Part 5 (1/2)

Sir,--1. Since I had last the honour of addressing you in my despatch, Number 35, on the 29th of December last, in reference to the discovery of gold in the Couteau, or Thompson River district, we have had much communication with persons who have since visited that part of the country.

2. The search for gold and ”prospecting” of the country, had, up to the last dates from the interior, been carried on almost exclusively by the native Indian population, who have discovered the productive beds, and put out almost all the gold, about eight hundred ounces, which has been hitherto exported from the country, and who are, moreover, extremely jealous of the whites, and strongly opposed to their digging the soil for gold.

3. The few white men who pa.s.sed the winter at the diggings--chiefly retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company--though well acquainted with Indian character, were obstructed by the natives in their attempts to search for gold. They were on all occasions narrowly watched, and in every instance, when they did succeed in removing the surface and excavating to the depth of the auriferous stratum, they were quietly hustled and crowded by the natives, who having by that means obtained possession of the spot, then proceeded to reap the fruits of their labours.

4. Such conduct was unwarrantable and exceedingly trying to the temper of spirited men, but the savages were far too numerous for resistance, and they had to submit to their dictation. It is, however, worthy of remark, and a circ.u.mstance highly honourable to the character of those savages, that they have on all occasions scrupulously respected the persons and property of their white visitors, at the same that they have expressed a determination to reserve the gold for their own benefit.

5. Such being the purpose of the natives, affrays and collisions with the whites will surely follow the accession of numbers, which the latter are now receiving by the influx of adventurers from Vancouver's Island and the United States territories in Oregon; and there is no doubt in my mind that sooner or later the intervention of Her Majesty's Government will be required to restore and maintain the peace. Up to the present time, however, the country continues quiet, but simply, I believe, because the whites have not attempted to resist the impositions of the natives. I will, however, make it a part of my duty to keep you well informed in respect to the state of the gold country.

6. The extent of the gold region is yet but imperfectly known, and I have, therefore, not arrived at any decided opinion as to its ultimate value as a gold-producing country. The boundaries of the gold district have been, however, greatly extended since ay former report.

7. In addition to the diggings before known on Thompson River and its tributary streams, a valuable deposit has been recently found by the natives, on a bank of Fraser River, about fifty miles beyond its confluence with the Thompson, and gold in small quant.i.ties has been found in the possession of the natives as far as the great falls of Fraser River, about eighty miles above the Forks. The small quant.i.ty of gold hitherto produced--about eight hundred ounces--by the large native population of the country is, however, unaccountable in a rich gold-producing country, unless we a.s.sume that the want of skill, industry, and proper mining tools on the part of the natives sufficiently account for the fact.

8. On the contrary, the vein rocks and its other geological features, as described by an experienced gold miner, encourage the belief that the country is highly auriferous.

9. The miner in question clearly described the older slate formations thrown up and pierced by beds of quartz, granite, porphyry, and other igneous rocks; the vast acc.u.mulations of sand, gravel, and s.h.i.+ngle extending from the roots of the mountains to the banks of Fraser River and its affluents, which are peculiar characteristics of the gold districts of California and other countries. We therefore hope, and are preparing for a rich harvest of trade, which will greatly redound to the advantage of this colony.

10. I have further to communicate for your information that the proclamation issued by me, a.s.serting the rights of the Crown to all gold in its natural place of deposit, and forbidding all persons to dig for gold without a licence, has been published in the newspapers of Oregon and Was.h.i.+ngton territories, and that, notwithstanding, some seventy or eighty adventurers from the American side have gone by the way of Fraser River to the Couteau mines without taking out licences.

11. I did not, as I might have done, attempt to enforce those rights by means of a detachment of seamen and marines, from the ”Satellite,”

without being a.s.sured that such a proceeding would meet with the approval of Her Majesty's Government; but the moment your instructions on the subject are received, I will take measures to carry them into effect.

I have, etcetera, (Signed) James Douglas, Governor.

The Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, M.P., etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

NO. X.

_Governor Douglas to the Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, M.P._

Victoria, Vancouver's Island, May 8, 1858.

Since I had the honour of addressing you on the 6th of April last on the subject of the ”Couteau” gold mines, they have become more than ever a source of attraction to the people of Was.h.i.+ngton and Oregon territories, and it is evident from the accounts published in the latest San Francisco papers, that intense excitement prevails among the inhabitants of that stirring city on the same subject.

The ”Couteau” country is there represented and supposed to be in point of mineral wealth a second California or Australia, and those impressions are sustained by the false and exaggerated statements of steamboat owners and other interested parties, who benefit by the current of emigration which is now setting strongly towards this quarter.

Boats, canoes, and every species of small craft, are continually employed in pouring their cargoes of human beings into Fraser River, and it is supposed that not less than one thousand whites are already at work and on the way to the gold districts. Many accidents have happened in the dangerous rapids of that river; a great number of canoes have been dashed to pieces, and their cargoes swept away by the impetuous stream, while of the ill-fated adventurers who accompanied them many have been swept into eternity.

The others, nothing daunted by the spectacle of ruin and buoyed up by the hope of ama.s.sing wealth, still keep pressing onward towards the coveted goal of their most ardent wishes.

On the 25th of last month, the American steamer ”Commodore” arrived in this port direct from San Francisco, with 450 pa.s.sengers on board, the chief part of whom are gold miners for the ”Couteau” country.

Nearly 400 of those men were landed at this place, and have since left in boats and canoes for Fraser River.

I ascertained from inquiries on the subject that those men are all well provided with mining tools, and that there was no dearth of capital or intelligence among them. About sixty British subjects, with an equal number of native born Americans, the rest being chiefly Germans, with a smaller proportion of Frenchmen and Italians, composed this body of adventurers.

They are represented as being, with some exceptions, a specimen of the worst of the population of San Francisco; the very dregs, in fact, of society. Their conduct while here would have led me to form a very different conclusion; as our little town, though crowded to excess with this sudden influx of people, and though there was a temporary scarcity of food, and dearth of house accommodation, the police few in number, and many temptations to excess in the way of drink, yet quiet and order prevailed, and there was not a single committal for rioting, drunkenness, or other offences during their stay here.

The merchants and other business cla.s.ses of Victoria are rejoicing in the advent of so large a body of the people in the colony, and are strongly in favour of making this port a stopping point between San Francisco and the gold mines, converting the latter, as it were, into a feeder and dependency of this colony.