[Frontispiece: Thomas Douglas, Fifth Earl of Selkirk. From thepainting at St Mary's Isle]

THE

RED RIVER COLONY

A Chronicle of the Beginnings of Manitoba

BY

LOUIS AUBREY WOOD

TORONTO

GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY

1915

 _Copyright in all Countries subscribing to the Berne Convention_

TO

MY FATHER

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CONTENTS

 Page

 I. ST MARY'S ISLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. SELKIRK, THE COLONIZER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 III. THE PURSE-STRINGS LOOSEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 IV. STORNOWAY--AND BEYOND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 V. WINTERING ON THE BAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 VI. RED RIVER AND PEMBINA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 VII. THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 VIII. COLIN ROBERTSON, THE AVENGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 IX. SEVEN OAKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 X. LORD SELKIRK'S JOURNEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 XI. FORT WILLIAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 XII. THE PIPE OF PEACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

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ILLUSTRATIONS

THOMAS DOUGLAS, FIFTH EARL OF SELKIRK . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ From the painting at St Mary's Isle. 

PLACE D'ARMES, MONTREAL, IN 1807 . . . . . . . . . . _Facing page_ 20 From a water-colour sketch after Dillon in M'Gill University Library. 

JOSEPH FROBISHER, A PARTNER IN THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " " 22 From an engraving in the John Ross Robertson Collection, Toronto Public Library. 

THE COUNTRY OF LORD SELKIRK'S SETTLERS . . . . . . . " " 48 Map by Bartholomew. 

HUNTING THE BUFFALO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " " 58 From a painting by George Catlin. 

PLAN OF THE RED RIVER COLONY . . . . . . . . . . . . " " 64 Drawn by Bartholomew. 

FORT WILLIAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " " 116 From an old print in the John Ross Robertson Collection, Toronto Public Library. 

SIMON M'TAVISH, FOUNDER OF THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY . " " 118 From a water-colour drawing in M'Gill University Library. 

WILLIAM M'GILLIVRAY, A PARTNER IN THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . " " 122 From a photograph in M'Gill University Library. 

{1}

CHAPTER I

ST MARY'S ISLE

When the _Ranger_ stole into the firth of Solway she carried anexultant crew. From the cliffs of Cumberland she might have beenmistaken for a trading bark, lined and crusted by long travel. But shewas something else, as the townsfolk of Whitehaven, on the north-westcoast of England, had found it to their cost. Out of their harbour the_Ranger_ had just emerged, leaving thirty guns spiked and a large shipburned to the water's edge. In fact, this innocent-looking vessel wasa sloop-of-war--as trim and tidy a craft as had ever set sail from theshores of New England. On her upper deck was stationed a strongbattery of eighteen six-pounders, ready to be brought into action at amoment's notice. 

On the quarter-deck of the _Ranger_, deep in thought, paced thecaptain, John Paul Jones, a man of meagre build but of indomitablewill, and as daring a fighter as roved the ocean {2} in this year 1778. He held a letter of marque from the Congress of the revolted coloniesin America, and was just now engaged in harrying the British coasts. Across the broad firth the _Ranger_ sped with bellying sails and shapedher course along the south-western shore of Scotland. To Paul Jonesthis coast was an open book; he had been born and bred in the stewartryof Kirkcudbright, which lay on his vessel's starboard bow. Soon theRanger swept round a foreland and boldly entered the river Dee, wherethe anchor was dropped. 

A boat was swung out, speedily manned, and headed for the shelvingbeach of St Mary's Isle. Here, as Captain Paul Jones knew, dwelt oneof the chief noblemen of the south of Scotland. The vine-clad, rambling mansion of the fourth Earl of Selkirk was just behind thefringe of trees skirting the shore. According to the official reportof this descent upon St Mary's Isle, it was the captain's intention tocapture Selkirk, drag him on board the _Ranger_, and carry him as ahostage to some harbour in France. But it is possible that there wasanother and more personal object. Paul Jones, it is said, believedthat he was a natural son of the Scottish nobleman, {3} and went withthis armed force to disclose his identity. 

When the boat grated upon the shingle the seamen swarmed ashore andfound themselves in a great park, interspersed with gardens and walksand green open spaces. The party met with no opposition. Everything, indeed, seemed to favour their undertaking, until it was learned fromsome workmen in the grounds that the master was not at home. 

In sullen displeasure John Paul Jones paced nervously to and fro in thegarden. His purpose was thwarted; he was cheated of his prisoner. Acompany of his men, however, went on and entered the manor-house. There they showed the hostile character of their mission. Havingterrorized the servants, they seized the household plate and bore it inbags to their vessel. Under full canvas the _Ranger_ then directed hercourse for the Irish Sea. 

Thomas Douglas, the future lord of the Red River Colony, was a boy ofnot quite seven years at the time of this raid on his father's mansion. He had been born on June 20, 1771, and was the youngest of sevenbrothers in the Selkirk family. What he thought of Paul Jones and hismarauders can only be {4} surmised. St Mary's Isle was a remote spot, replete with relics of history, but uneventful in daily life; and areal adventure at his own doors could hardly fail to leave animpression on the boy's mind. The historical associations of St Mary'sIsle made it an excellent training-ground for an imaginative youth. Monks of the Middle Ages had noted its favourable situation for areligious community, and the canons-regular of the Order of StAugustine had erected there one of their priories. A portion of anextensive wall which had surrounded the cloister was retained in theSelkirk manor-house. Farther afield were other reminders of past daysto stir the imagination of young Thomas Douglas. A few miles eastwardfrom his home was Dundrennan Abbey. Up the Dee was Thrieve Castle, begun by Archibald the Grim, and later used as a stronghold by thefamous Black Douglas. 

The ancient district of Galloway, in which the Selkirk home wassituated, had long been known as the Whig country. It had been thechosen land of the Covenanters, the foes of privilege and the defendersof liberal principles in government. Its leading families, theKennedys, the Gordons, and {5} the Douglases, formed a broad-mindedaristocracy. In such surroundings, as one of the 'lads of the Dee, 'Thomas Douglas inevitably developed a type of mind more or lessradical. His political opinions, however, were guided by a cultivatedintellect. His father, a patron of letters, kept open house for men ofgenius, and brought his sons into contact with some of the foremostthinkers and writers of the day. One of these was Robert Burns, themost beloved of Scottish poets. In his earlier life, when scarcelyknown to his countrymen, Burns had dined with Basil, Lord Daer, ThomasDouglas's eldest brother and heir-apparent of the Selkirk line. Thiswas the occasion commemorated by Burns in the poem of which this is thefirst stanza:

 This wot ye all whom it concerns: I, Rhymer Robin, alias Burns, October twenty-third, A ne'er-to-be-forgotten day, Sae far I sprachl'd up the brae I dinner'd wi' a Lord. 

One wet evening in the summer of 1793 Burns drew up before the Selkirkmanor-house in company with John Syme of Ryedale. The two friends weremaking a tour of Galloway on horseback. The poet was in bad humour. {6} The night before, during a wild storm of rain and thunder, he hadbeen inspired to the rousing measures of 'Scots wha hae wi' Wallacebled. ' But now he was drenched to the skin, and the rain had damaged anew pair of jemmy boots which he was wearing. The passionate appeal ofthe Bruce to his countrymen was now forgotten, and Burns was as crossas the proverbial bear. It was the dinner hour when the two wanderersarrived and were cordially invited to stay. Various other guests werepresent; and so agreeable was the company and so genial the welcome, that the grumbling bard soon lost his irritable mood. The eveningpassed in song and story, and Burns recited one of his ballads, we aretold, to an audience which listened in 'dead silence. ' The young mindof Thomas Douglas could not fail to be influenced by such associations. 

In 1786 Thomas Douglas entered the University of Edinburgh. From thisyear until 1790 his name appears regularly upon the class lists kept byits professors. The 'grey metropolis of the North' was at this periodpre-eminent among the literary and academic centres of Great Britain. The principal of the university was William Robertson, the {7}celebrated historian. Professor Dugald Stewart, who held the chair ofphilosophy, had gained a reputation extending to the continent ofEurope. Adam Smith, the epoch-making economist, was spending theclosing years of his life at his home near the Canongate churchyard. During his stay in Edinburgh, Thomas Douglas interested himself in thework of the literary societies, which were among the leading featuresof academic life. At the meetings essays were read upon various themesand lengthy debates were held. In 1788 a group of nineteen young menat Edinburgh formed a new society known as 'The Club. ' Two of theoriginal members were Thomas Douglas and Walter Scott, the latter anEdinburgh lad a few weeks younger than Douglas. These two formed anintimate friendship which did not wane when one had become a peer ofthe realm, his mind occupied by a great social problem, and the other abaronet and the greatest novelist of his generation. 

When the French Revolution stirred Europe to its depths, Thomas Douglaswas attracted by the doctrines of the revolutionists, and went toFrance that he might study the new movement. But Douglas, like so manyof his {8} contemporaries in Great Britain, was filled with disgust atthe blind carnage of the Revolution. He returned to Scotland and begana series of tours in the Highlands, studying the conditions of lifeamong his Celtic countrymen and becoming proficient in the use of theGaelic tongue. Not France but Scotland was to be the scene of hisreforming efforts. 

{9}

CHAPTER II

SELKIRK, THE COLONIZER

From the north and west of Scotland have come two types of men withwhom every schoolboy is now familiar. One of these has been on many abattlefield. He is the brawny Highland warrior, with buckled tartanflung across his shoulder, gay in pointed plume and filibeg. The otheris seen in many a famous picture of the hill-country--the Highlandshepherd, wrapped in his plaid, with staff in hand and long-haired dogby his side, guarding his flock in silent glen, by still-running burn, or out upon the lonely brae. 

But in Thomas Douglas's day such types of Highland life were veryrecent factors in Scottish history. They did not appear, indeed, untilafter the battle of Culloden and the failure of the Rebellion of 1745. Loyalty, firm and unbending, has always been a characteristic of themountaineer. The {10} Highlanders held to the ancient house of Stuartwhich had been dethroned. George II of England was repudiated by mostof them as a 'wee, wee German Lairdie. ' More than thirty thousandclaymores flashed at the beck of Charles Edward, the Stuart prince, acclaimed as 'King o' the Highland hearts. ' When the uprising had beenquelled and Charles Edward had become a fugitive with a price on hishead, little consideration could be expected from the house of Hanover. The British government decided that, once and for all, the power of theclans should be broken. 

For centuries the chief strength of the Highland race had lain in theclan. By right of birth every Highlander belonged to a sept or clan. His overlord was an elected chief, whom he was expected to obey underall circumstances. This chief led in war and exercised a wideauthority over his people. Just below him were the tacksmen, who weremore nearly related to him than were the ordinary clansmen. Everymember of the clan had some land; indeed, each clansman had the samerights to the soil as the chief himself enjoyed. The Highlander dweltin a humble shealing; but, however poor, he {11} gloried in hisindependence. He grew his own corn and took it to the common mill; heraised fodder for his black, shaggy cattle which roamed upon the ruggedhillsides or in the misty valleys; his women-folk carded wool shearedfrom his own flock, spun it, and wove the cloth for bonnet, kilt, andplaid. When his chief had need of him, the summons was vivid andpicturesque. The Fiery Cross was carried over the district by swiftmessengers who shouted a slogan known to all; and soon from everyquarter the clansmen would gather at the appointed meeting-place. 

The clans of the Highlands had led a wild, free life, but their doggedlove for the Stuart cause brought to them desolation and ruin. By onestroke the British government destroyed the social fabric of centuries. From the farthest rock of the storm-wasted Orkneys to the narrow homeof Clan Donald in Argyllshire, the ban of the government was laid onthe clan organization. Worst of all, possession of the soil was given, not to the many clansmen, but to the chiefs alone. 

While the old chiefs remained alive, little real hardship wasinflicted. They were {12} wedded to the old order of things, and leftit unchanged. With their successors, however, began a new era. Thesemen had come under the influence of the south, whither they had gonefor education, to correct the rudeness of their Highland manners. Ontheir return to their native country they too often held themselvesaloof from the uncouth dwellers in the hills. The mysterious love ofthe Gael for his kith and kin had left them; they were no longer totheir dependants as fathers to children. More especially had theseSaxon-bred lordlings fallen a prey to the commercial ideas of thesouth. It was trying for them to possess the nominal dignity oflandlords without the money needed to maintain their rank. They werebare of retinue, shabby in equipage, and light of purse. They saw butone solution of their difficulty. Like their English and Lowlandbrethren, they must increase the rents upon their Highland estates. Soit came about that the one-time clansmen, reduced to mere tenants, groaned for the upkeep of their overlords. 

Nor did this end the misfortunes of the clansmen. An attractive lurewas held out to the new generation of chieftains, and greed and avaricewere to triumph. Southern {13} speculators had been rambling over theHighlands, eager to exploit the country. These men had seen a land ofgrass and heather, steep crag, and winter snow. Observing that thecountry was specially adapted to the raising of sheep, they sought byoffering high rents to acquire land for sheep-walks. Thus, through thelength and breadth of the Highlands, great enclosures were formed forthe breeding of sheep. Where many crofters had once tilled the soil, only a lone shepherd was now found, meditating on scenes of desolation. Ruined dwellings and forsaken hamlets remained to tell the tale. Humanbeings had been evicted: sheep had become the 'devourers of men. ' Inmany parts of the Highlands the inhabitants, driven from mountainhomes, were forced to eke out a meagre existence on narrow strips ofland by the seashore, where they pined and where they half-starved onthe fish caught in the dangerous waters. 

From such a dilemma there was but one escape. Behind the evictedtenantry were the sheep-walks; before them was the open sea. Fewherrings came to the net; the bannock meal was low; the tartanthreadbare. In their utter hopelessness they listened to the good newswhich came of a land beyond the {14} Atlantic where there was plentyand to spare. It is small wonder that as the ships moved westward theycarried with them the destitute Highlander, bound for the coloniesplanted in North America. 

This 'expatriation' was spread over many weary years. It was in fullprocess in 1797, when Thomas Douglas became Lord Daer. His six elderbrothers had been ailing, and one by one they had died, until he, theyoungest, alone survived. Then, when his father also passed away, onMay 24, 1799, he was left in possession of the ancestral estates andbecame the fifth Earl of Selkirk. 

As a youngest son, who would have to make his own way in the world, Thomas Douglas had prepared himself, and this was a distinct advantageto him when his elevation in rank occurred. He entered into hisfortune and place an educated man, with the broad outlook upon life andthe humanitarian sympathy which study and experience bring to agenerous spirit. Now he was in a position to carry out certainphilanthropic schemes which had begun earlier to engage his attention. His jaunts in the Highlands amid 'the mountain and the flood' were nowto bear fruit. The dolorous plaint of the hapless clansmen had {15}struck an answering chord in the depths of his nature. As ThomasDouglas, he had meant to interest himself in the cause of theHighlanders; now that he was Earl of Selkirk, he decided, as a servantof the public, to use his wealth and influence for their social andeconomic welfare. With this resolve he took up what was to be the maintask of his life--the providing of homes under other skies for thehomeless in the Highlands. 

In the spring of 1802 the young earl addressed a letter to Lord Pelham, a minister in the British government, in which he dwelt with enthusiasmupon the subject of emigration. His letter took the form of an appeal, and was prophetic. There had previously come into Selkirk's handsAlexander Mackenzie's thrilling story of his journeys to the Arctic andthe Pacific. This book had filled Selkirk's mind with a greatconception. Men had settled, he told Lord Pelham, on the sea-coast ofBritish America, until no tract there was left uninhabited but--frozenwastes and arid plains. What of the fruitful regions which lay in thevast interior? It was thither that the government should turn thethoughts of the homeless and the improvident. Leading to thistemperate and fertile area was {16} an excellent northern highway--thewaters of Hudson Bay and the Nelson. 

Lord Selkirk received a not unfavourable reply to his appeal. Theauthorities said that, though for the present they could not undertakea scheme of emigration such as he had outlined, they would raise nobarrier against any private movement which Lord Selkirk might care toset on foot. The refusal of the government itself to move thedispossessed men was dictated by the political exigencies of themoment. Great Britain had no desire to decrease her male population. Napoleon had just become first consul in France. His imperial eagleswould soon be carrying their menace across the face of Europe, andGreat Britain saw that, at any moment, she might require all the menshe could bring into the field. 

As the government had not discountenanced his plan, the Earl of Selkirkdetermined to put his theories at once into practice. He made known inthe Highlands that he proposed to establish a settlement in BritishNorth America. Keen interest was aroused, and soon a large company, mostly from the isle of Skye, with a scattering from other parts ofScotland, was prepared to embark. {17} It was intended that thesesettlers should sail for Hudson Bay. This and the lands beyond were, however, by chartered right the hunting preserve of the Hudson's BayCompany, of which more will be said. Presumably this companyinterfered, for unofficial word came from England to Selkirk that thescheme of colonizing the prairie region west of Hudson Bay and theGreat Lakes would not be pleasing to the government. Selkirk, however, quickly turned elsewhere. He secured land for his settlers in PrinceEdward Island, in the Gulf of St Lawrence. The prospective colonists, numbering eight hundred, sailed from Scotland on board three charteredvessels, and reached their destination in the midsummer of 1803. 

Lord Selkirk had intended to reach Prince Edward Island in advance ofhis colonists, in order to make ready for their arrival. But he wasdelayed by his private affairs, and when he came upon the scene of theintended settlement, after sunset on an August day, the ships hadarrived and one of them had landed its passengers. On the site of alittle French village of former days they had propped poles together ina circle, matted them with foliage from the trees, and were {18}living, like a band of Indians, in these improvised wigwams. 

There was, of course, much to be done. Trees and undergrowth had to becleared away, surveys made, and plots of land meted out to the variousfamilies. Lord Selkirk remained for several weeks supervising thework. Then, leaving the colony in charge of an agent, he set out tomake a tour of Canada and the United States. 

Meanwhile, Selkirk's agents in Scotland were not idle. During the samesummer (1803) a hundred and eleven emigrants were mustered atTobermory, a harbour town on the island of Mull. Most of them werenatives of the island. For some reason, said to be danger of attack byFrench privateers, they did not put out into the Atlantic that year;they sailed round to Kirkcaldy and wintered there. In May 1804 theparty went on board the ship _Oughton_ of Greenock, and after a sixweeks' journey landed at Montreal. Thence they travelled in bateaux toKingston. 

These settlers were on their way to Baldoon Farm, a tract of about ninehundred and fifty acres which Lord Selkirk had purchased for them inUpper Canada, near Lake St Clair. Selkirk himself met the party atKingston, {19} having journeyed from Albany for that purpose. Hebrought with him an Englishman named Lionel Johnson and his family. The new settlement was to be stocked with a thousand merino sheep, already on the way to Canada, and Johnson was engaged to take care ofthese and distribute them properly among the settlers. The journeyfrom Kingston to the Niagara was made in a good sailing ship andoccupied only four days. The goods of the settlers were carried abovethe Falls. Then the party resumed their journey along the north shoreof Lake Erie in bateaux, and arrived at their destination in September. 

Baldoon Farm was an ill-chosen site for a colony. The land, prairie-like in its appearance, lay in what is now known as the StClair Flats in Kent county, Ontario. It proved to be too wet forsuccessful farming. It was with difficulty, too, that the settlersbecame inured to the climate. Within a year forty-two are reported tohave died, chiefly of fever and dysentery. The colony, however, enjoyed a measure of prosperity until the War of 1812 broke out, whenthe Americans under General M'Arthur, moving from Detroit, despoiled itof stores, cattle, and sheep, and almost obliterated it. In 1818 LordSelkirk {20} sold the land to John M'Nab, a trader of the Hudson's BayCompany. Many descendants of the original settlers are, however, stillliving in the neighbourhood. 

