reat rivals of the Hudson’s
Bay Company, who were afraid that the new settlers would ruin the
fur-trade. As this order to depart was soon followed by the fear of
perishing through want of food, the settlers resolved to seek refuge at
Pembina, seventy miles distant. Hither, a straggling party promised to
conduct them.

The settlement of this contract between parties ignorant of each other’s
language furnished a scene as curious as it was interesting: the
language employed on the one side being Gaelic and broken English; on
the other, an Indian jargon and mongrel French, with a mixture of signs
and gestures, wry faces, and grim countenances. The bargain proved to be
a hard one for the emigrants. The Indians agreed to carry the children
and others not able to walk, but all the rest, both men and women, had
to trudge on foot; while all their treasured goods were given by way of
payment to their guides. One man, for example, had to give his gun, an
old family piece, that had been carried by his father at the battle of
Culloden. One of the women also parted with her marriage ring, the sight
of which on her finger was a temptation to the Indians, who are
remarkably fond of trinkets.

No sooner had the gypsy train got under way, than the savages scampered
on ahead, and were soon out of sight with the children, leaving the
terrified mothers running and crying after them for their babes. This
heartless trick was often played them; but without any other harm than
a fright. In other ways the emigrants suffered greatly, especially from
cold, wet, and walking in English shoes; their feet blistered and
swelled, so that many of them were hardly able to move by the time they
reached their journey’s end.

At Pembina the people passed the winter in tents or huts according to
Indian fashion, and lived on the products of the chase in common with
the natives. This mode of life was not without its charms; it tended to
foster kind and generous feelings between the two races, who parted with
regret when the Scots in May, 1813, retu