involved in the quarrel by accompanying him. Selkirk goes on
without them, accompanied by the two hundred hired soldiers; but instead
of proceeding to Red River by Minnesota, as he had first planned, he
strikes straight for Fort William, the headquarters of the Nor'westers.

He arrives at the fort August 12, only a few days after the Northwest
partners had come down from the scene of the {397} massacre at Red River.
Cannon are planted opposite Fort William. Things have "gone too far."
The Nor'westers capitulate without a stroke. Then as justice of the
peace, my Lord Selkirk arrests all the partners but one and sends them
east to stand trial for the massacre of Seven Oaks. The one partner not
sent east was a fuddled old drunkard long since retired from active work.
This man now executes a deed of sale to my Lord Selkirk for Fort William
and its furs. The man was so intoxicated that he could not write, so the
afore-time governor, Miles MacDonell, writes out the bargain, which one
could wish so great a philanthropist as Selkirk had not touched with
tongs. Before midwinter of 1817 has passed, the De Meuron soldiers have
crossed Minnesota and gone down Red River to Fort Douglas. One stormy
night they scale the wall and bundle the Northwest usurpers out, bag and
baggage.

[Illustration: MONUMENT TO COMMEMORATE THE MASSACRE OF SEVEN OAKS]

July of 1817 comes Selkirk himself to the Promised Land. There is no
record that I have been able to find of his thoughts on first nearing the
ground for which so much blood had been shed, and for which he himself
was yet to suffer much; but {398} one can venture to say that his most
daring hope did not grasp the empire that was to grow from the seed he
had planted. He meets the Indians in treaty for their lands. He greets
his colonists in the open one sunny August day, speaking personally to
each and deeding over to them land free of all charge. "This land I give
for your church," he said, standing on the ground which the cathedral now
occupies. "That plot shall be for your school," pointing across the
gully; "and in memory of your native land, let the parish be called
Kildonan."

Of the trials and counter trials between the two companies, there is not
space to tell here. Selkirk was forced to pay heavy damages for his
course at Fort William, but the courts of Eastern Canada record not a
single conviction against the Nor'westers for the massacre of Seven Oaks.
Selkirk ret