374 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

and formidable native population, whose habits of intoxication and
other vices, encouraged by the competition, have been, to a great
extent, restrained by the temperate and vigorous conduct of their
traders. 

"Great loss of property, and in some cases loss of life, have been
incurred by savage and murderous attacks on their hunting-parties
and establishments, and order has only been restored and peace main-
tained by the employment, at a great expense, of considerable force,
and by the exercise, on the part of their servants, of the utmost temper,
patience and perseverance." 

The Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company then went on to
sav, — "The Company now occupy the country between the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific by six permanent establishments on the
coasts, sixteen in the interior country, besides several migratory and
hunting-parties, and they maintain a marine of six armed vessels, one
of them a steam-vessel, on the coast. 

"Their principal establishment and depot for the trade of the
coast and the interior is situated 90 miles from the Pacific, on the
northern banks of the Columbia River, and called Vancouver, in
honour of that celebrated navigator. In the neighbourhood they
have large pasture and grain farms, affording most abundantly every
species of agricultural produce, and maintaining large herds of stock
of every description; these have been gradually established; and
it is the intention of the Company still further, not only to augment
and increase them, to establish an export trade in wool, tallow, hides
and other agricultural produce, but to encourage the settlement
of their retired servants and other emigrants under their protection. 

"The soil, climate and other circumstances of the country are
as much if not more adapted to agricultural pursuits than any other
spot in America, and with care and protection the British dominion
may not only be preserved in this countrj% which it has been so much
the wish of Russia and America to occupy to the exclusion of British
subjects, but British interest and British influence may be maintained
as paramount in this interesting part of the coast of the Pacific." 

These remarks were based upon a report on the condition of the
Indian Territories by George Simpson, bearing the date of> February
I, 1837,'^ in which that energetic ofiicer refers to the countr\^ west of 

1^ Hudson's Bay Company, Return to House of Commons, 26 May, 1S+2, 15 tn 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 375 

the Rocky Mountains in the following words: "The furtrade is the
principal branch of business at present in the country situated between
the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. On the banks of the
Columbia River, however, where the soil and climate are favour-
able to cultivation, we are directing our attention to agriculture on
a large scale, and there is every prospect that we shall soon be able
to establish important branches of export trade from thence in the
articles of wool, tallow, hides, tobacco, and grain of various kinds. 

"I have also the satisfaction to say, that the native population
are beginning to profit by our example, as many, formerly dependent
on hunting and fishing, now maintain themselves by the produce of
the soil. 

"The country situated between the northern bank of the Columbia
River, which empties itself into the Pacific, in lat. 46° 20', and the
southern bank of Frazer's river, which empties itself into the Gulf
of Georgia, in lat. 49 , is remarkable for the salubrity of its climate
and excellence of its soil, and possesses, within the Straits of De Fuca,
some of the finest harbours in the world, being protected from the
weight of the Pacific by Vancouver's and other islands. To the
southward of the Straits of De Fuca, situated in lat. 48° 37', there
is no good harbour nearer than the bay of St. Francisco, in lat. 37°
48', as the broad shifting bar otif the mouth of the Columbia, and
the tortuous channel through it, renders the entrance of that river a
very dangerous navigation even to vessels of small draught of water. 

"The possession of that country to (ireat Britain may become
an object of very great importance, and we .ire strengthening that
claim to it (independent of the claims of prior discovery and occu-
pation for the purpose of Indian trade) by forming the nucleus of
a colony through the establishment of farms, and the settlement of
some i)f our retiring officers and servants as agriculturists." 

At a later date — 28th May, 1849 — James Douglas, in a letter to
Captain J. Sheppard, R. N., thus reports upon the affairs of the Hud-
son's Bav Company on the coast and in the interior: 

"Fort Nisqually,
((c- "Puget Sound 28 May 1849 

"I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a communica-
tion from you dated 12th May, 1849, announcing the arrival of 

376 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

H. M. Ship under your command at Esquimalt, in pursuance of
orders from Rear Adm'. Phipps Hornby, C. B., Commander in
Chief of H. M. Naval Forces in the Pacific, in order to receive for
consideration any cases of aggression since the visit of H. M. S.
Constance to the N. W. Territory in August, 1848, and to endeavour
to arrange them as far as it may be in your power, to the satisfaction
of the Hon.*^"'^ Hudson's Bay Company. 

"I have to beg the favour through you of returning our most
cordial thanks to R. Adm'. Hornby, for this instance of attention,
in affording protection to the Hudson's Bay Company, and other
British subjects, established in this country, who will retain a grateful
recollection of his solicitude on their behalf. 

"For the last two years we have maintained a severe contest, with
the lawless American population in Oregon, who, up to a very recent
date, were entirely neglected by their own Gov', and left to struggle
against the pressure of poverty, distress and an e.xtensive Indian War,
carried on at their own expense, without aid or support from their
Mother Country and they were in these desperate circumstances often
tempted to seize upon the property of the Hudson's Bay Company.
In opposing their designs we studiously avoided every cause of Col-
lision assisting them as far as it was prudent for British subjects to
interfere in their affairs, yet with a firm resolution to defend our
property in case of attack, w hich was menaced and expected on more
than one occasion. With the Blessing of Providence we escaped
any serious loss or disaster, and have we trust, seen the last of these
days of anxiety and painful suspence — 

"The jurisdiction of the United States having been lately extended
over all this Territorv, & a regular government established under the
Authority of Congress; there will be no future interruption to the
peace and tranquillity of the country, and should it happen other-
wise; we will have the satisfaction of dealing with the Authorities
of the United States and not, as heretofore with a lawless and irre-
sponsible Mob. 

"From General Lane tlie present Governor of the Oregon Terri-
tory, who arrived two Months ago from Washington, we have
received the most friendly assurances, and found him on all occasions,
wherein we have had recourse to his good offices, disposed to carry
out the provisions of the late Treatv of demarcation in the most 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 377 

liberal manner: — we have therefore every reason to believe that the
property of the Hudson's Bay Company, within the American Ter-
ritory, will be fully protected hereafter by the local Gov'., and that
we shall have no further cause of complaint requiring the interven-
tion of the Commander in Chief. 

"We nevertheless feel all the value and importance of your kind
offers of service, and are at the same time extremely happy that we
have no cases of aggression by American citizens to report to you,
since the departure of H. M. S. Constance in August 1848, and
General Lane having expressed a decided intention to arrange ail
previous matters of complaint we think, on the whole, it will be
more agreeable to him, to leave them in his hands for the present,
than to bring them in an official shape under the notice of the British
Gov', 

"In reply to your inquiries respecting the present state of the
coal fields in the North East end of Vancouver's Island I would
remark that we made arrangements in December 1848, to form an
establishment between McNeills and Beaver Harbour, where the
Coal Crops abundantly to the Surface, and a party of our people
are now engaged in the execution of that Service. 

"We propose by forming an establishment in that quarter to open
a new branch of trade, by working these beds, and supplying the
rapidly increasing demand for Coal, on this Coast. 

"The result of this experiment is questionable in consequence of
the peculiar circumstances of the Country; the Savage and treach-
erous disposition of the Natives, the expense and difficulty of procur-
ing labourers, and the limited though increasing demand for Coal in
these seas, circumstances which present serious obstacles to the suc-
cessful prosecution of this enterprise. 

"A body of English miners are coming out from England, by a
Vessel expected at Fort Victoria in the course of next month, under
whose directions the Coal works are to be Carried on. 

"The Vancouxcr Island Coal is considered good; though the
surface beds have as yet only been tested, and our impression is, as
experience has proved in other cases, that the interior beds will yield
a much better qualitv. Coal has not been seen on any other part of
Vancouver's Island except that before mentioned, or on the Con-
tinental Coast of British Oregon; but the Indians report that it also 

378 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

exists on the North West Coast of Vancouver's Island, particularly
at a place known by the name of Naspate about 25 miles north of
Nootka Sound. 

"It is also found in the Columbia at the mouth of the Chityles
River which discharges into Gray's Harbour and in one or two
other places within the limits of the United States Territory; but
from the specimens I have seen it appears to be neither so good,
nor is it so abundant, nor so accessible to shipping, as the Coal beds
of Vancouver's Island. 

"The character of the British Territory on the main land about
which you want information may be described in a few words. 

"The Coast presents one continuous outline of dense forests
swamps and rugged mountains and has every where a most unpre-
possessing appearance. The interior, particularly the valley of
Eraser's River, contains good land and is capable of supporting a
large agricultural population, but that is an exception to the general
character of the country, which is valuable chiefly for its inex-
haustible forests of the finest fir timber in the world; and its valuable
fisheries which will become a source of boundless wealth to its
inhabitants at some future time. 

"The Climate is remarkably healthy and very pleasant in sum-
mer; the winters, which extend from the middle of March, are on
the contrary generally rainy and disagreeable, and not very unlike
the winter weather on the West Coast of Scotland, though the cold
is at times more severe. 

"There is abundance of game on every part of the Coast, and it
probably produces the finest venison in the World. The Elk and two
species of Fallow Deer inhabit the low Islands, and level parts of
the coast, while fur bearing animals such as Beaver, Otters, Bears,
Wolves, Martens and Minks are more or less numerous in dififerent
parts of the Country. 

"Excellent harbours abound on every part of the Coast, which are
^well described in Vancouver's Work, to which I will take the liberty
of referring you 

"The names of the Company's Trading Posts on the West side
of the Mountains are as follow viz.*
"On the American Territory, South of 49" : 

"Fort Colville, Flat Head House, Fort Okanagan, Fort Nez

BRITISH COLUMBIA 369 

flimsy bridge swaying & bending with our weight" threatened to pre-
cipitate them into the "waters boiling beneath." 

Here the Indians opposed CampbelTs progress. The "Nahany
Chief," fearing that the natives would kill the strangers, advised the
explorer to desist as "the great chief 'Shakes' from the Sea was
there & Indians from all parts without number." The Indians were
so an.xious to prevent the advance of the party that they attempted
to detain it by force. In spite of their remonstrances Campbell pur-
sued his way, simply recording in his journal — "1 was determined
to go on." Proceeding, Campbell came in view of an immense
camp, about thirteen miles from Terror Bridge. "Such a concourse
of Indians," he remarked, "I had never before seen assembled. They
were gathered from all parts of the Western Slope of the Rockies
& from along the Pacific Coast. These Indians camped here for
weeks at the time, living on salmon, which could be caught in thou-
sands in the Stikinc by gaffing or spearing, to aid them in which
the Indians had a sort of dam built across the river."'' Campbell
and the friendly chief who had accompanied him then went forward
to meet "the closely packed crowd, awaiting us below." Upon his
arrival at the camp, the explorer was plied with questions, the
answers to which were "taken up & yelled by a hundred throats, till
the surrounding rocks & the valley re-echoed w ith the sound." Pres-
ently a lane was cleared through the crowd for the great chief, called
"Shakes" in Campbell's journal. He was a coast Indian, tall and
strongly built, and all-powerful in that region. He ruled despoti-
cally a loose confederacy of Indians of dilTerent tribes. Campbell
was surprised to find that some of the Indians knew Doctor McLough-
lin and James Douglas — news which induced Iiim to write notes to
these officers, giving particulars of his journey, and informing tiiem
that he had ascertained tliat the "so-called Pelly & the Stikine were
identical." 

After this vociferous welcome Campbell returned to his camp,
where he hoisted the Hudson's Bay Company flag and cut "Hud-
son's Bay Company" and the date on a tree, thus taking possession
of the country. 

It was here that the explorer met a remarkable native woman,
the chieftainess of the Nahanies. "She was a fine-looking woman," 

" Campbell, jcnirnal, p. 51.
"•I 1 -J -I 

370 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

Campbell writes, "rather above the middle height & about 35 years
old. In her actions and personal appearance she was more like
the whites than the pure Indian race. She had a pleasing face, lit
up with fine intelligent eyes, which when she was excited flashed like
fire. She was tidy & tasteful in her dress. On more than one occa-
sion she interfered to save the party from destruction." 

Campbell's journal afifords a pleasing picture of the remarkable
woman who ruled the "Nahanies." But of all the stories told of her
none is more spirited, or more characteristic, or more truly illustra-
tive of the dangers that beset the pioneer furtrader in the wilderness,
than the one which follows: In February, 1839, the chieftainess and
a number of her fighting men visited the post on Dease Lake, just in
time to relieve the wants of Campbell's men, who were starving.
"The whole band," says the journal at this juncture, "passed the night
with us in the fort, & to illustrate the Chieftainess' extraordinary
control over them, let me mention an incident that took place. In the
course of the evening, when everything had seemingly quieted down
for the night, yell after yell suddenly broke the silence; the now
furious savages rushed into the room where McLeod & I were sitting,
loading their guns; some of them seized our weapons from racks on
the wall & would assuredlv have shot us had not the Chieftainess,
who was lodged in the other end of the house, rushed in & com-
manded silence. She found out the instigator of the riot, walked up
to him, and, stamping her foot on the ground, repeatedly spat in his
face, her eyes blazing with anger. Peace & quiet reigned as sud-
denly as the outbreak had burst forth. T have seen many far-famed
warrior Chiefs with their bands in every kind of mood, but I never
saw one who had such absolute authority or was as bold & ready to
exercise it as that noble woman. She was truly a born leader, whose
mandate none dared dispute." '" 

Campbell returned to Dease Lake for the winter, where, he writes,
"we passed a winter of constant danger from the savage Russian
(coast) Indians and of much suffering from starvation. We were
dependent for subsistence on what animals we could catch and, fail-
ing that, on tripe de rochc. We were at one time reduced to such
dire straits that we were obliged to eat our parchment windows. 