[Illustration: Place D'Armes, Montreal, in 1807. From a water-coloursketch after Dillon in M'Gill University Library. ]

Before returning to Great Britain, Lord Selkirk rested from his travelsfor a time in the city of Montreal, where he was fêted by many of theleading merchants. What the plutocrats of the fur trade had to relateto Selkirk was of more than passing interest. No doubt he talked withJoseph Frobisher in his quaint home on Beaver Hall Hill. SimonM'Tavish, too, was living in a new-built mansion under the brow ofMount Royal. This 'old lion of Montreal, ' who was the founder of theNorth-West Company, had for the mere asking a sheaf of tales, asrealistic as they were entertaining. Honour was done Lord Selkirkduring his stay in the city by the Beaver Club, which met once afortnight. This was an exclusive organization, which limited itsmembership to those who dealt in furs. Every meeting meant a banquet, and at these meetings each club-man wore a gold medal on which wasengraved the motto, 'Fortitude in Distress. ' Dishes were served whichsmacked of prairie and forest--venison, bear flesh, and {21} buffalotongue. The club's resplendent glass and polished silver were markedwith its crest, a beaver. After the toasts had been drunk, the jovialparty knelt on the floor for a final ceremony. With pokers or tongs orwhatever else was at hand, they imitated paddlers in action, and achorus of lusty voices joined in a burst of song. It may be supposedthat Lord Selkirk was impressed by what he saw at this gathering andthat he was a sympathetic guest. He asked many questions, and nothingescaped his eager observation. Little did he then think that his hostswould soon be banded together in a struggle to the death against himand his schemes of western colonization. 

{22}

CHAPTER III

THE PURSE-STRINGS LOOSEN

Traffic in furs was hazardous, but it brought great returns. Thepeltry of the north, no less than the gold and silver of the south, gave impetus to the efforts of those who first settled the westernhemisphere. In expectation of ample profits, the fur ship threaded itsway through the ice-pack of the northern seas, and the trader sent hiscanoes by tortuous stream and toilsome portage. In the early days ofthe eighteenth century sixteen beaver skins could be obtained from theIndians for a single musket, and ten skins for a blanket. Profits weregreat, and with the margin of gain so enormous, jealousies and quarrelswithout number were certain to arise between rival fur traders. 

[Illustration: Joseph Frobisher, a partner in the North-West Company. From the John Ross Robertson Collection, Toronto Public Library. ]

The right to the fur trade in America had been granted--given away, asthe English of the time thought--by the hand of Charles II of England. In prodigal fashion Charles {23} conceded, in 1670, a charter, whichconveyed extensive lands, with the privileges of monopoly, to the'Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay. ' But ifthe courtiers of the Merry Monarch had any notion that he could thusexclude all others from the field, their dream was an empty one. England had an active rival in France, and French traders penetratedinto the region granted to the Hudson's Bay Company. Towards the closeof the seventeenth century Le Moyne d'Iberville was making conquests onHudson Bay for the French king, and Greysolon Du Lhut was carrying onsuccessful trading operations in the vicinity of Lakes Nipigon andSuperior. Even after the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) had given the HudsonBay territories to the English, the French-Canadian explorer LaVérendrye entered the forbidden lands, and penetrated to the moreremote west. A new situation arose after the British conquest ofCanada during the Seven Years' War. Plucky independent traders, mostlyof Scottish birth, now began to follow the watercourses which led fromthe rapids of Lachine on the St Lawrence to the country beyond LakeSuperior. These men treated with disdain the royal charter of theHudson's {24} Bay Company. In 1783 a group of them united to form theNorth-West Company, with headquarters at Montreal. The organizationgrew in strength and became the most powerful antagonist of the oldercompany, and the open feud between the two spread through the wideregion from the Great Lakes to the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. 

The Nor'westers, as the partners and servants of the North-West Companywere called, were bold competitors. Their enthusiasm for the conflictwas all the more eager because their trade was regarded as illicit bytheir rivals. There was singleness of purpose in their ranks; almostevery man in the service had been tried and proved. All the Montrealpartners of the company had taken the long trip to the Grand Portage, atransit station at the mouth of the Pigeon river, on the western shoreof Lake Superior. Other partners had wintered on the frozen plains orin the thick of the forest, tracking the yellow-grey badger, thepine-marten, and the greedy wolverine. The guides employed by thecompany knew every mile of the rivers, and they rarely mistook the mostelusive trail. Its interpreters could converse with the red men likenatives. Even the clerks who looked {25} after the office routine ofthe company laboured with zest, for, if they were faithful andattentive in their work, the time would come when they, too, would beelected as partners in the great concern. The canoemen were mainlyFrench-Canadian coureurs de bois, gay voyageurs on lake and stream. Inthe veins of many of them flowed the blood of Cree or Iroquois. Thoughhalf barbarous in their mode of life, they had their own devotions. Atthe first halting-place on their westward journey, above Lachine, theywere accustomed to enter a little chapel which stood on the bank of theOttawa. Here they prayed reverently that 'the good Saint Anne, ' thefriend of all canoemen, would guard them on their way to the GrandPortage. Then they dropped an offering at Saint Anne's shrine, andpointed their craft against the current. These rovers of thewilderness were buoyant of heart, and they lightened the weary hours oftheir six weeks' journey with blithe songs of love and the river. Whenthe snow fell and ice closed the river, they would tie their 'husky'dogs to sledges and travel over the desolate wastes, carrying furs andprovisions. 

It was a very different company that traded into Hudson Bay. TheHudson's Bay {26} Company was launched on its career in a princelymanner, and had tried to cling fast to its time-worn traditions. Thebundles of uncured skins were received from the red men by its servantswith pomp and dignity. At first the Indians had to bring their 'catch'to the shores of Hudson Bay itself, and here they were made to feelthat it was a privilege to be allowed to trade with the company. Sometimes they were permitted to pass in their wares only through awindow in the outer part of the fort. A beaver skin was the regularstandard of value, and in return for their skins the savages receivedall manner of gaudy trinkets and also useful merchandise, chieflyknives, hatchets, guns, ammunition, and blankets. But before the endof the eighteenth century the activity of the Nor'westers had forcedthe Hudson's Bay Company out of its aristocratic slothfulness. Thesavages were now sought out in their prairie homes, and the companybegan to set up trading-posts in the interior, all the way from RainyLake to Edmonton House on the North Saskatchewan. 

Such was the situation of affairs in the fur-bearing country when theEarl of Selkirk had his vision of a rich prairie home for the {27}desolate Highlanders. Though he had not himself visited the Far West, he had some conception of the probable outcome of the fierce rivalrybetween the two great fur companies in North America. He foresaw that, sooner or later, if his scheme of planting a colony in the interior wasto prosper, he must ally himself with one or the other of these twofactions of traders. 

We may gain a knowledge of Lord Selkirk's ideas at this time from hisown writings and public utterances. In 1805 he issued a work on theHighlands of Scotland, which Sir Walter Scott praised for its'precision and accuracy, ' and which expressed the significant sentimentthat the government should adopt a policy that would keep theHighlanders within the British Empire. In 1806, when he had beenchosen as one of the sixteen representative peers from Scotland, hedelivered a speech in the House of Lords upon the subject of nationaldefence, and his views were afterwards stated more fully in a book. With telling logic he argued for the need of a local militia, ratherthan a volunteer force, as the best protection for England in a momentof peril. The tenor of this and Selkirk's other writings wouldindicate the staunchness of {28} his patriotism. In his efforts atcolonization his desire was to keep Britain's sons from emigrating toan alien shore. 

'Now, it is our duty to befriend this people, ' he affirmed, in writingof the Highlanders. 'Let us direct their emigration; let them be ledabroad to new possessions. ' Selkirk states plainly his reason. 'Givethem homes under our own flag, ' is his entreaty, 'and they willstrengthen the empire. '

In 1807 Selkirk was chosen as lord-lieutenant of the stewartry ofKirkcudbright, and in the same year took place his marriage with JeanWedderburn-Colvile, the only daughter of James Wedderburn-Colvile ofOchiltree. One year later he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, adistinction conferred only upon intellectual workers whose labours haveincreased the world's stock of knowledge. 

After some shrewd thinking Lord Selkirk decided to throw in his lotwith the Hudson's Bay Company. Why he did this will subsequentlyappear. At first, one might have judged the step unwise. Thefinanciers of London believed that the company was drifting into deepwater. When the books were made up for 1808, there were no fundsavailable for dividends, and bankruptcy seemed {29} inevitable. Anyone who owned a share of Hudson's Bay stock found that it had notearned him a sixpence during that year. The company's business wasbeing cut down by the operations of its aggressive rival. The chiefcause, however, of the company's financial plight was not the trade warin America, but the European war, which had dealt a heavy blow toBritish commerce. Napoleon had found himself unable to land his armyin England, but he had other means of striking. In 1806 he issued thefamous Berlin Decree, declaring that no other country should trade withhis greatest enemy. Dealers had been wont to come every year to Londonfrom Germany, France, and Russia, in order to purchase the fine skinswhich the Hudson's Bay Company could supply. Now that this trade waslost to the company, the profits disappeared. For three seasons baleafter bale of unsold peltry had been stacked to the rafters of theLondon warehouse. 

The Earl of Selkirk was a practical man; and, seeing the plight of theHudson's Bay Company, he was tempted to take advantage of the situationto further his plans of emigration. Like a genuine lord of Galloway, however, he proceeded with extreme caution. His {30} initial move wasto get the best possible legal advice regarding the validity of thecompany's royal charter. Five of the foremost lawyers in the land wereasked for their opinion upon this matter. Chief of those who wereapproached was Sir Samuel Romilly, the friend of Bentham and ofMirabeau. The other four were George Holroyd and James Scarlet, bothdistinguished pleaders, and William Cruise and John Bell. The findingof these lawyers put the question out of doubt. The charter, theysaid, was flawless. Of all the lands which were drained by the manyrivers running into Hudson Bay, the company was the sole proprietor. Within these limits it could appoint sheriffs and bring law-breakers totrial. Besides, there was nothing to prevent it from granting to anyone in fee-simple tracts of land in its vast domain. 

Having satisfied himself that the charter of 1670 was legallyunassailable, the earl was now ready for his subsequent line of action. He had resolved to get a foothold in the company itself. To effectthis object he brought his own capital into play, and sought at thesame time the aid of his wife's relatives, the Wedderburn-Colviles, andof other personal friends. Shares in the company had depreciated invalue, and the owners, in many {31} cases, were jubilant at the chanceof getting them off their hands. Selkirk and his friends did not stopbuying until they had acquired about one-third of the company's totalstock. 

In the meantime the Nor'westers scented trouble ahead. As soon as LordSelkirk had completed his purchase of Hudson's Bay stock, he began tomake overtures to the company's shareholders to be allowed to plant acolony in the territories assigned to them by their royal charter. Tothe Nor'westers this proposition was anathema. They argued that if apermanent settlement was established in the fur country, thefur-bearing animals would be driven out, and their trade ruined. Theiralarm grew apace. In May 1811 a general court of the Hudson's BayCompany, which had been adjourned, was on the point of reassembling. The London agents of the North-West Company decided to act at once. Forty-eight hours before the general court opened three of their numberbought up a quantity of Hudson's Bay stock. One of these purchaserswas the redoubtable explorer, Sir Alexander Mackenzie. 

Straightway there ensued one of the liveliest sessions that everoccurred in a general court of the Hudson's Bay Company. The {32}Nor'westers, who now had a right to voice their opinions, fumed andhaggled. Other share holders flared into vigorous protest as the Earlof Selkirk's plan was disclosed. In the midst of the clash ofinterests, however, the earl's following stated his proposalsuccinctly. They said that Selkirk wished to secure a tract of fertileterritory within the borders of Rupert's Land, for purposes ofcolonization. Preferably, this should lie in the region of the RedRiver, which ran northward towards Hudson Bay. At his own expenseSelkirk would people this tract within a given period, foster the earlyefforts of its settlers, and appease the claims of the Indian tribesthat inhabited the territory. He promised, moreover, to help to supplythe Hudson's Bay Company with labourers for its work. 

Had Lord Selkirk been present to view the animated throng of merchantadventurers, he would have foreseen his victory. In his first tiltwith the Nor'westers he was to be successful. The opposition wasstrong, but it wore down before the onslaught of his friends. Thencame the show of hands. There was no uncertainty about the vote:two-thirds of the court had pledged themselves in favour of LordSelkirk's proposal. 

{33}

By the terms of the grant which the general court made to Selkirk, hewas to receive 116, 000 square miles of virgin soil in the localitywhich he had selected. The boundaries of this immense area werecarefully fixed. Roughly speaking, it extended from Big Island, inLake Winnipeg, to the parting of the Red River from the head-waters ofthe Mississippi in the south, and from beyond the forks of the Red andAssiniboine rivers in the west to the shores of the Lake of the Woods, and at one point almost to Lake Superior, in the east. If a map isconsulted, it will be seen that one-half of the grant lay in what isnow the province of Manitoba, the other half in the present states ofMinnesota and North Dakota. [1]

A great variety of opinions were expressed in London upon the subjectof this grant. Some wiseacres said that the earl's proposal was asextravagant as it was visionary. One of Selkirk's acquaintances methim strolling along Pall Mall, and brought him up short on the streetwith the query: 'If you are bent {34} on doing something futile, why doyou not sow tares at home in order to reap wheat, or plough the desertof Sahara, which is nearer?'

The extensive tract which the Hudson's Bay Company had bestowed uponLord Selkirk for the nominal sum of ten shillings had made him thegreatest individual land-owner in Christendom. His new possession wasquite as large as the province of Egypt in the days of Caesar Augustus. But in some other respects Lord Selkirk's heritage was much greater. The province of Egypt, the granary of Rome, was fertile only along thebanks of the Nile. More than three-fourths of Lord Selkirk's domain, on the other hand, was highly fertile soil. 

[1] It will be understood that the boundary-line between British andAmerican territory in the North-West was not yet established. Whatafterwards became United States soil was at this time claimed by theHudson's Bay Company under its charter. 

{35}

CHAPTER IV

STORNOWAY--AND BEYOND

On June 13, 1811, the deed was given to Selkirk of his wide possessionswith the seal and signature of the Hudson's Bay Company, attached byAlexander Lean, the secretary. Before this, however, Selkirk hadbecome deeply engrossed in the details of his enterprise. No time wasto be lost, for unless all should be in readiness before the Hudson'sBay vessels set out to sea on their summer voyage, the proposedexpedition of colonists must be postponed for another year. 

Selkirk issued without delay a pamphlet, setting forth the advantagesof the prospective colony. Land was to be given away free, or sold fora nominal sum. To the poor, transport would cost nothing; others wouldhave to pay according to their means. No one would be debarred onaccount of his religious belief; all creeds were to be treated alike. The seat of the colony was to be called {36} Assiniboia, after a tribeof the Sioux nation, the Assiniboines, buffalo hunters on the GreatPlains. 

Wherever this pamphlet was read by men dissatisfied with their lot inthe Old World, it aroused hope. With his usual good judgment, Selkirkhad engaged several men whose training fitted them for the work ofinducing landless men to emigrate. One of these was Captain MilesMacdonell, lately summoned by Lord Selkirk from his home in Canada. Macdonell had been reared in the Mohawk valley, had served in the ranksof the Royal Greens during the War of the Revolution, and had survivedmany a hard fight on the New York frontier. After the war, like mostof his regiment, he had gone as a Loyalist to the county of Glengarry, on the Ottawa. It so chanced that the Earl of Selkirk while in Canadahad met Macdonell, then a captain of the Royal Canadian Volunteers, andhad been impressed by his courage and energy. In consequence, Selkirknow invited him to be the first governor of Assiniboia. Macdonellaccepted the appointment; and promptly upon his arrival in Britain hewent to the west coast of Ireland to win recruits for the settlement. Owing to the straitened circumstances {37} of the Irish peasantry, thetide of emigration from Ireland was already running high, and LordSelkirk thought that Captain Macdonell, who was a Roman Catholic, mightinfluence some of his co-religionists to go to Assiniboia. 

Another agent upon whom Selkirk felt that he could rely was ColinRobertson, a native of the island of Lewis, in the Hebrides. To thisisland he was now dispatched, with instructions to visit other sectionsof the Highlands as well. Robertson had formerly held a post under theNorth-West Company in the Saskatchewan valley. There he had quarrelledwith a surly-natured trader known as Crooked-armed Macdonald, with theresult that Robertson had been dismissed by the Nor'westers and hadcome back to Scotland in an angry mood. 

A third place of muster for the colony was the city of Glasgow. Therethe Earl of Selkirk's representative was Captain Roderick M'Donald. Many Highlanders had gone to Glasgow, that busy hive of industry, insearch of work. To the clerks in the shops and to the labourers in theyards or at the loom, M'Donald described the glories of Assiniboia. Many were impressed by his words, but objected to the low wages offeredfor their {38} services. M'Donald compromised, and by offering ahigher wage induced a number to enlist. But the recruits from Glasgowturned out to be a shiftless lot and a constant source of annoyance toSelkirk's officers. 

While this work was being done the Nor'westers in London were burningwith wrath at their inability to hinder Lord Selkirk's project. Theirhostility, we have seen, arose from their belief, which was quitecorrect, that a colony would interfere with their trading operations. In the hope that the enterprise might yet be stopped, they circulatedin the Highlands various rumours against it. An anonymous attack, clearly from a Nor'wester source, appeared in the columns of theInverness _Journal_. The author of this diatribe pictured the rigoursof Assiniboia in terrible colours. Selkirk's agents were characterizedas a brood of dissemblers. With respect to the earl himself words werenot minced. His philanthropy was all assumed; he was only biding histime in order to make large profits out of his colonization scheme. 

Notwithstanding this campaign of slander, groups of would-be settlerscame straggling along from various places to the port of rendezvous, Stornoway, the capital of the {39} Hebrides. When all had gathered, these people who had answered the call to a new heritage beyond theseas proved to be a motley throng. Some were stalwart men in the primeof life, men who looked forward to homes of their own on a distantshore; others, with youth on their side, were eager for the trail ofthe flying moose or the sight of a painted redskin; a few were women, steeled to bravery through fires of want and sorrow. Too many werewastrels, cutting adrift from a blighted past. A goodly number weremalcontents, wondering whether to go or stay. 

The leading vessel of the Hudson's Bay fleet in the year 1811 was thecommodore's ship, the _Prince of Wales_. At her moorings in the Thamesanother ship, the _Eddystone_, lay ready for the long passage to theGreat Bay. Besides these, a shaky old hulk, the _Edward and Ann_, wasput into commission for the use of Lord Selkirk's settlers. Her greysails were mottled with age and her rigging was loose and worn. Sixteen men and boys made up her crew, a number by no means sufficientfor a boat of her size. It seemed almost criminal to send such anill-manned craft out on the tempestuous North Atlantic. However, thethree ships sailed from the {40} Thames and steered up the east coastof England. Opposite Yarmouth a gale rose and forced them into asheltering harbour. It was the middle of July before they rounded thenorth shore of Scotland. At Stromness in the Orkneys the _Prince ofWales_ took on board a small body of emigrants and a number of thecompany's servants who were waiting there. 

At length the tiny fleet reached the bustling harbour-town ofStornoway; and here Miles Macdonell faced a task of no littledifficulty. Counting the Orkneymen just arrived, there were onehundred and twenty-five in his party. The atmosphere seemed full ofunrest, and the cause was not far to seek. The Nor'westers were atwork, and their agents were sowing discontent among the emigrants. Even Collector Reed, the government official in charge of the customs, was acting as the tool of the Nor'westers. It was Reed's duty, ofcourse, to hasten the departure of the expedition; but instead of doingthis he put every possible obstacle in the way. Moreover, he mingledwith the emigrants, urging them to forsake the venture while there wasyet time. 

