y
arrived in 1821, and from year to year, after undergoing hardships that
might have appalled the hardiest pioneer, their spirits drooped, they
pined for home, and left for the south. At one time a party of two
hundred and forty-three of them departed for the United States, and
found homes at different points on the banks of the Mississippi.

Before the eastern wave of immigration had ascended above Prairie du
Chien, many Swiss had opened farms at and near St. Paul, and became the
first actual settlers of the country. Mr. Stevens, in an address on the
early history of Hennepin county, says that they were driven from their
homes in 1836 and 1837 by the military at Fort Snelling, and is very
severe on the autocratic conduct of the officers of the fort, saying
that the commanding officers were lords of the North, and the
subordinates were princes. I have no doubt they did not underrate their
authority, but I think Mr. Stevens must refer to the removals that were
made of settlers on the military reservation of which I have before
spoken.

The subject of the Selkirk colony cannot fail to interest the reader,
as it was the first attempt to introduce into the great Northwest
settlers for the purposes of peaceful agriculture, everybody else who
had preceded them having been connected with the half-savage business of
the Indian trade; and the reason I have dwelt so long upon the subject
is, because these people, on their second emigration, furnished
Minnesota with her first settlers, and curiously enough, they came from
the north.

Abraham Perry was one of these Swiss refugees from the Selkirk
settlement. With his wife and two children, he first settled at Fort
Snelling, then at St. Paul, and finally at Lake Johanna. His son
Charles, who came with him, has, while I am writing, on the twenty-ninth
day of July, 1899, just celebrated his golden wedding at the old
homestead, at Lake Johanna, where they have ever since lived. They were
married by the Right Reverend A. Ravoux, who is still living in St.
Paul. Charles Perry is the only survivor of that ill-fated band of
Selkirkers.

GEORGE CATLIN.

In 1835 George Catlin, an artist of merit, visited Minnesota, and made
many sketches and portraits of Indians. His published statements after
his departure about his adventures elicited much adverse criticism from
the old settlers.

FEATHERSTONEHAUGH.

Featherstonehaugh, an Englishman, about the same time, under the