"CONTENTdm"@en . "http://resolve.library.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/catsearch?bid=3202327"@en . "British Columbia History"@en . "British Columbia Historical Association"@en . "2015-07-17"@en . "1953-07"@en . "British Columbia Historical Quarterly: Vol. 17 (XVII), Nos. 3-4"@en . ""@en . "https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bch/items/1.0190585/source.json"@en . "application/pdf"@en . " THE\nBRITISH\nCOLUMBIA\nHISTORICAL\nQUARTERLY\nJULY-OCTOBER, 1953 We\nBRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY\nPublished by the Archives of British Columbia\nin co-operation with the\nBritish Columbia Historical Association.\nEDITOR\nWillard E. Ireland,\nProvincial Archives, Victoria.\nASSOCIATE EDITOR\nMadge Wolfenden,\nProvincial Archives, Victoria.\nADVISORY BOARD\nJ. C. Goodfellow, Princeton. T. A. Rickard, Victoria.\nW. N. Sage, Vancouver.\nEditorial communications should be addressed to the Editor.\nSubscriptions should be sent to the Provincial Archives, Parliament Buildings,\nVictoria, B.C. Price, 50tf the copy, or $2 the year. Members of the British\nColumbia Historical Association in good standing receive the Quarterly without\nfurther charge.\nNeither the Provincial Archives nor the British Columbia Historical Association\nassumes any responsibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine.\nThe Quarterly is indexed in Faxon's Annual Magazine Subject-Index and the\nCanadian Index. BRITISH COLUMBIA\nHISTORICAL QUARTERLY\n\"Any country worthy of a future\nshould be interested in its past.\"\nVol. XVII Victoria, B.C., July-October, 1953 Nos. 3 and 4\nCONTENTS\nPage\n\" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden.\nBy D. A. McGregor\u00E2\u0080\u0094 161\nThe Church of England in the Old Oregon Country.\nBy Thomas E. Jessett 197\nPerry McDonough Collins at the Colonial Office.\nBy John S. Galbraith 207\nJohn Nobili, S.J., Founder of California's Santa Clara College:\nThe New Caledonia Years, 1845-1848.\nBy John Bernard McGloin, S.J 215\nThe Klondike Gold-rush: A Great International Venture.\nBy Stuart R. Tompkins 223\nNotes and Comments:\nBritish Columbia Historical Association 241\nOkanagan Historical Society 247\nSouth Cariboo Historical Museum Society 249\nSproat Lake Petroglyphs 249\nPlaque to Commemorate the Commencement of the Survey of Vancouver\nTownsite by L. A. Hamilton, 1885_ . 250\nPresentation of the Douglas Documents 251\nFort St. James Memorial Cairn 251\nPlaque Commemorating Samuel Black 253\nClinton Cairn 254\nPlaque Commemorating Walter Moberly 254\nAlberta Historical Review 255\nContributors to This Issue 256 Page\nThe Northwest Bookshelf:\nSt. Michael and All Angels' Church, 1883 to 1953.\nSt. Mark's Church, Parish of Salt Spring Island, Diamond Jubilee,\n1892-1952.\nHendy: St. Paul's Church, Nanaimo: A Brief History Since Its Foundation, 1859-1952.\nSangster: 75 Years of Service: A History of Olivet Baptist Church,\n1878-1952.\nBy Willard E. Ireland 257\nDuff: The Upper Stalo Indians of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia.\nBy T. F. Mcllwraith 259\nPapers Read before the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba;\nSeries III, No. 8.\nBy Willard E. Ireland 260\nHulley: Alaska, 1741-1953.\nBy W. W. Bilsland 261\nThe Seventeenth Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1953.\nBy Willard E. Ireland 264 Peter Skene Ogden.\n(From a portrait in the Archives of B.C. by John Mix Stanley.) \"OLD WHITEHEAD \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094PETER SKENE OGDEN*\nWhen our good friend Kaye Lamb was among us, before he was\ntranslated to more important spheres,1 he had a lecture which he gave\nseveral times in Vancouver and Victoria entitled \" Peter, James, and\nJohn.\" Peter, James, and John were the three great apostles of the fur\ntrade on this coast\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden, James Douglas, and John McLoughlin. To their acts and epistles Dr. Lamb devoted his lecture.\nDouglas and McLoughlin have long been figures of controversy. Books\nhave been written about Douglas and libraries about McLoughlin, but\nOgden is less well known. He has been treated more as an incidental\nthan a central figure, yet he was the most energetic, the most dynamic,\nthe most far-ranging, and, in many ways, the most attractive character\nof the three. Though a fur-trade apostle, he was no saint; rather, he\nwas a very human sinner, whose career is found to be strangely fascinating. It will be the purpose of this paper to take you over some of\nhis trails, crossing, as we go, the trails of various other men of character\nwho knew New Caledonia and the Columbia when the Great West was\nyoung. But before following trails, let us have a flashback to see where\nwe are.\nIt will be remembered that in 1670 King Charles II granted a charter to the Hudson's Bay Company giving the Adventurers of England,\nwho were the Company's shareholders, the exclusive right of trading\nwith the Indians in the territories which drained into Hudson Bay. The\nFrench, who held the valley of the St. Lawrence, paid little attention to\nthe franchise granted by King Charles and penetrated the Great West\non their own account, reaching as far as the foot-hills of the Rockies.\nWhen the French were ousted in 1759, a number of independent traders,\nsome French, but mostly Scottish or of Scottish descent, picked up the\nbusiness they dropped. The new traders found independence and free\ncompetition dangerous and not very profitable; so, after a few tries,\nthey formed a loose amalgamation or partnership known as the North\n* The presidential address delivered before the annual meeting of the British\nColumbia Historical Association, held in Vancouver, B.C., January 16, 1953.\n(1) Dr. W. Kaye Lamb, editor of this Quarterly from 1937 to 1946, and now\nDominion Archivist and National Librarian.\nBritish Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. XVII, Nos. 3 and 4.\n161 162 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nWest Company, and this was for many years the great and vigorous\ncompetition of the Hudson's Bay Company in the West. As W. Stewart\nWallace has put it, the North West Company was \" one of the first\nexamples of ' big business' in the New World.\"2\nEach of the rival companies enjoyed certain advantages and laboured\nunder certain disabilities. The Hudson's Bay Company could bring its\ngoods by water into the very heart of the fur country and take its cargoes\nof skins out the same way. The Nor' Westers had to follow the tremendously long and laborious canoe route up the St. Lawrence and\nOttawa Rivers, along the northern edge of Lakes Huron and Superior,\nand then through a chain of small lakes and rivers to Lake Winnipeg;\nthence up the Saskatchewan to its headwaters and via the Athabaska\nand various portages across to the Columbia and down to the Pacific\nCoast. The Hudson's Bay Company had the advantage of close organization and long experience, but it was an absentee concern with headquarters in London. It paid its servants poorly, and these had small\nincentive to exert themselves. The Nor' Westers, on the other hand,\nwere partners\u00E2\u0080\u0094bourgeois they called themselves, never dreaming what\nan evil sound their chosen name would one day have in millions of ears.\nThe partners went into the West themselves, managed posts there, and\nconducted business on the spot. They were working for themselves and\nwere, naturally, more enterprising and energetic than their competitors.\nThere was another fur company in the West. John Jacob Astor, of\nNew York, had established himself at the mouth of the Columbia River,\nhad set up various posts in the Columbia Valley, and got as far north\nas the Thompson River. But the War of 1812 ended his venture, and\nthe Nor' Westers took over his business and many of his men.\nBy this time rivalry between the two fur companies had sharpened.\nLord Selkirk, who had bought control of the Hudson's Bay Company,\nhad plans for establishing a colony of Scottish farmers on the Red River\nin the buffalo country and proceeded to carry them out. The Nor'\nWesters could not permit that threat to go unchallenged, for the new\ncolony was right athwart their trade route, and if it succeeded it would\nfrighten the buffalo away. The Nor' Westers depended on the buffalo\nfor pemmican, the staple food of the fur trade. Lacking pemmican they\n(2) W. Stewart Wallace, Documents Relating to the North West Company,\nPublication of the Champlain Society, Vol. XXII, Toronto, 1934, p. 1. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 163\nwould have to transport their food laboriously by canoe from Montreal,\nand what that would do to their profits may readily be imagined.3\nSo the war was on.4 But is was a strange and intermittent war\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nin many ways a phoney war.5 It must be remembered these rivals were\nconducting their campaign in a vast and hostile country. It was easy\nto starve there and the Indian population was none too friendly to either\nside, so for mutual protection the fur-trade enemies were obliged to\nhuddle together.6 Their posts were built quite close to one another, in\na few instances even behind the same stockade. It was safer and more\npractical that way. It is easier to watch your enemy when he is your\nnext-door neighbour. The rival traders were always fraternizing7 and\nwere in and out of one another's posts. They played cards together;\nthey entertained one another. But that did not prevent their cutting\n(3) \"If the [Selkirk] colony succeeded, it would gradually cut off the buffalo,\nfrom which the pemmican is made, and ultimately oblige the Company to import\nfrom Canada, at an enormous expense, a great portion of the provisions necessary\nfor their travelling parties.\" Ross Cox, Adventures on the Columbia River, London, 1831, Vol. II, p. 230.\n(4) The story of the fur-trade war is told by W. Stewart Wallace, op. cit., and\nby G. C. Davidson, The North West Company, Berkeley, 1918.\n(5) Ross Cox, op. cit., p. 229 states: \"The opposition between the Hudson's-\nBay and North-West Companies was for many years carried on without any violent\nbreach of the peace on either side.\"\n(6) \" Many [of the posts] were built within sight of the opposition post.\"\nDouglas Mackay, The Honourable Company, Toronto, 1936, p. 129. This is confirmed by Daniel Williams Harmon, A Journal of Voyages and Travels, Andover,\n1820, p. 138: \" Riviere a la Souris or Mouse River. . . . Here are three establishments, formed severally by the North West, X.Y. and Hudson Bay Companies.\"\nThis entry is under date May 27, 1805, and refers to the area at the confluence of\nthe Souris and Assiniboine Rivers.\n\u00E2\u0096\u00A0 (7) D.W. Harmon, op. cit., p. 138, recorded: \"Last evening, Mr. Chaboillez\ninvited the people of the other two forts to a dance; and we had a real North West\ncountry ball. When three fourths of the people had drunk so much, as to be\nincapable of walking straightly, the other fourth thought it time to put an end to\nthe ball, or rather bawl. This morning, we were invited to breakfast at the\nHudson Bay House, with a Mr. McKay, and in the evening to a dance. This,\nhowever, ended more decently, than the one of the preceding evening.\" Harmon's\nentry for September 11, 1806, at Cumberland House reads: \"The Hudson Bay\npeople have a fort within a hundred rods of ours, in charge of Mr. Peter Fidler.\"\n[Ibid., p. 154.] Still later, on January 30, 1807, he recorded: \"Two of the Hudson Bay people arrived from Fort des Prairies, who were so obliging as to bring\nme letters from several gentlemen in that quarter. The greater part of the North\nWest and Hudson Bay people live on amicable terms; and when one can with\npropriety render a service to the other it is done with cheerfulness.\" [Ibid., p. 155.] 164 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\none another's throats when the opportunity offered.8 The throat-cutting\nwas mostly metaphorical, it is true, but there were murders and cruelties\nand kidnappings, and at Winnipeg, to-day, descendants of the Selkirk\nsettlers will still show visitors the scene of the Seven Oaks massacre.\nAll this fighting on the western plains and rivers and a series of\ncostly lawsuits at Montreal9 did not help the business of either company\nand it became apparent at last that, if both companies were not to go\nunder, the war would have to cease. The terms of peace amounted to\nan amalgamation of the two concerns. The North West Company\ndisappeared; the Hudson's Bay Company continued but took over the\npersonnel of its rival, making the North West bourgeois commissioned\nofficers; that is, Chief Traders or Chief Factors in the amalgamation.\nIncidentally, it should be pointed out that the fur-trade war never\nextended to the Pacific Coast, the reason being that the Hudson's Bay\nCompany had never established itself west of the mountains.\nWhen the amalgamation was complete, George Simpson, who had\nspent a winter in Athabasca and had played a part in the fur-trade war,\nwas made Governor of the Company's enlarged Northern Department,\nwhich included both the Columbia and New Caledonia districts. In this\nterritory west of the mountains and stretching from the Russian holdings\nin the north to the Spanish colonies in the south, the Hudson's Bay\nCompany had no exclusive trading rights, but it soon arranged to get\nthem. There was, however, a difficulty, for the British Government,\nwhich in 1821 gave the Company a twenty-one-year exclusive licence\nto trade west of the Rocky Mountains, could not grant a complete\nmonopoly because it did not have complete sovereignty. The boundary\nbetween the United States and the British territories extended only as far\nwest as the Rockies and westward of them the territory was held jointly.\nThe Hudson's Bay Company's licence did not exclude American traders,\nand this circumstance led to a lot of things.\n(8) W. Stewart Wallace, op. cit., pp. 24-25, says: \" The ' ancient North West\nspirit' was marked by admirable courage and fortitude; but was capable on occasion of a decided form of Schrecklichkeit.\"\n(9) Most of the lawsuits were won by the North West Company, partly, it was\nalleged, because of the influence the partners were able to exert on the Governments of Upper and Lower Canada. However, the strenuous Hudson's Bay competition reduced the North West profits or cut them away altogether, and as the North\nWest Company had no reserve\u00E2\u0080\u0094its profits were divided among the partners each\nyear\u00E2\u0080\u0094it was soon in a bad way. The Hudson's Bay Company suffered as well,\nfor in the forty-two years between 1783 and 1824 there were no dividends at all\nduring nine years, and in the other thirty-three the dividend was oftener 4 per cent\nthan higher. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 165\nHaving now set the stage, let us go back and gather up the actors.\nPeter Skene Ogden,10 who is to play the lead in our drama, was the\nyoungest son of Isaac Ogden, a Judge of the District Court at Montreal.\nThe Judge was a Loyalist who had lost all his property in the American\nRevolution and had been given a judicial appointment in Canada. He\nwas sixth in line from pilgrim John Ogden who had settled on Long\nIsland about 1640.11 Peter was born in Quebec and grew up in\nMontreal, where he had four elder brothers, three of whom became\nprominent.12\n(10) The boy was named for his father's brother Peter and for Andrew Skene,\nhis godfather. At the time of the American Revolution the family of Judge David\nOgden, then settled at Newark, N.J., divided. The Judge and three sons\u00E2\u0080\u0094Isaac\n(Peter Skene's father), Nicholas, and Peter\u00E2\u0080\u0094took the royalist side and lost their\nproperty; Abraham and Samuel took the revolutionary side. The City of Ogdens-\nburg, N.Y., is named for Abraham's son, David, who owned much of the land on\nwhich the city is built. [WiUiam Ogden Wheeler, The Ogden Family, Philadelphia, 1907, pp. 101, 104, 186.] Properly, Peter Skene Ogden's middle name is\nspelled \" Skene,\" but in his letters, Ogden spelled it \" Skene\" or \" Skeen \" or\n\"Skein.\" According to T. C. Elliott, Ogden felt it looked better this way and\nhe enjoyed a bit of variety. [T. C. Elliott, \" Peter Skene Ogden, Fur Trader,\"\nOregon Historical Quarterly, XI (1910), p. 233.]\n(11) W. O. Wheeler, op. cit., is a massive genealogy giving the story of the\nOgden family down to 1906.\n(12) Ibid., pp. 102-103, 175, 176. The brothers were David (born after 1772,\ndied before 1823), Henry (1782-1858), Isaac G. (1783-1868), and Charles\nRichard (1791-1866). Peter Skene was born in 1794. David became a leading\nMontreal lawyer, one of the chief counsel for the Nor' Westers in their litigation\nwith Lord Selkirk. Charles Richard represented Three Rivers in the Legislative\nAssembly of Lower Canada. He became Solicitor-General in 1823 and Attorney-\nGeneral in 1833. In the latter office, which he held until the union in 1841,\nhe had the unpopular job of prosecuting the rebels of 1837-38. His signature\nis on the proclamation bringing the union of Upper and Lower Canada into\neffect. After the Union, he again became Attorney-General for Lower Canada\nand, it is said, was the first victim of the new device of responsible government.\nHe went on leave of absence, and while he was away the government changed, and\nhe returned to find himself out of office. He protested that he had been appointed\n\" during good behavior \" and not \" during pleasure.\" But he was not reinstated.\nIn 1844 he went to England, was called to the Bar there, and became Attorney-\nGeneral of the Isle of Man, retaining the office until his death. Donald Creighton\nsays in John A. Macdonald, the Young Politician, Toronto, 1952, p. 69, that it is\na curious fact that the members of the pre-Rebellion generation of Canadian public\nmen \"whether they were comparatively young, or middle-aged, or old, failed,\nwith astonishing uniformity, to survive very long in the new political atmosphere.\nFor them, the adjustment was too difficult.\" Charles Richard Ogden belonged to\nthe pre-Rebellion generation. Isaac was a captain in the 56th Regiment and for\nforty years Sheriff of Three Rivers. 166 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nIt is said that Peter's mother wished him to go into the church and\nthat his father wanted him to take up law as two of his brothers had\ndone. It is certain he read some law, for he was fond of flinging legal\nmaxims about and quoting Latin tags. But the law did not attract him;\nit was dull, and young Peter had exciting things to think about. Alexander Caulfield Anderson,13 who in later years worked closely with Ogden\nin Oregon and British Columbia, has left it on record that he was\nattracted to the fur trade by reading the Indian stories of Fenimore\nCooper. Ogden could not have been drawn that way, for he was in\nthe trade before the first of the Leather-stocking Tales was published.\nNor was there any need for him to be influenced by fiction. He was\nliving in the full flow of the very stories the fiction-writers would have\ngiven their ears to hear, for Montreal was the heart and centre of that\npart of the fur trade conducted by the Nor' Westers, and that was the\nexciting and colourful part. Think for a moment what strange tales of\nadventure and romance flowed down to Montreal in the wake of the\nbrigades.\nThere was the romance of wealth. In our day we talk of oil and\nuranium and the fortunes to be made from them. At the beginning of\nthe nineteenth century at Montreal the talk was all of fur. Fortunes\nhad been made and were being made in fur. Montreal was the financial\ncentre of the fur trade. The wealth of the trade flowed there and was\nspent there. The big men of the city\u00E2\u0080\u0094the men people talked about\nand envied\u00E2\u0080\u0094were fur-traders\u00E2\u0080\u0094the MacTavishes, the McGillivrays, the\nMcGills, the Chaboillez, the Frobishers.14 Theirs were the best houses.\nTheir turnouts were the finest. They gave the grandest entertainments.\nThese fur-traders, too, were credited with running the country and hold-\n(13) James Robert Anderson, Notes and Comments on Early Days and Events\nin British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, Transcript, Archives of B.C., p. 8.\nHereinafter referred to as Notes and Comments.\n(14) For biographical sketches of these men, see W. Stewart Wallace, op. cit.,\npp. 432, 446-447, 467-472, 484-485; E. E. Rich (ed.), Journal of Occurrences\nin the Athabasca Department by George Simpson, 1820 and 1821, and Report\n(Hudson's Bay Record Society, Vol. I), London, 1938, pp. 438-439, 450-452,\n456-457; E. E. Rich (ed.), Minutes of Council of Northern Department of Rupert\nLand, 1821-31 (Hudson's Bay Record Society, Vol. Ill), London, 1940, pp. 451-\n452; E. E. Rich (ed.), The Letters of John McLoughlin from Fort Vancouver to\nthe Governor and Committee: Second Series 1839-44 (Hudson's Bay Record\nSociety, Vol. VI), London, 1943, pp. 397-398. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 167\ning the government in their hand. Certainly a good many of them were\nmembers of the Legislature.15\nVery soon it will be possible to reach Montreal from the Pacific\nCoast in a matter of eight hours by jet plane. A century and a half\nago it took five months or more by canoe,16 and there was adventure\nall the way. It was from Lachine, just outside Montreal, that the fur\nbrigades started for the Upper Country. It was at Ste. Anne's, just\nup the Island, that the voyageurs paused to Ught a candle in the Uttle\nchurch and, perhaps, sing a parting hymn. It was back to Lachine that\nthe weary canoemen brought their heavy peltries. It was in Montreal\nthat the partners and their servants regaled themselves after their months\nof labour and privation in Le Pays d'En Haut. It was in Montreal's\nsaloons and clubs and at its dinner tables that the men who had seen\nthe West and lived in it told their tales of adventure and boasted how\nthey had met dangers and triumphed over them. After more than a\nhundred years the hospitality of the Beaver Club,17 where the Nor'\nWesters received strangers of distinction and gave them unique entertainment, is still a legend. It was on St. James Street and Notre Dame\nand Beaver Hall Hill and the Champ de Mars that the peacocks of the\nfur trade showed their fine feathers on parade days.18\n(15) Among these may be mentioned Roderick McKenzie, cousin of Sir\nAlexander; Nicholas Montour; Jules M. Quesnel, who was with Simon Fraser;\nJohn Richardson; and Colin Robertson. Biographical data is to be found in\nW. Stewart Wallace, op. cit., pp. 478-479, 487-488, 493, 494.\n(16) Ross Cox, on his way east with the fur brigade in 1817, crossed the continent from Fort George on the Columbia to Montreal in five months and three\ndays. Ross Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 330.\n(17) G. C. Davidson, op. cit, p. 244; George Bryce, The Remarkable History\nof the Hudson's Bay Company, Toronto, 1900, p. 191.\n(18) Ross Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 335-336, tells the story of Louis La Lib-\nerte, a canoeman from the Indian country who met his old bourgeois in Montreal\nand was brushed off too brusquely, or so he thought. Louis thought himself a man\nof importance, for he had married in the West and had a number of fine daughters,\nno fewer than three of whom had married North West partners. He decided to\nget even and ordered a very elaborate outfit\u00E2\u0080\u0094a coat of green cloth with silver\nbuttons, a vest of crimson velvet with cornelian buttons, braided sky-blue pantaloons, Hessian boots with silver heels and gold tassels, a hat with a feather, and a\nsilk sash. So attired Louis met his former boss on the Champ de Mars while the\nlatter, with a number of friends, was watching a regimental parade. Pushing into\nthe group he accosted the fur-trader, pointed to the latter's sober dress and then\nto his own silver and gold, crimson and green. Then, before he was pushed away,\nhe shouted the names of his prosperous sons-in-law and cried \"Je suis le beau-\npere de Monsieur M'Dinnill; Monsieur Mackenzie est mon gendre. . . .\" 168 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nThere was the romance, too, of far places and of discovery. The\nNor' Westers were interested in much more than making money. They\nwere curious about what lay beyond the horizon and were among our\ngreatest explorers. Alexander Mackenzie, David Thompson, and Simon\nFraser19 were all Nor' Westers. Their stories, of course, came down\nto Montreal and were told and retold by the men who had shared their\nadventures. Under the circumstances, what boy with red blood in his\nveins could resist the pull of such highly charged propaganda, the tug\nof these far frontiers? Certainly Peter Skene Ogden could not.\nHis first business contact with the fur-trade was as a clerk in the\noffice of John Jacob Astor, who maintained an estabUshment in Montreal. Peter was in his early teens then, and, most Ukely, was nothing\nmore than an office boy. But he was breathing the atmosphere. Then\nat 1620 he was off to the West.\nThe first record of him beyond the Great Lakes is at the post of\nIsle a la Crosse in the Saskatchewan district. This was in 1810, just\nwhen the fur-trade war was changing from the phoney to the violent\nperiod. Ogden was young, active, daring, keen, full of mischief, and\nfond of rough practical jokes. With him was Samuel Black, a very\nbitter enemy of the Hudson's Bay Company, and one whom Douglas\nMackay has described as \" the very personation of a reckless North\nWest trader.\" The two young men apparently gave their rivals in the\nother fort on the island a pretty hard time. Peter Fidler,21 who was in\ncharge of Isle a la Crosse for the Hudson's Bay Company, tells how the\npair assaulted and threatened him in his own post yard. According to\nanother report, this strangely matched pair\u00E2\u0080\u0094Black was a very big man\nand Ogden was small\u00E2\u0080\u0094found amusement in setting Hudson's Bay Company fish-nets adrift or having them cut to pieces.22\nRoss Cox, who met Ogden at Isle a la Crosse, when Cox was on his\nway east with the fur brigade in 1817, describes him as \" the humorous,\nhonest, eccentric, law-defying Peter Ogden, the terror of Indians, the\n(19) For biographical sketches of these men, see W. Stewart Wallace, op. cit.,\npp. 445-446, 474-475, 502.\n(20) There is some confusion as to the exact date of Ogden's leaving for the\nWest. T. C. Elliott, op. cit., p. 235, maintains: \"In the year 1811, that is, at\nthe age of seventeen, in the Spring he entered the service of the Northwest\nCompany as a clerk. . . .\"\n(21) For a sketch of Peter Fidler and his remarkable will, see George Bryce,\nop. cit., pp. 282-285.\n(22) Donald Gunn, History of Manitoba, Ottawa, 1880, pp. 121-126. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 169\ndeUght of all gay feUows.\"23 Cox and his party remained at Isle a la\nCrosse for a couple of days and were entertained hospitably \" on excellent whitefish and tea without sugar.\" But in the Hudson's Bay Company fort near by, Ogden and his companion, McMurray, were holding\nprisoner twenty men, mostly Orkneymen, and upwards of 120 women\nand children; and these were dejected, emaciated, and wretchedly sup-\npUed with provisions. Their chief support was fish from the lake, and\nwhen these failed they depended on tripe de rocher. Ogden, according\nto Cox, beguiled the stay of the visitors with stories of the Indian country and of clashes with the Indians and Orkneymen, which, \" if reduced\nto writing,\" Cox says, \" would undoubtedly stagger the credulity of any\nperson unacquainted with the Indian country.\" Unfortunately he did\nnot attempt to reduce them to writing, so they are gone.24\nAfter seven years' apprenticeship in Saskatchewan the young fur-\ntrader was transferred to the Columbia. Apparently he had made himself so obnoxious to the enemy in the fur-trade war that a biU of indictment had been issued against him or was about to be issued, and it was\nthought desirable to put as many miles as possible between him and the\nlaw.23 Two notes in old letters administer a parting kick. CoUn Robertson, who had been a Nor' Wester, transferred to the Hudson's Bay\nCompany and fought his former associates tooth and nail and with great\nresourcefulness. In August, 1819, writing from Fort Cumberland to\nWilliam WilUams, he noted: \"Haldane and that fellow Ogden have\ngone to the Columbia by way of Beaver river. . . ,\"26 Again ten\ndays later Robertson, now writing from Isle a la Crosse, reported: \" Haldane and that vagabond Ogden have gone across the Mountains.\"27\n(23) Ross Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 245.\n(24) Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 228-243 passim.\n(25) Arthur S. Morton, A History of the Canadian West to 1870-71, London,\n1939, p. 711.\n(26) Colin Robertson to William Williams, August 26, 1819, in E. E. Rich\n(ed.), Colin Robertson's Correspondence Book, September 1817 to September\n1822 (Hudson's Bay Record Society, Vol. II), London, 1939, p. 257. Williams\nwas the local Governor at York Factory. [W- Stewart Wallace, op. cit., p. 505.]\nFor a sketch of Haldane, see ibid., p. 453. John Haldane subsequently retired to\nEngland, and some of Ogden's letters are addressed to him there.\n(27) Robertson to Williams, September 6, 1819, in E. E. Rich (ed.), Colin\nRobertson's Correspondence Book, p. 258. There was another connection between\nRobertson and Ogden. When certain charges were preferred against Robertson by\nthe North West Company, they came up for trial at Montreal, and Mr. Justice\nIsaac Ogden, Peter Skene's father, refused to sit on the case, as did Mr. Justice 170 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nOgden and his party had a brush with the Indians at the mouth of\nthe Walla Walla River but got safely through to Fort George, the old\nAstor post which had been renamed by the Nor' Westers. From headquarters at Fort George during the next few years he led trapping parties into the district between the Columbia and Puget Sound. He worked\nout of Spokane House and the Flathead post for a time and seems to\nhave been in the Shuswap country.28 In 1820, after ten years in the\nservice, he was made a bourgeois, or partner. He had done very weU\nand must have been pleased with himself. But late in 1821 word reached\nthe Columbia of the amalgamation of the two companies. Nearly all\nthe other partners had been given commissions in the new concern, but\nnot Ogden and Black. They had fought the Hudson's Bay Company\ntoo effectively, and this was their punishment.\nAs the news spread there were protests from various old bourgeois,\nand Ogden himself started on the long trip to London. He had two\npurposes in going. One was to find a job and the other was to see his\nfather, who had retired from the Bench and had gone to England for\nmedical treatment. He spent some time in London, putting up at the\nLondon Coffee House on Ludgate Hill. Before leaving he received a\nletter from his father and, in view of the sort of life the son had been\nUving and was to live again, the lines read strangely.\nLet me recommend you to be careful of your health and not expose yourself to\ndanger unnecessarily. You will of course be exposed to many in the discharge of\nyour duty, but let me entreat you not to court them or to be a volunteer in any\nhazardous enterprise for which you will get little thanks & credit.2'\nIsaac Ogden died in 1824, leaving Peter one-eighth of his estate,\nbut by that time he was on the Columbia again. We find the story of\nhis trip in a Journal kept by John Work. Peter was coming back as a\nchief clerk in the new company, and apparently he felt that he had\nprospects. John Work,30 too, was a clerk who had been nine years with\nReid, whose wife was a sister of William McGillivray, one of the North West partners. W. S. Wallace, op. cit., pp. 290-291.\n(28) John McLeod, in a letter written in 1823 about certain Indians on the\nThompson River, wrote: \"Mr. Ogden three years ago made an attempt to send\nfree men up this river, but in consequence of some dispute that arose among them\nthey returned, having been forty miles up the river.\" Quoted by J. H. Mosgrove\nin an article in the Vancouver Daily Province, February 15, 1931.\n(29) Quoted in T. C. Elliott, op. cit., p. 243. Original in Archives of B.C.\n(30) At the time of the amalgamation of the two companies, Nicholas Garry\nhad described John Work as \" a most excellent young man in every respect.\" For a\nsketch of Work, see H. D. Dee, \"An Irishman in the Fur Trade: the Life and 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 171\nthe Hudson's Bay Company and was destined to have a notable career\nin the fur trade. The two men met at York Factory and left for the\nWest on July 18, 1823. They had two Ught canoes with four men in\neach. The express, with Ogden in charge, travelled Ught, taking only\nsufficient provisions to supply the men until they could get more. It was\nfly-time and they were worried by mosquitoes.31 Some of the bags of\npemmican with which they started out proved to be mouldy and useless.\nFour hundred pounds of dried meat taken on at Isle a la Crosse proved\nso tough the men could hardly chew it. The Indians and freemen they\nmet had no provisions to seU. Their shot gave out and they could not\nget ducks. At Moose Portage, where they expected to find a cache of\nfood, there was none. Consequently, we find entries in the Journal like\nthese:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\n[August 27] We had no breakfast this morning and only two small ducks among\nus for supper, which except a few berries was our days subsistance. When we\nstopped for the night we had not a drop of water.\n[August 31] Some rain in the night and blowing strong & very cold with weighty\nrain the greater part of the day.\n[September 2] We had no breakfast this morning and only 9 small ducks and a\nMuskrat for supper, but we found some berries in the course of the day.32\nOgden fell iU. This sort of fare was different from that he had known\non Ludgate HiU, and he attributed his misery to poor Uving and anxiety\nof mind. For ten days or more there were entries similar to the foUowing: \" Mr. Ogden was iU the greater part of the night and appeared at\ntimes in some measure deUrious. . . .\"33 But the party kept moving\nand at last it reached Boat Encampment, where the east-bound express\nwas waiting for it. From that point onward the way was smoother.\nOgden and Work spent the winter of 1823-24 at Spokane House,\nwhich, from aU accounts, was a lively place.34 In 1824 Governor Simp-\nJournals of John Work,\" British Columbia Historical Quarterly, VII (1943), pp.\n229-270.\n(31) Work spells the word \"muscatoes \"; Ross Cox spells it \" musquitoes.\"\n(32) John Work, \"Journal: York Factory to Spokane House, July 18-October\n28, 1823,\" MS., Archives of B.C., passim.\n(33) Ibid., under date September 14, 1823.\n(34) \"Spokane House was a retired spot: no hostile natives were there to\ndisquiet a great man. There the Bourgeois who presided over the Company's affairs\nresided, and that made Spokane House the centre of attraction. There all the\nwintering parties, with the exception of the northern district, met. There they\nwere all fitted out: it was the great starting point. ... At Spokane House, too,\nthere were handsome buildings: there was a ball room, even; and no females in 172 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nson came through to the Columbia, and the same year Ogden received\nhis commission as a Chief Trader.35 Simpson had secured the promotion for him, but not for nothing\u00E2\u0080\u0094he had work for Ogden to do (a lot\nof work as it turned out), and the various jobs were to last him the rest\nof his life. The first thing the Governor wanted the new Chief Trader\nto undertake was to head a trapping expedition into the Snake River\ncountry. This, as Simpson put it himself, was the \" most hazardous and\ndisagreeable office in the Indian Country,\"36 and none of the commissioned gentlemen had volunteered for this service. Ogden had built up\na reputation for courage, toughness, resourcefulness, and tact, and these\nquaUties got him the job.\nFor a moment let us take a look at the young man who was issuing\nthe orders to Ogden. George Simpson37 was probably 32 years of age\nat the time. He was two years older than Ogden, but whereas Ogden\nhad had fourteen years in the fur trade, Simpson had had only four.\nHowever, Simpson was Governor and Ogden only a Chief Trader.\nWhen Simpson took over as Governor, he was confronted by an immense\namount of detail work in consolidating the affairs of the two companies.\nAs Dr. Lamb has put it, he found himself with \" two of everything \"38\u00E2\u0080\u0094\ntoo many posts, too many people, too extravagant a set-up. He had to\nclose posts, reduce personnel, make economies, adopt conservation\nmeasures. It was three years, therefore, before he could get across the\nmountains and make a personal examination of the affairs on the\nColumbia. At that time he had had to alter his personal plans and\npostpone the trip he had counted on making to the Old Country to be\nmarried. He had laid aside, he told his patron and superior, Andrew\nthe land so fair to look upon as the nymphs of Spokane; no damsels could dance\nso gracefully as they; none were so attractive. But Spokane House was not celebrated for fine women only; there were fine horses also. The race-ground was\nadmired, and the pleasures of the chace [sic] often yielded to the pleasures of the\nrace. Altogether Spokane House was a delightful place, and time had confirmed\nits celebrity.\" Alexander Ross, The Fur Hunters of the Far West, London, 1855,\nVol. I, p. 138.\n(35) The commission is dated March 3, 1824, MS., Archives of B.C.\n(36) Frederick Merk (ed.), Fur Trade and Empire: George Simpson's Journal\n. . . , 1824-1825, Cambridge, Mass., 1931, p. 45.\n(37) For a life of Simpson, see A. S. Morton, Sir George Simpson, Toronto,\n1944.\n(38) E. E. Rich (ed.), The Letters of John McLoughlin from Fort Vancouver\nto the Governor and Committee: First Series, 1825-28 (Hudson's Bay Record\nSociety, Vol. IV), introduction by W. Kaye Lamb, London, 1941, p. xii. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 173\nColvile, \" all feelings or consideration in respect to my own ease and\ncomfort . . . and . . . alone consulted the wehare of the Company & Colony.\"39\nBut if Simpson had not visited the Columbia, it had been much in\nhis mind and in the minds of the Governor and Committee. What\nshould be done about the Columbia? Was it worth keeping or should\nit be abandoned? Even in the days when the Nor' Westers had had\na free hand there it had never made them any money. It had been\ntremendously far from the Montreal headquarters; there had been no\npossibiUty of adequate supervision and it had been run expensively\u00E2\u0080\u0094\neven extravagantly. There were other considerations than money.\nThere were questions of high policy. If there was no profit in holding\nthe Columbia, there was profit in New Caledonia, and New Caledonia\nwas in danger. At the time four nations were interested in the largely\nunexplored Great West. The Russians were in the north, the Spaniards\nin the south, and Great Britain and the United States claimed the middle\nground. The Hudson's Bay Company, which was close to the British\nGovernment, was satisfied that when the middle country came to be\ndivided, the line would certainly not run south of the Columbia. It\nmight run north, and it decided, therefore, to pull back to the north side\nof the river and to hold the country there. If it would not yield a profit\nitself, it would safeguard the more valuable fur lands to the north.