Another partisan of the North-West {41} Company also appeared on thescene. This was an army officer named Captain Mackenzie, who pretendedto be gathering recruits for the army. He had succeeded, it appears, in getting some of Selkirk's men to take the king's shilling, and nowwas trying to lead these men away from the ships as 'deserters from HisMajesty's service. ' One day this trouble-maker brought his dinghyalongside one of the vessels. A sailor on deck, who saw CaptainMackenzie in the boat and was eager for a lark, picked up a nine-poundshot, poised it carefully, and let it fall. There was a splinteringthud. Captain Mackenzie suddenly remembered how dry it was on shore, and put off for land as fast as oars would hurry him. Next day he senta pompous challenge to the commander of the vessel. It was, of course, ignored. 

In spite of obstacles, little by little the arrangements for the oceanvoyage were being completed. There were many irritating delays. Disputes about wages broke out afresh when inequalities werediscovered. There was much wrangling among the emigrants as to theirquarters on the uninviting _Edward and Ann_. At the last moment anumber of the party took fear and decided to stay at home. {42} Someleft the ship in unceremonious fashion, even forgetting their effects. These were subsequently sold among the passengers. 'One man, ' wroteCaptain Macdonell, 'jumped into the sea and swam for it until he waspicked up. ' It may be believed that the governor of Assiniboia heaveda thankful sigh when the ships were ready to hoist their sails. 'Ithas been a herculean task, ' ran the text of his parting message to theEarl of Selkirk. 

On July 26 a favourable breeze bore the vessels out to sea. There werenow one hundred and five in the party, seventy of whom had professed anintention to till the soil. The remainder had been indentured asservants of the Hudson's Bay Company. Seventy-six of the total numberwere quartered on board the _Edward and Ann_. As the vessels sweptseaward many eyes were fastened sadly on the receding shore. The whitehouses of Stornoway loomed up distinctly across the dark waters of thebay. The hill which rose gloomily in the background was treeless andinky black. On the clean shingle lay the cod and herring, piled looseto catch the sun's warm rays. The settlers remembered that they wereperhaps scanning for the last time the rugged outline {43} of thatheather-clad landscape, and their hearts grew sick within them. Foreland after foreland came into view and disappeared. At length theships were skirting the Butt of Lewis with its wave-worn clefts andcaverns. Then all sight of land vanished, and they were steering theircourse into the northern main. 

A man-of-war had been sent as a convoy to the vessels, for thequick-sailing frigates of France had been harrying British shipping, and the mercantile marine needed protection. After standing guard to apoint four hundred miles off the Irish coast, the ship-of-the-lineturned back, and the three vessels held their way alone in a turbulentsea. Two of them beat stoutly against the gale, but the _Edward andAnn_ hove to for a time, her timbers creaking and her bowsprit catchingthe water as she rose and fell with the waves. And so they put outinto the wide and wild Atlantic--these poor, homeless, storm-tossedexiles, who were to add a new chapter to Great Britain's colonialhistory. 

{44}

CHAPTER V

WINTERING ON THE BAY

Little is known of the many strange things which must have taken placeon the voyage. On board the _Edward and Ann_ sickness was prevalentand the ship's surgeon was kept busy. There were few days on which thepassengers could come from below-decks. When weather permitted, Captain Macdonell, who knew the dangers to be encountered in thecountry they were going to, attempted to give the emigrants militarydrill. 'There never was a more awkward squad, ' was his opinion, 'not aman, or even officer, of the party knew how to put a gun to his eye orhad ever fired a shot. ' A prominent figure on the _Edward and Ann_ wasa careless-hearted cleric, whose wit and banter were in evidencethroughout the voyage. This was the Reverend Father Burke, an Irishpriest. He had stolen away without the leave of his bishop, and itappears that he and Macdonell, {45} although of the same faith, werenot the best of friends. 

After a stormy voyage of nearly two months the ships entered the long, barren straits leading into Hudson Bay. From the beginning ofSeptember the fleet had been hourly expected at York Factory, andspeculation was rife there as to its delay in arriving. On September24 the suspense ended, for the look-out at the fort descried the shipsmoving in from the north and east. They anchored in the shallow havenon the western shore, where two streams, the Nelson and the Hayes, enter Hudson Bay, and the sorely tried passengers disembarked. Theywere at once marched to York Factory, on the north bank of the Hayes. The strong palisades and wooden bastions of the fort warned thenewcomers that there were dangers in America to be guarded against. Apack of 'husky' dogs came bounding forth to meet them as theyapproached the gates. 

A survey of the company's buildings convinced Macdonell that much moreroomy quarters would be required for the approaching winter, and hedetermined to erect suitable habitations for his people beforesnowfall. With this in view he crossed over to the Nelson {46} andascended it until he reached a high clearing on its left bank, nearwhich grew an abundance of white spruce. He brought up a body of men, most of whom now received their first lesson in woodcraft. The paleand flaky-barked aromatic spruce trees were felled and stripped oftheir branches. Next, the logs were 'snaked' into the open, where thedwellings were to be erected, and hewed into proper shape. Thesetimbers were then deftly fitted together and the four walls of a rudebut substantial building began to rise. A drooping roof was added, thechinks were closed, and then the structure was complete. When asufficient number of such houses had been built, Macdonell set theparty to work cutting firewood and gathering it into convenient piles. 

The prudence of these measures became apparent when the frost kingfixed his iron grip upon land and sea. As the days shortened, therivers were locked deep and fast; a sharp wind penetrated the forest, and the salty bay was fringed with jagged and glistening hummocks ofice. So severe was the cold that the newcomers were loath to go forthfrom their warm shelter even to haul food from the fort over thebrittle, yielding snow. Under such {47} conditions life in the campgrew monotonous and dull. More serious still, the food they had to eatwas the common fare of such isolated winterers; it was chiefly saltmeat. The effect of this was seen as early as December. Some of theparty became listless and sluggish, their faces turned sallow and theireyes appeared sunken. They found it difficult to breathe and theirgums were swollen and spongy. Macdonell, a veteran in hardship, saw atonce that scurvy had broken out among them; but he had a simple remedyand the supply was without limit. The sap of the white spruce wasextracted and administered to the sufferers. Almost immediately theirhealth showed improvement, and soon all were on the road to recovery. But the medicine was not pleasant to take, and some of the party atfirst foolishly refused to submit to the treatment. 

The settlers, almost unwittingly, banded together into distinct groups, each individual tending to associate with the others from his own homedistrict. As time went on these groups, with their separategrievances, gave Macdonell much trouble. The Orkneymen, who werelargely servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, were not long inincurring his {48} disfavour. To him they seemed to have the appetitesof a pack of hungry wolves. He dubbed them 'lazy, spiritless andill-disposed. ' The 'Glasgow rascals, ' too, were a source of annoyance. 'A more ... Cross-grained lot, ' he asserted, 'were never put under anyperson's care. '

[Illustration: The country of Lord Selkirk's Letters. ]

Owing to the discord existing in the camp, the New Year was not usheredin happily. In Scotland, of all the days of the year, this anniversarywas held in the highest regard. It was generally celebrated to thestrains of 'Weel may we a' be, ' and with effusive handshakings, muchdining, and a hot kettle. The lads from the Orkneys were quite wideawake to the occasion and had no intention of omitting the customs oftheir sires. On New Year's Day they were having a rollicking time inone of the cabins. But their enthusiasm was quickly damped by a partyof Irish who, having primed their courage with whisky, set upon themerry-makers and created a scene of wild disorder. In the heat of the_mêlée_ three of the Orkneymen were badly beaten, and for a month theirlives hung in the balance. Captain Macdonell later sent several of theIrish back to Great Britain, saying that such 'worthless blackguards'were {49} better under the discipline of the army or the navy. 

One of the number who had not taken kindly to Miles Macdonell as a'medicine-man' was William Findlay, a very obdurate Orkneyman, who hadflatly refused to soil his lips with the wonder-working syrup of thewhite spruce. Shortly afterwards, having been told to do something, hewas again disobedient. This time he was forced to appear beforeMagistrate Hillier of the Hudson's Bay Company and was condemned togaol. As there was really no such place, a log-house was built forFindlay, and he was imprisoned in it. A gruff-noted babel of dissentarose among his kinsfolk, supported by the men from Glasgow. A gang ofthirteen, in which both parties were represented, put a match to theprison where Findlay was confined, and rescued its solitary inmate outof the blaze. Then, uttering defiance, they seized another building, and decided to live apart. Thus, with the attitude of rebels and wellsupplied with firearms, they kept the rest of the camp in a state ofnervousness for several months. In June, however, these rebels allowedthemselves to fall into a trap. Having crossed the Nelson, they foundtheir return cut off by {50} the melting of the ice. This put them atthe mercy of the officials at York Factory, and they were forced tosurrender. After receiving their humble acknowledgments Macdonell wasnot disposed to treat them severely, and he took them back into service. 

But what of jovial Father Burke since his arrival on the shores ofHudson Bay? To all appearances, he had not been able to restrain hisflock from mischief. He had, however, been exploring on his ownaccount, and thoroughly believed that he had made some valuablediscoveries. He had come upon pebbles of various kinds which hethought were precious stones. Some of them shone like diamonds; othersseemed like rubies. Father Burke was indeed sure that bits of the sandwhich he had collected contained particles of gold. Macdonell himselfbelieved that the soil along the Nelson abounded in mineral wealth. Hetold the priest to keep the discovery a secret, and sent samples ofsand and stone to Lord Selkirk, advising him to acquire the banks ofthe Nelson river from the company. In the end, to the disgust ofMacdonell and Father Burke, not one sample proved of any value. 

Weeks before the ice had left the river, the {51} colonists becameimpatient to set forward on the remainder of their journey. Totransport so many persons, with all their belongings and withsufficient provisions, seven or eight hundred miles inland was anundertaking formidable enough to put Captain Macdonell's energies tothe fullest test. The only craft available were bark canoes, and thesewould be too fragile for the heavy cargoes that must be borne. Stouterboats must be built. Macdonell devised a sort of punt or flat-bottomedboat, such as he had formerly seen in the colony of New York. Four ofthese clumsy craft were constructed, but only with great difficulty, and after much trouble with the workmen. Inefficiency, as well asmisconduct, on the part of the colonists was a sore trial to Macdonell. The men from the Hebrides were now practically the only members of theparty who were not, for one reason or another, in his black book. 

It was almost midsummer before the boats began to push up the Hayesriver for the interior. There were many blistered hands at the oars;nevertheless, on the journey they managed to make an average ofthirteen miles each day. Before the colonists could reach OxfordHouse, the next post of the Hudson's {52} Bay Company, three dozenportages had to be passed. It was with thankful hearts that they cameto Holy Lake and caught sight of the trading-post by its margin. Herewas an ample reach of water, reminding the Highlanders of a loch offar-away Scotland. When the wind died down, Holy Lake was like a giantmirror. Looking into its quiet waters, the voyagers saw great fishswimming swiftly. 

From Oxford House the route lay over a height-of-land to thehead-waters of the Nelson. After a series of difficulties the partyreached Norway House, another post of the Hudson's Bay Company, on anupper arm of Lake Winnipeg. At this time Norway House was the centreof the great fur-bearing region. The colonists found it stronglyentrenched in a rocky basin and astir with life. After a short restthey proceeded towards Lake Winnipeg, and soon were moving slowly downits low-lying eastern shore. Here they had their first glimpse of theprairie country, with its green carpet of grass. Out from the water'sedge grew tall, lank reeds, the lurking place of snipe and sand-piper. Doubtless, in the brief night-watches, they listened to the shrill cryof the restless lynx, or heard the yapping howl of the timber wolf ashe slunk {53} away among the copses. But presently the boats weregliding in through the sand-choked outlet of the Red River, and theywere on the last stage of their journey. 

Some forty miles up-stream from its mouth the Red River bends sharplytowards the east, forming what is known as Point Douglas in the presentcity of Winnipeg. Having toiled round this point, the colonists pushedtheir boats to the muddy shore. The day they landed--the natal day ofa community which was to grow into three great provinces of Canada--wasAugust 30, 1812. 

{54}

CHAPTER VI

RED RIVER AND PEMBINA

Scarcely had the settlers taken stock of their surroundings on the RedRiver when they were chilled to the marrow with a sudden terror. Towards them came racing on horseback a formidable-looking troop, decked out in all the accoutrements of the Indian--spreading feather, dangling tomahawk, and a thick coat of war-paint. To the newcomers itwas a never-to-be-forgotten spectacle. But when the riders came withinclose range, shouting and gesticulating, it was seen that they woreborrowed apparel, and that their speech was a medley of French andIndian dialects. They were a troop of Bois Brûlés, Métis, orhalf-breeds of French and Indian blood, aping for the time the mannersof their mothers' people. Their object was to tell Lord Selkirk'sparty that settlers were not wanted on the Red River; that it was thecountry of the fur traders, and that settlers must go farther afield. 

{55}

This was surely an inhospitable reception, after a long and fatiguingjourney. Plainly the Nor'westers were at it again, trying now tofrighten the colonists away, as they had tried before to keep them fromcoming. These mounted half-breeds were a deputation from FortGibraltar, the Nor'westers' nearest trading-post, which stood two mileshigher up at 'the Forks, ' where the Red River is joined by theAssiniboine. 

Nevertheless, Governor Macdonell, having planned as dignified aceremony as the circumstances would allow, sent to the Nor'westers atFort Gibraltar an invitation to be present at the official inaugurationof Lord Selkirk's colony. At the appointed hour, on September 4, several traders from the fort, together with a few French Canadians andIndians, put in an appearance. In the presence of this odd companyGovernor Macdonell read the Earl of Selkirk's patent to Assiniboia. About him was drawn up a guard of honour, and overhead the Britishensign fluttered in the breeze. Six small swivel-guns, which had beenbrought with the colonists, belched forth a salute to mark theoccasion. The Nor'westers were visibly impressed by this show ofauthority and power. In pretended friendship they {56} enteredGovernor Macdonell's tent and accepted his hospitality beforedeparting. At variance with the scowls of trapper and trader towardsthe settlers was the attitude of the full-blooded Indians who werecamping along the Red River. From the outset these red-skins werefriendly, and their conduct was soon to stand the settlers in goodstead. 

The provisions brought from Hudson Bay were fast diminishing and wouldsoon be at an end. True, the Nor'westers offered for sale supplies ofoats, barley, poultry, and the like, but their prices were high and thesettlers had not the means of purchase. But there was other food. Myriads of buffalo roamed over the Great Plains. Herds of theseanimals often darkened the horizon like a slowly moving cloud. Insummer they might be seen cropping the prairie grass, or plunging androlling about in muddy 'wallows. ' In winter they moved to higherlevels, where lay less snow to be removed from the dried grass whichthey devoured. At that season those who needed to hunt the buffalo forfood must follow them wherever they went. This was now the plight ofthe settlers: winter was coming on and food was already scarce. Thesettlers must seek out the winter haunts of the buffalo. {57} TheIndians were of great service, for they offered to act as guides. 

A party to hunt the buffalo was organized. Like a train of pilgrims, the majority of the colonists now set out afoot. Their dark-skinnedescort, mounted on wiry ponies, bent their course in a southerlydirection. The redskins eyed with amusement the queer-clad strangerswhom they were guiding. These were ignorant of the ways of the wildprairie country and badly equipped to face its difficulties. Sometimesthe Indians indulged in horse-play, and a few of them were unable tokeep their hands off the settlers' possessions. One Highlander lost anancient musket which he treasured. A wedding ring was taken by anIndian guide from the hand of one of the women. Five days ofstraggling march brought the party to a wide plateau where the Indianssaid that the buffalo were accustomed to pasture. Here the partyhalted, at the junction of the Red and Pembina rivers, and awaited thearrival of Captain Macdonell, who came up next day on horseback withthree others of his party. 

Temporary tents and cabins were erected, and steps were taken toprovide more commodious shelters. But this second winter {58}threatened to be almost as uncomfortable as the first had been onHudson Bay. Captain Macdonell selected a suitable place south of thePembina river, and on this site a storehouse and other buildings wereput up. The end of the year saw a neat little encampment, surroundedby palisades, where before had been nothing but unbroken prairie. As afinishing touch, a flagstaff was raised within the stockade, and inhonour of one of Lord Selkirk's titles the name Fort Daer was given tothe whole. In the meantime a body of seventeen Irishmen, led by OwenKeveny, had arrived from the old country, having accomplished the featof making their way across the ocean to Hudson Bay and up to thesettlement during the single season of 1812. This additional force washoused at once in Fort Daer along with the rest. Until spring opened, buffalo meat was to be had in plenty, the Indians bringing inquantities of it for a slight reward. So unconscious were the buffaloof danger that they came up to the very palisades, giving the settlersan excellent view of their drab-brown backs and fluffy, curling manes. 

[Illustration: Hunting the Buffalo. From a painting by George Catlin. ]

On the departure of the herds in the springtime there was no reason whythe colonists {59} should remain any longer at Fort Daer. Accordinglythe entire band plodded wearily back to the ground which they hadvacated above 'the Forks' on the Red River. As the season of 1813advanced, more solid structures were erected on this site, and theplace became known as Colony Gardens. An attempt was now made toprepare the soil and to sow some seed, but it was a difficult task, asthe only agricultural implement possessed by the settlers was the hoe. They next turned to the river in search of food, only to find it almostempty of fish. Even the bushes, upon which clusters of wild berriesought to have been found, were practically devoid of fruit. Natureseemed to have veiled her countenance from the hapless settlers, and tobe mocking their most steadfast efforts. In their dire need they weredriven to use weeds for food. An indigenous plant called the prairieapple grew in abundance, and the leaves of a species of the goosefootfamily were found to be nourishing. 

With the coming of autumn 1813 the experiences of the previous yearwere repeated. Once more they went over the dreary road to Fort Daer. Then followed the most cruel winter that the settlers had yet endured. The {60} snow fell thickly and lay in heavy drifts, and the buffalowith animal foresight had wandered to other fields. The Nor'westerssold the colonists a few provisions, but were egging on their allies, the Bois Brûlés, who occupied a small post in the vicinity of thePembina, to annoy them whenever possible. It required courage of thehighest order on the part of the colonists to battle through thewinter. They were in extreme poverty, and in many cases theirfrost-bitten, starved bodies were wrapped only in rags before springcame. Those who still had their plaids, or other presentable garments, were prepared to part with them for a morsel of food. With the comingof spring once more, the party travelled northward to 'the Forks' ofthe Red River, resolved never again to set foot within the gates ofFort Daer. 

Meanwhile, some news of the desperate state of affairs on the Red Riverhad reached the Earl of Selkirk in Scotland. So many were thediscouragements that one might forgive him if at this juncture he hadflung his colonizing scheme to the winds as a lost venture. The lordof St Mary's Isle did not, however, abandon hope; he was a persistentman and not easily turned aside from his {61} purpose. Now he went inperson to the straths and glens of Sutherlandshire to recruit moresettlers. For several years the crofters in this section of theHighlands had been ejected in ruthless fashion from their holdings. Those who aimed to 'quench the smoke of cottage fires' had sent aregiment of soldiers into this shire to cow the Highlanders intosubmission. Lord Selkirk came at a critical moment and extended ahelping hand to the outcasts. A large company agreed to join thecolony of Assiniboia, and under Selkirk's own superintendence they wereequipped for the journey. As the sad-eyed exiles were about to leavethe port of Helmsdale, the earl passed among them, dispensing words ofcomfort and of cheer. 

