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Canada and its provinces : in twenty-two volumes and index. Volume XXI. The pacific province. Part I
British Columbia Historical Books Collection
Canada and its provinces
Shortt, Adam, 1859-1931
Doughty, Arthur G. (Arthur George), Sir, 1860-1936
"Contents: British Columbia in the Dominion; introduction, by Sir Richard McBride. - The period of exploration, by T. G. Marquis. - Colonial history, 1849-1871, by R. E. Gosnell. - Political history, 1871-1913, by F. W. Howay. - Economic history, by C. H. Lugrin. - Indian tribes of the Interior, by J. A. Teit. Indian tribes of the Coast, by E. Sapir. Also: Toronto, Glasgow, Book & Co." -- Lowther, B. J., & Laing, M. (1968). A bibliography of British Columbia: Laying the foundations, 1849-1899. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 176-177 . "23 v. illus., facsims., maps(part.col.double, part.fold.), ports., fold.tables. 29 cm. Limited to 875 copies. Partial contents: v.21-22. The Pacific province.- v.23. General index, manuscript sources, bibliography. In v.7. the section 'Immigration and population' by W.D. Scott includes short sections on Hindus and orientals. In v.8 the section 'The fishery arbitrations' by N.B. Wormwith includes chapters on the Bering Sea fur seal dispute, and the section 'Boundary disputes and treaties' by James White includes the Alaska boundary dispute. In v.21 the section 'Economic history' by C.H. Lugrin includes the oriental question. In v.22 the section 'History of education' by Alexander Robinson includes a short section on U.B.C ; and the sections 'The fisheries' by D.N. McIntyre, 'Forest resources' by A.C Flumerfelt (mainly 19th century), and 'Mines and mining' by E. Jacobs. Also: [Archives ed.] Printed by T. & A. Constable at The Edinburgh University Press for the Publishers' Association of Canada Limited, Toronto, Glasgow, Brook & Company, 1914. 25 cm. Lowther gives publisher as Glasgow, Book & Co." -- Edwards, M. H., Lort, J. C. R., & Carmichael, W. J. (1975). A bibliography of British Columbia: Years of growth, 1900-1950. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 257.
xii, 346 pages : photograph, illustrations ; 29 cm
application/pdf
wrmaxji JUMIB. Jt^U^SIlWU»^U ssssssssss^sss^st^s^s^^^sfK^nmim ^Ksssa^FUHSssms^mfis^^ Kg4Bg«gs«rega<TO.gs*gR>g<a*n»>g-s authors' <£Hitfon CANADA AND ITS PROVINCES IN TWENTY-TWO VOLUMES AND INDEX VOLUME XXI THE PACIFIC PROVINCE PART I The Authors' Edition of ' Canada and its Provinces ' is limited to 875 Impressions on All-Rag Watermarked Paper Volume Twenty-one printed at the Edinburgh University Press, May 1014. This Impression is Number../...7...Y.. LY OF THF CANADJu LUTHC NTED B1 GEORGE VANCOUVER •J Portrait Gallery ——-m rr-Mjaa CANADA AND ITS PROVINCES A HISTORY OF THE CANADIAN PEOPLE AND THEIR INSTITUTIONS BY ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES ADAM SHORTT ARTHUR G. DOUGHTY GENERAL EDITORS VOLUME XXI AUTHORS' EDITION PRINTED BY T. & A. CONSTABLE AT THE EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE PUBLISHERS' ASSOCIATION OF CANADA LIMITED TORONTO 1914 w pa®*5- CONTENTS BRITISH COLUMBIA IN THE DOMINION: INTRODUCTION. By Sir Richard McBride .... THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION. By T. G. Marquis . The Spaniards—Captain James Cook at Nootka Sound—West Coast Fur Trade—The Nootka Affair—The North-West Company in New Caledonia—The Regime of the Hudson's Bay Company. COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871. By R. E. Gosnell The Founding of the Colony of Vancouver Island—The Colony of Vancouver Island and James Douglas—The Founding of the Colony of British Columbia—The Pacific Colonies and Confederation. POLITICAL HISTORY, 1871-1913. By F. W. Howay ECONOMIC HISTORY. By C. H. Lugrin . The Fur Trade—The Oriental Question—Transportation. INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR. By J. A. Teit . INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST. By E. Sapir . 241 *? ILLUSTRATIONS GEORGE VANCOUVER Frontispiece From the original painting in the National Portrait Gallery CALLICUM AND MAQUILLA (MAQUINNA), CHIEFS OF NOOTKA SOUND ..... Facingpage 34 Photographed by Savannah from Meares's ' Voyages' LAUNCHING THE NORTH-WEST AMERICA AT NOOTKA SOUND, 1788 ,,36 Photographed from Meares's ' Voyages' SIMON FRASER „ 56 From a portrait by Savannah JOHN M<*LOUGHLIN ,,64 Photographed by Savannah from an oil painting SIR JAMES DOUGLAS ,,96 From a portrait by Savannah THE FIRST LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND . . . ^|lf • „ "2 SIR MATTHEW BAILLIE BEGBIE „ 148 From a portrait by Savannah PREMIERS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA . . . „ 180 From photographs by Savannah A GROUP OF THOMPSON RIVER INDIANS From a photograph by Maynwrd xii THE PACIFIC PROVINCE INDIANS OF THE INTERIOR OF BRITISH SKIDEGATE, HAIDA INDIAN TOWN, QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS .... KOSKINO INDIANS AT QUATSINO, VANCOUVER ISLAND From a photograph by Maynard HAIDA INDIAN TOTEM-POLES AT SKEDANS, QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS . A GROUP OF INDIANS NEAR NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C From a photograph by Maynard ■IBini«iraBJg-WWa«wa amaM^^gnpg- BRITISH COLUMBIA IN THE DOMINION: INTRODUCTION BRITISH COLUMBIA IN THE DOMINION: INTRODUCTION OF recent years there has been abundant evidence that ) British Columbia bulks large in every way in the federation of which it forms a part. The importance the province has attained is shown by the amount of space allotted to it in this work dealing with Canada and its provinces. The editors have seen fit to give the Pacific province the same prominence they have given to the older provinces of the Dominion. An examination of the contents of this section will show that the greatest care has been taken by the general editors with regard to the organization of the material and the selection of the writers. No department of knowledge concerning British Columbia has been neglected. Trained specialists have been chosen for the preparation of the various articles —men who have made a close study of its general and political history, its ethnology, the administration of its laws, its educational development, its forestry, its mining, its fisheries and its agriculture. The names of the writers and the subjects are a guarantee that British Columbia has been dealt with in an accurate and exhaustive manner. It may be asked, why has British Columbia been studied at as great length as Ontario or Quebec ? Why should a province that has had a corporate existence of fewer than fifty years—a province that was formed out of two feeble colonies, the one but seventeen years old and the other but eight at the time of their union in 1866—be taken as seriously as provinces with several centuries of history behind them ? The answer is that the history of the Pacific province does 4 BRITISH COLUMBIA IN THE DOMINION not begin with the union of the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, or even with the organization of Vancouver Island as a crown colony in 1849. Its roots are in the remote past. Long before any political organization existed, its island stretches and its mainland were the theatres of empire-making events. The beginnings of the history of the north-west coast were in a way similar to those of the eastern seaboard of Canada. The explorations of the Cabots, of the Corte Reals, of Verrazano and of Gomez on the Atlantic coast had their counterpart in the voyages of Spanish captains who, from New Spain, timorously felt their way along the Californian shore until the island fringe of what is now British Columbia was reached. Then, in the year 1778, the greatest of the world's navigators, Captain James Cook, cast anchor in Nootka Sound. In the wake of Cook came the traders seeking sea-otter pelts. The codfish of the Atlantic waters attracted hundreds of mariners to the banks and bays discovered there by the early explorers, and the beaver during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries tempted the feet of traders and trappers to the Arctic seas and to the foothills of the Rockies. So the sea-otter turned the eyes of commerce to the north-west coast. This was the magnet that drew hundreds of sailors to its island-dotted shores. These sailors and scientific explorers such as Vancouver were to make this coast known to the world. Trade ever breeds strife, and as an outcome of trade rivalry rose the Nootka affair and the Oregon boundary question—the one before the mainland of British Columbia had been reached, and the other at a time when from Yerba Buena (San Francisco) to Fort Durham on Taku Inlet the north-west coast was uninhabited save by the aborigines, the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, and a lonely, struggling settlement of Americans in the Willamette valley of Oregon. But the most interesting phases of early north-west coast history are the founding of New Caledonia and the Columbian district, and the overland journeys of such men as Mackenzie, Fraser and Thompson. The blare of the war bugle has never been heard on the INTRODUCTION 5 north-west coast, save for the faint, half-farcical note at the time of the San Juan affair; but the soil of the Pacific province has been hallowed by the footsteps of a long line of heroes. Nothing in the history of exploration is more interesting than the dash of Alexander Mackenzie to the Pacific in 1793, or the tumultuous passage of Simon Fraser to the shores of the Strait of Georgia in 1808, or the quiet, unobtrusive scientific work of David Thompson on the Columbia between 1807 and 1811. The fur-trading explorers played an important part as empire-builders ; but for their work another flag than the British might now be waving over British Columbia and the western boundary of the Dominion might have been east of the Rockies. The Pacific Ocean having been reached, the next step was the establishment of trading-posts in the interior. New Caledonia, as the region now constituting the northern and eastern part of the province was called, had its beginning in 1805, when the Nor'westers commissioned Simon Fraser to invade the territory west of the Rockies. Fort M°Leod at McLeod Lake marks the commencement of the history of settlement on the mainland. Gradually the interests of the company broadened out till its posts dotted the region from the mouth of the Columbia to the Peace River. After the North-West and the Hudson's Bay Companies united in 1821, coast and inland were extensively occupied, even as far south as San Francisco. Had the Hudson's Bay Company been far-sighted, not a foot of this territory need have been lost. It failed to encourage settlement, though it should have seen, from the success of agricultural efforts put forth at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia and elsewhere, that the soil offered sources of revenue equal to and more permanent than the fur trade. Keep out settlers it could not, and with the coming of the Americans in the early forties and the establishment of a provisional government under the United States flag, Great Britain lost her hold on the territory south of the 49th parallel. At this time England was sending thousands of settlers to the hard conditions of pioneer life in Upper and Lower Canada. Had she but directed some of them to the north-west coast, Washington s 6 BRITISH COLUMBIA IN THE DOMINION and Oregon might now be British. Settlement would have carried greater weight than mere discovery, or the establishment of a trading-post such as Astoria. Shortly after the Oregon boundary problem was solved the crown colony of Vancouver Island was formed ; then came the rush of gold-seekers and the settlement of the mainland, and another crown colony, that of British Columbia, came into being ; eight years later, in 1866, came the union of these two colonies. The new colony formed by this union showed from its beginning a sturdy, progressive life. Its leaders were men of action who had been trained under Dr John McLoughlin and James Douglas, both of whom deserve high rank as builders of Canada, despite the fact that M°Loughlin in the end threw in his lot with the United States and is now known to history as the ' Father of Oregon.' British Columbia had in its early days a leaven of men matured under the strict discipline of the Hudson's Bay Company—men who had learned to obey and were thus well fitted to rule, even if inclined at first, like their company, to be autocratic. A large part of the population was made up of gold-seekers, many of whom, seeing the possibilities of the colony, made it their permanent home. There were, too, some who in the early days had ventured from Great Britain and from the eastern provinces of Canada round Cape Horn or across the prairies and through the mountains. The bulk of the population was therefore British, speaking the English language and possessing British ideals. A few had been subjects of the United States, but these, too, spoke English and were quickly assimilated. As a result the Pacific province is today intensely British in all its undertakings and aspirations. Its climate, in many ways so similar to that of Great Britain, has continued to attract men and women from what is affectionately termed the Old Country. British Columbia has not reached her present position without experiencing storm and stress. There was determined opposition to the union of the colonies, and many influential men displayed the same spirit against Confederation. When the federal union of the Dominion was consummated, the threatened delay in the construction of the INTRODUCTION 7 transcontinental railway strained Confederation almost to the breaking point. There were cries for separation, but the province weathered the storm and remained in the Dominion family, to the advantage of herself and of Canada as a whole. When the last spike was driven by Donald Smith (afterwards Lord Strathcona) in the line of steel uniting in a material way the Atlantic with the Pacific, a new day dawned for British Columbia and the Dominion. The efforts put forth by the latter in the gigantic enterprise and the sacrifices made showed that the young nation within the Empire was capable of undertakings of the greatest magnitude. The knowledge that, though thousands of miles of land and water had to be passed, a direct route was now open to Europe gave confidence to the Pacific province and made possible the establishment on its shores of a city which in a space of twenty-five years was to become in population the fourth city in the Dominion. It seemed to many in old Canada that the sacrifices made to build the Canadian Pacific Railway were not worth the making, but the Dominion has been repaid a hundredfold. But for this railway the growth of Canada would have been retarded for many years. That the two new prairie provinces have come into being and have reached such astonishing proportions in population and wealth, that vessels daily leave the west coast for the Orient and for the Atlantic ports of America and of Europe, are the immediate results of British Columbia's stand for a faithful fulfilment of the terms under which it entered Confederation. And now, in 1913, only twenty-eight years after the completion of the first transcontinental line of railway, two more lines are being rushed to completion, and undoubtedly along their paths vast stretches of land will be cultivated, with the resultant development of the coast cities. For, situated as is the coast, within a thirty-six hours' journey from populous centres of prairie life, its ports must become at once an outlet for the products of the plains and a source of supply for the dwellers in the interior of the continent. When the Panama Canal is opened and cold storage facilities are supplied on the Pacific coast similar to those on the Atlantic, the beef of the plains, the OF 8 BRITISH COLUMBIA IN THE DOMINION fruit of the orchards of British Columbia, and the fish of her lakes, rivers and ocean will find their way to Europe, and to the Orient, where the inhabitants are rapidly adopting European standards of living. This will mean much to both the province and the Dominion. During the discussion regarding Confederation an eminent politician of Ontario spoke of British Columbia as a ' Sea of Mountains.' He seemed to forget that among those mountains nestled lakes, that through them meandered magnificent rivers—all teeming with fish ; that in the regions around the lakes and along the river valleys were stretches of rich land ; that the valleys and mountain-sides were clothed with forests of fir, cedar, pine, spruce, oak and maple—a timber wealth unequalled in quantity or quality in any other part of the world ; that these mountains stood, as it were, on guard over treasures of gold and silver, copper and lead, iron and coal; that at the extreme west of these mountain ranges lay the ocean, teeming with inexhaustible marine life. He forgot, too, that this ' Sea of Mountains' combined with the ocean to give to British Columbia a climate unsurpassed by any in the world. The history touched on lightly in this general outline and the natural resources indicated in the preceding paragraph will be found fully detailed in this work. Since Confederation was consummated by the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the life of British Columbia in the Dominion has been on the whole a pleasant one. There has been friction between the provincial and federal governments on several important questions, but peaceful settlements have always been reached, and each year the opportunities for conflict are becoming less. It is unwise to assume the r6le of a prophet, but the man would be very short-sighted who could not forecast for British Columbia an exceptionally high place at no distant day. The province, with its British name, stands in the same position regarding the Pacific Ocean that the British Isles hold regarding the Atlantic. It possesses the best harbours on the Pacific coast, it is favourably situated as a distributing centre for goods coming from Europe or from the Orient, and INTRODUCTION 9 it has a population of workers who on sea or on land are never thrown out of employment by the severity of the climate. So far its work has been preparatory. It has been building for the future, laying the foundations for trade and commerce. Busy factories will soon be heard on its shores, turning the abundant raw material of forest and mine into manufactured articles. It is no mere dream of an enthusiast to see, in the not distant future, a province on the Pacific equal in population to the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and—owing to its situation—a province of paramount importance to the Dominion and to the Empire. f THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION THE SPANIARDS DURING more than two hundred and sixty years after Balboa discovered the Pacific the region now called British Columbia was but vaguely indicated on the maps of the ancient cartographers. Little was known of its climate, inhabitants or resources ; and had it not been for the mythical Strait of Anian that was supposed to lie through it or to the north of it, the country might have remained a terra incognita until Mackenzie, Fraser, and Thompson penetrated its wilds from the east. Indeed, until their arrival the mainland was practically a sealed book—only the maze of islands that skirt its shores had been visited by the mariners of Spain, Russia, England, and France. In a sense, however, the story of British Columbia begins with Balboa. In 1513, when that adventurer crossed the mountains of Panama and sighted the Pacific, he laid claim for Spain not only to the land on which he stood and the waters which he beheld, but to all the territory washed by those waters j for all time, past, present, or to come, without contradiction, . . . north and south, . . . from the Pole Arctic to the Pole Antarctic' For nearly three centuries Spain, backed by the papal Bull of 1493, asserted her right to this vast territory largely on the ground of this preposterous claim. But it was many years before she put forth strong efforts to substantiate her claim by discovery and settlement. In 1520 Magellan sailed through the strait that has since borne his name and the world became aware that a new route was open to the rich East, and that a vast continent of untold wealth, judging from what the Spaniards had dis- _J 14 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION covered in Mexico, stretched from the Strait of Magellan to the icy regions of the north. Meanwhile Hernando Cortes had conquered Mexico and the wealth of that kingdom flowed into the coffers of Spain. Hoping to find other rich regions, Cortes journeyed to the Pacific side of Mexico in 1523 ; and at Tehuantepec in Oajaca he established a naval base, intending to build ships and promote his search for other Mexicos to the north. A series of misfortunes hampered him in his preparations and delayed explorations for five years, but in 1528 Pedro Nunez Maldonado, whom Cortes had left in charge of his arsenal and shipyard, set out from the mouth of the River Zacatula and examined the coast as far north as Santiago. Four years later Diego Hurtado de Mendoza is supposed to have reached the 27th degree of north latitude. In the following year Hernando Grijalva and Diego Becerra made voyages of exploration. Grijalva does not seem to have examined the coast, but Becerra pressed northward. In a quarrel with his pilot, Fortuno Ximines, he was slain. Ximines afterwards made a landing on the Cali- fornian peninsula at Santa Cruz, where he and those with him were massacred by Indians. In 1535 Cortes led a strong expedition consisting of 140 men and 40 horses along the shore of the Gulf of California and reached the spot where Ximines had been slain. He formally took possession in the name of the king of Spain of the region he explored. Further progress in Pacific exploration was made when hi 1539 Francisco Ulloa sailed round Cape San Lucas and reached the ocean coast of California. The gulf, which had hitherto been called the Vermilion Sea, Ulloa named the Sea of Cortes. On this voyage the 28 th degree of north latitude is supposed to have been reached. Meanwhile reports had been received of a rich country lying between Florida and the Pacific to the north of New Spain. Mendoza, who was now viceroy, dispatched a friar named Marcos de Niza to locate this region. Niza had a fertile imagination, and on his return reported that he had been successful; that many large towns and no fewer than seven populous cities lay north of the 35th parallel. The chief of these were Cibola and Tontonteac. According to de Niza gold, silver, and THE SPANIARDS 15 precious stones were to be found there in even more prodigious quantities than they had been found in Mexico and Peru. This report for the moment checked coast exploration and the energies of the Spaniards were turned to the interior of the continent. But Mendoza was soon undeceived and once more directed his energies to the exploration of the Pacific shore. In 1543 two vessels under the command of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed from the port of Navidad. Little is definitely known of Cabrillo's voyage, but it is possible that he discovered the port of San Diego, the Santa Barbara Channel and the Bay of Monterey. In a storm that overtook his vessel he is thought by some to have been driven as far north as Point Arena. His pilot, Bartolome Ferillo, pursued his way still farther to the north and may have reached latitude 440. But all is conjecture. The Spanish mariners lacked skill, and were so badly equipped with the means of taking their bearings accurately that their recorded latitudes and longitudes are not reliable. In the thirty years that had elapsed since Balboa first sighted the Pacific only the fringe of the southern part of the North American continent had been surveyed, and some time was to pass before the Spaniards were to make further attempts at northward exploration. The work already done had been most disheartening. The primitive vessels in which the voyages had been made proved death-traps ; in many instances the commanders and pilots died from scurvy or exposure, or were shipwrecked or slain by savages. Moreover, the region that they were endeavouring to penetrate lay concealed behind fogs and held out but the vaguest promise of treasure—the sole object of the Spaniards. For over fifty years after Cabrillo's voyage no expedition left Mexico for the north. Meanwhile a new force appeared in the Pacific. Spain had been so long unmolested in the vast South Sea that she felt secure, and without fear of attack loaded her treasure ships from the mines of Peru and welcomed at the Isthmus of Panama the galleons laden with the riches of the East. The famous English freebooter (he can scarcely be designated by any other name) Francis Drake saw in the Pacific 16 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION a chance of gaining wealth and taking vengeance on the Spaniards, the enemies of England. In 1577 Drake set sail for the Pacific with five ships. Two, the Christopher and the Swan, were lost to him while he was on the Atlantic, a third, the Marygold, disappeared during a time of storm near the Strait of Magellan, and a fourth, the Elizabeth, deserted him and returned to England; but he fearlessly pressed on into a region where for over half a century Spain had been strongly entrenched. In the Pelican, with her name changed to the Golden Hind, Drake entered the South Sea in September 1578. He swept up the coast with fire and sword, burning and plundering Spanish towns and capturing Spain's richly laden argosies. To return to England by way of the Strait of Magellan would be dangerous, so Drake decided upon a course of unparalleled boldness. Somewhere in the dim and misty north lay the Strait of Anian —a mythical passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. He determined to sail northward, discover this strait, and sweep back in triumph through it to his native land. Nothing seemed impossible to this audacious mariner. The prow of the Golden Hind was turned northward, but as the heavily laden vessel crept up the coast a strong, steady north-west wind beat upon her and she was soon wallowing in a region of fogs. The biting cold chilled the mariners to the bone. The crew became scurvy-smitten, and after reaching a point claimed by some to have been in latitude 480, by others 430, Drake decided to abandon the attempt to reach England by a northern passage. The vessel's course was shaped to the south-east, and in \ a faire and good bay,' under the 38th parallel, the vessel rode peacefully at anchor for five weeks. This bay is now known as Drake's Bay. Here the crew were refreshed, and while at this spot Drake formally took possession of the region for the queen of England and named it New Albion. By this name it was to be known for at least two hundred years, for, in the instructions given to Captain Cook in 1776 by the Earl of Sandwich, the first lord of the Admiralty, there are the words: j You are to . . . proceed on as direct a course as you can to the coast of New Albion, endeavouring to fall in with it in the latitude of 450 THE SPANIARDS 17 North.' Drake was thus the first Englishman to land on the Pacific shore of the North American continent, and his farthest north was probably at a point beyond that of any Spanish explorers. He was certainly the first to take possession of the country north of Lower California, and that apparently with the consent of the inhabitants, who, he reports, crowned him king of the country. Other freebooters, English and Dutch, frequented the Pacific during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but only Drake's exploits, through the fact that he laid claim to New Albion for England, have any bearing on the history of the north-west coast. The hardy mariner sailed home by way of the Cape of Good Hope and arrived in England in September 1580, the first British seaman to circumnavigate the world. By 1596 the Spaniards were again turning their thoughts to the north country. In this year Sebastian Vizcaino with three ships sailed from Acapulco and explored the Sea of Cortes, by this time known as the Gulf of California ; but this expedition added nothing of importance to geographical knowledge. In 1602 Vizcaino again set out from Acapulco with the object of surveying the west coast of North America. On January 12, 1603, he had attained the 41st parallel, but the stormy winter seas prevented his further progress. In this expedition the Tres Reyes, commanded by Martin d'Aguilar, was driven northward before the storm. D'Aguilar sighted the entrance of a large river thought by some authorities to be the Columbia. He certainly reached latitude 430 and named Cape Blanco. The crew suffered extreme hardship, and both d'Aguilar and his pilot, Antonio Flores, died from exposure before their vessel made San Diego harbour. For over a century and a half no other attempt was made by Spain or any other European power, save Russia in the extreme north, to explore the North Pacific waters. Scurvy, cold, and inhospitable shores seem to have deterred Spanish mariners from venturing into those unfrequented seas. There was, perhaps, another reason. Rumours were rife of a Strait of Anian having been discovered, and the Spanish authorities feared that if such a route through the 18 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION continent or around the north of it were discovered their security in the Pacific would be at an end, and so until 1774 Spain remained content with exploiting the riches of Mexico and of South America. A word is now in place with regard to this mysterious Strait of Anian. The first mention of it is in 1555, when one Martin Chake (or Chaque) claimed to have sailed from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, arriving at a point north of California in latitude 590. In 1574 a mariner named Ladrillo stated that from a point near Newfoundland he had sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1588 Lorenzo Ferro de Maldonado, a Portuguese, in a memoir that he presented to the council of the Indies, made the claim that he had sailed from the Pacific through seas and channels north of America. In 1625 a story appeared from the pen of Michael Lok, who declared that a Greek sailor known to history as Juan de Fuca, but whose real name was Apostolos Valerianos, had in 1592 sailed through a broad strait situated between latitudes 470 and 480. After the discovery of the strait named Juan de Fuca by Captain Charles William Barkley, this story was believed to be true and is still given credence by many non- critical students. A careful examination of Lok's narrative shows its absurdity. De Fuca's strait was thirty or forty leagues wide at its mouth ; the actual strait is not as many miles wide. The country, too, was ' very fruitful and rich in gold, silver and pearls, and other things, like Nova Spania.' This, to any one familiar with the strait and the people inhabiting the country washed by it, is the clearest evidence that the story was made out of whole cloth either by de Fuca or by Lok. According to the story, de Fuca, who was in the service of Spain at the time of his pretended discovery, had been plundered by the freebooter Cavendish. To obtain for the old Greek mariner compensation for his losses, and employment, Lok further states that he had written the English authorities on his behalf ; but nothing in the archives of Mexico or Spain or among the state papers of England shows that such a man as de Fuca ever existed. In 1640 Admiral Bartolomede de Fonte, according to an account published in 1708, claimed to have sailed from the Atlantic THE SPANIARDS 19 to the Pacific by means of a chain of lakes and rivers extending across the continent. These stories were long believed by many and had numerous defenders. They were accepted by some scientists at the time and had not a little influence on map-making. At a later date the scientific surveys of Captains Cook and Vancouver definitely put an end to them. They served their purpose, however, for they kept alive among mariners the ambition to find a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific through or around the continent of North America; and they prove that Baron Munchausens were not uncommon during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the meantime, as we shall see later, Russia was active from the north and had gained a foothold on the islands in Alaskan waters and on the mainland itself. The extent of Russia's explorations was but vaguely known, but the stories of Russian operations, combined with the powerful hold England had gained on the eastern shores of North America, impelled Spain once more to turn her attention to the region lying north of CaUfornia. San Bias, on the west coast of Mexico, was made a base of operations. Here arsenals, shipyards and warehouses were built, and energetic preparations were made to send a strong and well-equipped expedition to survey the coast as far north as the 60th degree of latitude. The commander chosen for this expedition was Don Juan Perez, who was accompanied by Don Estevan Martinez, whose high-handed action fifteen years later was to be the cause of ousting Spain from the Northern Pacific. The explorers sailed in the Santiago from San Bias on January 5, 1774. They beat their way northward through storms and fog, catching occasional glimpses of the coast, but making no accurate survey, until on July 18 they reached the Queen Charlotte Islands between latitudes 530 and 540. A high mountain on Graham Island was named San Cristobal, and what is now North Cape they christened Cape Santa Margarita. About latitude 530 58' natives were seen. These mistrusted the strangers, and although they paddled about the ship in their canoes, they would not go on board, and any trading they did was from their vessels. 20 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION Father Crespi, who accompanied Perez on this voyage, gave a detailed account of these Indians, which is of peculiar interest as it is the earliest description we have of the powerful and highly interesting Haida Indians. He writes : All appeared with the body completely covered, some with skins of otter and other animals, others with cloaks woven of wool or hair, . . . and a garment like a cape and covering them to the waist, the rest of the person being clothed in dressed skins or the woven woollen clothes of different colours and handsome patterns. . . . Most of them wore hats of leaves. . . . The women are clothed in a similar manner, they wear pendants [labrets] from the lower lip, which is pierced, a disk painted in colours, which appeared to be of wood, slight and curved, which makes them seem very ugly, and at a little distance they appear as if the tongue was hanging out of the mouth. Perez does not seem to have had the courage to continue his journey to the 6oth degree of latitude, but shortly after leaving the Haida decided to turn southward. Water was running short, but either through fear of the savages or on account of not finding a good roadstead, the Spaniards did not land to replenish their water supply. Southward they sailed until on August 18 they made a landfall about latitude 490 at a spot Martinez afterwards claimed to be Nootka Sound. The place was called by them San Lorenzo. From the description of the coast and the character of the anchorage found it was clearly not Nootka Sound, but in all probability a point under Cape Estevan several miles to the south. At San Lorenzo they were again visited by natives, who were in many respects like the savages of Queen Charlotte Islands. A little trade was carried on with these Indians, but no landing was made. From San Lorenzo the Santiago, with a crew suffering from scurvy and with provisions running low, made her way for Monterey. On this entire trip no landing was made on the coast or on any of the islands lying opposite it, and yet it was mainly on the strength of Perez's explorations that Spain, in the controversy which later arose, based her right to occupy Nootka and to prohibit other nations THE SPANIARDS 21 from sharing in the trade of the North Pacific between Lower California and Alaska. In the following year another and better-equipped expedition was fitted out for northward exploration. This was composed of two vessels, the corvette Santiago under Lieutenant Don Bruno Heceta with Juan Perez as quartermaster, and the schooner Felicidad, afterwards called the Sonora, under Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra with Alfrez Antonio Maurelle as quartermaster. The expedition left San Bias on March 16, 1775. Land was sighted at latitude 480 26'. The strait reported to have been discovered by Juan de Fuca was supposed to lie between latitudes 470 and 480, and Heceta carefully explored the coast and definitely proved that in this region no such strait existed. A landing was made under Point Grenville in latitude 470 20'. A cross was erected here and formal possession taken of the country in the name of the king of Spain. This, so far as has been recorded, was the first time that Europeans set foot on the north-west coast of North America north of Drake's Bay. Here a number of sailors from the Sonora ventured ashore, only to be massacred by the natives. The scene of this tragedy was named Punta de Martires (Martyrs' Point), and an island in the vicinity was called Isla de Dolores (Isle of Sorrows). At this point twelve years later a number of sailors from the Imperial Eagle, commanded by Captain Barkley, suffered a similar fate and the island was then named Destruction. Heceta soon grew weary of buffeting the northern seas and counselled returning. Perez, Quadra and Maurelle overcame his objections and it was decided to continue the northward voyage; but Heceta, after reaching the 50th parallel, in a time of storm turned his vessel about and steered for Monterey. In latitude 480 17', from the strong current sweeping from the shore and the wide opening in the land, Heceta believed he had discovered a mighty river. This was the Columbia, of which Jonathan Carver in his wanderings in the West in 1766-68 had heard and which he had named the ' Oregan,' and the bar of which Gray in the Columbia Rediviva was to cross seventeen years later. I II I M I! ■1 1 p 8 y 22 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION Quadra and Maurelle, in their tiny, ill-manned craft, bravely swept northward and at last sighted a towering snow-capped mountain, which they named San Jacinto— the Mount Edgecumbe of Captain Cook. At what is now Norfolk Sound they were visited by natives. A boat was sent ashore and an attempt was made to get wood and water without payment, but this was fiercely resisted by the natives and the cross that the landing party erected was torn down in derision as soon as the Spaniards had returned to their vessel. Farther northward exploration was out of the question and a return course was taken. At Port Bucareli, on the west side of the Prince of Wales archipelago, Quadra again landed and took possession of the country for Spain. Storm-shattered, with a scurvy-smitten crew, the little Sonora staggered back to San Bias, which port she reached on November 20. The next important exploring expedition into the North Pacific was that under the English captain, James Cook; but before considering his notable voyage one other Spanish expedition needs to be mentioned. In February 1779 Captain Ignacio Arteaga in the Princessa, accompanied by Quadra in the Favorita with the sturdy Maurelle as second officer, sailed from San Bias. After voyaging for four months the vessels reached Port Bucareli, where several weeks were spent replenishing the water supply, equipping the ship and trading with the natives. Northward they once more directed their vessels until a tall snow-clad mountain peak towering above the clouds was sighted. This was Mount St Elias, which thirty years before had been discovered and named by the heroic Dane, Vitus Bering. Shortly afterwards it was decided to turn back, and on November 21 the Princessa and Favorita cast anchor at San Bias. The majority of the Spanish expeditions had ended in disaster. Few of the captains made a landing, and those who did accomplished but little. They merely touched at isolated points, and while the general trend of the coast was known, so poor were their nautical instruments that their landfalls are inaccurately located. Moreover, what journals the explorers kept were hidden in the archives of Mexico or Spain CAPTAIN JAMES COOK AT NOOTKA SOUND 23 and the world was little the wiser for the efforts they had put forth. It was left for Captain Cook and Captain Vancouver and the fur traders who followed in the wake of Cook to survey the coast of what is now British Columbia, and to make known to the world its character and resources, and the manners and customs of its inhabitants. II CAPTAIN JAMES COOK AT NOOTKA SOUND BRITISH mariners had long been hammering at the icebound seas adjoining Hudson Bay and Davis Strait in search of a north-west passage to the South Sea. Parliament had, in 1745, offered a reward of £20,000 for the discovery of a passage to the Pacific. In 1775, about the time of Captain James Cook's return from his second voyage around the world, it was decided to extend the scope of this reward. The money had been offered only to commanders of vessels who should discover a passage through Hudson Bay, but it was now decided to open it to j any ship belonging to His Majesty, or his subjects,' which 'should find and sail through any passage by sea, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in any direction or parallel of the northern hemisphere, to the northward of the 52d deg. of northern latitude.' When Cook returned from his notable second voyage he had been made a post-captain and appointed one of the captains of Greenwich Hospital, a position that assured him a liberal income and the rest he needed after many years of almost continuous battling against difficult seas. When the subject of the discovery of a passage from the Pacific came up for discussion he was naturally consulted; the greatness of the undertaking took hold of his imagination, and he volunteered to lead an expedition into the icy seas known only to the world through the vague reports of the work done by Vitus Bering and Chirikoff and by the traders who had ventured to the lands discovered by them. The Admiralty gladly accepted Cook's services, and an exploring and scientific expedition was fitted out to settle definitely the 24 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION question whether the Strait of Anian, of de Fonte, Mal- donado, and de Fuca, had any real existence. Captain Cook had already played an important part in the history of Eastern Canada. It was he who was in charge of the scout vessels that enabled the fleet bearing Wolfe's forces to Quebec to navigate successfully the difficult waters of the St Lawrence, and he had afterwards surveyed a part of the coasts of Newfoundland and of Nova Scotia. He was now to take the initial step in British exploration on the north-west coast of North America, and by his efforts was to give England a fighting claim to the western shores of what is now the Dominion of Canada. In a way Cook was the greatest of Great Britain's empire-builders. That the British ' morning drum-beat, following the sun and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England ' is largely due, to the explorations of James Cook on his three remarkable voyages. The Admiralty equipped in a most efficient manner the Resolution, of 462 tons burden and 112 men, and the Discovery, of 300 tons burden and 80 men. Cook had command of the expedition and was to sail in the Resolution, while his second in command, Captain Charles Clerke, was given charge of the Discovery. Clerke, although a comparatively young man, was a mariner of great experience, having already circumnavigated the world on three occasions—as a midshipman under Commodore Byron (1764-66), as a master's mate of the Endeavour under Cook (1768-71), and again under Cook as second lieutenant of the Resolution (1772-75). The officials of the Admiralty left nothing undone to make the expedition a success. Every detail was looked after ; and while exploration and discovery were uppermost in their minds, they saw to it that scientific investigation should not be neglected. The surgeon of the Resolution, Anderson, was a trained naturalist, and an artist named Webber accompanied the expedition to make sketches of the harbours, the natives, the animals, and any other things of importance that might be discovered. The instructions were most explicit. After visiting the regions discovered by him on his CAPTAIN JAMES COOK AT NOOTKA SOUND 25 previous voyage, Cook was to sail from the Pacific islands direct to the north-west coast of North America and was to make a landing at New Albion in latitude 450 N. Here he was to refit his vessels, replenish his ships with wood and water, and procure refreshment for his crews. He was then to proceed northward as far as latitude 650, or farther if possible. He was to lose no time on the way exploring inlets or rivers, his aim being to reach latitude 650 in the month of June. When this point was attained he was to search diligently for a passage pointing toward Hudson Bay or Baffin Bay. He was furnished with an Eskimo vocabulary so that he might be able to converse with the natives of the extreme north. It might happen that his ships would not be able to sail through the passage if one were discovered, and he was provided with the frames of two small vessels, which he could put together and use in case of necessity. If he failed to find a passage in his first attempt, he was to winter at the port of St Peter and St Paul (Petropavlovsk) in Kamchatka, or wherever else he might judge more proper ; in the spring of the following year he was to make another attempt, then, whether he failed or succeeded, he was to return to England ' by such route' as he might " think best for the improvement of geography and navigation.' The coasts visited ' for the benefit of the navy and commerce' were to be surveyed, charted, and sketched, and the nature of the soil and the produce thereof observed. The animals and the fowl and fish of the regions touched at were to be noted, likewise the metals, minerals or valuable stones ; and if any 'extraneous fossils' were discovered, specimens of each were to be brought home, ' as also the seeds of such trees, shrubs, plants, fruits, and grains peculiar to those places, as you may be able to collect.' The genius, temper, dis- k position and number of the natives and inhabitants were to be observed, and all proper means were to be adopted to cultivate their friendship. Finally Cook was instructed to take possession of lands that had not already been visited by the navigators of other European powers. On July 12, 1776, the Resolution and the Discovery set sail from Plymouth Sound. They shaped their course VOL. XXI D u*^^ 26 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION around the Cape of Good Hope, passed through the Indian Ocean, visited Kerguelen Land, Tasmania and New Zealand, and on January 19, 1778, discovered the Sandwich Islands. On February 2 the expedition sailed from these islands direct for New Albion and on March 7 made a landfall in latitude 44° 33'- The explorers stood northward for a time, but a severe gale drove them back to latitude 420. When the gale subsided, the northward course was again taken and land made at 470 5'. The appearance of the shore well to the north promised a good harbour, but the mariners were disappointed and Cook gave vent to his feelings by naming the spot sighted Cape Flattery. Between latitudes 470 and 480 search was made for the Strait of Juan de Fuca. No opening was found, and Cook wrote in his log-book with regard to this strait: g Saw nothing like it: nor is there,' he added, ' the least possibility that any such thing ever existed.' While he penned these words, within a day's sail, under favourable conditions, lay an arm of the sea deep and broad, leading to the most picturesque scenery on the western coast. Had he persevered in his explorations in this quarter he might have been convinced, as was Captain Barkley nine years later, that the de Fuca story was a true one ; but storm and sleet kept him from the entrance of the strait, and he pressed northward until he came within sight of a promising harbour, lying between the 49th and 50th parallels. The region about the bay was full of high mountains, whose summits were covered with snow. j But the valleys between them, and the grounds on the seacoast, high as well as low, were covered to a considerable breadth with high, straight trees, that formed a beautiful prospect, as of one vast forest.' Thus, on March 29, 1778, Nootka Sound was discovered, and this date marks an important event in the growth of the British Empire. Through Cook's discoveries and surveys England was to have a better title to the region lying between California and Alaska than Spain, whose mariners, although they had named headlands and bays along the coast, had up to this time made no landing on the shores of what is now British Columbia. As the vessels approached the inlet the wind fell. Three CAPTAIN JAMES COOK AT NOOTKA SOUND 27 canoes set out from shore toward the becalmed ships. As they drew near, the natives in them cast feathers and a red dust or powder in the air, while one of their number holding in each hand a rattle, which he kept shaking, uttered a welcoming harangue. One native ' sung a very agreeable air with a degree of softness and melody ' that astonished the explorers. ' One canoe was remarkable for a singular head, which had a bird's eye and bill of enormous size painted on it; and a person who was in it, who seemed to be a chief, was no less remarkable for his uncommon appearance, having many feathers hanging from his head, and being painted in an extraordinary manner.' On the following day when the ships came to anchor a fleet of canoes surrounded them and a brisk trade was carried on. The natives offered in exchange for the goods which the explorers possessed skins of ' bears, wolves, foxes, deer, racoons, polecats, martens; and in particular, the sea-otters.' This marks the beginning of the fur trade on the north-west coast south of Alaska, and was the most important scene yet enacted in the Northern Pacific. A steady and lucrative trade was to follow. It was the initial step in bringing the north-west coast under British rule. The natives had with them ' little ornaments of thin brass and iron, shaped like a horse shoe, which they hang at their noses ; and several chisels or pieces of iron fixed to handles.