Scottish sailor who was put ashore on a deserted island off the coast of Chile for five years (providing the basis for Daniel Defoe's novel about Robinson Crusoe) (1676-1721)
The town is under the control of a provost, bailies and council, and, along with Hawick and Selkirk, forms the Hawick (or Border) group of parliamentary burghs.
The old district of Assiniboia, the result of the efforts in colonization by the earl of Selkirk in 1811 and succeeding years, was the nucleus of the province.
In a century's experience of the Selkirk colonists there have been four " floods."
From 1811 to 1818 Lord Selkirk's attempted colonization greatly increased the population; from the time of his failure till 1869 the settlers lived quietly under the mild rule of the Hudson's Bay Company.
In 1823 the first river steamboat reached St Paul; the Mississippi was soon afterwards opened to continuous if irregular navigation; and in 1826 a party of refugees from Lord Selkirk's colony on the Red River settled near Fort Snelling.