No. 33, Miscellaneous

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Grace's
Despatch, No 3, of the 5th of September 1859 transmitting
an Act passed in the recent Session of Parliament

to make further provision for the regulation of the Trade

with the
Indians and for the Administration of Justice in the North
Western Territories of America.

2. Your Grace with reference to that Act, also calls my
attention to the circumstance that it applies only to the
Territories over which the Hudsons Bay Company lately held
an exclusive license of trade with the Indians, and not to the
Territories held under their Charter, nor to British Columbia;
that the Act has been passed to enable the Crown to take
measures for establishing order in the administration of the
Executive and in the conduct

of trade in those vast regions;
and Your Grace concludes with observing that you will be glad
to receive from me a report as to the persons whom I may consider
eligible for Magistrates in those North Western Territories;
and also as to any regulations as to the conduct of the Indian
Trade which I may consider advisable.

3. I would submit, in the first place, with reference to
Your Grace's enquiry, as to persons eligible for Magistrates
in those Territories, the advisability of appointing to that
Office, persons acquainted with the geography of the country,
and who also

possess a knowledge of Indian character, and a
sufficient degree of intelligence to administer the Laws with
propriety and discretion.

4. Gentlemen possessed of those requisites may be found
among the Officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, and in the Red River Settlement, where now reside many persons of great
intelligence and experience of Indian character.

5. In case none of the former should be disposed to accept
of employment in the public service, or that neither class be
considered by Your

Grace qualified to undertake the chief duties
of so responsible an office, it may then be thought advisable
to appoint one chief or presiding Magistrate of Known ability,
and to permit him to select as many otherwise qualified persons,
from the classes I have alluded to, as Her Majesty's Government
may wish to employ; and by that means I believe that a well
trained and efficient body of Magistrates may soon be found.

6. I regret that I cannot personally recommend to Your Grace's
notice any

of the gentlemen I have alluded to, as it is upwards
of 20 years since I last visited Red River settlement, and the
countries east of the Rocky Mountains; but I have no doubt the
Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company will readily furnish Your
Grace with information on that subject.

7. On the other point of Your Grace's enquiry respecting the
regulations for the conduct of the Indian Trade, I would take the
liberty of suggesting as a necessary precaution against the rapid
demoralization

of the Indian Tribes, and for the prevention of
crime, that all persons entering the Indian country for the
purposes of trade, should be licensed, and required to enter into
bonds under a heavy penalty, and to the following effect;
.off Firstly,

Not to deal in, nor to furnish ardent spirits either
gratuitously or in barter for any consideration whatsoever,
to the Indians with whom they trade.
.off And Secondly,

To enter into securities for their own good behaviour,
and for that of all persons

employed in their service.
.off end

8. As any attempt to fix the relative exchange values of Furs
and European goods would in all probability fail of the intended
effect, and be of no ultimate advantage to the Indians, it would
perhaps be advisable not to interfere with prices but to leave
their regulation entirely to the natural effects of competition;
especially as the Natives are acutely alive to their own interest,
know the value of furs and could not be induced to dispose of
them for less

than their value.

9. The Machinery by which I would propose to enforce
those regulations, and generally to maintain law and order
within the Territory, is simple and inexpensive; involving
as I will now endeavour to shew, no greater expense than the
formation and maintenance of two, or at the most three Military
or Police Stations, each to become a nucleus of settlement.

10. I ought here to explain that the region extending from
Lake Superior to Red River,

as well as North of the Saskatchewan River to the Arctic Circle, and East of Lake Winipeg to the
shores of Hudson's Bay, being a vast wilderness of continuous
and almost impenetrable forest, is, for all practicable
purposes of trade, inaccessible by land, or otherwise than
by following the course of its navigable streams and Rivers.
To the westward of the "strong wood" country there is a natural
road practicable for pack-horses and carts through the borders
of the Prairie Country from Red River Settlement to Carlton on
the Saskatchewan

River; but that route requiring an expensive
outfit, being only accessible from Red River, as well as
dangerous for small parties in consequence of the predatory
habits of the Natives, was never used for the purposes of trade;
the water communication being always preferred as a safe and
much cheaper route for the transit of goods.

