Vancouver Island and British Columbia. Their history, resources and prospects

Preface

This volume is the first that has been published in this country containing full and classified information on the various topics relating to the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. It is hoped that, at the same time, comprehensiveness has not been lost ' sight of in the grouping of details.

A few other works have already appeared ; some of which give valuable statistics bearing upon the physical and political geography, climatology, flora, fauna, and aborigines of these important dependencies. Some little has also been written on their principal resources ; but all the books that have hitherto issued from the English press on the subject put together fail, in the author's estimation, to exhibit the commercial, timber-exporting, mining, and agricultural capabilities of the colonies with the minuteness and prominence they merit. Had these points been discussed, however, in the most satisfactory manner, it is now several years since any extended account of Vancouver Island and British Columbia has been submitted to the British public, and the progress of these thriving settlements in that brief and eventful interval necessarily renders previous volumes, in many respects, out of date.

X PKEFACE.

The first chapter is in no way essential to the completeness of the work. It has, however, been deemed suitable in its present place for the twofold purpose of conveying some general idea of California, and placing our pending dispute with the American Government on the question of their occupation of the island of San Juan in a clear light. Our commercial relations with the State referred to are more intimate than with any other on the Pacific Coast; and as the auriferous mountains of British Columbia are but a continuation of the Sierra Nevada in California, the Colony and the State may be said to be connected by a community of resources. The affair of San Juan has never been fairly stated by the newspaper press of this country.

The body of the present work is intended chiefly for the perusal of merchants, statesmen, and intending emigrants ; while it is hoped that it will not be found uninteresting to general readers.

The author makes no pretensions to faultlessness of style under any circumstances ; but the limited time at his command for throwing his materials into shape precludes the possibility of any such quality here. Still, it may be accepted in partial compensation for defects of composition that he has endeavoured, to the best of his ability, to avail himself of the special advantages he enjoyed for collecting facts respecting the country of which he writes. The position he occupied for five years in the colonies afforded him opportunities of becoming acquainted, more or less, with all classes of society, from the officials of Government to the most obscure citizens ; and in view of the task he has now undertaken, he laid his friends under tribute.

PREFACE. XI

Till within the last seven years, these possessions were regarded by the people of England, for the most part, as a terra incognita, embracing a region of the globe inhospitable beyond description ; the scene of perpetual and sanguinary encounters between prowling savages and beasts of prey, and having no title to be reclaimed by industry, or visited with the benefits of civilisation. They still sustain the disadvantage of being more inconvenient of access from England than certain other distant British colonies, which are favoured to receive from year to year the tide of an emigrating population. Considering their remoteness from the parent country, the very limited knowledge of their topography, and resources still possessed by the mass of Englishmen, and the conflicting reports that have been circulated in books and newspapers respecting their adaptability for settlement, it is not surprising that the most diligent efforts to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion on the subject should sometimes end in perplexity and disappointment.

Many immigrants who have found prosperity — looking at the condition and prospects of the country exclusively from a favourable point of view — may, in some cases, have been tempted to indulge in representations too highly coloured to their friends at home. Others, having the misfortune to share a different fate, may have occasionally allowed trials to warp their judgment, and impart gloom to the expression of their opinions. These pages are written to aid in unravelling this tangled skein of contradictions, and to show that the country is neither a perfect Elysium, nor an absolute Sahara, but one which presents a field for the investment of capital and the application of

a 2

Xll PREFACE.

industry, unsurpassed in elements of wealth, in proportion to area, by any other part of the empire.

If one hindrance to the rapid advance of these colonies deserves to be specified more than another, it is the want of an emigrant route from Canada to the Rocky Mountains. The interoceanic railway scheme, so much talked of, is premature, though certain in future years to be realised. But a waggon-road, via Eed Eiver and the Saskatchewan, is practicable in every respect, as shown at length in that chapter which deals with the question ; and it is devoutly to be wished that Lord Wharncliffe, Mr. A. Mills, and other noblemen and gentlemen in both Houses of Parliament, who have recently evinced so deep and intelligent an interest in the subject of colonising the Great North West, may be induced to bring their influence to bear for the accomplishment of the object which is most urgent. Could the comparatively inexpensive communication thus sought be opened simultaneously with the proposed telegraph from Eed Eiver to British Columbia, especially now that ever-strengthening inducements to emigration across the plains are held out by the mines east and west of the Eocky Mountains, the settlement of the intervening territory would soon follow.

