Individual[.] Thus confusion Keeps pace with loss in the Country[.] We are likewise led into a belief that Several other Gentlemen & Engages, against whom Warrant is said to have been issued, are to be seized this Spring on their way out by the Hudson Bay Company – and Perhaps the Packs too[.] It is this circumstance which makes me fear that Blood will again be Spilled – for our People go out armed and fully determined to defend themselves against Such lawless aggressions[.] Respecting the Colony in Red River, accounts from that Quarter mention that all their Crops of the preceeding Summer has been destroyed by the Grasshoppers a kind of Locusts – nothing escaped the voracity of these Insects – Wheat, Barley & Potatoes, all was destroyed and from the Fires having overrun the Plains in Red River, Buffaloe had become so Scarce, that none were to be found nearer than at upper part of the Pimbina River – So that the Poor Colonists were reduced to great distress & want[.] Some of them have been running throughout the Country up to Cumberland & Lac La Pluie, to obtain seed for ensuing Season[.] Such is the information given by our Gentlemen of the Red River, concerning this Land of Milk & Honey[.] Forty Souls have arrived last Fall at the Bay for the Settlement principally Germans[.] This number will only increase the number of Victims Sacrificed to the Sinister Views of a Noble Imposter[.] Surely Government might institute an enquiry into the truth of all these circumstances, I mean the possibility of Establishing & Supporting a Settlement in that Country, as well as to ascertain whether the Ground is fit for cultivation and likely to yield Subsistance that way to the number of Poor Families attracted thither by the Plausible and fanciful insinuations of the Earl of Selkirk and his Agents – certainly the Legislature could not act a more generous part in support of humanity than risque so many poor people from untimely Death and sufferings Scarcity to be believed[.] These Colonists imported with them the measles

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