60 The Fraser River Mines.

CORRESPONDENCE OF CHARTRES BREW FROM
NOVEMBER, 1858, TO APRIL, 1859.

VICTORIA, VANCOUVER’S ISLAND,
11th November, 1858.

Sir,—I have the honor to inform your Excellency that, having
been appointed Head of the Police Department in British Columbia by
the Right Honourable Sir E. B. Lytton, Bart., Secretary of State for
the British Colonies, I embarked on the 4th of September last at
Southampton in the steamship “ Austria” for New York to proceed
across the Isthmus of Panama to Victoria. I arrived here on the
8th inst., on which day I had the honor of presenting myself to your
Excellency.?

I presume Your Excellency is informed that my salary was fixed
at £500 a year; half pay to commence on the day I embarked and
my full pay to commence on the dav I reported myself to Your Excel-
lency. I received in London £150 for my passage-money and expenses
out to the Colony, and I received an advance of pay of one hundred
and fifty pounds less income-tax.

The steamer in which I left Southampton was burned at sea on
the 13th of September, 4 days’ sail from New York. By this dis-
aster I lost all my property, all my money, and all my papers—amongst
the last a despatch from the Colonial Office addressed to your Excel-
lency. I escaped from the burning ship with nothing but the clothes
on my person, and these were torn to shreds in my struggles to save
myself. I was rescued by a French ship and on the following day got
on board a vessel bound for Halifax, N.S., at which port we landed on
the 27th of September.

In the absence of the Governor the Executive Council in Halifax
advanced me £100, for which sum I gave my acknowledgment. This
seasonable loan enabled me to start immediately for my destination,
and notwithstanding the misfortune with which I met, and that after
my escape I was 14 days in a sailing-ship and was taken out of
my way to Halifax, I arrived here only 10 days later than the party
of the Royal Engineers which sailed from England on the 2nd of
September, two days before I left.?

(1) In a letter, dated July 31, 1858, Lytton notified Douglas that he was sending out an
experienced inspector of police to aid in the formation of a police force in the Colony of British
Columbia. This is one of the many evidences of the great interest that Lytton took in the
organization of the colony.

(2) On November 9, 1858, Douglas reported to Lytton the arrival of Mr. Brew.

(3) Captain Parsons and his party of twenty men of the Royal Engineers, who arrived at
Victoria on October 29, 1858.