OF GOLD AT QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S ISLAND. 5

2. I am, however, now to inform you, that his Grace must decline to grant
the lease applied for.

3. I am to state, in the first instance, that although his Grace by no means
regards priority of discovery in such a case as entitling to a grant of this
description, nor, on the other hand, would be disposed to refuse it on the mere
ground that such priority was not established, yet as it is advanced as a claim in
the present case, he must observe, that it appears from the accounts before him,
that the inlet specified on the part of Mr. Easterby was visited by one or more
vessels of the Hudson’s Bay Company in the summer of 1851. It appears also
that a quartz rock containing gold, which, as far as the general description
given by Mr. Rooney enables it to be identified, must be the same as that
observed by that gentleman, was discovered in one of those visits in August that

year.

: 4, But I am to add, that since your application, intelligence has been received
of the issuing, by the Governor of Vancouver's Island, of a proclamation, autho-
rising the search for gold in Queen Charlotte’s Island, on terms similar to those
in use in the Australian colonies.

This proclamation Her Majesty’s Government has sanctioned, considering
that, on the whole, this system is likely to be, for the present, the most
expedient, if the discovery should turn out more valuable, and the danger to be
apprehended from the natives less serious than recent accounts would lead them
to suppose; and they do not consider that it could operate conveniently
together with that of leases of the gold producing land.

I have, &c.
(signed) Frederick Peet.

— No. 4. —
No. 4.

MemoranpvuM of Proceedings of the Hudson’s Bay Company with respect to | Memorandum.

the Searching for Gold in Queen Charlotte's Island.

On the 17th August 1850, Mr. Douglas writes that Mr. Chief Factor Work
had reported to him, that the natives of Queen Charlotte’s Island had discovered
gold on the west side of the island, near Englefield Bay and Cape Henry, and
that an Indian had brought a specimen to Fort Simpson. Mr. Work dispatched
Pierre Legarré and a party of Indians to the place in question, with instructions
to examine the gold district.

On the 24th February 1851, Mr. Douglas writes that Mr. Work reported that
Pierre Legarré had returned without having succeeded in reaching the gold
district, owing to the jealousy of two influential chiefs, who prevented him.
He discovered that there is a clear passage from Skiddigat on the east to Engle-
field Bay, on the west coast of the island.

Mr. Work had been unable to visit Queen Charlotte’s Island on account of
the stormy weather, but had received from Indians two pieces of gold, nearly
pure, weighing 43 and 13 ozs., and a piece of auriferous quartz, and he pro-
posed to send the steamer “ Beaver” to the gold district about the end of April,
when the weather is expected to moderate.

On the 6th August, Mr. Work reports as follows :—

“ Dear sir, “ Fort Simpson, 6 August 1851.

“Deeming it of the utmost importance that all the information that could be
collected relative to the gold mines in Queen Charlotte’s Island should be com-
municated to the Honourable Board of Directors as soon as possible, and the
return of the “ Una” being the only conveyance to Victoria before the steamer
goes down in the Fall, I determined risking a voyage in a canoe, and accord~
ingly started on the 13th May, with a crew of six men, all that could be weli
spared from the fort, four Haidai half-breed lads and two Indians; arrived safe
at the island, crossed then by Skiddigat Passage, Cartwright Sound; proceeded
along the west shore to Englefield Bay, at the south end of which the mine is
situated ; remained two days examining the place, and made four blasts in the
rocks, and returned here on the 29th, after an absence of 17 days. We narrowly

788—I. A 3 escaped