* It was clear from this that they had previously been in contact with Europeans. Whence did they obtain the iron ? It is not easy to decide, but we know that there was wide trade between tribes, and that goods of Mexican make have been found among the Indians of Eastern Canada; so it is quite possible that the iron weapons and ornaments had passed from tribe to tribe either from the Russian traders of the Aleutian Islands or from the settlements of New Spain. The Indians of Nootka Sound were a savage people, possibly in some instances given to cannibalism, for Cook records that 4 the most extraordinary of all the articles which they brought to the ship for sale were human skulls and hands not yet quite stripped of the flesh, which they made our people plainly understand they had eaten; and, indeed, some of them had evident marks that they had been upon the fire.' For their furs and other articles the Indians ' took in exchange 28 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION knives, chisels, pieces of iron and tin, nails, looking-glasses, buttons, or any kind of metal.' Four weeks were spent in Nootka Sound, to which Cook first gave the name King George's Sound, but before leaving the inlet, understanding that the Indians called it Nootka, he altered the name. The sojourn at this place was a busy one. Some of the spars and masts had rotted during the two years since the vessels left Plymouth and new ones had to be made before they could venture into the northern region. While the majority of the officers and men were busy refitting the vessels, Cook explored the west side of the Sound and, thence crossing to the eastern side, proved that the land off which his vessels lay was a small island. During the sojourn at Nootka, Dr Anderson made numerous scientific notes ; of particular value are his ethnological observations on the manners and customs of the natives. At the same time Wejbber was busy; the natives, their implements of war, their household utensils, and other striking features of their lives and surroundings were sketched. While the Resolution and the Discovery stayed at Nootka the Indians behaved in the most friendly manner. In the light of what we now know of their character it seems very probable that this friendship was inspired by the powerful armament of the British ships. On April 26 the vessels were once more ready for sea and, dropping out of Nootka Sound, sailed for the polar regions. Through boisterous gales and seas they beat their way northward until on May 11, in latitude 6o° at Kaye's Island,1 Cook landed, and ' at the foot of a tree on a little eminence, not far from the shore, I left a bottle with a paper in it, on which was inscribed the names of the ships and the date of our discovery. And along with it I enclosed two silver twopenny pieces of His Majesty's coin of the date 1772.' A careful survey of this part of the coast was made, and then Cook directed his vessels past Cape Prince of Wales and thence towards the Asiatic shore. He named the strait between Alaska and Asia in honour of its first great explorer, Bering. The northward voyage was continued until latitude 700 44'' was reached, but here a compact, impenetrable wall 1 Named after the Rev. Dr Kaye, then Dean of Lincoln. « rii CAPTAIN JAMES COOK AT NOOTKA SOUND 29 of ice, black with multitudes of walruses or sea-horses, was encountered. Cook was now convinced that there was no passage through the continent south of latitude 720, and this voyage of 1778 had thus the effect of going far towards settling the myth of the Strait of Anian. Cook sailed for a time along the Asiatic shore, then visited the Aleutian Islands, and in September set out for the Sandwich Islands, where in February he was murdered by natives. Thus ended the career of a naval officer who occupies the same place in exploration that Nelson occupies in naval warfare; the one displayed the British flag on every sea, the other gave Great Britain a supremacy on the ocean that was to make secure her widely scattered empire. Captain Clerke now took command of the expedition and Lieutenant Gore was given charge of the ship Discovery. In 1779, following out the instruction of the Admiralty, Clerke decided to make another effort to find a passage leading to the Atlantic. This young captain—he was only thirty-eight—was of heroic mould. At this time he was suffering from consumption, and it was almost suicidal for him to venture into the northern seas, but he obeyed the voice of duty. The expedition reached 700 30*', when further progress was prevented by an ice barrier similar to the one met with in the preceding year. The ships were headed for Kamchatka, and there at Petropavlovsk Captain Clerke died. Captain Gore then took command of the expedition and Lieutenant King was placed in charge of the Discovery. It was decided to return to England by way of China and the Cape of Good Hope, and on October 4, 1780, the two sturdy vessels with their weather-beaten crews reached the Nore, after a trying voyage of over four years. So wisely did Cook and his officers look after the health of their men on this famous expedition that only five were lost through sickness, three of whom were ill before leaving England. The Discovery during four years had not suffered the loss of a single member of her crew. The voyage of the Resolution and the Discovery had a threefold interest. It gave England good ground for laying claim by right of discovery and survey to the north-west M q 1 w 30 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION coast of North America ; it trained a number of future explorers and traders such as Vancouver, Broughton, Colnett, Portlock, and Dixon, who were with Cook, to North Pacific conditions ; and it marked the beginning of the trade in sea-otter pelts on the north-west coast. WEST COAST FUR TRADE WHEN the Discovery and the Resolution reached Macao on their return trip to England, the sailors found that the furs secured at Nootka Sound, particularly the sea-otter pelts, were a valuable asset. Skins that they had bought for a few glass beads sold in some instances for over a hundred dollars. A sum equal to about ten thousand dollars was realized for the furs the vessels had collected in the brief stay at Nootka Sound. The sailors were for returning at once to the north-west coast, and Gore proposed that the East India Company should enter vigorously on the sea- otter trade, but it was not until 1785 that further attempt was made to exploit the wealth of furs to be gathered at Nootka Sound. When the expedition returned to England there was delay in publishing the account of the voyage, and it was only in 1784 that the commercial world became fully alive to the possibilities of the sea-otter trade. The first voyage to Nootka Sound solely for furs was made in 1785 by Captain James Hanna in a vessel of sixty tons, but the fur trade is dealt with elsewhere1 and will be considered here only in so far as those engaged in it explored the coast and charted new lands. Hanna, in his first voyage, apparently made straight for Nootka Sound, loaded his vessel, and returned without adding anything of importance to north-west coast history. In the following year the Captain Cook and the Experiment, commanded respectively by Captains Lowrie and Guise, arrived at Nootka. A month was spent on the Sound and then a northward course was taken. When the expedition was ready to sail from Nootka 1 See ' Economic History ' in this section. WEST COAST FUR TRADE 31 the surgeon, John Mackey, who was suffering from scurvy, was left behind at his own request to recover his health, and incidentally to gain a knowledge of the region and of the language of the natives. The Captain Cook and the Experiment reached the north end of Vancouver Island, examined a portion of Queen Charlotte Sound, skirted the coast of the mainland to Princess Royal Islands, then, turning westward, rounded Cape St James at the south end of Queen Charlotte Islands and cruised northward until on August 29 the north end of Graham Island was reached. Somewhere between the southern and northern ends of Queen Charlotte Islands they passed in a heavy fog the vessels of La P6rouse, the first French explorer to venture into the waters of the North Pacific. A rough chart of the route was prepared, a chart that was to be of great aid to future expeditions. In August of the same year Hanna again arrived at Nootka, this time in the Sea-Otter of one hundred and twenty tons. He had rivals in the field and furs were scarce at the Sound, so he sought them in more northern waters. In the course of this voyage he entered and named Smith Sound and Fitzhugh Sound, and also located and named Virgin Rocks and Peril Rocks ; the latter was afterwards placed on Vancouver's chart as Pearl Rocks. Also, in July of this year two of the members of Cook's expedition appeared upon the north-west coast — Captain Nathaniel Portlock, who had been a master's mate under Cook and was now in command of the King George, and Captain George Dixon, former armourer of the Discovery, who was now commanding the Queen Charlotte. These vessels spent three years trading along the coast from Prince of Wales Island to Vancouver Island, making, as Dixon—after whom Dixon Entrance was named—wrote, considerable additions to the geography of the coast. How vague was the knowledge of the traders regarding the region can be gathered from Dixon's remarks : ' So imperfectly do we still know it [the coast] that it is in some measure to be doubted whether we have yet seen the mainland ; certain it is that the coast abounds with islands, but whether any land we have seen is It I a II § 9 i m i as as •si ^ 32 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION really the continent remains to be detennined by future navigators.' The British parliament had granted the East India Company a monopoly of the trade in the South Sea, and this included the north-west coast of North America. To avoid the necessity of obtaining a licence from the company the owners of the ship Loudoun, who were, in fact, connected with the company, and were making preparations to trade on their own behalf, changed the name of the vessel and called her the Imperial Eagle, and decided to sail her under the Austrian flag. On this ship Captain Charles William Barkley sailed from Ostend for the north-west coast in the autumn of 1786, taking with him his young wife, the first European woman to appear on the waters washing Vancouver Island. The Imperial Eagle reached Nootka Sound in June 1787. When the vessel cast anchor the traders were surprised by a visit from a white man dressed in native garb. This was Mackey, who had been left at Nootka in the previous year. Mackey accompanied Barkley on his expedition southward past Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds, and as he knew the best places for obtaining sea-otter skins, and was familiar with the native language, he was of invaluable service. Towards the end of July, as the Imperial Eagle sailed southward, skirting the shores of Vancouver Island, a wide strait opened before the astonished and delighted gaze of the traders. This was evidently the strait about which rumour had been rife for nearly one hundred and fifty years —the long-lost strait of Juan de Fuca. BeUeving this to be the case, Barkley charted it under that name. Mrs Barkley, in a careful diary she kept of the voyage, thus narrates the discovery of the strait: In the afternoon, to our great astonishment we arrived off a large opening extending to the eastward the entrance of which appeared to be about four leagues wide, and remained that width as far as the eye could see, with a clear easterly horizon, which my husband immediately recognized as the long-lost strait of Juan de Fuca, and to which he gave the name of the original discoverer, my husband placing it upon his chart. WEST COAST FUR TRADE 33 The Imperial Eagle had on board a rich supply of furs, and, as her captain was but little interested in exploration, no attempt was made to navigate the strait, Barkley being content with a passing glimpse of its wide waters. A southward course was kept, and at latitude 470 43', at the mouth of the River Ohahlat or Hoh, a landing was made to collect more pelts. It was at this point, near Destruction Island, as previously stated, that the natives murdered a number of the crew of the Imperial Eagle, including the mate and the purser. Shortly after this tragedy the ship set sail for China. Besides the discovery of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Barkley seems to have gathered information that was to have a profound influence on further exploration from Mackey, who, from the reports of the natives and from his own observations during excursions he had made into the country about Nootka Sound, was led to believe that the region known as Nootka was not a part of the mainland, but was separated from the continent of America by ' a chain of detached islands.' No name stands out more prominently among the early fur traders of the Pacific than that of Captain John Meares. This mariner's first voyage to the north-west coast was made in the year 1786 in the Nootka. He had previously sent the Sea-Otter under Captain Tipping to North America. When Meares arrived at Prince William Sound he found that the Sea-Otter had left for the north, and the next news he had of the vessel was that she had been wrecked somewhere on the coast of Kamchatka. He spent a year trading with the natives in the region of Prince William Sound, and in the autumn of 1787 returned to China. On this voyage he apparently touched at no part of what is now the coast of British Columbia. In January 1788 Meares sold the Nootka, and, in partnership with several merchants connected with the East India Company and who were not above trading on their own account without the permission or knowledge of the corporation, purchased two vessels, the Felice and the Iphi- genia. At this time all vessels trading with China, save those under the Portuguese flag, had to pay heavy port 5, m I ■■ 1 I i 1 1 i 1 1 1 1 1 1 34 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION charges. To avoid these charges, to use the words of Meares himself, he and his associates had obtained the name of Juan Cawalho to their firm, though he had no actual concern in the stock ; that Cawalho, though by birth a Portuguese, had been naturalized at Bombay. . . . That the intimacy existing between Cawalho and the governor of Macao had been the principal cause of their forming this nominal connection, and that Cawalho had in consequence obtained his permission that the two ships above mentioned, in case it should be found convenient to do so, should be allowed to navigate under, or claim any advantages granted to, the Portuguese flag. Thus the expedition carried with it a Portuguese who, in case of necessity, could act as leader, while the real leaders appeared as supercargoes. This duplicity excuses in a measure the act of Martinez in seizing the Iphigenia in 1789. There was undoubtedly 'another reason why the Portuguese flag was used—a similar reason to that which inspired the owners of the Imperial Eagle to sail her under the Austrian flag— that the necessity of obtaining a trader's licence from the East India Company would be avoided. Meares and his associates were most unscrupulous traders, and unfortunately every act of Meares is marked with duplicity. The Felice, commanded by Meares, and the Iphigenia, in charge of Captain William Douglas, reached Nootka on May 13, 1788. The traders received an enthusiastic welcome from the Indians ruled by Chief Maquinna—called Maquilla by Meares—and from Chief Callicum. When the vessels cast anchor, the scene enacted on the arrival of Cook ten years before was repeated. Meares gives a detailed account of the natives, and although much of the narrative of his voyage is unreliable, he could have no reason to write otherwise than truthfully about the welcome extended to him by the Indians. His description of their singing shows that in respect to this art the natives of the north-west coast were the superiors of any other Indians in North America. Meares writes : We listened to their song with an equal degree of surprise and pleasure. It was, indeed, impossible for any ear CALLICUM AND MAQUILLA (Maquinna), CHIEFS OF NOOTKA SOUND Photographed by Savannah from Meares>s ' Voyages' anuoa a;itoom MM-Ul VL~.U-M-.mimm.MLiM ft kL WEST COAST FUR TRADE 35 susceptible of delight from musical sounds, or any mind not insensible to the power of melody, to remain unmoved by this solemn, unexpected concert. The chorus was in unison, and strictly correct as to time and tune ; nor did a dissonant note escape them. Sometimes they would make a sudden transition from the high to the low tones, with such melancholy turns in their variations, that we could not reconcile to ourselves the manner in which they acquired or contrived this more than untaught melody of nature. There was also something for the eye as well as the ear, and the action that accompanied their voices added very much to the impression which the chanting made upon us all. Everyone beat time with undeviating regularity against the gunwale of the boat with their paddles ; and at the end of every verse they pointed with extended arms to the north and south, gradually sinking their voices in such a solemn manner as to produce an effect not often attained by the orchestras of European nations.1 It must indeed have struck the mariners as an astonishing entertainment, especially as the greater part of the performers were ' clothed in the most beautiful skins of the sea-otter which covered them from their necks to their ankles. Their hair was covered with the white down of birds, and their faces bedaubed with red and black ochre.' Meares at once proceeded to carry out his intention of establishing a permanent post at Nootka, and according to Robert Dutton, first officer of the Felice, he purchased the land about Friendly Cove, a snug harbour at the entrance of the Sound, from Maquinna ' for eight or ten sheets of copper and several other trifling articles.' On this land a substantial house of two storeys was erected. A breastwork was thrown up about it and a cannon was placed in such a position as to protect it from attack, either from the waterfront or from Nootka village. Meares had brought Chinese carpenters with him, and these were set to work at once to lay the keel of a vessel. A few days were spent trading with the Indians ; then, leaving a part of his crew to man the newly constructed fort and to complete his vessel, Meares left 1 Meares's Voyages. 36 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION Nootka on a trading expedition southward. The Iphigenia likewise departed and voyaged north to trade and to chart the coast as far as Cook's River. The Felice sailed first to Clayoquot Sound, where the traders were welcomed by Wicaninish, the chief ruling over that district. After securing a number of fine sea-otter pelts, Meares continued his southward voyage. On June 29 the Felice arrived at the entrance of the strait discovered and charted by Barkley. In his account of the voyage Meares speaks of the strait as being from twelve to fourteen leagues wide—the clearest evidence that he did not enter it, as its width is only between fifteen and twenty miles. He adds, however : ' The strongest curiosity impelled us to enter this strait which we called by the name of its original discoverer, Juan de Fuca.' At this time Meares was fully cognizant of Barkley's discovery. He was in China when Barkley arrived there after his celebrated voyage and was now employed by the very men who owned the Imperial Eagle. Moreover, Mrs Barkley advances indisputable evidence that Meares was well informed regarding her husband's voyage and asserts that \ Captain Meares got possession of my husband's journal and plans.' Without entering the strait Meares continued down the coast, searching for a river of which he had heard, the Columbia. Failing to find this river he retraced his course, and on July 12 the Felice dropped anchor in Barkley Sound. Meares now sent Robert Dutton in a longboat to explore the strait, but Dutton got only as far as Port San Juan (Port Renfrew) when his little vessel was viciously attacked by natives and he was compelled to beat a hasty retreat. Meares once more displays his lack of veracity by recording that Dutton ' had sailed thirty leagues up the strait.' Dutton's journal proves this statement a false one. On July 29 Meares was back at his headquarters at Friendly Cove. Meanwhile the Iphigenia had arrived in port with a goodly supply of furs from the north, and Captain Gray had also appeared at Nootka in the Lady Washington. These captains and their crews took part in the demonstration connected with the launching of the new vessel which m at m M tum*^ m gi^L^AAJliAll^mJMkW^^^AytAig^ 1 WEST COAST FUR TRADE 37 had just been completed—the North-West America, the first vessel, save the canoes of the natives, that was constructed on the shores of what is now the Province of British Columbia. Meares now took on board the Felice all the furs that had been collected during the season and sailed for China. He instructed the Iphigenia and the North-West America to remain on the coast until autumn and then to sail to the Sandwich Islands to winter. Meares's venture had proved so successful that when he reached China the company for which he operated decided to send two additional vessels to Nootka in 1789—the Princess Royal, Captain Hudson, and the Argonaut, Captain Colnett. The Princess Royal had already visited the coast under the command of Captain Charles Duncan. In July 1787 this diminutive craft and her consort, the Prince of Wales, under Colnett, first arrived at Nootka. Barkley had depleted the vicinity of furs, and the vessels therefore sailed northward and spent the summer trading at the Queen Charlotte Islands. In August of the following year Duncan was once more off the coast near Nootka Sound, where he was visited by Meares. On August 15 he reached the Indian village of Classet on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a short distance east of Cape Flattery. This was the farthest point in the strait yet reached by any trader or explorer. While at Classet Duncan learned from the Indians, that a broad sea lay at the eastern end of the strait. According to them this sea j ran a great way up to the northward, and down to the southward.' This is the first definite information we have regarding the waters afterwards named Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia. In 1787 a trading and exploring expedition was fitted out in Boston for the north-west coast. This consisted of a square-rigged two-decker, the Columbia, two hundred and twelve tons, Captain John Kendrick, and a sloop, the Lady Washington (afterwards converted into a brig), ninety tons, Captain Robert Gray. The vessels arrived at Nootka Sound in 1788, and the United States flag was for the first time unfurled in North Pacific waters. The American captains decided to take the unusual course of wintering in n !i 1 vi 1 I 1 § u \m\ ■a >£ 38 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION the Sound. In the following summer Gray explored much of the coast, but added little to geographical knowledge. At the close of the season the commanders agreed to exchange ships, and Kendrick took command of the Lady Washington, while Gray in the Columbia sailed for Canton and sold his furs, and, taking on board a cargo of tea, returned to Boston. During the dispute regarding the Nootka Affair it was asserted by Meares that Kendrick had circumnavigated Vancouver Island in 1789. This assertion might be dismissed with the brief statement that it is one of Meares's many fabrications, but it later played such an important part in the Oregon Boundary dispute and was so widely believed, especially in the United States, that it demands at least passing notice. All the evidence is against the claim. Meares is the only authority for it, and he acknowledges that he had his information second-hand, information of the vaguest kind, and very possibly manufactured by himself to strengthen his claim for damages against the Spaniards. Neither Kendrick nor any of his friends or acquaintances or any members of his expedition ever hinted at such a voyage, and several of the Boston traders of 1789-90 have left records proving the falseness of Meares's assertions. When Vancouver met Gray in 1792 in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the American captain was greatly surprised to learn that such a story as the circumnavigation of Vancouver Island by the Lady Washington was abroad. He certainly knew nothing about such a voyage. Kendrick's voyage is in the same category as those of de Fonte and de Fuca, and its details were no doubt constructed by Meares on the information he had gathered from the Indians and others regarding the eastern side of the region known as Nootka. Of greater importance was the work of Gray in the Columbia in 1792. Gray arrived at Clayoquot in June 1791 and spent the summer trading. In the following spring he set out to find a river which he had reason to believe debouched into the Pacific about latitude 460. Gray, it may be stated, had already, in 1789, in the Lady Washington, penetrated farther than any previous explorer into the Strait THE NOOTKA AFFAIR 39 of Juan de Fuca—probably for a distance of fifty miles. He now sailed past the entrance to the strait and, sweeping southward, came to the mouth of the river of his search. On May n he crossed the bar and proceeded upstream for about ten miles. The shallowness of the river and the difficulties of its navigation prevented him, according to his account, from cruising farther up its waters. This river he named the Columbia, after his vessel. The discovery of the Columbia was an important event, and some fifty years later was much in evidence in the Oregon Boundary dispute. There were other voyages of minor importance during the years dealt with. Robert Funter in the North-West America had visited Queen Charlotte Sound and charted part of the coast; Joseph Ingraham in the brigantine Hope had in 1791 sailed along the Queen Charlotte Islands on both the east and west sides and charted the coast with a remarkable degree of accuracy. Thus, through the work of the early fur traders, the general character of the north-west coast was gradually becoming known; but there was still much to be done. Only the island fringe had yet been explored to any extent. It is now necessary to deal with a question of the greatest importance in early north-west coast history, a question which overlaps the story of the voyages of the last three years just narrated—the Nootka Affair. on sail in post in a point what is the sea THE NOOTKA AFFAIR July 13, 1728, the heroic Danish explorer in the Russian service, Vitus Bering, engaged on an expedition of discovery in North Pacific waters, set the Gabriel, a vessel he had built at a stockaded lower Kamchatka. Bering voyaged northward to about latitude 670 18'. During the time he was in now known as Bering Strait a heavy fog hung over and he failed to catch sight of the North American 40 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION continent, but he was convinced that the broad sea upon which he was sailing separated Asia from an unknown region whose existence he conjectured from the driftwood he saw. Many tall trees differing from those on Asiatic shores were seen, and birds of passage in numerous flocks passed his vessel. In the summer of 1729 Bering attempted further exploration, but on account of continuous fog he accomplished but little. On his return to Russia plans were made on a gigantic scale for exploration and scientific investigation and settlement. So cumbersome was the outfit, and so numerous the body of men on this expedition, that although it left St Petersburg in 1733, it was not until June 4, 1741, that Bering was ready to venture out in search of the continent believed to lie to the east. With Bering in the St Peter was Steller, a distinguished German naturalist, while the St Paul was commanded by Lieutenant Alexis Chirikoff, a man in every way worthy to be remembered as a daring and skilful explorer. Bering reached the islands off the coast of Alaska and saw and named Mount St Elias. He charted this region and, turning southward, discovered the Aleutian Islands, but as provisions and water were running low and his crew scurvy-smitten, it was resolved to return to Kamchatka. On November 4, in a time of storm, the island afterwards named Bering was sighted. The commander of the expedition was at this time prostrated in his cabin, battling for very life against disease. The St Peter fortunately drifted in safety through the reef fronting the island. A landing was made, and on this lonely spot, remote from the inhabited world, the winter was to be spent. The island teemed with marine mammals—the sea-lion, the sea-cow, the fur-seal, the sea-otter—and the Arctic fox. Here, shortly after landing, the noble Dane passed away, and his followers eked out a miserable existence until spring. The .5/ Peter suffered wreck in the harbour, and from her material the sailors constructed a rude vessel in which they escaped to the mainland. Chirikoff did quite as important work as Bering. He sighted the Alexandria archipelago about latitude 550 21/ and may have passed inside Chatham Strait. He afterwards sailed north-west and visited the broad harbour where THE NOOTKA AFFAIR 41 Sitka now stands. Here a boat landed, and as it was long ashore without showing any signs of returning, another boat was dispatched to learn the cause. Both boats were seized by the natives and the crews were massacred. With his ship's boats lost and his crew greatly diminished, Chirikoff was unable to continue his examination of the coast, and was forced to return to Kamchatka. This expedition under Bering and Chirikoff has great historical importance. It gave Russia a title to the Alaskan shore as far south as latitude 550—a title it held until the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867. The voyage of Cook marked the beginning of the sea- otter trade at Nootka ; the story of the expedition of Bering and Chirikoff had a similar effect on Russian traders; I pro- myshleniki,' as they were called, at once began to exploit the fur wealth of the islands the explorers had found. Reports of the Russian operations among the islands of the North Pacific and on the shores of Alaska gradually reached the world, and New Spain heard that it was the intention of the Russian-American Fur Company to establish a post in the vicinity of Nootka. To examine the Russian establishments and to learn what truth there might be in this rumour, Estevan Martinez, who had accompanied Juan Perez as pilot in 1774, was, in 1788, sent from Mexico to the North Pacific. On his return he reported that the Russians claimed the entire coast as far south as California by right of the discoveries of Bering and Chirikoff, and that an officer of the Russian - American Fur Company had stated that in the following year the company would establish a post at Nootka Sound. The viceroy of New Spain thereupon decided to send a strong expedition to Nootka to take formal possession of the place and establish a post there. This step was the beginning of the Nootka Affair. British traders were already on the ground and, as we have seen, had purchased from the natives the right to erect buildings at Friendly Cove. Of this fact the Spaniards were evidently ignorant, for when Martinez set out on his second expedition in 1789 his only thought seems to have been to forestall the threatened invasion of Nootka by the Russians. VOL. XXI F 42 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION With his armed ships the Princessa and the San Carlos, he sailed from San Bias for Nootka on February 17,1789. The Spanish commander claimed that in 1774 Juan Perez had entered the harbour and named it San Lorenzo. Martinez had been pilot on this voyage, and it is a most remarkable circumstance that, for the navigation of the waters at Nootka, he now relied not upon his own knowledge or on Spanish charts, but on Cook's chart, a copy of which he had obtained from Cook's recently published Voyages. He was instructed to assert the superior right against Russia that Spain had to the whole coast, and if he met foreign traders he was to endeavour, even if he had to use force, 'to prevent as far as possible their intercourse and commerce with the natives.' When Friendly Cove was reached on May 5, 1789, the Spaniards found two vessels there at anchor—the Iphigenia flying the Portuguese flag, and the United States ship Columbia, then commanded by Captain Kendrick. This British-owned ship under Portuguese colours and having a Portuguese captain named Viana aroused the suspicion of Martinez. He was at first friendly with Douglas, the real captain, but later arrested both Douglas and Viana and seized the Iphigenia. This act took place eight days after the Spaniards arrived at Nootka and was witnessed by Kendrick and by Gray, who had in the meantime arrived in the Lady Washington. No attempt was made to interfere with the American ships. The crew of the Iphigenia, according to Meares, were ill-treated and the vessel plundered ' of all merchandise which had been provided for trading, as also of her stores, provisions, nautical instruments, charts—even to the extent of the master's watch and articles of clothing.' The Iphigenia was later returned to the British, and Douglas left Nootka declaring his intention of sailing to China, but instead of making for Macao, he shaped his vessel's course to the north and engaged with success in trading. Evidently he had not been plundered of all his trading goods and nautical instruments, or Martinez must have returned much of the property. The little North-West America had been on a trading cruise while these acts were taking place, but on June 8 she returned to Nootka. Martinez promptly Ill THE NOOTKA AFFAIR 43 seized the vessel and confiscated her goods. He evidently intended to keep the craft, and rechristened her the Gertrudis, after his wife. On June 24, 1789, Nootka Sound was formally taken possession of by Martinez, and the region was claimed by right of discovery and by the Bull of Pope Alexander VI. Meanwhile the Princess Royal, Captain Hudson, had arrived on the scene and was allowed to depart unmolested. On July 2, the day on which Hudson left port, Captain Colnett arrived in the Argonaut. At first the intercourse between Colnett and Martinez was friendly, but later angry disputes arose between the choleric British captain and the domineering Spaniard, and these disputes resulted in the seizure of the Argonaut. On July 13 the Princess Royal returned to Nootka Sound and was straightway seized by Martinez. Four vessels had now been captured, two of which were undoubtedly British, and the others, as has been related, British save in flag only. The Argonaut and the Princess Royal and their crews were taken to San Bias. This high-handed action of a Spanish officer on the remote north-west coast of America was to set the dogs of war barking in Europe, and was, without bloodshed however, to cause the abandonment by Spain of her long-asserted right to supreme control on the western shores of the Pacific Ocean. Early in 1790 vague rumours reached England that a Spanish ship-of-war had seized a British trading vessel in Nootka. On February 10 the Spanish ambassador at London addressed a note on the matter to the British secretary for Foreign Affairs. He referred to the seizure of the Argonaut, which had, according to his note, come ' to take possession of Nootka in the name of the British king.1' This vessel and its crew had been seized, but the prisoners, it was stated, had been afterwards released. A request was made that His Britannic Majesty ' may punish such undertakings in a manner to restrain his subjects from continuing them on these coasts which have been occupied and frequented by the Spaniards for so many years.' The note added that ' His Majesty flatters himself that the Court of St James will not fail to give the strictest order to prevent such attempts i ■g^s-fES* 1 44 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION in future.' The Spanish ambassador was either poorly informed regarding the situation or concealed the fact that four vessels had been seized and that only the Iphigenia with her crew had been freed. At the time he wrote, the men of the Argonaut and the Princess Royal were prisoners in New' Spain. The reply to this note must have startled Spain. The action of Martinez made ' it necessary henceforth to suspend all discussion of the pretensions set forth in that letter until a ust and adequate satisfaction shall have been made for the proceeding so injurious to Great Britain. In the first place it is essential that the vessels in question shall be restored. To determine the details of the ultimate satisfaction which may be found necessary, more ample information must be awaited concerning the circumstances of the affair.' After this exchange of compliments both nations made preparations for war. On June 13 Florida Blanca, the prime minister of Spain, had a memorial of the court of Spain delivered to Alleyne Fitzherbert, the British ambassador at Madrid. In this memorial exclusive jurisdiction was claimed over the entire coast of North-West America as far north as the Russian trading posts. The claim was based on the discovery of Nootka by Perez and on the papal Bull already referred to. So far as the latter was concerned, the English government had since the days of the great Elizabeth treated it with a measure of contempt. That astute sovereign ' knew no right they [the Spaniards] had to any places other than those they were actually in possession of; that their having touched only here and there upon the coast and given names to a few rivers and capes, were such insignificant things as could in no way entitle them to property further than in the parts where they actually settled and continued to inhabit.' In the meantime Meares had arrived in England with a full report of the affair. On receiving his report the cabinet submitted a recommendation to the king in which it was advised ' that it would be proper in order to support that demand [the restoration of Nootka and satisfaction to the owners of the vessels seized] and to be prepared for such THE NOOTKA AFFAIR 45 events as may arise, that your Majesty should give orders for fitting out a squadron of the line.' Both nations, therefore, continued their hurried and extensive preparations for war and sought alliances with other powers. Holland and Prussia expressed their readiness to support England, while France took its place with Spain ; but as the French Revolution was in full swing, the Spanish court had no confidence in the French National Assembly. Both powers approached the United States, but the government of that nation decided to maintain a neutral position unless the Spanish possessions on the Mississippi should be attacked. In such an event it might have to join forces with Spain. Jefferson had no desire to see a British colony planted at the mouth of the Mississippi. Even before Fitzherbert reached Madrid as ambassador, Florida Blanca had showed signs of weakening and had informed the then British ambassador, Anthony Merry, that an arrangement on a friendly basis might be arrived at if it could be shown that Great Britain was not making the Nootka situation a pretext for war. Then followed a declaration from Spain that the government was ' willing to give satisfaction to His Britannic Majesty for the injury of which he has complained.' Spain further engaged to make full restoration ' of all the British vessels which were captured at Nootka,' and to ' indemnify the parties interested in those vessels for the losses which they have sustained, as soon as the amount thereof shall have been ascertained. It being understood that this declaration is not to prejudice the ultimate discussion of any right which His Catholic Majesty claims to form an exclusive establishment at Nootka. This note from Spain was met by a counter-declaration from England, in which it was set forth that ' His Majesty will consider this declaration,' but that while Fitzherbert accepted it, ' it is to be understood that the acceptance was not to preclude or prejudice, in any respect, the rights which His Majesty may claim to aay establishment which his subjects may have formed or may desire to form in the future, at the said Bay of Nootka.' Florida Blanca was in an unenviable position. The 46 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION Spanish treasury was practically empty ; the army and navy were on a wretched footing ; he had only one European power at his back, and that one might fail Spain in a crisis. At the same time he knew that to yield to the demands of England would be a most unpopular act. However, he bravely faced the situation and, to save his country from grave disaster, decided to submit to the British demands. An arrangement was entered into between the two powers, and on October 28, 1790, the Nootka Convention, which for ever put an end to the Spanish claim of supremacy in the Pacific, was signed. By the articles of this convention it was agreed : that the buildings and tracts of land of which Meares and his associates had been dispossessed should be restored, and that reparation should be made and just compensation given for the losses sustained ; that the respective subjects of Spain and Great Britain should not be disturbed or molested either in navigating or carrying on their fisheries in the Pacific Ocean or in the South Seas, or in landing on the coast of those seas in places not already occupied, for the purpose of carrying on their commerce with the natives of the country or of making establishments there ; that the navigation and fishing of the British waters were not to be ' made a pretext for illicit trade with Spanish settlements,' and, with this in view, British subjects were not to navigate or carry on their fisheries in the said seas within a space of ten sea leagues from any port on the coast already occupied by Spain ; that in the places to be restored and in all other ports on the northwest coast of North America or on the islands adjacent, situated to the north of the ports already occupied by Spain, wherever the subjects of either power had made settlements since April 1789 or should make them in future, the subjects of the other were to have free access and to be permitted to carry on their commerce without disturbance or molestation ; that on the eastern and western coasts of South America and the islands adjacent, neither power was to form permanent settlements to the south of the ports already occupied by Spain ; and that in case of complaint or infraction of the articles of convention an exact report was to be THE NOOTKA AFFAIR 47 made by the officers concerned to their respective courts, so that an amicable settlement might be reached. There was a secret article in which it was agreed regarding the eastern and western coasts of South America that the stipulation regarding those coasts should remain in force only so long as no establishment was formed there by the subjects of any other power. The terms of the convention were unpopular in Spain and ultimately caused the overthrow of Florida Blanca. They were at first hailed with the greatest enthusiasm in Great Britain, but when it was realized that the government had agreed to forgo the right to make permanent settlements in the part of North America discovered and charted by Cook in 1778, there was some sharp criticism of the terms. Before the news of the insult to the British flag at Nootka Sound reached Europe an expedition had been organized in England for completing the work so ably commenced by Cook on the north-west coast of North America, but on account of the threatened outbreak of hostilities the project was laid aside for the time being. After the Nootka Sound Convention had been concluded a new expedition was fitted out with a twofold purpose—(1) to receive formally from Spain the surrender of the properties claimed by Meares and his associates, and (2) to make a careful survey of the coast from the Spanish settlements of Lower California to Alaska. George Vancouver, who had been a midshipman under Cook, was given command of the expedition in the Discovery, a sloop of three hundred and forty tons; with him went Lieutenant Robert Broughton in the Chatham, a vessel of one hundred and thirty-five tons. Vancouver was instructed particularly to acquire accurate information regarding any water communication ' between the north-west coast and the countries upon the opposite side of the continent, which are inhabited or occupied by His Majesty's subjects,' and to ascertain as precisely as possible ' the number, extent and situation of any settlements which have been made within the limits above mentioned [the 30th and 60th parallels of north latitude] by any European nation, and the time when such settlement was first made.' It was evident that the 48 THE PERIOD pF EXPLORATION supposed Strait of Anian was still worrying the Admiralty, and Vancouver was to set at rest the question whether or not there was a navigable passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic. In the light of our present knowledge it seems strange that this question should have been seriously regarded. In 1789 Alexander Mackenzie had reached the Arctic Ocean by way of the river that has since borne his name. He had traversed the entire region from the Great Lakes to the Arctic, and had proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that no such passage through the continent existed. News of his explorations and discoveries had reached England before Vancouver left its shores. The expedition sailed from Falmouth on April 1, 1791, and a year was spent in visiting the new lands discovered by Cook and others in the southern seas. It was not until March 1792 that the shores of New Albion were sighted in latitude 390 27'. Vancouver skirted the coast northward, but failed to discover the Columbia River. On April 26 the Discovery and the Chatham sailed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and, keeping to the southern shore, entered and explored Puget Sound ; then, turning northward, the explorers continued their careful survey, naming capes, islands and bays. They visited Points Roberts and Grey but failed to locate the Fraser River, although the swift current rushing into the Strait of Georgia and the detritus from the interior, both of which they noted, should have convinced them that a river of some magnitude lay between those points. Near Point Grey they met two Spanish vessels, the Sutil and the Mexicana, commanded respectively by Don Dionisio Galiano and Don Cayetano Valdez, who were completing surveys made in 1790 by Quimper, de Haro and Elisa. Vancouver learned from them that Bodega y Quadra was awaiting him at Nootka, prepared to carry out the terms of the Nootka Convention. The Spanish ships accompanied the Discovery as far as Johnstone Strait. At this point Vancouver sent Johnstone and Swaine with a ship's boat through the strait to discover if there was a navigable passage around the head of Vancouver Island. The trip proved the existence of such a passage, and Vancouver, bidding farewell to the friendly 8 e THE NOOTKA AFFAIR 49 Spanish captains, sailed through Johnstone Strait and on August 5 reached 'an expansive ocean.' This was undoubtedly the first time that a European vessel passed through the entire stretch of waters leading from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Queen Charlotte Sound. A few days later the Spanish ships followed the British vessels into the waters at the north of Vancouver Island. It is a noteworthy fact that on this expedition Vancouver was careful to honour the sturdy seamen who accompanied him by naming many of the capes, bays, islands and straits after them : Whid- bey Island, Mount Baker, Cape Mudge, Johnstone Strait, f \ £3 Broughton Strait and many other geographical names bear imperishable record of the work done by the boats' crews under Vancouver's direction. Vancouver was generosity itself, and in entering places on his chart he did not forget his Spanish friends, as Valdez Island and Galiano Island attest; but the most striking evidence of his nobleness of spirit is in the name he gave the island he was the first to circumnavigate —' Quadra and Vancouver.' This he did because, as he says, after his first meeting with Quadra at Nootka : Sigr Quadra requested that in the course of my further exploring this country I would name some point or island after us both, in commemoration of our meeting and the friendly intercourse that on that occasion had taken place, which I promised to do ; and, conceiving no place more eligible than the place of our meeting, I have therefore named this land (which by our sailing at the back of we had discovered to be an extensive island), the Island of Quadra and Vancouver. The our and we in the parenthetical passage are significant. As the Sutil and the Mexicana circumnavigated the island almost simultaneously with the Chatham and the Discovery, Vancouver felt it his duty to share the glory of this discovery with the Spaniards. After passing out of Queen Charlotte Sound, Vancouver charted the coast as far north* as Fitzhugh Sound and then decided to make for Nootka and receive the surrender of the place in accordance with the agreement entered into between Great Britain and Spain. Friendly Cove was reached on VriT.. -X"5CT ft 8 M\ 50 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION August 28 and the British vessels were cordially welcomed by Quadra. It was evident from what Vancouver observed on his arrival at Nootka Sound that a real effort had been made at settlement since the British were ousted in 1789. Officers' quarters, a storehouse and barrack, a hospital and buildings for labourers had been erected on an island at the mouth of the sound. Gardens had been planted, and cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry had been imported. Negotiations for the taking over of Nootka were at once begun, but the Spanish commander and the British captain could not agree on the interpretation of the first article of the Nootka Convention. Quadra maintained that only the land actually occupied by Meares was meant, ' but little more,' as Vancouver informed Quadra, ' than one hundred yards in extent anyway.' Vancouver claimed that the territory \ to be returned to them [the British] by the first article of the convention and from Florida Blanca's letter, is the place in toto and Port Cox.' Negotiations were carried on in the most friendly spirit, but neither commissioner would give way, and towards the end of September Quadra sailed from Nootka, leaving matters as they stood, both negotiators having decided to await further instructions from their respective governments. Early in October Vancouver too sailed southward. A few days later the mouth of the Columbia was reached and Lieutenant Broughton with two ship's boats ascended the river as far as the point where in 1825 Fort Vancouver was erected by the Hudson's Bay Company. Broughton believed he was the first navigator to enter the river and made light of Gray's reported discovery. He took possession in the name of His Britannic Majesty of the region drained by this mighty river. After this delay the British expedition sailed for Monterey, where Quadra was awaiting Vancouver. Broughton then accompanied Quadra to San Bias, intending to bear dispatches overland to the Atlantic and thence to England, while Vancouver sailed for the Sandwich Islands. On May 20, 1793, the Discovery was back at Friendly Cove, where Senor Fidalgo was in charge. This officer was shortly afterwards superseded by Saavedra, who arrived THE NOOTKA AFFAIR 51 in the San Carlos. Vancouver remained four days in port and then sailed northward to continue the charting of the coast. On this trip he reached a point named by him Cape Decision, at the mouth of Christian Sound, and prepared an admirable chart of the coast with its bays, islands and canals. He was back at Nootka on October 5, but there was no word for him from his government, and so he left the harbour, visiting San Francisco and Monterey on his way south and examining the coast of Lower California. Once more he spent the winter in the Sandwich Islands. On Vancouver's return to the American shore in the following spring he reached Cook's Inlet, in the region of Alaska, where he met Russians who made claim for their government to the islands in that region. Vancouver's farthest north on this voyage was Port Conclusion, a little to the north of Cape Ommaney. He was thoroughly convinced that there was no extensive waterway leading to the Atlantic, and yet, despite his careful, painstaking labour, he failed to locate such rivers as the Fraser, Skeena and Nass. On September 2 Vancouver was once more at Friendly Cove. Don Jose Manuel Alava was now in command. The British expedition remained in harbour until October 17, receiving every courtesy from Alava, but as there were still no instructions from London, and as Vancouver was led to understand by Alava that according to his instructions the terms that had been offered to Quadra in September 1792 would ultimately be accepted, and as he was informed that another officer had been commissioned by Great Britain to conclude the Nootka Affair, he decided to sail homeward. The Chatham and the Discovery returned to the British Isles by way of Cape Horn, and reached the River Shannon on September 12, 1795, after having circumnavigated the world, and having for three years conducted the most important exploring expedition that ever charted the Pacific coast. Meanwhile, in Vancouver's absence, the Nootka Affair had been finally laid at rest. By the Nootka Claims Convention in 1792 Meares and his partners had been awarded 210,000 Spanish dollars damages. By the Convention for the Mutual Abandonment of Nootka, signed on January 11, 52 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION 1794, Spain was to surrender the buildings and districts of lands of which His Majesty's subjects had been dispossessed in April 1789. The British flag was to be ' unfurled over the land so restored in sign of possession. . . .' After these formalities the officers were to ' withdraw respectively their people from the said port of Nootka.' The subjects of both nations were to ' have the liberty of frequenting said port whenever they wished and to construct there temporary buildings to accommodate them during their residence on such occasions.' But no permanent establishment was to be made. Nor could either ' claim any right there to the exclusion of the other.' Both nations further agreed ' to maintain for their subjects free access to the port of Nootka against any other nation who may attempt to establish there any sovereignty or dominion.' On March 23, 1795, the final scene in the Nootka Affair was enacted. On this day, in the presence of Lieutenant Thomas Pierce of the Royal Marines and Brigadier-General Alava, representing respectively Great Britain and Spain, the Spanish flag gave place to the flag of Great Britain. The fort was then deserted, and Nootka, and indeed the entire north-west coast from Lower California to Alaska, was for thirty years to be a no-man's-land. THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY IN NEW CALEDONIA THE history of the north-west coast during the years that elapsed between the settlement of the Nootka Affair and the coming of the Astorians does not make pleasant reading. The withdrawal of Spain and Great Britain from authority over these waters left the coast open to the unrestricted trade of all nations. British ships from Asiatic ports and from the homeland, United States vessels from New England, and Russian traders entered actively on the search for sea-otter pelts. The Russians in the north and the j Bostons,' as the Americans were called, soon had an almost complete monopoly of the trade. So successful THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY 53 were the traders that in one year as many as eighteen thousand sea-otter skins were collected on the islands and the mainland of the Pacific coast. The only thought of these traders was the amassing of wealth, and by fair means and foul they gathered their cargoes. The trade had a demoralizing effect upon the Indians. They soon grew passionately fond of the white man's ' firewater,' with the dual result of debauching and degrading them and depleting the coast waters of the sea-otter. The natives, to obtain intoxicating liquor, searched indefatigably for furs to exchange for it. By the time the Astorians and the North-West Company reached the Pacific the sea-otter was so scarce that the trade had grown unprofitable. There were frequent conflicts between the natives and the traders. The ' Bostons' and the Russians did not hesitate to plunder the owners of skins when they would not part with them in trade. Sharp fights occurred and natives were ruthlessly shot down on numerous occasions. They retaliated in kind and never lost an opportunity to take vengeance on the whites. It must be said in defence of the traders that from the beginning of communication with the north-west coast the Indians had never failed to take advantage of visitors to their shores whenever they thought themselves strong enough to attack with success a boat's crew or even a ship. Their friendliness was generally feigned, inspired by superior force. In 1802 the Indians massacred the Russians at the fur-trading post of Sitka, and in the following year destroyed the Russian estabUshment on Norfolk Sound. In 1803, too, at Nootka, the ship Boston was seized by strategy by Indians under the leadership of the famous Chief Maquinna, and all on board, excepting John R. Jewitt, the armourer of the vessel, and John Thompson, the sail- maker, were brutally murdered. The vessel was beached and burned, her goods distributed among the tribes represented in the attack, and Jewitt and Thompson were held as slaves in Maquinna's service until 1805. In that year the Lydia under Captain Hill arrived at Nootka. Maquinna Was anxious to open up the old relations with the traders, and himself bore a letter from Jewitt to the captain. In 54 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION this letter Jewitt had inserted a request that Maquinna be held prisoner until he and Thompson were released. Jewitt's scheme was successful in winning freedom for him and his fellow-prisoner. In 1805 the Atahualpa, from Rhode Island, was attacked by a number of Indians who had come on board ostensibly to trade. They were repulsed, but not before the captain, mate and six men were killed. The sea-otter trade enriched many people, but demoralized the Indians of the north-west coast and left them worse than when the first white man visited them. Up to this time no attempt was made to civilize the savages ; they were considered only as gatherers of valuable furs. The treatment they had received made the lot of the British