e same effect. It is needless now to enter into the
question of how much all this was worth: at that time so much conflicting
testimony was not easily reduced into proper limits. But on three points,
at all events, I could form a correct opinion for myself. Had not my
companion been arrested and threatened with instant death? Was he not
still kept in confinement? and had not my baggage undergone confiscation
(it is a new name for an old thing)? And was there not a flag other than
the Union Jack flying over Fort Garry? Yes, it was true; all these things
were realities.

Then I replied, "While these things remain, I will not visit Fort Garry."

Then I was told that Colonel Wolseley had written, urging the
construction of a road between Fort Garry and Lake of the Woods, and that
it could not be done unless I visited the upper settlement.

I felt a wish, and a very strong one, to visit this upper Fort Garry and
see for myself its chief and its garrison, if the thing could be managed
in any possible way.

From many sources I was advised that it would be dangerous to do so; but
those who tendered this counsel had in a manner grown old under the
despotism of M. Riel, and had, moreover, begun to doubt that the
expeditionary force would ever succeed in overcoming the terrible
obstacles of the long route from Lake Superior. I knew better. Of Riel I
knew nothing, or next to nothing; of the progress of the expeditionary
force, I knew only that it was led by a man who regarded impossibilities
merely in the light of obstacles to be cleared from his path; and that it
was composed of soldiers who, thus led, would go any where, and do any
thing, that men in any shape of savagery or of civilization can do or
dare. And although no tidings had reached me of its having passed the
rugged portage from the shore of Lake Superior to the height of land and
launched itself fairly on the waters which flow from thence into Lake
Winnipeg, still its ultimate approach never gave me one doubtful thought.
I reckoned much on the Bishop's letter, which I had still in my
possession, and on the influence which his last communication to the
"President" would of necessity exercise; so I decided to visit Fort
Garry, upon the conditions that my baggage was restored intact, Mr.
Dreever set at liberty, and the nondescript flag taken down. My
interviewer said he could promise the first two propositions, but of the
third he was not so certain. He would, however,