In 1850 there was very little land in the whole territory that was occupied so the promise in the treaties that aboriginal people could continue to hunt and presumably gather on unoccupied land and fish as formerly meant that immediately the exchange was really for the small area of the fort and its fields.

What they could not foresee was the arrival of the nearly 300,000 people who followed the initial handful onto the southern tip of Vancouver Island leaving practically none of it "unoccupied."

After these initial treaties, Douglas asked the colonial office for funds to make similar arrangements elsewhere. He was told that this was a local matter and he would have to find the money locally. Instead Douglas stopped making treaties, so the rest of the island and later the province of British Columbia has never been surrendered by aboriginal people, excepting the far northeast corner covered by Treaty 8.

The Condition of, or understanding of this Sale, is this, that our Village Sites and Enclosed Fields are to be kept for our own use, for the use of our Children, and for those who may follow after us; and the land, shall be properly surveyed hereafter; it is understood however that the land itself, with these small exceptions becomes the Entire property of the White people for ever; it is also understood that we are at liberty to hunt over the unoccupied lands, and to carry on our fisheries as formerly.

We have received as payment Twenty seven pound Ten Shillings Sterling [aprox. $26 US at the time]. In token whereof we have signed our names and made our marks at Fort Victoria, 29 April 1850 [spelling and punctuation from the original].