BOURGEOIS - Toronto Public Library

130 W. F. WENTZEL'S
Such is the information given by our gentlemen of the Red
River concerning this land of milk and honey! Forty souls, prin.
cipally Germans, have arrived at the Bay for settlement; thisnumber
will only increase the number of victims sacrificed to
the sinister views of a noble impostor. Surely, Goyernment
might institute an enquiry into the truth of all these circumstances,
I mean the possibilitr of establishing and supporting
a settlement in that country, as well as to ascertain
whether the ground is fit for cultivation, and likely to yield
subsistance to the number of poor families attracted thither by
the plausible and fanciful insinuations of the Earl of Selkirk and
of hIS agents. Certainly, the Legislature could not act a more
generous part in support of humanity than rescue so many poor
people from untimely death and sufferings scarcely to be
believed.
These Colonists imported with them the measles and chin cough,
which have been so fatal among the Natives, that one fifth of
the population of the country is said to have been destroyed all
the way from Lac La Pluie to Athabasca, so that it would seem
as if Goyernor Semple, as he was styled, from a presage of what
might happen, had prophesied this melancholy accident, when
he wrote to Mr. Alexander MacDonell at Qu'appelle, III 1816,
that" he possessed means to make his power felt, the shock of
which should reach from Montreal to Athabasca." Such is now
the state of a country which once seemed to have attracted the
envy even of sovereigns.
Sir John It is however with sincere pleasure I turn from this disagrea­
Franklin'S
expedition. ble subject to one of a more pleasing and interesting nature, no
doubt more interesting on account of its novelty, and the naise
a scene so new in these parts occa"ions amongst all classes of
people, tho' the intent and purpose must conceal some mystery
which may be developed hereafter.