While acknowledging obligations to the Governments of Vancouver Island and British Columbia for the maps and blue-books they have so liberally placed at the author's disposal, thanks are due to the authorities at the Colonial Office and the Board of Trade for courtesies extended, and to those gentlemen of influence in Canada who, during his late visit there, supplied the author with valuable official documents. Acknowledgments are also

PEEPACE. Xlll

tendered to Professor Balfour, of the Edinburgh University, for an interesting contribution to the list of flora ; to the Librarian of the London Institution, for access to Government papers ; and to the Eev. E. W. Shalders, B. A., of Eochester, for useful hints suggested by his excellent taste and judgment.

London : May 1865.

CONTENTS,

Chapter I. The Voyage Out

Departure — Azores — Description of Passengers — St. Thomas, W. I. — Carthagena — Sharks — Scenes on the Isthmus — Panama — Passage to California — Acapulco — The Natives of Mexico — San Francisco — The Founding and Growth of the City — Discovery of Gold at General Sutter's Mill— Californian Life in 1849— ' Rowdyism ' — The 'Vigilance Committee' — Judge McAlmond — Present Order and Prosperity of San Francisco — Fertile Valleys — A Trip to Sacramento — State Legislature — Meeting of the 'Democratic Convention' — Mammoth Trees — American Taxation — Metallic Wealth of California — Washoe — Up the Columbia River to Portland — Oregon Fruit — Sail to the Isle of San Juan — Parley with American Officers — Origin of the Dispute between the British and American Governments; as stated from their respective Points of View.

Chapter II. Vancouver Island

TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, AND GENERAL

HISTORY.

The England of the Pacific — Straits of Fuca —The Coast Line — Geological Formation — Sooke — Esquimalt — Victoria — Islands in the Gulf of Georgia — Saanich — Cowichan — Nanaimo — Comox — Northern Extremity of the Island — Quatsino — Nootka — Barclay Sound — Pioneer Discoveries in the Pacific by the Spaniards — Balboa — Cabrillo— Ferrelo — Sir Francis Drake and his Adventures — Cavendish — Story of Juan de Fuca and his imagined Discovery of a North-East Passage — Expedition under Heceta and Quadra — Cook's Reconnoitre of the Coast — Kendrick — Berkeley — Meares — Vancouver's Mission and its Results — Grant of the Island to the Hudson's Bay Company — Their Monopoly unfavourable to Colonisation. . . 39

XVI CONTENTS.

Chapter III

THE DISCOVERY OP GOLD IN BRITISH COLUMBIA IN 1858, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE GROWTH OF VICTORIA.

Rush of Immigration— Sudden Rise in the Value of Land — Rival Cities attempted by the Americans — Unequalled Superiority of Victoria and Esquimalt Harbours — Return of faint-hearted Speculators to California, and their Maledictions — Struggles and Triumphs of Miners on the Eraser — Hardships on the New Route — Temporary Gloom of Victoria — Yield of Gold for the first four Months— State of the City in 1859— News from Quesnelle — Things looking up — The Letters of the Times' Correspondent and the Immigration of 1862 — Disappointment and Privation of the Inexperienced — Description of Victoria as it now is — Beacon Hill — Government House — Streets— Public Buildings and Associations — Newspaper -Press — Religious Bodies — Colleges and Schools — Manufactories — Joint-Stock Companies — The Municipal Council — Banks — Price of Town Lots — List of Trades and Professions. . . page 64

Chapter IV. Victoria As A Free Port

Principal Free Ports throughout the World — Results of the Free Port System in Hamburg, the Channel Islands, and Hongkong — Importance of guarding Victoria against the Introduction of Customs Duties — Proposed Union with British Columbia as affecting the Free Port Arrangement — Comparative Prospects of New Westminster and Victoria — Resolutions of the Island Legislature in regard to Union — Imports— Number and Tonnage of Vessels — Exports of Gold from 1858 to 1864 — Exports of British and French Goods to Sitka— Washington Territory — Oregon — California and Mexico — Commanding Position of Victoria as a Free Port, and the powerful Inducements it offers British Merchants for opening up Trade with the Coast of Western America — Facilities offered by Vancouver Island for Return Cargoes to China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand — Californian Opinion of Victoria as a probable Rival of San Francisco — Description of Goods suited for the Victoria Market — Rapid Increase of Population in Puget Sound — The proposed Erection of Esquimalt into the chief Naval Station of the Pacific, the Construction of a Sanitarium for invalided Naval Men, and the bearing of these Events on the Growth of Victoria 91

