SESSION 1907-8 HISTORICAL PAPERS EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC -F. C. WADE, K.C. THE SEARCH FOR THE FRASER BY SEA AND LAND. -JUDGE HOWAY. HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. -WALTER MOBERLY, C.E. ART, HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION VANCOUVER B.C. Art, Historical and Scientific Association. Session 1907-8. Historical Papers : EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. F. C. WADE, K.C. THE SEARCH FOR THE FRASER BY SEA AND LAND. JUDGE HOWAY. HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. WALTER MOBERLY, C.E. THE CLARKE & STUART CO., LTD., PRINTERS VANCOUVER, B. C (§f&mB of Art, ijtst0nrai m\h S Btxmtxfxt AsHnriaifatu F. C. WADE, K.C., President MRS. H. A. MELLON, 1st Vice-President DR. G. W. BOGGS, 2nd Vice-President H. J. DeFOREST, Secretary MRS. J. M. WHITEHEAD, Treasurer MRS. D. McGILLIVRAY . MRS. HENRY BOAK *# PROF. E. ODLUM 8§P MR. J. L. KERR HBH MR. WM. DALTON MISS E. P. EDGE MRS. J. MACAULAY MR. J. KYLE, A.R.C.A. MR. A. E. GOODMAN CAPT. H. A. MELLON MR. R. WALLER SI'-BHSfl MAYOR A. BETHUNE ||| ALD. CAVANAGH ALD. JOHN McMILLAN 1 ^ & BY F. C. WADE, K.C. HE earliest discoveries on both the Pacific and Atlantic seaboards are to some extent shrouded in mystery. 'The true sources of history," says Prof. Wrong, "lie somewhere in the wonderland of myth and tradition. Canadian history seems to have its proper beginning in that vague atmosphere, colored with adventure and romance, which surrounds the westward voyagings of the Northmen." Is it true that when Harold Harfager in the ninth century undertook to feudalise Norway, the Vikings fled to the Faroes and Iceland, and that finally about 986 A. D., Eric the Red established a great colony in Greenland ? Is it true that Beorn was swept from Greenland far to the west and south till he sighted unknown shores ? Is it true that Leif Erickson was impelled by Beorn's talk to undertake the expedition about 1 000 A. D. which landed him at Stoneland, Bush- land and Vineland in succession, and are these places represented to-day by Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia or Massachusetts? There are the Icelandic sagas recording the adventures of Eric, and Leif and Thorfin, but after them, all is silent for nearly five centuries Similarly on the Pacific seaboard, it is difficult to separate history and tradition. An Arab merchant named Sulaiman, who visited China in EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. the ninth century, declared that he had sailed upon the new ocean. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Marco Polo and his successors sailed for the East and discovered an ocean of unknown extent which they partially explored. All is uncertain with regard to Sulaiman, and there is not much that is definite with regard to Marco Polo and his successors. However uncertain these early stories of discovery may be, they are always interesting as well as perplexing in view of the events which followed. In the Middle Ages the eyes of the world were turned towards the East. All commerce and enterprise tended towards India. It was to find a safer and shorter sea route to India that the Spanish Court in 1492 equipped Columbus with a fleet to explore the Atlantic Ocean. When John Cabot sailed to Alexandria for spices, he made up his mind to find out where these came from. He pushed on to Mecca, only to find that the caravans there had been loaded from other caravans from further east* and those from others coming from remoter regions. He decided to face about and go the other way, confident that the east coast of Asia could best be reached by a voyage from England across the Western Ocean. In the Summer of 1 493, word came to England that Columbus, with three Spanish ships, had reached the Indies. On June 24th, 1497, Cabot reached the most easterly point of Cape Breton Island and took possession in the name of King Henry VII. Like Columbus, he believed he had landed on the coast of Asia, and on his second voyage he determined to go further down the coast to Cipango, where would be found the source of the spices and precious stones brought by the caravans to Mecca. Columbus soon found that he had discovered, not an archipelago as he had at first thought, but a vast continent. It was not Asia, however. On 29th September, 1513, the Spaniard Balboa, while exploring the Isthmus of Panama, got his first glimpse of the great ocean lying to the west, and on the 27th November, 1 520, Magellan turned the southern point of South America and sailed through the straits now called after him and out on to the bosom of the Mar Pacifico, the Peaceful Sea, the Pacific Ocean. Likf Balboa, Sir Francis Drake saw the great new ocean from the Isthmus of Panama, and was the first Englishman to sail upon its waters, which he did in September, 1577. In 1592, Apostolos Valerianos, or Juan de Fuca, a Greek navigator in the service of Spain, sailed far up the west coast and claimed to have discovered a passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, a claim which gave a name to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. With the story of Juan de Fuca begins the history of the search for the northwest passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic, which continued during nearly three centuries, and was only solved when Sir John Franklin found that the channel existed to the far North, where Polar ice made it commercially useless. The portion of the New World bordering on the North Pacific Ocean was discovered much later than any other part of the North American torrid and temperate zones. It was much more remote from Europe and could be reached only by doubling Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. By 1 697, however, the Russians had crossed EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. Siberia and reached Kamschatka. In 1 728-29, Behring was able to prove the separation of the continents as high as 67 degrees on the coast of Asia. Next year he struck out for land to the eastward, but after sa'ling 50 leagues east, gave up the attempt, and returned to Okhotsk, and afterwards to St. Petersburg. In June, 1741, Behring and TchirikofF set sail in two vessels, and the former finally came in sight of land in 58 degrees 28 minutes north latitude, and the latter in latitude 56 degrees. It is not clear that either Behring or Tchirikoff reached the Mainland. Behring had been sent out by the Empress Anne of Russia, and with him were the academicians, Delile de la Crayere, Muller, the historian of the expedition, and others. He discovered the strait which bears his name as well as numerous islands, and also sighted Cape or Mount St. Elias, which he so named from having discovered it on the day of the feast of the saint. It is claimed by Muller that Tchirikoff reached the Mainland, but as Muller's map shows no islands, it is supposed that he had landed on an island, mistaking it for the Mainland. Private expeditions followed as early as 1745. From 1741 to 1 748, many Russian voyages were made to the Aleutian, Fox and Andreanovski Islands, and the Alaskan Peninsula. In 1 763 Glottof, a trader, reached Kadiack Island. In 1 764 to 1 768, Synd, a lieutenant of the Russian navy sailed up the coast to Behring Strait. "If," exclaims the Chevalier de Poletica in a letter to the Secretary of State at Washington, February 28th, 1 822, "the Imperial Government had at the time published the discoveries made by the Russian navigators after Behring and Tchirikoff, viz.: Chlodiloff, Serebreanicoff, Krasehm- coff, Paycoff, Pouscareff, LazerefF, Medivedeff, Solowief, Lewasheff, Kremstein, and others, no one could refuse to Russia the right of first discovery, nor could anyone deny her that of first occupation." It will, perhaps, occur to most of us that the publication of the names alone without the exploits of the discoverers is sufficiently severe. The victories of Cortez in Mexico in 1 520 and Pizarro's conquest of Peru in 1 526, firmly established Spain on the shores of the Pacific, and it would have been strange if Spain had passed unnoticed the extension of Russian influences along the northwest coast. In 1 774 Perez was despatched from Mexico on a voyage of exploration and reached the southern coast of Alaska. It was the contention by Martinez that Perez, long before Cook, was the first to anchor in Nootka Sound, that caused the dispute which afterwards led to the Nootka affair. In the following year, 1775, Heceta, instructed by the Viceroy of Mexico, explored the coast as far north as the 57th or 58th degree of latitude, taking possession of that part of the continent in the name of Spain. ENTRANCE OF CAPTAIN COOK It is at this stage, 1 778, that we first encounter the name of Captain Cook in the Pacific Coast history. The circumstances under which Captain Cook was persuaded to undertake his third voyage or discovery are described by Mr. Ernest Rhys, the editor of "Everyman's Library." Some of the most distinguished naval characters were invited EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. to meet Captain Cook at the house of Lord Sandwich, who then presided over the Board of Admiralty. Captain Cook was then invested with the command. His instructions were to proceed to the Pacific Ocean, and thence make his way into the Atlantic, along the northern coast of America, in whatever latitude the passage might be found to lie. A reward of £20,000 was offered by Parliament for the discovery of such passage northward of the 52nd degree of north latitude. The "Resolution and "Discovery" were at once equipped anri placed at Captain Cook's disposal. Setting sail on June 25 th, 1776, and after some time spent in the South Pacific, he commenced his northern expedition in January, 1 778, and sighted the coast of America in March of that year. He first reached the west coast in latitude 44 degree 55 minutes, north, longitude 135 degrees 54 minutes east, near a point he called Cape Fairweather, on Saturday, March 7th. Proceeding north he, on Sunday, March 22nd, reached and named Cape Flattery at the entrance to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. On March 29th he reached a sound on the western boundary of British Columbia, and of Vancouver Island, which he named King George's Sound, but which he afterwards found was called Nootka Sound by the "natives. He anchored in eighty-five fathoms of water, so near the shore as to reach it with a hawser. Next morning he looked for a suitable harbor, and found one in the northwest of the arm he was then in. Here he remained till the 1 8th of the following month of April, interviewing Indians, repairing his ships and securing wood and water as well as grass for his cattle. He then made a series of excursions among the people on the island, first going to the west point where he found a large village. Finding that his ship was anchored in the lee of an island, he proceeded to the north of the island and visited the mainland. Next day with Captain A. M. Clerke he again visited the village at this west point of the sound. On the afternoon of April 26th, after nearly a month spent at Nootka Sound and on the shores of British Columbia adjoining, during which time he made a careful study of the country and the conditions existing in it, as well as of the inhabitants themselves, he again put to sea and continued his course to the north. In the account of the voyage a full and very detailed description is given of the appearance, customs and habits of the nat.ves and a general description is furnished of "the land bordering upon the sea coast as well as that within the Sound." The native trees are partially enumerated. A list of quadrupeds is made up from the skins which the natives brought to sell. The sea animals are also described, as well as the fish and birds of the coast. Returning to winter at the Sandwich Islands, in order to continue his explorations of the Northern Pacific in the following Summer, he met with his tragic death there on February 14th, 1 779. Captain Cook was, therefore, the first British subject to set foot on the shores of British Columbia. He was the first to explore the coast from 40 of north latitude as far as the region of Prince William Sound. Under his expedition and for the first time the main outlines of the north- 15 EARLtf NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. west coast of America were correctly traced. He was the first to take possession of what is now British Columbia in the name of England, and as has already been pointed out, he was the first to observe the country and its inhabitants, and was our original geographer and historian. As his description of Nootka Sound, the adjoining coast, and the native Indians contains the first words with reference to British Columbia and its aborigines ever uttered in the English language, it must be read with peculiar interest by every inhabitant of this Province; it is in part as follows: "On the 2d of February we stood away to the northward, and without meeting with anything memorable, on the 7th of March the long-looked for coast of *New Albion was seen, extending from N. E. to S. E., distant ten or twelve leagues. The land appeared to be of a moderate height, diversified with hills and valleys, and almost everywhere covered with wood. "After coasting along and combating contrary winds, on the 29th we anchored in eight-five fathoms water, so near the shore as to reach it with a hawser. 