on account of grievances, real or fancied, was blowing. It had broken
out in one place, why should it not in another. This disaffected
spirit was prevalent in all parts of that country. Who was to blame?
who was the cause? direct or indirect, it is not my intention or
desire to say; suffice it is to note, that there was discontent; and
therefore there must have, been grievances, and an attempt should have
been made or an understanding arrived at, whereby this state of
discontent should have been replaced by that of content, without
disturbance. Where there is discontent there must be badness and
suffering, with evils and excesses lying in its wake.

To have removed those grievances was the imperative duty of the
dispensers of law and order and thus avoid those excesses, but it was
not done in time and the inevitable did come swift and sure; the
innocent were made to feel its fury. For that little hamlet by the
creek was entered, and its domestic quietness destroyed and future
prospects blighted. There was a degree of uneasiness felt after we
were informed of the horror of Duck Lake. Two half-breeds, Blondin and
Donaire, who were employed by my husband, were observed in frequent
and earnest conversation with the Indians. Those two had but arrived
from the scene at Duck Lake. For what were they there? Was it to
incite the Indians? Their actions were, to say the least, suspicious.

I will not dwell on the terrible slaughter which followed, it is too
painful a subject, simply stating that I had not believed that
anything so awful would have been perpetrated by either half-breeds or
Indians, until we were taken out of Mrs. Delaney's the second time,
and then I felt that there would be trouble, but not in such a manner
as that. When I was dragged from the death-bed of my husband, who had
the ground for a couch and the canopy of heaven for a coverlet, I was