42 EXPEDITION TO THE 



the right to the soil, and to the jurisdiction of the country. 

 About the year 1812, Lord Selkirk, who was one of the 

 principal partners, obtained from the company a grant of a 

 considerable tract of land, including both banks of Red 

 river up to the Red or Grand Fork. To this he extin- 

 guished the Indian title by the payment of a certain 

 amount, and the promise of an annuity to the Indians. He 

 then opened the lands for settlement, inviting a number 

 of British subjects to go and reside upon them, and with a 

 view to strengthen his infant colony, he engaged recruits 

 from Switzerland and other countries, and especially in- 

 creased it by a number of soldiers belonging to the de 

 Meuron and de Watteville regiments, two foreign corps 

 that were in the pay of England during the late war, and 

 that were disbanded in Canada in the year 1815. Two 

 principal settlements were formed, one at Fort Douglas, 

 which is at the confluence of the Assiniboin and Red 

 rivers, and the other one hundred and twenty miles by 

 water above that, and near the mouth of a small stream, 

 named by the Chippewas Anepeminan sipi, so called from 

 a small red berry termed by them anepeminan, which 

 name has been shortened and corrupted into Pembina,* 

 (Viburnum oxycoccos.) 



The Hudson's Bay Company had a fort here, until the 

 spring of 1823, when observations, made by their own 

 astronomers, led them to suspect that it was south of the 

 boundary line, and they therefore abandoned it, removing 

 all that could be sent down the river with advantage. The 

 Catholic clergyman, who had been supported at this place, 

 was at the same time removed to Fort Douglas, and a large 

 and neat chapel built by the settlers for their accommoda- 



♦ The b has been Introduced by Europeans ; the theme of the word 

 i« Nepin, summer, and Minan, berry. 



