As a first step, the Governor of British North America, Lord Dorchester sent a team of British Royal Engineers led by Lieutenant Alexander Bryce to survey the area from the Straits of Mackinac to Lake Superior to attempt to clarify the boundary left unclear by the Treaty of Paris and to locate a suitable site for a new fort. In his report, the chief surveyor wrote "St. Joseph’s Island is a very fine island about 27 miles long, one of a numerous group that lies in the straits separating Lake Huron from Lake Superior. It is naturally fertile and well suited to cultivation but not so well fitted for military purposes. However, I have claimed it for the British crown and built a stockade."