After all those movies I never thought I'd read a first hand account.


Excerpt of a letter to Hudson's Bay House London from Joseph Colen and Council at York Factory dated Sept.22 1794
..."The Natives have been and are very hostile towards your honors Servants Inland.-They attacked Manchester House last fall were only seven resided - plundered the House of every Article of Trading Goods which they Carried away. The Men escaped only with the Cloths on their backs. The easy conquest"..."induced a vast Number of the same tribe to attack the South branch the 24th of June last when they killed Magnus Annal, Hugh Brough & William Fea. Plundered and sett fire to the House and carried off in triumph the scalps of the unfortunate Sufferers. M. Vanderial escaped their fury by concealing himself in an old Vault"...
1M258 B.239/b/79

Here is the first hand account from M. Vandriel

SouthBranch House Sunday, June 22, 1794
" Hugh Brough and the Flute our Indian hunter arrived from the Birch mountain with a supply of meat for the house. they remained here all the next day."
June 24
"Early in the morning H. Brough & the Flute went out to fetch in the horses to return to the Birch mountain. between 8 and 9 M[agnus] Annel went over to breakfast at the canadians house. between 9 and 10 Finlay, one of the canadian clerks, with an indian lad came to our house on horseback and asked me if our people had found their horses and came home. I told him They were not come home & that I Supposed the horses strayed & I immediately asked him if he had found his horses and he said No.
and without giving me time to ask any more questions, he rode immediately away towards the Plains. in less than two minutes I heard a galloping of horses, went outside the stockades & saw a number of horsemen stopped at a short distance from the french Fort, and as many more about 300 yards distance from our house. I took them to be stone indians, so did Wm. Fea & M. Annels wife, a stone indian. I desired Fea to tell the women to save themselves,
they would not leave the house and we immediately shut the gates. I then went to the top of the House & to the best of my Judgement discerned near 100 Indians, most of them dismounted from their horses and filing off in different directions with intent to surround the House. a party of 12 or 14 horsemen passing between the two houses towards the water side. M. Annels wife persisted that they were stone indians until and time as they could be heard talking under the banks edge 10 or 13 steps from the stockade. Then she told us they were fall indians. one of which shew himself on the bank and advanced to the Gate and gave it a kick & made a short harangue which none of us understood.
"We by this time had 12 or 14 guns loaded, all that were at hand. The number of indians being so great, I darest not fire knowing it to be impossible for us to escape should we kill any of them and not be able to keep them off.
"Directly after the harangue a party came up and set fire to the stockades then fired a shot.
"I was at this time in a room by myself, Wm Fea was in the center of the house in a cabbin with the women. on hearing the shott I started out of my room and said to Fea, we must defend ourselves, he replied to me his arm was gone. I returned to my room(not well knowing what to do) and shut the door on myself.
"the indians rushed in through the burning stockades and in at the other end of the house making frightful noises, made me run out at a back window(on which there was some blood spilt) and jumped into a cellar near the bottom of the garden. There I found Fea, I got out again directly( he telling me at the same time not to leave him) and endeavoured to loosen some rotten stockades but in vain. I then looked up, thinking to scale them, then ran back to an open cellar where Mr Walkers old house stood and 3 or 4 steps from that where Fea was. I scratched away some of the dirt and rubbish and covered myself up with it. Fea withdrawing himself at the same time to the bottom of the Cellar he was in.
" 2 or 3 minutes after, I heard some indians rummaging in the book room or house. Then they came to the cellar where Fea was, exclaiming among themselves, then shot him & as I afterwards found, strip'd and scalped him.
" They then went off & another party came up on the opposite side of the garden, broke open the meat house in which was the Powder, and were 20 minutes or half an hour dividing it among themselves. They then returned towards the house & with the others assisted in Demolishing the inside of the same &etc.? The instant before the house was in flames, heard the crying of women & children. and whilst it was burning a heavy firing was kept up about the french house which I immagined was the destruction of the Canadians, Indians, women & Children there.
"a considerable time after the firing had ceased & the house reduced to ashes I ventured my head above ground (it being now between 6 & 7 PM and about 10 Am when I got in) and looked into the Cellar where Fea was, laying on his back, with his shirt off & scalped. then I crawled into the meat house where I waited awhile in the garret, listening and looking about me. finding the coast clear, I walked (stooping and watching) towards the water side picking up an indian shield in my way, and embarked in the wooden Canoe. as I passed the canadian Fort I immagined the house was burnt down, only the stockades standing, with something red hanging on a Pole in the center.
"I paddled and drifted with the current 1 1/2 miles from the house, I then put ashore, intending to return at midnight, not having anything to subsist on. about 1/4 of an hour had elapsed when I heard 3 more shotts. I concluded that it was the fall indians in pursuit of some of the canadians.
"once more I embark'd, resolved to subsist on what I might find in the woods. paddled that afternoon all night, & the next day about 3 pm got to the junction of the two branches[of the Saskatchewan River]. at which place I picked up for provisions a piece of green buffaloe hide and bearskin. at day set I hauld the canoe ashore and endeavour'd to sleep.
"The 26th at daybreak pushed off, paddling and drifting with the current. about 1 pm arrived at the Nippeway, at which place, fortuneately for me was a canadian trader and one man left to pafs the summer with the Daychild, a southern indian and hunter for them here.
"I remained untill the 6th of July, chiefly through the persuasions of the indian. and about noon Chastedelain, the canadian trader, arrived safe with all his people & Indians & nearly all his baggage etc. he then told me how he defended himself, that as soon as the fall indians etc. had finished with our house, they approached his, nearly in the same manner as they approached ours. part of them under the shelter of the Bank & the other towards the woods. but they kept at a greater distance than at our house, circumstances not favouring the indians so much. The canadians house being situated on a level spot, well stockaded,Bastions at the opposite corners with Ball proof log houses over each gateway, raised 10 or 12 feet from the ground and commanded by Louis Chastedelain 4 canadians & southern indians.
"on the other hand our house was surrounded with stockades that the 1st gale of wind we expected would level with the ground and but myself and another man to defend it.
" The indians kept up a heavy fire under shelter of the bank and likewise from the wood side( which was briskly return'd from the Log house) a Black foot indian bolder than the rest got above the bank animating the others to come on and fire the stockades, he was instantly shott from the log house by Finlay. this finish'd the Action, for they were seen to file off immediately crying and carrying off their dead and wounded, amounting to 5 kill'd and 9 wounded by Chastedelain's account.
"he supposed likewise there were near 200 indians. he visited the remains of our house where he found Annal's wife and the two youngest children cut and hacked in a shocking manner.
"The Flute indian who was out looking for the horses in Company with Annal and Brough saw the fall indians [in] time enough to save himself. he pulled Annal by the arm telling him of his danger, but he, slighting what the indian said to him was soon surrounded, shot, scalped & hacked. The above indian was within a quarter of a mile of the houses at the time of action and saw most of what pafsed, but did not show himself till the next day & and the day folling he sett off with Chastedelain to the junction of the branches where they waited several days. from which place Finlay & 2 canadians set off on horseback for the upper houses, keeping the North side of the river.
"NB James Gaddy arrived with the indians from the Birch hill in a few hours after Chastedelain.
"July 7 we sett off together in the Wooden Canoe for Cumberland house. About 9 miles below the Nippeway met 3 canoes, left from the Mifsippi bound for the upper houses. July 9 got to Cumberland house.
Jn Con Van Driel"

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HBCA microfilm numbers:
Reel 1M258 Doc. Ref. No. B,239/b/79
Reel 1M263 Doc. Ref. No. Coming