One of the Nor'-Westers in Saskatchewan a few years before the beginning
of Lord Selkirk's Colony, was "Bras Croche," or crooked-arm McDonald. He
was of gentle Scottish birth, but his own acquaintances declared that he
was of a "quarrelsome and pugnacious disposition." In his district Colin
Robertson was a "Bourgeois" in charge of a station. A quarrel between
the two men resulted in Colin Robertson losing his position, and as we
shall see he became one of the most active and serviceable men in the
history of the Colony. Colin Robertson went among his countrymen in the
Island of Lewis and elsewhere.

And now as the time draws nigh for gathering together at a common port,
the Stromness (Orkney), the Glasgow, the Sligo and the Lewis contingents
to face the stormy sea and seek a new untried home, a fierce storm
breaks out upon the land. Evidence accumulates that the heat and
opposition of the "Nor'-West" partners--Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Inglis
and Ellice--shown at the general meeting of the Company, were to break
out in numberless hidden and irritating efforts to stop and perhaps
render impossible the whole Colonizing project.

Just as the active agents, Miles Macdonell, Capt. McDonald and Colin
Robertson, had set the heather on fire on behalf of Lord Selkirk's
project, so the aid of the press was used to throw doubt upon the
enterprise. Inverness is the Capital of the Highlanders, and so the
"Inverness Journal," containing an effusion signed by "Highlander," was
spread broadcast through the Highlands, the Islands, and the Orkneys,
picturing the dangers of their journey, the hardships of the country,
the deceitfulness of the agents, and the mercenary aims of the noble
promoter.

Before Miles Macdonell had cleared the coast of England, he wrote to