SWISS EMIGRANTS. 



65 



route from Montreal to York Fort, to make 

 arrangements for the future trade of the 

 country, in consequence of a coalition between 

 the two Companies. This was a circumstance 

 which I could not but hail, as highly encour- 

 aging in the attempt to better the condition of 

 the native Indians, and likely to remove many 

 of the evils that prevailed during the ardour of 

 opposition. 



The 12th of August, being Sunday, we had 

 divine service ; after which I baptized between 

 twenty and thirty children, and married two of 

 the Company's officers. On the 14th, we left 

 this Post, and arrived at York Factory, the 

 27th, where we found a considerable number 

 of Swiss families, who had left their country, 

 as emigrants to the Red River Colony. They 

 shewed me a prospectus, which had been cir- 

 culated in the Swiss Cantons, by a gentleman 

 who had been in Canada, but had never seen 

 the Settlement ; and were anxious in their 

 inquiries whether it was rising to prosperity. 

 They appeared to me to be a different de- 

 scription of settlers, from what the colony, 

 in its infancy of improvement, was prepared 

 - to receive ; as consisting principally of watch- 

 makers and mechanics. The hardy husband- 

 man was the character we wanted ; who would 



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