Tue Lasr Years 159

been well for his partners if they had taken
this advice, for Selkirk bought it instead and
by 1811 had a controlling interest. In May,
I8II, at a meeting of the General Court of the
Company, Selkirk was granted an area of
116,000 square miles, a territory nearly as
large as Great Britain and Ireland. Macken-
zie and five other shareholders violently
opposed the grant, and issued a lengthy pro-
test. The leading North-Westers in London
notified their partners in Canada that the
scheme was a threat to the existence of their
Company, and advised resistance on the spot.
Selkirk sent out his first party of colonists in
the same year, with Miles Macdonell in com-
mand. In the letters to Selkirk which he
wrote on the way he refers time after time to
Mackenzie’s open opposition. While the party
was collecting at Stornoway, a relative of
Mackenzie, who was collector of customs, did
all he could to hinder their departure, and
another relative tried to break up the expedi-
tion by enlisting its men in the army. Mac-
donell thought that these actions were inspired
from London. He wrote at one time: “Sir