•* Campbell, Journal, pp. 60-1. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 371 

and our last meal before abandoning Dease Lake on 8th May, 1839,
consisted of the lacings of our snowshoes." 

Then the young explorer proceeded to Fort Simpson, with the
news of his discoveries. That his work was appreciated is shown by
Sir George Simpson's letter of June 16, 1839, in which the Governor
expressed his "entire satisfaction with your (Campbell's) manage-
ment in the recent voyage down the Pelly or Stikine River, bearing
ample evidence that the confidence reposed in you was well placed.
I was always of the opinion that the Pelly & Stikine Rivers were
identical, but many of my friends in this country thought differently.
You have at length, however, set the question at rest; and your writ-
ing to our gentlemen on the coast was very judicious." 

In the same letter the Governor refers to the agreement recently '
concluded between the Hudson's Bay Company and the Russian
American Company, by which agreement the British Company
recognized Russia's right to Southern Alaska: "I last winter con-
cluded," writes Sir George, "an arrangement for the Coy. with
Baron Wrangel acting on behalf of the Russian American Coy., by
which we became possessed of the whole of the Russian mainland
territory (for a term of ten years) up to Cape Spencer; by that
means we became possessed of their establishment situated on Point
Highfield, entrance of Stikine River, immediately, and have access
to the interior country through all the rivers falling into the Pacific
to the Southward of Cape Spencer. This arrangement renders it
unnecessary for us now to extend our operations from the East side
of the Mountains or Mackenzie River, as we can settle that country
from the Pacific with greater facility and at less expense. Your
services (Campbell's) will now therefore be required to push our
discoveries in the country situated on the Peel & Colville Rivers;
and I am quite sure you will distinguish yourself as much in that
quarter as you have latterly done on the West side of the Mountains." 

In 1840 and again in 1843 Robert Campbell was commissioned
by Sir George Simpson to continue his explorations, particularly
along the north branch of the Liard to its source. In the course of
his perilous ventures the intrepid explorer added much information
to the common stock of geographical knowledge. But the name of
Robert Campbell, like the names of so many of the old furtraders 

372 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

who tirst found and followed the wild rivers of the West, is scarcely
known today. 

In the course of his journeyings to and fro in the Yukon Terri-
tory and Northern British Columbia, Campbell entered a beautiful
lake, which he named Frances, after Lady Simpson, the wife of his
benefactor. Sir George. He also named the Pelly in honour of
Sir John H. Pelly, the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company.
In 1842 — before the northern field was discovered or occupied —
John Finlay had explored the branch of the Peace River named in
his honour. So before the middle of the nineteenth century the whole
northwestern region of North America had been at least roughly
defined if not actually delineated and measured. The territory in
question is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east
by the Mackenzie River, the Peace River and the Rocky Mountains,
on the south by California, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean and
Bering Sea. 

But to return to the Oregon Territorv. When Doctor McLough-
lin arrived in 1 824 to organize and to direct the afifairs of the Western
Department, Fort George was the only occupied port on the North-
west coast. In the interior the authority of the furtrader was
upheld by a few scattered posts in New Caledonia, in the Flathead
Country and in the V^alley of the Columbia. As for the condition of
the trade, ail was confusion and strife, if the old records are to be
believed. Doctor McLoughlin at once proceeded to straighten out
the tangled skein of divergent interests, and differences of opinion
amongst those who had heretofore been in charge of the district, by
centralizing authority in himself and at Fort Vancouver as the
capital of the Oregon Territory. The forts were improved, their
number increased, and the trade placed upon a sound basis. In short.
Doctor McLoughlin executed his designs so earnestly, so energeti-
cally and so successfullv, that in a few vears all opposition was swept
from the field. 

Thirteen years after Doctor McLoughlin arrived upon the scene.
Sir John Pelly could report upon "the peace, order and tranquillity,
which have been so successfully maintained" in the 'Tndian coun-
tries." In a letter to Lord Glenelg, dated Hudson's Bay House,
London. loth Februarv, 1837,'' Sir John states: "Before the union 

" Hudson's Bay Company, Return In House of (nmmons, 26 May, 1842, pp. 12 to 15. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA -m 

of the rival Companies in 1821, the trade on the north-west coast
of America, from the Mexican frontiers to Behring's Straits, was
nearly or wholly enjoyed by American and Russian subjects. Some
efiforts had been made, at enormous costs and sacrifices by the North-
west Company, to compete with the Americans, the history of which
is recorded in a popular work lately published by Mr. Washington
Irving, under the title of 'Astoria'; but these efforts were both costly
and unsuccessful, and the North-west Company were on the point
of being compelled to abandon the trade. 

"The Russian establishment at Norfolk Sound, and at other
places on the coast, even so far south as the coast of California, and
the American expedition, subsequent to the peace from Boston, New
York and other parts of the United States, had obtained a monopoly
of the coast trade. 

"In the face of these disadvantages, the Hudson's Bay Company
felt it their duty to attempt to regain the trade, and to re-establish
British influence in the countries adjoining the coast, and to the
mouth of the river of Columbia, within the limits of the last con-
vention entered into with the court of Russia; and they have suc-
ceeded, after a severe and expensive competition, in establishing their
settlements, and obtaining a decided superioritv, if not an exclusive
enjoyment of tlie trade, the Americans having almost withdrawn
from the coast. 

"In the course of the last year they had occasion to appeal to
his Majesty's (jovernmcnt for protection and indemnitv for a serious
act of aggression and violence on the part of an armed Russian force
on the coast, which impeded their operations, and occasioned them
a loss to the extent of upwards of £20,000. Ihc Russian government
has hitherto only consented to disavow the act of its oflicer, and to
give instructions prohibiting further obstruction to the expeditions
of the Companv within the trading limits agreed upon in the con-
vention; and the Company now wait with tlie firmest reliance on the
further efiforts of the (Jovernmcnt for an indemnity for their great
loss. 

"Beyond the difficulties arising from an active competition with
the Americans, and the violent and oppressive proceedings on the
part of the Russians, the Company have had to contend with other
serious obstacles, both on the coast and in the interior, from a savage

364 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

Ian followed the river to its mouth, rounded Point Roberts, and,
after spending a night at Birch Bay, made the Black. River, south
of Olympia. Thence McMillan, Work and a few others followed
the better-known and more direct route of the Cowlitz to the Colum-
bia and Fort George, while McKay, in charge of the rest of the
party, took the boats back by the outward route. ' 

Mr. John Work's minutely exact and well-kept diary of the
expedition is interesting for several reasons. It throws light on the
difHculties of a traveller in the wilderness; it shows us, for the first
time, the great delta which lies to the south of the lower reaches of
the Fraser and its primitive inhabitants; and it proves that the
Hudson's Bay Company was anxious to find an outlet for the northern
interior to the north of the Columbia. A journey from Astoria to
Fort Langley by the route followed by these pioneers would not
be an easy one even today — at that time it was attended by great
hardship and severe labour. The expedition was equipped with
light batteaux, which were used throughout the length of the jour-
ney, excepting, of course, at the carrying places, one of which was
more than four and a half miles long. 

The country between Mud Bay and the Fraser River is aptly
described in such entries as the following: "The soil here," says
the journal of December 14, 1824, "appears to be very rich, is a
black mould, the remains of a luxurious crop of fern and grass lies
on the ground. The countrv about here seems low, the trees are of
different kinds, pine, birch poplar, alder, etc., some of the pine of a
very large size. Some of the men who were hunting visited the upper
part of the little river and report that they saw the appearance of
plenty of beaver. Elk have been very numerous here some time
ago but the hunters suppose that since this rainy season they have
gone to the high ground." 

The entry of the following day shows that elk abounded in the
meadows and swamps of the lower Fraser in that early period. "In
the evenifig," so runs the Journal, "as we got to the end of the portage
a herd of elk was seen on the edge of the plain. Several of the
people set after them but only one was killed which was by Mr.
McKay. There were too many hunters and though the elk were 

= T. C. Elliott, Journal of John Work, November and December, 1S24. Washington Historical
Quarterly, July, 1912, p. 198. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 365 

not wild they were not approached with sufficient caution, they
were followed into the woods by some of the people who have not
yet returned." 

Then it is recorded that "In some parts near the portage the woods
approach to the water's edge, but farther down the woods are at
some distance and the river runs through a fine meadow which is
covered with the withered remains of a fine crop of hay. The marks
of a great many beaver and numerous tracks of elk, some quite fresh,
are to be seen all the way along the river. We entered the Coweechin
(Fraser) River at i o'clock. At this place it is a fine looking river
at least as wide as the Columbia at Oak Point, i,ooo yards wide.
Where we come into it is opposite to an island; we are uncertain
what distance it may be to its entrance. The banks of the N. shore
arc low and those on the South shore are pretty high, both well
wooded to the water's edge. The trees are pine, cedar, alder, birch
and some others. Some high hills appear to the Eastward at no
great distance, topped with snow. From the size and appearance
of the river there is no doubt in our minds that it is Fraser's." 

The e.xpcdition, after leaving Mud Bay, the northeastern exten-
sion of Boundary Bay, followed the Nikomeckl River to a little
stream. Then a long portage of four and a half miles or more brought
the men to the Salmon River, which was followed to the point where
it empties into the Fraser, not far from old Fort Langley. The
island mentioned is that now known as McMillan Island, and the
"fine meadow" Langlev Prairie. Throughout his journal Work
speaks of the Fraser as the "Coweechin" River, a name that pos-
sibly may have been taken from Simon Fraser's journal, in which he
speaks of the "Cowitchin" Indians as inhabiting the lands at the
mouth of that river. 

The party paddled up-stream, passing many villages, at one of
which the keen observer noticed "an instrument resembling in shape
a salmon spear"; but "what purpose it is used for," Work continues,
"it's size leaves me at a loss to determine; it was 2 poles about 1; inches
in circumference fitted in such a manner that they were intended to
be spliced together, one of them was 42 feet long and the other 29,
in all about 71 feet, it was of cedar neatly dressed, a fork made of 2
pieces of wood different from the pole and not barked nor made
very sharp was fixed to the end of the pole, no cordage or any other 

366 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

tackling was about it." Undoubtedly this was one of the harpoons
used so dexterously by the Indians of the Fraser in spearing sturgeon. 

On December i8th (1824) McMillan, deeming it unnecessary
to proceed further, turned about and voyaged with the current to the
mouth of the river, thence returning to Fort George, or Astoria, by
the course already indicated. 

The expedition was planned and carried out in furtherance of
the project to find an outlet for New Caledonia by way of the Fraser
River. Three years later — in 1827 — Fort Langley was built near
the point at which McMillan and his party turned back in 1824. 

McMillan's expedition to the Fraser by the Chehalis River and
Puget Sound marked the inauguration of a new and bold policy.
Both Simpson and McLoughlin realized that the time had come to
strike a decisive blow if this virgin land were not to be forever lost.
The alluring prospects of the basin of the Columbia were already
attracting attention in the United States, Great Britain's natural rival
in that field. The American politicians had not forgotten the expe-
ditions of Kendrick and Gray, Lewis and Clark, Astor and Hunt.
Nor had they forgotten the purchase of Louisiana from the French
in 1803 and the Florida Treaty with Spain, which was negotiated
in 1 819 and ratified in 1820. The rights springing from those
operations and from these treaties — whatever such rights might be — ■
were certain to lead to controversy before long. So now was the time
to act and the Hudson's Bay Company made the most of its
opportunity. 