This contingent numbered ninety-seven persons. The vessel carryingthem from Helmsdale reached the _Prince of Wales_ of the Hudson's BayCompany, on which they embarked, at Stromness in the Orkneys. Theparish of Kildonan, in Sutherlandshire, had the largest representationamong these emigrants. Names commonly met with on the ship's registerwere Gunn, Matheson, MacBeth, Sutherland, and Bannerman. 

After the _Prince of Wales_ had put to sea, {62} fever broke out onboard, and the contagion quickly spread among the passengers. Many ofthem died. They had escaped from beggary on shore only to perish atsea and to be consigned to a watery grave. The vessel reached HudsonBay in good time, but for some unknown reason the captain put intoChurchill, over a hundred miles north of York Factory. This meant thatthe newcomers must camp on the Churchill for the winter; there wasnothing else to be done. Fortunately partridge were numerous in theneighbourhood of their encampment, and, as the uneventful monthsdragged by, the settlers had an unstinted supply of fresh food. InApril 1814 forty-one members of the party, about half of whom werewomen, undertook to walk over the snow to York Factory. The men drewthe sledges on which their provisions were loaded and went in advance, clearing the way for the women. In the midst of the company strode asolemn-visaged piper. At one moment, as a dirge wailed forth, thespirits of the people drooped and they felt themselves beaten andforsaken. But anon the music changed. Up through the scrubby pine andover the mantle of snow rang the skirl of the undefeated; and as theyheard the gathering song of Bonnie Dundee {63} or the summons to fightfor Royal Charlie, they pressed forward with unfaltering steps. 

This advance party came to York Factory, and, continuing the journey, reached Colony Gardens without misadventure early in the summer. Theywere better husbandmen than their predecessors, and they quicklyaddressed themselves to the cultivation of the soil. Thirty or fortybushels of potatoes were planted in the black loam of the prairie. These yielded a substantial increase. The thrifty Sutherlanders mighthave saved the tottering colony, had not Governor Macdonell committedan act which, however legally right, was nothing less than foolhardy inthe circumstances, and which brought disaster in its train. 

In his administration of the affairs of the colony Macdonell had showngood executive ability and a willingness to endure every trial that hisfollowers endured. Towards the Nor'westers, however, he was inclinedto be stubborn and arrogant. He was convinced that he must adoptstringent measures against them. He determined to assert his authorityas governor of the colony under Lord Selkirk's patent. UndoubtedlyMacdonell had reason to be indignant at the {64} unfriendly attitude ofthe fur traders; yet, so far, this had merely taken the form of pettyannoyance, and might have been met by good nature and diplomacy. 

[Illustration: Plan of Red River Colony]

In January 1814 Governor Macdonell issued a proclamation pronouncing itunlawful for any person who dealt in furs to remove from the colony ofAssiniboia supplies of flesh, fish, grain, or vegetable. Punishmentwould be meted out to those who offended against this official order. The aim of Macdonell was to keep a supply of food in the colony for thesupport of the new settlers. He was, however, offering a challenge tothe fur traders, for his policy meant in effect that these had no rightin Assiniboia, that it was to be kept for the use of settlers alone. Such a mandate could not fail to rouse intense hostility among thetraders, whose doctrine was the very opposite. The Nor'westers werequick to seize the occasion to strike at the struggling colony. 

{65}

CHAPTER VII

THE BEGINNING OF STRIFE

Stormy days were coming. Once Governor Macdonell had published hisedict, he did not hesitate to enforce its terms. Information had beenreceived at Colony Gardens that the Nor'westers had stored a quantityof provisions in their trading-post at the mouth of the Souris, a largesouthern tributary of the Assiniboine. It was clear that, in defianceof Macdonell's decree, they meant to send food supplies out ofAssiniboia to support their trading-posts elsewhere. The fort atSouris was in close proximity to Brandon House on the Assiniboine, apost founded by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1794. Macdonell decided onstrong action. His secretary, John Spencer, was ordered to go to theSouris in the capacity of a sheriff, accompanied by a strong guard andcarrying a warrant in his pocket. When Spencer drew near the stockadesof the Nor'westers' fort and found the {66} gate closed against him, hecommanded his men to batter it in with their hatchets. They obeyedwith alacrity, and having filed inside the fort, took charge of thecontents of the storehouse. Six hundred bags of pemmican were seizedand carried to Brandon House. Already there was a state of war inAssiniboia. 

The territory which comprised the colony was of great valueeconomically to the North-West Company. The food supplies whichsupported its traders in the far interior were largely drawn from thisarea. In the eyes of the Nor'westers, Sheriff John Spencer hadperformed an act of pure brigandage at their Souris post. Still, theywere in no hurry to execute a counter-move. In order to make nomistake they thought it best to restrain themselves until theirpartners should hold their summer meeting at Fort William, [1] on LakeSuperior. 

The partners of the North-West Company {67} met at Fort William in themonth of July 1814. Their fond hope had been that Lord Selkirk'scolony would languish and die. Instead, it was flourishing and waxingaggressive. The governor of Assiniboia had published an edict which heseemed determined to enforce, to the ruin of the business of theNorth-West Company. The grizzled partners, as they rubbed elbows insecret conclave, decided that something must be done to crush thistroublesome settlement. Whether or not they formed any definite plancannot be ascertained. It is scarcely believable that at this meetingwas plotted the opposition to Lord Selkirk's enterprise which was tobegin with deceit and perfidy and to culminate in bloodshed. Among theNor'westers were men of great worth and integrity. There were, however, others in their ranks who proved base and irresponsible. During this conference at Fort William a bitter animosity was expressedagainst Lord Selkirk and the company which had endorsed his colonizingproject. It was the Nor'westers' misfortune and fault that some oftheir number were prepared to vent this outspoken enmity in deeds ofcriminal violence. 

Two 'wintering partners' of the {68} North-West Company--men whoremained in the interior during the winter--appear to have beenentrusted by their fellows with the task of dealing with the settlerson the Red River. Both these men, Duncan Cameron and AlexanderMacdonell, had a wide experience of the prairie country. Of the pair, Cameron was unquestionably the more resourceful. In view of the factthat later in life he became a trusted representative of the county ofGlengarry in the legislature of Upper Canada, there has been a tendencyto gloss over some of his misdemeanours when he was still a trader infurs. But he was a sinister character. His principal aim, on going tothe Red River, was to pay lavish court to the settlers in order todeceive them. He was a born actor, and could assume at will thegravest or the gayest of demeanours or any disposition he chose to puton. 

Alexander Macdonell, the other emissary of the Nor'westers, was of aninferior type. He was crafty enough never to burn his own fingers. Macdonell had some influence over the Indians of the Qu'Appelledistrict and of the more distant west. His immediate proposal was toattract a band of redskins to the neighbourhood of Colony Gardens withthe {69} avowed intention of creating a panic among the settlers. 

Shortly after the July meeting at Fort William these two men started ontheir mission for the Red River. On August 5, while at astopping-point by the way, Alexander Macdonell dated a letter to afriend in Montreal. The tenor of this letter would indicate that onlya portion of the Nor'westers were ready to adopt extreme measuresagainst the settlement. 'Something serious will undoubtedly takeplace, ' was Macdonell's callous admission. 'Nothing but the completedownfall of the colony, ' he continued, 'will satisfy some, by fair orfoul means--a most desirable object if it can be accomplished. So hereis at them with all my heart and energy. '

Towards the end of August the twain arrived at Fort Gibraltar, wherethey parted company. Alexander Macdonell proceeded to his winterquarters at Fort Qu'Appelle, on the river of the same name whichempties into the upper Assiniboine. Duncan Cameron made his appearancewith considerable pomp and circumstance at Fort Gibraltar. Thesettlers soon knew him as 'Captain' Duncan Cameron, of the VoyageurCorps, a battalion which had ranged the border during the recent {70}war with the United States. Cameron decked himself in a crimsonuniform. He had a sword by his side and the outward bearing of agallant officer. Lest there should be any want of belief on the partof the colonists, he caused his credentials to be tacked up on thegateway of Fort Gibraltar. There, in legible scrawl, was an orderappointing him as captain and Alexander Macdonell as lieutenant in theVoyageur Corps. The sight of a soldier sent a thrill through thebreasts of the Highlanders and the fight-loving Irish. Cameron had infact once belonged to the Voyageurs, and no one at Colony Gardens yetknew that the corps had been disbanded the year before. At a laterdate Lord Selkirk took pains to prove that Cameron had been guilty ofrank imposture. 

To pose in the guise of a captain of militia was not Duncan Cameron'sonly role. Having impressed his martial importance upon all, he nextwent among the settlers as a comrade. He could chat at ease in Gaelic, and this won the confidence of the Highlanders. Some of the colonistswere invited to his table. These he treated with studied kindness, andhe furnished them with such an abundance of good food that they feltdisgust for the scant {71} and humble fare allowed them at thesettlement. At the same time Cameron began to make bold insinuationsin his conversation. He had, he said, heard news from the interiorthat a body of Indians would raid them in the spring. He harped uponthe deplorable state in which the settlers were living; out offellow-feeling for them, he said, he would gladly act as theirdeliverer. Why did they not throw themselves upon the mercies of theNorth-West Company? In their unhappy condition, abandoned, as hehinted, by Lord Selkirk to their own resources, there was but one thingfor them to do. They must leave the Red River far behind, and he wouldguarantee that the Nor'westers would assist them. 

As a result of Cameron's intrigues, signs of wavering allegiance weresoon in evidence. One of the settlers in particular, George Campbell, became a traitor in the camp. Campbell had negotiated with LordSelkirk personally during Selkirk's visit to Sutherlandshire. Now hecomplained vigorously of his treatment since leaving Scotland, and wasin favour of accepting the terms which Cameron, as a partner in theNorth-West Company, offered. As many colonists as desired it, saidCameron, would be transported by the {72} Nor'westers free of charge toMontreal or other parts of Canada. A year's provisions would besupplied to them, and each colonist would be granted two hundred acresof fertile land. Tempting bribes of money were offered some of them asa bait. An influential Highlander, Alexander M'Lean, was promised twohundred pounds from Cameron's own pocket, on condition that he wouldtake his family away. Several letters which were penned by the shamofficer during the winter of 1815 can still be read. 'I am glad, ' hewrote to a couple of settlers in February, 'that the eyes of some ofyou are getting open at last ... And that you now see your past folliesin obeying the unlawful orders of a plunderer, and I may say, of ahighway robber, for what took place here last spring can be callednothing else but manifest robbery. '

As yet Duncan Cameron had refrained from the use of force, but aswinter wore on towards spring he saw that, to complete his work, forcewould be necessary. The proportion of settlers remaining loyal to LordSelkirk was by no means insignificant, and Cameron feared the pieces ofartillery at Colony Gardens. He decided on a bold effort to get thesefield-pieces into his possession. {73} Early in April he made astartling move. Miles Macdonell was away at Fort Daer, and ArchibaldMacdonald, the deputy-governor of the colony, was in charge. To himCameron sent a peremptory demand in writing for the field-pieces, thatthey might be 'out of harm's way. '

This missive was first given into the hands of the traitor GeorgeCampbell, who read it to the settlers on Sunday after church. Nextday, while rations were being distributed, it was delivered to thedeputy-governor in the colony storehouse. About one o'clock on thesame afternoon, George Campbell and a few kindred spirits broke intothe building where the field-pieces were stored, took the guns outside, and placed them on horse-sledges for the purpose of drawing them away. At this juncture a musket was fired as a signal, and Duncan Cameronwith some Bois Brûlés stole from a clump of trees. 'Well done, myhearty fellows, ' Cameron exclaimed, as he came hurrying up. The gunswere borne away and lodged within the precincts of Fort Gibraltar, anda number of the colonists now took sides openly with Duncan Cameron andthe Nor'westers. 

Meanwhile Cameron's colleague, Alexander {74} Macdonell, was notsucceeding in his efforts to incite the Indians about Fort Qu'Appelleagainst the colony. He found that the Indians did not lust for theblood of the settlers; and when he appeared at Fort Gibraltar, in May, he had with him only a handful of Plain Crees. These redskins lingeredabout the fort for a time, being well supplied with liquor to make thempot-valiant. During their stay a number of horses belonging to thesettlers were wounded by arrows, but it is doubtful if the perpetratorsof these outrages were Indians. The chief of the Crees finally visitedGovernor Miles Macdonell, and convinced him that his warriors intendedthe colonists no ill. Before the Indians departed they sent to ColonyGardens a pipe of peace--the red man's token of friendship. 

An equally futile attempt was made about the same time by two tradersof the North-West Company to persuade Katawabetay, chief of theChippewas, to lead a band of his tribesmen against the settlement. Katawabetay was at Sand Lake, just west of Lake Superior, when hisparley with the Nor'westers took place. The two traders promised togive Katawabetay and his warriors all the merchandise and rum in threeof the {75} company's posts, if they would raise the hatchet anddescend upon the Red River settlers. The cautious chief wished to knowwhether this was the desire of the military authorities. The tradershad to confess that it was merely a wish of the North-West Company. Katawabetay then demurred, saying that, before beginning hostilities, he must speak about the matter to one of the provincial militaryleaders on St Joseph's Island, at the head of Lake Huron. 

Finding it impossible to get the Indians to raid the settlement, Cameron now adopted other methods. His party had been increasing innumbers day by day. Joined by the deserters from the colony, theNor'westers pitched their camp a short distance down the river fromFort Gibraltar. At this point guns were mounted, and at Fort GibraltarCameron's men were being drilled. On June 11 a chosen company, furnished with loaded muskets and ammunition, were marched towardsGovernor Macdonell's house, where they concealed themselves behind sometrees. James White, the surgeon of the colony, was seen walking closeto the house. A puff of grey smoke came from the Nor'westers' cover. The shot went wide. Then John Bourke, the {76} store-keeper, heard abullet whiz by his head, and narrowly escaped death. The colonists atonce seized their arms and answered the Nor'westers' fire. In theexchange of volleys, however, they were at a disadvantage, as theiradversaries remained hidden from view. When the Nor'westers decamped, four persons on the colonists' side had been wounded. 

Apparently there was no longer security for life or property amongthose still adhering to Lord Selkirk's cause at Colony Gardens. DuncanCameron, employing a subterfuge, now said that his main object was tocapture Governor Macdonell. If this were accomplished he would leavethe settlers unmolested. In order to safeguard the colony Macdonellvoluntarily surrendered himself to the Nor'westers. Cameron wasjubilant. With the loyal settlers worsted and almost defenceless, andthe governor of Assiniboia his prisoner, he could dictate his ownterms. He issued an explicit command that the settlers must vacate theRed River without delay. A majority of the settlers decided to obey, and their exodus began under Cameron's guidance. About one hundred andforty, inclusive of women and children, stepped into the canoes of theNorth-West Company to be borne away {77} to Canada. Miles Macdonellwas taken to Montreal under arrest. 

The forty or fifty colonists who still clung to their homes at ColonyGardens were left to be dealt with by Alexander Macdonell, who wasnothing loath to finish Cameron's work of destruction. Once moremuskets were brought into play; horses and cattle belonging to thesettlers were spirited away; and several of the colonists were placedunder arrest on trumped-up charges. These dastardly tactics werefollowed by an organized attempt to raid the settlement. On June 25 atroop of Bois Brûlés gathered on horseback, armed to the teeth and ledby Alexander Macdonell and a half-breed named Cuthbert Grant. Thesettlers, though mustering barely one-half the strength of the raiders, resolved to make a stand, and placed themselves under the command ofJohn M'Leod, a trader in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. TheBois Brûlés bore down upon the settlement in menacing array. Thecolonists took what shelter they could find and prepared for battle. Fighting coolly, they made their shots tell. The advancing columnhesitated and halted in dismay at the courage of the defenders. ThenJohn M'Leod {78} remembered a cannon which was rusting unused at thesmall post which the Hudson's Bay Company had on the river. HughM'Lean and two others were ordered to haul this to the blacksmith'sshanty. The three men soon found the cannon, and set it up in thesmithy. For shot, cart chains were chopped into sections; and the BoisBrûlés were treated to a raking volley of 'chain shot. ' This wassomething they had not looked for; their courage failed them, and theygalloped out of range. 

But the remnant of Lord Selkirk's settlers who had dared to linger onthe Red River were at the end of their resources. Taking counseltogether, they resolved to quit the colony. They launched their boatson the river, and followed the canoe route which led to Hudson Bay. They were accompanied by a band of Indians of the Saulteaux tribe asfar as the entrance to Lake Winnipeg. From there a short journeyplaced them outside the boundaries of Assiniboia. When they arrived atthe northern end of Lake Winnipeg they found a temporary refuge, in thevicinity of Norway House, on the Jack river. 

Alexander Macdonell and his Bois Brûlés were now free utterly to blotout Colony {79} Gardens. They visited every part of the settlement andset fire to everything. Not a single house was left standing. Cabins, storehouses, the colony's grinding mill--all were reduced to a mass ofruins. Cameron's duplicity had been crowned with success; AlexanderMacdonell's armed marauders had finished the task; Lord Selkirk'scolony of farmers-in-the-making was scattered far and wide. Nevertheless, the Nor'westers were not undisputed masters of thesituation. In the Hudson's Bay smithy, but ten feet square, four mencontinued the struggle. John M'Leod, James M'Intosh, and ArchibaldCurrie, of the Hudson's Bay Company, defended their trading-post, withthe assistance of 'noble Hugh M'Lean, ' the only settler remaining onthe Red River banks. By day and by night these men were forced to keepwatch and ward. Whenever the Bois Brûlés drew near, the 'chain shot'drove them hurriedly to cover. At length the enemy withdrew, andM'Leod and his comrades walked out to survey the scene of desolation. 

[1] After it had been discovered that the Grand Portage was situatedpartly on land awarded by treaty to the United States, the Nor'westers, in 1803, had erected a new factory thirty or forty miles farther northwhere the Kaministikwia river enters Thunder Bay. This post becametheir chief fur emporium west of Montreal, and was given the name FortWilliam as a tribute to William M'Gillivray, one of the leadingpartners in the company. 

{80}

CHAPTER VIII

COLIN ROBERTSON, THE AVENGER

Three years of self-sacrificing effort seemed to have been wasted. Thecolony of Assiniboia was no more; its site was free to wanderingredskins and greedy traders. Yet, at the very time when the colonistswere being dispersed, succour was not far off. Lord Selkirk hadreceived alarming news some time before, and at his solicitation ColinRobertson had hired a band of voyageurs, and was speeding forward withthem to defend the settlement. Since 1811, when we saw him recruitingsettlers for Lord Selkirk in Scotland, Colin Robertson had been in theservice of the Hudson's Bay Company. Having been a servant of theNor'westers he knew the value of Canadian canoemen in the fur trade, and, on his advice, the Hudson's Bay Company now imitated its rival byemploying voyageurs. In temperament Colin was dour but audacious, acommon type among the men of the Outer {81} Hebrides, and he had agrievance to avenge. He was sprung from the Robertson clan, which didnot easily forget or forgive. He still remembered his quarrel withCrooked-armed Macdonald on the Saskatchewan. In his mind was thegoading thought that he was a cast-off servant of the North-WestCompany; and he yearned for the day when he might exact retribution forhis injuries, some of them real, some fancied. 

It thus happened that before the final crisis came help was well on theway. When the party of rescuers arrived, the charred and deserteddwellings of Colony Gardens told their wordless story. They had cometoo late. It is quite possible that the newcomers had met by the waythe throng of settlers who were bound for Canada, or at least had heardof their departure from the Red River. It is less likely that beforearriving they had learned of the destruction of the settlement. Aportion of the colonists still remained in the country, and ColinRobertson thought that he might yet save the situation. He had doneall that Lord Selkirk had instructed him to do, and he now took furtheraction on his own initiative. At his command the sun-tanned voyageursdescended to the {82} river bank and launched their light canoes on thecurrent. Down-stream, and northward along Lake Winnipeg, the partytravelled, until they reached the exiles' place of refuge on the Jackriver. 

