As the fifteen hundred sheep purchased had to be driven 1,500 miles to their destination on Red River, only two hundred and fifty of the whole flock survived.

Failure after failure taking place did not prevent the formation of a Tallow Company, which resulted in the loss of L600 to L1,000, and a considerable sum was spent also in an abortive attempt to open up a road to Hudson's Bay, a scheme which Lord Selkirk's letters show, he had in view from the very beginning of the life of the Colony.
The courage and generosity of the executors of Lord Selkirk shown to all these enterprises reflects the greatest credit upon them.

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.

It took more than fifty years of subsequent effort to remove this impression.
These experiences took place under those governors who succeeded Alexander Macdonell--the Grasshopper Governor.

The first of them was Captain Bulger, an unfortunate martinet, though a man of good conscience and high ideals.