He had, as we shall see, dispatched the settlers to their wintering place up the Red River on the 6th of September, and set some half-dozen men, who were to stay at the Forks, to work clearing the ground for sowing winter wheat. An officer was left with the men to trade with Indians for fish and meat for the support of the workers.

The winter, which is sharp, crisp and decided in all of Rupert's Land, was approaching, so that their situation began to be desperate.

Governor Macdonell's chief care was for the safety and comfort during the winter of his helpless Colonists.

Sixty miles up the Red River from the Forks was a settlement of native people—chiefly French half-breeds—and to this place called Pembina came in the buffaloes, or if not they were easily reached from this settlement. But the poor Scottish settlers had no means of transport, and the way seemed long and desolate to them to venture upon, unaccompanied and unhelped. Governor Macdonell did his best for them, and succeeded in inducing the Saulteaux Indians, who seemed friendly, to guide and protect them as they sought Pembina for winter quarters.

The Indians had a few ponies and mounted on these they undertook to conduct the settlers to their destination. The caravan was grotesquely comical as it departed southward. The Indians upon their "Shaganappi ponies," as they are called, like mounted guards protecting the men, women and children of the Colony who trudged wearily on foot. The Indians were kind to their charge, but the Redman loves a joke, and often indulges in "horse-play." The demure Highlander looked unmoved upon the Indian pranks. The Indians also hold everything they possess on a loose tenure. The Highlander who was forced to surrender the gun, which his father had carried at the battle of Culloden, failed to see the humour of the affair, and the Highland woman who was compelled to give up her gold marriage ring, because some prairie brave wanted it, was unable to see the ethics of the Saulteaux guide who robbed her. The women became very weary of their journey, but their mounted guardians only laughed, because they were in the habit on their long marches of treating their own squaws in the same manner.

To Pembina at length they came—worn out, dusty and despondent. Here they erected tents or built huts. The settlers reached Pembina on the 11th of September, and Macdonell and an escort of three men, all on horseback, arrived on the 12th. Arrived at Pembina Macdonell examined the ground carefully, and selected the point on the south side of the Pembina River at its juncture with the Red River as a site for a fort. His men immediately camped here. Great quantities of buffalo meat were brought in by the French Canadians and Indians. Some of this was sent down to the Forks to the party which had remained to built a hut at that point for stores. At Pembina a storehouse was built immediately, and having given directions to erect several other buildings, the Governor returned by boat to the Forks. On the 27th of October Owen Keveny, in charge of the second detachment of Colonists, arrived with his party, largely of Irishmen. These men were taken on to Pembina. After great activity the buildings were ready by the 21st of November to house the whole of the two parties now united in one band of Colonists. The Governor and officers' quarters were finished on December 27th. Macdonell reports to Lord Selkirk that "as soon as the place at Pembina took some form and a decent flagstaff was erected on it, it was called Fort Daer." It is said that in most years the buffaloes were very numerous and so tame that they came to the Trader's Fort and rubbed their backs upon its stockaded enclosure. There was this year plenty of buffalo meat and the Scotch women soon learned to cook it into "Rubaboo," or "Rowschow," after the manner of the French half-breeds. Toward spring food was scarcer.



In May the winterers of Pembina returned to their settlement at the Colony. They sought to begin the cultivation of their farms, but they were helpless. The tough prairie sod had to be broken up and worked over, but the only implement which the Colonist had to use was a simple hoe, the one harrow being incomplete. The crofters were poor farmers, for they were rather fishermen. But the fish in Red River were scarce in this year, so that even the fisher's art which they knew was of little avail to them. The summer of 1813 was thus what the old settlers would call an "Off-Year," for even the small fruits on the plains were far from abundant. These being scarce, the chief food of the settlers for all that summer through was the "Prairie turnip." This is a variety of the pea family, known as the Astragalus esculenta, which with its large taproot grows quite abundantly on the dry plains. An old-time trader, who was lost for forty days and only able to get the Prairie turnip, practically subsisted in this way. Along with this the settlers gathered quantities of a very succulent weed known as "fat-hen," and so were kept alive. The Colonists knowing now what the soil could produce obtained small quantities of grain and even with their defective means of cultivation, in the next year demonstrated the fertility of the soil of the country.

It was somewhat distressing to the Colonists again in 1813 to make the journey of sixty miles to Pembina, trudging along the prairie trail, but there was no other resource. The treatment of the Colonists by the "Nor'-Westers" had not thus far been unfriendly and the Canadian traders had even imported a few cattle, pigs, and poultry for the use of the settlers, and for these favors Governor Macdonell expressed his hearty thanks to the Montreal Company. The fatigues and mishaps of the journey to Pembina were, however, only the beginning of trouble for the winter. The reception by the French half-breed residents of Pembina was not now so friendly as that of the previous winter. At first the Nor'-Wester feeling had been one of contempt for the Colonists and pity for them in their hunger and miseries. The building of Fort Daer was an evidence of occupation that caused the jealous Canadian pioneers to pause. The reception of the second season was thus decidedly cool. The struggling settlers found before the winter was over that troubles come in troops. Very heavy snows fell in the winter of 1813-14. This brought two difficulties. It prevented the buffaloes coming freely from the open plains into the rivers and sheltered spots. The buffalo being a heavy animal is helpless in the snow. The other difficulty was that the settlers could not go on the chase with freedom. Unfortunately the Colonists were not able to use the snowshoe as could the lively Metis. The settlers well nigh perished in seeking the camp whither the native hunters had gone to follow the buffalo. Indeed the Colonists had the conviction that a plot to murder two of their most active leaders was laid by the French half-breeds whose sympathies were all with the "Nor'-Westers."

The climax of feeling was reached when Governor Macdonell, who was with the Colonists at Pembina, issued a most unwise proclamation, which to the Nor'-Westers seemed an illegality if not an impertinence. Dependent as the settlers were on the older Company for supplies and assistance this was nothing less than an act of madness.

By proclamation, on the 8th of January, 1814, Macdonell forbade any traders of "The Honorable Hudson's Bay Company, the North-West Company, or any individual or unconnected trader whatever to take out any provisions, either of flesh, grain or vegetables, from the country." The embargo was complete.

In Governor Macdonell's defence it should be said that he offered to pay by British bills for all the provisions taken, at customary rates.

This assertion of sovereignty set on fire the Nor'-Westers and their sympathizers.

Not only was this extreme step taken, but John Spencer, a subordinate of Macdonell was sent west to Brandon House, found an entrance into the North-West Fort at the mouth of the Souris River and seizing some twenty-five tons of dry buffalo meat took it into his own fort.

It is quite true that Governor Macdonell expected new bands of Colonists and thus justified himself in his seizure. It is to the credit of the Nor'-Westers that they restrained themselves and avoided a general conflict, but evidently they only bided their time.

No breach of the peace occurred however, before the return of the Colonists from Pembina to the Colony Houses. The settlers occupied their homes in the best of spirits, and began to sow their wheat, but they were still greatly checked by the absence of the commonest implements of farm culture. Had Lord Selkirk known the true state of things on Red River, he would never have continued to send new bands of Colonists so imperfectly fitted for dealing with the cultivation of the soil.

The founder's mind had been fired, both by the opposition of Sir Alexander Mackenzie and by the successful arrival of his two bands of Colonists at the Red River, to make greater efforts than ever.

This he did by sending out a third party in all nearly a hundred strong, under the leadership of a very capable man—Archibald Macdonald. This band of settlers in 1813 were bound on the ship Prince of Wales for York Factory. A very serious attack of ship fever filled the whole ship's crew with alarm. Several well-known Colonists died. The Captain, alarmed, refused to go on to his destination, but ran the ship into Fort Churchill and there disembarked them. Further deaths took place at this point. In the spring there was no resource but to trudge over the rocky ledges and forbidding desolation of more than a hundred miles between the Fort Churchill and York Factory. Only the stronger men and women were selected for the journey. On the 6th of April, 1814, a party of twenty-one males and twenty females started on this now celebrated tramp. At first the party began to march in single file, but finding this inconvenient changed to six abreast. Unaccustomed to snowshoes and sleds the Colonists found the snowy walk very distressing. Three fell by the way and were carried on by the stronger men. The weather was very cold. A supply of partridges was given them on starting, and the party was met by hunters sent from York Factory to meet them, who brought two hundred partridges, killed by the way. York Factory was reached on the 13th of April. This band of Colonists were superior to any who had come in the former parties. Many of them, as we shall see, did not remain in the Colony. A list of this party may be found in the Appendix. After remaining a month at York Factory, on the 27th of May, this heroic band went on their way to Red River, and reached their destination in time to plant potatoes for themselves and others. Comrades left behind at Churchill found their way to Red River. Lots along Red River were now being taken up by the settlers, and here they sought to found homes under a northern sky. Old and new settlers were now hopeful, but their hopes of peace and happiness were soon to be dashed to pieces.

The arrival of the third year's Colonists provoked still greater opposition. Feeling had been gradually rising against the new settlers at every new arrival. The excellence of the later immigrants but led their opponents to be irritated.



CHAPTER VII.

FIGHT AND FLIGHT.

The year 1815 was a year of world-wide disaster. Napoleon's Europe-shadowing wings had for years been over that continent and he like a ravenous bird had left marks of his ravages among the most prominent European nations. The world had a breathing spell for a short time with Napoleon a virtual prisoner in Elba, but now in March of this year he broke from the perch where he had been tethered and all Europe was again in terror. The nations were thunderstruck; the alarm was deepened by the appearance of Olber's great comet, and in their superstition the ignorant were panic-stricken, while the more religious and informed saw in these terrible events the scenes pictured in the Apocalypse and maintained that the battle of Armageddon was at hand. The epoch-marking battle of Waterloo in June of this year was sufficiently near the picture of blood painted in the Revelation to satisfy the credulous.