traders who later came overland difficult and dangerous. In 1793 Alexander Mackenzie, in the service of the North-West Company of Montreal, who had in 1789 reached the Arctic Ocean by way of Mackenzie River, decided to make a dash for the Pacific. His journey1 was one of the most trying in the history of exploration, but his dauntless courage and determination carried him through. He arrived at Burke's Channel about five weeks after Vancouver's boats had been in those waters surveying the coast. This feat of Mackenzie gave Great Britain the same right to lay claim to what is now the central part of British Columbia as the Lewis and Clark expedition gave the United States to lay claim to Oregon. But while Mackenzie reported the region he had passed through as rich in fur-bearing animals, the partners of the North-West Company showed little enthusiasm over his achievements. The newly explored country was too remote and too difficult of access to admit of a profitable trade in furs, and little advantage was taken of Mackenzie's journey—not, at any rate, until twelve years later, when his experiences aided Simon Fraser in penetrating the region beyond the Rockies. In 1803 President Jefferson, having extended the boundaries of his country through the Louisiana Purchase, looked farther afield, and meditated planting the flag of the United 1 For a full account of Mackenzie's journeys see ' Western Exploration, 1760- 1840,' in section 11. THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY 55 States on the Pacific Ocean. With this end in view, he planned an overland expedition. He let the world understand that it was to be purely for scientific purposes, but in a secret message to Congress he put the question as to whether or not it would be wise to annex the territory west of the Rocky Mountains discovered by Gray in the Columbia. His arguments won the consent of Congress, and in 1804 a well-equipped expedition under Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark set out from St Louis for the Pacific, and arrived at the mouth of the Columbia in 1805. When news of the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the partners of the North-West Company, they became alarmed. It was evident from the information gathered by Mackenzie and from the experiences of the traders who had visited the coast that a wealth of pelts awaited energetic traders in the vast territory lying between the Columbia and Peace Rivers. In 1805, while the United States expedition was slowly making its way to the Pacific, the North-West Company resolved to invade the extreme west of the continent and extend its line of posts from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Columbia, and Simon Fraser, a youthful bourgeois of the company, was chosen for the work of penetrating the Rockies ; thus in the year 1805 the history of New Caledonia, as the region lying between the 49th and 58th parallels came to be called, was begun. Before entering the mountains Fraser established his base at Rocky Mountain Portage on the Peace River. Here he erected a rude post called Rocky Mountain House. Thence he proceeded to McLeod Lake and in the autumn of 1805 established Fort McLeod, the first fur-trading post built in British Columbia. Fraser spent the winter at Rocky Mountain House in company with his lieutenant, John Stuart. In the following spring he returned to Fort McLeod and then proceeded to Stuart Lake, where he founded Fort Nakasleh, afterwards known as Fort St James. From Fort St James the traders went to Fraser '"Lake, where Fort Fraser —the Fort Natleh of Fraser's letters—was built. A rude trail was made between Fort McLeod and Fort St James, 56 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION the first roadway, if such it could be called, regularly traversed in British Columbia. It is evident from Fraser's letters that he early had in mind the opening up of communication between New Caledonia and the Pacific. In 1807, while he was at Fort Fraser, he wrote : ' I have another plan in view, that is if it could be done with ease, to get all the goods for going down the Columbia in the spring.' Late in the year 1807 Jules Maurice Quesnel and Hugh Fairies arrived in New Caledonia with the necessary supplies for such a trip, and explicit instructions from the company to Fraser to lose no time in exploring the j Great River' to its mouth. When these instructions were written the partners of the North-West Company do not seem to have been aware that Lewis and Clark had already reached the mouth of the Columbia and were safely back in the east with news of their achievement, for it was their expressed desire to have Fraser reach the coast before the Americans. As a preliminary step toward the exploration of the Columbia, Fraser established Fort George at the point where the Nechaco River enters the Fraser. In the spring of 1808 he assembled at this fort the men who were to accompany him on his hazardous undertaking into the unknown. The party included twenty-four men. With Fraser went Quesnel and Stuart. From the beginning Fraser mistook the river he was on for the Columbia ; but this in no way affects the greatness of his exploit. The journey | was attended with even more thrilling experiences than Mackenzie had met with in 1793 ; but the efforts of the explorers were crowned with success. The party pursued their way with dauntless courage and indefatigable energy until in the beginning of July they stood on the shores of the Strait of Georgia. But on taking his bearings Fraser found that he was far north of the river discovered by Gray and navigated by Broughton. On the second day of July he sorrowfully records in his journal: ' The latitude is 490 north, while that of the entrance to the Columbia is 460 20'. This river, therefore, is not the Columbia.' mt of Fraser's journey see' Wes n Explo: 1760-1840,' SIMON FRASER brcat Kiv SLZAH'i MOM 12 BE im^ THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY 57 Fraser seems to have lost heart through his failure to find the Columbia. At any rate he is on record as being sick of the country. Shortly after his journey to the Pacific he left New Caledonia, going first to a district in Athabaska and then to the Red River Settlement, and about the time of the amalgamation of the North-West Company with the Hudson's Bay Company he retired from the fur trade. But by his work and the work of his fellow-explorers he had won a noble domain for the British crown. By means of the four forts established by Fraser in New Caledonia, his company secured a firm grip on the wide country tributary to them, and when the boundary dispute arose there was no doubt, save in the minds of the unthinking mob in the United States, as to what nation this region rightly belonged. When Fraser left New Caledonia in 1809 John Stuart took charge of the district and until 1824 made his headquarters at Fort McLeod. He was ably assisted in his arduous work by such men as James McDougall and Daniel Williams Harmon. Harmon is of peculiar interest to the student of the history of British Columbia, as he kept a diary in which he set down the daily life of the men at the fort and an account of the Indians. He proved, too, that New Caledonia had agricultural possibilities, and was the first farmer west of the Rockies.1 Life in New Caledonia was hard. On account of the quantity of goods that had to be brought to the new country for trading purposes, only the absolute necessities of life could be carried by the traders over the route of the Peace River, the Parsnip River and the Pack River. For their ordinary food the dwellers at the posts had to depend on the country, and they subsisted largely on salmon, fresh when they could get it, but for the most part dried and unpalatable. When the Yellowhead Pass (Tete Jaune Cache) was later discovered, it did not in the slightest degree ameliorate conditions in this respect in New Caledonia. Stuart was instructed, as Fraser had been, to find an outlet from his district to the ocean. By 1813 the course of the Columbia was well known, and when in May of that year 1 See pp. 523-4. VOL. XXI H 58 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION he set out to find a passage to that river, he was in no danger of erring as Fraser had done in 1808. His effort was successful and he arrived at Astoria about the time the post was taken over by the agents of the North-West Company. But little is known of this trip made by Stuart. However, he must have discovered a satisfactory route, for in October of the following year Joseph Larocque reached Stuart Lake with two canoes heavily laden with supplies. The route Larocque followed from the Columbia was long to be used for supplying the posts in the interior. Meanwhile an explorer as courageous and enduring as Fraser or Stuart, and better fitted by education for his tasks, was at work to the south of New Caledonia in the region of the head-waters of the Columbia. David Thompson, fur trader, surveyor, astronomer and map-maker, was a man whose achievements should be known to every Canadian.1 He began his labours beyond the Rockies in the spring of 1807, and on June 22, at a point between Donald and Moberly, reached a river which he knew must lead to the ocean. When he first saw its waters he was not aware that he was on a branch of the Columbia, but he felt the moment an important one and prayed that it might be given him to see where the waters of this river flow into the ocean. His prayer was not to be answered for four years, and then, when he arrived at the mouth of the Columbia, he found he was a few weeks too late. Another flag than the British flew there over the rude beginnings of a fort. While at the head-waters of the Columbia Thompson built Kootenay House, the first post erected in the region. He could not pursue his discoveries farther in 1807 as he had to return to Fort William to report progress. But in the following year he was back at Kootenay House. In 1809 he established posts at Flathead and at Pend d'Oreille Lakes, and left Finan Mc Donald in charge of the district. He again visited Fort William, and while there in 1810 he learned that John Jacob Astor of New York had determined to enter the western country. This prominent figure in the early fur 1 For a full account of Thompson's explorations see ' Western Exploration, 1760-1840,' in section n. THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY 59 trade organized the Pacific Fur Company, and to forward his plans had induced a number of men engaged in the service of the North-West Company to join his force. Among these were Duncan McDougall, Alexander Mackay, who had been Mackenzie's lieutenant in his notable journey in 1793, David and Robert Stuart and Donald Mackenzie. Astor planned to have his men reach the Pacific coast by two routes. One party was to go round Cape Horn in the ship Tonguin, commanded by Jonathan Thorn, while another under the leadership of Wilson Price Hunt was to follow the route from the Mississippi taken by Lewis and Clark. The partners of the North-West Company determined to forestall Astor if possible, and commissioned Thompson to hasten to the Columbia and establish a post on the Pacific. Unforeseen difficulties were encountered ; his progress was delayed, and not until July 15, 1811, did he reach the mouth of the river, only to find the Pacific Fur Company already there, with a fort in process of construction and a thirty-ton vessel intended for coast trading on the stocks. Thompson made the best of the situation and the North-West Company prepared for a trade war with the Astorians in the Columbia district. The Tonguin had arrived in March and Astoria was founded on the twenty-second of the month. While the fort was being built the Tonguin was sent on a trading expedition along the shores of Vancouver Island. She reached Clayoquot Sound and was freely visited by the Indians of that place. The natives pretended friendship, but plotted to massacre the ' Bostons' and seize the ship and cargo. The plot succeeded, and all excepting five of the crew of twenty-three men, including the officers, were slain. These five, one of them, the ship's clerk Lewis, mortally wounded, escaped to the cabin, and with loaded arms kept the Indians at bay, and eventually forced them to leave the ship. On the*-5ollowing morning four of the men left the Tonguin, only to be slain by the savages. The wounded man remained; when the Indians returned to plunder the vessel he had a train of gunpowder connected with the magazine, and as the exulting savages crowded the deck in search of plunder he 6o THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION set a match to the train, and the explosion that followed hurled the vessel and its occupants to destruction. Fully one hundred warriors were killed, and as many more in the canoes flocking round the ship were wounded. Early in August wandering Indians brought vague rumours of the fate of the Tonguin to the Astorians. The Indian interpreter, Lamazee, escaped death, and, after several months of captivity among the natives of Clayoquot Sound, gained his freedom and brought to the settlement an account of the tragedy. The loss of the Tonguin was a severe blow to the Pacific Fur Company, and was only the beginning of a series of calamities which ultimately caused it to abandon the Pacific coast. The overland party of Astorians under Hunt suffered heartbreaking experiences. It advanced through the mountains, its members in constant dread of the savage warlike tribes that beset their path. Provisions ran low and they were forced to sustain life on horse and dog flesh. When the travellers, exhausted and disheartened, reached Astoria, the prospect was not enticing, and few of them remained in the country. Some of them returned to St Louis under the leadership of Robert Stuart, who bore dispatches to the partners of the Pacific Fur Company. Astor and his partners held on for a brief period. Intense rivalry existed between the North-West Company and the Pacific Fur Company, and energetic operations were conducted along the Columbia. Opposing forts were built in close proximity to each other, and at Fort Okanagan, Fort Thompson or Kamloops, and Fort Spokane brisk trade was carried on with the natives. The more perfect organization of the North-West Company soon gave it pre-eminence in the trade, and those in charge of Astoria decided to sell out to their rivals. On October 16, 1813, Astoria, with its furs and supplies, was turned over to the North-West Company. Duncan McDougall, one of Astor's partners, negotiated with the agents of the rival company for the sale. Some American historians have maintained that the deal was put through by treachery. But as the business was being conducted at a loss and the future looked unpromising, McDougall no THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY 6l doubt thought he was doing a good stroke of business for the company, in which he was personally interested, especially as war had broken out between Great Britain and the United States and a warship was already on its way to the Pacific to seize Astoria. At any rate, when Hunt returned from a visit to the Sandwich Islands, he approved of abandoning the post, although he afterwards expressed his indignation at the terms M°Dougall made with the North-West Company. On October 16, 1813, the British sloop-of-war Racoon arrived at Astoria and took possession of the Oregon district in the name of the king of Great Britain. The name Astoria was changed to Fort George, and the British flag was unfurled over the post. By the Treaty of Ghent all places captured during the war were to be restored, and on October 16, 1818, a United States commissioner, J. B. Prevost, arrived in the British warship Blossom, and Great Britain formally restored to the United States ' the settlement of Fort George on the Columbia River.' By the convention between the United States and Great Britain signed on October 2, 1818, the ' Oregon Country' was to be free and open for a period of ten years, and the citizens and subjects of both countries were to have joint occupancy. By a convention of 1827 the joint occupancy was made indefinite, but might be terminated after October 20, 1828, by either country giving the other twelve months-' notice. In April 1846, in accordance with the terms of the convention, ' Congress passed a joint resolution giving the president authority, at his discretion, to give such notice to the British government, and on April 28 of this year President Polk gave such notice.' The British government then proposed the present boundary, and by the Treaty of Washington on June 15, 1846, the British were deprived of all right south of latitude 490. While the North-Westers had been exploring new territory and energetically visiting the encampments of the Indians in search of furs, the Hudson's Bay Company had been largely content with waiting for the Indians to come to its forts ; but the activity of its rival alarmed the officials and they awoke from their lethargy. The keenest competition went on between the two companies. Sharp practices were 62 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION common. Liquor was freely employed among the savages, resulting in crime and injury to the trade. Goods were in many instances sold at a loss, and it was not long before both concerns found themselves engaged in a profitless business. At length the rivalry culminated in armed opposition, and with the Seven Oaks affair at the Red River Settlement, and the killing of Governor Semple of the Hudson's Bay Company, a crisis was reached. A legal war began in the courts, and a general investigation into the affairs of both companies was threatened. In order, no doubt, to block this, the partners of the North-West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company concluded that it would be wise to amalgamate their forces. They accordingly pooled their interests and formed a trust that was to control the trade of nearly half a continent. The amalgamation took place in 1821. The North-West Company passed out of existence, and the Hudson's Bay Company extended its operations until there was no part of the continent from Hudson Bay to the Pacific and from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean that was unfamiliar with its brigades. But the influence of the men of the North- West Company was to live on. The majority of the partners were taken into the new company, and their experience, energy and courage proved invaluable. It must never be forgotten that it was due to the foresight and energy of the partners of the North-West Company that British Columbia is now a part of the British Empire. Mackenzie, Fraser and Thompson were, as has already been stated, the men who gave Great Britain an indisputable title to the north-west coast north of latitude 490. 1 THE REGIME OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY THE imperial act of 1821 gave the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly of the trade in the territory east and west of the Rocky Mountains not included in the famous charter granted *in 1670 to Prince Rupert and his associates. The act made provision for regulating the trade. The district ■11 REGIME OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 63 west of the Rockies was known under various names. The north-east was called New Caledonia and the south-west the Oregon Country. To the company the whole of the territory west of the Rockies, from the Arctic Ocean to California, was known as the Western Department. Under the act, civil and criminal matters came under the jurisdiction of the courts of judicature of Upper and Lower Canada, but this could only apply in the fullest sense to the territory east of the Rockies. In the Oregon Country the joint occupancy gave Canada no authority over American citizens or traders, but gave both nations equal authority over the aborigines. To maintain law and order in the Western Department a benevolent autocrat was needed, one who could win the fear and respect of the Indians. Such a man, Dr John McLoughlin, appeared on the scene shortly before the amalgamation of the trading companies. The Western Department included a vast domain— larger than Germany and Great Britain combined. It stretched from latitude 420 on the south to latitude 540 40' on the north, and included all the lands between the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Pacific on the west. Not only was what is now British Columbia in this department, but also the territory that now constitutes the States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. Thus the Hudson's Bay Company had added to its territory over four hundred thousand square miles. At this time the number of natives in this wide region could not have been fewer than one hundred thousand. Dr John McLoughlin was chosen to govern this vast territory. M°Loughlin was a Canadian, born on October 19, 1784, in the parish of Riviere du Loup. He was educated in Canada and in Scotland, and in his early manhood joined the North-West Company. At the time of the union of the great trading corporations he was in charge of Fort William and* was strongly opposed to the amalgamation, but, once it was a fact, he threw in his lot with the Hudson's Bay Company, and what was of great importance to the history of British Columbia, he induced young James Douglas also to take service under the new company, Douglas was a 1! 64 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION clerk in the North-West Company who was so disgusted with the union that he, with two of his elder brothers, had decided to retire from the fur trade. McLoughlin was in every way a born ruler of the patriarchal type. He was about six feet four inches in height, and of dignified bearing. When he came to the Oregon Country his flowing hair was already snow-white. This, together with his stern attitude towards evil-doers, caused the Indians in their fondness for picturesque names to designate him the ' Great White Eagle.' Later, through his generosity towards the settlers who flowed into the Columbia district in the early forties, he came to be known as the 1 Good Doctor' and the ' Good Old Doctor.' He is now affectionately remembered in the north-west states as the ' Father of Oregon.' McLoughlin arrived in Oregon in 1824. During the three years that had elapsed since the union of the companies, operations had been at a standstill in the Western Department. But preparations were being made for the foundation of a strong trading community on the Pacific coast. So important was the enterprise that George Simpson, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, accompanied McLoughlin and his party to the Columbia. It was found that Fort George was not well situated for the purposes of a trading-post such as the company desired and so another site was selected. The spot chosen was on the north side of the Columbia, some seven miles above the mouth of the Willamette River and about two miles from Point Vancouver, so named by Broughton. In 1825 a fort was erected on this spot; but five years later another site was selected about a mile westward of the first fort and nearer the river. Here McLoughlin had his headquarters and from this point ruled his vast territory with an iron hand, but with a kindly heart. For twenty years his rule was that of a Czar over the territory that stretched from Alaska to California and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Uncounted thousands of Indians—Cayuses, Walla Wallas, Okanagans, Nez Perces, Flatheads, Spokanes, Klickitats, Wascopans, Molallas, Callapooias, Tillamooks, Chinooks, — i J i JOHN McLOUGHLIN mphedby Savannah from an oil pai IJHOUOJ-'M WHOT. If REGIME OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 65 Clatsops—obeyed his behests and feared his displeasure. Over every waterway in that immense region he sent his Canadian voyageurs ; through hundreds of miles of forest he dispatched his trappers and traders ; in and out of the fringing North-West islands, to Sitka itself, his schooners plied ; through the San Joaquin and Tulare valleys, over the Shoshone country to the shores of Salt Lake, and in the Yellowstone, his brigades pitched their tents ; all alike bringing home rich tribute to the company, and restlessly seeking further and ever further regions to subdue.1 The employees of the company and the Indians at once feared and loved M°Loughlin. During the whole period of his rule there were no Indian wars, and the boats of the company, which before his coming had passed in fear and trembling through the Indian country, now threaded the intricate maze of lake and river without fear of attack. And yet he had at his back no soldiers, no armed guard ; his dominating personality was sufficient to keep peace in his domain. Fort Vancouver soon became a hive of industry. There were no idlers about the place. Military discipline prevailed, and every moment in the lives of those employed by the company was regulated. By 1836 a farm of nearly three thousand acres was under cultivation in the vicinity of the fort, producing wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, and vegetables, while an orchard of ten acres planted with apples, pears and quinces yielded abundantly. There were also two saw-mills and two flour-mills, supplying the needs of the company and enabling it to carry on an export trade with the Sandwich Islands and the Russian settlements. Both as a fur-trading centre and as an agricultural community Fort Vancouver flourished under McLoughlin's rule. But all was not smooth sailing. The Americans had as much right to trade in the Oregon Country as the British, and several parties ventured both overland and around Cape Horn into the region. The American traders had but little success. They were at a disadvantage from the beginning. The goods they brought for trading purposes were of an 1 Coats and Gosnell, Sir fames Douglas, pp. 111-12 VOL. XXI I 66 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION inferior quality to the British goods, and moreover were taxed, while the British imports entered the country free. As a consequence, the Hudson's Bay Company was able to undersell its rivals. Again, the Americans were hated by the Indians, who never lost an opportunity to attack and plunder them. On several occasions McLoughlin saved parties of rival traders from destruction. He was ready to fight them in a trading duel, but his big humane heart would not allow them to be molested by savages, and he treated in a summary manner any Indians guilty of theft or murder. He went even further, for when some of his rivals met shipwreck and misfortune he aided them with food and money in their time of calamity. Later, when the settlers came overland and arrived at the Columbia in an exhausted and impoverished state, McLoughlin reached out a helping hand and extended to them the same treatment he gave the employees of the company, who, after their time of service had expired, desired to remain in the country—giving them provisions and seed on credit, and lending them cattle. He likewise treated with every consideration missionaries of all denominations—Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists and Roman Catholics who came into the country found him their friend. To the early Methodist missionaries he was particularly kind, and yet, in his declining years, some of the very men of this body whom he had helped succeeded in having him robbed of land that was rightfully his, and vilified his character. Belated justice was done him years after his death, and the property taken from him by process of law was restored to his heirs. When trade rivalry was keen, liquor, the most advantageous article with which to secure furs, was freely sold to the Indians. At Fort Vancouver the sale of liquor was prohibited to both employees and natives. So determined was McLoughlin to keep intoxicating liquor from the servants of the company and the Indians that on one occasion when an American vessel, the Thomas Perkins, arrived with a cargo composed mainly of spirits, he bought the entire cargo and stored the liquor in the fort, and it was still there when his resignation went into effect in 1846. REGIME OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 67 While a strong settlement was being built up at Fort Vancouver, the trade of the company was extending in all directions. When Governor Simpson was at the fort in 1824 it was decided to begin operations on the coast of the mainland north of latitude 490, in the lower Fraser country. James McMillan led an exploring party to the Fraser in that year and paddled up the stream a short distance beyond the spot where old Fort Langley was built three years later. On MeMillan's return he gave a favourable report regard- ® '•I ing the soil and the possibility of obtaining furs. The building of Fort Langley in 1827 was the initial step in the occupation of the seaboard of British Columbia, and the schooner Cadboro, which carried the men and supplies for the new post, was the first sea-going vessel to navigate the reaches of the lower Fraser. From Fort Langley, for a few years, the trading on the north-west coast was conducted. American traders were active on the coast. Their vessels visited the country between Vancouver Island and the Nass River, and to drive them from this territory, as they had been driven from the Columbia district, it was decided to dot the coast with Hudson's Bay Company trading-posts. In 1832 old Fort Simpson was built at the mouth of the Nass River, and there, among treacherous savages, the company's employees laboured until 1834, when the fort was moved to the present site on the Tsimsean peninsula. In 1834 Finlay- son, Manson and M°Neill established Fort McLoughlin on the waters of Millbank Sound. In the same year Fort Nisqually, so important as an agricultural centre, was built, and in the following year Fort Essington was founded to serve as an intermediate station between Fort Simpson and Fort M°Loughlin. Thus the whole coast between Puget Sound and the territory claimed by the Russians was occupied by the company's posts. In 1825 a convention had been signed by Great Britain and Russia, and under its terms the subjects of both countries were free to navigate the Pacific and to trade with the natives of any district not yet occupied by Europeans. The traders might land at the posts of their rivals for shelter or repairs, If I Mil Sip iiii • lili i p ■pBW5' 68 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION but for no other purposes, unless express permission was given. Prince of Wales Island was named as the southern limit of the Russian territory. The right to trade in the Russian lisiere and in the port of Sitka was granted to the British for ten years, in all things save arms, ammunition and spirits. As the Russian coast strip debarred the British from access to their northern forts in the interior, they were granted in perpetuity the privilege of using the streams traversing this territory. It was not until 1834 that the Hudson's Bay Company endeavoured to make use of this right. It was then decided to send a party north under Ogden and Anderson to establish a post in the Russian hinterland drained by the Stikine River. When Baron Wrangel, governor of Alaska, heard of the intention of the company, he feared the effect this move would have on Russian trade, and at once sent a message to his government requesting that the clause of the convention granting the privilege of navigating the Russian coast strip be rescinded. In taking this step he claimed that the British company had violated the agreement of 1825 by selling liquor to the Indians. The czar granted Wrangel's request, and the governments of both the United States and Great Britain were notified to this effect. But Wrangel did not wait for a reply to his message to take steps to prevent the British from invading his territory. When the party sent to the Stikine arrived in the Dryad, it found a Russian blockhouse at the mouth of the river and also a corvette and two gunboats waiting to turn them back, by armed force if necessary. The vessel was forbidden to enter the river and the British were ordered, if they wished to save themselves, their cargo and vessel, to retire from those waters without delay. The company entered a claim for twenty thousand dollars damages sustained to their trade by this high-handed action of Governor Wrangel. In 1839 a convention met in London to consider the situation, and a decision advantageous to both the Russians in Alaska and the Hudson's Bay Company was reached. The company agreed to waive its claim for damages on condition that the Russian government would grant it a lease of all its mainland territory lying between Cape Spencer mill till II i I REGIME OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 69 1 and latitude 540 40'. For this concession it was to pay an annual rental of two thousand land-otter skins and to supply the Russian posts in Alaska with provisions at moderate rates. This arrangement was renewed on three occasions; i'llSl the second period was for ten years, and the third and fourth for four years each. Immediately upon receipt of the result of the convention of 1839 MeLoughlin sent a strong expedition to the Stikine in the steamer Beaver, the pioneer steamboat of the Pacific, to establish a fort there. This expedition was led by James Douglas, who was accompanied by W. G. Rae, Roderick Finlayson and John McLoughlin, Junior, and fifty men. Shortly after they arrived at Taku Inlet, Fort Durham, named after Lord Durham, was built there. While these coast posts were being established the inland country was not neglected. John McLeod in 1832 ascended the Upper Liard to Dease Lake, where in 1838 a post was built by Robert Campbell. In 1840 and the years immediately following, Campbell extended the influence of his company into still more remote districts and discovered Lake Frances, named in honour of Lady Simpson, and after a journey in the farther west returned to this lake and finally reached the Pelly River. With the- hinterland of Alaska invaded by the traders of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the coast dotted with British posts, the trade of the Russians | II was now confined to the Alaskan peninsula, and the American traders found the business so unprofitable that they practically retired from the north-west coast, and the Hudson's Bay Company had the field largely to itself. In New Caledonia McLoughlin had able lieutenants. After 1824, when John Stuart retired from the district, William Connolly reigned in his stead until 1830. Connolly was followed by Peter Warren Dease (1830-34), who gave place to the eccentric, daring, humorous Peter Skene Ogden (1834-44). While Connolly was in charge at New Caledonia, young Douglas was assigned to that district in order that he might receive a thorough training in wilderness trade. As has been stated, McLoughlin took a deep interest in Douglas's career. He caused him to be placed in the HI I m 1 j^ 70 THE PERIOD OF EXPLORATION Stuart Lake region, where conditions were trying, in order that he might receive an all-round development. In 1830 Douglas was transferred to Fort Vancouver and in 1833 was promoted to the rank of chief trader. Until the founding of Fort Camosun (Victoria) he was McLoughlin's right-hand man. Without detracting from Douglas's prestige, it is an indisputable fact that his career was shaped and his character moulded by Dr John McLoughlin. The development of the company's interests went on south of latitude 490. Fort Nez Perces (Walla Walla) had been constructed in the days of the North-West Company at the scene of a valorous resistance to an Indian attack by a party of traders under the leadership of Ogden. This fort was followed, under the regime of McLoughlin, by Forts Colvile, Boise, Hall, Umpqua, Cowlitz and others. About 1827 settlement began in the Willamette valley. Far to the east in the Snake country Peter Skene Ogden, who had played his part in the development of the company's interests in New Caledonia and on the coast, vigorously conducted trading operations as far as Salt Lake. It seemed that the British had firmly rooted themselves in the territory from latitude 420 to 540 40'; but the years from 1840 to 1845 changed the whole situation. The missionaries had already invaded the country and brought with them a few settlers. These were followed in the years just mentioned by ever-increasing numbers. The policy of the Hudson's Bay Company was opposed to settlement, save by their own time-expired men, who were in most cases still on their books. McLoughlin watched with alarm this growing stream of immigrants who arrived through the difficult passes of the Rockies, but under the principle of joint occupancy he was powerless to prevent it. Many of the immigrants were sick, helpless and poverty-stricken on their arrival, and McLoughlin gave generous assistance to them all. Soon the cry of jj fifty-four-forty or fight' was heard in the Eastern States. In Oregon the newcomers refused to submit to the rule of the British company and a provisional government was formed. The governor and the partners of the company did not approve of the help REGIME OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 71 McLoughlin had given the immigrants, and he was instructed by Simpson to cease giving such aid. He was likewise censured by the company for his conduct; but he had only followed the dictates of common humanity, and could not possibly have acted otherwise. To the company's demand he replied : ' Gentlemen, if such is your order, I will serve you no longer.' He sent in his formal resignation in 1845. It took effect a year later, and, as MeLoughlin shortly afterward became a citizen of the United States, he passes out of Canadian history, except in so far as his work lived on. The structure he had so firmly based was later, when his protegS, James Douglas, became the governor of the colony of Vancouver Island and afterwards the governor of the colony of British Columbia, to grow into a noble edifice. The ' fifty-four-forty or fight' cry brought about the settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute and the ultimate retirement of the Hudson's Bay Company from the territory south of latitude 490, but before this the inevitable had been foreseen. A fort to replace Fort Vancouver was needed as the north-west coast headquarters of the company, and the task of selecting a location for this fort was assigned to Douglas. The company had no fear that Vancouver Island or the mainland north of latitude 490 would be handed over to the United States as no American settlement had been attempted in this region, whereas the Hudson's Bay Company had posts at every point of vantage and a fleet of well-armed ships, schooners and one steamer, the Beaver, in those waters. %f. %7+ rtoX^^lA**** *l n ■ i 1 . %. I nip I 7$ II m COLONIAL HISTORY 1849-1871 COLONIAL HISTORY 1849-1871 THE FOUNDING OF THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND THE Hudson's Bay Company no doubt has its share of sins to answer for—the common sins of modern finance; but among its shortcomings lack of foresight or of broad business and political acumen were not to be numbered. As in its scheme of administration all the details reflected a system of perfect discipline and rigid commercial rules, so politically nothing was overlooked which affected in a large way the fortunes of the company or those of the country over which its jurisdiction extended. In Great Britain the shareholders and directors were men of wealth and influence, who were intimate with public affairs and closely in touch with men in public life. Their local representatives in British North America were shrewd, active, wideawake men, trained from boyhood in the science of fur- trading, knowing every phase of its intricate mazes—hard- headed, practical, vigilant partners. Officials of the stamp of Sir George Simpson, Dr John McLoughlin, James Douglas, Peter Skene Ogden and others were men of brains, of keen intelligence and broad vision. No great corporation was ever more thoroughly and wisely administered, and the system of surveillance and control was complete. When the Oregon boundary question1 became acute, the London directorate, while bending all its energies toward a 1 For a full discussion of the Oregon boundary question see ' Boundary Disputes and Treaties ' in section iv. ml ml 1 _J^ 76 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 settlement satisfactory to its own interests and to British interests in North America, saw the possibility of a compromise that would exclude the greater part of Oregon as a sphere of operations, and made preparation for whatever might occur. Contemporary records go to show that the company exercised its great influence discreetly, but as effectively as possible, and they also exculpate the servants of the great corporation from many of the charges that were laid at their door. The best evidence of the wisdom and foresight of the company's officers was the decision to remove their headquarters to a point which in all human probability would be safely within acknowledged British territory. With characteristic sagacity they had concluded that the 49th parallel would ultimately form the boundary between the two countries and that Vancouver Island in its entirety would be British. The southern extremity of the island, with its picturesque environment and striking outlines, had attracted the attention of Captain McNeill in 1837 ana< later that of Sir George Simpson, and it naturally suggested itself as an eligible site for a future post. After the decision had been reached to select new quarters, the responsibility of reporting upon a site was assigned to James Douglas, first and confidential assistant of Dr McLoughlin. Early in 1842 Douglas left Fort Nisqually in the schooner Cadboro, and after a careful examination of the adjacent coast he selected what he called the ' Port of Camosack,' which was considered to be the most advantageous situation for the purpose in hand within the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Douglas called the place ■ Camosack' and always afterward used that name, but it is more than likely that ' Camosun ' was its Indian name. At all events, the fort of Victoria was first called Fort Camosun,1 a name that has lingered under various forms since that time. Fort Camosun, as we shall call it, was chosen after several weeks' minute examination, during which other possible sites 1 The origin of the word Camosun is unknown. It has been suggested that it comes from Camass, a plant with an edible root that grew abundantly in the district, and that the name indicated ' the place of Camass '; but excellent authorities think this unlikely. THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 77 were located. In his elaborate report to Dr McLoughlin, Douglas dwells upon the advantages and disadvantages of each. The objections to all but Camosun seem to have been poor harbour facilities, or too rugged surroundings or lack of water. He even discarded the fine harbour of Esqui- malt on account of its unattractive surroundings—rock and wood and mountainous background. The open park-like aspect of the Camosun district, the fertile nature of the soil and the general picturesqueness of the situation appealed strongly to Douglas. The abundance of nutritious grasses, especially the luxuriant growth of clover, is remarked upon, and when we remember that agriculture was included among the operations of the company we can understand more clearly his reasons for the selection. On the whole, it must be admitted that he chose well, although, had he been locating a future commercial city, he might more wisely perhaps have considered the advantages of the harbour at Esquimalt. Douglas was also influenced by the fact that on the ' Canal of Camosack '—now known as ' the Gorge '—about two miles distant from the proposed site of the fort, was ' boundless water power,' which he proposed to use for operating mills. The ' boundless ' power was to some extent a fiction. At the narrow point where the tide rushes to and fro at ebb and flow, boats pass at nearly all stages of the tide, and at full tide the water is almost placid. At this time there were a number of Indians in the vicinity, and what was afterwards the Songhees reserve in Victoria West, on the opposite side of the harbour from the fort, was a favourite gathering-place. This may have had something to do with the selection of the site, as the invariable policy of the Hudson's Bay Company was to locate its posts where the Indians were wont to assemble. The report of Douglas was acted upon promptly. The state of feeling in the United States was no doubt an incentive to haste. In the following March James Douglas, in charge of a party for the purpose of erecting a fort, embarked at Nisqually in the old Beaver, and Camosun was soon the scene of great activity. The company had previously established posts at Taku Inlet and Millbank Sound, and it was 78 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 II! now decided to concentrate forces at Camosun. The Beaver went north and soon returned with reinforcements—Roderick Finlayson and the men who had manned the northern forts —bringing the total number at the new fort up to fifty. In addition to these, Indians were employed to cut timber for the stockade. Whether from motives of economy or as a matter of necessity, the entire buildings as well as the stockade were constructed without a single nail being driven, wooden pegs being used instead. By the end of the summer the establishment, erected on the well-understood lines of Hudson's Bay Company design, was completed and Douglas returned to Vancouver. Charles Ross was left in charge of the post, with Roderick Finlayson x second in command. Ross, however, did not live long to enjoy his honours. He died in about a year, and Finlayson was left in charge of Fort Camosun. It is worthy of record in this connection that along with Douglas came Father Bolduc, the pioneer missionary of British Columbia. While the fort was being built Bolduc went among the Indians and preached to them, and was so successful in his endeavours that large numbers of the Indians were baptized. His apparent success was not unlike that of the earliest missionaries on the Atlantic coast, who, as recorded in the Jesuit Relations, baptized the natives wholesale, and were highly elated as a consequence. It does not appear, however, that any definite or lasting spiritual effect was made. The name Camosun was not retained. Shortly after the establishment of the post it was named Fort Albert in honour of the Prince Consort, and soon afterward was changed to Victoria, in compliment to Her Majesty the Queen. No sooner was the fort erected than attention was paid to agricultural pursuits, and the operations in Oregon were duplicated in a more limited way. Several farms were established. Land was cleared and tilled and stock was imported from the farms at Nisqually and Cowlitz. At 1 To Roderick Finlayson's diary, printed privately years afterwards, we are indebted for the details of the work and for much interesting history in connection with the progress of Victoria. THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 79 that time there were no settlers on Vancouver Island. The white inhabitants were servants of the company drawn from various posts. As ' ships from England had orders to sail direct for this port, and after landing all the goods destined for the coast trade, to proceed to the Columbia River with the remainder,' Fort Victoria gradually grew in importance. The buildings were added to from time to time, agricultural implements were imported or improvised, wheat was ground into flour, wharves and warehouses built. In 1846 there were one hundred and sixty acres under cultivation and two large dairies had been established. In 1847 three hundred acres were under cultivation, and in the same year two Russian vessels took from Victoria for Sitka large quantities of wheat, beef and mutton—all local produce. In 1849, three years after the settlement of the boundary dispute, Victoria became the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company for the Western Department. Hither, instead of to Fort Vancouver, came the ships from England with supplies, and returned home laden with the furs collected from the various western posts of the company. No sooner had the Oregon Boundary Treaty been signed than Sir John Pelly, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, began to negotiate with the home government for a firmer control of the lands north of the 49th parallel. His correspondence with Earl Grey, secretary of state for the Colonies, displays great astuteness. The desire of the company to absorb the entire territory north and west of Rupert's Land was clothed with adroit suggestions about ' the conversion to Christianity and civilization of the native population,' the colonization and settlement of the country, and the exclusion of the unruly element that had populated Oregon. At first Earl Grey was not quite satisfied as to the right of the company to receive and hold in its corporate capacity lands within the dominion of the British crown, but, satisfied as to that, he politely intimated that the company should submit ' another scheme which should be more limited and defined in its object, and yet embrace a plan for the colonization and government of Vancouver's Island.' Under the terms of the ' licence of exclusive trade' of 1821, which in jr m 80 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 1838 had been extended for twenty years, the company had a monopoly of the mainland for trading purposes, and whether Sir John Pelly, in his sweeping request for territory, really wished to place the whole western country under the Hudson's Bay Company's control or was simply aiming at making sure of the small realm of Vancouver Island cannot be determined. At all events, if he over-reached himself in the original proposal, he finally succeeded in having the island granted to his company by royal proclamation of January 1849. By the terms of this instrument the ' Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay,' and their successors, were given the island, with the royalties of its seas, and all mines belonging to it. They were made lords and proprietors of the land for ever, subject only to the domination of the British crown, and to an annual rent of seven shillings payable on the first day of the year. They were to settle upon the island within five years a colony of British subjects, for to this end alone was the gift made ; and to dispose of land for purposes of colonization at reasonable prices, retaining of all the moneys received from such sources, as well as from coal or other minerals, ten per cent, and applying to public improvements upon the island the remaining nine-tenths. Such lands as might be necessary for a naval station, and for other government establishments, were to be reserved ; and every two years the company should report to the government the number of colonists settled upon the island, and the lands sold. If at the expiration of five years no settlement should have been made, the grant should be forfeited ; and if at the expiration of the company's licence of exclusive trade with the Indians in 1859 the government should so elect, it might recover the island from the company on payment of such sums of money as had been actually expended by it in colonization. That is to say, the crown reserved the right to recall the grant at the end of five years should the company, either from lack of ability or will, fail to colonize, and to buy it back at the end of ten years by the payment of whatever sum the company should have in the meantime expended. Except during hostilities between Great Britain and foreign powers, the THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 81 company was to defray the expenses of all civil and military establishments for the government and protection of the island.1 The grant of Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company 6n the terms recited in the foregoing was not made without much opposition in the British parliament, in the British press and from various individuals. Loud complaint had been made about the manner in which Rupert's Land had been administered, and among others W. E. Gladstone was on principle strongly opposed to the arrangement. James E. Fitzgerald, who wrote An Examination of the Charter and Proceedings of the Hudson's Bay Company, with Reference to the Grant of Vancouver's Island, a strong but extreme attack upon the company, made a determined effort to obtain a grant of the island for a company proposed to be formed by himself, upon terms generous in the interests of the public ; but as he could give no sufficient guarantee for the undertaking, his application was not seriously considered. Nevertheless, Fitzgerald's attack was adverse to the interests of the company, and had he been more moderate and less obviously moved by personal motives, he might have met with greater success. In many respects the grant to the Hudson's Bay Company, more especially at that particular time, was a wise one. That corporation had, as has been stated, a sort of blanket charter over the whole of the western British territory by reason of its exclusive right to trade with the natives. It had sufficient capital to carry out successfully any scheme of colonization it might feel inclined to inaugurate. Monopoly of the fur trade was almost a necessity in view of the fact that competition was invariably accompanied by traffic in ardent spirits, whereby the natives were demoralized and the trade itself seriously injured. The experience of the past in the Middle West and on the northwest coast had sufficiently demonstrated that. The company was familiar with the country and its resources. Its officials thoroughly understood the natives and could influence and control them. Through almost unbounded facilities they could conduct trade and develop the country in a way 1 Bancroft's British Columbia, pp. 319-20. VOL. XXI L §f^^tt" i 82 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 not possible by individual effort. The Puget Sound Agricultural Company, closely allied to the Hudson's Bay Company, had for its object agricultural development, and, strongly entrenched on Vancouver Island, it would be able to increase the trade already begun with the Russian settlements of the north-west coast and with the islands of the Pacific. It all depended upon the bona fides of the company and the conditions surrounding the settlement of the island. The company could do great things for the island and for the coast, or it could, under the pretence of carrying out its agreement, throttle all real progress and practically keep the country as a fur preserve. As it was, without implying premeditated bad faith on the part of the company, what happened was the very reverse of the ideal and the possible. Corporations