themselves or their cattle. Mr. Archibald and those residents in
the Province of Manitoba with whom I conversed on the subject,
appeared to think that no time should be lost in meeting the
Indians, as some assurances had already been given them that a
treaty would be made with them during the summer of 1871; and I
therefore, at once, issued notices calling certain of the Indians
together, naming two places at which I would meet them. The first
meeting, to which were asked the Indians of the Province and
certain others on the eastern side, was to be held on the 25th of
July, at the Stone Fort, a Hudson's Bay Company's Post, situated
on the Red River, about twenty miles northward of Fort Garry--a
locality chosen as being the most central for those invited. The
second meeting was appointed to be held on August 17th, at Manitoba
Post, a Hudson's Bay Company's Post, at the north-west extremity of
Lake Manitoba, as it was deemed that such of the bands of Indians
residing without the limits of the Province of Manitoba, as I
purposed to deal with at present, would meet there more readily
than elsewhere.

On Monday, the 24th of July, I met the Lieutenant-Governor of
Manitoba at the Stone Fort; but negotiations were unavoidably
delayed, owing to the fact that only one band of Indians had
arrived, and that until all were on the spot those present declined
to discuss the subject of a treaty, except in an informal manner.
Amongst these, as amongst other Indians with whom I have come in
contact, there exists great jealousy of one another, in all matters
relating to their communications with the officials of Her Majesty;
and in order to facilitate the object in view, it was most
desirable that suspicion and jealousy of all kinds should be
allayed. The fact of the Commissioner having arrived was sufficient