But in a remote corner of Rupert's Land, where the number of the combatants was small and the conditions exceedingly primitive the comet was alarming enough. The action of Governor Miles Macdonell in the beginning of 1814, in forbidding the export of food from Rupert's Land and in interfering with the liberty of the traders, Indians and half-breeds, who had regarded themselves as outside of law, and as free as the wind of their wild prairies, produced an open and out-spoken dissent from every class.

The Nor'-Westers took time to consider the grave step of interrupting trade which Governor Miles Macdonell had taken. Immediate action was impossible. It was four hundred miles and more from the Colony to the great emporium of the fur trade on Lake Superior. The annual gathering of the Nor'-Westers was held at Grand Portage, the terminus of a road nine miles long, built to avoid the rapids of the Pigeon River which flows into Lake Superior some thirty or forty miles southwest of where Fort William now stands. This concourse was a notable affair. From distant Athabasca, from the Saskatchewan, from the Red River and from Lake Winnipeg, the traders gathered in their gaily decked canoes, to meet the gentlemen from Montreal, who came to count the gains of the year, and lay out plans for the future. Indians gathered outside of Grand Portage Fort. The Highland Chieftains were now transformed into factors and traders, and for days they met in counsel together. Their evenings were spent in the great dining room of the Fort in revelry. Songs of the voyage were sung and as the excitement grew more intense the partners would take seats on the floor of the room and each armed with a sword or poker or pair of tongs unite in the paddle song of "A la Claire Fontaine," and make merry till far on in the morning. The days were laboriously given to business and accounts. When the great MacTavish—the head of the Nor'-Westers—was there he was often opposed by the younger men, yet he ended the strife with his tyrannical will and silenced all opposition.

The Nor'-Westers at their meeting, July, 1814, under Honorable William McGillivray, after whom Fort William was named, decided to oppose the Colony and sent two of their most aggressive men to meet force with force, and to give Miles Macdonell, the new Dictator, either by arms or by craft, the reward for his tyranny, as they regarded it.

The whole body of the traders were incensed against Lord Selkirk, for had not one of the chief Nor'-Wester partners written two years before from London saying, "Lord Selkirk must be driven to abandon his project, for his success would strike at the very existence of our trade."

The two men chosen at the gathering in Grand Portage were well fitted for their work. Most forward was Alexander Macdonell. On his journey writing to a friend he said: "Much is expected of us.... So here is at them with all my heart and energy." But the master-mind was his companion Duncan Cameron who, as a leader, stands out in the conflicts of the times as a determined man, of great executive ability, but of fierce and over-bearing disposition. The Nor'-Westers, having planned bloodshed, all agreed that Duncan Cameron was well chosen. He had been a leading explorer and trader in the Lake Superior district and knew the fur traders' route as few others did. His well-nigh thirty years of service made him a man of outstanding influence in the Company. Moreover, he could be bland and jovial. He had the Celtic adroitness. He knew how to ingratiate himself with every class and possessed all the devices of an envoy. His appearance and dress at Red River were notable. Having had some rank as a U.E. Loyalist leader in the war of 1812, he came to the Forks dressed in a scarlet military coat with all the accoutrements of a Captain in the Army. He even made display of his Captain's Commission by posting it at the gate of Fort Gibraltar. Of the Fort itself he took possession as Bourgeois or master and laid his plans in August, 1814, for the destruction of the Selkirk Colony. Cameron then began a systematic course of ingratiating himself with the Colonists. Speaking, as he did the Gaelic language, he appealed with much success to his countrymen. He represented himself as their friend and stirred up the people of Red River against Selkirk tyranny. He pictured to them their wrongs, the broken promises of the founder, and the undesirability of remaining in the Colony. He brought the settlers freely to his table, treating them openly to the beverage of their native country, and completely captured the hearts of a number of them. Those, friends of his, he made use of to carry out his deep plans. On the very day of the issue of the rations, he induced some of the Colonists to demand the nine small cannon in the Colony store houses. The request was refused by Archibald Macdonald, the acting Governor. The settlers then went forward, broke open the store houses and removed the cannon. Macdonald now arrested the leading settler, who had taken the field pieces, whereupon Cameron, like a small Napoleon, incited his clerks and men, to invade the Governor's house and release the prisoner. This was done, and now it may be said that war between the rival Companies was declared. On the return of Miles Macdonald, Cameron ordered his arrest. Macdonell refused to acknowledge the lawfulness of this action. The oily Nor'-Wester Highlander then threatened the people that if the Governor would not submit to the law, the whole body of settlers would be dispossessed of their farms and driven away from the banks of Red River. As if to make this threat seem more real, several loyal settlers were fired at by unseen marksmen.

Once having begun, Cameron was not the man to hesitate. Another Nor'-Wester plan was put into effect.

Cameron's comrade, Alexander Macdonell, now arrived from the Western plains leading it was said, a band of Cree Indians. The Crees are stubborn and determined warriors, but they are also crafty. The proposal by Alexander Macdonell ("Yellow Head as he was called" to distinguish him), was gravely considered by the Indians. The Indians respect authority and in this case they were not very sure who had the authority. The Indians declined the offer, and the report proved untrue.

The Nor'-Westers were, however, strong in their influence over the Chippewas of Red Lake in Minnesota. Similar propositions were made to the Sand Lake band of this tribe. Though offered a large reward to go on this expedition against the Selkirk settlers, the chief refused the bribe, and the tribe declined to undertake the enterprise.

Cameron however, knew the importance of keeping up the war-like spirit of his following, and early in June himself took part in an attack upon the Colony houses. The affray took place on the edge of the wood near the Governor's residence. Surgeon White and Burke the store-keeper, narrowly escaped being killed by the shots fired and four of the servants were actually wounded. Cameron like a real operator effusively thanked his followers for their grand attack. This state of constant hostility, ostensibly on account of the refusal of Governor Macdonell to respect the legal summons served upon him, was ended by the surrender of Miles Macdonell, who was taken as a prisoner to Montreal, though he was never brought up for trial.

Thus far Cameron had succeeded in his plans. He was an artful plotter. His capture of Miles Macdonell gave him great prestige. Besides, he had roused feelings of serious discontent in the minds of nearly all of the Selkirk Colonists. His apparent sincerity and kindness to them had also won their hearts. He was now to make the greatest move in the game. This was nothing less than a tempting offer to transfer the whole of them to the fertile townships of Upper Canada. He provided all the means of transport, he promised them free lands in the neighborhood of market towns—two hundred acres to each family. Any wages due to them by Lord Selkirk he would pay and should three-quarters of the Colony accept his offer they would have provisions provided for a year free of cost. When the poor Colonists thought of the bleak, uncultivated country in which they were, of the inevitable hardships which lay before them, and saw the dangerous, unsettled state of the Selkirk settlement, they could not well resist the offer. Furthermore, the schemer did not stop here. As was afterward found out, George Campbell, the arch-agitator and leader among the disaffected settlers received a promise of L100, and others of L20 and the like. Further to allay their fears it was urged that they were going where the British flag was flying and where the truest loyalty prevailed. It was pointed out that it had been to prevent any obstacles being raised against their going, that the nine guns had been seized and were in the custody of the Nor'-Westers. Accordingly full arrangements were made. A supply of canoes was obtained and on the 15th of June, 1815, no less than one hundred and forty of the two hundred Colonists on Red River embarked and drifted down the river on their long canoe voyage of more than a thousand miles. By the end of July they had gone over the dangerous Fur traders' route and passing over four or five hundred miles reached Fort William, near Lake Superior. But their journey was not one-half over. Along the base of the rugged shores of Lake Superior, through the St. Mary's River, down the foaming Sault and then along the shores of Georgian Bay, they paddled their way to Penetanguishene. From this point they crossed southward to Holland Landing, which is forty miles north of Toronto, and arrived at their destination on the 5th of September.

It is hard to find a parallel for such a journey. They were a large body, made up of men, women, and children, continuously journeying for eighty-two days, through an unsettled and barren country, running dangerous rapids, and exposed to storms with a poorly organized commissariat, and under fear of pursuit by the agents of Lord Selkirk, to whom many of them were personally bound. In the township of West Gwillinbury, north of Toronto, near London, and in the Talbot settlement, near St. Thomas—all in Upper Canada—they received their lands. Half a century later, in one of the townships north of Toronto, the writer had pointed out to him a man named MacBeth weighing two hundred and fifty pounds, of whom it was humourously told that he had been carried all the way from Red River. The explanation of course was, that he had been brought as an infant on this famous Hegira of the Selkirk Colonists.

The finishing of Cameron's work on the Red River, was handed over to Alexander Macdonell. The plan was nothing less than that the settlers remaining should be driven by force from the banks of Red River. The party led by Macdonell was made up of Bois-Brules, under dashing young Cuthbert Grant. On their agile ponies they appeared like scourging Huns, to drive out the discouraged remnant of Colonists.

Each remaining settler was on the 25th of June served with a notice signed by four Nor'-Westers, thus:

"All settlers to retire immediately from Red River, and no trace of a settlement to remain." (Signed) Cuthbert Grant, etc.

Two days after the notice was served the beleaguered settlers, made up of some thirteen families—in all from forty to sixty persons, who had remained true to Lord Selkirk and the Colony—went forth from their homes as sadly as the Acadian refugees from Grand Pre. They were allowed to take with them such belongings as they had, and in boats and other craft went pensively down Red River with Lake Winnipeg and Jack River in view as their destination. The house of the Governor, the mill, and the buildings which the settlers had begun to build upon their lots were all set on fire and destroyed.

