"I have the honour to be, Sir, "Your obedient Servant, "EDMUND HEAD, Governor. "EDWARD WATKIN, Esq." I found soon after my arrival in Canada that Governor Dallas was coming down from Red River, and would meet me at Montreal. He was a very able man; cool, clear, cautious, but when once he had had time to calculate all the consequences, firm and decided. He had been for years on the Pacific coast; and, thanks to his prudence, the landing, in 1859, of General Harney, and a detachment of United States troops on the Island of St. Juan, between Vancouver's Island and the mainland, on the Pacific, had been controlled and checkmated, by the proposal of a joint occupation until negotiations had settled the question of right. This right was, afterwards, given away by our Government under the form of an arbitration before the Emperor of Germany. Governor Dallas' opinion of the transaction will be gathered from his letters to me of the 29th and 30th October, 1872, hereafter copied. The Governor and I became fast friends, and our friendship, cordial on both sides, continued until his death, a very few years ago. The only fault of Governor Dallas was a want of self-assertion. Brought out by the Mathesons--hardy Scots of the North--as he was, he made a reasonable fortune in China: and coming home, intending to retire, he was persuaded to accept the Governorship of the Hudson's Bay Company on the death of Sir George Simpson. Meeting at Montreal, our first act of "business" was to voyage in the Governor's canoe from Lachine through the rapids to Montreal; a voyage, to me, as almost a novice, save for my New Brunswick canoeing, of rather startling adventure; but the eleven stalwart Indians, almost all six feet high, who manned the boat, made the trip interesting, as it was to me in the nature of a new experience. These men had been with Governor Dallas nearly 4,000 miles by river, lake, and portage; and he told me he never knew them to be late, however early the start had to be made; never unready; always cheerful and obliging; and that a cross word had never, in his hearing, been uttered by any one of them. These men made Caughna Wauga, opposite Lachine, their home, and there were their families. After the most careful study and discussion of the questions above alluded to, and others, the discussion extending over a month, we agreed to various memoranda. The one affecting the re-organization of management was as follows:--