Chartres Brew. 79

papers, and public property which I could ascertain were in his pos-
session. I gave him an order on the Colonial Treasurer*? for the
amount of pay due to him, and also included in the order a sum which
he advanced on account of the public service out of his private funds.
The order before being cashed is to be submitted for approval to His
Excellency the Governor.

I trust that His Excellency will be pleased shortly to appoint a
person to replace Mr. Hicks. 1 shall of course have the duties of the
District carried on for a little while until an Assistant Gold Commis-
sioner can be appointed. I shall cause the duties and taxes to be
collected in the meantime under my Superintendence, but I do not feel
competent to become the collector of duties and taxes myself—I could
not weigh gold.

On the day I was leaving Victoria last a Mr. William George
Cox,°® who was recommended by Mr. J. D. Pemberton®® to His Excel-
lency the Governor, was to accompany me to British Columbia on the
same terms as Messrs. Elwyn,*° Haynes,** Ronaldson, and Moore, but
I started so suddenly that Mr. Cox was left behind. He arrived here
upon the 16th Inst. with a letter to me from Mr. Pemberton, and I
placed his name on the roll of Constables at the same rate of pay as
His Excellency authorised to be given to the other gentlemen. Mr. Cox
holds very high testimonials; he is a good clerk and accountant and
was of the greatest assistance to me in my examination of Mr. Hicks’s
accounts and books.

I am informed that excisable wares are brought into the Colony
by the Whatcom Trail,*? are placed in boats on the Sumash or Chilli-
wah Rivers, and are taken up the country by the Harrison River route
without a chance of getting into contact with a Revenue Officer. I beg
leave to recommend that a Revenue Officer be placed on the Harrison’s
River with a few constables to assist him in overhauling the boats
passing up that way. From what I have seen of Mr. Cox, I think he

(37) Captain W. Driscoll Gossett, R.E., but not of Colonel Moody’s detachment.

(38) Later and better known as ‘“‘ Judge ’’ Cox because of his appointment as a stipendiary
magistrate. He was for some time stationed in Cariboo; and while there in 1864 organized a
party of fifty men to assist in the arrest of the Indians who had murdered the Waddington party
near Bute Inlet. He was a member of the Legislative Council in 1867. He retired and spent
the remainder of his life in California, where he died in October, 1878.

(39) Jobn Despard Pemberton, Suryeyor-General of Vancouver Island. He was the author
of a book, ‘‘ Facts and Figures relating to Vancouver Island and British Columbia,’’ London, 1860.

(40) Thomas Elwyn, who later became police officer at Lytton; later he was magistrate at
Lillooet and in 1862 Gold Commissioner in Cariboo. He was also in charge of the gold escorts of
1861 and 1863. Subsequently he occupied many government positions and was for years the
Deputy Provincial Secretary.

(41) John Carmichael Haynes, already mentioned. See note (5) in this correspondence,
ante, p. 62.

(42) A trail which was built from Whatcom (Bellingham) in 1858 to connect with Hope,

but which hereby appears to have had a branch reaching the Fraser at a lower point. It was
intended to secure to Whatcom the trade of the gold-mines, but it proved a complete failure.