istance. Some were from the upper
Saskatchewan; others were from Cumberland House, situated near the
mouth of the same river. Pambrun says that during the first days of
May he went eastward along with George Sutherland, a factor of the
Hudson's Bay Company on the Qu'Appelle, and a number of Sutherland's
men. The party journeyed in five boats, and had with them twenty-two
bales of furs and six hundred bags of pemmican. On May 12 they were
attacked on their way down the river by an armed force of forty-nine
Nor'westers, under the leadership of Cuthbert Grant and Peter Pangman.
All were made prisoners and conducted back to Fort Qu'Appelle, where
they were told by Alexander Macdonell that the seizure had been {89}
made because of Colin Robertson's descent upon Fort Gibraltar. After
five days' imprisonment George Sutherland and the servants of the
Hudson's Bay Company were released. This did not mean, however, any
approach of peace. Pierre Pambrun was still held in custody. Before
the close of May Macdonell caused the furs and provisions which his men
had purloined from Sutherland's party to be placed in boats, and he
began to move down the Qu'Appelle, taking Pambrun with him. A band of
Bois Brules on their horses kept pace with the boats. At the
confluence of the Qu'Appelle and the Assiniboine Macdonell made a
speech to a body of Saulteaux, and endeavoured to induce some of them
to join his expedition to the Red River. The Hudson's Bay post of
Brandon House, farther along the Assiniboine, was captured by Cuthbert
Grant, with about twenty-five men under his command, and stripped of
all its stores. Then the combined force of half-breeds, French
Canadians, and Indians, in round numbers amounting to one hundred and
twenty men, advanced to Portage la Prairie. They reached this point on
or about June 16, and proceeded to make it a stronghold. They arranged
bales of {90} pemmican to form a rude fortification and planted two
brass swivel-guns for defence. They were preparing for war, for the
Nor'westers had now resolved finally to uproot Lord Selkirk's colony
from the banks of the Red River.

{91}

CHAPTER IX

SEVEN OAKS

In the meantime, far removed from the Red River, other events bearing
upon this story were happening. The Earl of Selkirk had had many
troubles, and early in 1815 he was again filled with anxiety by news
received in Scotland concerning the imperilled condition of Assiniboia.
In conseque