rgy of his paternal race, and rose superior to Indian
surroundings. It was among the French half-breeds that Riel found his
supporters. The Scotch and English settlers had disapproved of the
sudden transfer of the territory in which they and their parents had so
long lived, without any attempt having been made to consult their
feelings as to the future government of the country. Though they took no
active part in the rebellion, they allowed matters to take their course
with indifference and sullen resignation. The employees of the Hudson's
Bay Company were dissatisfied with the sale of the company's rights, as
it meant, in their opinion, a loss of occupation and influence. The
portion of the population that was always quite ready to hasten the
acquisition of the territory by Canada, and resolutely opposed Riel from
the outset, was the small Canadian element, which was led by Dr.
Schultz, an able, determined man, afterwards lieutenant-governor of
Manitoba. Riel imprisoned and insulted several of the loyal party who
opposed him. At last he ruthlessly ordered the execution of one Thomas
Scott, an Ontario man, who had defied him.

While these events were in progress, the Canadian government enlisted in
the interests of law and order the services of Mr. Donald Smith, now
Lord Strathcona, who had been long connected with the Hudson's Bay
Company, and also of Archbishop Tache, of St. Boniface--the principal
French settlement in the country--who returned from Rome to act as
mediator between the Canadian authorities and his deluded flock.
Unhappily, before the Archbishop could reach Fort Garry, Scott had been
murdered, and the Dominion government could not consider themselves
bound by the terms they were ready to offer to the insurgents under a
very different condition of things. The murder of Scott had clearly
brought Riel and his associates under the provisions of the criminal
law; and public opinion in Ontario would not tolerate an amnesty, as was
hastily promised by the Archbishop, in his zeal to bring the rebellion
to an end. A force of 1200 regulars and volunteers was sent to the Red
River towards the end of May, 1870, under the command of Colonel
Wolseley, now a field-marshal and a peer of the realm. Riel fled across
the frontier before the troops, after a tedious journey of three months
from the day they left Toronto, reached Fort Garry. Peace was restored
once more to the settlers of Assiniboia. The Canadian government h