rd
of St Mary's Isle did not, however, abandon hope; he was a persistent
man and not easily turned aside from his {61} purpose. Now he went in
person to the straths and glens of Sutherlandshire to recruit more
settlers. For several years the crofters in this section of the
Highlands had been ejected in ruthless fashion from their holdings.
Those who aimed to 'quench the smoke of cottage fires' had sent a
regiment of soldiers into this shire to cow the Highlanders into
submission. Lord Selkirk came at a critical moment and extended a
helping hand to the outcasts. A large company agreed to join the
colony of Assiniboia, and under Selkirk's own superintendence they were
equipped for the journey. As the sad-eyed exiles were about to leave
the port of Helmsdale, the earl passed among them, dispensing words of
comfort and of cheer.

This contingent numbered ninety-seven persons. The vessel carrying
them from Helmsdale reached the _Prince of Wales_ of the Hudson's Bay
Company, on which they embarked, at Stromness in the Orkneys. The
parish of Kildonan, in Sutherlandshire, had the largest representation
among these emigrants. Names commonly met with on the ship's register
were Gunn, Matheson, MacBeth, Sutherland, and Bannerman.

After the _Prince of Wales_ had put to sea, {62} fever broke out on
board, and the contagion quickly spread among the passengers. Many of
them died. They had escaped from beggary on shore only to perish at
sea and to be consigned to a watery grave. The vessel reached Hudson
Bay in good time, but for some unknown reason the captain put into
Churchill, over a hundred miles north of York Factory. This meant that
the newcomers must camp on the Churchill for the winter; there was
nothing else to be done. Fortunately partridge were numerous in the
neighbourhood of their encampment, and, as the uneventful months
dragged by, the settlers had an unstinted supply of fresh food. In
April 1814 forty-one members of the party, about half of whom were
women, undertook to walk over the snow to York Factory. The men drew
the sledges on which their provisions were loaded and went in advance,
clearing the way for the women. In the midst of the company strode a
solemn-visaged piper. At one moment, as a dirge wailed forth, the
spirits of the people drooped and they felt themselves beaten and
forsaken. But anon the music changed. Up through the scrubby pine and
over the mantle of snow rang the skirl of t