Robertson's resolute demeanour inspired the settlers with new courage, and they decided to go back with him and rebuild their homes. Beforethe summer was spent they were once more on the Red River. To theirsurprise the plots of ground which they had sown along the banks hadsuffered less than they had expected. During their absence John M'Leodhad watchfully husbanded the precious crops, and from the land he socarefully tended fifteen hundred bushels of wheat were realized--thefirst 'bumper' crop garnered within the borders of what are now theprairie provinces of Canada. M'Leod had built fences, had cut andstacked the matured hay, and had even engaged men to erect newbuildings and to repair some of those which had escaped utterdestruction. Near the spot where the colonists had landed in 1812 hehad selected an appropriate site and had begun to erect a largedomicile for the governor. 'It was of two stories, ' wrote M'Leod inhis diary, {83} 'with main timbers of oak; a good substantial house. '

John M'Leod was a man of faith. He expected that Lord Selkirk's colonywould soon be again firmly on its feet, and he was not to bedisappointed. A fourth contingent of settlers arrived during the monthof October 1815, having left Scotland in the spring. This bandcomprised upwards of ninety persons, nearly all natives of Kildonan. These were the most energetic body of settlers so far enlisted by theEarl of Selkirk. They experienced, of course, great disappointment ontheir arrival. Instead of finding a flourishing settlement, they sawthe ruins of the habitations of their predecessors, and found that manyfriends whom they hoped would greet them had been enticed or drivenaway. 

Along with these colonists came an important dignitary sent out by theHudson's Bay Company. The 'Adventurers of England trading intoHudson's Bay' were now alarmed regarding the outlook for furs in theinterior, and the general court of their stockholders had taken a newand important step. It was decided to appoint a residentgovernor-in-chief, with power not merely over the colony of Assiniboia, but over all the company's {84} trading-posts as well. The man chosento fill this office was Robert Semple, a British army captain on theretired list. He was a man of upright character and bull-dog courage, but he lacked the patience and diplomacy necessary for the problem withwhich he had to deal. Another to arrive with the contingent was ElderJames Sutherland, who had been authorized by the Church of Scotland tobaptize and to perform the marriage ceremony. 

The occupants of Fort Gibraltar viewed the replanting of the settlementwith baleful resentment. Their ranks were augmented during the autumnby a wayfarer from the east who hung up his musket at the fort andassumed control. This was none other than Duncan Cameron, returnedfrom Canada, with the plaudits of some of his fellow-partners stillringing in his ears. To Colin Robertson the presence of Cameron atFort Gibraltar was not of happy augury for the settlers' welfare. Robertson decided on prompt and radical action. In a word, hedetermined to take the Nor'westers' post by surprise. His raid wassuccessful. The field-pieces and the property of the colonists whichhad been carried away in June were recovered. {85} Cameron himself wasmade a prisoner. But he was not held long. The man was a born actorand a smooth talker. In all seeming humility he now made speciouspromises of future good behaviour, and was allowed to return to hisfort. 

The houses of the colonists were ranged in succession along the RedRiver until they reached an elevated spot called Frog Plain. Some ofthe houses appear to have been situated on Frog Plain as well. Alongthe river, running north and south, was a road worn smooth by constanttraffic. The spacious residence for the governor reared by JohnM'Leod, and the other buildings grouped about it, were surrounded by astrong palisade. To the whole the name of Fort Douglas was now given. In spite, however, of their seeming prosperity, the settlers found itnecessary to migrate for the winter to the basin of the Pembina inorder to obtain food. But again they found that the buffalo were manymiles from Fort Daer, and the insufficiently clad winterers sufferedgreatly. They were disturbed, too, by frequent rumours of comingdanger. The 'New Nation, ' as the half-breeds chose to call themselves, were gathering, it was said, from every quarter, and with {86} thebreaking up of winter would descend like a scourge upon the colony. 

The trouble brewing for the settlement was freely discussed among theNor'westers. About the middle of March 1816 Alexander Macdonell sent anote to Duncan Cameron from Fort Qu'Appelle. 'A storm is gathering inthe north, ' declared Macdonell, 'ready to burst on the rascals whodeserve it; little do they know their situation. Last year was but ajoke. The New Nation under their leaders are coming forward to cleartheir native soil of intruders and assassins. ' A few words written atthe same time by Cuthbert Grant show how the plans of the Bois Brûléswere maturing. 'The Half-breeds of Fort des Prairies and English Riverare all to be here in the spring, ' he asserted; 'it is to be hoped weshall come off with flying colours. '

Early in 1816 Governor Semple, who had been at Fort Daer, returned toFort Douglas. Apparently he entertained no wholesome fears of theimpending danger, for, instead of trying to conciliate his opponents, he embittered them by new acts of aggression. In April, for the secondtime, Colin Robertson, acting on the governor's instructions, capturedFort {87} Gibraltar. Again was Duncan Cameron taken prisoner, and thistime he was held. It was decided that he should be carried to Englandfor trial. In charge of Colin Robertson, Cameron was sent by canoe toYork Factory. But no vessel of the Hudson's Bay Company was leavingfor England during the summer of 1816, and the prisoner was detaineduntil the following year. When at length he was brought to trial, itwas found impossible to convict him of any crime, and he wasdischarged. Subsequently Cameron entered a suit against Lord Selkirkfor illegal detention, asking damages, and the court awarded him £3000. 

Shortly after Colin Robertson had departed with his prisoner, GovernorSemple decided to dismantle Fort Gibraltar, and towards the end of Maythirty men were sent to work to tear it down. Its encircling rampartwas borne to the river and formed into a raft. Upon this the salvageof the demolished fort--a great mass of structural material--was drivendown-stream to Fort Douglas and there utilized. 

The tempest which Alexander Macdonell had presaged burst upon thecolony soon after this demolition of Fort Gibraltar. The {88}incidents leading up to an outbreak of hostilities have been narratedby Pierre Pambrun, a French Canadian. In April Pambrun had beencommissioned by Governor Semple to go to the Hudson's Bay fort on theQu'Appelle river. Hard by this was the Nor'westers' trading-post, called Fort Qu'Appelle. Pambrun remarks upon the great number ofhalf-breeds who had gathered at the North-West Company's depot. Manyof them had come from a great distance. Some were from the upperSaskatchewan; others were from Cumberland House, situated near themouth of the same river. Pambrun says that during the first days ofMay he went eastward along with George Sutherland, a factor of theHudson's Bay Company on the Qu'Appelle, and a number of Sutherland'smen. The party journeyed in five boats, and had with them twenty-twobales of furs and six hundred bags of pemmican. On May 12 they wereattacked on their way down the river by an armed force of forty-nineNor'westers, under the leadership of Cuthbert Grant and Peter Pangman. All were made prisoners and conducted back to Fort Qu'Appelle, wherethey were told by Alexander Macdonell that the seizure had been {89}made because of Colin Robertson's descent upon Fort Gibraltar. Afterfive days' imprisonment George Sutherland and the servants of theHudson's Bay Company were released. This did not mean, however, anyapproach of peace. Pierre Pambrun was still held in custody. Beforethe close of May Macdonell caused the furs and provisions which his menhad purloined from Sutherland's party to be placed in boats, and hebegan to move down the Qu'Appelle, taking Pambrun with him. A band ofBois Brûlés on their horses kept pace with the boats. At theconfluence of the Qu'Appelle and the Assiniboine Macdonell made aspeech to a body of Saulteaux, and endeavoured to induce some of themto join his expedition to the Red River. The Hudson's Bay post ofBrandon House, farther along the Assiniboine, was captured by CuthbertGrant, with about twenty-five men under his command, and stripped ofall its stores. Then the combined force of half-breeds, FrenchCanadians, and Indians, in round numbers amounting to one hundred andtwenty men, advanced to Portage la Prairie. They reached this point onor about June 16, and proceeded to make it a stronghold. They arrangedbales of {90} pemmican to form a rude fortification and planted twobrass swivel-guns for defence. They were preparing for war, for theNor'westers had now resolved finally to uproot Lord Selkirk's colonyfrom the banks of the Red River. 

{91}

CHAPTER IX

SEVEN OAKS

In the meantime, far removed from the Red River, other events bearingupon this story were happening. The Earl of Selkirk had had manytroubles, and early in 1815 he was again filled with anxiety by newsreceived in Scotland concerning the imperilled condition of Assiniboia. In consequence of these evil tidings he was led to petition LordBathurst, secretary for War and the Colonies in the administration ofLord Liverpool, and to ask that some protection should be afforded hiscolonists, who were loyal subjects of the crown. Lord Bathurst actedpromptly. He wrote in March to Sir Gordon Drummond, administrator ofthe government of Canada, saying that Lord Selkirk's request should begranted and that action should be taken in Canada to protect thecolony. But Sir Gordon Drummond, after looking into the matter, decided not to grant the protection which {92} Selkirk desired. He hadreasons, which he sent to the British minister. 

By this time the affairs of his colony had come to such a sorry passthat Lord Selkirk felt it necessary to travel to America. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1815, he embarked for New York, accompanied by LadySelkirk and his three children, Dunbar, Isabella, and Katherine. Arriving on November 15, he heard for the first time of the overthrowof his colony through the machinations of Duncan Cameron and AlexanderMacdonell. At once he hastened to Montreal, where he received fromeye-witnesses a more detailed version of the occurrence. Many of thesettlers brought to the east were indignant at the treatment they hadreceived at the hands of the Nor'westers and were prepared to testifyagainst them. In view of this, Lord Selkirk applied to magistrates atYork (Toronto) and Montreal, desiring that affidavits should be takenfrom certain of the settlers with respect to their experiences on theRed River. In this way he hoped to accumulate a mass of evidence whichshould strengthen his plea for military assistance from the Canadiangovernment. Among those whom Selkirk met in Montreal was {93} MilesMacdonell. The former governor of Assiniboia was then awaiting trialon charges brought against him by officers of the North-West Company. He was never tried, however, for the charges were dropped later on. 

In November Lord Selkirk saw Sir Gordon Drummond and urged that help besent to Assiniboia. From this time until the expiration of Drummond'sterm of office (May 1816) a correspondence on this question was kept upbetween the two men. No steps, however, were taken by Drummond toaccede to Selkirk's wishes, nor did he inform Selkirk officially whyhis requests were denied. During the winter news of the restoration ofthe colony was brought to Selkirk by a French Canadian namedLaguimonière, who had travelled two thousand miles on foot with theinformation. On receipt of this news Selkirk became even more urgentin his appeals for armed assistance. 'If, however, your Excellency, 'he wrote to Drummond on April 23, 'persevere in your intention to donothing till you receive further instructions, there is a probabilityalmost amounting to a certainty that another season must be lost beforethe requisite force can be sent up--during another year the settlersmust remain exposed to {94} attack, and there is every reason to expectthat in consequence of this delay many lives may be lost. '

Lord Selkirk wished to send a message of encouragement to his people inthe colony. Laguimonière, the wonderful Canadian wood-runner, wouldcarry it. He wrote a number of letters, telling of his arrival inCanada, giving assurance of his deep concern for the settlement'swelfare, and promising to come to the aid of the colonists as soon asthe rivers were free of ice, with whatever force he could muster. Bearing these letters, the messenger set out on his journey over thewild spaces between Montreal and the Red River. In some way hismission became known to the Nor'westers at Fort William, for on June 3Archibald Norman M'Leod, a partner of the North-West Company, issued anorder that Selkirk's courier should be intercepted. Near Fond du Lac, at the western end of Lake Superior, Laguimonière was waylaid androbbed. The letters which he carried were taken to Fort William, whereseveral of them were found later. 

As we have seen in the last chapter, it was in this same month thatAlexander Macdonell, at Portage la Prairie, was organizing his {95}half-breeds for a raid on Fort Douglas. His brigade, as finally madeup, consisted of about seventy Bois Brûlés, Canadians, and Indians, allwell armed and mounted. As soon as these troopers were ready toadvance, Macdonell surrendered the leadership to Cuthbert Grant, deeming it wise not to take part in the raid himself. The maraudersthen marched out in the direction of the settlement. 

The settlers in the meantime were not wholly oblivious of the dangerthreatening them. There was a general feeling of insecurity in thecolony, and a regular watch had been instituted at Fort Douglas toguard against a surprise attack. Governor Semple, however, did notseem to take a very serious view of the situation. He was about todepart to York Factory on business. But a rough awakening came. OnJune 17 two Cree Indians arrived at Fort Douglas with the alarmingtidings that in two days an attack would be made upon the settlement. [1]

About five o'clock in the afternoon of June 19, a boy who was stationedin the {96} watch-house of the fort cried out that he saw a party ofhalf-breeds approaching. Thereupon Governor Semple hurried to thewatch-house and scanned the plains through a glass. He saw a troop ofhorsemen moving towards the Red River--evidently heading for a pointsome distance to the north of Fort Douglas. 

'We must go out to meet these people, ' said Governor Semple: 'lettwenty men follow me. '

There was a prompt response to the call, and Semple led his volunteersout of the fort and towards the advancing horsemen. He had not gonefar when he met a number of colonists, running towards Fort Douglas andshouting in wild excitement:

'The half-breeds! the half-breeds!'

Governor Semple now sent John Bourke back to Fort Douglas for one ofthe guns, and instructed him to bring up whatever men could be sparedfrom among those garrisoning the fort. The advance party halted towait until these should arrive; but at length Semple grew impatient andordered his men to advance without them. The Nor'westers had concealedthemselves behind a clump of trees. As Semple approached they gallopedout, extended their line into a half-moon {97} formation, and bore downto meet him. They were dressed as Indian warriors and painted inhideous fashion. The force was well equipped with guns, knives, bowsand arrows, and spears. 

A solitary horseman emerged from the hostile squadron and rode towardsGovernor Semple. This was François Boucher, a French-Canadian clerk inthe employ of the North-West Company, son of a tavern-keeper inMontreal. Ostensibly his object was to parley with the governor. Boucher waved his hand, shouting aloud:

'What do you want?'

Semple took his reply from the French Canadian's mouth. 'What do _you_want?' he questioned in plainer English. 

'We want our fort, ' said Boucher. 

'Go to your fort, ' answered Semple. 

'Why did you destroy our fort, you d--d rascal?' exclaimed the FrenchCanadian. 

The two were now at close quarters, and Governor Semple had seized thebridle of Boucher's horse. 

'Scoundrel, do you tell me so?' he said. 

Pritchard says that the governor grasped Boucher's gun, no doubtexpecting an attack upon his person. The French Canadian leapt {98}from his horse, and at this instant a shot rang out from the column ofthe Nor'westers. Lieutenant Holt, a clerk in the colony's service, fell struggling upon the ground. Boucher ran in the direction of hisown party, and soon there was the sound of another musket. This timeGovernor Semple was struck in the thigh. He called at once to his men:

'Do what you can to take care of yourselves. '

The band ignored this behest, and gathered round him to ascertain theextent of his injury. The Nor'westers now began to bring the two endsof their column together, and soon Semple's party was surrounded. Thefact that their foe was now helpless did not keep the Nor'westers frompouring in a destructive fire. Most of Semple's men fell at the firstvolley. The few left standing pulled off their hats and begged formercy. A certain Captain Rogers hastened towards the line of theNor'westers and threw up his hands. He was followed by John Pritchard. One of the Bois Brûlés shot Rogers in the head and another rushed onhim and stabbed him with a knife. Luckily Pritchard was confronted bya French Canadian, named {99} Augustin Lavigne, whom he had formerlyknown and who now protected him from butchery. 

The wounded governor lay stretched upon the ground. Supporting hishead with his hand, he addressed Cuthbert Grant:

'I am not mortally wounded, ' he said, 'and if you could get me conveyedto the fort, I think I should live. '

Grant promised to comply with the request. He left the governor incharge of one of his men and went away, but during his absence anIndian approached and shot Semple to death. 

Meanwhile John Bourke had gone back for a field-piece and forreinforcements. Bourke reached the fort, but after he had placed thesmall cannon in a cart he was permitted by those in the fort to takeonly one man away with him. He and his companion began to drag thecart down the road. Suddenly they were startled by the sound of themusketry fire in the distance which had struck down Semple's party. Fearing lest they might lose the gun, the pair turned back towards thefort. On their way they were met by ten men from Fort Douglas, hurrying to the scene of the conflict. Bourke told his {100} comradeto take the field-piece inside the fort, and himself joined the rescueparty. But they were too late: when they arrived at the scene of thestruggle they could effect nothing. 

'Give up your arms, ' was the command of the Nor'westers. 

The eleven men, seeing that resistance on their part would be useless, took to their heels. The Nor'westers fired; one of the fleeing men waskilled and John Bourke was severely wounded. For the numbers engagedthe carnage was terrible. Of the party which had left Fort Douglaswith Governor Semple there were but six survivors. Michael Heden andDaniel M'Kay had run to the riverside during the _mêlée_. Theysucceeded in getting across in a canoe and arrived at Fort Douglas thesame night. Michael Kilkenny and George Sutherland escaped by swimmingthe river. In addition to John Pritchard, another prisoner, AnthonyMacdonell, had been spared. The total number of the dead wastwenty-three. Among the slain were Rogers, the governor's secretary, Doctor Wilkinson, Alexander M'Lean, the most enterprising settler inthe colony, and Surgeon James White. The Irish colonists sufferedseverely in proportion to their number: they lost {101} seven in all. The Nor'westers had one man killed and one wounded. This sanguinaryencounter, which took place beside the highway leading along the RedRiver to Frog Plain, is known as the massacre of Seven Oaks. 

There was much disappointment among the Nor'westers when they learnedthat Colin Robertson was not in the colony. Cuthbert Grant vowed thatRobertson would have been scalped had he been captured. 'They wouldhave cut his body into small bits, ' said Pritchard, 'and boiled itafterwards for the dogs. ' Pritchard himself was carried as a prisonerto Frog Plain, where the Nor'westers made their encampment. A savagespirit had been aroused. Pritchard found that even yet the lust forblood had not been sated, and that it would be necessary to plead forthe wives and children of the colonists. He remonstrated with CuthbertGrant and urged him not to forget that the women of the settlement wereof his dead father's people. At length the half-breed leader softened, and agreed that Pritchard should act as a mediator. Grant was willingthat the settlers should go in peace, if the public property of thecolony were given up. Pritchard made three trips between Grant'sheadquarters and the fort {102} before an agreement was reached. 'Onmy arrival at the fort, ' he said, 'what a scene of distress presenteditself! The widows, children and relations of the slain, in horrors ofdespair, were lamenting the dead, [2] and were trembling for the safetyof the survivors. '

On the morning of June 20 Cuthbert Grant himself, with over a score ofhis followers, went to Fort Douglas. It was then agreed that thesettlers should abandon their homes and that the fort should beevacuated. An inventory was made of the goods of the colony, and theterms of surrender were signed by Cuthbert Grant as a clerk andrepresentative of the North-West Company. Contrary to Grant'spromises, the private effects of the colonists were overhauled andlooted. Michael Heden records that even his clothes and blankets werestolen. 

On the evening of the same day a messenger presented himself at Portagela Prairie bringing Alexander Macdonell an account of the massacre. Pierre Pambrun declares that {103} Macdonell and others who were withhim became hilarious with joy. 'Good news, ' shouted Macdonell inFrench, as he conveyed the tidings to his associates. 