The determination of the Company to occupy and to hold the
Pacific slope from San Francisco to the Arctic Ocean ushered in
a period of extraordinary activity, of which Doctor McLoughlin,
under Sir George Simpson, was the life and soul. His policy was
brilliantly conceived and admirably executed. He despatched emis-
saries of the Companv in all directions and riie bastioned forts of
the furtrader soon dotted the west. These forts were the outward
and visible sign of the might of "The Adventurers of England trad-
ing into Hudson's Bay." The furtrading post stood for what there
might be of law and order on the frontier, where, beyond musket
shot of the stockade, might only was right. Each isolated establish-
ment with its wooden palisade, flanked by wooden bastion, was an
advance post of civilization. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 367 

The forts of the Company were planted on the seaboard as far
north as Taku Inlet and south as far as San Francisco Bay. Fort
Langley was built in 1827; old Fort Simpson on the Nass River in
1832, from which point it was moved to its present site on the Tsimp-
sean Peninsula in 1834; Fort McLoughlin on Millbank Sound, in
1834; Fort Nisqually on Puget Sound, where Doctor W. F. Tolmie
pastured his flocks of sheep and herds of cattle; Fort Durham,
so called in honour of the famous Lord of that name, was built on
Taku Inlet in 1840; and Fort V^ictoria in 1843. New posts were
also established in New Caledonia and on the upper Columbia."
Then the Company reached southward and built Verba Buena on
San Francisco Bay; and across the Pacific to the Sandwich Islands,
which it was hoped would become an integral part of the British
Empire by a process of gradual absorption. 

While these operations in old Oregon Territory and on the sea-
board were engaging the attention of Doctor McLoughlin and his
subordinates, other intrepid men of whom little has been written —
although they contributed an important chapter to the annals of
the West — were exploring the great wilderness lying to the north of
the Peace River and the Skeena and west of the Mackenzie. These
explorations were not directed from Fort Vancouver but from Nor-
way House; yet, inasmuch as they resulted in the discovery of far
northern British Columbia, they have a place in the history of the
Province. The men who discovered and explored the Skeena,
Stikine, Liard and Pelly Rivers, and Dease, Frances and other lakes,
persevered in their important undertakings in peculiarly trying
circumstances. 

In 1834 J. McLeod, a chief trader of the Hudson's Bay Company,
ascended the Liard to Simpson Lake and followed the Dease River
to Dease Lake, which he named in honour of Peter Warren Dease.
Thence he crossed the height of land to tlic upper waters of the
Stikine, which was discovered at its mouth by Captain Cleveland
of the Sloop Drat/on in .April, 1799. McLeod followed this river
— which under a misapprehension he called the Pelly- — as far as
the famous Indian bridge named Terror Bridge by Robert Campbell
some time later. In the course of his travels McLeod collected a
great deal of information respecting this unknown region, much of 

' Finlayson, Bio);rapliv, ami .Aiiclcrsfm, IliMory iif Nnrlliwest Coast. 

368 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

which Arrowsmith, the well-known cartographer, embodied in his
map of North America of 1850. McLeod called the Stikine "Frances
River," but placed it too far north and did not connect it with the
Stikine, known as such today. In a later map (1854) Frances ap-
peared as an alternative to Stikine, but that name soon fell into disuse,
if indeed it ever had a vogue. Speaking of McLeod's exploration,
the late Doctor George M. Dawson observ'cd: "McLeod's route
from the head of Dease Lake, crossed the Tanzilla within a few miles
of the lake and followed its left bank, recrossing before the main
Stikine enters the valley, probablv by an Indian suspension bridge,
which is reported still to e.xist (1887), within a mile or two of this
point. On careful consideration of the facts, there can scarcely be
any doubt that the Tooya River was McLeod's furthest point, and the
Indian bridge probably crossed it near the position of the present
bridge, though it may have been at some point further up the stream
which has not yet been mapped." 

McLeod was followed by Robert Campbell, another officer of
the Hudson's Bay Company, who carried on the work with indom-
itable energy in spite of the hostility of the Indians, who were numer-
ous and warlike. Campbell reached Dease Lake in the beginning of
July, 1838, and "selected a suitable site for the fort about about c;
miles from the mouth of the Nahany & at once commenced building
operations."" Leaving the men to build the fort, he proceeded to
carry out his instructions to explore the west side of the mountains.
On July 22nd (1838) he arrived at "Terror Bridge," whence Mc-
Leod's party had turned back in 1834. That somewhat famous
structure is described by Campbell as a rude ricketty "structure of
pine poles spliced together with withes & stretched high above a
foaming torrent; the ends of the poles were loaded down with stones
to prevent the bridge from collapsing. This primitive support looked
so frail & unstable & the rushing waters below so formidable that it
seemed well-nigh impossible to cross it. It inclined to one side, which
did not tend to strengthen its appearance for safety." * Neverthe-
less, Campbell and the two Indian lads who accompanied him at-
tempted the crossing, which they succeeded in making although "the 

' Campbell, Journal, 1808 to 1851, p. +6, Ms. in Provincial Archives.
* Campbell, Journal, pp. 47-48 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 359 

mention of the Tallow. What weight did they yield — or if you salted
any Ox tripe which I presume you have. 

"As to the young Bullocks you mention you need not kill them —
Have you fatted and salted any Pork. 

"You write the Beef is well salted but it is not the quantity of
Salt put on the Beef: as the manner it is put on. You will take care
that there is a sufficient quantity of salt between the Meat and the
Cask so as the meat does not touch the wood. 

"You will give to Captain Brotchie the Beef he demands and
you will use what you require for your own table and the Shepherds,
only observing what I know you will use without my mentioning it,
proper economy — and killing the Old Wethers as they may be
required. 

"You did well to shift the Sheep. 

"You will I hope keep a sufficient quantity of Turnip and Cole-
seed for seed. 

"Pray have you fattened any Hogs or have you any fit to fatten,
you have some Chinese pigs I wish them to be kept separate. If
you have any hogs fit to fatten you ought to do so. 

''Captain Brotchie writes me in his letter of the 26th Nov. I
iia\e killed Eleven Bullocks and have salted 12 Tierces of Beef,
are these a part of the fifty two animals killed by you, and of the
sixty two tierces of beef you have salted." 

It would be both tedious and superfluous to quote letter after letter
to prove Dr. McLoughlin's wonderful knowledge of his domains
and extraordinary grasp of detail, but one more note may well be
spread upon these pages to prove and amplify all which has been
said upon this score. Among the documents which have been pre-
served is a paper in Dr. McLoughlin's own handwriting which reads
as follows: "Memorandum for Angus McDonald in charge of
Nisquallv. 

"ist. He will plant as many Potatoes as he can in his best ground
putting manure in the Drills as far as it will go. 

"2. Sow at least at least as much pease and oats altogether as last
year — and more pease if he can. 

"3. You will penn the cattle on the ground at the Dairy that
has been laid down to Grass seed last summer and which has not come
up and when properly manured sow turnip and cole seed on it. 

360 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

"4. You will continue to get as much ground manured as possible
- — that is you will manure it well by penning cattle on it. plough
harrow and manure it again by penning cattle on it, and when suf-
ficiently so cross plough Harrow well and sow it with Turnip and
if you have no turnip sow Cole seed — as soon as the (Rig) is ploughed
it is harrowed the seed is Drilled and well Rolled so as to press
the seed well in the Ground and make the Ground retain its moisture. 

"5. You can continue to sow turnip to the 15th Sept. and about
that date I wish about two acres to be laid down with Cole seed — for
seed. 

"6. After that date you will give your penns only one manuring
But plou and Harrow them immediately after taking the cattle off
The sheep Parks must be treated in the same Manner as the cattle
parks and sown with Turnip and Cole seed. 

"7. He will afford every assistance in his power to settlers without
deranging the Business of the place. 

"8. When he will have been able to get stamps to mark the
Settlers Cattle, he will let them have fourteen Wild Cows with their
Calves each. He has already given them each one tame cow and
calf one Bull and two oxen — and fifty Ewes with their Lambs. 

"9. Mr. Steel will point out 12 places where it will be necessary
to get wood out to make small Houses and Poles to make Parks — the
Houses for the shepherds — of course these Houses need not be Built
at present. 

"10. As soon as the Lambing is over Mr. McDonald will send
Pooper to assist in taking care of the Sheep — and Bastien will be
employed in cutting (B ) k.c. 

"11. I wish Mr. McDonald to mix some train oil with Earth
and to sow a few turnips on it. 

"12. Salt must be put in the cattle penns — and also in the Sheep
penns. 

"13. I wish Mr. McDonald to sow on his Wheatfield on
6 ft. by 9 34 Gall Salt
6 ft. by 9 lA Gall Salt
6 ft. by 9 'i Gall Salt
6 ft. bv 9 I 16 Gall Salt
sufficiently distant so as not to mix but sufficiently close as to be seen
at once. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 361 

"He will also sow a piece of new Grass Land —
6 ft. by 9 li Gall Salt
6 ft. by 9 '/4 Gall Salt
6 ft. by 9 's Gall Salt
6 ft. by 9 i/i6 Gall Salt
sufficiently remote so as not to mix but sufficiently near to be seen
by a Coup D'Oeil. 

"14. Every time he writes he will report what has been done and
what has occurred since he last wrote me, state his present plans, his
suggestions and send a Distribution List of the Manner his people
are Employed. 

"15. The sheep must be washed Either by hand or by swimming
before shearing. 

"16. Parks must be made for the purpose of castrating the Lambs.
"17. The Bulls must be castrated in due time.
"18. I'o find out if there are any cattle alive which Mr. Ander-
son left and get them brought here. 

"19. You will consider Mr. Steel as your assistant in discharg-
ing the duties at this place — 

John McLoughlin 

"20. If possible neither of you ought to leave the Fort without
informing the other. 

J McL 

"21. You will get vour salmon overhauled. Brought up and
(pickled) as also that coming from Fort Langley." 

The seventh and eighth paragraphs of these instructions are
worthy of particular attention in view of the fact that over and over
again the American settlers in Oregon cliarged Dr. McLoughlin
and the Hudson's Bay Companv with doing all in their power to
oppress and starve them. The late Professor Marshall in his monu-
mental work entitled "Acquisition of Oregon" has effcctuallv dis-
posed of these accusations, nevertheless it is worthy of notice that
one should find in rjfficial instructions, emanating from the repre-
sentative of the Hudson's Bay Companv in Old Oregon, explicit com-
mands to the efifect that the oflicer at Nisqually is "to afforii every
assistance in his power to settlers." In this connection it is interesting 

362 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

to refer to a statement of assistance furnished the pioneer American
settlers at Nisqually from November jth, 1845, to December 31st,
1846, from which it appears that the American settlers received every-
thing thev asked for, from buckwheat to bullocks. It is well known
to historians and more generally accepted now than ever before, that
the Hudson's Bay Company did everything in its power to alleviate
the distress of the travel-worn pioneers of Oregon. To say more
upon this point, after all that Professor Marshall has written, would
be superHuous. The author has amply demonstrated that the cam-
paign of abuse and vilification — carried on by the very men who, had
it not been for the Huds(Mi's Bay Company, would have starved to
death or perished at the hands of the Indians — is almost inconceiv-
able. It displays a shameless disregard for the truth and a base
ingratitude on the part of those who were indebted for their lives
and property not to the Government of their own country, but to
the strong arm of Great Britain. 

The memorandum is of peculiar interest to the farmer, as witness,
among other things, the thirteenth paragraph in which the Doctor
outlines a series of agricultural experiments. It is not necessary
to more than refer to the matter, but it shows what a great debt
Oregon owes to the man who died, heart-broken, at Oregon City in
1856. After all he had done both for the Company, which he rep-
resented for twenty-two years, and for the pioneer settler, whose
poverty aroused his magnanimous sympathies, there were none to
help him. 

Upon McLoughlin's arrival in the Oregon Territory in 1824,
Astoria, or Fort George, as it was then called, was the only place
of importance in the whole Oregon Territory, and Astoria, in spite
of the impnnements carried into efTect by the North West Com-
pany's agents, was nothing more than a rude frontier village. It is
true that scattered about the country there were subsidiary posts,
but all of them were small and maintained purely for the sake of the
Indian trade. To the north no establishments had been planted,
with the exception of those in New Caledonia and that one at Kam-
loops. Vancouver Island was scarcely better known than in the days
when it was first visited by British and Spanish ships. The lower
Fraser had not, apparently, been visited since Simon Fraser's explor-
ation in 1808; while the land stretching in a westerly direction from 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 363 

New Caledonia to the coast was absolutely unknown, except that
part of it traversed by Sir Alexander Mackenzie in 1793. But, with
the arrival of Dr. McLoughlin, a new day dawned for the Northwest. 

Mr. T. C. Elliott, an historian of sound judgment and a recog-
nized authority on early western afiairs, states in his preface to the
Journal of John Work" that it is evident that a report upon the
lower Eraser River region was desired "before a permanent loca-
tion should be selected further up the Columbia for the District
Headquarters. Fort Vancouver then did not exist except by antici-
pation." That learned author is no doubt correct. At any rate one
of George Simpson's first acts was to send an expedition to the north-
ward, "for the purpose" — as Mr. John Work specifically records — ■
"of discovering the entrance of Eraser's River, and ascertaining the
probability of navigating that River with boats, and also of examin-
ing the coast between Eort George and Erasers River." * 

The party left Fort George on Thursday the i8th of November,
1824, under the command of James McMillan, accompanied by
three clerks, lliomas McKay, F. N. Annance and John Work, an
interpreter named Michel LaFrambois and thirty-six men. In ad-
dition to these, George, an Iroquois fur hunter together with his slave
were included in the partv because of their knowledge of a part of
the coast. 

