On my return from Fort Stanwix I had ,the honor to receive your Lordships of the 13^^. August (N°. 5) with the enclosures concerning the Application to his Majesty for a Grant of Copper Mints near Lake Superior directing me toma^e enquirys concerning the same, to which I sho^. have paid all due obedience sooner, but for the Pacquets & Dispatches I had to make up, and the multiplicity of affairs I had to order and regulate in consequence of the late Treaty.

I now proceed to consider the subject of your Lordship's Letter and the papers therewith transmitted. And first, as to the Ore. I have long since been well assured that there is not only a large Quantity of Copper Ore in the Environs of Lake Superior, but that on trials made on Samples of it, some of which I have seen, it has been found extraordinary good and rich. I likewise about 3 years ago saw an Estimate of the Expenses of taking up, & transporting &c. the most accessible of that Ore, of which I am Avell assured there are to all appearances entire Rocks; but this Estimate, which I have unluckily mislaid, was, to the best of my Recollection founded on the expectation that it wo^. Continue to be obtained with very great ease, and that it could be transported, Refined &c. at rates which from the increased Value of Labour &c. in Canada since the reduction of that Country may now be much doubted, admitting that the Vein of Ore would continue equally rich and accessible. I have likewise understood that the Indians themselves would at a very trifling rate procure large Qnantitys of it, to which I may answer that the Indians are a Lazy people, & naturally Enemies to Labour, and therefore it is 7-nrich to be doubted whether interesting them in it would be nttended with advantage, altho' the Ind^. of that Country can be satisfied on much more reasonable terms than those who are more accustomed to receive favors from Europeans, particularly the r!"r!(^h.