\nThe truth is that the Hudson's Bay Company was faced with competition again, and no monopolist likes competition. The competition\nwas threatening from two quarters\u00E2\u0080\u0094both American\u00E2\u0080\u0094and consequently\nnot proscribed by the Company's licence. The Boston men were already\non the coast, and the Mountain men were at the headwaters of the\nMissouri and would presently be over the mountains following the trails\nof Lewis and Clark and the Astor overland party or beating out new\ntrails of their own. For many years a new fur-trade war was to be\nwaged between the Hudson's Bay Company and the Americans. It was\nto be waged on both land and sea, and Ogden was to have a part in\nboth campaigns.\nEven when concerned with matters of high policy, Simpson never\nforgot that his real job was to make money for the shareholders in\nLondon and the commissioned gentlemen at the posts. On his first\n(39) Simpson to Colvile, May 20, 1822, in F. Merk, op. cit., p. 243. Douglas\nMacKay, op. cit., p. 182, states: \" The object of the visit to England was marriage\nto his cousin, Frances Ramsay Simpson, but the event had to be postponed seven\nyears in the interests of the Hudson's Bay Company's efficiency.\" 174 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nvisit to the Columbia he had been appalled at the sloth and extravagance\nand lack of enterprise he had found there. The traders did not know\nanything about the coast and had made no effort to learn, and he considered their ignorance a disgrace.40 Prodigious costs were being incurred, and the system foUowed was little short of ruinous. \" The good\npeople of the Spokane District,\" he wrote, \"... have been eating\ngold.\"41 By this he meant that they were too fond of European foodstuffs, which had to be transported across the continent by canoe or\nhalf-way round the world by ship. He determined to change aU that\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nto tighten up the business, to force the Hudson's Bay people to live on\nthe country42\u00E2\u0080\u0094and to get some profit from the Columbia. Under his\nurging and encouragement, farming was started, first on the Columbia\nat Fort Vancouver, Nisqually, and CowUtz, and later in New Caledonia\nat Alexandria, Kamloops, and Fort Langley.\nOgden was sent to trap the Snake country. In giving him this\nassignment, Simpson had two purposes. The country was full of beaver\nand other fur animals, and the fur would make a profit for the Company.\nThe beaver were a quick-profit crop, and if they were aU caught\u00E2\u0080\u0094the\ncountry trapped bare\u00E2\u0080\u0094there would be less temptation for the American\ntraders to come across the mountains and to make trouble for the Hudson's Bay Company by offering the Indians higher prices in trade goods.\nOgden had his orders. As a fur reserve, the Snake country was to be\ndestroyed.43\n(40) F. Merk, op. cit., p. 39. \" Everything appears to me on the Columbia\n[to be] on too extended a scale except the Trade,\" the Governor had remarked\nrather bitterly. Ibid., p. 65.\n(41) \" The good people of Spokane District and I believe of the interior of the\nColumbia generally have since its first establishment shown an extraordinary predilection for European Provisions without once looking at or considering the enormous price it costs; if they had taken the trouble they would have had little difficulty in discovering that all this time they may be said to have been eating gold;\nsuch fare we cannot afford in the present times, it must therefore be discontinued.\"\nIbid., p. 47. Again and again Simpson reverts back to the folly of importing\nEuropean foods. One unfortunate post officer roused the Governor's wrath by\nrequisitioning some mustard: \" One would think from the quantity you order that\nit is intended to be used in the Indian trade.\" Ibid., p. xix.\n(42) Ibid., p. 266.\n(43) \" The greatest and best protection we can have from opposition is keeping the country closely hunted as the first step that the American Government will\ntake toward Colonization is through the Indian Traders and if the country becomes\nexhausted in Fur bearing animals they can have no inducement to proceed thither.\nWe therefore entreat that no exertions be spared to explore and Trap every part of 1953 ' Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 175\nThe Snake River, the principal southern branch of the Columbia, is\na great river in its own right. It has been said of it that \"... it flows\nfarther than the Ohio, trenches a deeper canyon than the Colorado,\ndrains a larger basin than the Hudson and in its swift reaches lurks more\npotential hydroelectric power than in the Tennessee.\"44 Great as the\nriver's basin is, the fur-traders made it much larger. To them the Snake\ncountry was the whole vast and indefinite district lying west of the\nmountains, south of the Columbia, and north of the Spanish territories.\nOgden himself, after being into it, described it as \" bounded on the North\nby the Columbia Waters On the South by the Missourie [sic], On the\nWest by the Spanish Territo[ries] and on the East by the Saskatchewan\nTribes.\"45\nIt was a vast territory but not entirely new. Lewis and Clark had\nbeen through it and so had Astor's men. Wilson Price Hunt, their\nleader, after trying conclusions with its current, had named it the Mad\nRiver. The Astorians had sent a trapping party of seven into the region\nand not one had returned.46 The Nor' Westers had been in several times\nand had come out with much beaver. Donald McKenzie, an old\nAstorian and an old Nor' Wester, who had spent the previous winter at\nRed River with Simpson, had led an expedition into the country and was\nenthusiastic about it.47 So Simpson knew the Snake country by repu-\nthe country.\" Simpson to McLoughlin, July 9, 1827, quoted in E. E. Rich (ed.),\nMinutes of Council, Northern Department 1821-31, p. lxviii.\n(44) Richard L. Newberger in a review of Ogden's Snake Country Journals in\nthe September 9, 1951, issue of The New York Times Book Review, p. 14.\n(45) E. E. Rich (ed.), Peter Skene Ogden's Snake Country Journals, 1824-25\nand 1825-26 (Hudson's Bay Record Society, Vol. XIII), London, 1950, pp. xxv,\n262.\n(46) \"A party of six men, under a Mr. Reid, had been fitted out by the Astor\nCompany for the Snake country. ... It was afterwards discovered that Mr.\nReid and his party were all murdered by the Indians.\" Alexander Ross, op. cit.,\nVol. I, pp. 7-8.\n(47) \"There animals of every class rove about undisturbed; . . . the red\ndeer were seen grazing in herds about the rivers; . . . where there was a sapling,\nthe ingenious and industrious beaver was at work. Otters sported in the eddies;\nthe wolf and the fox were seen sauntering in quest of prey; ... In the woods,\nthe martin and black fox were numerous; the badger sat quietly looking from his\nmound; and in the numberless ravines, among bushes laden with fruits, the black,\nthe brown, and the grisly [sic] bear were seen. The mountain sheep, and goat white\nas snow, browzed on the rocks and ridges; and the big horn species ran among the\nlofty cliffs. Eagles and vultures, of uncommon size, flew about the rivers. When\nwe approached, most of the animals stood motionless; they would then move off 176 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nration. He knew its dangers\u00E2\u0080\u0094how it was possible to starve there if\ngame became scarce and shy, how war parties of Bloods and Piegans\nwere continuaUy roving through it except in winter, and how the Snakes\nwere always skulking about, ready to steal an unguarded horse or scalp\nan unwary hunter. AU the same, he sent Ogden in with orders to trap\nthe country clean.\nYear after year, for six years, Ogden led expeditions into the country\nsouth of the Columbia. He did not always trap on the Snake, but he\ntouched it or its tributaries each year in his rovings. He poked into\naU sorts of wUd and unexplored places, looking always for beaver but\ntaking less important furs if he found them. He traversed or visited\nthe States that are known to-day as Washington, Oregon, Idaho,\nMontana, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and CaUfornia. On his first expedition he pushed eastward across the Great Divide and had his knuckles\nrapped by the Governor and Committee,48 for Their Honours of Fen-\nchurch Street had no wish to stir up trouble with the Americans. On\nhis last expedition he pushed southward, east of the high Sierras, and\nreached the GuU of California.49 He trespassed on Mexican territory\nthat time, but the Mexicans were not important. It was more serious\nthat, on that occasion, he did not bring back much fur.50 More than\nonce he got east of the Great Salt Lake.\nHe threaded unknown areas, making his own trails. He crossed\ndreary wastes of burning sand and scrubby wormwood. He stormed\na little distance, but soon came anew to satisfy a curiosity that often proved fatal\nto them.\" This description given by McKenzie is in ibid., pp. 202-203. For biographical details on McKenzie, see W. S. Wallace, op. cit., p. 477.\n(48) \"We have repeatedly given direction that all collision with the Americans should be avoided as well as infringements upon their Territory, it appears\nhowever . . . that Mr. Ogden must have been to the southward of 49 degrees\nof latitude and to the Eastward of the Rocky Mountains which he should particularly have avoided . . . [Further] inattention to this instruction . . . will be\nattended with our serious displeasure.\" Governor and Committee to Simpson,\nJune 2, 1826, quoted in E. E. Rich (ed.), McLoughlin's Fort Vancouver Letters:\nFirst Series, p. lxiv.\n(49) \"I was not so successful in my last years Trapping as the preceding\nalthough I extended my trails by far greater distance to the Gulph of California\nbut found beaver very scarce, and unfortunately below the main Dalls [sic] of the\nCol[umbia]. my own Boat was engulphed in a Whirlpool and 9 men were drowned.\nI had a most narrow escape. . . .\" Ogden to John McLeod, March 10, 1831,\nTranscript, Archives of B.C.\n(50) McLoughlin to Simpson, July 13, 1830, printed in Burt Brown Barker\n(ed.), Letters of Dr. John McLoughlin, Portland, 1948, p. 120. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 177\nmountain passes deep with snow or sUppery with slush or barricaded\nby great tangles of fallen timber. He forded torrents and swam icy\nstreams. Provisions faUed and he endured hunger and thirst\u00E2\u0080\u0094privation\nin every form. He faced all sorts of dangers. Small wonder he cursed\nthe Indians who were hanging always on his flanks, his own indolent\nand untrustworthy freemen, and the adverse fate which drove him without cessation \" like a baU in a tennis court.\"51 No wonder he was constrained to write, \" This is the sort of life that make a young man 60 in\na few months.\"\nIt would be impossible at this time to deal fuUy with all the expeditions, so only the high-spots wiU be touched upon. The first, which\nset out late in 1824, was probably the most exciting. Ogden was new\nto the country, but he was given the largest and best-equipped expedition\never sent to the Snakes. While Ogden himself Usted his complement as\n58 freemen, servants, and engaged men, with 61 guns, 268 horses, and\n352 traps,52 WiUiam Kittson, who was with Ogden and also kept a\njournal, in his entry for December 20, 1824, gives the foUowing information on the expedition: \"The party is now together consisting of 22\nlodges which contain besides Mr. Ogden and myseU, Charles McKay\nan interpreter of the Piegan Language 10 Engages 53 Fremen and lads,\n30 Women and 35 Children, aU weU furnished in arms ammunition\nHorses and Traps, able in aU appearances to face any War party brought\ninto the plains.\"53 It might be thought that women and children were\nmere excess baggage, but an Indian wife on such an expedition was\na distinct asset. She more than paid her way, for she sewed and\ngummed the canoes, when canoes were used; she made snowshoes and\nhelped make traps; she skinned the catch and prepared the furs; when\nin the buffalo country she prepared the pemmican and did her share\ngeneraUy of the heavy work of travel. The expedition had to have her,\nand she had to have her children, so the lodges went along.54\nMost of Ogden's men were freemen\u00E2\u0080\u0094men who could be led but not\ncommanded.55 They were of various races\u00E2\u0080\u0094French-Canadian, Iroquois,\n(51) Traits of American Indian Life and Character, by a Fur Trader, London,\n1853, p. 70. This work generally is attributed to Ogden.\n(52) E. E. Rich (ed.), Ogden's Snake Country Journals, pp. 2-3.\n(53) Ibid., pp. 209-210. Alexander Ross, who was at the Flathead post when\nthe expedition set out, gives a slightly different description of the size of the party.\nSee Alexander Ross, op. cit., passim.\n(54) E. E. Rich, \" Colonial Empire,\" Economic History Review, Vol. XI,\np. 318.\n(55) McLoughlin to Simpson, March, 1830, printed in B. B. Barker (ed.),\nop. cit., p. 83. 178 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nplains Indians, half-breeds. Simpson described them as \" . . . the\nvery scum of the country and generaUy outcasts from the Service for\nmisconduct.\" They were, he added, \" the most unruly and troublesome\ngang to deal with in this or perhaps any other part of the World.\"56\nAlexander Ross, who knew the freemen weU, was even more severe:\n\"A more discordant, headstrong, Ul-designing set of rascals that form\nthis company God never permitted together in the fur trade.\"57\nAU the same, there was something to be said for the freemen. If\nthey were at loose ends in the Indian country, it was the fur companies\nthat had brought them there. They were mostly old servants of the\ncompanies whose terms of service had expired. They had no ties elsewhere, had got used to the Indian country, and preferred to remain there.\nSimpson himself had thrown a lot of them on the country by his economies. The freemen did not Uke the Hudson's Bay Company and made\nno secret of their dislike. They felt the Company had exploited them,\npaying them low prices for their furs, exacting top prices for suppUes,\nkeeping them always in debt and therefore discontented. The Company,\non its side, insisted that it was the freemen's own indolence and gambUng\ninstincts and not the Company's desires that kept them in debt. The\nCompany outfitted them because it did not wish to see them starve.\nOgden set out with high hopes and, in spite of bad weather and\nadverse circumstances, was doing fairly well. Alexander Ross, who had\nled the expedition the previous year, had brought back 4,900 beaver,\nand the Governor had not been satisfied.58 Ogden aimed at 6,000, but\nas things turned out he only brought back haU that number, and more\nthan once it seemed to him that he would not even get back himself.\nDisaster came when the expedition feU in with a party of American\ntraders and twenty-three of Ogden's freemen deserted to them, a number\nof the freemen taking their furs as weU as horses and traps that belonged\nto the Company. Worse than that, John Gardner, leader of the Americans, camped near by, hoisted the Stars and Stripes, and told Ogden's\nmen that they were free of their debts and his engaged men that they\nwere free of their contracts. He then ordered the Hudson's Bay man\nout of the territory, which, he said, was American. Ogden stood his\nground and stood off the disaffected Iroquois who threatened to piUage\nthe camp, but he realized the danger of his position, for the desertions\n(56) F. Merk, op. cit., p. 45.\n(57) T. C. Elliott, \" Journal of Alexander Ross,\" Oregon Historical Quarterly,\nXIV (1913), p. 376.\n(58) F. Merk, op. cit., p. 45. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 179\nhad so shorn him of strength that if he should meet an Indian war party\nhe would have no chance whatever.59 \" Here I am now,\" he wrote in\nhis Journal, May 25, 1825, \" with only 20 Trappers Surrounded on aU\nSides by enemies & our expectations & hopes blasted for returns this\nyear, to remain in this quarter any longer would merely be to trap Beaver\nfor the Americans.\"60 Writing to Simpson from the field a little later\nhe added: \" You need not anticipate another expedition ensuing Year\nto this Country for not a freeman wiU return, and should they, it would\nbe to join the Americans.\"61\nIn the depth of his disappointment Ogden wrote many bitter things\nabout the freemen in his Journal.62 But when he got back he made it\nhis business to get fairer treatment for these people. McLoughlin helped\nand the Governor and Committee wrote Simpson on the foUy of endangering the goose that was laying golden eggs for them. \" By attempting\nto make such expeditions too profitable,\" they said, \" the whole may be\nlost. . . . We can afford to pay as good a price as the Americans\nand where there is risk of meeting their parties it is necessary to pay as\nmuch or something more.\"63 Simpson feU into Une, too, and wrote to\nMcLoughlin: \" Trap every part of the country and as the service is\nboth dangerous and laborious we wish our people to be treated with\nkindness and Uberality.\"64 Simpson went even further and when reporting to his superiors admitted his error: \" We now when too late perceive\nthat our former system of trade with these people [freemen] was bad.\"65\nThe freemen, as it turned out, were not as bad as they had been\npainted. On his second expedition when near Klamath Lake, Ogden\nlearned there were some Americans in his vicinity and tried to avoid\nthem. He wanted no more desertions, but he was surprised to find in\nthe American party some of the men who had deserted him the year\nbefore, and stiU more surprised when several of them came forward,\npaid instalments on the debts they owed the Company, and traded skins\nwith him at Hudson's Bay Company rates.66 In the end he learned not\n(59) E. E. Rich (ed.), Ogden's Snake Country Journals, pp. 51-53.\n(60) Ibid., p. 54.\n(61) E. E. Rich (ed.), McLoughlin's Fort Vancouver Letters: First Series,\np. 299.\n(62) E. E. Rich (ed.), Ogden's Snake Country Journals, p. 79.\n(63) E. E. Rich (ed.), Minutes of Council, Northern Department, 1821-31,\npp. lxvii-lxviii.\n(64) Ibid.\n(65) Ibid., p. lxviii, foot-note 2.\n(66) E. E. Rich (ed.), Ogden's Snake Country Journals, p. 154. 180 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nto fear the Americans at aU, for he could give them as good as he got.\nOn this expedition, too, he had an experience which showed the stuff\nhis freemen were made of. It was May 6, 1826, and he was on the\nmain branch of the Raft River\u00E2\u0080\u0094near the south-east corner of modern\nIdaho\u00E2\u0080\u0094when he made the foUowing entry in his Journal:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\n... it began to Snow and continued the greater part of the night Many of the\nTrappers came in almost froze and without setting their Traps Naked as the\ngreater part are and destitute of Shoes it is surprising to me how they can resist,\nand to their Credit be it said not a murmur or Complaint do I hear such men as\nthese are well worthy of following Franklin, for they certainly are now well inured\nto suffering two thirds of them without a Blanket or any shelter and have been\nso for the last six months.6?\nInclement weather was not the only difficulty. Starvation was always\na threat. On Christmas Day, 1825, the party was down to less than 20\npounds of food. On New Year's Day Ogden gave aU hands a dram,\nremarking sardonicaUy, \" I have only to observe there was more fasting\nthan feasting.\" The days foUowing were almost tragic as the Journal\nshows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nFriday 6th. ... we raised camp to facilitate the Trappers as their Horses\nare in a low state many of them can scarsely crawl not from the want of Grass but\nfrom the froze state of the ground, but march they must or we starve. . . .\nSaturday 7th. ... so many starving in the Camp that they start before day\nto steal Beaver out of their neighbours Traps if they find nothing in their own. . . .\nSunday Sth. . . . We had the Pleasure of seeing a Raven this day he appeared to be a Stranger in this quarter.\nSaturday 28th. . . . many in the Camp are Starving and have been so more\nor less for some time past indeed as far as it concerns my mess we have been for\nthe last ten days with only one meal every two days. . . .\nFriday 10th. . . . two of the men who attempted to go in advance to set\ntheir Traps could not from weakness, we have certainly been on short allowance\nalmost too long, and resemble so many Skeletons. . . .68\nThe third expedition confined itself mostly to eastern and southern\nOregon. But again the same conditions were encountered. The following extracts from the Journal give a clear picture of what was to be\nencountered in a trapping party in the winter:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\n[Saturday, November 5, 1826] My provisions ... are fast decreasing. The\nhunters are discouraged. Day after day from morning to night in quest of animals;\nbut not one track do they see. . . .\n[Sunday, November 27] One horse killed for food to-day. My provisions are\nnearly exhausted. . . .\n(67) Ibid., p. 162.\n(68) Ibid., pp. 110-126 passim. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 181\n[Saturday, December 3rd] 2 horses killed for food; terrible storms of snow\nand sleet! What will become of us?\n[Sunday 25th, Christmas] I did not raise camp and we are reduced to one meal\na day. . . .\n[Saturday 31] Our hunters have no success. Discontent prevails. I gave\nrations to all. This closes the year; and my stock of provisions also. They have\nbeen measured out with a sparing hand. We have yet 3 mos. of winter. God grant\nthem well over and our horses escape the kettle! I have been the most unfortunate\nman; but the Lord's will be done! . . .\n[January 18th] I am wretched! No beaver! . . .\n[January 22nd] Late last night two of my Iroquois came in with 7 deer. This\nnews caused joy in camp. . . .\n[March 9th] Huts no sooner made than rain came in torrents. Our leather\ntents are in a rotten state and I can swear our blankets have not been dry for 20\ndays. . . .\n[March 13th] All obliged to sleep out in pouring rain and without blankets.\nNot one complaint. This life makes a young man sixty in a few years. . . .\nA convict at Botany Bay is a gentleman at ease compared to my trappers. Still\nthey are happy. A roving life suits them. They would regard it as a punishment\nto be sent to Canada. . . .69\nIt was on this expedition that Ogden discovered and named Mount\nShasta.70\nThe fourth and fifth expeditions took the wandering fur-trader to\nNevada, where he discovered a stream which he caUed the Unknown\nRiver, which his trappers sometimes caUed Ogden's River, sometimes\nMary's River, after Julia Mary, Ogden's wife, and sometimes St. Mary's\nRiver. But General Fremont, when he came by in 1848, brushed aU\nthe old names aside and caUed the river the Humboldt, after the German\ngeographer. This is the river which Dale L. Morgan says \". . . challenged men, not to Uve upon it but to Uve without it. . . . necessary\nriver, unloved river, barren river\u00E2\u0080\u0094Desert River of the West. There is\nno minstrelsy to celebrate it except the song of hate.\"71 Even the\nweariest river, the poet says, runs somewhere safe to the sea, but for\nthe weary Humboldt there is no such happy consummation. It dries up\nin the desert and dies miserably in the Carson Sink.\nAfter his visit to the Gulf of CaUfornia and the loss of his Journals\nand nine men at the DaUes when almost home,72 Ogden went no more\n(69) T. C. Elliott, op. cit., pp. 211-217 passim.\n(70) Ibid., p. 214.\n(71) Dale L. Morgan, The Humboldt, New York, 1943, p. 338.\n(72) V. supra, foot-note 49. The details of this disaster are to be found in\nTraits of American Indian Life, pp. 165-169. 182 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nto the Snake country. Simpson had expressed the utmost satisfaction\nwith the zeal, activity, and perseverance his Ueutenant had displayed,\nbut he had realized for some time that the hardships were telling on the\nhealth of the Company's aggressive and far-ranging officer, and that\nother occupation would have to be found for him.73 As a result, John\nWork was assigned to replace Ogden on the Snake brigades,74 and\nOgden, withdrawn from the mountains, the deserts, and the rivers, was\nassigned to another of the \" little Governor's \" campaigns against the\nAmerican traders. In his years with the Snakes, Ogden had brought\nback many thousands of beaver-skins and had left mementoes of his\nvisits in many quarters. They are to be found to this day south of the\nColumbia\u00E2\u0080\u0094Ogden River, Ogden City, Ogden VaUey, Ogden Canyon,\nOgden's Bridge, Ogden's Hope. Later on in British Columbia he was\nto be remembered in Ogden Point near Victoria, Ogden Mountain in\nthe Cariboo, and Ogden Passage. There are other features caned for\nother Ogdens, possibly relatives.\nLong before either the Nor' Westers or the Hudson's Bay people\nhad crossed the mountains, American traders were operating on the\nPacific Coast. Theirs was an adventurous and profitable trade. Leaving\nNew England ports early in the year, they would round the Horn and\nin the spring and summer trade on the coast from California north.\nThey would drop anchor near the shore at some likely spot and wait for\nthe Indian canoes to come out. When they had exhausted the trade at\none place, they would move on. By autumn they would be weU up\nnorth and from there would make a direct run to the Sandwich Islands\nfor the winter. In the spring they would be back off the California coast\nand follow the trade north again. Then, with holds fuU of furs, they\nwould head for Canton, trade off their peltries for tea, silk, and other\n(73) Simpson to Governor and Committee, March 1, 1829, as printed in E. E.\nRich (ed.), Simpson's 1828 Journey to the Colombia [sic], p. 65: \"I cannot quit\nthe subject of our Trapping Expeditions, without expressing my utmost satisfaction with the zeal, activity and perseverence manifested by Chief Trader Ogden,\nin the very arduous service on which he has been employed for some years past,\nwhile I am sorry to intimate, that the injury his constitution has sustained, by the\nprivations and discomfort to which he has been so long exposed, will render it\nnecessary to relieve him as soon as we can find a Gentleman qualified to fill his\nplace with advantage.\"\n(74) John Work not only succeeded Ogden in command of the Snake brigades,\nbut he also succeeded him on the coast in 1834 when Ogden went to New Caledonia. Still later he was associated with Ogden on the board of management at\nFort Vancouver after McLoughlin retired. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 183\nexotic goods, and carry their new cargoes home to Boston. Many a\nNew England fortune was founded on this trade, but by 1821 it had\ndwindled, largely owing to the exhaustion of the sea-otter. StiU there\nwas trade there. The Hudson's Bay Company was not getting much\nof it, and Governor Simpson thought something should be done.\nMcLoughlin's idea was to buUd posts at strategic points, fortifying\nthem because there was real danger. Simpson, however, favoured ships\nrather than posts. McLoughlin thought ships costly\u00E2\u0080\u0094it was easy to\nfind gentlemen to command the posts but difficult to find reUable naval\nofficers to handle the ships.75 The masters either drank too much or\nthey did not know the coast or they were incompetent. \" Capt Davidsons talent as a Navigator I know nothing about,\" wrote the old White\nEagle, \" but his talent as a Grog Drinker I understand is without parallel. . . .\"76 And there were others. So the disagreement between\nMcLoughlin and Simpson began and widened with the years, and in the\nend it became one of the causes of the bitter quarrel that broke out.\nIn practice, both ships and posts were used. Fort Langley, the first of\nthe posts, had been established in 1827. When Ogden got back from\nhis California venture in 1830, he found instructions awaiting him to\nestablish a post on the Nass River,77 but a violent attack of intermittent\nfever in the posts on the Columbia delayed action for a year. McLoughlin needed a man like Ogden on the coast because, as he told the Governor, \" the Natives of the place are reported to be very numerous and\nvery Hostile to the Whites.\"78 The Nass post was built in 1831 and\nnamed Fort Simpson for Captain Aemelius Simpson, who had died\nduring its construction. Fort McLoughUn on MiUbank Sound was\nbuilt in 1833.\nA post on the Stikine, 30 miles up or more, was to be next, but when\nOgden and his party tried to enter the mouth of the river in June, 1834,\nthey found the way barred by a crude Russian redoubt and a couple of\nsmaU war vessels. Baron WrangeU, Governor of Alaska, had been\n(75) E. E. Rich (ed.), McLoughlin's Fort Vancouver Letters: First Series,\np. 315.\n(76) Ibid., pp. lxxvii-lxxviii. Others were Captain Hayne of the Ganymede\nand Captain Minors of the Dryad. McLoughlin also thought that the William\nand Ann, the Isabella, and the Vancouver had all been lost owing to the incompetence or negligence of their commanders.\n(77) Ogden to John McLeod, March 10, 1831, Transcript, Archives of B.C.\n(78) McLoughlin to Governor and Committee, October 11, 1830, in B. B.\nBarker (ed.), Letters of Dr. John McLoughlin, p. 139. 184 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nwatching Ogden. He knew aU about his record on the Snake\u00E2\u0080\u0094how he\ntrapped the country bare\u00E2\u0080\u0094and the Governor perhaps thought he might\ndo the same on the coast. He had noted Ogden's aggressive methods\non the coast, too, and had reported:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nMr. Ogden injured the Americans quite considerably this year. ... he sends\nthree vessels to the straits to such localities where the Americans are putting in and\nbegins to pay twice or three times as much as the Americans who never hold out\nvery long but hasten to leave the place and proceed to another, where they are\nimmediately followed by Ogden's ships.79\nThis, of course, was quite in Une with McLoughUn's poUcy and\ninstructions.80. If you deprive the Americans of profit, the good doctor\ninsisted, they wiU not come near you, or if they do they wiU not stay\nlong. WrangeU perhaps thought the same poUcy would be used against\nthe Russians.81. At any rate he set his armed vessels to bar the way to\nthe Stikine and absented himself from Sitka so that he could not be\nargued with. Ogden, who was accompanied by quite an array of Hudson's Bay commissioned officers\u00E2\u0080\u0094Dr. WiUiam Fraser Tolmie, James\nBirnie, Alexander Caulfield Anderson, and Dr. John F. Kennedy\u00E2\u0080\u0094had\nquite a time making out what the Russians meant, for none of his men\ncould speak Russian and none of the Russians knew EngUsh. Dr. Tolmie makes quite a story of it in his Journal82 with his descriptions of the\ndress and appearance of the Russian officers, the fondness of one of\nthem for Hudson's Bay brandy, their comings and goings, and so on.\n(79) E. E. Rich (ed.), McLoughlin's Fort Vancouver Letters: First Series,\np. lxxxvii. The following letter from McLoughlin to Captain Thomas Sinclair,\nmaster of the Cadboro, June 4, 1831, is enlightening: \"You will Trade with the\nNatives at the rate of three skins for a 2V4 pt Blanket and twenty skins for a Gun\nHowever if you should see an American Coaster in that quarter you will sell at\nthe rate of one made Beaver per Blanket.\" B. B. Barker (ed.), Letters of\nDr. John McLoughlin, p. 197. McLoughlin did not hesitate to fight opposition\nto the limit when called upon to do so. The common asking price for a blanket\nwas five or six large beaver-skins, but under competition with the Americans on\nthe coast he dropped his price to a blanket for one beaver and he went so far in\nwriting to the Governor and Committee as to say he would give two blankets for\none beaver if necessary to drive the Americans out of the trade. Ibid., p. 26.\n(80) \"... our policy ought to be to collect a sufficiency of Furs to make\nour opponents lose money ... as they are mere adventurers they will not and\nindeed cannot afford to carry on a losing business.\" McLoughlin to Governor\nand Committee, April 9, 1836, quoted in E. E. Rich (ed.), McLoughlin's Fort\nVancouver Letters: First Series, p. 145.\n(81) For Dr. W. Kaye Lamb's comments on this, see ibid., p. cv.\n(82) Dr. Wm. Fraser Tolmie, Diary, under date June, 1834, MS., Archives\nof B.C. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 185\nOne of the Russians, who had a few words of EngUsh, threatened to\n\" boxum \" the Hudson's Bay men if they tried to go up the river.\nAnother could speak a Uttle Spanish, and Tolmie and Anderson tried\nto work out his meaning from their knowledge of Latin. At last the\nlanguage difficulty was more or less solved, or seemed to be, by bringing\ntogether a Finn from the Russian ranks and a Swede who was a member\nof Ogden's crew. It was made plain then\u00E2\u0080\u0094at least that was the opinion\non Ogden's ship\u00E2\u0080\u0094that the Russians were in earnest and would use force\nto prevent an entry into the Stikine. Chief Seix of the Stikine Indians\nalso made it known that he would resist any attempt to build a post on\nthe river. He was a fur-trader himseff, deaUng in skins brought down the\nriver by the Interior Indians, and had no intention of allowing a competitor to gain a foothold.\nFinaUy, Ogden held a councU of war\u00E2\u0080\u0094should he try to force the\nentrance to the Stikine against the Russians and the Indians. His officers\nwere unanimously against this idea, so the party hoisted saU and turned\nsouth. So that there would be at least some gain from the expedition,\nthey decided to move Fort Simpson, built in 1831, to a more favourable\nsite a few miles down the coast. The site for the new fort was selected\nand the buildings within the pickets taken down, one by one, and moved\nto the new position. Last of all, the bastions, with their heavy squared\ntimbers, were moved and temporary defences had to be provided. The\nIndians, who did not approve of the move, were gathered in large\nnumbers round the old fort. Many of them were drunk and boisterous,\nand for the last haff-day the Hudson's Bay men were under arms constantly. The Indians outside the pickets were armed with guns, boarding pikes, and knives. Within the old fort was a 25-gaUon cask of Indian\nrum. Dr. Kennedy, in charge at Fort Simpson and responsible for the\nCompany's property, wanted to take the cask to the new fort. The other\ngentlemen beUeved it was too difficult to move and too dangerous and\nwould better be left to the Indians. As soon as the gates were opened\nand the Hudson's Bay people were out, the Indians rushed in and the\nwhites were able to reach the shore unmolested and board the Dryad.\nThen from the shore came a hail. Chief Caxetan wanted the Dryad to\nsend a boat ashore for the rum. Ogden refused, and told the Indians\nthey could have the rum. But the chief was serious. If Ogden would not\nsend a boat for it, the Indians would take it out themselves, and they did.\nIt was not that they did not want the rum, for actuaUy they wanted it very 186 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nmuch, but they wished to have the Hudson's Bay people divide it. They\nknew it would be divided fairly and there would be no quarrels or fights.\nOgden had nothing further to do with the Stikine venture, but the\nCompany did. When the news of the failure reached Fort Vancouver,\nMcLoughlin sat down to figure the cost of the expedition and make out\na bill of damages against the Russian American Company. He put\neverything in, and the bill when finished amounted to \u00C2\u00A322,150/10/11.83\nThis biU, aU itemized and duly certified, went to the Governor and Committee in London. They were glad to get it, for they had been trying for\nsome years to arrange a trade agreement with the Russian American\nCompany but had only met with polite evasions. Perhaps the bUl could\nbe used as a lever. So the biU was pushed gently into diplomatic channels\nand in due time reached Lord Durham, the British Ambassador at St.\nPetersburg\u00E2\u0080\u0094the same Lord Durham, by the way, who a few years later\nwas to make a notable report on Canada. The Russians coolly denied\nthat Ogden's party had been prevented from ascending the Stikine, as\nthey had a right to do, or that any threats had been made. It must have\nbeen incompetent interpretation that gave rise to any such ideas. Just\nas cooUy the Russians refused to pay any damages.84 This reply did not\nsatisfy the Hudson's Bay Company, and negotiations dragged on. At\nlast Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary, suggested that the\nheads of the two companies should get together and settle the matter.\nIt was a brilUant suggestion. Simpson and WrangeU met and buried the\nhatchet. The Hudson's Bay Company dropped its claim and the\nRussians gave the Company a lease of the Alaska \"panhandle.\" In a\nsupplementary agreement, the Hudson's Bay Company undertook to\nsupply the Russian posts with provisions, and thus began a profitable\ntrade in foodstuffs which the Company supplied from its farms at\nNisquaUy, Cowlitz, and Fort Langley,85 a trade which went on until\nRussia sold Alaska to the United States, and which did not even stop for*\nthe Crimean War. So the Stikine adventure paid off after aU.\nBy this time Ogden had been transferred to other fields. He had left\nFort Simpson early in October, 1834, but rough weather and contrary\n(83) J. H. Pelly to Lord Palmerston, October 24, 1835, in O. Klotz, Certain\nCorrespondence of the Foreign Office & the Hudson's Bay Company, Ottawa,\n1899, p. 12.\n(84) J. Backhouse, writing at the direction of Lord Palmerston, to J. H. Pelly,\nJanuary 28, 1836, ibid., p. 15.\n(85) See Donald C. Davidson, \" Hudson's Bay and Russian American Relations,\" British Columbia Historical Quarterly, V (1941), pp. 45-48. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 187\nwinds had so delayed the Dryad on which he was sailing that she did not\nreach the Columbia until December 14\u00E2\u0080\u0094two months to cover a distance\nusuaUy covered in eight days.86 On leaving the coast, Ogden, now a\nChief Factor,87 was given charge of aU the posts in New Caledonia. His\nheadquarters were at Fort St. James on Stuart Lake, and as this was\nconsidered to be a very pleasant place to Uve, he took his family with\nhim.\nWhen Ogden was young, he was described as a Uttle below medium\nheight but broad in shoulders and hips, and very muscular and quick in\naction. In the Snake country, where the freemen and engages caUed\nhim \" M'sieu Pete,\" he complained that the hard life he led had reduced\nhim to skin and bone.88 He had changed a lot by the time he got to\nNew Caledonia, for there the Carrier Indians thought they had never\nseen so fat a man, and the word got about that \" Na'kwoel,\" a very\nrotund legendary hero of theirs and the personification of old age, had\ncome back to them.89\nIn New Caledonia, Ogden was the great \" Poo-Bah,\" and his post\nwas the capital of the vast area.90 It was both the administrative and\neconomic centre, for Ogden was both law-giver and chief merchant.\nHe was head of the social service, too, for one of his jobs was to see\nthat his people did not starve, and as the district was not very productive,\nstarvation was an ever-present possibiUty.91 In 1841, the year the\nThompson River district was added to his territory, he requisitioned\n30,000 salmon from Fort Babine.92 Salmon was the great staple food\u00E2\u0080\u0094\n(86) It is amazing how the Hudson's Bay Company's ships got through in the\nrough Pacific waters. These little craft plied along the coast, as far north as Sitka,\nas far south as Monterey, and to sea as far as Hawaii, with their cargoes of logs and\ndeals, shingles and rafters, dry and salted salmon, bringing back hides from California, molasses, sugar, and salt from the Islands. On occasion they even rounded\nthe Horn to England. The Dryad was one of the largest of them, and she was\na brig of only 200 tons. The others ranged down to the Broughton of 30 tons.