" The Flax and Hemp
Company was the next unfortunate enterprise. This failed on account of
there being no market, so that farmers never reaped the successful crops
which they had grown. An expedition was made to Missouri, under Messrs.
Burke and Campbell, to introduce sheep into the settlement. As the
fifteen hundred sheep purchased had to be driven 1,500 miles to their
destination on Red River, only two hundred and fifty of the whole flock
survived. Failure after failure taking place did not prevent the
formation of a Tallow Company, which resulted in the loss of L600 to
L1,000, and a considerable sum was spent also in an abortive attempt to
open up a road to Hudson's Bay, a scheme which Lord Selkirk's letters
show, he had in view from the very beginning of the life of the Colony.
The courage and generosity of the executors of Lord Selkirk shown to all
these enterprises reflects the greatest credit upon them. True, the
concession of so wide an area of fertile land was worth it, and the
pledges made to the Selkirk settlers demanded it, but as in hundreds of
other enterprises undertaken by British capitalists on the American
continent, the choice of men foreign to the country and its conditions,
the lack of conscience and economy on the part of the agents sent out,
the dissension and jealousy aroused by every such attempt, as well as
the absence of the means of transport by land and sea through the
methods supplied by science to-day, resulted in a series of dismal
failures, which placed an undeserved stigma upon the character of the
soil, climate, and resources of Assiniboia.
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