'We no sooner drew near the inlet than we found the coast to be inhabited, and three canoes came off to the ship. In one of these were two men, in another six, and in the third ten. Having come pretty near us, a person in one of the two last stood up and made a long harangue, inviting us to land, as we guessed by his gestures. At the same time he kept strewing handfuls of feathers towards us, and some of his companions threw handfuls of red dust or powder in the same manner. The person who performed the office of orator wore the skin of some animal, and held in each hand something which rattled as he kept shaking it. After the tumultuous oration had ceased, one of them sung a very agreeable air, with a degree of softness and melody which we could not have expected. In a short time the canoes began to come off in great numbers; and we had at one time thirty-two of them near the ship, carrying from three to seven or eight persons each, both men and women. Several of these stood up in their canoes haranguing and making gestures, after the manner of our first visitors. One canoe was remarkable for a singular head, which had a bird's eye and bill of an enormous size painted on it, who seemed to be a chief, was no less remarkable for his uncommon appearance, having many feathers hanging from his head, and being painted in an extraordinary manner. He held in his hands a carved bird of wood, as large as a pigeon, with which he rattled, as the person first mentioned had done; and was no less vociferous in his harangue, which was attended with some expressive gestures." In 1 779 Spain sent another expedition under Arteaga and Quadra to explore the coast north of 55 and westward to Mount St. Elias. In 1 783 the first attempt was made to establish a Russian trading post at Prince William Sound on the American mainland. In 1 748 Shelikoff reached Unalaska and Kadiak Island. In 1 785 and 1 786 Captain Hanna entered into the trade between .EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. the northwest coast and China for which Captain Cook had prepared" the way. He was followed by the expedition of Captain Peters in the same year. Portlock and Dixon in 1786, Barclay in 1787, Meares in 1 787, 1 788 and 1 789, and Vancouver in 1 792-4. Portlock and D:xon visited many ports now in the coast line of British Columbia, and in 1 788 at Nootka Meares built for use in the fur trade the "North- West America," the first vessel ever constructed on the coast of the northwest part of America. Bancroft, in his history of Alaska, thus describes the events of the trip: 'The events of 1 787-88 must have been puzzling to the natives of Prince William Sound. Englishmen under the English flag, Englishmen under the Portuguese flag, Spaniards and Russians were cruising about, often within a few miles of each other, taking possession for one nation or the other of all the land in sight." In 1 789 at least twelve vessels were trading on the Northwest Coast. All were in search of skins. In 1 792 quite twenty-eight vessels were reported on the coast, half of them in the fur trade. Vancouver gives a list of twenty-one vessels for that year, made up as follows: English, six; East Indies, two; China, three; United States, seven; Portugal, two; France, one. We now come to 1 791 and the explorations of Post Captain George Vancouver, R. N. ^^11 CAPTAIN VANCOUVER'S VOYAGE. Captan Vancouver was born in 1 758. Captain Cook appointed him to the "Resolution" in the Autumn of 1771. He also accompanied Captain Cook in his second (1772-74) and third (1776-79) voyages of discovery, and was his midshipman on his third and last voyage, when Nootka was visited and British Columbia discovered. In December, 1 790, he was made commander of the "Discovery" and despatched to Nootka Sound "to receive back in form the territory which the Spaniards had seized," and to continue the search for a northwest passage. He was specially instructed to ascertain whether the Strait of Juan de Fuca really was a strait. Accompanied by Lieutenant Broughton he left Falmouth on April 1st, 1791. He sighted the American Coast at 39 degrees 27 minutes north latitude (California) on April 1 8th, 1 792, and proceeded with his examination and survey of the Coast and also of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. His discoveries, after passing up the Strait of Juan de Fuca and through King George's Sound, are particularly interesting to citizens of Vancouver. On June 13th he reached a point, which out of compliment to his friend Captain Grey, of the Navy, he called Point Grey, about three leagues from Point Roberts. The same day and the next in the boats of the "Discovery" he proceeded to an examination of what are now the First Narrows and Burrard Inlet. The narrative (Voyages, Vol. 1, pp. 300 et seq.) is as follows: "From Point Grey we proceeded first up the Eastern branch of the Sound, where, about a league within its entrance, we passed to the EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. northward of an island which nearly terminated its extent, forming a passage from 10 to 7 fathoms deep, not more than a cable's length m width. This island lying exactly across the canal appeared to form a similar passage to the south of it, with a smaller island lying before it. From these islands, the canal, in width about half a mile, continued its direction about east. Here we were met by about fifty Indians in their canoes, who conducted themselves with the greatest decorum and civility, presenting us with several fish cooked and undressed, of the sort already mentioned as resembling the smelt. These good people finding we were inclined to make some return for their hospitality, showed much understanding in preferring iron to copper. "For the sake of the company of our new friends, we stood under easy sail, which encouraged them to attend us some little distance up the arm. The major part of the canoes twice paddled forward, assembled before us, and each time a conference was held. Our visit and appearance were most likely the objects of their consultation, as our motions on these occasions seemed to engage the whole of their attention. The subject matters which remained a profound secret to us, did not appear of an unfriendly nature to us, as they soon returned, and, if possible, expressed additional cordiality and respect. "We landed for the night about half a league from the head of the inlet and about three leagues from its entrance. Our Indian visitors remained with us until by signs we gave them to understand we were going to rest, and after receiving some acceptable articles they retired, and by means of the same language promised an abundant supply of fish the next morning. "A great desire was manifested by these people to imitate our actions, especially in firing a musket. * * | They minutely attended to all our actions, and examined the color of our skins with infinite curiosity. They possessed no European commodities or trinkets, except some rude ornaments apparently made from sheet copper; this circumstance and the general tenor of their behavior, gave us reason to conclude that we were the first people from a civilized country they had yet seen. "The shores in this situation were formed by steep, rocky cliffs, that afforded no convenient space for pitching our tent, which compelled us to sleep in the boat. "Tuesday 1 4th.—Perfectly satisfied with our researches in this branch of the sound, at four the next morning we retraced our passage in, leaving on the northern shore a small opening extending to the northwest with two little islets before it of little importance. "As we passed the situation from whence the Indians had first visited us (note—Capilano Creek) the preceding day, which is a small border of low marshy land on the northern shore, intersected with several creeks of fresh water, we were in expectation of their company, but were disappointed, owing to our travelling so early in the morning. * * . * Two canoes came off as we passed the island, but our boats being under full sail, with a favorable breeze, I was not inclined to halt. 10 EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. *This canal after Sir Harry Burrard of the Navy I have distinguished by the name of 'Burrard's Canal.' I make no apology for quoting this portion "of the narrative in full, as it contans the first words ever printed in the English tongue descriptive of the beautiful inlet upon the shores of which our noble City of Vancouver has grown up. It is unnecessary, perhaps, to refer more elaborately to the work of Captain Vancouver. In 1 792 he examined the coast northward to Fitz Hugh Sound, returning to the Sandwich Islands for the Winter. In 1 793, from Cape Mendocino he proceeded to Nootka, where he had formerly visited with Captain Cook in February, 1 778, fifteen years before, and thence north to Fitz Hugh Sound, exploring the southeastern portion of Alaska. In 1 794 he explored Cook's Inlet, Prince William Sound, Kadiak, and the Coast extending to Yakutat Bay. He took possession of the coast southward from Cross Sound (latitude 58 degrees) in the name of Great Britain. Returning to England he died in 1 798 and is buried in the churchyard of the quaint little St. Peter's, Petersham, Surrey. On contemplating the view from Petersham Hill earlier in the same year he had exclaimed: "In all my travels, I never clapt eyes on a more beautiful spot than this! Here would I live, and here would I die." It will not be amiss to quote from the "Lines on the View from Petersham Hill" by W. H. Oxley and E. Kirk, particularly the reference to the Church of St. Peter's: "Would ye the spreading cedars see? Magnolias, or the tulip tree And shrubs of other clime? Or quaff a goblet from the spring? Or to the jaded memory bring A church of olden time? Then through the wood, the hill descend, And kindly your attention lend To view this old world spot, The Beadle, in his robes of state, Awaite your advent at the gate Which guards this hallowed plot. Here courtiers, statesmen, cavaliers, The Perms, Vancouver, Berrys, peers, And peasants long since dead, With Indians from some far off shore Proud Lauderdale, and many more Rest in their quiet bed." It is unnecessary to carry the narrative further. By Vancouver's time the Pacific had already become a more or less frequented highway. Those who came after him can scarcely be included in the list of early navigators. EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. 11 After completing the long procession of explorers from Balboa to Vancouver (Portuguese, Spaniards, Russians, French, Americans and British) our attention is drawn chiefly to Captain Cook and Captain Vancouver. This is not because they were prior to all others in the discovery of British Columbia and Burrard Inlet. If Juan de Fuca's claim is well founded, he sailed as far north as Vancouver Island and the Straits now called after him, in 1592, nearly two centuries before Captain Cook. Vancouver utterly rejected the de Fuca "tradition," as he called it, and Mr. George Davidson, editor of the Pacific Coast "Pilot," stigmatizes the whole story as a fabrication. If Juan de Fuca did not find such a strait, he certainly made a shrewd guess when he located it within a degree of where it actually exists to-day. The Juan de Fuca puzzle has gone through centuries without solution, and will no doubt continue to be an interesting problem for centuries to come. Then there is the further Spanish claim that in 1 774, four years before the arrival of Captain Cook in these northern waters, Juan Perez sailing from Monterey in the "Santiago," sighted a harbor at 49.35 degrees, to which he gave the name of San Lorenzo, and which afterwards became known as San Lorenzo de Nootka, or Nootka. The word Nootka is an Indian addition, and is the only name by which the harbor is known to-day. In his narrative Captain Vancouver quite ignores Juan Perez, and as has been before pointed out, it was the claim for Perez put forward by Martinez which led to the dispute followed by the Nootka seizures in 1789. Whatever the Spanish claims may amount to, Captain Cook was certainly the first Britisher to discover the shores of British Columbia and take possession of them in the name of England. He was the first British subject who conversed with her original inhabitants and studied her conditions. He was our first geographer and historian. Captain Vancouver appears just as certainly to have been the first discoverer of Burrard Inlet. Apart from all their well earned fame as navigators and discoverers, to them is due the fact that the great and glorious Province of British Columbia is a portion of the British Empire. But this is not the only reason why we owe a great debt of gratitude to Captain Cook. He was with that great Empire builder, General Wolfe at Quebec, and was selected to make the soundings of the St. Lawrence opposite the French Camp at Montmorency and Beauport. The work had to be done at night and was attended with great difficulty and danger. How completely and heroically he performed it is well known. It was he also who made the soundings of the St. Lawrence below Quebec and prepared a complete chart of the river. In • 1 762 he took part in the recapture of Newfoundland. In 1 763 he surveyed St. Pierre and Miquelon, and in 1 764 as Marine Surveyor of Newfoundland and Labrador, he surveyed their coasts. Later on