What May Befall after This...

This story has been excerpted from a longer story submitted by the family of George MacDonald Drinnan to the Starting Anew Project: A Collection of Immigrant Stories from Central Alberta.

In the summer of 1904, George MacDonald Drinnan sailed on the ship Laurentian from Glasgow to Canada, accompanied by his sixteen-year-old son, George.

"I am writing this on the upper deck with the book on my knee, and it is rather shaky with the vessel rolling a little. The weather so far has been simply splendid.

During unfavorable weather, when to go on deck was to be cold and wet, and staying below meant feeling seedy, we wearied very much and voted sailing and sea life a rotter.

I should say here that in the forenoon we had games on deck and had good fun.  We had tugs-of-war, married vs. single, and we broke the rope 3 or 4 times. With the motion of the ship we were all tumbling over each other in heaps ... She began to ship water and the decks became wet and slippery."

The Drinnans landed in Nova Scotia, and proceeded west by train to the prairies.

"The doctor – if he was a doctor – stood at the wicket with a small table beside him. He took your railroad ticket and gave it a bang with a stamp. This certified you had passed medical inspection.  The law seems to be very easily satisfied, or else he must be a very clever doctor.

We have had the misfortune to come in between 1,200 newcomers from Liverpool the day before us and a big lot from New York. They have taken all the colonist cars that they had at this end, and we have to take what we can get.

We have since passed through some great scenery. Very wild, rugged and grand. Soon the country changed to the flat prairie country.

We have been invaded by a crowd of foreigners who have not made us more comfortable. We are told this is the most severe winter in 30 years, but we do not mind the cold.

We saw a cowboy or two at a distance but after getting as far west as Medicine Hat we got nearer views, and very picturesque they do look in the saddle, with much fancy brass work on the horses.  We had one cowboy walking beside us, a big, strapping fellow, and not a man you would like a scrap with. Indians, too, we saw aplenty.

I think I will not write more, as my journey is so far ended. What may befall after this will be a matter for letters. And so ends ye kronikle of ye trippe."