?' Governor Semple answered, 'What do _you_ want?'
To which Boucher answered, 'We want our Fort.' The Governor said, 'Well,
go to your Fort.' After that I did not hear anything that passed, as
they were close together. I saw the Governor putting his hand on
Boucher's gun. Expecting an attack to be made instantly, I had not been
looking at Governor Semple and Boucher for some time; but just then I
happened to turn my head that way, and immediately I heard a shot, and
directly afterwards a general firing. I turned round upon hearing the
shot, and saw Mr. Holte, one of our officers, struggling as if he were
shot. He was on the ground. On their approach, as I have said, we had
extended our line on the plain, by each taking a place at a greater
distance from the other. This had been done by the Governor's orders,
and we each took such places as best suited our individual safety.
"From not seeing the firing begin, I cannot say from whom it first came;
but immediately upon hearing the first shot, I turned and saw Lieut.
Holte struggling." (Several persons present at the affair, such as a
blacksmith named Heden, and McKay, a settler, distinctly state that the
first shot fired was from the Bois-brules and that by it Lieut. Holte
fell).
"As to our attacking our assailants, one of our people, Bruin, I
believe, did propose that we should keep them off; and the Governor
turned round and asked who could be such a rascal as to make such a
proposition? and that he should hear no word of that kind again. The
Governor was very much displeased indeed at the suggestion made. A fire
was kept up for several minutes after the first shot, and I saw a number
wounded; indeed, in a few minutes almost all our people were either
killed or wounded. I saw Sinclair and Bruin fall, either wounded or
killed; and a Mr. McLean, a little in front defending himself, but by a
second shot I saw him fall.
"At this time I saw Captain Rodgers getting up again, but not observing
any of our people standing, I called out to him, 'Rodgers, for God's
sake give yourself up! Give yourself up!' Captain Rodgers ran toward
them, calling out in English and in broken French, that he surrendered,
and that he gave himself up, and praying them to save his life. Thomas
McKay, a Bois-brules, shot him through the head, and another Bois-brules
dashed upon him with a knife, using the most horrid imprecations to him.
I did not see the Governor fall. I saw his corpse the next da
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