104 NARRATIVE, &c. 



and factors of the North West Fur Company, were accused of 

 being at the bottom of this uproar, and it is certain that some of 

 their servants were engaged, either as actors or abettors. It is 

 among the facts recorded in a court of justice, that when cer- 

 tain of the clerks or partners of the North West Company 

 heard of the tragic result of this sally, they shouted for joy.* 



While the act was in the process of being read, one of the 

 rioters fired his piece. This was taken as a signal. A promis- 

 cuous and scattering firing commenced. Semple was one of 

 the first who received a wound. He was shot in the thigh, and 

 fell from his horse. He was unable to sit up. At this moment 

 a rush was made by the Indians in the North West interest, and 

 a total and most disastrous route of the Hudson's Bay party en- 

 sued. Panic, in its wildest forms, seized upon Semple's men. 

 He was himself one of the first victims despatched. Maji Gab- 

 owi, (one of our guests this evening) coming up, struck his tom- 

 ahawk in his head. He was then scalped. 



We embarked at sunrise, on the 19th, bidding adieu to the 

 Leech Lake chief and his companion, who returned from this 

 point, after having requested, and received a lancet, with direc- 

 tions from Dr. Houghton, for vaccinating such of his people as 

 had not been present on the 17th. We were forty minutes in 

 passing the Kagi Nogumaug, which is a handsome sheet of pure 

 water presenting a succession of sylvan scenery. Its outlet is 

 a narrow brook overhung with aiders. It may average a width 

 of six feet, but the bends are so extremely abrupt, and the chan- 

 nel so narrowed with brushwood, that it became necessary to 

 dig down the acute points, and to use the axe in cutting away 

 branches, to veer about a canoe thirty-two feet in length. We 

 were just half an hour in clearing this passage, when the stream 

 opened into another lake, denominated on our travelling map, 

 Little Vermillion Lake. The growth on the banks of this lake 



* Report of the proceedings connected with the disputes between the Earl of 

 Selkirk and the North "West Company, at the assizes held at York in Upper Ca- 

 nada, Oct. 1818. Montreal. 8vo. 564 p. 



