INDIANS OF LAKES HURON AND SUPERIOR. 



193 



In commenting upon the treaty which surrendered to 

 the Canadian Government a territory as large as England, 

 rich in minerals, fisheries, and forests, and tenanted by 

 2662 Indians, part of the remnant of that great Algon- 

 quin confederacy, which two hundred years ago drove the 

 Iroquois to the south shore of Lake Ontario, the Commis- 

 sioners say, " if we considered that it came properly within 

 our province, we should not hesitate to express our decided 

 regret, that a treaty, shackled by such stipulations, whereby 

 a vast extent of country has been wrung from the Indians 

 for a comparatively nominal sum, should have received 

 the sanction of the Government." 



The distribution of the annuities to the Lake Superior 

 Indians is made through the agents of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, who have " voluntarily assumed " and faithfully 

 discharged this task. It will not escape notice that the 

 voluntarily assumed distribution tends to secure the 

 services of the Indians as permanent hunters to the dif- 

 ferent fur-trading posts, where they assemble to receive 

 their miserable pay for the vast extent of country 

 surrendered. Many will be disposed to ask why no 

 portion of the annuities or of unclaimed arrears should 

 have been reserved for evangelizing, educating, and esta- 

 blishing in permanent villages, these wandering savages, in 

 the hope of reclaiming a few of their number from bar- 

 barism. If the poor remains of once numerous and power- 

 ful tribes are encouraged to continue their nomadic habits 

 of fife, they will perish one by one from the face of the 

 earth, leaving no records behind them but " treaties " to 



by a bark wigwam or a but of reeds. It is only during the spring and autumn, 

 when they come down from the high grounds to the border of the lake, that 

 they are accessible to those who would urge on them the necessity of 

 Christianity and civilization. There is no difficulty, therefore, in accounting 

 for the small apparent results of the labours of the missionaries." 

 VOL. II. 0 



