LIEUT.-GOV. MORRIS--"I am weary hearing about the
country. You might understand me now. You are stronger than that little boy over there, and the Company is stronger than a single trader, but the Company has its master, the Queen, and will have to obey the laws as well as all others. We have nothing to do with the Company. We are here to talk with you about the land, I tell you what we wish to do for your good, but if you will talk about the Company I cannot hinder you, I think it is time now you should talk about what concerns you all."
THE GAMBLER--"That is the reason I waited so long. I cannot speak of anything else, my mind is resting on nothing else I know that you will have power and good rules and this is why I am glad to tell you what is troubling me."
LIEUT.-GOV. MORRIS--"I have told you before and tell you again that the Queen cannot and will not undo what she has done. I have told you that we will see that the Company shall obey what she has ordered, and get no more and no less than she has promised. We might talk here all the year and I could not give you any other answer, and I put it to you now face to face--speak to me about your message, don't put it aside, if you do the responsibility will rest upon your nation, and during the winter that is coming, many a poor woman and child will be saying, how was it that our councillors and our braves shut their ears to the mouth of the Queen's messengers and refused to tell them their words. This Company, I have told you is nothing to us, it is nothing to the Queen, but their rights have to be respected just as much as those of the meanest child in the country. The Queen will do right between you and them I can say no more than what I have said and if the Indians will not speak to us we cannot help it, and if the Indians won't answer our message, we must go back and tell the Queen that we came here and did everything we could to show the Indians we were in earnest in proving her love for them and that when there was a little difficulty, I came at once to meet them half way. What prevents you from coming
out and speaking openly. I cannot take away the difficulty you speak of, and if you will not answer us, there is no use in talking."
THE GAMBLER--"I told the chief of the soldiers what was in our way, what was troubling us and now we are telling you. It is that I am working at."
LIEUT.-GOV. MORRIS--"What is troubling you?"
PIS-QUA (the plain) pointing to Mr. McDonald, of the Hudson's Bay Company--"You told me you had sold your land for so much money, £300,000. We want that money."
LIEUT.-GOV. MORRIS--"I wish our Indian brother had spoken before what was in his mind. He has been going here and there, and we never knew what he meant. I told you that many years ago the Queen's father's father gave the Company the right to trade in the country from the frozen ocean to the United States boundary line, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. The Company grew strong and wanted no one to trade in the country but themselves. The Queen's people said, "no, the land is not yours, the Queen's father's father gave you rights to trade, it is time those rights should stop." You may go on and trade like any other merchant, but as it was worth money to you to say to this trader you shall not buy furs at any post, the Queen would not act unjustly to the Company. She would not take rights away from them any more than from you; and to settle the question, she took all the lands into her own hands and gave the Company a sum of money in place of the rights which she had taken from them. She is ready to deal with you justly. We are here to-day to make to you her good offers. We have nothing to hide, nothing to conceal. The Queen acts in daylight. I think it is time you are going to talk with us about the offers we have made."
THE GAMBLER--"I have made up about no other article. I suppose, indeed, I would make the thing very little and very small. When I get back I will think over it."