are popularly supposed to be without soul, and being an impersonal aggregation of persons consequently without either conscience or imagination. It would be useless to expect a corporation, whose sole object was to make money out of furs, to undertake earnestly a campaign of settlement and development, the early and logical conclusion of which would be the extinction of its raison d'etre. In control, and far from the seat of government, or, as alleged of the Russian Fur Company in Alaska, far from ' God and the Czar,' it was easy for the company so to manage its affairs as to make the possible impossible and still keep within the letter of the law. For instance, it was stipulated in the grant that lands should be sold at a reasonable price, and judging somewhat, no doubt, by conditions in England, Earl Grey thought a pound an acre would be ' reasonable,' to which with the best possible intention was attached the further stipulation that the purchaser of every hundred acres was to place thereon five men or three settlers. When we take into consideration the cost of clearing and putting into a state of cultivation this land, and the expense of bringing out men and families to place on it, it is obvious that only rich men could become colonists, and rich men enjoying the comforts of an English home were not apt, pro bono publico, to become pioneers in a new and rough colony. In allowing Earl Grey to fix these onerous THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 83 conditions the company was serving its own purposes extremely well, and the policy adopted worked out precisely as might have been expected. The company reserved all the land within ten miles of Victoria—the best land for farming purposes and the most easily cleared—and settlers were obliged to go into districts more remote to obtain land, most of which was heavily timbered and without adequate communication with the fort, the then centre of western civilization and the depot of supplies. Moreover, by virtue of the monopoly in trade, settlers were obliged to buy supplies from the company at the company's highest price and to sell to the company their produce at whatever price the company chose to fix. Any attempt at private trading, or any enterprise not contributing to the Hudson's Bay Company's profits or that came into competition with its operations, was promptly stamped out by those methods in restraint of trade that are invisibly applied, but most conspicuous in effect. Captain James Cooper, an immigrant of 1851, took to trading on the mainland on his own account with the natives in cranberries and potatoes for the San Francisco market, but the Hudson's Bay Company immediately began to pay such prices for those commodities that Captain Cooper abandoned .the field and took to farming at Metchosin, an experiment scarcely more successful. If, however, Earl Grey erred in making the arrangement he did with the Hudson's Bay Company for the colonization and administration of Vancouver Island, it was with his eyes open ; or, rather, he did not do it without being warned of its consequences, and that, too, by a commissioner of his own appointing. While Sir John Pelly was at his ear with soft and enticing appeals, he chose to take advice from another quarter. Lieutenant Adam D. Dundas, of the royal navy, had served for two years on the north-west coast, and at Fort Vancouver, where he had spent much time, he had had an opportunity of studying the system under which the company carried on the government of its domain—the term ' government' being used deliberately, because the . Hudson's Bay Company was a law unto itself—and he was requested to report upon the possible advantages or disad- Ippfy'T I 84 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 vantages that might accrue from an imperium in imperio such as was proposed. His report was entirely unfavourable, and he had no hesitation in saying that such a system, the operation of which he had observed, ' would be wholly and totally inapplicable to the nursing of a young colony, with the hope of ever bringing it to maturity.' Remarking on what appeared to him ' overbearingly illiberal usurpation of power on the part of the Hudson's Bay Company,' he concluded that however necessary its system might be found in dealing with savages, it would not accord well with the feelings of colonists. His objections were well expressed in the following paragraph of his report: That this powerful company have the ability to form advantageous Settlements in these unfrequented parts, there is not a doubt, but when their trade is wholly carried on with the Aborigines, is it to be Supposed, that they would aid in the advancement of Civilization when from time immemorial it has been proved that progress of the one has ever been at the expense of the other ? and should the natives cease to exist, why, their occupation is gone. It is only a natural Conclusion then to arrive at that the efforts which the Hudson's Bay Company are putting forward to obtain either a direct or indirect influence in Vancouver Island are with the Sole motive of protracting to as late a period as possible a monopoly which they have so long enjoyed and which could not benefit the country, the only object of establishing a Settlement in Such a distant quarter. The Puget Sound Company are doubtless equally anxious for Hudson's Bay jurisdiction, but it must be at the same time remembered that these two Companies are wholly incorporated in each other, and their interests are mutually blended, their object being to engross all those other available sources of revenue to which the fur trade is not ** immediately applicable.' On the other hand, his report was entirely favourable to Vancouver Island as a field for settlement. Lieutenant Dundas was probably extreme in his characterization of the company's methods and did not take sufficiently into consideration all the circumstances of the case, the primitive elements with which the company had to deal, and the neces- 1 THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 85 sity for stern discipline and for what one might almost be excused in calling devious methods ; but in the main he arrived at a just, and what in the end proved to be a correct, conclusion. Of course, Earl Grey in rejecting his report undoubtedly recommended what he considered to be the best thing to do at the time, and fortified himself with a saving clause for revision, or if necessary cancellation, of the grant after a short term of years. Considering all things, it is not possible, even now, to say that it was not the best course. It cannot be safely concluded that the grant, under the conditions upon which it was made, was a real impediment to progress or development. It is not at all likely that at that period any settlement would have taken place before the discovery of gold, and the Hudson's Bay Company made substantial improvements in the vicinity of Victoria and formed the nucleus of settlement and civilization that was highly useful and advantageous when the rush of miners took place in 1858. Law and order were established, the machinery existed for the administration of justice ; there was a depot of ample supplies, and to some extent means of communication were provided. What is very important, the Hudson's Bay Company, by its operations throughout a vast extent of territory which centred at Victoria, saved the country for Canada, Great Britain and the Empire. Its traditions and influence were thoroughly British, and to whatever extent it colonized, it colonized for the homeland, and without its practical control of'the country it is easy to conceive that the inrush of American miners might have created a community in British Columbia whose sentiment would have altered the political destiny of the Dominion of Canada. It is now in order to consider what may be termed the constitutional fabric of the government of Vancouver Island. Earl Grey, while ceding outright the lands of the new colony to the Hudson's Bay Company, did not propose that the company should derive any pecuniary benefit beyond ten per cent of the receipts, which was a fair allowance for management. All profits arising from the sale of lands or minerals were to be applied toward colonization and the improvement of the island. Moreover, the grant was still & M 86 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 further encumbered by provision for local self-government. As Sir John Pelly had disavowed any desire on the part of the company to make profit out of the land, he could not object to the stipulation about the application of the funds ; and as to the question of representative government, it was accepted no doubt with the mental reservation that it would be respected more in the breach than in the observance. A few white settlers in a remote part of the Empire, wholly dependent upon the Hudson's Bay Company and the Puget Sound Agricultural Company for their existence, were not likely to wish to govern themselves or to have a voice in the management of their affairs. But Sir John had not reckoned on the instincts of the free-born Britisher whom he proposed to transplant to the virgin soil of the Far West, where the very air was redolent of freedom, and it was inevitable that some, if not all, of the colonists, knowing their rights, would demand them. Earl Grey made provision for the representative institutions usual among Anglo-Saxon communities, and for a governor. The latter would be directed to summon an assembly, elected by the general vote of the inhabitants, to exercise, along with himself, the law-making power. The secretary of state for the Colonies was not unwilling to receive suggestions from the Hudson's Bay Company as to the choice of a governor, and Sir John Pelly availed himself of the opportunity to recommend James Douglas, the company's chief representative on the Pacific coast. At the same time he submitted the names of fourteen men as justices of the peace, all officials and all prominent in the service. It will be interesting for that very reason to enumerate them: the Rev. R. J. Staines, chaplain at Victoria; Peter Skene Ogden, joint manager with Douglas west of the Rocky Mountains ; James Douglas himself; John Work,1 a chief factor—explorer, scholar, essayist and local historian—well known throughout the Oregon territory ; Arch. McKinlay, afterwards one of three commissioners for British Columbia ; Dr W. F. Tolmie, physician, botanist, self-constituted missionary, and manager of the Nisqually farm ; Alexander 1 This pioneer w; as John Work, but his real THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 87 Caulfield Anderson, a chief factor, explorer, scholar, essayist and local historian: John Tod, the eccentric and fearless trader and factor ; Dugald McTavish, another chief factor, far-famed in the West; Richard Grant, Donald Manson, James Murray, George T. Allen and John Kennedy. These recommendations found favour and were confirmed; but in the case of James Douglas as governor, though Sir John Pelly in September 1848 was notified of his acceptability for the post, the honour did not at first fall to him. Earl Grey did not think it would be judicious to appoint a governor so closely associated with Hudson's Bay Company affairs as was Douglas, though, as it turned out, it made little difference to the actual situation, as the Hudson's Bay Company was supreme, and Douglas was the uncrowned king. The white population, exceedingly limited in number, were servants of the company, the officials of which not only directed its affairs but were lords of the domain. An independent governor was not of much more service than a fifth wheel to a coach, and, so far as the company's interests—the entire interests of the colony—were concerned, not less of an impediment. Richard Blanshard was the governor chosen, unluckily for himself. For the present, however, it is desirable to turn back and review some of the events that intervene between the founding of Victoria and the date of Blanshard's appointment before dwelling upon his brief experience in a gubernatorial capacity. The operations of the Hudson's Bay Company fort under Roderick Finlayson were watched with great interest by the Indians, various tribes of whom assembled in the neighbourhood, well armed and alert. Bancroft speaks of two chiefs in particular, Tsilalthach, of the Songhees, and Tsoughilam, of the Cowichans. We are informed that the natives stole and feasted upon some of the company's Mexican cattle, and that their chiefs, when brought to task for the theft by Finlayson, assumed a defiant attitude. They referred to these animals as ' the property of nature,' roaming in fields which were theirs from time immemorial. The gifts brought by kind nature they took, asking no questions and accounting to no one. By a demonstration of force—the firing 1 88 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 of several cannon shots—they were speedily convinced of the superiority of the white man in war, and were glad to make good with furs the loss of the cattle and to smoke the pipe of peace. On another occasion the Songhees attacked the Skagits, who had come to Camosun to trade, and filched them of their goods, whereupon Finlayson demanded, under threat of severe penalties, full restoration by the Songhees, and he was obeyed. Thus was the majesty of Hudson's Bay Company law made supreme, and trade relations continued uninterrupted. Fort Victoria was secure thereafter. From 1843 to 1849 nothing of extraordinary interest or importance transpired. Farms were cultivated in increased acreage and trading in furs went on. The monotony of the social life of the fort was occasionally relieved by visitors, some of them distinguished. In addition to the company's ships which soon came direct from England, a fleet of American whalers arrived at Victoria for supplies in 1845. This was the first of a number of such visits. In 1845, too, came Captain Gordon, Captain Park, and Lieutenant Peel, son of Sir Robert Peel, in H.M.S. America. Gordon was a brother of the British prime minister, the Earl of Aberdeen, and his mission was to gather information respecting the country to aid the home government in settling the Oregon boundary question. Finlayson gives in his diary an amusing account of Captain Gordon's disgust with his hunting and fishing experiences in the country. Gordon was the officer concerning whom the pleasant fiction originated that Oregon was lost to Great Britain because, as the Columbia River salmon would not rise to his fly, he reported the country as worthless. It is probable that his report was not optimistic, but the issue did not hang on so trivial an incident. When the excitement in the United States about the Oregon boundary was at its height, and the slogan of ' fifty-four-forty or fight' was heard throughout the land, some half-dozen ships of war appeared on the north-west coast to guard British interests, and called at Victoria, among them two surveying vessels, the Herald and the Pandora, the former commanded by Captain Kellett, afterwards of Arctic fame. Captain Duntze of the Fisgard, THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 89 one of the fleet, was subsequently commissioned to report on the coal supply of Vancouver Island for steaming purposes, and reported favourably on a seam in the vicinity of McNeill Harbour. The existence of coal there had been reported to the Hudson's Bay Company officials as early as 1835 and at various times after that year. About this period, too, Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour, two British engineers, whose reports on the north-west coast in connection with the Oregon boundary have become classics of Western Americana, visited the island. Berthold Seeman, naturalist, was on board H.M.S. Herald, and wrote, among other things of local interest, a description of the fort. Perhaps the most interesting of these visitors was Paul Kane,1 an artist, who was entertained by Finlayson in the fort and who spent some time in the vicinity of Fort Victoria and on the coast of the mainland studying the Indians. Captain Mayne, who wrote such an interesting and authoritative work on British Columbia, paid his first visit to Fort Victoria in 1849. These occasional visitations from the outside world greatly relieved the tedium of what must have been a monotonous and isolated existence in and around the fort. Several notable events occurred in 1849. In this year Vancouver Island from an unorganized geographical division attained to the status of a colony, and provisions were made for a governor, and for representative government after a fashion. Richard Blanshard was appointed governor in July. The existence of coal at Nanaimo was disclosed to the Hudson's Bay Company, a discovery which more deeply affected the future of the island than any other known circumstance. The first truly independent settlement took place when in June Captain W. Colquhoun Grant and eight others arrived in the ship Harpoon. Probably the political development may be regarded as the most important of the events enumerated. Blanshard's brief experience as governor was a tragedy. He was an Englishman with aspirations, learned in the law. As the Hudson's Bay Company had proposed that James Douglas should serve, as a temporary arrangement, without emolument, in accepting 1 See section vi, pp. 516, 517, and 596. VOL. XXI M T 1 90 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 the office Blanshard could not expect more than the empty honour pertaining to it. Of what passed in secret between him and Earl Grey or Sir John Pelly there is no record, but he no doubt anticipated that when settlement had advanced and political conditions on the island had been satisfied he would be accorded consideration similar to that enjoyed by the governors of other crown colonies. His conception of the dignity and status of the governor of Vancouver Island coincided with his impressions of colonial governorships in general, and with little or no knowledge of the actual conditions to which he was foredoomed we can readily imagine his buoyancy of spirit as he looked forward to the rdle he was to play in the newest part of the New World. When he arrived at Victoria, on March 10, 1850, in H.M.S. Driver he was destined to a rude awakening. His passage out cost him three hundred pounds, of which the company paid one hundred and seventy-five pounds. This proved to be the full extent of his indemnity then or afterwards. Douglas must have had notification of his coming, but Blanshard found no accommodation of any sort provided for him, and he was dependent for jj bed and board' upon the captain of the Driver, in which vessel he read his commission and proclamation to the officers of the Driver and Cormorant and the officials of the Hudson's Bay Company. As Bancroft naively expressed it, ( for some time thereafter the government headquarters were migratory. Being on board the Driver, wherever that vessel went, the government was obliged to go.' Later on, he resided in the fort until quarters were provided for him just outside the palisades. His plight was truly pitiable. Before leaving England he had been promised, verbally, one thousand acres of land. When he applied for this land to James Douglas, who had no knowledge of the arrangement, he was referred to headquarters. It transpired that the company viewed the promise as referring to land to be occupied and used only while he acted in the capacity of governor. He was refused one hundred acres, out of the thousand, as a settler. He had no government offices and he was allowed no clerical assistance. He paid all his expenses out of his own pocket, and his living cost him at the THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 91 rate of eleven hundred pounds a year. His presence and his authority were practically ignored by the Hudson's Bay Company officials. For all articles he purchased from the fort stores he was obliged to pay the cash price charged to settlers, which was three hundred per cent above the London prices; and as there were only about two dozen settlers to govern and no governmental institutions to administer or preside over, his official duties consisted, in the main, in settling petty disputes among the servants of the company, of which it appears there were not a few. This is the gist of the grievances presented in his letters to Earl Grey and in his statement before the select committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1857 to inquire into the affairs of the Hudson's Bay Company in North America. From his own testimony we learn that his only work was that which would form part of the duties of an ordinary justice of the peace, and we cannot wonder at, and can readily forgive, the irritation and lugubriousness displayed in his dispatches and letters home, of which Earl Grey seemed to tire. At all events, instead of sympathizing with Blanshard's misfortunes, the secretary of state for the Colonies was more inclined to be censorious. The governor's position was anomalous and humiliating ; he was without a population to govern, without recognition of office and socially isolated, and without official residence or stipend. Richard Blanshard was undoubtedly an honest, well- meaning man. He was not afraid to do what he conceived to be his duty and to act promptly, but unless we assume that he was cruelly deceived by promises made to him prior to his coming to Vancouver Island, and was practically the victim of conspiracy, he must have been exceedingly simple-minded and trustful and unused to the ways of the world. His treatment, on either assumption, reflects no credit on the Hudson's Bay Company or on the secretary of state for the Colonies. Notwithstanding the really inferior position Her Majesty's representative occupied in the new colony, his coming was historically and politically most important in its significance. It portended the early elimination of the fur trader's sovereignty and was at least the outward and formal sign of 92 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 the establishment of British supremacy and British institutions on the North Pacific coast. To contrast the conditions that Blanshard encountered with those that exist to-day, sixty-three years later, is to measure an era of development which prior to 1800 would have taken centuries to achieve in equal degree. Agricultural operations then represented scattered patches of cultivated land, pastured fields and dairies, to which from the fort led winding lanes and beyond which was wilderness. The countryside presented as yet the original aspect of a state of nature. Deer roamed in the natural parks surrounding the fort; coveys of grouse abode in the thickets or perched on the rocky eminences ; wild fowl in flocks frequented the swamps and marshes within the present site of the city of Victoria, and the lordly elk had not then quitted the peninsula, but grazed with the cattle in the fields. Governor Blanshard was voluminous in his correspondence, and his dispatches had a pessimistic note throughout that must have been irritating to the minister of state, who was more or less responsible for some at least of the conditions of which he complained. At the same time, the governor's observations often displayed a measure of ability, and, on the whole, gave a correct estimate of the situation. His public service, apart from the magisterial duties already referred to, consisted largely in a visit to Fort Rupert and vicinity and his investigation into the Indian troubles, for a time critical in their nature, and into the coal-mining industry and the relations of the miners with the Hudson's Bay Company, which were far from being satisfactory. The miners he reported as being extremely discontented, their discontent amounting at times to open revolt. He remarked on the thinness of the seams and the poor quality of the coal. The acreage of arable land on the island, he stated, was exceedingly limited. The Indians, then estimated at ten thousand in number, he reported as diminishing and described them as I savage and treacherous.' An Indian massacre of white men at Fort Rupert greatly excited the miners, who refused obedience to employers and magistrates, refused to act as constables, insisted upon abandonment of the settlement, and even openly accused THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 93 the Hudson's Bay Company of instigating the murders. He warned the home government of the dangers to settlers and miners in the outlying districts, and in one of his dispatches refers to complaints of Indian outrages at Sooke, where Captain Grant, who asked for protection, had located. He pressed upon Earl Grey the necessity of a garrison at Esquimalt, a detachment of which should be stationed at Fort Rupert for the safety of the colony. His dispatches were a series of complaints and forebodings. That nothing very serious happened and that the colony survived is perhaps evidence that his views were coloured by the mental effect of his own disappointing experiences. In respect to carrying out his instructions to appoint a council, he dwelt in one dispatch upon the scanty material for such a body to be found in the colony. There were no settlers, and few officers of the Hudson's Bay Company possessed the qualifications for membership in a house of assembly, and he requested the home government to send him further instructions in the matter. The Indian troubles at Fort Rupert, which have been the subject of much discussion, deserve particular mention. A contributing cause of discontent, previously referred to, was the excitement in California over the discovery of gold. Farm labourers, sailors and miners in the employment of the company, all under contract, were only too willing to break their bonds and escape to the gold-fields. In one instance, at least, such conduct had a tragic result. Three sailors belonging to company's vessels lying at Victoria deserted to the ship England, on the way from San Francisco to Fort Rupert for coal. At Fort Rupert, news of their desertion having been forwarded to officials there, they escaped to the woods, and it was alleged that a Mr Blenkinsop, acting for the company, sent Indians in pursuit with instructions to bring the deserters in, dead or alive. The Indians returned with a report that they had killed the white men, and claimed the reward. It being easier to kill them and leave their bodies than to bring them back, the natives naturally followed the line of least resistance. This is the story told by Bancroft, whose prejudices against the Hudson's Bay Company are frequently revealed, but the tale was obtained from biased nnr 94 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 sources. It is not at all likely that the Hudson's Bay Company, whose policy was always to respect and protect the lives of its servants, would have been guilty of such a palpable crime. When the natives killed an employee, it was an invariable rule to punish the death, not so much in the spirit of revenge as for the deterrent effects of punishment. Pro pelle cutem has always been the motto of the company, and this might fittingly be translated ' an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' The truth seems to have been that Fort Rupert Indians had been sent after the deserters to a district where they were said to have been seen, and found that the three men had been killed by Newittees, a tribe which had no concern in the pursuit. The Rupert Indians reported the facts to Blenkinsop, and the bodies were brought in and buried in the garden of the fort with Christian rites. It must be remembered that there was a great deal of excitement at the time among both the whites and the Indians. The entire force of white miners ceased work and hid themselves with the object of taking passage to San Francisco in the England. The men and the natives had secured intoxicating liquors from the ship, and matters assumed a critical aspect. It is not unnatural that with such a condition of affairs a distorted version of the whole incident should have gained publicity. It may be explained here that shortly after Governor Blanshard's first visit to Fort Rupert, in order to preserve quiet among the miners, he appointed Dr J. S. Helmcken, the company's physician at the mines, who had recently arrived in the Norman Morrison with a number of settlers, a justice of the peace. One account of the subsequent proceedings, which is believed to be fairly accurate, is taken from the Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians, and is as follows : A month or so after the departure of the England H.M.S. Daedalus arrived at Fort Rupert with Governor Blanshard on board. When the governor was placed in possession of the true facts of the case it was decided that Dr Helmcken should go and demand the surrender of the murderers, in the usual manner. The doctor accordingly THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND 95 set off with an interpreter and a half dozen Indians for Newittee. On entering the harbour he was met by four or five hundred Indians, painted black, and armed with muskets, spears, axes and other weapons, and all making the usual hideous noise which they employ to strike terror into their enemies. Dr Helmcken explained his mission to them from the canoe. The chief answered him that they would not and could not give up the murderers, but were willing to pay for the murdered men as many blankets, furs and other articles as might reasonably be demanded, this being their law and custom in such cases. Of course this was declined, and they were told that they were bringing great misery on themselves by not acceding to the demand of King George's law [sic]. When Dr Helmcken returned and made known to Governor Blanshard and Captain Wellesley the decision of the Newittee chiefs, it was decided to send boats and men to seize the murderers or to punish the tribes. The boats arrived only to find a deserted village. The crew partly destroyed the village and returned without having seen a member of the tribe. Shortly after this the Daedalus left Fort Rupert and, when near Cape Scott, she was fired at, and a sailor slightly wounded. This may not, however, have been the work of the Newittees, but of some other Indians, who simply intended saluting the ship. The year following H.M.S. Daphne went up to punish the tribe if they still refused to give up the murderers. On this occasion they were found in a new camp They peremptorily refused the demands of the captain and accordingly the crew prepared to attack them. The Indians fired and wounded several of the sailors, who thereupon went at them. The Indians, however, fled to the thick woods in the rear, where they could not be followed. Only two Indians were killed in this skirmish. The village huts were then destroyed and the Daphne left. Governor Blanshard now ordered rewards to be offered for the delivery of the murderers. The Newittees by this time had had quite enough, and fearing another attack they determined to make their peace by handing over the malefactors. They made an attempt to seize these men, but it was so clumsily done that in the scuffle a young chief was killed and another wounded. So the murderers were shot and their dead bodies brought to Mr Blenkinsop at Fort Rupert, where ff 1 ! 96 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 they were buried. It is believed, however, that one of the murderers escaped, and to make up the full number a slave was substituted. The reward offered by Governor Blanshard was asked for, but Mr Blenkinsop declined to pay it. He gave the Indians who had a right to the money a letter to Governor Blanshard at Victoria. Whether it was ever delivered is unknown. While the Daedalus was at Fort Rupert, Governor Blanshard held a court of inquiry, but after hearing the evidence he gave a very enigmatical decision. The fact was that his first dispatches to the Imperial Government, concerning the affair, which he had sent before he left Victoria, were based on ex parte statements, and when he came to inquire into the matter he found his error ; an error, however, which he did not choose to acknowledge in view of the unfavourable light in which such an admission would undoubtedly have placed him. He made no complaint whatever of the conduct of Mr Blenkinsop or Dr Helmcken in the affair, and as Blanshard was inimical to the Hudson's Bay Company, he certainly would not have omitted to censure the officers of the company had there been any reasonable ground so to do. In due time answers came to Governor Blanshard's dispatches, urging him to appoint his council without delay and informing him that Her Majesty's government could not undertake to maintain a detachment of troops on the island. He was even censured by Earl Grey for taking steps to punish the Indians, it being laid down that ' Her Majesty's Government could not undertake to protect, or attempt to punish injuries committed upon British subjects who voluntarily expose themselves to the violence or treachery of the native tribes at a distance from settlements.' Blanshard, tired of his thankless position, and pleading ill-health and lack of means, sent in his resignation, which was promptly accepted in a letter that expressed no regrets at his action and no appreciation of his services. The colonists, however, deplored his intended departure and prepared a memorial setting forth their fears on account of the colony being left to the exclusive control of the Hudson's Bay Company. The memorial was signed by the Rev. R. J. Staines and fourteen settlers, out of the thirty who Blanshard subse- SIR JAMES DOUGLAS From a portrait by Savannah 1 > inquire into £ owever, which ■ of the unfa\ treachery of tl its.* Blanshan 3AJOUOQ aaMAi SLIZ § 11 f Jlj^p VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 97 quently said were on the island at the time. The governor's resignation was dated November 1850, and the letter of acceptance, dated April 3, 1851, reached him in August, nearly ten months later, a circumstance well illustrating the isolated situation of Vancouver Island in those days. On August 27, 1851, Blanshard nominated his council, which was composed of three members—James Douglas, James Cooper and John Tod. On September 1, sailing in H.M.S. Daphne, he turned his back on the colony for ever. He is next heard of giving evidence before the select committee in the House of Commons in 1857. That he was not so poor a man as he represented himself to be is manifest from a paragraph in Begg's History of British Columbia : He reached England in due time, and subsequently lived as a country Gentleman, highly respected, on his estate near London, dividing his time between the country residence and the city mansion. Toward the end of his life his eyesight failed, and before his death he became totally blind. He died, June 5, 1894. His will, when proved July 3rd, showed his personal estate valued at £130,000, or about $650,000. THE COLONY OF VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS IN November 1851 James Douglas was appointed governor of Vancouver Island. Under the arrangements that had been made in connection with the grant of this territory to the Hudson's Bay Company, the appointment was almost inevitable, and perhaps at the time the best solution of the difficulty in respect of a representative of the crown. Douglas was on the ground ; he was a man of ability and character; he was familiar with every detail of the coast and thoroughly understood the Indians and how to control them. The last mentioned was a very important consideration, as outside the few settlers and the servants VOL. XXI N 98 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 of the company there was no other population than the natives, then very numerous on the island and on the mainland coast. Moreover, practically all the interests represented on the island were company interests, and no matter who was governor it could make but little difference as to actual results. During Douglas's dual control of the island from 1851 to 1858, while there were a good deal of dissatisfaction and many complaints on the part of settlers and of servants of the company, in some instances, at least, the grievances were theoretical rather than actual, and in any event it does not appear that they were of such a character that they would not have existed under an independent governor. The Hudson's Bay Company was supreme and its high officials would have snapped their fingers, as they did in the case of Blanshard, at any attempted local interference on the part of the crown. It is interesting to note the personal characteristics and career of James Douglas, who by common consent was the most prominent figure of the colonial period of British Columbia history. The history of the two colonies during the period of their existence is little more than a history of the life of James Douglas. Very little is known of Douglas's younger days and he has left nothing of autobiographical interest bearing on his early years. He was born in the West Indies in 1803. His father was John Douglas, described as a merchant of Glasgow, who, it is said, was descended from the celebrated Earl of Angus, the Black Douglas of Scottish history. His mother was born in the West Indies. At an early age he was taken by his father to Lanark, Scotland, where he received a portion of his scholastic training. He was also at school at Chester. At an early age—information on this point is not exact, but probably he was sixteen or seventeen years old—he was apprenticed to the North- West Company and was sent to Fort William, where Dr McLoughlin was stationed, a fact that had a controlling influence over the rest of his life. When the coalition of the fur companies took place in 1821, like many others he was, as already stated, inclined to leave the service and return to Scotland, but he was induced by Dr McLoughlin, who had VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 99 taken a great liking to the lad, to take service with the reorganized Hudson's Bay Company. It is stated that he was slated to go with McLoughlin to Fort Vancouver to organize and administer the Western Department; but to give him experience he was sent to New Caledonia, there to be under the wing of William Connolly, whose daughter, the beautiful Amelia Connolly, he was afterwards to marry. Douglas stayed six or seven years in New Caledonia, where some of his experiences were far from pleasant. He left for the Columbia River in 1830. Bancroft states that his journey to the Columbia took place in 1828, but the Rev. Father Morice, who is the better authority on this particular point, gives the date as 1830. He became chief trader, according to Anderson, in 1833, and was then made accountant at Fort Vancouver and second in command, so that his rise was unusually rapid. He was already acquiring a reputation for his practical grasp of affairs and his familiarity with the geography of the West, and particularly of the entire coast, of which it is said that he knew the most minute details. Thoroughness was one of his distinguishing characteristics in business and state affairs. In 1845 he succeeded Dr McLoughlin as head of the Western Department. In estimating his place in British Columbia history we have to take into consideration all the circumstances which affected his career ; and, having regard to the relatively high place to which he attained, he may truly be described as having been a ' remarkable' man. In this connection the writer will be pardoned for reproducing at some length his own appreciation of Douglas which appeared in a former work:1 A Scotsman . . . associated during his earlier years with the members of the North-West Company, who were his countrymen, he both inherited and acquired many of those distinguishing characteristics which seem to reflect the ruggedness and strength of their native mountains, and much of the picturesqueness and charm of Caledonian scenery. Sir James was a large man mentally and physically. He had alike strength of physique and 1 R. E. Gosnell, A History of British Columbia, 1906. u COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 character. Although at the age of sixteen he sought the wilds of the North-West in the employ of a fur company, he had a liberal education, and throughout his career he aimed to increase his stock of knowledge and increase his accomplishments. He retained and strengthened the moral rectitude of his youth; In his principles he represented the old-fashioned punctiliousness in regard to details of all kinds, with progressive and far-seeing views of business and public policy. He combined a genius for business with a love of nature, of family, of literature, of devotion. His love of order, his respect for the conventionalities of office, his becoming self-respect, gave rather too much the impression of pompous display and an assertion of superiority, both of which were foreign to his nature. Sir James loved to magnify the office, but not the man. He was a strong masterful man, with the faults that such men have—the tendency to rule with too firm a hand, to brook no opposition, to be perhaps overbearing, which traits were unusually developed under the one-man rule of the Hudson's Bay Company, and necessary in the conditions under which that wonderful corporation carried on its operations over a vast extent of the New World. He had a good mastery of French, which he spoke fluently . . . had a wide knowledge of history and political economy ; conversed with ease and entertainingly ; rose early and walked a great deal; was tenderly devoted to his family; was constant in religious exercises, assiduous in the performance of official duties ; and generally was a man who acted well his part in life and did honour to his high position in the state. Of splendid physical proportions and herculean strength, he had an imposing appearance. He possessed the quality of personal magnetism in a high degree and exercised corresponding influence with all with whom he came in contact. Cool, calculating and cautious, he was also courageous and prompt to act, combining the dominating characteristics of Anglo-Saxon and Celt. . . . To my mind the most remarkable feature of his career is the development of a character and a personality unique in its fulness and strength. It was a character that grew up in and out of a western soil almost barbaric in rudeness and primitiveness . . . and yet so diverse in many respects that had it not been for its ruggedness and VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS ioi strength it might be termed exotic. . . . Launched on a sea of Far West adventure, entirely removed from the social influences and culture comforts of his home in Scotland, associating for years with the uncivilized Indian tribes of the country, and moulded by the stern experience of an isolated life on prairie, in forest and on mountain ; out of touch with the civilizing forces of the wonderful century in which he began life ; engaged in an occupation that begat no aspirations of a future that such a man in other walks of life might reasonably entertain—with such environment it is remarkable, I contend, that he should not only retain the accomplishments of his youth throughout life, but increase and perfect them, acquire a knowledge of many subjects of an academic nature, and principally of the principles of political economy and statecraft; develop a strong literary style of composition and familiarize himself with the formalities of government and parliamentary procedure ; nurture the moral and religious instincts of his youth ; observe a becoming temperance and abstemiousness ; cultivate a striking dignity of person ; in the midst of a busy life, full of practical and unromantic details, keep abreast of the thought of his day, and that when he was called upon to fill the responsible and dignified position of governor of one of Her Majesty's colonies, without any previous experience and training for such a post, he should do so with the utmost ability and acceptability. It is true that in many of the qualifications possessed by James Douglas—education, intelligence, tact, force of character, physical prowess, bravery, resourcefulness, systematic habits, dignity, moral rectitude—the Hudson's Bay Company service was a splendid school, and it is only fair to say that our hero was but one, though a conspicuous unit, of a long list of pioneers in the nobility of the fur trade to whom history can never do too much honour. In this respect, however, Douglas was particularly notable, that while he evinced many, if not all, of the better qualities of men in his class, he was singularly free from the moral defects and excesses, not unnatural in a rough and ready school of ethics through which all alike graduated, that distinguished some of them. In his day Sir James was undoubtedly remarkable among many remarkable men, and it is not unnatural to conclude that under other conditions of life, and with a wider oppor- nr ■ 102 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 tunity, would have equally distinguished himself as a man of affairs and as a leader of men. We can, therefore, honour him not only for what he was in life but for what he might have been. . . . Whatever differences of opinion there may have been among his contemporaries as to his policy as a governor or whatever may have been the varying estimates of his character as a man among men with whom he had personal relations—every strong man has his enemies and in all politics there is strife—that to-day he is by general consensus of opinion regarded as the man representative of his times, the one about whose individuality must cluster as a nucleus the materials for the history of the early life of British Columbia, is the strongest possible testimony to the part he played as a pioneer and statesman. All things are relative, and men must be judged by their opportunities and peculiar environment. It must not be assumed that Douglas was without faults. In some respects he fell below the standard that he set for himself. For instance, his treatment of Blanshard cannot be justified except on the score that he was obeying the instructions of his superiors in thwarting his plans, and not that he had personal preferment in view. The Hudson's Bay Company was coldblooded, as corporations mostly are, and as it was the religion of its officials to give its policy effect, it is to be assumed that Douglas in his official capacity was compelled to do many things that from his own point of view were distasteful. After the fashion of successful self-made men he was egotistical and in a measure self-seeking. Privately he had many home virtues which contrasted with his official attitude. His influence over the Indians was very great, and at his funeral in 1877 they assembled in large numbers to do honour to his memory. He was also popular among the miners, with whom his relations were always satisfactory. In brief, Douglas as a chief factor or as a governor may be described as a despot, but an exceedingly benevolent one. It will now be in order to consider the events which transpired between 1851 and 1859, the period during which Douglas combined in himself the responsibilities of headship VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 103 of colonial affairs and of the fur-trading in the Far West. It will also be interesting to note some of the personalities, as associates in government and as settlers, who were prominent figures of this regime. Governor Blanshard, in accordance with his instructions from the Colonial Office, and as his last official act, as previously mentioned, appointed a council consisting of James Douglas, John Tod and James Cooper. When Douglas became governor, Roderick Finlayson took his place at the council board. From 1851 to 1856 Vancouver Island, as a colony, was administered by the governor with the advice and assistance of this council. As there were few settlers and as the lands and public works of the colony were exclusively controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company, the duties of the executive were not arduous. Douglas virtually ruled, but the council on more than one occasion exercised a restraining influence on a governor inclined to be autocratic. The council did not meet on stated occasions, but as public business required. John Tod, one member of the council, then living in retirement at Cadboro Bay, had been a chief factor of the company and had had an adventurous career in the Western Department. He was as eccentric as he was fearless and resourceful, and was the hero of many exploits in the Nicola and Thompson districts. He was a profuse letter-writer on a variety of topics, and his correspondence with Edward Ermatinger, who afterwards settled near St Thomas, Ontario, is particularly interesting. Roderick Finlayson, the son of an extensive sheep-farmer, was born in Scotland on March 16, 1818, and entered the Hudson's Bay Company's service at Montreal. In 1839 he crossed the mountains to Fort Vancouver and served under Dr McLoughlin, with whom he was on confidential terms. In 1840, accompanying James Douglas on an expedition, he visited the posts along the coast as far north as Sitka, and assisted in building the fort at Taku Inlet. He spent a dreary winter there, and then six months at Fort Stikine. Thence he went to Fort Simpson, where he remained until called to assist in building Fort Camosun, of which he had charge for some time. Finlayson was a fine specimen of the Hudson's Bay Company officer, and 104 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 as late as 1889 was described as ? well-preserved in mind as in body, clear-headed, courteous, intelligent and public-spirited.' His History of Vancouver Island and the North-West Coast is the main source of authentic information of the time of which he writes. Later on Finlayson took a prominent part in the affairs of the city of Victoria, being for three years alderman and once mayor. Captain James Cooper was of another stamp, a man who impressed Bancroft as ' a pleasant English gentleman, with a mind more than ordinarily subject to the warp of fortune ; consistent in his dislikes, which were lasting, harbouring from year to year his hatred of the Hudson's Bay Company with unvarying persistency.' Cooper had been in the employment of the company as captain of one of their ships, the barque Columbia, entering the service in 1844. He remained but a short time, preferring to do business on the coast on his own account. In 1851 he brought an iron ship from England in parts and engaged in trade, but his enterprise was discouraged by the company, which soon drove him out of business by relentless price-cutting. He then consoled himself by seclusion on a three-hundred-acre farm at Sooke and was a settler until 1859. Cooper, Staines, Langford and Blanshard stirred up disaffection on account of Hudson's Bay Company rule in the colony, and in each case there were personal grievances at the back of the complaints. It is true, no doubt, that the personal grievances were well founded, but it does not follow that all they alleged of Hudson's Bay Company administration was true. Proceedings of the council were kept in an old minute- book, extremely interesting as the sole record of the questions agitating the limited public of the colony of that day, and the methods of dealing with these questions. The labour problem, as old as the hills, had its recrudescence in these pages and in this remote island. The discovery of gold in California in 1849 had a demoralizing effect upon the servants of the company, who, though under contract, did not scruple to flee to the newly discovered gold-fields. Those who remained were subject to fits of insubordination. The governor, whose notions about these matters would now be considered archaic, proposed a law more clearly denning the relations of master VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 105 and servant and providing for 'punishing offences such as insolent language, neglect of duty and absence without leave of the employer, by summary infliction of fine -and imprisonment.' This was wisely deferred for further consideration and left to moulder in the archives. One of the earliest and ever-present problems of the colony was that of raising revenue. Under the terms of the grant the proceeds of the sales of lands and minerals were to be devoted, less ten per cent to the Hudson's Bay Company, to the building of roads and the making of public improvements, and there were no other sources of revenue left to the government except the liquor licences. Governor Douglas advised the Colonial Office that he intended recommending to the council the imposition of a duty of five per cent on all imports of British and foreign goods, for the purpose of raising a permanent revenue, but at the same time cautiously anticipated an objection against taxation in any form. The council strongly opposed the proposed duty. The members thought that it would prove a bar to settlement by imposing a heavy burden on settlers from Great Britain ; and anyway, owing to the few settlers on the island, then about twenty, the cost of collecting the duty would be greater than the revenue from this source. Free trade, therefore, remained the settled policy of the colony until its union with British Columbia. Another time-honoured subject of contention and legislation agitated the minds of the early law-makers of Vancouver Island—the liquor question. So great was the thirst prevailing among the population in those days that in one private diary it was declared that' it would take a line of packet ships running between here and San Francisco to supply this Island with grog.' Evidently there was some necessity for restraint and regulation of the traffic. The governor proposed that a duty should be charged on all licences granted to inns and public and beer houses. The schedule of levies decided upon was as follows : For a wholesale licence, £100 ; for a retail licence, £120. A wholesale licence was defined as meaning sale of spirits in cask or case as imported, and a retail licence the sale in smaller quantities, for • reasonable refreshment' to be consumed on the premises. It was, however, allowable vol. xxi o 106 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 to sell liquor to j farmers and other persons, possessed of landed property,' residing at a distance from any licensed alehouse, in any quantities not under two gallons, intended strictly for home consumption and not for sale. That the liquor interest was even then obtruding itself is evident from a petition presented requesting a modification permitting publicans to sell spirits by the bottle to be consumed off the premises. The next important subject to engage attention was that of providing facilities for education.1 The prominent members of the community, being officials of the Hudson's Bay Company as well as being mainly Scottish, had a due appreciation of s book-learning,' and so far as the meagre resources of the colony would admit of it, made generous provision for education. In response to various applications for schools, appropriations were made for two, one at Maple Point and the other at Victoria. The population being scattered, it was necessary to have boarding-schools. The schedule of rates fixed by the council for the first colonial teacher, Robert Barr, was as follows : Eighteen guineas per annum for children of colonists and of servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, and any sum that might be agreed upon for the children of non-residents. The council did other important work. Five hundred pounds was appropriated, each, for a court-house, the building of roads and bridges, and the erection of a parish church. Under the Hudson's Bay Company regime religion was a state affair. Nominally at least the corporation was pious. Justices of the peace were appointed—Edward E. Langford, of Langford Plains, for the Esquimalt district; Thomas Blenldiorn, for Metchosin ; Thomas J. Skinner and Kenneth Mackenzie, for the peninsula. Sooke, not possessing the qualified material, was left over for later consideration. In this connection is introduced a historical personage whose life for nearly sixty years was associated with the religious welfare of Victoria. Reference is made to the late Bishop Cridge, whose death took place on May 6, 1913, when he was in his ninety-sixth year. In February 1856 he was 1 See the' History of Education' in this section. 