\nThe Cadboro, of 70 tons, was one of the smallest. Simpson claimed that she was\nquite unfit for the trade as there were hundreds of war canoes on the coast longer\nand higher out of the water than she.\n(87) The commission is dated January 1, 1835, MS., Archives of B.C.\n(88) E. E. Rich (ed.), Ogden's Snake Country Journals, under date February\n16, 1826, p. 129.\n(89) Rev. A. G. Morice, O.M.I., History of the Northern Interior of British\nColumbia, Toronto, 1905, p. 172.\n(90) Ibid., pp. 176-177.\n(91) Ibid., p. 177.\n(92) Ibid., p. 186. 188 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\ndried, it would keep for two or three years, getting less and less palatable\nas it got older, but stiU not to be despised. To help feed his people,\nOgden encouraged the growing of potatoes and wheat and had a smaU\nflour-miU at Alexandria\u00E2\u0080\u0094perhaps at Kamloops, too. Thus he became\nBritish Columbia's first manufacturer of flour and first large-scale\nfarmer.93\nTo his subordinates in the other posts of the district, to the employees\nat Stuart Lake, and to the Indians round about, Ogden was the embodiment of authority. Father Morice, who writes the story of New Caledonia of that day, describes him as \"Lively and yet dignified with his\nsubordinates, imperious though kind-hearted, he was generous while\nremaining a vigilant guardian of his corporation's interests.\"94 Where\nthere was a dispute, he acted as judge or arbiter, and his decisions were\n\" generaUy on the side of justice, even though the corporation he represented had to suffer thereby.\"95 At times he stiU indulged his fondness\nfor practical jokes.96\nOne of Ogden's neighbours at Fort St. James for several years was\nKwah, the great chief of the Carriers. Kwah was an old man by this\ntime and not in very good health. He and Ogden visited back and forth.\nSometimes Ogden borrowed the old man's fishing-traps, and Kwah,\n(93) \" Regarding our farming operations I have done all in my power with the\nslender means at my disposal to encourage them and I would strongly advise you\nto follow the example, two years following from the scarcity of Salmon that prevailed over the District we had convincing proofs of the great benefit arising from\nfarming, at Ft. George ten men were solely supported on grain and at Alexandria\neven more in proportion, independent of these advantages which are not of minor\nimportance. I have within the last year reduced our demand on Colville twenty-five\nbags of flour less in itself again no small object when we take into consideration\nthe long transport with Horses. ...\" In W. N. Sage (ed.), \"Peter Skene\nOgden's Notes on Western Caledonia,\" British Columbia Historical Quarterly,\nI (1937), p. 52. During the several years Ogden was in charge of New Caledonia,\nthe post at Fort Alexandria was commanded by A. C. Anderson, whose son, James\nRobert, spent six years at that post as a boy and has this to say in his memoirs:\n\" My father being of an agricultural turn of mind devoted a great deal of the men's\ntime to the growing of crops and the rearing of cattle . . . and most successful\nhe was in his endeavors: the production of wheat was phenomenal and so a grist\nmill was constructed and flour produced; where the mill stones came from I cannot\nsay, but the motive power was horse power. A marvel it appeared to me of\ncomplicated machinery.\" J. R. Anderson, Notes and Comments, Transcript,\nArchives of B.C., pp. 50-51.\n(94) Rev. A. G. Morice, op. cit., p. 172.\n(95) Ibid., p. 180.\n(96) Ibid., p. 173. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 189\nwhen he had it, would send some game to the fort. Ogden would\nrespond with a bit of sugar or flour or an onion or turnip from the\ngarden. \" Qua sent a whole beaver by a young man,\" reads the fort\nJournal, \" at the same time he requested a turnip to refresh himself\nafter his trip down the river.\"97 But not aU the Indians were friendly\nlike old Kwah. Some were dangerous, and Ogden did not think any\nof them were particularly trustworthy. During his stay at Fort St. James\nthree Hudson's Bay men, including his old Isle a la Crosse friend\nSamuel Black, were murdered by Indians.98 In each case the murder\nwas in supposed revenge for the death of a relative.\nEach year, during his stay at Stuart Lake, Ogden led the brigade\ndown to Fort Vancouver to take out the furs and bring in the suppUes.\nHe left usuaUy about April 22,99 took the boats down the Fraser to\nFort Alexandria, and then followed the trail on horseback by way of\nKamloops and Grande Prairie and through the Okanagan VaUey to\nFort Okanagan, where the Columbia boats were waiting. He had quite\na load going down, for the profits of his district reached something Uke\n\u00C2\u00A310,000 a year.100 By the middle of September he would be back at\nFort St. James with his suppUes for the coming year.101\nOgden liked it in New Caledonia. \" I would not exchange my\nDry Salmon with you,\" he wrote his old friend John McLeod, who had\nretired to Lower Canada.102 But in the summer of 1844 he went out\nand did not return. He had a furlough coming to him, which he spent\nin Eastern Canada and Europe. In 1845 he was back on the Columbia\n(97) Ibid., p. 197.\n(98) The story of Black's murder is told by Ogden in Traits of American\nIndian Life, pp. 187-195, in the chapter entitled \" The Shewappe Murder.\"\n(99) W. N. Sage (ed.), \"Notes on Western Caledonia,\" loc. cit., p. 55.\n(100) T. C. Elliott in the Portland Oregonian, December 19, 1909, claims that\nOgden was eminently successful in New Caledonia, bringing out furs to the value\nof $100,000 each spring. Writing to John McLeod on February 25, 1837, Ogden\nrecorded: \" This year we have been far more fortunate in every respect than last\nas our profits will exceed ten thousand Pounds last year little more than seven\nand if I can only manage to keep it up to ten I shall be very pleased & so ought\nall interested for independent of the opposition on the Coast the Country is not so\nrich as it was a few years past however, it still fully repays us for our trouble\n& I may also add there is not a District in the Country to equal it. in a word\nI am well pleased with my present birth [sic].\" Quoted in Washington Historical\nQuarterly, II (1907-8), pp. 259-260.\n(101) W. N. Sage (ed.), \"Notes on Western Caledonia,\" loc. cit., pp. 50-51.\n(102) Ogden to McLeod, February 25, 1837, quoted in Washington Historical\nQuarterly, II (1907-8), p. 259. 190 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nand on the way acted as guide to two British officers who were making\na reconnaissance, Lieutenants H. J. Warre and M. Vavasour. He did\nnot like them, and they, as it turned out, did not like him, but that is\nanother story.103 Simpson needed Ogden on the Columbia, for he was\nnow the Chief Factor closest to the Governor. The Company's days\nsouth of the 49th paraUel were numbered, and McLoughlin's days with\nthe Company were also numbered. A board of management was set\nup\u00E2\u0080\u0094McLoughlin, Ogden, and Douglas. McLoughlin retired in 1846,\nand Ogden and Douglas carried on, none too happily it would appear.\nIn 1849 Douglas moved to Fort Victoria, and Ogden became virtually\nmaster of the Company's affairs at Fort Vancouver.\nBefore that, however, one of the great adventures of his adventurous\nlife came. In the end it was not the American traders whom Simpson\nfeared that pushed the Hudson's Bay Company out of Oregon, but the\nmissionaries and settlers whom the big-hearted McLoughlin had befriended. Among the missionaries was Dr. Marcus Whitman and his\nwife, Narcissa. They had established a mission among the Cayuse\nIndians at Waulatpu, 25 miles east of Walla WaUa. The mission grew\nand the Whitman home became an orphanage, and round it a church,\na school, and a hospital were buUt. Whitman was a propagandist for\nsettlement, and his propaganda brought in large numbers. Unfortunately, with the 1847 migration came measles, dysentery, and typhus\nfever. The measles was of a particularly virulent type and carried off\nIndians in hundreds. They had their own cure-all\u00E2\u0080\u0094a steam bath and\nthen a plunge into cold water. Whatever the merits of the cure, it did\nnot work in this instance. The Indians died, and Whitman, who had\n(103) \"I had certainly two most disagreeable companions and I almost doubt\nyou could have selected another that would have so quietly submitted as I did, but\nfrom a sense of duty I was determined not to loose [sic] sight of the object of our\nvoyage and was silent to their constant grumbling and complaining not only about\ntheir food which was as good and abundant as any Man could wish for or desire\nbut also in regard to promises made by you. ... I should not however trouble\nyou with further particulars, suffice it to say I would rather for ever forego the\npleasure of seeing my Friends than submit to travel over the same road with the\nsame companions.\" Ogden to Simpson, March 20, 1846, quoted in E. E. Rich (ed.),\nMcLoughlin's Fort Vancouver Letters: Third Series, pp. 146-147, foot-note 3.\nThese officers' opinion of Ogden is found in James R. Anderson, Notes and Comments, p. 337, in a letter written by James Anderson, a Hudson's Bay officer who\nmet the officers after their return to the East from their visit on the Pacific Coast,\nto his brother, A. C. Anderson: \"These gents seem to be partial to the Dr.\n[McLoughlin] and Worth [Work] but dislike Douglas, Ogden and Sir George.\" 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 191\nbeen treating them wherever he could, was blamed. The Indians always\nheld their own medicine men strictly to account. Consequently, one\nnight in November the Cayuse young men took matters into their own\nhands and for several days the fury raged. When it calmed down,\nWhitman, his wife, and a dozen associates were dead, and about fifty\nwhite persons had been captured and carried off.\nIt was a week before a messenger reached Fort Vancouver with the\nnews. Ogden and Douglas heard the story, but what should they do?\nThey were Hudson's Bay officers, but Oregon had been American territory for a year and they had neither authority nor responsibiUty. The\ndead were aU Americans; they had been warned of their danger but\nhad paid no heed. Why should the Company worry? Ogden and\nDouglas thought not of the dead, but of the fifty captives. They knew\nthat if the American authorities at Oregon City made one move against\nthe Indians, the first thing they would do would be to butcher the fifty.\nBy dawn Ogden was off up-river with two bateaux.104 In his days on\nthe Columbia he had made the acquaintance of aU the tribes, and he\nwas known among them as \" Old Whitehead \" and was much respected.\nIt took nearly a fortnight, pulling against the current, to reach WaUa\nWalla. There Ogden circulated word through the tribes that he was\namong them and would like to talk to them. The chiefs gathered, and\nto the Indian council Ogden went unarmed and alone. He spoke to\nthe chiefs in their own tongue and in their own fashion, leisurely,\nbeating about the bush as much as protocol required. But he spoke\nplainly, too. Their hot-headed young men had killed white people and\nto kiU white people was very \" bad medicine \" for the Indians. They\nknew that from their thirty years' experience with the Hudson's Bay\nCompany. If the Americans began war, it would not end until there\nwere no Indians left. This was none of the Company's business and\nhe could make no promises, but if the chiefs would deUver the captives\nto him he would pay them a ransom. To Ogden one of the Cayuse\nchiefs replied. \" Your words are weighty. Your hairs are gray. We\nhave known you a long time. You have had an unpleasant journey to\nthis place. I cannot therefore keep the captives back. I make them\nover to you, which I would not do to a younger man than yourself.\"\nThe other chiefs had to be convinced, and it was days before the\nprisoners were aU deUvered and ready to start down the river with the\n(104) The story is told by Douglas MacKay, \"Men of the Old Fur Trade,\"\nThe Beaver, June, 1939, pp. 7-9; and by Herbert Dank, \" The Spirit of the Fur\nTrade,\" The Beaver, June, 1930, pp. 18-19. 192 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nman who had saved them. There was great rejoicing when they reached\nPortland and a salute was fired. There was another salute at Oregon\nCity. Ogden was thanked by the Governor, but himseff made Ught of\nhis achievement. Telling his friend Donald Ross of the massacre, he\nmerely remarked that he had had the good fortune to rescue the captives.105 To the Company he made a brief report of the incident and\nadded that if the Governor and Committee thought he had exceeded\nhis authority in charging the costs of the rescue expedition to the Fort\nVancouver account, he would meet the expense himself. One of those\ntaken down the river by Ogden was John Mix Stanley, the well-known\nAmerican portrait-painter.106 In gratitude, perhaps, he painted the\nChief Factor's portrait and, if you are interested, you may see it on\nthe waU in the Provincial Archives in Victoria.\nOgden was often in a pessimistic mood during his last years at\nFort Vancouver and complained to old friends with whom he corresponded. He was in poor health and often laid up. He seemed\nafraid that he might end his days in poverty after his long years of\ntoil.107 He thought the Company's dividends too low.108 Douglas did,\n(105) Ogden to Ross, March 10, 1848, MS., Archives of B.C.\n(106) Stanley was born in New York State in 1814 and was a wagon-maker\nby trade. He was with General Kearny in California in 1846 as a draughtsman\nto the corps of topographical engineers. He had done considerable painting, both\nlandscapes and portraits, and at the end of his army career decided to make a tour\nin the Pacific Northwest, reaching Oregon in July, 1847. In October he was at\nTshimakain, the mission of Cushing Eells and Elkanah Walker. From this place\nhe went to Waiilatpu, where he intended painting the portraits of the Whitmans.\nWhen a few miles from Waiilatpu he heard of the massacre, and with the aid of\nan Indian guide escaped to Walla Walla. See Nellie Pipes, \"John Mix Stanley,\nIndian Painter,\" Oregon Historical Quarterly, XXXIII (1932), pp. 250-258.\n(107) \" . . . I have been very unwell and one day confined to my bed\u00E2\u0080\u0094I am\nindeed harrassed to death this I attribute my illness to. . . .\" Ogden to W. F.\nTolmie, July 18, 1851, MS., Archives of B.C. \" Mr. Hardisty arrived here safely\non Saturday Evng and del'd me your letter but I am too weak at present to make\nreply to it. . . .\" Ogden to Tolmie, August 25, 1851, MS., Archives of B.C.\n\". . . the Fur trade still continues in a most depressed state and unfortunately\nno prospect of improvement and altho most anxious to retire so long as it remains\nso I dread to pronounce the word for once uttered it cannot be recalled and to die\nin poverty after having so long toiled would tend to make me wretched for the\nremainder of my days. I therefore submit to my fate with resignation the Gold\nmines will enrich many but not the Fur traders they are truly a doom'd race.\n. . .\" Ogden to John Haldane, April 21, 1849, MS., Archives of B.C.\n(108) \". . . you can form very little idea of the state of anxiety we have\nendured for the last three Months and still endure and when I take into consider- 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 193\ntoo, and wrote \" just about enough to keep us in tobacco money.\"109\nOgden did not have much hope that the Red River colony would ever\namount to much, and he had about the same opinion of Vancouver\nIsland, where even the coal mines left him cold.110 He had troubles,\ntoo, at the time of the California gold-rush. His workers on the farm\nand even the commissioned officers deserted, leaving the harvest uncut\nand the stock untended. There was a compensation, however, for the\nCompany was able to buy gold dust at $12 an ounce, giving goods in\nreturn on which it took \" precious good care to place 300 p c on prime\nCost.\" The gold-rush set Ogden moralizing a Uttle: \"... Gold\nhas a charm about it that is irresistible ... we poor Indian Traders\nhave never experienced it for the plain reason we see none of it in the\npresent days in any shape whatever for alas we no longer have any\nplaced to our Credit.\"111\nIn 1852 Ogden went east. He spent most of the year in Lower\nCanada and about New York, where there were many Ogdens. He\nvisited Washington, D.C, and helped Simpson with some business.\nReturning by way of Panama, he took passage on the steamship Tennessee, which was wrecked near San Francisco. This was his final\nadventure. The overexertion and exposure proved too much for his\nfailing strength, and the next September he died.112 He was only 60\nation the low state of our Dividends it is to those who suffer no great inducement\nto remain and did I not expect soon to see an end to the Columbia I would this\nyear send in my resignation. . . .\" Ogden to Donald Ross, March 6, 1849,\nMS., Archives of B.C. \" Let us have a few words on the subject of Dividends year\nafter year they are fast diminishing never is there the slightest appearance of\na reaction in our favour and to beguile us we are assured with experiments . . .\nbut not a word is said on the subject of reducing expences [sic] on the contrary\nthe expences [sic] of Red River are annually on the increase and last year thanks\nto Lord Lewis and Mr. Gladstone considerably so and we must pay the Pipers.\n. . .\" Ogden to Ross, March 18, 1850, MS., Archives of B.C.\n(109) Douglas to A. C. Anderson, October 28, 1850, quoted in J. R. Anderson,\nNotes and Comments, Transcript, Archives of B.C., p. 192.\n(110) \"We shall soon have I fear have [sic] another Bill of Expenditure\nshould their Honors pawn their bargain of Vancouver Island on the Fur trade as\nthey did in regard to Red River then we got for our trouble and Money wild\nPlains and discontented Settlers and Vancouver Island is probably likely to obtain\nRocks no Settlers . . . and the rich Coal Mines will in all probability prove\na failure and loss to all concerned.\" Ogden to Donald Ross, March 18, 1850,\nMS., Archives of B.C.\n(111) Ogden to Ross, March 6, 1849, MS., Archives of B.C.\n(112) An article by T. C. Elliott in the Portland Oregonian, December 19,\n1909. 194 D. A. McGregor July-Oct.\nyears old, but he had crowded enough activity and adventure into his\nlife for a fuU century. In its many years west of the mountains, the\nHudson's Bay Company had no more resourceful, vigorous, or courageous officer than Peter Skene Ogden. His tact, sense of responsibiUty,\nhis fortitude in the face of adversity, his constant good humour and\ngaiety were quaUties that paid dividends to the Company if not to\nhimseff.\nThere is much that could be said about Ogden's family, but only\na few paragraphs wiU be added about the remarkable woman who was\nhis companion through most of his roving. In Saskatchewan Ogden\nhad had a Cree wife but she had died. On the Columbia he had married, fur-trade fashion, the daughter of a Spokane chief whom he caUed\nPrincess JuUa. There is a story\u00E2\u0080\u0094the truth of which is not known\u00E2\u0080\u0094that\nOgden had bought her from her father for fifty horses, Julia herseU\nhaving set the price. According to the tale, the transaction was something of an auction; one after another Ogden sent the horses to the\nold chief's lodge, thus upping the bid each time, and when the fiftieth\nhad been sent Julia came riding it back. That was the wedding.\nIf even half the stories told about her are true, Julia was a woman\nof unusual courage and capacity and helped materiaUy in making\nOgden's fortune. Like the other Indian wives, she foUowed her husband\non his expeditions, enduring the same hardships and privations as he,\nfacing the same dangers. She lived with him at Fort St. James and at\nFort Vancouver and every spring, when in New Caledonia, came south\nwith the brigade. In his letters, Ogden speaks of her affectionately as\n\"the Old Lady.\" Once in the Snake country, according to the story\nJoe Meek told,113 while Ogden was camped not far from a party of\nAmerican trappers, the Hudson's Bay horses were stampeded and some\nof them ran to the American camp. Among these was a pack-horse\nloaded with beaver-skins and Princess JuUa's own saddle-horse with\nher baby slung in a sack from the saddle. It was not long before Julia\nmissed the baby and traced the horse to the American camp. Without\nfear, she entered, seized her horse by the bridle and mounted it. Then,\nas she spurred out, she caught sight of the pack-horse and seizing its\nhalter puUed it along. The Americans did not want the baby, but they\ndid want the beaver-skins, for it had been in the hope of getting some\nof Ogden's skins that they had camped so near. Some shouted out to\n(113) This story is related in Frances Fuller Victor, The River of the West,\nNewark, 1870, pp. 95-96. 1953 \" Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden 195\nshoot the rash woman who was running off with the prize, but most of\nthe men admired JuUa's pluck and she rode out in safety. There is\nanother story of Julia's swimming the Snake River in March to get\na goose for her sick child and returning with a necklace of icicles where\nshe had held her head above the water.\nJuUa moved to British Columbia some years after her husband's\ndeath and died at Lac la Hache in January, 1886, aged 98. Her\ndaughter, Sara JuUa, the baby she saved from the American camp, had\nmarried Archibald McKinlay of the Hudson's Bay Company and died\nat Savona, B.C. There must be scores of descendants of this notable\ncouple in British Columbia\u00E2\u0080\u0094Ogdens, McKinlays, Hamiltons, Fergusons, Alexanders, Mansons, McDougalls, Halls, and others of the current generation.114 They should all be proud, and no doubt are, that\nthe blood of Old Whitehead and Princess JuUa runs in their veins.\nD. A. McGregor.\nVancouver, B.C.\n(114) Peter Skene Ogden had eight children: Peter, born January 17, 1817,\ndied at Fort St. James, October, 1870; Charles, born September 5, 1819, died at\nLac la Hache, 1880; Cecilia, born April 2, 1822; Michael, born September 29,\n1824, died in Montana Territory; Sara Julia, born January 1, 1826, died August 4,\n1892, at Savona, B.C.; David, born February 1, 1828, and died in his youth;\nEuretta Mary, born July 29, 1836, at Fort St. James, died at Champoeg, Oregon,\nFebruary 10, 1861; Isaac, born June 6, 1839, at Fort St. James, and died at\nChampoeg in 1869. His eldest son, Peter, who had married Phrisine Brabbant\nand had eleven children, had a tragic end. He had been educated at Red River and\nentered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. As a Chief Trader he was in\ncharge of Fort St. James, where his father had served before him. His eldest son,\nPeter Skene, a clerk in the Company's service and a noted hunter, was at Fort\nSt. James with him. One day the young man went out hunting with dogs and\nIndians; the hunters roused a bear, and young Ogden, following the dogs, left the\nIndians far behind. When they finally came up, they found Peter and the dogs\nlying on the ground beside the dead bear. Overheated, the young man caught\na cold and died a week later. The shock was too much for his father, and he died\nthe same day. Cecilia married Hugh Fraser. Michael was twice married and left\na number of children. Sara Julia married Archibald McKinlay, long with the\nHudson's Bay Company on the Columbia. In the sixties the McKinlays suffered\nheavily from floods on the Columbia and moved to Savona, B.C., where they died.\nThey left ten children. Isaac married Anne Manson, daughter of Chief Trader\nDonald Manson, and left one son and two daughters. The remaining children did\nnot marry. See W. Ogden Wheeler, op. cit., pp. 183 ff. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN THE OLD\nOREGON COUNTRY*\nMost historians of the Pacific Northwest attribute the beginning of\nChristian missions in the old Oregon country to the appearance at St.\nLouis in the faU of 1831 of four Nez Perce Indians. According to\nProtestant sources, these Indians were seeking the \"Book of Life\";\naccording to Roman CathoUcs, they sought the \" Blackrobes,\" as the\nJesuit missionaries were known. Some modern historians, unable to\naccount for the Indians' interest in Christianity, have even asserted that\nthey had no reUgious interest at ah.1 The publicity given this event\ncaused the Methodist Church to send out Rev. Jason Lee in 1834, and\nthe American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to send out\nRev. Samuel Parker in 1835. As a result of these exploratory trips, the\nMethodists estabUshed themselves in the Willamette VaUey, and the\nAmerican Board sent Marcus Whitman, Henry Spalding, and W. H. Gray\nin 1836, and Cushing EeUs, Elkanah Walker, and A. B. Smith in 1838\ninto the area of Eastern Washington and Idaho now caUed the Inland\nEmpire. The Roman CathoUc priests Fathers De Smet and Blanchet\narrived at Fort Vancouver in the fall of 1838.\nTo what must have been their amazement, these missionaries found\nthe Indians of this region akeady engaged in Christian worship and\npractices. Furthermore, the missionaries found that these Indians had\na common form of worship which they were loath to exchange for the\nforms brought by the new-comers. Father NobUi, S.J., in June, 1847,\n\"gave it as his opinion that the hope of a successful work among the\nWaUa WaUa, the Nez Perce, the Spokanes, and the Cayuse were\nslender,\"2 and the American Board missionaries had made almost no\nconverts when their work was closed with the Whitman massacre of 1847.\nFrom where and from whom did these Indian tribes receive their\nChristian instruction? And why did it make them so unresponsive to\nthe initial efforts of both Roman CathoUc and Protestant missionaries?\n* The substance of this article was prepared for submission to the meeting of the\nPacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association held at the University\nof British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., December 28 to 30, 1952.\n(1) Ray A. Billington, Westward Expansion, New York, 1949, p. 515.\n(2) Gilbert J. Garraghan, The Jesuits in the Middle United States, New York,\nVol. n, p. 343.\nBritish Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. XVII, Nos. 3 and 4.\n197 198 Thomas E. Jessett July-Oct.\nThe search for an answer to these questions leads us across the\ncontinent and the Atlantic Ocean to the London headquarters of the\nChurch Missionary Society of the Church of England. In 1819 the\nNorth West Company drew the attention of the Society to the desirability\nof estabUshing missionary work among the Indians in the area \"lying\nbetween the high ridge caUed the Rocky Mountains and the North Pacific\nOcean, and extending from about the 42nd to the 57th degree of North\nLatitude.\" The same year the Hudson's Bay Company proposed to the\nSociety that it undertake work among the Indians Uving between the\n\" Rocky Mountains and Hudson's Bay.\"3\nThe Hudson's Bay Company appointed Rev. John West as chaplain\nto its settlement on the Red River, now Winnipeg, and the Society gave\nhim \u00C2\u00A3100 to make a trial at establishing a school for Indians. West\narrived there in October, 1820, and soon had his school, where Indian\nchUdren were taught agriculture as well as religion. He wrote to the\nSociety urging it to establish another mission at the mouth of the\nColumbia \" on the banks of the WiUammette [sic] River.\"4\nWest's school was so successful that at the January, 1822, meeting\nof the Society\u00E2\u0080\u0094at which time Benjamin Harrison and Nicholas Garry,\nboth directors of the Hudson's Bay Company, were present\u00E2\u0080\u0094it was\ndecided to appropriate \u00C2\u00A3800 for Indian work at the Red River settlement\nand to organize the work there as a post of the Society, thus removing\nWest from under the control of the Company.5\nWest returned to England in 1823 to become the secretary of the\nSociety. His successor, Rev. David T. Jones, carried on the work he\nhad begun very effectively. Jones decided to bring thirty Indian chUdren,\none half boys and one half girls, from distant tribes to his school to\neducate them in Christian ways at the expense of the Society. He asked\nGeorge Simpson, Governor of the Northern Department of the Company,\nto aid him in securing the children. Although Simpson did not favour\neducating Indians, he agreed to help, influenced undoubtedly by the\nattitude of the directors in London.6\n(3) Church Missionary Society Proceedings, 1819-1820, quoted in J. O. Oli-\nphant, \" George Simpson and Oregon Missions,\" Pacific Historical Review, VI\n(1937), pp. 224-225.\n(4) J. O. Oliphant, op. cit., pp. 223-231 passim.\n(5) An Historical Account of the Formation of the Church Missionary's North\nWest America Mission and Its Progress to August, 1848, London, 1849, pp. 8-9.\n(6) J. O. Oliphant, op. cit., pp. 230-233. 1953 The Church of England in Oregon 199\nWhUe on his way to Fort George at the mouth of the Columbia in\nthe faU of 1824, Simpson asked Alexander Ross, a trader for the Company on the Upper Columbia, to select two Indian boys to go back to\nthe school with him in the spring. Ross did this, and the two lads, named\nby Simpson, Spokane Garry and Kootenai PeUy, arrived at Spokane\nHouse on April 12, 1825, to join the east-bound brigade.7\nAt the Red River school, where they spent more than four years,\nGarry and Pelly learned to read and write, to speak EngUsh with a Scotch\naccent, and a little about agriculture. They were given a good grounding\nin the Book of Common Prayer, with its daily offices of Morning and\nEvening Prayer, and a knowledge of the Holy Bible, and there they were\nbaptized.8\nIn the summer of 1829 the two young men returned home and told\ntheir tribes and others about the religion they had studied and practised\nat the school. According to reports sent back to Jones by officers of the\nHudson's Bay Company, the Indians on the Upper Columbia \"paid\nthe utmost attention to the information conveyed to them through the\nboys . . . and readily received whatsoever instruction or doctrine\nthey thought proper to inculcate . . . and ever since they assemble\nevery Sunday to keep the Sabbath in the ways they [sic] boys had\ndirected.\"9\nSo enthusiastic were these two young men about the school and its\nteachings that when they returned in the spring of 1830 they took with\nthem five additional young lads\u00E2\u0080\u0094Spokane Berens, possibly a brother of\nGarry; a Kootenai named CoUins; two Nez Perces given the names\n(7) Alexander Ross, Fur Hunters of the Far West, London, 1855, Vol. II, pp.\n158-160; Frederick Merk (ed.), Fur Trade and Empire, Cambridge, Mass., 1931,\np. 138.\n(8) Some confusion exists as to the date of the baptism. Presumably Spokane\nGarry was named at a ceremony on April 12, 1825, and was later baptized by Rev.\nD. T. Jones on June 24, 1827, according to the parish register at St. John's\nCathedral, Winnipeg. Drury is in error when he gives the date June 27. On this\npoint see J. O. Oliphant, op. cit., p. 238; Clifford M. Drury, \"Oregon Indians\nin the Red River School,\" Pacific Historical Review, VII (1938), p. 54; and\nSarah Tucker, Rainbow of the North: A Short Account of the First Establishment\nof Christianity in Rupert's Land by the Church Missionary Society, London, 1851,\np. 70.\n(9) D. T. Jones to the Secretary, Church Missionary Society, July 25, 1832,\nMS., Church Missionary Society Archives. 200 Thomas E. Jessett July-Oct.\nof Ellis and Pitt; and a Cayuse caUed Halket.10 These names given the\nboys were those of directors of the Company and were attached to the\nname of their tribe.\nIt was the enthusiasm stirred up by a visit of Garry to the Nez Perces\nto secure these two lads for the school that caused that tribe to send the\n\"delegation\" to St. Louis in the faU of 1831 to secure \"Christian\nteachers,\" Lawyer, a prominent Nez Perce chief, told a missionary in\n1839.11 The Foreign Missionary Chronicle of August, 1834, stated that\nthe four were sent east to learn how \" white men talk to the Great Spirit\"\nafter they had heard from one of their number who had visited Canada.12\nThe Roman CathoUc Bishop of St. Louis, Right Rev. Joseph Rosati,\nwho himself received these Indians, wrote that they \", . . received\nsome notions of the CathoUc reUgion from two Indians who have been\nto Canada . . .\"13 The only Indians known to have gone to Canada\nfrom whom the Nez Perce could have received any such notions were\nGarry and PeUy, and because of sinularities between AngUcanism and\nRoman Catholicism, the bishop's mistake was a natural one.\nIn the meantime, back at the Red River Mission, Kootenai PeUy had\nbeen injured falling from a horse and died April 6, 1831. Gary was\nsent back with the sad news that fall, and the foUowing summer the five\nothers returned also. ColUns died shortly after his return, and Pitt does\nnot appear to have done any rehgious teaching, but Spokane Garry,\nCayuse Halket, and ElUs of the Nez Perce aU conducted services and\ngave instruction to their tribes. The basis of their teaching was the\nBook of Common Prayer of the Church of England and the Holy Bible.14\nIn 1836, before any Roman CathoUc or Protestant missionaries had\nvisited them, John K. Townsend spent some time among the Cayuse.\nHe found them holding divine services twice every day\u00E2\u0080\u0094in the morning\n(10) An Historical Account of the Formation . . ., pp. 17-18; William\nMcKay, \" Early Missions,\" Oregon Churchman, December 15, 1873. Dr. William\nMcKay, himself part Indian, was born at Astoria, Oregon, in 1822 and was a\nphysician on the Umatilla Indian Reservation.\n(11) Clifford M. Drury, Henry Harmon Spalding, Caldwell, 1936, pp. 78-79.\n(12) Clifford M. Drury, \"The Nez Perce 'Delegation' of 1831,\" Oregon Historical Quarterly, XL (1939), pp. 286-287.\n(13) Clifford M. Drury, Henry Harmon Spalding, p. 80, quotes this letter.\nIt is also reproduced in G. J. Garraghan, op. cit., Vol. HI, p. 237.\n(14) Ibid., p. 78; see also Clifford M. Drury, \" Oregon Indians in the Red River\nSchool,\" op. cit., p. 57. 1953 The Church of England in Oregon 201\nand after supper\u00E2\u0080\u0094and his description of an evening service he attended15\nbears a remarkable resemblance to the Office of Daily Evening Prayer\nin the Book of Common Prayer. Halket's labours were bearing fruit.\nThat same year Samuel Parker on his exploratory tour stopped\namong the Nez Perce, where he observed Christian practices. When he\nprayed during a service for them, they aU repeated \" amen \" in their own\ntongue after him,16 an AngUcan practice. EUis's labours were bearing\nfruit.\nSpokane Garry buUt a school and a church buUding and taught\nEngUsh and agriculture to his people, as weU as holding services and\ninstructing them in the Christian faith.17 Testimony to his efforts was\ngiven by Parker18 hi 1836, Gray19 in 1837, and Walker and EeUs20 in\n1838. Garry's efforts reached other tribes also, and Father Joset, one\nof the first Jesuits to visit the Coeur d'Alenes, stated in 1845 that Garry\nwas responsible for Christianizing that tribe.21 Walker describes a\nChristian service he heard conducted by the Coeur d'Alenes in 1839.\nIt was not the intention of the Society that this work among the\nIndians of the Far West should be left to partly educated young Indians,\nbut insufficient funds to answer the many caUs upon it made it impossible\nto open a new work there. As early as 1825 Simpson had notified the\nGovernor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company that it would\ncost from \u00C2\u00A3500 to \u00C2\u00A3700 annuaUy to maintain a mission on the Columbia.22 Five years later the Company notified Simpson of its intention\nto send a chaplain west of the Rockies. Two appointments were\nsubsequently made but both clergymen declined.23\n(15) John K. Townsend, Narrative of a Journey across the Rocky Mountains,\nto the Columbia, and a Visit to the Sandwich Islands, Philadelphia, 1839, pp.\n245-247.\n(16) Samuel Parker, Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, New York, 1838, p. 98.\n(17) William S. Lewis, \" The Case for Spokane Garry,\" Bulletin of the Spokane\nHistorical Society, January, 1917, pp. 14-16.\n(18) Samuel Parker, op. cit., pp. 289-290.\n(19) \"The Unpublished Journal of William H. Gray from December, 1836,\nto October, 1837,\" Whitman College Quarterly, Vol. XVI, p. 77.\n(20) Clifford M. Drury, Elkanah and Mary Walker, Caldwell, 1940, p. 101.\n(21) G. J. Garraghan, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 314.\n(22) F. Merk, op. cit., p. 107.\n(23) G. Hollis Slater, \"New Light on Herbert Beaver,\" British Columbia\nHistorical Quarterly, VI (1942), p. 17. 202 Thomas E. Jessett July-Oct.\nFinally, in 1836 Rev. Herbert Beaver,24 a former British Army\nchaplain in the West Indies, accepted appointment, and with his wife,\nJane, arrived at Fort Vancouver on September 16, only a few days before\nthe Whitman party of American missionaries arrived. Supplies for a\nchurch and for his work having arrived in May, Beaver expected to find\na church and rectory ready for him. When he arrived there was no\nevidence of any preparation, and the Beavers were placed in temporary\nquarters, and he given the use of the mess-hall for services.25\nDr. John McLoughUn, the Chief Factor in charge, had petitioned\nthe Company for Roman CathoUc priests and was obviously disappointed\nin having to accept an Anglican. McLoughlin, whose sister was a nun,26\nhad a Roman Catholic mother and an Anglican father. Baptized a\nRoman Catholic, the Chief Factor had been brought up largely by an\nAnglican uncle.27\nIn England, Beaver had been led to believe that he was to exercise\nall the rights and privileges of a parson of the estabUshed church in the\nDepartment of the Columbia. According to this usage, McLoughlin\nturned the direction of the school at the fort over to Beaver, but when\nthe latter insisted upon teaching the catechism of the Church of England\nto aU the pupils, McLoughlin withdrew the charge from him.\nThis started a conflict between McLoughUn as a virtual dictator in\nthe name of the Company and Beaver as a zealous upholder of the rights\nof the clergy\u00E2\u0080\u0094a conflict which spread to include the food served to the\nBeavers, the allowance of wine given the chaplain, the practice of slavery\nat the fort, the treatment of the indentured Hawaiians, and, most serious\nof all, the matrimonial situation.\nWith the exception of Jane Beaver, all the wives at the fort were\nIndian or part Indian, and almost aU had been married to their husbands\nfur-trade fashion.28 While the officers at Fort Vancouver and their\n(24) For further biographical data on Herbert Beaver see Thomas E. Jessett,\n\" Herbert Beaver, First Anglican Clergyman West of the Rockies,\" Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, XVI (1947), pp. 413-432.\n(25) Hudson's Bay Company Archives, B223/b/14. (Grateful acknowledgment is made of the permission of the Governor and Committee to use material\nmade available from their Archives.)\n(26) \"Letter of John McLoughlin, March 1, 1833,\" Washington Historical\nQuarterly, II (1907-08), pp. 167-168.\n(27) W. Kaye Lamb in his introduction to E. E. Rich (ed.), Letters of John\nMcLoughlin from Fort Vancouver to the Governor and Committee: First Series,\n1825-1838, London, 1941, p. xxx.