Again disaster had overtaken Lord Selkirk's plans. The seconddesolation of his colony and expulsion of his colonists occurred onJune 22, 1816. The evicted people set out in canoes down the RedRiver. Michael Heden and John Bourke both declared that the number ofthose who embarked was approximately two hundred. This total wouldappear, however, to be much too large, unless additions had been madeto the colony of which we have no documentary evidence. SomeFrench-Canadian families had settled at 'the Forks, ' it is true, butthese were not numerous enough to bring the population of thesettlement to two hundred persons, leaving uncounted the number who hadlately perished. 

On June 24, as the exiles were proceeding down the river, they met nineor ten canoes and one bateau. In these were almost a hundred armedNor'westers under the command of Archibald Norman M'Leod of FortWilliam. M'Leod's purpose was apparently to assist in theextermination of the colony. His first question of the partytravelling {104} northward was 'whether that rascal and scoundrelRobertson was in the boats. ' When he was told of the calamity whichhad befallen Governor Semple and his band, he ordered all the exilesashore. By virtue of his office as a magistrate for the IndianTerritories he wished to examine them. [3]

He searched the baggage belonging to the evicted settlers andscrutinized their books and papers. 'Those who play at bowls, 'remarked 'Justice' M'Leod, 'must expect to meet with rubbers. 'Pritchard was told to write his version of the recent transactions at'the Forks, ' and did so; but his account did not please M'Leod. 'Youhave drawn up a pretty paper, ' he grumbled; 'you had better take careof yourself, or you will get into a scrape. '

Michael Heden also was examined as to his knowledge of the matter. When M'Leod heard the answers of Heden he was even more wrathful. 

'They are all lies, ' he declared with emphasis. 

{105}

The result of M'Leod's judicial procedure was that five of the partywere detained and placed under arrest. The others were allowed toproceed on their way. John Bourke was charged with felony, and MichaelHeden and Patrick Corcoran were served with subpoenas to give evidencefor the crown against him, on September 1, at Montreal. John Pritchardand Daniel M'Kay were among the five detained, presumably as crownwitnesses. After some delay--M'Leod had to visit Fort Douglas and theneighbourhood--the prisoners were sent on the long journey to FortWilliam on Lake Superior. Bourke was at once stripped of his valuablesand placed in irons, regardless of the fact that his wound was causinghim intense suffering. During the whole of the journey he wascompelled to lie manacled on a pile of baggage in one of the canoes. 

Fort Douglas on the Red River was still standing, but the character ofits occupants had changed radically. At first Cuthbert Grant tookcommand, but he soon made way for Alexander Macdonell, who reached FortDouglas shortly after the affair at Seven Oaks. When Archibald NormanM'Leod appeared, he was the senior officer in authority, and he {106}took up his residence in the apartments of the late Governor Semple. One day M'Leod and some followers rode over to an encampment of Creesand Saulteaux near the ruins of Fort Gibraltar. Here M'Leod collectedand harangued the Indians. He upbraided them for their failure tointerfere when Duncan Cameron had been forcibly removed to Hudson Bay, and he spoke harshly of their sympathy for the colonists when theNor'westers had found it necessary to drive them away. Peguis, chiefof the Saulteaux and the leading figure in the Indian camp, listenedattentively, but remained stolidly taciturn. On the evening of thesame day the Nor'westers returned to Fort Douglas and indulged in someof their wildest revelries. The Bois Brûlés stripped themselves nakedand celebrated their recent triumph in a wild and savage orgy, whiletheir more staid companions looked on with approval. 

According to the testimony of Augustin Lavigne, M'Leod during his stayat Fort Douglas publicly made the following promise to an assembly ofBois Brûlés: 'My kinsmen, my comrades, who have helped us in the timeof need; I have brought clothing for you I expected to have foundabout forty of you {107} here with Mr Macdonell, but there are more ofyou. I have forty suits of clothing. Those who are most in need ofthem may have these, and on the arrival of the canoes in autumn, therest of you shall be clothed likewise. '

[1] For the details of the tragedy which now occurred we are chieflyindebted to the accounts of John Pritchard, a former Nor'wester, whohad settled with his family at the Red River, of Michael Heden, ablacksmith connected with the settlement, and of John Bourke, thecolony store-keeper. 

[2] Some of the dead were afterwards taken from the field of Seven Oaksto Fort Douglas by Cree and Saulteaux Indians. These received decentburial, but the others, lying uninterred as they had fallen, became aprey to the wild beasts of the prairie. 

[3] An act of the Imperial parliament of 1803 had transferredjurisdiction in the case of offences committed in the IndianTerritories from Great Britain to Canada, and had allowed the Canadianauthorities to appoint magistrates for these rather undefined regions. M'Leod was one of these magistrates. 

{108}

CHAPTER X

LORD SELKIRK'S JOURNEY

We left Lord Selkirk at Montreal. Several days before the massacre ofSeven Oaks he had completed the preparations for his journey to thewest, and was hastening forward in the hope of arriving at the RedRiver in time to save his colony. He had secured his own appointmentas justice of the peace for Upper Canada and the Indian Territories, and also the promise of a bodyguard of one non-commissioned officer andsix men for his personal defence. This much he had obtained from theCanadian authorities. They remained unwilling, however, to send armedaid to Assiniboia. This want Lord Selkirk was himself supplying, forhe was bringing with him a fresh contingent of settlers--of a classhitherto unknown among his colonists. These new settlers were trainedsoldiers, disciplined and tried in active service on many a battlefield. 

{109}

The close of the War of 1812 by the Treaty of Ghent, signed on December24, 1814, had left in Canada several battalions of regular soldiersunder colours. In the early summer of 1816 orders were issued that theDe Meuron regiment, in barracks at Montreal, and the Wattevilleregiment, stationed at Kingston, should be honourably disbanded. Theseregiments were composed of Swiss, Italian, and other mercenaries whohad fought for Great Britain in her struggle with Napoleon. In 1809the De Meuron regiment had been sent from Gibraltar to the island ofMalta. In 1813 it had been transported to Canada with the reputationof being 'as fine and well-appointed a regiment as any in his Majesty'sservice. ' It consisted of more than a thousand men, with seventy-fiveofficers. The Watteville regiment, a force equally large, had landedat Quebec on June 10, 1813. Its ensign indicated that it had been inthe campaigns waged against France in the Spanish peninsula and hadserved under Sir John Stuart in southern Italy. 

About two hundred of the disbanded De Meurons desired to remain inCanada, and Selkirk at once sought to interest them in his westernenterprise. Four officers--Captains {110} Matthey and D'Orsonnens andLieutenants Graffenreid and Fauché--and about eighty of the rank andfile were willing to enlist. It was agreed that they should receiveallotments of land in Assiniboia on the terms granted to the settlerswho had formerly gone from Scotland and Ireland. They were to besupplied with the necessary agricultural implements, and each was to begiven a musket for hunting or for defence. Their wages were to beeight dollars a month for manning the boats which should take them totheir destination. In case the settlement should not be to theirliking, Lord Selkirk pledged himself to transport them to Europe freeof cost, by way of either Montreal or Hudson Bay. 

On June 4 the contingent of men and officers began their journey fromMontreal up the St Lawrence. At Kingston a halt was made while CaptainMatthey, acting for the Earl of Selkirk, enlisted twenty more veteransof the Watteville regiment. It is stated that an officer and severalprivates from another disbanded regiment, the Glengarry Fencibles, werealso engaged as settlers, but it is not clear at what point they joinedthe party. When all was ready for the long journey, the combinedforces skirted the northern shore {111} of Lake Ontario from Kingston, until they reached York, the capital of Upper Canada. Thence theirroute lay to Georgian Bay by way of Lake Simcoe and the Severn. 

Lord Selkirk left Montreal on June 16, following in the wake of hisnew-won colonists, and overtook them at the entrance into Georgian Bay. Apparently he went over the same route, for he crossed Lake Simcoe. Information is lacking as to his companions. Miles Macdonell could nothave been with him, for Macdonell had been sent forward earlier with asmall body of men in light canoes that he might reach the settlement inadvance of Lord Selkirk. One hundred and twenty Canadian voyageurs hadbeen recently engaged to go to Assiniboia in the service of theHudson's Bay Company. Possibly these canoemen accompanied Selkirk onthe first stages of his journey. 

On Drummond Island, at the head of Lake Huron, was situated the mostwesterly military station maintained by the government of Upper Canada. Here Lord Selkirk halted and allowed his company to go on in advanceinto the straits of St Mary. At the military post at Drummond Islandhe was furnished with the promised escort of six men under a {112}non-commissioned officer of the 37th regiment. On July 22 he waspresent at a council held on the island by the Indian authoritiesstationed there. One of the principal figures at this council wasKatawabetay, chief of the Chippewas, from Sand Lake. On beingquestioned, Katawabetay told of his refusal the year before to join theNor'westers in an attack on the Red River Colony; he also declared thatan attempt had been made during the previous spring by a trader namedGrant to have some of his young Chippewas waylay Lord Selkirk'smessenger, Laguimonière, near Fond du Lac. Grant had offeredKatawabetay two kegs of rum and some tobacco, but the bribe wasrefused. The Ottawa Indians, not the Chippewas, had waylaid themessenger. This trader Grant had told Katawabetay that he was going tothe Red River 'to fight the settlers. '[1]

Lord Selkirk put a question to Katawabetay. 

'Are the Indians about the Red River, or that part of the country youcome from, ' asked the earl through an interpreter, 'pleased {113} ordispleased at the people settling at the Red River?'

'At the commencement of the settlement at Red River, some of theIndians did not like it, ' answered the chief, 'but at present they areall glad of its being settled. '

Meanwhile the party which had gone on in advance had entered the StMary's river, connecting Lakes Huron and Superior, had crossed thehalf-mile portage of the Sault Rapids, and had pitched their camp somedistance farther up-stream. Before the end of July Lord Selkirk wasagain among them. He gave the order to advance, and the boats werelaunched. But, only a few miles out from Sault Ste Marie, theresuddenly appeared two canoes, in one of which was Miles Macdonell. Forthe first time Lord Selkirk now learned of the disaster which hadbefallen the colony in the month of June. Macdonell had gone as far asthe mouth of the Winnipeg before he learned the news. Now he was ableto tell Lord Selkirk of the massacre of Semple and his men, of theeviction of the settlers, and of the forcible detention of those sentby M'Leod to the Nor'westers' trading-post at Fort William. 

Selkirk had entertained the hope of averting a calamity at thesettlement by bringing {114} in enough retired soldiers to preserveorder. But this hope was now utterly blasted. He might, however, usethe resources of the law against the traders at Fort William, and thishe decided to attempt. He was, however, in a peculiar position. Hehad, it is true, been created a justice of the peace, but it would seemhardly proper for him to try lawbreakers who were attacking his ownpersonal interests. Accordingly, before finally setting out for FortWilliam, he begged Magistrate John Askin, of Drummond Island, andMagistrate Ermatinger, of Sault Ste Marie, to accompany him. Butneither of these men could leave his duties. When Selkirk thus failedto secure disinterested judges, he determined to act under theauthority with which he had been vested. In a letter, dated July 29, to Sir John Sherbrooke, the recently appointed governor of Canada, hereferred with some uneasiness to the position in which he foundhimself. 'I am therefore reduced to the alternative of acting alone, 'he wrote, 'or of allowing an audacious crime to pass unpunished. Inthese circumstances, I cannot doubt that it is my duty to act, though Iam not without apprehension that the law may be openly resisted by aset of men who {115} have been accustomed to consider force as the onlycriterion of right. '

Selkirk advanced to Fort William. There is no record of his journeyacross the deep sounds and along the rock-girt shores of Lake Superior. His contingent was divided into two sections, possibly as soon as itemerged from the St Mary's river and entered Whitefish Bay. Selkirkhimself sped forward with the less cumbersome craft, while thesoldier-settlers advanced more leisurely in their bateaux. Early inAugust the vanguard came within sight of the islands that bar theapproach to Thunder Bay. Then, as their canoes slipped through thedark waters, they were soon abeam of that majestic headland, ThunderCape, 'the agèd Cape of Storms. ' Inside the bay they saw that long, low island known as the Sleeping Giant. A portion of the voyageurs, led by a Canadian named Chatelain, disembarked upon an island aboutseven miles from Fort William. Selkirk, with the rest of the advanceparty, went on. Skirting the settlement at Fort William, they ascendedthe river Kaministikwia for about half a mile, and on the opposite bankfrom the fort, at a spot since known as Point De Meuron, they erectedtheir temporary habitations. 

[1] The trader was probably Charles Grant, a clerk in the North-WestCompany's fort at Fond du Lac, and not Cuthbert Grant, the leader atSeven Oaks. 

{116}

CHAPTER XI

FORT WILLIAM

Fort William was the Mecca of the traders and voyageurs who served theNorth-West Company. It was the divisional point and the warehousingcentre of sixty trading-posts. No less than five thousand persons wereengaged in the trade which centred at Fort William. During the seasonfrom May to September the traffic carried on at the fort was of themost active character. A flotilla of boats and canoes would arrivefrom Lachine with multifarious articles of commerce for inland barter. These boats would then set out on their homeward journey laden withpeltry gathered from far and near. Every season two or three of theprincipal partners of the company arrived at the fort from Montreal. They were 'hyperborean nabobs, ' who travelled with whatever luxurywealth could afford them on the express service by lake and stream. 

[Illustration: Fort William. From an old print in the John RossRobertson Collection, Toronto Public Library. ]

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At this time Fort William had the proportions of a good-sized village. Its structures were of wood and were of all shapes and sizes. Onecommodious building near the centre of the fort, fronted by a wideverandah, immediately caught the eye of the visitor. It contained acouncil-hall, the mercantile parliament-chamber of the Nor'westers. Under the same roof was a great banqueting-hall, in which two hundredpersons could be seated. In this hall were wont to gather the notablesof the North-West Company, and any guests who were fortunate enough togain admission. Here, in the heart of the wilderness, there was nostint of food when the long tables were spread. Chefs brought fromMontreal prepared savoury viands; the brimming bowl was emptied and toooften replenished; and the songs of this deep-throated race ofmerchantmen pealed to the rafters until revelry almost ended in riot. At one end of the room stood the bust of Simon M'Tavish, placed so thathis gaze seemed to rest upon the proprietors and servants of thecompany he had called into being. About the walls hung numerousportraits--one of the reigning monarch, George III, another of thePrince Regent, a third of Admiral Lord {118} Nelson. Here, too, was apainting of the famous battle of the Nile, and a wonderful map of thefur-bearing country, the work of the intrepid explorer David Thompson. 

[Illustration: Simon M'Tavish, Founder of the North-West Company. Froma water-colour drawing in M'Gill University Library. ]

The unexpected appearance of Lord Selkirk in the vicinity of FortWilliam found the Nor'westers off their guard and created a greatsensation. It was a matter of common knowledge among the Nor'westersthat Selkirk was on his way to the Red River with a squad of armed men, but they understood that he would follow the route leading past theirfort at Fond du Lac. There is evidence to show that a plot to compassSelkirk's death or seizure had been mooted some weeks before. JohnBourke, on the road to Fort William as a prisoner, had overheard aconversation between Alexander Macdonell and several other partners ofthe North-West Company. This conversation had occurred at night, notfar from Rainy Lake. According to the story, Bourke was lying on theground, seemingly asleep, when the partners, standing by a camp-fire, fell to discussing their recent coup at 'the Forks. ' Their talkdrifted to the subject of Lord Selkirk's proposed visit to Assiniboia, and Macdonell assured the others {119} that the North-West Company hadnothing to fear from Selkirk, and that if extreme measures werenecessary Selkirk should be quietly assassinated. 'The half-breeds, 'he declared, 'will take him while he is asleep, early in the morning. 'Macdonell went so far as to mention the name of a Bois Brûlé who wouldbe willing to bring Lord Selkirk down with his musket, if necessary. 

Bourke told to his fellow-prisoners, Patrick Corcoran and MichaelHeden, what he had overheard. It thus happened that when Heden nowlearned that the founder of Assiniboia was actually camping on theKaministikwia, he became alarmed for his safety. Though a prisoner, heseems to have had some liberty of movement. At any rate, he was ableto slip off alone and to launch a small boat. Once afloat, he rowed tothe island where Chatelain and his voyageurs had halted on the way toFort William. The water was boisterous, and Heden had great difficultyin piloting his craft. He gained the island, however, and toldChatelain of his fear that Lord Selkirk might come to harm. Hedenreturned to the fort, and was there taken to task and roughly handledfor his temerity in going to see one of Lord Selkirk's servants. 

{120}

On August 12 the second section of the contingent arrived with theexperienced campaigners. From the moment they raised their tents LordSelkirk began to show a bold front against the Nor'westers. CaptainD'Orsonnens was entrusted on the day of his arrival with a letter fromSelkirk to William M'Gillivray, the most prominent partner at FortWilliam. In this M'Gillivray was asked his reason for holding incustody various persons whose names were given, and was requested togrant their immediate release. M'Gillivray was surprisinglyconciliatory. He permitted several of the persons named in the letterto proceed at once to Selkirk's camp, and assured Lord Selkirk thatthey had never been prisoners. John Bourke and Michael Heden he stillretained, because their presence was demanded in the courts at Montreal. 

Acting as a justice of the peace, Selkirk now held a court in which heheard evidence from those whom M'Gillivray had surrendered. Before theday was over he had secured sufficient information, as he thought, tojustify legal action against certain of the partners at Fort William. He decided to arrest William M'Gillivray first, and sent two men asconstables with a warrant against {121} M'Gillivray. On the afternoonof August 13 these officers went down the river to the fort. Alongwith them went a guard of nine men fully armed. While the guardremained posted without, the constables entered the fort. They foundM'Gillivray in his room writing a letter. He read the warrant whichthey thrust into his hand, and then without comment said that he wasprepared to go with them. His only desire was that two partners, Kenneth M'Kenzie and Dr John M'Loughlin, might accompany him to furnishbail. The constables acceded to this request, and the threeNor'westers got into a canoe and were paddled to Point De Meuron. 

The officers conducted their prisoners to the Earl of Selkirk's tent. When Selkirk learned that the two other partners of the North-WestCompany were also in his power, he resolved upon an imprudent act, onewhich can scarcely be defended. Not only did he refuse his prisonerbail; he framed indictments against M'Kenzie and M'Loughlin and orderedthe constables to take them in charge. A short examination of WilliamM'Gillivray convinced Lord Selkirk that he would not be going beyondhis powers were he to apprehend the remaining partners who {122} wereat Fort William. To accomplish this he drew up the necessary papers, and then sent the same constables to make the arrests. Twenty-five DeMeuron soldiers under Captain D'Orsonnens and Lieutenant Fauché weredetailed as an escort. 

[Illustration: William M'Gillivray, a partner in the North-WestCompany. From a photograph in the M'Gill University Library. ]

When the constables strode up the river bank to the fort to performtheir official duty, they found a great throng of Canadians, half-breeds, and Indians gathered about the entrance. D'Orsonnens andthe bulk of the escort remained behind on the river within easy call. Near the gateway the officers saw two of the partners whom they wereinstructed to apprehend, and immediately served them with warrants. Athird partner, John M'Donald, made a sturdy show of resistance. Hedeclaimed against the validity of the warrant, and protested that nostranger dare enter the fort until William M'Gillivray was set free. Ascramble followed. Some of the Nor'westers tried to close the gate, while the constables struggled to make their way inside. When one ofthe constables shouted lustily for aid, the bugle blew at the boats. This was by prearrangement the signal to Captain Matthey at Point DeMeuron that the constables had met with opposition. The signal, {123}however, proved unnecessary. In spite of the angry crowd at theentrance, Selkirk's men pushed open the gate of the fort. They seizedM'Donald, who struggled fiercely, and bore him away towards the boats. The soldiers marched up from the boats, and, in a moment, Fort Williamwas in their possession. Before further help arrived, in response tothe bugle-call, the struggle was over. Six partners of the North-WestCompany were taken to the boats and carried to Lord Selkirk'sencampment. These were John M'Donald, Daniel M'Kenzie, Allan M'Donald, Hugh M'Gillis, Alexander M'Kenzie, and Simon Fraser, the last namedbeing the noted explorer. Captain D'Orsonnens stationed a guard withinthe fort, and himself remained behind to search the papers of those whohad been arrested. 

