but a medical man was in attendance, provided by the Earl. Provisions were for a time served out by an agent. Though their destination was reached so late as August, by the middle of September all the colonists had been settled on their lots. Five thousand people in Queen's County, Prince Edward Island-the descendants of that band of 800 pilgrim fathers-are to-day among the most prosperous of the inhabitants of the island.

Having seen his colonists provided for on Prince Edward, Lord Selkirk immediately visited Baldoon. Canada and the United States. He seems pre

viously to have secured a block of land in Upper Canada, at a point fifteen miles north of the mouth of the Thames, in the most westerly county of Upper Canada. This was named "Baldoon," from a portion of his lordship's estates in Scotland.

In 1803 some twenty families from Prince Edward Island settlement, numbering 110 souls, proceeded to Baldoon. The locality was swampy, and one-third of the colonists perished in the first season from malaria. During the war of 1812 the settlement was laid waste by the Americans. In the townships of Dover and Chatham, near Baldoon, Lord Selkirk also purchased wild lands.

A further tract of land, forming the township of Moulton, situated at the mouth of the Grand River, The Grand and comprising 30,800 acres, was purchased by River. Lord Selkirk for £3,850 from Mr. William

Jarvis, who had obtained it from the Indians in 1803. In 1804 Lord Selkirk proposed to Governor Hunter at York to build a road from the Grand River to his Baldoon settlement, or if the Government preferred, from York to Baldoon. It was estimated that the work would cost £40,000, the distance being nearly 300 miles. The Earl offered to accept in payment wild lands on each side of the road to be built. The project was not acceptable to the Government.

For several years the troubled state of Europe prevented the colonizer following up his plans of emigra

Manitoba.

tion. In 1811 he obtained a controlling interest in the Hudson's Bay Company. From this Company he purchased a vast district lying on the Red River, The birth of of 116,000 square miles. This he called Assiniboia, and in 1811, by way of Hudson Bay, despatched a party of Highlanders, with a few Irish colonists from Sligo. The pioneers did not reach their destination till 1812. Another band arrived in the same year, a third in 1814, and a fourth in 1815.

The relation of the new settlers and their patron to the Hudson's Bay Company stirred up the opposition of the North-West Fur Company of Montreal, which occupied many posts throughout the region to the north-west of Lake Superior.

A clever movement, by a Nor'-Wester officer named Cameron, succeeded in 1814 in inducing about 150 souls, or about three-fourths of the Selkirk Colony, to desert the Red River, and come by the canoe-route to Lake Superior and thence along the shores of the lakes to Penetanguishene in Upper Canada. The descendants of this band of colonists are still living in Gwillimbury, north of Toronto, and in Aldboro' and adjoining townships in the London district.

The settlers who refused to join Cameron were reinforced by an addition to the Selkirk settlement, in 1815, nearly making up the number lost. In 1816 the animosity of the North-West Company, which contained many of the French half-breeds, who called themselves the new nation," became so great that an attack was made on Fort Douglas, the centre of the Selkirk Colony, and Governor Semple, the officer in charge, was killed, with twenty of his staff and colonists.

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Lord Selkirk, who had been in Montreal during the winter of 1815-16, was hastening to reinforce his beleaguered colony, when he heard the sad news. He had taken 100 men of the disbanded German mercenaries called De Meurons, whom he had obtained in Canada, and with these was proceeding westward. He seized the Nor'-Wester post Fort William, wintered there, and

early in 1817 advanced to the Red River by way of Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods.

Lord Selkirk soon reduced the troubled affairs to order, made a treaty with the Indians of the Red River, consoled his settlers, and returned by way of the Mississippi and through the Western States to Canada again. Thus was begun the province of Manitoba, though for nearly sixty years after its founding it bore the name the Red River Settlement.

As already stated, the grant had been made by General Haldimand in 1784 to the Six Nations Indians Lands of of the vast tract from the source to the mouth the Six Nations. of the Grand River. This is one of the most beautiful portions of Canada. The covetous eye of the new settler soon fell on this wide domain. The Indians occupied but a small portion of it, and regarded it as useless to them.

