notes14
The Red River Settlement in 1869 contained about twelve thousand inhabitants. The English-speaking portion of
the population consisted of heterogeneous groups without unity among them for any public purpose. Some were
descendants or survivors of Lord Selkirk’s settlers who had come out half a century before; others were servants of
the Hudson’s Bay Company, both retired and active; a third group were the Canadians; while a fourth was made
up of a small though noisy body of Americans. Outnumbering the English, and united under leaders of their own
race, the French and French half-breeds dwelt chiefly on the east bank of the Red River, south of Fort Garry. These
half-breeds, or Metis, were a hardy race, who subsisted by hunting rather than by farming, and who were trained
to the use of arms. They regarded with suspicion the threatened introduction of new political institutions, and
were quite content under the paternal sway of the Hudson’s Bay Company and under the leadership of their
spiritual advisers, Bishop Take and the priests of the Metis parishes.
