24 The Fraser River Mines.

themselves by saying that I could shew them no form of law to warrant
the payment of $1 per chord; on this account the Government is losing
considerable revenue.?

As to the trading licence of $7.50 p. mth, there are several parties
who say they cannot pay, when I am satisfied that they are well able.
I am inclined to think that the man Lewis, who is in arrear 4 months,
has been telling others that the tax is not lawful, etc. ; I am informed
that he has told one party that he was foolish to pay any such tax.®

The practise of selling liquor without license, also to Indians, is
very common in one house ;* and I am satisfied that selling liquor with-
out license is a customary thing in most of the houses in the town.
I have warned and cautioned the parties repeatedly, but still it appears
to be of no avail.

In conclusion, I would most respectfully inform Your Excellency
that any attempt to arrest criminals on my part would, I fear, be
attended with some trouble, as our force here is so small, and where I
to call on all good citizens to aid me, from present appearances there
would, I fear, be very little response; and in the many little cases of
petty thieving which almost nightly occur, I am afraid the people will
take the law into their own hands and punish the offenders,

I have the honour to remain,
Sir,
Your most obedt Servt.
(Signed) Wma. H. Bevis.

Fort Hops,
14th January, 1859.

DEAR GOVERNOR,—Mr. Main, of the “ Plumper,”’® accompanied by
Mr. Lewis,” has just arrived from Langley (where the “ Plumper ” is
now lying) with despatches for Col Moody: among weh I find your
kind note. I was afraid that you might have thought this expedi-

(2) There does not seem to have been any authority for this levy of one dollar per cord.
Probably it was for this reason that Judge Begbie, in his letter of March 12, 1859, suggested that
wood-cutters should be treated as traders and should pay seven dollars and a half per month.

(3) This license fee was exacted by virtue of the Governor’s Proclamation of July 13, 1858.

(4) One of Douglas’s earliest Proclamations, issued at Fort Hope on September 6, 1858,
prohibited the sale or gift of intoxicating liquor to Indians under a penalty of twenty pounds.

{5) The license fee for vending intoxicating liquor by retail was then one hundred and twenty
pounds per annum.

(6) Lieutenant R. C. Mayne (later Commander Mayne), of H.M.S. ‘‘ Plumper,’ then engaged
in surveying the coastal waters of British Columbia. He retired as Rear Admiral in 1879 and
died in 1892. In chapter IV. of his ‘‘ Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island,’’
London, 1862, he gives a short account of this trouble—the so-called ‘ Ned MeGowan War.”’

(7) Captain Herbert George Lewis, one of the best-known officers of the Hudson’s Bay Com-
pany, and later in command of many of the steamers engaged in the coasting trade. He was at
this time acting as pilot.