22 



Douglas to carry letters to Lord Selkirk, who was then in Mon- 

 treal. In 1815 a few days before Hallowe'en he requested 

 him to come to the fort and asked if he could go with letters 

 to Lord Selkirk in Montreal without being stopped on the 

 way. M. Lajimoniere, accustomed to a wild life, could defy 

 the cleverest Indian in finding his way on a long voyage ; he 

 had a very quick eye which served him, in finding his way 

 better than the best compass. 



M. Lajimoniere replied that he could go alone to Mon- 

 treal and that he would make every effort to put the letters 

 confided to his care into Lord Selkirk's hands. 



The season was already far advanced and the intrepid 

 messenger would need to hasten if he was not to be stopped 

 by the snow. He made his preparations to depart on All 

 Saints' Day. If he arrived without accident he could return 

 in the course of the winter, but he must find a place to shelter 

 his family from want during his absence. The trader told him 

 to bring his wife to the Fort where she would be lodged and 

 fed till his return from Montreal. Madame Lajimoniere there- 

 fore left the hut on the bank of the Assiniboine to become an 

 inmate of Fort Douglas. 



We will not follow her. husband through all the stages of 

 his voyage, which was long and rough. It is only necessary 

 to say that leaving Red River on the 1st of November, 181 5, 

 he did not return until December, 1816. 



He was fortunate enough to reach Montreal without fall- 

 ing into the hands of the agents of the North-West Company 

 and to give the letters which he carried to Lord Selkirk him- 

 self. He was not as lucky on his return. Perhaps not having 

 important papers on his person he was less careful, anyway 

 in passing Fort William he was made prisoner and lived at 

 this post until the arrival of the De Meuron Force, in the 

 autumn of 1816, sent up to Red River by Lord Selkirk to re- 

 take Fort Douglas. 



The forts taken by the employees of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company were Gibraltar, at the mouth of the Assiniboine, 

 and Pembina, situated at the American boundary. They have 

 long since disappepared. On the evening of the 17th of March 

 the men at Fort Douglas conducted by Mr. Colin Robertson 

 surprised Fort Gibraltar. The Fort was plundered and dis- 

 mantled and the employees as well as the officer in charge 

 were taken to Fort Douglas. Some days afterwards the same 

 employees surprised the other fort at Pembina and treated it 



