by that of the relative ignorance of the various tribes at the
time they were treated with, and the urgency of their then
present wants. Looked at from this point of view, the transaction
loses altogether the aspect of an equitable purchase. It must
be evident that the Governmenet, in such arrangements, does 1zoi
fully acknowledge the Indian title, the " territorial estate and
eminent dominion " being vested in the crown, and the claim of
the Indians restricted practically-though not patently in the
transactions as effected with the Indians-to right of compensa-
tion for the occupancy of their hunting grounds.
It is very difficult to arrive at any certain coinclusion regarding
the original number of the Indian population of this part of the
Continent. The New England tribes are, as we have seen, said
by some authorities to have each possessed several thousand war-
riors. The Iroquois were estimated by La Hontan at 70,000,
and the Hurons, at an earlier date, at from 30 to 40,000. Gar-
neau, on the contrary, gives, as the result of careful calculation,
numnbers very much smaller, and supports- them by remarks on
the exaggerated estimates of the notions formed by some travellers.
He allows, for instance, to the whole Algonquin race 90,000
only, and to the Hurons and Iroquois together 17,000. Though
the first estimates may be too great, these almost certainly err on
the other side.
In the four eastern provinces of the Dominion, Ontario, Que-
bec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island,
there are at the present day about 30,000 Indiarns, the remnant
of the former numerous population. A considerable number of
Indians in Quebec, and north of the settled districts, in the
northern and north-western part of Onttario, still remain in a con-
dition little, if at all, superior to that of their ante-Columbian
ancestors. Their lands, unsuited for agriculture, are not coveted
by the whites. They have only the advantage of a certain immu-
nity from pillage and war, and of being able to procure fiom the
Hudson Bay Company and other traders such articles of Euro-
pean manufacture as they may be able to afford. After describ-
ing the condition of these wild western tribes, Dr. Wilson, in the
last edition of his " Prehistoric Man," writes of them: " It is
not a little strange to find such pagan rites perpetuated among
nomods still wandering around the outskirts of settlements occu-
pied by descendants of colonists, who, upwards of three centuries
ago, transplanted to the shores of the St. Lawrence the arts and