hot to death a
loyalist Canadian prisoner they had taken, named Thomas Scott.

When, at the beginning of April 1870, news came of the projected
dispatch of an armed force from Canada against Louis Riel and his
malcontent followers at the Red River, there was one who hailed in the
approaching expedition the chance of a solution to the difficulties
which had beset him in his career. That one was myself. Going to the
nearest telegraph station, I sent a message to the leader: "Please
remember me." I sailed at once for Canada, visited Toronto, Quebec, and
Montreal, interviewed many personages, and finally received instructions
on June 12 from those in authority to proceed west.

The expedition had started some time before for its true base of
operations, Fort William, on the north-west shore of Lake Superior. It
was to work its way from Lake Superior to the Red River through British
territory. My instructions were to pass round by the United States,
and, after ascertaining the likelihood of a Fenian intervention from the
side of Minnesota and Dakota, to arrange for supplies for the
expeditionary force from St. Paul; then to endeavour to reach Colonel
Wolseley beyond the Red River, with all the tidings I could gather as to
the state of parties and the chances of fight. At St. Paul my position
was not at all a pleasant one. My identity as a British officer became
known, and to escape unnecessary attention I paid a flying visit to Lake
Superior and then pushed on to Fort Abercrombie. I could find no
evidence at either place that there was a possibility at Vermilion
Lakes, eighty miles north of the latter place, of any filibusters making
a dash at the communications of the expeditionary force.

Afterwards, at Frog's Point on the Red River, I joined the steamer
International, which took me down to a promontory within a couple of
hundred yards of the junction of the Assiniboine and Red rivers, where,
with the connivance of the captain, I jumped ashore and escaped Riel's
scouts, who had heard of my coming, and had been ordered by their leader
to bring me into Fort Garry, "dead or alive." After a pursuit of several
hours in the dark, in which I had a narrow "shave" of being captured, I
reached the lower fort, occupied by loyalists, and thence passed on next
day to an Indian settlement. This was on July 23.

Riel, learning where I was, sent a messenger to say that the pursuit of
me had all been a mistake, and that I might safely c