to minimize the
arms of the service to which we belonged.

It was the swearing in of the "originals" of the Mounted Police that led
to the writing of these special reflections. For on looking back over
the years of this West that I have known from childhood, it seems to me
that the day of that first enlistment oath was a pivotal point around
which much of the destiny of Western Canada would turn for the rest of
recorded time. Hence it is at this stage of the story that the formative
day at Lower Fort Garry should be noted.

That winter in the old stone-walled fort was a busy one for the new
recruits. After they were sworn in by Colonel Osborne Smith, that
officer returned to his duties at Upper Fort Garry. He had done a good
day's work, and if he addressed the men in the crisp, incisive style I
have often heard him use on patriotic occasions, then he had made
additional contribution to the considerations that inspired the Police
to determined endeavour. On his leaving Superintendent W. D. Jarvis, who
had seen service in Africa and became a very popular officer, took over
the duties of Adjutant and Riding Master, Griesbach took charge of
discipline and foot-drill, while S. B. Steele, popularly known in the
West to the close of his days as Sam Steele, looked after the breaking
of the broncos and gave instruction in riding, which latter proved to be
highly necessary. There were no eight-hour days, the only limit being
the daylight each way. Steele drilled five rides a day in the open, and
the orders were that, unless the thermometer dropped beneath 36 degrees
below zero, a rather cool temperature, the riding and breaking were to
proceed. The broncos were of the usual exuberant type, given to every
device to throw a rider, and falls on the frozen ground were not
infrequent, but by spring the men knew how to handle broncos so as to
become the pioneers of fine horsemanship amongst the riders of the
plains.

Lieut.-Colonel French came in November, 1873, and assumed his command.
It did not take him long to see that a handful of 150 men, however
gallant, would be totally inadequate for the gigantic undertaking ahead
of them. The Force has always been too small in numbers, but at the
outset the proposed strength was absurdly below the mark. Fortunately
the news of the lawlessness that was abroad in the far West made it
possible for Colonel French to get the proposed number doubled and
brought up to the 300 which Constable T.