The expedition departed at mid-day in three boats well provi-
sioned with kegs of peas, oatmeal, flour, pork, grease and rum, and
bags of flour biscuit and pemmican, sufficiently for an absence of some
sixty days. 

Arriving at Baker's Bay, a portage of fourteen miles brought
McMillan and his party to the Pacific Ocean, north of Cape Disap-
pointment. They then followed the coast to the mouth of Gray's
Harbour and, ascending the Chehalis River and crossing the country
to the eastward of the head-waters of that stream, in due course
reached Puget Sound. The voyage was continued by sea to Mud Bay,
and thence the expedition crossed the delta of the Eraser River. 

After reaching the Eraser River, the expedition paddled up-
stream for two days beyond the site of old Fort Langley, which was
not built until three years later. On the homeward journey McMil- 

' Washington Historical Quarterly, July, 1912. 

* John Work, Journal, Winter 1824. Ms. In .Xrrhives I")epart!nent, Victoria.

354 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

which a few luminous extracts will be quoted — as to the farming
operations to be carried on at his post : 

"In my instructions to you of the 7th inst. I (stated) 'he will
divide the place where the potatoes were into five parts and sow
them in Oats and Wheat at the rate of i ' j Bushel Oats or i Bushel
of Wheat ( ) and after they have been well harrowed he will sow 

one of those parts with Red clover, another with White clover, a
third with low Grass, and a fourth with trefoil at the rate of six
pounds per acre, covering it with a turn or two of the harrow; on
the fifth he will sow Sanfoin at the rate of a Bushel to the Acre.' 

1 beg to observe that it would be proper to sow your Grass seeds and
as soon as possible after the ist of February and to (put) only Oats
with them; at the time I wrote I mentioned that you might sow
Wheat with Grass Seed. It was because I believed you had not a
sufficiency of Oats; but, by the memorandum you gave me, I am
happy to see that you have more Oats than is sufficient for the purpose,
after you have sown the place where your potatoes were with Grass
seeds mentioned you will sow no more of them, but make good
(Seed) Bags, in which by first opportunity by Cadboro send to
Vancouver, 3 Kegs Red clover, 2 Kegs White Clover, (i) Saintfain, 

2 Kegs Cow Grass — and 3 Kegs, Trefoil, the Kegs which contain
these seeds you will keep to put butter in them. 

"2nd. I must add that as it would be advisable to sow thirty
bushels of Oats at Nisqually, you will write to Mr. Yale to send you
some — you ought to sow the remaining quantity of Oats on the
Ground Manuring at the Dairy at the rate of 2 bushels Oats per
acre. 

"3rd. As soon as you possibly can you will sow your Winter Tares
on the manured ground (near) the Dairy at the rate of i bush, per
acre. The Spring Tares ought to be Sown in the beginning of Febr. —
and you will observe that this new ground for Oats as well as Tares
will require to be ploughed and cross ploughed before sowing them. 

"4th. And I trust to your best endeavours to manure as much
ground as possible as we require manured ground in the Spring for
Peas — and if possible for a little Barley — and after that for Potatoes
Cole seed and Turnips, and after seeing the fine Turnips at Nisqually,
I do not despair if you manage well of seeing fine Crops of Wheat at
that place, but, bear in mind that they never manured the Ground for 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 355 

potatoes at Nisqually half enough, and that if you wish to get potatoes
at that place you must manure heavily. 

"5th. You must bear in mind to have poles cut for the New^
Fields. 

"6th. I forgot to enquire what terms Ancock asks. Without
appearing anxious about it try to find it out. I think if we consider
the proceeds of his Work, he has fully more than its Value and is as
comfortable as most Men in his situation in England." 

It is little short of marvellous that Doctor McLoughlin should
have time in the midst of his excessive and arduous duties to write as
he did with his own hand long letters containing minute and particu-
lar instructions relating to the affairs of each post. He seems to have
carried in his mind a detailed plan of each establishment and to have
gauged its resources, both as regards fur and farm, with remarkable
precision. Viewed in this light, his letter to Mr. A. C. Anderson,
dated Vancouver, 23rd of April, 1841, is a marvel of conciseness,
exhibiting sound judgment and a wonderful grasp of the require-
ments of the farm at Fort Nisqually. One might think that the
details of management might be left to the man in charge but Dr.
McLoughlin directed everything from the smallest particular of the
cultivation of a certain field to the largest question of policy with
the same fundamental grasp of the requirements of the situation. In
the letter just mentioned he states: "I received yours of the loth
instant, by Mr. Lee, ... I am happy to see that you have so
much (seed) in the ground as appears by your statement — that you
have more turnips planted out for seed than I mentioned, and as I
directed the patch of Cole seed has been preserved, as from your
putting cole seed and turnip seed in your Requisition I was afraid
that both had been destroyed. 

"2nd. It is perhaps as well that you kept the potatoes, as if they
had remained on board tlic vessel, they would have been all lost,
you will plant if possible a hundred bushels but recollect the ground
must be well manured, and if you have not done this you must
plant more and manure the ground well. 

"3rd. I am happy to find you milk so many cows. You will get
as many (cows) in to milk as you can and none should be milked
so much as to injure the Calf as you have no feed for them — they 

356 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

will require more milk, and even if you only broke some of the
cows this year, it will be a great advantage for next. 

"4th. Last year Malcolm Smith with one Sandwich Islander
recently from his native land, milked 27 Cows (old) from which he
got forty Kegs of Butter, fatted six barrels of Pork with the skimmed
milk, and Gilbeau with a Sandwich Islander also recently from his
Country began on the ist June to break in wild cows to milk, broke
in thirty in the season (there were no more at the place) kegs Butter;
. . I merely state these facts to enable you to judge if your
people do what they can — and Knowing what is done elsewhere may
make them exert themselves and you may see from what Smith did
you ought to fatten at least as much pork at your Dairies as you
require. 

"5th. I send you with this nigh a bushel of flax seed — you will
manure an acre and a half of ground, in the same manner as I will
hereafter direct for the Cole seed and turnips and you will sow the
flax seed now sent on it. It ought to be sown immediately after the
ground is cross ploughed that is as the (row) is ploughed it is
smoothed by a turn or two of the plough and the flax is sown,
harrowed in and well drilled. 

"6th. You will continue to get as much ground manured as
possible in the same manner as last year that is you will manure it
well by penning Cattle on it, plough it and manure it again by
penning cattle on it in the same way as at first, then cross plough and
sow turnips or Cole Seed, that is as soon as the rig is ploughed the
ground is harrowed the seed is drilled with the drill now sent and
afterwards well rolled with a heavy roller to press the seed w^ell in
the ground and make it retain its moisture. 

"7th. As you manure ground in this way you will sow turnip
and cole seed to September but as what is sown ( ) is in general 

too young to give to animals is kept and allowed to run to seed next
year. 

"8th. As you have no turnip or perhaps Cole seed you ought
to give only one manuring to your fields and immediatelv plough it
in, and in this case harrow it and roll it well and proceed to manure
&c another in the same way, and when you have seed vou be able to
manure the 2nd time and to sow your fields in quicker succession.
"9th. The turnips and Cole seed must be kept to feed the Sheep 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 357 

in Winter except what is reserved for seed which on iin account
should be eaten or injured, and from your experience of this year
you can judge what quantity of cole or turnip seed is necessary for
next year. 

"loth. I send p. the Cadboro ( ) small wooden houses made 

of inch boards, and mounted on Wheels, but all taken to pieces for
the convenience of transporting, but are marked so as to be easily
put together again. They ought to be put together on arriving, and
about 15th August the wood will be thoroughly dry, but if it has
shrunk much, the boards ought to be driven close to each other, and
the shrinks filled up with putty and then painted. One of these
houses should be placed in the park where the rams are, and the
other in the one for the Ewes and will answer well as houses for the
shepherds to lodge in, in Winter and Summer. 

"iith. I send you with this a receipt to make bread made with
milk by Mrs. McDonald at Colville and never tasted better bread.
There are two tin or sheet iron pans in which to bake the bread, on
board the Cadboro for your place. 

"Allow me now briefly to recapitulate what T wish to be done 

"ist. To make as much butter as possible and break in as many
cows to milk as you can. 

"2nd. At the same time to manure in the way I mention all the
ground you can — I think you have enough of Cattle and Sheep (and
I hope before fall to send you more to manure three hum! red acres
of land in the way 1 suggest and if you can sow it all w ith turnips and
cole seed and get them eaten off ... I am certain vou will
fall 1842 have a large (crop). 

"3d. The Bulls to be castrated leaving ab(;ut one of the largest
for every ten females, of course the Bull calves of this year are also
to be castrated in the same proportion. 

"4th. To break in a sufficient number of o.\en for the work, allow-
ing those getting old to fatten to be killed this fall for this purpose
they ought to be allowed to feed (juietly and not driven to the park
at night. 

"In reply to your list of work 15th Feby. 

"ist. As to the dam I do not think it can be made where you
suggest but 1 will examine when I go to you. I think there is a 

358 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

suitable place to swim the sheep at the Dairy, however as I say we
will examine. 

"and. We cannot remove the Fort this season, but if you have
plenty of potatoes this fall, salmon and provisions &c I hope I will
be able to send you people to effect this object next Winter. 

"3rd. Of course you will make the Hay if it can be done without
interfering with your other work as rather ( ) We must make 

the Peas, Oats, and Wheat straw serve as a substitute. 

"4th. The usual farming operations must go on. 

"5th. You can make two Dairies if you have the means as it
excites emulation but they must be contiguous to each other. 

"6th. You must get Waggons or Carts made as you suggest. 

"7th. Break in as many oxen as you can. 

"8th. I have already mentioned the castrating of the Bulls. 

"9th. I have replied to this. 

"loth. The Sheep in due time must be sheared and the wool must
be washed on the backs of the animals, and after they are washed they
must be kept in a clean place until they are shorn. 

"I dare say, I need not say, I was much surprised to see by the
accounts you sent with yours of the 15th Feby that there was for
the first time a Loss on the post of Nisqually — which I merely men-
tion to show you the state of the affairs of the post and how absolutely
necessary it is that every exertion be made to retrieve them. 

"You will please see to it that while Capt. McNeil lodges on
Shore, he is (according to) a rule of the service to preside at the
table of the establishment. 

"You will please afford Cap." McNeil every assistance he requires. 

"If you have any Wheat which you do not require you will send it
p. Cadboro. 

"I send S. Martin to remain with you till further orders." 

Even such a small particular as the salting of beef does not escape
the keen mind of Doctor McLoughlin as the undermentioned letter,
dated Vancouver, 28th December, 1842 shows: "I have yours of 25th
November and i6th Deer. By which I regret to learn that the Scab
is among the Sheep. You will of course cause every attention to be
paid to them and get them washed with the Tobacco juice. 

"In yours of i6th you state having slaughtered Fifty two Animals,
and that they filled sixty one tierces of 3 cwt each — But you made no 

348 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

who are clerks, business is the sole object of their life, and one is
entirely at a loss here who has nothing to do. Fortunately I found
myself much engaged, and therefore it suited me. The agreeable
company of Dr. M'Laughlin and Mr. Douglass made the time at
meals pass delightfully. Both of these gentlemen were kind enough
to give up a large portion of their time to us, and I felt occasionally
that we must be trespassing on their business hours. After meals, it is
the custom to introduce pipes and tobacco. It was said that this
practice was getting into disuse, but I should have concluded from
what I saw that it was at its height. 

"Canadian French is generally spoken to the servants; even those
who come out from England after a while adopt it, and it is not a
little amusing to hear the words they use, and the manner in which
they pronounce them. 

"The routine of a day at Vancouver is perhaps the same through-
out the year. At early dawn the bell is rung for the working parties,
who soon after go to work: the sound of the hammers, click of the
anvils, the rumbling of the carts, with tinkling of bells, render it
difficult to sleep after this hour. The bell rings again at eight, for
breakfast; at nine they resume their work, which continues till one;
then an hour is allowed for dinner, after which they work till six,
when the labours of the day close. At five o'clock on Saturday
afternoon the work is stopped, wh.en the servants receive their weekly
rations. 

"Vancouver is a large manufacturing, agricultural, and com-
mercial depot, and there are few if any idlers, except the sick. Every-
body seems to be in a hurry, whilst there appears to be no obvious
reason for it. 