1 VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 107 recommended by Governor Douglas to be appointed a member of the committee to inquire into and report upon the state of the public schools. This recommendation being acted upon, he thus became the first inspector of schools, a position he occupied for many years. The Rev. Edward Cridge came to the colony in April 1855 as chaplain to the Hudson's Bay Company, and subsequently became district minister of Victoria and rector and dean of Christ Church Cathedral. He was a graduate of Cambridge University and had served in holy orders in England, as well as in a teaching capacity. Apart from his great age, his long residence in Victoria, his saintly character and his literary and musical accomplishments, his place in local history is fixed by an ecclesiastical trial in which he was the defendant, and which has become a cause celebre in ecclesiastical law records. In 1875 he was accused of insubordination to his bishop, and other offences, because he protested against the high-church proclivities of the bishop and against certain sermons preached in the cathedral, resulting in a clash of authority. He was tried on a number of charges before an ecclesiastical court appointed and presided over by the bishop, the Right Rev. George Hills. Cridge conducted his own defence. He protested against the constitution of the court as being illegal and irregular, and denied any violation of the canonical laws of the church, alleging that it was rather the bishop who was guilty of exercising ' unlawful authority * and who by virtue of his doctrines had seceded from the church, and, therefore, had ceased to have authority. The court found him guilty on nearly every count, which, technically at least, could not be gainsaid. An appeal was made to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who, while brushing aside the proceedings of the ecclesiastical court as irregular and unconstitutional, nevertheless decided against the dean and gave an order restraining him from preaching or officiating as a clergyman of the Church of England. The upshot of it all was that Dean Cridge joined the ranks of the Reformed Episcopal Church, then being organized throughout Canada, and followed by about three hundred of his congregation, established a church of the new denomination. A site for a build- il nnr 108 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 ing, still being used, was donated by Sir James Douglas. This defection from the church with which he had so long been identified was a notable incident and occasioned widespread and heated controversy. Not long afterwards Cridge became the first bishop in British Columbia of the Reformed Episcopal Church, and until within two or three years of his death, when he was afflicted with blindness, he occupied the pulpit every Sunday. From the very first he had the respect and esteem of the community in which he laboured, and during the declining years of his life his residence was a shrine for many admirers. The question of defences for the colony had also serious consideration, and the local conditions were of such a character as to render it one attended by some difficulties, the principal being that the population was too small to provide an effective force and that under the terms of the Hudson's Bay Company's title to the island that corporation was obliged to defray the expenses of all civil and military establishments, except during an international war. In 1854, when war had been declared between Great Britain and Russia, its relation to the peace and welfare of Vancouver Island was solemnly discussed in the council, to which, in J853, John Work had been appointed. The governor's proposal to call out and arm all the men in the colony capable of bearing arms and to levy and arm an auxiliary body of native Indians was vetoed for two reasons: one was that the number of whites could offer no effectual resistance against an invading force, and the other was that it would be dangerous to arm and drill the natives, who might become in that event more formidable than the Russians. It was sensibly concluded to leave the matter of defence to Her Majesty's government. It was, however, in the meantime decided to arm and man the steamer Otter with a force of thirty hands to watch ' over the safety of the settlements ' until the home authorities could take proper measures for their defence. This was not the only Russian scare that occurred. There was another a few years later, when earthworks and emplacements for heavy ordnance were erected all along the coast from Duntz Head to Beacon Hill Park, the remains of some VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 109 of which are still to be seen. The Indians, however, really gave more cause for anxiety than the Russians. The latter were far away and not likely to cross the ocean to gain so small a prize as the fur-trading post at Victoria ; but the natives in great numbers were near at hand and at some times threatening. In 1855, owing to differences arising between Indians and settlers, the governor suggested the raising of a paid force to meet possible emergencies, and he was authorized to organize a company of ten and appoint a commanding officer. The following year, more trouble being anticipated from an invasion of northern Indians, a rifle company of thirty men and officers was formed. It does not appear from the record that amidst all these war's alarms the ' colonial forces' were called upon to take the field. The influence of Douglas over the native tribes of the coast was very great, and it must be remembered, also, that the ships of the royal navy lying in Esquimalt harbour were an effective reminder to the natives that an attack upon the whites would result in very serious consequences to themselves. It was during the Crimean War that Esquimalt was made a naval base, which it continued to be until a change in the British naval policy in 1905, when Canada undertook to look after its own defences. During the European conflict the ships of Great Britain might have given Russia a body blow by attacking and reducing her Alaskan possessions, but no attempt was made in that direction. The explanation is offered that through the influence of the two fur companies, the Russian-American and the Hudson's Bay, at the outset of the war, it was secretly agreed between the two governments that their trade should not be disturbed. A land policy, among other things, was discussed, and in March i860 it is recorded in the minutes j That the council are unanimously of the opinion that a low price . . . combined with occupation and improvement, would conduce to the general settlement of the country.' This extremely statesmanlike proposal was followed by other recommendations to the effect, in case the price were reduced : that conditions should be imposed to prevent large quantities of land being bought for speculative purposes to the prejudice no COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 of settlers of limited means who wished to cultivate it; that provision should be made for pre-empting, and settlers going on, the land without waiting for it to be surveyed ; that preemptions should be limited to one hundred and sixty acres ; and that—and here the council entered upon extremely debatable ground—though advocating a low price the members did not wish to see all the waste land tied up in preemptions, but rather the adoption of some system whereby the capitalist could secure ' extensive quantities of land when required for laudable [?] purposes,' in which cases more might be charged for the land, and that grants should be hedged about by j conditions that would prevent abuse.' We come now to a very important stage in colonial history—the establishment of representative government. It was contemplated that with the formation of a colony and the appointment of a governor these steps would be followed by the assembling of freeholders, qualified by the ownership of twenty acres, with whose advice and that of the council laws should be made for the good government of the state. At the same time the governor had been empowered, with the advice of his council, to make laws for the colony—a provision undoubtedly intended to meet the immediate requirements of Her Majesty's subjects on Vancouver Island; but it is quite clear that it was also intended that a regular form of representative parliamentary institutions should be established as soon as that was feasible, the governor being vested with some discretionary powers as to the exact time of their introduction. Instructions based on these fundamental principles of representative government had been sent to Governor Blanshard, who, in the circumstances previously described, can readily be excused for not giving them effect or even attempting to do so. Similar instructions were issued to Douglas on his appointment, but he was not inclined to regard them as imperative. The colonial secretary had anticipated rapid development on the island ; the reverse was the case ; and Governor Douglas on the spot, seeing no particular need for assistance in his task of governing his handful of subjects, hardly gave the matter consideration. No one in the colony had asked for a parliamentary system, J i m I P 1 I I VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS in and the population was so sparse and so widely scattered that it did not seem practicable. However, in a dispatch dated February 28, 1856, Henry Labouchere (Lord Taunton), then secretary of state for the Colonies, opened the governor's eyes to the fact that he could no longer assume that, on account of the smallness of the population, he was entitled to act with the advice of his council only, but the statement was softened by the words : ' In doing so, you proceeded on a fair understanding of the authority conveyed to you, and Her Majesty's government are fully satisfied with the course which you took.' It was, on the other hand, doubted whether j the Crown can legally convey authority to make laws in a settlement founded by Englishmen, even for a special and temporary purpose, to any legislature not elected, wholly or in part, by the settlers themselves. If this be the case, the clause \{ sj in your commission on which you relied would appear to be unwarranted and invalid.' Douglas was accordingly instructed to take steps at once to call together an assembly. Many details—the division of the colony into polling districts, the establishment of polling places, the size and character of the parliament (whether composed of a single or double chamber), the proper qualification of the members to be elected—were left in the hands of the governor and council to settle as local conditions and requirements might suggest. I The power of assenting to or negativing, or suspending, for the assent of the Crown, the measures passed by such a council should be distinctly reserved to yourself,' wrote Labouchere. 'And it is very essential,' he added,.' that a constitutional law of this description should contain a proviso, reserving the initiation of all money votes to the local government.' Labouchere suggested the advisability of the simplest form of government possible consistent with the {]] n principles that had been laid down. His reason for this was, more particularly, as he very significantly and ingeniously interpolated, that the relations of the Hudson's Bay Company with the crown would undergo revision in or before 1859, and • the position and future government of Vancouver's Island will then unavoidably pass under review, and if any difficulty should be experienced in carrying into 1 i j %\ i 1 1 1 IS 112 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 execution any present instructions, a convenient opportunity will be afforded for reconsidering them.' Douglas was clearly surprised and perturbed by the turn of affairs. He expressed a feeling of dismay at the prospect of carrying these instructions into effect, and remarked upon his ' very slender knowledge of legislation, without legal advice of any kind,' but he felt encouraged and inspired by the promised support of the home authorities in seeing him through the ordeal. Douglas was not a man to shirk a responsibility when it stared him in the face, and he immediately laid the dispatch before his council. He was not essentially democratic, but he was in favour of going even further in the direction of an extended franchise than his instructions required. In addition to twenty acres as a qualification to vote, he would have extended the franchise to all persons holding a fixed property stake, whether houses or lands, in the colony, although at the same time he expressed himself as \ utterly averse to universal franchise.' The executive decided after a good deal of discussion that the ownership of £300 worth of freehold property or immovable estate should qualify a member for the assembly, that absentee proprietors should be permitted to vote through their agents or attorneys, that the ownership of twenty acres should qualify an elector, and that the colony should be divided into four electoral districts—Victoria, with three members ; Esquimalt and Metchosin, with two members ; and Nanaimo and Sooke, with one each. The electors were so few in all the districts except Victoria, where there were five rival candidates, that the returns were mere nominations. Elections over, the house of assembly, the first to meet west of Upper Canada, was convened for August 12, with the following representatives : J. D. Pemberton, James Yates and E. E. Langford, Victoria ; Dr John Sebastian Helmcken and Thomas Skinner, Esquimalt and Metchosin; John Muir, Sooke ; and John F. Kennedy, Nanaimo. Douglas informed the colonial secretary that ' the affair [meaning the election] passed off quietly, and did not appear to excite much interest among the lower orders.' Luckily for him there were at that time no labour unions or socialists to resent the obvious inference. ; I ill t i § :avour or g . franchise i Ml J- :> rn-.nations. E. Langford, >mas Skinner, ■mm&0lm§ So*- /m |.; m^^^LW-^^^ m\\W J VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 113 The house was duly convened and Dr J. S. Helmcken was elected speaker, but, owing to certain objections that had been raised as to the validity of election or qualification of members, no work was done until the difficulty, which the governor was at first at a loss to meet, was overcome. Langford, one of the members against whom objections had been raised, retired and J. W. McKay was elected by acclamation in his stead. The opening of this miniature parliament marked an epoch in the West, and Douglas, as governor, seems to have fully realized its significance. Representative government came not by demand of the people who were affected by it, but by mandate of the British crown. It was not the responsible government for which the people in the other provinces had fought and, literally, bled ; but it was the first step toward that goal which was finally achieved when British Columbia entered the union of the provinces in 1871. The speech from the throne was a carefully prepared and dignified document, which did much credit to the governor. In it he described the opening of the first session of the legislative assembly of Vancouver Island as ' an event fraught with consequences of the utmost importance to its present and future inhabitants, and remarkable as the first instance of representative institutions being granted in the infancy of a British colony.' Remarking upon the peculiar political situation of the colony and the difficulties in the path of progress, the governor further stated : ' Self-supporting, and defraying all the expenses of its own government, it presents a striking contrast to every other colony in the British Empire, and like the native pines of its storm-beaten promontories, it has acquired a slow but hardy growth.' In view of political events in Canada in 1911 the following paragraph is of more than usual interest: Gentlemen, I am happy to inform you that Her Majesty's Government continues to express the most lively interest in the welfare and progress of this colony. Negotiations are now pending with the government of the United States, which may probably terminate in an extension of the reciprocity treaty to Vancouver Island. To show the commercial advantages connected with the 1 Ill y 114 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 treaty, I will just mention that an impost duty of thirty pounds is levied on every hundred pounds' worth of British produce which is now sent to San Francisco, or to any other American port; or in other words, the British proprietor pays a tax to the United States nearly the value of every third cargo of fish, timber or coal which he sends to any American port. The reciprocity treaty utterly abolishes these fearful imposts, and establishes a system of free trade in the produce of British colonies. The effects of that measure in developing the trade and natural resources of the colony can, therefore, be hardly over-estimated. The coal, the timber, and the productive fisheries of Vancouver's Island will assume a value before unknown ; while every branch of trade will start into activity, and become the means of pouring wealth into the country. So unbounded is the reliance which I place in the enterprise and intelligence possessed by the people of this colony, and in the advantage of their geographical position, that, with equal rights and a fair field, I think they may enter into successful competition with the people of any other country. The extension of the reciprocity treaty to this island once gained, the interests of the colony will become inseparably connected with the principles of free trade, a system which I think it will be sound policy on our part to encourage. The speech referred to the danger which had been anticipated from a visit of the northern Indians, and the feeling of insecurity which their presence engendered, but at the same time expressed thankfulness that acts of violence had been averted and that the natives had been kept quiet and orderly. It stated that Her Majesty's government had arranged to send the frigate President to the island as a measure of protection. Notwithstanding possible outrages, the governor averred that I shall nevertheless continue to conciliate the good will of the native Indian tribes by treating them with justice and forbearance, and by rightly protecting their civil and agrarian rights; many cogent reasons of humanity and sound policy commend that course to our attention; and I shall, therefore, rely upon your support in carrying such measures into effect. We know, from our own VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 115 experience, that the friendship of the natives is at all times useful, while it is no less certain that their enmity may become more disastrous than any other calamity to which the colony is directly exposed. Dwelling upon money matters, Douglas spoke at some length of the poverty of the country and counselled the strictest economy, remarking upon ' the common error of running into speculative improvements entailing debts upon the colony, for a very uncertain advantage,' which he said ' should be carefully avoided.' The demands upon the treasury would be, principally, provision for internal communication, education, places of public worship, defence of the country, and the administration of justice. Rising to a high sense of their responsibility to posterity, he said: The interests and well being of thousands yet unborn may be affected by our decisions, and they will reverence or condemn our acts according as they are found to influence, for good or for evil, the events of the future. And so the memorable speech, which was addressed to the a Gentlemen of the Legislative Council and of the House of Assembly' in due traditional form, ended. It is a curious admixture of the elements of modern and old-fashioned political economy. Douglas was a good representative of the principles of the old school, and at the same time was alive to present-day necessities and altered conditions. The inauguration of representative government in this far colony of.the Empire, a highly significant and important fact in itself, took place unobtrusively. The legislative assembly created in 1856 continued until 1859, when the relations of the Hudson's Bay Company and the colony of Vancouver Island were severed, and the quasi- sovereignty of the former came to an end. The assembly did little else than register the will of the governor, and there was, indeed, little else to do. As remarked by Bancroft, during Douglas's term of office four distinct and sometimes antagonistic interests looked to him as their head, namely, the Hudson's Bay Company, the colony of Vancouver Island, the Puget Sound Agricultural Company and the Nanaimo n6 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 Coal Company. On the whole, he held the balance very evenly, administering affairs in a way that won him the respect of the corporate interests and of the settlers. As strikingly suggestive of how theoretical formulas do not always square with practical requirements, in 1857, Douglas, notwithstanding his free trade declarations of the previous year at the opening of the legislature, proposed to submit a measure to impose a customs duty on all imports as a means of meeting the ordinary expenditures of the government. He was apprehensive of the way this departure would be received, and, as we have previously seen, the proposal was shelved by the council. The question of revenue, however, was a grave one with the first legislature, as it continued to be under many legislatures, colonial and provincial, thereafter. As previously noted, the revenue derived from the licensed houses was all that was at the disposal of the assembly. Other revenues, derived from the sale of land, timber and minerals, were appropriated by the Hudson's Bay Company for public improvements, with the advice and consent of the governor. Licences yielded £220 in 1853, £460 in 1854 and ^340 in 1855. The first supply bill to meet the expenses of the house of assembly amounted to £130, divided as follows : £50 to the governor to defray expenses of clerical work ; £20 for the past and present services of the sergeant- at-arms ; £35, ditto, for the clerk of the house ; £20 for lighting, heating, etc., and £5 for stationery. The real income of the colony was much greater than the figures indicated. Up to the end of 1853 about twenty thousand acres of land had been applied for, upon which had been paid about ^9000, which would leave a little over £8000 for public works, etc. This sum was not, however, under the control of the legislature, but a statement of revenue and expenditure had to be submitted to the house by the company. For the fiscal year ending June 30,1855, such expenditure was stated to be j£4I07. All sources of revenue produced for that year about ^700, and these figures did not alter much throughout the period of Hudson's Bay Company control. To Douglas's credit and that of J. D. Pemberton, bis surveyor-general, and of the latter's assistant, B. W. Pearse, a fine system of roads 1 VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 117 was installed in the southern end of Vancouver Island, with highways leading in all directions, and they are to-day among the best in the province. Douglas was essentially a road- builder, or, as described by the late Sir Henry Crease,' a king of roads.' The Cariboo wagon road which was begun by him is a splendid example of his enterprise in that respect. For a population of less than ten thousand whites to have undertaken a road three hundred and fifty miles long, through an extremely rugged country, at a cost of one million dollars, was something to be proud of. His other dream, not realized, was a highway through the southern part of British Columbia to connect with Eastern Canada. A sort of partial fulfilment of it was what is known as the Dewdney trail, completed at a later date, and a more perfect fulfilment was the Canadian Pacific Railway itself. In connection with the opening of the legislature there looms up another notable figure in colonial affairs, that of John Sebastian Helmcken, who, apart from the fact that he has lived throughout the entire political history of British Columbia, is entitled to be referred to as the Grand Old Man of the province. Helmcken was trained for the medical profession in London, England. Having accepted an appointment as medical officer from the Hudson's Bay Company, he arrived in the Norman Morrison from England in 1850, along with eighty other persons for the company's establishments. I 99 As we have seen, his first post was at Fort Rupert among the miners, where he was made a justice of the peace by Governor Blanshard in order that the laws might be properly administered and the peace preserved. The task was a most disagreeable one, not unaccompanied by bodily risks, and he shortly relinquished the honour. When the mining operations ceased at that point, Dr Helmcken went to Victoria and practised his profession. He was elected speaker of the legislature of 1856 and remained a member of the assembly, representing the people of Victoria, until the year 1871, occupying as well the position of first commoner. A son-in-law of Governor Douglas, he was also guide, philosopher and friend to him and to the assembly in matters political and parliamentary. Although opposed to Confederation as 111 ' 9 1 1 I m I jS T j1; 11 ■ IJi 118 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 premature and as to some extent unsuitable to the needs of the colony, he assisted in preparing the terms when agreed upon by the legislature, and was a delegate to Ottawa to discuss them with the federal authorities. At that time he could have had any position, either federal or provincial, in the gift of the people of British Columbia, but he refused all posts or honours and retired permanently from public life. He is still (1913), forty-two years later, in the active enjoyment of all his faculties. The administration of justice was a matter of moment, and one, too, thatoccupied the attention of Governor Douglas. The Imperial Act of 1849 repealed a previous act for ' extending jurisdiction of the Courts of Justice in the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada to the Trial and punishment of persons guilty of Crimes and Offences within certain parts of North America adjoining the said provinces,' and a subsequent act for j regulating the Fur Trade and establishing Criminal and Civil Jurisdiction within certain parts of North America,' so far as they related to the Island of Vancouver ; and made it lawful for Her Majesty to provide in that colony for the administration of justice by the constitution of courts and the appointment of judges, etc. In pursuance of such powers Douglas, in 1853, recommended his brother-in-law, David Cameron, for the position of judge of the supreme court of civil justice, and as such he officiated pending his appointment by the imperial authorities. Cameron was not a lawyer; in fact, he had been a linen-draper in the West Indies, and being in ill-health had been advised to remove to Vancouver Island. Nevertheless, being a man of common sense, of ' business habits,' ' liberal education,' and ' some legal knowledge,' as vouched for by Douglas, he filled the position satisfactorily. Indeed, there was no legal talent available for the office without importing a professional man from some other part of the Empire. The appointment was severely criticized by a number of the residents, who sent a petition signed by James Cooper, a member of the council, E. E. Langford, Thomas Skinner, William Banfield, after whom Banfield Creek cable station is named, James Yates and sixty-five others, to the secretary of state for the Colonies VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 119 in protest. The main and real objections to Cameron were that he was a brother-in-law of the governor and a servant of the Nanaimo Coal Company, but incidentally it was stated that he was a recent arrival from a slave colony and therefore a stranger in Vancouver Island ; that he was no lawyer; and that as justice of the peace he had aroused ' the extreme disgust and indignation of the community.' The aristocratic and landed element, represented by high and retired officials of the company to the number of about sixty, came to his defence in a counter petition, alleging among other things that the complainants had not any ' real grievance to complain of and deprecating 'unreasonable clamour' on their part. As a result the appointment stood. Moreover, in 1856 Cameron was appointed chief justice of the island by the home government, and in i860 his salary was increased from £100 to £800 per annum. Governor Douglas, in an official letter to Sir George Grey in 1854, spoke of the satisfactory state of affairs socially in the colony, and stated that since the departure of the Reverend Mr Staines and his coadjutor Mr Swanston—two men who had played a leading part in the agitation for the dismissal of Judge Cameron—I have not heard a complaint from any person in this colony, except in regard to the price of land, which seems to be the only real grievance affecting the colonists generally, and that grievance I have no power to redress. There do not appear to have been any further complaints until 1862, when E. E. Langford preferred charges against the administration of justice in the island and personally against the chief justice, who was able successfully to refute the charges. These were not listened to in high quarters, and throughout his official career Cameron gave satisfaction and proved himself a sound judge. There were several men belonging to the early days of Douglas's regime, prominent in public affairs, who were thorns in the flesh of officialdom. Captain James Cooper has already had mention. The Rev. R. J. Staines, who enjoys the distinction of being the first Protestant clergyman to minister to the spiritual wants of the colony, was another. Staines arrived in the colony in 1849 as chaplain to the 120 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 Hudson's Bay Company and in a teaching capacity. Finlayson, who was never a captious critic, speaks of him as a ' man full of frills' and one who sorely tried his patience. Staines was not without ability, but Bancroft says he was ' insufferably conceited,' and evidently of a litigious disposition, as he was continually in trouble with his neighbours, as well as at loggerheads with the company. One cause of disaffection was that he, along with Blanshard, Langford and others, had been disappointed in finding conditions not as they had been represented to them before leaving England, and their dissatisfaction did not decrease as time went on. They formed the nucleus of what unrest and agitation there were in the colony, and the malcontents finally decided to send Staines to England to remonstrate with the imperial authorities on account of the Hudson's Bay Company administration of affairs. Unfortunately for him, the lumber-laden ship upon which he took passage was wrecked off Cape Flattery, and he and all the crew save one were lost.1 Edward E. Langford, after whom Langford Plains was named, was another who was active in opposing Douglas and the Hudson's Bay Company administration. He had been a Kentish farmer and an army officer and came to the colony as bailiff of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company's farm at Langford Plains. He had the not uncommon complaint to make that he had been employed by one company and found himself when he arrived in the country a servant of another, and that conditions generally were not as had been represented to him. Whether the companies were really guilty of this manner of juggling or whether these people in their optimism took too much for granted, as in the case of Blanshard when he accepted the governorship, there is no means of knowing. Certainly, in most instances things were not as they were expected to be, and one can readily understand that without imputing bad faith to the officials of 1 Mrs Staines remained in Victoria for some time after her husband's death. She and her husband were the first teachers on the island, and A. C. Anderson says she was probably the first Englishwoman who landed there. Finlayson states that Mrs Covington, who came from the Hawaiian Islands, was the first white woman in Victoria. Mrs Annie Muir, who married John Sooke, pioneer coal-miner and settler, is said to have been the second. All three came in the same year. VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 121 the Hudson's Bay Company. The conditions were what the company's employees were used to and enjoyed. It was quite different with the average Englishman, who, wholly unacquainted with pioneer life in the West, found actual conditions a stern reality, shorn of all the romance with which he had associated life in a colony. In this connection the first settler of Vancouver Island, Captain Colquhoun Grant, must not be overlooked. He was not an ordinary man. A paper read by him before the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1857, and printed in the Journal of the society, is an able document and stamps the author as an educated and scientific observer. Grant was attracted by the colonization scheme in connection with Vancouver Island. He sold his commission in a cavalry regiment and set out for the colony, arriving at Victoria in the ship Harpooner in June 1849. Grant brought with him eight farmer colonists. Not finding any land open for purchase in the immediate vicinity of Victoria, he settled at Sooke, and soon had thirty-five acres under cultivation and his farm well stocked. He reigned there in solitary state for two years, dispensing hospitality in true Highland style to the infrequent visitor, but tiring of the life he rented his farm to his men in 1851 and left the island. Returning again after a time, and finding his land in a state of neglect and the establishment in decay, he sold out, bidding good-bye to the colony for ever. Blanshard gave thirty as the number of the settlers in his day, but the following names only are found signed to the petition presented to him upon leaving the colony: James Yates, James R. Anderson, R. Scott, James Reid, W. Thompson, George Deans, Michael, Andrew, Archibald, Robert and John Muir, senior and junior, Sooke ; Thomas Blenkhorn, Metchosin ; Thomas Moore, James Sangster, R. J. Staines, William Fraser, John McGregor and William Mc Donald, most of whom were or had been in the company's employ. In 1854 Grant affirms most positively that the eight men brought out by himself were the only independent settlers in the country until that time, all the others having been brought out in the employ and at the expense of k as I I mr i 1 122 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 the company. Some of the latter, however, became independent settlers. In addition to the eighty passengers who came by the Norman Morrison in 1850, the Tory, in 1851, brought out about one hundred hired labourers. Of all the four hundred men who arrived during five years, Grant alleges that two-thirds deserted from the company, one-fifth were sent elsewhere, and the remainder were employed on the island. Perhaps the most eventful feature of the Hudson's Bay Company regime was the discovery of coal. Its existence in the vicinity of McNeill Harbour1 became known to the officials of the company at Fort Vancouver as far back as 1835. Further discoveries were made in this locality, and as a consequence it was decided to build a fort there and to commence coal-mining operations. The fort was built in 1849, and during the course of erection the Muirs, a family of Scottish miners, arrived and found the natives taking out surface coal for the company at Suquash, a few miles distant. The Muirs sank a shaft to a depth of ninety feet, but reported the seam too small to be workable at a profit. Owing to troubles with the natives and other complications, the men, with the exception of the Muirs, left for California. Boyd Gilmour came out in 1851 as an expert in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, and with him came his nephew, Robert Dunsmuir, with his wife. Incidentally, James Duns- muir, afterwards premier and lieutenant-governor, was born at Fort Vancouver, July 8,1851, while the party was en route for its destination. Gilmour and Dunsmuir were engaged under three years' contract. They continued the Muir shaft to a depth of one hundred and twenty feet and prospected for nineteen months at Suquash, finally reporting the seams as too small to be worked profitably. Subsequent operations were continued at Nanaimo, where coal had been discovered by Indians and its existence revealed to J. W. McKay, who afterwards personally confirmed the statements made to him in 1849. Experience at Fort Rupert, through Indian and labour troubles, had been extremely disagreeable and dangerous. The Indian tribes there were probably the most 1 Named after Captain William M°Neill, an old-time Hudson's Bay official. VANCOUVER ISLAND AND JAMES DOUGLAS 123 savage on the coast—at one time said to have been cannibalistic^—and it is indeed surprising that a tragedy had not occurred. The Muirs and Gilmour and Dunsmuir joined forces at Nanaimo, development proceeded successfully and the foundation of a great industry was laid. Indirectly, the consequences to the island and the Province of British Columbia were momentous. A market was found in San Francisco for the coal in small shipments, and the output constantly increased until ultimately thousands of tons daily were being raised. Gilmour returned to Scotland after his three years' contract had expired. Robert Dunsmuir proposed to do likewise, but was persuaded by his wife to remain, and in time he amassed a huge fortune as a coal operator. The Muirs, too, retired from mining. They purchased the farm of Captain Grant at Sooke and became permanent residents there. John Muir, the elder, was the first representative in the legislature from the Sooke district, and his four sons, John, Michael, Andrew and Archibald, were well- known pioneers. There was an interesting group of men in Victoria and on the island from 1843 to i860—Richard Blanshard, the political Selkirk; Douglas, fur chief and governor; J. S. Helmcken, physician ; Captain Grant, Highland laird and scholar; Captain Cooper, victim of disappointed hopes; Captain Langford, optimist turned to misanthrope; the Rev. R. J. Staines, energetic parson, pedagogue and Ishmaelite ; Captain McNeill, pioneer captain who first indicated the site of Victoria to the company as a point with possibilities ; James Yates, merchant; Thomas Blenkhorn, partner of Cooper, said to have been the most energetic settler in the colony ; George and James Deans, the former retired agriculturist and the latter an antiquarian and a bard ; the Dunsmuirs, millionaires in prospect; Mark Bate, mining superintendent and pioneer of Nanaimo; Kenneth Mackenzie, farm manager ; Robert Barr, schoolmaster and first clerk of the legislature ; David Cameron, first judge and first chief justice of the island; John Work, retired chief factor, member of the council, pioneer of the Oregon country and grandfather to four families of fur traders—the Tolmies, Finlaysons, 124 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 Grahames and Hugginses; Roderick Finlayson, builder of Forts Taku (Durham) and Camosun, a shrewd business man and careful diarist; A. C. Anderson, explorer, chief factor, student and writer; Joseph Despards Pemberton, surveyor and engineer, who, along with Benjamin W. Pearse, built roads and planned for the colony ; Joseph W. M°Kay, one of the most intelligent and versatile of the Hudson's Bay Company officials; Thomas J. Skinner, agent of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company; John F. Kennedy, retired officer of the company, and first representative of Nanaimo; Dr W. F. Tolmie, trader, physician, botanist, ethnologist and farmer ; and many others whose names have become household words in British Columbia. It is difficult, especially at this date, when conditions are so different, to appreciate the situation as it was in the early days of the colony or to judge impartially of the exact nature and effect of these first ten years of colonial rule. All opinion on the subject must be speculative. If we strike an average mean between the views held by the company and those held by the disgruntled settlers towards each other, we shall probably arrive nearer the truth than if we accept the estimate of either one. The time, then, does not appear to have been ripe for all that the settlers demanded ; it was necessary that the government of the colony should be to some extent autocratic, because within the company lay the power to enforce law and order and upon it rested the responsibility for the same ; the colony of Vancouver Island was essentially a Hudson's Bay Company creation for company purposes, and without that condition the colony would not have come into existence ; where at least the company's own interests were not especially affected, its actions were just, and Douglas was a man of ideals higher than the average ; the grievances complained of in some instances undoubtedly were, if not wholly fictitious, highly theoretical and at the best likely to have been exaggerated. On the other hand, the company took full commercial advantage of its position and displayed, even if in moderation, the selfish tendencies of all corporate bodies of its nature. The system was in no sense ideal, and fortunately, as far as the home government was concerned, THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 125 was only experimental. As is shown by a petition sent to the imperial government in 1854 asking that the grant be not renewed at the end of the first five years, many of the local officials were convinced that it was not in the interests of either the people or the company that it should be perpetuated, and felt that a full measure of government, untrammelled by corporate interests or control, should be substituted. The settlers had real grievances, but they related rather to the system of which they had voluntarily become a part than to the officials who administered the system. On the whole, it cannot be said that the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly and autocracy were any real bar to progress, because, as has already been observed, settlement of a satisfactory character would not otherwise have taken place during that period. THE FOUNDING OF THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA SEVERAL years prior to the expiry of the Hudson's Bay Company's trade licence extending over the Indian territory of British North America, the directors in England asked the government for a renewal, in order that in 1859 the exact status of the company might be known and preparations made in advance to meet any new conditions. The question then became one of parliamentary inquiry, which was conducted by a select committee of the House of Commons in 1857. Twenty-four witnesses were examined, among them Richard Blanshard, James Cooper, John Rae, Dr McLoughlin, Sir George Simpson, Alexander Isbister, Sir John Richardson, Sir George Back, David Anderson, Chief Justice Draper (Canada), John Ross and Edward Ellice. The last named was a large shareholder of the Hudson's Bay Company and a member of parliament. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the details of the investigation. Although the evidence is highly important, especially that of Cooper and Blanshard, as throwing sidelights upon affairs in 126 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 Vancouver Island, the existing conditions have, incidentally, been indicated in previous chapters. Among the recommendations made were that the relations of the Hudson's Bay Company and the crown in respect to Vancouver Island should be terminated and that provision should be made for the ultimate extension of the colony over the contiguous mainland territory west of the Rocky Mountains. In the main the report of the committee upheld all the objections that had been made to the character of the company's sovereignty, based on many matters of fact as well as upon considerations of public policy. In any event, whatever might have been the report of the committee, with the discovery of gold and the inrush of population the speedy end of the monopoly was inevitable. Indeed, the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company made no serious effort to maintain their hold upon the island. They hoped at the best to have their exclusive licence to trade with the Indians extended. By tradition and interest the great corporation was an aggregation of traders, not of colonizers, and no one knew their limitations better than they did themselves. With the gold excitement, however, their hopes were extinguished. In September 1858 the licence of exclusive trade over the mainland granted to them was revoked. In the previous month parliament provided for the government of British Columbia by an act defining its boundaries, appointing a governor, and providing for the administration of justice and the establishment of a local legislature.1 1 The boundaries of the province, as subsequently modified, were delimited in effect as bounded on the south by the 49th parallel and on the north by the 60th; on the east by the Rocky Mountains, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean, including Queen Charlotte Islands and all adjacent islands, except Vancouver Island and its immediate adjacent islands. The name British Columbia, now appearing for the first time as designating the country north of the international line, is accounted for in the following way: The origin of the name ' British Columbia ' is explained in Captain Walbran's instructive work on the coast names of British Columbia. The name Columbia had been often indefinitely applied to the territory drained by the Columbia River, more familiarly known as the Oregon territory (from the' Oregan ' river of Carver's naming). The Western Department of the Hudson's Bay Company was frequently referred to as the ' Columbia Department/ on account of the headquarters having been on the Columbia River at Fort Vancouver. When, therefore, the mainland was about to be organized by act of parliament, the name to THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 127 With the revocation of the licence to trade came also the end of the company rule on Vancouver Island, which was repurchased by the British government and placed under independent political control. The company received ^57,500 on account of its vested rights in the colony and retained the fort property, certain town lots and several thousand acres in the vicinity of Victoria. Much of this property grew exceedingly valuable and was held by the company until quite recently, and some of it is still retained. In this same year Dugald McTavish, Dr Tolmie and Roderick Finlayson, who upon the retirement of Douglas from the company to accept the governorship of the two colonies constituted the board of management, filed claims in connection with the fourteen Hudson's Bay Company stations in British Columbia.1 James Douglas was now offered the position of governor of the new colony of British Columbia in addition to the governorship of Vancouver Island, and perhaps the best tribute to tiie manner in which he fulfilled the duties of the latter post from 1851 until 1859 was this additional proof of confidence in his integrity and ability. Bancroft, with his disposition to pick flaws in the character of Douglas and the Hudson's Bay Company administration, states that it was inevitable that the company should quarrel with Douglas, as it had quarrelled with McLoughlin, regarding lands around be used was a matter of dispute, and it was referred to Queen Victoria, whose decision, dated July 24, 1868, was expressed in the following terms : ' The Queen has received Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton's letter. As the name of New Caledonia is objected to as being already borne by a colony or island claimed by the French, it may be better to give the new colony west of the Rocky Mountains another name. New Vancouver, New Columbia and New Georgia appear from the maps to be the names of subdivisions of that country, but do not appear on all maps. The only name which is given to the whole territory in every map the Queen has consulted is " Columbia," but as there exists a Columbia in South America and the citizens of the United States called their country also Columbia, at least in poetry, " British Columbia" might be, in the Queen's opinion, the best name.' 1 These stations with their officials in charge were as follows ; Fort Simpson, W. H. M«Neill; Fort Langley, W. H. Newton ; Fort Hope, W. Charles; Fort Yale, O. Ellard ; Thompson River, J. W. McKay ; Alexandria, William Manson; Fort George, Thomas Charles; Fort St James, Peter Skene Ogden; McLeod Lake, Ferdinand McKenzie; Connolly Lake, William Tod; Fraser Lake, J. Moberly ; Fort Babine, Gavin Hamilton; Fort Sheppard, A M°Donald; New Fort Langley, A. C. Anderson. 