In the early summer of 1816 orders were issued that the
De Meuron regiment, in barracks at Montreal, and the Watteville
regiment, stationed at Kingston, should be honourably disbanded. These
regiments were composed of Swiss, Italian, and other mercenaries who
had fought for Great Britain in her struggle with Napoleon. In 1809
the De Meuron regiment had been sent from Gibraltar to the island of
Malta. In 1813 it had been transported to Canada with the reputation
of being 'as fine and well-appointed a regiment as any in his Majesty's
service.' It consisted of more than a thousand men, with seventy-five
officers. The Watteville regiment, a force equally large, had landed
at Quebec on June 10, 1813. Its ensign indicated that it had been in
the campaigns waged against France in the Spanish peninsula and had
served under Sir John Stuart in southern Italy.

About two hundred of the disbanded De Meurons desired to remain in
Canada, and Selkirk at once sought to interest them in his western
enterprise. Four officers--Captains {110} Matthey and D'Orsonnens and
Lieutenants Graffenreid and Fauche--and about eighty of the rank and
file were willing to enlist. It was agreed that they should receive
allotments of land in Assiniboia on the terms granted to the settlers
who had formerly gone from Scotland and Ireland. They were to be
supplied with the necessary agricultural implements, and each was to be
given a musket for hunting or for defence. Their wages were to be
eight dollars a month for manning the boats which should take them to
their destination. In case the settlement should not be to their
liking, Lord Selkirk pledged himself to transport them to Europe free
of cost, by way of either Montreal or Hudson Bay.

On June 4 the contingent of men and officers began their journey from
Montreal up the St Lawrence. At Kingston a halt was made while Captain
Matthey, acting for the Earl of Selkirk, enlisted twenty more veterans
of the Watteville regiment. It is stated that an officer and several
privates from another disbanded regiment, the Glengarry Fencibles, were
also engaged as settlers, but it is not clear at what point they joined
the party. When all was ready for the long journey, the combined
forces skirted the northern shore {111} of Lake Ontario from Kingston,
until they reached York, the capital of Upper Canada. Thence their
route lay to Georgian Bay by way of Lake Simcoe and the Severn.

Lord Selkirk left Mo