These letters continue to
increase in being more and more terrible until his island home seems to
be in a state of siege.
St. Mary's Isle lies at the mouth of the Dee on Solway Frith, opposite
the town of Kirkcudbright. Here in 1778 Paul Jones, the so-called pirate
in the employ of the Revolutionary Government in America, had landed,
invested the dwelling with his men, and carried away all the plate and
jewels of the House of Selkirk. The Old Manor House of St. Mary's Isle,
with its very thick stone wall on one side, evidently had been a keep or
castle. It was at one time given to the church and became a monastery,
then it was enlarged and improved to become the dwelling of the family
of the Douglasses, which it is to this day.
But now the far cry from Red River reverberated across the Atlantic. The
startling succession of events of 1815 reached the Earl one after
another. It was late in the year when he made up his mind, but taking
his Countess, his two daughters and his only son, Dunbar, a mere boy,
and crossing the ocean he heard, on his arrival in New York, of the
complete destruction by flight and expulsion of the people of his
Colony. About the end of October he reached Montreal, but winter was too
near to allow him to travel up the lakes and through the wilds to Red
River.
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