11. The navigable route from the North end of Lake Superior
to Lake Winipeg, to the sources of the Sascatchewan, and to
McKenzies River, is traced out upon the accompanying

Map. There
are certain points on that route by which all the traffic of
the country must unavoidably pass; and I propose that Government
should hold those points by means of a small Military or Police
Force, and by that simple plan govern and control the whole
Indian Territory east of the Rocky Mountains.

The better to explain this, I will suppose the Territory in
question to be divided into Districts -
.off The first,

Extending from Lake Superior to Lake Winipeg.
.off

The second,

From Lake Winipeg to "Frog Portage" on the one side, and
to the sources of the Sascatchewan on the other, and
.off The third,

From "Frog Portage" to McKenzies River and the sources of Peace River.
.off end

12. The chartered possessions of the Hudson's Bay Company
comprising the Territory around Hudson's Bay, and extending to
the water-shed between Hudson's Bay and Lake Superior, and further,
as traced in the accompanying skeleton Map, through Lake Winipeg,
and

from thence in a Northerly direction to the 60th degree
of North latitude, would, I assume, in any re-arrangement of the
Territory, be left, as heretofore, to the custody of the Hudson's
Bay Company; and thus all access to the interior country would
be closed from the side of Hudson's Bay.

13. Should the Colony of Red River fall to the Crown, the
Superintendence of the first of those projected territorial
Districts, to wit, that extending from Lake Superior to Lake Winipeg, will naturally come

within the jurisdiction of the
Courts of that Colony; on the contrary, a station judiciously
placed on the Kaministiquia River near its dis-charge into the
North end of Lake Superior, would entirely command that great
outlet, through which, for the reason before stated, to wit, the
absence of any other navigable communication, all the trade of
the District towards Canada, must of necessity pass; and all
parties travelling to and from Canada should be required to report
to the Officer in command of that Station;

and those entering the
country, to take out trading licenses, and to give the necessary bonds.

14. The second proposed Territorial District would comprise
Cumberland Lake; and the extensive regions watered by the
Sascatchewan River and its Tributaries. The key of that District is the Grand Rapid, a few miles from the discharge of the
Sascatchewan River into Lake Winipeg.

15. This is in fact the sole navigable outlet of the second,
and with the exception of the dangerous route by 

Nelson River to
Hudson's Bay, also of the third proposed Territorial District.

16. At that point therefore, I would propose to form a
second station, to intercept all trading parties from the Colony
of Red River and other places, who from their inland position,
could not report at the Lake Superior Station; and there also
licenses might be issued, and bonds received, as before stated.

17. Those two Stations would intercept all the traffic
except that through Hudson's Bay by 

Nelson River, before adverted
to; and should circumstances require that outlet to be also
guarded a third Station formed at "Frog Portage" would
hermetically seal the Country, and enable the Government to regulate
and control the trade with perfect ease and without much expense.

18. Thus, a Station at the North end of Lake Superior,
composed of 2 Officers and 40 Men; another at the Grand Rapid,
composed of 2 Officers and 30 Men; and a third at "Frog Portage"
composed of 2 Officers and 20 Men; in all Six Officers holding
Commissions

of the Peace, and Ninety Men, would render Her
Majesty's Government masters of the Country.

19. Those Officers would, I assume, be required to act
as Magistrates, and have power to hear and determine in a
summary way, all cases brought before them; that is to
administer quick and easy justice.

20. The trade with the Indians would then be exclusively
carried on by persons duly licensed, and under bonds for their
good behaviour; thus giving the

best attainable security against
the baneful traffic in ardent spirits, and for the maintenance
of peace and order in the Territory.

21. I conceive it would be essential in promoting the ends
of Justice, that the Indians of those Territories, who are
remarkably honest and trustworthy, should be considered and
treated in all respects as British Subjects; that their testimony
should be received as legal evidence in the District Courts, and that
they should be punished and protected only by the

Laws of the Country.

22. A revenue might be raised to defray in part the expense
of those establishments by levying a small duty on imports, should
Her Majesty's Government deem it expedient to do so.

23. I trust Your Grace may not find that I have wandered
beyond the points referred to me for report; though the subject
being a large one, and full of interest to me, I have probably
treated it more fully than was required; yet I trust

the
suggestions I have made may not be without their use.

24. Begging to refer Your Grace to the accompanying skeleton
Map of the Territory in question.