Some authorities, like McDonald of Garth, give the number of Voyageurs sent to Athabasca by Robertson as four hundred. I follow Robertson’s MS. account.
It is not surprising that one of the first settlers to desert Red River for Ontario was that Angus McKay, whose child was born on the sled journey to York.
CHAPTER XXVIII
1816-1820
THE COMING OF THE COLONISTS CONTINUED—GOVERNOR SEMPLE AND TWENTY COLONISTS ARE BUTCHERED AT SEVEN OAKS—SELKIRK TO THE RESCUE CAPTURES FORT WILLIAM AND SWEEPS THE NOR’WESTERS FROM THE FIELD—THE SUFFERING OF THE SETTLERS—AT LAST SELKIRK SEES THE PROMISED LAND AT RED RIVER.
Here, then, is the position, June 17, 1816.
My Lord Selkirk is racing westward from Montreal to the rescue of his Red River colonists with two hundred men made up of disbanded De Meuron and De Watteville soldiers and French canoemen.
William McGillivray has gathered all the Eastern partners of the Northwest Company together—McLoughlin, the doctor; Simon Fraser, the explorer; McLeod, the justice of the Peace; Haldane, McLellan, McGillis, Keith and the rest—and with a hundred armed men and two cannon, is dashing for Red River to outrace Selkirk, rescue Duncan Cameron, restore Fort Gibraltar, and prevent the forcible eviction of the Northwest Company from Assiniboia.