Constable Voigt s

Vindication

*

By
INSPECTOR C. CLARK

*

Taitach of the Musqueam Had Flouted the White Queen’s Law—But When
Const. Julius Voigt Took Up the Quest It Was More Than a Duty—It was a

FOR HIM who has eyes to see there runs
through the stiff parchment-like pages of
the official Crown colony records (now part
of a valuable collection in the Provincial
Archives in Victoria) a current of stark
realism, undershot
with drama and
tragedy. Carefully
filed in the Record
Room of the gray
stone legislative
buildings, these fa-
ding documents —
laboriously written
‘n pen and ink,
are our clue today
to the moods and
emotions which
swept through the
minds and hearts of

sub - in
spector in the Cork divi- = eis
sion of the Royal Irish British Columbia's
Constabulary, selected by pioneers.

Chartres Brew,

Colonial Secretary Sir E.
Bulwer-Lytton to organ- report carries a

ize British Columbia’s ,)-
colonial constabulary. He eee of ite eka.
was appointed Chief In- When red-shirted

spector of Police in No- miners panned for
vember, 1858. colours on the rich
Fraser River bars,

and met success or failure in the wilderness.
Here are characters that Bret Harte and
Mark Twain might have known; for plenty
of Californians, forty-niners, had rushed to
the new field. There’s the neat and fastid-
ious “tin horn” gambler, the dance hall
girls (they called them “hurdies” then), the
sullen, painted red man clad only in a

blanket, viewing morosely the white man’s.

intrusion. The trapper, the trader, the law-
less and the law-abiding—the whole rich
picture of humanity intent on scooping na-
ture’s riches from the streams and canyons
of the fabulous Fraser.

In 1860, New Westminster was a boom
town of a few unpainted frame cabins, and
tents in a setting of acres of stumps. Colonel
R. C. Moody, who had come round the
Horn in the ship Thames City with a
hundred Royal Engineers, laid out the
town site. The Engineers had also laid down
a skid road, and near it in one of the frame
buildings Chief Inspector Chartres Brew,
organizer of the Colony’s police force (fore-
runner of the B.-C. Police) directed the
law enforcement efforts of the handful of
police officers who were stationed at strategic
points along the Fraser river. With the

TWELFTH EDITION

Every letter and

Personal Challenge.

opening of the Cariboo mines these police
detachments dotted the interior.

Brew’s reports on law enforcement went
over to Victoria by paddle steamer to Wil-
liam A. G. Young, the Colonial Secretary,
who in turn brought the more important
of them to the attention of H's Excellency
the Governor—James Douglas.

On October 12th, 1858, just a month be-
fore the mainland territory of British
Columbia assumed the official status of a
Crown Colony, groups of miners were mak-
ing their way up the Fraser by horse, foot
and canoe, each anxious to be first on the
new ground. Near Yale, one such group
was ambushed by Indians, and in the ex-
change of shots a miner was killed. In the
wild region was little chance of identifying
the murderer, but word of the killing event-
ually reached the ears of Inspector Brew.
Word was of course passed up the river, but
despite the efforts of the colonial police
nothing further was learned. In the course
of time other miners were found floating
down the river, and in at least two in
stances circumstances pointed to cold-blood-
ed murder. There were only rumours of
the killer’s identity, but in January, 1860,
an Indian named Sellach came into the
hands of the police. Totally unaware of
the white man’s attitude toward the crime
of murder, Sellach readily explained that he
had been present when the first murder took
place. His explanation that he took no
part in the killing was borne out by the
evidence of his “klooch” Siathsasolth. How-
ever with all the formality and majesty of
British jurisprudence, Sellach’s case came
before the Grand Jury at the New West-

minster Assize, February 10th, 1860. After
listening to witnesses, the jury returned a
“no bill,’ and Sellach was given his free-
dom. However he had given some valuable
evidence which went to show that another
brave named Taitach of the Musqueam tribe
(“not yet amenable,” as Inspector Brew
put it) was the killer the police were look-
ing for. Taitach was indicted for murder.
Now that the identity of the Indian killer
was known it would be only a matter of
time before he would be brought in. The
men on the force left no stone unturned in
their efforts to locate the Musqueam brave.
Every hideout was searched, every rumour
explored. But time passed.

Then one day two local men, Phineas
Manson and Hugh Foster called on Inspec-
tor Brew and volunteered their help. Not
only that, but they knew Taitach’s exact
whereabouts! He was up near Jarvis Inlet
hiding out with the Sechelt band. Now if
there was some sort of reward... To Brew
this was just another rumour, but he
couldn’t overlook a single chance. He was
short-handed and no wonder when his po-
licemen drew £12 sterling a month ($60.00)
and the miners panned $25.00 a day on the
river. He conveyed the idea to Colonial
Secretary Young in Victoria and duly re-
ceived the answer:

“His Excellency is desirous that you should
lose no time in endeavouring to obtain the arrest
of Taitach and you are at liberty to offer any
reward up to £50 sterling that you may consider
to effect that object.”

Manson and Foster were positive the
wanted Musqueam was hiding with the
Sechelt band (Seashells was the nearest local
pronunciation at that time). Foster knew

New Westminster in 1860—From this primitive outpost Chief Inspector Brew directed law enforce-
ment throughout British Columbia's mainland.
2 —Photo by B. C. Government Archives.

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