EARLY HISTOEY OF WHEAT-GROWING 7 



consume 240 pounds per day, and that this was equal to 

 7,200 pounds per month or 28,800 pounds for 4 months — 

 an amount of grain but little more than the 28,000 pounds 

 he actually had at his disposal. And so the Settlement 

 would be free from the trials of hunger throughout the 

 winter of 1815-16. " How was my heart relieved," writes 

 Semple to Lord Selkirk, " when I arrived at the end of this 

 simple calculation which I tried again and again for fear 

 of a mistake." ^^ 



In the spring of 1816 the settlers sowed the forty bushels 

 of seed wheat and seed barley which had been saved from 

 the crop of the previous year, but alas for their hopes of 

 harvest ! Within a few short weeks, when every field was 

 putting on its summer garb of green, the colony was to be 

 broken up once more, and a goodly number of the settlers 

 were to find their graves. The quarrel between the rival 

 Companies came to such a pass that, on June 19, a bloody 

 combat took place between their rival forces. A boy on the 

 watch-tower of Fort Douglas sighted a large gathering of 

 hostile half-breeds ; and Governor Semple and about thirty 

 of his men went out to meet them. At a spot known as 

 Seven Oaks, a few miles north of Winnipeg near the Eed 

 River, the two parties came together. The half-breeds 

 were painted and disguised. Hot words were exchanged, 

 a shot was fired, and in the fight which followed Governor 

 Semple and twenty of his men were left dead upon the 

 field.'* The rest of the settlers in bereavement and despair 

 made their way up Lake Winnipeg, and, after a long and 

 wearisome journey, again took up their abode at Jack 

 Eiver.^* The JSTorth-Westers occupied Fort Douglas until 



12 Letter of Governor Semple to Lord Selkirk, Dec. 20, 1815, Sel- 

 kirk Papers, p. 2721. 



13 Cf. Chester Martin, loc. cit., pp. 110-112. 



1* John Macoun, Manitoba and the Great North-West, Guelph, 1882, 

 p. 437. 