128 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 the forts; and that Douglas, as was his wont, took sides with the government, as the stronger party, adding this rather gratuitously: ' Because first it was right, and secondly, no fur-trader could knight him.' Naturally, Douglas would accept the honour of governorship in preference to remaining chief representative of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Pacific coast, if it came, as it did, to the question of accepting the one and relinquishing the other. It was a legitimate ambition. That he still regarded himself as a servant of the company, and, so to speak, at its command, when offered the position, is proved when he wrote: With the consent of the Hudson's Bay Company, I place my services unhesitatingly at the disposal of Her Majesty's government, and I will take early measures for withdrawing from the company and disposing of my Puget Sound stock, trusting that the allowance as to salary from Her Majesty's government will be adequate to my support in a manner worthy of the position I am called on to fill. There was not much evidence of a serious quarrel in that statement, however much of difference there existed as to the rights that the company might have claimed. Douglas was not satisfied with the emoluments of the new office, which he thought should have been £5000 per annum, instead of the £1800 actually received. He asserted that his fortune had been impaired as the result of insufficient provision while governor of Vancouver Island ; but the colonial secretary bade him wait for developments in the new colony that might, from the point of view of public revenue, justify a substantial increase. Here we have one of Douglas's extreme characteristics. He was a man who appraised office highly and believed in a personal dignity and ceremonious display as concomitants corresponding in degree to rank. He discriminated justly between the office and the mere man. The status of the Vancouver Island colony in a political way continued unaltered after 1858 ; except that the Hudson's Bay Company's control had been ehminated, there was no change. The executive council, legislative assembly and the governor worked on in their old relations, Douglas still being THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 129 supreme in matters of state. He had now to meet in the assembly, it is true, new elements which disturbed his mental equipoise, but which made no material difference in results. The governor's bias in regard to autocratic rule will be seen later in connection with the colony of British Columbia, in which he opposed representative government as long as possible, as he had done in the case of the older colony of Vancouver Island. It is difficult to find pen-pictures written from personal impressions of those days, but D. W. Higgins, then active in the newspaper life of Victoria, several years ago furnished the author with some interesting reminiscences. It may be that he, as a newcomer, unduly assimilated the current prejudices against the system he attacked, but his impressions were mellowed somewhat by the fifty years that had elapsed since the events described had taken place. Higgins states that the American element predominated in the community, but that there was a fair sprinkling of British subjects from all parts of the British Empire, including many from Canada and the Maritime Provinces. These men, who had lived under representative institutions won at the price of much political agitation and personal sacrifice, fretted and chafed under a system that had many of the archaic elements of absolutism in it, and began a movement in favour of responsible government. Some of them had been experienced in public affairs in their old homes and had ability and force of character. Higgins writes : The Pacific colonies at that time occupied an anomalous position politically as well as commercially. Victoria was the centre of commerce and trade. It was the place where the immigrant landed from the ship that conveyed him to these'shores. It was there that he outfitted for the mainland mines, and it was the place where he bade adieu to civilization and plunged into the trackless wilds of New Caledonia in search of hidden treasure. There was a staff of officials for each colony, but both staffs resided at Victoria. Governor Douglas held the reins, presided at both council boards, and curbed with a strong hand any attempt to curtail his powers as the irresponsible head of two irresponsible executives. There was a 130 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 semblance of representative government, but it was a mere mockery. A few popular members were returned to what may properly be designated a 'mock' parliament, but the official members of tiie legislative assembly, who were all nominees of the governor, were largely in the majority and were ever ready, under pressure from the ruling hand, to vote down any measure that proposed to confer constitutional rights upon the people. The manner in which the popular members were returned was unique. It would have been amusing if it had not possessed an intensely dramatic side, in that it was devised with the object of stifling the voice of the people, and for years the object was successfully attained. No elector could vote unless he had a property qualification of ten pounds and had been registered a certain length of time before the election. A concrete instance is given of how, at open polling in Nanaimo, a solitary voter on nomination day nominated for the legislature a Victoria hotel-keeper, the nomination being seconded by a bystander who was not a voter, and the nominee was solemnly declared elected after the solitary voter in question had recorded a vote in his favour. The proceedings in other districts were equally farcical, the only difference being that the number of voters ranged from half a dozen to twenty. Some of the electors, by virtue of owning land, had votes in every district. Amor DeCosmos, editor and publisher of the Colonist, the pioneer newspaper of British Columbia, was at this time a conspicuous figure in public affairs. As DeCosmos and Higgins as rival editors were for a long time sworn enemies, who used the most offensive epithets toward each other, the latter's estimate of the former after many years is exceedingly interesting: At that time the undoubted leader of the Colonials, who had gathered at Victoria, was Amor DeCosmos. He was an energetic and able worker, and being fearless and having had some political experience in Nova Scotia, he was admirably fitted for the position. He started the British Colonist and bombarded the governor and his friends with literature of the fiercest kind three times a week. In his writings Mr DeCosmos was assisted by a THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 131 contributor who wrote over the signature of ' Monitor,' but whose name was Charles Bedford Young. Mr Young was a bitter and sarcastic writer. Many of his articles were libellous, and, looking back over the many years that have elapsed since that warfare was waged, one is surprised when he is told that Young and De- Cosmos never found themselves on the wrong side of the lock-up. On one occasion the government did essay to ' muzzle the press' by ordering DeCosmos to discontinue the publication of his paper until he should furnish bonds to the sum of one thousand pounds, as required at that time in Great Britain from all publishers. DeCosmos suspended his publication, the people espoused his cause, the bonds were furnished with a rush and the publication was resumed. On another occasion, in i860, the publisher was brought before the legislative assembly for libelling the speaker. He was arrested by the clerk of the assembly—a mite of a man named Captain Doggett —and an apology was demanded. The apology was offered and accepted and the prisoner released. Particulars of other equally interesting incidents are given which throw sidelights on the situation. In 1859 George Hunter Cary, an able lawyer, but of irascible disposition, was made attorney-general. ** In his bursts of passion,' says Higgins,' he was known to denounce the (then) Chief Justice Cameron as a " old fool," cast his wig and gown on the floor and rush from the courthouse, remaining away until he was coaxed to go back by his client and resume his toggery and argument, but he was never asked to apologize.' De- Cosmos was as short-tempered as this peppery attorney, and it was not long before they clashed. The water question in Victoria, ever to the fore, was then acute, and the city supply was obtained from springs at Spring Ridge and distributed by carts. Cary, seeing an opportunity to monopolize the supply to his own advantage, bought the lots with the springs on them, fenced them round and proceeded to charge a shilling a barrel for the water. This occasioned a popular uprising, and the fence was torn down and the carts were filled with water as before. Cary got back his money for the lots and the sale was cancelled, but he was thereafter the object of public detestation. He built 132 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 Cary Castle (long afterwards used as a government house and on the site of which the present government house stands), became impoverished, returned to England in 1867 and died in a madhouse. In 1863 the franchise was extended and De- Cosmos was returned with several supporters, ' but what,' asks Higgins, j could six popular members effect in a legislature of fifteen ?' One more extract will serve to complete in a measure the impressions sought to be conveyed respecting political conditions at the time. In i860 the assembly was opened with unusual ceremony, and the account goes on to state : The speech promised a great many things that were never carried out and which were probably only inserted to quiet the public mind, which by this time had become very pronounced and often threatening in favour of responsible government. This House only lived through two sessions, but during its existence a strange thing happened. One of the popular members who sat for Esquimalt was George Tomlin Gordon. In 1861 he was made Colonial treasurer, and the government conceived the brilliant idea of causing him to resign and stand for re-election, although there was no constitutional provision that required him to take that step. In fact, there was no constitution. DeCosmos was put up to oppose Gordon. The vote five minutes before the poll closed stood ten and ten. DeCosmos' real name was William Alexander Smith, but in California, by an act of the legislature, he was permitted to assume the name of Amor DeCosmos. On the occasion of the Esquimalt election he stood as William Alexander Smith, commonly known as Amor DeCosmos, and his friends so voted for him. The last man made a grievous error. He forgot the long formula and voted for ' Amor DeCosmos,' and his vote was so recorded. The polls being closed, the sheriff announced a tie between Gordon and Smith, and one vote for Amor DeCosmos. He then voted for Gordon, whom he declared to be elected. Above the Legislative Assembly there sat the governor with his executive council, who promptly stifled every measure of a popular nature which the government nominees in the lower house might permit to pass. The sittings of the Assembly were open and the reporters took and THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 133 published notes of the proceedings. So a government member, who did not wish to incur public opprobrium by opposing a popular measure in the open, voted for it. The measure then went before the executive council and was quietly strangled there, no reporters being present. DeCosmos in his fight against the government, which was in fact against the governor1 himself, had on the mainland staunch backing in John Robson, editor of the British Columbian, an able writer and a forceful speaker, who in post-Confederation days became prominently identified with several governments and died premier of the province. Robson broadsided the government weekly in his paper. Later on, Thomas Basil Humphreys was a coadjutor of De- Cosmos in opposition, and as a public speaker, especially in the vituperative strain, he has had few, if any, equals in the West. It is now time to consider the organization of government on the mainland of British Columbia and the various circumstances and conditions that affected it. The genesis of political life was the discovery of gold and the consequent influx of population. Since the descent of Simon Fraser from Fort George to the sea in 1808 until the miners came it is not recorded that a single white man outside the servants of the fur-trading companies, David Douglas the botanist, Paul Kane the artist, and one or two others, had ever set foot in the country that now became the scene of such eager quest by hosts of adventurers. It was a 'no-man's- land,' and even when, early in 1858, Douglas, governor of the adjoining territory of Vancouver Island, chose to exercise a sort of vicarious sovereignty over it, he did so irregularly and illegally, although his action was approved as necessary in the circumstances. Naturally, a sudden rush of miners and adventurers into this wilderness, where there was no delegated authority, created a perplexing problem. 1 It is interesting to note that in 1875 DeCosmos as agent for the province borrowed thirty thousand dollars from Sir James Douglas, upon which he received iix hundred dollars. He could not then have been on the old 134 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 Douglas did what any strong and sensible man would have done. Instead of waiting months for instructions from the home government, he assumed authority as governor of Vancouver* Island and as head of the Hudson's Bay Company, which had an exclusive right to trade with the natives. Had any person chosen to dispute his authority in the premises, Douglas would legally and constitutionally have been out of court, but as there was no court other than that of his own making, and general ignorance as to his exact status, he was perfectly safe. Between the rush of miners and the legal formation of the colony he governed the mainland by proclamation in the name of the queen, without Her Majesty's knowledge or consent. A word or two is now in place as to the people who came to British Columbia at this time. Just how the news of the discovery of gold which brought the immediate rush was spread abroad is not certain. There had been rumours of gold in the Columbia and the Fraser Rivers as far back as 1853 and very definite information regarding it in 1856 and 1857. Douglas had referred to it in his dispatches to the Colonial Office, and in Washington and Oregon it is stated that the newspaper editors had heard of gold for several years, but did not believe it existed in large enough quantities to pay, and so kept quiet about it—a discretion that would be unaccountable in these days of journalistic enterprise. Bancroft says the excitement began in and spread from Puget Sound, where the ships were deserted by their crews. H. B. Hobson, in the British Columbia Year Book of 1897, states that in February 1858 the Hudson's Bay Company's vessel Otter reached San Francisco with a consignment of gold dust for the United States mint there, and when this news was spread abroad prospectors rushed for the new field. They reached Hill's Bar on the Fraser, where the gold was plentiful, and then sent letters and gold dust to their friends in San Francisco. That city was full of adventurers, and the news created the greatest furore California had ever known. The story of the memorable exodus which followed and of the experiences of that summer and fall has been told so often and in such a variety of ways that to import into THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 135 the telling the smallest degree of novelty, consistent with the facts, would be impossible. All kinds of persons, to the number of probably twenty-five thousand, left for the new diggings in all sorts of craft, with only the vaguest idea of their destination. The Fraser River was their objective point, but Fort Victoria, the Hudson's Bay Company's stronghold on the North Pacific coast, perforce became the common assembling-ground before the miners made the final rush for the gold-fields. Advantage was taken of the situation for speculative purposes. Mushroom towns sprang up at rival points—Port Townsend, Whatcom (now Bellingham) and Semiahmoo—on the American side of the line, to exploit the exodus for real estate gains. An ignis fatuus known as the Bellingham Bay Trail, which supposedly led direct from Whatcom to the new gold-fields, was the lure, and the promoters hoped to build up a town as a distributing centre. The scheme was launched, as Bancroft describes it, ' under the specious design of American patriotism' to induce miners and others to buy supplies there, and, incidentally, to sell lots. Semiahmoo was projected with a similar object in view. Those thus lured were woefully disappointed and, after berating the originators of the scheme, went on to Victoria. Victoria was blessed by the fact that it was already an organized community. It was the depot of Hudson's Bay Company supplies and there were existing facilities of communication. Thither the argonauts flocked in thousands, and the primitive streets of Victoria thronged with a cosmopolitan crowd of eager men. These people, largely foreign in appearance, birth and sentiment, were provocative of some alarm as to the possible results of the invasion. Alfred Waddington, one of the army of invaders, and afterwards a prominent citizen and the original promoter of the Canadian Pacific Railway, so far as British Columbia was concerned, has given us a lively picture of the situation in a little brochure entitled The Fraser River Mines Vindicated, which has the distinction of being, so far as known, the first book to be printed on a Vancouver Island press. Waddington tells us that ' never, perhaps, was there so large an immigration in 136 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 so short a space of time in so small a place. Unlike California, where the distance from the Eastern States and Europe precluded the possibility of an immediate rush, the proximity of Victoria to San Francisco, on the contrary, afforded every facility, and coxiverted the whole matter into a fifteen-dollar trip.' The coming of the gold-seekers had many of the aspects of a fair. It does not appear that the forebodings of trouble on the part of the citizens were well founded; on the whole, the behaviour of the newcomers was good. There was some rowdyism, and some blatant talk about the Americans taking the country, but the ever- present sense of British law and order and the presence of warships in Esquimalt harbour curbed any general disposition to marauding, if indeed it ever existed. The Hudson's Bay Company has been praised by Bancroft and other writers for the way in which the incoming people were treated. The officials exerted themselves to the utmost to supply the wants of all without resorting to those exorbitant charges for supplies and other services which they might readily have made by taking advantage of the extraordinary demand for everything and the limited means of satisfying requirements. Bancroft points out that the company was of far more value to the government than the government was to the company at that particular time. Douglas made use of the Hudson's Bay Company's establishments for public offices, and to its servants he committed ' in perfect confidence the custody of public money.' Altogether, notwithstanding the theoretical objections to Hudson's Bay Company government and the anomalies under which it existed, it was a fortunate thing for the country, when the rush came, that Douglas was in the dual position of governor of the colony and head of the company. The dubious relations of crown and company could not but create a delicate situation for one placed as he was, but all contemporary evidence goes to show that, while he allowed all reasonable profits to accrue to the company, he nevertheless held the balance fairly even as between the two interests involved. It is true that he appeared to unduly favour Victoria, the headquarters of the company, by compelling Hi THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 137 miners to have permits issued there ; it is true, as Bancroft states, that by proclamation he warned all vessels found in British waters without a licence from the Hudson's Bay Company ' and a sufferance from the customs officers at Victoria,' that they should be declared forfeited ; it is true that he proposed to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company that they should place steamers on the route, carrying exclusively company's goods and carrying no passengers excepting those having gold-mining licences and permits from the Vancouver Island government—a rebate of two dollars to be paid the company on each passenger so carried ; it is true that he levied a tax on canoes and decked vessels going up the Fraser River ; that he stationed vessels at the mouth of the Fraser to enforce his regulations ; that he refused * permits to steamboats charging exorbitant rates'; and it is true that in doing all these things he exceeded his authority; but it is also true, which even Bancroft admits, that there was a wisdom of a public as well as of a corporate nature in the general principle involved. It was in the very best public interests—those of the incoming population chiefly—that there should be an effective regulation of immigration and of mining operations, and that there also should be revenue derived from the commerce and settlement to ensue in order to provide for the proper administration of the country and for its future requirements. The secretary of state for the Colonies could not officially endorse the policy pursued by Douglas. He could not recognize the Hudson's Bay Company as a political entity. On account of international considerations alone he was bound to administer a warning on the subject, but while he did so he was careful to absolve the governor from all blame, in the circumstances, and commended, in the light of the emergency, his assumption of authority over the mainland. The conduct of the Hudson's Bay Company throughout this rather trying period of inchoate political organization was admirable. Waddington, to whom reference has already been made, has left several vivid impressions of the situation at Victoria: On landing we found a quiet village of about eight VOL. XXI S ^ 138 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 hundred inhabitants. No noise, no bustle, no gamblers, no speculators or interested parties to preach up this or underrate that. . . . As to business, there was none ; the streets were grown with grass, and there was not even a cart. Goods there were none, nor in the midst of the ' comedy of errors' had a single California merchant thought of sending a bag of flour to Victoria. The result was, that shortly after our arrival, the bakers were twice short of bread and we were obliged to replace it, first by pilot bread, and afterwards with soda crackers. At the same time flour was worth eight dollars at Whatcom. . . . This immigration was so sudden, that people had to spend their nights in the streets or bushes, according to choice, for there were not hotels sufficient to receive them. . . . As to goods, the most exorbitant prices were asked and realized, for though the Company had a large assortment, their store in the fort was literally besieged from morning to night; and when all were in such a hurry, it was not every one that cared to wait three or four hours, and sometimes half a day, for his turn to get in. The consequence was that the half a dozen stores that were established did as they pleased. . . . So far none but miners, mechanics, retail traders, or men of small means had made their appearance ; but merchants and people of standing, men who had so far hesitated, now began to arrive. Some of them without exactly understanding the situation, or caring to understand it, for the sake of the trip and solely out of curiosity. But others might be seen coming on shore with certain heavy bags of gold coin, which they were obliged to have carried. They had expected to get ground for nothing, and buy the whole city cheap, and were sadly disappointed to find that they had come a little too late. Many of them had the trouble of taking their bags of gold coin back again, without even opening them, and all of them cursed the place. These ' big bugs' were closely followed by another class, and Victoria was assailed by an indescribable array THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 139 of Polish Jews, Italian fishermen, French cooks, jobbers, speculators of every- kind, land agents, auctioneers, hangers-on at auctions, bummers, bankers and brokers of every description. Many of them seemed to think very little about the gold diggings, the Company's rights, or their consequences. Nor did they trouble themselves much about the state of the interior, the hostile feelings of the Indians, or anything else of the kind. They took it for granted that gold would soon be coming down, and whether it did or not was not their object. They came to sell and to speculate, to sell goods, to sell lands, to sell cities, to buy them and sell them again to greenhorns, to make money and be gone. Waddington may have exaggerated the situation somewhat, but he tells us that to those described above are to be added gamblers, thieves, drunkards and gaol-birds, ' let loose by the government of California for the benefit of mankind,' and all that disorganized class of humanity, the flotsam and jetsam accumulated in the slums of cities, including even the halt and the maimed and the blind and the mad, who trek in the wake of large moving forces— epitomized in Waddington's sweeping characterization as' the offscourings of a population, like that of California, containing the offscourings of the world.' Even the infamous Paddy Martin, desperado, and 'bad men' of the type of Boone Helm, found their way to the scene, although they discovered an atmosphere of law and order uncongenial to their vicious tastes, and most of them left soon, cursing British respectability. Among this heterogeneous class of immigrants there was, however, a considerable element of respectable people, hard-working and honest, not a few of whom remained in the country and cast in their lot with the intending permanent residents. The marvel was that the early history of British Columbia was, in the circumstances, marked by so little crime and vice ; and here it is to be noted that the . fact was due to the settled conditions already existing and the firm administration of justice. The sudden and extraordinary influx of an adventurous and speculative population had its immediate effect in surprising activities in business of all kinds. It precipitated a 140 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 general boom. Shop-buildings and shanties sprang up like magic, and the business portion of the town was flanked by an array of tents that conveyed the impression of an army in quarters. The price of lots rose suddenly and increased from day to day. So active were real estate operations that the Hudson's Bay Company had to suspend the sale of lots in order to allow Pemberton, the official surveyor, time to plot them. For a short period speculation was fast and furious, and the land office of the company was besieged with buyers who ranged themselves in line early in the morning. Commercial business flourished in an equal degree. Cali- fornian merchants brought in large supplies and opened stores. Esquimalt and Victoria were declared free ports, and thus the company monopoly was broken and eliminated for ever, though the company suffered in no way, as the business to be done was greater than its servants could handle. In the meantime, miners and many others found their way to the mainland and up the Fraser River. Soon the auriferous bars from Fort Hope to Lytton were fully occupied. Several of them—Hill's, Murderer's and Boston bars—proved to be rich, and from them was taken gold in large quantities, individual miners recovering as high as from twenty-five to one hundred and fifty dollars a day each. Unfortunately for the continuance of the excitement, most of the miners reached the river during high water, and it was necessary to wait for some time for the water to recede in order to work their claims, which were only twenty feet square at best. When the falling water finally permitted mining, there were many disappointments over results—the history of all placer camps. The collapse of the mining boom was as sudden as its rise, and the backward rush to Victoria and San Francisco soon began. The effect on conditions in Victoria was immediate, and alarm took the place of optimism. There was at first a stringency in business and then a general exodus, preceded by a wholesale sacrifice of goods and property. Those left in Victoria were consoled by the incoming consignments of gold dust, which aroused hopes for the coming year. m THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 141 Angus M° Donald, in charge at Colvile, had informed Governor Douglas that gold had been discovered on the Upper Columbia, in British territory, and the latter, under date of April 16, 1856, straightway reported the fact to the secretary of state for the Colonies, Henry Labouchere, and suggested the advisability of considering the raising of revenue by taxing the miners, but qualified his suggestion by intimating that it would be impossible to collect such a tax without the aid of a military force, and that would probably be too expensive. In reply Labouchere informed the governor that as the government did not expect to raise a revenue from so remote a part of the British possessions, neither did it propose to incur any expense on account of it. Another dispatch followed in October informing the Colonial Office that the number of miners at work was limited on account of the hostility of the natives to Americans. Gold-digging, therefore, was confined mainly to retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, who were on friendly terms with the Indians, with the exception of Americans who happened to be able to pass themselves off as British subjects. In the same dispatch Douglas reported that gold had been washed from the tributaries of the Fraser. In June 1857 he wrote again confirming the reports of the auriferous character of the country. At that time Americans had pushed their way in to the Thompson River district, and as the Indians between Lytton and Kamloops objected to their presence, it was feared that there might be serious conflict between the two. It seems that the Indians were concerned about their supply of salmon being insufficient if white men had to be supplied with food. They wished to, and did, engage in gold-digging on their own account, regarding the fruits of the soil as inherently their own. In a dispatch of December 1857 Douglas expressed high hopes of the rich character of the ' Couteau ' country, a general term intended to apply to the interior north of the 49th parallel. He also expressed fears that unless effective measures of prevention were taken there would be trouble with the natives and the country would ' soon become the scene of lawless misrule.' Douglas, no doubt inspired by the knowledge of what had occurred in California, had always 142 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 been in dread of a foreign population which he would be unable to control, and his policy and his recommendations to the Colonial Office were largely based upon such considerations. It was not his fault that the Colonial Office did not advise him sooner asto his lawful prerogatives,as he had undoubtedly enlightened Downing Street as to the situation in ample time for it to have anticipated the rush of 1858. But Douglas was forced to act on his own initiative, and the first proclamation issued affecting New Caledonia, or, as it was soon to be officially designated, British Columbia, bore the date of December 28, 1857. This proclamation, intended to apply particularly to what was known as the Couteau, Quaatlam and Shuswap countries, predicated that gold was the property of the crown and that nobody was permitted to dig for it and take it away without authority. A licence fee of ten shillings a month, to be paid at Victoria, was imposed. Notice was given that a gold commissioner who would make regulations with reference to the ' extent and position of the land to be covered by each licence' would be appointed. This was the beginning of government in British Columbia, informal and irregular as it was. As we have seen, similar and additional regulations were applied to the Fraser River mines in 1858. In that year Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton succeeded Labouchere as secretary of state for the Colonies, and he entered into the formation and government of the new colony with an enthusiasm quite in contrast with the attitude of his predecessors. His dispatches to Governor Douglas display a profound appreciation and grasp of the difficulties of the situation. Lytton told Douglas that a governor with a salary of ;£iooo would be appointed, and that, in appreciation of his past services, he would receive the appointment for a term of six years, to be held, for the time being, in conjunction with his position as governor of Vancouver Island, but under a separate commission. The legal connection between the Hudson's Bay Company and the island colony was to be severed, and the administration of both colonies would be entrusted to officers entirely unconnected with the company. It was intimated that his acceptance as governor would be conditional upon the giving up of all connection with that THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 143 corporation as servant, shareholder or in any other capacity, and the same condition applied to any interest in, or connection with, the Puget Sound Agricultural Company. Douglas was told that in case his decision should be in favour of retaining his position with the Hudson's Bay Company, his services as governor of Vancouver Island would not' escape the recollection of Her Majesty's government.' Having thus cleared the way, by a precise explanation of the personal relations of Douglas to the new administration, the colonial secretary detailed a code of instructions and suggestions equally explicit, the dominant note of which was the need of careful consideration and conservation of public interests and the equal rights of all. It was pointed out that British Columbia ' stands on a very different footing from many of our colonial settlements,' whose chief element of success was the possession of arable lands. British Columbia possessed in a remarkable degree many elements of prosperity to furnish a revenue which would ' at once defray the expenses of an establishment.' Lytton's view was that ' moderate duties on beer, wine, spirits and other articles usually subject to taxation would be preferable to the imposition of licences,' and from these sources he expected a large and immediate revenue. For town lots there would be a great demand, a ready source of obtaining funds, and it was intimated that early steps should be taken to select a site for a seaport town. The colonial secretary did not dwell too much upon how a general revenue should be obtained, leaving that for Douglas to decide from local knowledge, but it was expected that the new colony would be self-supporting at the earliest date possible. He added with emphasis : You will keep steadily in view that it is the desire of this country that representative institutions and self- government should prevail in British Columbia, when by the growth of a fixed population, material for these institutions shall be known to exist; and to that object you must from the commencement aim and shape your policy. The governor was informed that a party of Royal Engineers would be dispatched to the colony to survey the p 144 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 parts suitable for settlement, to lay out roads and generally to superintend public works. The cost of surveying lands for private purchase was to be added to the price of the land. It was intimated, too, that the force was intended for scientific and practical purposes and not merely for military objects, and that an officer of the force would be detailed to report on the value of the mineral resources. An experienced inspector of police would be sent out, and no time should be lost in considering how a police force might be organized from the people on the spot, who must depend upon themselves for the preservation of peace. Special emphasis was laid upon the humane treatment of the Indians, though the best solution of that question was left to Douglas's own judgment. In all bargains with them for the cession of lands ' subsistence should be supplied in some other shape,' and above all attention should be given to ' the best means of diffusing the blessings of the Christian religion and of civilization among them.' The governor was commended for the steps he had already taken in regard .to the Indians, and he was further appealed to, in connection with the fur trade, ' to save them from the demoralizing bribes of ardent spirits.' In the series of dispatches from Lytton to Douglas the latter is constantly reminded that ' representative institutions ' and 1 self-government' are the goals to be kept constantly in view, and to be achieved as soon as conditions warranted. He was particularly enjoined to ■ secure by all legitimate means the confidence and goodwill of the immigrants, and to exhibit no jealousy whatever of Americans or other foreigners who may enter the country. You will remember that the country is destined for free institutions at the earliest possible moment.' It was even suggested that he should form a council of advice. Nevertheless the governor was clothed with extraordinary powers, as witness : There has not been time to furnish you by this mail with the order-in-council, commission and instructions to yourself as governor which are necessary to complete your legal powers. You will nevertheless continue to act during the brief interval before their arrival as you THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 145 have hitherto done, as the authorized representative in the territory of British Columbia, and to take, without hesitation, such steps as you may deem to be absolutely necessary for the government of the territory and as are not repugnant to the principles of British law. . . . Her Majesty's government feel that the difficulties of your position are such as courage and familiarity with the resources of the country and character of the people can alone overcome. Certain acts of the governor, such as the appointment of revenue officers, a justice of the peace and a gold commissioner, and the raising of revenue by customs and the levying of licence fees, etc., were approved ; but he was informed that officials as heads of the various departments would be sent from England, and certain significant cautions were given that ' no distinction be made between foreigners and British subjects as to the amount of licence fee,' and, especially, ' in the second place it must be made perfectly clear to every one that this licence fee is levied, not in regard to any supposed rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, but simply in virtue of the prerogative of the Crown,' for revenue purposes. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton was particularly jealous in regard to the influence or control of the company in any manner whatsoever, that having been the cause of so much complaint, and he took pains to state : Further with regard to those supposed rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, I must refer you, in even stronger terms, to the cautions already conveyed to you in my former dispatches. The Hudson's Bay Company have hitherto had an exclusive right to trade with the Indians in the Fraser river territory, but they have had no other right whatever. They have had no rights to exclude strangers. They have had no rights of government or of occupation of the soil. They have had no rights to prevent or interfere with any kind of trading, except with the Indians alone. The immense resources of the new colony appeared, from the enthusiastic reports of the governor himself, to warrant the assumption that the local revenue would be sufficient 146 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 for all purposes of government, and the principal uses to which it should be applied were police, public works to facilitate landing and travelling, payment of necessary officers, and, above all, surveying. Accurate accounts of everything were to be rendered. Postal facilities should be provided. Douglas was empowered to govern and legislate on his own authority, but he was enjoined that ' popular institutions' should be established with ! as little delay as possible.' There were numerous injunctions and suggestions of a general character, the spirit of which is epitomized in one sentence : ' You will carefully remember that the public interests are the first consideration.' A land policy that should have been a guide for all future governments was clearly outlined. Douglas was authorized to sell land wanted solely for agricultural purposes at an upset price. Land for town purposes, to which speculation was sure to direct itself, was not to be placed at too low a price. With a view that ' mere land-jobbing may in some degree be checked,' he was ' to open land for settlement gradually ; not to sell beyond the limits of what is either surveyed or required for immediate survey, and to prevent, as far as in you lies, squatting on unsold lands.' It was ' the strong desire of Her Majesty's government to attach to this territory all peaceful settlers, without regard to nation,' and with naturalization the right of acquiring crown lands was to follow. In the sale of land, it was intimated that the ' slightest cause to impute a desire to show favour to the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company' would be watched ' with jealousy' by the home parliament. These were the more important references of Lytton's dispatches bearing upon the government and administration in British Columbia. A careful perusal of the dispatches in full will show how deliberately and intelligently the wants of the colony were thought out and what an advanced and liberal conception of colonial institutions Lytton possessed. Two detachments of Royal Engineers sailed from England for British Columbia: one in the steamer La Plata on September 2, 1858, under command of Captain Parsons, who was accompanied by twenty non-commissioned officers i*_^ I THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 147 and men ; and the other, made up of two officers, one staff assistant surgeon, eighteen non-commissioned officers and men, thirty-one women and thirty-four children, the whole under the command of Captain R. H. Luard, in the clipper ship Thames City. Captain Parsons was the bearer of important communications to Governor Douglas. One contained Douglas's commission as governor, another denned the scope of his authority, and another notified him of the revocation on May 30 of the Hudson's Bay Company charter as far as the mainland was concerned. By the same mail came advices of the appointment of Colonel R. C. Moody, R.E., as commander of the forces and to the office of chief commissioner of Lands and Works, with a latent commission as lieutenant- governor. He was to be second in command to Douglas, from whom he was in certain matters to take orders, but with special duties that were not to be interfered with unless ' under circumstances of the greatest gravity.' Simultaneously came the advice of the appointment of Matthew Baillie Begbie1 as chief justice of the new colony. There also came copies of proclamations declaring British law in force in British Columbia and indemnifying the governor and other officers for acts performed before the establishment of proper authority. By various routes and at different times the different high officials arrived from England and entered upon their several duties. The first civil list of the colony included the following: Governor, James Douglas, C.B., £1800 ; chief justice, Matthew Baillie Begbie, ^800 ; chief commissioner of Lands and Works, Richard Clement Moody, ^800 ; colonial secretary, W. A. G. Young, £500 ; treasurer, Captain W. Driscoll Gosset, R.E., ^500; attorney-general, George H. Cary, £400 ; inspector of police, Chartres Brew, £500; collector of customs, Wymond O. Hamley, £400 ; harbour master, Captain James Cooper, £400. There were also the following ecclesiastical appointments: the Right Rev. George Hills, D.D., bishop, and the Revs. Gammage and Crickmer. The bishopric was endowed by Miss Burdett- Coutts, while the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel paid the stipend of Gammage and the Colonial Church Society * See pp. 390-1. $ - 148 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 that of Crickmer.1 It may be stated here that the act of the imperial parliament providing for the government of British Columbia and defining its boundaries was introduced on July 1, 1858, and in moving the second reading Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton made a highly illuminative and eloquent speech. One part of it was instinct with the prophetic spirit: More rational, if less exciting, hopes of the importance of the colony rest upon its other resources [than mining], which I have described, and upon the influence of its magnificent situation on the ripening grandeur of British North America. I do believe that the day will come, and that many now present will live to see it, when, a portion at least of the lands on the other side of the Rocky Mountains being also brought into colonization and guarded by free institutions, one direct line of railway communication will unite the Pacific and the Atlantic. Now that we have seen the machinery of government fairly set in operation, it will be necessary only to review the association and sequel of events in a series of paragraphs before the chapter dealing with the settled state of affairs is introduced to the reader's notice. The Royal Engineers were a picked military force, to be maintained at the cost of the imperial government for a 1 Between January i and June 30, 1859, Douglas made the following provisional appointments for the colony of British Columbia, and the names of nearly all the appointees have become more or less historical: stipendiary magistrates and justices of the peace—Queenborough, W. R. Spaulding, afterwards county court judge of Nanaimo and Comox until 1881; Lillooet, Thomas Elwyn, afterwards deputy provincial secretary; Langley, Peter O'Reilly, who came to occupy a very high and honourable position in official circles in the province; at Lytton, H. M. Ball, afterwards county court judge of Cariboo from the time of Confederation to 1881; high sheriff at Port Douglas, Charles S. Nicoll; assistant gold commissioner at Yale, E. H. Sanders; chief clerk colonial secretary's office, Charles Good, son-in-law of Douglas; chief clerk of the customs house, W. H. M-Crea; registrar of the supreme court, A. T. Bushby, son-in-law of Douglas, and afterwards a county court judge ; revenue officer at Langley, Charles Wylde. Among the colonial officials not mentioned in the civil service list given above were F. G. Claudet, assayer, and C A. Bacon, melter in the assay office. His very early appointments, in 1858, were Richard Hicks as revenue officer at Yale and O. Travaillot, gold commissioner at Thompson. Various other minor appointments were made before Douglas was created governor, in their nature irily temporary. SIR MATTHEW BAILLIE BEGBIE From a portrait by Savannah aiaoaa aujiAa wshttam aia . •■ » 111 ;§ 1 I THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 149 limited period only. Their purpose has already been indicated. Upon their arrival, as soon as they were settled in their barracks at Sapperton, a little to the east of the original site of New Westminster, they began their work of laying out roads, surveying the lands of the district and erecting public works. It was under their auspices that the Cariboo wagon road was begun. Never but once—at the time of the Yale riots—was there an occasion for their services in a defensive capacity being called into requisition. They did good and effective service until their disbandment in 1863, when a number of them elected to remain in the country. Among the first things to be done in launching the new colony was to select a seat of government and a capital. Langley, in the open fields surrounding Fort Langley, was the first choice, but was abandoned for the adjoining town- site of Derby, where a sale of town lots was held.1 Both Langley and Derby, however, were considered by Colonel Moody as unsuitable for the purpose, and his recommendation of the present site of New Westminster, for many obvious reasons, military, residential and commercial, was confirmed by the governor. A curious dispute arose among the officials as to whether the capital should be named Queenborough or Queensborough, reminding one of the time-honoured differences between ' tweedledum and tweedledee.' As in the case of naming the colony itself, it was left to the arbitrament of the sovereign, who with peculiar appropriateness and diplomacy offended none of the disputants by naming it New Westminster. A sale of lots was held, those who had invested in Derby being allowed to change locations. On November 17 an imposing party of officials left Victoria for the headquarters of the new colony. The governor was in command. He was accompanied by Rear- Admiral Baynes ; David Cameron, chief justice of Van- 1 Fort Hope was really the recognized headquarters of the mainland until Langley had been selected. It was here that the first proclamations were made, the first officials appointed and the first town-site laid out. The first court was held there, George Pearkes, crown solicitor, presiding, and several offenders were punished. On September 3, 1858, a man named King was committed for the murder of a man named Eaton—a case of stabbing arising out of an old quarrel. King was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to transportation for life. Ill I5« COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 couver Island ; and Matthew Baillie Begbie, the new chief justice of British Columbia, who, with several officers of the Royal Engineers, had now arrived. Their mission was the formal launching of the colony of British Columbia. They sailed in H.M.S. Satellite with the Hudson's Bay Company's Otter in attendance. Within the mouth of the Fraser the Beaver and the Recovery received the party, which landed at New Langley. The day of the ceremonial broke dark and lowering. A guard of honour received His Excellency amid the firing of a salute ; and in the presence of about one hundred persons assembled in a large room of the fort, the weather rendering a meeting in the open air impossible, the oaths of office were taken, first by Begbie as judge and afterwards by Douglas as governor. Proclamation was made of the act establishing the colony ; of an instrument indemnifying the officers of the government from any irregularities that might have been committed during the interval prior to the establishment of the act; declaring English law as the law of the colony ; and revoking the exclusive privileges of the Hudson's Bay Company. The governor did not leave the fort until the following day, when a salute of fourteen guns pealed forth in his honour.1 This apparently was the only important function held in the first capital of the colony. At the very outset several grievances came into existence which developed into a serious sectional feeling against Victoria, which was later rendered bitter by the removal of the capital thither after the union of the colonies in 1866. It was held by the purchasers of lots that some of the proceeds should have been devoted to clearing the heavy timber from the town-site, an undertaking as expensive as the lots in the first instance, and such had been the original understanding at the time of the sale. Victoria, too, had been declared a free port, while New Westminster was subject to the schedule of customs duties, which gave Victoria a decided advantage as a port of commerce. And then—and this was a fact greatly resented—the chief officials of the mainland colony preferred to live in Victoria, for social and other reasons. The sectional feeling thus engendered existed until 1 R. H. Coats and R. E. Gosnell, Sir fames Douglas. THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 151 very recent years. It was very conspicuous during the fight over the capital and subsequently during the ' battle of the routes,' when Esquimalt and Burrard Inlet were rival candidates for the honour of being the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and even much later, when in 1893 the new parliament buildings were projected. On June 9, 1858, James Yates, merchant, and five others petitioned Douglas on behalf of the public to remove the restrictions imposed upon the trade of the mainland in the interests of the Hudson's Bay Company.1 This petition, or rather resolution of a public fneeting, had ostensibly for its object that there might be no distress for want of provisions on the part of the miners. The governor replied that he had no authority to grant the prayer of the petition, but stated that he would recommend the opening of the Fraser district for settlement, and, further, expressed the opinion that such a course would be adopted. Reference has previously been made to the hostility of the Indians of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers to the incoming of American miners in 1857. When in the summer of 1858 Douglas made a trip up the Fraser, in company with Captain Prevost of H.M.S. Satellite, he found upon arrival at Hill's Bar a state of great alarm existing on account of the tumultuous disposition of the natives, who, in his own words, ' threatened to make a clean sweep of the whole body of miners assembled there.' The trouble was of mutual provocation. The miners were not disposed to treat the Indians with much consideration, and the latter were jealous of their lands and rights held from time immemorial. Douglas held conferences with both. He used his great influence with the Indians in the interest of peace, and spoke plainly to the miners, to whom he made it clear that they were there simply on sufferance, and that the Indians had rights which he was 1 Douglas imposed by proclamation a duty of ten per cent on all articles not otherwise specified entering British Columbia. Flour paid 2s. id. a barrel; bacon, 4s. 2d. per hundred pounds; spirits, 4s. 2d. a gallon; wine, 2s. id. a gallon ; ale, 6£d. a gallon ; beans and pease, 6Jd. per hundred pounds ; barley and oats, 6|d. per two hundred pounds; coin, quicksilver, fresh meats and vegetables, timber, hay, wheat and books were free. The duty on spirits was subsequently advanced. 