s they listened to the good news
which came of a land beyond the {14} Atlantic where there was plenty
and to spare. It is small wonder that as the ships moved westward they
carried with them the destitute Highlander, bound for the colonies
planted in North America.

This 'expatriation' was spread over many weary years. It was in full
process in 1797, when Thomas Douglas became Lord Daer. His six elder
brothers had been ailing, and one by one they had died, until he, the
youngest, alone survived. Then, when his father also passed away, on
May 24, 1799, he was left in possession of the ancestral estates and
became the fifth Earl of Selkirk.

As a youngest son, who would have to make his own way in the world,
Thomas Douglas had prepared himself, and this was a distinct advantage
to him when his elevation in rank occurred. He entered into his
fortune and place an educated man, with the broad outlook upon life and
the humanitarian sympathy which study and experience bring to a
generous spirit. Now he was in a position to carry out certain
philanthropic schemes which had begun earlier to engage his attention.
His jaunts in the Highlands amid 'the mountain and the flood' were now
to bear fruit. The dolorous plaint of the hapless clansmen had {15}
struck an answering chord in the depths of his nature. As Thomas
Douglas, he had meant to interest himself in the cause of the
Highlanders; now that he was Earl of Selkirk, he decided, as a servant
of the public, to use his wealth and influence for their social and
economic welfare. With this resolve he took up what was to be the main
task of his life--the providing of homes under other skies for the
homeless in the Highlands.

In the spring of 1802 the young earl addressed a letter to Lord Pelham,
a minister in the British government, in which he dwelt with enthusiasm
upon the subject of emigration. His letter took the form of an appeal,
and was prophetic. There had previously come into Selkirk's hands
Alexander Mackenzie's thrilling story of his journeys to the Arctic and
the Pacific. This book had filled Selkirk's mind with a great
conception. Men had settled, he told Lord Pelham, on the sea-coast of
British America, until no tract there was left uninhabited but--frozen
wastes and arid plains. What of the fruitful regions which lay in the
vast interior? It was thither that the government should turn the
thoughts of the homeless and the improvident. Leading to thi