By the time Lord Selkirk had finished the examination of his freshgroup of prisoners the hour was late. He did not wish to keep any ofthe partners in confinement, and so he arranged that they should goback to their quarters at the fort for the night. The prisonerspromised that they would behave in seemly fashion, and do nothing of ahostile nature. There is evidence to show that before {124} morningmany papers were burned in the mess-room kitchen at the fort. Word wasalso brought to Lord Selkirk that a quantity of firearms and ammunitionhad been removed from Fort William during the night. In consequence ofthis information he issued another warrant, authorizing a 'search forarms. ' When the search was made fifty or more guns and fowling-pieceswere found hidden among some hay in a barn. Eight barrels of gunpowderwere also found lying in a swampy place not far from the fort, and themanner in which the grass was trampled down indicated that the barrelshad been deposited there very recently. When Selkirk learned of thisattempt to remove arms and ammunition, he felt justified in adoptingstringent measures. He ordered what was practically an occupation ofFort William. Most of the Canadians, Bois Brûlés, and Indians in theservice of the North-West Company were commanded to leave the fort andto cross to the other side of the river. Their canoes wereconfiscated. The nine partners were held as prisoners and closelywatched. Selkirk's force abandoned Point De Meuron and erected theirtents on ground near Fort William. The hearing was continued, and it{125} was finally decided that the accused should be committed fortrial at York and conducted thither under a strong guard. 

Selkirk had not exceeded his authority as a justice of the peace inholding the investigations and in sending the partners for trial to thejudicial headquarters of the province. But he had also seized theproperty of the North-West Company and driven its servants from theirfort, and this was straining his legal powers. The task of taking thenine partners to York was entrusted to Lieutenant Fauché. Three canoeswere provisioned for the journey. Indians regularly employed by theNorth-West Company were engaged as canoemen and guides. On August 18the party set out from Fort William. At first the journey wenttranquilly enough. On the eighth day, about one o'clock in theafternoon, the party drew up their canoes on Isle au Parisien, inWhitefish Bay, to take dinner. A heavy westerly breeze sprang up, butthey were on the leeward side of the island and did not notice its fullstrength. Lieutenant Fauché had misgivings, however, and before hewould resume the journey he consulted his prisoner, WilliamM'Gillivray, who was an expert canoeman. M'Gillivray was confidentthat {126} the 'traverse' to Sault Ste Marie could be made in safety ifthe Indian guides exercised great caution. The guides, on the otherhand, objected to leaving the island. Their advice was not heeded, andthe three canoes put out. Very soon they were running before a squalland shipping water. The first canoe turned its prow in the directionof Isle aux Erables, lying to the left, and the other two followed thisexample. Near Isle aux Erables there were some shoals destined now tocause tragic disaster. In attempting to pass these shoals the leadingcanoe was capsized. The others, so heavily laden that they could donothing to rescue their companions, paddled hurriedly to shore, unloaded part of their cargoes, and then hastened to the spot wheretheir comrades were struggling in the stormy waters. But it was toolate. In spite of the most heroic efforts nine of the twenty-onepersons belonging to the wrecked canoe were drowned. Kenneth M'Kenzie, of the North-West Company, was one of those who perished; six of theothers were Indians; the remaining two were discharged soldiers. Another canoe was procured at Sault Ste Marie. The party continued itsjourney and reached York on September 3. Fauché at once sought the{127} attorney-general, in order to take proper legal steps, but foundthat he was absent. The prisoners meanwhile applied for a writ ofhabeas corpus, and Fauché was instructed to take them to Montreal. This was to take them to the home of the Nor'westers, where they wouldbe supported by powerful influences. On September 10, when thepartners arrived in Montreal, they were at once admitted to bail. 

Meanwhile, Lord Selkirk continued to exercise full sway over FortWilliam and its environs. He had himself no misgivings whatever withregard to the legality of his treatment of the Nor'westers. In hisview he had taken possession of a place which had served, to quote hisown words, 'the last of any in the British dominions, as an asylum forbanditti and murderers, and the receptacle for their plunder. ' Duringthe ensuing winter he sent out expeditions to capture the postsbelonging to the North-West Company at Michipicoten, Rainy Lake, andFond du Lac. In March he commissioned a part of his followers toadvance into the territory of Assiniboia to restore order. Theveterans whom he sent artfully arranged their journey so that theyshould approach 'the Forks' from {128} the south. The Nor'westers inFort Douglas were wholly unaware that a foe was advancing against them. On a blustering night, amid storm and darkness, Selkirk's men crept upto the walls, carrying ladders. In a trice they had scaled theramparts, and the fort was in their possession. 

On the first day of May 1817 Lord Selkirk himself went forward to thewest from Fort William, taking with him the bodyguard which he hadprocured at Drummond Island. He followed the fur traders' route up theKaministikwia to Dog Lake, thence, by way of the waters which connectwith Rainy Lake, on to the Lake of the Woods, and down the rushingWinnipeg. After a journey of seven weeks he emerged from theforest-clad wilderness and saw for the first time the little row offarms which the toil of his long-suffering colonists had brought intobeing on the open plains. 

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CHAPTER XII

THE PIPE OF PEACE

'The parish shall be Kildonan. '

As Lord Selkirk spoke, he was standing in what is to-day the northernpart of the city of Winnipeg. A large gathering of settlers listenedto his words. The refugees of the year before, who were encamped onthe Jack river, had returned to their homes, and now, in instituting aparish for them and creating the first local division in Assiniboia, Lord Selkirk was giving it a name reminiscent of the vales ofSutherlandshire. 'Here you shall build your church, ' continued hislordship. The Earl of Selkirk's religion was deep-seated, and he wasresolved to make adequate provision for public worship. 'And thatlot, ' he said, indicating a piece of ground across a rivulet known asParsonage Creek, 'is for a school. ' For his time he held what wasadvanced radical doctrine in regard to education, for he believed thatthere should be a common school in every parish. 

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Selkirk's genial presence and his magnanimity of character quicklybanished any prejudices which the colonists had formed against him. Inview of the hardships they had endured, he divided among them, free ofall dues, some additional land. To the discharged soldiers he gaveland on both sides of the river. They were to live not far removedfrom Fort Douglas, in order that they might give speedy aid in case oftrouble. The settlers were enjoined to open roads, construct bridges, and build flour-mills at convenient places. 

Meanwhile, the disturbances in the fur country were being considered inthe motherland. When news of the Seven Oaks affair and of other actsof violence reached Great Britain, Lord Bathurst thought that the homegovernment should take action. He sent an official note to Sir JohnSherbrooke, the governor of Canada, instructing him to deal with thesituation. Sherbrooke was to see that the forts, buildings, andproperty involved in the unhappy conflict should be restored to theirrightful owners, and that illegal restrictions on trade should beremoved. When Sherbrooke received this dispatch, in February 1817, heselected two military {131} officers, Lieutenant-Colonel Coltman andMajor Fletcher, to go to the Indian Territories in order to arbitrateupon the questions causing dissension. The two commissioners leftMontreal in May, escorted by forty men of the 37th regiment. FromSault Ste Marie, Coltman journeyed on ahead, and arrived at 'the Forks'on July 5. In Montreal he had formed the opinion that Lord Selkirk wasa domineering autocrat. Now, however, he concluded after inquiry thatSelkirk was neither irrational nor self-seeking, and advised that theaccusations against him should not be brought into the courts. At thesame time he bound Selkirk under bail of £10, 000 to appear in Canadafor trial. When Coltman returned to Lower Canada in the autumn of1817, Sherbrooke was able to write the Colonial Office that 'a degreeof tranquility' had been restored to the Indian Territories. 

While in the west Lord Selkirk had gained the respect of the Indians, and in token of their admiration they gave him the unusual name of the'Silver Chief, ' Selkirk was anxious to extinguish the ancient titlewhich the Indians had to the lands of Assiniboia, in order to preventfuture disputes. To effect this he brought together at Fort {132}Douglas a body of chiefs who represented the Cree and Saulteauxnations. The Indian chiefs made eloquent speeches. They said thatthey were willing to surrender their claim to a strip on either side ofthe Red River up-stream from its mouth as far as the Red Lake river(now Grand Forks, North Dakota), and on either side of the Assiniboineas far as its junction with the Muskrat. Selkirk's desire was toobtain as much on each bank of these streams for the length agreed uponas could be seen under a horse's belly towards the horizon, orapproximately two miles, and the Indians agreed. At three places--atFort Douglas, Fort Daer, and the confluence of the Red and Red Lakerivers--Selkirk wished to secure about six miles on each side of theRed River, and to this the chiefs agreed. In the end, on July 18, 1817, Selkirk concluded a treaty, after distributing presents. It wasthe first treaty made by a subject of Great Britain with the tribes ofRupert's Land. In signing it the several chiefs drew odd pictures ofanimals on a rough map of the territory in question. These animalswere their respective totems and were placed opposite the regions overwhich they claimed authority. It was stipulated {133} that one hundredpounds of good tobacco should be given annually to each nation. 

Having finished his work, Lord Selkirk bade the colony adieu andjourneyed southward. He made his way through the unorganizedterritories which had belonged to the United States since the LouisianaPurchase of 1803, and at length reached the town of St Louis on theMississippi. Thence he proceeded to the New England States, and by wayof Albany reached the province of Upper Canada. Here he found that theagents of the North-West Company had been busy with plans to attack himin the courts. There were four charges against him, and he was orderedto appear at Sandwich, a judicial centre on the Detroit. Theaccusations related to his procedure at Fort William. Selkirktravelled to Sandwich. One of the charges was quickly dismissed. Theother three were held over, pending the arrival of witnesses, and hewas released on bail to the amount of £350. 

In May 1818 Colin Robertson and several others were charged at Montrealwith the wilful destruction of Fort Gibraltar, but the jury would notconvict the accused upon the evidence presented. In September, at the{134} judicial sessions at Sandwich, Lord Selkirk was again faced withcharges. A legal celebrity of the day, Chief Justice Dummer Powell, presided. The grand jury complained that John Beverley Robinson, theattorney-general of the province, was interfering with theirdeliberations, and they refused to make a presentment. Chief JusticePowell waited two days for their answer, and as it was not forthcominghe adjourned the case. The actions were afterwards taken to York andwere tried there. For some reason the leaders of the political factionknown in the annals of Upper Canada as the Family Compact were notfriendly to Lord Selkirk; the Rev. John Strachan, the father-confessorof this group of politicians, was an open opponent. As a result of thetrials Selkirk was mulcted in damages to the extent of £2000. 

The courts of Lower Canada alone were empowered to deal with offencesin the Indian Territories. The governor-general of Canada could, however, transfer the trial of such cases to Upper Canada, if he sawfit. This had been done in the case of the charges against Selkirk, and Sir John Sherbrooke, after consulting with the home authorities, decided to refer Selkirk's charges against the Nor'westers, in {135}connection with the events of 1815 and 1816 on the Red River, to thecourt of the King's Bench at its autumn sitting in York. Beginning inOctober 1818, there were successive trials of persons accused by LordSelkirk of various crimes. The cases were heard by Chief JusticePowell, assisted by Judges Boulton and Campbell. The evidence inregard to the massacre at Seven Oaks was full of interest. A passagefrom the speech of one of the counsel for the defence shows the ideasthen current in Canada as to the value of the prairie country. Sherwood, one of the counsel, emphatically declared that Robert Semplewas not a governor; he was an emperor. 'Yes, gentlemen, ' reiteratedSherwood, his voice rising, 'I repeat, an emperor--a bashaw in thatland of milk and honey, where nothing, not even a blade of corn, willripen. ' The result of the trials was disheartening to Selkirk. Of thevarious prisoners who were accused not one was found guilty. 

Lord Selkirk did not attend the trials of the Nor'westers at York, andseems to have returned to Britain with his wife and children before theend of the year 1818. He was ill and in a most melancholy state ofmind. {136} Unquestionably, he had not secured a full measure ofjustice in the courts of Canada. A man strong in health might haveborne his misfortunes more lightly. As it was, Selkirk let his wrongsprey upon his spirit. On March 19, 1819, he addressed a letter to LordLiverpool, asking that the Privy Council should intervene in order tocorrect the erroneous findings of the Canadian courts. Sir JamesMontgomery, Selkirk's brother-in-law, moved in the House of Commons, onJune 24, that all official correspondence touching Selkirk's affairsshould be produced. The result was the publication of a largeblue-book. An effort was made to induce Sir Walter Scott to use hisliterary talents on his friend's behalf. But at the time Scott wasprostrate with illness and unable to help the friend of his youth. 

Meanwhile, Lord Selkirk's attachment for his colony on the Red Riverhad not undergone any change. One of the last acts of his life was toseek settlers in Switzerland, and a considerable number of Swissfamilies were persuaded to migrate to Assiniboia. But the heads ofthese families were not fitted for pioneer life on the prairie. Forthe most part they were poor musicians, pastry-cooks, {137}clock-makers, and the like, who knew nothing of husbandry. Their chiefcontribution to the colony was a number of buxom, red-cheekeddaughters, whose arrival in 1821 created a joyful commotion among themilitary bachelors at the settlement. The fair newcomers were quicklywooed and won by the men who had served in Napoleon's wars, andnumerous marriages followed. 

Selkirk's continued ill-health caused him to seek the temperate climateof the south of France, and there he died on April 8, 1820, at Pau, inthe foothills of the Pyrenees. His body was taken to Orthez, a smalltown some twenty-five miles away, and buried there in the Protestantcemetery. The length of two countries separates Lord Selkirk's placeof burial from his place of birth. He has a monument in Scotland and amonument in France, but his most enduring monument is the greatCanadian West of which he was the true founder. His only son, DunbarJames Douglas, inherited the title, and when he died in 1885 the lineof Selkirk became extinct. Long before this the Selkirk family hadbroken the tie with the Canadian West. In 1836 their rights in thecountry of Assiniboia, in so far as it lay in British territory, {138}were purchased by the Hudson's Bay Company for the sum of £84, 000. 

The character of the fifth Earl of Selkirk has been alike lauded andvilified. Shortly after his death the _Gentleman's Magazine_ commendedhis benefactions to the poor and his kindness as a landlord. 'To thecounsels of an enlightened philosophy and an immovable firmness ofpurpose, ' declared the writer, 'he added the most complete habits ofbusiness and a perfect knowledge of affairs. ' Sir Walter Scott wroteof Selkirk with abundant fervour. 'I never knew in my life, ' said theWizard of the North, 'a man of a more generous and disinteresteddisposition, or one whose talents and perseverance were betterqualified to bring great and national schemes to conclusion. ' Historyhas proved that Lord Selkirk was a man of dreams; it is false to say, however, that his were fruitless visions. Time has fully justified hiscolonizing activity in relation to settlement on the Red River. He wasfirmly convinced of what few in his day believed--that the soil of theprairie was fruitful and would give bread to the sower. His worstfault was his partisanship. In his eyes the Hudson's Bay Company wasendowed with all the virtues; and he never properly {139} analysed themotives or recognized the achievements of its great rival. Had he butordered his representatives in Assiniboia to meet the Nor'westershalf-way, distress and hardship might have been lessened, and violencemight very probably have been entirely avoided. 

The presence of Lord Selkirk on the Red River had led to renewed energyon the part of the colonists. They began to till the land, and in 1818the grain and vegetable crops promised an abundant yield. In July, however, when the time of harvest was approaching, the settlersexperienced a calamity that brought poverty for the present and despairfor the future. The sky was suddenly darkened by a great cloud oflocusts, which had come from their breeding-places in the farsouth-west. During a single night, 'crops, gardens, and every greenherb in the settlement had perished, with the exception of a few earsof barley gleaned in the women's aprons. ' In the following year theplague reappeared; the insects came again, covering the ground sothickly that they 'might be shovelled with a spade. ' The stock ofseed-grain was now almost exhausted, and the colonists resolved to sendan expedition to the Mississippi for a fresh supply. Two hundred {140}and fifty bushels of grain were secured at Lord Selkirk's expense, andbrought back on flatboats to the colony. Never since that time hasthere been a serious lack of seed on the Red River. 

The year 1821 brings us to a milestone in the history of the CanadianWest, and at this point our story terminates. After Lord Selkirk'sdeath the two great fur-trading companies realized the folly ofcontinuing their disastrous rivalry, and made preparations to burytheir differences. Neither company had been making satisfactoryprofits. In Great Britain especially, where only the echoes of thestruggle had been heard, was there an increasing desire that the twocompanies should unite. One of the foremost partners of the North-WestCompany was Edward Ellice, a native of Aberdeenshire, and member of theHouse of Commons for Coventry. Ellice championed the party among theNor'westers who were in favour of union, and the two M'Gillivrays, Simon and William, earnestly seconded his efforts. Terms acceptable toboth companies were at length agreed upon. On March 26, 1821, a formaldocument, called a 'deed-poll, ' outlining the basis of union, wassigned by the two parties {141} in London. In 1822 Edward Elliceintroduced a bill in parliament making the union of the companieslegal. The name of the North-West Company was dropped; the newcorporation was to be known as the Hudson's Bay Company. Thus passedaway for ever the singular partnership of the North-West Company whichhad made Montreal a market for furs and had built up Fort William inthe depths of the forest. No longer did two rival trading-posts standby lake or stream. No longer did two rival camp-fires light up blazedtree-trunk or grass-strewn prairie by the long and sinuous trail. FromLabrador to Vancouver, and from the Arctic to the southern confines ofthe Canadian West and farther, the British flag, with H. B. C. On itsfolds, was to wave over every trading-post. Midway between theAtlantic and the Pacific a little hamlet was to struggle into life, tostruggle feebly for many years--a mere adjunct of a fur-trading post;but at length it was to come into its own, and Winnipeg, the proudestcity of the plains, was in time to rear its palaces on the spot wherefor long years the Red River Colony battled for existence against humanenemies and the obstacles of nature. 

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

PRIMARY SOURCES

The Selkirk Papers in the Dominion Archives consist of seventy-nineportfolios containing transcripts of correspondence, legal evidence, and other proceedings relating to the Earl of Selkirk's colonizingenterprises. 

Lord Selkirk's principal works are: _Observations on the Present Stateof the Highlands in Scotland_ (published in 1805 and describing thejourney to Prince Edward Island, etc. , in 1803); _On the Necessity of amore Efficient System of National Defence_ (1808); _A Sketch of theBritish Fur Trade in North America_ (1816). 

The Letter Book of Miles Macdonell--July 27, 1811, to February 25, 1812(Dominion Archives Report, 1886)--contains ten letters addressed byMacdonell to Selkirk from Yarmouth, Stornoway, York Factory, and NelsonEncampment; besides others to various individuals. 

In consequence of the disasters which befell the Red River Colony in1815 and 1816, there appeared in Great Britain _A Statement respectingthe Earl of Selkirk's Settlement upon the Red River in North America, etc. _ (republished by John Murray, {143} London, 1817). In answer tothis the North-West Company put forth _A Narrative of Occurrences inthe Indian Countries, etc. _ (1817), to which were appended twenty-ninedocuments to substantiate claims made. These works, although writtenin a partisan spirit, contain information which cannot be had from anyother source. 