he explored the interior of Newfoundland. As British Columbia represents the British Pacific Coast, it is peculiarly appropriate that any recognition of the famous services of these two great British explorers should receive the fullest support of the people of this Province. In August, 1903, the Washington University State Historical Society erected a granite monument at Friendly 12 EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. Cove, Nootka, to mark the spot where Vancouver and Quadra met in August, 1 792, under the treaty between Spain and Great Britain of October, 1 790. In this event the Canadian people participated to the extent of foregoing the duty on the monolith. Lord Grey in a recent address stated that he was surprised to find in Canada a disposition to neglect, or at any rate, not to perpetuate in permanent form the memories of our heroes. It is only necessary to look to the field of Waterloo and some other places to be convinced that the fault is perhaps not Canadian so much as it is a fault of the race. Wolfe made a British Empire on this continent possible, but there is not as much as a tablet from Canada over his grave at Greenwich, to show that his memory is treasured in the hearts of our people. Cook and Vancouver made the British Empire possible on the Pacific Coast, but what have we done to honor their illustrious memories? The tercentenary of the arrival of Champlain in Quebec will be celebrated shortly by the consecration of the Plains of Abraham on which General Wolfe won his immortal victory. The project has been taken hold of by the Governor-General of Canada, is enthusiastically supported by His Majesty the King, and will be advanced in every way by the Dominion Government, and doubtless by the various Provinces of Canada. But there are other victories than those gained by the sword, and the exploits of Captain Cook and Captain Vancouver were bloodless conquests of the unknown sea and land which gave to Canada 7,000 miles of coast line on the Pacific Ocean and this the most beautiful of the sisters in Confederation. Considerably over a century has gone by since these great events were enacted. There is a monument to Vancouver surmounting the dome of the Parliament Buildings at Victoria, but no recognition of Captain Cook who discovered the island which bears Vancouver's name. Outside of this there is the monolith erected to Vancouver and Quadra at Nootka by United States citizens, and a mountain near Port Mulgrave called Mount Cook by the United States Coast Survey. There was a street in Victoria called after Captain Cook, but some time ago a petition was got up by some enlightened citizens to change its name. From time to time it has been proposed that steps should be taken to immortalize the memories of Captain Cook and Captain Vancouver. The Canadian Club strongly favors some such project and at the last meeting of the directors of the Art Historical and Scientific Society, it was proposed and unanimously resolved that the object could best be carried out by the erection of a building of classical design which would serve as a museum and art gallery, and would also contain rooms for lectures and demonstrations of interest and utility to the public. The suggestion is that it should be called the Cook-Vancouver Museum and Art Gallery, or by some name which would forever keep green the exploits of these great navigators. Monuments or a monument to the great explorers should also, it is thought, be erected either in a public square before such a building or elsewhere if thought advisable. The project may at first sight seem an ambitious one. It need not, however, cost as much as a bridge .or an unimportant public work. It is because in a new country our expenditures are all in the direction of EARLY NAVIGATORS OF THE PACIFIC. 13 construction and development that any moderate amount expended otherwise than on actual necessities seems extravagant. In older countries even small towns do not hesitate over a considerable expenditure for patriotic or artistic purposes. From even the most practical point of view, though, it can be easily demonstrated that money so expended is rapidly returned many times over. The city which contains something to arrest the attention of the tourist and traveller possesses a far greater earning power than the one which scorns beauty and adornment. A museum well supplied and comfortably housed and a picture gallery of moderate pretensions would prolong the stay of everyone who comes here a day or so at least. I was told by a celebrated English artist this summer that Canadian pictures have a character and atmosphere of their own that render them very valuable, and that he was astonished to find so little appreciation of their value in the Dominion. Away off in Northern Germany I have seen a collection of Indian work and curiosities from our own coast here a thousand times superior to anything existing in Canada. At Ottawa they have at last realized the importance of a great national museum, which is now in course of construction. The activity in the Archives Department shows a tardy appreciation of the historical side of our development. A commission has also been appointed with power to select and purchase from time to time pictures for the nation. If the Provincial Government, the City and the various public-spirited organizations, as well as citizens, could be got to actively undertake the proposed museum and picture gallery, what better way could be devised for celebrating the memories of our great navigators, Cook and Vancouver? ^ & i> « t t ? raseir ^ ^ ^ BY CLI HOWAY. =4 WO great desires compelled the explorers of northern America during the 1 7 th and 18th centuries —to discover the Northwest Passage and the Great River of the West. The search for these weaves itself into the history of British Columbia; indeed, that search is for many years its history. From the earliest times, vague rumors of the existence of a great river rising in the east and vanishing into the sunset are recorded by successive explorers. In 1673, when Pere Marquette and Sieur Joliet, first of Europeans, floated down the Mississippi, they were assured by the natives that beyond the sources of the Riviere des Missouris, there existed a large river which flowed into the Western Sea. This is the first reference to the River of the West Although that river proved to be the Columbia, the search for it is interesting, as in groping for it the Fraser was discovered. As this search progresses, we find truth and fiction skilfully combined, gross exaggeration, and pure romance. For example, La Hon- tan tells us that in travelling up the "Long River" (which no one has since seen) he met four Indians, who told him of the River of the West. He states that, "All they could say was that the great river of that nation runs along westward, and that the salt lake into which it flows is three hundred league in circumference and thirty in breadth, its mouth stretching a great way southward." This is manifestly fiction, pure and simple. i-r.. 16 THE SEARCH FOR THE FRASER BY SEA AND LAND. In 1 742, Pierre Gauthier de Varennes, Sieur de la Varendrye, the most energetic of the French explorers, heard of this river from the natives he met near the Shining Mountains. From their reports he believed that the sea was visible from the mountains' summits, and that the course of the Great River must therefore be quite short. We are prone to forget that while the Hudson's Bay Company clung to shores of their inland sea, this great Frenchman carried the name and the flag of France even to the base of the Rocky Mountains. For almost a hundred years the river so anxiously sought was known simply as the Great River of the West, but in 1 766 Capt. Jonathan Carver, of Connecticut, spent some months in the neighborhood of what is now St. Paul, among the Dacotah Indians, by him called the Naudowessie. From them, "together with my own observations," he says, "I have learned that the four most capital rivers on the continent of North America, viz., the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the River Bourbon and the Oregon or River of the West, have, their sources in the same neighborhood. ' Henceforward the river is called the Oregon. I pause to remark that not only the brave captain's information, but his observation also, was much at fault. The spirit of trade rivalry between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North-West Company of Montreal caused the latter to seek new territory, to whose exclusive trade its opponents could not by any possible construction of its elastic but much-attacked charter, lay claim. The story of the Oregon was known to the Nor' Westers, who saw in it a possibility of avoiding the thousands of miles of inland travel which so increased both the cost and the danger of transport. After Alexander Mackenzie, one of their bourgeois, had made his celebrated voyage to the Arctic Ocean, and opened up trade possibilities in that direction, it was agreed at the annual meeting of the company at Fort William that he should be sent westward to explore the country and report on the opportunities for traffic with the natives. Early in May, 1 793, Mackenzie started from Fort Fork, on Peace River, where he had spent the winter. He pursued his journey up the Peace to its source, crossed over a divide 81 7 paces in length and found himself on a small stream flowing westward. Following this, Bad River as he named it, he on the 1 7th of June, 1 793, saw the river we now call Fraser. He says: "At length we enjoyed after all our toil and anxiety the inexpressible satisfaction of finding ourselves on the bank of a navigable river on the west side of the first great range of mountains." In his narrative Mackenzie at first simply calls this river the Great River; later on he speaks of it as the Tacoutche Tesse, which the Rev. Father Morice suggests is his reproduction of the Carrier word Lhtha-khoh; at other times he calls it the Columbia. On his map it is shown as the Columbia. In his journal he says: "The more I heard of the river the more I was convinced that it could not empty into the ocean north of what is called the River of the West, so that with its windings the distance must be very great." THE SEARCH FOR THE ERASER BY SEA AND LAND. 17 It nevertheless did flow into the ocean two hundred miles north of the Columbia or River of the West. From the 1 7th to the 23rd June, 1 793, he continued to descend the river, and had reached a point near Alexandria when, owing to the distance to the sea by following the river, the dangers and difficulties of navigation as described by the natives, and the scarcity of provisions, he concluded to retrace his course to the Blackwater, or Westroad River, as he called it, and proceed up that river to the ocean. Pursuing this plan, Mackenzie on 22nd July, 1 793, reached the Pacific at Bentinck Arm, just about a month after Vancouver and Broughton in the Discovery and the Chatham had been exploring that very locality. In 1804 Thomas Jefferson, then president of the United States, at the urgent solicitation of John Ledyard, who had been with Capt. Cook at Nootka in 1778, formed and sent forth as a government undertaking an exploring party under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark. It is not intended to deal with their work, as it was confined, so far as the North-West coast was concerned, to an examination of the Columbia and its immediate vicinity. In their travels they saw and noted a large river flowing into the Columbia from the northward. This we now know as the main body of the Columbia; but when the expedition returned in 1 806, without having traced this to its source, many regarded it as the same river that Mackenzie had discovered in 1 793. It remained for Simon Fraser to follow to its mouth the Great River of Mackenzie and show to the world that it formed no part of the Columbia. Simon Fraser, like Mackenzie and Thompson, and all other co- temporaries whose names are prominent as explorers in this province, was in the employ of the North-West Company. He it was who proceeded to take possession of the territory west of the Rockies, henceforward to be known among the fur traders as New Caledonia. Late in 1 805 he built Fort McLeod, on McLeod Lake, the first permanent trading post in British Columbia, or New Caledonia, as it was then called. The next spring he followed Mackenzie's route up the Parsnip, across the same carrying place and down the Bad River to the Great River" of Mackenzie. On the 10th of July, 1806, Simon Fraser first saw the mighty river that now bears his name. It is fitting that his remarks on that occasion should be transcribed here. In his first journal, he says: "At 1 0 a. m. we arrived at the large river opposite an island, without encountering any other difficulty than cutting several trees that laid across the channel, and we were most happy at having exempted the long and bad carrying place, and seeing ourselves once more on the banks of a fine and navigable river." In July, 1806, Fraser founded Fort St. James, on Stuart Lake; later in the same year he built Fort Fraser on Fraser Lake; and in the fall of 1 80 7 he established Fort George at the confluence of the Nechaco and the "Great River." By the "Brigade" from Fort Chipewyan arriving in the fall of 1807, Fraser received instructions from the North-West Company to 18 THE SEARCH FOR THE FRASER BY SEA AND LAND. explore to its mouth the "Great River," supposed by everyone, himself included, to be the Columbia. Accordingly, in the following spring preparations were made for the thorough examination of this mysterious river, which had hitherto baffled all attempts by land and sea to discover its secret. The expedition consisted of four canoes manned by twenty-one men. Fraser was in supreme command, with Quesnelle and Stuart as lieutenants. On the 22nd of May, 1 808, the explorer started on what Dr. Bryce very truly calls his "terrific voyage." The "round, unvarnished tale" of that awful trip as told from day to day in his journal, is to be found in Masson's Les Bourgeois du Nord-Ouest. Some doubt exists as to whether the expedition started from the newly-founded Fort George or from Fort St. James. Rev. Father Morice inclines to the opinion that the latter was the starting point; according to him, Fraser left Fort St. James on the 22nd of May, and arriving at Fort George, did not commence the descent of the Fraser itself until the 28th of May. The journal is silent on the point, but the internal evidence afforded by the dates and positions seem to support Rev. Father Morice's view. At the outset, one of his canoes was almost wrecked in the Fort George canyon, being driven "against a precipice which forms the right bank of the river." On Sunday, the 29th of May, having lightened the canoes, he ran them down the Cottonwood River Canyon. That night he camped at the mouth of the Quesnelle River, where now stands the town of Quesnelle. The next day he had reached* a point near Soda Creek, when the apparent hostility of the natives and their sending couriers to their neighbors for reinforcements, caused him to delay his journey and spend some time in explaining his purpose and in conciliating them. Finally a good understanding was reached, and they then endeavored to dissuade him from journeying down the river. They informed him quite truly, that "the river below was but a succession of falls and cascades, which we would find impossible to pass, not only on account of the difficulties of the channel, but from the extreme ruggedness and the mountainous character of the surrounding country." Seeing he was determined to proceed, they told him of a slave at the next camp, who, having been to the sea, nrght possibly be obtained as a guide. Starting early on the morning of May 31 st, Fraser soon arrived at the camp to which he had been referred. After some difficulty he found the slave, but soon discovered that his stock of knowledge was very slender indeed; yet the explorer could readily see even from his meagre details that the dangers of the way had not been exaggerated. "This tribe," he says, "is extremely fond of smoking, and were very troublesome, always plaguing us for our pipes. They make use in lieu of tobacco, of a kind of weed mixed with fat." Pursuing his journey he arrived on June 1 st at a rapid two miles long, with high and steep banks which in some places contracted the channel to forty or fifty yards. The water rushing through this canyon "in a turbulent manner, forming numerous gulfs and cascades, THE SEARCH FOR THE FRASER BY SEA AND LAND. 19 and making a tremendous noise had an awful and forbidding appearance." However, passage by land appearing even worse, the explorer resolved to venture down this dangerous pass. One canoe with five of the best men was ordered to run it, but becoming unmanageable in the awful whirl of waters, was driven against a rock, upon which the occupants hastily debarked. To rescue them from this perilous situation, a descent of the precipitous bank of the canyon was, with difficulty, made. This was so steep that Fraser tells us: 'We had to plunge our daggers into the ground to check our speed, as otherwise we were exposed to slide into the river." Cutting steps in the declivity, they with much toil, succeeded in getting men and canoe to the top. No means was now left of going forward except carrying over "the immense high hills." The goods and three of the canoes were accordingly transported, but the labor was so great that, the remaining canoe was abandoned at this place. Incidentally we are informed that "the river had risen eight feet within these twenty-four hours." The expedition was delayed here two days, which gives some idea of the difficulty of carrying over this spot. From these Indians he learned that "white men had lately passed down the first large river to the left; these we took to be some of our friends from the Fort des Prairies." As a matter of fact they referred to Thompson's journey in 1807-8, down the Columbia River. Henceforward the record of each day is almost a repetition of the earlier ones. Canyons, rapids, cascades follow each other in quick succession. Constantly the choice is before him of journeying by well- nigh impassible land or even more dangerous water. The Indian continually advise him to leave the river and journey to the eastward where beyond the mountains that line the gorge in which the river flows, they assure him he will find pleasant travelling. But his answer is always the same. As he records it: "Going to the sea by an indirect way was not the object of the undertaking; I therefore would not deviate and continued our route according to my original intention." Persisting in this course in spite of difficulties which become truly awful the further he proceeds, running canyons never before or since attempted so far as any record shows, carrying canoes and cargoes up high hills and down dangerous descents, Fraser makes his way slowly towards the ocean. Even at the risk of being tiresome, I cannot refrain fiom quoting the explorer's simple yet vivid description of a canyon near Kelly Creek which he ran on June 9th. "Here the channel," he says, "contracts to about forty yards, and is enclosed by two precipices of immense height, which, bending towards each other, make it narrower above than below. The water which rolls down this extraordinary passage in tumultuous waves and great velocity had a frightful appearance. However, it being absolutely impossible to carry the canoes by land, all hands without hesitation embarked as it were a corps perdu upon the mercy of this awful tide.* Once engaged the die was cast, our great difficulty consisted in keeping the canoes within the medium or fil d'eau, that is, clear of the precipice on one side and from the gulfs J 20 THE SEARCH FOR THE FRASER BY SEA AND LAND. formed by the waves on the other. Thus skimming along as fast as lightning, the crews, cool and determined, followed each other in awful silence, and when we arrived at the end, we stood gazing at each other in silent congratulation at our narrow escape from total destruction." This rapid was run in the morning, and in the afternoon the navigation, if it might be so called, became worse. The journal states: 'This afternoon the rapids were very bad, two in particular were worse, if possible, than any we had hitherto met with, being a continual series of cascades intercepted with rocks and bounded by precipices and mountains that seemed at rimes to have no end. I scarcely saw anything so dreary and dangerous in any country and at present while writing this, whatever way I turn my eyes, mountains upon mountains whose summits are crowned with eternal snow close the gloomy scene." The party had now reached a point a short distance above Pavilion Creek; the natives here represented the remainder of the river as a "dreadful chain of insurmountable difficulties." A careful examination of the next few miles satisfied both Fraser and his lieutenants that the statements of the Indians were correct and that they had now reached a portion of the stream which was actually impassable. Here the canoes were left and such provisions cached as they did not require on the downward trip; and the party commenced to travel by Indian paths along the sides of the impending mountains. This travelling, though toilsome and fatiguing, was not so dangerous as had been expected. On June 12th, while camped a few miles above Bridge River, Fraser met an old Indian who had traveled and seen the sea and the "great canoes" of the white men. This garrulous old fellow thought, says Fraser, that the white men were "very proud, for, continued he, getting up and clapping his two hands upon his hips, then striding about the place with an air of importance, 'this is the way they go.' On June 14th, Fraser came into the territory of a tribe who wore "coats of mail," whom he calls Askettihs, apparently the Lillooet Indians; and on the next day he reached their chief village near Lillooet, which he described as "a fortification 100 feet by 24 surrounded by a palisade eighteen feet high, slanting inwards and lined with a shorter row which supports a shade, covered with bark, constituting theif dwellings." He noticed amongst them a copper tea kettle and a large gun, seemingly of Russian manufacture. Continuing his journey, mostly by land, but where possible by water, in canoes hired from the Indians, and feasting occasionally with their chiefs on salmon and roots, while his vayogeurs revelled in dog meat, always a favorite dish among them, he, on June 20th, reached Lytton, called by the Indians Camchin. Here he obtained canoes and the whole party trusted themselves to the unknown and turbulent waters once more. At Cisco Rapids, near the present cantilever bridge on the C. P. R., he was forced to leave the water and make a portage over what he calls, "a very steep hill"; it was so steep indeed that one of his men dropp'ng a kettle it bounded into the river and was lost THE SEARCH FOR THE FRASER BY SEA AND LAND. 21 Some of his voyageurs finding the portage too long and the canoes too heavy (for they were wooden, of course, while those they had been accustomed to were bark), essayed the canyon. Once launched on that raging current these practiced men were helpless; the canoes, whirled and tossed by the angry waters, were unmanageable as corks; one of them filled and overturned—its occupants only escaping death by a miracle. After this experience, all preferred the rough land travel to the more exciting but infinitely more dangerous water journey through the canyon. It must not be forgotten that this occurred during freshet time; this canyon has often been run since at a low stage of the water in the fall; but I am not aware of its ever having been successfully run when at its mid-June height. At Boston Bar, the Indians who had accompanied the expedition from Lytton, left it, and as a token of his appreciation of their services, Fraser presented to their chief a large silver brooch. The happy recipient did not know just where he should attach it to his person, so the Journal tells us he fixed it on his head and seemed exceedingly well pleased with the arrangement. Leaving Boston Bar, Fraser soon reached that frightful portion of the river known as the Big Canyon, or the Black Canyon of the Fraser. Of course he was now travelling by land, and certainly that was bad enough. At one point, "where the ascent was perfectly perpendicular," he tells us, "one of the Indans climbed to the summit and by means of a long pole drew us up, one after another. This work took three hours, then we continued our course," says the Journal, "up and down hills and along the steep declivities of mountains where hanging rocks and projecting cliffs, at the edge of the bank of the river, made the passage so small as to render it at times difficult even for one person to pass sideways." Alternately journeying by land and water, Fraser, on June 26th, reached Hell Gate, in the Big Canyon, about twenty miles above Yale. Mr. Stuart examined it, and "reported that the navigation was absolutely impracticable." No way of advance remained but by land, and that was so difficult that it was well-nigh impossible. But let the explorer himself speak: "We could scarcely make our way even w:th only our guns," he says. "I have been for a long period among the Rocky Mountains, but have never seen anything like this country. It is so wild that I cannot find words to describe our situation at times. We had to pass where no human being should venture; yet in these places there is a regular footpath impressed or rather indented upon the very rocks by frequent travelling. Besides this, steps which are formed like a ladder or the shrouds of a ship, by poles hanging to one another and crossed at certain distances with twigs, the whole suspended from the top to the foot of immense precipices and fastened at both extremities to stones and trees, furnish a safe and convenient passage to the natives; but we, who had not had the advantage of their education and experience were often in imminent danger when obliged to follow their example." 