The duel has begun! Who will win?
Cunning and misrepresentation are to be employed to check the success of the Colony, and also local opposition on the other side of the Atlantic, should the scheme ever come to anything.

At present their hope is that it may fall to pieces of its own weight.
Lord Selkirk's scheme is dazzling almost beyond belief.

A territory is his, purchased out and out, from the Hudson's Bay Company, about four times the area of Scotland, his native land, and the greater part of it fertile, with the finest natural soil in the world, waiting for the farmer to give a return in a single year after his arrival.

A territory, not possessed by a foreign people, but under the British flag! A country yet to be the home of millions! It is worth living to be able to plant such a tree, which will shelter and bless future generations of mankind.
Financial loss he might have; but he would have fame as his reward..