upper Assiniboine. Duncan Cameron made his appearance
with considerable pomp and circumstance at Fort Gibraltar. The
settlers soon knew him as 'Captain' Duncan Cameron, of the Voyageur
Corps, a battalion which had ranged the border during the recent {70}
war with the United States. Cameron decked himself in a crimson
uniform. He had a sword by his side and the outward bearing of a
gallant officer. Lest there should be any want of belief on the part
of the colonists, he caused his credentials to be tacked up on the
gateway of Fort Gibraltar. There, in legible scrawl, was an order
appointing him as captain and Alexander Macdonell as lieutenant in the
Voyageur Corps. The sight of a soldier sent a thrill through the
breasts of the Highlanders and the fight-loving Irish. Cameron had in
fact once belonged to the Voyageurs, and no one at Colony Gardens yet
knew that the corps had been disbanded the year before. At a later
date Lord Selkirk took pains to prove that Cameron had been guilty of
rank imposture.

To pose in the guise of a captain of militia was not Duncan Cameron's
only role. Having impressed his martial importance upon all, he next
went among the settlers as a comrade. He could chat at ease in Gaelic,
and this won the confidence of the Highlanders. Some of the colonists
were invited to his table. These he treated with studied kindness, and
he furnished them with such an abundance of good food that they felt
disgust for the scant {71} and humble fare allowed them at the
settlement. At the same time Cameron began to make bold insinuations
in his conversation. He had, he said, heard news from the interior
that a body of Indians would raid them in the spring. He harped upon
the deplorable state in which the settlers were living; out of
fellow-feeling for them, he said, he would gladly act as their
deliverer. Why did they not throw themselves upon the mercies of the
North-West Company? In their unhappy condition, abandoned, as he
hinted, by Lord Selkirk to their own resources, there was but one thing
for them to do. They must leave the Red River far behind, and he would
guarantee that the Nor'westers would assist them.

As a result of Cameron's intrigues, signs of wavering allegiance were
soon in evidence. One of the settlers in particular, George Campbell,
became a traitor in the camp. Campbell had negotiated with Lord
Selkirk personally during Selkirk's visit to Sutherlandshire. Now he
complain