Nova Scotia Archives
Mi'kmaw Teaching and Learning Resources
Letter from H.W. Crawley of Sydney to Joseph Howe, Prov. Sec., regarding the Mi'kmaq request for seeds for the 1848 growing season and encouragement of agriculture among the Mi'kmaq.
note: transcription publicly contributed - please contact us with comments, errors or omisions
48
Sydney, C.B. 22 May , 1848.
Sir,
Not being aware that any funds will be placed at my disposal for the benefit of the Indians in this Island, I am uncertain how to reply to their request for seed for the present season. These people , with their customary improvidence, have not made application until now that it is actually time, if not past the time, to commence the operations of sowing and planting : and altho' I was convinced of the prevailing scarcity being so extreme that it was most unlikely that the Indians had a supply of seed, or could obtain it, yet I did not consider myself justified in representing the urgency of their want, merely upon my own [?impression] but waited until they should themselves come forward to make it known.
Notwithstanding , however, that a supply of seed would not be now of so much advantage as it would have been if provided earlier, yet it may still greatly help to
avert
Hon.ble Joseph Howe,
&c &c &c
Date: 1848
Retrieval no.: Commissioner of Public Records — Mi'kmaq and Government Relations series Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 431 number 48
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