there, next day, a few Beaver
Indians and the Crees of the region. The Beaver chief, who was
present, did not adhere, saying that his band was at Fort Dunvegan,
and that he could not get there in time. The date of the St. John
Treaty had been fixed for the 21st of June, but, owing to the
detentions described, the appointment could not be kept, and word
was therefore sent to the Indians to stay where they were until
they could be met. But when the Commissioners were within twenty-five
miles of the Fort they got a letter from the Hudson's Bay Company's
agent telling them that the Indians had eaten up all the provisions
there, and had left for their hunting-grounds, with no hope of
their coming together again that season. They therefore returned
to Fort Dunvegan, and took the adhesion of some Beaver Indians,
and then left for Lower Peace River. On the 8th July, Mr. Laird
secured the adhesion of the Crees and Beavers at Fort Vermilion,
and Messrs. Ross and McKenna of those at Little Red River, the
headman there refusing to sign at first because, he said, "he
had a divine inspiration to the contrary"! This was followed by
adhesions taken by the latter Commissioners, on the 13th, from
the Crees and Chipewyans at Fort Chipewyan.

"Here it was," Mr. McKenna writes me, "that the chief asked for
a railway--the first time in the history of Canada that the red
man demanded as a condition of cession that steel should be laid
into his country. He evidently understood the transportation
question, for a railway, he said, by bringing them into closer
connection with the market, would enhance the value of what they
had to sell, and decrease the cost of what they had to buy. He
had a striking object-lesson in the fact that flour was $12
a sack at the Fort. These Chipewyans lost no time in flowery
oratory, but came at once to business, and kept us, myself
in particular, on tenterhooks for two hours. I never felt so
relieved as when the rain of questions ended, and, satisfied
by our answers, they acquiesced in the cession."

Next morning these Commissioners left for Smith's Landing, and,
on the 17th, made treaty with the Indians of Great Slave Lake.
Meanwhile Mr. Laird had proceeded to Fond du Lac, at the eastern
end of Lake Athabasca, and there, on the 27th, the Chipewyans
adhered, whilst Messrs. Ross and McKenna, in order to treat
with the Indians at Fort McMurray and Wahpooskow, separated.
The latter secured the Chipewyans and Crees