DELAYED IN OUR START FROM FORT CARLTON. 85 



CHAPTER VII. 



An Indian swims the Saskatchawan. Start from Fort Carlton. Prairie 

 fire and narrow escape. Unpleasant surprise. A Sioux camp. Inter- 

 view with the chief. Suspicious circumstances. A parley with the 

 chief. A fight and a race for life. Our mode of travelling. Arrival at 

 Fort Garry. Our miserable appearance. The composition of galette. 

 The Sioux outbreak and cause. Threat to sack Fort Garry. Enmity 

 between English and French half-breeds. My new guide, and his 

 character. Kindness of the citizens. Start from Fort Garry and 

 method of travelling. Desolation of the country. My first night in 

 a bed and consequences. Taken for a half-breed scout. Expedition 

 against the Indians. Its utter failure. Death of Little Crow. Exe- 

 cution of Indians. Start for England. 



ON the morning of the 17th of April, Badger and I got every- 

 thing ready for our start ; but we were delayed for some 

 hours by the arrival of an Indian, with a waggon and a pair 

 of ponies, on the opposite side of the river. I heard a great 

 deal of shouting going on, and went down to see what it 

 meant. It seemed that the Carlton ferry-boat had not yet been 

 put into the river, there being still a good deal of ice going 

 down, and the Indian was urging them to put it in at once. 

 This they refused to do, nor would it have been of much use 

 to this man if they had consented, as stretching the rope 



