Part 14 (1/2)
”Entrez” Opening the door, the two good priests walked in, and turned to look for seats Ah! as the sight presented to them! Eyes like those of wild beasts, aflaloom of the back portion of the room The priests were amazed They knew not what all this iven, and the chief cried, ”Ene his rifle, he fired at Father Marchand The levelling of his rifle was the general signal A dozen other muzzles were pointed, and in a far briefer space of ti in their blood, pierced each by half a dozen bullets
”Clear away these corpses,” shouted the chief, ”and be ready for the next” There was soon another knock at the door, and the sa,
”Entrez” This ti fellow, named Charles Gowan, opened the door and entered Always on the alert for Indian treachery, he had his suspicion now, before entering he suspected strongly that all was not right He had only reached the settle, and had he returned sooner he would have counselled the settlers to pay no heed to the invitation He was assured that several had already gone up to the po, so being brave and unselfish, he said,
”If there is any danger afoot, and e, that is the place for me, not here” He had no sooner entered than his worst convictions were realized With one quick glance he saw the bloodpools, the wolfish eyes, the rows of ready rifles
”hell hounds!” he cried, ”what bloody work have you on hand? Whatto the floor
”It means,” replied the chief, ”that so their heart's blood there It also means that the same fate awaits you” Resolved to sell his life as dearly as lay in his power, he sprang forith a Colt's revolver, and discharged it twice
One Indian fell, and another set up a cry like the bellowing of a bull But poor Gowan did not fire a third shot A tall savage approached hi him upon the head with his rifle-stock felled hies fired five or six shots into hied away and the blood-thirsty fiends sat waiting for the approach of another victim Half an hour passed, and no other rap came upon the door An hour went, and still no sound of foot-fall All this while the savages sathis runted the chief, ”no o down and shoot em at em houses” Then the fiend divided his warriors into four coned a couple of murders One party proceeded toward the house of Mr Gowanlock, of the firrist , and concealing their approach by walking a the trees they ithin forty yards of the house without being perceived Then Mrs Gowanlock, a young wo soain When the Indians saw her, they threw themselves upon their faces, and so escaped observation Little did the iner that so closelyof no harm Gowanlock, as I have said, had been recentlyere buoyant with hope, for the future had already begun to proathered the hich to make biscuits; and W C
Gilchrist, and Williscroft, two fine youngwith hi out of theafter Mrs Gowanlock came in; but about half a minute afterwards some shadow flitted by the , and immediately afterwards six or seven painted Indians, with rifles cocked, and uttering diabolical yells, burst into the house The chief ith this party; and ai his rifle, shot poor Gowanlock dead, another aimed at Gilchrist, but Mrs Gowanlock heroically seized the savage's arms from behind, and prevented him for a mo back a pace or two, fired at her, killing her instantly Three had now fallen, and as the poor young wife fell crying, ”my God!” Croft fell pierced by two or three bullets Lest the work ht not have been sufficiently done, the murderers fired once more at the fallen victims, and then ca of the settlers, but at the same tient He was a half-breed, and had for a wife a very pretty Cree woman For some days past, it is said, that she had been aware that theStealthily the blood-thirsty band approached the dwelling of Dunn, for they knew him to be a brave man, ould sell his life very dearly
They were aware that in the Minnesota ht as if his life were char wounds
The doo taken her blanket at an early hour and gone abroad to ”talk” with some Cree maidens Poor Dunn was busy in the little yard behind his house, putting handles in so implements, and did not perceive the approach of the murderers at all There were five Indians in the party, and they crept up to within a dozen paces of where the unsuspecting man was at his work Then, while he whistled a merry tune, they silently raised their rifles and took aim The unfortunate man fell, pierced with all their bullets and made no stir
Another detachment of the bloodhounds directed their steps towards the residence of Barnez Frenificently-built ht of his house they perceived that he was engaged oiling the axle of his waggon