"Without making any inquiries, I heard frequent complaints
made of both the quantity and quality of the food issued by the Com-
pany to its servants. I could not avoid perceiving that these com-
plaints were well founded, if this allowance were compared with
what we deem a sufficient ration in the United States for a labouring
man. Many of the servants complained that they had to spend a great
part of the money they receive to buy food: this is £17 per annum,
out of which they have to furnish themselves with clothes. They
are engaged for five years, and after their time has expired the Com-
pany are obliged to send them back to England or Canada, if they 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 349 

desire it. Generally, however, when that time expires they find
themselves in debt, and are obliged to serve an extra time to pay it:
and not unfrequently, at the expiration of their engagement, they
have become attached, or married, to some Indian woman or half-
breed, and have children, on which account they find themselves
unable to leave, and continue attached to the Company's service, and
in all respects under the same engagement as before. If they desire
to remain and cultivate land, they are assigned a certain portion,
but are still dependent on the Company for many of the necessaries of
life, clothing, &c. This causes them to become a sort of vassal, and
compels them to execute the will of the Company. In this way, how-
ever, order and decorum are preserved, together with steady habits,
for few can in any way long withstand this silent influence. The
consequence is, that few communities are to be found more well-
behaved and orderly than that which is formed of the persons who
have retired from the Company's service. That this power, exercised
by the officers of the Company, is much complained of, T am aware,
but I am satisfied that as far as the morals of the settlers and servants
are concerned, it is used for good purposes. For instance, the use of
spirits is almost entirely done away with. Dr. M'Laughlin has acted
in a highly praiseworthy manner in this particular. Large quantities
of spirituous liquors are now stored in the magazines at Vancouver,
which the Company have refused to make an article of trade, and
none is now used by them in the territory for that purpose. They
have found this rule highlv beneficial to their business in several
respects: more furs are taken in, in consequence of those who are
engaged having fewer inducements to err; the Indians are found
to be less quarrelsome, and pursue the chase more constantly; and
the settlers, as far as I could hear, have been uniformly prosperous. 

"In order to show the course of the Company upon this subject,
I will mention one circumstance. The brig Thomas H. Perkins ar-
rived here with a large quantity of rum on board, with other goods.
Dr. M'Laughlin, on hearing of this, made overtures immediately for
the purchase of the whole cargo, in order to get possession of the
whiskey or rum, and succeeded. The Doctor mentioned to me that
the liquor was now in store, and would not be sold in the country. 

350 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

and added, that the only object he had in buying the cargo was to
prevent the use of the rum, and to sustain the temperance cause. 

"The settlers are also deterred from crimes, as the Company have
the power of sending them to Canada for trial, which is done with
little cost, by means of the annual expresses which carry their accounts
and books. 

"The interior of the houses in the fort are unpretending. They are
simply finished with pine board panels, without any paint; bunks
are built for bedsteads; but the whole, though plain, is as comfort-
able as could be desired. 

"I was introduced to several of the missionaries: Mr. and Mrs.
Smith, of the American Board of Missions; Mr. and Mrs. Griffith,
and Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, of the Self-Supporting Mission; Mr. Wal-
ler, of the Methodist, and two others. They, for the most part, make
Vancouver their home, where they are kindly received and well en-
tertained at no expense to themselves. The liberality and freedom
from sectarian principles of Dr. M'Laughlin may be estimated from
his being thus hospitable to missionaries of so many Protestant denom-
inations, although he is a professed Catholic, and has a priest of the
same faith officiating daily at the chapel. Religious toleration is
allowed in its fullest extent. The dining-hall is given up on Sunday
to the use of the ritual of the Anglican Church, and Mr. Douglass
or a missionarv reads the service.'' 

Fort Vancouver, then, was the centre of all the activities of the
Hudson's Bay Company in the Western Department, to which New
Caledonia was tributary. Here resided Doctor John McLoughlin.
whose master mind guided the destinies of the country. In all things
he was supreme. He ruled an empire with a rod of iron, yet, withal,
he was courtly, generous, warm-hearted, sympathetic and humane.
Feudal autocrat that he was, he never forgot his duty to his fellow-
men. Throughout the length and breadth of the region that acknowl-
edged his sway, he was feared, perhaps, but always revered. No less
was he respected bv the American immigrants, by whom he was
termed the "Good Doctor" or the "Good Old Doctor." Later he
came to be called the "Father of Oregon." " 

Holman, McLoughlin, p. 91. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA ;J51 

So much for the generalship of Doctor McLoughlin in the larger
afifairs of administration and policy. There is, however, another side
to his character which neither the historian nor the biographer can
afford to overlook — that is his consummate mastery of detail. No
matter was too trifling to receive his personal attention. He left
nothing to chance. The terse letters of instruction which he
despatched to his subordinates all over the country prove that Doctor
McLoughlin was the master mind and the mainspring of the Hud-
son's Bay Company's vast operations in the Western Department.
Many a director of a great concern is content to leave the working
details in the hands of a lieutenant, holding him responsible for re-
sults. It was not so with Dr. McLoughlin. Not onlv did the auto-
cratic overlord of old Oregon and its tributary provinces dictate the
general policy, but he needs must delineate in its minutest and even
sordid detail the work of each post and the obligation of each man.
His orders were Napoleonic in their simplicity. He left no room
for doubt or equivocation. After the manner of Peter the (jreat of
Russia, in his instructions he did not contemplate failure. They
demanded e.xact obedience and a literal fulfillment. 

There is perhaps no better way of arriving at a just estimate of
tiic many-sided character of this extraordinary man, than by turn-
ing to his correspondence, of which, owing to its voluminous nature
much has been preserved. Seeing that day by day his couriers car-
ried forth his mandates from Fort Vancouver to all tjuartcrs of liis
palatinate, it would indeed be strange if less of his correspondence
was available. Even in a land where the exigencies of pioneer life
have conspired to prevent the accumulation of historical papers, it
is true that a great number of these epistles have bqen lost or destroyed,
yet enough have survived to give an idea of the extraordinary capac-
ity of the man and to throw many interesting side-lights upon his
character and administration. At random as it were, from the mass
of material vet preserved in the archival repositories of tiie west,
the biographer or the student will find letter after letter bearing the
impress of that strong character. One of these curt am! trenchant
despatches bears the date of Cowlitz, 20th December, 1839, and is
addressed to Lieutenant Kittson, then stationed at Nisqually. Bear-
ing in mind that it was written bv one who, from his high position. 

352 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

might with propriety have left such directions to a subordinate, it is
an extraordinary document; but let it speak for itself: 

Cowlitz, 20th Dec, 1839.
Lieut. Kittson 

Dear Sir 

The first Job to be done at Nisqually is to get the field fenced in
for the Sheep — 

2nd Then to get a field of a mile and a quarter square fenced in
for the cattle. 

3 To get a Dairy made of twenty by thirty feet erected. 

4 A piece of Level Ground must be selected in the vicinity of
the Dairy and fenced in — on which the cattle ought to be penned at
night to manure the Ground — and when sufficiently manured — the
fence to be moved to manure a contiguous piece. 

q In the meantime the ground on which the sheep have been
penned is to be ploughed and sown before the first of March with
oats. 

6 If any ground is manured by penning sheep on it (up to) the
I St March — it should be sown with peas or wheat — but no ground
if possible should be manured by sheep for potatoes — the manure
of the cattle is best adapted for Potatoes — and none but level or nearly
level ground ought to be manured. 

I am 

Yours truly 

John McLoughlin 

NB As to a house for the Shepherd — he must use a mat lodge
till we get a house made — and your (Dairy) ought to have an out-
side covering of mats at least three ft from the Walls and covering —
it keep(s) the Dairy cool 

J. McL 

No less interesting is the letter dated Fort Vancouver, 6th of
May, 1840, written in acknowledgment of one from Lieutenant
Kittson: 

Fort Vancouver 6th May 1840.
Lieut. Kittson 

Dear Sir 

I received yours of the 30th ultimo yesterday evening and I am
sorry to hear that you are still ailing but I hope before this reaches 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 353 

you that you will be restored to your usual good Health — but I am
happy to find that your work is coming on well though Mrs. Ancock
has not so much Butter for the same number of cows as we have had
— which is rather surprising to me as your cattle are in better condi-
tion than our — however she may improve. You say Lotrus is Occu-
pied in hauling Oak in piles — to Burn for ashes. The easiest way
to make ashes is to collect the fallen and Broken limbs of trees in
heaps where they fall and Burning them there. In this way a man
may make twenty or thirty fires in different places in a day and as
they Burn heap them up — allow them to cool and when perfectly cool
collect them and cover them over on the field so as to keep them dry
until required. And only Occasionally oxen are required to Drag
limbs of trees to a heap — But Recollect that on no account must the
ashes be put in any of the Buildings in or about the fort as they may
set the building on fire. It is on this last account that you ought to
collect them in a heap on the field in the Vicinity of where you intend
to use them. You must also fence your ashes well as the cattle are
very fond of eating them and Rubbing themselves in them I think
your ground with turnips will not require more than five Bushels
per acre — 

I hope you will go on folding the sheep and cattle as I men-
tioned. I think with the cattle and sheep you have we ought at least
to get three hundred acres of ground in a fit state for the plough
between this and ne.xt spring and I intend to send you all the cattle
I can from this place. 

I am 

Yours truly 

John McLoughlin 

NB You will please to have Dry Grass ready for Mr. Yale's
Horses which will be embarked at your place when the Cadboro
gets there 

J McLOLKJHLIN
Lt Kittson 

Nisqually 

In December, 1840, Doctor McLoughlin is again at Cowlitz and
from there he writes to Mr. Alexander Caulfield Anderson now, for
a time at Nisqually, a long letter giving minute instructions — of 

342 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

son's Bay Company's) business (in Athabasca). His being a stranger
and reputed a gentlemanly man, will not create much alarm, nor
do I presume him formidable as an Indian trader." But the writer
soon had occasion to change his opinion. Three years had not elapsed
when Wentzel, writing from the Mackenzie River, March ist, 1824,
is found lamenting the evil days which had fallen upon the traders,
remarking in conclusion, "In short, the North-west is now beginning
to be ruled with an iron rod." Already the strong hand of the "gen-
tlemanly man" was making itself felt throughout the length and
breadth of his control. 

As administrator of the Hudson's Bay Company Sir George
Simpson chiefly resided at Lachine. In after years he was closely
connected with the financial interests of Canada as director of the
Banks of British North America and later of the Bank of Montreal.
In 1827 Sir George married Frances Ramsay Simpson, second daugh-
ter of Geddes Mackenzie Simpson of Tower Hill and Stamford Hill,
London, and left one son and two daughters. He was knighted in
1 841. The last public act of this great man was to receive the late
King Edward VII., then Prince of Wales, at Lachine in July, i860.
He died on September 7th of the same year. 

At the time of the union of the two companies, a certain Doctor
John McLoughlin was in charge of Fort William. He had already
achieved distinction in the service of the North West Company, but
his constructive work in the Oregon Territory was to give him endur-
ing fame in the annals of two countries. He had opposed the amal-
gamation, but had decided to remain in the service of the
re-organized Hudson's Bay Company. There was also, stationed at
Fort William at that time, a young clerk named James Douglas, who,
upon hearing that peace had been declared and that henceforth the
rival organizations were to be as one, impetuously declared his inten-
tion of leaving the country. Doctor McLoughlin, who had taken a
fancy to the lad, prevailed upon him to transfer his allegiance to the
new power. Both of these men — Doctor John McLoughlin — then in
the prime of life — and James Douglas — were destined to play leading
parts in the vast wilderness which the union had added to the terri-
tories already controlled. 

Doctor McLoughlin was selected to take charge of the Com- 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 343 

pany's affairs west of the Rockies, — no abler or nobler man could
have been chosen for this responsible post. 

A slight digression may here be made for the purpose of giving
a brief outline of the genealogy of this very remarkable man, who
figures so grandly in Frederick V. Holman's well-known and exhaus-
tive work as ''the Father of Oregon"; and indeed since no fuller or
more reliable reference can possibly be found, no apology is made
for drawing freely from that excellent source. 

Doctor John McLoughlin was born October 19, 1784, in Parish
La Riviere du Loup, not far from Quebec. He was of Irish Roman
Catholic parentage. His mother's maiden name was Fraser — she
also was Canadian by birth, but came of distinguished Scottish mili-
tary stock. He was educated in Canada and Scotland and, like his
brother David became a physician — "Physically Dr. McLoughlin
was a superb specimen of a man — His height was not less than six
feet four inches. He carried himself as a master, which gave him
an appearance of being more than six feet and a half high. He was
almost perfectly proportioned. Mentally he was endowed to match
his magnificent physical proportions. He was brave and fearless,
he was true and just; he was truthful and scorned a lie. The Indians
as well as his subordinates soon came to know that if he threatened
punishment for an offence, it was as certain as that the offence
occurred. He was absolutely master of himself and of those under
him. He allowed none of his subordinates to question or to dis-
obey. . . . He was facile princeps, and, yet with all these
dominant qualities, he had the greatest kindness, sympathy and
humanity." 

