About this time of beginnings came along a number of Americans, or Canadians, who had been in the United States, and these congregated in the little village, which began to form at what is now the junction of Main Street and Portage Avenue, in Winnipeg.
Certain Canadians in St.Paul, such as Messrs.

N.W.Kittson, and J.J.
Hill, began at this time to take an interest in the trade of Red River Settlement, and to speak of communication between the Settlement and the outside world.

The demand for transport led a company to bring in a steamer, the Anson Northrup, afterwards called "The Pioneer," to break the Red River solitude with her scream.

The steamer International was built to run on the river in 1862, and thus the Hudson's Bay Company was unwittingly joining with The Nor'-Wester in opening up the country to the world, and sounding the death-knell of the Company's hopes of maintaining supremacy in Rupert's land.
[Illustration: THE ANSON NORTHRUP The machinery was brought from the Mississippi to the Red River.

The name was changed to Pioneer in 1860.
"International", larger boat of similar pattern was built by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1861.