The U.E. Loyalists of Upper Canada and Nova Scotia draw upon our sympathies in their sufferings of hunger and hardship, but they afford no parallel to the discouragement, dangers, and dismay of the Selkirk Colonists.

Alexander Macdonell's party of seventy or eighty mounted men easily carried out this work of destruction. There was one fly in the ointment for them. The small Hudson's Bay House built by Fidler still remained. Here a daring Celt, John McLeod, was in charge. Seeing the temper of Macdonell's levy McLeod determined to fortify his rude castle. Beside the trading house of the Hudson's Bay Company stood the blacksmith's shop. Hurriedly McLeod, with a cart, carried thither the three-pounder cannon in his possession, then cut up lengths of chain to be his shot and shell, used with care his small supply of powder and with three or four men, his only garrison, stood to his gun and awaited the attack of the Bois-Brules. Being on horseback his assailants could not long face his one piece of artillery. It is not known to what extent the assailants suffered in the skirmish, but John Warren, a gentleman of the Hudson's Bay Company, was killed in the encounter. The siege of McLeod's improvised fort continued for several days, but the defence was successful, and McLeod saved for the Company L1,000 worth of goods.



CHAPTER VIII.

NO SURRENDER.

The crisis has come. The Colony seems to be blotted out. The affair may appear small, being nothing more than the defence of the smithy, with one gun and the most primitive contrivances, yet as Mercutio says of his wound: "'Tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but it is enough."

The plucky McLeod, with three men held his fort and though the dusky Bois-brules on their prairie ponies for a time hovered about yet they did not dare to approach the spiteful little field piece. The Metis soon betook themselves westward to their own district of Qu'Appelle.

The danger being over for the present, John McLeod began to restore the Colony buildings and even to aim at greater things than had been before.

One of the most discouraging things in connection with the Selkirk Colony was the long sea voyage and the difficult land-journey necessary, not only to gain assistance, but even to receive information from the founder in Britain for the guidance of the officers in Red River settlement. This being the case McLeod could not wait for orders and so as being temporarily in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company district at Red River, he planned a fort and proceeded at once to build a portion of it. Fortunately across the Red River in what is now the town of St. Boniface, he found the freemen who were willing to help him. He immediately hired a number of these and began work on the new fort.

Somewhat lower down the Red River than the Colony gardens he selected a site on the river banks, now partially fallen in, where George Street at the present days ends. Here McLeod began to erect a Governor's House, having confidence that the founder would not desert his Colony. Along with this important project, expecting that the Colonists would return, he turned his men upon the fields of grain—small, but to them very precious. The yield in this year was good. He also erected new fences and cured for the settlers quantities of hay from the swamp lands.

McLeod states in his diary—of which a copy of the original is in the Provincial Library in Winnipeg—that Fort Douglas was on the south side of Point Douglas, so called from Lord Selkirk's family name, and which McLeod has some claim to have so christened.

Meanwhile the Colonists had taken their lonely way by boat or canoe, to the foot of Lake Winnipeg—not expecting a speedy delivery. They reached their rendezvous in July. Lord Selkirk knew in a general way that his Colony was in danger and so had given orders to his faithful officer—Colin Robertson, who had done yeoman service in collecting his first party in Scotland, but who was now in Canada—to engage a number of men and with them proceed to Red River settlement to help his Colonists. That the real state of things was not known to Robertson, or the founder, appears in the fact that Robertson coming from the East with twenty Canadians, passed up the Red River to the Forks to get the first news of the dispersing of the Colonists. With his usual dash their rescuer immediately followed the settlers to Jack River, found them very much discouraged but persuaded them to return again to the banks of the Red River. The work of rebuilding other houses which McLeod had not been able to overtake now went on, and there was the greatest anxiety to hear of Lord Selkirk's plans.

The Earl of Selkirk had not become in the slightest degree discouraged. Opposition and failure seemed but to inspire him the more. On the return of Miles Macdonell as a prisoner to Montreal in the hands of the Nor'-Wester emmissaries, the founder immediately sought for a competent successor to Macdonell, and determined to send out the best and strongest party of settlers that had yet been gathered.

He appointed, backed by all the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, a retired officer, Captain Robert Semple. The new Governor was of American origin, born in Philadelphia, but had been in the British army. He was a distinctly high-class man, though Masson's estimate is probably true—"A man not very conciliatory, it is true, but intelligent, honorable and a man of integrity." He was an author of some note, but as it proved, too good or too inexperienced a man for the lawless region to which he was sent.

It would have been almost useless to despatch a new Governor to the Red River settlement unless there had also been obtained a number of settlers to fill the place of those so skillfully led away by Duncan Cameron. Lord Selkirk now secured the best band of Emigrants attainable. These were from a rural parish on the East Coast of Sutherlandshire in Scotland. They were from Helmsdale and from the parish of Kildonan and the noble founder afterwards conferred this name on their new parish on the banks of the Red River. The names of Matheson, Bannerman, Sutherland, Polson, Gunn and the like show the sturdy character of this band whose descendents are taking their full part in the affairs of the Province of Manitoba of to-day. Governor Semple accompanied this party of about one hundred settlers, and by way of the Hudson Bay route reached the Red River Settlement in the same year in which they started. They joined the restored settlers, whom Colin Robertson had placed upon their lands again. With Governor Semple's contingent came James Sutherland, an elder of the Church of Scotland, who was authorized to baptize and marry. He was the first ordained man who reached the Selkirk Colony. The influx of new and old settlers to the Colony, and the imperfect preparations made for their shelter and sustenance led to the whole Company betaking itself for the winter to Pembina, where at Fort Daer they might be within reach of the buffalo herds. Governor Semple accompanied the settlers to Pembina, though Alexander Macdonell had charge for the winter. In October of 1815, as the settlers were preparing for their winter quarters, the authorities of the Colony thought it right to seize Fort Gibraltar, and to retake the field pieces and other property of the Colony, which the "Nor'-Westers" had captured. This was done and Duncan Cameron who had returned was also taken prisoner. Cameron, on his promising to keep the peace was almost immediately restored to his liberty and to the command of his fort. The feeling, however, all over the country where there were rival Forts was not a happy one and gave anxiety to both parties as to the future. After New Year, 1816, Governor Semple returned from Pembina and counselled with Colin Robertson, as to the disturbed state of things. They came to the conclusion that the only safe course was to again capture Fort Gibraltar. This they did about April, 1816, and again held Cameron as a prisoner. Duncan Cameron was however a dangerous prisoner. His ingenuity, courage, and force of character were so great that at any time he might be the centre of a movement among the Metis. It was in consequence decided that Duncan Cameron should be taken as a captive to England by way of York Factory and be tried across seas. Colin Robertson was instructed to conduct him to York Factory. No doubt this was a reprisal for the arrest and banishment meted out to Miles Macdonell. Cameron was delayed at York Factory on his way to England for more than a year and after a short stay in Britain returned to Canada. He afterwards obtained damages of L3,000 for his illegal detention.



But there was future trouble brewing all through the West.

The new Governor, however, unaware of the real state of matters in Rupert's Land and probably ignorant of the claim of Canada to the West, and of the force of a customary occupation of the land, procured with high-handed zeal a further reprisal. Before Colin Robertson had gone to conduct Cameron to York Factory the Governor and Robertson had discussed the advisability of dismantling Fort Gibraltar. To this course Robertson, knowing the irritation which this would cause to the Nor'-Westers strongly objected. For the time the proposal was dropped, but when Robertson had gone, then the Governor proceeded with a force of thirty men to pull down Gibraltar, which was done in a week. The stockade was taken down, carried to the Red River and made into a raft. Upon this was piled the material of the buildings, and the whole was floated to the site of Fort Douglas and used in erecting a new structure and fully completing the Fort which John McLeod had begun. The same aggressive course was pursued under orders from the Governor in regard to Pembina House which was captured, its occupants sent as prisoners to Fort Douglas, and its stores confiscated for the use of the Colony. The spirit shown by Governor Semple, it is suggested, had something of the same treatment as that given to the Colonists by the official classes in England against which Edmund Burke burst out with such vehemence in his great orations.

Governor Semple's course would not satisfy Colin Robertson nor would it have been approved by Lord Selkirk. The course was his own and fully did he afterwards pay the price for his aggressions.

The last acts of Governor Semple as the report of them was carried westward and repeated over the camp fires of the Nor'-Westers and their Bois-brules horsemen and voyageurs caused the most violent excitement. The Metis claimed a right in the soil from their Indian mothers. The Indian title had never been extinguished and afterwards Lord Selkirk found it necessary to make a treaty and satisfy the Indian claim. The Nor'-Westers were also by a good number of years the first occupants of the Red River district. The Canadian discovery of the West by French traders, the daring occupation by Findlay, the Frobishers, Thompson, and Sir Alexander Mackenzie all from Montreal even to the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, seemed strong to Canadians as against the undefined and shadowy claim to the soil of Lord Selkirk and his officers.

Certain signs of coming trouble might have pressed themselves upon Governor Semple. He had eyes but he saw not.

The Indians, it is true, with their reverence for King George III., and showing their silver medals with the old King's face upon them, were disposed to take sides with the British Company. This may have confirmed Semple in the tyrannical course he had followed, but had he studied the action of the free traders it might have opened his eyes. Just as certain animals of the prairie exposed to enemies have an instinctive feeling of coming danger, so these denizens of the plains felt the approach of trouble, and with their wives and half-breed children betook themselves—bag and baggage—to the far Western plains where the buffalo runs, and remained there to let the storm blow past, to return to the "Forks" in more peaceful times.

