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British possess over them will be found diminished. No effort however of mine, shall be wanting to keep them attached to our Cause.

If the condition of this people could be considered in any future negotiation for Peace, it would attach them to us forever.

The reinforcements lately arrived from the Lower Province places this portion of the Country beyond the likelihood of an attack. The enemy must increase his present force considerably before he can hazard an invasion with a view of keeping possession of the Country.

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I have the honor to transmit to you copy of a Dispatch I lately addressed to Earl Bathurst respecting the Indians on the Western frontier of the United States, together with an Extract of a letter I have received from Major General Brock upon the same subject.

As the Instructions under which you have proceeded upon your present Mission have probably been furnished to you by His Majesty's Ministers previous to their receipt of any information of the invasion of Upper Canada or of the share the Indians have had in repelling it I trust the importance of consulting their interests in the negociations you may enter into with the American Government will be sufficiently obvious to you from what is en

1Canadian Archives, Q. 118, p. 271.

closed to lead you to require such stipulations on their behalf as you may conceive His Majesty's Government would have instructed you to demand had they been possessed at the time of your leaving England of the information now transmitted to you. I have the honor to be Sir

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Enclosure in Lt. Genl. Sir Geo. Prevost's of No. II.

EXHIBIT 109.

Sir George Prevost to Earl Bathurst.'

Duplicate

No. II.

Dup.

Head Quarters

Montreal 5th October

1812.

My Lord,

I beg leave to call Your Lordship's attention to a subject of considerable importance as connected with the Safety of Upper Canada in our future Contests with the United States of America.

Copy for the Foreign Dept. 27 Novr.

In the correspondence which has passed between Major Genl. Brock and myself since the Invasion of that Province he has repeatedly represented to me in the strongest terms the great assistance he has derived from the Services of the different Indian Tribes settled in and near the Michigan territory and of the necessity of conciliating their future friendship as a barrier against any further attacks of the Enemy in that Quarter.

There is certainly great reason to believe from the present animosity that appears to subsist amongst the Various Tribes of Indians inhabiting the Country lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi against the Americans that the Government of the United States have not been actuated by that spirit of 'Canadian Archives, Q, 118, p. 265.

British possess over them will be found diminished. No effort however of mine, shall be wanting to keep them attached to our Cause.

If the condition of this people could be considered in any future negotiation for Peace, it would attach them to us forever.

The reinforcements lately arrived from the Lower Province places this portion of the Country beyond the likelihood of an attack. The enemy must increase his present force considerably before he can hazard an invasion with a view of keeping possession of the Country.

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I have the honor to transmit to you copy of a Dispatch I lately addressed to Earl Bathurst respecting the Indians on the Western frontier of the United States, together with an Extract of a letter I have received from Major General Brock upon the same subject.

As the Instructions under which you have proceeded upon your present Mission have probably been furnished to you by His Majesty's Ministers previous to their receipt of any information of the invasion of Upper Canada or of the share the Indians have had in repelling it I trust the importance of consulting their interests in the negociations you may enter into with the American Government will be sufficiently obvious to you from what is en

1Canadian Archives, Q. 118, p. 271.

closed to lead you to require such stipulations on their behalf as you may conceive His Majesty's Government would have instructed you to demand had they been possessed at the time of your leaving England of the information now transmitted to you. I have the honor to be Sir

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Enclosure in Lt. Genl. Sir Geo. Prevost's of No. 11. Dup.

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I beg leave to call Your Lordship's attention to a subject of considerable importance as connected with the Safety of Upper

Copy for the Foreign Dept. 27 Novr.

Canada in our future Contests with the United States of
America.

In the correspondence which has passed between Major Genl. Brock and myself since the Invasion of that Province he has repeatedly represented to me in the strongest terms the great assistance he has derived from the Services of the different Indian Tribes settled in and near the Michigan territory and of the necessity of conciliating their future friendship as a barrier against any further attacks of the Enemy in that Quarter.

There is certainly great reason to believe from the present animosity that appears to subsist amongst the Various Tribes of Indians inhabiting the Country lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi against the Americans that the Government of the United States have not been actuated by that spirit of 1Canadian Archives, Q, 118, p. 265.

justice and liberality towards them which it was their obvious policy to manifest; The Indians complain and apparently not without reason of continual encroachments upon their territory which by forcing them further into the Western Country diminish their means of subsistence and by separating them from Each other, make it more difficult for them to unite in their common defence.

Without entering into the merits of these complaints on the part of the Indians or the justice or policy of the American Government towards them it must be obvious to Your Lordship from an inspection of the Map of the Country bordering upon the Western Territories of the United States how extremely important it is to the future security of Upper Canada that the Indians should retain possession of the lands they now occupy and thereby form as long as we remain in friendship with them a formidable barrier to any future attempts of America against His Majesty's possessions in that neighbourhood.

The number of Indian Warriors spread over the Michigan and adjoining territories cannot amount to less than from eight to ten thousand; Your Lordship will therefore immediately perceive the obstacles which a force of that amount and description would present to an Army Attempting to invade Upper Canada through Michigan the only route they can take (whilst we retain the command of the Lakes) to penetrate into its Western frontier and the incalculable advantages that Army would possess over us were those Indians to become our Enemies.

The conduct which has invariably been pursued towards them and the treatment they have met with from America have during the present contest made them our friends and Allies and it remains for the consideration of His Majesty's Government how far it will be politic and prudent to keep them as such by those stipulations in their behalf in our future negociations with America which shall convince them that we have not been insensible of their services or unmindful to consult their interests.

There is reason to believe in consequence of the late transactions in the Upper Province as well as of the predisposed state of the minds of the Indians for such an event that a general War on their part has been kindled along the whole extent of the Western frontier of the United States, which will greatly embarrass the American Government until a Peace shall take place between the

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