ext day
the united fleet put out into Lake Winnipeg; and steered for the lonely
shores of the Island of Elks, the solitary island of the southern portion
of the lake. In a broad, curving, sandy bay the boats found that night a
shelter; a hundred fires threw their lights far into the lake, and
bugle-calls startled echoes that assuredly had never been rouse before by
notes so strange. Sailing in a wide scattered mass before a favouring
breeze, the fleet reached about noon the following day the mouth of the
Red River, the river whose name was the name of the Expedition, and whose
shores had so long been looked forward to as a haven of rest from portage
and oar labour. There it was at last, seeking through its many mouths the
waters of the lake. And now our course lay up along the reed fringed
river and sluggish current to where the tree-tops began to rise over the
low marsh-land-up to where my old friends the Indians had pitched their
camp and given me the parting salute on the morning of my departure just
one month before. It was dusk when we reached the Indian Settlement and
made a camp upon the opposite shore, and darkness had quite set in when I
reached the mission-house, some three miles higher up. My old friend the
Archdeacon was glad indeed to welcome me back. News from the settlement
there was none--news from the outside world there was plenty. "A great
battle had been fought near the Rhine," the old man said, "and the French
had been disastrously defeated."

Another day of rowing, poling, tracking, and sailing, and evening closed
over the Expedition, camped within six miles of Fort Garry; but all
through the day the river banks were enlivened with people shouting
welcome to the soldiers, and church bells rang out peals of gladness as
the boats passed by. This was through the English and Scotch Settlement,
the people of which had long grown weary of the tyranny of the Dictator
Riel. Riel--why, we have almost forgotten him altogether during these
weeks on the Winnipeg! Nevertheless, he-had still held his own within the
walls of Fort Garry, and still played to a constantly decreasing audience
the part of the Little Napoleon.

During this day, the 23rd August, vague rumours reached us of terrible
things to be done by the warlike President. He would suddenly appear with
his guns from the woods? he would blow up the fort when the troops had
taken possession--he would die in the ruins. These and many other
schemes of a