For a time, the British exploited this uncertainty as well as the relatively weak American administration in their newly acquired territory, to keep a British garrison at Fort Mackinac. However, this arrangement would soon become untenable. Under the Jay-Grenville Treaty of 1794 the United Kingdom agreed to US demands that it abandon Mackinac and five other forts in US territory on the Great Lakes by June 1796. The British knew they would need to hastily establish new posts in British North America from which to protect its claim to the fur trade and retain influence with the aboriginal peoples. However, there was great dispute among British officials where these new posts should be located and whether one was needed west of the Detroit River at all.