CONTENTS. XV11

Chapter V. General Resources Of Vancouver Island

Timber : Exports of this Article — Profits realised on it — Advantages over Canada and New Brunswick — Timber more remunerative to the common Carrier than Gold — Trade in Export of Railway Sleepers — Prices of Spars, Masts, &c. Coal : Mines at Nanaimo — Immense Consumption of Coal on the Coast — Chemical Comparison of Vancouver Island Coal with other Varieties— Imports of Coal to San Francisco — Prices — Thickness of Seam — Conveniences for Loading — Vancouver Island Pioneer Coalmining Company — Quantities shipped from Nanaimo — Report of First Annual Meeting of Directors — Other Coal Companies. Copper : Queen Charlotte Island Mine — Inspection of a Vein — Want of British Capital to develop this Source of "Wealth effectually. Magnetic Iron Ore- Limestone — Sandstone— Blue Marble — Blue Clay. Gold: First found in Queen Charlotte Island — Gold Stream — Gold discovered at Sooke — General Character of the Region — ' Prospects ' obtained — Mining ' Claims 'and ' Yields.' Fisheries: Herring — Hoolakan— Salmon — Trout — Sturgeon — Halibut — Haddock — Rock — Whales — Walrus — Foreign Markets to be supplied ...... page 131

Chapter VI. Agriculture In Vancouver Island

Remunerative Character of Agricultural Pursuits in the Colony — Climate — Soils — Farming Districts — Yield of Crops — Prices of Produce and Stock — Relation of the Free-Port System to the Question of Markets — Expense of Farm Labour — Times of Clearing, Sowing, Reaping, &c. — Terms of Agricultural Settlement -^. ; 172

Chapter VII. Bbitish Columbia

Seaboard — Sir Alexander Mackenzie — First Trading Post — Hudson's Bay Company's regime — Geological Formation .... 207

Chapter VIII. General Description Of British Columbia

Scenery in the Passage from Victoria to Fraser River — Cascade Range — New Westminster — Imports — Shipping Returns — Customs Revenue —

XV111 CONTENTS.

Rates of Duties Leviable — Government Buildings — Churches — Langley — Sumass and Chilukweyuk — Harrison River — Douglas — Diary of a Journey thence to Williams' Creek— Cariboo — Table of Distances — Hope — Yale — Rapids— Lytton— Clinton — "William's Lake — Routes via Bentinck Arm and Bute Inlet — Routes to Shuswap . . . page 215

Chapter IX. The Mines Of British Columbia

Diggings at Hope — Yale — Similkameen — OKanagan — Rock Creek — Tranquille and North Rivers — Kamaloops Lake — Quesnelle — Antler — Cariboo — Bed Rock Flume and Artesian Mining Companies — Remarkable Instances of Success— Prices at the Northern Mines — Shuswap and Kootanie Diggings — Mining Prospects on the north-west of the Praser — Mining Laws ....... 240

Chapter X. Process Of Mining

Essentials for carrying on Mining Operations successfully — The Art of ' Prospecting ' — The Use of the Rocker — Sluicing — Hydraulic Mining —

. Water Companies — The 'Flutter- wheel' — Turning a River out of its Bed — i Ground Sluicing' — Tunnelling — Quartz Mining — The Rastra — Crushing Quartz by Steam Power — ' Quartz, the Mother of Gold ' . 266

CHAPTER XL

AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Climate — Farming Capabilities — Agricultural Districts — Mr. Davidson's Experience of Farming north of the Pavilion — Yield of other Farms — Fruit —Stock-raising — Remunerative Character of Dairy Produce — Sheep — Hogs — Terms on which Land may be acquired . . . 280

Chapter XII

ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND AND BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Bears — Racoons — Marten — Mink — Skunk — Otters —Foxes — The Puma — Its Ravages — Adventure with a Puma — Wolves — Rats — Stags — Deer — Mountain Sheep — Birds op Prey, &c. — Swans, &c. — Reptiles — Flora — Scientific Names of Animals — List of Shells — Additional List of Plants . . . . . . . .297

CONTENTS. XIX

Chapter XIII. Political Statistics Of Vancouver Island And British Columbia

Grant of Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company — Governor Blanshard — Germ of the Colonial Legislature — Appointment of Governor Douglas — Disputes between Independent Colonists and the Authorities — Sources of Revenue — First Bill of Appropriation — Disproportionate Paraphernalia of Government— Rates of Taxation — Estimates for 1864 — Opposition of the Legislature to the Proposals of the Duke of Newcastle — The First Legislative Council of British Columbia — Reception of Governor Kennedy — The Question of Union between the *two Colonies — Public Expenditure of the British Columbian Government in 1863 — Check given to Immigration in 1858 by the restrictive Policy of the Colonial Government and the Hudson's Bay Company — Testimony of the Grand Jury ........ page 310

Chapter XIV

PROPOSED INTEROCEANIC RAILWAY EMIGRANT ROUTE AND TELE- GRAPH — THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE GROWTH OF THE COLONIES.

