ome to Fort Garry. I
was anxious to see the position of affairs at the fort, and I repaired
thither, passing without challenge a sentry who was leaning lazily
against a wall. There were two flagstaffs; one flew a Union Jack in
shreds and tatters, and the other a bit of bunting with a _fleur-de-lys_
and a shamrock on a white field. I was conducted to a house, and asked
if I wished to see Mr. Riel. "To call upon him?" "Yes." "Certainly
not!" "But if he calls upon you?" "Then I will see him."

A door opened, and there entered a short, stout man with a large head; a
sallow, puffy face; a sharp, restless, intelligent eye; his square-cut,
massive forehead overhung by a mass of long and thickly clustering hair,
and marked with well-cut eyebrows--altogether a remarkable-looking face.
This was Louis Riel. He was dressed in a curious mixture of clothing--a
black frock coat, vest, trousers, and Indian mocassins. In the course of
the interview he denied he was making preparation to resist the
approaching British expeditionary force. Everything he had done had been
for the sake of peace and to prevent bloodshed; but if the expedition
tried to put him out of his position, they would find they could not do
it, and he would keep what was his till a proper governor arrived!

Eventually he said: "Had I been your enemy, you would have known it
before. I heard you would not visit me, and although I felt humiliated,
I came to see you to show my pacific inclinations."

_II.--The Expedition in the Wilderness_

An hour later I left the fort, hastened to my old quarters at the Indian
settlement, and started by canoe to seek the coming expedition. We
paddled down the Red River to Lake Winnipeg, crossing which we entered
the mouth of the Winnipeg River, and came to Fort Alexandra, a mile up
stream.

This river has an immense volume of water. It descends 360 feet in a
distance of 160 miles by a series of terraces; it is full of eddies and
whirlpools; has every variety of waterfall, from chutes to cataracts; it
expands into lonely pine-cliffed lakes and far-reaching island-studded
bays. My Ojibway crew with infinite skill accomplished the voyage
up-stream, surmounting falls and cataracts by making twenty-seven
portages in five days from leaving Fort Alexandra, during which we had
only encountered two solitary Indians. It was on the evening of July 30
that we reached the Lake of the Woods. Through a perfect maze of
islands, we steered across