FOOTNOTES
Reading edition
“Intelligence has been received, by a late arrival from Canada, of the entire dispersion of the Colony founded by Lord Selkirk, in conjunction with the Hudson’s-Bay Company, on the River Asnaboyne, in the interior of the N. W. Continent of America. Disputes with the Metiffs of the Country, a race of people between Canadians and Indians, inflamed the natural jealousy which the latter have always felt, relative to the agricultural encroachments on their hunting-grounds in the interior, and, we understand, compelled his Lordship’s Governor to abandon the establishment which had been made.”—“About one hundred and forty settlers were conveyed by the Canadian traders to Lake Superior, on their way to Canada; and the remainder are supposed to have gone to Hudson’s Bay, with a view of finding a passage to Great Britain.
“The Governor, Mr. McDonald, and a Sheriff, also appointed by Lord Selkirk (Mr. Spencer), were brought down prisoners to Montreal; the one for having granted, the other for having executed, a warrant, under the authority of which, provisions, the property of Canadian traders, were seized during the preceding winter, for the maintenance of the colonists; and these gentlemen were admitted to bail in the Courts of Lower Canada, to take their trials for this alleged offence.”
Whatever may be the decision of the Judges on this trial, the Metiffs will have succeeded in their malevolent intention, that of destroying all prospect of the Colony ever arriving to a flourishing condition.