He
afterwards obtained damages of L3,000 for his illegal detention.
[Illustration: FORT DOUGLAS From copy of a Pencil sketch made by Lord
Selkirk and obtained by the author]
But there was future trouble brewing all through the West.
The new Governor, however, unaware of the real state of matters in
Rupert's Land and probably ignorant of the claim of Canada to the West,
and of the force of a customary occupation of the land, procured with
high-handed zeal a further reprisal. Before Colin Robertson had gone to
conduct Cameron to York Factory the Governor and Robertson had discussed
the advisability of dismantling Fort Gibraltar. To this course
Robertson, knowing the irritation which this would cause to the
Nor'-Westers strongly objected. For the time the proposal was dropped,
but when Robertson had gone, then the Governor proceeded with a force of
thirty men to pull down Gibraltar, which was done in a week. The
stockade was taken down, carried to the Red River and made into a raft.
Upon this was piled the material of the buildings, and the whole was
floated to the site of Fort Douglas and used in erecting a new structure
and fully completing the Fort which John McLeod had begun.
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