It was said that in consequence
it was called "Each-a-Man's" brook, according as each voyageur took the
water with his craft first. The way was now clear, down stream until
shortly was seen the dashing Nelson River, or as it is here called, "The
Sea River." When this was accomplished the Immigrants had only to pull
stoutly up stream for forty miles or more until Norway House, the great
Hudson's Bay Fort at the north end of Lake Winnipeg was reached.
The weary journey--430 miles from York Factory--was thus over and the
worn out, weather beaten, ragged, and foot-sore travellers had come to
the lake, whose name, other than that of Red River, was the only inland
word they had ever heard of before starting on their journey.
It was the first standing place in the country, which was now to have
them as its pioneers.
There is no turning back now. The Rubicon is crossed. Thirty-seven
portages lie between them and the dissociable sea. For better or for
worse they will now complete their journey, going on to found the
Settlement which has become so famous.
The appearance of Norway House with its fine site and evidences of trade
cheered the Colonists, and the sight of a body of water like Lake
Winnipeg, which can be as boisterous as the ocean, brought back the loud
resounding sea by whose swishing waves most of the settlers, for all
their lives, had been lulled to sleep.
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