22 THE SEARCH FOR THE FRASER BY SEA AND LAND. The next day Fraser reached Spuzzum, even then known by that name. Here he visited a burying place of the Salish race. The tombs, he says, were superior to anything of the kind he had ever seen among savages. Their mortuary columns attracted his attention. "Upon the boards and posts are beasts and birds carved in a curious but rude manner, yet pretty well proportioned." Eight miles more of water travel brought the adventurer to the Little Canyon, where he again left his canoes, and journeying overland reached a point near Yale late in the afternoon of June 30th. _ From the natives he learned that the river was navigable for the remainder of the journey to the sea. Obtaining canoes here, Fraser re-embarked on June 29th, and that night camped near a large village which was situate at what we now call Ruby Creek. Amongst these people he tells us that he found "a large copper kettle shaped like a jar, and a large English hatchet, stamped 'Sargaret' with the figure of a crown." The river at this point, he says, is more than two miles broad, and is interspersed with islands. Starting early the following day, he met an Indian who told him he might be able to see the salt water the next day. That afternoon he passed Chilliwack. "Here," he informs us, "we saw seals and a large river coming in from the left, and a round mountain ahead which the Indians called 'Stremotch.' This mountain, it is manifest, is Sumas. The chief here made him a present of "a coat of mail to make shoes" (moccasins) ; this is one of the few well authenticated cases of beating spears into pruning hooks. He had now reached tidal water, for he tells us that on July 1st, 1808, the tide rose two and a half feet." On Sunday, July 2nd, his difficulties with the Indians commenced. They stole a smoking bag; and refused to. let him have a canoe which they had promised. However, by a show of force, he got it and proceeded on his way. This must have occurred at the mouth of the Coquitlam River, a short distance above the city of New Westminster, for his Journal states that from this place "proceeding on for two miles, we arrived at a place where the river divides into several channels." No other spot in the vicinity answers this description. Here he was pursued by the Indians in canoes and "armed with bows and arrows, spears and clubs, singing war songs, beating time with their paddles on the sides of the canoes and making signs and gestures highly inimical." It has been stated by many, including the historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft, that Fraser did not reach the mouth of the river, but turned back at a point near New Westminster. Indeed, Malcolm McLeod, the editor of a brochure: "Peace River; a Canoe Voyage from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific by the late Sir George Simpson, in 1828," claims that Fraser did not "navigate it within over 250 miles of its mouth." But such ideas are erroneous, and likely arise from the fact that the complete Journal of Fraser's trip down the river in 1 808, was supposed to be lost, and was not given to the world until Senator Masson reproduced it in 1889. <#-. THE SEARCH FOR THE FRASER BY SEA AND LAND. 23 Under the date, July 2nd, 1 808, this entry appears in the Journal: "We continued and at last we came in sight of a gulf or bay of the sea; this the Indians call 'Pas-hil-roe.' It runs in a southwest and northeast direction. In this bay are several high and rocky islands, whose summits were covered with snow." This in itself proves conclusively that he had reached the mouth of the river. But the Journal also shows more than this; not only did he reach the mouth of the river, but he reached it by the North Arm. For we find it stated that "on the right shore we noticed a village called by the Indians 'Misquiame'; we directed our course towards it." Surely this is the place we now know as the Musqueam Indian Reserve, at the entrance to the North Arm of the Fraser River. If any doubt remain it is dissipated by the further statement that through the village called 'Misquiame,' Fraser found a stream of water running. That stream runs through the village of Musqueam today just as it did on that July morning when the first white man saw it. Here he found what he calls a fort, which was 1 500 feet in length and 90 feet in breadth. After examining it he attempted to re-embark, but was astonished to see his canoes left high and dry by the receding tide. The Indians seeing his position became quite warlike. In the language of the Journal, "They began to make their appearance from every direction, dressed in their coats of mail, and howling like so many wolves and brandishing their war clubs." The Musqueams were evidently living up to their reputation; Fraser had been warned repeatedly of their savage dispositions. Re-embarking he still proceeded, desiring, as he says, to reach the main ocean, but being short of provisions and the natives (that is, the Musqueams) pursuing the party manifesting further hostilities and adopting threatening attitudes in an endeavor to prevent his further progress he was reluctantly compelled to abandon his desire to reach the Pacific. In his Journal under date of July 3rd, he writes: "Here I must again acknowledge my great disappointment in not seeing the main ocean, having gone so near it as to be almost within view; besides, we wished very much to settle the situation by an observation for the longitude. The latitude is 49 degrees, nearly, while that of the entrance of the Columbia is 46 degrees 20 minutes. The river is therefore not the Columbia; if I had been convinced of this when I left my canoes I would certainly have returned. The return journey was begun that day; but it is not intended to trace in detail its difficulties and dangers. In addition to the perilous navigation, and the hostility of some of the native tribes, Fraser had to contend with the threatened desertion of a number of his voyageurs. On July 8th he had arrived at Yale; on the 1 4th he passed Lytton; on the 20th he reached the spot near Pavilion Creek where he had left his canoes and cached his provisions on the downward way; the Chilcoten River was reached on the 25 th, and on August 6th he was again at Fort George. It appears therefore that the descent of the river occupied 35 days and the ascent 34 days. 24 THE SEARCH FOR THE FRASER BY SEA AND LAND. To those who have seen the Fraser at mid-freshet leaping and boiling through the canyons above Yale; who have seen its angry water whirling and swirling around China Bluff; who, looking through Hell's Gate, have watched those tawny waters lash themselves into a white foam at the impediment it makes; who, climbing Jackass Mountain, have gazed from its heights upon the mere ribbon of seething waters below; to these some idea of the labors and difficulties of the journey may be present. To them the simple unassuming narrative of the fur trader will appeal as the story of a man inured to dangers, who recounts the incidents of his travel in the plainest and most uncolored manner apparently quite oblivious of the fact that he has done anything unusual or extraordinary. Yet this exploration, of which I have given the most fragmentary summary, is one which Bancroft, who never loses a chance to sneer at Fraser, calls an "easy and pleasant service." Dr. Bryce, speaking on the same subject, says more truly: "How difficult it is to distinguish small from great actions! Here was a man making fame for all time and the idea of the greatness of his work had not dawned upon him." In spite of Bancroft's professional sneer, we can feel confident that Fraser's name will in the opinion of all thinking people be enrolled on the banner of Britain's heroic explorers to whom we who reap the benefits of their labors owe honor and love and veneration. He is one of those of whom Captain Butler says: 'They are the old soldiers of an army passed from the world, and when Time sums up the record of their service here below it will be but to hand up the roll with the endorsement of a favorable judgment to the Tribunal of the Future." New Westminster, B. C, March 9th, 1908. I ^ ■^ §f& ^ ^ BY WALTER MOBERLY, C.E. S British Columbia has now taken a very prominent place in* the great Canadian nation, and as its various attractive features are drawing to it large numbers of those seeking a pleasant, salubrious and healthy climate, combined with charming and grand scenery, and as its wealth in minerals, timber, fish, etc., affords unlimited business possibilities, for they are almost inexhaustible in extent, unless wastefully and injudiciously destroyed, it will doubtless be interesting to a great many of the people now residing in British Columbia, as well as to the succeeding generations whose destiny it may be to live in, or visit, this country, to have a short history of the great trunk wagon road—generally known as "The Yale-Cariboo Wagon Road"—that, during the period embracing the earlier years of the then Crown Colony of British Columbia, was the principal thoroughfare through its interior, and thus opened the country in such a substantial manner that, with the exception of some occasional set-backs that were due principally, I regret to say, to the incompetency of some of those then controlling public affairs, its progress has been during the half-century of its political existence, such that British Columbians may justly be proud of. I now propose to give you briefly the history of how the promotion was brought about and how the building of the "Old Cariboo Wagon Road" was effected. 26 HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. When I had the honor, on the 1 3th of March, 1907, of addressing the members of the Canadian Club of Vancouver on the subject of "Early Pathfinding in the Mountains of British Columbia, or the Discovery of the Northwest Passage by Land," I gave a general outline of how I became in the years 1855-56-57 the original promoter of Canada's first great Transcontinental Railway—"The Canadian Pacific Railway"—and how, for a series of years the active steps I took, by making extensive explorations through the mountains of British Columbia, established beyond doubt that a practicable route for such a railway existed between the magnificent harbor of Burrard Inlet and the extensive prairie region east of the Rocky Mountains. In the address alluded to I described how I first explored, during the winter of 1858-1859, the route by way of Harrison Lake and the different portages between that lake and via the present town of Lillooet, as far as Pavilion Muontain. As I found this route was not favorable for the construction of the westerly section of the transcontinental railway, I projected, in the early part of the year 1859 I explored the formidable canyons of the Fraser River between Yale and Lytton, and later in the year, after founding the city of New Westminster, I explored from the head of Howe Sound up the valleys of the Squamish and Jeackamins Rivers, etc. I may here mention a rather amusing circumstance that happened to me when exploring the great canyon of the Fraser River. On my way down from Boston Bar the first night I reached a camp where a few Chinese were mining. It was situated on a narrow shelf of rock about six feet in width and twenty feet in length. The Chinamen received me kindly and made me some tea and mixed some flour and water and made thin cakes of dough which they cut in strips about an inch in width and boiled. They had no other provisions, but were looking forward to the spring run of salmon which were then on their way up the river. I left my kind friends early the following morning and after a terribly fatiguing journey over hot rocks along the precipitous mountain side I reached Chapman's Bar in the evening. I was very tired and dreadfully thirsty. When I entered a little store which was a log hut about 15x25 feet in size, I spied some Dublin stout porter, with which I at once regaled myself and then had a good meal of slap-jacks, bacon and coffee. „ I then went into a partly constructed new log building without door, windows or flooring, and seeing a stretcher made out of gunny sacks, etc., I threw myself on it and at once fell fast asleep, leaving my boots near my bedside. The unusual sound of a pig's grunting awoke me at daylight. This pig continued to make his researches around me until he came close to my bedside, where I lay half asleep. I sprang up to drive him off, but only in time to see him making off with one of my boots. I made chase, but the pig with the boot got away into the woods and I never saw anything of either of them again. The loss of my boot was a serious calamity. I still had about 25 miles to walk over a very rough and rocky trail before reaching Yale. I managed to find the worn out foot of a miner's discarded boot which I appropriated, but as it was much too HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. 