\n(28) Fur-trade marriages were sometimes conducted along Indian tribal customs, sometimes very informally. At this time they had no legal standing. 1953 The Church of England in Oregon 203\nwives were a splendid group who led exemplary Uves, the experience\nof the Society and the Company elsewhere had led them to beUeve that\nsomething ought to be done about these frontier unions which were\ngeneraUy taken rather Ughtly. The abandoned children from these\nunions were often a charge upon the Company and the Society for their\nmaintenance.\nUndoubtedly under instructions, Beaver began a campaign to get\nthose married fur-trade fashion to have their unions regularized by\nmarriage ceremonies performed by him. The second in command at\nthe fort, James Douglas, and his wife, Amelia Connally, were so married\nby him in February, 1837; but McLoughlin, the Chief Factor, refused\nto consider such a course though Beaver was extremely desirous of\nhaving him set an example. Annoyed at McLoughlin's refusal, Beaver\ncommenced to refer to those married only in the fur-trade manner as\n\" Uving in adultery.\" He finally went so far in a letter to the Company\nas to refer to Mrs. McLoughUn, a fine lady, as \" the kept mistress of the\nhighest personage in your service.\"29 McLoughlin read aU letters leaving\nthe post and was so angry at this insult to his wife that he gave Beaver\na thrashing with his own walking-stick.30\nMcLoughUn left for England immediately after this quarrel reached\nits climax, and James Douglas assumed charge of the fort. Although\nthings improved for a time, Beaver wrote another of his indiscreet letters\nand was reUeved of his post by Douglas,31 after which he left for England\nin November, 1838.\nAlthough he Umited his efforts to the officers, employees, and\nex-servants of the Company, Beaver officiated at 124 baptisms, 9 marriages, and 12 burials during his two-year stay at Fort Vancouver.\nChUdren were brought to the fort for him to baptize by the settlers on\nthe Willamette and Cowlitz Rivers, from Nisqually, from Fort George,\nand from Fort ColviUe.32 Pierre Pambrum, the weU-known Roman\n(29) Hudson's Bay Company Archives, B223/b/19.\n(30) For details of the dispute between McLoughlin and Beaver see Thomas E.\nJessett, \" Origins of the Episcopal Church in the Pacific Northwest,\" Oregon Historical Quarterly, XLVII (1947), pp. 225-244.\n(31) W. Kaye Lamb (ed.), \"The James Douglas Report on the 'Beaver\nAffair,'\" Oregon Historical Quarterly, XLVII (1946), pp. 16-28.\n(32) Register of baptisms, marriages, and burials performed by Rev. Herbert\nBeaver at Fort Vancouver. The originals are in the possession of Christ Church\nCathedral, Victoria, B.C., and photostats were made available to the author. 204 Thomas E. Jessett July-Oct.\nCathoUc clerk at WaUa WaUa, had Beaver baptize his son, Alexander,\non March 3, 1837.33\nBeaver made no effort to reach out to the Indian tribes near by or\nfarther up the Columbia River. Had he been a different sort of person,\nmore adaptable to frontier conditions so that he could have traveUed\nup the Columbia and made contact with the Indians Christianized by the\nyoung lads educated at the Red River Mission, the whole story of that\neffort might have been very different.\nInstead, when the British relinquished claims to territory below the\n49th paraUel in 1846 and the Hudson's Bay Company withdrew from\nAmerican territory, the bonds with the Red River Mission were broken,\nand, lacking fresh inspiration, the movement among the Indians began\nto decline. As late as 1853 Governor Stevens of Washington Territory\nsaw some Spokane Indians at worship in a service which he describes\nin a manner adequate to show its prayer-book origin,34 but the end was\nin sight.\nIn 1872, annoyed at the efforts of Jesuit missionaries from the\nneighbouring Coeur d'Alene reservation to convert the Spokanes, Garry\nbegan a revival of his former efforts. He was quite successful, but\nknowing of no clergyman of his own church, he sent to Lapwai for the\nPresbyterian missionary, Rev. Henry Harmon Spalding, to baptize his\nconverts. That same year the Government Inspector for Indian Affairs\non the Pacific Coast, Colonel E. M. Kemble, an EpiscopaUan, visited the\nSpokanes and talked with Garry about the Church of which both were\nmembers. Kemble forwarded a letter from Garry to the Domestic and\nForeign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the\nUnited States at New York requesting a teacher for his people.35 Lack\nof funds prevented compUance with this appeal, and the Spokanes were\ndivided between the Presbyterians and the Roman CathoUcs. When\nGarry died in 1892, the Presbyterian minister in Spokane buried him.36\nThus ended the noble dream of Rev. John West of an AngUcan\nmission among the Indians of the Inland Empire.\n(33) Ibid.\n(34) N. W. Durham, History of the City of Spokane and Spokane County,\nWashington, from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Spokane, 1912,\nVol. I, pp. 153-154.\n(35) Spirit of Missions, 1873, pp. 623-624, 754-755, as quoted in Thomas E.\nJessett, \"Anglicanism among the Indians of Washington Territory,\" Pacific Northwest Quarterly, XLII (1951), pp. 238-240.\n(36) W. S. Lewis, op. cit., p. 52. 1953 The Church of England in Oregon 205\nBeaver's successor on the coast, Rev. Robert Staines, did not arrive\nuntil 1849 and was sent to Victoria, B.C. He crossed to the American\nside in 1850 and 1851, when he visited the Company's post at NisquaUy\nand officiated there. He also officiated for the United States Army\ngarrison at Fort SteUacoom.37 Staines was drowned while on his way\nto England in 1854, and with his death ended the efforts of the Church\nof England in the Old Oregon country below the 49th parallel.38\nAlthough this project of the Church Missionary Society of the Church\nof England in the Old Oregon country appears to have been a failure,\nit was not entirely so. The efforts of the Indian lads educated at the\nRed River mission undoubtedly made easier the task of Protestant and\nRoman Catholic missionaries when the tribes they partiaUy Christianized\nfinally realized that no more help was going to come from that direction.\nThe first American AngUcan missionaries on the Lower Columbia made\ncontact with those to whom Beaver had ministered. When Right Rev.\nThomas F. Scott, the first Episcopal bishop to the Pacific Northwest,\nheld his initial confirmation service, it was at Cathlamet, Washington, in\n1854. Seven of those confirmed were members of the famUy of James\nBirnie, whose marriage to his part-Indian wife Beaver had solemnized,\nand six of whose chUdren he had baptized.39 Thus, in fact, the Protestant\nEpiscopal Church in the United States began its work in this region upon\nthe foundations laid by Beaver.\nThomas E. Jessett.\nSeattle, Wash.\n(37) Victor J. Farrar (ed.), \"The Nisqually Journal,\" Washington Historical\nQuarterly, XI (1920), p. 228; XIII (1922), pp. 63-64.\n(38) G. Hollis Slater, \"Rev. Robert John Staines: Pioneer Priest, Pedagogue,\nand Political Agitator,\" British Columbia Historical Quarterly, XIV (1950), pp.\n187-240.\n(39) Proceedings of the Third Annual Convocation of the Clergy and Laity of\nthe Protestant Episcopal Church in the Territories of Oregon and Washington, 1855. PERRY McDONOUGH COLLINS AT THE\nCOLONIAL OFFICE\nFame touched Perry McDonough CoUins only briefly; he emerged\nfrom obscurity in 1856 and returned to obUvion a decade later. Yet in\nthat ten years he was the leading spirit in one of the great projects of\nthe nineteenth century\u00E2\u0080\u0094the transcontinental telegraph to link Europe\nwith America via Siberia and Bering Strait. Had the Atlantic cable\nbroken again in 1866 or had his project begun only a few years earher,\nhis name would perhaps enjoy the renown now accorded to Cyrus\nField. The cable held, his incomplete telegraph was left to rust in\nthe wilderness of British Columbia, and Perry CoUins again disappeared\ninto the limbo of forgotten notabiUty.1\nThe idea of a transcontinental telegraph may have occurred to\nCoUins during a journey from St. Petersburg through Siberia to the\nAmur River in 1856, although the motivation for his journey appears\nto have been solely to examine the commercial prospects of the Amur\nRiver area in his capacity as commercial agent of the United States.2\nCoUins had been appointed to this position at the suggestion of the\nCalifornia delegation in the United States House of Representatives,\nwho had expressed to the Secretary of State their desire to promote\ncommercial intercourse between the Pacific Coast of the United States\nand the Amur River, and nominated CoUins to investigate potentiaUties\nof the Amur River country.3\nThe earUest mention of a telegraph in his communications to the\nDepartment of State was in a letter of March 6, 1858. He wrote to\nSecretary of State Lewis Cass:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nThis country [the Amur area] provided by nature with a natural road to the\nocean, heretofore closed by barbaric powers, it is hoped will ere long, awake to the\nscream of the steam engine and the lightning flashes of the telegraph, and to be\n(1) A good account of the Collins telegraph is provided by Corday Mackay,\n\"The Collins Overland Telegraph,\" British Columbia Historical Quarterly, X\n(1946), pp. 187-215. See also Perry McD. Collins, Overland Explorations in\nSiberia, Northern Asia and the Great Amoor Country, New York, 1864; James D.\nReid, The Telegraph in America, New York, 1879; and Robert L. Thompson,\nWiring a Continent, Princeton, 1947.\n(2) United States, 35th Cong., 1st Sess., H.R. Ex. Doc. No. 98.\n(3) United States, 35th Cong., 2nd Sess., H.R. Ex. Doc. No. 53.\nBritish Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. XVII, Nos. 3 and 4.\n207 208 John S. Galbraith July-Oct.\nreceived in the embrace of commercial states as a worthy, though heretofore rather\na sleeping partner.*\nThe telegraph route which CoUins originally conceived as the most\npracticable means of linking the continents was one which would have\npassed through Siberia, Russian America, British Columbia, the Hudson's Bay territories, and Canada to Montreal, where it would have\njoined the American system. As a first step to the construction of this\nUne, he secured a Canadian charter for the Transmundane Telegraph\nCompany, and in September, 1859, visited Montreal to confer with\nhis Canadian backers, among whom was Sir George Simpson, Overseas\nGovernor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Simpson, who was actively\ninvolved in Canadian railroad and steamship projects, had consented\nto allow his name to be used to secure the charter for the telegraph\ncompany, but he was skeptical of Collins's ability to fulfil his promises.\nCollins, styling himself as \" a merchant of San Francisco and American\nCommercial Agent on the Amoor River,\" had informed his Canadian\nbackers that Russia had promised to guarantee the payment of interest\nfor the Russian section of the Une, but before Simpson would invest his\ncapital, he desired further information on Collins, whom the Hudson's\nBay Governor believed to be less influential than he represented himself\nto be. Simpson, therefore, asked his friend Royal Phelps, the agent of\nthe Hudson's Bay Company in New York, to provide him with further\ninformation on ColUns.5 Phelps consulted with American businessmen and with the Russian legation, and on September 23, 1859, reported\nto Simpson that Collins was much esteemed by the Governor of Russian\nAmerica, General Mouraviev, and by the Russian Minister, Baron\nStoeckel. Phelps also consulted with Cyrus W. Field, who had heard\nof Collins but who could provide no specific information.6\nNo further action was taken to bring to reaUty the Transmundane\nTelegraph Company, probably because American plans to build a Une\nthrough the United States were far advanced, whereas the line across\nBritish North America had not proceeded beyond the visionary stage.7\n(4) United States, 35th Cong., 1st Sess., H.R. Ex. Doc. No. 98.\n(5) Simpson to Phelps, September 10, 1859, H.B.C. Archives, D. 5/79. The\nwriter acknowledges his obligation to the Governor and Committee of the Hudson's\nBay Company for their permission to cite correspondence preserved in their\narchives.\n(6) Phelps to Simpson, September 23, 1859, H.B.C. Archives, D. 5/50.\n(7) Congress authorized construction of a telegraph-line to San Francisco on\nJune 16, 1860. The line was completed on November 15, 1861, four months and\neleven days after its commencement. James D. Reid, op. cit., pp. 491, 496. 1953 Collins at the Colonial Office 209\nAlso, the superiority of American capital resources to those of Canada\ndictated that the intercontinental telegraph be joined with the western\nterminus of the American system. In 1860 CoUins petitioned the\nGovernment of the United States for assistance, and from this time the\nprojected Une was conceived as a junction between the United States\ntelegraph system and that of Russian Siberia. To procure the active\nassistance of the Governments of the United States, Russia, and Great\nBritain became from this tune the objective of ColUns and his backers,\nmost prominent of whom was Hiram Sibley, president of the Western\nUnion Telegraph Company.8\nThe United States Executive and Congress, though preoccupied with\nimminent and, later, with actual, sectional conflict, gave ColUns every\nencouragement short of financial assistance. On February 18, 1861,\nthe Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives reported\nfavourably on a bUl to appropriate $50,000 for a survey of the North\nPacific area \" having reference to telegraphic connection with Russia,\"9\nand on February 17, 1862, the Senate Committee on MUitary Affairs\nadvised the passage of an appropriation of $100,000 for similar purposes. Through the construction of the telegraph-line the Committee\ndeclared, \" We hold the ball of the earth in our hand, and wind upon\nit a net work of Uving and thinking wire tiU the whole is held together\nand bound with the same wishes, projects, and interests.\"10\nDespite such professions of support for the ColUns telegraph and\nendorsements by such powerful groups as the New York Chamber of\nCommerce,11 the United States took no action to assist CoUins, probably\nbecause of the war.12\nMeanwhile, Collins on May 23, 1863, negotiated an agreement with\nthe Russian Government by which his company agreed to establish\ncontinuous telegraphic communication within five years on condition\nthat it be granted exclusive privUeges for thirty-three years. Russia\nwould grant no subsidies but promised to grant a rebate of 40 per cent\non the net profits of dispatches transmitted along the Russian telegraph-\nlines solely to America and back. Russia agreed to extend its line to\nthe mouth of the Amur, and it was the responsibility of CoUins's com-\n(8) Robert L. Thompson, op. cit., p. 371; United States, 36th Cong., 2nd\nSess., Congressional Globe, p. 999.\n(9) United States, 36th Cong., 2nd Sess., H.R. No. 82.\n(10) United States, 37th Cong., 2nd Sess., Sen. Rep. Com. No. 13.\n(11) United States, 38th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Misc. Doc. No. 16.\n(12) Robert L. Thompson, op. cit., p. 398. 210 John S. Galbraith July-Oct.\npany to build the connecting-link between the Amur and the American\ntelegraph system,13 which in 1864 reached New Westminster, British\nColumbia.14\nSince the goodwUl and eventual support of the United States seemed\nassured, the major remaining task to be accomplished was to secure\nthe co-operation of the British Government. In the autumn of 1863,\nhe, therefore, sought and was granted an interview with the Prune\nMinister, Lord Palmerston, who referred him to the Colonial Office.15\nThe Colonial Secretary, the Duke of Newcastle, was an enthusiastic\nsupporter of projects for the improvement of transportation and communication faciUties, always provided that they involved no charge\nupon the Imperial Treasury. The formidable Gladstone kept the keys\nto the exchequer, and he had earUer in the year emphaticaUy declined\nto commit British revenue to a land telegraph. With Newcastle's support, Edward Watkin, president of the Grand Trunk RaUway system,\nhad conceived the Atlantic and Pacific Transit and Telegraph Company,\nfor the purpose of providing telegraphic and, later, road communications from Canada through the Hudson's Bay territories to the Pacific.\nWhen Newcastle asked Gladstone whether he would support an Imperial\ngrant for such a project, Gladstone rephed that to make such a grant\nfor a land telegraph would not only be unprecedented, but unwarranted.\nFor subsidies to a maritime cable, he contended, a stronger case could\nbe made, but even here demands on the Treasury were so extreme\nthat shortly after the Palmerston Government was formed it was decided\nto Umit assistance to the Une between Great Britain and India. He\nconcluded: \" I do not think the House of Commons as at present\nminded would assent to such a vote if it was proposed, as I trust it wUl\nnot be.\"16\nGladstone's views were decisive where expenditure was concerned,\nbut, short of such commitments, Newcastle's energetic advocacy of\nprojects for the improvement of communications in British North\nAmerica could have free rein. With proper credentials, CoUins would\nundoubtedly have been cordially received, but hi his first communica-\n(13) Melnikoff (lieutenant-general of engineers) to Collins, May 23, 1863, in\nUnited States, 38th Cong., 1st Sess., Sen. Misc. Doc. No. 126.\n(14) The California State Telegraph Company extended its line in 1864 to\nVictoria and New Westminster. James D. Reid, op. cit., p. 502.\n(15) Collins to Newcastle, October 8, 1863, CO. 6/38.\n(16) Gladstone to Newcastle, February 16, 1863, Gladstone Collection, British\nMuseum, Addtl. MSS. 44263. 1953 Collins at the Colonial Office 211\ntion with the Colonial Office he presented no evidence beyond his\naffirmation of the support of the United States and the agreement with\nRussia. Sir Frederic Rogers, the permanent Under-Secretary of State\nfor Colonies and the department's leading expert on American affairs,\nto whom Collins's letter was referred, granted CoUins an interview, but\nneither this nor the letter convinced Rogers of the truth of Collins's\nassertions.17 Rogers, therefore, was at first cool to CoUins, informing\nhim that the power to grant a right-of-way rested not with the British\nGovernment, \"but with the governments of the different colonies\nthrough which the proposed telegraph must pass.\"18\nWithin a month Newcastle and Rogers were converted from skepticism to enthusiasm. In November, 1863, Edward Watkin and Charles\nJ. Brydges, of the Grand Trunk RaUway system, had an interview with\nNewcastle on the subject of the telegraph-line which they aU hoped\nwould be buUt across British North America, the Atlantic and Pacific\nTransit and Telegraph project. During the convention, Brydges or\nWatkin mentioned that they had recently met General Guerhard, the\ndirector of telegraph communications for the Russian Government.\nThe report of that interview, which they presented to Newcastle, gave\nthe Duke new respect for ColUns and his plans. The interview to which\nthey referred had been held in the office and in the presence of Paul J.\nReuter, head of Reuter's Agency. General Guerhard had told Watkin,\nBrydges, and Reuter of the Russian agreement with Collins and had\nassured them that Russian experience indicated that the Une could be\nlaid at relatively Uttle expense and without necessity of a preliminary\nsurvey. Both Guerhard and Reuter, who had the reputation of authorities on telegraph questions, were of the opinion that a successful submarine cable across the Atlantic was unlikely and agreed that the only\ncertain and practicable means of communication between Europe and\nAmerica was by way of Siberia. If the telegraph system conceived by\nCoUins became reality, Esquimalt or New Westminster, British Columbia, would become the focal point of the world's telegraph system, for\nit would be at one of these two cities that the American Une from San\nFrancisco would join the CoUins telegraph, and also that the telegraph\nprojected by Watkin across Hudson's Bay territory would reach the\n(17) Note by Rogers appended to Collins to Newcastle, October 8, 1863, CO.\n6/38.\n(18) Rogers to Collins, October 13, 1863, CO. 6/38. 212 John S. Galbraith July-Oct.\nPacific.19 When CoUins outiined his proposals in a letter of November\n18, 1863,20 they met with a very different response from the Colonial\nOffice. Newcastle now wrote:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nThe project is one of the greatest interest and importance\u00E2\u0080\u0094and whilst England\nfor her own sake ought to give it every encouragement every care should be taken\nnot to lose the great advantage which Nature has given her. She holds in British\nColumbia the key to the position\u00E2\u0080\u0094the one indispensable link in telegraphic communication between the New and Old World until it is found practicable to lay,\nand maintain efficient, a cable under the Atlantic.21\nThe concessions requested by CoUins on November 18, 1863, were\nas foUows: (1) A right-of-way and the use of unappropriated Crown\nlands, and timber thereon; (2) roadways to be constructed, presumably\nat the expense of the British Government; (3) permission to import\nsuppUes free of duty; (4) the right to establish block houses; (5) the\nright to use harbours for the landing of suppUes; and (6) a thirty-three-\nyear monopoly.22\nThe proposals were referred to the Lords Commissioner of the\nTreasury, who in turn transmitted them to the Board of Trade. Both\nbodies agreed that Collins should be granted all reasonable facilities\nand encouragement for the construction of his Une. They were, therefore, wUling to allow his company to use unappropriated lands and to\ncut timber on the condition that the soil remain the property of the\nCrown. Also, they insisted that aU road-building be at the telegraph\ncompany's expense. As to the use of harbours, they were not wUling\nto grant to a telegraph company control of important anchorages, but\nwere willing to allow it to use landing-places in remote and unpeopled\ndistricts where the absence of roads rendered supply difficult. Such\na concession, however, they felt should be subject to the jurisdiction of\nthe British Columbia Government. They objected to the proposal that\nthe company be secured from competition for thirty-three years after\ncompletion of the Une. With all of the other requests of Collins they\nwere willing to make the appropriate concessions, but they insisted on\nthe additional provision that, as in the Russian agreement, aU privUeges\nshould cease if the line was not completed within five years, and that\n(19) Brydges to Newcastle, November 14, 1863, and enclosure thereto,\n\"Memorandum of Interview with General Guerhard,\" November 2, 1863, CO.\n6/38.\n(20) Collins to Newcastle, November 18, 1863, CO. 6/38.\n(21) Note by Newcastle, November 30, 1863, appended to Collins to Newcastle, November 18, 1863, CO. 6/38.\n(22) Collins to Newcastle, November 18, 1863, CO. 6/38. 1953 Collins at the Colonial Office 213\nBritish and colonial messages should receive equality of treatment with\nthose of Russia and the United States.23\nIn all of this discussion, Uttle attention had been paid to the prospective views of the Government of British Columbia, beyond a note from\nT. Frederick ElUot of the Colonial Office that \" ultimately we shaU have\nto write to the Government of British Columbia.\"24 On January 14,\n1864, Rogers informed Collins of the decision to accept his proposals,\nsubject to the reservations suggested by the Treasury and the Board of\nTrade.25 CoUins was not entirely satisfied with these terms, protesting\nthat the capitalists who supported him would desire assurance of exclusive control for at least ten years and requesting a form of grant from\nthe British Government which he could show to his backers and to the\nother governments concerned, but on being informed that the terms\nwere final, he agreed to accept the stipulations without modification.\nOne minor change was made\u00E2\u0080\u0094the specific statement was added that\nthe privileges conceded would cease on January 1, 1870, unless the\nline had been completed prior to that time.26\nFortune seemed to smile on Perry Collins. He had won the support\nof the British and Russian Governments. On March 16, 1864, the\nWestern Union Telegraph Company agreed, on Hiram Sibley's recommendation, to a proposal Collins had submitted for the sale of his rights\nin exchange for a liberal proportion of the stock in a new satellite of\nWestern Union, created for the specific purpose of constructing and\noperating the Russian-American Une, and payment of $100,000 in cash\nfor his efforts in securing the grants.27 On July 1, 1864, the United\nStates Government granted the company the right to construct and\nmaintain a Une or lines from the American Pacific telegraph to the\nboundaries of British Columbia and a permanent right-of-way over\nunappropriated public lands.28\n(23) Rogers to Hamilton (Treasury Department), December 8, 1863; Neil\n(Treasury Department) to Elliot, December 28, 1863, and enclosure, Booth (Board\nof Trade) to Secretary, Lords Commissioner of the Treasury, December 22, 1863,\nCO. 6/38.\n(24) Note of T. F. Elliot, appended to Neil to Elliot, December 28, 1863,\nCO. 6/38.\n(25) Rogers to Collins, January 14, 1864, CO. 6/38.\n(26) Collins to Newcastle, January 29, 1864; Rogers to Collins, February 9,\n1864; Collins to Rogers, February 2, 1864, CO. 6/38.\n(27) Western Union, Statement of the Origin, Organization and Progress of the\nRussian-American Telegraph . . . , Rochester, 1866.\n(28) United States, 38th Cong., 1st Sess., Public Act 171 (approved July 1,\n1864). 214 John S. Galbraith\nWhen on January 26, 1865, the Legislature of British Columbia\npassed the biU embodying the agreed terms between the Colonial Office\nand CoUins,29 the last major obstacle seemed to be removed. Judge\nO. H. Palmer, secretary of the Western Union Company, secured the\nco-operation of the Hudson's Bay Company for the use of the services\nof Hudson's Bay personnel in the construction of the line.30\nIn the winter of 1865 the first surveys were made of the route of\nthe line, and in the spring of 1866 construction began. By autumn\nthe line was in operation to the Skeena River, 850 mUes north of New\nWestminster, when the news was received which destroyed the hopes\nof the promoters and investors in the overland telegraph-line\u00E2\u0080\u0094the Great\nEastern had successfuUy laid the trans-Atlantic cable, which began continuous operation on August 26, 1866.31 On March 25, 1867, WiUiam\nOrton, vice-president of the Western Union Company, in a letter to\nSecretary of State Seward, officially confessed the end of the project\nwhich a few months before had appeared close to success:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nThe proof that the basis of revenue had been removed, was only needed to be\ncomplete, to make the duty of at once stopping the whole work a stern and peremptory necessity. That proof we have been month to month receiving. So clear and\ncumulative has that evidence been, that we have been compelled, though with great\nreluctance, to acknowledge its completeness and power. All doubts concerning\nthe capacity and efficiency of the ocean cables, are now dispelled, and the work of\nconstruction on the Russian line, after an expenditure of $3,000,000 has been\ndiscontinued.32\nColUns and those who supported him with their capital had recognized throughout the progress of his negotiations that the completion\nof the Atlantic cable might reduce their plans to a nulUty, yet they had\nbeen wiUing to gamble. In pursuing their interests, for their Une would\nhave been a satisfactory substitute for the transmission of international\nmessages in the event of the continued failure of the efforts to lay the\noceanic cable. When their plans were frustrated, only the investors\nsuffered loss, for none of the participating governments had committed\nfunds or resources. Collins's energetic activity on behalf of his telegraph\ndeserves an accolade as one of the illustrious faUures in the history of\ncommunications. JoHN s Galbraith.\nUniversity of California,\nLos Angeles, Calif.\n(29) British Columbia, Legislative Council, Ordinance No. 5 of 1865 (passed\nby the Council, January 26, 1865; assented to by the Governor, February 21,\n1865).\n(30) Head to Palmer, November 7, 1865; Fraser to Tolmie, November 11,\n1865; Fraser to Tolmie, April 7, 1866, H.B.C. Archives, A. 6/40.\n(31) James D. Reid, op. cit., p. 404.\n(32) Ibid.,p. 516. JOHN NOBILI, S.J., FOUNDER OF CALIFORNIA'S\nSANTA CLARA COLLEGE: THE NEW CALEDONIA YEARS, 1845-1848*\nSunday, December 11, 1949, was a memorable day in the history\nof the Jesuit Fathers in San Francisco. On that day they were joined\nin their large St. Ignatius Church of the University of San Francisco by\na capacity congregation as they commemorated the passing of a fuU\ncentury since the arrival in gold-rush San Francisco of two Jesuit priests,\nMichael Accolti and John NobUi. The actual centennial date, December\n8, had been the occasion of another commemoration when a stirring\nsermon had been preached by a distinguished orator of the Order, Father\nZacheus J. Maher, and those present had Ustened with interest as the\nspeaker recaUed that\u00E2\u0080\u0094\n. . . the movement was again westward and northwestward, into the wilderness,\nacross the plains, over the mountains and then, in God's good time, California. From\nthe Potomac to the Mississippi, from the Mississippi to the Columbia, from the\nColumbia to San Francisco runs the trail of the Blackrobe.i\nIt was but natural that much of what was written and said at the time\nof this Jesuit centennial in San Francisco should have revolved mainly\naround the name and fame of Rev. Michael Accolti, S.J. (1807-1878),\nsince he had been the leading spirit in the Jesuit arrival in California in\n1849; less attention, accordingly, was given to Rev. John NobiU, S.J.\n(1812-1856), the companion of Father Accolti in the pioneer venture.\nHowever, Father Nobili looms large in the educational history of CaUfornia, for it was he who founded Santa Clara CoUege in 1851, and it is\nthis institution which has developed into the University of Santa Clara,\nsituated about 50 mUes south of San Francisco. It is not commonly\nknown that there is an earlier phase of Nobili's career which is not\nwithout significance in his complete story; it revolves around the fact\nthat, for several years, 1845 to 1848, and before his going to California,\n* The substance of this article was prepared for submission to the meeting of\nthe Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association held at the\nUniversity of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., December 28 to 30, 1952.\n(1) \"A Grain of Mustard Seed Becometh a Tree,\" a sermon preached in\nSt. Ignatius Church of the University of San Francisco, December 8, 1949, and\nprinted in the Monthly Calendar of St. Ignatius Church, December, 1949.\nBritish Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. XVII, Nos. 3 and 4.\n215 216 John Bernard McGloin July-Oct.\nthe Italian Jesuit was a missionary among the aborigines of New Caledonia, which is the general area now known as British Columbia, Canada.\nHere, then, it is proposed to recount this interesting phase of Father\nNobUi's career.\nThere are two notable disadvantages which confront anyone who\nwould endeavour to work in Nobili material. The first stems from the\nfact that Father Nobili died much too young; he did not Uve out his\nnormal life-span, for he died in 1856 at Santa Clara, and at the early\nage of 44, as a result of an infection which had resulted from his stepping\non a rusty nail while supervising some building operations there. Then,\ntoo, it would seem that, at the time of his death, Nobili was much too\nyoung to be of interest to the portrait-painters, if any such existed in the\nCalifornia of his day. Consequently, there had long been an empty\nniche above the entrance-way of NobiU Hall on the modern University\nof Santa Clara campus, for no one knew or yet knows what John Nobili\nlooked like.2 This is but an example of the perplexities which confront\nthe student who would work in the field of NobUiana. However, it is still\npossible to put him in focus and to place his missionary apostolate in the\nCanada of a century ago in perspective. First, then, the focus.\nJohn Nobili was born in Rome in 1812, and April 8 of that year was\nhis natal date. With development he was recognized as a youth of quite\nsome natural talents, and he was welcomed into the ranks of the Jesuit\nOrder on November 14, 1828, at the early age of 16. His preliminary\nclerical studies at the Roman College were successful even to the point\nof brilliance, and he was successful, too, in the teaching duties which he\nfulfilled, as a scholastic of the Jesuit Order, in the CoUeges of Loretto\nand Fermo; his theological studies, upon which he entered in 1840,\nresulted in his elevation to the priesthood in 1843 after fifteen years of\nUfe in the Society of Jesus. In that same year the justly celebrated\nPeter John De Smet (1801-1873) entered into his life, for Father Nobili\ntells us that he left Rome in September, 1843, as a volunteer for the\nmissionary apostolate which De Smet was preparing in the Oregon\ncountry. August of 1844 saw the young priest at Fort Vancouver in\nOregon, where, he teUs us, he spent ten months before entering upon the\nmore interesting phase of his labours among the aborigines of New\nCaledonia. As wUl later be indicated more fully, his work among these\n(2) Several years ago authorities at the University of Santa Clara decided,\nin lieu of any representation of Nobili, that the empty niche should be filled\nwith a statue of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order. 1953 John Nobili, S.J.. 217\nprimitives lasted from 1845 to 1848, when, at the decision of his superior\nin the Jesuit Order, he relinquished this apostolate and in 1849 went to\nCalifornia as companion to Father Accolti. His founding of Santa Clara\nCoUege in 1851 or, better, his endeavours to transform an almost ruined\nFranciscan mission into some semblance of a place where an education\ncould be obtained\u00E2\u0080\u0094aU of this adds stature to the man who accompUshed\nso much with so Uttle. His premature death came in 1856, and it was\nthe occasion of an outpouring of genuine grief among his many friends.\nIt may help here to summarize, in briefest compass, the earUer\nCatholic history of New Caledonia before the years of the NobiU\napostolate there. Catholicism came early into the land, for the first\nwhite inhabitant, Lamalice, professed this religion, as did the significant\nSimon Fraser and one of his two lieutenants, Quesnel, as well as some\nother French-Canadian companions. It is commonly considered, then,\nthat these men gave the natives of the sections in which they trapped and\nexplored their first contacts, however tenuous, with Christianity. In\n1842 Father Modeste Demers (1809-1871), a French-Canadian secular\npriest, made an extended visit through the land inhabited by the inland\ntribes and got as far north as the country of the Porteurs or Carriers\naround Stuart Lake. The always interesting Demers, later first Bishop\nof Vancouver Island, appears to have undertaken this first missionary\ntour with the explicit encouragement of the Jesuit De Smet and, indeed,\nwith the assurance that the work would be supported and carried on with\nJesuit help. In this journey of 1842 Demers visited the Kamloops, the\nAtnans, and the Porteurs, and he administered baptism to 436 infants.\nRev. Gilbert J. Garraghan, S.J., who, in the second volume of his\ncompetent The Jesuits of the Middle United States, furnishes interesting\ndetails of the Demers journey, records the fact that at Fort Langley on\nthe Fraser the Demers baptisms are said to have numbered 700. The\nDemers journey served as a prehminary visit to these people before the\nadvent of John Nobili among them.\nIn a chatty letter which Father Nobili wrote to a Missouri Jesuit\nfrom the \"Mission of Upper California, March 12, 1852,\" wc are\ngiven an account of his missionary travels of several years before his\narrival in El Dorado and the beginning of an entirely different life\nthere. Nobili tells his Jesuit friend of his first ten months in Oregon,\n1844 to 1845, which he spent at Fort Vancouver in the capacity of parish\npriest to the numerous Canadians hi the service of the Hudson's Bay\nCompany; only a portion of his time was he able to devote to the 218 John Bernard McGloin July-Oct.\nspiritual care of the many Indians of the neighbourhood. He goes on\nto relate how, in August, 1845, Father De Smet gave him the \" different\ntask of exploring New Caledonia. Accompanied only by a half-breed,\nI visited and instructed the Indian tribes as far as Fort Alexandria and,\nin the May following [1846] I came down to ColvUle to give an account\nof my progress to Father De Smet, who sent me back again. So I spent\nthere another year. I went as far as Ft. Stuart and Ft. Kilmars on Babine\nLake, nearly the boundary Une between the British and the Russian\npossessions.\"3 No better preparation could be imagined for a rugged\nmissionary apostolate, which was to last, presumably, for many years,\nthan these preliminary journeyings of Father NobiU. He gives his reader\nin Missouri some more details:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nI was there alone among 8 or 9 thousand Indians of different languages and\nmanners. In all, I think I baptized and gave the other sacraments to nearly one\nthousand three or four hundred Indians, many of whom had the happiness to die\nsoon after, including about five hundred children carried off by the measles. In\nMay 1847, I founded the first residence of St. Joseph among the Okinagans, two\ndays journey from Thompson's River, and resided there the following year with\nFather Goetz, given me as a companion. Then, I will not say for what motive,\nI was with deep sorrow snatched away from my dear Indians, in the midst of\nwhom I had hoped to die, and called South to the residence of the Flatheads.\nHere I passed the winter in a very precarious state of health and would undoubtedly\nhave died were it not the will of God that the good and charitable Father Mengarini\nand Father Ravalli restored me with their fostering care.4\nThus far Father NobUi's account which was written just seven years\nafter he had inaugurated his work among the inland tribes of New\nCaledonia. In this same connection, we have a cryptic but revealing\nnote which Nobili wrote to Father Jenkins, an English Jesuit in London,\nit was dated March 15, 1847, and was written at Fort Alexandria:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nI take again the liberty of sending you some letters for our V. Reverend Father\nGeneral. There is an account of my priesthood through the New Caledonia during\nthe last winter, when I added 140 persons to the number of about 600 already\nbaptized. I am quite alone in \" terra deserta et invia \" and, for this very reason,\nI am in need of your prayers and holy sacrifices to which I recommend myself and\nmy dear natives earnestly. . . .5\n(3) John Nobili, S.J., to William Stack Murphy, S.J., March 12, 1852. The\nEnglish copy of this letter was consulted by the author in the Missouri Province\nJesuit Archives, St. Louis, Mo.\n(4) Ibid.