Across this Bay and Lake Huron they passed rapidly on to Sault Ste. Marie, Lord Selkirk leaving the expedition before reaching that place to go to Drummond's Isle, which was the last British garrison in Upper Canada, and at which point he was to receive the sergeant and six men granted for his personal protection by the Governor of Canada. At Drummond's Island a council was held with Kawtawabetay, an Ojibway chief, by the Indian Department, Lieut.-Colonel Maule, of the 104th Regiment, presiding. Kawtawabetay there informed the council that in the spring of 1815 two North-West traders, McKenzie and Morrison, told him that they would give him and his people all the goods or merchandise and rum that they had at Fort William, Leach Lake, and Sand Lake, if he, the said Kawtawabetay, and his people would make and declare war against the settlers in Red River. On being asked by the chief whether this was at the request of the "great chiefs" at Montreal or Quebec, McKenzie and Morrison said it was solely from the North-West Company's agents, who wished the settlement destroyed, as it was an annoyance to them. The chief further stated that the last spring (1816), whilst at Fond Du Lac Superior, a Nor'-Wester agent (Grant) offered him two kegs of rum and two carrots of tobacco if he would send some of his young men in search of certain persons employed in taking despatches to the Red River, pillage these bearers of despatches of the letters and papers, and kill them should they make any resistance. The chief stated he had refused to have anything to do with these offers. On being asked in the council by Lord Selkirk, who was present, as to the feelings of the Indians towards the settlers at Red River, he said that at the commencement of the Red River settlement some of the Indians did not like it, but at present they are all glad of its being settled. Lord Selkirk soon hastened on and overtook his expedition at Sault Ste. Marie, now consisting of two hundred and fifty men all told, and these being maintained at his private expense. They immediately proceeded westward, intending to go to the extreme point of Lake Superior, near where the town of Duluth now stands, and where the name Fond du Lac is still retained. The expedition would then have gone north-westward through what is now Minnesota to Red Lake, from which point a descent could have been made by boat, through Red Lake River and Red River to the very settlement itself. This route would have avoided the Nor'-Westers altogether.