.

He had not fought in vain. He had broken down single-handed a system of
organized terrorism in the heart of North America, for the Nor'-Westers
never rose to strength again. They united in a few years with the
Hudson's Bay Company. He established a Colony that has thriven; he
cherished a lofty vision; he made mistakes in action, in judgment, and
in a too great optimism, but if we understand him aright he bore an
untainted and resolute soul.

"Only those are crown'd and sainted
Who with grief have been acquainted
Making Nations nobler, freer."

"In their feverish exultations,
In their triumph and their yearning,
In their passionate pulsations,
In their words among the nations
The Promethean fire is burning."

"But the glories so transcendent
That around their memories cluster,
And on all their steps attendant,
Make their darken'd lives resplendent
With such gleams of inward lustre."

CHAPTER XII.

SOLDIERS AND SWISS.

Many Canadian Settlements have had a military origin. It was considered
a wise, strategic move in the game of national defence when Colonel
Butler and his Rangers, after the Treaty of Paris, were settled along
the Niagara frontier, and when Captain Grass and other United Empire
Loyalists took up their holdings at Kingston and other points on the
boundary line along the St. Lawrence. The town of Perth was the
headquarters of a military settlement in Central Canada. Traces of
military occupation can still be found in such Highland districts of
Canada as Pictou, Glengarry and Zorra, in which last named township the
enthusiastic Celt in 1866 declared that perhaps the Fenians would take
Canada, but they could never take Zorra. Numerous examples can be found
all through Canada where there is an aroma of valor and patriotism
surrounding the old army officer or the families of the veterans of the
Napoleonic or Crimean wars.

The settlement of the De Meuron soldiers opposite Fort Douglas gave some
promise of a military flavor to Selkirk Settlement. But as we shall see
it was an ill-advised attempt at colonization. It was a mistake to
settle some hundred or more single men as these soldiers were without a
woman among them, as Lord Selkirk was compelled to do. To these
soldier-colonists he gave lands along the small winding river now called
the Seine, which empties into Red River opposite Point Douglas. Many of
the De Meurons spoke German, and