His apparent sincerity and kindness to them had also
won their hearts. He was now to make the greatest move in the game. This
was nothing less than a tempting offer to transfer the whole of them to
the fertile townships of Upper Canada. He provided all the means of
transport, he promised them free lands in the neighborhood of market
towns--two hundred acres to each family. Any wages due to them by Lord
Selkirk he would pay and should three-quarters of the Colony accept his
offer they would have provisions provided for a year free of cost. When
the poor Colonists thought of the bleak, uncultivated country in which
they were, of the inevitable hardships which lay before them, and saw
the dangerous, unsettled state of the Selkirk settlement, they could not
well resist the offer. Furthermore, the schemer did not stop here. As
was afterward found out, George Campbell, the arch-agitator and leader
among the disaffected settlers received a promise of L100, and others of
L20 and the like. Further to allay their fears it was urged that they
were going where the British flag was flying and where the truest
loyalty prevailed. It was pointed out that it had been to prevent any
obstacles being raised against their going, that the nine guns had been
seized and were in the custody of the Nor'-Westers.
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