He was patient and kind and just. Though he had come to the
Colony prejudiced against Lord Selkirk, he found his Lordship so fair
and reasonable that he became much attached to the man represented in
Montreal and the far East as a destructive ogre.
The Commissioner's report covered one hundred pages, and it was in all
respects a model. He thoroughly understood the motives of both parties,
and his decisions led to a perfect era of peace, and moreover in the end
to the union of the Hudson's Bay and Nor'-West Companies.
Lord Selkirk's coming was like a ray of sunshine to the Colonists of Red
River. Being of an intensely religious disposition, the people reminded
him that the elder who came out in 1815, who was able to baptize and
marry, had been carried away by main force by the Nor'-Westers to Canada
in 1818, so that they were without religious services. They always
continued to have prayer meetings and to keep up the pious customs of
their fathers. This practise long survived among them. In repeating his
promise of a clergyman, Lord Selkirk asserted to them: "Selkirk never
forfeited his word."
His work done among his Colonists, he left them never to see them again.
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