Statement Respecting The Earl of Selkirk's Settlement Upon the Red River, in North America; Its Destruction in 1815 and 1816; and the Massacre of Governor Semple and His Party, with Observations Upon a Recent Publication, Entitled "A Narrative of Occurrances in the Indian Countries," & C.

Author: [Halkett, John]

Published: London; John Murray, 1817

Binding:

Condition: (please see full item description for details)

Description: Second edition, following the privately printed edition issued earlier the same year. 8vo, pp. viii, 194,c, [4] (publisher's ads), with folding map by A. Arrowsmith titled "Sketch of a Part of the Hudson's Bay Company Territory," in paper-covered boards with paper spine label. Front board original, spine with restorations, rear board professionally replaced. Map and title page have some offsetting, binding sound, text very clean. Housed in a cloth clamshell box with paper spine label.The Red River Settlement was an agricultural colony located in present-day Manitoba, North Dakota, and Minnesota established in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, Fifth Earl of Selkirk, on about 120,000 square miles of land granted to him by the Hudson's Bay Company. Selkirk had become interested in settling the area after reading Alexander Mackenzie's 1801 book on his travels in the region. Poverty was on the rise in Scotland, and Selkirk believed he could give settlers a chance at a better life in the new colony he called "Assiniboia." His chief opponents in this plan were the partisans of the Northwest Company, who had long traded without interference in the territories now claimed by Selkirk and the Hudson's Bay Company. Although the colony was not very successful agriculturally, the lure of free land added new settlers every year, and scarce resources and disputes over land rights led to conflict with trappers and traders from the North West Company. This work, written by Lord Selkirk�s brother-in-law, defends Selkirk�s actions in response to aggressions instigated by the North West Company that ultimately culminated in the 1816 �Massacre at Seven Oaks,� and the death of the colony�s governor, Robert Semple. The Appendix contains legal documents in support of Selkirk�s case. This edition also includes a rebuttal to the North West Company's response (A Narrative of Occurences in the Indian Countries of North America Since the Connexion of the Right Hon. Earl of Selkirk with the Hudson's Bay Co. etc.) to the first edition, as well as some additional documentation. TPL 1093; Streeter 3673; Sabin 20704.

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