, and also salt
springs.

Lord Selkirk having been made acquainted with the natural advantages
of this favoured country by his North-West hosts in Montreal,
determined forthwith on adopting such measures as might ensure to
himself and heirs the possession of it for ever. Accordingly, on his
return to England, he purchased Hudson's Bay Company's stock to an
amount that enabled him to control the decisions of the Committee;
and thus, covered by the shield of the charter, he could carry on his
premeditated schemes of aggression against the North-West Company,
with some appearance of justice on his side.

With the view of carrying out these schemes, he proceeded to the North
of Scotland, and prevailed on a body of Highlanders to emigrate to Red
River. To induce them to quit their native land, the most flattering
prospects were held out to them; the moment they set their foot in
this land of promise, the hardships and privations to which they had
hitherto been subject, would disappear; the poor man would exchange
his "potato patch" for a fine estate; the gentleman would become a
ruler and a judge in--Assineboine! Who could doubt the fulfilment
of the promises of a British peer? His Lordship, therefore, soon
collected the required number of emigrants--for the Highlander of the
present day gladly embraces any opportunity of quitting a country that
no longer affords him bread.

At the period in question, Red River district furnished the principal
part of the provisions required by the North-West Company, and was a
wilderness, inhabited only by wandering Indians, and abounding in the
larger animals--elk and rein-deer in the woods, and buffalo in the
plains.

As Red River flows into Lake Winnipeg, which discharges itself by
Neilson's river into Hudson's Bay, and could therefore be included
within the territory granted by the charter, our noble trader
concluded that, by taking formal possession of the country, he would
obtain the right of expelling other adventurers, merely by warning
them off the Company's grounds; and that, if the warning were
disregarded, he could claim the aid of Government to enforce his
rights, and thus ruin the North-West Company at a blow. His Lordship's
Governor was therefore instructed to issue a proclamation, prohibiting
the North-West Company by name, and all others, from carrying on
any species of trade within Red River district, and ordering such
establishments as had been formed to be abandone