Letters intercepted by the Governor acquainted him with the fact that an expedition was coming from Fort William in the East to fall upon the devoted Colony; also a letter from Qu'Appelle written by Cuthbert Grant, the young Bois-brules leader, to John Dugald Cameron, stated that the native horsemen were coming in the spring from the Saskatchewan forts to join those of Qu'Appelle, and says the writer, "It is hoped we shall come off with flying colors, and never to see any of them again in the Colonizing way in Red River." The evidence in hand was clear enough to the Governor.

He expected the attack, and as a soldier he took action from the military standpoint in destroying the enemy's base in levelling their Fort Gibraltar.

But on the other hand there was no open war.

The forms of law were being followed by the Nor'-Westers, whose officers were magistrates, and who held that by the authorization of the British Parliament the administration of justice in the Western Territories was given over to Canada.

The decision afterwards given in the De Reinhard case in Quebec seems against this theory, but this was the popular opinion.
Thus it came about that among the Hudson's Bay Company fur traders, who were somewhat doubtful about Lord Selkirk's movement, and certainly among all the "Nor'-Westers," who included the French Canadian voyageur population, Governor Semple's action was looked upon as illegal and unjust in destroying Fort Gibraltar and appropriating its materials for building up the Colony Headquarters--Fort Douglas.
As the spring opened the wildest rumours of approaching conflict spread through the whole fifteen hundred miles of country from Fort William on Lake Superior, to the Prairie Fort, where Edmonton now stands on the North Saskatchewan.