Statement respecting the Earl of Selkirk's Settlement of Kildonan ...

123sending down the Imlf-breeds was certainly carryingthings to an extremity " it might be «aid, that" Governor Semple and those with him, had gone*'out to attack them, (the half-breeds) and met*' their fate*." This shrewd suggestion of thatable partisan, Mr. Alexander M'Donell,containsthe ground-work of every thing detailed in Mr.M'Gillivray's letter,which finished with a climaxnot unworthy of one of those " heads of theNorth-West Company, whose honourable characterand liberal principles" we have seen sohighly praised,by the Provincial Government inthe year 1815, — namely, that he (M'G^llivray)thought it very fortunate that none of the peoplebelonging to the North-West Company werewithin a hundred miles of the spot, at the time,otherwise the blame would have been thrown uponthem as usualThis restless anxiety to make the North-WestCompany appear innocent, before there was anyaccusation of guilt, raised a strong, and (as it hassince proved) a well founded, suspicion, thatthe persons, of whom Mr. M'Gillivray assertednone to have been within a hundred miles of thescene of aggression, were in fact not only thenupon the spot, but were themselves the actualaggressors.I presume it is not necessary for me to pursue* See Appendix, [B. B.] page Ixxix.m.- "n 1