In 1824 a notable party arrived at Fort George, as Astoria had
been re-christened by Captain Black of H. M. S. Raccoon in 1813.
It is said that George Simpson himself, led the expedition, and with
him came Dr. John McLoughlin, James Douglas, John Work and
other men who became prominent in the West in after years. Of
these men Doctor McLoughlin was the most commanding in per-
sonality and appearance. He was to take charge of the newly created
Western Department and for more than twenty years he was to be
in fact as well as in name the ruler of the Oregon Territory. With
characteristic energy he threw himself into the work of organizing
his vast principality, which he governed as despotically as any feudal 

344 BRITISH COLUMBIA " 

baron of the twelfth century ever ruled his fief or tenure held of the
Crown. Doctor McLoughlin in a short while established through-
out the land the stern law of the furtrader. Even the fierce and law-
less tribes of the interior feared this man while they acknowledged
his high sense of justice and his magnanimity. To the natives he was
known as the "White Eagle" — a tribute to his personal appearance
and character. He was a benignant despot — terrible in his righte-
ous anger, overbearing at times to his subordinates, but noble always
and always en grand seigneur gentilhomme. Courtly and charming,
or stern and forbidding, he commanded alike the respect of his
inferiors and the regard of his equals — he had no superior in all the
West. 

McLoughlin quickly grasped the fact that Fort George was not
well situated, and that the great trading emporium should be placed
farther up the Columbia. After carefully examining both banks of
the river in small boats, he selected a site for the new post — destined
to become famous in the annals of the West — on the north bank of
the Columbia, some seven miles above the mouth of the Willamette,
and a few miles below the point named Vancouver by Lieutenant
Broughton in 1792. Fort Vancouver was built in the following year
(1825), but it was not completed until a later period. A few years
after, about 1830, it seems that the old fort was pulled down and a
new one erected about a mile westerly from the original building.
The place is now a United States military post, commonly known as
Vancouver Barracks. 

1 he passing years have obscured the historv of the pioneer period.
Not a great deal is known of the lives of the builders, of their plea-
sures and vicissitudes; and but few descriptions of the first posts have
survived. Now and again, however, some old report or diary, or a
long forgotten letter written by one of the pioneers, gives the present
generation a glimpse of the life of that far-off day. Thus, Fort Van-
couver is revealed as it was in the days before it became the Mecca
of all travellers in the west. For instance, the Report of Naval Agent
W. A. Slacum to the Secretary of State of the United States, dated
March 26, 1837, gives many particulars of the place as it was at
that time. Doctor McLoughlin had established a large farm, which
under his able administration produced quantities of grain, vege-
tables, butter and cheese. Afterwards it was stocked with cattle. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 345 

horses, sheep, goats and swine. In 1836 the farm consisted of three
thousand acres, fenced into fields such as would have graced the
estate in old England, with dairies and cottages for the herdsmen and
shepherds. In the same year there were harvested eight thousand
bushels of wheat, fifty-five hundred bushels of barley, six thou-
sand bushels of oats, nine thousand bushels of peas, fourteen thou-
sand bushels of potatoes, besides large quantities of roots, pumpkins
and other vegetables. There was also an orchard of apple, pear and
quince trees, which bore in profusion. Two sawmills and two flour-
mills cut the timber for the Sandwich Islands and ground the flour
which was exported to the Russian settlement at Sitka. In a few
years Doctor McLoughlin converted the Oregon country into one of
the most profitable parts of North America to the Hudson's Bay
Company. For many years the London value of the yearly gathering
of furs in the territory varied from Hve hundred thousand to one
million dollars; and it should be borne in mind that such sums repre-
sented then a value several fold more than they represent today. ^ 

Again, in 1841, Commander Charles \\'ilkes of the United States
Exploring Expedition, in his narrative of the voyage, gives a pleas-
ing picture of Fort Vancouver. Commander Wilkes visited Doctor
McLoughlin, and in the following words describes his reception and
the place : 

"We came in at the back part of the village, which consists of
about fifty comfortable loghouses, placed in regular order on each
side of the road. They are inhabited by the Company's servants,
and were swarming with children, whites, half-breeds, and pure
Indians. The fort stands at some distance beyond the village, and
to the eye appears like an upright wall of pickets, twenty-five feet
high: this encloses the houses, shops, and magazines of the Com-
pany. The enclosure contains about four acres, which appear to
be under full cultivation. Bevond the fort large granaries were to
be seen. At f)ne end is Dr. McLaughlin's house, built after the
model of the French Canadian, of one story, weather-boarded and
painted white. It has a piazza and small flower-beds, witli grape
and other vines, in front. Between the steps are two old cannons
on sea-carriages, with a few shot, to speak defiance to the natives,
who no doubt look upon them as verv formidable weapons of destruc- 

' See Hnliiiaii, .McLoughlin, p. 29. 

346 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

tion. I mention these, as they are the only warlike instruments to
my knowledge that are within the pickets of Vancouver, which
differs from all the other forts in having no bastions, galleries, or
loop-holes. Near by are the rooms for the clerks and visitors, with
the blacksmiths' and coopers' shops. In the centre stands the Roman
Catholic chapel, and near by the flag-staff; beyond these again are
the stores, magazines of powder, warerooms, and offices. 

"We went immediately to Dr. M'Laughlin's t]uarters. He was
not within, but we were kindly invited to enter, with the assurance
that he would soon return. Onlv a few minutes elapsed before Dr.
M'Laughlin came galloping up, having understood that we had
preceded him. He is a tall fine-looking person, of a very robust
frame, with a frank manly open countenance, and a florid com-
plexion; his hair is perfectly white. He gave us that kind reception
we had been led to expect from his well-known hospitality. He is
of Scotch parentage, but by birth, a Canadian, enthusiastic in dis-
position, possessing great energy of character, and extremely well
suited for the situation he occupies, which requires great talent and
industry. He at once ordered dinner for us, and we soon felt our-
selves at home, having comfortable rooms assigned us, and being
treated as part of the establishment. 

"The situation of Vancouver is favourable for agricultural pur-
poses, and it may be said to be the head of navigation for sea-going
vessels. A vessel of fourteen feet draft of water, may reach it in
the lowest state of the river. The Columbia at this point makes a
considerable angle, and is divided by two islands, which extend
upwards about three miles, to where the upper branch of the Willa-
mette joins it. The shores of these islands are covered with trees,
consisting of ash, poplars, pines, and oaks, while the centre is gen-
erally prairie, and lower than the banks; they are principally com-
posed of sand. During the rise of the river in May and June, the
islands are covered with water, that filters through the banks that
are not overflowed. This influx renders them unfit for grain crops,
as the coldness of the water invariably destroys every cultivated plant
it touches. 

"The Company's establishment at Vancouver is upon an extensive
scale, and is worthy of the vast interest of which it is the centre.
The residents mess at several tables: one for the chief factor and his 

BRITISH COLUMBIA , -HI 

clerks; one for their wives (it being against the regulations of the
Company for their officers and wives to take their meals together) ;
another for the missionaries ; and another for the sick and the Catholic
missionaries. All is arranged in the best order, and I should think
with great economy. Every thing may be had within the fort: they
have an extensive apothecary shop, a bakery, blacksmiths' and
coopers' shops, trade-offices for buying, others for selling, others
again for keeping accounts and transacting business; shops for retail,
where English manufactured articles may be p'urchased at as low a
price, if not cheaper, than in the United States, consisting of cotton
and woollen goods, ready-made clothing, ship-chandlery, earthen
and iron ware and fancy articles; in short, every thing, and of every
kind and description, including all sorts of groceries, at an advance
of eighty per cent, on the London prime cost. This is the established
price at Vancouver, but at the other posts it is one hundred per cent.,
to cover the extra expenses of transportation. All these articles are
of good quality, and suitable for the servants, settlers and visitors.
Of the quantity on hand, some idea may be formed from the fact
that all the posts west of the Rocky Mountains get their annual
supplies from this depot. 

"Vaucouver is the head-quarters of the Northwest or Columbian
Department, which also includes New Caledonia; all the returns
of furs are received here, and hither all accounts are transmitted
for settlement. These operations occasion a large mass of business
to be transacted at this establishment. Mr. Douglass, a chief factor,
and the associate of Dr. M'Laughlin, assists in this department, and
takes sole charge in his absence. 

"Dr. M'Laughlin showed us our rooms, and told us that the bell
was the signal for meals. 

"Towards sunset, tea-time arrival, and we obeyed the summons
of the bell, when we were introduced to several of the gentlemen of
the establishment: we met in a large hall, with a long table spread
with abundance of good fare. Dr. M'Laughlin took the head of the
table, with myself on his right, Messrs. Douglass and Drayton on
his left, and tlic others apparently according to their rank. I mention
this, as every one appears to have a relative rank, privilege, and
station assigned him, and military etiquette prevails. The meal
lasts no longer than is necessary to satisfy hunger. With the officers 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 337 

live per cent. In the ensuing years, however (1692 to 1697), losses
occurred to the amount of some £96,000 — due to further captures
by the French, under La Perouse. This necessitated borrowing, but
to these temporary reverses a period of enhanced prosperity shortly
supervened which lasted to the year 1800, during which, at varying
intervals dividends accrued to the happy shareholders equivalent
to the magnificent percentage of sixty to seventy per annum. 

This is neither the place nor the occasion to relate the story of
the Hudson's Bay Company from its inception until it achieved its
foothold in the West. That may be readily found in works specially
devoted to the subject; but since, as it has been shown, such foothold
was attained, by amalgamation with the Company's one time rival,
the North West Company, under terms of agreement entered into
between them, it may be well to give at this point the particulars of
the Royal License of 1821 whereby certain powers were conferred
upon the Company by King George IV. Some details, as to the events
which led up to the clashing of interests and the subsequent feuds and
lawlessness of the rival traders in that region, have already been
given. It is, therefore, not necessary to refer to that fascinating age
in which the passion for gain found expression in a conflict as mem-
orable as it was futile. All that need be said here is that that seething
cauldron of diverse and divided interests subsided almost as suddenly
as it was brought to the boiling point. Realizing that such a condi-
tion of afYairs could not be allowed to exist indefinitely and fearing
that the feuds of the rival forces for the furtrade would be utterly
destroyed, the heads of the Hudson's Bay Company and the North
West Company came together. After due deliberation these auto-
crats of the wilderness agreed to bury their animosities. Accordingly,
a contract was made, under the terms of which the two concerns
agreed to pool their interests. And so passed that strange era, which,
while it is marked by much that is mean and sordid, still commands
our admiration, because of the heroism and energy displayed in the
exploration of new lands in quite extraordinary circumstances. 

The peace thus declared, however, did not allay the bitter feelings
engendered by years of internicine warfare. The heads of the Com-
panies might decree peace, but for many years the rank and file, who
had fought their battles in the distant marches of the Northwest, 

Vol, 1-22 

338 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

could not easily forget the days of the great conflict. Thus, at the time
of the amalgamation, the respective retainers and henchmen gave vent
to their feelings in no uncertain terms. Some of them resigned, more
of them threatened to resign, and all or nearly all of them demurred;
but gradually the animosities of the Blues and the Greys were forgot-
ten in the work of reorganization and extension. 

The conciliation of 1821 found expression in the terms of the
Royal License of the same year. Of the series of remarkable docu-
ments in which the policies or operations of the furtraders are out-
lined, the license of 1821 is by no means the least interesting. As it
had an important bearing upon the West — and indeed it may be said
to mark another turning point in Western affairs — it is desirable, for
the sake of clarity, to give concisely the fundamental features of the
agreements. 

The following is, in brief, the gist of the concession. An Act had
been passed entitled "An act for regulating the Fur Trade, and for
establishing a Criminal and Civil Jurisdiction within certain parts of
North America," whereby it was brought within the prerogative of
the Crown to grant a Royal License for the exclusive privilege of
trading with the Indians in parts of North America specified therein
— the "parts" indicated not being part of the lands or territories here-
tofore granted to the Governor and Company of Adventurers of Eng-
land's trading into Hudson's Bay, not part of any British Province in
North America, nor of any lands or territories belonging to the United
States of America — for a period of twenty-one years. L^pon this con-
cession no rent was to be required, but certain conditions were im-
posed touching the administration of law and the prevention of the
sale or distribution of spirituous liquors to the Indians — a stipulation
inserted for the purpose of promoting their moral and religious im-
provement and for the remedy or prevention of other evils. 

