Transcriber's note:

Page numbers in this book are indicated by numbersenclosed in curly braces, e.g. {99} in the left margin.They have been located where pagebreaks occurred in the original book. For itsIndex, a page number has been placed only at the start of thatsection.

Map of Western Canada

CANADA

THE EMPIRE OF THE NORTH

BEING THE ROMANTIC STORY OF THE
NEW DOMINION'S GROWTH FROM
COLONY TO KINGDOM

BY

AGNES C. LAUT

AUTHOR OF "THE CONQUEST OF THE GREAT NORTH-WEST"
"LORDS OF THE NORTH,"ETC.

BOSTON AND LONDON
GINN AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS
1909

COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY AGNES C. LAUT
ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

{iii}

PREFACE

To re-create the shadowy figures of the heroic past, to clothe the deadonce more in flesh and blood, to set the puppets of the play in life'sgreat dramas again upon the stage of action,—frankly, this may not beformal history, but it is what makes the past most real to the presentday. Pictures of men and women, of moving throngs and heroic episodes,stick faster in the mind than lists of governors and arguments ontreaties. Such pictures may not be history, but they breathe life intothe skeletons of the past.

Canada's past is more dramatic than any romance ever penned. The storyof that past has been told many times and in many volumes, with fardigressions on Louisiana and New England and the kingcraft of Europe.The trouble is, the story has not been told in one volume. Too muchhas been attempted. To include the story of New England wars andLouisiana's pioneer days, the story of Canada itself has been eithercramped or crowded. To the eastern writer, Canada's history has beenthe record of French and English conflict. To him there has beenpractically no Canada west of the Great Lakes; and in order to tell theintrigue of European tricksters, very often the writer has beencompelled to exclude the story of the Canadian people,—meaning bypeople the breadwinners, the toilers, rather than the governingclasses. Similarly, to the western writer, Canada meant the Hudson'sBay Company. As for the Pacific coast, it has been almost ignored inany story of Canada.

Needless to say, a complete history of a country as vast as Canada,whose past in every section fairly teems with action, could not becrowded into one volume. To give even the story...