446 Out North Land. 



McDougall does not seem to have attached much importance to these 

 representations. Having proceeded by way of St. Paul, Minnesota, 

 he reached Pembina on the 30th of October, accompanied by his 

 family, and by several gentlemen who were intended to be members 

 of his Council. The party were provided with three hundred rifles 

 and a stock of ammunition. "While on the way from St. Paul they 

 had heard rumours of increasing disaffection at Red River, but they 

 had pushed on, not dreaming that they would have to encounter 

 armed insurrection. At Pembina, however, they began to realize 

 the situation when Mr. McDougall was served by a half-breed with 

 a written notice, professing to emanate from a " National Com- 

 mittee," and forbidding him to enter the territory. The Lieutenant- 

 Governor was not to be deterred by such means, and proceeded to 

 enter upon his domain. He had no sooner reached the Hudson's 

 Bay Company's post, about two miles from the frontier, than he 

 received grave intelligence from Colonel Dennis, from which it 

 appeared that the operations of the surveyors had been interfered 

 with, and that the French half-breeds had held a meeting at which 

 it had been formally resolved that Mr. McDougall should not be 

 permitted to enter the territory. The insurgents had placed them- 

 selves under the guidance of one of their number whose name was 

 Louis Riel, an impetuous young man of weak and immature judg- 

 ment, who doubtless believed that he was acting in the best interests 

 of his compatriots. By his directions, armed parties had been 

 despatched to various points along the route between Fort Garry 

 and Pembina, and were now posted there with the avowed purpose 

 of resisting Mr. McDougall's progress. Several of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company's authorities had remonstrated in vain, and the Roman 

 Catholic priest in charge of the diocese during Bishop Tache"s 

 absence declined to interfere. As for the Scotch and English half- 

 breeds, they were negatively loyal and well-disposed, but the pre- 

 valent sentiment among them was that they had been treated with 

 insufficient consideration, and very few of them were inclined to go 

 so far as to take up arms against the French party. ' We think,' 

 said they, ' that the Dominion should assume the responsibility of 

 establishing among us what it, and it alone, has decided on.' The 