Lord Selkirk, Lady Selkirk, with his Lordship's son and two daughters, were on the other hand drawing nearer to the scene of conflict, as they came to Montreal in the summer of 1815. In the spring Lord Selkirk started westward to see the vast estate which he possessed, but alas! only to see it in the throes of division, of excited passion and of bloody conflict, and to face one of the greatest catastrophes of new world Colonization.



CHAPTER IX.

SEVEN OAKS MASSACRE.

Semple's course is on trial. Self-assertion and dictation bring their own penalty with them. That so experienced a leader as Colin Robertson, who had been in both Companies, who knew the native element, and was acquainted with the daring and recklessness of the Nor'-Wester leaders, hesitated about demolishing Fort Gibraltar should have given Governor Semple pause. Ignorance and inexperience sometimes give men rare courage. But while Semple was self-confident he could not be exonerated from paying the price of his rashness.

Undoubtedly the Governor knew that the "Nor'-Westers" after their aggressiveness during the year 1815 were planning an attack upon Fort Douglas and upon the Colonists. Letters intercepted by the Governor acquainted him with the fact that an expedition was coming from Fort William in the East to fall upon the devoted Colony; also a letter from Qu'Appelle written by Cuthbert Grant, the young Bois-brules leader, to John Dugald Cameron, stated that the native horsemen were coming in the spring from the Saskatchewan forts to join those of Qu'Appelle, and says the writer, "It is hoped we shall come off with flying colors, and never to see any of them again in the Colonizing way in Red River."

The evidence in hand was clear enough to the Governor. He expected the attack, and as a soldier he took action from the military standpoint in destroying the enemy's base in levelling their Fort Gibraltar. But on the other hand there was no open war. The forms of law were being followed by the Nor'-Westers, whose officers were magistrates, and who held that by the authorization of the British Parliament the administration of justice in the Western Territories was given over to Canada. The decision afterwards given in the De Reinhard case in Quebec seems against this theory, but this was the popular opinion.

Thus it came about that among the Hudson's Bay Company fur traders, who were somewhat doubtful about Lord Selkirk's movement, and certainly among all the "Nor'-Westers," who included the French Canadian voyageur population, Governor Semple's action was looked upon as illegal and unjust in destroying Fort Gibraltar and appropriating its materials for building up the Colony Headquarters—Fort Douglas.

As the spring opened the wildest rumours of approaching conflict spread through the whole fifteen hundred miles of country from Fort William on Lake Superior, to the Prairie Fort, where Edmonton now stands on the North Saskatchewan. The excitement was especially high in the Qu'Appelle district, some three hundred miles west of Red River.

As the spring of 1815 opened, all eyes were looking to the action of the "New Nation" on the Qu'Appelle River as the Bois-brules under Cuthbert Grant called themselves. As the whole of these events were afterwards investigated by the law courts of Upper Canada, there is substantial agreement about the facts. The first violence of the season is described by Lieutenant Pambrun, a most accurate writer. He had served in the war of 1812 and gained distinction. On entering the Hudson's Bay Company service he was sent to Qu'Appelle district. In order to supply food at Fort Douglas Pambrun started down the river to reach the Fort by descending the Assiniboine with five boat loads of pemmican and furs. At a landing place in the river Pambrun's convoy was surrounded and his goods seized by Cuthbert Grant, Pambrun himself being kept for five days as a prisoner. While in custody Pambrun saw every evidence of war-like intentions on the part of the half-breeds. Cuthbert Grant frequently announced their determination to destroy the Selkirk Settlement; in boastful language it was declared that the Bois-brules would bow to no authority in Rupert's Land; in their gatherings they sang French war-songs to keep up the spirit of their corps. There was a ring of growing nationality in all their utterances.

A start was made late in May for the scene of action. Their prisoner Lieutenant Pambrun was taken with them and the captured pemmican was carried along as supplies for the journey.

On the way an episode of some moment occurred. On the river bank a band of Cree Indians was encamped.

Commander Macdonell addressed the redmen through an interpreter to incite them to action. A portion of his address was:

My Friends and Relations,—"I address you bashfully, for I have not a pipe of tobacco to give you.... The English have been spoiling the fair lands which belonged to you and the Bois-brules and to which they have no right. They have been driving away the buffalo. You will soon be poor and miserable if the English stay. But we will drive them away, if the Indian does not, for the 'Nor'-West' Company and the Bois-brules are one. If you (turning to the chief) and some of your young men will join I shall be glad."

But the taciturn Indian Chief coldly declined the polite proposal. As the party passed Brandon House Pambrun saw in the North-West Fort near by, tobacco, tools and furs, which had been captured by the Nor'-Westers from the Hudson's Bay Company fort. When Portage la Prairie was reached—about sixty miles from "The Forks"—the Bois-brules cavalcade was organized.

The half-breeds were mounted on their prairie steeds and formed a company of sixty men under command of Cuthbert Grant. Dressed in their blue capotes and encircled by red sashes the men of this irregular cavalry had an imposing effect, especially as they were provided with every variety of arms from muskets and pistols down to bows and arrows. They were all expert riders and could equal in their feats on horseback the fabled Centaurs.

Down the Portage road which is a prolongation of the great business street of Winnipeg running to the West, they came. On the 19th of June, 1816, they had arrived within four miles of the Colony headquarters—Fort Douglas. Here at Boggy Creek, called also Cat-Fish Creek, a Council of War was held. Some importance has been attached to their action at this point, as showing their motive. That they did not intend to attack Fort Douglas has been maintained, else they would not have turned off the Portage Road and have crossed the prairie to the Northeast. There is nothing in this contention. The plan of campaign was that the Fort William expedition and they were to meet at some point on the banks of Red River, before they took further action. Showing how well both parties had timed their movements, at this very moment those coming from the East under Trader Alexander McLeod, had reached a small tributary of Red River some forty miles from Fort Douglas. That they at present wished to avoid Fort Douglas is certainly true. Governor Semple and his garrison were on the look-out, and the alarm being given, the party from the Fort sallied forth. Was it to parley? or to fight?

The events which followed are well told in the evidence given by Mr. John Pritchard, who afterwards acted as Lord Selkirk's secretary. Mr. Pritchard was the grandfather of the present Archbishop Matheson of Rupert's Land. His evidence has been in almost every respect corroborated by other eye-witnesses of this bloody event:

"On the evening of the 19th of June, 1816, I had been upstairs in my own room, in Fort Douglas, and about six o'clock I heard the boy at the watch house give the alarm that the Bois-brules were coming. A few of us, among whom was Governor Semple—there were perhaps six altogether—looked through a spyglass, from a place that had been used as a stable, and we distinctly saw armed persons going along the plains. Shortly after, I heard the same boy call out, that the party on horseback were making to the settlers."

"About twenty of us, in obedience to the Governor," who said, 'We must go and see what these people are,' took our arms. He could only let about twenty go, at least he told about twenty to follow him, to come with him; there was, however, some confusion at the time, and I believe a few more than twenty accompanied us. Having proceeded about half a mile towards the settlement, we saw, behind a point of wood which goes down to the river, that the party increased very much. Mr. Semple, therefore, sent one of the people (Mr. Burke) to the Fort for a piece of cannon and as many men as Mr. Miles Macdonell could spare. Mr. Burke, however, not returning soon, Governor Semple said, 'Gentlemen, we had better go on, and we accordingly proceeded. We had not gone far before we saw the Bois-brules returning towards us, and they divided into two parties, and surrounded us in the shape of a half-moon or half-circle. On our way, we met a number of the settlers crying, and speaking in the Gaelic language, which I do not understand, and they went on to the Fort.



"The party on horseback had got pretty near to us, so that we could discover that they were painted and disguised in the most hideous manner; upon this, as they were retreating, a Frenchman named Boucher advanced, waving his hand, riding up to us, and calling out in broken English, 'What do you want? What do you want?' Governor Semple said. 'What do you want?' Mr. Burke not coming on with the cannon as soon as he was expected, the Governor directed the party to proceed onwards; we had not gone far before we saw the Bois-brules returning upon us.

"Upon observing that they were so numerous, we had extended our line, and got more into the open plain; as they advanced, we retreated; but they divided themselves into two parties, and surrounded us again in the shape of a half-moon."

"Boucher then came out of the ranks of his party, and advanced towards us (he was on horseback), calling out in broken English, 'What do you want? What do you want?' Governor Semple answered, 'What do you want?' To which Boucher answered, 'We want our Fort.' The Governor said, 'Well, go to your Fort.' After that I did not hear anything that passed, as they were close together. I saw the Governor putting his hand on Boucher's gun. Expecting an attack to be made instantly, I had not been looking at Governor Semple and Boucher for some time; but just then I happened to turn my head that way, and immediately I heard a shot, and directly afterwards a general firing. I turned round upon hearing the shot, and saw Mr. Holte, one of our officers, struggling as if he were shot. He was on the ground. On their approach, as I have said, we had extended our line on the plain, by each taking a place at a greater distance from the other. This had been done by the Governor's orders, and we each took such places as best suited our individual safety.

"From not seeing the firing begin, I cannot say from whom it first came; but immediately upon hearing the first shot, I turned and saw Lieut. Holte struggling." (Several persons present at the affair, such as a blacksmith named Heden, and McKay, a settler, distinctly state that the first shot fired was from the Bois-brules and that by it Lieut. Holte fell).

"As to our attacking our assailants, one of our people, Bruin, I believe, did propose that we should keep them off; and the Governor turned round and asked who could be such a rascal as to make such a proposition? and that he should hear no word of that kind again. The Governor was very much displeased indeed at the suggestion made. A fire was kept up for several minutes after the first shot, and I saw a number wounded; indeed, in a few minutes almost all our people were either killed or wounded. I saw Sinclair and Bruin fall, either wounded or killed; and a Mr. McLean, a little in front defending himself, but by a second shot I saw him fall.

