Hon. James McKay, and the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. In
a country where transport and all other business facilities are
necessarily so scarce, the services rendered to the Government by
the officers in charge of the several Hudson's Bay Posts has been
most opportune and valuable.

I have, etc.,
WEMYSS M. SIMPSON,
Indian Commissioner.



CHAPTER V

TREATY NUMBER THREE, OR THE NORTH-WEST ANGLE TREATY


In the year 1871 the Privy Council of Canada issued a joint
commission to Messrs. W. M. Simpson, S. J. Dawson and W. J. Pether,
authorizing them to treat with the Ojibbeway Indians for the
surrender to the Crown of the lands they inhabited--covering the
area from the watershed of Lake Superior to the north-west angle of
the Lake of the Woods, and from the American border to the height
of land from which the streams flow towards the Hudson's Bay. This
step had become necessary in order to make the route known as "the
Dawson route," extending from Prince Arthur's Landing on Lake
Superior to the north-west angle of the Lake of the Woods, which
was then being opened up, "secure for the passage of emigrants
and of the people of the Dominion generally," and also to enable
the Government to throw open for settlement any portion of the