"Having given my best attention and labours to the whole subject for some years, and believing that I might be of more service to you here, since Governor Dallas could not be spared to come home, and could not prudently have left Canada until he had put all your business there in order, I exercised no unwise discretion in returning to England. "I have now to ask your forgiveness for the length of this paper, and to express my readiness to give any further explanations in my power, while wishing you and your colleagues quite to understand that I have no desire whatever--but far the contrary--to obtrude myself upon you in the control of an enterprise which I honestly believe can be made completely successful by the exercise of even ordinary energy and skill, and which ought to be safe and certain in such experienced and able hands as yours. "I have the honour to be, dear Sir, "Yours faithfully, "EDWD. W. WATKIN. "Sir E. W. HEAD, Bart., _"Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company."_ One other object I desired to accomplish, was an exchange of boundary between the Hudson's Bay and the United States, with the view to Superior City being brought into British territory by a fair payment and exchange of land. The negociation looked very hopeful at one time, but it was not followed up in London, and it fell to the ground. There are few people who understand that it is not only desirable to do the right thing, but to do it at the right time--that is, when circumstances favour the doing. I am entitled to say that, owing to the non-acceptance, at the time, of our proposals, much delay in realizing the great object of settling the government and colonizing the territory arose: inadequate terms for the sale and purchase of the vast landed estate of the Company had to be accepted from Canada; and the "wintering partners," not made real partners, as recommended by Governor Dallas and myself, but held at arm's length, had, at last, to be compensated for giving up the old "deed poll" with a sum of 107,055_l._, paid in 1871--ten years after the date of our report to Sir Edmund Head. But, "all's well that ends well," and the great work is, at last, accomplished. CHAPTER XII. _The Hudson's Bay Company and the Select Committee of_ 1748-9.