Full account of Tanner’s life will be found in the Minnesota Hist. Society’s Collections. Tanner was the son of a clergyman on the Ohio. He was stolen by wandering Shawnees when barely eight years old, and sold to a woman chieftain of the Ottawas at the Sault. Here at an early age he married a native girl. When his brother found him at Red River, Tanner was averse to going back to civilization: He hated the white man clothes, which his brother induced him to wear, and appeared at Mackinac a grotesque figure with coat sleeves and trouser legs foreshortened. The Wisconsin Society’s Historical Collection contains an account of him at this period. At Mackinac, his squaw wife, of whom he was very fond, refused to go on with him to the white man’s land, and she remained at Mackinac. Poor Tanner’s stay in civilization was short. He came back to the Sault with a white wife. The man, of whose death he was accused, was the brother of Henry Schoolcraft at the Sault. The quarrel was over attentions to a young daughter of Tanner’s. As stated in the main story, a blackguard soldier, not Tanner, was the real murderer. Instructions from Governor Semple to Colin Robertson. FORT DOUGLAS, 12 April, 1816. COLIN ROBERTSON, Esq., Sir: I heard with pleasure of yr. having taken possession of the Fort occupied by the N. W. C. at the Forks of Red River. It was a measure on wh. I was fully determined and wh. was not only justified but imperiously demanded by the conduct and avowed hostilities of our implacable opponents. With regard to intercepting the despatches of the N. W. C. it was a step arising out of the former and wh. has happily furnished its own justification to the fullest extent. A more complete disclosure of plans of deliberate villainy has never yet met my eye and I can only regret that such schemes of pillage, burning and murder should have been planned and be so nearly on the point of execution by men belonging to the same country as ourselves. I am, Sir, Yours sincerely, (Signed) ROBERT SEMPLE. [Illustration: Red River Settlement in 1816 to 1820, taken from the Manuscript Drawing in Coltman’s Report, Public Records, London. This diagram has been reproduced many times, but not so fully as in Coltman’s original drawing for the Government.] Governor Semple to Duncan Cameron FORT DOUGLAS, 31 March, 1816. Sir: I regret that an indisposition subsequent to my arrival here has prevented my addressing you till now. I think it my duty to tell you as soon as possible the charges alleged against you and wh. I assure you will demand yr. most serious consideration. 1st. You are accused of seducing His Majesty’s subjects settled on Red River and the servants of the Earl of Selkirk to desert and defraud their master and one to whom the former were largely indebted.