and were the indirect means of immediately opening up communication through Canadian territory. Without referring to the different routes by which the territory can be reached, we will proceed to give a short epitome of its history, before we touch upon the present condition of the people and their peculiarities and customs. In 1811, Lord Alex. Selkirk obtained a grant of land from the Hudson Bay Company, in the Assiniboia territory. In 1812 a small party of settlers, from Scotland, arrived in the territory, and erected houses for those who were to follow. And in 1814 the number had increased to about two hundred. After undergoing many reverses, enduring great hardships, having twice to give up their farms and leave the settlement, the people overcame all their difficulties, and attained to their present prosperous condition. About the same time that Lord Selkirk started his settlement of Scotch, or within two or three years after that date, a few straggling families, principally of French half-breeds, took up their abode on the banks of the Red River. It was customary for the employees of the Hudson Bay and North-West Companies either to marry or cohabit with the Indian women around the posts to which they were attached. In time, and after having children, many of them looked upon their concubines as their wives, and treated them as such, taking them about ing tired of it, joined the previous settlers, and sought a retreat and a quiet old age in tilling the soil on the beautiful banks of the Red River. The officers of the companies usually entered the service when from fourteen to sixteen years of age; and it was not only the low ranks of the service that intermarried with the Indian women of the country; those holding the highest positions, the chief traders and chief factors, did the same. The consequence was, that men receiving large pay, and occupying good positions, on retiring from the service found that they had recognized families of half-breeds looking to them for support. When deciding upon a place to settle, they naturally took up their quarters where they could spend their old age among a people with whom they felt at home, and could live in the free and easy manner to which they had been accustomed from their earliest days. They did this rather than take home to the old country families that their relatives might be ashamed of— rather than undergo the restraints of a civilized life, now grown irksome to themrather than return after a lengthened absence to their homes, either to find their old friends dead, or themselves unrecognized and forgotten. In a statement, published in 1818, of the Selkirk Settlement, the half-breed population was then thus spoken of:-" Technically termed in that country Metiss, Bois Brulés, or Half-breeds. These are the illegitimate progeny, chiefly, of the Indian traders and others in the service of the North-West Company, by Indian women." Many of the forts and posts of the Hud. son Bay Company are now in charge of the half-breed children of the earlier chief traders and chief factors, and the name halfbreed, if it ever was so, has ceased to be a term of reproach. One old officer of the Company, who died last year, was a descendant of one of the oldest and best families in Montreal. He entered the service of the Company about fifty years ago, married or cohabited with an Indian woman when he was young, and had a son by her who is now in charge of one of the Company's posts. The father died, leaving a property valued at twenty-five thousand pounds, and about a dozen half-breed children. the hunting field. He is to say when they shall start in the morning, how long they shall travel, and when they shall camp at night. All disputes are referred to him. When they approach the buffalo, they mount their runners, as their trained horses are called, and pursue the herd. On bringing down a buffalo, the hunter who shoots it drops a glove or something by way of token. The women, following with the carts, take the carcases belonging to their lords, and commence converting them into pemmican. The half-breeds, with their long hair and dark complexions, when dressed in their usual style, with fur cap, capote or carriboo shirt, leggings and moccasins to match, carrying flint-lock guns, and mounted on roving little Indian ponies, caparisoned with a gor beaded saddle, with long lassoes of buffalo hide trailing on the ground yards behind them, present really a picturesque appearance. The horses always walk or gallop. You might ride about the settlement for days together and never see a horseman trotting. An intelligent half-breed thus descended is the best man that can be found for the charge of the interior posts. He has the intelligence of the white man, with the In-geously worked beaded saddle-cloth and dian sagacity. He can live on the coarsest food, can endure the greatest hardships, can bear to be isolated from the world year after year. No one better understands the Indian character, or can deal to greater advantage with the race. There are two large classes of the half-breeds-the English and French. The former appear to take more after the white and less after the Indian, while the latter, on the contrary, seem to descend more to the Indian level. This is shown in various ways. They care less than the English half-breeds for cultivating the soil, are satisfied with coarser and plainer food, are more improvident, and evince greater fondness for buffalo hunting and its gipsy life. From the earliest history of the settlement, it has been the custom to go out to summer and winter buffalo hunts. These parties are made up almost exclusively of French half-breeds. They rendezvous at a certain point in the settlement, with their ox-carts, buffalo-runners, and their whole families-in some years having been known to number as many as fifteen hundred carts. After quitting the settlement, they agree amongst themselves upon a captain, chosen for his boldness, experience and success in The half-breeds are uncommonly fond of horse-racing. It is a very ordinary occurrence in Winnipeg, to see a horse-race between half-breeds up and down the street. There are impromptu matches made for small stakes. Often a couple of half-breeds may be seen tearing down the street on horseback with their hair flying and arms working, amid the applause of the bystanders. They all ride uncommonly well, being used to it from their infancy, and almost living in their saddles. They dash up the street in small troops at full gallop, stop suddenly at an hotel, throw themselves off their horses, which, if wild, are cobbled with their las soes, enter the hotel, spend their money most freely, and after drinking a good deal come out, and dash off again in the same wild, reckless, devil-may-care style. They are rather given to gambling, and are a very intemperate race, particularly the French. They can frequently be seen coming out of the Hudson Bay Company's store with small bottles filled with rum, which they proceed to empty before leaving the yard. A day never passes but some are seen returning home intoxicated on foot, or reeling about on their horses. They are naturally quiet and inoffensive if unprovoked, fond of a joke, and laugh a good deal, but, when under the influence of liquor, their worse nature shows itself, and their Indian passions appear