I therefore in my very peculiar situation most respectfully repose on the Justice of Your Grace; and His Majesty's ministers, and hope, and trust, that should any public or parliamentary question arise upon the subject in which my name may be implicated, that it will be clearly understood that all my late transactions were in obedience to the orders of the Commander in Chief Lord Dorchester. I have the honor to be My Lord Duke with the utmost Respect & Deference & most humble Servant J. G. SIMCOE. His Grace the Duke of Portland, One of His Majesty's Principal Secretarys of State, &c. &c. &c. Endorsed: Upper Canada, 20 Dec. 1794. In Lt. Govr. Simcoe. R. 1st May. Ansd. No. 12. Four Inclosures [Q 281-1, p 129 ] [ No. 14. ] LT. GOV. J. G. SIMCOE TO THE DUKE OF PORTLAND. MY LORD DUKE, KINGSTON, UPPER CANADA, December 22d, 1794. I transmit to Your Grace the proceedings [E] of the Indian Council held while I was at the Miamis, together with the Speeches of the Assembled Nations; my answer to which I have done myself the honor of forwarding to Your Grace in my dispatch of the 24th of October. I beg leave to observe to Your Grace, that I made a particular enquiry of Colonel McKee relative to those expressions of the Indian Nations. "You have told us, Father, you expected orders "from our Great Father over the Great Lake," and that gentleman assured me, That he had never given those nations any reason whatsoever to believe that they would be assisted by His Majesty's forces, beyond what his Instructions, and the various speeches, delivered to them might warrant. At the same time Your Grace must be convinced that the different Traders from interest would make use of that language which would best conciliate the favour of the Indians; and that the British Officers, not immediately intrusted with particular duties in respect to those people, could not be at all times prevented from express ing in strong terms, that Compassion which in this Province is universally felt for these unhappy nations. My former dispatches to Mr. Dundas, will shew to Your Grace the very serious Hazard to which I consider this Province will be exposed if real and effectual measures, be not adopted to reconcile the Indians to any change which existing circumstances may render necessary in respect to the Barrier Forts and in particular Detroit and Michilimackinac. Since most of these communications the King's Troops have been further advanced; and the construction of a Fort at the Miamis and the new Fortifications at Niagara, have strengthened the general belief that the Barrier Forts are not to be abandoned. On the other Hand, the successful approach of General Wayne his declaration that the British neither possess the power nor the inclination to protect the Indians," and the reports industriously spread among them, That the occupation of the Fort at the Miamis was a collusion between the English and United States, are circumstances that augment the necessity of adopting every method to prevent any ill consequences that may arise from the disaffection of the Indian Nations. I have not received any accounts of the Issue of the Conference between Colonel Pickering and the Six Nations. I beg to state to Your Grace that, as I had intimated in my Letter No. 2 of the 23rd of October, Colonel McKee had offered an Asylum to the Western Indians, and he reports to me "agreeably to "Your Excellency's desire I have visited the Lands at Chenail Ecarté "and prepared the Chiefs to meet You in the Spring whenever called "upon, tho' I find they will be rather tenacious of admitting other "Nations among them the Lands near the mouth of this River are "bad and unfit for any settlement but a few miles higher up they "are good and proper for an Indian Settlement." The Indians at Michilimackinac have shown symptoms of discontent, as I learn from a Trader, and have insulted the officer who commands there. Your Grace will have the goodness to observe that I have mentioned in the letter marked [D.] to Lord Dorchester the Commander in Chief, that I should promise to Brant that I should exert my utmost influence in case of his Death to obtain the King's bounty to be extended to His Family-I beg in the strongest manner to recommend to Your Grace that I may immediately be permitted to promise that Chieftain in case of death, that an allowance of one hundred pounds per annum shall be made to his widow. The people of the States have made him great offers which he has refused with disdain, being as I believe a Man of Principle, and secondarily to the Indian attached to the King's Interest. Having seen His Majesty, to Public Duty, he adds the most Loyal personal Respect. I conceive the certainty of this Bounty will have the best effects, be well timed, politick, and I am confident, has been deserved. I scarcely need mention to Your Grace that the Commander in Chief took no notice of this communication. I also felt it my duty to promise absolutely, some other pensions, on the pressure of the moment and the performance of certain conditions; These as circumstances shall arise, will be submitted to Your Grace; for altho' in the various branches of the Army and the dependencies thereon, It appears to me that the Commissariat, for the usual purposes of effectual control, and more especially from its relations with the prosperity of the province, the Marine that it may be raised from its present state of degradation, afford employment to the young gentlemen of the Province, become a favorite service, and from thence, that the expences of it, in a short time be the