wounded; and on the bodies of "the 

 dead were practised all those barbari- 

 ties which characterize the inhuman 

 heart of the savage. The amiable 

 and mild Mr. Semple, lying on his side 

 (his thigh having been broken) and 

 supporting his head upon his hand, 

 addressed the commander of our 

 enemies, by inquiring if he was Mr. 

 Grant; and being answered in the af- 

 firmative, '1 am not mortally wound- 

 ed,' said Mr. Semple; 'and if you get 

 me conveyed to the fort, I think T 

 should live." Grant promised he would 

 do so, and immediately left him in the 

 care of a Canadian, who afterwards 

 told that an Indian of their party 

 had shot Mr. Semple in the breast. 

 I entreated Grant to procure me the 

 watch, or even the seals, of Mr. Sem- 

 ple, for the purpose of transmitting 

 them to his friends, but I did not 

 succeed. Our force amounted to 28 

 persons, of whom 21 were killed and 

 one wounded." 



The monument of Seven Oaks com- 

 memorates the unfortunate victims of 

 the fray. 



John Pritchard lived to see Fort 

 Douglas in the follo-^ing year recap- 

 tured from the Bois-Brules. He en- 

 tered Lord Selkirk's service, and as his 

 agent went over to London. To him 

 vf as left the duty of obtaining a min- 

 ister for the Kildonan settlers. Prit- 

 chard married among the people of 

 Kildonan, and lived not far from the 

 Kildonan church on the other side of 

 the river. A number of his Jetters 

 have been printed \xhich show that he 

 took a lively interest in the affairs of 

 the settlement, especially in its religi- 

 ous concerns. It is not then remarkable 

 that among his descendants there 

 should be no less than seven clergymen 

 of the Church of England. It is inter- 

 esting to kno-w that the Hudson Day 

 company voted him about 1833 an an- 

 nuity of £25 in consideration of valu- 

 able services rendered by him to edu- 

 cation, and especially in the estab- 

 lishment of Sunday schools and day 

 schools. This man vfhose life was a 

 chronicle of the history of the settle- 

 ment passed away m 1856 and was 

 buried in St. John's churchyard. 



PIERRE FALCON, 

 Tlhe Rhymester. 

 Among the wild rout of Nor'- West- 

 ers at the skirmish of Seven Oaks was 

 a French half-breed, whose father was 

 a French Canadian, engaged in the fur 

 trade, and his mother an Indian wo- 

 man from the Missouri country. The 

 young combatant had been born in 

 1793, at Elbow Fort, in the Swan 

 River district Taken as a child to 



Canada, young Pierre lived for a time 

 at Laprairie, and at the age of 15 re- 

 turned with his father to Red River, 

 and with him engaged in the service 

 of the Northwest Fur company. What 

 part Falcon took in the affair at 

 Seven Oaks w^e are not told, except 

 that he behaved bravely, and saw 

 Governor Semple killed. 

 Pierre Falcon was, however, the 



bard or poet of his people. This 

 characteristic of Falcon is quite re- 

 markable considered in connection 

 with the time and circumstances. 

 That a man who was unable to read 

 or write should have been able to de- 

 scribe the striking events of his time 

 in verse is certainly a notable thing. 

 He never tired singing in different 

 times and metres the valor of the 

 Bois-brules at "Seven Oaks." 



"Voulez-vous ecouter chanter 

 Une chanson de verite 

 Le dix neuf Juin, la bande des Bois- 

 brules 

 Sent arrives comme des braves guer- 



riers." 

 Then with French gaiety and verse he 

 gives an account of the attack on the 

 Orkneymen, as he calls them, recites 

 the governor's action, and his death. 

 Falcon finishes up the chanson with a 

 wild hurrah of triumph: 



"Les Bois-brules jetaiemt des cris de 

 joie." 



The lively spirit of the rhymester 

 broke out in songs upon all the prin- 

 cipal events which agitated the peo- 

 ple of the settlement. Joseph Tasse,to 

 whom we are chiefly indebted in this 

 sketch, said of him, "All his composi- 

 tions are not of the same interest, but 

 they are sung by our voyageurs to the 

 measured stroke of the oar, on the 

 most distant rivers and lakes of the 

 Northwest. The echoes of the Assini- 

 boine, the Mackenzie and Hudson Bay 

 will long repeat them." 



The excitable, patriotic spirit of the 

 rhymer never left him. At tlie time 

 of tlie Riel rebellion (1869-70) Falcon 

 was still alive, and though between 

 seventy and eighty years of age, he 

 wished to march off with his gun to 

 the fray, declaring that "while the 

 enemy w ould be occupied in killing him 

 his friends would be able to give hard 

 and well-directed blows to them." 



For about half a century he lived on 

 the White Horse Plains, twenty miles 

 or more up the Assiniboine from Win- 

 nipeg, and became an influential man 

 in the neighborliood. His mercurial 

 disposition seems to have become more 

 settled than in his . fiery youth, for 

 though unlettered, he was made a 

 justice of the peace. 



