o annexation. Louis
Riel, a fanatical half-breed, placed himself at the head of the
movement. His followers established what they called a "provisional
government" of which he was chosen president, and when the newly
appointed governor reached the boundary line he was prevented from
entering the territory. Several of the white settlers who resisted this
rebellious movement were arrested and kept in confinement. One of these,
a young man named Thomas Scott, having treated Riel with defiance, was
court-martialled for treason to the provisional government, condemned,
and on the 4th of March 1870, shot in cold blood under the walls of Fort
Garry. This crime aroused intense excitement throughout the country,
and the Orange body, particularly, to which Scott belonged, demanded the
immediate punishment of his murderer and the suppression of the
rebellion. An armed force, composed partly of British regulars and
partly of Canadian volunteers, was made ready and placed under the
command of Colonel Garnet Wolseley, afterwards Lord Wolseley. As a
military force could not pass through the United States, the expedition
was compelled to take the route up Lake Superior, and from the head of
that lake through 500 m. of unbroken and difficult wilderness. In August
1870, the force reached Fort Garry, to find the rebels scattered and
their leader, Riel, a fugitive in the neighbouring states. Meanwhile,
during the progress of the expedition, an act had been passed creating
Manitoba a province, with full powers of self-government, and the
arrival of the military was closely followed by that of the first
governor, Mr (later Sir) Adams G. Archibald, who succeeded in organizing
the administration on a satisfactory basis. Fort Garry became Winnipeg,
and there were soon indications that it was destined to be a great city,
and the commercial doorway to the vast prairies that lay beyond.
Meanwhile, till adequate means of transportation were provided, it was
seen that city and prairie alike must wait for any large inflow of
population.

New provinces.

Provision was made in the British North America Act to receive new
provinces into the Dominion. Manitoba was the first to be constituted;
in 1871 British Columbia, which had hitherto held aloof, determined,
under the persuasion of a sympathetic governor, Mr (later Sir) Antony
Musgrave, to throw in its lot with the Dominion. Popular feeling in
British Columbia itself was not strongly in favour of