Chapter XL: Conclusion

As guests of Joseph Renville, French _bois brulé_, and Colonel Jeffries, Scotchman, partners of the Columbia Fur Company, the Brabant-Perier party remained at Lake Traverse for more than a week. Guided to the spot by Louis, Renville himself went to find the abandoned carts. The vehicles were where the boys had left them, but empty and so badly wrecked that the remains were good for nothing but firewood. Tatanka Wechacheta’s band was gone. From the appearance of the camp ground, the Wahpetons’ departure had been a hurried one. Scar Face and his Ojibwas had vanished also. No doubt they had returned full speed to their own country, satisfied with their revenge and a scalp or two.

Stripped of practically all of their belongings, the Brabants and Periers were obliged to run in debt to the traders for supplies and equipment for the rest of the journey. The boys agreed,—if they could pay the debt no other way,—to work it out the next winter. With that arrangement the partners seemed satisfied.

Of the remainder of the long journey overland and down the St. Peter,—as the Minnesota River was called in those days,—to the Mississippi, there is no room here to tell. The trip was not without hardship and adventure. Fort St. Anthony,—later to be renamed Fort Snelling,—at the junction of the St. Peter with the Mississippi, was reached at last. There a disappointment awaited the immigrants. St. Antoine, in his talks with them, had not overstated the beauty and attractiveness of the country, but his assurance that they might take possession of whatever land they chose was an error. The country was not yet open to settlement. They might squat on or near the military reservation, they found, but could not obtain title to the land or be sure of undisturbed possession. They were treated with kindness at the fort, but were not encouraged to settle near by. Instead, they were advised to go on down the Mississippi.

Neil had a chance to join a party just setting out for the Red River. After parting with him, the others went on again, traveling by river in an open boat not unlike the York boats that had taken them from Fort York to Fort Douglas. At Prairie du Chien, on the east side of the river, they disembarked. Prairie du Chien was in what was then Michigan Territory, but later became Wisconsin. The little settlement resembled Pembina in that many of its people were French Canadians and _bois brulés_. There were, however, some Americans who had come from farther east. There were good farms and a military post. It was not necessary at Prairie du Chien to depend entirely on hunting for a living.

There the weary immigrants decided to try to make homes for themselves. They made friends at once, who helped them to get a start, and prospects seemed more encouraging than in the Red River Colony. The Brabants showed no desire to return, and certainly the Periers and Walter did not want to. When, late in the autumn, Louis and Walter left the settlement to work out the family debts to the Columbia Fur Company, they went well assured that those left behind would be comfortable and well cared for. Other families of the Swiss had already left the Red River and more followed, including the Scheideckers, in the next and succeeding years. Like the Periers, they took the long journey to the Mississippi, and settled at the junction of that river with the St. Peter or lower down its course in what was to become Wisconsin and Illinois.

The Brabants and the Periers had their ups and downs, but on the whole they prospered. In time Mr. Perier’s dream of an apothecary shop in the new land came true. He even had his herb garden, started from the few packets of seeds he had carried in his pockets during all his wanderings. Walter became a successful farmer on his own land and married Elise, as he had dreamed of doing. Little Max was ambitious to be a physician. He helped in his father’s shop and went to school, until he was old enough to go east to study medicine.

Louis and his mother were land owners also, but farming was less to Louis’ taste than following the river. He found employment on a Mississippi steamboat, became a skilled pilot, and in time owned the boat he captained. Of all the boys Raoul was the only one to follow the fur trade. As a clerk and trader with the American Fur Company, he traveled and traded over much of the northwest. The Brabant girls grew into bright, attractive women. Marie married a Canadian settler, Jeanne, a merchant and trader.

Of Neil the others heard nothing for several years. Then, after the disastrous Red River flood of 1826 that almost destroyed the Selkirk Colony, he appeared at Prairie du Chien. His father still refused to leave Kildonan, but Neil had decided to emigrate to the United States. He took up land in Wisconsin, and afterwards, when the Indian lands of Minnesota were opened to settlement, moved to the Minnesota valley.

The bonds of friendship and understanding which had been knit by the long journey together and the perils and hardships undergone, remained firm and strong between the Periers, and Rossels, and Brabants, and MacKays. Even after all had their separate homes and families, they enjoyed many a reunion when they recalled the old days and told children and grandchildren of the long and perilous journey from the Red River to the Mississippi.

THE END

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Transcriber’s Notes

--Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public
domain in the country of publication.

--Research suggests that the copyright date in the printed text is not
accurate.

--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.