There was an officers' guard under arms; colors
were flying and after the reading of the Patent all the artillery
belonging to Lord Selkirk, as well as that of the Hudson's Bay Company,
under Mr. Hillier, consisting of six swivel guns, were discharged in a
grand salute.
At the close of the ceremony the gentlemen were invited to the
Governor's tent, and a keg of spirits was turned out for the people.
Having made such disposition as we shall see of the people, Governor
Macdonell went with a boat's crew down the river to make a choice of a
place of settlement for the Colonists. A bull and cow and winter wheat
had been brought with the party, and these were taken to a spot selected
after a three days' thorough investigation of both banks of the river
for some miles below the Forks. The place found most eligible was "an
extensive point of land through which fire had run and destroyed the
wood, there being only burnt wood and weeds left." This was afterwards
called Point Douglas.
He had, as we shall see, dispatched the settlers to their wintering
place up the Red River on the 6th of September, and set some half-dozen
men, who were to stay at the Forks, to work clearing the ground for
sowing winter wheat.
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