\n(5) John Nobili, S.J., to Rev. C. Jenkins, S.J., March 15, 1847. The author\nwas furnished with a copy of this letter from the original in the Archives of the\nJesuit Order of the Oregon Province, Mount St. Michael's, Spokane, Wash. 1953 John Nobili, S.J. 219\nFurther detaUs may be added to the somewhat incomplete NobiU\naccounts as a result of the researches of Father Garraghan. Thus, for\nexample, we learn that the Jesuit had first welcomed the assignment to\nNew Caledonia with these Unes of enthusiastic response addressed to\nDe Smet:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nI received your precious letter at Walla Walla and through it was made acquainted\nwith my new destination. May the good God be blessed! ... I go, then,\nencouraged by your words, and, in going, I forget my weakness, my defects, my\nlack of virtue and experience for an enterprise which is beyond my strength.\nI abandon myself entirely to the care of Divine Providence.6\nNobiU was hardly unduly pessimistic in his anticipation of the\ndifficulties which he felt sure would soon be upon him. Father Accolti\nlater wrote to De Smet, under date of February 9, 1846, and described\nhow NobiU, travelUng with a certain Battiste who sought membership\nin the Jesuit Order, had had the experience of being deserted by an agent\nof the Hudson's Bay Company who had travelled with them for a few\ndays. There is an indignant yet sympathetic note in Accolti's Unes as\nhe relates how the agent had \" quit them villainously without Ustening\nto Father NobiU's entreaties not to abandon them. On his horses he had\nthe Father's tent and sack of provisions. The result was that they\nhad to remain without food or shelter on an entirely unknown traU.\nThen they got lost and lack of water and nourishment brought them\nwithin an inch of perishing. Two Indians from the Cascades, whom\nFather NobiU had known at Vancouver, rescued them from the peril.\"7\nDespite this inauspicious beginning, it would appear that NobUi's genuinely apostolic spirit was not dampened, for he continued the work\nwithout discouragement. He was responsible for the erection of several\nsmaU chapels in the forts or trading-posts of the Hudson's Bay Company\nwhich he visited. The faU of 1845 saw him penetrating as far north\nas Fort St. James on Stuart Lake, and he returned there the next year.\nGarraghan adds these details:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\n. . . Father Nobili . . . was surprised at Fort Alexandria on the Fraser to\nfind a frame church built apparently in the interval that had elapsed since Demer's\ndeparture. Here some marriages among the Canadian employees of the Fort were\nset right and twenty-four children and forty-seven adults were baptized. On\n(6) John Nobili, S.J., to Peter J. De Smet, S.J., n.d., from the original in the\nMissouri Province Jesuit Archives, St. Louis, Mo.\n(7) Michael Accolti, S.J., to Peter J. De Smet, S.J., February 9, 1846, from\nthe original in the General Archives of the Society of Jesus, Rome, Italy. 220 John Bernard McGloin July-Oct.\nDecember 12, 1846, he was at Fort George at the confluence of the Nechoco with\nthe Fraser. . . .8\nNobiU must have been made happy when he found fifty Sekani\nIndians at Fort George, where they had awaited his arrival for nineteen\ndays after coming down from the Rocky Mountains to meet the Black-\nrobe. Twelve of their children were baptized and twenty-seven adults,\nof whom six were of advanced age. NobiU celebrated the event by\nerecting a missionary cross at the fort, and this, indeed, was his custom\nwherever he remained for any length of time. Christmas season found\nhim at Stuart Lake, where he vigorously campaigned against the pagan\ncustoms of the Indians who centred there. Fort Kilmars, on Babine\nLake, near the Alaskan border, next saw Father Nobili, and there the\nperipatetic padre administered some baptisms in October, 1846.\nGarraghan adds:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nEarly in January, 1847, he was back at Fort St. James, where he remained, carrying\non a vigorous campaign of instruction, until the beginning of Lent. In October\n... it would appear that he was among the Chilcotins, a troublesome Dene\ntribe ... he was the first priest to visit the Chilcotins. He blessed a cemetery,\nvisited several of the native villages and baptized a number of the adult Chilcotins\nwhom, comments an historian, he would have left longer under probation had he\npossessed more experience of their native fickleness. . . . The map accompanying the first edition of De Smet's Oregon Missions indicates four missionary\nstations in New Caledonia\u00E2\u0080\u0094namely, at Fort St. James, Fort George, Fort Alexandria and Fort Thompson in addition to the residence among the Okinagans.\nAt Kamloops near old Fort Thompson in British Columbia, tradition still witnesses\nto the missionary labors of Father Accolti in that remote corner of the New\nWorld. . . .\u00C2\u00BB\nHere, then, in a brief survey is an overview of the aboriginal apostolate inaugurated by John Nobili, Jesuit missionary among the New\nCaledonian natives. It compares favourably with many of the equally\nstirring missionary pages written by his Jesuit brothers in the history of\ntheir society. Many were the inconveniences suffered by Nobili during\nthese years, and his eagerness in suffering is attested to by the fact\n(8) Gilbert Garraghan, S.J., The Jesuits of the Middle United States, New\nYork, 1938, Vol. n, p. 328.\n(9) Ibid., pp. 328-329. Father Garraghan here makes reference to the\nauthoritative work of A. G. Morice, O.M.I., History of the Catholic Church in\nWestern Canada from Lake Superior to the Pacific, Toronto, 1910, and adds:\n\"A considerable body of Nobili's unpublished correspondence descriptive of his\nmissionary experiences is extant in the Jesuit General Archives, Rome. De Smet,\nWestern Missions and Missionaries, New York, 1863, p. 513, has a sketch of\nNobili.\" 1953 John Nobili, S.J. 221\nthat he wished to Uve and to die among his converts and neophytes.\nIt has never been considered ideal among Catholic missionaries that one\npriest should be completely isolated from the companionship and help\nof another, and this would seem to be the reason why Nobili's religious\nsuperior, Father Joseph Joset (1810-1900), sent him Father Anthony\nGoetz to be his companion. The Jesuit General, Father John Roothaan\n(1785-1853), wrote to De Smet from Rome in 1846: \"I should not\nhave approved the sending of poor Father Nobili alone among the\nPorteurs; still, the necessity of so doing must have been unavoidable.\"10\nBut even the assignment of a companion to NobiU did not make the\nNew Caledonia missions a venture worth supporting in the opinion of\nJoset, and so it was that he summoned Fathers NobiU and Goetz to return\nto civUization. Although each obeyed as expected, so far as Nobili was\nconcerned there was an obvious reluctance to abandon the work which\nhad already cost him so dearly. In retrospect, it is entirely understandable that such an attitude should be his, for he must have promised\nvarious tribes that he would return to them whenever feasible, and now\nhe rightly conjectured that neither he nor anyone else of his Order would\ndo so, at least in the foreseeable future. Naturally, then, the young\nItalian Jesuit must have felt that the tenuous foundations which he had\nlaid were destined to be in vain. But return he did, even though dragging\nhis feet a bit; Father Joset felt confirmed in his decision when he saw\nthe appearance of Father NobiU. He thus wrote to Roothaan in Rome:\n\" When I saw him at the Sacred Heart [mission] I said to myself at once\nthat he was by no manner of means made to Uve among the Indians.\"11\nMid-May of 1849 saw John NobiU officially accepted as a member of the\nSociety of Jesus, when, twenty-one long years after his admission to the\nOrder in Rome, he made his final profession as a Jesuit in the hands of\nFather Joset. It was not to be long after this pivotal event in the life\nof the Jesuit that he was to accompany Father Accolti to CaUfornia; he\nwas never to see his dear Indians or New Caledonia again. To California\nhe went, and in California he stayed, and in California, it would seem,\nhis heart ever felt the hurt which had been his when the decision had\nbeen made to abandon New Caledonia in so far as his work there was\nconcerned. We know this because of his explicit statement on the matter\nin a letter which he penned to the one who had first sent him there,\nFather De Smet. Nobili's letter was written in San Francisco under date\n(10) Gilbert Garraghan, S.J., op. cit., Vol. II, p. 329.\n(11) Joseph Joset, S.J., to John Roothaan, S.J., August 2, 1850, from the\noriginal in the General Archives of the Society of Jesus, Rome, Italy. 222 John Bernard McGloin\nof March 28, 1850, and it was sent to the famous Missouri Jesuit at\nSt. Louis, Missouri:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\n. . . But, you say, is it possible for you to finish this letter without even a short\nword or two about my New Caledonia Mission? Ah, infandum! Jubes renovare\ndolorem! O poor missions which gave such fruit and promised even more.\n0 unhappy people! Why, Reverend Father, did you leave Oregon so quickly?\n' Si fuisses ibi,' my mission would not have died, and I would rather have died with\nmy mission. But the good God has only allowed my mission to last three years\nand that I should not die, as I hoped, in the midst of my dear Indians. Dominus\ndedit, Dominus abstulit; sicut Domino placuit, ita factum est. Fiat Voluntas\nEjus! When Father Joset received the letter from Father General making him\nsuperior of the mission, he recalled me from New Caledonia with all my belongings\nand ordered me to quit the residence of St. Joseph already established by the great\nlake of Okinagan. He ordered us under a precept of holy obedience to abandon\nthe mission, residence, savages and belongings to Divine Providence and to return\nto the Rocky Mountains. Behold what has been the fate of new Caledonia where\n1 labored for three years in the midst of privations, of all kinds of dangers, even\nthat of losing my life. The answer to my letters to Father General\u00E2\u0080\u0094with a positive\norder not to abandon this mission, has at last arrived\u00E2\u0080\u0094but too late, i.e., during\nthe past autumn, when I had already been called to the Flatheads of Willamette\nand, from there, to California.12\nWith this epistolary lament of Father NobiU, not without its poignancy, we may finish this account of a significant period in his life and,\nindeed, hi the earUer CathoUc missionary history of New Caledonia.\nNot that land, but El Dorado to the south was eventuaUy to claim him,\nand his remains rest to-day in the Jesuit cemetery in Santa Clara, CaUfornia, rather than in a missionary's grave in New Caledonia. These\npages have not pretended to be anything like a complete account of what\nNobili did in the Canada of his day; rather, they are intended as a humble\ntribute of praise of the CaUfornia Jesuits of to-day to the memory of the\nman who did great things in the New Caledonia of his day and who\nwould have, undoubtedly, done even greater things there had circumstances permitted. NobUi wrote a fine page in missionary history in his\napostolate hi New Caledonia of over a century ago. His attempt to\nevangeUze the Indians there was never resumed by the Jesuit Order;\nhowever, at a later period, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate succeeded\nNobiU, and, where Demers and NobiU had sown, the Oblates reaped\nsubstantial results as a result of their own devotion and zeal coupled\nwith the pioneer efforts of their predecessors.\nJohn Bernard McGloin, S.J.\nUniversity of San Francisco,\nSan Francisco, Calif.\n(12) John Nobili, S.J., to Peter J. De Smet, S.J., March 28, 1850, original in\nthe Missouri Province Jesuit Archives, St. Louis, Mo. Quoted in Gilbert Garraghan, S.J., op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 330-331. THE KLONDHCE GOLD-RUSH\u00E2\u0080\u0094A GREAT\nINTERNATIONAL VENTURE*\nThe terrain of the northern gold-rushes which took place at the\nturn of the century is of almost continental proportions, aU but coinciding with the basin of the Yukon River and, except on its western seaward side, shut off from the rest of the world by imposing mountain\nbarriers. Even to-day it is a remote and lonely land; at the time of the\npurchase of Alaska it was unknown to aU save the fur-trader and perhaps the missionary. \" There is neither law of God or man, north of\nfifty-three,\" as the poet Kipling wrote. This was almost UteraUy true\nat the time, for despite the Organic Law of 1884 there was no authority\nin the whole Yukon Valley. The Canadian part of the Yukon Valley\nwas officiaUy a part of the Northwest Territories and subject to the\nterritorial government at Regina.\nBeyond easing the Hudson's Bay Company out of its post at Fort\nYukon in 1869, the United States Government had done as Uttle to\nimplement its claims or assert its authority as had Canada. It was left\nto the gold-miner to breach the barriers and to explore these vast soU-\ntudes, without the benefit of government and law. The same international band of gold-seekers who had broached the placer-fields of the\nCariboo and had penetrated the remote fastnesses of the Cassiar and\nthe Omineca could hardly fail to turn their attention to these northern\nsolitudes once the diggings on the Fraser, the Stikine, and the Finlay\nRivers were exhausted. It was at the end of the sixties and the beginning\nof the seventies, when the word of the purchase of Alaska spread through\nthe goldfields of Interior British Columbia, that the new land began to\nbeckon the gold-seekers. Miners from the Omineca, travelling by way of\nthe Peace, the Halfway, the Sikanni Chief, the Fort Nelson, the Liard,\nthe Mackenzie, the Peel, and the Porcupine crossed the mountain barrier\nand reached the Lower Yukon to try their fortunes. These men, such\nas McQuesten, Harper, Mayo, Hart, and the others, were twenty years\nahead of their time. At that time the Yukon VaUey was reached only\nby the yearly trips of steamers from St. Michael on Bering Sea, which\n* The substance of this article was prepared for submission to the meeting of\nthe Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association held at the\nUniversity of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., December 28 to 30, 1952.\nBritish Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. XVII, Nos. 3 and 4.\n223 224 Stuart R. Tompkins July-Oct.\nsuppUed the scattered trading-posts of the Alaska Commercial Company\nsolely for trading with the Indians. In point of time, posts on the\nUpper Yukon were a year or more away from their sources of supply\non the Pacific Coast, and the high prices involved in transportation over\nthese great distances were prohibitive for the prospector, who scraped\nwhat gold-dust he could from the river-bars in the few short months of\nthe mining season, looking perforce to some unknown future for his\nreward. Easier access and quicker and cheaper transport was needed\nbefore their resources could be exploited. Most of the original band of\ngold-seekers were forced by dwindling resources to give up their quest\nand turn to trading with the Indians to make a livelihood.\nBy 1879 the overflow from the Stikine goldfields was working up\nthe coast, through the intricacies of the passages of the Alexander Archipelago. One daring prospector, George Holt, induced the Chilkoot\nIndians of the coast to allow him to cross the Chilkoot Pass and prospect\nthe upper courses of the Lewes and the Teslin Rivers.1 The opening-up\nof the goldfield on Gastineau Channel and the founding of the town of\nJuneau2 provided a convenient base of operations that enabled others,\nonce the first breach had been made, to follow up this humble start.\nThereafter the numbers increased steadily; Joseph Ladue led a party\nover the Chilkoot in 1882 to prospect on the bars of the Yukon and\nthe Stewart;3 Ed Schieffelin, of Tombstone, Arizona, brought a smaU\nsteamer up the Yukon River in 1883, in search of ore deposits;4 the\nmost readily accessible bars were examined, but the operations of these\nminers were restricted to a few short weeks of summer owing to the need\nto return each winter to Juneau for supplies.\nNot till 1885 did mining make appreciable progress. Prospectors\nreturning to Juneau for the winter encouraged others to venture across\nthe divide into the interior. The old-timers, McQuesten, Harper,\nthough they had abandoned the life of the mine for the trading-post,5\nnever lost interest in prospecting, and there can be Uttle doubt that they\nkept their friends outside posted on developments and were to some\nextent responsible for the influx of newcomers. It was the bars of the\n(1) W. B. Haskell, Two Years up the Klondike and Alaskan Gold-fields, Hartford, 1898, p. 48. Haskell gives the date for Holt's venture as 1878 rather than\n1879.\n(2) Miner W. Bruce, Alaska, New York, 1899, pp. 38-39.\n(3) William Ogilvie, Early Days on the Yukon, Ottawa, 1913, p. 110.\n(4) Ibid., p. 70.\n(5) Miner W. Bruce, op. cit., p. 15. 1953 The Klondike Gold-rush 225\nStewart River that yielded the greatest returns during the early eighties\nand led to the establishment of a post at its mouth by Harper and\nMcQuesten.6 But the most sensational event was the discovery of gold\nat bedrock on the Forty MUe in 1886. That topped everything so far\nand led to such a rush to these new diggings that Harper and McQuesten\nmoved their post from Stewart to the mouth of the Forty MUe, which\nshortly became a real gold camp.7 Thereafter mining activity was\nrapidly expanded to take in the tributaries of the Forty Mile and\nextended across the divide into the valley of the Sixty Mile, then downriver to Birch Creek. It was this first influx that led the Canadian Government in 1887 to dispatch parties into the interior to report on the\ngeology of these unknown regions and to estabUsh the frontier between\nCanada and the United States.8 These first tentative explorations found\na rather intensive mining activity established on the Upper Yukon, but\nbeyond marking the frontier on the Forty MUe9 and on the Yukon,\nnothing was done to assert the Dominion's authority. Indeed, Mr. WU-\nliam OgUvie recommended that in view of the fact that most of the\nminers were United States citizens and used to managing affairs in their\nown way, the Canadian Government should not interfere.10\nThe opening-up of these goldfields and the reports of the new finds\nsoon reached the coast and the outside world and started a stampede.\nClaims on Forty Mile and its tributaries, Chicken and Jack Wade\nCreeks, were taken up by scores, and by 1894 the annual output had\nrisen to $300,000.n Prospectors who passed over the divide to the\nSixty Mile found gold in its tributaries, MUler and Glacier Creeks; then,\nhi 1894, came the discoveries on Birch Creek12 and the estabUshment\nof a supply-post at Circle City on the Yukon.13 The greatly increased\nmining activity led to one great advance in mining. This was the use\nof fires to thaw the frozen gravel, which apparently was a discovery hit\non by Fred Hutchinson on Franklin Gulch in the Forty MUe district in\n(6) William Ogilvie, op. cit., p. 66.\n(7) Ibid., pp. 66-67.\n(8) \" Report of the Minister of the Interior . . . 1887,\" Part H, pp. 64-69,\nand Part III, pp. 5-10, in Canada Sessional Papers . . . 1888, Ottawa, 1888.\n(9) William Ogilvie, op. cit., p. 60.\n(10) Ibid., p. 143.\n(11) Joseph Ladue, Klondyke Facts, New York, 1897, p. 18.\n(12) W. B. Haskell, op. cit., p. 52.\n(13) William Ogilvie, op. cit., p. 67. 226 Stuart R. Tompkins July-Oct.\n1887.14 Artificial thawing shortly became general. This enormously\nextended the miner's working season by aUowing him to continue operations in the winter months when he had hitherto been idle. Indeed,\nmost of the miners had heretofore planned on going out in winter,\nreturning in the spring. The increase in the population of the gold-\nfields, now more or less permanent, demanded greater transportation\nfaculties to supply the miners with food and led to the formation with\nthe aid of Chicago capital of the North American Transportation and\nTrading Company by Captain J. J. Healy, formerly of Dyea.15\nIt was this great accession of population that led Bishop Bompas,\nof the Diocese of Selkirk, to address a request to the Dominion Government urging it to take steps to introduce law and order to prevent the\ndebauching of the Indians through increasing contacts with the whites.16\nThe result was orders addressed to Captain Constantine (Inspector), in\ncharge of the detachment of the North West Mounted Police at Mooso-\nmin, to proceed to the new goldfields to report on the situation. Constantine, going over Dyea Pass and proceeding down the Yukon River\nby small boat, reached Fort Cudahy (the North American Transportation and Trading Company's post at Forty Mile) on August 7,17 where\nhe collected customs duties on stores imported from the United States\nand gathered information for his report before proceeding down-river\nfor the outside via St. Michael. On the basis of the latter, the Government in 1895 dispatched Constantine and twenty men and N.C.O.'s via\nSt. Michael to Forty Mile, where a post was built and the administration\nof the country taken over.18\nThis task had hardly been completed when gold was discovered on\ntributaries of the Klondike some 50 miles south of Forty MUe. Here,\non what was locaUy known as Rabbit Creek, George Carmack, a drifter\nwho had linked his fortunes with an Indian wife and her relatives and\nmade a somewhat precarious hvelihood by fishing and cutting timber\nfor the miners, on August 17, 1896, uncovered coarse gold on rimrock\n(14) It is to be noted that Ogilvie, op. cit., p. 140, claimed that he suggested\nthawing the gravel.\n(15) Ibid., p. 68.\n(16) H. A. Cody, An Apostle of the North, Toronto, 1931, p. 267.\n(17) Canada, Report of the Commissioner of the North-west Mounted Police\nForce, 1894, Ottawa, 1895, pp. 70-85.\n(18) Canada, Report of the Commissioner of the North-west Mounted Police\nForce, 1895, Ottawa, 1896, pp. 7-10. 1953 The Klondike Gold-rush 227\nin the banks of the stream.19 As was the custom of the country, he\nstaked two claims, his Indian companions two more, and they hurried\nback to the mouth of the Klondike and floated down the river to Forty\nMUe to register their claims at the newly opened mining recorder's\noffice.20 The unusuaUy rich find, though regarded somewhat scepticaUy\nby the miners, none the less started a stampede for the new fields.21\nThe stampeders at first found their way up in whatever smaU craft were\navaUable. A river-boat coming along about this time, Forty MUe and\nthe neighbouring creeks were aU but deserted. The result was that the\nground on Rabbit Creek (shortly named Bonanza) and its tributary\nEldorado was quickly staked. Miners in the Sixty MUe region did not\nhear of the strike till the arrival of the steamer, which had already\nbrought the Forty MUe miners up to stake, so that most of them were\ndisappointed in their hopes of getting in on the original creek and had\nto go farther afield for claims. Miners at Circle City heard of the strike\nbut did not take it seriously till a miner named Rhodes, who had staked\nNo. 21 above Discovery on Bonanza, reported that he had recovered\n$65.30 from a single pan.22 This find was confirmed by agents of the\ntrading companies at Circle. Then Circle City in turn was emptied, but\nthis time the stampeders had to make their way up over the ice, since\nthe river by this time had frozen over. Captain Constantine, of the\nNorth West Mounted PoUce, reported on November 20 to his superior\nat Regina that 38 claims had been registered in the new fields and that\n150 remained to be entered, though the highest yield that he had heard\nof, from Carmack's claim, was $3 per pan.23\nThe speed with which the two creeks\u00E2\u0080\u0094Bonanza and Eldorado\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nwere staked is illustrated by the fact that Bob Henderson, working over\nthe Bonanza divide on Gold Bottom Creek, heard nothing of the strike\nfor weeks afterwards, and was unable to secure a claim on either creek.24\nSince he had drawn Carmack's attention to the possibilities of the new\nfield and induced him to make the trip to Gold Bottom, which led to the\n(19) William Ogilvie, op. cit., pp. 125-130.\n(20) Ibid., p. 130. See also Miner Bruce, op. cit., p. 151.\n(21) William Ogilvie, op. cit., p. 133.\n(22) W. B. Haskell, op. cit., p. 284.\n(23) Canada, Report of the Commissioner of the North-west Mounted Police\nForce, 1895, Ottawa, 1896, p. 234. Constantine reported that other claims were\nyielding higher unspecified amounts.\n(24) William Ogilvie, op. cit., pp. 124, 132. 228 Stuart R. Tompkins July-Oct.\ndiscovery, he is regarded by many as responsible for the find.25 Nevertheless, whUe at Gold Bottom, Carmack had promised to let him know\nof any find he made, but the promise was forgotten and Henderson was\nleft out in the cold. His claims, as having pioneered the field, were\nfinaUy recognized by the Canadian Government, who rewarded him\nwith a pension of $200 a month.26\nSince the discovery had been made late in the season, the miners\nhad to exert themselves to erect cabins for shelter and assemble from\nForty Mile the necessary food-suppUes for the winter. Work on the new\nclaims, however, gradually got under way. Shafts were sunk and drifts\nextended along bedrock, and before the winter was over the pay-streak\nwas disclosed. Some of the dumps were panned with the scanty\nresources of water (probably obtained by melting snow) with phenomenal results. Yields per pan ran to hundreds of doUars; one case is\nreported by Haskell of $800 in a single pan.27 Nevertheless, though the\nrichness of the field was demonstrated, the shortage of labour and other\ndifficulties (weather, etc.) prevented any really tangible proof of the\nextent of the finds. It was not till the spring clean-up that the astounding yields began to be reported, some taking from their claims as high\nas $80,000;28 Clarence Berry, on No. 6 above on Eldorado, took out\n$130,000.29 Much of the spring clean-up was shipped down-river to\nSt. Michael to be transhipped to ocean-going vessels for the Pacific west\ncoast ports. It was the arrival of these vessels at San Francisco and\nSeattle in the summer of 1897 that set off the real gold-rush.\nLooking back from the vantage point of 1952, we can see that it\nwas not inevitable that the arrival of a shipment of gold from the North\nshould have had the spectacular results of these of 1897. It is true,\nthe election of 1896 had passed and the cry of \" free silver \" had died\ndown, while the Spanish-American War was stiU in the future. Times\nhad been hard, but things were better than they had been at the beginning\nof the nineties, and it would not seem that the discovery of gold offered\nprospects of expanding prosperity. Could it have been the midsummer\nlull, with Congress no longer in session and most of the people who\n(25) Ibid., p. 125. See also Miner W. Bruce, op. cit., pp. 150-151.\n(26) Francis Aldham, \" Bob o' the Klondike . . . ,\" Vancouver Daily\nProvince, September 4, 1932.\n(27) W. B. Haskell, op. cit., p. 319. Joseph Ladue, op. cit., p. 128, mentions\na figure of $1,800 a day as being yielded by a claim.\n(28) W. B. Haskell, op. cit., p. 323.\n(29) Ibid., p. 322. 1953 The Klondike Gold-rush 229\nmade news disporting themselves on the beaches or in the country, that\ninduced the public to seize on this bit of news from a far-away part of\nthe continent? Why did it catch the popular imagination? After aU,\nnot inconsiderable shipments of gold had been coming out of the North\nfor years.\nIt so happened that of the two important San Francisco papers, the\nCall, probably for lack of competing news, spread it over the front page\non July 15, 1897,30 in true yellow-journal style in the most sensational\nmanner. Its account was telegraphed to the New York Tribune with\nwhich it had associations. The other New York paper, the Journal,\nbelonged to WiUiam Randolph Hearst, who also owned the San Francisco Examiner. Hearst was enraged that his papers had been scooped\nand wired the Examiner to do something to make amends. The latter\npaper sought the next day to outdo its rivals by stiU more sensational\nstories, and it was these highly spiced accounts that caught the popular\nimagination and were flashed over the wires by Associated Press to\nevery community in the United States and by cable to the great cosmo-\npoUtan centres of Europe. Three days later the Portland, of the North\nAmerican Transportation and Trading Company, docked with gold at\nSeattle;31 this gave the papers in that city a chance to get in on the\nstory, and they made the most of the opportunity. Not aU of the\naccounts of the discovery were roseate, but those which attempted to\ngive an indigo hue to the picture did so with just as heavy a hand. AU\nthis was but fuel to the flames. And the fact that not one person in ten\nmiUion reaUy knew anything of the North made it the easier to give free\nrein to the imagination.\nMr. WiUiam Ogilvie, Dominion Government surveyor who had been\nsome years in the North, was on the Excelsior, yet no one was interested\nin his sober accounts, whUe the reporters were fed the most sensational\nstories by the ignorant crew and others as iU informed on board. OgUvie\nwas disgusted at the exaggerated accounts concocted in the papers. He\ndid not realize that he was witnessing one of the great achievements of\nsensational journaUsm in modern times, the launching of a stampede\nwhich was to reach to the far ends of the earth.\nIf one stops to think about it, there was nothing in the summer of\n1897 to justify the extravagant stories or to rouse the fantastic hopes\n(30) The Victoria Colonist, July 16, 1897, reported the arrival of the steamer\nExcelsior at San Francisco on July 14.\n(31) Ibid., July 18, 1897. 230 Stuart R. Tompkins July-Oct.\nof persons outside inexperienced in mining. In the scramble for claims\nthat developed after the discovery, not even aU those in the country had\nany chances of securing ground. Eldorado and Bonanza were staked\nby the miners from Forty MUe; the Sixty MUe men did not hear of it\nfor weeks, and it was then too late to get in on the original creeks. The\nCircle City people did not hear of it tiU November, when many days\nwere required for the trip over the ice to the goldfields. Both of these\ngroups had to go farther afield. In the spreading-out, some new and\nunique finds were made\u00E2\u0080\u0094Big Skookum and Little Skookum Gulches,\nthe terrace and hiUside claims, Hunker Creek, and even over the Klondike divide on Dominion and other tributaries of Indian River. Moreover, since the Excelsior reached San Francisco on July 14, not much\nof the spring clean-up could have reached the outside. Mr. Ogilvie\nstates that he remained in Dawson awaiting the boat for St. Michael\ntill the middle of July, 1897, when the first arrivals from up-river reached\nDawson in the wake of the ice going out, and that he reached St. Michael\ntoward the end of July. One can only surmise that he meant June,\nsince the ice goes out early in May and the lower river (from Dawson\ndown) is clear by the end of that month, so that the boat must have\nreached Dawson by the middle of June and St. Michael toward the end\nof that month to enable him to reach San Francisco on July 14.32\nIt is true that long before that the first rush of stampeders had\nbegun. OgUvie reported that passengers off the first ocean-going vessels\nof the season were then waiting at St. Michael for the up-river boat.\nAs we have seen, the first arrivals at Dawson that year had already\nreached there just behind the running ice. But since Lake Laberge\ndoes not go out tiU June, these must have been persons caught by winter\nalong the upper river who had simply holed up where they were to wait\nfor the ice going out. Of course, news of the richness of the goldfields\nhad begun to reach the outside world, for an Ottawa syndicate arranged\nfor the dispatch of an expedition of reconnaissance. Its leader, Secretan,\nreported some 400 people at the head of Lake Bennett when he reached\nthere on June l.33 On approaching Dawson, June 17, 1897, he found\nminers already stampeding up-river for an obscure tributary of the Sixty\n(32) \" Mr. Ogilvie left Dawson City on July 15, and making his way on a river\nsteamer to St. Michaels sailed thence on the Excelsior to San Francisco on her last\ntrip, a short time ago.\" Ibid., October 1, 1897.\n(33) J. H. E. Secretan, To Klondyke and Back, a Journey down the Yukon\nfrom Its Source to Its Mouth, London, 1898, p. 65. 1953 The Klondike Gold-rush 231\nMUe, though this area had already been thoroughly prospected.34 The\nfact is that the rich ground had long since been taken up and new\narrivals were scrambling for possible new finds in outlying areas.\nDawson was running fuU blast as a mining camp, though it was stiU\nwithout a post-office.35 Steamers of the Alaska Commercial Company\nand the North American Transportation and Trading Company had\narrived from the lower river and provided the only means of egress for\npassengers or mail.\nAlready in the autumn of 1897 Dawson and the creeks were running\nshort of food for the miners who rushed into the country with scant\nsupplies, in the belief that these could easUy be replenished from the\ncorner grocery in Dawson.36 Thus the crowds of prospectors continued\nto grow and the trading companies, while making heroic efforts to meet\nthe needs of the country as they appeared in the spring of 1897, were\nquite unequal to dealing with the situation as it developed in the late\nsummer with the ever-increasing arrivals, mostly without supplies. The\nsituation might have been reheved if the river steamers had been able to\nbring up-stream from St. Michael the stores that had been assembled\nthere. But the Yukon is a tricky river in the autumn. The run-off of\nearly summer had receded and the melting glaciers in the far south at\nthe headwaters hardly affected the middle and lower courses of the\nriver; moreover, the first frosts check the discharge of the tributaries,\nand even if the river remains clear of ice, navigation in some stretches\nof the river, owing to the low stage of water, becomes hazardous; the\nboats of the Alaska Commercial Company and the North American\nTransportation and Trading Company on their last trip (probably their\nsecond) just could not aU make it. One or two got through; the rest\nwere held up in the Flats, and Dawson faced the prospect of a famine,\na prospect met by the Mounted PoUce by doing everything possible to\ninduce those without supplies of their own to leave on the last boat or\nelse to float down-river in smaU boats to where it was assumed that the\nsteamers had put in for the winter. By every kind of pressure and inducement in the way of offering free passage, Dawson was gradually\nemptied of its surplus population, and those who remained behind, while\non somewhat reduced rations, managed to Uve through the winter.37\n(34) Ibid., pp. 106-108.\n(35) Ibid., pp. 109-116.\n(36) Ibid., p. 117.\n(37) Canada, Report of the Commissioner of the North-west Mounted Police\nForce, 1898, Ottawa, 1899, Part III, p. 97. 232 Stuart R. Tompkins July-Oct.\nWe can see now, with the country already swarming with experienced miners and some inexperienced would-be miners, what the chances\nwere for those who were to come in a year later. Yet the needs of the\ndaUy newspaper for sensational news impeUed editors to whip up the\narrival of the Excelsior and the Portland with the first considerable shipment of gold from the North into a world-wide migration that was to\nconverge on the Yukon VaUey during the foUowing spring. The caU\nwas to go out over the Associated Press wires throughout the length\nand breadth of the United States and Canada; and by cable to aU parts\nof the EngUsh-speaking world, to Europe, and to remote outposts of\ncivUization. Looking back, it is an almost incredible phenomenon how\nit caught the popular imagination and induced otherwise sane people\nto risk their all in the aU but hopeless gamble of securing some share\nin the flood of gold. Public officials, normaUy restrained, made Uttle\nor no effort to calm this madness; cities and Boards of Trade of communities that thought to profit began to advertise themselves as the\ngateway of the North; Edmonton, on the North Saskatchewan, offered\ntwo routes\u00E2\u0080\u0094one, a back-door route, held to be suitable for taking live\nstock, by the Peace, the Finlay, the Liard, and the Pelly, only discredited\nby the Mounted PoUce after more than one group of stampeders had\ncome to grief by foUowing it, and there was the Athabasca, the Slave,\nthe Mackenzie, the Peel, the Rat, the Porcupine, fairly easy for experienced river-men but requiring a good part of two years to traverse.\nThere was the route by the Stikine and the old Cassiar goldfields to\nLake Teslin and the Hootalinqua River. Alaska communities were not\nto be outdone; Valdez on Prince WUUam Sound, a mere cluster of huts,\nsuddenly acquired publicity as a jumping-off place for the Yukon VaUey\nvia the Valdez Glacier, the Copper River, thence over the Alaska Range\nto the Upper Tanana, and thence across to Eagle on the Yukon. In\n1896 OgUvie had reported on a trail blazed by Jack Dalton up the\nChilkat and Alsek Rivers,38 over the divide to the waters of the Upper\nWhite, and through the interior vaUey behind the St. Ehas Range northeast to the Yukon at Five Finger Rapids. This trail attracted those\ndriving in stock in preference to the Chilkoot and White Passes, all but\nimpassable for stock and devoid of pasture, even in summer.\nThus the stage was set for the epic rush of 1898. From the far\ncorners of the earth\u00E2\u0080\u0094the United States and Canada, from AustraUa,\n(38) \" Report of the Minister of the Interior . . . 1896,\" in Canada Sessional Papers . . . 1897, Ottawa, 1897, pp. 48, 51. 1953 The Klondike Gold-rush 233\nfrom the gold-beaches of the South Island of New Zealand, from South\nAfrica, from the British Isles, from France and Germany and the Scandinavian countries\u00E2\u0080\u0094there were few countries that had not heard the\ncaU. The short advance warning railways and ports on the west coast\nand coastal and river steamship lines had had was quite inadequate to\nhandle the tide that flowed westward. CUfford Sifton, writing in March,\n1898, informs us:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nThe Canadian Pacific Railway train going west yesterday consisted of five\nsections, about half of them loaded with intending prospectors, so you will have\nall the people you can take care of.39\nAnd in the vanguard were the newspaper-men, sent out to get the stories\nof hardship, of suffering, of success and failure, of the humour and\npathos of this great migration of peoples they had set off. It is to be\nnoted that these newsmen were a cosmopohtan lot, brought together\nfrom aU parts of the civilized world by the wide pubUcity with which the\nnews of the strike had already been acclaimed, and that among them\nCanadians were a negUgible minority. This was so apparent that it drew\nfrom Major Walsh in his report to the Minister of the Interior in 1898\nthe foUowing comment:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nIt is to me a matter of surprise that the business men of Canada have not\ntaken greater interest in this question. In fact, it appears to me that our people\nhave given little, if any, attention to the district. It may surprise you, but it is\nnevertheless a fact that until the arrival of Col. McGregor in July there was not\nan accredited representative of the Canadian press in the district. No one commissioned by any of our leading newspapers to examine into the conditions of the\ncountry as they existed, or its wants, and to report the result of his investigation\nto the Canadian people, has visited the territory. By that means the people of\nCanada could have obtained reliable and worthy information regarding the\ncountry and its means. All the information sent out from the country was left\nto the representatives of English and foreign newspapers to supply. Last spring\nand summer there were in the Yukon in the neighborhood of two hundred representatives of newspapers, sent there for the express purpose of examining into the\nresources and wants of the district. Of these about thirty-five represented English\npapers, about ten represented papers published in Paris, ten papers published in\nGermany, and about one hundred and forty represented newspapers of the United\nStates. . . . There is, however, this to be said\u00E2\u0080\u0094that while the American papers\nhave heaped upon us a great deal of abuse, our thanks are certainly due to them\nfor advertising our country, as without the assistance of their press and population,\ncomparatively little would be yet known of the British Yukon.40.