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Chapter 6: Ten Days Looking Round
Finding it would be inconvenient to have all our trunks brought to the Hotel, my husband & I walked through the dreadful mud to the warehouse on the afternoon of the following day when I put the things we should need into a portable box & a man who was going past the Portage Hotel, good naturedly offered to take it, & me, for it was snowing fast, this soon turned to rain, & we had a heavy storm, which made me glad I had accepted his offer. The next day Sunday was fine & we went to church twice, very pleased at finding a Church of England service still within our reach, the clergyman called upon us; he too was English & spoke most encouragingly of the life in this country, & told us how much his family who had grown up out here, liked it. In the afternoon we went with several others to see the Indian Tepees, about a mile across the prairie, there were I think 8 tents, those into which we looked were not inviting, in one there was only an old squaw, who was squatting in the middle smoking a pipe, in another some children who seemed as wild as animals, altogether the Indians inspired me with a feeling of repugnance, & I did not like the idea of having them walk in & out of our house as I am told is their habit. Here I must mention 3 young Englishmen who had come on the Minnesota & were now at our Hotel, they too were going to Gladstone, but the judge who had come from there, assured us all it was useless to attempt such a journey, he had been obliged to abandon his buck-board (a light vehicle on very high wheels) & borrow a red river cart as the rains had made the creeks overflow & in many places the bridges were washed away, these carts are constructed entirely of wood without even a nail being used, they are remarkably light & the body lifts off & forms a raft which makes them adapted to this country. After this advice we thought it wiser to stay where we were, my husband gaining what information he could in the neighbourhood.
May 31st we went to see Mr. MacKenzie at Burnside, one of the oldest & most wealthy settlers, he showed him every hospitality but advised our going further west, where all the best land was not yet taken; here as in England the cry is still "Go west young man, go west". On hearing that Gladstone was only twenty miles from Mr. MacKenzies my husband felt he could not return without making an attempt to get there, so continued his walk & succeeded in getting 13 miles; 3 times he had to take off his clothes to get through the water, but on coming to Image Creek, which is one of the widest, he found it impossible to get across without swimming & as he could not get his clothes over he was obliged to turn back & sleep at Burnside having walked 30 miles.
During his absence our Scotch friends had taken us for a long drive, they wished to see a farm which was for sale, so hiring a kind of open wagonette & pair of horses, they kindly invited us to join them, which my sister & I did taking the youngest little boy. At first the horses went quietly but when we had gone about a mile, one of them turned restive & in spite of the efforts of our charioteer persisted in turning round & we were nearly precipitated into a morass in which the water was very deep, the delegate jumped out to his assistance & we quickly followed his example, feeling safer on terra firma, then behind that rearing, plunging, creature. After walking a short distance the horses seemed more docile, & at our friends request, we took our seats again though I had some difficulty in persuading my little boy to do so, for more time we were constantly on the alert, but as the horses seemed to have got over their frolic, we settled ourselves to really enjoy the drive, for a long way we went on a pretty winding trail through the woods many places being so under water that we were almost afraid to attempt to go through but we continued our road until as we seemed to get no nearer the desired farm, we struck into another trail, & went over hill & dale across the prairie for miles without seeing a house or person, our driver every now & again climbing a tree to ascertain our whereabouts, this country is all so much alike & there are so few landmarks, that getting lost is no unfrequent occurance, however our cannie Scotchman cleverly found out the l& they wished to see & took us home by a more direct route.
We arrived at the hotel very hungry & having enjoyed immensely our first drive on the prairie. My husband returned the next morning, & we spent the anniversary of our wedding day in searching for a vacant house, or part of one in which we could stay while my husband went further west in search of a suitable location, our efforts were useless, every place was engaged, & we had to give up the idea.
The trio as we called the 3 young Englishmen were now camping out, & as we spent much of our time out of doors, preferring to take our work or books on to the prairie to sitting in the house, we saw them frequently & one day had afternoon tea at their tent, which they gave us in quite a novel style, though the finale was the most amusing part, for we declined to take our leave until we had assisted at the washing & putting away of the contents of the canteen, rather disagreeable sequel to every meal for bachelors, especially when they vainly endeavoured to wash greasy plates in luke warm water. There is not much to describe about the Portage, we thought it a pretty little place & almost all kinds of implements & other things required by settlers can be as well obtained there as at Winnipeg. Messrs Stobbert & Eden who own the largest dry goods store in that town had just opened a branch here, & I hear that there are many other buildings put up since we were there.
June 3rd my husband bought some oxen & a wagon as he intended on joining 2 men who had land beyond Prairie City, what was to become of us we could not decide & it was not until the following Saturday, that we made up our minds to go with him & try the gypsy life which did not sound very inviting but preferable to being separated which were all anxious to avoid. We were to leave on the Monday & were in the midst of our preparations when we were agreeably surprised at the arrival of 2 of our friends of the CPR survey. They were going to the Grand Valley by boat, & expected at sometime to be located near to Minnedosa or Prairie City, the former name being now substituted for the latter. We had been advised to buy everything requisite for our house as well as for the tent life, so that day was an unusually busy one, & we felt very glad to have the quiet Sunday intervene & again attended both services.
At the Hotel we had been made most comfortable, Mrs. Lyons allowing us the use of her private sitting room, in which was an American organ & almost every evening we had some music, she also lent us the "Graphic" & other newspapers & in this & every way tried to make our stay as pleasant as possible & was especially kind to our little girl who at this time was looking very delicate.
