" Colonel Crofton, in command of
the troops, was appointed Governor of the Settlement, and he proved a
wise and honorable administrator. The regiment gained golden opinions
from the people, and as they spent during their short stay of two years,
a sum of L15,000 in supplies, it was, indeed, a golden age for the
hard-working Colonists. The leaving of the regiment was regretted by the
Colony.
Having now entered on a career of government by force, it would not do
to let it drop. Hence the authorities enlisted in Britain a number of
old pensioners, and under command of Major Caldwell, who was also to act
as Governor of the Settlement, sent out, in each of two successive
years, some seventy of these discharged soldiers to act as guardians of
the peace. It was pretty well agreed that these men, to whom were given
holdings of small pieces of land to the west of Fort Garry, now in the
St. James District of Winnipeg, were simply imitators in conduct and
disposition of the De Meurons, who had so vexed the Colonists. Major
Caldwell, too, by his lack of business habits and his selfishness,
alienated all the leading men of the Colony, so that they refused to sit
with him in Council.
Pages:
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210