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During the next moment or two he glanced meditatively through the open door into the adjoining room, where Sally Creighton was busy beside the stove. The sleeves of the girl's light bodice were rolled up well above the elbow, and she had pretty, round arms, which were just then partly immersed in dough. "I don't think there's a nicer or more capable girl in this part of Assiniboia," he remarked.
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.
True, the concession of so wide an area of fertile land was worth it, and the pledges made to the Selkirk settlers demanded it, but as in hundreds of other enterprises undertaken by British capitalists on the American continent, the choice of men foreign to the country and its conditions, the lack of conscience and economy on the part of the agents sent out, the dissension and jealousy aroused by every such attempt, as well as the absence of the means of transport by land and sea through the methods supplied by science to-day, resulted in a series of dismal failures, which placed an undeserved stigma upon the character of the soil, climate, and resources of Assiniboia.
Nature, as those who love her know, is never in a hurry, and very slowly, little by little, working on through forgotten ages, she had stored her latent wealth under the matted sod against the time when the plowshare should convert it into food for man and beast. There is no wheat soil on the surface of the earth to beat that of Assiniboia and Manitoba.
"I don't think there's a nicer or more capable girl in this part of Assiniboia," he said. "Oh, yes," said Hawtrey. "Anybody would admit that. Still, since you seem so sure of it, why don't you marry her yourself?" Wyllard looked at his comrade rather curiously. "Well," he said, "there are one or two reasons that don't affect Miss Sally and only concern myself.
One of the last acts of his life was to seek settlers in Switzerland, and a considerable number of Swiss families were persuaded to migrate to Assiniboia. But the heads of these families were not fitted for pioneer life on the prairie. For the most part they were poor musicians, pastry-cooks, clock-makers, and the like, who knew nothing of husbandry.
No moose, of course, are found in the plains country of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta; but east in Keewatin, and to the north in Athabaska, northern British Columbia, and northwest into Alaska we have an unbroken range, in which moose are scattered everywhere. They are increasing wherever their ancient foe, the Indian, is dying off, and where white hunters do not pursue too persistently.
The former governor of Assiniboia was then awaiting trial on charges brought against him by officers of the North-West Company. He was never tried, however, for the charges were dropped later on. In November Lord Selkirk saw Sir Gordon Drummond and urged that help be sent to Assiniboia.
In 1836 their rights in the country of Assiniboia, in so far as it lay in British territory, were purchased by the Hudson's Bay Company for the sum of £84,000. The character of the fifth Earl of Selkirk has been alike lauded and vilified. Shortly after his death the Gentleman's Magazine commended his benefactions to the poor and his kindness as a landlord.
But his efforts to people Assiniboia the Indian name he gave to his wide domain were baulked by the opposition of the employees of the North-west Company, who regarded this colonising scheme as fatal to the fur trade.
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