The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1946, Blaðsíða 46

44
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 1946
uage, looked to their own comfort. The
evening before our departure from Tor-
onto, Sigtryggur had parted company
with us, to proceed to Iceland as govern-
ment immigration agent. FriSjon was
now chief assistant to Taylor, but FriS-
jon was young and inexperienced.
We reached the Red River late in the
afternoon. The weather was extremely
wet and the ground was mud. Here was
the end of steel, and a town was form-
ing, and the livery stable and even
most of the homes were tents.
Then began the process of packing
the people into boats, which were flat-
boats, steamer-towed. That is, the maj-
ority were allocated to the flatboats; the
elect were given room on board the
steamer. Those on the boats had no
place except on top of the mass of goods
and luggage, and were without cover.
Thus we travelled for several days, for
there were many stops for the purpose
of unloading goods and taking on board
wood for the boilers. To make matters
worse, the river had become so shallow,
that the steamer grounded frequently,
and it was often re-floated with diff-
iculty. This meant much wading and our
journey was slow and laborious. When
assistance was required, many of our
company made themselves scarce, not
least the single men.
Towards evening we landed at the
junction of the Assiniboine, south of the
Hudson’s Bay Company buildings. That
same night, and on the following day,
a few of our number unloaded the boats,
although we were not in the best of con-
dition for the work. The pay, however,
which was three dollars, made up for
that. To this much, for such a short time,
we were not accustomed.
We were taken to the Immigration
shed, Which was not large, or in any
way a remarkable building. There we
were quartered for the few remaining
nights until the seventeenth of October,
1875, when the journey was resumed.
Winnipeg was then a very insignifi-
cant little town, with few noteworthy
buildings. I saw, in passing, one brick
building, not pretentious; two brick-
faced buildings, not well constructed;
three or four hotels, and many log
houses. The Hudson’s Bay Company had
most of the trade. Grasshoppers haa
destroyed all cultivation for three years
past, so that it was necessary to bring in
all supplies for the few souls who main-
tained themselves there, and were near-
ing the end of their tether.
The delay in Winnipeg was for prepar-
ing the so-called boats for the journey.
These flatboats could not be rowed and
were subject to little control. They drift-
ed at the mercy of the current, regard-
less of whether it meant life or
death. Indeed, the more prudent in our
company did not view this means ot
transportation with much favor, and
predicted that all would be lost.
Nevertheless, the work of preparation
was pushed, and the boats loaded.We
had some supplies for our destination,
for all our leaders were not so heedless
as to rely on our subsisting entirely on
the forest and the lake, even if there
was an abundance of both.
The leaders’ lack of forethought, as
many realized afterwards, when too late,
was almost incredible. The people suff-
ered for years to come from the improv-
ident way in which preparations were
made for the settlement. It was indeed
a hazardous undertaking to move out
into the wilderness, far from all settle-
ment, and in the face of winter.
Several unattached young ladies
stayed behind in Winnipeg, where they
secured employment in domestic ser-
vice. Some female children remained,
too, and also a married couple, Bjorn
SkagfjorS and his wife, because of the
wife’s illness. As for the main part of
the group, these were required to pro-
ceed to the site of the proposed settle-
ment, and to begin immediately on the
work of cultivation; else they would
have to pay the expenses of their
journey out, and be left to fend for them-
selves, with no aid from the govern-
ment loan.
Whether or not it is correct as stated
by GuSlaugur Magnusson in his pion-
eering article in the Almanak of 1899,