27 big I packed moss and leaves around my foot, and after a day's journey, suffering intolerable agony as the skin was nearly rubbed off my foot, I readied Yale, where I repaired damages. During the years 1860-61 I was engaged in constructing a trail for pack animals and a portion of a wagon road between Fort Hope and Princeton, on the Similkameen River. I also made extensive explorations during those years of the country between Hope and Osoyoos Lake, and made a second and very careful examination of the canyons of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers to Kamloops Lake, to satisfy myself on all points regarding the construction of a wagon road along those rugged valleys. It was in the years 1 860-61 that the existence of a very extensive and extremely rich auriferous portion of the Crown Colony was discovered to be situated in that part of it now generally known as the Cariboo section of the country, and owing to the circumstances I mentioned in my former address to the Canadian Club, I decided, for the time being, to defer my further explorations for a transcontinental railway and devote myself to the undertaking of constructing a great arterial highway through the central portion of the colony that would open up and develop its resources in the most effective and substantial manner. My various explorations heretofore made, through the different sections of the colony I had visited now convinced me that the best route to adopt for the great wagon road I projected was by the valleys of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers, although the formidable canyons along the valleys of those rivers presented natural obstructions that, for a country having a very small revenue, were most uninviting and appeared to be almost insurmountable. From careful observations I also felt confident the great mineral region of the country would be in the belt immediately West of the Rocky Mountains. I was also satisfied it was by the valleys of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers that the mountain section of Canada's first and greatest transcontinental railway should reach the coast and have its west terminus on the mainland at the spacious and magnificent harbor that Burrard Inlet would afford to the largest class of sea-going vessels, and where the sites for future cities on both sides of the Inlet, and also on the shores of English Bay, could hardly be excelled, as they presented in their topographical and other features all the requisites to ensure everything needed for a great commercial city, for its drainage would be perfect, which would make it very healthy to reside in; its supply of the best quality of water, by gravitation, plentiful; and the scenery in its immediate neighborhood both grand and beautiful, which together with its fine sea bathing beaches would be inestimable to its inhabitants and prove a very attractive feature to bring people from all quarters of the globe to visit a city so well endowed by nature; and that has within easy reach of it, both by land and water, many charming resorts, where residences can be constructed where its citizens or others can have picturesque dwellings outside the turmoil of a large city. 28 .HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. Ever since the arrival of the corps of Royal Engineers, under the command of the late Major-General Richard Clement Moody, sent out by the Imperial government in the year 1 858, to maintain law and order, and to generally supervise and control all such measures and works needed to establish the colony on a firm and lasting basis, I had been on the most intimate terms with Colonel Moody. I had fully explained to him my views regarding the construction of a Canadian transcontinental railway, and also my belief that the great wagon road to develop the colony should be built through the canyons of the Fraser River, etc. I also had many conversations with the late Sir James Douglas, who was the first governor of the mainland of British Columbia, but Sir James considered the physical difficulties presented by the canyons of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers of too formidable a nature, and for that reason he had caused to be undertaken the construction of a wagon road over the different portages between Lake Harrison and the present town of Lillooet, on the Fraser River. This route was a broken land and water one that necessitated much handling of the freight passing over it, and was not at all likely to be able to accommodate and meet the coming needs and prospective commercial demands of the country. The rich discoveries of gold in Cariboo afforded me the opportunity of pushing forward my project of building the great arterial highway by the valleys of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers, etc. I saw Colonel Moody and we proceeded together to make a careful examination of the canyons, and before we parted he was as convinced as myself that it was the route to adopt for the great highway. We arranged to meet the following winter in Victoria and press our views on Governor Douglas. The discoveries of gold mentioned induced prominent citizens of Victoria to combine in the endeavor to get roads constructed from the heads of Bute Inlet and Bentinck Arm direct to Quesnelle mouth, in order to draw the trade of the Cariboo districts away from the Fraser River route and center it in Victoria. These projects I opposed and then commenced the long struggle between the people of Victoria and those of the mainland to capture the trade of the Cariboo districts. When I arrived in Victoria in the early part of the year 1862 I found that Colonel Moody had preceded me, and that the whole people of that place were much excited about the gold fields of Cariboo, and the projected roads from Bute Inlet and Bentmck Arm, and tha\ Governor Douglas was greatly in favor of subsidizing a wagon road, projected by the late Mr. Alfred Waddington, from the head of Bute Inlet to Quesnelle mouth, and that the governor was also about to grant a charter to Mr. Gustavus Blinn Wright to construct a toll road, assisted by a subsidy from the government, from Lillooet to Fort Alexandra, from where Mr. Wright proposed to continue the connection on to Quesnelle mouth by means of a stern-wheel steamer he was about to build for that purpose* HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. 29 My project for building the Yale Cariboo wagon road looked very unpromising. I saw both Mr. Waddington and Mr. Green, the latter gentleman being at the head of the project of getting a road from Bentinck Arm, whilst Mr. Waddington, as before mentioned, was at the head of the Bute Inlet project. I proposed to them that they should abandon their projects, and all of us combine and get a charter for a toll road to be constructed over the Yale-Cariboo route. They were too sanguine of their prospects to entertain my proposition, and as they considered my proposed undertaking of getting a wagon road built through the canyons of the Fraser River, etc., which they thought was impracticable, they therefore declined my proposition. After Colonel Moody and myself had several interviews with Governor Douglas we managed to convince him that the Yale-Cariboo route was the best to adopt for the general development of the country, and that it was imperative that its construction should be undertaken at once. At this time I met Mr. Charles Oppenheimer, who was at that time at the head of the great mercantile firm of Oppenheimer Bros., having their establishments at Yale and Lytton, where they carried on a very large and lucrative business. Mr. Oppenheimer and a friend of his, Mr. T B. Lewis, proposed to join with me in obtaining a charter for the building of this wagon road, provided we could obtain the right to collect very remunerative tolls for a series of years and a large money subsidy from the government to assist in defraying the cost of its construction. We therefore entered into an agreement for that purpose under the firm name of Oppenheimer, Moberly & Lewis, and Mr. Oppenheimer withdrew from his firm in order to devote his whole attention to the work we proposed to undertake, and shortly afterwards, on the governor's granting us the charter, which empowered us to collect very remunerative tolls and also to be paid a large cash subsidy as the work of construction progressed, we proceeded to the mainland to commence the work. Governor Douglas at this time fully expected to obtain a large loan from the Imperial Government, for which he had applied. The manner in which the different sections of this road was to be constructed were as follows: Captain G. M. Grant, with a force of sappers and miners, together with a large force of civilian labor, was to construct the section extending from Yale to Chapman's Bar. The late Sir Joseph Wm. Trutch was, by contract, to construct the section from Chapman's Bar to Boston Bar. The late Mr. Thomas Spence was to construct the section from Boston Bar to Lytton. The firm of Oppenheimer, Moberly & Lewis was to construct the section from Lytton until the road formed a junction with the wagon road to be built by Mr. G. B. Wright from Lytton to Fort Alexandria. 30 HISTORY OF CARIBOD WAGON ROAD. My department in this undertaking was to locate the road and supervise its construction. Mr. Lewis was to keep the books and accounts, and Mr. Oppenheimer was to look after the purchasing and forwarding of the supplies and the finances. When we arrived at Yale a large number of men seeking employment on our work could not get beyond that point, as they were without money, food, clothing and boots, and as they had to walk from Yale to Lytton along the pack trail we were obliged to make them advances of all those articles. I had already paid the fares of a large number of men from New Westminster to Yale, which cost me between $2,000 and $3,000. Mr. Oppenheimer had arranged before he left Victoria to have large quantities of supplies and tools forwarded to Yale, and I also sent a quantity of the same things that I had on hand to the same place. We now began to experence our first difficulties, as the pack trail between Yale and Lytton was only partially completed, which necessitated all freight between those places being conveyed partly by water through the dangerous canons and partly by pack trains, which caused very heavy transportation charges and losses of supplies. Some idea may be formed of the cost of transportation in those days when in many instances it cost us as much as fifty-five cents a pound to convey our supplies from Yale to Lytton. There were not enough boats on the river to meet the demands for transportation, and the number of pack animals was altogether inadequate as the greater number of those engaged in packing were employed in the very lucrative business of conveying freight through to Cariboo, and therefore did not find it so profitable to convey it for us over a comparatively short distance to our works. We had to employ large numbers of Indians to pack supplies on their backs and the high prices they charged enriched them. When Mr. Lewis and myself travelled from Yale to Lytton we were compelled to walk, as we were unable to get saddle animals. This journey we accomplished in two days, but owing to the extremely rough trail our feet were blistered and very sore. At Lytton I made my headquarters in the Court House, which Captain H M. Ball, who was the gold commissioner, sheriff, etc., of the district, very kindly placed at my disposal. I now established my first road camp a short distance out of Lytton, and as the men arrived I set them at work. A few days afterwards I established another camp at Nicomin, a small stream about twelve miles from Lytton, and shortly afterwards a road camp a few miles above Cook's ferry, which was a short distance below where Spence's bridge was afterwards built. By this time the work was going on at a great rate, but as I could not get a sufficient number of white men I was obliged to let a contract for the construction of the road from a "slide" a short distance above Nicomin to Cook's ferry to a body of Chinese, with the exception of that portion around a rock bluff below Cook's ferry. HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. 31 I had now been at work some time, and by the terms of our chartei there was a large amount of money overdue and but a very small sum had been paid by the government, which hampered me very much in carrying on the work in the most efficient manner, and necessarily caused heavy and unlooked for expenses being incurred. By borrowing considerable sums of money on my personal credit I managed to keep the work going on, and at the end of the third month after the charter was signed, paid all the men their wages in full. As soon as I pad these wages, a very large number of the men, entirely disregarding the terms of their contract with me to work for the whole season, and nearly all of them indebted for clothes and other necessaries I had furnished them with, when they were in destitute condition, left the work, and I lost the value of what I had advanced to them. Th:s contemptible proceeding on the part of these men, which was brought about by the reports of fabulously rich deposits of gold having been discovered on Antler and other creeks in Cariboo, reduced the force of men needed to ensure the prosecution of the work in accordance with our contract with the Government, and compelled me to employ, much against my wishes, a large force of Chinese laborers. It will thus be seen that the bad faith and unscrupulous conduct of the white laborers was the cause of the employment of Chinese labor in constructing the Cariboo wagon road. All the other contractors on this road experienced the same treatment from their white laborers that befell me. I found all the Chinese employed worked most industriously and faithfully, and gave no trouble. I may here mention an amusing incident that occurred in connection with these Chinese. One day when I was on my way from Cook's ferry to Lytton I stopped at the large Chinese camp, when they told me they were anxious to celebrate some festival, and asked me to try and get them some live pigs when I was in Lytton. I found that the only pigs that had been brought so far into the interior were two small animals owned by a man who was mining on the opposite side of the Fraser River. He asked an exorbitant price, and if I remember correctly it was $200.00 each, so I did not buy them, and on my return to the Chinese camp told them