ught him before Mr. Hillier, who like himself, had been
made a magistrate. His breach of law in this, as in other matters being
brought against Finlay he was sentenced to confinement. There being no
prison at York Factory it seemed difficult to carry out the sentence by
his being simply confined with his other companions in the men's
quarters. Accordingly the Governor ordered a single log hut to be
constructed, and this being done, in it the prisoner was confined. Not a
day had entirely passed when a rebellion arose among some of his
compatriots--the Scottish contingent from Orkney and Glasgow--and a band
of thirteen of them surrounded the newly built hut, set it on fire and
as it went up in smoke rescued the prisoner.

The men were arrested and were brought before Macdonell and Hillier,
sitting as magistrates. This was about the end of February. The rebels,
however, defied the authorities, departed carrying Finlay with them and
getting possession of a house took it defiantly for their own use.
During their remaining sojourn at York Factory they subsisted on
provisions obtained at the Factory itself and carried by themselves from
the post to the encampment. Governor Macdonell, meantime, decided to
send these rebellious spirits home to Britain for punishment, and not
allow them to go on to Red River.

The possession by the rioters of some five or six stand of firearms, was
felt to be a menace to the peace of the encampment. An effort was made
to obtain them by Macdonell, but "the insurgents," as they were called,
secreted the arms and thus kept possession of them. In June on the
rebels being very bold and being unable to get back across the Nelson
River from the Factory for a number of days, they were forced by Mr.
Auld, then at York Factory, to give up their arms and submit or else
have their supplies from the Factory stopped. They were thus compelled
to submit and on the receipt of a note from Mr. Auld to Macdonell, the
latter wrote a joyful letter to Lord Selkirk to the effect that the
insurgents had at length come to terms, acknowledged their guilt and
thrown themselves upon the mercy of the Hudson's Bay Committee.

This surrender made it unnecessary to send the body of rioters back to
England for trial.

During the months of later winter Governor Miles Macdonell was specially
employed in building boats for the journey up to Red River. He
introduced a style of boat used on the rivers of New York, his native
State