courage of the defenders. Then
John M'Leod {78} remembered a cannon which was rusting unused at the
small post which the Hudson's Bay Company had on the river. Hugh
M'Lean and two others were ordered to haul this to the blacksmith's
shanty. The three men soon found the cannon, and set it up in the
smithy. For shot, cart chains were chopped into sections; and the Bois
Brules were treated to a raking volley of 'chain shot.' This was
something they had not looked for; their courage failed them, and they
galloped out of range.

But the remnant of Lord Selkirk's settlers who had dared to linger on
the Red River were at the end of their resources. Taking counsel
together, they resolved to quit the colony. They launched their boats
on the river, and followed the canoe route which led to Hudson Bay.
They were accompanied by a band of Indians of the Saulteaux tribe as
far as the entrance to Lake Winnipeg. From there a short journey
placed them outside the boundaries of Assiniboia. When they arrived at
the northern end of Lake Winnipeg they found a temporary refuge, in the
vicinity of Norway House, on the Jack river.

Alexander Macdonell and his Bois Brules were now free utterly to blot
out Colony {79} Gardens. They visited every part of the settlement and
set fire to everything. Not a single house was left standing. Cabins,
storehouses, the colony's grinding mill--all were reduced to a mass of
ruins. Cameron's duplicity had been crowned with success; Alexander
Macdonell's armed marauders had finished the task; Lord Selkirk's
colony of farmers-in-the-making was scattered far and wide.
Nevertheless, the Nor'westers were not undisputed masters of the
situation. In the Hudson's Bay smithy, but ten feet square, four men
continued the struggle. John M'Leod, James M'Intosh, and Archibald
Currie, of the Hudson's Bay Company, defended their trading-post, with
the assistance of 'noble Hugh M'Lean,' the only settler remaining on
the Red River banks. By day and by night these men were forced to keep
watch and ward. Whenever the Bois Brules drew near, the 'chain shot'
drove them hurriedly to cover. At length the enemy withdrew, and
M'Leod and his comrades walked out to survey the scene of desolation.

[1] After it had been discovered that the Grand Portage was situated
partly on land awarded by treaty to the United States, the Nor'westers,
in 1803, had erected a new factory thirty or forty miles farther north
where t