\n(39) John W. Dafoe, Clifford Sifton in Relation to His Times, Toronto, 1931,\npp. 179-180.\n(40) \" Report of the Minister of the Interior . . . 1898,\" in Canada Sessional Papers . . . 1899, Ottawa, 1899, p. 330. 234 Stuart R. Tompkins July-Oct.\nThe spring of 1898 saw the almost unbehevable phenomenon of\nmasses of humanity converging on this remote locaUty. Probably 95 per\ncent were concentrated on the two landing-beaches on Lynn Canal and\nthe grim passes that led across the coast ranges to the headwaters of the\nYukon River. Every craft, no matter how cranky, that could float,\nwhose engines could propel her through the Inside Passage, was pressed\ninto service; one was even raised from the bottom of the sea; ancient\nriver-boats that had long since been superannuated and were slowly\nrotting on their ways were floated, caulked, their engines overhauled;\nthen, after inviting passenger and freight business, either under their own\nsteam or more probably in tow of some ocean-going vessel, they made\ntheir perilous way across the Guff of Alaska, through the Aleutian\nIslands into Bering Sea to St. Michael to go into river service. Considering the age of these craft, the indifferent and ignorant and inexperienced\ncrews, the largely uncharted nature of these waters, there is Uttle wonder\nthat many came to grief. The ascent of the river and passage through the\nYukon Flats alone was beyond the skill of the inexperienced river pilots\nwho had to pick their way through these perilous waters by trial and\nerror. But the worst hardships were endured by those who surmounted\nthe mountain barriers and built and launched their crazy craft on the\nYukon. Here inexperience took its worst toU; the storms on the upper\nlakes, especiaUy Tagish, adverse winds, the racing torrent of MUes Canyon, and White Horse Rapids were only some of the hazards, not to\nspeak of the running ice of early winter. It is safe to say that most of the\nfataUties from natural features or climate were to be credited simply to\nlack of the proper gear and experience. But at best the gold-rush was a\nmad race after a wiU o' the wisp, for a claim which not one in a hundred\nwould be able to stake, for a fortune that beckoned yet that would elude\nthe grasp.\nUp till now we have had a mass movement, spontaneous and undirected, but the two chief governments involved, Canada and the United\nStates, were now becoming interested. Tales of impending famine had\nstirred Congress to appropriate money for reUef, and an expedition was\nbeing organized to convey it.41 Canada had called into existence the\nYukon Territory and organized at least a provisional administration,\nheaded by Major James Morrow Walsh, who crossed the summit with\nhis party in early autumn of 1897, but was overtaken by the freeze-up\non the Upper Yukon and had spent the winter months at the Big\n(41) John W. Dafoe, op. cit., p. 161. 1953 The Klondike Gold-rush 235\nSalmon River and Lake Bennett.42 Difficulties were now developing at\nthe coastal end of the traU where boundary questions came up. Even\nmore disturbing was the conflict of interests developing between the great\ncoastal cities, Seattle and San Francisco, to whom this gold-rush was to\nbe an unusuaUy luscious windfaU. The tales that set the gold-rush off\nhad originated in those cities, and their merchants and supply-houses\nsaw golden opportunity to be seized. Vancouver had hardly come into the\npicture at all. Victoria, having some previous experience of gold-rushes,\ndid reap some benefits. But the efforts to exclude their rivals from the\nprofitable trade did much to stimulate ill feeling over the frontier. Men\nand goods had to land at Skagway and Dyea and pass through United\nStates territory to reach Canadian territory;43 there was no authority at\nfirst to pass goods through in bond; a horse or mule would be passed\nthrough, if not used for moving goods over the mountains, and it took\nconsiderable protests to secure the lifting of this absurd ban. But even\nthen the frontier was unmarked; United States authorities claimed that\nthe summit was at Bennett and insisted that goods going through in bond\nhad to be convoyed through to Tagish, the owner of the goods to pay the\ncost of convoy.44 The talk of the coming United States relief expedition\napparently led to rumours that the United States would occupy the disputed area by force, and the Canadian authorities took two measures:\nthe Mounted PoUce under Superintendent Sam Steele were directed to\noccupy the summits of the Chilkoot and White Passes, and set up frontier customs posts.45 Later on, to meet any possible use of force by 14th\nInfantry camped at Dyea,46 it was decided by the Canadian Government\nto organize the Yukon Field Force of the permanent mUitia, consisting\nof 203 officers and men, and dispatch it into the country by the Stikine\nRiver-TesUn Lake route. Though this force reached the Upper Yukon\nby June 1, it was not tiU September 11 that they finaUy reached their\nfuture headquarters, Selkirk, whUe the Dawson detachment did not reach\n(42) Ibid., p. 176.\n(43) Ibid., p. 164.\n(44) Canada, Report of the Commissioner of the North-west Mounted Police\nForce, 1898, Ottawa, 1899, Part HI, pp. 47-48.\n(45) Ibid., p. 6. This action was decided on by the Minister of the Interior,\nthe Honourable Clifford Sifton, directly without consulting Major J. M. Walsh,\na special detachment of the North West Mounted Police being sent in for this\npurpose under Superintendent Sam Steele. It led to a request from Major Walsh\nthat he be relieved forthwith. See John W. Dafoe, op. cit., p. 180, foot-note 1.\n(46) Canada, Report of the Commissioner of the North-west Mounted Police\nForce, 1898, Ottawa, 1899, Part III, p. 48. 236 Stuart R. Tompkins July-Oct.\nDawson tiU October 1.47 But international tension graduaUy eased, and\ngood sense and the feelings of comradeship in the face of natural perUs\ngraduaUy asserted themselves and the crisis passed. The order issued by\nMajor Walsh in the spring of 1898 that no one was to be aUowed to\nproceed down-river without at least one year's supply of goods,48 whUe\nit may have exceeded the powers conferred on him, undoubtedly was a\nsalutary measure; whUe it might cause individual hardship, it removed\nthe possible repetition of the near famine of the faU of 1897.\nAlmost at once the unprecedented congestion of population gave rise\nto almost insuperable obstacles. It is no fault of the Canadian Government that it had completely underestimated the problems that would be\ncreated. Clamour arose over the inabiUty of the officials to cope with\nthe registration of claims; a cause of even greater dissatisfaction was the\ntotally inadequate mail service. Complaints on these and a score of\nother matters assailed the ears of Major Walsh on his arrival in Dawson\nin the early summer and pressed for immediate solution. The Commissioner gives an account of these in his report to the Minister and comments on them:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nThe introduction and enforcement of law and taxation naturally made us\nunpopular with the older residents, who were unaccustomed to that sort of thing.\nAdded to this, some twenty thousand people of all nationalities had flocked into\nthe district in a few weeks. They did not find things as they were in their own\ncountry and, as might be expected, in a few weeks everyone was dissatisfied with\neverything around him. The Englishman from South Africa wanted things carried\non as he had been accustomed to have them carried on there; the New Zealander,\nas they had been carried on in New Zealand; the German and Swede as in their\nmotherlands. Those who came from the United States wanted the mining laws\nand regulations adopted which are in force in that country, and the British\nColumbian called out for the regulations of his province, with this exception, that\nin his case he preferred the 500-foot claim of the Yukon to the 100-foot claim of\nBritish Columbia. When regulations could not be made to suit all these various\nelements of population, the officials and the law had to be abused, and, therefore,\nthe crusade that was started against both.49\nThe matter that caused most headaches at first was the difference in\nmining laws between the United States and Canada. The PoUtical Code\nof Alaska provided that mineral claims in the District of Alaska should\n(47) G. F. G. Stanley, Canada's Soldiers, 1604-1954, Toronto, 1954, pp. 275-\n277. See also \"The Yukon Field Force, 1898-1900,\" Canadian Army Journal,\nTV (November, 1950), pp. 30-34.\n(48) \" Report of the Minister of the Interior . . . 1898,\" in Canada Sessional Papers . . . 1899, p. 319.\n(49) Ibid., p. 331. 1953 The Klondike Gold-rush 237\nbe subject to \"such reasonable rules and regulations as the miners in\norganized mining districts may have heretofore made or may hereafter\nmake governing the temporary possession thereof.\"50 This was not only\ntaken to apply to mining claims but, owing to the absence of any law-\nenforcement officers, was extended to aU kinds of disputes, with the\nresult that mining camps were run by miners' meetings caUed to settle aU\nkinds of controversies. Authorities agree that this worked weU in the\nearly days of gold-mining in Alaska, but the surveying of the frontier\nand the discovery that some of the gold-producing areas were in Canada,\nand thus subject to Canadian mining laws, changed the picture. Order\nin CouncU of November 9, 1889, had fixed the size of claims at 100\nfeet, as provided by British Columbia laws, and it was not till May 21,\n1897, that this was amended, providing for 500 feet for creek and 100\nfeet for bench claims, as contrasted with rules on Forty Mile that aUowed\n1,320 feet.51 Moreover, with the advent of the Mounted PoUce, the\ncommanding officer was named mining recorder, and all claims to be\nlegal had to be in accordance with Canadian laws and recorded with him.\nThe miners on Glacier Creek were inclined to be indignant with this\ninterference with their estabUshed practices of settling these things by\nminers' meetings.52 But the latter were often swayed by prejudice and\npassion, and the realization to which the miners quickly came, that their\njust claims were safeguarded by laws which were impartially administered by the police, soon reconciled them to the new order. Yet even as\nlate as 1896 on Bonanza an effort was made to organize the miners and\nto take over the registration and surveying of the miners' claims. The\nnew survey, an extremely rough and, as it turned out, very inaccurate\nsurvey, imposed on the original staking, admittedly rough as these inevitably were, caused such inextricable confusion and led to such hard feelings that the Dominion surveyor, Mr. WiUiam Ogilvie, was appealed to\nto establish the correct lines and proper ownership. While many of the\nnew stakers (really claim jumpers) were squeezed out in the new survey\n(50) Printed in Eugene McElwaine, The Truth about Alaska, Chicago, 1901,\np. 398.\n(51) This Order in Council furnished an additional grievance by imposing\na 20-per-cent royalty on all gold produced. The Canadian Government, however,\nfinally yielded to the importunities of the miners and reduced this to 10 per cent,\nthen to 5 per cent, and later to 2Vi per cent, and finally abolished it altogether in\nfavour of an export tax. John W. Dafoe, op. cit., p. 187.\n(52) Canada, Report of the Commissioner of the North-west Mounted Police\nForce, 1895, Ottawa, 1896, p. 234. 238 Stuart R. Tompkins July-Oct.\nand the new recording, it proved a salutary lesson, and no miners' meeting thereafter undertook to interfere with the claims as registered with\nthe Dominion Government recorder.53\nOne other divergence in the mining laws of the two countries remained to be adjusted. United States laws refused aliens the right to\nstake a claim on United States soil. Canada, foUowing British tradition,\naUowed aUens the same rights as citizens.54 WhUe the ban on British\nsubjects was not strictly enforced, the difference in treatment was so\nglaring that Congress finaUy agreed to reciprocate hi this matter.\nThe gold-rush continued into 1899, when the pushing of the White\nPass railway through to Bennett eliminated the worst hardships. Passing\ninto the Ulterior now became a routine matter. The trails were now\nblazed, the dangers known and, for the most part, avoided. Dawson and\nthe goldfields now plunged into the business of digging out gold. But,\nof the 30,000 estimated to have camped on the flat at Dawson in the\nsummer of 1898,55 few could hope to find claims. Most were soon\nbankrupt and had recourse to work for others or went into business;\nthe others, disappointed and disUlusioned, left the country. It is estimated that $3 were brought into the country for every one taken out.\nThe total gold production of the Yukon eventuaUy, by 1952, reached\n$229,601,006.56 It did bring a flood of people to the North from aU\nlands, many of whom stayed\u00E2\u0080\u0094Americans, Canadians, Australians, South\nAfricans, New Zealanders, aU of whom left their mark in the country.\nOne great tradition that has persisted in the country is that feeling of\ncomradeship that overleaps aU barriers of race and language; this is\nembodied in the watchword of the secret order known as the Arctic\nBrotherhood, founded during the gold-rush: \"No frontier here.\"\nThe native Canadian element was lost in the mass of humanity that\nstruggled over the passes and down the Yukon River in 1898. Major\nWalsh estimated in the spring of that year 30,000 persons reached the\ngoldfields, of whom a bare 4,000 were Canadians and perhaps 8,000\nwere British subjects.57 In the great avalanche that buried some fifty\n(53) William Ogilvie, op. cit., pp. 160-171.\n(54) Eugene McElwaine, op. cit., p. 394.\n(55) \" Report of the Minister of the Interior . . . 1898,\" in Canada Sessional Papers . . . 1899, Ottawa, 1899, p. 331. Actually Major Walsh stated\nthat this number was \" in the district\" and not only in Dawson.\n(56) Dominion Bureau of Statistics, The Gold Mining Industry, 1952, Ottawa,\n1954, Table 5.\n(57) \"Report of the Minister of the Interior . . . 1898,\" in Canada Sessional Papers . . . 1899, Ottawa, 1899, p. 331. 1953 The Klondike Gold-rush 239\nstampeders under snow on April 3, almost all were Americans hailing\nfrom California.58 On that year, July 4, Independence Day, was celebrated with greater gusto that first year than July 1, Dominion Day.59\nLikewise, the Spanish-American War was followed, albeit at a distance\nof some months, with the interest natural to American citizens.60\nPart of the surplus population of the Klondike goldfields was absorbed by the gold-rush to Nome in 1899.61 The year 1903 saw also the\nstampede to the new fields on the Tanana at Fairbanks, and Dawson\ncontributed its quota.62 Dawson was graduaUy cleared of aU but the\nprofessional miner, the business-man, and the government official. In a\nvery real sense, therefore, the Yukon goldfields were the funnel through\nwhich passed the miners who opened up the Alaska goldfields at Nome,\nFairbanks, and a dozen other points.\nNext to the Americans and possibly the Canadians, the Australians,\nNew Zealanders, and Newfoundlanders perhaps left the most lasting\nimpression. In fact, in the traditions that have persisted, the AustraUans\nstill bulk very large, a good proof, it seems to me, that the men from the\nAntipodes formed a very substantial element in the gold-rush. The\ncosmopoUtan nature of the original stampeders is to-day reflected in the\nsecond-generation Yukoners, whose names indicate their diverse national\norigins, however attached they may be to their birthplace and to the\ncountry of which they now form a part.\nStuart R. Tompkins.\nUniversity of Oklahoma,\nNorman, Oklahoma.\n(58) Canada, Report of the Commissioner of the North-west Mounted Police\nForce, 1898, Ottawa, 1899, Part III, p. 90. The Report of the Minister of the\nInterior for the same year, p. 319, claims that seventy-five persons were killed.\n(59) R. A. Bankson, The Klondike Nugget, Caldwell, Idaho, 1935, pp. 161-\n164.\n(60) Ibid., pp. 109-110.\n(61) Eugene McElwaine, op. cit., pp. 217-237.\n(62) John Scudder McLain, Alaska and the Klondike, New York, 1905, pp.\n304, 307. NOTES AND COMMENTS\nBRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION\nVictoria Section\nA joint meeting of the Victoria Section of the British Columbia Historical\nAssociation and the B.C. Indian Arts and Welfare Society was held in the Provincial Library on Thursday evening, April 16, with the Chairman, Mrs. J. E.\nGodman, presiding and over 100 persons in attendance. The speaker on that\noccasion was Dr. Charles E. Borden, of the University of British Columbia, who\nchose as his subject Aluminum and Archaology. Dr. Borden had been placed in\ncharge of the archaeological survey undertaken in the Tweedsmuir Park area prior\nto the flooding consequent upon the development of the Aluminum Company of\nCanada's project, and his lecture constituted a report on the work and findings of\nthe survey. As a preliminary to his subject, Dr. Borden gave a very rapid summary\nof the status of archaeological study in general in British Columbia. Many years\nago there had been some intensive work done by men such as Harlan I. Smith\nand under the aegis of organizations as the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, but\nuntil relatively recent years little further had been undertaken and that mainly in\nthe delta of the Fraser River. Now the archaeological importance of other parts\nof the Province, and in particular of the Northern Interior, has been recognized\nand careful investigation undertaken. The agreement between the Government\nof British Columbia and the Aluminum Company of Canada, involving the damming of the Nechako River, constituted a real threat to our knowledge of the\nprehistory of our Province, and the Government provided funds for a preliminary\nreconnaissance in the summer of 1951, and the following year the company joined\nwith the Government in supporting a more detailed examination. As a result, from\nJuly to mid-September, 1952, a group of fourteen, including anthropological\nstudents from the University of British Columbia, the University of Washington,\nas well as from Columbia and Toronto, were in the field undertaking detailed\nexamination of selected area. Their findings are now being analysed, and detailed\nreports will ultimately be made public. A very beautiful set of coloured slides\nwere shown to illustrate the work at the various points of the survey. A sincere\nvote of thanks was tendered to Dr. Borden by Mr. A. F. Flucke, President of the\nB.C. Indian Arts and Welfare Society.\nA regular meeting of the Section was held on Friday evening, May 29, in the\nProvincial Library, when Mr. Russell Potter, an active member of the Association,\nread a paper entitled A Good Word for Juan de Fuca. Mr. Potter, a civil engineer,\nis a member of the Public Utilities Commission and has long been interested in the\nearly exploration of this coast. In the course of his address Mr. Potter analysed\nmuch of the evidence available concerning the voyage of Juan de Fuca and came\nto the conclusion that to classify it as an apocryphal venture is unwarranted. The\nlecture was illustrated with sketches and maps and aroused considerable interest\namong those present.\nBritish Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. XVII, Nos. 3 and 4.\n241 242 Notes and Comments July-Oct.\nThe meeting of the Section held on Thursday evening, June 25, in the Provincial\nLibrary was planned as a prelude to the annual field-day and also as an opportunity\nfor the members to become aware of the work being undertaken by the Special\nCommittee on Old and Historic Homes. The speaker on that occasion was Mr.\nJ. K. Nesbitt, who, through the columns of the Victoria Daily Colonist, has done\nso much to arouse interest in the pioneer homes. He had chosen as his subject\nSome of Victoria's Oldest Homes. In particular he dealt with \" Duvals,\" the\nBarnard residence; \"Point Ellice,\" home of the O'Reilly family; \"Wentworth\nVilla,\" the Ella residence; and the James Bay residences of the Trounce and\nPendray families. During the evening a number of photographs, many in colour,\nof houses recently photographed by the Committee were shown and the points of\narchitectural interest pointed out. In addition, Miss Madge Wolfenden, who has\nbeen of inestimable assistance to the Committee, gave an outline of the history\nof Beckley Farm in James Bay.\nThe annual field-day of the Victoria Section was held on the afternoon of\nAugust 22 and took the form of a caravan tour of many of the old historic houses\nof the city of which the Committee is attempting to secure a photographic record.\nIn addition to private cars, a large bus was chartered, and mimeographed notes\nprepared by Miss Madge Wolfenden, Assistant Provincial Archivist, were provided,\ngiving information about the homes visited. The route covered most sections of\nthe city, and stops were made at five homes of particular interest and concluded\nat the manor house of Craigflower Farm, where tea had been arranged. This was\nparticularly appropriate, as this was the year of the centenary of the establishment\nof the farm. Both the manor house and the school-house were open to inspection,\nand nearly 100 persons availed themselves of the opportunity of visiting the old\nhomes.\nThe first meeting in the fall season was held on Tuesday evening, October 27,\nin the Provincial Library, with Mrs. J. E. Godman in the chair. On that occasion\nthe speaker was Mr. E. G. Hart, a member of the engineering staff of the British\nColumbia Electric Company, who had chosen as his subject Tofino to Sooke.\nMr. Hart has long been familiar with the West Coast of Vancouver Island and was\nable to add many personal recollections. He had prepared a large-scale map of\nthe region and spoke briefly on the origin and development of the numerous small\ncommunities dotting the coast. Particular emphasis was laid on the problem of\ncommunication, which still remains unsolved, and the various proposed routes for\na West Coast road were indicated.\nVancouver Section\nA general meeting of the Section was held in the Grosvenor Hotel on Tuesday\nevening, April 14, with Mr. D. A. McGregor in the chair. The speaker was\nDr. Frank G. Roe, whose monumental study on The American Buffalo won him\nwell-merited recognition among historians and led the University of Alberta to\nconfer upon him an honorary degree. Dr. Roe very rapidly sketched the background of the story of the buffalo as substantiated from the records of early\nexplorers in the American mid-West and dealt particularly with the problem of\ntheir migrations. The Indian method of capturing the animal was also described.\nAt one time, it has been estimated, there were 60,000,000 buffalo, and the question 1953 Notes and Comments 243\nof their destruction was considered, the suggestion being put forward that American\nmilitary authorities, despairing of conquering the West as long as the Indians\nremained economically secure because of the prevalence of the buffalo, were largely\ninstrumental in having the herds wiped out. The various attempts to domesticate\nthe animal were also mentioned. Captain C. W. Cates proposed the vote of\nappreciation to the speaker.\nAt a meeting of the Section held in the Grosvenor Hotel on Tuesday evening,\nMay 19, Mrs. Mildred Valley Thornton spoke on the subject Indian Trails in\nBritish Columbia. Mrs. Thornton is a well-known friend of the Canadian Indians\nand has painted them, written extensively about them, and lectured. Her address\nwas illustrated with many Kodachrome reproductions of her paintings of famous\nIndian men and women, about whom Mrs. Thornton told their story. Into her\nnarrative she introduced many interesting accounts that she had gathered during\nher travels throughout the Province making her paintings. Mr. Noel Robinson\ntendered the appreciation of the meeting to the speaker.\nThe summer outing of the Section took the form of a picnic to the Oblate\nshrine at Mission on Saturday afternoon, June 27. At the shrine, dedicated to\nOur Lady of Lourdes, Father George Forbes, O.M.I., gave an interesting account\nof its foundation by the first Roman Catholic Bishop of British Columbia and told\nof the work of other members of the clergy connected with the Order. A visit\nwas also made to the small cemetery wherein are buried many of the pioneers,\nlaymen as well as priests and brothers, of the Church who served in the area.\nThe first meeting of the fall season was held in the Grosvenor Hotel on Tuesday\nevening, September 15, and drew a large attendance to hear Captain C. W. Cates\nspeak on the subject When North Vancouver Was Young. Captain Cates is First\nVice-President of the British Columbia Historical Association and, having lived\nnearly all his life in North Vancouver and having attended the school at Moodyville, was well qualified to speak on the history of North Vancouver. From his\ngreat store of personal anecdotes he was able to re-create much of the spirit and\ntemper of the forgotten days. From his association with the Indian peoples he\nlearned many of their names for the regions along the shores of Burrard Inlet and\ntold several of their legends pertaining to the region. The great stands of timber\nfirst drew the white men to the inlet, and the beginnings of settlement were about\nthe mill constructed at Moodyville. In the old days great sailing-ships came into\nthe inlet to load the lumber for export the world over. North Vancouver proper\nbegan as a dairy-farm and gradually a town grew up, a process that was hastened\nby the coming of the shipyards. In passing, Captain Cates also dealt with the\nhistory of such things as the Second Narrows Bridge and told the stories of many\nof the early ships on the inlet\u00E2\u0080\u0094the Sudden Jerk and Spratt's Ark. Mr. E. G.\nBaynes expressed the thanks of the meeting to Captain Cates for the delightful\nstory he had told.\nA regular meeting of the Section was held in the Grosvenor Hotel on Tuesday\nevening, October 13. The speaker on that occasion was Mr. Norman Hacking,\nmarine editor of the Vancouver Daily Province and a frequent contributor to this\nQuarterly of articles on steamboat history in this Province. His lecture, entitled\nFrom Beaver to Princess, traced the story of the beginning and development of\na coastwise steamship service in British Columbia. In the course of his address 244 Notes and Comments July-Oct.\nMr. Hacking pointed out that the present coastal service of the Canadian Pacific\nRailway Company is a lineal descendant of that commenced by the Hudson's Bay\nCompany in 1835, when the pioneer steamer Beaver first put in her appearance.\nIn the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company, which was taken over by the\nCanadian Pacific Railway Company in 1901, the Hudson's Bay Company was\na large stockholder, along with Captain John Irving, one of the most colourful of\nsteamboat captains. Mr. Hacking recounted many of the interesting stories of\nmarine history\u00E2\u0080\u0094the Premier and her part in the \" smallpox war \" and subsequent\ndifficulties after her collision with an American steamer, as a result of which she\ncould never again cross the boundary-line and ended her days as the steamer\nCharmer. The story of the Spanish privateer hoax of 1898 was recounted\u00E2\u0080\u0094a\ncolourful if unholy scheme to transfer some of the Klondike gold-rush trade from\nAmerican to British ships. In 1894 the Canadian Pacific Railway built in Scotland\nthe Prince Rupert, ostensibly to compete with the Canadian Pacific Navigation\nCompany on this coast. It was while off the Azores en route to this region after\nbeing commissioned that her orders were cancelled, and instead she went into\noperation in the Bay of Fundy service. At the conclusion of the address Mr. Mark\nLumley presented to the Section a souvenir from the Beaver\u00E2\u0080\u0094a soldering-iron\nwhich he had made from metal taken from the ship as she lay a wreck on Prospect\nPoint.\nWest Kootenay Section\nFor the first time in many years a new section of the British Columbia\nHistorical Association has been organized. Largely through the enthusiasm of\nMrs. A. D. Turnbull, Second Vice-President of the Association, Section No. 4 has\nbeen organized in the Trail-Rossland area. A preliminary meeting was held on\nMonday evening, March 30, in the home of Mrs. Turnbull, when a paper on the\nHistory of Fort Edmonton was read by Mr. Alan Jenkins, manager of the Canadian\nBank of Commerce. While living in Edmonton he had become interested in the\nhistory of the old fort and had collected together all the facts available. His\naddress traced chronologically the history from the founding of the post in 1795\nto the incorporation of the city in 1892, and in his researches he had consulted\nmaps, journals, newspapers, published histories, and had secured information direct\nfrom the Archives of the Hudson's Bay Company in London. Fort Edmonton\noccupied an important position in the Company's operations, for it became the\njumping-off point for traders crossing the Rocky Mountains to Boat Encampment\non the Upper Columbia River. It was also strategically located on the boundary\nbetween the warlike Blackfeet and more peaceable Cree Indians. The appreciation\nof the members was tendered to Mr. Jenkins by Mr. Gordon German.\nThe second meeting of the group was held on Thursday evening, April 29, in\nthe home of Mrs. A. D. Turnbull on the occasion of a visit of the Provincial\nLibrarian and Archivist to the West Kootenay District. Mr. Ireland spoke on the\nsubject The Place of the Kootenays in the History of British Columbia. Far from\nbeing isolated, in the old days it was on the direct route of the fur brigades and\nwas actually in use years before comparable activity developed on the coast.\nSubsequently, it became significant in the efforts to build up a defence against\nanticipated American expansion. The building of the Dewdney Trail in gold-rush\ndays was a direct attempt to cut off American economic penetration, a plan 1953 Notes and Comments 245\nrepeated years later in the building of the Crowsnest-Kettle Valley branch line of\nthe Canadian Pacific Railway as an offset to the American Great Northern Railway. In like manner, Fort Shepherd was established in the hope that it would\ndivert trade from Fort Colville to British territory. After the address considerable\ndiscussion took place on the proposal of formal organization into an historical\nsociety, and the decision to join with the British Columbia Historical Association\nwas reached. A committee of five, comprising Messrs. Alan Jenkins, Gordon\nGerman, and F. Etheridge, and Mesdames James Armstrong and A. D. Turnbull,\nwas elected to arrange for the organization of the Section.\nThe third meeting of the Section was held on Monday evening, June 20, at the\nhome of Mrs. A. D. Turnbull, with Mr. Alan Jenkins acting as Chairman. Election\nof officers took place, and resulted as follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nChairman James Armstrong.\nSecretary-treasurer Mrs. A. D. Turnbull.\nThe speaker at the meeting was Mr. Gibson Kennedy, who had chosen as his\nsubject Steamboating on the Kootenays. The story began with the Forty-nine in\n1865, which ran up the Columbia River from Eort Colville taking miners to the\nBig Bend gold-rush. It was not until twenty years later that steamboats really\ncame into their own with the mining boom in the Kootenays. A leader in this\ndevelopment was the Columbia and Kootenay Navigation Company. Mr. Kennedy\nmentioned many of the old sternwheelers\u00E2\u0080\u0094Despatch, Lytton, Kootenay, Kokanee,\nto name but a few\u00E2\u0080\u0094and had photographs of many of them. To-day only two are\nleft in active service\u00E2\u0080\u0094the Moyie and the Minto\u00E2\u0080\u0094for the completion of the Kettle\nValley line of the Canadian Pacific Railway spelled the end of steamboating, but\nwith their passing a great deal of colour has gone out of life on the lakes and\nrivers of the Kootenay country.\nLate in September this Section held an afternoon field-day at Rossland,\nexploring many of the old mine-sites in the district and also visiting the Rossland\nMuseum that is in process of organization. On October 18 several of the members\nof the Section drove to St. Paul's Mission, near Kettle Falls, Washington, to\nparticipate in the dedication of a marker commemorating the centenary of the\narrival of Governor I. I. Stevens of the Territory of Washington at that site.\nOn Tuesday evening, October 20, the Section sponsored a public meeting in the\nCity Council chambers, at which the guest speaker was Mr. Willard E. Ireland,\nProvincial Librarian and Archivist. The subject of his address was Trail-Rossland\nBackgrounds, which dealt with developments from the coming of the first white\nman to the building of the original smelter. Mr. Ireland divided the subject into\nsix broad periods\u00E2\u0080\u0094the age of exploration, the fur-trade era, the gold-mining boom,\nthe period of neglect, the base-metal boom period, and the age of improved\ncommunications. Anecdotes and facts illustrative of each period were given, and\nemphasis paid to the work of such men as David Thompson and Edgar Dewdney\nand to such events as the building of Fort Shepherd and the opening of the LeRoi\nmine. In many instances it was remarkable how significantly West Kootenay\nhistory was linked with that not only of British Columbia, but frequently with\nthat of Canada as a whole. 246 Notes and Comments July-Oct.\nNanaimo Section\nAnother new section of the British Columbia Historical Association, Section\nNo. 5, has been organized at Nanaimo, thanks in large part to the enthusiasm of\na small group in that city including Miss Patricia Johnson and Messrs. W. E. Bray\nand J. C. McGregor. An organizational meeting was held in the Parish Hall of\nSt. Paul's Anglican Church on Saturday afternoon, June 20, in conjunction with\ncivic celebrations commemorating the centenary of the building of the Bastion.\nThis meeting was attended by Mr. Bruce McKelvie and Mr. Willard E. Ireland,\nProvincial Librarian and Archivist, both of whom commended the proposal to\norganize as a section of the British Columbia Historical Association. To this end\na temporary executive was elected, as follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nPresident J. C. McGregor.\nSecretary Miss Patricia Johnson.\nTreasurer F. W. Robinson.\nArrangements were made for a meeting in mid-July.\nA regular meeting of the Section was held in St. Paul's Parish Hall on Tuesday\nevening, July 14, when the affairs of the Section were discussed and the temporary\nexecutive confirmed in office. Programme plans for the year were discussed, at\nthe conclusion of which the Venerable Archdeacon Albert E. Hendy read a paper\non the History of St. Paul's, Nanaimo. An expansion of this paper has recently\nbeen published in Nanaimo and is reviewed in this Quarterly. The formal application for recognition as a section was passed at this meeting.\nFormal recognition of the Section was made known at its meeting held on\nWednesday evening, October 7, when four reports on researches into Nanaimo\nhistory were read. Mr. W. E. Bray reported on the location of many of the early\nsettlers in Nanaimo; Mrs. M. A. Kenny prepared an excellent report on early\nbuildings in Nanaimo, which was read by Archdeacon Hendy; Miss Patricia\nJohnson gave a preliminary report on the burials in the old cemetery on Comox\nroad; and Mr. Robert Davison discussed the first coal mines in Nanaimo. All\nreports were received with considerable enthusiasm, and the members present\ncontributed much additional information. Membership of the section stood at\neighteen.\nFort St. James and Central B.C. Section\nThe sixth section of the British Columbia Historical Association was organized\nwith the assistance of Dr. W. N. Sage, who was present at Fort St. James at the\ntime of the festivities on the occasion of the unveiling of the cairn erected by\nthe Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. The inaugural meeting was\nheld on Tuesday, June 30, in the Fort St. James school-house, when the following\nwere elected as officers:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nHonorary Patron - - - George Ogston, Vanderhoof.\nHonorary Chairman - - - W. D. Fraser, Fort St. James.\nChairman ... - Mrs. David Hoy, Fort St. James.\nVice-Chairman - - - - E. D. Vinnedge, Fort St. James.\nSecretary-Treasurer - - John M. Lowe, Fort St. James.\nCouncillors\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nD. Forsyth. Rev. M. Silk. E. Moirs.\nConstable T. Garvin. Dr. E. McDonnell. 1953 Notes and Comments 247\nOKANAGAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY\nFor the first time since its inception in 1925 the annual meeting of the Okanagan\nHistorical Society was held in Penticton on Friday afternoon, May 29, on board\nS.S. Sicamous. President J. B. Knowles was in the chair, and there were representatives present from the following communities: Okanagan Mission, Kelowna,\nCanoe, Westbank, Penticton, Vernon, Naramata, Summerland, Oliver, Osoyoos,\nOkanagan Falls, Armstrong, Okanagan Centre, and Princeton. The various annual\nreports indicated that the affairs of the Society were in a flourishing condition.\nThere was a membership of over 700 and a bank balance of $364.42. A new\nsystem of accounting and recording had been instituted during the year. Reports\nwere received from all the branch societies, and Mrs. R. L. Cawston gave a special\neditor's report on the history of the Annual Reports. Silent tribute was paid to\nthree prominent deceased members\u00E2\u0080\u0094the Rt. Hon. Grote Stirling, P.C, H. H.\nWhitaker, and Harry D. Barnes. During the course of the afternoon a resolution\nthat the Society itself establish a central museum was defeated, but the membership\nexpressed its willingness to encourage and assist any organization interested in the\nestablishment of historical museums in the valley.\nIn the evening 150 persons sat down to a banquet on board the steamer. His\nWorship Mayor Rathbun welcomed the visitors to Penticton, as did Mr. R. N.\nAtkinson, Chairman of the Penticton branch of the Society, and Captain J. B.\nWeeks. The principal speaker on this occasion was Mr. O. L. Jones, M.P., who\nspoke on the national and local responsibility in the preservation of historical\nrecords and data. In it he referred to the findings of the Massey Royal Commission, wherein a great interest was revealed but as yet financial support remained\ninadequate. He deplored the funnelling-off in many instances to Ottawa and elsewhere of material that should have been retained in the local region. He was\nwarmly commendatory of the efforts of the Okanagan Historical Society in so far\nas its efforts to preserve the history of the valley were concerned. Many old-timers\nwere present, and a period was given over to their reminiscences, one of the most\noutstanding being provided by Mr. George M. Watt, of Okanagan Mission, who\nyears ago brought a bicycle over the Hope-Princeton Trail and told of his\nexperiences on the journey.