it upon them. True, the
concession of so wide an area of fertile land was worth it, and the
pledges made to the Selkirk settlers demanded it, but as in hundreds of
other enterprises undertaken by British capitalists on the American
continent, the choice of men foreign to the country and its conditions,
the lack of conscience and economy on the part of the agents sent out,
the dissension and jealousy aroused by every such attempt, as well as
the absence of the means of transport by land and sea through the
methods supplied by science to-day, resulted in a series of dismal
failures, which placed an undeserved stigma upon the character of the
soil, climate, and resources of Assiniboia. It took more than fifty
years of subsequent effort to remove this impression.

These experiences took place under those governors who succeeded
Alexander Macdonell--the Grasshopper Governor. The first of them was
Captain Bulger, an unfortunate martinet, though a man of good conscience
and high ideals. He had a most uncompromising manner. He quarreled with
the Hudson's Bay Company officer at Fort Garry on the one hand, and with
old Indian Chief Peguis on the other. A whole crop of suggestions made
by the Captain on the improvement of the Colony remain in his "Red River
Papers." Bulger's successor was Governor Pelly, a relative of the
celebrated Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. The new Governor lacked
nerve and decision, and was quite unfitted for his position. His method
of dealing with an Indian murderer was long repeated on Red River as a
subject for humor, when he instructed the interpreter to announce to the
criminal: "that he had manifested a disposition subversive of all order,
and if he should not be punished in this world, he would be sure to be
punished in the next." The hopelessness of carrying on the affairs of
the Colony apart from those of the general affairs of the Hudson's Bay
Company, was now seen, and on the suggestion of Governor Simpson, the
management was placed in the hands of governors immediately responsible
to the company. This change led to the appointment as Governor of Donald
McKenzie. This old trader had taken part in the formation of the Astor
Fur Company, and was in charge of one of the famous parties, which in
1811 crossed the continent, as described by Washington Irving. Ross Cox
says of this beleaguered party: "Their concave cheeks, protuberant
bones, and tattered garments indicated the dreadful extent of