farther up-stream. Before the end of July Lord Selkirk was
again among them. He gave the order to advance, and the boats were
launched. But, only a few miles out from Sault Ste Marie, there
suddenly appeared two canoes, in one of which was Miles Macdonell. For
the first time Lord Selkirk now learned of the disaster which had
befallen the colony in the month of June. Macdonell had gone as far as
the mouth of the Winnipeg before he learned the news. Now he was able
to tell Lord Selkirk of the massacre of Semple and his men, of the
eviction of the settlers, and of the forcible detention of those sent
by M'Leod to the Nor'westers' trading-post at Fort William.

Selkirk had entertained the hope of averting a calamity at the
settlement by bringing {114} in enough retired soldiers to preserve
order. But this hope was now utterly blasted. He might, however, use
the resources of the law against the traders at Fort William, and this
he decided to attempt. He was, however, in a peculiar position. He
had, it is true, been created a justice of the peace, but it would seem
hardly proper for him to try lawbreakers who were attacking his own
personal interests. Accordingly, before finally setting out for Fort
William, he begged Magistrate John Askin, of Drummond Island, and
Magistrate Ermatinger, of Sault Ste Marie, to accompany him. But
neither of these men could leave his duties. When Selkirk thus failed
to secure disinterested judges, he determined to act under the
authority with which he had been vested. In a letter, dated July 29,
to Sir John Sherbrooke, the recently appointed governor of Canada, he
referred with some uneasiness to the position in which he found
himself. 'I am therefore reduced to the alternative of acting alone,'
he wrote, 'or of allowing an audacious crime to pass unpunished. In
these circumstances, I cannot doubt that it is my duty to act, though I
am not without apprehension that the law may be openly resisted by a
set of men who {115} have been accustomed to consider force as the only
criterion of right.'

Selkirk advanced to Fort William. There is no record of his journey
across the deep sounds and along the rock-girt shores of Lake Superior.
His contingent was divided into two sections, possibly as soon as it
emerged from the St Mary's river and entered Whitefish Bay. Selkirk
himself sped forward with the less cumbersome craft, while the
soldier-settlers advanced more leisurely in their