The following are also useful: John M'Leod's Diary, 1815; Letter ofCuthbert Grant to J. D. Cameron, March 13, 1816; North-West Company'sAccount Book for Fort Gibraltar, 1815; Governor Macdonell'sProclamation, January 1814; Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company;Colonel W. B. Coltman's Report, 1817; A. Amos, _Report of the Trials inthe Courts of Canada relative to the Destruction of the Earl ofSelkirk's Settlement on the Red River, with Observations_ (1820);_Trials of the Earl of Selkirk against the North-West Company in 1818_(Montreal, 1819); Notices of the Claims of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the Conduct of its Adversaries (Montreal, 1817); Chief JusticePowell's Report _re_ North-West Disputes (Dominion Archives Report, 1897); a pamphlet against Lord Selkirk by John Strachan, D. D. (1816), and the reply thereto by Archibald Macdonald (1816); the communicationsof 'Mercator' appearing in the Montreal _Herald_ (1816); Blue-book onRed River Settlement (Imperial House of Commons, 1819); OriginalLetters regarding the Selkirk Settlement (Manitoba Historical andScientific Society, 1889); Lord Selkirk's Treaty {144} with the WesternIndians (_vide_ Appendix to _The Treaties of Canada_ by AlexanderMorris, 1880). 

SECONDARY MATERIAL

Since the present story closes with 1821, it is necessary to classifyas secondary material a work that is to be regarded as a primary sourceon the later history of the colony--_The Red River Settlement_ (1856)by Alexander Ross. Ross was a pioneer emigrant to the colony ofAstoria on the Pacific Coast. In 1817 he entered the service of theNorth-West Company; after the union of the fur companies in 1821 heremained in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1825 he went asa settler to the Red River Colony, where he soon became an influentialofficer. His narrative is vigorous in style as well as fair-minded inits criticisms, and is an indispensable authority on the beginnings ofManitoba. 

The most prolific writer upon the career of Lord Selkirk and thehistory of the Red River Colony is Professor George Bryce, of Winnipeg, who has been a resident at 'the Forks' of the Red and Assiniboinerivers since 1871. He has thus been in a position to gather andpreserve the traditions handed down by redskin, trapper, and colonist. Consult his _Romantic Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists_ (1909);also_ Manitoba: Infancy, Progress and Present Condition_ (1872); _TheRemarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company_ (1900); _Mackenzie, Selkirk and Simpson_ (1906). 

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An account of Lord Selkirk will be found in Kingsford, _History ofCanada_, vol. Ix. The reader should also consult, in _Canada and itsProvinces_ (vol. Xix), the excellent monograph by Professor ChesterMartin. This is the most recent and probably the most thoroughlygrounded study of the Red River Colony. The same work contains a goodaccount of the Selkirk Settlement in Prince Edward Island (vol. Xiii, p. 354) by Dr Andrew Macphail. The Baldoon Settlement is treated of byDr George W. Mitchell in the _Proceedings of the Ontario HistoricalSociety_ for 1913. See also the monograph, 'Pioneer Settlements' [ofUpper Canada], by A. C. Casselman in _Canada and its Provinces_, vol. Xvii. 

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INDEX

Assiniboia, the seat of Selkirk's colony on the Red River, 35-36. SeeRed River Colony. 

Assiniboines, and Red River Colony, 36; their friendliness, 56, 57. 

Baldoon Farm, Selkirk's settlement at, 18-20. 

Bathurst, Lord, colonial secretary, 91, 130. 

Beaver Club, entertain Lord Selkirk, 20-1. 

Bois Brûlés, their hostility to the Red River colonists, 54, 60; attackColony Gardens, 77-9, 86; at Seven Oaks, 95-101; their savage orgy atFort Douglas, 106. 

Boucher, François, his parley with Governor Semple at Seven Oaks, 97-8. 

Bourke, John, store-keeper of Colony Gardens, 76; severely wounded atSeven Oaks, 95 n. , 96, 99, 100, 103; charged with felony, 105, 120;overhears plot to assassinate Lord Selkirk, 118-19. 

Brandon House, a Hudson's Bay Company post, 65, 66; captured byCuthbert Grant, 89. 

Burke, Father, accompanies first contingent of Red River colonists, 44, 50. 

Burns, Robert, at St Mary's Isle, 5-6. 

Cameron, Duncan, a partner of the North-West Company, 68; his impostureand work of destruction at Colony Gardens, 69-73, 75, 76; takenprisoner at Fort Gibraltar, 84; sent to England for trial, 87. 

Campbell, George, a traitor in the camp at Colony Gardens, 71, 73. 

Churchill river, Selkirk's colonists winter on, 62. 

Colony Gardens, 59. See Red River Colony. 

Coltman, Lieut. -Col. , arbitrates between Lord Selkirk and theNorth-West Company, 131. 

Corcoran, Patrick, at Seven Oaks, 105, 119. 

Coureurs de bois, the, 25. 

Crees, and Red River Colony, 95, 102 n. , 132; and the North-WestCompany, 106. 

Currie, Archibald, in the defence of Colony Gardens, 79. 

Daer, Lord Basil, and Robert Burns, 5. 

De Meuron regiment, provides recruits for Red River Colony, 109-10, 122, 130. 

D'Orsonnens, Captain, enlists with Lord Selkirk, 110; at Fort William, 120, 122, 123. 

Drummond, Sir Gordon, refuses Lord Selkirk armed assistance, 91-2, 93. 

Ellice, Edward, his bill to legalize the union of the North-West andthe Hudson Bay Companies, 140-1. 

Family Compact, the, and Lord Selkirk, 134. 

Fauché, Lieut. , enlists with Lord Selkirk, 110; at Fort William, 122;takes North-West Company partners to Montreal for trial, 125-7. 

Findlay, William, an obdurate Orkneyman, 49. 

Fletcher, Major, arbitrates between Lord Selkirk and the North-WestCompany, 131. 

Fort Daer, the Red River colonists' winter quarters on the Pembina, 58, 85. 

Fort Douglas, in Colony Gardens, 85; evacuated, 102, 105; occupied byNor'westers, 128; retaken, 128. 

Fort Gibraltar, the North-West Company post on the Red River, 55-6, 74, 75, 84; demolished, 87. 

Fort Qu'Appelle, a North-West Company post, 88. 

Fort William, 66-7, 113, 115; the Mecca of the North-West Company, 116-18; taken and occupied by Lord Selkirk, 123-4. 

Fraser, Simon, explorer, his arrest at Fort William, 123, 124-5. 

Glengarry Fencibles, provide recruits for Red River Colony, 110, 130. 

Graffenreid, Lieut. , enlists with Lord Selkirk, 110. 

Grant, Charles, bribes Indians to waylay Laguimonière, 112 and note. 

Grant, Cuthbert, attacks Colony Gardens, 77, 86; captures BrandonHouse, 88, 89; leads in Seven Oaks massacre, 95, 99, 101-2, 105. 

Heden, Michael, escapes at Seven Oaks, 95 n. , 100, 102, 103, 104, 105;and Lord Selkirk's safety, 119, 120. 

Highlanders of Scotland, their loyalty, 9-10, 11; their conditions oflife, 9, 10-11; dispossessed of their heritage, 12-13; theirexpatriation, 13-14, 16-17, 18-20, 27-8, 38-43, 61-3, 83. 

Hillier, a magistrate at York Factory, 49. 

Holt, Lieut. , killed at Seven Oaks, 98. 

Hudson Bay, Red River colonists winter on, 45-51, 62. 

Hudson's Bay Company, 25-6, 80; and Lord Selkirk's emigration scheme, 17; their flawless charter, 22-3, 30; some early troubles, 28-9; theirgrant of land to Lord Selkirk, 31-4; appoint a governor overAssiniboia, 83; and purchase Lord Selkirk's rights, 137-8; their unionwith the North-West Company, 140-1. 

Indians, their relations with Red River Colony, 36, 54, 56, 57, 78, 89, 95, 102 n. , 112-13. 

Isle aux Erables, canoe disaster at, 126. 

Johnson, Lionel, with Selkirk's settlers at Baldoon Farm, 19. 

Jones, Captain John Paul, his raid on the British coasts, 1-3. 

Katawabetay, a Chippewa chief, 74; meets Lord Selkirk, 112-13. 

Keveny, Owen, arrives with party of Irish colonists at Colony Gardens, 58. 

Kildonan parish, in Scotland, 61, 83; in Winnipeg, 129. 

Kilkenny, Michael, escapes at Seven Oaks, 100. 

Laguimonière, brings news of restoration of Colony Gardens to LordSelkirk, 93; waylaid and robbed on his return, 94, 112. 

Lavigne, Augustin, with the Nor'westers at Seven Oaks, 99, 106. 

Liverpool, Lord, and Selkirk's charges against the North-West Company, 136. 

Macdonald, Archibald, deputy-governor of Assiniboia, 73. 

M'Donald, John, his arrest at Fort William, 122-3, 124-5. 

M'Donald, Capt. Roderick, Selkirk's agent in Glasgow, 37-8. 

Macdonell, Alexander, a partner of the North-West Company, 68, 86, 87, 88; destroys Colony Gardens, 69, 73-4, 77-79; organizes a raid on FortDouglas, 89, 94-5; and the massacre at Seven Oaks, 102-103, 105, 107;his plot to assassinate Lord Selkirk, 118-19. 

Macdonell, Anthony, taken prisoner at Seven Oaks, 100. 

Macdonell, Capt. Miles, first governor of Assiniboia, 36-7, 74; hisherculean task, 40-2, 44; establishes winter quarters on the Nelson, 45-6, 47; his opinion of the emigrants, 47-51; officially inauguratesRed River Colony, 55-6; erects Fort Daer, 57-8; his disastrousproclamation, 63-64, 65, 67; surrenders himself to Cameron, 76-7, 93;sent to Red River in advance of Lord Selkirk, 111, 113. 

M'Gillivray, William, a partner of the North-West Company, 66 n. ; hisarrest at Fort William, 120-1, 124-5; an expert canoeman, 125-6;favours union with the Hudson's Bay Company, 140. 

M'Intosh, James, in the defence of Colony Gardens, 79. 

M'Kay, Daniel, escapes at Seven Oaks, 100, 105. 

Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, explorer, and Lord Selkirk, 15, 31. 

Mackenzie, Captain, and the nine-pound shot, 41. 

M'Kenzie, Kenneth, his arrest at Fort William, 121, 124-5; drowned, 126. 

M'Lean, Alexander, 72; killed at Seven Oaks, 100. 

M'Lean, Hugh, his defence of Colony Gardens, 78, 79. 

M'Leod, Archibald Norman, a partner of the North-West Company, 94; asmagistrate of Indian Territories examines evicted Red River colonists, 103-5; at Fort Douglas, 105-7. 

M'Leod, John, his gallant defence of Colony Gardens, 77-78, 79; hisguardianship, 82-83, 85. 

M'Loughlin, Dr John, his arrest at Fort William, 121, 124-5. 

M'Nab, John, buys Baldoon Farm from Lord Selkirk, 20. 

M'Tavish, Simon, founder of the North-West Company, 20, 117. 

Matthey, Captain, enlists with Lord Selkirk, 110; at Fort William, 122. 

Métis, 54. See Bois Brûlés. 

Montgomery, Sir James, brother-in-law of Lord Selkirk, 136. 

Napoleon I, 16; his Berlin Decree, 29. 

Nelson river, New Year celebrations on the, 48-9. 

New Nation, the, 85, 86. See Bois Brûlés. 

North-West Company, 23-5, 117; entertain Lord Selkirk in Montreal, 20-1; their opposition to his colonizing schemes, 31-2, 38, 40-1, 55, 67, 133; their antagonism towards Red River Colony, 55-6, 60, 63-4, 65-6, 67; their efforts to destroy the colony, 74-5, 89-90; the SevenOaks massacre, 95-101; trial of partners at York, 134-5; union with theHudson's Bay Company, 140-1. 

Norway House, a Hudson's Bay Company post, 52, 78. 

Ottawas, waylay Lord Selkirk's messenger, 112. 

Pambrun, Pierre, held prisoner by the Nor'westers, 88-9, 102. 

Pangman, Peter, and Cuthbert Grant, 88. 

Pelham, Lord, and Selkirk's scheme of emigration, 15, 16, 17. 

Powell, Chief Justice, and the trial of Lord Selkirk, 134; and theNor'westers, 135. 

Prince Edward Island, Selkirk's colony on, 17-18. 

Pritchard, John, taken prisoner at Seven Oaks, 95 n. , 97, 98; acts asmediator, 101-2, 104, 105. 

Red River Colony, 32, 141; its extent and position, 33-4, 132;conditions of settlement, 35, 110; types of settlers, 37-8, 39, 40, 42, 47, 48, 51, 63, 83, 108-10, 136-7; the departure of first contingent ofcolonists from Stornoway, 38-43; reach Hudson Bay, 44-5; and winter onthe Nelson, 45-51; journey to Red River, 51-4; the officialinauguration of the colony, 55-6; relations with the Indians, 54, 56, 57, 74, 78, 89, 95, 102 n. , 112-13, 132; dire straits of colonists inwinter, 57-8, 59-60, 85; the arrival of Irish colonists, 58; ColonyGardens built, 59; the arrival of Sutherland men, 61-63; exodus of thesettlers, 76, 78; Colony Gardens destroyed, 77-9; restored, 81-82; afourth contingent of colonists, 83; the Seven Oaks massacre, 95-102;the second expulsion, 102-4; Lord Selkirk arrives, 128-30; the locustplagues, 139-40; comes into its own, 141. See Highlanders. 

Reed, Collector, a tool of the Nor'westers, 40. 

Robertson, Colin, his grievance against the North-West Company, 37, 80-1; restores Colony Gardens, 81-2; his revenge at Fort Gibraltar, 84-5, 86-7, 101, 104, 133. 

Robinson, J. B. , attorney-general of Upper Canada, 127, 134. 

Rogers, Captain, killed at Seven Oaks, 98, 100. 

Rupert's Land, Lord Selkirk's Colony in, 32, 132. 

Saint Anne's chapel, a halting-place of the coureurs de bois, 25. 

St Mary's Isle, the Selkirk mansion on, 2-3, 4. 

Saulteaux, and Red River Colony, 78, 89, 102 n. , 132; and theNorth-West Company, 106. 

Scott, Sir Walter, his friendship with Lord Selkirk, 7, 27, 136, 138. 

Selkirk, fourth Earl of, 2; a patron of letters, 5. 

Selkirk, fifth Earl of, his boyhood, 3, 4, 5, 6; at EdinburghUniversity, 6-7; studies the conditions of life in the Highlands, 8, 14; succeeds to the title, 14; his scheme of emigration, 15-16, 27-8, 32, 35-6; his colony on Prince Edward Island, 16-18; at Baldoon Farm, 18-20; fêted by fur merchants of Montreal, 20-1; his speech on nationaldefence in the House of Lords, 27; his marriage, 28; his efforts insecuring a grant of land in Assiniboia, 28-35; his colony at Red River, 55-63, 76-83; endeavours to persuade the government to send armedassistance to his colony, 91-4; his message of encouragement, 94; hisrelief expedition, 108, 110-11, 113, 115, 127-8; at Indian council onDrummond Island, 112-13; hears of the Seven Oaks disaster and makes forFort William, 113-15, 118; takes possession of the fort and arrests thepartners of the North-West Company, 120-7; arrives at Colony Gardens, 128-9, 130; receives the name of 'Silver Chief' and concludes a treatywith the Indians, 131-3; his trial, 131, 133, 134; his charges againstthe North-West Company, 70, 87, 134-6; his death, 137; his character, 5, 7, 14, 120, 131, 138-9. 

Selkirk, sixth Earl of, 92, 137. 

Semple, Robert, governor-in-chief in Assiniboia, 84, 86, 87, 95, 135;killed at Seven Oaks, 95-9. 

Seven Oaks, the massacre of, 95-102 and note, 130; the trial ofNor'westers, 135. 

Sherbrooke, Sir John, governor of Canada, 114, 130-1, 134-135. 

Sherwood, counsel for Nor'westers, 135. 

Spencer, John, enforces Governor Macdonell's decree on the Nor'westers, 65-6. 

Stornoway, the departure of emigrants from, 38-43. 

Strachan, Rev. John, his antagonism to Lord Selkirk, 134. 

Sutherland, George, 88, 89; escapes at Seven Oaks, 100. 

Sutherland, Elder James, authorized to baptize and perform the marriageceremony at Colony Gardens, 84. 

War of 1812, and Selkirk's settlement at Baldoon Farm, 19, 109. 

Watteville regiment, provides recruits for Red River Colony, 109-10, 130. 

Wedderburn-Colvile, James, father-in-law of Lord Selkirk, 28, 30. 

White, James, surgeon at Colony Gardens, 75; killed at Seven Oaks, 100. 

Wilkinson, Dr, killed at Seven Oaks, 100. 

Winnipeg, site of Colony Gardens, 53, 129, 141. 

 Printed by T. And A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press

THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA

THIRTY-TWO VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED

Edited by GEORGE M. WRONG and H. H. LANGTON

THE CHRONICLES OF CANADA

PART I

THE FIRST EUROPEAN VISITORS

1. THE DAWN OF CANADIAN HISTORY By Stephen Leacock. 

2. THE MARINER OF ST MALO By Stephen Leacock. 

PART II

THE RISE OF NEW FRANCE

3. THE FOUNDER OF NEW FRANCE By Charles W. Colby. 

4. THE JESUIT MISSIONS By Thomas Guthrie Marquis. 

5. THE SEIGNEURS OF OLD CANADA By William Bennett Munro. 

6. THE GREAT INTENDANT By Thomas Chapais. 

7. THE FIGHTING GOVERNOR By Charles W. Colby. 

PART III

THE ENGLISH INVASION

8. THE GREAT FORTRESS By William Wood. 

9. THE ACADIAN EXILES By Arthur G. Doughty. 

10. THE PASSING OF NEW FRANCE By William Wood. 

11. THE WINNING OF CANADA By William Wood. 

PART IV

THE BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH CANADA

12. THE FATHER OF BRITISH CANADA By William Wood. 

13. THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS By W. Stewart Wallace. 

14. THE WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES By William Wood. 

PART V

THE RED MAN IN CANADA

15. THE WAR CHIEF OF THE OTTAWAS By Thomas Guthrie Marquis. 

16. THE WAR CHIEF OF THE SIX NATIONS By Louis Aubrey Wood. 

17. TECUMSEH: THE LAST GREAT LEADER OF HIS PEOPLE By Ethel T. Raymond. 

PART VI

PIONEERS OF THE NORTH AND WEST

18. THE 'ADVENTURERS OF ENGLAND' ON HUDSON BAY By Agnes C. Laut. 

19. PATHFINDERS OF THE GREAT PLAINS By Lawrence J. Burpee. 

20. ADVENTURERS OF THE FAR NORTH By Stephen Leacock. 

21. THE RED RIVER COLONY By Louis Aubrey Wood. 

22. PIONEERS OF THE PACIFIC COAST By Agnes C. Laut. 

23. THE CARIBOO TRAIL By Agnes C. Laut. 

PART VII

THE STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL FREEDOM

24. THE FAMILY COMPACT By W. Stewart Wallace. 

25. THE 'PATRIOTES' OF '37 By Alfred D. DeCelles. 

26. THE TRIBUNE OF NOVA SCOTIA By William Lawson Grant. 

27. THE WINNING OF POPULAR GOVERNMENT By Archibald MacMechan. 

PART VIII

THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITY

28. THE FATHERS OF CONFEDERATION By A. H. U. Colquhoun. 

29. THE DAY OF SIR JOHN MACDONALD By Sir Joseph Pope. 

30. THE DAY OF SIR WILFRID LAURIER By Oscar D. Skelton. 

PART IX

NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

31. ALL AFLOAT By William Wood. 

32. THE RAILWAY BUILDERS By Oscar D. Skelton. 

TORONTO: GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY