Note 195 — Chapter XXVI

This was the well-known Red River Settlement. As early as 1802 Lord Selkirk had endeavored to interest the English government in sending to British America colonies of Highland peasants, who were in deep distress. Unable to influence the government, he turned to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and in 1811 obtained from them for colonization a tract of land in the valleys of the Red and Assiniboin rivers. The first band of settlers, consisting of about seventy Highlanders from Sunderlandshire and some twenty Irish, reached Hudson Bay late in the fall of 1811. The next spring they removed to Red River, where they found it difficult to obtain sufficient food. The Indians and French half-breeds, under the influence of the North West Company, kept aloof and regarded them with suspicion; but until the incident mentioned by Franchère no important difficulty had arisen.—Ed.