CHAPTER IX.
SEVEN OAKS MASSACRE.
Semple's course is on trial. Self-assertion and dictation bring their
own penalty with them. That so experienced a leader as Colin Robertson,
who had been in both Companies, who knew the native element, and was
acquainted with the daring and recklessness of the Nor'-Wester leaders,
hesitated about demolishing Fort Gibraltar should have given Governor
Semple pause. Ignorance and inexperience sometimes give men rare
courage. But while Semple was self-confident he could not be exonerated
from paying the price of his rashness.
Undoubtedly the Governor knew that the "Nor'-Westers" after their
aggressiveness during the year 1815 were planning an attack upon Fort
Douglas and upon the Colonists. Letters intercepted by the Governor
acquainted him with the fact that an expedition was coming from Fort
William in the East to fall upon the devoted Colony; also a letter from
Qu'Appelle written by Cuthbert Grant, the young Bois-brules leader, to
John Dugald Cameron, stated that the native horsemen were coming in the
spring from the Saskatchewan forts to join those of Qu'Appelle, and says
the writer, "It is hoped we shall come off with flying colors, and never
to see any of them again in the Colonizing way in Red River.
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