CHAPTER XXV.
EDEN INVADED.
The conception of Red River Settlement being an Idyllic Paradise was not confined to the writer, whose picture we have described as "Apples of Gold." It was a self-contained spot, distant from St.Anthony Falls (now Minneapolis) some four or five hundred miles, and this was its nearest neighbor of importance.

Our astronomers thus describe it as an orb in space, and the celebrated Milton and Cheadle Expedition of 1862 looked upon it as an "oasis." It was often represented as being enclosed behind the Chinese wall of Hudson's Bay Company exclusiveness, and thus as hopelessly retired.

The writer remembers well, when entering Manitoba, in the year after it ceased to be Red River Settlement, as he called upon the pioneer of his faith, who, for twenty years, had held his post, the old man said, when youthful plans of progress were being advanced to him, oh, rest! rest! there are creatures that prefer lying quietly at the bottom of the pool rather than to be always plunging through the troublous waters.

Certainly, to the old people, there was a feeling of freedom from care, as of its being a lotus-eater's land--an Utopia; an Eden, before sin entered, and before "man's disobedience brought death into the world and all our woe." We are not disposed to press Milton's metaphor any further in regard to the disturbers who came in upon Frank Larned's peaceful scene.
The time for opening up Rupert's Land was approaching.

The agitation of the people themselves, the constant petitions to Great Britain and Canada called for it.