On the return
of Miles Macdonell as a prisoner to Montreal in the hands of the
Nor'-Wester emmissaries, the founder immediately sought for a competent
successor to Macdonell, and determined to send out the best and
strongest party of settlers that had yet been gathered.
He appointed, backed by all the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, a
retired officer, Captain Robert Semple. The new Governor was of American
origin, born in Philadelphia, but had been in the British army. He was a
distinctly high-class man, though Masson's estimate is probably true--"A
man not very conciliatory, it is true, but intelligent, honorable and a
man of integrity." He was an author of some note, but as it proved, too
good or too inexperienced a man for the lawless region to which he was
sent.
It would have been almost useless to despatch a new Governor to the Red
River settlement unless there had also been obtained a number of
settlers to fill the place of those so skillfully led away by Duncan
Cameron. Lord Selkirk now secured the best band of Emigrants attainable.
These were from a rural parish on the East Coast of Sutherlandshire in
Scotland. They were from Helmsdale and from the parish of Kildonan and
the noble founder afterwards conferred this name on their new parish on
the banks of the Red River.
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