Relief

Petition written by Matthew Sapier, representing several other Mi'kmaq, asking for relief to be given to the Mi'kmaq of Pictou County. This letter also mentions that relief had been granted by the petition written by him in 1836.

1837-01-14
1837-01-14

Matthew Sapier (Chief of Pictou) (Petitioner)
Sir Colin Campbell, KCB (Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia) (Recipient)

Petition

“Pictou, 14th January 1837 To His Excellency Sir Colin Campbell Bant[?]: Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief in and over His Majesty’s Province of Nova Scotia and its Dependencies etc. etc. etc. The Memorial of Maltel Sapier Chief, and other Indians Most Humbly shewith: That your Memorialists are native Aborigines of the British Colonial Province of Nova Scotia, over which Your Excellency at present resides, and reside in the County of Pictou, the place of their nativity. Your Memorialists beg leave to express their gratified acknowledgements, for the munificent assistance afforded to them by your Excellency last year, and beg leave to solicit the benevolent hand of your Excellency would be stretched out to them, in again administering to their necessities and wants. There are thirty-seven of us, who are almost destitute of all the necessaries of life, especially of blankets and coats, and good muskets and ammunition, and as the crops failed much last season in this quarter, particularly the potatoe [sic] crop, your Memorialists suffer much privation in provisions. Your memorialists therefore most humbly and most earnestly supplicate that your Excellency will be pleased to consider and commiserate their destitute condition, and the privations they experience and order them to receive such supplies as your excellency may, in your benevolence, think proper. And your Memorialists as in duty bound will ever pray etc. etc. Maltel Sapier [x] his mark For himself and his other Indian brethren These may certify that the Bearer of this Memorial is a sober, temperate and honest Indian, and that the Indians in this quarter, are much in want of the supplies they pray for. R. Lowden, J.P. [Justice of the Peace] [Illegible] Edmond Dayle, J.P. Rev. Fraser John [], J.P. James Carmichael Geo. [Wallen], J.P. Jas. Fraser, J.P. M. Ross (Truro)

eng

Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Vol. 431 (Indian Commissioner Series), File 32.