Major Caldwell, too, by his lack of business habits and his selfishness, alienated all the leading men of the Colony, so that they refused to sit with him in Council.

It was the common opinion that the turbulence and violence of the pensioners was so great that, as one of the Company said, "We have more trouble with the pensioners than with all the rest of the Settlement put together." The pensioners were certainly absolutely useless for the purpose for which they had been sent, that is to preserve order in the country.

The Metis, at any rate, spoke of them with derision.
[Illustration: PLAN OF FORT GARRY] In the year following the removal of the troops the policy of preventing the French half-breeds from buying and selling furs with the Indians was being carried out by Judge Thom, the relentless ogre of the law.

Four men of the Metis had been arrested; of these the leader was William Sayer.

He was the half-breed son of an old French bourgeois of the Northwest Company.