Part 1 (1/2)
The Story of Louis Riel: The Rebel Chief
by Joseph Ed the banks of the Red River, over those fruitful plains brightened ild flowers in summer, and sith 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 eful 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 s of horror for the misery, the tumult, the terror and the blood of which he has been the author, we lect to do hiht
He is not, as so eful, irresponsible, savage blood in his veins
Mr Edward Jack, [Footnote: I cannotRiel When I asked him, he simply turned his face toward the sky andFrench proclivities, though the blood of a Scottish bailie is in his veins] of New Brunswick, who is well infores 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, as a French Canadian and a native of Berthier (_en haut_) His naise Metis Fro a ”half breed,” Louis Riel is only one-eighth Indian, or is, if wea mixture of Ethiopian and Caucasian blood, an Octoroon
Nay, more than this, we have it shown that our rebel can lay claioes During the suht 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 Co 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 re for the free, wild life of the boundless prairies in thisbuffalo, its an to beckon hi the Metis hunters in their great biennial ca prairie Many a buffalo fell upon the plain with Louis Riel's arrow quivering in his flank; iant pot at which no hunter received honours so ht-eyed, supple female, accorded him
Surfeited for the time of the luxury of the liirl with the lustrous eyes of Nore his heart with all her mysterious force of coquetry He was not proof; and the hunter soon lay entangled in the irl of the plains In the autuiied as a carder of wool; and having much ability in contrivance he constructed a littlemill which, with much enthusiasm, he exhibited to some officers of the Hudson Bay Coreat body, possessed no soul, and the disappointed inventor returned to his waiting ith sorrow in his eyes He next betook himself to the cultivation of a farood, patient wife, when the autu the sheaves
Tilling the soil proved too laborious, and he deterh the clayey channel of the _Seine petite_ was too feeble to turn the ponderous wheels So he was obliged to move twelvethe aesthetic nah either for his purposes, so with stupendous enterprise he cut a canal nine h it decoyed the waters of the little Seine into the arrain that grew for many a mile around; and in a little while Louis Riel beca and ih all his career a hyears 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 ree shall see later on, and we may also be able to determine if there are any shoulders upon which we can lay blahted one of the fairest portions of Canada
Louis Riel the elder was in due time blessed with a son, the same about who 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 hih the sas constantly upon his brow, and his good wife's fingers were never still This son had unusual precocity, and strangers who looked upon hireat fire sluht, 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 ireat 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 whoive 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 sao 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 colory in hi holeso the the, 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 overwheluished for brilliancy, but his tutors observed that he had solid parts, andhis class-enerally, because his manners were shy and reserved, and he shrank from, rather than courted, the popularity and leadershi+p which are the darling aims of so many lads in their school-days
Yet he had many friends armly attached to him; and to these he returned an equal affection One of his comrades was stricken doith 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 hi, and bestowing all his attention and affection upon hi words It is related that when the lasthis arht heaven to reward hi Riel's school- when you leave school? Will you stay here, or do you go out again into the wilderness anation 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 o out for herds upon the plains with our people, whoes” I know not what you es” 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 hi ties of fraternity; there is no jealousy a 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 syrades 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 theirdesire which he had to be a political as well as a social leader in the Colony of Red River He frequently, likewise,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 ard with contempt that which to us is sacred and above price They are not even deterred by the virtue of our women Noitness, you God who e, I will, if the propitious day ever coeance, andshall wipe out all the injustice and the dishonour”
Filled with these sentiments, when his school days came to an end, he packed his portion that notand shudder with his na before the vision of a confederation of the British Provinces entered into the brain of anyto the wilds of North America, found a tract of country fertile in soil, and fair to look upon He arrived in this unknoilderness when it was su over illimitable stretches till it was lost in the tranquil horizon, was burning with the blooer rose,” like soe queen of beauty, rose to his knees and breathed her sultry bal its scent with delicate reserve; but the wild pea, and the convolvulus, and the augur flower, and the insipid daisy, ran riot through all the grass land, and surfeited his nostrils with their sweets Here and there upon the mellow level stood a cluins without suitors, with their robes drawn close about them; but when over the unmeasured plain the wind blew, they bowed their heads: as if saluting the stranger who came to found a colony in the wilderness of which they were sentinels Here too, in the hush, for the first tih indistinct, sound of galloping thunder He knew not what it ht be the tumult of some distant waterfall, borne hither now because a storm was at hand, and the denser air was a better carrier of the sound And while they re what it could be, for the thunder was ever beco louder, and,
”Nearer clearer, deadlier than before”
Lo! out of the west ca across the plain With bated breath they watched the darkteround with a terrible awe they stood fast forhad come upon the plains, they see eye-balls that blaze like fire, heads crested with rugged, uncouth horns and shaggynostrils, and rearing tails
My God, a buffalo herd, and we'll be trampled to death,”
almost shrieked one of the Earl's followers
”Peace! keep cool! Up, up instantly into these trees!”
and the as obeyed as if each man was an instrument of the leader's will Beyond, in the south-east, a fullas soht was all over the plain