His Grace must clearly explain that Her Majesty's
Government do not undertake, in performance of this article of the
agreement, to go to the expense of settling any questions of disputed
boundary, but only to grant land to which the Crown title is clear.
"With regard to the 7th Article, the Duke of Newcastle could not hold
out to the Company the prospect of protection by any military or police
force in the uninhabited districts through which their line would pass
- but he would consider favourably any proposal for investing the
officers of the Company with such magisterial or other powers as might
conduce to the preservation of order and the security of the Company's
operations.
"With reference to the 9th and concluding Article, the Duke of
Newcastle would not willingly undertake the responsible functions
proposed to him, but he will agree to do so if by those means he can in
any degree facilitate the project, and if he finds that the Colonies
concur in the proposal.
"Subject to these observations, and to such questions of detail as
further consideration may elicit, the Duke of Newcastle cordially
approves of the Company's proposals, and is prepared to sanction the
grants of land contemplated in the 3rd Article. He intends to
communicate the scheme, with a copy of this letter, to the Governor-
General of Canada, and the Governor of Vancouver Island, recommending
the project to their attentive consideration.
"I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,
"C. FORTESCUE.
"E. W. WATKIN, Esq."
CHAPTER VIII.
Negociations for Purchase of the Hudson's Bay
Property.
In response to our demand for a large tract of land through the
"Fertile belt" of the Hudson's Bay territory, the Governor answered,
almost in terror, to the Duke of Newcastle: - "What! sequester our very
tap-root! Take away the fertile lands where our buffaloes feed! Let in
all kinds of people to squat and settle, and frighten away the fur-
bearing animals they don't hunt and kill! Impossible. Destruction -
extinction - of our time-honoured industry. If these gentlemen are so
patriotic, why don't they buy us out?" To this outburst the Duke
quietly replied: "What is your price?" Mr. Berens, the Governor,
answered: "Well, about a million and a half."
Finding that our demands for land alongside the proposed road and
telegraph were not acceptable to the Governor and Court of the Hudson's
Bay Company, we had nothing for it but either to drop the Pacific
transit proposal, after many months of labour and trouble, or to take
the bold course of accepting the challenge of those gentlemen, and
negociating for the purchase of all their property and rights.
