e legality of his treatment of the Nor'westers. In his
view he had taken possession of a place which had served, to quote his
own words, 'the last of any in the British dominions, as an asylum for
banditti and murderers, and the receptacle for their plunder.' During
the ensuing winter he sent out expeditions to capture the posts
belonging to the North-West Company at Michipicoten, Rainy Lake, and
Fond du Lac. In March he commissioned a part of his followers to
advance into the territory of Assiniboia to restore order. The
veterans whom he sent artfully arranged their journey so that they
should approach 'the Forks' from {128} the south. The Nor'westers in
Fort Douglas were wholly unaware that a foe was advancing against them.
On a blustering night, amid storm and darkness, Selkirk's men crept up
to the walls, carrying ladders. In a trice they had scaled the
ramparts, and the fort was in their possession.

On the first day of May 1817 Lord Selkirk himself went forward to the
west from Fort William, taking with him the bodyguard which he had
procured at Drummond Island. He followed the fur traders' route up the
Kaministikwia to Dog Lake, thence, by way of the waters which connect
with Rainy Lake, on to the Lake of the Woods, and down the rushing
Winnipeg. After a journey of seven weeks he emerged from the
forest-clad wilderness and saw for the first time the little row of
farms which the toil of his long-suffering colonists had brought into
being on the open plains.

{129}

CHAPTER XII

THE PIPE OF PEACE

'The parish shall be Kildonan.'

As Lord Selkirk spoke, he was standing in what is to-day the northern
part of the city of Winnipeg. A large gathering of settlers listened
to his words. The refugees of the year before, who were encamped on
the Jack river, had returned to their homes, and now, in instituting a
parish for them and creating the first local division in Assiniboia,
Lord Selkirk was giving it a name reminiscent of the vales of
Sutherlandshire. 'Here you shall build your church,' continued his
lordship. The Earl of Selkirk's religion was deep-seated, and he was
resolved to make adequate provision for public worship. 'And that
lot,' he said, indicating a piece of ground across a rivulet known as
Parsonage Creek, 'is for a school.' For his time he held what was
advanced radical doctrine in regard to education, for he believed that
there should be a common school in every parish.

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