He presented this petition himself and employed all his influence to have it granted.
"Though a Protestant Lord Selkirk knew that to found a permanent colony on the Red River he required the encouragement of religion.

Should his application succeed the missionaries would come with the voyageurs in the following spring and would arrive in Red River towards the month of July.

This thought alone made Madame Lajimoniere forget her eleven years of loneliness and sorrow.
"Before July the news had spread that the missionaries were coming that very summer, but as yet the exact date of their arrival was not known.
Telegraphs had not reached this region and moreover the voyageurs were often exposed to delays.
"After waiting patiently, one beautiful morning on the 16th of July, the day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a man came from the foot of the river to warn Fort Douglas and the neighborhood that two canoes bringing the missionaries were coming up the river, and that all the people ought to be at the Fort to receive them on their arrival.
"Scarcely was the news made known when men, women and children hurried to the Fort.

Those who had never seen the priests were anxious to contemplate these men of God of whom they had heard so much.

Madame Lajimoniere was not the last to hasten to the place where the missionaries would land.