ee VRE SC ee Ea BE VEC DATE ae RAP OO ENS RHE OT
Richard Hicks. 11
eee aU re lS Ga Nae

Hill’s Bar. Such men as these are the first to ask for protection; the
last to obey. A party of boatmen on this bar have, I understand,
written Your Excellency on the subject. The fact is, the bar being
worked out and these men having only paid one month’s licence, and
taken out large sums of money, now want the upper flat, which from
all accounts will prove rich. I have done all that man can do by fair
means, and Your Excellency will not be surprised if I arrest McGowen
and send him to Victoria.?°

Now Mr. Donnellar® has returned I will have a place of confine-
ment erected and it will soon pay for itself.

All my accounts shall be forwarded between now and Sunday.

With the greatest respect,
Iam, Your Excellency’s
Most obt. Hble. Servt.

Ricuarp Hicxs.
Fort Yale, Oct. 28th, 1858.

To Hts Excellency the Governor of British Columbia.
May iT PLEASE Your EXcCELLENCY:

I have received dispatches from Your Excellency dated October
13th, 19th, 25th, and 28th; the last one yesterday.

I have forwarded all you require up to this period. I cannot find
out the location of the silver mine, altho’ I have sent out two men for
that purpose, it is up in the Mountains at the back (or nearly so) of
“Prince Albert’s flat,” I wont rest until I have found it.

There certainly has been a want of regularity in the transmission
of Letters, sometimes I get two at one time and longer than the time
required to forward them to California.

I would advise that a Post Office be immediately established here
and at Fort Hope. If Mr. Postmaster Anderson will forward me the
necessary instructions, I will take care it shall be satisfactorily carried
out and all the miners would be delighted. A Letter from here costs

(29) The boundary line along the 49th parallel had not at this time been located. This
afforded to the lawless element on Hill’s Bar a ground for suggesting that the territory was really
a part of the United States, though, doubtless, they knew better. Amongst the miners on that
bar were a considerable number of men of the worst class, who had been driven from California
by the Vigilance Committee.

(30) B. Donellan, the chief of police at Yale.

(81) According to Mr. Hicks’s record book, it appears probable that he was to have an

interest in this silver mine. See also note (18). The Governor reported, however, that the
specimens proved worthless.