nnis to make
surveys of townships in Assiniboia; and early in the autumn Mr.
Macdougall was appointed lieutenant-governor of the territories, with
the understanding that he should not act in an official capacity until
he was authoritatively informed from Ottawa of the legal transfer of the
country to the Canadian government. Mr. Macdougall left for Fort Garry
in September, but he was unable to reach Red River on account of a
rising of the half-breeds. The cause of the troubles is to be traced not
simply to the apathy of the Hudson's Bay Company's officials, who took
no steps to prepare the settlers for the change of government, nor to
the fact that the Canadian authorities neglected to consult the wishes
of the inhabitants, but chiefly to the belief that prevailed among the
ignorant French half-breeds that it was proposed to take their lands
from them. Sir John Macdonald admitted, at a later time, that much of
the trouble arose "from the lack of conciliation, tact and prudence
shown by the surveyors during the summer of 1869." Mr. Macdougall also
appears to have disobeyed his instructions, for he attempted to set up
his government by a _coup-de-main_ on the 1st December, though he had no
official information of the transfer of the country to Canada, and was
not legally entitled to perform a single official act.

The rebellious half-breeds of the Red River settlement formed a
provisional government, in which one Louis Riel was the controlling
spirit from the beginning until the end of the revolt. He was a French
Canadian half-breed, who had been educated in one of the French Canadian
colleges, and always exercised much influence over his ignorant,
impulsive, easily-deluded countrymen. The total population living in the
settlements of Assiniboia at that time was about twelve thousand, of
whom nearly one-half were _Metis_ or half-breeds, mostly the descendants
of the _coureurs-de-bois_ and _voyageurs_ of early times. So long as the
buffalo ranged the prairies in large numbers, they were hunters, and
cared nothing for the relatively tame pursuit of agriculture. Their
small farms generally presented a neglected, impoverished appearance.
The great majority had adopted the habits of their Indian lineage, and
would neglect their farms for weeks to follow the scarce buffalo to
their distant feeding grounds. The Scotch half-breed, the offspring of
the marriage of Scotchmen with Indian women, still illustrated the
industry and ene