"At this time I saw Captain Rodgers getting up again, but not observing any of our people standing, I called out to him, 'Rodgers, for God's sake give yourself up! Give yourself up!' Captain Rodgers ran toward them, calling out in English and in broken French, that he surrendered, and that he gave himself up, and praying them to save his life. Thomas McKay, a Bois-brules, shot him through the head, and another Bois-brules dashed upon him with a knife, using the most horrid imprecations to him. I did not see the Governor fall. I saw his corpse the next day at the Fort. When I saw Captain Rodgers fall, I expected to share his fate. As there was a French-Canadian among those who surrounded me, who had just made an end of my friend, I said, 'Lavigne, you are a Frenchman, you are a man, you are a Christian. For God's sake save my life! For God's sake try and save it! I give myself up; I am your prisoner.' McKay, who was among this party, and who knew me, said, 'You little toad, what do you do here?' He spoke in French, and called me 'un petit crapaud,' and asked what I did here! I fully expected then to lose my life. I again appealed to Lavigne, and he joined in entreating them to spare me. I told them over and over again that I was their prisoner, and I had something to tell them. They, however, seemed determined to take my life. They struck at me with their guns, and Lavigne caught some of the blows, and joined me in entreating for my safety. He told them of my kindness on different occasions. I remonstrated that I had thrown down my arms and was at their mercy. One Primeau wished to shoot me; he said I had formerly killed his brother. I begged him to recollect my former kindness to him at Qu'Appelle. At length they spared me, telling me I was a little dog, and had not long to live, and that he (Primeau) would find me when he came back.

"Then I went to Frog Plain (Kildonan), in charge of Boucher. In going to the plain I was again threatened by one of the party, and saved by Boucher, who conducted me safely to Frog Plain. I there saw Cuthbert Grant, who told me that they did not expect to have met us on the plain, but that their intention was to have surprised the Colony, and that they would have hunted the Colonists like buffaloes. He also told me they expected to have got round unperceived, and at night would have surrounded the Fort and have shot everyone who left it; but being seen, their scheme had been destroyed or frustrated. They were all painted and disfigured so that I did not know many. I should not have known that Cuthbert Grant was there, though I knew him well, had he not spoken to me."

"Grant told me that Governor Semple was not mortally wounded by the shot he received, but that his thigh was broken. He said that he spoke to the Governor after he was wounded, and had been asked by him to have him taken to the Fort, and as he was not mortally wounded he thought he might perhaps live. Grant said he could not take him himself as he had something else to do, but that he would send some person to convey him on whom he might depend, and that he left him in charge of a French-Canadian and went away; but that almost directly after he had left him, an Indian, who, he said, was the only rascal they had, came up and shot him in the breast, and killed him on the spot.

"The Bois-brules, who very seldom paint or disguise themselves, were on this occasion painted as I have been accustomed to see the Indians at their war-dance; they were very much painted, and disguised in a hideous manner. They gave the war-whoop when they met Governor Semple and his party; they made a hideous noise and shouting. I know from Grant, as well as from other Bois-brules, and other settlers, that some of the Colonists had been taken prisoners. Grant told me that they were taken to weaken the Colony, and prevent its being known that they were there—they having supposed that they had passed the Fort unobserved.

"Their intention clearly was to pass the Fort. I saw no carts, though I heard they had carts with them. I saw about five of the settlers prisoners in the camp at Frog Plain. Grant said to me further: 'You see we have had but one of our people killed, and how little quarter we have given you. Now, if Fort Douglas is not given up with all the public property instantly and without resistance, man, women and child will be put to death.' He said the attack would be made upon it that night, and if a single shot were fired, that would be a signal for the indiscriminate destruction of every soul. I was completely satisfied myself that the whole would be destroyed, and I besought Grant, whom I knew, to suggest or let them try and devise some means to save the women and children. I represented to him that they could have done no harm to anybody, whatever he or his party might think the men had. I entreated him to take compassion on them. I reminded him that they were his father's country-women and in his deceased father's name, I begged him to take pity and compassion on them and spare them.

"At last he said, if all the arms and public property were given up, we should be allowed to go away. After inducing the Bois-brules to allow me to go to Fort Douglas, I met our people; they were long unwilling to give up, but at last our Mr. Macdonell, who was now in charge consented. We went together to the Frog Plain, and an inventory of the property was taken when we had returned to the Fort. The Fort was delivered over to Cuthbert Grant, who gave receipts on each sheet of the inventory signed 'Cuthbert Grant, acting for the North-West Company.' I remained at Fort Douglas till the evening of the 22nd, when all proceeded down the river—the settlers, a second time on their journey into exile.

"The Colonists, it is true, had little now to leave. They were generally employed in agricultural pursuits, in attending to their farms, and the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company in their ordinary avocations. They lived in tents or in huts. In 1816 at Red River there was but one residence, the Governor's which was in Fort Douglas. The settlers had lived in houses previous to 1815, but in that year these had been burnt in the attack that had been made upon them. The settlers were employed during the day time on their land, and used to come up to the Fort to sleep in some of the buildings in the enclosure. All was now left behind. The Bois-brules victory being now complete, the messenger was despatched Westward to tell the news far and near."



CHAPTER X.

AFTERCLAPS.

The Seven Oaks affair was the most shocking episode that ever occurred in North-Western history. The standing of the victims, including a Governor appointed by the Hudson's Bay Company, his staff men of position, the unexpectedness of the collison, the suddenness of the attack, the destruction of life, the cruelty and injustice of the killing, and the barbarous treatment of the bodies of the dead, by the Bois-brules war party, fill one with horror, and remind one of scenes of butchery in dark Africa or the isles of the South Sea.

This is the more remarkable when it is considered that so far as known in the whole two hundred years and more of the career of the Hudson's Bay and Nor'-Wester Companies not so many officers and clerks of these two Companies have altogether perished by violence as in this unfortunate Seven Oaks disaster. No sooner was the massacre over than the Bois-brules took possession of Fort Douglas and were under the command meantime of Cuthbert Grant. There was the greatest hilarity among the Metis. This New Nation had been vindicated. About forty-five men under arms held possession of the Fort. The dead left upon the field were still exposed there days after the fight and were torn to pieces by the wild birds and beasts. The body of Governor Semple was carried to the Fort.

Word was meanwhile sent to Alexander Macdonell the partner who had brought with him the Qu'Appelle contingent and had waited at Portage la Prairie while Cuthbert Grant with his followers, chiefly disguised as Indians, had gone on their bloody work. Macdonell on receiving the news showed great satisfaction. He announced to those about him that Governor Semple and five of his officers had been killed; and becoming more enthusiastic shouted with an oath in French that twenty-two of the English were slain. His company shouted with joy at his announcement. Macdonell then went to Fort Douglas and took command of it. But what had become of the Eastern Company from Fort William? Of this a discharged non-commissioned officer, Huerter, of one of the mercenary regiments which had fought for Britain against the Americans in the War of 1812 was with them, and gives a good account of the journey. We need only deal with the ending of the expedition. Coming from Lake Winnipeg they reached Nettly Creek two days after the fight at Seven Oaks, expecting there to get news from the Western levy and Alexander Macdonell. But no news of that Company having reached them they started in boats up the Red River to reach the rendezvous agreed on at "Frog Plain," the spot where Kildonan church stands to-day. From this point they expected to meet with their Western reinforcement, and to move upon Fort Douglas and capture it, as Governor Semple had done with Fort Gibraltar. Their commander Archibald Norman McLeod was the senior officer and would later take command.

They had on the 23rd of June gone but a little way when they were surprised to meet seven or eight boats laden with men, women and children. These were the fragment of the Colony which had refused to go with Duncan Cameron down to Upper Canada. They had been sheltered in the Fort during the time of the fight and now were rudely driven away from the settlement, according to the announcement of Cuthbert Grant.

McLeod ordered the convoy of boats to stop and the Colonists to disembark. Their boxes and packages were opened, including the late Governor Semple's trunks, and examined for papers or letters which might give important information to the captors. The Western levy now joined them, and gave them full news of what had happened.

The Colonists were then ordered to re-embark and to proceed upon their journey to their lonely place of banishment whither they had gone the previous year—Jack River, near Norway House. One of the Bois-brules followed after them to make sure that they went upon their long voyage. McLeod's party then pushed on with great glee to Fort Douglas and were received with discharges of artillery and firearms. McLeod now took command of the captured Fort.

Huerter, the discharged soldier, formerly mentioned, went to the field of Seven Oaks about a week after the fight and confirmed Pambrun's account.

A.N. McLeod now became the superior officer in the Fort and made preparation for defending it. He himself occupied the late Governor Semple's quarters and passed out compliments to white and native alike, praising them for their daring, their adroitness and their success. A great meeting was then gathered in the Governor's apartments and a levee was held at which all of the servants and employees of the Company were present, and in a speech McLeod told the audience that the English had no right to build upon their lands without their permission—a new doctrine surely.

Leaving Fort Douglas McLeod with his officers and the Bois-brules all mounted, made an imposing procession up to the site of old Fort Gibraltar. Here Peguis, now the chief of the Saulteaux who had shown such kindness to the settlers was camped, and to him and his followers McLeod showed his great displeasure. The Indian always loved the British-man, whom on the west coast he called, "King Shautshman," or King George's man.

