had some difficulty in obtaining the assent of a few of the chiefs
to my proposition.

I explained to the chiefs in council the difference between the
lands ceded heretofore in this Province and those then under
consideration, they were of good quality and sold readily at
prices which enabled the Government to be more liberal, they were
also occupied by the whites in such a manner as to preclude the
possibility of the Indian hunting over or having access to them
whereas the lands now ceded are notoriously barren and sterile, and
will in all probability never be settled except in a few localities
by mining companies, whose establishments among the Indians,
instead of being prejudicial, would prove of great benefit as they
would afford a market for any things they may have to sell, and
bring provisions and stores of all kinds among them at reasonable
prices.

Neither did the British Government contemplate the removal of the
Indians from their present haunts to some (to them) unknown region
in the far West, as had been the case with their brethren on the
American side.

I told them that the two chiefs who were in Toronto last winter
(Shinguacouse and Nebennigoebing) only asked the amount which the
Government had received for mining locations, after deducting the
expenses attending their sale. That amount was about eight thousand
pounds which the Government would pay them without any annuity
or certainty of further benefit; or one-half of it down, and an
annuity of about one thousand pounds.