stward to the plains, should intercept the incoming brigade of Nor'
Westers' supplies, what would become of the two thousand North-West
traders and _voyageurs_ and _engages_ inland? Whether the Hudson's Bay
had such intentions or not, the Nor' Westers were determined to prevent
the possibility.

Like the red cross that called ancient clans to arms, scouts went
scouring across the plains to rally the _Bois-Brules_ from Portage la
Prairie and Souris and Qu'Appelle.[24] Led by Cuthbert Grant, they
skirted north of the Hudson's Bay post to meet and disembark supplies
above Fort Douglas. It was but natural for the settlers to mistake this
armed cavalcade, red with paint and chanting war-songs, for hostiles.

Rushing to Fort Douglas, the settlers gave the alarm. Ordering a
field-piece to follow, Governor Semple marched out with a little army of
twenty-eight Hudson's Bay men. The Nor' Westers thought that he meant to
obstruct their way till his other forces had captured their coming
canoes. The Hudson's Bay thought that Cuthbert Grant meant to attack the
Selkirk settlers.

It was in the evening of June 19, 1816. The two parties met at the edge
of a swamp beside a cluster of trees, since called Seven Oaks. Nor'
Westers say that Governor Semple caught the bridle of their scout and
tried to throw him from his horse. The Hudson's Bay say that the
governor had no sooner got within range than the half-breed scout leaped
down and fired from the shelter of his horse, breaking Semple's thigh.

It is well known how the first blood of battle has the same effect on
all men of whatever race. The human is eclipsed by that brute savagery
which comes down from ages when man was a creature of prey. In a trice
twenty-one of the Hudson's Bay men lay dead. While Grant had turned to
obtain carriers to bear the wounded governor off the field, poor Semple
was brutally murdered by one of the Deschamps family, who ran from body
to body, perpetrating the crimes of ghouls. It was in vain for Grant to
expostulate. The wild blood of a savage race had been roused. The soft
velvet night of the summer prairie, with the winds crooning the sad
monotone of a limitless sea, closed over a scene of savages drunk with
slaughter, of men gone mad with the madness of murder, of warriors
thinking to gain courage by drinking the blood of the slain.

Grant saved the settlers' lives by sending them down-stream to Lake
Winnipeg, where dwelt the friendly Chief Peguis. O