a business way, and the department
headquarters were restored to the city, where they still remain.

Since the fort was built nearly every officer in the old army, and many
of those who have followed them, has been stationed at Snelling, and it
was beloved by them all.

The situation of the fort, now that the railroads have become the
reliance of all transportation, both for speed and safety, is a most
advantageous one from a military point of view. It is at the center of a
railroad system that reaches all parts of the continent, and troops and
munitions of war can be deposited at any point with the utmost dispatch.
It is believed that it will not only be retained but enlarged.

THE SELKIRK SETTLEMENT.

Lord Selkirk, the checking of whose operations was among the reasons
given for the erection of Fort Snelling, was a Scotch earl who was very
wealthy and enthusiastic on the subject of founding colonies in the
Northwestern British possessions. He was a kind hearted but visionary
man, and had no practical knowledge whatever on the subject of
colonization in uncivilized countries. About the beginning of the
nineteenth century he wrote several pamphlets, urging the importance of
colonizing British emigrants on British soil to prevent them settling in
the United States. In 1811 he obtained a grant of land from the Hudson
Bay Company in the region of Lake Winnipeg, the Red River of the North
and the Assinaboine, in what is now Manitoba.

Previous to this time the inhabitants of this region, besides the
Indians, were Canadians, who had intermingled with the savages, learning
all their vices and none of their good traits. They were called "Gens
Libre," free people, and were very proud of the title. Mr. Neill, in his
history of Minnesota, in describing them, says they were fond of

"Vast and sudden deeds of violence,
Adventures wild and wonders of the moment."

The offspring of their intercourse with the Indian women were numerous,
and called "Bois Brules." They were a fine race of hunters, horsemen and
boatmen, and possessed all the accomplishments of the voyageur. They
spoke the language of both father and mother.

In 1812 a small advance party of colonists arrived at the Red River of
the North, in about latitude fifty degrees north. They were, however,
frightened away by a party of men of the Northwest Fur Company, dressed
as Indians, and induced to take refuge at Pembina, in what is now
Minnesota, whe