This being the case McLeod could not wait for orders and so
as being temporarily in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company district at
Red River, he planned a fort and proceeded at once to build a portion of
it. Fortunately across the Red River in what is now the town of St.
Boniface, he found the freemen who were willing to help him. He
immediately hired a number of these and began work on the new fort.
Somewhat lower down the Red River than the Colony gardens he selected a
site on the river banks, now partially fallen in, where George Street at
the present days ends. Here McLeod began to erect a Governor's House,
having confidence that the founder would not desert his Colony. Along
with this important project, expecting that the Colonists would return,
he turned his men upon the fields of grain--small, but to them very
precious. The yield in this year was good. He also erected new fences
and cured for the settlers quantities of hay from the swamp lands.
McLeod states in his diary--of which a copy of the original is in the
Provincial Library in Winnipeg--that Fort Douglas was on the south side
of Point Douglas, so called from Lord Selkirk's family name, and which
McLeod has some claim to have so christened.
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