to the objects of the company (the Hudson’s Bay) whose interests were committed to him. But he does not appear clearly to have perceived the great difference which circumstances had interposed between a magistracy in an English or Scottish county, and the naked solitudes of Red River. He sallied forth himself, with a considerable retinue, to read the riot act, to a disorderly and threatening assembly of all kinds of a northwest population, on the plains. The agents and factors of the North West Fur Company, were accused of being at the bottom of this uproar, and it is certain that some of their servants were engaged, either as actors or abettors. It is among the facts recorded in a court of justice, that when certain of the clerks or partners of the North West Company heard of the tragic result of this sally, they shouted for joy.17
While the act was in the process of being read, one of the rioters fired his piece. This was taken as a signal. A promiscuous and scattering firing commenced. Semple was one of the first who received a wound. He was shot in the thigh, and fell from his horse. He was unable to sit up. At this moment a rush was made by the Indians in the North West interest, and a total and most disastrous route of the Hudson’s Bay party ensued. Panic, in its wildest forms, seized upon Semple’s men. He was himself one of the first victims despatched. Maji Gabowi, (one of our guests this evening) coming up, struck his tomahawk in his head. He was then scalped.
We embarked at sunrise, on the 19th, bidding adieu to the Leech Lake chief and his companion, who returned from this point, after having requested, and received a lancet, with directions from Dr. Houghton, for vaccinating such of his people as had not been present on the 17th. We were forty minutes in passing the Kagi Nogumaug, which is a handsome sheet of pure water presenting a succession of sylvan scenery. Its outlet is a narrow brook overhung with alders. It may average a width of six feet, but the bends are so extremely abrupt, and the channel so narrowed with brushwood, that it became necessary to dig down the acute points, and to use the axe in cutting away branches, to veer about a canoe thirty-two feet in length. We were just half an hour in clearing this passage, when the stream opened into another lake, denominated on our travelling map, Little Vermillion Lake. The growth on the banks of this lake is birch and aspen, with pines in the distance. We were twenty minutes in passing it. The outlet is full doubled in width, and free from the embarrassments encountered above. Tamarack is a frequent tree on the shores, and the pond lily, flag and Indian reed, appear in the stream. This outlet is followed about eight miles, where it expands into a small lake, called Birch Lake, which we were only thirteen minutes in passing. Its outlet exhibits a pebbly bottom, interspersed with boulders, which produce so much inequality in the depth, that the men were obliged often to wade. Not more than seven or eight minutes were thus occupied, in the course of which we passed through a broken fish-dam, when we entered another expanse called Lac Ple.
Lac Ple is about three and a half, or four miles long. Vegetation here appears to show a more southerly character. Part of its shores are prairie, interspersed with small pines. It is particularly deserving of notice, as being the point, from which a series of portages is made to Ottertail Lake. A map of these furnished by the traders, who often use this route, exhibits the following features. First, a portage of four pauses, to Island Lake, then a portage of one pause, into a small lake, which has an outlet, through another small lake into Lake Lagard, having a transverse position. Thence half a pause, into a small lake, a pause and a half into another small lake, and thence four pauses into Migiskun Aiaub, or Fish-line Lake. Thence one pause into Pine Lake, and five into a small river which falls into Scalp Lake. The latter has an outlet which expands into three lakes, at nearly equal distances apart, and is finally received by Lac Terrehaut, on the Height of Land. The outlet of the latter is twice expanded into the form of a Lake, the last of which is, from its peculiarities called the Two Lakes, and is finally discharged west of the Height of Land, into Ottertail Lake. I had designed to come down this route, or down Leaf river, had circumstances favored my going into Red river, from the sources of the Mississippi. But these sources were found so much further south, than it had been supposed, and so considerably removed from any practicable route into Red river that I found it would be a consumption of time altogether disproportionate to the anticipated results; and it was, therefore, given up.
On going out of Lac Ple, the channel exhibits numerous fresh water shells driven up against the shore, or lodged against inequalities in the bottom.18 And these productions are afterwards seen in all the subsequent outlets which connect the numerous lakes of this river. But little variety was, however, noticed among the species, although greater attention than we could bestow, might elicit new characteristics. Generally, they were small, or middle sized, often decorticated and broken. Soon after entering this channel, one of my men fired at, and brought down, a fork-tailed hawk, a species which had before been noticed on the wing, but we had now an opportunity of closer scrutiny. We did not observe any characteristics in which it differed from the described species. And if we except the numerous species of duck, the colomba migratoris, catbird, and some other land species almost equally common, this constitutes the substance of our observations, on the birds of this river. We saw the deer, of which there are apparently two species. And we had frequent occasion to observe the antlers and bones of these animals around deserted camps, evincing their abundance in this part of the country.
We had been three fourths of an hour in descending this outlet, when we entered a lake called Boutwell, with banks of rather sombre vegetation, which we were nineteen minutes in passing. Its outlet, of a spreading, sandy, shelly character, is about a mile and a half in extent, at which distance it expands into Lac Vieux Desert, or the Lake of the Old Wintering Ground, where we halted long enough to prepare breakfast. This lake we were twenty-six minutes in passing through. Its outlet is about two miles long, where it again expands into a lake of about two and a quarter miles extent, which may, from its position, be denominated Summit Lake. The course, which, from the Kagi Nogumaug, is thus far generally south-west, here suddenly veers to the east and northeast, and after a striking circuit, comes round to the south-east, and eventually again to the south-west, before its junction with Shell River. And the stream which thus far seems to have its course on a level or summit, is here deflected into a valley, and is beset with rapids, and by the flood wood lodged upon its banks, and their partial denudation, puts on the appearance of a stream which must sometimes assume the fury of a torrent. It probably, at such times, is a turbid stream, but was now clear with a gravelly bottom. We were hurried along through this channel for the space of two hours and fifteen minutes, when it expanded into Long-rice Lake. We were thirty-five minutes in passing this lake. Shortly below it, the channel expands again into a lake, which from Lieut. Allen’s exploring it, we called Allen’s Lake. It is probably the largest of the series below the Kagi Nogumaug. It receives a tributary from the northwest, which was visited by Lieut. Allen.
The atmosphere had for some time admonished us of a storm, and it broke upon us, on entering this lake. Dark clouds rolled over each other, until the light of day was sensibly and suddenly obscured. We have seldom known an equal quantity of the electric fluid discharged in so short a space of time, or with the incessant repetition of an electric light, so subtle and painful to be endured. The rain fell in a heavy and continued torrent, and it began with gusts of wind which threw the canoe-men into alarm. They veered the canoe for the nearest shore, but before reaching it, the tempest settled, and the rain fell less violently. We therefore, continued our way without landing, and passed out of the lake. A short channel, on the banks of which the elm and oak appeared conspicuously, terminated in a moderate sized lake of handsomely elevated hard wood and pine shores, for which, as our maps afforded neither Indian nor French name, we made use of the circumstance of Mr. Johnston’s landing to fire at a deer, to name it after him. On going out of this lake, we had our attention excited by an unextinguished fire, on the banks of the outlet. But no person appeared, nor was there any canoe ashore, nor lodge-poles, which there would have been, in the case of a travelling Chippewa family. These evidences were deemed conclusive by the canoe-men, of the presence of Sioux, who, it is supposed, perceiving the character of the party, had concealed themselves. And the circumstance was suited to alarm a class of men, who, being of the Gallic-Chippewa race, retain very strong attachments to the Chippewas, and have imbibed with very little abatement, all the prejudices which this people feel for a powerful hereditary enemy.
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