d
sleds the Colonists found the snowy walk very distressing. Three fell by
the way and were carried on by the stronger men. The weather was very
cold. A supply of partridges was given them on starting, and the party
was met by hunters sent from York Factory to meet them, who brought two
hundred partridges, killed by the way. York Factory was reached on the
13th of April. This band of Colonists were superior to any who had come
in the former parties. Many of them, as we shall see, did not remain in
the Colony. A list of this party may be found in the Appendix. After
remaining a month at York Factory, on the 27th of May, this heroic band
went on their way to Red River, and reached their destination in time to
plant potatoes for themselves and others. Comrades left behind at
Churchill found their way to Red River. Lots along Red River were now
being taken up by the settlers, and here they sought to found homes
under a northern sky. Old and new settlers were now hopeful, but their
hopes of peace and happiness were soon to be dashed to pieces.

The arrival of the third year's Colonists provoked still greater
opposition. Feeling had been gradually rising against the new settlers
at every new arrival. The excellence of the later immigrants but led
their opponents to be irritated.

CHAPTER VII.

FIGHT AND FLIGHT.

The year 1815 was a year of world-wide disaster. Napoleon's
Europe-shadowing wings had for years been over that continent and he
like a ravenous bird had left marks of his ravages among the most
prominent European nations. The world had a breathing spell for a short
time with Napoleon a virtual prisoner in Elba, but now in March of this
year he broke from the perch where he had been tethered and all Europe
was again in terror. The nations were thunderstruck; the alarm was
deepened by the appearance of Olber's great comet, and in their
superstition the ignorant were panic-stricken, while the more religious
and informed saw in these terrible events the scenes pictured in the
Apocalypse and maintained that the battle of Armageddon was at hand. The
epoch-marking battle of Waterloo in June of this year was sufficiently
near the picture of blood painted in the Revelation to satisfy the
credulous.

But in a remote corner of Rupert's Land, where the number of the
combatants was small and the conditions exceedingly primitive the comet
was alarming enough. The action of Governor Miles Macdonell in the
beginning o