To this course Robertson, knowing the irritation which this would cause to the Nor'-Westers strongly objected.

For the time the proposal was dropped, but when Robertson had gone, then the Governor proceeded with a force of thirty men to pull down Gibraltar, which was done in a week.

The stockade was taken down, carried to the Red River and made into a raft.
Upon this was piled the material of the buildings, and the whole was floated to the site of Fort Douglas and used in erecting a new structure and fully completing the Fort which John McLeod had begun.

The same aggressive course was pursued under orders from the Governor in regard to Pembina House which was captured, its occupants sent as prisoners to Fort Douglas, and its stores confiscated for the use of the Colony.

The spirit shown by Governor Semple, it is suggested, had something of the same treatment as that given to the Colonists by the official classes in England against which Edmund Burke burst out with such vehemence in his great orations.
Governor Semple's course would not satisfy Colin Robertson nor would it have been approved by Lord Selkirk.