great quantities. There was a shortage of supplies however, and Flett was planning to plough for wheat. He saw a great future for agriculture in the rich soil of the region. In 1864 Flett was given the job of opening a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in Fort Victoria, in the Edmonton region. Flett and John Norris led the first brigade of Red River ox-carts from Winnipeg to Edmonton, taking three and a half months on the journey. As clerk in charge of the Victoria trading post, Flett had to arrange for construction of the buildings and open up trade with the local Indians. The Clerks Quarters survives, one of the first buildings west of Winnipeg to have glass windows. Flett soon succeeded in obtaining a supply of good-quality furs, which he and his assistants took by horse and dog train to Fort Edmonton. While at Victoria, Flett made friends with both Methodist and Roman Catholic missionaries, and helped them understand the customs and the language of the Cree. He left this post in the spring of 1866. Presbyterian missionary The Presbyterian minister James Nisbet had stayed in Flett's house on the White Horse Plains while Flett was in Victoria. In 1866, Nisbett was given permission to open a mission for the Cree in the north of the Saskatchewan River valley. He asked Flett to act as interpreter to the mission, and Flett accepted. The site chosen was about thirty miles downstream from Fort Carlton. At first the local Cree were unwilling to grant permission for the mission, which they felt would attract European settlers and drive away the buffalo, but Flett managed to persuade them to accept the missionaries' right to settle there, pointing out that both he and his wife had native relatives. The Fletts stayed at the Prince Albert mission for only a year. Flett disagreed with Nisbet's plan to found an agricultural settlement, feeling that an itinerant mission would be more useful. The Fletts returned to Red River during a time of political upheaval. He was appointed a delegate in the provisional government of Louis Riel, and was involved in debates over the terms on which Red River should join Canada. He had become a respected man, trusted by Europeans, Indians and Métis. At a convention of English and French Delegates in Council at Fort Garry in 1870 Flett said: "For my part, I am a