It was thought that by the sale of a part of the lands an annuity might be obtained for the tribes. The British Government was, with greatest difficulty, induced to consent to this sale, and then only in part. In November, 1796, the chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations gave power of attorney to Captain Joseph Brant to sell such lands as he saw fit for their benefit.

Block one, afterwards comprising the township of Dumfries, and embracing 94,305 acres, was sold to Philip Stedman. Another block, as we have seen, fell into the hands of the Earl of Selkirk, while four other blocks, comprising nearly a quarter of a million of acres, were sold to others.

Local report has always been to the effect that Captain Brant was somewhat imposed on by the white settlers, and that the old chieftain, on one occasion at Niagara, offered 1,000 acres of land for £10 in a time of special need. On the Six Nations' tract there lived an ingenious German settler from New York State, who was a good violinist, and who was accustomed to invite the Captain now and then to a sumptuous feast. When the old warrior had reached the height of exhilaration, his enter

tainer succeeded again and again in obtaining his signature to leases of one after another of choice lots of land.

In 1803 Governor Hunter ordered an investigation into the condition of the Indian lands, and again in 1804. In 1806 Governor Gore ordered a statement of the moneys invested in English three per cents. for the Indians to be laid before the Legislature of Upper Canada, and it was but little above £5,600. The report given to the House, by Dr. Strachan and Mr. J. B. Robinson, long after Brant's death, suggests that but poor care had been taken of the interests of the Indians.

Section IV.-Political and Social Life

During the period before us, the introduction to Canada of so mixed a population produced the inevitable result of conflict and heartburning. Race jealousy, local dissatisfaction, and the lack of representative government gave rise to loud complaints. It does not seem to have been so much the want of skill on the part of the Governor and Council in each of the provinces, as fault with the system of government that produced the discontent. There are evident signs in this period of an expanding political life and a determination on the part of the people to gain self-government.

The plan of the Imperial Government was to appoint a Governor-General, with jurisdiction over the six provinces in existence at the time in British America. Under this chief officer was, in each province, a LieutenantGovernor. In Lower Canada the office of LieutenantGovernor was not always filled, as the Governor-General lived in Montreal or Quebec, though from 1808 to 1822 the office of Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada was held as a sinecure by an absentee at a comfortable salary.

In each province there was a Legislative Assembly elected by the people, and a Legislative Council appointed by the Crown. There was also an Executive Council appointed by the Crown, which was not responsible to the Legislature. The struggle for power between the

popular branch of the Legislature and the Legislative Council, led by the Executive, took place in each province, though each provincial struggle had peculiarities of its own.

Lower

In Lower Canada after the departure of Lord Dorchester, the idol of the people, in 1796, the government was carried on very successfully by General Canada. Prescott, though he was at times compelled to check his Executive Council for selfishness. He was succeeded by Mr. Milnes, who occupied the position for five or six years. Governor Milnes was not strong enough to cope with the heady and self-seeking Executive, which was steadily building up a structure of tyranny, which in the end must be levelled by the people. After Milnes' departure in 1805 the President of the Council, Hon. Thomas Dunn, filled the vacancy in the Governorship till a successor was appointed.

From the special features of Lower Canada it was to have been expected that the political struggle would be very severe. Lower Canada was largely French Canadian. Its population was considerable, and its people had a vigorous social and religious life. It was made up of a conquered people. It was impossible to tell what might at any time arise in the complications of Britain with the United States. The leading business men of the province were British merchants living in Montreal and Quebec. Many of these were associated together in the vast fur trade to the interior. The British Governor most naturally chose his Executive Council from this class. To make matters more secure, the Governor and Council appointed a safe majority of the Legislative Council from among the British residents.

The theory of this system, that the French Canadians were a conquered people and to be distrusted, was not quite accurate. The French of Lower Canada had found their attachment to France rudely severed by the events of the French Revolution. Atheistic France could have few attractions for French Canada, still holding to its ancient church. Sentiment and interest continued to