the reason why. They were bound to have the pigs at any cost. I gave them an order to get the pigs, and as I was so pleased with the way they did their work, at the same time I gave them an order to get, at my expense, two kegs of the fiery whisky they drink, which cost me as much as the pgs cost them. On the day they had the celebration I went to their camp and was at once surrounded by the Chinamen, who provided me with a meal in which roast pork was the principal dish, which I enjoyed, but on the other hand, I had to take many drinks of the abominable whisky with which, in tin cups, they held all around and pressed upon me, and would take no refusal. Time passed on and unpaid for work continued to be done, when at last Mr. Oppenheimer returned. He had succeeded in getting a considerable sum of money from the Government, but nothing like what should have been paid. Mr. Lewis got discouraged and disgusted and was of the opinion that we could not depend upon the Government, and HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. wished me to stop the works. I therefore bought out Mr. Lewis' interest in the charter. It was arranged betwen Mr. Oppenheimer and myself that he should at once return to Victoria and endeavor to get some more money from the Government, and that I should put matters in as satisfactory a shape as possible with the money he had brought, and then be guided by circumstances as to my future proceedings. I had now got large camps of men at Nicomen, and at a point between that place and Cook's ferry, another establ shed a few miles above Cook's ferry, and one near Ashcroft Creek, and as it was imperative that it should be decided where the Yale-Cariboo road should be located in order to obtain the best line to form a junction with the wagon road then in course of construction from Lillooet over Pavilion mountain, I took a splendid horse I had, a blanket and what provisions I could cram into my saddle bags and started alone to explore through Maiden Creek Valley to where the town of Clinton is now built, and also the valley of the Bonaparte River to the Second Crossing, which was so named as the old pack trail to Cariboo, over the Loon Lake Mountain, crossed the Bonaparte River the second time at that point. I proceeded from Clinton by way of a small stream that falls into the Bonaparte, and thence passing along the foot of Castle Mountain, which was so named from its resemblance to a vast feudal castle of the Middle Ages. I finally reached the Second Crossing of the Bonaparte, where I fully expected to recruit for a day at the wayside house that in the early days had been built there. The weather for the last few days during my journey had been very ra'ny, the mosquitoes and horseflies in swarms and sleeping, or rather trying to sleep, on the wet ground, made matters exceedingly unpleasant, and as I had only my horse for a companion I felt very lonely. My provisions were all. gone and as I was very hungry I was anticipating how much I would enjoy a good meal of bacon and beans and some hot coffee, and possibly bread. I was woefully disappointed, for when I arrived at the Second Crossing I found that the house and other buildings had been burned down and the place was completely deserted. Finding a few half-grown onions in what had been a garden, I devoured them, and then building a good fire I dozed through a miserable night, very much pestered by mosquitoes and drenched with rain. A short examination of the topographical features of the surrounding country convinced me that the better route to adopt for the wagon road would be the valley of Maiden Creek, and that the junction of the Yale-Cariboo wagon road with the road being built from Lillooet over the Pavilion mountain should be where it is, at Clinton. Having accomplished the object of my explorations I decided to return by the trail over the Loon Lake Mountain, as I had learned from different packers that there was an abundance of good grass around Loon Lake, which is situated on a plateau near the top of the mountain. I therefore ascended the steep mountan by an execrable trail through the woods, and as the heavy rains had made the trail a ditch, full of stones HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. 33 and boulders, and the flies being indefatigable in their persecutions, travelling up this mountain was most unpleasant. After weary hours I at last emerged out of the forest, and came on a prairie covered with green grass, when just as I was about to unsaddle my horse to let him have a good feed, I espied a column of smoke at the far end of the prairie, and soon made out a large train of pack animals and packers that were encamped there. I instantly remounted and cantered joyfully for the fire, and on approaching it was hailed by a well-known voice in these words: "Hello, Moberly, is that you?" to which I answered: 'Yes, Mac, have you got anything to eat in your camp?" to which the answer was: 'Yes and plenty to drinkljtoo; come on old man and regale yourself. What the devil brings you here?" My friend was the late Captain Allan Macdonald. He was the son of one of the former prominent officers of the Hon. Hudson's Bay Company, and was born at Fort Colvile. I had a very sumptuous meal of the staple food of the country— bacon and beans—and an unlimited supply of the grand old creamy Hudson's Bay rum. I had made Mr. Macdonald's acquaintance on the steamer Panama, in 1858, when I was on my way from San Francisco to Victoria. The next time I met Captain Macdonald was many years afterwards when he was stationed at Fort Osborne in Winnipeg, with the military force under the command of the late Colonel Osborne Smith, and the last time I saw him was some years ago, when on his way to the Narrows of Lake Manitoba, where as Indian agent of that district, he resided. I remained over the day at this place, and as the afternoon was fine we found that the small stream which flows out of Loon Lake abounded with brook trout, so we improvised a sort of drag net out of an old horse blanket and managed to catch a plentiful supply of large trout, upon which we feasted. The following day I resumed my journey along the trail, which has a very steep descent, on the southwesterly side of the mountain, to the First Crossing of the Bonaparte River. At this point there was a small log hut very extensively known through the colony at that period as "Scotty's," the owner of it being a rather quaint Orkneyman, who kept a few cows and was supposed to furnish meals to travellers. I here met one of my packers, whom I had instructed to be at this point in order that I could tell hm where I proposed to establish another large camp of workmen to push forward the construction of the road along the valley of the Bonaparte, etc. Being very hungry I requested "Scotty" to provide us with a meal, whereuvon he produced a frying pan full of stale flap-jacks and a pan of milk. Each flap-jack was about three inches in diameter and half an inch in thickness. Having demolished as many of the unsavory cakes as were necessary to appease our hunger, and drank several cups of milk, I asked "Scotty" what I had to pay, when he demanded fifty cents for each cake and fifty cents for each cup of milk. This exorbitant charge so enraged my packer, who talked in such forcible language to u History of cariboo wagon iIoad. 'Scotty," that I had great difficulty in preventing a personal encounter between them. We left this miserable hut as soon as possible, my packer vowing that he would get even with "Scotty" some day. In one of Sir James Douglas' trips in the interior of the colony I had the pleasure of accompanying him, when he told me of the origin of some of the names of different places in the colony, and the following is the Indan legend he related regarding Maiden Creek, through the valley of which I had decided the wagon road should go. "At some time in the misty past there lived at the mouth of Maiden Cieek a very beautiful Indian girl, who had a lover living at Cache Creek, to whom she was engaged to be married. The lover proved false and married another woman, which so distracted the poor girl that she died of a broken heart, and was buried near the mouth of Maiden Creek, and out of her breasts grew the two rounded hillocks that are to be seen at that place and resemble a woman's breasts." It was in the year 1 862 that the smallpox swept away great numbers of the Coast Indians and had been, during the Summer, gradually extending its ravages into the interior of the colony. A few days before I left my camp at Nicomin to make the long exploratory trip before mentioned, as I was standing at my tent, which was on the opposite side of that little stream to where the large camp of my employees was situated, and who were just on the point of sitting down to supper, I noticed an Indian leading a horse on which another Indian was seated who had a veil over his face, and after crossing the stream were evidently intending to camp about fifty feet from my tent. I walked over to the Indians, and, being suspicious that something was wrong, lifted the veil from the face of the Indian wearing it and saw that the poor fellow was badly smitten with the smallpox. I instantly told them that they could not stay there in the vicinity of my men and told them to return to Lytton where the Government had a doctor appointed to vaccinate the Indians. They told me they were without money and had not any food, so I went to my store tent and filled a large sack with provisions, which I gave them together with a letter to the doctor to have them properly attended to, and then compelled them to go. When I was on my way to Bonaparte River I learnt from the man in charge of Cook's ferry that these two Ind'ans, instead of returning to Lytton had come to his house and gone on to the mouth of the Nicola River, at which place there was an Indian village from which I had procured a number of Indians with their little horses to pack supplies between the camps above Cook's ferry. These Indians camped in a little bay on the Thompson River about a nrle below my largest road camp. On my way down from Ashcroft Creek to this camp, which I did not reach until some hours after dark, I heard the dismal wailing of Indian women on die mountain side above the trail I rode along, which was a certain indication of death having visited their community. On arriving at the camp I learnt that none of the Indians from the little bay had been up for several days and it was supposed the smallpox had reached their encampment. ^HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. 35 The next day I proceeded on my way to Nicomin, and as I rode along the mountain side I saw several Indian horses grazing on the "bunch grass" that then grew in profusion in the valley of the Thompson River, and in the little bay below me the tents of the Indians, but I saw no signs of human life about the tents. I therefore dismounted and went to the tents, where I discovered the horrible sight of the putrefying bodies of the Indians, some in the tents and others among the rocks that lined the river bank, through which they had evidently tried to drag themselves to the river to assuage their burning thirst or to plunge into the river. All the Indians in that encampment had been dead several days. I now proceeded to the Ferry and went to the Indian village at the mouth of the Nicola River where the same melancholy and disgusting sight was met that a few hours before I had seen at the little bay on the Thompson River, for all the Indians were dead. I hurried on to my camp at Nicomin fearing that the smallpox had broken out among my men, but was greatly relieved to find such was not the case. During my absence very good progress had been made in the work of construction, but as I received no news from either Victoria or New Westminster, and as my men were getting clamorous for their wages, I demanded certificates from the Government official who was in charge of the supervision of the work, which he declined to give, and on my pressing him for them to enable me to draw the money now overdue, and telling him if he would not grant them I should be compelled to stop the works, he shewed me a written order he had received from headquarters instructing him on no account to grant certificates until further orders. This peculiar order appeared to me to be tantamount to an effort on the part of the Government to force me into such a position that the Government could claim that the charter was forfeited, and enable them to take immediate possession of the road. I afterwards found out that it was owing to the Imperial Government refusing to grant the loan to the colony that Governor Douglas had applied for and the Government had not any money to pay the amounts that any certificates it granted would call for. I now felt certain that there was something seriously wrong at the seat of government about financial matters. I therefore started on horseback for Yale, leaving Lytton in the afternoon and arriving the following morning at Yale, where I only stopped long enough to hire a canoe and six Indians to convey me to New Westminster, where I arrived at 8:00 o'clock the following morning. As soon as Colonel Moody's office opened I sought an interview with him, when I learnt that Governor Douglas was at his house and that I would have to see him, as Colonel Moody declared he was altogether irresponsible for the non-payment of the different sums of money as they became due, or for the order with which the Government superintendent over my work had been furnished, instructing him not to grant me any certificates. 