The Indian is taciturn, unemotional, and cautious. He knew that the Bois-brules had assumed their garb and committed the outrage of Seven Oaks, and therefore the tribe were unwilling to be under the stigma being thrown upon them. When McLeod had failed in his appeal, he laid many sins to their charge. They had allowed the English to carry away Duncan Cameron to Hudson Bay, they were a band of dogs, and he would count them always as his enemies if they should hold to their English friends. Peguis, who was a master diplomat, looked on with attention and held his peace.

It was now about a week from the time of the massacre. Huerter, the discharged soldier spoken of, rode down with a party from the Fort to the field of Seven Oaks. He saw a number of human bodies scattered on the plain, and in most cases the flesh had been torn off to the bone, evidently by dogs and wolves.

Far from discouraging the talkative half-breeds, whose blood was up with the sights of carnage, McLeod and his fellow-officers expressed their approbation of the deeds done, and the Bois-brules became boisterous in detailing their victories. The worst of the whole, old Deschamps, a French-Canadian, who murdered the disabled even when they cried for quarter, drew forth as he detailed his valorous actions to Alexander Macdonell, the exclamation, "What a fine, vigorous old man he is!" On the evening of this Red-letter day of the visit to the Indian encampment and to Seven Oaks, a wild and heathenish orgy took place. The Bois-brules bedecked their naked bodies with Indian trinkets and executed the dance of victory, as had done their savage ancestors. The effect of these dances is marvellous. By a contagious shout they excite each other. They reach a frenzy which communicates itself with hypnotic effect to the whole dancing circle. At times men tear their hair, cut their flesh or even mutilate their limbs for life. The "tom-tom," or Indian drum, adds to the power of monotonous rhythm and to the spirit of excitement and frenzy.

To the partners McLeod and the others, however much in earnest the actors might be, it afforded much amusement, and gave hope of a strength and enthusiasm that would bind them fast to the "Nor'-Wester" side.

The struggle over and the battle won, while leaving the garrison sufficient to hold the fort, ten days after the fight the partners and those forming the Northern brigade, who were to penetrate to the wilds to Athabasca, departed. They were following down the Red River and Lake Winnipeg, in the very path which the fleeing Colonists had gone, but they would turn toward the "Grand Rapids" at the spot where the great river of the West pours into Lake Winnipeg, and by this way speed themselves to the great hunting fields of the North. The departure of what was called the Grand Brigade was signalized by an artillery salute from Fort Douglas, which resounded through the wretched ruins of the houses burnt the previous year, and over the fields deserted by the Colonists and left to the chattering blackbird and the howling wolf. Almost every race of people—however small—has its bard. Among the Bois-brules was the son of old Pierre Falcon, a French-Canadian, of some influence among the natives. This young poet was a character. He had the French vivacity, the prejudice of race, the devotion to the Scotch Fur Company and a considerable rhyming talent. Many years after Pierre Falcon won the admiration of the buffalo hunter and was the friend of all the dusky maidens who followed his song of love or war alike. He it was who sang the song of his race and helped to keep up the love of fun among the French people of the Red River. It was reminiscent of victory and also a forecast of future influence and power. Various versions of Pierre Falcon's song have come down to us celebrating the victory of Seven Oaks. We give a simple translation of the bard's effusion:

PIERRE FALCON'S SONG.

Come listen to this song of truth! A song of the brave Bois-brules, Who at Frog Plain took three captives, Strangers come to rob our country.

When dismounting there to rest us, A cry is raised—the English! They are coming to attack us, So we hasten forth to meet them.

I looked upon their army, They are motionless and downcast; So, as honor would incline us We desire with them to parley.

But their leader, moved with anger, Gives the word to fire upon us; And imperiously repeats it, Rushing on to this destruction.

Having seen us pass his stronghold, He had thought to strike with terror The Bois-brules; ah! mistaken, Many of his soldiers perish.

But a few escaped the slaughter, Rushing from the field of battle; Oh, to see the English fleeing! Oh, the shouts of their pursuers!

Who has sung this song of triumph? The good Pierre Falcon had composed it, That the praise of these Bois-brules Might be evermore recorded.



CHAPTER XI.

THE SILVER CHIEF ARRIVES.

The scene changes to the home of the founder of the Colony. The Earl of Selkirk is living at his interesting seat—St. Mary's Isle, and letter after letter arrives which has taken many weeks on the road, coming down through trackless prairie, across the middle and Eastern States of America and reaching him via New York. These letters continue to increase in being more and more terrible until his island home seems to be in a state of siege.

St. Mary's Isle lies at the mouth of the Dee on Solway Frith, opposite the town of Kirkcudbright. Here in 1778 Paul Jones, the so-called pirate in the employ of the Revolutionary Government in America, had landed, invested the dwelling with his men, and carried away all the plate and jewels of the House of Selkirk. The Old Manor House of St. Mary's Isle, with its very thick stone wall on one side, evidently had been a keep or castle. It was at one time given to the church and became a monastery, then it was enlarged and improved to become the dwelling of the family of the Douglasses, which it is to this day.

But now the far cry from Red River reverberated across the Atlantic. The startling succession of events of 1815 reached the Earl one after another. It was late in the year when he made up his mind, but taking his Countess, his two daughters and his only son, Dunbar, a mere boy, and crossing the ocean he heard, on his arrival in New York, of the complete destruction by flight and expulsion of the people of his Colony. About the end of October he reached Montreal, but winter was too near to allow him to travel up the lakes and through the wilds to Red River.

The winter in Montreal was long, but the atmosphere of opposition to Lord Selkirk in that city, the home of the Nor'-Westers, was more trying to him than the frost and snow. His every movement was watched. Even the avenues of Government power seemed by influential Nor'-Westers to be closed against him. An appeal to Sir Gordon Drummond, the Governor-General, could obtain no more than a promise of a Sergeant and six men to protect him personally should he go to the far West, and the appointment of himself as a Justice of the Peace in Upper Canada and the Indian Territory was grudgingly given.

The active mind of his Lordship occupied the time of winter well. He planned nothing less than introducing to the banks of Red River a body of men as settlers, who could, like the returned exiles to Jerusalem, work with sword in one hand and a tool of industry in the other. The man of resource finds his material ready made. Two mercenary regiments from Switzerland which had been fighting England's battles in America had just been disbanded, and Lord Selkirk at once engaged them to go as settlers, under his pay, to Red River. From the commanding officer of the larger regiment these have always been called the "De Meurons." From these two regiments—one at Montreal and the other at Kingston—he engaged an hundred men, each provided with a musket, and with rather more than that number of expert voyageurs started in June 16th, 1816, for the North-West. The route followed by him was up Lake Ontario to Toronto, then across country to Georgian Bay and through it to Ste. Sault Marie. At Drummond Island, being the last British garrison toward the West, he got from the Indians news of the efforts of the Nor'-Westers to involve them in the wars of the whites. The Indians had, however, resisted all their temptations. Lord Selkirk again overtook his party and passed through the St. Mary's River into Lake Superior.

Here a new grief awaited him.

Two canoes coming from Fort William brought him the sad news about Governor Semple and his party being killed at Seven Oaks, as it did also of the second expulsion of the Colonists. Lord Selkirk had been intending to go west to where Duluth now stands and then overland to the Red River.

He now changed his plans and with true Scottish pluck headed directly to Fort William. Here assaults, arrests and imprisonments took place. It is needless for us to give the details of this unfortunate affair, except to say that the seizure of the Fort brought much trouble afterwards to the founder.

Moving some miles up the Kaministiquia River Lord Selkirk made his military encampment, which bore the name of "Pointe De Meuron."

Plans were soon made for the spring attack on Fort Douglas.

In March, stealthily crossing the silent pathways for upwards of four hundred miles and striking the Red River some where near the international boundary line, the De Meurons came northward and made a circuit towards Silver Heights. There, having constructed ladders, they next made a night attack on Fort Douglas, and being trained soldiers easily captured it, and restored it to its rightful owner, Lord Selkirk.

On May day, 1817, Lord Selkirk, with his body guard, left Fort William and following the water-courses arrived at his own Fort in the last week of June. Fort Douglas was the centre of his Colony, and there he was at once the chief figure of the picture.

None of the Selkirk Settlers' descendants who are living to-day saw him in Fort Douglas, but a number who have passed away have told the writer that they remembered him well. He was tall in stature, thin and refined in appearance. He had a benignant face, his manner was easy and polite. To the Indians he was especially interesting. They caught the idea that being a man of title he was in some way closely connected with their Great Father the King. Because of his generosity to them in making a treaty, they called him "The Silver Chief." He was the source of their treaty money.

It is said that some of the last party to reach his Colony had seen him at Kildonan in Scotland, where he had visited them, and encouraged them in their departure for the Colony.

His first duties were to the unfortunate settlers, who had been brought back from Jack River.

Lord Selkirk gathered the Colonists on the spot where the church and burial ground of St. John's are still found. "The Parish," said he, "shall be Kildonan. Here you shall build your church, and that lot," he said, pointing to the lot across the little stream called Parsonage Creek, "is for a school." He was thus planning to carry out the devout imagination of the greatest religious leader of his nation, John Knox: "A church and a school for every parish."

Perhaps the most interesting episode in Lord Selkirk's visit was his treaty-making with the Indians. The plan of securing a strip of land on each side of the river was said to have been decided to be as much as could be seen by looking under the belly of a horse out upon the prairie. This was about two miles. Hence the river lots were generally about two miles long.

His meeting with the Indians was after the manner of a great "Pow-wow." The Indians are fluent and eloquent speakers, though they indulge in endless repetitions.

Peguis, the Saulteaux chief, befriended the white man from the beginning. He denounced the Bois-brules. He said, "We do not acknowledge these men as an independent tribe."

