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Mémoires de Louis Riel ayant trait aux difficultés de la Rivière-Rouge, [?]
- Fonds / Collection
- Louis Riel
- Description Level
- Document
- Document Type
- documents textuels
- Date
- [?? ?? 1874-1875]
- Date
- [?? ?? 1874-1875]
- Document Type
- documents textuels
- Fonds / Collection
- Louis Riel
- Description Level
- Document
- Fonds No.
- 0003
- Reference No.
- 0003/1093/532
- Creator
- Riel, Louis
- Signatory
- Riel, Louis
- Physical Description
- 2 f. de documents textuels
- Language(s)
- Français
- Notes
- Copie numérisée sur le CD087.
- Scope and Content (English)
- Before the arrival of the troops Aug. 24, 1870 O'Donoghue with the majority of the French representatives, O'Lone and Scott, of Winnipeg were resolutely of the opinion of sending to the troops as far as the mouth of the Winnipeg two men to ask if they had the amnesty, if not to signify that they must not advance; from Aug. 17 to the evening of the 23rd I had to struggle against this determination refusing to sanction it and preventing it from happening; Auguste Harrison representing Pointe de Chenes supporting me in the most decided manner.
- I had another thought to gather together at Fort Garry all the Metis who had served the Provisional Gov't, to place them on the south side of the Assiniboine and west of the Red ready to salute the troops with a volley while I with 80 to 100 men as a guard, held myself at the south gate of Ft. Garry, having sent men to the Commander to tell him that the Fort was free and unoccupied to receive the representative of the Queen; a minority hesitated about adopting this plan, the result was that nothing was done in one way or another; I had said to John McTavish that I would wait for the troops till about the 20th; I was therefore on the alert for a long time rarely going to bed before 4 in the morning; having guards every evening around Winnipeg, fearing that the troops whose evil intentions were known to me would arrive during the night; I had scouts near Fort Pierre but towards the end I began to fear them; those who were Americans although interested in serving me well were intimate with O'Donoghue and those who were Maskeyons or English although devoted had already warned me and proved that they were exposed if their connections with the Metis were known;
- The morning of the 22nd I learned that the troops had arrived; Tache arrived; I went to see him with O'Donoghue, Dauphinais, Poitras, Schmidt; Tache hastened to say he had all the assurances possible but nothing in writing; I said to him, who consoles us, you have done your best; then I added to Royal, if the people were (not so young) Canada would not thus (compromise) with us; Monseigneur said the troops were still far off, thatLindsay had said the movement was nothing but the movement of troops from one point to another; back at the Fort a scout told me that the troops would stop that evening at the marshy place; I pressed (everyone) to save the most we could of what belonged to us at the Fort; I had occupied it for two weeks; but the idea of O'Donoghue's resisting the troops paralyzed my precautions; in the evening I assembled the council; Girard, Royal, Dubuc came to see us; they took leave after spending about 10 minutes with us; I conducted them to the crossing "de la grande Riviere"; it was very dark, it began to rain a little; at the Fort I continued the council; it was 9 o'clock; I said to the councillors that our duty being to leave our position only when the troops take it, it was important that no one leave the Fort without orders....; that I feared our enemies of last winter would take advantage of the approach of troops to attempt an assault on me; as for the troops I said I wanted to find out for myself what they would do during the night;
- 1. to continue removing our belongings from the fort, to be on guard; 2. I needed four horsemen to accompany me near Wolseley's camp on the west side of the Red and two men to accompany O'Donoghue who was going along the east side of the river to see if there was any movement there; we left in a beating rain; we advanced with the greatest precaution... we explored as much as possible; finally we saw the light of fires; it was evident we were approaching the sentinels and outposts; we returned; our horses seemed on the alert; we returned to the Fort; Colonel Gay, Baptiste Neault, Francis St. Luc and Charles Champagne had accompanied me; Gay who had taken our cause to his heart was anxious and chattered against the English; at times Champagne joked; the other two were very gay; St. Luc especially; we were wet to the bone; we returned to the Fort about 1 o'clock; I saw everyone, those who were working in danger, those who were on guard, the soldiers at the barracks, and the representatives, O'Donoghue came also not having discovered anything; I slept three quarters of an hour, my principal papers were (dispatched) and Schmidt worked to save those of his; towards 8 o'clock they served me breakfast; William Fraser came to Fort; he said he had not seen the troops; I said to him; it is (important) that you (be in possession) of my true intentions, but he did not seem to take any account of my words.
- Name Access
- Riel, Louis
- Storage Location
- PAM MG 3 D 1, 532
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