TEEATY AT LESSER SLAVE LAKE 65 



for Fort Dunvegan and St. John, whilst Mr. Laird set out 

 shortly afterwards for Vermilion and Eond du Lac, on Lake 

 Athabasca. He reached Peace River Crossing on the 30th, 

 and met there, next day, a few Beaver Lidians 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 Commis- 

 sioners were within twenty-five miles of the Eort 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 Eort 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 Eort 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 Eort 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 under- 

 stood 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 

 5 



