Part 41 (1/2)
(_See page 413._)]
[Sidenote: Killing of Governor Semple.]
Semple's words were: ”We must go out and meet these people; let twenty men follow me.” They proceeded by the frequented path leading to the settlement. As they went along they met many of the colonists, who were running towards them, crying: ”The half-breeds! The half-breeds!”
An advance was made of about one mile, when some persons on horseback were discerned in ambush, close at hand, and the Governor, somewhat uneasy at the signs of their numbers, had just decided to send for a field-piece, when a fearful clamour pierced the air, and he saw it was too late. The half-breeds galloped forward, their faces painted in the most hideous manner, and all dressed in the Indian fas.h.i.+on[103] and surrounded the Hudson's Bay people in the form of a half-moon. As they advanced the latter party retreated, and a North-West employee named Boucher rode up very close to Governor Semple and asked what he wanted there? To this enquiry, which was delivered in a very authoritative and insolent tone, Semple replied by demanding of Boucher what he and his party wanted? Boucher said: ”We want our fort,” and the Governor's answer was: ”Well, go to your fort.” In a loud tone came the other's rejoinder: ”You d.a.m.ned rascal, you have destroyed our fort.” Semple, though a man of extremely mild manners and cultivated mind, flushed with indignation at such an address, and incautiously laid hand upon the bridle of Boucher's horse, according to some; of his gun, according to others. A few high words pa.s.sed. Two shots rang out in quick succession, by the first of which Holt fell, and by the second Semple was wounded.[104] In a few minutes the field was covered with bleeding forms; almost all Semple's men were either killed or wounded.
Save in a single instance no quarter was given; the injured were summarily despatched, and on the bodies of the dead were practised all the revolting horrors which characterize the inhuman heart of the savage.[105]
[Ill.u.s.tration: VICINITY OF FORT DOUGLAS.]
In all twenty-one persons were killed, the remaining eight escaping to the woods. Besides Governor Semple, Lieutenant Holt, Captain Rogers, Dr. James White and Dr. Wilkinson, the Governor's private secretary were amongst the dead.
Immediately every human being at Fort Douglas was plunged into confusion and dismay. The survivors, hastily returning, told their fell tale, and men, women and children crowded together seeking protection within its walls. Bourke, and a few of his companions, had succeeded in regaining the fort with the cannon he had taken out. All waited for the expected attack of the North-Westers. An anxious night ensued, but no attack, and it was afterwards learnt that the Bois-Brules had a wholesome dread of the cannon in the hands of the settlers.
Pritchard, who had been taken prisoner to the camp ground of the main body of the half-breeds, now begged Cuthbert Grant, the leader, to be allowed to go to Fort Douglas. After securing his consent, he met with a refusal on the part of the others, until he gave a promise to bear a message of eviction to the colonists and return. Grant accompanied the prisoner on parole as far as Seven Oaks, where the ground was still strewn with the corpses of the slain.
[Sidenote: The Nor'-Westers demand evacuation.]
On reaching Fort Douglas, Pritchard informed the unhappy settlers that they must depart, which if they did immediately, a safe escort would be provided them, and they would be permitted to take all their personal effects. They were told that two other groups of North-Westers were daily expected to arrive in the locality, one hailing from the Saskatchewan, and the other party from Lake Superior.
It would, therefore, be necessary to send some of the Bois-Brules with them, to explain the situation.
At first the colonists refused to listen to these terms. Sheriff McDonnell, who was now in charge of the settlement, resolved to hold the fort as long as the men were disposed to guard it. But they were not long of this courageous temper. After fully considering the situation, the settlers concluded to depart, and after several conferences between the sheriff and Cuthbert Grant, a capitulation was arranged.
An inventory of all the property was taken, and the whole delivered up to the half-breed leader, for the use of the North-West company, each sheet of the inventory being signed as follows:--
”Received on account of the North-West Company by me, Cuthbert Grant, Clerk for the N.-West Co.”
[Sidenote: Arrest of colonists.]
In two days the colonists, in all nearly two hundred, were ready to embark for Hudson's Bay. Albeit they had not been long on the voyage down the river before they were met by Norman McLeod, one of the leading partners of the North-West company, accompanied by a large party in canoes. At sight of the settlers the North-Westers set up an Indian war-whoop, and when they drew sufficiently near, McLeod, who posed as a magistrate, is said to have enquired, ”Whether that rascal and scoundrel Robertson was in the boats.” The colloquy was followed by a seizure of the accounts and papers of the settlers, including some of Governor Semple's letters. Of these they kept what they deemed proper, the rest being returned. McLeod took his magistracy very seriously, and seems to have regarded the whole party as his prisoners. He expressed neither horror nor regret at the murder of Semple and his companions, but ordered Sheriff McDonnell, Pritchard, Bourke, Corcoran, Heden and McKay to be arrested and put under a strong guard. McDonnell was liberated on bail, but the others were treated for nearly a week with the greatest indignity. Nevertheless, the North-Westers felt themselves in a sorry plight, which, they flattered themselves, a brazen behaviour might alleviate.