"L'Homme Noir," the Assiniboine chief, among other things, said: "We have often been told you were our enemy, but we hear from your own mouth the words of a true friend."

"Robe Noire," the Chippewa, tried in lofty style to declare: "Clouds have over-whelmed me. I was a long time in doubt and difficulty, but now I begin to see clearly."

While Lord Selkirk was still in his Colony, the very serious state of things on the banks of Red River and the pressure of the British Government led to the appointment, by the Governor-General of Canada, of a most clear-minded and peace-loving man as Commissioner. This appointment was all the more pleasing on account of Mr. W.B. Coltman being a resident Canadian of Quebec. Coltman was one man among a thousand. He was patient and kind and just. Though he had come to the Colony prejudiced against Lord Selkirk, he found his Lordship so fair and reasonable that he became much attached to the man represented in Montreal and the far East as a destructive ogre.

The Commissioner's report covered one hundred pages, and it was in all respects a model. He thoroughly understood the motives of both parties, and his decisions led to a perfect era of peace, and moreover in the end to the union of the Hudson's Bay and Nor'-West Companies.

Lord Selkirk's coming was like a ray of sunshine to the Colonists of Red River. Being of an intensely religious disposition, the people reminded him that the elder who came out in 1815, who was able to baptize and marry, had been carried away by main force by the Nor'-Westers to Canada in 1818, so that they were without religious services. They always continued to have prayer meetings and to keep up the pious customs of their fathers. This practise long survived among them. In repeating his promise of a clergyman, Lord Selkirk asserted to them: "Selkirk never forfeited his word."

His work done among his Colonists, he left them never to see them again. He went south from Fort Douglas to the United States, visited, it is said, St. Louis, came to the Eastern States, and rejoined in Montreal his Countess and children who had in his absence lived in great anxiety. One of his daughters, afterwards Lady Isabella Hope, told the writer nearly thirty years ago that she as a girl remembered seeing Lord Selkirk as he returned from this long journey, coming around the Island into Montreal Harbor paddled by French voyageurs in swift canoes to his destination. His attention was immediately given to law suits and actions brought against him in the courts of Upper Canada. These legal conflicts originated from the troubles about the two centres—Fort Douglas and Fort William—where the collisions had taken place. The influence of the Nor'-Westers in Montreal was so great that the U.E. Loyalists of Upper Canada sympathised with them against the noble philanthropist. Justice was undoubtedly perverted in Upper Canada in the most shameless way. Weak in body at the best, Lord Selkirk by his misfortunes, losses and legal persecution began to fail in health. With the sense of having been unjustly defeated, and anxious about his Colonists in Red River, he returned with his family to Britain to his beloved St. Mary's Isle. He sought for justice from the British Parliament, but could there get no movement in his favor. A copy of a letter to him from Sir Walter Scott, his old friend, is in the hands of the writer, but Sir Walter was himself too ill at the time to lend him aid in presenting his case before the British public. Heart-broken, he gave up the struggle. With the Countess and his family he went to the South of France and died on April 8th, 1820, at Pau, and his bones lie in the Protestant Cemetery of Orthes.

He had not fought in vain. He had broken down single-handed a system of organized terrorism in the heart of North America, for the Nor'-Westers never rose to strength again. They united in a few years with the Hudson's Bay Company. He established a Colony that has thriven; he cherished a lofty vision; he made mistakes in action, in judgment, and in a too great optimism, but if we understand him aright he bore an untainted and resolute soul.

"Only those are crown'd and sainted Who with grief have been acquainted Making Nations nobler, freer."

"In their feverish exultations, In their triumph and their yearning, In their passionate pulsations, In their words among the nations The Promethean fire is burning."

"But the glories so transcendent That around their memories cluster, And on all their steps attendant, Make their darken'd lives resplendent With such gleams of inward lustre."



CHAPTER XII.

SOLDIERS AND SWISS.

Many Canadian Settlements have had a military origin. It was considered a wise, strategic move in the game of national defence when Colonel Butler and his Rangers, after the Treaty of Paris, were settled along the Niagara frontier, and when Captain Grass and other United Empire Loyalists took up their holdings at Kingston and other points on the boundary line along the St. Lawrence. The town of Perth was the headquarters of a military settlement in Central Canada. Traces of military occupation can still be found in such Highland districts of Canada as Pictou, Glengarry and Zorra, in which last named township the enthusiastic Celt in 1866 declared that perhaps the Fenians would take Canada, but they could never take Zorra. Numerous examples can be found all through Canada where there is an aroma of valor and patriotism surrounding the old army officer or the families of the veterans of the Napoleonic or Crimean wars.

The settlement of the De Meuron soldiers opposite Fort Douglas gave some promise of a military flavor to Selkirk Settlement. But as we shall see it was an ill-advised attempt at colonization. It was a mistake to settle some hundred or more single men as these soldiers were without a woman among them, as Lord Selkirk was compelled to do. To these soldier-colonists he gave lands along the small winding river now called the Seine, which empties into Red River opposite Point Douglas. Many of the De Meurons spoke German, and hence for several years the little stream on which they lived was called German Creek. The writings of the time are full of rather severe criticism of these bello-agricultural settlers. Of course no one expects an old soldier to be of much use to a new country. He is usually a lazy settler. His habits of life are formed in another mould from that of the farm. He is apt to despise the hoe and the harrow and many even of the half-pay officers who came to hew out a home in the Canadian forest, never learned to cut down a tree or to hold a plough, though it may be admitted that they lived a useful life in their sons and daughters, while the culture and decision of character of the old officer or sturdy veteran were an asset of great value to the locality in which he settled.

But the De Meurons were not only bachelors, but they came from the peasantry of Austria and Italy, they had not fought for home and country, and their life of mercenary soldiering had made them selfish and deceitful. A writer of the time speaks, and evidently with much prejudice, against the De Meurons. "They were," he says, "a medley of almost all nations—Germans, French, Italians, Swiss and others. They were bad farmers and withal very bad subjects; quarrelsome, slothful, famous bottle companions and ready for any enterprise however lawless and tyrannical." A few years later we find it stated that they made free with the cattle of their neighbors, and the chronicler does not hesitate to say that the herds of the De Meurons grew in number in exactly the same ratio as those of the Scottish settlers decreased.

Some four years after the settlement of the De Meurons a sunburst came upon them quite unexpectedly.

Lord Selkirk in the very last years of his life planned to bring a band of Protestant settlers from Switzerland. A Colonel May, late of another of the mercenary regiments, accepted the duty of going to Switzerland, issuing a very attractive invitation to settlers, and succeeded in shipping a considerable number of Swiss families to his so-called Red River paradise.

This band of Colonists, consisting as they did of "watch and clock-makers, pastry cooks and musicians," were quite unfit for the rough work of the Selkirk Colony. In 1821 they were brought by way of Hudson Bay, over the same rocky way as the earlier Colonists came. They were utterly poverty stricken, though honest, and well-behaved. Their only possession of value was a plenty of handsome daughters. The Swiss families on arrival were placed under tents nearby Fort Douglas. As soon as possible many of the Swiss settlers were placed alongside the De Meurons on German Creek. Good Mr. West, who had just been sent out as chaplain by the Hudson's Bay Company, in place of the minister of their own faith promised to the Scottish settlers, did a great stroke of work in marrying the young Swiss girls to the De Meuron bachelors of German Creek. The description of the way in which the De Meurons invited families having young women in them to the wifeless cabins is ludicrous. A modern "Sabine raid" was made upon the young damsels, who were actually carried away to the De Meuron homesteads. The Swiss families which had the misfortune to have no daughters in them were left to languish in their comfortless tents. The afflictions of the earlier Selkirk settlers were increased by the arrival of these settlers. With the Selkirk settlers in their first decade the first consideration was always food. Till that question is settled no Colony can advance. Probably the most alarming and hopeless feature of their new colonial life was the appearance of vast flights of locusts or grasshoppers, which devoured every blade of wheat and grass in the country. To those who have never seen this plague it is inconceivable. Some thirty-five years ago in Manitoba the writer witnessed the utter devastation of the country by these pests. Some thirteen years before the coming of the first Colonists this plague prevailed. About the end of July, 1818, these riders of the air made their attack. In this year the Selkirk Colonists were greatly discouraged by the capture and removal to Canada, by the Nor'-Westers, of Mr. James Sutherland, their spiritual guide. But their labors now seem likely to be rewarded by a good harvest. The oats and barley were in ear, when suddenly the invasion came. The vast clouds of grasshoppers sailing northward from the great Utah desert in the United States, alighted late in the afternoon of one day and in the morning fields of grain, gardens with their promise, and every herb in the Settlement were gone, and a waste like a blasted hearth remained behind. The event was more than a loss of their crops, it seemed a heaven-struck blow upon their community, and it is said they lifted up their eyes to heaven, weeping and despairing. The sole return of their labors for the season was a few ears of half-ripened barley which the women saved and carried home in their aprons. There was no help for it but to retire to Pembina, although there was less fear than formerly for as a writer of the day says: "The settlers had now become good hunters; they could kill the buffalo; walk on snowshoes; had trains of dogs trimmed with ribbons, bells and feathers, in true Indian style; and in other respects were making rapid steps in the arts of a savage life."

The complete loss of their crops left the settlers even without the seed-wheat necessary to sow their fields. The nearest point of supply of this necessity was an agricultural settlement in the State of Minnesota, upwards of five hundred miles away. Here was a mighty task—to undertake to cross the plains in winter and to bring back in time for the seeding time in spring the wheat which was necessary. But the Highlander is not to be deterred by rocky crag or dashing river, or heavy snow in his own land and he was ready to face this and more in the new world. And so a daring party went off on snowshoes, and taking three months for their trip, reached the land of plenty and secured some hundred bushels at the price of ten shillings a bushel.

