The only means that occurs to my mind, of stopping this career of vice and immorality, is the speedy survey and sale of the lands from the mouth of the Maumee to this place; and from hence down and along the banks of the Wabash.... Thus, a cordon of hardy and respectable settlers ... would be formed along the Maumee and Wabash.... At present, there is no security to him who locates himself on the public lands, nor do I wish there should be; because every citizen ought to enjoy equal advantages. This place, if laid out as a town and sold by the government, would bring a large sum of money. The St. Mary’s has been covered with boats, every freshet, for several years past. This is a central spot, combining more natural advantages to build up and support a town of importance, as a place of deposit and trade ... than any point I have yet seen in the western country.[8] This letter of Riley, which also contained a strong recommendation for the careful survey of a canal route connecting the Wabash and the Maumee, became a part of the official records of the surveyor-general’s office, and through this channel found its way into the congressional debates concerning the Wabash and Erie canal. Lest James Riley’s severe arraignment of the white traders present during the time of the annuity payments appear unjust, let us compare it with the opinion of Reverend J. B. Finney, who visited the village during the same period in the previous year. He writes: This was an awful scene for a sober man to look upon ... men and women, raving maniacs, singing, dancing, fighting, stabbing and tomahawking one another—and there were the rum-sellers watering their whiskey until it was not strong grog, and selling it for four dollars a gallon, their hired men gathering up all the skins and furs and their silver brooches ... and their guns, tomahawks and blankets, till they were literally stripped naked, and three or four were killed.... The reader may set what estimates he pleases, or call him by what name; yet, if there were ever a greater robber, or a meaner thief, or a dirtier murderer than these rum sellers, he is yet to be seen.[9] The laws for preventing the introduction of alcoholic drinks among the Indians, though very severe, were ineffectual. A person might have remained in the woods within five or six miles of Fort Wayne for a year without being discovered by any government agent. It was the custom of the traders to bring whiskey in kegs and hide it in the woods about half a mile from the fort, a short time previous to the paying of the annuity, and when the Indians came to the fort, to give information to such of the Indians who could be confided in that there was whiskey to be had at those places. As soon as the Indians received their money they would go off to the appointed places.