ounds such an affirmation is made. A sure market, forsooth! A single
Scotch farmer could be found in the colony, able alone to supply the
greater part of the produce the Company require; there is one, in
fact, who offered to do it. If a sure market were secured to the
colonists of Red River, they would speedily become the wealthiest
yeomanry in the world. Their barns and granaries are always full to
overflowing; so abundant are the crops, that many of the farmers could
subsist for a period of two or even three years, without putting a
grain of seed in the ground. The Company purchase from six to eight
bushels of wheat from each farmer, at the rate of three shillings per
bushel; and the sum total of their yearly purchases from the whole
settlement amounts to--

600 cwt. flour, first and second quality.
35 bushels rough barley.
10 half-firkins butter, 28 lbs. each.
10 bushels Indian corn.
200 cwt. best kiln-dried flour.
60 firkins butter, 56 lbs. each.
240 lbs. cheese.
60 hams.

Thus it happens that the Red River farmer finds a "sure market" for
six or eight bushels of wheat--and no more. Where he finds a sure
market for the remainder of his produce, Heaven only knows--I do not.
This much, however, I do know,--that the incomparable advantages this
delightful country possesses are not only in a great measure lost to
the inhabitants, but also to the world, so long as it remains under
the domination of its fur-trading rulers. In the possession of, and
subject to the immediate jurisdiction of the Crown, Assineboine would
become a great and a flourishing colony--the centre of civilization
and Christianity to the surrounding tribes, who would be converted
from hostile barbarians into a civilized and loyal people;--and thus
Great Britain would extend and establish her dominion in a portion
of her empire that may be said to have been hitherto unknown to her,
while she would open a new field for the enterprise and industry of
her sons.

In describing the advantages of this country, candour requires that I
should also point out its disadvantages. The chief disadvantage is the
difficulty of the communication with the sea, interrupted as it is by
shoals, rapids, and falls, which in their present state can only be
surmounted with incredible toil and labour. Yet there cannot be a
doubt that the skill of the engineer could effect such improvements as
would obviate the most, if not the whole, of this labour, and th