\nThe election of officers resulted as follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nHonorary Patron - - His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor.\nHonorary President - - O. L. Jones, M.P.\nPresident - - - - J. B. Knowles, Kelowna.\nFirst Vice-President - - J. D. Whitham, Kelowna.\nSecond Vice-President - Mrs. R. B. White, Penticton.\nSecretary - Dr. J. C. Goodfellow, Princeton.\nTreasurer - - - W. R. Pepper, Vernon.\nAuditor ... - Sidney Spyer, Vernon.\nEditor - Dr. Margaret A. Ormsby, Vancouver.\nAssistant Editor - Mrs. R. L. Cawston, Penticton.\nDirectors\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nNorth\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nBurt R. Campbell, Kamloops. J. G. Simms, Vernon.\nG. C. Tassie, Vernon. 248\nNotes and Comments\nJuly-Oct.\nMiddle-\nMrs. D. Gellatly, Westbank. Dr. Frank Quinn, Kelowna.\nJames Goldie, Okanagan Centre.\nSouth-\nGeorge J. Fraser, Osoyoos. G. J. Rowland, Penticton.\nCaptain J. B. Weeks, Penticton.\nAt large\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nMiss K. Ellis, Penticton. Mrs. G. Maisonville, Kelowna.\nA. K. Loyd, Kelowna. F. L. Goodman, Osoyoos.\nJ. H. Wilson, Armstrong.\nA meeting of the Penticton Branch was held on April 23, at which Mr. D. A.\nMcGregor, Past President of the British Columbia Historical Association, was the\nguest speaker and his subject Peter Skene Ogden. The officers of this branch\nare:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nPresident R. N. Atkinson.\nVice-Presidents H. Cochrane.\nMrs. R. B. White.\nSecretary Mrs. C. G. Bennett.\nTreasurer - - Captain J. B. Weeks.\nDirectors\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nR. L. Cawston. J. G. Harris.\nE. Bentley. J. T. Leslie.\nMr. McGregor also addressed the Kelowna Branch on the same subject at its\nApril meeting. The officers of this branch are as follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nPresident - - - - - - R. C. Gore.\nVice-President J. B. Knowles.\nSecretary-Treasurer - - - - L. L. Kerry.\nDirectors\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nMrs. D. Gellatly. Nigel Poole.\nMrs. G. D. Fitzgerald. E. M. Carruthers.\nMrs. G. Maisonville. J. D. Whitham.\nOther Branch Societies' officers are as follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nVernon\nPresident - S. J. Morton.\nSecretary-Treasurer ----- George Falconer.\nDirectors\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nA. E. Berry. Burt R. Campbell.\nG. E. McMahon.\nArmstrong\nPresident J. H. Wilson.\nVice-President - - - - - - J. E. Jamieson.\nSecretary-Treasurer ... - Arthur Marshall.\nDirectors\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nMrs. D. G. Crozier. Mrs. Myles MacDonald.\nArthur Young. 1953 Notes and Comments 249\nOliver-Osoyoos\nPresident - Vernon Simpson.\nVice-President - Mrs. E. J. Lacey.\nSecretary R. Butler.\nTreasurer A. Kalten.\nDirectors\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nL. Ball. A. Miller.\nMrs. A. Miller. A. McGibbon.\nSOUTH CARIBOO HISTORICAL MUSEUM SOCIETY\nThe South Cariboo Historical Museum Society was organized at a meeting held\nin Clinton on Monday evening, July 6, when the following officers were elected:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nPresident Harold Mainguy.\nVice-President S. E. Robertson.\nSecretary-Treasurer ... - Mrs. Avis L. Choate.\nPlans were discussed for the immediate development of a museum, and a garage\nwith a cement floor was rented for that purpose and material collected for exhibit\npurposes. The official opening of this museum took place on Friday morning,\nSeptember 4, as an integral part of the Clinton Rodeo. This ceremony was presided over by Mr. Harold Mainguy and opened with the singing of \" O Canada.\"\nMr. R. D. Cumming, an old-time resident of the South Cariboo District and long\nassociated with the Ashcroft Journal, was called upon to give an address, and in\nhis remarks he spoke of pioneer days and in particular of the establishment of early\ngrist and flour mills. Mrs. Charles E. Robertson, Clinton School Trustee, was also\ncalled upon and stressed the value of preserving the lore and history of the region\nand paid tribute to the encouragement afforded the project by Mrs. G. Maisonville.\nThe official opening was performed by Mr. Willard E. Ireland, Provincial Librarian\nand Archivist, who commended the Society and the community for the effort that\nhad been put forward. In a very limited period of time a most impressive collection had been assembled and arranged for display that was representative of all\nphases of the history of the region. At the conclusion of the ceremony the group\nproceeded to the unveiling of the Clinton cairn, after which visiting guests were\nentertained for lunch at the Cariboo Lodge.\nSPROAT LAKE PETROGLYPHS\nIn November, 1952, the Department of Trade and Industry presented a plaque\nwhich was mounted on the shores of Sproat Lake in a park which has been established by MacMillan & Bloedel Limited that has within it a very fine example of\nearly Indian rock carving. Gilbert Malcolm Sproat knew of the existence of this\ncarving in the 1860's, for he described it in his Scenes and Studies of Savage Life,\npublished in London in 1868: \"The only rock carving ever seen on this coast is\non a high rock on the shore of Sproat's lake behind Alberni. It is rudely done, and\napparently not of an old date. There are half-a-dozen figures intended to represent fishes or birds\u00E2\u0080\u0094no one can say which. The natives affirm that Quawteceht\nmade them. . . . The meaning of these figures is not understood by the people; 250 Notes and Comments July-Oct.\nand I dare say, if the truth were known, they are nothing but feeble attempts on\nthe part of the individual artists to imitate some visible objects which they had\nstrongly in their minds\" (pp. 268-269). Sproat's opinions have not been supported by later anthropological investigation. In 1890 Dr. Franz Boas examined\nthe petroglyph, photographed it, and had a cast made of the carving. Subsequently,\nhe described it in a German anthropological journal, a condensed translation of\nwhich provides the following information: \"The accompanying rock picture is\nfound on the eastern shore of Sproat lake, near its southern outlet. ... In\nformer times this region was the territory of the Hope-tschisath, a tribe of the\nNootka or Aht. . . . The present inhabitants of the region know nothing concerning the origin of the rock picture. According to their legends, the rock on\nwhich it is carved was once the house of Kwothiath. Kwothiath is the wandering\ndivinity in Nootka mythology, and corresponds approximately to the raven of the\nTlinkit and Haida, the Qals of the Kowitchin. The picture is found on a perpendicular rock wall about 7 metres high, which drops directly into the lake, so that\nit was necessary to make the copy while standing in the water. The rock is traversed in the middle by a broad cleft, narrowing below, from which blocks have\nfallen out which bore part of the drawing. . . . The lines of the drawing are\nflat grooves, about two or three fingers' breadth, and in many places are so weathered as to be hardly recognizable. They have been scraped into the rock probably\nby the points of sticks rubbing moist sand against it. No marks of blows of any\nkind are found. . . . The objects represented are evidently fishes or marine\nmonsters. The middle figure to the left of the cleft may be a manned boat, the\nfore part of which is probably destroyed.\" [Garrick Mallery, \" Picture-writing of\nthe American Indians,\" Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1888-89,\nWashington, 1893, pp. 44-45.]\nThe inscription on the plaque is as follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nSproat Lake Petroglyphs\nThese petroglyphs or rock carvings were made many centuries ago\nby early Indian inhabitants. Their meaning has long been forgotten\nbut similar carvings often commemorated supernatural occurrences\nor social events of great importance to the carvers.\nPLAQUE TO COMMEMORATE THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SURVEY\nOF VANCOUVER TOWNSITE BY L. A. HAMILTON, 1885\nIn commemoration of the sixty-seventh anniversary of the incorporation of\nVancouver as a city the Board of Park Commissioners of that city tendered a\ndinner on Monday evening, April 20, to all pioneers of Vancouver resident in the\ncity before the arrival of the first passenger-train on May 23, 1887. The dinner\nwas held in the Stanley Park Pavilion, and the highlight of the evening was the\nunveiling of a bronze panel commemorating the precise spot where Mr. Lauchlan\nAlexander Hamilton drove the first stake at the edge of the forest and commenced\nthe survey of the townsite in the autumn of 1885. The panel is the work of Sydney\nMarch, of Farnborough, Kent. Miss I. O. Hamilton, only child of the pioneer\nsurveyor, who as a child of 7 lived with her parents in their cedar-shake cottage in\nwhat is now the Fairview District while the survey was progressing, travelled from 1953 Notes and Comments 251\nher home in Toronto to unveil the panel, which was ultimately erected on the southwest corner of Hamilton and Hastings Streets in Vancouver. The inscription is\nas follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nHere stood Hamilton, first land commissioner, Canadian Pacific Railway, 1885, in the silent solitude of the primeval forest. He drove a\nwooden stake in the earth and commenced to measure an empty land\ninto the streets of Vancouver.\nPRESENTATION OF THE DOUGLAS DOCUMENTS\nOn the eighty-second anniversary of the entry of British Columbia into Confederation, July 20, an interesting ceremony took place at Government House,\nVictoria, when five valuable documents belonging to Sir James Douglas\u00E2\u0080\u0094the\nFather of British Columbia\u00E2\u0080\u0094were formally presented to the Government by Mr.\nJohn Douglas, acting on behalf of himself and his elder brother, Mr. James\nDouglas, of London, England. The documents were the original parchment\ncommission with attached Great Seal of the Realm, dated September 2, 1858,\nappointing James Douglas Governor of British Columbia; the manuscript Order\nin Council embodying a draft of the Commission; the official instructions under\nthe Privy Seal to Douglas as Governor; a letter from the Rt. Hon. Sir Edward\nBulwer Lytton, Colonial Secretary, to Douglas, dated December 16, 1858; and a\nmanuscript testimonial address to Governor Douglas upon his retirement, signed\nby various members of the Civil Service in the colony at that time.\nMany years ago these documents had been taken to England by members of\nthe family and placed for safe-keeping with the B.C. Land and Investment Agency\nLimited in London. There they remained and almost miraculously survived the\nbombings of World War II. Recently they were discovered in the company's\nvaults, and the suggestion was put forward that they be presented to the Provincial\nArchives. In this Mr. James Douglas, a grandson of Sir James, concurred, and\nHis Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, then in London to attend the Coronation,\ngraciously consented to bring the documents to British Columbia. Upon his return\nto Victoria, His Honour arranged for the formal transfer of the documents to Mr.\nJohn Douglas, who expressed the appreciation of his family for His Honour's\ninterest in the documents and then obtained permission to request the Prime Minister of British Columbia to accept the documents on behalf of the Government.\nThe Hon. W. A. C. Bennett in a few well-chosen words of acceptance thanked\nMr. Douglas for the generous gift to the Province and then committed the documents to the care of Mr. Willard E. Ireland, Provincial Librarian and Archivist.\nOther members of the Government present included the Hon. Wesley D. Black,\nProvincial Secretary, and the Hon. Tilly J. Rolston, Minister of Education. Mr.\nRobert Shanks, manager of the Victoria office of the B.C. Lands and Investment\nAgency Limited, officially represented his company. In addition to Mr. John\nDouglas and family, another grandson of Sir James Douglas was present in the\nperson of Colonel Chester Harris.\nFORT ST. JAMES MEMORIAL CAIRN\nElaborate plans had been made for the unveiling of the memorial cairn and\ntablet erected by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada at Fort St. 252 Notes and Comments July-Oct.\nJames on July 1, 1953. Unfortunately, heavy rains prevented holding the ceremony at the site of the cairn overlooking Stuart Lake, and instead over 250 persons\ngathered in the Community Hall. Mr. William D. Fraser, a former manager of\nthe Hudson's Bay Company's post at Fort St. James and a pioneer of the district,\npresided. The proceedings commenced with the singing of the national anthem,\nafter which Rev. Father M. Silk, O.M.I., pronounced an invocation. Mr. George\nMurray, M.P., was introduced and brought greetings on behalf of the Government\nof Canada. In his remarks he emphasized the importance of Dominion Day and\nthe foresight of the Fathers of Confederation and made special reference to the\nwork of the early fur-traders and pioneers. Mr. Don Fraser, present manager of\nthe Hudson's Bay Company's store, brought greetings from the company and\nexpressed the regrets of Mr. C. P. Wilson, editor of the Beaver, at his inability to\nbe present. There was also present Chief Louis Billie, hereditary chief of the\nFort St. James Indians, who is now inactive, but the former chief, Felix Antoine,\nand the newly elected chief, Edward Moise, both spoke in commendation of what\nhad been done for their people.\nDr. W. N. Sage, British Columbia and Yukon representative on the Historic\nSites and Monuments Board of Canada was then called upon to deliver an address\non New Caledonia. Before he did so, Dr. Sage conveyed greetings from the Board\nhe represented and from the University of British Columbia. He also read letters\nfrom Mr. Willard E. Ireland, Provincial Librarian and Archivist, and from Mr.\nHarry Gilliland, President of the British Columbia Historical Association. Dr.\nSage explained why Simon Fraser named the district New Caledonia and indicated\nthe geographical limits of the territory. He then commented on the native tribes\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nCarriers, Babines, Chilcotins, Sikani, and Nehanni\u00E2\u0080\u0094all of whom belonged to the\nAthapaskan language group and were collectively known as the Western Den6s.\nHe stressed the influence of the Coast Indians and the intrusion of their customs,\nincluding the potlatch. The arrival of the Nor' Westers, Sir Alexander Mackenzie,\nSimon Fraser, John Stuart, and others was discussed and also the building of the\nfur-trading posts\u00E2\u0080\u0094McLeod's Lake (1805), Fort St. James (1806), Fort Fraser\n(1806), Fort George (1807), and Fort Alexandria (1821). Simon Fraser's descent\nof the great river which bears his name, in 1808, was next described, and the\nbeginnings of agriculture at Fort St. James in 1811 by Daniel Williams Harmon\nwere mentioned. After the union of the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies\nin 1821 the reorganized Hudson's Bay Company took over New Caledonia, and\nFort St. James became the recognized fur-trading centre of the district. Dr. Sage\nthen mentioned the officers in charge of Fort St. James, from John Stuart to Alexander C. Murray. In conclusion, he dealt briefly with the coming of the missionaries and the Fraser River gold-rush of 1858, which resulted in the creation of the\nnew colony of British Columbia.\nAt the conclusion of the address, the gathering adjourned to the cairn, where\nChief Louis Billie spoke of the old days as he recollected them, as did Mr. George\nOgston. The latter had joined the Hudson's Bay Company as an apprentice in\n1903 and came to serve at Fort St. James in 1905 under Alexander C. Murray.\nHe recalled the great celebration in 1906 on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the post, and he then unveiled the tablet which had been 1953 Notes and Comments 253\ncovered fittingly enough by a Hudson's Bay Company's flag. Dr. Sage then read\nthe inscription, which is as follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nFort St. James\nFounded in 1806 by Simon Fraser of the North West Company,\nhas been the chief fur trading post in north-central British Columbia,\nformerly known as New Caledonia. Since 1821 it has been in continuous operation by the Hudson's Bay Company. As early as 1811\nthe Nor-Westers began to cultivate the soil.\nFort St. James has been a most important link in the water, land\nand air communication with northern British Columbia.\nThe Proceedings ended with the singing of \" God Save the Queen.\" In the\nafternoon the weather cleared and a regatta and sports day\u00E2\u0080\u0094both aquatic and\nfield\u00E2\u0080\u0094was held, followed by an evening dance in the Community Hall.\nPLAQUE COMMEMORATING SAMUEL BLACK\nAs an integral part of the three-day celebration marking the diamond jubilee\nof the incorporation of Kamloops as a city and the coronation of Her Majesty\nQueen Elizabeth II, on Sunday afternoon, May 31, a public ceremony was held\nin Riverside Park under the chairmanship of His Worship Mayor J. E. Fitzwater.\nAt the conclusion of a religious ceremony arranged by the Ministerial Association\nto commemorate the Coronation, the plaque commemorating the life and death\nof Chief Factor Samuel Black was dedicated. Rev. the Hon. P. A. Gaglardi,\nMinister of Public Works, made the presentation of the plaque on behalf of the\nDepartment of Trade and Industry. Mr. B. A. McKelvie, popular newspaper-man\nand historian, was the principal speaker and outlined the career of Samuel Black\nup to his tragic murder at Fort Kamloops on February 8, 1841. A native of\nAberdeen, where he was born in 1785, Samuel Black entered the service of the\nXY Company in 1802 and remained on after its absorption by the North West\nCompany, which he served with distinction. At the time of the union in 1821\nwith the Hudson's Bay Company, Black was passed over in the promotions, but\nhe was a faithful servant of the new company and successfully undertook for it\nin 1824 a hazardous expedition to the headwaters of the Finlay River. For a time\nthereafter he served at various posts in the southern part of the Columbia District\nand in 1830 was sent to assume charge of the Thompson River District, with\nheadquarters at Fort Kamloops, and there he remained until his death through\ntreachery by an Indian. Plans were made to take his body to Fort Vancouver for\nburial, but this was never accomplished, and he was buried somewhere on the hill\noverlooking Monte Creek near the Bostock residence. The unveiling was performed by Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Truchot, of Oswego, Oregon, the former being a\ngreat-grandson of the famous fur-trader. Special mention was also made of the\neffort of Burt R. Campbell, President of the Kamloops Museum Association, in\nhaving the tablet erected. The inscription is as follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nIn memory of Chief Factor Samuel Black, Hudson's Bay Company,\nin command of Fort Kamloops 1830-1841. Treacherously murdered by an Indian at the establishment across the river from this\nsite, February 8, 1841.\nDiscoverer, Explorer, Fur Trader. 254 Notes and Comments July-Oct.\nCLINTON CAIRN\nA very impressive ceremony was held at noon on Friday, September 4, at\nClinton to unveil the historic marker at the junction of the two routes to the\nCariboo goldfields. The proceedings were chaired by Mr. Cedric Durell, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, who paid particular tribute to Mr. Bruce\nMcTavish, who donated the land upon which the cairn was erected; to Mr. Der-\nward Smith, who built the cairn that is made from local stone from all over the\narea; and to the Provincial Department of Trade and Industry, who prepared the\nbronze tablet for the cairn. Mr. Willard E. Ireland, Provincial Librarian and\nArchivist, was called upon to deliver an address, and he very rapidly sketched out\nthe early history of the routes to the mines and the significant position that Clinton\ncame to occupy. The actual ceremony of unveiling was performed by William\nYoung, deputy chief of the local Indians. The inscription on the tablet reads:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nClinton\nThis cairn marks the junction of two routes to the Cariboo Gold\nMines; the original 1859 Cariboo Trail from Lillooet and the Cari- -\nboo Road through the Fraser Canyon built in 1863 by the Royal\nEngineers. Originally called Cut Off Valley, renamed in 1863,\nhonoring Henry Pelham Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle, Colonial\nSecretary, 1859-64.\nPLAQUE COMMEMORATING WALTER MOBERLY\nA feature in the Golden Spike Days celebration held at Revelstoke was the\ndedication of a plaque to commemorate the work of Walter Moberly. The\nunveiling took place on Sunday, July 5, in the former Central Park, now renamed\nMoberly Park. The ceremony was presided over by His Worship Mayor Walter\nHardman, who called upon Mr. W. J. Fraser, first white boy to be born in Revelstoke, to perform the unveiling. Mr. Fraser, who now resides in Vancouver,\nspoke briefly of the arrival of his family at \" Second Crossing \" in 1885 on the\nfirst work-train and of their early associations with the community. His mother,\nMrs. Catherine Maud Fraser, now 97 years of age, resides in Vancouver.\nThe inscription on the plaque, presented by the British Columbia Department\nof Trade and Industry, is as follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nWalter Moberly, C.E.\n1832-1915.\nPioneer Surveyor, Engineer and Road Builder, came to British\nColumbia in 1858. When leading the government sponsored\nColumbia River exploration in 1865 he discovered Eagle Pass\nthrough the Gold Range, a vital link in the route of Canada's first\ntranscontinental railway. 1953 Notes and Comments 255\nTHE ALBERTA HISTORICAL REVIEW\nIt is a pleasure to call the attention of our readers to the appearance of The\nAlberta Historical Review, Volume I, No. 1 of which is dated April, 1953. With\nits appearance Alberta becomes the last of the Western Canadian Provinces to\nhave embarked upon publication in the local history field. The Review is published quarterly by the Historical Society of Alberta and is printed through the\ncourtesy of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Government of Alberta.\nThis publication aims to print first-hand accounts interpretative of the life of the\nProvince and hopes to encourage the collection and preservation of historical\nmaterial relating to Alberta and the Canadian West. Editor of the Review is\nMr. W. Everard Edmonds, 11146 Ninety-first Avenue, Edmonton, and subscriptions at $2 per annum are handled by the Treasurer of the Society, Mr. E. S.\nGeorge, 9817 One Hundred and Seventh Street, Edmonton.\nThe first issue contains three interesting articles as well as a summary of the\nhistory of the Historical Society of Alberta. Dr. George Douglas Stanley, a medical practitioner in Southern Alberta since 1901, has written on Medical Pioneering\nin Alberta. John W. Shera, retired Collector of Customs at Edmonton and only\nsurviving member of the old North West Territorial Assembly, has contributed\nhis personal reminiscences on Poundmaker's Capture of the Wagon Train in the\nEagle Hills, 1885. The final article, The Edmonton Hunt, was written by Colonel\nFrederick C. Jamieson, well-known Edmonton barrister.\nThe Historical Society of Alberta was incorporated by Provincial Statute in\n1907, with members of the Legislature and a number of prominent citizens as\ncharter members. Early in 1919 the Society was reorganized and carried out\neffective work in securing the marking of a number of historic sites in the Province.\nDuring World War II the Society's work remained dormant and was not revived\nuntil 1947. One of its major objectives is the restoration of Fort Edmonton, torn\ndown in 1915, and there would appear to be hope that this might be accomplished.\nPresent officers of the Society are as follows:\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nHonorary President ... - Hon. J. J. Bowlen,\nLieutenant-Governor.\nHonorary Vice-Presidents - - - Hon. A. J. Hook.\nRev. W. E. Edmonds.\nColonel F. C. Jamieson.\nRev. R. E. Finlay.\nDr. D. G. Revell.\nDr. A. B. Watt.\nMrs. Annie Gaetz.\nPresident J. G. MacGregor.\nVice-President - - - - - Dr. W. C. Whiteside.\nSecretary ------ Bruce Peel.\nTreasurer E. S. George.\nExecutive Committee\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nMrs. E. H. Gostick. Professor M. H. Long.\nMrs. C. E. Learmouth. Dr. P. R. Talbot.\nMiss Marjorie Sherlock. S. A. Dickson.\nMiss Bertha Lawrence. W. S. Searth.\nJ. W. Sherwin. Rev. Father Breton.\n7 256 Notes and Comments\ncontributors to this issue\nD. A. McGregor, immediate Past President of the British Columbia Historical\nAssociation, is an editorial writer on the Vancouver Daily Province and a keen\nstudent of the history of this Province.\nThomas E. Jessett is the historiographer of the Diocese of Olympia of the\nProtestant Episcopal Church.\nJohn S. Galbraith, Ph.D., has contributed previously to this Quarterly and is\nAssociate Professor of History at the University of California at Los Angeles.\nJohn Bernard McGloin, S.J., Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of History at the\nUniversity of San Francisco and the author of Eloquent Indian: The Life of James\nBouchard, CaUfornia Jesuit, published in 1949 on the occasion of the centennial\ncelebration of the arrival of the Jesuit Order in California.\nStuart R. Tompkins, Ph.D., is a member of the Department of History of the\nUniversity of Oklahoma and an authority on the history of Alaska. He has contributed previously to this Quarterly and is the author of Alaska: Promyshlennik\nand Sourdough.\nT. F. Mcllwraith, Ph.D., is Head of the Department of Anthropology at the\nUniversity of Toronto and the author of a definitive work on the Bella Coola\nIndians.\nW. W. Bilsland is a member of the permanent staff of the Provincial Archives\nof British Columbia.\nWillard E. Ireland is Provincial Librarian and Archivist of British Columbia\nand Editor of this Quarterly. THE NORTHWEST BOOKSHELF\nSt. Michael and All Angel's Church, 1883 to 1953. Victoria [1953]. Pp. 20. LI.\nSt. Mark's Church, Parish of Salt Spring Island, Diamond Jubilee, 1892-1952.\nVictoria [1953]. Pp. 12. Ills.\nSt. Paul's Church, Nanaimo: A Brief History since Its Foundation, 1859-1952.\nBy the Venerable Albert E. Hendy. Nanaimo: 1953. Pp.36. Ills.\n75 Years of Service: A History of Olivet Baptist Church, 1878-1953. By J. Lewis\nSangster. New Westminster: Smith-Reed Printers, 1953. Pp.78. Ills.\nHitherto one of the more neglected fields of historical research and publication\nin British Columbia has been its religious history. The discovery and political\nevolution of the Pacific Northwest has now been fairly well worked over, and some\nserious efforts have also been made to provide us with data on our economic\ndevelopment. The social aspects of our history have not fared nearly so well, and\nwithin that general field religious or ecclesiastical history has suffered most. In\ncomparison with other regions in the Pacific Northwest perhaps this is not surprising, for in the era of early settlement missionary activity was much more restricted\nin British Columbia and is not personalized to the same degree by great names\nsuch as Jason Lee, Elkanah Walker, Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. That is not\nto say, however, that there is no necessity for activity in this field. If a truly\nbalanced picture of the social development of our Province is to become a reality,\nthe role of the clergy and of religious institutions must be examined and integrated.\nThere will, of necessity, have to be a great deal of preliminary \" spadework.\"\nThe careers of some of the pioneer clergy have already been made available through\nthis Quarterly and similar journals. The four items under review suggest that perhaps the next step\u00E2\u0080\u0094namely, the collecting of parish or congregational histories\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nis now being taken. It is perfectly true that all four booklets are studies in\nminutiae, but they are a fundamental preparation for the writing of the ultimate\ngeneral survey.\nThree of the booklets deal with parishes within the Diocese of Columbia of\nthe Anglican Church. St. Michael and All Angel's Church is located on the West\nSaanich Road not far from Royal Oak, some 6 miles from Victoria. While mis-\nsioners served the district from 1864 onwards, the parish dates its history from the\nconsecration of the church on September 20, 1883. Rev. W. W. Malachi was the\nmoving spirit in the venture, and one of the more celebrated incumbents of the\nparish was Rev. G. W. Taylor, F.R.S., a keen naturalist and biologist, who later\nfounded the Dominion Biological Station at Departure Bay, near Nanaimo. The\nbrochure on this parish follows a strictly chronological pattern and provides many\ndetails. It owes its origin to a seventieth anniversary expansion project.\nSt. Mark's Church, located at Ganges on Saltspring Island, was the first Anglican\nchurch to be built on the island. Rev. J. Belton Haslam was the first resident\nclergyman, and his church was consecrated on May 15, 1892. It was in connection\nBritish Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. XVII, Nos. 3 and 4,\n257 258 The Northwest Bookshelf July-Oct.\nwith the sixtieth anniversary of that event that the brochure was prepared under\nthe guidance of the present incumbent, the Venerable Archdeacon G. H. Holmes.\nThe illustrations in this publication are numerous and exceptionally well reproduced.\nSt. Paul's, Nanaimo, is much the oldest of the three parishes to produce a\nhistory, for it dates back to colonial days, with the appointment of Rev. R. L. Lowe\nin 1859 as the first incumbent. Religious services had, of course, been conducted\npreviously, for there is a record of a visit by Rev. Edward Cridge in May, 1857, but\nit is difficult to accept the statement that this was the first service in a community\nthat was then several years old. The first church was opened by Bishop George\nHills on Whitsunday, 1862, and that edifice served until April 11, 1907. The present\nchurch was opened on January 3, 1932. Archdeacon Hendy has pieced together\nnot only a chronological history of his parish and its rectors, but has quite successfully introduced much of the history of the development of Nanaimo generally.\nThe fourth booklet is a welcome addition, for it is the congregational history\nof the first church on the Mainland of British Columbia of the Baptist denomination, a denomination about which little information of a historical nature has ever\nbeen published. This is a more ambitious undertaking, for, unlike the other three\nhistories, this one has been bound in hard covers. Again it is extremely well\nillustrated. Its author, J. Lewis Sangster, a former Mayor of New Westminster,\nhas been associated with the church from childhood; indeed, his family association\nvery nearly covers sixty of the seventy-five years under consideration. Official\nrecognition of the congregation was taken in August, 1878, at which time there\nwas neither a church building nor a resident pastor. The latter want was not met\nuntil 1885, when Rev. Robert Lennie came from Dundas, Ontario, and under his\nleadership the first church building was built and dedicated in the fall of 1886.\nSince that time there have been thirteen regular pastors and two new church\nbuildings. The original church, enlarged in 1891, was destroyed in the disastrous\nNew Westminster fire of September 10, 1898, which wiped out approximately\neighteen city blocks. In 1899 a new Olivet Baptist Church was dedicated on a new\nsite\u00E2\u0080\u0094one that is to-day occupied by still another building dedicated September 16,\n1938. 75 Years of Service has a tremendous amount of detail concerning the\nexpanding life of a robust congregation. Mr. Sangster has a delightful sense of\nhumour and has included many anecdotes that relieve what might otherwise be\nthe tedium of detail. It is obvious that he has had access to many official records\nin compiling this history. It is only to be regretted that the careful checking of\nfact in so far as the congregational history is concerned was not followed in so far\nas the few pages of general historical background are concerned. The capital of\nthe colony of Vancouver Island was always Fort Victoria or Victoria, never\nQueensburg, and when that colony and its Mainland counterpart were united on\nNovember 19, 1866 (not November 21), New Westminster and not Victoria became\nthe capital of the united colony (page 9).\nThe four congregations whose histories have in this way been so well recorded\nare to be congratulated on the efforts they have undertaken. It is to be hoped\nthat they will serve as a stimulus to other churches and other denominations to\nundertake similar efforts to preserve their own story.\nWillard E. Ireland.\nProvincial Archives,\nVictoria, B.C. 1953 The Northwest Bookshelf 259\nThe Upper Stalo Indians of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia. (Anthropology in\nBritish Columbia, Memoir No. 1, 1952, British Columbia Provincial Museum.)\nBy Wilson Duff. Victoria: Queen's Printer, 1953. Pp. 136. Maps & ills.\nThe appearance of the first volume of a new anthropological series in Canada\nis an event of scientific importance. It marks the growing recognition of the\nimportance of anthropology in British Columbia, where the Department of Education has shown a commendable interest in the study of the Indian tribes of the\nProvince. Writing from the East, the reviewer wishes to express his whole-hearted\ncommendation and admiration for this policy. It is to be hoped that it will be\nfollowed elsewhere in Canada.\nThe basis upon which anthropological conclusions depend is the accurate and\nthorough recording of the culture of non-European peoples. Fifty years ago it\nwas assumed that such records could be obtained only at the time of European\ncontact, or within a few years of that period. Since the rich life of the Indians of\nBritish Columbia had largely disappeared in the last century, it was generally\nbelieved that the field investigators of 1900 to 1910 were collecting the last available\ndata in all fields except archaeological and linguistic. Such views took little cognizance of the stability of human culture, and of the amount remaining as oral\ntradition. It is worth remembering that the most comprehensive studies of British\nColumbia Indians have appeared since 1930. As the field investigator of to-day\nworks among Indians whose way of life is essentially that of the white man, he\nmay sigh for the opportunities of his predecessors who witnessed the rituals and\noccupations which he knows only through oral description, but he may take comfort in the fact that his patient interviews with old men and women are recording\na culture with greater detail and understanding than can be found in the writers\nof the last century.\nDuff's Upper Stalo Indians is a good example of this general thesis. Under the\nterm Stalo he groups and describes the scattered groups of Indians from the mouth\nof the Fraser to a few miles above Yale, with descriptions of the Upper Stalo who\ncentred around the Fraser Canyon. Much has been written about these people,\nyet Duff has succeeded in collecting new facts. Even more important, he has gone\nthrough earlier publications and manuscript material, identifying \" tribal\" groups\nand ascribing descriptions to the relevant areas. The result is a compilation of\ndata on the peoples of the Fraser which can never be repeated. It can properly\nbe described as definitive.\nIt must not be thought that Duff has given a complete picture of Upper Stalo\nlife. Much of their culture disappeared a century ago, and just as the Indians of\nNew England, whose culture was the first to disappear before the white man in\nthe East, are less known than tribes in the hinterland, so in British Columbia we\nknow more of marginal tribes than of those living on such a thoroughfare as the\nFraser. His descriptions of marriage ceremonies are meagre, as are examples of\nguardian-spirit quests. Few folk-tales are given, and there is little to indicate the\nimportance of these as monitors of native thought and action, as is common elsewhere in British Columbia. A Duff making the same study in 1850 would have\nwritten a more comprehensive work; the Duff of 1950 has shown what can still be\nlearned in a community where the culture seems to have decayed almost completely. 260 The Northwest Bookshelf July-Oct.\nSuch material is scientifically important. It enables the anthropologist to trace\nthe distribution of customs. For example, although Duff has added little to our\nknowledge of the potlatch, he shows the area in which this ceremonial distribution\nof goods occurred. The same is true for underground houses, canoes, or shaman\nquests. Contact between coastal and interior peoples is shown in the blending of\nculture traits. If Canada is a melting-pot to-day, similar interactions are shown in\nnative culture, and the principles are often more easily recognized in a setting that\nis not our own. Then, too, the survival of some elements and the disappearance\nof others are a guide to the whole question of cultural stability, and, conversely,\nto decay. Not least important are the facts themselves, set out logically and with\nmeticulous care and accuracy.\nThis is a satisfactory book, a credit alike to the author and the British Columbia\nProvincial Museum.\nT. F. McIlwraith.\nUniversity of Toronto,\nToronto, Ont.\nPapers Read before the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba: Series III,\nNo. 8. Edited by J. A. Jackson, W. L. Morton, and P. Yuzyk. Winnipeg:\nStovel-Advocate Printers Ltd., 1953. Pp.47. $1.\nNo. 8 of this the third series of Papers of the Historical and Scientific Society of\nManitoba contains three of the papers read before the Society during its 1951-52\nseason as well as the Archaeological Report of Mr. C. Vickers for 1951, which\nhitherto have been published in mimeographed form only. The four items make\na well-rounded addition to Manitoban local history.\nThe first paper, entitled Pioneer Trails in Education between the Lakes, was\ncontributed by Mr. E. D. Parker, Superintendent of Schools for the School District\nof St. James. From 1911 until 1949 he was an Inspector of Schools for the\nManitoba Department of Education in the region that lies north of Winnipeg\nbetween Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg, and he was able to draw from a rich\nfield of anecdote to illustrate the problems and difficulties to be faced in organizing\nschools in that area.\nMrs. Irene L. Richards is a school-teacher in Norwood and the daughter of\na pioneer in the Beautiful Plains region, the history of which she has chronicled in\nher article The Story of Beautiful Plains. Originally this region, drained as it is\nby the White Mud River, was in the Northwest Territories and became a part of\nManitoba only after the westward extension of its boundaries in 1881. To-day it\nis centred by the thriving town of Neepawa. Mrs. Richards has undertaken a very\ncareful research project and, in addition to printed sources, secured information\nfrom many of the pioneer families, from the advent of the first settler, Adam\nMcKenzie, in 1872. She was also able, fortunately, to draw upon personal sources\nof information, for her father and maternal grandfather were pioneers of 1879.