THE NEW LANDBefore Walter Rossel was wholly awake, even before he opened his eyes, he realized that the ship was unusually quiet. There was only a slight rolling motion from side to side, a dead roll. Was she caught in the ice again, or had she reached Fort York at last? Could it be that the long voyage was really over? Walter hurried into the few clothes he had taken off, and ran up on deck, hoping to see land close by.He was disappointed. He could see nothing but gray water, a line of white where waves were breaking on a long bar, and the dim, shadowy forms of the other ships, hulls, masts, and spars veiled in dense fog. There was no ice in sight, yet all three vessels were riding at anchor.Eagerly the boy turned to a sailor who was scrubbing the deck. Walter’s native tongue was French, but he had picked up a little English during the voyage, enough to ask why the ships were at anchor, and to understand part of the man’s reply. They had crossed the bar in the night, the sailor said, and were lying in the shallow water of York Flats. Over there to the south, hidden in the fog, was the shore.The news that they had arrived off Fort York spread rapidly among the passengers on the Lord Wellington. Men, women, and children crowded on deck, gazed into the fog, questioned one another and the sailors in French, German, and broken English, and talked and laughed excitedly. A little boy of seven and his older sister, a bright-faced girl of thirteen with hazel eyes and heavy braids of brown hair, joined Walter and poured out eager questions.”They say we are at the end of our voyage,” cried the girl, “but where is the land?”Walter pointed to the south. “We’ll see it when the fog lifts. Does your father know we are almost at Fort York?””Yes, he is coming on deck. There he is now.”A middle aged man, thin and somewhat stooped, was coming towards them, his pale face smiling and eager. “Well, my boy,” he greeted Walter, “this is good news indeed. We shall soon be settled on our own farm. Think of that, children, our own farm, a far larger one than we could ever dream of having in Switzerland.””Yes, Monsieur Perier,” replied Walter, “the voyage is almost over, and—-“”Look, Walter,” Elise interrupted. “The fog is thinner. See how red it is in the east. And look at that dark line, like a shadow. Can that be the shore?”The fog was certainly thinning. A wider stretch of water had become visible, and the outlines of the other ships were clearer. Though steam power was coming into use for river navigation on both sides of the Atlantic, there were no ocean-going steamships in 1821. The Lord Wellington, the Prince of Wales, and the Eddystone were sailing vessels, sturdily built craft with extra heavy oak sheathing and iron-plated bows, suitable for cruising ice-strewn, northern waters. That all three had been in contact with the ice, their scraped and battered hulls betrayed. From each mizzen peak fluttered the British red ensign, and the mainmast head bore a flag with a red cross and the letters H. B. C., the flag of the Hudson Bay Company.CONTENTSThe New LandFort YorkThe Selkirk Colony and the Rival Fur TradersThe Start from Fort YorkThe Black MurrayToiling Up StreamNorway HouseThe Missing PemmicanHunger and ColdThe Red River at LastFort DouglasBy Cart Train to PembinaThe Red-Headed Scotch BoyPembinaThe Ojibwa HunterLetters from Fort DouglasChristmas at PembinaMirage of the PrairieBlizzardA Night AttackThe Burned CabinThe Painted Buffalo SkullUnwelcome VisitorsA Sore HandThe Travelers without SnowshoesElise’s StoryWhy the Periers Came to PembinaThe Land to the SouthThe Coming of the SiouxWith the Buffalo HuntersI The Charging BuffaloTo the Sheyenne RiverA Lonely CampDangerIn the Chief’s TipiThe White TraderFlightThe Fight at the Bois des SiouxSafeConclusion

South from Hudson Bay An Adventure and Mystery Story for Boys by E. C. [Ethel Claire] Brill PDF

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