But not all of these half-breeds were traders. Thomas Douglas, the fifth Lord Selkirk had secured from the Hudson's Bay Company the grant of an immense tract of land on the Red River, and in 1811 he began the colonization of the region with poor immigrants from Scotland and Ireland. But the knowledge of the internal troubles of the company put an end to the immigration from these two countries, and Lord Selkirk turned to Switzerland for new recruits. In 1821 a ship full of Swiss sailed for Fort York on Hudson's Bay, and late in the fall the party reached the Red River after a toilsome journey up the Nelson River and across Lake Winnipeg. Being artisans and city-dwellers they were unable to endure the rough agricultural labors in the bleak north. Cold, floods, grasshoppers, and uncongenial neighbors rendered the location unpleasant.[504] Travellers from the south brought news of a better locality, and towards this place there soon began a movement which, while not great in any one year, was long continued. In 1821 five families made the journey to Fort Snelling, and their success inspired others. In 1823 thirteen families made the perilous journey of four hundred miles. From year to year, as families became discouraged they left the colony. Four hundred and eighty-nine persons had arrived at Fort Snelling up to 1835.[505] The many hardships endured by these travellers, and their pitiful condition, appealed to the sympathy of the Americans,[506] and they were welcomed and aided by the officers at Fort Snelling. During their stay one party was granted the use of the old barracks at Camp Cold Water. Employment was given the men upon the reservation, and those who preferred to remain were allowed to settle upon the military grounds. Comparatively few, however, made their homes here, the greater number proceeding to Galena, Illinois, and Vevay, Indiana. On one occasion provisions for the down-river journey in government keel-boats were issued by Colonel Snelling.[507] A third class of settlers around the fort was composed of discharged soldiers. Men stationed at Fort Snelling saw the agricultural value of the surrounding lands, or the possibility of riches in the fur trade. Joseph R. Brown, who came as a drummer boy with Colonel Leavenworth in 1819, entered the employ of the post sutler when he ceased his connection with the army, and later he became an Indian trader.[508] Edward Phelan, John Hays, and William Evans, whose terms of service at Fort Snelling expired about this time were among the first settlers on the land ceded in the treaty of 1837.[509] In the fall of 1837 it was revealed by a survey that there were one hundred and fifty-seven white persons, not connected with the fort, living on the reservation. Of these, eighty-two had their homes in the vicinity of Camp Cold Water and seventy-five at the fur trading establishments. Approximately two hundred horses and cattle were owned by these persons.[510]