36 HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD I saw Governor Douglas and made a new arrangement by which the sum of fifty thousand dollars was to be paid to me in a few days. This money he could get from the Bank of British Columbia which was then commencing business in British Columbia. I also made arrangements for future payments, and then, knowing how important it was that I should be back at my works as soon as possible, I got the Governor to let me have on account the few thousand dollars then in the treasury at New Westminster and in the collectorate at Yale, amounting in all to six thousand dollars, and then having very unfortunately left a general instead of a specific power of attorney with the Attorney-General to sign for me for the balance of the fifty thousand dollars, I left by steamer to return to the road camps. When I reached Yale I was surprised to meet a large number of my men who had engaged to work the whole season, and others who had only engaged by the month. They had heard of my going down from Lytton in a great hurry, and some irresponsible creature had circulated a report that I had left the country. My return rather astonished these men. They were desperately hungry, so I took them to a restaurant and ordered a good meal and told them to meet me after breakfast at the office of the Gold Commissioner. On their arrival I paid off all those who had worked the full time for which they had engaged, and after well rating those who had left the work before the term for which they had engaged expired, and by which action on their part forfeited all wages coming to them, I paid them half their wages and obtained employment for them for the rest of the season with Captain Grant, who with the Royal Engineers and a body of civilian laborers was then constructing the first section of the wagon road between Yale and Chapman's bar. The next day I proceeded on my way to the road camps which, after my arrival, I re-organized and then returned to Lytton as I expected the $44,000 agreed to be forwarded to be by express would have arrived. I reached Lytton on a Saturday evening and found the mail and express had not arrived, but I received a letter from a friend, sent by a special messenger, to inform me the Government would not send me the money, and that the day after his messenger arrived at Lytton a capias would reach that town by mail instructing Captain Ball, the sheriff, to arrest me for the amount of an account due for some supplies furnished by a party in Victoria, and that a writ had been obtained owing to a notice emanating from the Attorney-General that the charter, out of which I could easily have cleared $100,000 if the Government had acted in good faith, had been forfeited as the work was not going on properly. The letter I received from my friend also informed me that Captain Grant had been instructed to proceed to Lytton regarding the steps to be taken by the Government about my works. The unfortunate general power of attorney I had given the Attorney-General, by a breach of faith on his part, placed it in his power to act as he did, and that power of attorney was used by him for a very different purpose to that intended when I gave it to him. HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. 37 This unscrupulous act on the part of the Government I afterwards found out was owing to the refusal of the Imperial Government to grant a large loan to the colony upon which Governor Douglas relied for building the Yale-Cariboo road and the extension of the Harrison- Lillooet road northerly from Lillooet, and as I was the one to whom the largest amount would have to be paid it was decided to sacrifice me and carry the other contractors through, especially as the Government would gain a large and very expensive portion of the constructed road I had built without paying anything for it, which was a very convenient and profitable thing for them, but it was a disgraceful and dishonest transaction on their part. The day when the capias would arrive in Lytton would be a Sunday. I therefore knew it could not be served upon me until the following morning. On Sunday morning I had breakfast with Captain Ball, the sheriff, and as we sat at that meal his mail arrived and I saw him open a letter which I felt convinced contained the ominous document, but he said nothing nor did I. I was now thoroughly disgusted with the bad faith I had met with from the Government, and the duplicity of the Attorney-General, and felt certain I could not struggle any longer against such adverse circumstances; but as I knew what vast importance it was to the colony to get this road completed as soon as possible, I decided to take a course that would prevent the stoppage of the work and let my personal interest be sacrificed and the general interests of the country be protected, particularly as I had been the principal cause of leading Governor Douglas to undertake this great work which had placed him in a very serious dilemma. The following morning I went down to breakfast with the sheriff, when he served me with the writ, and was rather surprised when I read the letter I had received the previous Saturday by private express, advising me about the capias. He said: 'Why did you not get on your horse and cross the southern boundary into the United States?" My answer to him was: "That I had been the promoter of the Yale- Cariboo wagon road and I intended to stick to it until it was an accomplished work, no matter what obstacles had to be overcome." I was now hourly expecting the arrival of Captain Grant, whom I knew would be sent up by the Government to act in the matter, and immediately on his arrival I borrowed a few hundred dollars from a friend and paid the amount off for which I had been arrested, and called upon Captain Grant, when we discussed the whole matter over in the most friendly manner, and I gave him in writing my relinquishment of all my charter rights, and also the surrender of all the supplies, tents, tools, etc., on the works which had cost me upwards of $6,000), for the benefit of the Government, and simply requested him to do his utmost to have the wages of all my men paid and also the sub-contracts I had let, to which he cordially assented and afterwards compelled the Government, much against their intentions, to have faithfully carried out. i 38 HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. Captain Grant and myself now proceeded to my different road camps of which I put him in full possession, and when everything was out of my hands Captain Grant proposed that he should appoint me to carry on the works for the Government for the rest of the season. This proposition I was glad to accept for I had not a dollar left, and then Captain Grant told the men that from that time they would be paid their wages by the Government and that I was in full charge of the works, and furthermore that he would do his utmost to get their back wages paid, but he could not absolutely promise more as that matter rested with Governor Douglas. Those wages were ultimately paid in full; they amounted to about $ 1 9,000. When this business was closed up at the end of the year, the country had gained a large and most expensive portion of the Cariboo wagon road built, which cost them nothing, but it left me a ruined man, with heavy personal liabilities, which took all the money I could make during eight subsequent years to finally pay off. As soon as Mr. Charles Oppenheimer heard of my arrest he left the country to avoid a similar fate and did not return for some years. He had to settle all the then outstanding liabilities of our old firm before he came back, which cost him a large sum of money. The following year, 1863, a Mr. William Hood, from Santa Clara, California, undertook the contract to complete the unfinished portion of the road between the big rock bluff above Cook's ferry and Clinton, and he employed me to superintend the work for him. This same year Captain Grant, Mr. Trutch and Mr. Spence finished the section of the road between Yale and Lytton, and Mr. Trutch built the suspension bridge across the Fraser River. In 1864 I was employed by the Colonial Government as their eng neer to go to Cariboo and locate the northerly portion of the wagon road from Fort Alexandria (to which latter point Mr. G. B. Wright had built the road the previous year) to Richfield, and to look after its construction between Quesnelle mouth, and Cottonwood river which was then built by Mr. G. B. Wright. I constructed a temporary sleigh road from Fort Alexandria to Quesnelle mouth, and another from Cottonwood River to Richfield via Lightning Creek. I also located a line for a wagon road from Cottonwood River via Willow River as far as Richfield, and I supervised the construction of a branch road into the valley of the Horse-fly River, then known as "Captain Mitchell's road." I also explored a line for a proposed branch wagon road into the valley of William's Lake. At the end of the year 1 864, having been requested by the people of Cariboo to represent them in the Legislative Council about to meet at New Westminster, I resigned my position as Government engineer and was duly elected to represent the above-mentioned constituency. On the 13th of March, 1907, I had the honor of addressing the Canadian Club of Vancouver on the subject of "Early Pathnnding in the Mountains of British Columbia, or The Discovery of the Northwest i\ HISTORY OF CARIBOO WAGON ROAD. 39 Passage by Land." In that address I related how I managed, during the session above-mentioned, to get the money granted that enabled me to complete by the end of the year 1865, discoveries that, in connection with extensive explorations I made from the year 1855 between Lake Simcoe and those made of the extensive central portion of Canada by the expedition under the command of Captain Palletier, insured a practicable route for a great Canadian transcontinental, terminating in the City of Vancouver, and as I have now given you a brief history of the Cariboo wagon road, you will be enabled to form an idea of the great difficulties that had to be overcome to bring about the development and present prosperous condition of British Columbia. •^^| WALTER MOBERLY, |;||||1 Civil Engineer. Vancouver, B. C, March 5th, 1908.
- Library Home /
- Search Collections /
- Open Collections /
- Browse Collections /
- BC Historical Books /
- Historical papers : session 1907-8
Open Collections
BC Historical Books

Featured Collection
BC Historical Books
Historical papers : session 1907-8 Art, Historical and Scientific Association 1908
jpg
Page Metadata
Item Metadata
Title | Historical papers : session 1907-8 |
Creator |
Art, Historical and Scientific Association |
Publisher | Vancouver : The Clarke & Stuart Co., Ltd. |
Date Issued | [1908?] |
Description | "No more published. Brief undocumented articles. Contents: Wade, F.C. Early navigators of the Pacific.- Howay, F.W. The search for the Fraser by sea and land.- Moberly, W. History of Cariboo wagon road." -- Strathern, G. M. , & Edwards, M. H. (1970). Navigations, traffiques & discoveries, 1774-1848: A guide to publications relating to the area now British Columbia. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 9. |
Extent | 39 pages : photographs ; 22 cm |
Subject |
British Columbia--History British Columbia |
Genre |
Periodicals |
Type |
Text |
FileFormat | application/pdf |
Language | English |
Notes | Other Copies: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/18805163 |
Identifier | F5810.1 .A8 II-0016 |
Collection |
British Columbia Historical Books Collection |
Series | Art, Historical and Scientific Association. Historical papers |
Source | Original Format: University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special Collections. F5810.1 .A8 |
Date Available | 2015-05-27 |
Provider | Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library |
Rights | Images provided for research and reference use only. For permission to publish, copy, or otherwise distribute these images please contact digital.initiatives@ubc.ca. |
CatalogueRecord | http://resolve.library.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/catsearch?bid=1586271 |
IsShownAt | 10.14288/1.0222527 |
AggregatedSourceRepository | CONTENTdm |
Download
- Media
- bcbooks-1.0222527.pdf
- Metadata
- JSON: bcbooks-1.0222527.json
- JSON-LD: bcbooks-1.0222527-ld.json
- RDF/XML (Pretty): bcbooks-1.0222527-rdf.xml
- RDF/JSON: bcbooks-1.0222527-rdf.json
- Turtle: bcbooks-1.0222527-turtle.txt
- N-Triples: bcbooks-1.0222527-rdf-ntriples.txt
- Original Record: bcbooks-1.0222527-source.json
- Full Text
- bcbooks-1.0222527-fulltext.txt
- Citation
- bcbooks-1.0222527.ris
Full Text
Cite
Citation Scheme:
Usage Statistics
Share
Embed
Customize your widget with the following options, then copy and paste the code below into the HTML
of your page to embed this item in your website.
<div id="ubcOpenCollectionsWidgetDisplay">
<script id="ubcOpenCollectionsWidget"
src="{[{embed.src}]}"
data-item="{[{embed.item}]}"
data-collection="{[{embed.collection}]}"
data-metadata="{[{embed.showMetadata}]}"
data-width="{[{embed.width}]}"
async >
</script>
</div>

http://iiif.library.ubc.ca/presentation/cdm.bcbooks.1-0222527/manifest