United States or Estonia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The North was not dramatic, except perhaps when the ice broke up; the forces that molded the rugged land worked with a stern quietness. It looked as if they also molded the character of the men who braved the rigors of the frozen waste. The Metis were not vivacious like the French habitants; they were marked by a certain grave melancholy and their paddling songs had a plaintive undertone.
Mestizoes are children of Chinese parents on one side and natives on the other. The last class are usually called 'métis' in Manila and elsewhere. You will doubtless see all of these classes, and with a little practice will be able to identify them. "The Spaniards of the islands are Catholics, often, I am sorry to say, merely nominally such.
They regarded with suspicion the threatened introduction of new political institutions, and were quite content under the paternal sway of the Hudson's Bay Company and under the leadership of their spiritual advisers, Bishop Taché and the priests of the Métis parishes.
The settlers were all, with two or three exceptions, Metis; and the door of the half-breed is never shut against traveller or stranger. One late afternoon, as the two men were passing along the prairie footpath towards a little settlement, they heard at some distance over the plain, a girl singing.
This being refused them, the Metis returned to their homes to prepare themselves for action, and began the war songs and war dances of their savage ancestors in true Indian style. Governor Christie, the local authority, took with him Chief Factor Cameron, Robert Logan and Alexander Ross, chief men of the Settlement, and visited the gathering of the Metis.
The stations at the two above-mentioned places were near the St. Lawrence. At Metis the height of the cistern of the standard barometer was determined by a spirit level. At the river Du Loup the height of the station was determined by two sets of observations of barometers, taken with different instruments by different observers, and at an interval of a week from each other.
Circumstances had prevented the receipt of portable astronomic instruments which had been ordered from Paris and Munich, and an instrument formed by the adaptation of a vertical circle to the lower part of an excellent German theodolite by Draper, of Philadelphia, was found on its being opened at Metis to have received an injury which rendered its accuracy doubtful.
Then the haze that had shut them in rolled back and a dark line advanced across the lake. It had a white edge and there was a curious humming, rippling noise that got louder. Thirlwell signed to one of the Metis, who stepped a mast in the hole through a beam and loosed a small sail.
Ha, truant," he said, turning to one of his staff who had come from a nigh tree-clump, where he had been writing, "you should have been here to see the beautiful Metis maiden. She was in disguise, but her beauty was not less divine than that of your own Iena. Fancy the feelings of Stephens, when his own fortunes are bright, to have that beautiful girl straying about this wilderness.
Before I leave this feature of my narrative I may state that Captain Beaver subsequently sought to justify this wanton breach of faith with the Indians, upon the ground of military policy; affirming that the "punishment" which he inflicted upon the chief prevented the latter joining forces with the rebel Metis.
Word Of The Day