for the time to predominate. In a fight they would probably be cowardly, and take an unfair advantage of an adversary where it was possible. They are passionately fond of dancing and of the fiddle. In nearly every family, one can be found who plays that instrument. After the snow falls they have numberless gatherings for dancing. They do not, as we do, assemble at 10 p.m. and break up at 1 or 2 in the morning-that would be considered utterly absurd-they meet at the reasonable hour of 6 in the evening, dance all that night until about eight the following morning, breakfast in the house by daylight, and then return home, often driving as many as twenty miles. After weddings these dances have been known to be kept up (we have it on the very best authority) for two and even three days, until the guests have eaten up every thing in the house. The dances are always crowded, as the Red River cottage usually contains but two or three rooms. The principal dance, in fact their only one, is called a Red River jig, which somewhat resembles a hornpipe, male and female participating in it; every little while some new couple cutting out those dancing; so that it can go on for hours together, till the fiddlers and their reliefs are all exhausted. As a dance for females it is most ungraceful. Another curious custom of Red River is that at any chance meeting on New Year's day, whether at one of their dances, or in calling, or elsewhere, the men and women iss each other. It used to be indulged in on all hands, from the highest to the Indian, the women taking their kiss as a matter of course, sometimes from entire strangers. It is now dying out, since the advent of strangers and the opening up of the settlement. Red River has changed greatly in the last two or three years: before, it was fifty years behind the rest of the world. It was exceedingly difficult of access, being bounded on the west by a thousand miles of uninhabited prairie, and many hundreds of miles of mountainous and broken country; on the north it had access to the Atlantic ocean by way of a most dangerous river and the Hudson's Bay, only open on an average about six weeks of the year; on the east a canoe voyage of about fifteen hundred miles was required to reach Toronto; so that the settlers remained cut off from the world until they gave up the old routes to the north and east, and adopted that to the south. This was an overland journey, by the vast trackless prairie, of between five and six hundred miles, to St. Paul's, one of the earliest settlements in that quarter, and from St. Paul's to Chicago. The length of the journey deterred visitors, and the settlers were contented to remain as they were, seldom hearing from the outside world, and taking little or no interest in it. As a rule the half-breed, like the Indian, eats inordinately. If he has fasted for a time his cravings seem never to be satisfied. The writer recollects seeing an Indian and a half-breed sit down to a pot filled with a fish that must have weighed, before it was cooked, close upon twenty-five pounds, and finish it before they stopped, leaving only the head and bones untouched; after which they swallowed a quantity of pemmican. Even then they looked as hungry as ever, and as if it would be dangerous to leave any edible within their reach. At a citizens' ball in the village of Winnipeg, a stout half-breed happened to place. himself beside the writer at the supper table. Taking up a fork he deliberately transferred a whole duck from the dish on to his own plate, and, after totally demolishing it, proceeded with the rest of his supper. There are exceptions to all rules, and some half-breeds, of course, do not eat to excess. In fact, there are some in every respect like full-blooded whites. Half-breeds naturally can adapt them selves with ease to the habits of the Indians. The half-breed whose gastronomic feat is mentioned above, was a most respectable and intelligent fellow, could read and write well, had a good farm in the settlement, stocked with forty or fifty head of cattle, and was accustomed to living very comfortably. He once took the writer into a wigwam tenanted by an old squaw, her daughter and grandchild. The owner, just returned from a long journey, had taken up his grandchild and was kissing and fondling it, with a greater appearance of feeling than one would expect to find in an Indian. The writer stood at the door, afraid to touch the sides of it for fear of vermin (Indians always being very dirty), while my friend walked in, sat down on some blankets, picked up an old pot filled with water, in which a fish had been boiled, and drank a quantity, seemingly with great relish. After he had held a long conversation with them in the Indian tongue, we came away. All half-breeds can speak some Indian dialect. The French and English can always communicate freely with each other by their common language. The women generally dress in dark coloured clothes; out of the house they invariably wear a black shawl over their heads, which serves the place of bonnet and cloak, and looking out, with a sly glance from the corner of their eyes, with their bright red or bronzed complexions, they appear rather attractive. On Sundays the French women may be seen in crowds crossing the ferry at St. Boniface. When delayed there, they have a way of resting themselves by squatting down on the ground, not caring whether there is grass or not a habit they have inherited from their Indian mothers. It is not an uncommon thing to see a leather tent standing near the houses of the half-breeds, and used a good deal in the summer months; it is cooler for sleeping in, and they can have their smudge for keeping off the musquitoes, and can gratify a taste for out-door life. It has always been considered totally unnecessary to have locks on the doors of the houses; doors can be left open, articles left lying about in the most careless manner, without any danger of their being stolen or the house being entered. Till lately crime was almost unknown in the settlement. There was only one Judge for the whole place, who held court at Fort Garry about every three months. The jail was a wooden building, and nearly always unoccupied. During the summer many of the settlers employ their time in what is called "tripping," that is, in making trips between Fort Garry and St. Paul's, in Minnesota. They go with loads of fur, and return with all sorts of merchandize for the shopkeepers of Red River. They take with them all their working oxen, of which some have only six or eight, others thirty or forty. The oxen are harnessed singly to carts made completely of wood, without tires, these being the most convenient, as they can be floated over the streams on the route where there are no ferry-boats. As a general thing there is a man in charge of every five or six carts, to load and unload, attend to the oxen morning and evening, and other work. The leading ox of the train is an old stager that walks fast. He usually has blinds on, so that the driver need not be always at his head goading him on, a call being enough. The second ox is tied by the horns with buffalo thongs to the leading cart, the third to the second, and so on all through the train, consequently they are unable to lag. All summer these trains are arriving and leaving the settlement, from the small ones |