The question now was how to transport the wheat through a trackless wilderness. Up the Mississippi River for hundreds of miles the flat boats constructed for the purpose were painfully propelled, and passing through the branch known as the Minnesota River the Stony Lake was reached. This lake is the source of the Minnesota and Red rivers, and being at high water in the spring it was possible to go through the narrow lake from one river to the other with the rough boats constructed. The Red River was reached by the fearless adventurers who brought the "corn out of Egypt." They did not, however, reach the Red River with their treasure till about the end of June, 1820, and while the wheat grew well it was sown too late to ripen well, although it gave the settlers grain enough to sow the fields of the coming year. This expedition cost Lord Selkirk upwards of a thousand pounds sterling. In the following year the grasshoppers again visited the Red River fields, but by a sudden movement which, by some of the good Colonists was interpreted to be a direct interference of Providence on their behalf, the swarms of intruders passed away never to appear again in the Red River for half a century.

The presence of the grasshoppers upon the Canadian prairies is one of interest. It is known that they appeared throughout the territory of Red River a dozen years or so before the coming of the Selkirk Colonists, also during the period we have been describing, and then not till the period from 1868 to 1875. During the latter half of this period the writer saw their devastations in Manitoba. The occurrence of the grasshopper at times in all agricultural districts in America is very different from the grasshopper or locust plague which we are describing. The red-legged Caloptenus or the Rocky Mountain locust are provided for lofty flight and pass in myriads over the prairies, lighting whenever a cloud obscures the sun. At one time the writer saw them in such hordes that they were found from Winnipeg to Edmonton, over a region about one thousand miles in breadth. In that year they devoured not only crops and garden products but almost completely ate up the grass on the prairie to such an extent as to make it useless for hay. In the year 1875 they appeared, in the main, for the last time in Manitoba, and in that year their disappearance was as sudden as in the former case of 1821. Under the wing upon the body of each grasshopper was to be found one or more scarlet red parasites which drew all the juices from the body of the insect and produced death. For a third of a century they have been almost unknown, and the area of cultivated ground in the States of North and South Dakota, where they may supply their hunger renders it likely that Manitoba will know them no more. It cannot be wondered at that such continuous disasters made the settler whether Scottish, De Meuron, or Swiss, extremely discontented. During the period of the scourge, the only resource was to winter at Pembina in reasonable distance from the buffalo-herds. In one of these years a number of the Selkirk Colonists did not return to their farms but emigrated to the United States. As we shall see in a few years after the grasshopper scourge the flood of the Red River took place, when the De Meurons and Swiss, with one or two exceptions, disappeared from the Colony and became citizens of the United States.



CHAPTER XIII.

ENGLISH LION AND CANADIAN BEAR LIE DOWN TOGETHER.

That such violence and bloodshed as that about Fort Douglas, should be seen by British subjects under the flag which stands for justice and equal rights made sober-minded Britons blush. While Lord Selkirk's agents on the banks of the Red River may have been aggressive in pushing their rights, yet to the Canadians was chargeable the greater part of the bloodshed. This was but natural. To the hunter, the trapper, and the frontiersman the use of firearms is familiar. The fur trader protects himself thus from the bear and the panther. The hot blood of the Metis as he careered over the prairie on his steed boiled up at the least provocation.

But the disheartening law suits through which Lord Selkirk passed in Sandwich, Toronto, and Montreal, reflected more dishonor on the Canadians than did even the bloody violence of the Bois-Brules. The chicanery employed by the Canadian courts, the procuring of special legislation to adapt the law to Lord Selkirk's case, and the invocation of the highest social and even clerical influence in Upper Canada for the purpose of injuring his Lordship will ever remain a blot on earlier Canadian jurisprudence. Fortunately the rights of man, whether native or foreigner, are now better understood and more fully protected in Canada than they were in the second decade of the nineteenth century. Col. Coltman's report, as already stated, was a model of truthfulness, fair play and freedom from prejudice, and Coltman was a Canadian appointee.

So grave, however, were the rumours of these events happening on the plains of Rupert's Land, as they reached Britain that the House of Commons named a committee to enquire into the troubles. This committee sat in 1819, and the result is a blue-book of considerable size which exposes the injustice most fully. The violence and bloodshed which the fur traders now heard of far and near paralyzed the fur trade carried on by both fur companies, and brought the financial affairs of both companies to the verge of destruction. Two startling events of the next year produced a great shock. These were sudden and untimely deaths of the two great opponents—Lord Selkirk at an early age in France, and Sir Alexander Mackenzie, at his estate in Scotland, he having been seized with sudden illness on his way from London. The two men died within a month of one another in the spring of 1820. Their passing away was surely impressive. It seemed like an offering to the god of peace in order that the vast region with its scattered and thunderstruck inhabitants from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean might be saved from the horrors of a cruel war of brother against brother, and a war which might involve even the cautious but hot-blooded Indian tribes.

Though the two parties were made up of daring and head-strong men, yet adversity is a hard but effective teacher.

The Hudson's Bay Company was represented by Andrew Colville, a warm friend of the house of Selkirk, the opponents by Edward Ellice, a Nor'-Wester. It seemed, indeed, the very irony of fate that Ellice should be a negotiator for peace. He and his sons the writer heard spoken of by the late Earl of Selkirk—the son of the founder—as the bear and cubs. On the other hand the burly directors of the Hudson's Bay Company possessed with all the confidence of the British Lion, and with their motto of "Skin for skin" were only brought to a state of peace by the loss of dividends. Much correspondence passed between the offices of Leadenhall Street and Suffolk Lane in London, which the two companies occupied, but articles of agreement were not sufficient to make a union.

All such coalitions to be successful must circle around a single man.

This man was a young Scottish clerk, who had spent a year only in the far Athabasca district. He had not depended on birth or influence for his advancement, was not yet wholly immersed in the traditions or prejudices of either company, and had consequently nothing to unlearn. Montreal became the Canadian headquarters of the company, but now the annual meeting of the traders where he as Governor presided, was held at Norway House. The offices in London were united, and thus the affairs of the fur trade were provided for and outward peace at least was guaranteed. We are, however, chiefly dealing with the affairs of Assiniboia as Lord Selkirk called it, or with what was more commonly called Red River Settlement. This belonged to Lord Selkirk's heirs. The executors were, of course, Hudson's Bay Company grandees. They were Sir James Montgomery, Mr. Halkett, Andrew Colville, and his brother the Solicitor-general of Scotland. When the news came of the death of Lord Selkirk, the mishaps and disturbances of the Colony had been so many, that Hudson's Bay Company, Nor'-Westers, Settlers, and Freemen all said, "That will end the Colony now!" To the surprise of everyone the first message from the executors was one of courage, and the announcement was made that their first aim would be to send six hundred new settlers to the banks of Red River.



The angry passions which had been roused led the English directors to take the very wise step of sending out two representatives—one from each of the old companies to rearrange all matters and settle all disputes. The two delegates were Nicholas Garry, the Vice-Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Simon McGillivray, who bore one of the most influential names of the Nor'-Wester traders. They were not, however, equally well liked. Garry was a courteous, fair, and kindly gentleman. He won golden opinions among officers and settlers alike. McGillivray was suspicious and selfish, so the records of the time state. They came to the Red River in 1821, and Garry entered particularly into the arrangement of the Forts at the Forks. The old Fort Douglas was retained as Colony Fort, and the small Hudson's Bay Company trading house as well as Fort Gibraltar were absorbed into the new fort which was erected on the banks of the Assiniboine between Main Street and the bank of the Red River. All the letters and documents of the time speak of Governor Garry's visits as carrying a gleam of sunshine wherever he went and it was appropriate that the new fort built in the following year should bear the name Fort Garry. This was the wooden fort, which still remained in existence though superseded as a fort in 1850.

At the time of Governor Garry's visit the population of the settlement may be considered to have been about five hundred. These were made up of somewhat less than two hundred Selkirk Colonists, about one hundred De Meurons, a considerable number of French Voyageurs and Freemen, Swiss Colonists perhaps eighty, and the remainder Orkney, employees of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Colony was, however, beginning to organize itself. The accounts of the French settlers are very vague, an occasional name flitting across the page of history. One family still found on Red River banks, gains celebrity as possessing the first white woman who came to Rupert's Land. With her husband she had gone to Edmonton in ——, and had wandered over the prairies. In 1811, with her husband, she first saw the Forks of Red River and wintered in 1811-12 at Pembina, the winter which the first band of Colonists spent at York Factory. Lajimoniere became a fast adherent of Lord Selkirk, and made a famous and most dangerous winter journey through the wilds alone, carrying letters from Red River to Montreal, delivered them personally to Lord Selkirk in 1815.

The Lajimonieres received with great delight in 1818 the first Roman Catholic missionaries who reached Red River. These were sent through Lord Selkirk's influence, and the large gift of land known as the Seigniory lying east of St. Boniface was the reward given to the early pioneer missionaries—Provencher and Dumoulin, men of great stature and manly bearing. In the year of their arrival James Sutherland, the Presbyterian chaplain of the Selkirk Colonists, was taken by the Nor'-Westers to Upper Canada, whither his son, Haman Sutherland, had gone in 1815 with Duncan Cameron. The Earl of Selkirk had promised to send to his Scottish Colonists a minister of their own faith. On his death in France his agent in London was Mr. John Pritchard. Seventeen days after the death of Lord Selkirk, Rev. John West was appointed to come as chaplain to the Colonists and the other Protestants of Red River. Pritchard arrived by Hudson's Bay ship at York Factory 15 Aug., 1820, having Mr. West in company with him.