182 REVIEWS—RED RIVER AND ASSINIBOINE EXPLORATIONS. 
promised again to return, to take only ammunition and tobacco. The Silver Chief 
never returned, and either his son or the Hudson’s Bay Company have ever since 
paid us annually for our lands only the small quantity of ammunition and tobacco. 
which in the first instance we took as a preliminary to a final bargain about our 
lands.” 
In March, 1859, Peguis dictated another letter on the subject of the title of his 
tribe to a portion of the lands on Red River. This singular communication, as 
published in the “ Aboriginies’ Friend and Colonial Intelligencer,” is as follows : 
“I Peguis, + (his mark), Salteaux Chief of the Indian Settlement at Red 
River, wish to make my statement to the Great House across the great waters. 
‘‘T and my people have our minds much disturbed by the Hudson’s Bay Company,. 
because the said Company have never arranged with me for ourlands. We never 
gold our lands to the said Company, nor to the Earl of Selkirk; and yet the said 
Company mark out and sell our lands without our permission. Is this right? I 
and my people do not take their property from them, without giving them great 
value for it, as furs and other things, and is it right that the said Company should 
take our landed property from us without our permission, and without our receiv- 
ing payment for the same? I have asked the said Company for payment, through 
their agents, and I asked Mr. Mactavish for the same thing, last spring, but I got 
nothing for my lands. 
“Tf I were nearer the Great House, I would speak much and loud. I and my 
people are disturbed, and will the Great House approve of another Fur Company 
being chartered from Canada? Will there be another Company for the North, 
and another for the South? Will the Great House sanetion more hostilities as 
before, when there were two Fur Companies trading in our country? And will 
another Company take in land for five miles on each side of the great road to be 
made between this place and Canada, without consulting me and my brother 
chiefs? I speak loud: listen! We have had enough of all Fur Companies. 
Please send us out rather mechanics and implements to help our families in form- 
ing settlements, and to secure as reserves,” dc. 
The subject thus referred to is still unsettled. An annual payment 
of £8 sterling has been made by the Hudson’s Bay Company, regularly 
since 1812, to certain Indians and their descendants, in fulfilment of 
the treaty with Lord Selkirk ; but the Indians now deny that the Cree 
Chief, who alone had the right of disposal, ever parted with the land 
either to the Earl of Selkirk or to the Fur Company; and future 
difficulties with Assinniboines, Plain"Crees, and Objibway Indians, will 
have to be dealt with im some satisfactory way before an undisputed 
title can be acquired to the coveted lands in this territory. 
These extracts and notices may uffice to illustrate the interest 
which attaches to the volumes in question. Many other subjects of 
equal value are discussed. The routes of travel, future lines of road, 
character and resources of the country, statistics of population, and 
