The winter in Montreal was long, but the atmosphere of opposition to
Lord Selkirk in that city, the home of the Nor'-Westers, was more trying
to him than the frost and snow. His every movement was watched. Even the
avenues of Government power seemed by influential Nor'-Westers to be
closed against him. An appeal to Sir Gordon Drummond, the
Governor-General, could obtain no more than a promise of a Sergeant and
six men to protect him personally should he go to the far West, and the
appointment of himself as a Justice of the Peace in Upper Canada and the
Indian Territory was grudgingly given.
The active mind of his Lordship occupied the time of winter well. He
planned nothing less than introducing to the banks of Red River a body
of men as settlers, who could, like the returned exiles to Jerusalem,
work with sword in one hand and a tool of industry in the other. The man
of resource finds his material ready made. Two mercenary regiments from
Switzerland which had been fighting England's battles in America had
just been disbanded, and Lord Selkirk at once engaged them to go as
settlers, under his pay, to Red River. From the commanding officer of
the larger regiment these have always been called the "De Meurons.
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