Accordingly full
arrangements were made. A supply of canoes was obtained and on the 15th
of June, 1815, no less than one hundred and forty of the two hundred
Colonists on Red River embarked and drifted down the river on their long
canoe voyage of more than a thousand miles. By the end of July they had
gone over the dangerous Fur traders' route and passing over four or five
hundred miles reached Fort William, near Lake Superior. But their
journey was not one-half over. Along the base of the rugged shores of
Lake Superior, through the St. Mary's River, down the foaming Sault and
then along the shores of Georgian Bay, they paddled their way to
Penetanguishene. From this point they crossed southward to Holland
Landing, which is forty miles north of Toronto, and arrived at their
destination on the 5th of September.
It is hard to find a parallel for such a journey. They were a large
body, made up of men, women, and children, continuously journeying for
eighty-two days, through an unsettled and barren country, running
dangerous rapids, and exposed to storms with a poorly organized
commissariat, and under fear of pursuit by the agents of Lord Selkirk,
to whom many of them were personally bound.
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