30 THE STORY OP THE TRAPPER 



&quot; Overhauled a canoe going eastward, . . . a Mack 

 inaw trader and four Indians with a dozen fresh Ameri 

 can scalps&quot; writes MacDonald, showing to what a pass 

 things had come. Two days later a couple of boats 

 were overtaken and compelled to halt by a shot from 

 MacDonald s swivels. The strangers proved to be the 

 escaping crew of a British ship which had been captured 

 by two American schooners, and the British officer bore 

 bad news. The American schooners were now on the 

 lookout for the rich prize of furs being taken east 

 in the North-West canoes. Slipping under the nose 

 of these schooners in the dark, the officer hurried to 

 Mackinac, leaving the Nor Westers hidden in the 

 mouth of French Eiver. William MacKay, a Nor 

 West partner, at once sallied out to the defence of 

 the furs. 



Determined to catch the brigade, one schooner was 

 hovering about the Sault, the other cruising into the 

 countless recesses of the north shore. Against the lat 

 ter the Mackinaw traders directed their forces, board 

 ing her, and, as MacDonald tells with brutal frankness, 

 &quot;pinning the crew with fixed bayonets to the deck.&quot; 

 Lying snugly at anchor, the victors awaited the com 

 ing of the other unsuspecting schooner, let her cast an 

 chor, bore down upon her, poured in a broadside, and 

 took both schooners to Mackinac. Freed from all ap 

 prehension of capture, the North- West brigade proceed 

 ed eastward to the Ottawa River, and without further 

 adventure came to Montreal, where all was wild confu 

 sion from another cause. 



At the very time when war endangered the entire 

 route of the Nor Westers from Montreal to the Pacific, 

 the Hudson s Bay Company awakened from its long 



