as now the plight of
the settlers: winter was coming on and food was already scarce. The
settlers must seek out the winter haunts of the buffalo. {57} The
Indians were of great service, for they offered to act as guides.

A party to hunt the buffalo was organized. Like a train of pilgrims,
the majority of the colonists now set out afoot. Their dark-skinned
escort, mounted on wiry ponies, bent their course in a southerly
direction. The redskins eyed with amusement the queer-clad strangers
whom they were guiding. These were ignorant of the ways of the wild
prairie country and badly equipped to face its difficulties. Sometimes
the Indians indulged in horse-play, and a few of them were unable to
keep their hands off the settlers' possessions. One Highlander lost an
ancient musket which he treasured. A wedding ring was taken by an
Indian guide from the hand of one of the women. Five days of
straggling march brought the party to a wide plateau where the Indians
said that the buffalo were accustomed to pasture. Here the party
halted, at the junction of the Red and Pembina rivers, and awaited the
arrival of Captain Macdonell, who came up next day on horseback with
three others of his party.

Temporary tents and cabins were erected, and steps were taken to
provide more commodious shelters. But this second winter {58}
threatened to be almost as uncomfortable as the first had been on
Hudson Bay. Captain Macdonell selected a suitable place south of the
Pembina river, and on this site a storehouse and other buildings were
put up. The end of the year saw a neat little encampment, surrounded
by palisades, where before had been nothing but unbroken prairie. As a
finishing touch, a flagstaff was raised within the stockade, and in
honour of one of Lord Selkirk's titles the name Fort Daer was given to
the whole. In the meantime a body of seventeen Irishmen, led by Owen
Keveny, had arrived from the old country, having accomplished the feat
of making their way across the ocean to Hudson Bay and up to the
settlement during the single season of 1812. This additional force was
housed at once in Fort Daer along with the rest. Until spring opened,
buffalo meat was to be had in plenty, the Indians bringing in
quantities of it for a slight reward. So unconscious were the buffalo
of danger that they came up to the very palisades, giving the settlers
an excellent view of their drab-brown backs and fluffy, curling manes.

[Illus