It is a great stormy and
dangerous lake--Lake Winnipeg. But for boats to creep along its shore
with the liberty of landing on its sloping banks in case of need it is
safe enough. The season was well past, and haste was needed, but in due
time the mouth of the river--the delta of Red River--was reached. Now
they were within forty or forty-five miles of their destination. At this
time the banks of the Red River were well wooded, though there was open
grassy plains lying behind these belts of forest. There was only one
obstruction on their way up the river. This was the "Deer," now St.
Andrew's Rapids, but after their experiences this was nothing, for these
rapids were easily overcome by tracking, that is, by dragging the boats
by a line up the bank.
Up the river they came and rounded what we now call Point Douglas, in
the City of Winnipeg, a name afterwards given to mark Lord Selkirk's
family name. They had completed a journey of seven hundred and
twenty-eight miles, from York Factory to the site of Winnipeg--and they
had done this in fifty-five days. Now they landed.
THE RED LETTER DAY OF THEIR LANDING WAS AUGUST 30TH, 1812.
At York Factory the Colonists had met a Hudson's Bay Company
officer--Peter Fidler--on his way to England.
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