ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT LY 
inherent interest in the work, to examine into the transfer of 
the aboriginal holdings to conquering nations. Detailed 
inquiry was assigned to Mr Charles C. Royce, who prepared 
for the first annual report a brief paper on the Indian land 
cessions of Indiana, which served to illustrate the methods 
and purposes of the inquiry. The investigation was continued, 
and yielded a more elaborate memoir on the land cessions of 
the Cherokee Indians, published in the report for 1883-84. 
With the extension of the research, many difficulties were 
encountered; in some cases the cessions were imperfectly 
recorded; in the greater number of cases the cessions were 
made in advance of the execution of trustworthy surveys and 
maps, so that the boundaries of the ceded territory were 
indefinite; in numerous instances the cessions were defined by 
metes and bounds, beginning at temporary or shifting objects 
as starting points which were lost or changed before surveys 
were made; and, in many cases, the original areas were modi- 
fied after the extension of the public land surveys into the 
districts, and the modifications were sometimes made without 
definite record. These and other obstacles to the work not 
only retarded its progress materially, but sometimes introduced 
elements of uncertainty in the results. In the effort to over- 
come the obstacles and minimize the uncertainties, Mr Royce 
engaged in extensive correspondence with state and county 
officers, visited doubtful localities, and personally examined 
various state and county records; he also examined personally 
numerous unpublished papers, letters, maps, plats, and other 
records in the offices of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 
and the Commissioner of the General Land Office; and it isa 
special pleasure to acknowledge the constant courtesy of the 
officials of these sister bureaus throughout the considerable 
period covered by the inquiry. 
In 1885, Mr Royce, having extended his work practically 
throughout the United States, and having made his material 
nearly ready for publication, retired from the Bureau and the 
work. Various circumstances, including a change in the law 
relating to the publications of the Bureau, delayed the final 
preparation and printing of the material; and in 1894 it was 
