Some historians deny that the term "submission" in the Treaties means the Mi'kmaq surrendered. They focus solely on the terms "Peace" and "Friendship" in the Treaties. They argue that the Mi'kmaq did not surrender and that, in fact, Nova Scotia is "unceded Mi'kmaw territory". To sustain this argument, some historians have argued that the few hundred Mi'kmaw fighters were in a strong enough position to negotiate the terms of the Halifax Treaties and make demands of their own of the British. John Reid asserts that the Mi'kmaq military power in the region did not wane until decades after the French had been defeated. (In contrast, some commentators, such as Daniel N. Paul, argue that a decade before the Halifax Treaties were signed, the Mi'kmaq were weakened because they experienced a genocide by Governor Edward Cornwallis.) Reid dismisses the statements in the Treaties about Mi'kmaq surrender or submission to the British crown, by asserting that there is significant evidence surrounding the Treaties that suggest the real intent of the Treaties was to establish friendly and reciprocal relationships. The Mi'kmaq leaders who came initially to Halifax in 1760 had clear goals that centred on the making of peace, the establishment of a secure and well-regulated trade in commodities such as furs, and ongoing friendship with the British crown. In return, they offered their own friendship and tolerance of limited British settlement, although without any formal land surrender. To fulfil the friendly and reciprocal intent of the treaties, Reid asserts further British settlement of land would need to be negotiated and, in exchange for sharing the land, presents would be given to the Mi'kmaq. According to historian Geoffrey Plank, the documents summarizing the peace agreements did not indicate the laws regulating land ownership and land usage, but they assured the Mi’kmaq access to the natural resources that had long sustained them along the regions’ coasts and in the woods. Reid asserts that the Mi'kmaq military power only began to wane in the region when the New England Planters and United Empire Loyalists began to arrive in Mi'kma'ki in greater numbers, economic, environmental and cultural pressures were put on the Mi'kmaq with the erosion of the intent of the treaties. According to Reid, Mi'kmaq tried to enforce the treaties through the threat of force as some did in the American Revolution at the Miramichi.