Westward, Ho ! — Trade with the East coveted by Western Nations from remotest Antiquity — The Tyrians, &c. — Alexander the Great — Antiochus — Mahomet — The Arabians — Effect of the Discovery of a Passage to India via the Cape of Good Hope — America found in the Search for the shortest Route to the East— Why has this Communication, so industriously sought, never been practically realised ? — Eastern Trade now to flow across to the American Side of the Pacific, and great Cities to grow up in its Track— The Americans preparing to receive and distribute Eastern Commerce by the Construction of an Interoceanic Railway — Would such a Line on the British Side pay ? — It must prove the shortest possible Route to Australia and China as well as British Columbia — The political Utility of the Scheme — How transcendent its Influence upon Victoria — Most eligible Tract of Country for the proposed Railway — Singular natural Features of the great Valleys through which the Line would pass, favouring its Construction — Central Position of Red River Settlement — Road via St. Paul's — Alleged Difficulties in the Way of extending the Line from Fort Garry to Canada — Railway Enterprise not likely to take immediate Effect — Emigrant Route imperatively demanded — The Course it should take from Lake Superior — How are the territorial Rights of the Hudson's Bay Company to be adjusted? — Dr. Rae and the Telegraph — Climate and Soil of the Country between Canada and

XX CONTENTS.

British Columbia — The Adaptability of Ked Eiver and Saskatchewan for Colonisation — The Gold Discoveries East of the Rocky Mountains and their Attractions — Passes in the Range — Lord Milton's Journey — Distances from Lake Superior to Cariboo — Strides of Russia in Opening up Water and Telegraphic Communication between the Amoor River, Sitka, and St. Petersburg — Designs of Napoleon III. in Relation to Mexico and Trade in the Pacific — By whom is the desired Route to be formed ? — Note ........ page 334

Chapter XV. Society In Vancouver Island And British Columbia

.Varieties of Race represented in Victoria — Tschudi's Classification of Human Hybrids — The ultimate Effect of present heterogeneous Mixture of Types upon the Character of the Population — Civil Disabilities imposed on Negroes and Chinamen in California, to discourage their Residence — Missionary Labour among the Chinese — Visit to a Buddhist Temple — Address of the Chinese of Victoria to the Governor — Condition of the Negroes — Differences between them and the Whites — Sir James Douglas —Verdant Simplicity of New Comers — English and American Ladies compared — Tone of Society in 1859 — Defalcations of Government Officials — Escapade of a Quack — ' Widows' and their Adventures — Temptations of Young Men — The 'Skedaddler' — Excitement of Colonial Life and its Effect on the Brain— Intelligence of the Community— The social Pyramid inverted — Life at the Mines — Miners' Ten Commandments . . 378

Chapter XVI. The Indians Of Vancouver Island And British Columbia

Theories as to their Origin — Their probable Migration from Asia — Names and Occupations of Tribes — Their Ideas of Rank — The 'Potlatch' — Feasts — Dramatic Exhibitions — Mysteries of ' Kluquolla ' — Election of a ' Medicine Man ' — Cannibals — Converse with the Man in the Moon — Doctors and the Healing Art — Incantation — Witchcraft — Ideas of Beauty — Treating for Peace — An Indian Village - — Gambling — Heraldry — Credulity — Courtship and Marriage — Sepulture — Burning the Dead — Catching Grasshoppers — Rain Making — Tradition of the Creation — The Yale and his Doings — The Flood — The Sim-moquis — Theory of Thunder and Lightning — Religious Beliefs of the Fishing Tribes — Treachery and Bloodthirstiness of the Indians — Massacres of Whites — Exciting Encounter of Sir J. Douglas— Catholic Missions to the Natives — The Sign of the Cross — Awkward Predicament of Bishop Hills — Papal ' Self-interpreting Bible' — Protestant Mission to the Tchimseans— Good Work of

CONTENTS. XXI

Mr. Duncan — The Opposition of Medicine Parties — Establishment of Met-la-kat-lah — Treatment of Unreformed ' Tillicums ' — Government and Prosperity of the Native Settlement — Ingenuity of the Tribes — Civilisation and Evangelisation should go hand in hand — Rapid Diminution and threatened Extinction of Primitive Tribes — Paces not likely to disappear have the first Claim upon Missionaries — Chances of a barbarous People surviving ..... page 423

Chapter XVII. Emigration

Inducements offered — Classes encouraged to Emigrate — Capitalists wanted — Manufactures that might be introduced — Climate inviting to retired Officers and Men of moderate Means — Openings for respectable Females — Dancing round a Bonnet — Cautions to Emigrants — Rates of "Wages — Prices — Routes from England — Hints as to Choice of Vessel and Outfit — — Hindrances to colonial Progress — Necessity for direct Postal Communication with England — Claims of young Colonies on the Aid of England — Trade for an English Steamer in the North Pacific — Contrast between the United States and England in their Care for New Territories — Error of the Government in disposing of Irish Emigration — Emigration the most important Question of the Day .... 493