Meanwhile the Selkirk Garry, clustering about the historic walls of Fort was winning its way to prosperity. The hardships of pioneer life in the East were here repeated. Spade and hoe, sickle and cradle, flail and quern, all told of the day of small things. A series of disasters, in the form of grasshoppers and floods, failed to shake the courage of the sturdy settlers. The growth of the colony made necessary a change of government. The peo ple complained that the members of the council of Assiniboia were paid servants of the com pany, and did not, therefore, represent the pop ular will. Discontent was a sign of progress, a sign that the settlement was growing beyond the control of a fur company.
The steadily growing importance of the Pa cific country made it imperative to determine the boundary line between America and Brit ish territory in the West. The 49th parallel was the accepted line as far as the Rockies, and it was agreed that for the time being the country beyond the mountains should be ofree and open° to both nations. In 1846 the Ore gon treaty continued the boundary line along the 49th parallel to the channel separating Van couver Island from the mainland. The line was to follow this channel southwesterly to the Pacific Ocean. For several years the own ership of the island of San Juan was in dis pute. The question was finally referred for settlement to the German Emperor, who gave his award in favor of the United States.
To maintain order among the lawless min ers whom the discovery of gold had drawn to the Pacific Coast, a separate government was established on the mainland. New West minster, on the Fraser River, became the capi tal. This arrangement, however, proved un satisfactory; and at times there was talk of annexing Vancouver Island to the United States. Fortunately a strong British sentiment prevailed, which led to the reunion, in 1866, of the island and the mainland, to form the province of British Columbia. Victoria was chosen as capital.
The British North America Act made pro vision for the admission to confederation at any time of British Columbia, Rupert's Land and the Northwest territories. The first Do minion Parliament petitioned the British gov ernment to hand over to Canada Rupert's Land and the Northwest. It was claimed that the rule of a fur company did not tend to the general development of the country, and, more over, that the extension of the Dominion west ward would be a safeguard against any aggres sion on the part of the United States. The Hudson's Bay Company finally surrendered to Canada its control of Rupert's Land and its monopoly of trade. The company, in return, received the sum of £300,000, one twentieth of all land thereafter surveyed for settlement, and also retained its posts and trading privileges.
At the time of confederation (q.v.), the only
occupants of the land beyond Lake Superior were roving bands of Indians, a few scattered traders and 12,000 settlers in the valley of the Red River. Ten thousand of these 12,000 were half-breeds, Scotch and French. Into this com munity, without warning, flocked Canadian sur veyors to lay out roads and townships. The country had been handed over to Canada and the interests of the natives to be sacrificed. Such was the thought of the half-breed ele ment. The storm centre was the French half breed party, the Metis, led by Louis Riel (see Rim. REBELLION). There was no one in the colony to restrain the latter's madness. Fort Garry was seized and a (provisional govern ment( established. There was every prospect, however, of a bloodless settlement of the situa tion, when suddenly Riel, in a moment of reck lessness, ordered the execution of a young On tario immigrant named Thomas Scott. The news of this brutal murder raised a storm of indignation in the East. In a remarkably short time a volunteer force under the command of Col. Garnet Wolseley reached Fort Garry, only to find that the instigators of the rebellion had fled across the American border.
Out of the strife of rebellion arose a new province. Even while Wolseley's force was on its way up from the East, the Manitoba Act passed the Canadian Parliament. Manitoba was admitted into confederation as a full-fledged province. The claims of the half-breeds were fully met by a generous land grant. Many of Wolseley's men remained in the new province to share in its making. The little settlement about Fort Garry was soon transformed into the populous city of Winnipeg. Manitoba drew her first governor from the far East, in the person of a distinguished Nova Scotian, Adams G. Archibald.
A year later the westward expansion of con federation was continued. British Columbia be came part of the Dominion, subject to a very important condition, namely, that a transcon tinental railroad should be begun within two years and completed within 10 years from the date of union. In 1872, therefore, Sir John A. Macdonald introduced the question in Par liament. The great enterprise was well under way when the ministry, charged with corrup tion, was forced to resign. Alexander Macken zie, who succeeded Sir John, proposed to con struct the road gradually, as the finances of the country allowed. This delay put a severe strain upon British Columbia's loyalty to the Dominion. The Macdonald government, re turning to power in 1878, immediately took up again the railway question. Construction was begun from both ends; and with such vigor was the work pressed forward that the last spike was driven by Lord Strathcona in No vember 1885. The completion of a transcon tinental railway cemented the bond binding the East and the West.