Part 1 (2/2)

Then the tre eyes and foa nostrils, drove onward toward the south, like an unchained hurricane So horns and skull, and fell prone upon the plain, to be trampled into jelly by the hundreds of thousands in the rear The tree upon which the earl had taken refuge received many a shock from a crazed bull; and it seemed to the party fro hurled toward the south in a condition of the wildest turmoil hell itself let loose could present no such spectacle as thisover the lonely plain under the wan, elfin light of the new-risenitself into spectral shapes of sullen aspect, rose fro of loom presented a picture ination of the writer of the Inferno The spectacle, as observed by those soht be likened soainst the storm, and the mad waves tumble hither and thither, foiled, and i in one direction with a sweep and a force that no power could chain Circling ae, dusk clouds of steam that went up from the herd were scores of turkey buzzards, their obscene heads bent doard, their sodden eyes gleaeous feast awaited thehty herd At last the face of the prairie had ceased its surging; no lurid eyeball-light gleamed out of the dusk; and the te out into the unbounded stretches of the die spectacle The great arasses, warhed field The herbage had been literally crushed into mire, and this the innumerable hoofs had churned up with the soft, rich, dark soil of the prairie The legu clover, and rank, matted er-lily, and of the rich blooded ”buffalo lilac,” together with the dank, earthy sreeable and oppressive Lord Selkirk's heart sank within hi the ruin

”I fear me,” he said, ”to plant a colony here A herd of these beasts co upon a settlement would be worse than ten thousand spears” But so of the herds, and they assured hiain in this portion of the prairie for a quarter of a century to come

”At any rate,” they persisted, ”the buffalo keeps away froret by-and-by will be that the herds will not coh to us” And the Earl was reassured and proceeded with the steps preli the colony It need not be said that the place we have been describing was the prairie on the banks of the Red River

In a little while shi+ps bearing nuan to cross the sea bound for this fahty herds of wild cattle grazed knee-deep aht fehite wo ood-bye ar to come back for them when they had built homesteads for themselves in the far ailds of the West

But when Lord Selkirk planted here his sturdy Scotchame were not the only inhabitants of the plains The Crees, a well-built, active, war-loving race, had frootten roa in the strea buffalo Here and there was to be found one of their ”towns,” a straggling congregation of tents irls, in bare brown, little feet, sat through the cool of evening in the su beads upon the moccasins of their lovers, while the wrinkled da the household duties

But the Crees liked not the encroachn men with pale faces; and they held loud pos, and brandished spears, and swept their knives about their heads till their sheen glea their paint they set out to learn from the pale-faced chief as his justification for the invasion

”You cannot take lands without war and conquest,” were the words of a young chief with a nose like a hawk's beak, and an eye like the eagle's, to Lord Selkirk ”You did not fight us; therefore you did not conquer us How comes it then that you have our lands?”

”Are you the owners of this territory?” calmly enquired the nobleman

”We are; no one else is the owner”

”But I shall shew you that from two standpoints, first fros not to you Firstly, it belongs to our co to hiraze upon the plains, and the fishes that swin sayeth unto me, his devoted subject, 'Go you forth into my territories in the North of America, and select there a colony whereon to plant any of o thither' I have done so Then, since you hold possession of these plains only by the bounty and sufferance of our good father the King, how can you object to your white brethren coh; that was only the oily-tongued talk of the pale-faces

While seeues were as crooked as the horn of the oat

Yet no chief could answer the Earl's contention, and they looked from one to another with some traces of confusion and defeat upon their faces

”But,” continued Lord Selkirk, in the sarave and firm voice, ”from your own standpoint you are not the proprietors of this territory The Saulteux, hoe your constant wars, have been upon these plains as long as you In times of peace you have interwaes of your rivals”

Ugh! They could not deny this It was evident frolanced froainst them

”But there is no reason for your jealousy or your hostility,” Lord Selkirk continued; ”our people co you, not as conquerors, but as brothers They shall not molest you but quietly till the fields and raise their crops Instead of showing unfriendliness, I think you should take them by the hand and welcome them as brothers” These words at last prevailed, and the Crees put by their war paint, and ca the whites and offered them fish and buffalo steak

Thus was the colony founded The grain greell, and there was abundance in the new settlement, save that at intervals an arreen leaf Then the settlers' needs were sore, and they were obliged to subsist upon roots and what fell to them from the chase

Many years rolled on, and the sturdy Scotch settlers had driven their roots fast into the ground One alone of all the nuood-bye to his Scottish sweetheart returned to redeeot the rosy cheeks and bright blue eyes that they had left behind them, in the pleasures of the chase upon the plain, and the interest in their wide acres But these perhaps were not the only reasons why they had forgotten their vows to the Scottish girls

Ae, velvety eyes, black as the night when no moon is over the prairie, and shy as a fawn's When first the white irls were bashful; and when he went into the Crees' tent they would shrink away hiding their faces But it soon became apparent that the shyness was not indifference; indeed many a time when the Scotch hunter passed a red ly after hian to disappear, and soirls ca, and subht how to dance the cotillion and the eight-hand reel Then followed the wooing ae their troths to the dusky girls Many a brave hunter who had a score of scalps to dangle frolance from some beautiful maiden of his tribe, who before the pale faces ca the spouse of a warrior so distinguished Jealousy began to fill the hearts of the Crees, but the hters too, were constant mediators, and never ceased to exert themselves for peace

”When,” said they, ”the white-faces first ca men all cried out, 'O they deem themselves to be a better race than we; they think their white blood is better than our red blood They will notour wildit after it has fallen to our arrow or spear They will not consider one of our daughters fit for e with one of them; because it would blend their blood with our blood' Now, O you chiefs and young men, that which you at the first considered a hardshi+p if it did not come to pass, has come to pass, and yet you cohters,'

you first cry; now you plan revenge because they want to ule-eyed hunters were coirls of the tents It is asserted by some writers on the North-West that the beauty observed in the Metis woreat part to be attributed to the fact that the English settlers took to wife only the ain too, the canny Scotch lad, with his gun on his shoulder and his retriever at his heel, would walk through a Saulteux settleirls here were still shyer than their Cree cousins, but they were not a whit less lovely They were not duht of build, and y ofand black, but it was as fine as silk, and shone like the plue of a blackbird There was not that oily swarthiness in the complexion, which makes so many Indian women hideous in the eyes of a connoisseur of beauty; but the cheeks of these girls were a pale olive, and soe of rose came out like the delicate pink flush that appears in the olive-grey of theeyes upon the pale-faced stranger; and sighed all the day while they sewed fringe upon their skirts and beads upon their moccasins Their affections noere not for hiues or eneentle an to put themselves in his hen he carasses; would point out to hi around the swaht find elk or wild turkey Then with half shy, yet half coquettish airs, and a lurking tenderness in their great dusk hazel eyes, they would twist a sprig off a crown of golden rod, and with their dainty little brown fingers pin it upon the hunter's coat With shy curiosity they would s in their ance and that of the coats of their own red gallants h skin of the wolf or the bison So it ca the Jureat love in their hearts frowam of their tribe to be the wives of the whites in their stately dwellings

In this way up-grew the settlees were the affections of the red ions of the North to the hbours The savages had not shut their ears to what their woed, and they would say:

”The cause of these pale people is our cause; their interests are our interests; they have led their flesh and blood with ours; we shall be their faithful brothers to the death” It was this fact, not the wisdoht of govern preserved peace and good will throughout our North-West Territories It was for this reason that eneovernment in the Republic could say after they had revealed the corruption of Red Cloud and Black Rock agents: