A Selkirk Settlement Sourcebook Selected, Transcribed and Annotated By Chris Willmore 1 Table of Contents “I give this warning to my countrymen” (July, 1811) ........................................................................................... 4 A brief historical sketch (September, 1889) ......................................................................................................... 6 “Suffered much from sickness” (November, 1813) ............................................................................................. 8 “The entire dispersion of the Colony” (October, 1815) ....................................................................................... 8 “Disagreeable reports” (September, 1816) .......................................................................................................... 9 “Lord Selkirk and the North West Company” (December, 1816) ........................................................................ 9 “Massacred with savage ferocity” (December, 1816) ........................................................................................ 11 The affair as seen by “friends of Lord Selkirk” (August, 1817) ........................................................................... 12 “Some counter statements” (August, 1817) ...................................................................................................... 15 “All sides have more or less erred” (August, 1817)............................................................................................ 18 “Losing confidence in his present title” (November, 1817) ............................................................................... 21 Early obstacles to settlement (September, 1889) .............................................................................................. 22 “Queries and answers” (July, 1819) ................................................................................................................... 22 An account of early settlement (1878)............................................................................................................... 27 “Death of the Earl of Selkirk” (April, 1820)......................................................................................................... 32 “Arrangements are nearly completed” (April, 1821) ......................................................................................... 33 “A singular circumstance” (March, 1822) .......................................................................................................... 33 “I feel rather weary” (November, 1824) ............................................................................................................ 33 “The whites must have been the aggressors” (November, 1824) ..................................................................... 34 “Completely inundated” (1878) ......................................................................................................................... 34 “The settlers seem very comfortable and happy” (June, 1827)......................................................................... 34 “The only people who did thus observe their duty” (March, 1829) .................................................................. 35 “I never see a face without a smile on it” (November, 1828) ............................................................................ 35 “Comfort and happiness” (December, 1829) ..................................................................................................... 36 A brief account (January, 1833).......................................................................................................................... 37 Flax farmers wanted (April, 1833) ...................................................................................................................... 37 “The first sheep in Davenport” (August, 1868) .................................................................................................. 37 “One great principle of that Company” (November, 1845) ............................................................................... 38 It “will yet be a great colony” (July, 1847).......................................................................................................... 40 “Trading companies have never colonized well” (August, 1848) ...................................................................... 41 “Countless herds of buffalo” (October, 1848).................................................................................................... 41 Recalling the garrison (September, 1848) .......................................................................................................... 42 “Law there is none.” (October, 1849) ................................................................................................................ 42 “Their subsistence will depend upon their skill” (May, 1849) ........................................................................... 43 “Well, here they are” (August, 1849) ................................................................................................................. 44 The Articles of the Trade (August, 1863) ............................................................................................................ 44 “The Red River traders” (August, 1849) ............................................................................................................. 45 “The real motive of the Company” (March, 1850) ............................................................................................. 46 By snow shoes and dog train (March, 1851) ...................................................................................................... 48 “About 7,000 souls” (August, 1851) ................................................................................................................... 48 Trade and the Colony (August, 1851) ................................................................................................................. 50 “A general destruction of the farms” (August, 1852) ........................................................................................ 50 “As melancholy as it is novel” (September, 1852) ............................................................................................. 51 “A caravan of 133 carts” (August, 1853) ............................................................................................................ 51 “A terrible conflagration” (December, 1853) ..................................................................................................... 52 “Beset with numerous difficulties” (January, 1857) .......................................................................................... 52 Mr. Ellice defends the Company (July, 1857) ..................................................................................................... 55 “In an extreme state of depression” (September, 1857) ................................................................................... 58 “We cannot obtain deeds” (January, 1858) ....................................................................................................... 60 “Invalid and unconstitutional” (May, 1858) ....................................................................................................... 63 2 “Making for itself a new route” (August, 1863) ................................................................................................. 65 The “first trip of the Anson Northrup” (July, 1859) ............................................................................................ 66 “Moral and religious worth” (January, 1860) ..................................................................................................... 67 “They pay in furs and coin” (July, 1862) ............................................................................................................. 68 “A band of Sioux had visited” (January, 1863) ................................................................................................... 68 The Sioux leave the settlement (January, 1864) ................................................................................................ 69 “Powder and lead have been furnished liberally” (May, 1865) ......................................................................... 69 Travel by Red River cart (April, 1894) ................................................................................................................. 69 “Destroyed by the grasshoppers” (September, 1868) ....................................................................................... 72 “The poor people of this settlement” (September, 1868) ................................................................................. 72 Relief from St. Paul (September, 1868) .............................................................................................................. 73 Informative advertising (November, 1868) ........................................................................................................ 73 A “new route to Red River” (May, 1869)............................................................................................................ 74 “The transfer of the Hudson’s Bay territory” (March, 1869) ............................................................................. 75 “The new northwest” (June, 1869) 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