TOROKTO- OP OLD. 91 



from Kildonan the preceding year. Cameron himself was also made a prisoner. (Miles Mac- 

 donoll, governor of Assmiboia, had been captured by the same Cameron in the preceding year, 

 and sent to Montreal.) A strong feeling was aroused among the half-breeds, far and near, who 

 were in the interest of the North West Company. In the spring of 1816, Mr. Semple, the 

 governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, appeared in person at the Eed Eiver, having been 

 apprized of the growing troubles. During an angry conference, on the 18th of June, with a 

 band of seventy men, headed by Cuthbert, Grant, Lacerte, Fraser, Hoole, and Thomas McKay, 

 half-breed employes of the North West Company, he was violently assaulted ; and in the melee 

 he was killed, together with five of his officers and sixteen of his people. Out of these events 

 sprang the memorable trials that took place in the York Court House in 1818. 



The Earl of Selkirk being desirous of witnessing the progress made by his emigrants at Red 

 River, paid a visit to this continent in the autumn of 1815. On arriving at New York he heard 

 of the dispersion at Kildonan, and the destruction of property there. He proceeded at once to 

 Montreal and York to consult with the authorities. The news next reached him that his colony 

 had been re-established, at least partially. He immediately despatched a trusty messenger, 

 one Lagimoniere, with assurances that he himself would speedily be with them, bringing 

 proper means of protection. But Lagimoniere was waylaid and never reached his destination. 



It happened, about this time, in consequence of the peace just established with the United 

 States, that the De Meuron, Watteville and Glengary Fencible Regiments were disbanded in the 

 country. About eighty men of the De Meuron, with four of the late officers, twenty of the 

 WatteviUe, and a few of the Glengary, with one of their officers, agreed to accompany Lord 

 Selkirk to the Red River. On reaching the Sault, the tidings met the party of the second 

 dispersion of the colony, and of the slaughter of Governor Semple and his officers. The whole 

 band at once pushed on to Fort William, where were assembled many of the partners of the 

 North West Company, with Mr. McGillivray, their principal Agent. Here were also some of 

 the persons who had been made prisoners at Kildonan. 



Armed simply with a commission of a Justice of the Peace, Lord Selkirk then and there, at 

 his encampment opposite Fort WiUiam across the Kaministigoia, issued his warrant for the 

 arrest of Mr. McGillivray. 



It is duly served, and Mr. McGillivray submits. Two partners who came over with him as 

 bail are also instantly arrested. The prisoners had been previously lib_erated and information 

 was procured from them. 



Warrants were then issued for the arrest of the remainder of the partners, who were found 

 in the Fort. Some resistance was now offered. The gate of the Fort was partially closed by 

 force ; but a party of twenty-five men instantly rushed up from the boats and cleared the way 

 into the Fort. At the signal of a bugle-caU more men came over from the encampment, and 

 their approach put an end to the struggle. The arrests were then completed, and the remain- 

 ing partners were marched down to the boats. " At the time this resistance to the warrant 

 was attempted there were," our authority informs us, "above 200 Canadians, i.e., French, in 

 the employment of the Company, in and about the Fort, together with 60 or 70 Iroquois 

 Indians, also in the Company's service." 



The Earl of Selkirk was plainly a man not to be trifled with ; a chief who in Ihe olden time, 

 on the roughest emergency that might chance to present itself, would have been equal to the 

 occasion. 



The prisoners brought dovra from Fort William, and after the lapse of nearly two years 

 placed at the Bar in the Old Court House of York, were arraigned as follows : "Paul Brown and 

 F. P. Boucher, for the murder of Robert Semple, Esq., on the 19th of June, 1816. John 

 Siveright, Alexander McKenzie, Hugh McGillis, John McDonald, John McLaughlin and Simon 

 Fraser, as accessories to the same crime. Cooper and Bennerman, for taking, on the 3rd of 

 AprO, 1815, with force and arms, eight pieces of cannon and one howitzer, the property of the 

 Right Hon. Thomas Earl of Selkirk, from his dwelling house, and putting in bodily fear of 

 their lives certain persons found therein." The cannons were further described as being two 

 of them brass field-pieces, two of them brass swivels, four of them iron swivels. In each case 

 the verdict was "not guilty." 



The judges were Chief Justice Powell, Mr. Justice Campbell, Mr. Justice Boulton, and Asso- 

 ciate Justice W. Allan, Esq. The counsel for the Crown were Mr. Attorney-General Robinson, 



