To enter, however, into a few more particulars.—The Indians of New Brunswick are described by Sir H. Douglass, in 1825, as “dwindled in numbers,” and in a “wretched condition.” Those of Nova Scotia, the Micmacs (by Sir J. Kempt), as disinclined to settle, and in the habit of bartering their furs, “unhappily, for rum.”[50] General Darling’s statement as to the Indians of the Canadas, drawn up in 1828, speaks of the interposition of the government being urgently called for in behalf of the helpless individuals whose landed possessions, where they have any assigned to them, are daily plundered by their designing and more enlightened white brethren.[51] Of the Algonquins and Nipissings, General Darling writes, “Their situation is becoming alarming, by the rapid settlement and improvement of the lands on the banks of the Ottawa, on which they were placed by the government in the year 1763, and which tract they have naturally considered as their own. The result of the present state of things is obvious, and such as can scarcely fail in time to be attended with bloodshed and murder; for, driven from their own resources, they will naturally trespass on those of other tribes, who are equally jealous of the intrusion of their red brethren as of white men. Complaints on this head are increasing daily, while the threats and admonitions of the officers of the department have been insufficient to control the unruly spirit of the savage, who, driven by the calls of hunger and the feelings of nature towards his offspring, will not be scrupulous in invading the rights of his brethren, as a means of alleviating his misery, when he finds the example in the conduct of his white father’s children practised, as he conceives, towards himself.”[52]