Robertson sent Clarke with the French voyageurs on to Athabasca. Clarke departed boasting he would send every “Nor’Wester out a prisoner to the bay.” Robertson led the colonists back to the settlement. When Duncan Cameron came triumphantly from the Nor’Westers’ annual meeting, he was surprised to find the colony arisen from the ashes of its ruin stronger than ever. The first thing Robertson did was to recapture the arms of the settlement. On October 15th, as Cameron was riding home after dark he felt the bridle of his horse suddenly seized, and peered forward to find himself gazing along the steel barrel of a pistol. A moment later, Hudson’s Bay men had jerked him from his horse. He was beaten and dragged a prisoner before Robertson, who coolly told him he was to be held as hostage till all the cannon of the colonists were restored. Twelve Nor’Westers at once restored cannon and muskets to Fort Douglas, and Cameron was allowed to go on parole, breathing fire and vengeance till Governor Semple came. Semple with one hundred and sixty colonists and some one hundred Hudson’s Bay men arrived at Kildonan on November 3rd. Robertson was deeply disappointed in the new governor. A man of iron hand and relentless action was needed. Semple was gentle, scholarly, courteous, temporizing--a man of peace, not war. He would show them, he forewarned Nor’Westers, whether Selkirk could enforce his rights. Forewarned is forearmed. The Nor’Westers rallied their Plain Rangers to the Assiniboine and Red River. “Beware, look out for yourselves,” the friendly Indians daily warned. “Listen, white men! The Nor’Westers are arming the Bois Brulés!” To these admonitions Semple’s answer was formal notice that if the Nor’Westers harmed the colonists “the consequences would be terrible to themselves; a shock that would be heard from Montreal to Athabasca.” Robertson raged inwardly. Well he knew from long service with the Nor’Westers that such pen and ink drivel was not the kind of warfare to appall those fighters.