d wigwams.

There was, of course, much to be done. Trees and undergrowth had to be
cleared away, surveys made, and plots of land meted out to the various
families. Lord Selkirk remained for several weeks supervising the
work. Then, leaving the colony in charge of an agent, he set out to
make a tour of Canada and the United States.

Meanwhile, Selkirk's agents in Scotland were not idle. During the same
summer (1803) a hundred and eleven emigrants were mustered at
Tobermory, a harbour town on the island of Mull. Most of them were
natives of the island. For some reason, said to be danger of attack by
French privateers, they did not put out into the Atlantic that year;
they sailed round to Kirkcaldy and wintered there. In May 1804 the
party went on board the ship _Oughton_ of Greenock, and after a six
weeks' journey landed at Montreal. Thence they travelled in bateaux to
Kingston.

These settlers were on their way to Baldoon Farm, a tract of about nine
hundred and fifty acres which Lord Selkirk had purchased for them in
Upper Canada, near Lake St Clair. Selkirk himself met the party at
Kingston, {19} having journeyed from Albany for that purpose. He
brought with him an Englishman named Lionel Johnson and his family.
The new settlement was to be stocked with a thousand merino sheep,
already on the way to Canada, and Johnson was engaged to take care of
these and distribute them properly among the settlers. The journey
from Kingston to the Niagara was made in a good sailing ship and
occupied only four days. The goods of the settlers were carried above
the Falls. Then the party resumed their journey along the north shore
of Lake Erie in bateaux, and arrived at their destination in September.

Baldoon Farm was an ill-chosen site for a colony. The land,
prairie-like in its appearance, lay in what is now known as the St
Clair Flats in Kent county, Ontario. It proved to be too wet for
successful farming. It was with difficulty, too, that the settlers
became inured to the climate. Within a year forty-two are reported to
have died, chiefly of fever and dysentery. The colony, however,
enjoyed a measure of prosperity until the War of 1812 broke out, when
the Americans under General M'Arthur, moving from Detroit, despoiled it
of stores, cattle, and sheep, and almost obliterated it. In 1818 Lord
Selkirk {20} sold the land to John M'Nab, a trader of the Hudson's Bay
Company. Many descendants of the original settler