lied, "Who
will cash them in the wilderness?" Similarly, he objected to members of
the Force being encouraged to write of their grievances to the
newspapers.

That French looked carefully into details for the sake of the men's
comfort is evidenced by letters in his book which protest against an
inferior kind of tea being sent out for use in the Force, and that he
was very watchful against the class of people who, on various pretexts,
try to get some of the Government property, is attested by the following
letter to a man whom I remember well to be of that shark type: "In
answer to your letter of the 28th of August, I beg to say that I do not
see the necessity of giving you a Government wagon, because, through
some carelessness in your business arrangements, you have lost one of
your own." There is wit as well as rebuke in that communication. On the
whole we repeat that, though he had a task of unusual difficulty, French
laid the foundation of the Force, and gave the superstructure a trend
that affected for good the after history of the famous corps. It was
this man who was now to lead his column on the longest march in history
for a column carrying its own supplies. He was leading it "out into the
unknown," but though many prophesied disaster, he was not to fail.

CHAPTER IV

THE AMAZING MARCH

That thunderstorm, with the resultant stampede at Dufferin, along with
some blood-curdling prophecies of attacks by the scalp-gathering Sioux
Indians, had the good effect of weeding out the few non-adventurous
spirits who, up to now, had thought that the hardships and dangers of
the expedition had been painted in too lurid a colour. This suited
Colonel French, as he had no desire to venture into the wilderness with
any but the very best of men. A very necessary part of Police equipment,
namely their revolvers, did not arrive from England till early in July,
but once they had come French, who was impatient of delay in beginning
so tremendous a trek, gave orders on July 8 for a "pull out," or what
the old traders used to call "a Hudson's Bay start." The idea of a "pull
out" before the real journey began was to shake the line of the caravan
into shape, take out any kinks that might need straightening, and
generally see that everything was working satisfactorily. With field
guns and mortars, seventy-three wagons, and 114 of the wooden prairie
conveyances, known as Red River carts, new harness and other equipment
that nee