more readily provided for by the Province of Upper Canada. Tho these Departments would evidently, be better administered by myself in the details, than by the Commander in Chief, not breaking in upon general and necessary subordination; Yet the management of the Indians cannot be entrusted out of the Hands of the Government upon the Spot; for the lives, the existence of all around depend upon unwearied attention in this Respect, and the Province is precisely in that stage of progress as to invite Indian rapacity and assault. I trust therefore in all events, that at the least, as many Troops may be alloted for this Province as are now stationed within it; and I repose in respectful hope that Your Grace and His Majesty's Ministers will make such arrangements, as at this very serious and difficult Conjuncture, may enable me to undertake with Confidence the protection of the King's subjects, for which I am responsible. Lieutenant Colonel England has written to me from Detroit that the English and Canadian Correspondents of the Merchants at that place, assure them that the Troops are to be withdrawn; should such be the case, whatever may be the arrangements agreed upon between His Majesty's Ministers and the United States, I presume from the removal of the negotiation to London, that some agents will be appointed on each side to carry the very important details of the Transaction into Execution-should this happen and could it with propriety be so managed with Mr. Jay I should be very happy to learn that on the part of the United States, Colonel Pickering was not employed in any transaction wherein His Majesty's officers or Government are concerned, this Gentleman's behavior both in public and private as a Commissioner from the United States to the Indians gave universally disgust to all ranks of people; and was in truth extremely offensive, and not impossibly dangerous; He is much in the President's Confidence, and in principle a Jacobin. On the contrary General Hull who was employed on a business connected with that Mission was in all his behavior very acceptable to His Majesty's Officers; and This Gentleman, having been employed in the Year 1783 in the intercourse which took place between the late Sir Frederick Haldimand and Baron Steuben on the subject of the Posts, may perhaps, without impropriety be mentioned as a person whose behavior in his former mission was very satisfactory. I beg to recommend to Your Grace, Major Stevenson, of the 5th Regiment (quartered in Upper Canada) to execute similar duties on the part of His Majesty. This gentleman being now in England might derive the advantage of personal Instructions from Your Grace on a subject of the utmost Importance & which I trust will leave no doubtful construction whatsoever on the respective limits and Boundaries. Major Stevenson is much in my confidence, & from his manners, Experience & local knowledge is perfectly well qualified for such a Commission. I am informed by respectable authority that the people of the State of New York talk of claiming part of Grande Isle or Wolfe Island as ceded to them by the Treaty of 1783. I have the honor to be with the utmost Respect and Deference Your Grace's most obedient and most humble servant J. G. SIMCOE. His Grace the Duke of Portland, One of His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, &c. &c. &c. SIR, LORD DORCHESTER TO COL. A. MC KEE. QUEBEC, 26th December 1794. Having been much satisfied with your conduct as well in the management of Indian concerns, as in the regularity and œconomy of your cash accounts, I have Judged it advisable for the King's Interests to appoint you Deputy Superintendent General &c of Indian Affairs, the Superintendence and care of that Department in the absence of the Superintendent General therefore devolves upon you, and in the execution of this trust you will govern yourself by the See No. 64 to Instructions established for the good government of the Indian Mr.Grenville Department dated 27th March 1787* and 6th May 1790, ber 1790. copies of which you will receive herewith. 10th Novem I have likewise thought it expedient for His Majesty's Service to establish further Instructions and orders relative to the purchase of Indian Territory copy of which is also enclosed for your direction and guidance. In the year 1787 a purchase was made from the Messasagas of a portion of their Lands and altho' the exact limits were probably ascertained and goods to the amount agreed upon paid therefor, yet the proceedings are so informal and irregular as to invalidate and set aside the whole transaction, a blank Deed found in the office of the Surveyor General appears to be the only testimonial of this purchase, and tho of no validity or value Colonel Simcoe thinks it may be useful in explaining the intentions of the Indians at the time, for that purpose it is now sent to you but it is on no account to be made use of, or considered as an Instrument transferring a right to Indian Territory, and is to be returned to the SuperintendInclosures D & ant General's office as soon as the transaction has been E No. 16 to explained. Extracts of my letters of the 27th January and Portland. 22d September last to Colonel Simcoe on this subject are inclosed for your further information. the Duke of In uniformity to the general order of the 20th September 1792, copy of which is inclosed, you will continue to transmit to the office of the Superintendant General all accounts, requisitions, reports and transactions, to be forwarded by the Secretary of the Indian *See Vol. 23, p. 627. |