lxxvi AUDUBON THE NATURALIST 



Selkirk an area of 116,000 square miles, comprising parts of 

 what are now Manitoba, North Dakota, and Minnesota, and 

 regarded as about the most fertile district on the whole North 

 American continent. By the deed of January 12, 1811, Sel- 

 kirk became the owner, in fee simple, of a tract five times the 

 size of his native Scotland, stretching from Lake Winnipeg and 

 the Winnipeg River on the east almost to the source of the 

 Assiniboine on the west. This brought Selkirk and the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company in deadly conflict with the North-West 

 Fur Company, whose directors were more interested in their 

 fat dividends than in philanthropy. They gave Lord Selkirk 

 no peace in the courts until, on the verge of financial ruin, his 

 health broke. In 1821, the year after Lord Selkirk's death, 

 the rival companies combined, and fifteen years later they made 

 a financial settlement with the Selkirk heirs. The purchase of 

 the territorial rights of this Company by the Dominion of 

 Canada in 1869 led to Riel's rebellion, which was suppressed 

 by British regulars under Colonel (later Lord) Wolseley. The 

 Red River district entered the Canadian Confederation in 1870 

 as the Province of Manitoba. Lord Selkirk seems to have lived 

 fifty years ahead of his time. Sir Walter Scott is reported to 

 have said of him: "I never knew in my life a man of more 

 generous and disinterested disposition." A town and a county 

 of Manitoba bear his name. 9 



Why did Audubon refer to Lord Selkirk in 1828, and why 

 was he curious to know if "Audubon of La Rochelle" remem- 

 bered Selkirk's Settlement? For no better reason, apparently, 

 than why he should wish to know if this same Audubon of La 

 Rochelle, whom we have supposed was the naturalist's uncle, 

 remembered his own brother, Jean, with whom we are told that 

 he had quarrelled. 



A recent reviewer of Mrs. Tyler's book speaks of "Lady 

 Selkirk, wife of Alexander Selkirk, who tried to establish a set- 



9 For facts concerning Lord Selkirk's life I am mainly indebted to 

 Chester Martin, Lord Selkirk's Work in Canada, Oxford Historical and 

 Literary Studies, Vol. VI (Oxford, 1916). 



