blood of the nomad and the
volatile in their veins. Perry continues, "As farming is the inevitable
pursuit of the French half-breeds, all who are friendly to them should
agree in urging and encouraging them to remain on their present
holdings, so that they may at once face their destiny and ultimately
obtain the position of a self-supporting people. They should be treated
with patience and aided generously, remembering that it is not easy for
white men possessing all the advantages of education and civilization to
change their occupation. Can the half-breed hunter or freighter be
expected to be more apt in adapting himself to change? It would be an
astonishing thing if they quietly and quickly adapted themselves to the
work of a farm on which success is only obtained by hard, patient and
continuous labour." And Perry goes on to advise special instruction for
these people. And he concludes, "There is a tendency on the part of some
to regard the problem of the future of these people as insolvable.
Knowing their many sterling qualities I cannot despair, but believe
their descendants will be prosperous and desirable citizens of our
North-West Territory." Words like these could not be written by a man
who contented himself with the routine duty of a policeman, but by a
wide-awake Canadian who was anxious for the future of his country and
his fellow-citizens, and it is because there were so many in the Force
who saw these questions in the light of Canada's future that we have
always placed the Mounted Police amongst the real nation-builders of
this new Dominion.

And the decade which ended with 1890 finds one of the new pages in the
story of the Police in the patrol by Inspector J. V. Begin across the
stormy waters of Lake Winnipeg up to the bleak shores of Hudson Bay at
the famous old post of York Factory. This patrol involved much hardship
and danger, but it stabilized conditions in that remote Keewatin area.
In this regard Inspector Begin's trip was successful, but during his
absence in the north there occurred the wreck of the Police boat on Lake
Winnipeg, taking down with it Corporal Morphy and Constable Beaujeu, to
both of whom the Inspector was warmly attached. They were splendid young
men, full of gallantry and courage, but they answered the last roll-call
while in the discharge of duty in a Force that has always been on active
service.

CHAPTER X

CHANGING SCENERY

The decade from 1890 to 1900 witnessed