152 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 bound to respect. Immediate trouble was averted, but he left expecting serious trouble sooner or later, and so reported to the home government. In this connection, it may be stated that the governor mingled freely among the miners and learned all he could of the prospects. Upon his return to Victoria he was highly optimistic, and his rose-coloured dispatches created a too favourable impression of what the country would be capable of in the way of revenue, as he subsequently discovered to his embarrassment when obliged to write home for funds. The trouble that he anticipated between Indians and whites occurred in 1858. There was a serious outbreak and actual hostilities, in the course of which thirty-two Indians and a few white men were killed; moreover, a number of white men fell victims to Indian outrage, as the headless bodies of men that came floating down the river gave ample testimony. It was the Americans against whom hostilities were generally aroused. Bancroft tells us that the Oregonians and Californians who came to the mines by the plateau route from the south in July encountered the alternative of returning or fighting their way through the hostile tribes on the Okanagan, while the Hudson's Bay Company traders were moving through the same country and meeting unmolested the same bodies of Indians. In the canons of the Fraser River disputes arose and strife resulted. On August 7, 1858, two Frenchmen were killed on the trail above Big Canon, and when the news reached Yale a force of miners was organized under Captain Rouse, and on August 14 an encounter took place in the canon. The Indians were driven out after a three hours' fight and the loss of seven braves. At Yale, in the meantime, a large force of miners was organized under H. M. Snyder, as captain, and Captain Graham, as assistant, with a separate force. The object of the expedition was not so much revenge as the administering of a salutary lesson to the Indians and the bringing about of peace, which was effected after a march as far as the Thompson River. The Indians submitted and entered into treaties of peace, with no shedding of blood other than the killing of Graham and his lieutenant during a midnight attack by THE COLONY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 153 Indians four miles above Long Bar. The natives proved friendly ever afterwards. It had been proposed by Douglas to go to the front himself on this occasion, accompanied by thirty-five sappers and miners and twenty marines from the Satellite, but as peace had been declared before the start was made, it was not until later, during the McGowan riots, that the force was called upon to act. Ned McGowan, an ex-judge of California, was a notorious character who in San Francisco had been the subject of attentions on the part of the Vigilance Committee. The riots were occasioned by a dispute as to authority among local officials, but were magnified not only by the number of persons involved but by the exaggerated reports that were sent to the authorities. Colonel Moody, with twenty-five engineers who had just arrived in the colony, reinforced by one hundred marines and sailors from the Plumper and Satellite, the police force under Chartres Brew, and a field- piece, set out from Fort Langley and proceeded to Hope, where they learned that the disturbance was not so serious as reported. Colonel Moody, Chief Justice Begbie and Captain Mayne went on in a canoe with the gold commissioner to Yale, where they found the town quiet and where they were received with lusty cheers. Nevertheless the situation was not without its possibilities of trouble, and Ned McGowan having assaulted Colonel Moody—for what reason is not certain—the full force of engineers, marines, sailors and police were soon in Yale. McGowan apologized to Colonel Moody for his conduct, proved that he had taken part in the riots under orders of the magistrate, and promptly paid his fine for assault. He afterwards conducted Begbie and Mayne over the diggings and gave a champagne luncheon in their honour. The incident, however, was not without its moral effect upon the miners. The promptitude of the authorities in appearing on the scene and the formidable display of force impressed the unruly members of the community with the fact that the course of justice was swift and its punishments sure and severe. While the McGowan affair was trivial, its outcome had the effect of rendering any further punitive expeditions unnecessary. VOL. XXI tr COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 THE PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION THE year 1859 began a new era in the two Pacific colonies, one in which the Hudson's Bay Company had been entirely eliminated from the political background and had been reduced to the status of an ordinary corporate trading concern, still with large interests and not a little influence, but nevertheless shorn of its prestige and power. In Prince Rupert's Land the company remained supreme for ten years longer, but on the coast, after the retirement of Douglas, it was not influential, except in a commercial way. Upon the retirement of Douglas, A. G. Dallas, his son-in-law, became head of the Western Department and president of the Victoria board of management of the company, of which John Work and Dugald McTavish were the other members. Ogden had died in 1854 and Work died in 1861. Dallas being removed to Fort Garry and promoted as governor of the company, Dugald McTavish succeeded to the management, with Finlayson and Tolmie on the advisory board along with him. In 1870 McTavish was removed to Montreal, and was succeeded by James A. Grahame, William Charles and others. Owing to changing conditions of trade, revolutionized among other things by the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the centre of the fur-trading operations was shifted to Winnipeg. Gold-mining and the increased population completely changed the slow current of events on the British north-west coast. After the unwonted excitement of 1858 there was a corresponding depression. The Fraser River region had proved disappointing to hosts of prospectors who in their mad rush expected to find gold in quantities rivalling in richness the mines of Peru. In their disappointment they declared the whole country worthless* There was, however, a more stable and enduring element among the first comers, who, noting the evidences of gold everywhere in the waters of the Fraser and of its tributaries, followed them restlessly towards PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 155 their sources. At Lytton the South Thompson River joins the Fraser, and at this point the miners parted ways, some ascending the Thompson, mining and prospecting as they went, and spreading out over the wide extent of country lying between the watersheds of the Columbia and Fraser Rivers, of which Kamloops was the distributing centre. The area of prospecting included North Thompson River, Tran- quille River, Louis Creek, Salmon River, Shuswap River, the Nicola district and even the Similkameen. The other movement followed the Fraser and its tributaries northward in every direction, the miners prospecting a large area on each side of the Fraser in what are now known as the Lillooet and Cariboo districts. Many parts of Lillooet proved to be rich, and the Bridge River country, at the present time (1913) attracting so much attention, gave promise of gold and was widely prospected. The potential placer district was, however, in the heart of the Cariboo itself. The region got its name from the number of deer of the caribou species seen there, and which formed a staple of fresh meat supply. ' Caribou ' was almost immediately transformed to ' Cariboo ' in the indifferent spelling of the men who brought the district into prominence. Early in 1859 men were prospecting as far as the mouth of the Quesnel, and late that year definite news came of substantial strikes having been made. In i860 the Cariboo rush began ; Victoria again became a busy centre and New Westminster also enjoyed a season of prosperity. Until the decline of the placer-rnining industry in the late sixties, through the richest of the claims being worked out, Cariboo contributed more to the upbuilding of these two cities and to the stability and wealth of the two colonies than all other known factors. The greater part of the gold of the district was found in a comparatively small area comprised within the territory drained by Williams, Cedar, Keithley, Antler, Lowhee and Grouse Creeks, and the bars of the Quesnel River. Various estimates have been made of the aggregate yielded by this district. From 1859 to 1871 the total was probably about $2 5,000,000. Of the population engaged in mining there have also been various estimates, running from 1500 to 5000. 1 156 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 Bancroft says that the number never exceeded 3000 during the early period. The population on the mainland, estimated at 17,000 in 1858, dwindled to 5000 in 1861, between 2500 and 3000 of whom were in the Cariboo district. The gold output was mainly recorded in the shipments by the express companies, but a large quantity of gold dust went out each year of which there was no record. The Cariboo mines proved rich, and shortly became as famous as the Australian or the Californian fields. The pay- dirt lay deep in old channels and, unlike the bars of the lower Fraser, where the gold was extracted by means of rocker and sluice, had to be reached by shafts and drifts and pumping apparatus. Williams Creek was the most important of the mining camps, and on its banks was Barkerville, which was a local distributing point and where for a time the giddy distractions of the social side of mining life had full sway. Commercial business was active there for a period, and in 1864 a newspaper was established, a small four-page sheet, which sold for a dollar a copy and inserted no advertisement, however small, for less than five dollars. It lasted as long as the mines justified its existence. Douglas was always a road-builder. From the time he assumed governmental control in 1851 his efforts were constantly in the direction of making roads. Reference has already been made to the splendid system of highways in the southern part of Vancouver Island. As soon as the colony of British Columbia was established, the building of roads was the first thing to which he turned his attention. He had invaluable assistance from the corps of Royal Engineers, one of whose special duties was to lay out and supervise the construction of highways. Douglas's efforts in the direction of improving communication were only limited by the funds at his disposal. These were usually insufficient for his purpose. In a country of great distances and exceedingly rough conditions he judged accurately the especial need of roads and trails in conjunction with the numerous waterways. The Indians had their own trails from time immemorial. The route travelled by the old Hudson's Bay brigade from Fort Langley to Kamloops had served its purpose. The Whatcom PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 157 and Smess trail by way of Hope and thence across the mountains and the plateau to Thompson was another route for which claims were made ; but both lacked the practical requirements of the miners, to whom expedition meant money. These problems were soon partially solved. The Indians knew of a way from Lillooet through the Harrison lake and river region and over the Douglas portage. Douglas seized upon this route as a suggestion. There were five hundred miners in Victoria who wished to reach the diggings, and he tried the experiment of co-operation. Each man as an evidence of good faith was to deposit twenty-five dollars with the Hudson's Bay Company and to sign an agreement to work on the trail until it was completed. The company agreed to carry them to the starting-point on Harrison River, to feed them while they worked, and to refund the twenty-five dollars when the contract was completed. The length of the trail to Lillooet was seventy miles, and the contract was successfully completed under these terms. This road was extended by the Royal Engineers after their arrival and was for a time the main line of traffic with the upper country. By October i860 a new and easier road between Yale and Lytton, open during winter, was laid out. As Bancroft remarks, it only required the Cariboo excitement to set in motion the transformation of this trail into a wagon road, the cutting and blasting for which began at Yale in 1862 under the supervision of the Royal Engineers. The Cariboo wagon road was the crowning achievement in road-building during this period. It was four hundred and eighty-five miles long, and was commenced and practically completed during Douglas's tenure of office at an outlay of over $1,000,000. The Yale- Cariboo wagon road from Yale to Clinton is one hundred and thirty-six miles long, and the rest of the road, including the branch from Lillooet to Clinton, extends three hundred and forty-nine miles. It required, also, two expensive bridges. ' From Yale along the rocky canons and denies of the Fraser, it wound past Lytton and the Thompson by way of Ashcroft and the Bonaparte, joining the road from Lillooet at Clinton, and forming with other units of the plan a mighty artery of trade deep into the heart of the gold country. Even i 158 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 by present standards, it was no mean feat of engineering.' -1 To-day the remnants of the old road which winds along the canons of the Fraser from Yale to Ashcroft are the wonder of the traveller on the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Douglas portage and Pemberton portage roads, largely unused after the main wagon road was built, are to be credited to this regime. These were used in connection with steamers on the intervening waters. Douglas had larger visions in connection with his programme of road-building. The Similkameen road from Hope was commenced as, and afterwards converted into, a wagon road. It was intended as a toll road to Kootenay and across the Rockies, but construction was discontinued for the time being on account of local opposition at Hope and for lack of funds. Only twelve miles were built, but it was afterwards extended to Skagit Flat, and thence there was a trail to Princeton. In 1865 Edgar Dewdney continued this trail, familiarly known ever since as the Dewdney trail, across the southern part of the province to Fort Steele. This road afforded access to the Kootenay country and was travelled for many years before railway communication was established, and is still used locally. In fact, in certain parts it is being converted into a wagon road. Sir Henry Crease wrote that the trail was built' out of the tax laid on the export of gold, just as they are [in 1897] talking at Ottawa of doing in the Yukon and Klondyke, but it was found that on the border line not half the gold paid duty—only the honest ones paid it. In the case above alluded to the act had to be abandoned. Like Captain Gosset's mule tax, it died a natural death.' The route of the Dewdney trail was that proposed by Governor Douglas for a wagon road to cross the Rockies and meet a similar road from the eastward at Edmonton and to form together a great national highway. The problem which chiefly concerned Douglas was that of finance. The sole sources of revenue were the land sales, the customs impost of ten per cent, and the liquor and miners' licences. The fees for mining licences were difficult to collect, and were paid only on compulsion. It was true that the 1 R. H. Coats and R. E. Gosnell, Sir fames Douglas, p. 253. PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 159 country was rich in gold—the returns from Cariboo and elsewhere were proof of that—but while the royalty on gold produced was evaded, millions of money taken from the diggings meant nothing to the public coffers, except in the indirect way in which it affected the volume of business done in the country. No industries had been developed to any appreciable extent, and to meet the requirements of the population and open up the vast interior country was a task that required large annual expenditures. A tariff was necessary for revenue purposes. As Vancouver Island, the adjoining colony, from or through which the mainland purchased all its supplies, had free trade, a tariff for revenue would be an added detriment to business on the mainland ; but a government could not be carried on without money, and either a revenue tariff or direct taxation was necessary. The governor's instructions were to maintain a balance between expenses and revenue, but the first financial statement showed a deficit of about $10,000. It was necessary to ask for aid, and in the imperial budget of 1859 there was a sum of $42,899 on account of the new colony. Objections were taken to the vote on the ground that British Columbia, as other colonies had done, should pay its own way, but it was pointed out that conditions were different on the Pacific coast from those elsewhere. In the following year there was a surplus of over $40,000, but that it was secured at the expense of necessary public works is shown by the fact that Governor Douglas had applied to the imperial government for a loan of $50,000 for such a purpose. In the following year Douglas, commenting on the public accounts, stated that unless the expenses of the Royal Engineers were paid by the home government as theretofore, there was only one alternative left him, that of abandoning all the ' essential public works' then Under progress; and so, in order to carry out the programme of building roads, the colony went heavily into debt, from which it had not entirely recovered at Confederation. As governor of Vancouver Island from 1849 to 1856, a period when the Hudson's Bay Company was in complete control and when the percentage of independent settlers was ioo COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 so small as to be almost negligible, Douglas had practically disregarded his instructions about arranging for the election of a legislative assembly to aid him in his government. When the new colony of British Columbia was established under circumstances which permitted of no delay, and he was clothed in his own person-with all the authority and all the functions of state, Douglas was cautioned that such a condition of affairs was intended to be temporary only and that provision must be made for a representative form of government at the earliest possible moment. That was in 1859. It does not appear that Douglas during his tenure of office ever saw the necessity of dividing his authority with any other man or set of men, nor did he make any effort to carry into effect what Lytton had so precisely and insistently impressed upon him. Douglas was no lover of representative institutions. Scarcely,- however, had the colony of British Columbia been organized than an agitation was set on foot for representative government. In April 1861 a memorial was presented to Governor Douglas by J. A. R. Homer and others, advocating a representative assembly and the abolition of dual government. The criticisms of the existing state of affairs were to the following effect: that the high officials of the colony did not reside in it; that the tariff was excessive and the incidence inequitable ; that there was no land tax ; that the city of Victoria was a free port and was stimulated at the expense of the mainland ; -**that money had been injudiciously expended on public works and the contracts let without public notice ; that the public lands were improperly administered ; that there was no registry office for the recording of transfers and mortgages. This memorial, which was forwarded by Douglas to the imperial authorities, does not appear to have materially influenced the home government, and nothing was immediately done towards remedying the conditions complained of. In a measure the memorial was the outcome of the sectional feeling existing in regard to Vancouver Island, which had for some time been enjoying representative institutions. Its capital, Victoria, occupied a much more advantageous position than did New Westminster, the capital of British Columbia. PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 161 It was the residence of the chief officials of both colonies and was practically the social and political centre. It was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Esquimalt harbour, near by, was the naval station for the North Pacific coast. Douglas did not hesitate to express his views freely and frankly in replying to the memorial. His experience did not lead him to look kindly on representative government. The assembly there was largely the creature of his will, and, according to his successors, Governors Kennedy and Seymour, was a most inefficient body. The former said in a dispatch : ' There is no medium or connecting link between the Governor and the Assembly, and the time of the Legislative Council (which comprises the principal executive officers) is mainly occupied in the correction of mistakes, or undoing the crude legislation of the lower house, who have not, and cannot be expected to have, the practical experience or available time necessary for the successful conduct of public affairs. On financial subjects they are always at fault.' Governor Seymour in a dispatch on the same subject remarked : ' The loss of the House of Assembly would not, I think, be much regretted.' Douglas had no wish to share with any legislative or representative body the responsibilities of government. A man who had been chief factor in the Hudson's Bay Company, an aggregation of autocrats, with a long experience of supreme authority in his department, could not adapt himself to the limitations to be imposed by what he could not but regard as inferior officials. Douglas believed in direct methods of government and undivided responsibility. Moreover, the system of government in vogue in England as the result of centuries of development was inapplicable to a new country with unstable and unsettled conditions. These reasons he set out ably and clearly in a dispatch to the secretary of state for the Colonies, dated April 22, 1861. He pointed out that what the memorialistsv had in mind was a general reduction of taxation, and that instead of a system of import and inland duties levied on goods, which were regarded as oppressive, they proposed to it carry on the public works necessary for the development of the country by means of public loans, their object being to VOL. XXI x I \S ' 162 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 throw a portion of the burden upon posterity, a proposal which he regarded as contrary to sound policy. Regarding the request for a resident governor in British Columbia, Douglas observed : ' I may, however, at least remark that I have spared no exertion to promote the interests of both colonies and am not conscious of having neglected any opportunity of adding to their prosperity.' On the subject of representative institutions similar to those enjoyed by other colonies, he said : ' This application should, perhaps, be considered to apply more to the future well-being of the colony than to the views and wishes of the existing population.' He was decidedly of the opinion that there was not yet a sufficient basis of population or property to permit of the establishment of a sound system of self-government. He said : ' The British element is small, and there is absolutely neither a manufacturing nor farming class ; there are no landed proprietors, except holders of building lots in towns ; no producers except miners, and the general population is essentially migratory—the only fixed population, apart from New Westminster, being the traders settled in the several inland towns, from which the miners obtained their supplies.' He considered it ' unwise to commit the work of legislation to persons so situated, having nothing at stake, and no real vested interests in the colony.' His opinion was that the memorial did not express the sentiments of the majority of the people and, under the existing circumstances, he was sure that the ' majority of the working and reflective classes ' preferred the government as established to one of party rule, until ' the permanent population of the country is greatly increased and capable of moral influence by maintaining the peace of the country, and making representative institutions a blessing and a reality, and not a by-word or a curse.' The population represented by the petition—New Westminster, Hope and Douglas—consisted of only 305 male adults. The rest of the province had taken no interest in the movement. Douglas pointed out that as governor he had a divided duty to perform, and that the colonial secretary and attorney- general had almost necessarily to reside where he did, and although the treasurer resided in New Westminster, he had PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 163 no hesitation in saying that the public would have been better served if that department had remained in Victoria. With respect to over-taxation, Douglas stated that the people in Washington Territory paid an average of twenty-five per cent on all foreign goods. Spirits and articles of luxury paid a much higher rate. The citizens of Washington Territory, too, had to pay the assessed road and school taxes levied by the territorial legislature. In British Columbia the tariff, with the exception of a few articles, was ten per cent and all other taxes were proportionately low. Two-thirds of the taxes raised in British Columbia were expended in road-making and other useful works, producing a reduction of not less than one hundred per cent on the cost of transport, and so on. Incidentally, Douglas made a correction in regard to a statement in the memorial, in which the population, exclusive of Indians, was said to be seven thousand. He stated that the actual population, Chinese included, was about ten thousand, which with the Indian population, exceeding twenty thousand, made a total of over thirty thousand, thereby reducing the taxation to £2 per head, instead of £j, 10s. as given in the memorial. He pointed out that the white population was almost wholly adults, and that it was a mistake to say that the Indians paid no taxes. ' They have,' he states,' especially in the gold districts, for the most part abandoned their former pursuits and no longer provide their own stores of food. All the money they make by their labour, either by hire or gold digging, is expended in the country, so that the Indians have now become very extensive consumers of foreign articles.' He stated that every attention had been given to render the Fraser River safe and accessible, so that foreign vessels could go direct to New Westminster without calling at Victoria. A great many applications, he said, had been received by him for remission of duty, under various pretexts, but these he had always resisted, on the ground that class legislation was vicious and led to injustice and discontent. He did not think a remission of duty on shipbuilding materials would advance that industry. As to the other complaints in regard to money being injudiciously squandered on public works and that the public lands had been wrongly administered, he had referred *1 i 19 i m M 164 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 them to the chief commissioner of Lands and Works, and from the copy of that officer's report it would be seen that the complaints were without foundation. The remaining complaint, about the want of a registry office, he was taking steps to have remedied. He then proceeded to state at length the conditions on Vancouver Island and on the mainland of British Columbia, ' explanatory of their distinctive features and their applicability to the colonies respectively.' The public revenue of Vancouver Island, he pointed out, was almost wholly derived from taxes levied directly on persons and professions, on trades and real estate ; while it was by means of duties and imposts on goods carried inland that the revenue of British Columbia was chiefly raised. Victoria, from the conditions surrounding it, had to depend upon commerce, while the circumstances of British Columbia were materially different. The latter colony, he said, had large internal resources which only required development to render it powerful and wealthy. Mining, being a valuable branch of industry, was essentially the vital interest of the colony, and he asserted that the laws were framed in the most liberal spirit, studiously relieving the miners from direct taxation, and vesting in the mining boards a general power to amend and adapt their provisions to the special circumstances of the district. From a practical point of view the dispatch was a complete answer to the memorialists, and yet the governor and the imperial government strangely misjudged the spirit of the times and failed to realize that a large majority of the people of British Columbia had been educated in the school of popular government. Douglas himself had lived the greater part of his life in an atmosphere of one-man government, perfect and absolute in its mechanical details, but fundamentally antagonistic to representative institutions. It was not until 1863 that the Duke of Newcastle informed Douglas that the act for the government of British Columbia would expire in a year and that it was proposed to make provision for a legislative council and for separate governors for the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. At the same time, the opinion was expressed that many PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 165 advantages would be obtained and numerous economies effected by the union of the two colonies. Two governors with two sets of expensive officials were unnecessary. The recent representations made by Governor Douglas had, however, had considerable weight in Downing Street, because, while the authorities would have been pleased to give British Columbia the same representative institutions that existed in Vancouver Island, it was felt that under existing conditions it would be impossible. Newcastle went on to say: Under these circumstances, I see no mode of establishing a purely representative legislature, which would not be open to one of two objections. Either it must place the Government of the colony under the exclusive control of a small circle of persons, naturally occupied with their own local, personal or class interests, or it must confide a large amount of political power to immigrants, or other transient foreigners, who have no permanent interest in the prosperity of the colony. For these reasons I think it necessary that the government should retain, for the present, a preponderating influence in the Legislature. From the best information I can obtain, I am disposed to think it most advisable, that about one-third of the Council should consist of the Colonial Secretary and other officers, who generally compose the Executive Council; about one-third of magistrates from different parts of the colony ; and about one-third of persons elected by the residents of the different electoral districts. But here I am met by the difficulty that these residents are not only few and scattered, but (like the foreign gold diggers) migratory and unsettled, and that any definition of electoral districts now made, might, in the lapse of a few months, become wholly inapplicable to the state of the colony. It would, therefore, be trifling to attempt such a definition, nor am I disposed to rely on any untried contrivance which might be suggested for supplying its place—contrivances which depend for their success on a variety of circumstances, which, with my present information, I cannot safely assume to exist. By what exact process this quasi-representation shall be accomplished, whether by ascertaining informally the sense of the residents in each locality, or by bringing the m ^ COLONIAL HISTORY, H1871 question before public meetings, or (as done in Ceylon) by accepting the nominee of any corporate body or society, I leave to you to determine. What I desire is this, that a system of virtual though imperfect representation shall at once be introduced, which shall enable Her Majesty's Government to ascertain with some certainty the character, wants and disposition of the community with a view to the more formal and complete establishment of a representative system, as circumstances shall admit of it. . . . With these explanations, I have to instruct you first to proclaim a law securing to Her Majesty the right to allot the . . . salaries to the officials of British Columbia ; and, having done so, to give publicity to the enclosed Order-in-Council and to convene as soon as possible, the proposed Legislature. A legislative council on the lines indicated in the Duke of Newcastle's dispatch was convened. It consisted of officials of the colony, of magistrates and of elected representatives in about equal numbers. The first council came into existence in 1863 and sat for the year 1864. The members were: Arthur N. Birch, colonial secretary; Henry (afterwards Sir Henry) P. P. Crease, attorney-general; Wymond O. Hamley, collector of customs; Chartres Brew, magistrate, New Westminster; Peter O'Reilly, magistrate, Cariboo East; E. H. Sanders, magistrate, Yale ; H. M. Ball, magistrate, Lytton; J. A. R. Homer, New Westminster; Robert T. Smith, Hope, Yale and Lytton; Henry Holbrook, Douglas and Lillooet; James Orr, Cariboo East; Walter S. Black, Cariboo West. Douglas's son-in-law, Charles Good, was appointed clerk of the council.1 This council remained in office until the union of the colonies in 1866. Captain Arthur Kennedy, who succeeded Sir James Douglas 8 as governor of Vancouver Island, was strongly in 1 Charles Good is still living. Arthur N. Birch, still living in England, was appointed to an important position in Ceylon, and was subsequently knighted. Four of the number died during 1912-13 : Peter O'Reilly, who was for many years Indian commissioner for the province ; Sir Henry P. P. Crease, who was knighted after retiring from the supreme court bench; E. H. Sanders and James Orr. Lieutenant-Colonel R. Wolf enden, who at the time of his death had the distinction of being the oldest civil servant of the British Empire, was queen's printer and was the first to serve Her Majesty in that capacity in British Columbia. ** Governor Douglas was knighted in 1863. m 1 PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 167 favour of the union of the colonies, whilst Frederick Seymour, who succeeded him as governor of British Columbia, was as strongly opposed to it. For some time the Colonial Office had looked forward to the union of the two colonies as the only logical outcome of the political situation on the Pacific coast of British North America, and it was frequently referred to in dispatches as highly desirable. The expense of maintaining two civil lists, including high-salaried officials, was in itself a consideration of importance in colonies with small revenues. Then, again, it was anomalous that two contiguous colonies should have separate parliamentary institutions and distinct postal and fiscal systems. The main difficulty which existed in the way of bringing about consolidation was the sectional feeling already referred to. For three years the matter was keenly discussed. Vancouver Island, generally speaking, was favourable to the union, but wanted free ports ; while British Columbia was in favour of protection, though not opposed to the union provided the capital of the united colonies was to be on the mainland. In Victoria an election was held in order to test the feeling, and two representatives of union and tariff won against two candidates taking the opposite side. A largely signed petition, mainly from the interior districts, came from British Columbia in favour of union. The council of New Westminster memorialized the secretary of state for the Colonies strongly in opposition. From their memorial it was quite obvious that the question of the location of the capital city was the main one. As the result of much discussion it became the settled conviction throughout Vancouver Island and British Columbia that union would be highly advantageous. The imperial parliament by an act of 1866 settled the matter by annexing Vancouver Island to British Columbia, and the colonies were proclaimed one on November 17 of that year. Then the battle for the capital began and the fight waged furiously for over a year. Governor Seymour was among those most actively opposed to the selection of Victoria, but subsequently withdrew his opposition, and the island city was finally chosen as the capital of the united colonies. With the organization of the legislative council of British H 168 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 Columbia, whose members met for the first time in January 1864, Douglas's work was practically completed. His speech upon the opening of the first session of that body was characteristic. Douglas loved to talk and write in ponderous, dignified sentences. The more official the subject, the more ponderously he treated it. His address on this occasion was no exception to the rule. He congratulated the council on this first step toward representative government and popular institutions, which, he declared, Her Majesty had withheld during the infancy of the colony only from a sincere regard for its happiness and prosperity. He urged on the members a vigorous prosecution of the public works as a measure of vital importance to the colony, and one that would give to the waste lands of British Columbia a value they did not then possess. With a view, he said, to increase population and encourage settlement, he had thrown open the public lands to actual settlers on the most liberal terms, and had done his utmost to encourage mining and every species of enterprise that tended to develop the resources of the country, though the result of these measures had not as yet fulfilled his expectations. The Indian tribes, he said, were quiet and well disposed. Reserves embracing village sites and cultivated fields had been set apart for them, their area in no case exceeding ten acres for each family, and this land was inalienable and held as joint property. Appropriations were recommended for religious purposes and for the establishment and support of schools. He promised soon to lay before the council a communication from the secretary of state for the Colonies, with proposals for opening telegraphic and postal communication between British Columbia and the head of Lake Superior. Finally, he laid before it an estimate of the expenditure for the past year, amounting to £192,860 (of which £83,937 was f°r public roads, £12,650 for redemption of road bonds created in 1862, £15,288 for public works, buildings and transport, £13,725 for interest on loans and sinking fund, and £31,615 for the civil establishment), while the revenue for the same period was but £110,000 (of which over £55,000 was obtained from customs dues). Meanwhile bonds had been created and loans contracted to the amount PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 169 of £65,805, leaving still a deficiency of £17,055, in addition to a sum due to the imperial government for the expenses of the Royal Engineers. For 1864 the outlay, including the debit balance, was set down at £107,910, and the income from all sources at £120,000, thus leaving a balance of £12,090, but this, it was explained, made no provision for the maintenance of a gold escort, or for the expense of public works.1 Douglas's term of office as governor of Vancouver Island expired in September 1863 and his governorship on the mainland ended in the spring of 1864. He decided to take up his official residence in New Westminster for the remainder of the term as governor of the mainland, although his successor in Vancouver Island, Captain Arthur Kennedy, did not arrive in Victoria until the following year. The retirement of Douglas was marked by general expressions of goodwill, in which all classes joined cordially, and he was the recipient of many testimonials of esteem in various forms. There were historical associations connected with his long career in the West as fur trader and political chief that rendered him then, as he still is, unique in the annals of British Columbia. His position as a political founder and organizer of two colonies was singular and exceptional. Having relinquished office and turned his back upon political life for ever, he set out upon a long tour—the dream of years— of Europe, during which he visited Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. After an absence of a year he returned to British Columbia and his Victoria residence, and from that time until his death on August 1, 1877, his life was uneventful. As to the careers of Governors Seymour and Kennedy little is to be said. Seymour was a man of small stature and of nervous and active temperament, timid in action and inclined to be over-conservative in politics—in other words, of mediocre ability—whose previous experiences as governor of British Honduras scarcely fitted him for achieving the best results in a colony like British Columbia. Governor Kennedy, on the other hand, was a man of considerable ability, of striking military appearance and a fluent speaker. He was 1 H. H. Bancroft, History of British Columbia, pp. 584-5- VOL. XXI Y n 170 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 suave in manner and strong in character. He worked hard for the union of the colonies, although, when union had been accomplished, Seymour, who had opposed it, succeeded to the governorship of the united colonies. Already the agitation for a larger union with Canada had begun, and Seymour at first opposed it as strongly as he had that of the union of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. Before his death1 his position was modified, presumably on account of official instructions from the Colonial Office. Seymour had been greatly exercised and hampered by the question of finances. In British Columbia there was a constant series of deficits, and the public debt of the mainland colony in 1867 was, less sinking fund, $1,002,983 and that of Vancouver Island was $293,698. At the time of Confederation in the united colonies, on the average of a basis of 10,000 white population, the rate of taxation was about $100 per head per annum and the per capita debt about $200. While this was true, it was also a fact that industry was languishing and commerce was slack. Indeed, all activities in the province were stagnant. Placer-mining, which had flourished from 1861 to 1866, had greatly declined, and no new field of promise outside Cariboo had been opened for exploitation. In addition to all this, British Columbia was almost completely shut off from the rest of the world. San Francisco was her nearest mart, and the other centres of trade and civilization were only to be reached by long and circuitous routes via the Isthmus of Panama or round Cape Horn. Under the circumstances it is not surprising that the terms of Confederation finally agreed upon were accepted in British Columbia in a spirit of rejoicing. It was not a matter of imperial sentiment to the general public, only a small proportion of whom were affected by feelings of such considerations. There were a few leading men, Canadians, such as Dr I. W. Powell, Robert Beaven, Amor DeCosmos, G. A. Walkem, J. A. Mara, F. J. Barnard, John Robson and others of similar standing, who worked for Confederation because they were Canadians and desired to see British North 1 Seymour died in 1869 while on a trip up the northern coast in H.M.S. Sparrowhawk for the benefit of his health. PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 171 America under one government; but among the British- born and the Americans, who together formed the majority of the population, there was, with few exceptions, no such consideration. With many of the inhabitants ' Canadians' were unpopular, and there was for a considerable period much hostility between the two elements. Many, like Dr J. S. Helmcken, who was a leader against the movement, were honest in their opposition because they believed that communication by railway at the time was impracticable, and that without a feasible system of communication the union would be barren of results either of a sentimental or a material nature. Even those who are regarded as the Fathers of Confederation1 in British Columbia did not believe in the practicability of a railway. A Confederation League was formed, the first meeting of which was held in Victoria on May 21, 1868, and the promoters of the league, after great difficulty and much correspondence and advertising, succeeded in getting only thirty-five persons to attend a general convention at Yale in September of that year. The effect of the convention was to consolidate those in favour of the union and to show that the mainland was largely a unit in its favour. The principal opposition came from Vancouver Island. The official element almost to a man was opposed to union at first, but Governor Musgrave, who upon his arrival came armed with instructions from the home government to do his best to bring about a union with Canada, exercised a powerful influence among those strongest 1 James Trimble, mayor, A. DeCosmos, I. W. Powell, R. Wallace, J. G. Norris, Chas. Gowen, M. W. Gibbs, Wm. Thain, G. Jenkinson, J. A. Craigg, George Pearkes, Charles E. Bunting, Noah Shakespeare, Peter Lester, Thomas Russell, Thomas Wilson, Francis Dodd, C M«*Collem, James Kirk, John Gordon M°Kay, J. F. M«Creight, G. C Gerow, John J. Jacobs, John Dunlop, Joseph Blackbourn, John Jessop, J. C. Timmerman, Henry Waller, A. Couves, Aaron Workman, T. H. Giffin, W. B. Toleson, S. B. Toleson, Stephen Burt, John Wilson, W. C. Seeley, T. C. Jones, John Lachapelle, W. A. Robertson, George Creighton, George Fox, William Mackay, Ed. M°Caffray, Willis Bond, John Leach, James Orr, Warren Harvoough, James Hutcheson, A. H. Frances, John Jeffrey, Guy Huston, Alex. Wilson, Robert Beaven, Leigh Harnett, W. M. Keohan, David James, Thomas Hodges, James Crossen, William Backster, Stephen Sandover, Charles Pollock, John Stewart, John Jackson, Alfred Syne, J. H. Doane, R. H. Austin, Richard Baker, George Deans, Wm. Webster, James E. M<*Millan, Wm. R. Gibbon, Stephen Whitely, J. B. Thompson, H. E. Wilby, Edward Phelps. mif 172 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 in opposition, and the course of union thereafter was smooth and rapid. Previous to that time such men as Trutch, O'Reilly, Cox, Wood, Pemberton, Helmcken, Smith, Elwyn, Ker, Ball, Walding, Crease, Drake, Davie, Sanders, Ring, Holbrook—all then or subsequently men prominent in public affairs—were in opposition. Two elements in favour of union had been acting in concert long before Confederation was mooted in British Columbia, and the strong influence exerted by these forces brought the province into line. At the Quebec Conference in 1864 it was decided that for the purpose of making a united British North America, affording a seaport on the Pacific, and for other important reasons, British Columbia and the Middle West should be brought into confederation. Even before that the imperial authorities were determined that sooner or later, for imperial purposes, such a consummation should, if possible, be brought about. In the British North America Act of 1867 provision was made to admit' into the union ' British Columbia and the North-West Territories, and when the issue became a live one in the Pacific coast colony, the promoters found that they had the strongest kind of support in the Canadian statesmen and the imperial authorities. So thoroughly had the matter been thought out and decided upon at Ottawa, that at the time the delegates from British Columbia proceeded there to negotiate terms, they found that when they asked for a coach road and ultimate provision for a railway they were offered a railway to be commenced within two years from the date of union. Sir John A. Macdonald was keen about bringing the extreme west into the Dominion, and it was his hand that directed the appointment of Anthony Musgrave to succeed Frederick Seymour as governor, as this letter from him to the governor-general shows : I enclose a letter from a newspaper man in British Columbia to Mr Tilley, giving, I fancy, an accurate account of affairs in that colony. It corroborates the statements of Mr Carrall, whose letter I enclosed to you some time ago. It is quite clear that no time should be lost by Lord Granville in putting the screws on Vancouver "*1 1 PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 173 Island, and the first thing to be done will be to recall Governor Seymour, if his time is not out. Now that the Hudson's Bay Company has succumbed, and it is their interest to make things pleasant with the Canadian Government, they will, I have no doubt, instruct their people to change their anti-Confederate tone. We shall then have to fight only the Yankee adventurers and the annexation party proper, which there will be no difficulty in doing if we have a good man at the helm. It has been hinted to me that Mr Musgrave, whose time is out in Newfoundland, would have no objection to transfer his labours to British Columbia. Such an appointment would be very agreeable to the members of your Government, and to the country generally. Mr Musgrave has acted with great prudence, discretion and loyalty to the cause of Confederation. He has made himself personally-very popular in Newfoundland, and I have no doubt would do so on the Pacific as well, if he had the chance. Almost everything, I may say, depends upon the choice of the governor, as we found to our cost in New Brunswick, where we were thwarted and for a time defeated by the Lieutenant Governor, Mr Gordon, Lord Aberdeen's son, who took strong ground at first against us. All his subsequent endeavours on the other side, after receiving instruction from the Colonial Office, were fruitless, as his private opinion was known to every one ; hence the necessity for his removal to Trinidad, and the substitution of General Doyle. It was the obvious desire of Canada and the imperial authorities to zee Confederation include the whole of British North America that brought the movement in British Columbia to an early and successful conclusion. Governor Seymour was succeeded by Anthony Musgrave on August 23, 1869. Musgrave was entrusted with the delicate task of carrying out his instructions in regard to Confederation and of reconciling the opposing interests, which he most successfully accomplished. When the next meeting of the legislature was convened on February 16, 1870, the representatives were practically all of one mind on the subject and considered at length the resolutions framed by the governor himself, with the assistance of the members of the executive. The discussion in the British Columbia 174 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 legislative assembly was memorable. Although sentiments varied very much as to the aims and desirability of union, the conclusion was practically unanimous in its favour. The terms of union proposed by the governor to the council were briefly: Canada was to assume the colonial debt of British Columbia; the population was to be rated at 120,000, and as the per capita debt of British Columbia was less than that of the other provinces, interest at the rate of five per cent per annum, payable half-yearly in advance, was to be allowed on the difference between the actual amount of the indebtedness and the indebtedness per capita of the population of the other provinces ; for the support of the local government, the Dominion was to grant yearly the sum of $35,000, and eighty cents per head for each inhabitant, the population being rated, as mentioned, at 120,000, and the grant of eighty cents per head to be continued until the population should reach 400,000, when the grant was to remain fixed ; the survey for a line of railway was to be commenced at once ; a wagon road was to be completed within three years after Confederation and not less than $1,000,000 was to be spent in any one year in its construction ; the Canadian government was to guarantee five per cent interest on a loan of $100,000 for the construction of a graving-dock at Esquimalt, to provide fortnightly steam communication with San Francisco and regular communication with Nanaimo and the interior, to build and maintain a marine hospital and a lunatic asylum at Victoria and a penitentiary in any part of the colony it might think advisable, to defray the expenses of the judicial, postal and customs departments, to use all its influence to retain Esquimalt as a station for Her Majesty's ships, and to establish a volunteer force in the colony ; the same protection and immunities enjoyed by the other provinces of the Dominion were to be extended to British Columbia; the province was to be allowed eight members in the House of Commons and four in the Senate ; and the then officers of the colonial government were to be pensioned by Canada. As soon as the legislature had approved the proposed terms, a delegation consisting of J. S. Helmcken, Joseph W. PACIFIC COLONIES AND CONFEDERATION 175 Trutch and W. W. Carrall was appointed to go to Ottawa to negotiate terms of union with the members of the Dominion government. The delegation left Victoria on May 10, 1870, and on July 7 of the same year the British Columbia proposals were accepted almost in their entirety, a few alterations having been made in respect of the number of representatives in the Canadian parliament and the allowed population, which was reduced from 120,000 to 60,000. The important change effected, however, is contained in the following, which became the subject of years of controversy : The Government of the Dominion undertake to secure the commencement simultaneously, within two years from the date of the union, of the construction of a railway, from the Pacific towards the Rocky Mountains, and from such point as may be selected, east of the Rocky Mountains towards the Pacific, to connect the seaboard of British Columbia with the railway system of Canada, and further, to secure the completion of such railway within ten years from the date of such union : And the Government of British Columbia agree to convey to the Dominion Government, in trust, to be appointed in such manner as the Dominion Government may deem advisable in furtherance of the construction of said railway, a similar extent of public lands along the line of rail throughout its entire length in British Columbia, not to exceed, however, twenty miles (20) on each side of the said line, as may be appropriated for the same purpose by the Dominion Government from the public lands in the North-West Territory and the province of Manitoba. Provided, that the quantity of land which may be held under pre-emption right, or by Crown grant, within the limits of the tract of land in British Columbia, to be so conveyed to the Dominion Government, shall be made good to the Dominion from contiguous public lands ; and, provided further, that until the commencement within two years, as aforesaid, from the date of the union, of the construction of said railway, the Government of British Columbia shall not sell or alienate any further portion of the public land of British Columbia in any other way than under right of pre-emption, requiring actual residence of the pre-emptor on the land claimed by him. In consideration of the land to be so conveyed in aid of the said railway, the 176 COLONIAL HISTORY, 1849-1871 Dominion Government agree to pay to British Columbia from the date of the union the sum of one hundred thousand dollars per annum, in half-yearly payments in advance. The document containing the Terms of Union reached Victoria on July 18,1870. In the meantime a representative had been dispatched to England to secure the needed change in the constitution of the colony and the guarantee of the imperial government for the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Elections followed in November, the issue being the Terms of Union. The new house consisted of fifteen members, six appointed by the crown and nine elected by the people. The elective members were Helmcken and Nathan, Victoria City ; Amor DeCosmos, Victoria District; Arthur Bunster, Nanaimo ; Hugh Nelson, New Westminster ; Clement F. Cornwall, Hope, Yale and Lytton; T. B. Humphreys, Lillooet and Clinton; W. W. Carrall, Cariboo; and Robert J. Skinner, Kootenay. The council met in January 1871, the chief work of the session being, of course, the ratification of the terms. An act was passed abolishing the council and establishing the legislative assembly in its stead, each parliament to have a life of four years, and the first parliament to contain twenty-five members chosen by thirteen electoral districts. The debate on the resolution for the admission of British Columbia into the Dominion began in the federal parliament on March 28, 1871. Four days later, after the question had been thoroughly discussed, the terms of admission were passed by a majority of eighteen. The question then went to the Senate, where the terms were adopted by a majority of seventeen. British Columbia entered the federal family on July 20, 1871, and five days later celebrated her first Dominion Day. On the day of the celebration Governor Musgrave left for London, and was subsequently knighted in recognition of his important services in connection with bringing about the union with Canada. POLITICAL HISTORY 1871-1913 POLITICAL HISTORY, 1871-1913 Formation of the First Legislature BY article 14 of the proposed Terms of Union with Canada, dated July 7, 1870, it was declared that the constitutiorfof the executive authority and of the legislature of British Columbia should, subject to the provisions of the British North America Act, continue until altered under that act. The Dominion government agreed to consent to the introduction of responsible government when desired by the people of British Columbia ; and the same section stated the intention of the governor of British Columbia to amend the existing constitution of the legislative council so that a majority of its members should be elective. Accordingly, by an order-in-council passed on August 9, 1870, that body was thereafter to consist of nine elective and six appointive members. The election of these nine popular members took place in November 1870 ; and the first meeting 1 of this quasi-representative body was held on January 5, 1871. j The Terms of Union which had been tentatively settled in thei \S previous July were formally agreed to and embodied in an/ address as required by the British North America Act. To this council British Columbia owes representative^ government. One of its first measures was the Constitution/ j Act of 1871, whereby a legislative assembly of twenty-five\ members, thirteen elected by mainland and twelve by island/ 1/ constituencies, was substituted for the legislative council/ Although passed on February. 