32 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



people were given lands, and in return expected to de 

 fend the Hudson s Bay Company from Nor Westers. 

 The Nor Westers struck back by discouraging the col 

 onists, shipping them free out of the country, and get 

 ting possession of their arms. 



Miles MacDonell, formerly of the King s Royal Regi 

 ment, New York, governor of the Hudson s Bay Com 

 pany at Fort Douglas, at once issued proclamations 

 forbidding Indians to trade furs with Nor Westers 

 and ordering Nor Westers from the country. On the 

 strength of these proclamations two or three outlying 

 North- West forts were destroyed and North-West fur 

 brigades rifled. Duncan Cameron,* the North-West 

 partner at Fort Gibraltar, countered by letting his 

 Bois-BruUs, a ragged half-breed army of wild plain 

 rangers under Cuthbert Grant, canter across the two 

 miles that separated the rival forts, and pour a vol 

 ley of musketry into the Hudson Bay houses. To 

 save the post for the Hudson s Bay Company, Miles 

 MacDonell gave himself up and was shipped out of 

 the country. 



But the Hudson s Bay fort was only biding its time 

 till the valiant North- West defenders had scattered to 

 their winter posts. Then an armed party seized Duncan 

 Cameron not far from the North- West fort, and with 

 pistol cocked by one man, publicly horsewhipped the 

 Nor Wester. Afterward, when Semple, the new Hud 

 son s Bay governor, was absent from Fort Douglas and 

 could not therefore be held responsible for consequences, 

 the Hudson s Bay men, led by the same Colin Robertson 



* An antecedent of the late Sir Roderick Cameron of New 

 York. 



