[FN] In a letter subsequently addressed to Lord Dorchester, after the relinquishment by that officer of the Canadian Government, Captain Brant estimated those hunting grounds relinquished by his tribe at more than two millions of acres.

But the prospect of obtaining justice from the Provincial Government becoming less and less favorable by the lapse of time, the Chief again directed his attention to the parent government. Availing himself of the return to Europe of the Count De Puisy, whom he describes "as a brother soldier and fellow-sufferer in the cause of loyalty," [FN-1] the Captain placed in his hands a succinct history of the troubles he was laboring to remove, with an urgent request that he would lay the same before his Majesty's ministers. By the same conveyance he likewise addressed a vigorous appeal to Lord Dorchester, then in England, enclosing to his Lordship a copy of his original promise to him (Brant) as written down in 1775, and also the subsequent confirmation of that promise by General Haldimand. [FN-2] He was, moreover, in active-correspondence upon the subject with the Duke of Northumberland, in whom the Mohawks had ever a constant friend.

[FN-1] In one of Captain Brant's speeches, dated October 28, 1800, this passage occurs:—"It had for some time been observed that the too large, uninhabited space between York and the head of the Lake was a great inconvenience to the communication by land, we therefore thought it a fit occasion to remove the difficulty, by presenting the Count de Puisy and his adherents a tract of land in this space—sympathizing with them as having suffered in the cause of loyalty, and being obliged to quit their native clime on that account, and seek an asylum in this uncultivated region. This was objected to," &c., &c. When the younger Brant visited London, twenty years afterward, he refers to the Count as then living in retirement in the neighborhood of that capital.

[FN-2] The copy of this letter to Lord Dorchester is not entire. Two foolscap pages have only been preserved, or rather, all but the first two pages has been lost.

These attempts to enlist the parent government in behalf of the Indian claim, were backed by the mission to England of Teyoninhokáráwen, alias John Norton, who spread the case before the ministers in a strong and lucid memorial addressed to Lord Camden, then one of his Majesty's ministers. Among other considerations, it was urged by Norton, that in case their lands should be released from all incumbrances, and every tribe and family be allowed to have their just portion of land confirmed to them, the province would be strengthened by the emigration thither of the major part of the tribes of the Six Nations, who still remained in the United States. It had, doubtless, entered into the policy of Brant to bring the ancient confederacy of the Six Nations once more together, within the jurisdiction either of England or the United States. The removal of the Mohawks into Canada had not dissolved the union of those nations, although their separation, thrown, as they were, under the action of different superior laws, and obliged sometimes to hold their own councils within the boundary of one nation, and at other times within the limits of another, could not but be attended with many embarrassments. Indeed, so numerous were the difficulties they were obliged to encounter, and such was the conduct of the provincial government in regard to their lands, that the Mohawk Chief not withstanding his attachment to the crown, had at one period contemplated withdrawing from Canada with his people in disgust. That such a project was actually entertained, appears by the following letter to his friend Morris:—

"Captain Brant to Thomas Morris, Esq.
(secret and confidential.)

"Grand River, December 26, 1800.

"Dear Sir,

"From our friendship, and the regard you have continually shown to Indians in general, I flatter myself you will be so good as to assist in what I am about to communicate to you.