The said Act further recited a Convention entered into between
his late Majesty and the United States of America, wherein it was
stipulated and agreed that every country on the Northwest coast of
America to the westward of the Stony Mountains, should be free and
open to citizens and subjects of the two powers for the term of ten
years from date, and therefore, that nothing in the said Act should be
deemed or construed to authorize any body corporate, company or
person to whom his Majesty might give license, to claim or exercise 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 339 

any exclusive trade to the prejudice or exclusion of any citizens of the
United States of America who might be engaged in the same trade.
Now therefore, the Act continues, in effect, seeing that the said Gov-
ernor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hud-
son's Bay, and certain associations of persons trading in the name of
the "North-West Company of Montreal," have respectively extended
the furtrade over many parts of North America which had not been
before explored and that the competition between them had been
productive of great inconvenience and loss to both the Company
and the Association, detrimental to the trade generally and likewise
of injury to the native Indians and other British subjects: In conse-
quence of this the Governor and Company, on the one side, and Wil-
liam McGillivray of Montreal, Simon McGillivray of Sufifolk-lane,
in the City of London, merchant, and Edward Ellice, of Spring Gar-
dens, in the County of Middlesex, on the other, have entered into an
agreement on the 26th day of March last for putting an end to the
said competition, and carrying on the trade for twenty-one years,
in the name of the said Governor and Company exclusively. The
King, accordingly, in order to encourage the trade and remedy the
evil aforesaid, did grant and give to the parties mentioned, jointly, a
Royal License for the exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians
in all such parts of North America to the northward and westward of
the said territories for the period of twenty-one years from date there-
of, subject to the conditions before mentioned for the proper regula-
tion and conduct of the trade. The license was given at Carlton
House, the 5th day of December, 1821, in the second year of the
reign, by His Majesty's command. 

No sooner was the seal of the high contracting parties affixed to
the agreement and the same accorded official recognition bv the
Royal Licence of 1821, than the Hudson's Bav Company prepared
to assume command of the western territory, so long tlie debatable
ground of the erstwhile rivals. The first thing to be done was to
reconcile to the new order the stalwarts of both sides who had so
lately contended with an ardour worthy of a better cause. There was,
even yet, a danger that the latent hostility of the two factions of the
amalgamated companies might again burst into flame and thus
destroy the coalition of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Nor'-
westers, or at least render mugatory its pacificatory measures and 

340 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

work of consolidation. One of the great lessons taught by the phil-
osophy of history is this: that in all crises a man is found with the
necessary qualifications and force of character to master the situa-
tion. Napoleon's whiff of grape shot finished the French Revo-
lution and the Reign of Terror. Oliver Cromwell with his stern
command to take away that "bauble" brought the long Parliament
to an inglorious end. Disraeli ensured the ratification of the Treaty
of Berlin by letting it be known at the crucial moment of the nego-
tiations that he had ordered a special train to take him from Germany.
In fact, numberless cases might be quoted to prove the adage that the
hour brings forth the man. 

No less was it so in the great crisis in the furtrade of North
America in the year 1821. At that juncture, when no one was pre-
pared to say what the outcome might be, a man steps forth from
obscurity to mould and fashion the destinies of half a continent.
George Simpson was the man of the hour. To him was given full con-
trol of the reorganized Hudson's Bay Company's affairs in British
North America. At the coalition of 1821 he was appointed to the
ancient and honourable post of Governor of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany's Territories, a position which carried with it the overlordship
of that vast region which stretches from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific
Ocean. This young man, who was but twenty-nine at the time of
his assumption of that high office, was entrusted with the onerous
task of reconciling conflicting interests, abating personal jealousies,
and controlling the turbulent forces placed under his command. The
record of his life shows how well he succeeded in evolving order out
of chaos. When he assumed command in North America, the fur-
trade from one end of the continent to the other was in a state of
demoralization, bordering upon confusion; in a few years George
Simps.on by the exercise of tact and diplomacy, with, perhaps, a dash
of native cunning, had reduced the vast organization to working order
and operated it with all the precision of a machine. 

Inasmuch as George Simpson is a commanding figure of the
romantic period of the furtrade, his unique career is deserving of
more than passing notice. He was the only son of George Simpson
of Lochbroom, Ross-shire. It is a coincidence that he was born in
1792, the same year in which Captain Vancouver and Bodega y
Quadra conducted their famous negotiations at Nootka Sound, touch- 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 341 

ing the title to the land he was afterwards to rule with such signal
success. In 1809 he was taken to London, where, after completing his
education, he entered a merchant's office. The youth, however, was
not destined for the desk. Like Alexander Mackenzie, he longed
for a life of adventure and a broader sphere of activity; and, like
Alexander Mackenzie, George Simpson sought an outlet for his
restless spirit in the furtrade of the North. Mackenzie had thrown
in his lot with the independent traders; George Simpson joined the
ranks of the Hudson's Bay Company, the inveterate enemy of the
North West Company; and to his lot it fell to extinguish the ven-
detta forever famous in the annals of Canada and of the Empire.
It is also a peculiar coincidence that Sir George Simpson entered
the service of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1820, the year in which
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the doughty champion of the independent
traders and the great antagonist of the Hudson's Bay Company, died
at Mulnain, near Dunkeld. And thus it ever is — the passing of one
bright planet into space but heralds the rising of another lord of
the ascendant. 

George Simpson devoted his whole energy solely to the interests
of the Hudson's Bay Company. The young officer gained his first
experience of frontier life at Athabasca, where he passed the winter
of 1820-21, suffering great privations, but nevertheless keeping up
an active competition with the foe — the rival Nor'westers. The two
companies were now at death grips and it seemed that nothing short
of the complete rout of one or other could end the fratricidal war.
In 1820 the fight was raging in all its fury. Then the unexpected
happened — in 1821 the rivals coalesced and George Simpson was
made Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company's "plantation" called
"Rupert's Land," and of all the vast domain of the west. 

It does not appear that George Simpson was looked upon as a
strong man by the wintering partners, traders and chief factors;
that is if Willard Ferdinand Wentzel, a Norwegian in the service
of the North West Company, truly reflects their opinions. In a letter
to the Hon. Roderick McKenzie, under the inscription "Winter
Lake, Fort Enterprise, near Coppermine River, March 26th, 1821,"
Wentzel has this to say of the man who was, shortlv afterwards,
appointed Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company: "Mr. Simpson,
a gentleman from England, last spring superintends their (the Hud- 

332 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

do visit, haunt, frequent or trade, traffic or adventure, by way of
merchandize, into or from any of the said territories . . . unless
it be by the licence and agreement of the said Governor and Com-
pany in writing first had and obtained, under their common seal,
.'" The penalty for infringement of this regulation was the
forfeiture of all goods brought by such trespassers into England, one
half of such forfeiture to go to the king and the other half to the
Compan}^ The covenant further engages that no such liberty, licence,
or power will be granted by His Majesty to others, contrary to the
tenor of these letters patent, without the consent of the Company. 

The succeeding paragraph makes general provision that all lands
and places aforesaid shall be under the power and command of the
Company, who may appoint Governors and other officers, subject to
the supreme power of the Crown, to preside within their territories
and judge all causes, civil and criminal, according to the laws of Eng-
land, and to execute justice accordingly; or, in cases where judicature
cannot be executed for want of a Governor and council, it shall be
lawful for the Chief factor of that place and h'is council to "transmit
the party, together with the ofifence," to another place, where justice
may be executed, or to England, as shall be thought most convenient,
there to receive such punishment as the nature of his offence shall
deserve. 

Relative to matters of security and defence, the Charter confers
upon the Company "free liberty and licence, in case they conceive it
necessary, to send either ships of war, men or ammunition, unto any
their plantations, forts, factories or places of trade aforesaid," and
"make peace or war with any prince or people whatsoever, that are
not Christians, in any places where the said Company shall have any
plantations . . ., or adjacent thereunto . . .; and also to
right and recompense themselves upon the goods, estates or people
of those parts by whom the said Governor and Company shall sustain
any injury, . . ." 

Concerning trespassers, authority is given to the Governor and
Company "to seize upon the persons of all such English, or any other
our subjects which shall sail into Hudson's Bay. or inhabit in any of
the countries, islands or territories hereby granted to the said Gover-
nor and Company, without their leave and licence in that behalf first 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 333 

had and obtained, or that shall contemn or disobey their orders, and
send them to England; . . ." 

After making provision for the administration of oaths by the
officers of the Company, the document concludes with the following
important direction: "AND WE DO hereby straitly charge and com-
mand all and singular our Admirals, Vice-Admirals, Justices,
Mayors, Sheriffs, Constables, Bailiffs, and all and singular other our
officers, ministers, liege men and subjects whatsoever, to be aiding,
favouring, helping and assisting to the said Governor and Company, 

To the renowned first Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company,
elected under the terms of the foregoing document, some more than
passing reference may appropriately be made at this period of the
story. Of Prince Rupert's mysterious personality it may be briefly
said in the words of Eliot Warburton's scholarly introduction to
his "Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers:" 

"There is no personage in history at the same time
so notorious and so little known, for his true
history lies hidden under the calumnious cloud of
Puritan hatred and Royalist envy and disparagement." 

One great illuminating fact is known of him however — one that
gives the keynote of his noble life — and that is the spirit of unswerv-
ing honour and loyalty of purpose which dominated his soul from the
earliest years of his career. In proof of this it is not to the old chival-
ric legends of the time that one need turn, but to the sober, yet stirring
pages of European history that record the feats of arms and gallantry
which made him known to fame. 

Son of Prince Frederick, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, later to
become the chosen King of Bohemia, and son-in-law of King James
of England, — it was amid scenes of semi-barbaric state and splendour
that Prince Rupert was born; and thus, by parentage, in his veins
was fused the blue blood of England's royal house with that of the
old dynasty of the Palatines of the Rhine. Driven from the throne
for espousing the Protestant cause, his parents for some time found
an unwilling asylum at royal kinsmen's courts until at length little
Holland afforded them abiding sanctuary; and here their pilgrimage
ended at the palace of the Hague. Obscurity then envelopes Prince 

3.34 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

Rupert's early years until, from time to time, he figures spasmodically
in history as Palatine officer under the Prince of Orange, as Cavalier
soldier, as Admiral of the Royal fleet — in the Thirty Years War with
Germany, and the English Civil War. Now leading his squadron
"Prince Rupert's Horse," as advance guard of the Palatine army
against the serried phalanx of Austria at the siege of Lemgo — at one
with the Protestant Princes of Northern Europe in their stand against
despotism in Church and State — now figuring grandly as Royalist
leader of a forlorn liope against the sturdv Puritan "Roundheads,"
ahvavs an heroic figure, he flashes in meteoric manner across the
scroll of history "and mothers hush their infants with the terror of
his name." Then the lost battle of Nasebv — and again, for a period,
the dark. 

What followed the battle of Xaseby and the fall of Bristol imme-
diately afterwards was that, deprived of his commissions, he was
ordered to leave England, which he did in 1746. After this the
glimpses we catch of him are when in manv a strange and, to us at
any rate, anomalous role he follows his forceful destiny of power and
control. In military command in France and Holland, in com-
mand of a fleet around the coasts of Britain, in the Mediterranean
and the West Indies, until in 1653 ^^ again appears in France and
from i6!;4 to 1659 in Germany. The year 1660 finds him again in
England at the Court of his cousin, King Charles the Second, where,
two years later he was created a Privy Councillor and Commissioner
for the Government of Tangier. The next year he figures as one
of the patentees of the Royal African Company and, the year but one
following, as an Admiral of the Fleet under the Duke of York. In
1666 he shared responsibility with Monck, first Duke of Albemarle,
in the conduct of the campaign against the Dutch, in which he suf-
fered naval defeat at the hands of Van Tromp and De Ruyter; but
eventually gained the victory. He appears again in military com-
mand at Woolwich immediatelv after and subsequentlv as constable
of Windsor Castle in 1668, until finally he comes down to us as the
recipient of the royal favour in the Hudson's Bay Company's Charter
in 1670. 

Then, after further naval achievement, Prince Rupert seems to
have sought a late repose as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1673
to 1679, and in 1682 he died in his house at Spring Gardens, London, 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 335 

from pleurisy and fever. He was accorded an imposing funeral and
was buried in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, in Westminster Abbey.
In the words of his biographer: "He left no more honest, brave,
or true-hearted man behind him," and is described as one ''who after
innumerable toils and variety of heroic actions both by land and sea,
spent several years in sedate studies, and the prosecution of chemical
and philosophical experiments, with which the King was very much
pleased and delighted. He died on the 29th of November, in the
sixtv-third year of his age, generally lamented; having maintained
such good temper and exact neutrality in the present unhappy divis-
ions, that he was honoured and respected by men of the most dififering
interests." 

To us. he remains, a symbol of the men his intrepid daring and
enterprise have inspired, many of whom were doubtless led thereby
into the stupendous task of probing for the hrst time the vast untrod-
den territorv that bears his name, where their names too and their
achievements are with us here today unfading monument to his mem-
ory and theirs whilst North America endures. 

