PREFACE.
The present work tells the romantic story of the Settlement of Lord Selkirk's Colonists in Manitoba, and is appropriate and timely in view of the Centennial celebration of this event which will be held in Winnipeg in 1912.
The author was the first, in his earlier books, to take a stand for justice to be done to Lord Selkirk as a Colonizer, and he has had the pleasure of seeing the current of all reliable history turned in Lord Selkirk's favor.
Dr.Doughty, the popular Archivist at Ottawa, has put at the author's disposal a large amount of Lord Selkirk's correspondence lately received by him, so that many new, interesting facts about the Settlers' coming are now published for the first time.
If we are to celebrate the Selkirk Centennial intelligently, it is essential to know the facts of the trials, oppressions and heartless persecutions through which the Settlers' passed, to learn what shameful treatment Lord Selkirk received from his enemies, and to trace the rise from misery to comfort of the people of the Colony.
The story is chiefly confined to Red River Settlement as it existed--a unique community, which in 1870 became the present Province of Manitoba.
It is a sympathetic study of what one writer has called--"Britain's One Utopia." The Romantic Settlement OF Lord Selkirk's Colonists * * * * * Lord Selkirk's Colonists.