The five men thus made prisoners were, after various delays and after two of them had been put in irons, conveyed to Fort William. They had not long been inmates of quarters at this great post, when McLeod and his party arrived there. With him came a number of the Bois-Brules, Semple's murderers, bearing a portion of the plunder which had been reserved for the North-West company. Their arrival was the signal for rejoicing. The air was filled with impromptu songs and ballads commemorative of the happy event, which swept away the colony on the Red River. The ”complete downfall” desired by the North-West partner seemed to have been consummated.
At that time Fort William was the great emporium of the North-West company. An extensive a.s.sortment of merchandise was brought thither every year from Montreal by large canoes or the Company's vessels on the lakes, these returning with the furs to Canada and from thence s.h.i.+pped to England.
It is difficult to imagine, as one visits the spot to-day, that it was once the abode of industry, of gaiety, of opulence and even of splendour. It boasted a fas.h.i.+onable season, which continued from May to late in August, and during this period the fur aristocracy, the _bourgeoisie_ and the _canaille_, met and mingled in a picturesque carnival of mirth, feasting and exultation.
It was the meeting-place between the Montreal partners and voyageurs, and those who coursed the boundless expanse of the distant west. To the wintering clerks and partners, after their hards.h.i.+ps and fasts in the interior, Fort William seemed a foretaste of Paradise, and a hundred journals of a hundred traders tell again the tale of a dream of distant Fort William, which, in the midst of cold, hunger and desolation, cheered the wanderer's heart and lightened his burdens.
For the voyageurs it was all in all. To reach Fort William, enjoy the carnival, and betwixt drink and riotous living dissipate the hard-earned wages of years was to them often the happiness of earth and heaven combined.
[Sidenote: Fort William described.]
It was in the great dining-hall that there centred the chief glory of Fort William. Of n.o.ble proportions was it, and capable of entertaining two hundred persons, and here fully two hundred sat when the news from Red River reached them. Let us attempt to describe the scene. There on a glittering pedestal looked down on the joyous company a marble bust of Simon McTavish; while ever and anon the eye of some struggling clerk or ambitious partner would be attracted by a row of paintings, depicting to the life the magnates of the North, and rest with ecstasy upon those gleaming eyes and rubicund cheeks, cheerful prophesies of his own roseate future. Not all were portraits of opulent Northmen--other heroes lent the glory of their visages to this s.p.a.cious hall--the King in his majesty, the Prince Regent, and Admiral the Lord Nelson. A gigantic painting of the memorable battle of the Nile also adorned the walls. At the upper end hung a huge map of the Indian country, drawn by David Thompson, he who had written at the crisis of his career, ”To-day I left the services of the Hudson's Bay Company to join the North-West, and may G.o.d help me.” On this extraordinary production were inscribed in characters bold enough to be seen by the humblest _engage_ at the farthest end of the great hall, the whole number of the Company's trading posts from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific Ocean, from Sault Ste. Marie to Athabasca and the Great Slave Lake. Many a time and oft while the feast was at its height and the wine bottles of the partners were being broached and the rum puncheons tapped, was a glance cast at some spot on that map which marked months of suffering, the death place of a comrade, the love of an Indian maiden, a thrilling adventure, a cruel ma.s.sacre, painful solitude, great rejoicing or a bitter disappointment.
But if the scene within was noisy and animated, that without beggared description. Hundreds of voyageurs, soldiers, Indians, and half-breeds were encamped together in the open, holding high revel. They hailed from all over the globe, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, America, the African Gold Coast, the Sandwich Islands, Bengal, Canada, with Creoles, various tribes of Indians, and a mixed progeny of Bois-Brules or half-breeds! ”Here,” cries one trader, ”were congregated on the sh.o.r.es of the inland sea, within the walls of Fort William, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Sun-wors.h.i.+ppers, men from all parts of the world whose creeds were 'wide as poles asunder,' united in one common object, and bowing down before the same idol.” Women, soldiers, voyageurs, and Indians, in ever moving medley, danced, sang, drank, and gamboled about the fort on the night when the news came of the tragedy of the Red River.
Meanwhile it will be remembered that the Earl of Selkirk was on his way, with his party of about eighty soldiers, to the scene of this rude rejoicing. When Sault Ste. Marie was reached, the first intelligence of the ma.s.sacre and destruction of the colony was received, together with the news that some of the settlers and a large part of the property had been transported to Fort William.
Filled with indignation, and determined to demand an explanation of the b.l.o.o.d.y deed, the Earl pressed on with all haste to the rendezvous of the North-West company, who, all unconscious of his approach, had made no plan either to defend themselves or to arrest his progress.