They were without money, they were dependent
upon Lord Selkirk's agents for shelter and rations. The land which they
hoped to possess was there awaiting them, but they had no means for
purchasing implements, nor were the farming requisites to be found in
the country. Horses there were, but there were only two or three
individual cattle within five hundred miles of them.
If they had sung on their sorrowful leaving, "Lochaber no more," the
words were now turned by their depressed Highland natures into a wail,
and they sang in the words of their old Psalms of "Rouse's" version:
"By Babel's streams we sat and wept,
When Zion we thought on."
They thought of their crofts and clachans, where if the land was stingy,
the gift of the sea was at hand to supply abundant food.
But this was no time for sighs or regrets.
The Hudson's Bay traders from Brandon House were waiting for expected
goods, and Messrs. Hillier and Heney, who were the Hudson's Bay Company
officers for the East Winnipeg District, had arduous duties ahead of
them. But though the orders to prepare for the Colonists had been sent
on in good time, there was not a single bag of pemmican or any other
article of provision awaiting the hapless settlers.
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