There is a weird and almost mystic charm about the atmosphere
with which it seems that memory loved to surround this really princely
figure — a charm which lifts the story of Prince Rupert's life above
the records of his peers, in pleasing contrast to the not too convincing
eulogies that are wont to grace, with belated virtues, the royal de-
parted. It may safely be assumed therefore that without risk of
weariness to the reader, it may serve to recount something of the inter-
esting genealogical detail which, thanks to the thoroughness of Mr.
Warburton's researches has come down to us from the pen of an
anonymous writer, and of which the following is extracted: 

"The genealogy of Prince Rupert, Third son of the King of Bohe-
mia. This prince began to be illustrious many ages before his birth,
and we must look back into history about two thousand years, to dis-
cover the first ravs of his glorv. We may consider him very great,
being descended from the two most illustrious and ancient Houses
of Europe, that of England and the Palatines of the Rhine." 

This document, the quaint phraseology of which has for conveni-
ence sake been reduced to modern parlance, shows that the succession
of the Palatines of the Rhine can be traced with certainty for twelve
hundred years, the first of their ancestors recorded in history being 

336 BRITISH COLUxMBIA 

Adellaheren, whom the Bavarians chose king of the Huns, imme-
diately after the death of the famous Attila, about the middle of the
fifth century. This leads the writer quaintly to soliloquize: "So great
a man and chosen by the Germans for their King, and after Attila,
shews he was not the first renowned Prince of his race; and this reason
alone is sufficient to persuade us that he was as considerable in his
blood as in his valour. Yet, in all appearance, he has been more
famous in his successors than in his ancestors, and the Princes which
have descended from him are more glorious than those from whom
he 'himself descended. This we see in Charlemagne, the greatest
Emperor since Constantine, who came in a direct line from Adella-
heren, more than three hundred years after him; during which time
his ancestors were called Dukes of Bavaria, and they rendered their
name great in the world by those eminent virtues which supported
it." Thus the writer shows with backward glance adown the vista
of the ages how through Pepin, Bernard, Otho and others — all mon-
archs of goodly and great renown — "the blood of Charlemagne comes
to the Prince whose story we are writing," until he cites a "Rupert,"
"whose virtue was equal to his birth" and who notwithstanding many
illustrious competitors "was chosen and crowned Emperor with the
universal applause of Europe." This name was aftenvards repeated
in the person of a later Emperor who inherited the title and sover-
eignty of the Palatinate. The Emperor Frederick, his first successor,
was followed by his son, Louis the Sixth, who in turn gave place to
his grandson Frederick the Fourth, father of Frederick the Fifth,
of pious memory, King of Bohemia and father of Prince Rupert of
this story. 

With this necessarily condensed recital of a long and illustriously
royal lineage, this episode may be fitly closed. 

As stated in a letter written by the Governor of the Company to
the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council for Trade in 1838,
the profits of the Hudson's Bay Company, between the years 1670
and 1690, were very large, notwithstanding losses sustained by the
capture of some of its establishments by the French, which amounted
to £118,014. In 1684 the Companv paid to the proprietors, as divi-
dend, fifty per cent, with a similar sum in 1688 and twenty-five per
cent in i68q. In 1690 the stock was trebled, without any call upon
the shareholders, and the dividend for that year was again twenty-

CHAPTER XII 

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 

In following, for the purpose of this narrative, the wide and
varied current of events which circle, closely or remotely, around
the early history of British Columbia, the familiar name of the
famous Hudson's Bay Company claims for itself by insistent occur-
rence the pre-eminence which, by right of achievement, is indubit-
ably its due. 

The present is therefore deemed a fitting juncture at which to
convey to the reader, in some detail, an adequate idea of the mag-
nitude and importance of that Great Chartered Monopoly because
of its influence in the West. 

The Hudson's Bay Company was incorporated in the year 1670,
during the reign of CMiarles 11. and the corporate body thus formed,
composed as it was of the noblemen and gentlemen of England with
Prince Rupert at their head, was officially designated as "The Gov-
ernor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hud-
son's Bay." The Company was granted certain territories in North
America, together with e.xclusive privileges of trade and commerce
and the region of its activities, in the royal charter defined, was
named "Rupert's Land." 

As to the charter itself, it is perhaps one of the finest teats of
incorporate activity and business acumen that has ever been given to
the world ; albeit that the power of the Sovereign to sanction the same
has subsequently been questioned and pronounced in certain quarters
to have been ultra vires on the part of His Majesty without the
advice and consent of Parliament. Be this as it may, it is amply
apparent, from the rescript of the famous deed, that it is a master-
piece of finesse in its tensest cohesive form; and, for the purpose of
placing it clearly before the reader, within suitable limits, it has been
judged expedient to touch freely upon certain phases of the docu- 

:527 

328 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

ment, shorn merely, to some extent of ancient legal verbiage and
repetition, a course which has the further effect of bringing into
strong relief the salient features of this wonderful state paper, pub-
lished in the form of a return to the House of Commons, dated 25th
July, 1842: and cited fully elsewhere: 

"Charles the SecOxXD, by the grace of God King of England,
Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. : To ALL
to whom these presents shall come greeting: 

"Whereas our dear and entirely beloved Cousin, Prince Rupert,
Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria and Cumberland, &c. ;
Christopher Duke of Albemarle, William Earl of Craven, Henr}'
Lord Arlington, Anthony Lord Ashley, Sir John Robinson, and Sir
Robert Vyner, Knights and Baronets; Sir Peter Colleton. Baronet;
Sir Edward Hungerford, Knight of the Bath; Sir Paul Neele,
Knight; Sir John Griffith and Sir Philip Carteret, Knights; James
Hayes, John Kirke, Francis Millington, William Prettyman, John
Fenn, Esquires; and John Portman, Citizen and Goldsmith of Lon-
don; have, at their own great cost and charges, undertaken an expedi-
tion for Hudson's Bay, in the north-west part of America, for the
discovery of a new passage into the South Sea, and for the finding
some trade for furs, minerals and other considerable commodities,
and by such their undertaking have already made such discoveries
as do encourage them to proceed further in pursuance of their said
design, by means whereof there may probably arise very great advan-
tage to us and our kingdom: AXD WHEREAS the said Undertakers, for
their further encouragement in the said design, have humbly besought
us to incorporate them, and grant unto them and their successors the
sole trade and commerce of all those seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes,
creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within
the entrance of the straits, commonly called Hudson's Straits, to-
gether with all the lands, countries and territories upon the coast and
confines of the seas, straits, bays, lakes, rivers, creeks and sounds afore-
said, which are not now actually possessed by any of our subjects, or
by the subjects of any other Christian Prince or State : Now KXOW Ye,
that we. being desirous to promote all endeavours tending to the
public good of our people, and to encourage the said undertaking,
HAVE, of our especial grace, certain knowledge and mere motion,
given, granted, ratified and confirmed, and by these presents, for us. 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 329 

pur heirs and successors, DO give, grant, ratify and confirm, unto our
said Cousin, Prince Rupert, Christopher Duke of Albemarle (and
grantees aforesaid), that they, and such others as shall be admitted
into the said society as is hereafter expressed, shall be one body cor-
porate and politic in deed and in name, by the name of 'The Gover-
nor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's
Bay,' . . . and that by the same name of Governor and Com-
pany of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay, they
shall have perpetual successsion, and that they and their successors
. . . shall be, personable and capable in law to have, purchase,
receive, possess, enjoy and retain lands, rents, privileges, liberties,
jurisdictions, franchises and hereditaments, of what kind, nature or
quality soever they be, to them and their successors; and also to give,
grant, demise, alien, assign and dispose lands, tenements, and hered-
itaments, and to do and execute all and singular other things by the
same name that to them shall or may appertain to do; . . ." 

As regards the election of a Governor and the governing commit-
tee, it is decreed as follows: "We DO ordain, that there shall be from
henceforth one of the same Company to be elected and appointed
in such form as hereafter in these presents is expressed, which shall
be called the Governor of the said Company; and that the said Gov-
ernor and Company shall or may elect seven of their number, in such
form as hereafter in these presents is expressed, which shall be called
the Committee of the said Company, which Committee of seven, or
any three of them, together with the Governor or Deputy Governor
of the said Company for the time being, shall have the direction of
the voyages of and for the said Company, and the provision of the
shipping and merchandizes thereunto belonging, and also the sale of
all merchandizes, goods and other things returned, in all or any the
voyages or ships of or for the said Company, and the managing and
handling of all other business, . . ." 

Touching the first Governorship and Committee of the corporation
the nominations are thus autocratically dictated: "We DO ASSIGX,
nominate, constitute and make our said Cousin, PlUXCE RuPERT,
to be the first and present Governor of the said Company and to con-
tinue in the said office from the date of these presents until the loth
November then next following, if he, the said Prince Rupert, shall
so long live, and so until a new Governor be chosen by the said Com- 

330 BRITISH COLUMBIA 

pany in form hereafter expressed : AND ALSO WE HAVE assigned, nom-
inated, and appointed, and by these presents, . . ., WE DO assign,
nominate and constitute the said Sir John Robinson, Sir Robert
Vyner, Sir Peter Colleton, James Hayes, John Kirke, Francis Mill-
ington and John Portman to be the seven first and present Committees
of the said Company, . . ." 

The power to elect a deputy Governor, oaths to be administered
and the course to be pursued in the election of future Governors and
Committees and so forth, are equally defined with the minutest pre-
cision, as well as the broader issues such as the trading, territorial,
mineral and fishing rights and the naming of the territory, all of
which are fully set forth in this passage: 

"And to the end the said Governor and Company of Adventurers
of England trading into Hudson's Bay may be encouraged to under-
take and effectually to prosecute the said design, . . ., WE HAVE
given, granted, and confirmed, . . ., the sole trade and commerce
of all those seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in
whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the
straits commonly called Hudson's Straits, together with all the lands
and territories upon the countries, coasts, and confines of the seas,
bays, lakes, creeks and sounds aforesaid, that are not already actually
possessed by or granted to any of our subjects, or possessed by the sub-
jects of any other Christian Prince or State, with the fishing of all sorts
of fish, whales, sturgeons, and all other royal fishes in the seas, bays,
inlets and rivers within the premises, and the fish therein taken, to-
gether with the royalty of the sea upon the coasts within the limits
aforesaid, and all mines royal, as well discovered as not discovered,
of gold, silver, gems, and precious stones, to be found or discovered
within the territories, limits and places aforesaid, and that the said
land be from henceforth reckoned and reputed as one of our plan-
tations or colonies in America, called "Rupert's Land:" AXD FUR-
THER WE Du, . . ., make, create and constitute the said Governor
and Companv for the time being, and their successors, the true and
absolute lords and proprietors of the same territory, limits and places
aforesaid, and of all other premises, SAVING ALWAYS the faith, alle-
giance and sovereign dominion due to us, our heirs and successors,
for the same, TO HAVE, HOLD, possess and enjoy the said territory,
. . ., with their and every of their rights, members, jurisdictions, 

BRITISH COLUMBIA 331 

prerogatives, royalties and appurtenances whatsoever, to them the
said Governor and Company, and their successors for ever, TO BE
HOLDEN of us, our heirs and successors, as of our manor of East
Greenwich, in our county of Kent, in free and common soccage, and
not in capite or by knight's service; YIELDING AND PAYING yearly to
us, our heirs and successors, for the same, two elks and two black
beavers, whensoever and as often as we, our heirs and successors, shall
happen to enter into the said countries, territories and regions hereby
granted: . . ."' 

It is further stipulated in the Charter that it shall be lawful for
the said Governor and Company ''to make, ordain and constitute
such and so many reasonable laws, constitutions, orders and ordi-
nances, as to them, . . ., shall seem necessary and convenient
for the good government of the said Company, and of all governors
of colonies, forts and plantations, factors, masters, mariners and other
officers employed or to be employed in any of the territories and
lands aforesaid, and in any of their voyages"; Power was likewise
granted to impose such pains and penalties as might be necessary for
the enforcement of the same laws. The fines and amerciaments thus
levied and taken were to be devoted to the use of the Company with-
out impediment anti without any account to the Crown, provided
always that the said laws and fines "be reasonable, and not contrary
or repugnant, but as near as may be agreeable to the laws, statutes
or customs of this our realm :" 

A further grant of trade is made to the Company comprising,
"not only the whole, entire ami only trade and traffic, . . ., to
and from the territory, limits and places aforesaid; but also the whole
and entire trade and traffic to and from all havens, bays, creeks, rivers,
lakes and seas, into which thev shall find entrance or passage by
water or land out of the territories, limits or places aforesaid; and to
and with all the natives and people inhabiting, or which shall inhabit
within the territories, limits and places aforesaid; and to and witli
all other nations inhabiting anv the coasts adjacent to the said ter-
ritories. . . ., or w^hereof the sole liberty or privilege of trade
and traffic is not granted to any other of our subjects:" 

As a provision against trespass the following prohibition is in-
serted: "We STRAITLY charge, command and prohibit, . . ., all
the subjects of us, . . . , that none of tiicni directly or indirectly,