Notwithstanding this seemingly peaceful settlement of the difficulty, the official relationship between Wells and the governor remained strained, and we find Harrison as late as April 23, 1811, writing to the new Secretary of War, Eustis: “Could I be allowed to dispose of Wells as I thought proper, my first wish would be to place him in the interiour of our settlement where he would never see and scarcely hear of an Indian. But as this is impossible, from his being located in such a manner at Fort Wayne, that he cannot be removed without a very considerable expense, my next wish is to get such an appointment as he could consider an object, where he might be used to advantage, but at the same time so limited as to prevent his doing mischief.”[64] While Governor Harrison was doing his utmost to secure more territory from the Indians, he did not wish the newly purchased lands to fall into the hands of unscrupulous traders who used the bargaining power of whiskey to rob the Indians of their furs. This was especially true of the United States land around Fort Wayne, which was too distant from Vincennes to be under his effective control. When, in 1805, Harrison heard that it was intended to sell the government land around Fort Wayne immediately, he objected strongly. “I am very certain,” he wrote to the Secretary of War, “that the money which will be put into the Treasury by the sale of it will not counterbalance the inconveniences which will arise from having it settled with the description of people who will naturally buy it.”[65] He then pointed out that Fort Wayne was too far removed from any other settlement to entice American farmers to go there, and in all probability, only Indian traders would buy the land and would thus be out of the reach of the laws of the United States regulating Indian trade and commerce. He conceded that the Fort Wayne was fertile enough for farming and concluded by saying, “If the immediate settlement of it is an object I think it would be better to sell it by contract upon the condition that there would be within a given time a certain number of American farmers upon it.”[66]