Xil. Introduction.

to-day, another salute of seventeen guns was fired from the battlements,
with even a grander effect than the salute of the previous day.

“On leaving the river-side in front of the town, a number of the
inhabitants were assembled with whom His Excellency entered into
conversation previous to embarking on board the ‘ Beaver,’ and by
whom he was loudly cheered in very good style as he was on his way

to the steamer. “i e
VIATOR.

The letters that are in this volume consist of a part of the corre-
spondence of Richard Hicks from October, 1858, to May, 1859; of
Chartres Brew, the Chief Inspector of Police and Assistant Chief Gold
Commissioner, from November, 1858, to April, 1859; of Judge Begbie
from January, 1859, to March, 1859; together with a few scattered but
illuminating documents. The selection, however, has been carefully
made with the view of showing the men and the life of the time, the
difficulties of maintaining order and collecting revenue, and generally
the conditions prevailing in the Colony of British Columbia—that is,
on Fraser River—when it was in its swaddling-clothes.

The papers open, naturally, with Governor Douglas’s speech to
the miners at Yale in September, 1858. That address gives a concise
outline of some of the problems he had to face. It shows the Governor
in a unique role. The occasion of his visit to Yale was the troubles
that had occurred between the gold-seekers and the Indians. The
latter desired to monopolize the mining and were jealous of their rights
as the original occupants, while the miners were extremely arrogant
and acted as though the natives had no claims whatever and were their
natural enemies, and that, as one expressed it, “ the only good Indians
are the dead ones.” Fire-arms and fire-water fed the flames of incip-
ient trouble, and soon the natives became so threatening that the whites
who had ascended the canyons were forced to flee for their lives.
Some, who were unable to escape, were killed, and their bodies, in
some instances scalped, came floating down the turbulent river.
A punitive expedition of over one hundred volunteers was organized
by the gold-seekers and dispatched towards Lytton. This display of
force, aided by a little diplomacy, brought an amicable understanding.
When the news of this disturbance reached Governor Douglas, late in
August, 1858, he, supported by Colonel Hawkins and fifteen of the
Royal Engineers of the boundary survey with twenty marines from
H.M.S. “ Satellite,” set out at once to preserve order in the Fraser
River mines. But before his arrival there peace had been concluded.

Mr. Hicks, some of whose letters are reproduced, was a complete
failure in his position as a Crown officer. This was not altogether