Aided by the shelter of an outhouse, they approached within twenty yards of this victim; raised their ar a cry, and made no stir When found afterwards there were two bullet holes in his head, and an arrow lay lodged in his breast [Footnote: This fact I get from correspondence to the Ottawa _Free Press_, a newspaper which, under the great journalistic enterprise of Mr J T Hawke, has kept the people at the Capital well informed from day to day on affairs at the scene of tumult] Two other persons were surprised in the sa a total of eleven slaughtered
The first official confiriven in a despatch, sent from Fort Pitt to Sir John Macdonald, by police inspector dickens, a son of the immortal novelist
CHAPTER XIII
Perhaps, of all the acts of bravery recorded during this late Rebellion, not one stands out more pro, with his little force, a large band of blood-thirsty Crees, till he would, with advantage and honour, retire froround Fort Pitt stands in the centre of the Cree country, and was the scene of the treaty between the Government and the Crees, Chippewayans, assinniboines and the Chippewas
There was great difficulty at the tins supreme in the district, and as spokesht to be abolished, and the buffalo protected On the whole, he accepted the conditions of the treaty, but, as his people were not present, he would not sign it, although he did sign it in the following year Big Bear is a noisy, lory save when he is the centre of so about war; and he would go without hisHe has the habit to, when the reciter of the story has finished, of trying to discount what he has heard, and to make his auditors believe that so When everything is peaceable, even when there are plenty of buffalo and peltry to be had, this savage is not satisfied; but still goes around asking if there is any news about trouble being about to take place anywhere If he is told:
”No, everything is quiet; the Indians are all satisfied, because they are doing well” Big Bear will reply, while knowingly closing one eye:
”Me know better than that There will soon be bloody work Government break eo out and scalp servants of the Governs reached the land of the Stoney Indians that the half-breeds, with Louis Riel at their head, had broken into revolt, Big Bear pulled off his feathered cap and threw it several tioodly nu, and infor them home some scalps He was so elated, that he ordered several of the young s to e fire was built upon the prairie, a short distance froe festival pot was suspended froallons of water were put into this pot; then Big Bear's wives, some of ere old and wrinkled, and others of which were lithe as fawns, plu herbs So-bane,”
others searched a the knotted roots for the little nut-like tuber that clings to the root of the flag, while others brought to the pot wild parsnips, and the dried stalks of the prairie pusley A coy little maiden, whom many a hunter had wooed but failed to win, had in her sweet little brown hands a tangle of winter-green, andhunters, with the dogs Each dog selected for the feast hite as the driven snow If a black hair, or a blue hair, or a brown hair, was discovered anywhere upon his body he was taken away; but if he were _sans reproche_ he was put, just as he was, head, and hide, and paws, and tail on--his throat sis were thrown in, and the roots and stalks of the prairie plants, together with salt, and bunches of the wild pepper-plant, and of swah the reserves round about forBear was giving a White Dog feast to his braves before su them to follow him upon the war-path The feast was, in Indian experience, aBear that they returned only for their war-paint and arms, and that before the set of the next sun they would be back at his side
True to their word the Indians came, hideous in their yellow paint If you stood to leeward of theet the raw, earthy smell of the ochre upon their hands and faces Some had black bars streaked across their cheeks, and hideous crimson circles about their eyes Some, likewise, had stars in pipe-clay painted upon the forehead
Now the iwhich they hardly considered worth shouldering their rifles for But when it ca it was a somewhat different matter There were twenty-one policemen in the Fort and they had at their head an intrepid chief, Mr Inspector dickens, already referred to in this chapter It was useless to fire bullets at the solid stockades; massacre was out of the question, for keen eyes peered ever frorown very a about,” he said to his braves ”Plenty of big fighting everywhere We'll go with Monsieur Riel But we uns; and plenty of powder and shot and ball So taking a nuan to bellow that he wanted to have a talk Inspector dickens appeared, calling out,