e, and in a three-days' journey they reached the Marion's House in
St. Boniface. It is said that it was from Bond's description of this
voyage that the Poet Whittier obtained the information for the
well-known poem.

THE RED RIVER VOYAGEUR.

Out and in the river is winding
The banks of its long red chain,
Through belts of dusky pine land
And gusty leagues of plain.

Only at times a smoky wreath
With the drifting cloud-rack joins--
The smoke of the hunting lodges
Of the wild Assiniboines.

Drearily blows the north wind,
From the land of ice and snow;
The eyes that look are uneasy,
And heavy the hands that row.

And with one foot on the water,
And one upon the shore,
The Angel's shadow gives warning--
That day shall be no more.

Is it the clang of wild geese?
Is it the Indians' yell,
That lends to the voice of the North wind
The tones of a far-off bell?

The Voyageur smiles as he listens
To the sound that grows apace;
Well he knows the vesper ringing
Of the bells of St. Boniface.

The bells of the Roman Mission
That call from their turrets twain;
To the boatmen on the river,
To the hunter on the plain.

Even so on our mortal journey
The bitter north winds blow;
And thus upon Life's Red River
Our hearts, as oarsmen, row.

Happy is he who heareth
The signal of his release
In the bells of the Holy City--
The chimes of Eternal peace.

In the afternoon of the day of their arrival the party crossed from St.
Boniface to Fort Garry, and the missionary well known as Rev. Dr.
Black, went to the hospitable shelter of Alexander Ross, whose daughter
he afterward married. Three hundred of the Selkirk Colonists and their
children immediately gathered around Mr. Black, and though interrupted
for a year by the great flood which we have described, erected in the
following year, the stone Church of Kildonan, on the highway some five
miles from Winnipeg. With the help of a small grant from the Hudson's
Bay Company, the Selkirk Colonists erected, free from debt, their church
which still remains. Two other churches were erected by the
Presbyterians, and beside each a school. For several years before the
old Colony ceased Mr. Black conducted service in the Court House near
Fort Garry, and in 1868, with the assistance of Canadian friends,
erected the small Knox Church on Portage Avenue, in Winnipeg. This
building, though used, was not completed till after the arrival of the
Ca