\nThe summer and fall of 1951 marked the sixtieth anniversary of Ukrainian\nsettlement in Canada and was observed with due ceremony in Ukrainian communities across the country. There are now over 400,000 persons of Ukrainian\norigin in Canada, and nearly one-quarter of them reside in Manitoba, where they 1953 The Northwest Bookshelf 261\nconstitute nearly 13 per cent of the population. Mr. Paul Yuzyk, Assistant Professor in the Department of Slavonic Studies of the University of Manitoba, and\nhimself of Ukrainian descent, was active in these celebrations and also in the\nEthnic Group project sponsored by the Manitoba Historical and Scientific Society.\nHis paper The First Ukrainians in Manitoba tells the story of the beginnings of\nthis very significant migration and is a real contribution to our knowledge of the\nethnic grouping within our country. It is a detailed account of the first scattered\narrivals down to the appointment of Cyril Genik as immigration agent by the Canadian Government and his arrival in Winnipeg in the early fall of 1896 and the\nvisit of Father Nestor Dmytriw in the spring of 1897.\nThe final article, The Assiniboines of Manitoba, by Mr. Chris Vickers, is an\nattempt to locate more specifically the region occupied by the Assiniboines. Mr.\nVickers first musters all the evidence from historical sources that have survived\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nexplorers', fur-traders', and missionaries' reports\u00E2\u0080\u0094and then examines the evidence\nprovided by the archaeological investigations that have been undertaken in the\nProvince in recent years.\nIt is unfortunate that maps were not provided for some of the articles, particularly that by Mrs. Richards. In addition, the odd typographical error (notably on\npage 44) has crept in. All in all, this is a creditable production for a society that\nis sadly handicapped for want of funds.\nWillard E. Ireland.\nProvincial Archives,\nVictoria, B.C.\nAlaska, 1741-1953. By Clarence C. Hulley. Portland, Oregon: Binfords & Mort,\n1953. Pp.406. Ills. $5.\n\" Geographically Alaska is a land set apart from the United States. Its location, isolation, and inaccessibility have retarded its development. To-day it is a\nfrontier but not a new frontier. It was a Russian colony of exploration rather\nthan a colony of settlement for over a century. It remained that for many years\nafter it became an American possession. With the outbreak of the Second World\nWar, the location, which has been so great a liability in the past, brought world\nprominence to the territory. To-day with its strategic importance accentuated by\nthe balance of power struggle with the Soviet Union, Alaska is a focal point of\nworld interest. The land where Europeans from the East met those from the\nWest has now, as in the eighteenth century, a unique geographical and political\nsignificance.\" (P. 13.)\nSuch significance, therefore, renders Clarence C. Hulley's book, Alaska, 1741-\n1953, a timely piece of historical scholarship. Canadian-born, Dr. Hulley attended\nthe University of British Columbia before studying at the Universities of Wisconsin\nand Washington, at which latter institution he earned his doctoral degree. Since\n1945 he has been Head of the Department of History and Political Science at the\nUniversity of Alaska near Fairbanks. Believing that there was a need for a new\nhistory of Alaska to describe past and recent developments in the Territory, Dr.\nHulley wrote his book to satisfy this need and has admirably accomplished his\ngoal. Laying the groundwork for his historical research with a geographical and 262 The Northwest Bookshelf July-Oct.\nclimatic description of the country, he then outlines the habitats and customs of\nAlaskan natives before beginning his broad sweep over the whole range of Alaskan\nhistory from the first timid uncertain Russian explorations of the north-western\ncoast of America to the background of the contemporary problem of statehood.\nBecause of its geographical position, Alaska was late to receive white men on\nits shores. When Europeans finally penetrated to the region, they came from all\ndirections: eastward, over the Siberian wastes and the Pacific Ocean; westward,\nacross North America by land; and northward, by sea from present-day United\nStates. It was the Russians, the \" most eastern and least maritime of all European\npeoples,\" who first discovered and settled Alaska as the last phase of Russian expansion eastward across Asia to the Pacific; and it is to the Russians, to their explorations, their fur-trading activities, their settlements, their mode of life in Alaska,\nand their eventual withdrawal from the Northwest Coast that Dr. Hulley devotes\napproximately one-half of his work.\nIn 1725 Peter the Great set into motion a project to discover whether or not\nAsia and America were joined by land. Sixteen years later Vitus Bering, the man\nto whom the scheme was entrusted, died after reaching Alaska, after satisfying for\nthe moment the original purpose of the expedition and after revealing the rich\nwealth to be gleaned in the pursuit of furs in the newly discovered Alaskan region.\n\" Through the invasion of the northwest Pacific by Russian fur hunters following\nin the wake of Bering . . . the islands adjacent to Alaska and eventually the\nshores of the Alaskan mainland were opened to Russian exploitation \" (p. 53).\nAt first the Russian Government made little effort to regulate the fur trade, permitting many small merchants in privately outfitted vessels to venture to the\nAleutians. Gradually, however, large and well-equipped expeditions, with extensive\ncapital investments, replaced the small traders and inevitably the large concerns\nengaged in a bitter struggle to secure a monopoly of the lucrative trade. Men\nsuch as Gregory Shelekhov, intrigued by the dream of a personal empire, founded\npermanent Russian colonies in the new land in order to secure for themselves vast\nfortunes and to prevent other nations from securing too great a share of the wealth\nof the fur trade. Thus began the first Russian settlements in Alaska. Other\n, nations, particularly Britain and the United States of America, soon had explorers\nand traders on the Northwest Coast to gain a share of the Alaskan fur trade.\nWith the coming of these western maritime fur-traders, there began a new epoch\nin the history of Alaska.\nIn 1799 Czar Paul I granted a charter to the newly formed Russian American\nCompany, giving the organization a twenty-year monopoly of the Alaskan area,\nto the complete exclusion of all other traders, but retaining a strong hold over the\nactivities of the company. When the second and third charters were officially\ngranted in 1821 and 1844 respectively, the Russian Government completed the\nprocess of transforming what originally had been intended as a private firm into\na Governmental institution for the purpose of ruling the Russian American colonies\nand extending Russian activities in the region. Adding to the difficulties imposed\nby the rigid control of the Czarist bureaucracy was the competition of the English\nand American traders who, by sea and by land, with ever-increasing frequency and\nefficiency, sought out the lucrative fur trade of Alaska. Russian attempts to meet\nthe competition were unsuccessful. The depletion of the returns of the fur com- 1953 The Northwest Bookshelf 263\npany, the competition of the Hudson's Bay Company, the realization by successive\nRussian Czars of the diplomatically bothersome aspects of a Russian empire in\nAmerica, and growing Russian preoccupation with events in Europe and the Far\nEast finally led to the sale of Russian interests in Alaska to the United States in\n1867, and to the end of Russia's dream of a North American empire.\nWhen the United States Government completed the negotiations for the purchase of Alaska, it was not prepared to assume the direction of a colonial empire.\nTo a bewildered War Department was entrusted the task of maintaining law and\norder in the newly acquired territory. When all American military forces in\nAlaska were withdrawn in 1877 to combat an Indian uprising in Idaho, the Revenue\nCutter Service of the United States Treasury Department assumed the responsibility of administration of the region and retained those duties until Congress\npassed the \" Organic Act\" of 1884, giving Alaska the status of a district with some\njudicial rather than legislative privileges, but, nevertheless, starting Alaska along\nthe road toward civil government. In 1906 Congress approved the \"Alaska\nDelegate Bill,\" thereby permitting the district to elect one delegate to Congress,\nwith no power to vote, but with permission to serve as a \" board of information \"\non things Alaskan. At this moment, says Dr. Hulley, Alaskan politics were born.\nIn 1912 Alaska secured a Territorial Legislature with legislative powers over local\nmatters only, and thus equipped could begin her long struggle, still not consummated, for statehood.\nAlaska's fight for constitutional development has been obscured by more\nglamorous phases in her story, particularly the fabulous gold-rushes. Russian\nexplorers had noted the presence of deposits of copper, coal, and gold in the\nregion but had failed to develop their discoveries. Gold-mining in Alaska really\nbegan with such pioneers as Leroy Napoleon McQuesten and Arthur Harper in\n1873, and from that year until the 1890's these and other men scrambled up and\ndown the banks of the tributaries of the Yukon, paving the way for the flood of\ngold-seekers in the late 1890's. In 1892 the origins of the subsequently fabulously\nwealthy Treadwell concession on Douglas Island, near Juneau, were located.\nIn 1893 the Circle City-Birch Creek mining fields were discovered. The reports\nof the succeeding Forty Mile and Bonanza Creeks and other discoveries soon\nled to the influx of thousands of gold-hungry miners into Alaska and the Yukon\nand to the beginning of the Klondike gold-rush. Later finds drew thousands of\npeople to the Nome area and the tributaries of the Tanana River. Like gold-\nfields the world over, the Alaskan and northern Canadian diggings eventually\nsubsided into big company operations, and the thousands of miners, prospectors,\nand hangers-on gradually dwindled in numbers. Alaska turned to other fields of\nendeavour\u00E2\u0080\u0094to her lucrative fisheries; to farming experiments, such as that of the\nmuch-debated Matanuska Valley settlement of the New Deal era; to the development of mineral deposits other than gold; to her oilfields; and to the building of\nroads, railways, hospitals, schools, a university, and the other essentials of civilization. The participation of the United States in World War II and the subsequent\ndeterioration of Russian-American relations has given Alaska a new strategic\nimportance in world affairs, emphasizing Dr. Hulley's contention that Alaska's\ngrowth has always been dominated \" by political and economic factors completely\noutside the Territory. This state of affairs is not likely to change for some time.\"\n(P. 370.) 264 The Northwest Bookshelf\nDr. Hulley has produced a good piece of historical research into the geographical, economic, political, cultural, and social fields of Alaskan history from\n1741 to 1953. He has enhanced his work with an extensive bibliography, some\nfine illustrations of Alaskan life (past and present), some useful statistical and\nchronological data, and a good index. In several places, unfortunately, there are\nsome instances of careless printing errors. Dr. Hulley, however, is to be congratulated for producing a readable, comprehensive history of Alaska.\nW. W. Bilsland.\nProvincial Archives,\nVictoria, B.C.\nThe Seventeenth Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1953. Edited by\nMargaret A. Ormsby. Kelowna: Kelowna Courier, 1953. Pp. 148. Map\n& ills. $2.50.\nSince its inception in September, 1925, the Okanagan Historical Society has\ngained for itself a well-merited position as one of the leading local history associations in Canada. Not a little of this prestige has accrued to the Society as a\nconsequence of the Reports which began to appear in 1926, and of which this is\nthe seventeenth. As might be expected, in the earlier days the printings were\nsmall, and, as a result, the decision was made that the Seventeenth Report would\nbe a reprinting of the first two Reports. Collectors of Pacific Northwest materials\nwho lack these early issues will doubtless welcome this decision, although it should\nbe pointed out that most of this material, sometimes with alteration, was also\nreprinted in the Sixth Report. In this instance, however, the articles as they\noriginally appeared have been reproduced and only one omission was made, since\nmost of that article had reappeared as recently as last year's Report.\nThere are a few new items\u00E2\u0080\u0094notably a biographical sketch and tribute to the\nSociety's former Honorary President, the late Hon. Grote Stirling, P.C. In addition, the Report is admirably illustrated and, in format, a vast improvement over\nthe two earlier Reports. Commendable and all as is the decision to reprint, it is\na matter of some regret that more new material was not introduced. It is sincerely hoped that there is no feeling that there is no new grist for the mill, for an\narea as significant and as diversified in interest as the Okanagan Valley should\nhave little difficulty in discovering many topics suitable for investigation and\npublication.\nWillard E. Ireland.\nProvincial Archives,\nVictoria, B.C. THE\nBRITISH COLUMBIA\nHISTORICAL\nQUARTERLY\nVOLUME XVII\n1953\nVICTORIA, B.C.\nPublished by the Archives of British Columbia in co-operation with the\nBritish Columbia Historical Association EDITOR\nWillard E. Ireland,\nProvincial Archives, Victoria, B.C.\nASSOCIATE EDITOR\nMadge Wolfenden,\nProvincial Archives, Victoria, B.C.\nADVISORY BOARD\nJ. C. Goodfellow, Princeton, B.C. T. A. Rickard, Victoria, B.C.\nW. N. Sage, Vancouver, B.C.\nEditorial communications should be addressed to the Provincial Archives,\nParliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C. CONTENTS OF VOLUME XVII\nArticles: Page\nWalter N. Sage and History in British Columbia.\nBy F. H. Soward 1\nThe Trials and Tribulations of Edward Edwards Langford.\nBy Sydney G. Pettit 5\nSome Notes on the Douglas Family.\nBy W. Kaye Lamb 41\nThe United Farmers of British Columbia: An Abortive Third-party\nMovement.\nBy Margaret A. Ormsby 53\nThe Choosing of the Capital of Canada.\nBy James A. Gibson 75\nCaptain Walter Colquhoun Grant: Vancouver Island's First Independent\nSettler.\nBy Willard E. Ireland 87\nA Bibliography of the Printed Writings of Walter Noble Sage.\nCompiled by Helen R. Boutilier 127\n\"Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden.\nBy D. A. McGregor _ - 161\nThe Church of England in the Old Oregon Country.\nBy Thomas E. Jessett . 197\nPerry McDonough Collins at the Colonial Office.\nBy John S. Galbraith 207\nJohn Nobili, S.J., Founder of California's Santa Clara College: The New\nCaledonia Years, 1845-1848.\nBy John Bernard McGloin, S.J 215\nThe Klondike Gold-rush: A Great International Venture.\nBy Stuart R. Tompkins 223\nNotes and Comments 139, 241\nThe Northwest Bookshelf:\nRavens and Prophets.\nBy Vera Drury _ 153\nToil and Peaceful Life.\nBy Alexander W. Wainman _ 155\nTales of the Alberni Valley.\nBy Madge Wolfenden 156\nHe Wrote for Us.\nBy A. F. Flucke 158\nSt. Michael and All Angels' Church, 1883 to 1953.\nSt. Mark's Church, 1892-1952.\nSt. Paul's Church, Nanaimo, 1859-1952.\n75 Years of Service: A History of Olivet Baptist Church, 1878-1952.\nBy Willard E. Ireland 257\nThe Upper Stalo Indians of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia.\nBy T. F. Mcllwraith 259\nPapers Read before the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba.\nBy Willard E. Ireland 260 The Northwest Bookshelf\u00E2\u0080\u0094Continued Page\nAlaska, 1741-1953.\nBy W. W. Bilsland 261\nThe Seventeenth Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1953.\nBy Willard E. Ireland 264\nIndex 265 INDEX\nAccolti, Michael, 215, 217, 219\nAgricultural Advisory Council, 62\nAgriculture, 174, 188\nAlaska, 186, 223\nAlaska Commercial Company, 224, 231\nAlaska, 1741-1953, review of, 261-264\nAlberta Historical Review, The, 255\nAllen, James Douglas Bow, 49\nAlston, E. G., 27, 28\nAmerican Board of Commissioners for Foreign\nMissions, 197\nAmerican Historical Association, Pacific Coast\nBranch of the, 146, 147\nAmur River, 207, 209, 210\nAnderson, Alexander Caulfield, 166, 184, 185,\n188\nAnderson, James, 190\nAnderson, James Robert, 120, 188, 190\nArbuthnot, William, 49\nArctic Brotherhood, 238\nArmishaw, J. E., 69, 70, 72, 73\nAssiniboine River, 163\nAssociated Growers of British Columbia, 69\nAstor, John Jacob, 162, 168\nAtlantic and Pacific Transit and Telegraph\nCompany, 210, 211\nB.C. Farmer, 60\nB.C. Fruit and Farm, 58\nBagot, Sir Charles, 76\nBarclay, Archibald, 102, 110, 111\nBarnes, C. E., 60\nBarrow, E. D., 60\nBattiste, 219\nBeaver, Rev. Herbert, 201-203, 205\nBeaver, Mrs. Jane, 201, 202\nBeaver, 174, 176, 178, 179, 182, 184\nBeaver Club, 167\nBegbie, Sir Matthew Baillie, 13, 21, 23, 28-30,\n32 35\u00E2\u0080\u009438\nBenson, Dr. A. R., 107, 112, 113, 120\nBerens, H. H., 11-13\nBerens, Spokane, 199\nBerry, Clarence, 228\nBerry, J. W., 63, 64\nBibliography of the Printed Writings of Walter\nNoble Sage, A, 127-137\nBig Skookum Gulch, 230\nBilsland, W. W., Alaska, 1741-1953, review by,\n261-264\nBirch Creek, 225\nBirnie, James, 184, 205\nBlack, Samuel, 168, 170, 189, 253\nBlack, Samuel, Plaque Commemorating, 253\nBlair, Mrs. Neil-James-Fergusson, 49\nBlanchet, Father, 197\nBlanshard, Richard, 7, 8, 87, 103, 114, 115\nBompas, Bishop, 226\nBonanza Creek, 227, 230, 237\nBowser, W. J., 54, 68, 71\nBrabbant, Phrisine, 195\nBrewster, H. C, 55, 58\nBritish Columbia Dairyman's Association, 63\nBritish Columbia Fruit Growers' Association,\n54, 57, 58, 60, 64, 66\nBritish Columbia Historical Association, 139-\n144, 241-246\nBritish Columbia Social Credit League, 73\nBrodie, Margaret, 89\nBroom, Vancouver Island, 114\nBrown, George, 84\nBrown, John R., 59\nBrydges, Charles J., 211\nBushby, Mrs. Arthur, 43\nCairn, Clinton, 254\nCairn, Fort St. James Memorial, 251-253\nCalifornia State Telegraph Company, 210\nCameron, David, 9, 10, 14, 16, 20, 24, 25,\n30-34, 46, 47\nCameron, Edith Rebecca, 47-51\nCanadian Council of Agriculture, 54, 56, 59,\n61, 63-66, 71\nCapital of Canada, The Choosing of the, 75-85\nCaptain Walter Colquhoun Grant: Vancouver\nIsland's First Independent Settler, 87-125\nCariboo Historical Society, 146\nCarmack, George, 226-228\nCary, George Hunter, 17, 24, 26-31, 34, 37, 38\nCass, Lewis, 207, 208\nCaxetan, Chief, 185\nChaboillez, 163\nCheney, Martha, 117\nChicken Creek, 225\nChinese in British Columbia, 58\nChoosing of the Capital of Canada, The, 75-85\nChurch Missionary Society of the Church of\nEngland, 198-205\nChurch of England in the Old Oregon Country,\nThe, 197-205\nCircle City, 225, 227\nClark, George, 58\nClinton Cairn, 254\nCoal, Vancouver Island, 193\nCoats, Robert Hamilton, 41\nColes, John, 16, 26\nCollins, 199, 200\nCollins, Perry McDonough, 207-214\nCollins, Perry McDonough, at the Colonial\nOffice, 207-214\nColonial Office, Perry McDonough Collins at\nthe, 207-214\nColumbia District, 172, 173\nColvile, Andrew, 11-13, 172, 173\nColwood Farm, 8, 9, 11-13, 21, 29\nConnally, Amelia, 203\nConstantine, Capt, 226, 227\nCooper, James, 7, 10, 11, 13, 32\nCopeland, R. A., 61, 64-66, 69\nCourts in Vancouver Island, 9, 10, 19, 20,\n24-28, 32, 33, 38\nCowan, 46, 47\nCowan, Cecilia Eliza, 47\nCowichan Creamery Association, 55\nCox, Ross, 163, 167-169\nCromie, R. J., 66\nDallas, A. G., 13, 16, 18, 37, 51, 88\nDalton, Jack, 232\nDavidson, Capt., 183\n10\n265 266\nIndex\nDavidson, J., 109\nDavidson, Thomas, 110\nDawson City, 230, 231, 235, 238, 239\nde Cosmos, Amor, 20, 22, 29, 39\nDemers, Modeste, 217, 222\nDoughty, Charles, 50\nDoughty, Charles Montagu, 49\nDoughty, Henry Montagu, 48, 49\nDoughty, Henry Montagu, 50\nDouglas, Alexander, 42, 46\nDouglas, Archibald, 42, 44, 49\nDouglas, Barbara Elrington, 49, 50\nDouglas, Cecilia, 49\nDouglas, Cecilia Eliza, 42-44, 46-48, 51\nDouglas, Georgiana, 44, 51\nDouglas, James, 42, 44\nDouglas, James, 51\nDouglas, Sir James, 2, 5-7, 161, 190-192; and\nE. E. Langford, 9, 10, 13, 16-20, 28, 31, 32,\n37, 38; and W. C. Grant, 100-105, 108-111,\n113-117; genealogical information, 41-51;\nmarriage, 203\nDouglas, Jane, 51\nDouglas, Jane Hamilton, 44, 50, 51\nDouglas, John, 42-46\nDouglas, Sir John, 51\nDouglas, John, Jr., 42\nDouglas, Sir Neill, 41, 42, 44, 49\nDouglas, Neill, 42\nDouglas, Mrs. Robert, 51\nDouglas, Susanha, 49\nDouglas, Thomas Dunlop, 42, 44, 49, 51\nDouglas, William, 51\nDouglas Documents, Presentation of the, 251\nDouglas Family, Some Notes on the, 41-51\nDrake, M. W. T., 26\nDrury, Vera, Ravens and Prophets, review by,\n153, 154\nDuff, Wilson, The Upper Stalo Indians of the\nFraser Valley, British Columbia, review of,\n259, 260\nDunning, Charles A., 61\nDurham, Lord, 186\nEdgett, Col. C. E., 63, 64, 69\nEells, Cushing, 197, 201\nEldorado Creek, 227, 230\nElections, in British Columbia, 71; in Vancouver Island, 13-16, 19-23, 28\nElliot, T. Frederick, 213\nEllis, 199-201\nEsquimalt Farm, see Colwood Farm\nFarm and Home, 66-69\nFanners' Alliance and the Grange, 54\nFarmers' Institutes, 54, 55, 60, 62, 63, 71\nFarmers of British Columbia, The United, 53-73\nFarmers' Platform, 54, 56, 57, 59, 65\nFidler, Peter, 163, 168\nFinlay, Mrs. F. D., 49\nFinlayson, Roderick, 121\nFitzgerald, James Edward, 92\nFitzwilliam, 39\nFlour-mill in British Columbia, 188\nFlucke, A. F., He Wrote for Us, review by,\n158, 159\nFort St. James Memorial Cairn, 251, 252\nFortescue, Chichester, 31, 39\nForts and trading-posts, Alexandria, 174, 188,\n189, 218-220; Babine, 187; Colville, 203;\nCowlitz; 174; Cudahy, 226; Cumberland\nHouse, 163; Des Prairies, 163; George, 170,\n188, 199, 203, 220; Isle a la Crosse, 168, 169,\n189; Kamloops, 174; Kilmars, 218, 220;\nLangley, 174, 183; McLoughlin, 183; Nisqually, 174, 203, 204; Okanagan, 189; St.\nJames, 187, 189, 194, 195, 219, 220, 251, 252;\nSimpson, 183, 185, 186; Spokane House, 171,\n172; Steilacoom, 204; Stuart, 218; Thompson, 220; Vancouver, 100, 174, 182, 186, 190-\n192, 194, 201; Victoria, 6, 7, 100, 101, 105,\n108, 113, 190; Yukon, 223\nForty Mile River, 225, 227, 228, 230, 237\nFranklin Gulch, 225\nFraser, Major C. I., 88\nFraser, Donald, 19, 20, 29\nFraser, Hugh, 195\nFraser, Simon, 168, 217\nFraser, William, 94\nFraser Valley Milk Producers' Association, 54\nGalbraith, John S., Perry McDonough Collins\nat the Colonial Office, 207-214\nGardner, John, 178\nGarraghan, Rev. Gilbert J., 217, 219, 220\nGarry, Nicholas, 170, 198\nGarry, Spokane, 199-201, 204\nGibson, James A., The Choosing of the Capital\nof Canada, 75-85\nGlacier Creek, 225, 237\nGladstone, W. E., 210\nGlendinning, Janet, 46\nGoetz, Father Anthony, 218, 221\nGold Bottom Creek, 227, 228\nGood, Charles, 12, 21, 23, 27-32, 35, 38\nGosnell, R. E., 41\nGrand Trunk Railway, 210\nGrant, Alexander, 88\nGrant, Archibald, 88\nGrant, Colquhoun, 89\nGrant, Duncan, 88, 90\nGrant, Duncan, 88\nGrant, Elizabeth Anne, 88\nGrant, Sir Francis, 88\nGrant, Hugh, 88\nGrant, James Robert, 88, 97, 99\nGrant, Jean Duff, 89, 90, 111\nGrant, Lewis, 88, 89, 95-97, 99, 110\nGrant, Mary, 88\nGrant, Robert, 88\nGrant, Walter, 88\nGrant, Walter Colquhoun, 87-125\nGrant, Captain Walter Colquhoun: Vancouver\nIsland's First Independent Settler, 87-125\nGray, W. H., 197, 201\nGrey, Col., 81\nGrey, Sir George, 10\nGuerhard, Gen., 211\nHaldane, John, 169, 192\nHalket, 199, 200\nHamilton, Jane, 44 Index\n267\nHamilton, Jessie, 44\nHamilton, L. A., 250, 251\nHamilton, Ontario, 78-80\nHancock, Samuel, 119, 120\nHardinge, Sir Arthur, 77\nHardisty, 192\nHardwick, Edward E., 72\nHargrave, Letitia, 43, 45\nHarmon, Daniel Williams, 163\nHarold A. Innis, 1894-1952, 149-151\nHarper, 223-225\nHarrison, Benjamin, 198\nHart, 223\nHaskell, W. B\u00E2\u0080\u009E 228\nHayne, Capt., 183\nHe Wrote for Us, review of, 158, 159\nHead, Sir Edmund, 76-81, 83\nHead, Sir Francis, 80\nHealy, Capt. J. J., 226\nHearst, William Randolph, 229\nHelmcken, Dr. John Sebastian, 8, 9, 11, 14, 46,\n107, 111, 120\nHenderson, Bob, 227, 228\nHendy, Albert E., St. Paul's Church, Nanaimo,\nreview of, 257, 258\nHill, Hazel A. E., Tales of the Alberni Valley,\nreview of, 156, 157\nHistorical and Scientific Society of Manitoba:\nSeries III, Papers Read before the, review of,\n260, 261\nHistorical Society of Alberta, 255\nHodgson, Frederic Mitchell, 48\nHolt, George, 224\nHudson's Bay Company, and Missionaries, 198,\n201-204; and North West Company, 161-164,\n168, 170; and Vancouver Island, 5-7, 10, 13,\n90-95, 105, 115; in Oregon, 173, 174, 178,\n183, 186, 189\nHulley, Clarence C, Alaska, 1741-1953, review\nof, 261-264\nHumboldt River, 181\nHunker Creek, 230\nHunt, Wilson Price, 175\nHutchinson, Fred, 225\nIndian River, 230\nIndians, and Missions, 197-201, 217-222; at\nSooke, 115, 116\nInnis, Harold A., 149-151\nIreland, Willard E., Captain Walter Colquhoun\nGrant: Vancouver Island's First Independent\nSettler, 87-125; Papers Read before the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba:\nSeries HI, review by, 260, 261; St. Mark's\nChurch Parish of Salt Spring Island, Diamond Jubilee, 1892-1952, review by, 257,\n258; St. Michael and All Angel's Church,\n1883 to 1953, review by, 257, 258; St. Paul's\nChurch, Nanaimo, review by, 257, 258; The\nSeventeenth Report of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1953, review by, 264; 75 Years\nof Service: A History of Olivet Baptist\nChurch, 1878-1953, review by, 257, 258\nIrving House, New Westminster, 147, 148\nJack Wade Creek, 225\nJenkins, Rev. Father C, 218\nJessett, Thomas E., The Church of England in\nthe Old Oregon Country, 197-205\nJesuits, 215-222\nJocelyn, Augustus G. F., 49\nJohn Nobili, SJ., Founder of California's\nSanta Clara College: The New Caledonia\nYears, 1845-1848, 215-222\nJones, Rev. David T., 198, 199\nJoset, Father Joseph, 201, 221, 222\nJuneau, 224\nKamloops Museum Association, 144, 145\nKemble, Col. E. M., 204\nKennedy, Dr. J. F., 14, 184, 185\nKing, Capt. Edward Hammond, 23, 24, 26-28,\n30, 35, 36\nKingston, Ontario, 75, 76, 78-80\nKittson, William, 177\nKlondike, 223-239\nKlondike Gold-rush, The\u00E2\u0080\u0094A Great International Venture, 223-239\nKwah, 188, 189\nLabouchere, Henry, 13, 20\nLadue, Joseph, 224\nLaidman, W. F., 62\nLa LaberW, Louis, 167\nLamalice, 217\nLamb, W. Kaye, 161, 172; Some Notes on the\nDouglas Family, 41-51\nLambert, Norman, 65\nLand, Vancouver Island, 6, 90, 92-95, 100-103,\n108, 109, 117, 121\nLangford, Edward Edwards, 7-40\nLangford, Edward Edwards, The Trials and\nTribulations of, 5-40\nLawyer, Indian chief, 200\nLee, Jason, 197\nLegislative Assembly, Vancouver Island, 13-15,\n20-22\nLegislative Council, Vancouver Island, 10, 13,\n14, 19, 20\nLewis, Commander, 69, 70\nLittle Skookum Gulch, 230\nLowe, Thomas, 116\nLytton, Sir Edward Bulwer, 81, 82\nMacaulay, Donald, 11, 12\nMacDonald, W. A., 66\nMcDonald, William, 94\nMcEwen, Tom, He Wrote for Us, review of,\n158, 159\nMacfarlane, Alexander, 91, 111\nMcGillivray, William, 170\nMcGloin, John Bernard, John Nobili, S.J.,\nFounder of California's Santa Clara College:\nThe New Caledonia Years, 1845-1848, 215-\n222\nMcGregor, Col., 233\nMcGregor, D. A., \"Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter\nSkene Ogden, 161-195\nMcGrigor, Sir James, 88 268\nIndex\nMcllwraith, T. F., The Upper Stalo Indians of\nthe Fraser Valley, British Columbia, review\nby, 259, 260\nMcintosh, Col. J. W., 63\nMcKay, Charles, 177\nMackay, G. G., 56\nMcKay, Joseph W., 14, 116, 121\nMcKay, Joseph W., Walter Colquhoun Grant\u00E2\u0080\u0094\nA Reminiscence, 122-125\nMcKay, Dr. William, 199\nMcKelvie, J. A., 64\nMcKenzie, Sir Alexander, 167\nMcKenzie, Donald, 175, 176\nMcKenzie, Kenneth, 9, 11-13, 38\nMcKenzie, Roderick, 167\nMcKenzie, Roderick, 56\nMcKinlay, Archibald, 195\nMcLeod, John, 170, 189\nMcLeod, John, 94\nMcLoughlin, Dr. John, 161, 179, 182-184, 186,\n190, 202, 203\nMcMurray, 169\nMacPhail, Angus, 122\nMcQuesten, 223-225\nMcRae, Major-Gen. A. D., 68-71\nMad River, 175\nMaher, Father Zacheus J., 215\nManson, A. M., 60\nManson, Anne, 195\nManson, Donald, 195\nMary's River, 181\nMayo, 223\nMeek, Joe, 194\nMengarini, Father, 218\nMetchosin, 116, 117\nMethodist Church, 197\nMeyers, 25\nMiller Creek, 225\nMining laws, 236-238\nMinors, Capt., 183\nMoberly, Walter, 254\nMoberly, Walter, Plaque Commemorating, 254\nMonck, Viscount, 84\nMontour, Nicholas, 167\nMontreal, 76, 78-81\nMorice, Father A. G., 188\nMorrison, James, 94\nMouraviev, Gen., 208\nMuir, John, 14, 108, 114, 117, 122\nMunro, Thomas, 94, 114\nMurphy, William Stack, 218\nMusselman, J. B., 65\nNass River, 183\nNelson, John, 68\nNew Caledonia, 173, 174, 187-189, 216-222\nNew Westminster Historic Centre, 147, 148\nNewcasUe, Duke of, 31-33, 38, 39, 210-212\nNobili, Father John, 197, 215-222\nNobili, John, S.J., Founder of California's\nSanta Clara College: The New Caledonia\nYears, 215-222\nNorth American Transportation and Trading\nCompany, 226, 229, 231\nNorth Saanich Conservative Club, 58\nNorth West Company, 46, 161-170, 173, 175,\n182, 198\nNorth West Mounted Police in Yukon, 226,\n227, 231, 235, 237\nOblates of Mary Immaculate, 222\nOgden, Cecilia, 195\nOgden, Charles, 195\nOgden, Charles Richard, 165\nOgden, David, 165\nOgden, David, 195\nOgden, Judge David, 165\nOgden, Euretta Mary, 195\nOgden, Henry, 165\nOgden, Isaac, 165\nOgden, Isaac, 195\nOgden, Isaac G., 165\nOgden, John, 165\nOgden, Julia,.194, 195\nOgden, Michael, 195\nOgden, Nicholas, 165\nOgden, Peter, 165\nOgden, Peter, 195\nOgden, Peter Skene, 100, 161, 165, 166, 168-195\nOgden, Peter Skene, 195\nOgden, Peter Skene\u00E2\u0080\u0094\" Old Whitehead,\" 161-195\nOgden, Sara Julia, 195\nOgden Canyon, 182\nOgden City, 182\nOgden Mountain, 182\nOgden Passage, 182\nOgden Point, 182\nOgden River, 182\nOgden Valley, 182\nOgden's Bridge, 182\nOgden's Hope, 182\nOgdensburg, N.Y., 165\nOgilvie, William, 225, 226, 229, 230, 232, 237\nOkanagan Historical Society, 145, 146, 247-249\nOkanagan Historical Society, 1953, The Seventeenth Report of the, review of, 264\nOkanagan United Growers, 66\n\"Old Whitehead \"\u00E2\u0080\u0094Peter Skene Ogden, 161-\n195\nOliver, John, 58, 71-73\nOlivet Baptist Church, 1878-1953, 75 Years of\nService, review of, 257, 258\nOrientals, in British Columbia, 58, 59, 63, 65\nOrmsby, Margaret A., The United Farmers of\nBritish Columbia\u00E2\u0080\u0094An Abortive Third-party\nMovement, 53-73\nOrton, William, 214\nOttawa, 78-85\nPacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, 146, 147\nPacific Great Eastern Railway, 55, 67, 71\nPainter, 111\nPalmer, Judge O. H., 214\nPalmer, R. M., 55\nPalmerston, Lord, 39, 186, 210\nPambrum, Alexander, 203\nPambrum, Pierre, 203\nPapers Read before the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba: Series III, No. 8,\nreview of, 260, 261 Index\n269\nPapps, John Smith, 92\nParker, Rev. Samuel, 197, 200, 201\nParliament Buildings, 76, 81-84\nPaterson, W., 55\nPearse, B. W., 15, 18\nPelly, Sir John, 93, 95, 96, 101, 104, 106, 115\nPelly, Kootenai, 199, 200\nPemberton, A. F., 26, 27, 34\nPemberton, J. D., 14-18, 26, 27, 31, 108\nPemmican, 162, 163\nPerry McDonough CoUins at the Colonial Office, 207-214\nPetroglyphs, Sproat Lake, 249, 250\nPettit, Sydney G., The Trials and Tribulations\nof Edward Edwards Langford, 5-40\nPhelps, Royal, 208\nPitt, 199, 200\nPlaque Commemorating Samuel Black, 253\nPlaque Commemorating Walter Moberly, 254\nPlaque to Commemorate Captain Edward\nStamp, 148, 149\nPlaque to Commemorate the Commencement\nof the Survey of Vancouver Townsite by\nL. A. Hamilton, 1885, 250, 251\nPoustie, Mrs. Susan, 91\nPoustie, Thomas, 91, 94\nPresentation of the Douglas Documents, 251\nPridham, J. L., 55, 56, 69, 70\nProtestant Episcopal Church in the United\nStates, 204, 205\nProvincial Council of Agriculture, 62\nProvincial Progressive Party, 66, 67, 69-72\nPuget Sound Agricultural Company, 6-8, 11,\n12, 16, 21, 22, 24, 29, 35-37, 115, 116\nQuebec, 75-79, 81, 83, 84\nQuesnel, Jules M., 167, 217\nRabbit Creek, 226, 227\nRavalli, Father, 218\nRavens and Prophets, review of, 153, 154\nRed River Settlement, 193, 198\nReiben, S. F., Toil and Peaceful Life\u00E2\u0080\u0094History\nof the Doukhobors Unmasked, review of,\n155, 156\nRedman, John, 67\nReid, 175\nReuter, Paul J., 211\nRhodes, 227\nRice-Jones, C, 61, 65\nRichards, George Henry, 16\nRichardson, John, 167\nRobertson, 102, 106\nRobertson, Colin, 167, 169\nRogers, Sir Frederic, 34, 38, 211, 213\nRoman Catholic Church, 197, 200, 217, 218\nRoothaan, Father John, 221\nRosati, Rev. Joseph, 200\nRose, James, 94\nRoss, Alexander, 177, 178, 199\nRoss, Donald, 192\nRoutes of travel, to Klondike, 232\nRussian American Company, 186\nSage, Walter Noble, 1-3, 43; bibliography,\n127-137\nSage, Walter Noble, Harold A. Innis, 1894-\n1952, 149-151\nSage, Walter Noble, A Bibliography of the\nPrinted Writings of, 127-137\nSage, Walter N., and History in British Columbia, 1-3\nSt. Mark's Church, Parish of Salt Spring Island,\nDiamond Jubilee, 1892-1952, review of, 257,\n258\nSt. Mary's River, 181\nSt. Michael and All Angels' Church, 1883 to\n1953, review of, 257, 258\nSt. Paul's Church, Nanaimo: A Brief History\nsince Its Foundation, 1859-1952, review of,\n257, 258\nSangster, J. Lewis, 75 Years of Service: A History of Olivet Baptist Church, 1878-1953,\nreview of, 257, 258\nSanta Clara College, 215, 217\nSapiro, Aaron, 68, 69\nSawmill, Sooke, 100, 108, 109, 122\nSchieffelin, Ed, 224\nSchofield, H. E. H., 72\nSchwartz, N. H., 72\nScott, Sir Richard, 81, 83\nScott, Rev. Thomas F., 205\nSeaton, Gen. Lord, 80\nSecretan, J. H. E., 230\nSeix, Chief, 185\nSelkirk, Lord, 162-164\n75 Years of Service: A History of Olivet Baptist Church, 1878-1953, review of, 257, 258\nShasta, Mount, 181\nShips, H.M.S. Agincourt, 50; Broughton, 187;\nCadboro, 184, 187; Cowlitz, 102, 111, 112;\nDart, 113; Dryad, 183, 185, 187; Excelsior,\n229, 230, 232; Ganymede, 183; Great\nEastern, 214; Harpooner, 92, 94-96, 100,\n101, 111; H.M.S. Inconstant, 98, 99; Isabella, 183; Norman Morison, 106, 107, 111,\n112; Portland, 229, 232; Prince of Wales,\n46; Tennessee, 193; Tory, 47, 97; Vancouver, 183; William and Ann, 183\nSibley, Hiram, 209, 213\nSicotte, L. V., 82, 83\nSifton, Clifford, 233\nSimpson, Capt. Aemelius, 183\nSimpson, Sir George, 44, 97, 101, 110, 164,\n171-176, 178, 179, 182-184, 186, 187, 190,\n193, 198, 199, 201, 208\nSinclair, Capt. Thomas, 184\nSixty Mile River, 225, 227, 230\nSkene, Andrew, 165\nSkinner, Thomas, 9-11, 13, 14, 25\nSmet, Pierre Jean de, 197, 216-221\nSmith, A. B., 197\nSnake country, 174-184\nSnake River, 175, 195\nSome Notes on the Douglas Family, 41-51\nSooke, 87, 108, 114-116, 121-123\nSouris River, 163\nSouth Cariboo Historical Museum Society, 249\nSoward, F. H., Walter N. Sage and History in\nBritish Columbia, 1-3 270\nIndex\nSpalding, Rev. Henry Harmon, 197, 204\nSproat, Gilbert Malcolm, 41\nSproat Lake Petroglyphs, 249, 250\nStaines, Rev. Robert John, 7, 10, 11, 13, 19, 32,\n40,204\nStalo Indians of the Fraser Valley, British\nColumbia, The Upper, review of, 259, 260\nStamp, Capt. Edward, Plaque to Commemorate, 148, 149\nStanley, John Mix, 192\nSteele, Sam, 25\nStevens, I. I., 204\nStewart, B. G., 69, 70\nStewart, J. B., 66\nStewart River, 225\nStikine River, 183-186\nStoeckel, Bron, 208\nStuart Lake, 187-189\nSurvey, Vancouver Island, 97, 101-108, 111,\n123\nTales of the Alberni Valley, review of, 156, 157\nTariff on agricultural products, 57, 59, 61, 65\nTelegraph, 207-214\nTener, J. F., 67\nThompson, David, 168\nTod, John, 19, 42-44, 100, 106\nToil and Peaceful Life\u00E2\u0080\u0094History of the Doukhobors Unmasked, review of, 155, 156\nTolmie, Thomas, 94\nTolmie, Dr. William Fraser, 112, 184, 185\nTompkins, Stuart R., The Klondike Gold-rush\n\u00E2\u0080\u0094A Great International Venture, 223-239\nToronto, 75, 76, 78-80\nTownsend, John K., 200\nTransmundane Telegraph Company, 208\nTrego, W. D., 56, 57\nTrials and Tribulations of Edward Edwards\nLangford, The, 5-40\nUnited Farmer, 68\nUnited Farmers of Alberta, 54, 56, 57, 59,\n60,72\nUnited Farmers of British Columbia, 53, 56-73\nUnited Farmers of British Columbia, The\u00E2\u0080\u0094An\nAbortive Third-party Movement, 53-73\nUnited Farmers of Canada, 71-73\nUnited Farmers of Ontario, 60, 61, 66, 68, 71\nUniversity of British Columbia, 1, 2\nUniversity of Santa Clara, 216\nUnknown River, 181\nUpper Canada, 75, 80\nUpper Stalo Indians of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, The, review of, 259, 260\nValdez, 232\nVancouver Island, colony of, 5, 6, 193\nVancouver Island Fanners' Union, 55\nVancouver Island's First Independent Settler,\nCaptain Walter Colquhoun Grant, 87-125\nVancouver Townsite, Plaque to Commemorate\nthe Commencement of the Survey, by L. A.\nHamilton, 1885, 250, 251\nVavasour, M., 190\nVernon Fruit Union, 62\nWainman, Alexander W., Toil and Peaceful\nLife, review by, 155, 156\nWalker, Rev. Elkanah, 197, 201\nWallace, Dr. Peter W., 15, 17, 18\nWalsh, Major James Monow, 233, 234, 236,\n238\nWalter N. Sage and History in British Columbia, 1-3\nWarre, H. J., 190\nWatkin, Edward, 210, 211\nWebster, 9\nWest, Rev. John, 198, 204\nWestern Union Telegraph Company, 209, 213\n214\nWhitman, Dr. Marcus, 190-192, 197, 201\nWhitman, Narcissa, 190, 191\nWight, George John, 24\nWilliams, William, 169\nWolfenden, Madge, Tales of the Alberni Valley, review by, 156, 157\nWood, Henry Wise, 56, 59-62\nWoodbridge, P. P., 59, 60\nWoodcock, George, Ravens and Prophets: An\nAccount of Journeys in British Columbia,\nAlberta and Southern Alaska, review of,\n153, 154.\nWoodward, Charles, 72\nWork, John, 170, 171, 182, 190\nWrangell, Baron, 183, 184, 186\nWright, Samuel Henry, 92\nYates, James, 14, 16, 25, 26\nYoung, Joseph Alfred Karney, 48\nYoung, Mary Alice, 48\nYoung, William A. G., 47, 48\nYoung, Sir William Douglas, 48\nYoung, William James, 48\nYukon Field Force, 235, 236\nYukon Territory, 223, 234-236\nVICTORIA, B.C.\nPrinted by Don McDiarmid, Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty\n1955\n750-1054-3056 BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION\nOrganized October 31st, 1922\nPATRON\nHis Honour Clarence Wallace, Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.\nOFFICERS, 1953\nHon. Tilly Jean Rolston - Honorary President.\nH. C. Gilliland President.\nD. A. McGregor Past President.\nCaptain C. W. Cates 1st Vice-President.\nMrs. A. D. Turnbull .... 2nd Vice-President.\nDr. F. H. Johnson ..... Honorary Secretary.\nMrs. J. E. Godman ..... Honorary Treasurer.\nMEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL\nMiss Helen R. Boutilier. Rev. J. C. Goodfellow, D.D. J. K. Nesbitt.\nDr. Margaret A. Ormsby. Dr. W. N. Sage. Miss Madge Wolfenden.\nWillard E. Ireland D. A. McGregor Mrs. J. E. Godman\n(Editor, Quarterly). (Vancouver Section). (Victoria Section).\nOBJECTS\nTo encourage historical research and stimulate public interest in history; to\npromote the preservation and marking of historic sites, buildings, relics, natural\nfeatures, and other objects and places of historical interest, and to publish historical\nsketches, studies, and documents.\nMEMBERSHIP\nOrdinary members pay a fee of $2 annually in advance. The fiscal year\ncommences on the first day of January. All members in good standing receive the\nBritish Columbia Historical Quarterly without further charge.\nCorrespondence and fees may be addressed to the Provincial Archives, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C."@en . "Titled \"British Columbia Historical Association Report and Proceedings\" from 1923-1929; \"British Columbia Historical Quarterly\" from 1937-1957; \"BC Historical News\" from 1968-2004; and \"British Columbia History\" from 2005 onward."@en . "Periodicals"@en . "FC3801.B72 H44"@en . "FC3801_B72_H44_1953_vol017_no003-004"@en . 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