ith
the Assinniboine; this was followed four years later by another but
smaller colony from the same section of Scotland. In consequence of
the stubborn competition and the bitter dissensions between the Hudson
Bay Company and the Northwest Company of Montreal, these were
compelled to abandon their new homes, nearly all of them removing to
Lower Canada. This Scotch settlement having proved almost a total
failure Lord Selkirk turned his attention to the Swiss, for whom he
entertained a great regard. By glowing accounts of the country, and by
the offer of great inducements, which were endorsed by the British
government whose policy it was to favor these emigration schemes, he
succeeded in persuading many young and middle aged men to emigrate to
this new world. The colony numbered two hundred persons, nearly
three-fourths of whom were French or of French origin, they were
Protestants and belonged to the Lutheran church. Some of the families
were descendants of the Hugenots of Eastern France, all were healthy
and robust, well fitted for labor in a new country; most of them were
liberally educated and possessed of considerable means. Among the more
prominent were Monier and Rindesbacher, Dr. Ostertag, Chetlain and
Descombes, Schirmer, afterwards a leading jeweller at Galena,
Illinois, Quinche and Langet. In May 1821, they assembled at a small
village on the Rhine near Basle and in two large flat-boats or barges,
floated down the Rhine, reaching a point near Rotterdam where a
staunch ship, the "Lord Wellington" was in readiness to take them to
their new home towards the setting sun. Their course lay North of
Great Britain and just South of Greenland to Hudson Strait. After a
tedious and most uncomfortable journey they arrived at Hudson Strait,
and after a hard journey of four months they landed at Fort York.
Embarking in batteaux they ascended the Nelson River, and at the end
of twenty days reached Lake Winnipeg, and after encountering all
manner of discouragements arrived at the mouth of the Red River, only
to learn that the locusts or grasshoppers had been before them, and
had literally destroyed all the crops. With heavy hearts they
proceeded up the river thirty-five miles to Fort Douglas, near the
site of the present Fort Garey, then the principal trading post of the
Hudson Bay Company. Governor Alexander McDowell and the other officers
of the company welcomed them cordially and did what was in their
power, to supply thei