Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857 and of the Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858

Introduction to the new edition by Roy St. George Stubbs.

As late as 1857, the vast territory of the Canadian northwest was unknown to all but a handful of fur traders. Yet the determination of the Hudson's Bay Company to maintain its enormous fur preserve was being challenged by the persistent advance of settlement.

Anticipating the termination of the Company's license in 1859 and curious about the suitability of the territory for general settlement, both the Imperial and the Canadian governments commissioned expeditions in 1857 to explore and report on the area. An Irish-born army officer, Captain John Palliser, headed the British expedition; the moving spirit of the Canadian party was Henry Youle Hind.

Hind's energy and zeal for the project lead his expedition on a thorough exploration of the Red River and later, of the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Rivers as well. First hand observation of the success of even limited farming in these areas convinced Hind that the prairies were capable of absorbing many thousands of settlers and of providing them with a good living. He wrote enthusiastically of the potentialities of western agriculture, envisaging a transportation system, either wagon road or railroad, from Lake of the Woods to the Rockies that would enjoy the advantage of being fed by an agricultural population from one extremity to the other. Substantial parts of this work made their first appearance as parliamentary papers in 1857. Hind's optimistic reports outweighed the less enthusiastic findings of Palliser and ultimately influenced the Imperial government to refuse the renewal of the Hudson's Bay Company's license two years later.

Hind's 'Narrative', factual and objective, yet enlivened by incidents of personal experience, is foremost a document of extraordinary vision and foresight and remains today a minor classic.