14, I §21, the operation of the act was suspended untiTHer Majesty should-assent thereto and fix a date for its coming into force. By a proclamation of June 26, 1871, Governor Musgrave declared that the act i8o POLITICAL HISTORY fshould come into operation on July 19, 1871, the day prior Ito the entry of British Columbia into the Dominion. Immediately thereafter the governor, who had been appointed for the purpose of carrying this union into effect, left the province. His successor was Joseph W. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Trutch, one of the delegates who had arranged the Terms of Union. Trutch was a pioneer road-builder in the colony, and was, moreover, a man peculiarly fitted, by his long and intimate acquaintance with its conditions, to be the first lieutenant-governor under the new order of things. Even before the date of the formal entry of the province into the Dominion, steps were taken by the central government which showed its good faith and its intention to live up to the Terms of Union. On July 14, 1871, Hector Langevin, the minister of Public Works, left for British Columbia to ascertain exactly the existing conditions and the requirements of the new province ; and about the same time two exploring parties in charge of Moberly and McLennan set out to examine the Yellowhead and Howse Passes to ascertain their suitability for the line of the proposed Canadian Pacific Railway. The election of members of the first legislature took place f in the latter part of 1871. The nominations were oral; the ' I votmg^open. In this election the Chinese had tEe right to I vote, and what is more, exercised that__rjght, especially in Lillooet district. The elections were not simultaneous. They extended from October to December, and resulted as follows : Victoria City . J. F. M<*Creight New Westminster H. Holbrook Simeon Duck New Westminster- District J. C. Hughes Robert Beaven W. J. Armstrong James Trimble Cariboo George A. Walkem Victoria Distri t A. DeCosmos Joseph Hunter A. Bunster Cornelius Booth Esquimalt . A. Rocke Robertson Kootenay . John A-Mara v** Henry Cogan Charles Todd Cowichan . William Smithe Lillooet T. B. Humphreys John P. Booth A. T. Jamieson Comox . John Ash, M.D. Yale . Robert Smith x J. A. Robinson \ Charles A SemlinV Nanaimo . . John Robson 4 a$ ,r4 51* J4$ UL THE MCCREIGHT MINISTRY 181 The McCreight Ministry, 1871-72 J. F. McCreight, who had been attorney-general during,! the last days of Governor Musgrave's regime, was called upon • to form a government, though he was opposed to the introduction of responsible government, regarding the conditions as unsuitable. As at first constituted, his ministry consisted of : J. F. McCreight, premier and attorney-general. A. R. Robertson, provincial secretary. H. Holbrook, chief commissioner of Lands and Works. A few months later G. A. Walkem became chief commissioner of Lands and Works, while Holbrook took the unsalaried office of president of the council. The first legislative assembly met on February 15, 1872. No party lines had been drawn ; with the union all things h had become new, and it was difficult to determine just wherejjf the line of cleavage would run, or what forces would compel it. The opposition to the government developed principally on two points. The first was the old 1 Mainland.v. Island ' feeling, which for many years effectually prevented that close union so necessary to progress in any community, but especially so in one so sparsely settled and so peculiarly situated as British Columbia. This sectionalism was introduced, by one side or the other, into every political discussion. Its origin in this instance was the fact that, of the three salaried portfolios, two were held by island members. The second objection was that the government refused, or at any rate neglected, to increase the sessional indemnity. Although hard pressed, McCreight retained control of the house during this session. The opposition was sufficiently strong to have defeated him, but was held in check by public sentiment, which desired the government to have a chance to carry on its work, and opposed a new election so soon after the elections of 1870 and 1871. A great deal of the legislation of this session was formative, owing to the changes wrought by Confederation and the introduction of responsible government. The province was fortunate in having McCreight at the head of affairs at this 182 POLITICAL HISTORY important juncture. But, though a barrister of exceptional ability and a man of the highest honour and probity, McCreight had no bent for politics and no patience with the narrow and local views which prevailed so largely among the members of the house. Two measures served to make the government popular, the immediate adoption of the Canadian tariff and the abolition of the road tolls. By section 7 of the Terms of Union, the province, pending the completion of the railway, had the option of retaining its own tariff or adopting that of Canada. By following the latter course the province showed faith in the Dominion and a desire that the union should be one in all essentials. As to the road tolls, it will be remembered that in order to provide for the construction of the Yale- Cariboo and other roads a certain toll per pound was exacted on all merchandise passing over them. During the period of dull times, then existing, an agitation had sprung up for their abolition, owing to the great increase which they made in the cost of living in the mining district. Nevertheless wild rumours were flying that the McCreight ministry would go down to defeat on the reassembling of the house. The second session opened on December 17, 1872, and two days later, on a motion of T. B. Humphreys that, I Whilst entertaining the fullest confidence in that form of administration known as responsible government, still we believe that the administration of public affairs has not been satisfactory to the people in general,' the government was / defeated by a majority of one. McCreight, thoroughly disgusted, resigned office on December 23. The DeCosmos-Walkem Administration, 1872-76 At this time, dual representation being permitted, Amor DeCosmos represented the electoral district of Victoria in the House of Commons and was also the senior member of Victoria district in the provincial legislature. DeCosmos was one of the pioneer journalists of the province ; in 1858 he had founded the British Colonist, and in 1872 the Victoria Standard. He had always taken an active part in the politics if. DECOSMOS-WALKEM ADMINISTRATION 183 of the colony, and had been a member of the legislative * council almost continuously from 1867. He was one of the ^ earliest, most consistent and most energetic supporters of Confederation. In the opinion of a prominent politician of the time who knew him intimately: ' Mr DeCosmos was, when in his prime, one of the most capable public men the province has had. He was truly a statesman.' He now undertook to form a ministry, and in a few days announced its members as follows : Amor DeCosmos, premier and president of the council. George A. Walkem, attorney-general. Robert Beaven, chief commissioner of Lands and Works. John Ash, provincial secretary. W. J. Armstrong, without portfolio. Walkem, who had been chief commissioner of Lands and Works in the McCreight ministry, entered the new administration with the entire concurrence of the late premier. In February 1873 Armstrong was placed in charge of the newly created portfolio of Finance and Agriculture. As the house was only a year old and the parties had not yet crystallized, the new government, known as the DeCosmos- Walkem government, with the same watchword Retrench- ment and the same policy as its predecessor, felt assured of a majority and continued the session without an appeal to the people. Indeed, it accepted with but a few verbal alterations its predecessor's address in reply to the speech from the throne. Tohn Robson and T. B. Humphreys, who had both j been energetic opponents of the McCreight government, I led the opposition, which numbered but eight, against this government also. During the session of 1873 the DeCosmos-Walkem govern- 1 ment passed an act whereby the ballot superseded the old j system of open voting. TKiswas but carrying out the policy of its predecessor, which in the opening speech had stated : I A Bill will be introduced and recommended to your acceptance, providing for the taking of votes by ballot in the election of members of your honourable House.' This was, of course, a popular act, which aided in making the administration 184 POLITICAL HISTORY ! feecure. Considerable fault was found with its retrenchment I policy, which, while lopping off some thirty or forty officials who had theretofore been regarded as necessary, and altering the form of payment of others, from a salary to the fees of office, nevertheless added to the cost of government the new portfolio of Finance and Agriculture. The reply was that this portfolio had been added for the sake of harmony, to end the ' Mainland V. Island ' cry, as there was now equality . between them—two of the portfolios being allotted to the l\ island and two to the mainland. DeCosmos's position as '' premier and president of the council carried no salary. By acts passed by the Dominion parliament in 1872 and by the provincial legislature in 1873 trie systenfof dual representation was abolished. DeCosmos, therefore, on \y j February 9, 1874, resigned his seat in the legislature and his I leadership of the government. Walkem, who had been the . uncrowned king during the enforced absence of DeCosmos J\ in Ottawa, now became premier in name as well as in fact. No other change occurred in the ministry. The Railway Difficulty We now come to the consideration of the troubles arising out of article 11 of the Terms of Union. The dispute waxed so hot and lasted so many years—in fact, is written so large in the history of British Columbia—that the first and important part of that article is reproduced: The Government of the Dominion undertake to secure the commencement simultaneously, within two years from the date of Union, of the construction of a railway from the Pacific towards the Rocky Mountains, and from such point as may be selected, east of the Rocky Mountains towards the Pacific, to connect the seaboard of British Columbia with the railway system of Canada ; and further to secure the completion of such railway within ten years from the date of the Union. Intertwined with the larger railway question is the smaller question of the location of the terminus. Before the final order-in-council effecting the union was passed by Her Majesty's government, the newspapers and the public were THE RAILWAY DIFFICULTY 185 warmly discussing the merits of various suggested terminal sites. And even before that, while the terms were being debated in the legislative council, a movement had been made to alter this article so as to stipulate that the railway should terminate at Esquimalt. It required the straightforward avowal of Governor Musgrave that such an amendment would jeopardize the whole agreement to prevent its being seriously urged. The subsidiary questions of line of route and location of the terminus so far as they entered into thel local political strife may be considered as but one question! and as merely a phase of the ' Mainland v. Island ' cry. In Langevin's report of his mission to British Columbia, dated March 1872, we find him discussing the location of the terminus, before the topographical knowledge on which the location of the line depended had been obtained. In May 1872 DeCosmos brought up, in the House of Commons, the question of the terminus, and Langevin replied that, if practicable, the Dominion government intended to carry the railway to Esquimalt. In June 1873, although Canada had only agreed ' to connect the seaboard of British Columbia with the railway system of Canada,' the Dominion government passed an order-in-council stating that ' Esquimalt on Vancouver Island be fixed as the Terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway and that a line of railway be located between the harbour of Esquimalt and Seymour Narrows on the said Island.' This order-in-council also recommended that British Columbia be asked to convey to Canada, under article 11 of the Terms of Union, a strip of land twenty miles in width along the eastern coast of Vancouver Island between Seymour Narrows and Esquimalt. On July 19, 1873, Marcus Smith, the engineer-in-chief in British Columbia, commenced a location survey at Esquimalt, and two days were spent in what turned out, to use the language of DeCosmos, ' to be a disreputable farce.' But now the two years had expired, and while explorations had been vigorously carried on and a considerable amount of information obtained, yet the location of the line had not been settled, and of course the work of actual construction had not been commenced. In fact, it may be truly said that 186 POLITICAL HISTORY these explorations had only served to show the magnitude of the difficulties to be overcome between the Rocky Mountains and the coast. The provincial government on July 25, 1873, formally protested against this ' breach of a condition of the Terms.' No action, except a bare acknowledgment of the receipt of the protest, was taken by the Dominion government. This was, no doubt, because of the political crisis then occurring. A further protest, complaining that the parliament had met on October 23, 1873, and had been prorogued without making provision for the construction of the railway, was sent to the Dominion government in the following November. The circumstances surrounding that meeting of parliament are so well known that this protest seems altogether unreasonable. Alexander Mackenzie, who had come into power on the resignation of Sir John A. Macdonald, replied by calling attention to his most undiplomatic speech at Sarnia on November 23, 1873, indicating his intention to endeavour to effect a modification of article 11 of the Terms of Union. The provincial legislature was then in session and had under consideration a bill to alter the form of the aid to be granted by the Dominion to the graving-dock scheme. So sensitive were the people that this proposed alteration might weaken the binding effect of article 11 that on February 7, 1874, a meeting was held in Victoria at which at least eight hundred persons were present. This meeting resolved that: It is unadvisable to enter into any negotiations for capitalizing the dry dock guarantee or to borrow any money from the Dominion government until the scheme of the Mackenzie ministry for the relaxation of the Terms of Union shall be made known. And, further, that it is distinctly opposed to the provincial government interfering in any manner with the terms, or agreeing to any new terms offered by the Mackenzie government until the same shall have been submitted to the people for adoption. The meeting determined to present the resolution at the bar of the house. The whole excited crowd swarmed to the legislature. They filled the galleries, hooting, shouting and THE RAILWAY DIFFICULTY 187 cheering. All semblance of order disappeared, and the speaker, being unable to quell the tumult, left the chair. The answer of the province to the suggestion of relaxation was embodied in the following resolution, unanimously passed by the legislature on February 9 : That in view of the importance of the railway clause of the Terms of Union between Canada and British Columbia being faithfully carried out by Canada, this House is of opinion that no alteration in the said clause should be permitted by the government of this province until the same has been submitted to the people for endorsation. It is difficult for us to-day, as it was difficult for the people of Canada then, to realize how much the railway meant to British Columbians. We must remember that the total 7 white population was under 10,000, of whom the great | majority would be directly benefited by the enormous ex-} penditure which actual construction would involve : those) in business, in trade and in agriculture would feel the stimulus/ instantly ; while all who had invested in real estate would k be enriched by the increased value of their property. Thus} every person had a direct material interest. But those who had worked for the union, who wished to see a united Canada,!' also fully realized that no real union could exist without thel railways that would open markets and lead to an inter-1 change of products. The people of British Columbia literallyl 1 hungered for the early, vigorous, and continued construction/ of the railway. The early seventies in the province was aj' period of depression ; but every one had been buoyed up by the hope of immediate construction. To people so situated the necessary delays, which prudence and a proper regard for all interests required before the location could be settled and construction commenced, were irksome in the extreme ; but when to these was added the feeling that the Mackenzie government regarded the agreement as impossible of fulfilment and, instead of making an energetic effort to perform it, were leisurely carrying on surveys and arranging a policy of modification, British Columbia assumed an attitude of almost stubborn adherence to - the Terms, the whole Terms, : 188 POLITICAL HISTORY and nothing but the Terms.' The language of Mackenzie in characterizing the agreement while speaking in parlia- i ment as ' a piece of madness,' ' a piece of deliberate treason J to the country,' was not calculated to pacify the province or i to cause the people to believe that he was anxious to commence work on such a scheme. This was the situation when, in March 1874, Mackenzie sent J. D. (afterwards Sir James) Edgar to British Columbia to ' confer with the Government of British Columbia, and [he] will be glad to receive your views regarding the policy of the Government on the construction of the railway.' Such vague and indefinite powers, at a time when a feeling of dissatisfaction and lack of confidence existed, must necessarily bring their own destruction in any negotiation. Edgar came, discussed the vexed question with a government almost hostile, whose hands were tied by the resolution of the legislature, and made suggestions for a settlement of it along the following lines. The Dominion government, he said, would agree : 1. To commence at once and finish as soon as possible a railway from Esquimalt to Nanaimo. 2. To spare no expense in settling as rapidly as possible the line to be taken by the railway on the mainland. 3. To make at once a wagon road and line of telegraph along the whole length of the railway in British Columbia, and to continue the telegraph across the continent. 4. The moment the surveys and road on the mainland are completed, to spend the minimum amount of $1,500,000 annually upon the construction of the railway within the province. Immediately upon these propositions being laid before him, Walkem took high ground and required to be informed that Edgar—with whom he had been discussing the railway question for two months—had been " specially accredited to act in this matter as the agent of the General Government, and that they will consider your acts or negotiations in the matter binding upon them.' Here came a deadlock and Edgar .was recalled. As Leggo says : The negotiations between Mr Edgar and Mr Walkem are not very creditable to the frankness of the Dominion THE RAILWAY DIFFICULTY 189 Ministry or to the temper of the Columbian Attorney General, ... for on the one hand the Dominion Agent had really no power to bind his employers, and his mission partook therefore of a kind of ' fishing ' adventure offensive to the Provincial Government . . . while, on the other, the abrupt conduct of Mr Walkem was hardly compatible with the dignity of the representative of such an authority. Edgar left Victoria on May 19. His mission had accomplished nothing, and tended to strengthen the growing feeling of distrust of the Mackenzie government. Edgar had scarcely been recalled before the provincial government repented of their brusqueness and telegraphed to the Dominion government to ascertain whether that government would be bound by Edgar's offer ; the only reply was a withdrawal of that offer. The situation was that the provincial government were unwilling to consider any modification of the terms ; the Dominion government regarded it as a physical impossibility to fulfil those terms; Edgar's overtures being rejected, Mackenzie seemed inclined to let matters rest. But now the provincial government determined upon action, and the scene of the conflict changed to London. British Columbia complained to Her Majesty the Queen, as one of the parties to the agreement, of the failure of the Dominion to carry out the Terms of Union. A lengthy memorial, dated June 15, 1874, was prepared reciting that the province had, at the instigation of the home authorities, agreed to a union with Canada, and that the great inducement thereto was the very liberal terms in reference to the railway. The memorial then pointed out that, in accordance with the Terms of Union, British Columbia had withdrawn all lands from sale ; that by the order-in- council already mentioned, Esquimalt had been selected as the terminus, and a line of railway was to be located between Esquimalt and Seymour Narrows ; that, as requested by the Dominion government, a strip of very valuable land along the coast of Vancouver Island between these two points, containing about 3200 square miles, had been withdrawn from settlement. The various protests made by the - 190 POLITICAL HISTORY province and their scant treatment by the Dominion were next mentioned ; and then the memorial took up the suggestions of Edgar for a change in the terms, complaining that the first direct communication they had received that his proposals were authoritative was contained in the same document that withdrew them. After suggesting that the surveys were not being vigorously prosecuted, it submitted that the province had fulfilled its part, but that the Dominion had been lax and had not made adequate efforts ; that though the terminus had been selected and a large area of land withdrawn from settlement, yet construction had not only not been commenced, but the Dominion virtually refused to commence, unless the province would consent to alter materially that sacred eleventh article of the Terms of Union. The concluding paragraph gives a graphic picture of the conditions: That, in consequence of the course pursued by the Dominion, British Columbia is suffering great loss ; her trade has been damaged and unsettled ; her general prosperity has been seriously affected ; her people have become discontented ; a feeling of depression has taken the place of the confident anticipations of commercial and political advantages to be derived from the speedy construction of a great railway uniting the Atlantic and Pacific shores of Your Majesty's Dominion on the Continent of North America. Walkem was selected to present the memorial and urge 1 upon the home government the claims of the province. The Earl of Carnarvon, secretary of state for the Colonies, was notified of Walkem's intended departure on this mission ; and in a dispatch to the Earl of Dufferin, the governor- general, dated June 18, 1874, after stating that [ it is not my wish, nor is it a part of my ordinary duty, to interpose in these questions,' he goes on to say : So in the present case, it may possibly be acceptable to both parties that I should tender my good offices in determining the new points which have presented themselves for settlement. I accordingly addressed a tele- THE RAILWAY DIFFICULTY gram to you yesterday to the effect that I greatly regretted that a difference should exist between the Dominion and the Province in regard to the railway, and that, if both Governments should unite in desiring to refer to my arbitration all matters in controversy, binding themselves to accept such decision as I may think fair and just, I would not decline to undertake this service. The province accepted Lord Carnarvon's offer categorically ; but the Dominion informed him that l they would gladly submit the question to him for his decision as to whether the exertions of the government, the diligence shown, and the offers made have or have not been fair and just and in accordance with the spirit of the agreement.' Early in July 1874 the governor-general forwarded to the Earl of Carnarvon the reply of the Dominion government. This pointed out that the railway terms had been strongly opposed in parliament, and that Sir John A. Macdonald, whose government at the time usually had a majority of from fifty to seventy, had only carried them by a majority of ten, and even this small majority was only obtained by the promise of a resolution, subsequently passed, that the public aid to be granted to the railway should not increase the rate of taxation. Characterizing the terms as j incapable of fulfilment' and as ' such extravagant terms,' Mackenzie next pointed out how greatly they were in excess of anything British Columbia had asked. In this connection he quoted the words of Joseph W. Trutch, one of the British Columbia delegates to arrange the Terms of Union, and the lieutenant- governor at this time : If they had said twelve or eighteen years, that time would have been accepted with equal readiness, as all that was understood was, that the line should be built as soon as possible. British Columbia had entered into a partnership with Canada, and they were invited to construct certain public works ; but he, for one, would protest against anything by which it should be understood that the government were to borrow $100,000,000, or to tax the people of Canada and British Columbia to carry out these works within a certain time. fffF" 192 POLITICAL HISTORY The efforts to fulfil the terms were then detailed, and the necessity for a modification pointed out. Then followed Edgar's instructions and his offer, and it is declared that' the reason alleged for refusing to consider the proposition Mr Edgar was finally directed to make, that Mr Edgar was not accredited by this government was evidently a mere technical pretence. . . . There is also reason to believe that local political exigencies alone induced the Government of British Columbia not to entertain these proposals.' After stating that public opinion in the Dominion would not go beyond Edgar's proposals, which were also even acceptable to a portion of the province, the reply concluded by mentioning the liberal treatment accorded to British Columbia in the matter of the aid to the graving-dock, where the Dominion government had granted $250,000 in cash, in lieu of the guarantee of interest provided by article 12 of the Terms of Union. In a subsequent minute it was pointed out that the only grievance was the non-commencement of construction within the two years, and in reply thereto the difficulties surrounding the location of the line in the mountainous section of British Columbia were presented. Walkem had, in the meantime, departed for London. Immediately upon his arrival he presented to Lord Carnarvon the memorial already referred to, and supported it with the necessary explanations and such further representations as were required. In his many interviews Walkem dealt with the vexed question in such a lucid manner as to evoke the thanks of his lordship for the judicious way in which he had discharged his duty of making ' a full exposition of the views of the provincial government.' On August 16 preliminary suggestions looking towards the settlement of the matter and indicating the modifications which he deemed desirable were made by Lord Carnarvon. On September 17 a reply thereto was made by the Dominion government, in which exception was taken principally to two of the proposed changes—the doubling of the engineering force and the completion of the railway by 1890. As to the former, it was pointed out that already a larger force was engaged than could, with profit, be em- THE CARNARVON TERMS 193 ployed until the route was definitely located ; with regard to the latter, the Dominion strongly objected to ' another precise engagement,' but suggested that if absolutely necessary to save further difficulties they would agree to construct the portion west of Lake Superior by that time. On October 31 Walkem closed the discussion with a very lengthy review dealing principally with the proposals made by Edgar. He concluded his discussion with the expression of his ' desire that matters should be forthwith placed on a fair businesslike footing, and above all, on a footing of certainty, with proper safeguards to ensure that certainty, so that a good and cordial understanding may be restored and not again be disturbed.' Lord Carnarvon gave his decision in a dispatch to the governor-general, dated November 17, 1874. After expressing satisfaction at the temperate and forbearing manner in which the points at issue had been argued, and indicating that his decision must necessarily be j as both parties are aware in the nature of a compromise, and as such may, perhaps, fall short of giving complete satisfaction to either,' he proceeded to point out that while his suggestions went further than the Dominion government wished, yet they were nevertheless considerably less than British Columbia had been promised as a condition of her entry into the union. The modifications which he suggested are known in Canadian7 history as the ' Carnarvon Terms.' They are important, 1 not because they were carried out, for they were not, but because they were, for the ensuing seven or eight years, j constantly referred to in the discussions concerning the \ railway, and they also formed the basis of a great deal of the island railway dispute. The Carnarvon Terms These terms were as follows : 1. That the railway from Esquimalt to Nanaimo shall be commenced as soon as possible, and completed with all practicable dispatch. POLITICAL HISTORY 2. That the surveys on the mainland shall be pushed on with the utmost vigour. On this point, after considering the representations of your Ministers, I feel that I have no alternative but to rely, as I do most fully and readily, upon their assurances that no legitimate effort or expense will be spared first to determine the best route for the line, and, secondly, to proceed with the details of the engineering work. It would be distasteful to me, if indeed it were not impossible, to prescribe strictly any minimum of time or expenditure with regard to work of so uncertain a nature ; but, happily, it is equally impossible for me to doubt that your Government will loyally do its best in every way to accelerate the completion of a duty left freely to its sense of honour and justice. 3. That the wagon road and telegraph line shall be immediately constructed. There seems here to be some difference of opinion as to the special value to the Province of the undertaking to complete these two works ; but after considering what has been said, I am of opinion that they should both be proceeded with at once, as, indeed, is suggested by your Ministers. 4. That 2,000,000 dollars a year, and not 1,500,000 dollars, shall be the minimum expenditure on railway works within the Province from the date at which the surveys are sufficiently completed to enable that amount to be expended on construction. In naming this amount I understand that, it being alike the interest and the wish of the Dominion Government to urge on with all speed the completion of the works now to be undertaken, the annual expenditure will be as much in excess of the minimum of 2,000,000 dollars as in any year may be found practicable. 5. Lastly, that on or before the 31st December, 1890, the railway shall be completed and open for traffic from the Pacific seaboard to a point at the western end of Lake Superior, at which it will fall into connection with existing lines of railway through a portion of the United States, and also with the navigation on Canadian waters. To proceed at present with the remainder of the railway, extending, by the country northward of Lake Superior, to the existing Canadian lines, ought not, in my opinion, DEFEAT OF THE WALKEM GOVERNMENT 195 to be required, and the time for undertaking that work must be determined by the development of settlement and the changing circumstances of the country. The day is, however, I hope, not very far distant when a continuous line of railway through Canadian territory will be practicable, and I therefore look upon this portion of the scheme as postponed rather than abandoned. The Dominion government expressed their satisfaction with the result in a minute stating that these suggestions upheld their policy in the main and were subject only to mere modifications in details. The provincial government accepted it much as an unsuccessful litigant does an adverse^ decision. The Defeat of the Walkem Government The last session of the first legislature commenced in? March 1875. The Walkem government was subjected to fierce attacks by the opposition for having, without mandate / from the people, so acted as to allow a variation of the Terms I of Union in the face of the unanimous resolution of the house that any proposed modification must be submitted to the people. It was pointed out that the ministry had never been before the electors, and it was claimed that the country would not return them. In this session the government introduced and passed an unjustifiable measure known as the Registration and Qualification of Voters Act, whereby different qualifications were required in the various sections of the province.) For instance, to be entitled to a vote in Cariboo or anyj other mining district a male British subject only required \ to be the holder, for three months, of a miner's licence, / costing five dollars; he could qualify for a vote in all the remainder of the province except Victoria and New Westminster/ cities on a leasehold of the annual value of twenty dollars, but if he wished a vote in those excepted spots the leasehold must be of the annual value of one hundred dollars. Naturally this act was looked upon with suspicion as_dis- franchising opposition constituencies. It was clearly most improper legislation, as being discriminative in its nature. ~ 196 POLITICAL HISTORY 1 By another act of the same session the Chinese were deprived I of the franchise, and their names ordered to be expunged from the voters' lists. The elections took place in the fall of 1875. The charges against the ministry included not only the matters above mentioned and the stock charges of extravagance and incompetence—always launched against a government—but also fhe~old ' Island v. Mainland' cry,~~*Ehe opposition claiming that by submitting the dispute to the Colonial Office and obtaining the Carnarvon Terms the result was that, while the whole province was injured by the delay in the con- tstruction of the railway, the island obtained the whole j benefit in the promise of the early construction of the island railway. The result of the election—the first election by ballot— appeared to be the return of the Walkem administration by a majority of two. The first meeting of the second legislature took place on January 10, 1876. The railway situation was naturally the main issue in the proceedings. A lengthy address complaining of the failure of Canada to fulfil the Carnarvon Terms was passed unanimously. Soon afterwards the fact came out that the Walkem ministry had borrowed from the Dominion a sum of about $450,000. For about a fortnight the session dragged along until, on January 25, T. B. Humphreys moved f That the House strongly disapproves of the policy of the Government in borrowing large sums of money from Canada at a time when Canada is a serious defaulter in respect to the most im- * portant obligation of the Treaty of Union.' On this motion the government was defeated by a vote of thirteen to eleven —two members who had been elected as its supporters I voting with the majority. The Elliott Ministry, 1876-78 The Walkem government at once resigned, and the lieutenant-governor called upon A. C. Elliott, one of the members for Victoria City, to form a ministry. On February 1 he announced his cabinet as follows : THE ELLIOTT MINISTRY 197 A. C. Elliott, premier, attorney-general, and provincial secretary. T. B. Humphreys, minister of Finance and Agriculture. F. G. Vernon, chief commissioner of Lands and Works. E. Brown, president of the council. The first two members represented island constituencies ; the others mainland constituencies. The president of the council was supposed to draw no salary. One of the first acts of the Elliott government was to repeaFi the obnoxious Qualification and Registration of Voters Act, L 1875, and to substitute over the whole province the simple I requirement that a voter must be an adult male British [ w subject who had resided in the province for one year and in I the electoral district for two months. In July 1876, owing principally to a difference with his colleagues on some matters relating to the administration of the finances of the province, T. B. Humphreys resigned the portfolio of Finance and Agriculture, which was thereupon placed in charge of William Smithe, the senior member for Cowichan. In September Brown resigned the presidency of the council, owing to the stand which, in deference to the opinions of his constituents, he had taken on the Carnarvon Terms. Thereafter the premier also occupied the presidency of the council. In the meantime, in pursuance of the Carnarvon Terms, the Dominion government had, in the session of 1875, introduced the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway Bill to obtain authority to build this line, which Mackenzie had always claimed was not a part of the railway as set out in the Terms of Union. The bill passed the House of Commons by a large majority ; but it was defeated in the Senate, owing, it is said, to the speeches of members of the Walkem ministry (then in power) having arrived in the interval, whereby it appeared that it was their intention, nevertheless, to require Canada to fulfil the original terms. This unexpected set-back removed to a distant date the actual commencement of railway construction. For on the mainland the surveys were still proceeding, and it was uncertain whether the railway line would be located to Dean's -" 198 POLITICAL HISTORY Canal, Bute Inlet, or Burrard Inlet. As compensation for this disappointment, the loss of immediate construction of the island railway and for any future delays, the Dominion government offered the province $750,000 ; but the Walkem ministry, then in power (September 1875), unhesitatingly refused the offer. The feeling of dissatisfaction with the Mackenzie government's railway policy became greater day by day. This feeling was stronger on the island than on the mainland ; because on the mainland the location of the rail- rway had not been settled, and it was felt that further explora- Bjtions and surveys would result in the selection of the Fraser |Kvalley route with terminus on Burrard Inlet; whereas, upon ) 1 the island, Esquimalt had been selected as the terminus in II P873, and it was thought that if construction were commenced there and carried through to Seymour Narrows, it would be a great factor in settling the location by way of Bute Inlet, and then the two sections must ultimately be linked together. On the island dissatisfaction deepened into distrust, especially as the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway Bill had been defeated in the Senate by the votes of two senators who usually voted with the government. Open threats of secession were made. ,, In January 1876 a resolution to sever from the Do:*ninion I was actually presented in the legislature, but it received I/ no seconder. The mainland was dissatisfied ; the island was * distrustful and angry. This was the condition of affairs in the summer of 1876, when it was announced that Lord Dufferin, the governor- general, would visit the province. In the public mind this visit was naturally connected with the railway trouble. The feeling on the island, but more especially in the vicinity of I Victoria, was evidenced by the arch which was erected bearing [j the threat, ' Carnarvon Terms or Separation,' and by the \1 secession address which it was resolved at a public meeting ' to present to him. That this feeling was general and was shared by the political leaders is shown by the names of the delegation selected to present the address. Those names included the following public men: A. Bunster, M.P., A. C. Elliott, the premier, T. B. Humphreys, minister of Finance and Agriculture, James Trimble, the speaker of the legisla- THE ELLIOTT MINISTRY 199 ture, Robert Beaven, J. W. Douglas and W. F. Tolmie, members of the legislature, and J. S. Drummond, the mayor of Victoria. Lord Dufferin very diplomatically refused to receive the address. The visit of the governor-general did much to allay the bitter feeling both on the island and on the mainland, to create a better spirit, and to induce the people to be patient. He spent about two months in the province, visiting many parts of the seaboard and even journeying as far into the interior as Kamloops. Wherever he went he found the railway question always to the front, though secession sentiment was practically confined to the city of Victoria. In his memorable speech in Victoria, while sympathizing with the people in their disappointment at the delay in construction, he pointed out that the remedy was not separation. He cast the horoscope of Vancouver Island if separation occurred, saying : Vancouver [Island] and its inhabitants, who are now influential by reason of their intelligence rather than their numbers, would be ruled as Jamaica, Malta, Gibraltar, Heligoland, and Ascencion are ruled, through i the instrumentality of some naval or other officer. Nanaimo would become the principal town of the island, and Victoria would lapse for many a long year into the condition of a village, until the development of your coalfields and the growth of a healthier sentiment had prepared the way for its re-incorporation with the rest of the Province. Joseph Trutch's term of office expired in July 1876, and Albert Norton Richards succeeded him as lieutenant-governor of the province. In December 1876 Lord Carnarvon acknowledged the receipt of the address of the legislature, which had been passed in the preceding January, complaining of the failure of Canada to commence the construction of the railway. He stated that it might be fairly expected that before the spring of 1878 many doubtful points connected with the route of the railway would be settled, and intimated that, as it was his belief that thereafter British Columbia would experience no obstacle to the active prosecution of the work, the province —— 200 POLITICAL HISTORY should not refuse to submit to construction being deferred for that period. Perhaps Lord Dufferin's visit and his speech had rendered the province more pliant, for the delay requested was readily granted. In doing so, however, the Elliott ministry pointed out that the repeated failures of the Canadian government to fulfil their agreements had * produced a feeling of disappointment and distrust so wide-spread and intense as to severely and injuriously affect the commercial and industrial interests of the province and seriously retard its general prosperity.' In May 1877, in order to strengthen his cabinet, Elliott appointed A. E. B. Davie, one of the members for Cariboo, provincial secretary ; but Cariboo was the stronghold of Walkem, the leader of the opposition, and he succeeded in defeating Davie in the by-election. Davie accordingly resigned his office in August 1877. This defeat reduced the government's already small majority. m The Defeat of the Elliott Ministry At the opening of the session of 1878 Walkem moved a vote of want of confidence on the ground of the ' necessity for a far more economical administration of the public revenue.' He claimed that the Elliott government's policy of performing public works by day-work was improper and wasteful and was adopted solely to strengthen their hold upon the country. The motion was defeated by a vote of thirteen to eleven. During the whole session the opposition, although in a minority of two, by a consistent policy of obstruction hampered the government and delayed its measures. Elliott especially desired to pass an amendment to the Constitution I Act, whereby the number of members would be increased to 1 thirty-three, being sixteen from the island and seventeen from jthe mainland, and the sessional indemnity, which had been increased by the DeCosmos-Walkem government, would be Reduced ; the bill also included the reduction of the representation of Kootenay (where only thirty-two votes had been polled for its two members in the election of 1875) to one member. Both the members for Kootenay were supporters ^8?^l THE DEFEAT OF THE ELLIOTT MINISTRY 201 of the opposition, hence Walkem was fierce and uncompromising in his resistance and clung to his policy of obstruction. In this course he had no stronger supporter than T. B. Humphreys, ex-minister of Finance and Agriculture in the Elliott government. Elliott was equally firm in his determination to carry his redistribution measure, and declared that he j would insist on its passage had he to sit till Christmas next.' On April 5, on the suggestion of Walkem, a conference took place to establish a sort of modus vivendi, but nothing was accomplished, as neither leader would recede from his position on the redistribution bill. Matters drifted along for a few days. The excitement both in the house and in the country was intense. The galleries were crowded at each sitting with the supporters of the opposing parties, who frequently became so boisterous and unruly that the speaker had great difficulty in keeping even a semblance of order. Finally, on I April 8, Elliott announced that the house, which had sat for two months, would be prorogued on the 10th with a view to an early dissolution and election. At that time no real progress had been made with the legislation, and supply had not been voted. It was an impasse. Neither party wished to face the electorate under these conditions, but the leaders were obdurate. Ultimately, on the suggestion of W. J. Armstrong, one of the members for New Westminster district, a conference was arranged between three members of each of the contending parties. They succeeded in making an arrangement whereby a measure which both parties regarded as of the first importance—an act to encourage the mining of gold-bearing quartz—was to be passed, six months' supply to be voted, any other bills to be taken up by mutual consent, 1 and then an immediate dissolution and election. The house was dissolved on April 12, 1878, and the elec-| tions were held about the end of May. The result was the complete overthrow of the Elliott ministry—only eight m of its supporters being returned. Among the defeated was" Elliott himself. Elliott's limitations as a politician never appeared more 1 clearly than in this crisis of 1878. He lacked the determination and energy to enable him ' out of this nettle, danger, to 202 POLITICAL HISTORY pluck this flower, safety ' ; and he allowed his plans and his policy to be altered and controlled by the minority. His quiet and studious nature was unfitted for the fierce strife against such an active and aggressive opponent as Walkem. In a house where he had a majority of two he was unable to control the proceedings; while his opponent, Walkem, in the session of 1882, carried on the business on the casting vote of the speaker. The Walkem Ministry, 1878-82 On June 25, 1878, the Elliott government resigned, and the reins of power fell once more into the hands of George A. Walkem. His ministry consisted of George A. Walkem, premier, attorney-general, chief commissioner of Lands and Works, and president of the council. Robert Beaven, minister of Finance and Agriculture. T. B. Humphreys, provincial secretary and minister of Mines. In a house of twenty-five this government had, originally, seventeen supporters. As supply had only been voted up to June 30, it was necessary that the house should be immediately called together. The first session of the third legislature opened on July 29, 1878. The speech from the throne contained the following pointed reference to railway matters: In considering these and other railway papers which will be laid before you, I would remind you that the time has come when delay in the construction of the work, both on the mainland and island, can no longer be justified; and it is therefore incumbent upon us to take measures much more decisive than the mere entry of protests, which however firm and just have been systematically disregarded by the government of the Dominion. The Secession Resolution of 1878 After supply had been voted the house took up the railway question. Walkem moved a lengthy address to the THE SECESSION RESOLUTION OF 1878 203 queen, which, after reciting the Carnarvon Terms of 1874 and their almost total disregard by the Dominion government, mentioned the address of 1876 and Lord Carnarvon's reply asking the province to be patient until the spring of 1878. After pointing out the failure of the Dominion government to live up to this, the latest arrangement, and showing the injurious effects of these constant delays on the interests of the province, the address concluded with the following remarkable prayer: That British Columbia shall hereafter have the right to exclusively collect and retain her Customs and Excise duties and to withdraw from the Union ; and shall also in any event be entitled to be compensated by the Dominion for losses sustained by reason of past delays and the failure of the Dominion government to carry out their railway and other obligations to the province. The opposition first offered an amendment asking that the Dominion be urged to commence railway work at once on both island and mainland. The house was in no humour for such colourless conduct. The amendment was defeated immediately. On the following day, August 30, Ash, the member for Comox and a former government supporter, moved an amendment the last clause of which was : That this House, recognizing the difficult position in which the Dominion government has been placed and actuated by a sincere desire to maintain the union of British Columbia with the other Provinces of the Confederation, pledges itself to abide by the result of an arbitration having for its object such modification of the settlement of 1874 as will fulfil the spirit, if it be found impracticable to carry out the letter of that agreement. Thus the question of secession was put squarely before the house. That body, however, was in no temporizing mood ; the amendment was declared out of order ; and the secession resolution carried that afternoon on a vote of fourteen to nine. It was at once forwarded to the secretary 1 of state for transmission to the imperial government. It j reached Ottawa about the time of the Dominion elections, ' h 204 POLITICAL HISTORY and in the changes occurring at that time was lost sight of—j mislaid'—and did not reach London until January 24, 1879. In the meantime a better feeling had arisen, and J therefore no action was taken on it. * This better feeling arose from the return of Sir John A. J Macdonald to power in Canada, as the result of the elections of September 1878. Then, too, the time was ripe for action. The surveys had resulted in the selection by the Mackenzie government in July 1878 of the Fraser valley route ; the location of the terminus at Esquimalt had been cancelled ; some 5000 tons of rails were already on the ground ; tenders had been asked for the construction of 125 miles of the most difficult portion—the section between Emory's Bar and Savona's Ferry ; only the financial arrangements remained for adjustment before actual construction could commence. The marked change in feeling was shown in the lieutenant-governor's speech at the opening of the house in 1879. There was no further talk of secession ; on the contrary, it was stated that correspondence had taken place between the two governments ' and an assurance has lately been given that our representations and claims are now being considered by the Dominion Cabinet and will receive their best attention.' From this time the railway question disappears from the I political arena on the mainland. Early in 1880 the contract j for the construction of the line from Emory's Bar to Savona's 1 Ferry was let to Onderdonk and Company. The terms of i'the arrangement for the building of the main line were soon A settled ; the contract was signed in October 1880. The gap ' between Emory's Bar and Port Moody was placed under contract early in 1882. The details of these arrangements scarcely fall within the purview of this article. The Third Appeal to Her Majesty But the Walkem ministry was determined that the island railway should be built. In the fall of 1880 it appointed Amor DeCosmos as special agent' to press upon the Dominion Government the importance of carrying out their agreement THE GRAVING-DOCK QUESTION 205 to construct the Island section of the Canadian Pacific Railway.' Sir John A. Macdonald refused to recognize any liability upon Canada under the Terms of Union to construct a railway on Vancouver Island, claiming, as Mackenzie had, that the line to Port Moody was to the ' seaboard '^ of British Columbia and that any railway upon the island was a purely local work. This interpretation did not satisfy the legislature, which in March 1881 passed a resolution to petition the queen in reference to the refusal of Canada to build the' island section ' —as they called it—of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The petition was sent to DeCosmos for presentation. After / reading it and the minute of the Dominion government in / answer, and hearing DeCosmos and perusing his reply, which contained sixty-three pages of closely printed matter, the secretary of state for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, suggested as a basis of settlement ' the construction of a light line of railway from Nanaimo to Esquimalt, the extension without delay of the line to Port Moody, and the grant of reasonable compensation in money for the failure to complete the work within the term of ten years as specified in the Conditions of Union.' But, in spite of these suggestions, the Dominion government stood resolutely upon the ground that they were carrying out the Terms of Union, and that in so doing they were straining the credit of Canada to the utmost. When the Carnarvon Terms were referred to, they answered that those so-called terms were mere suggestions which depended for their efficacy upon their adoption by parliament, which in 1875, by refusing to pass the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway Bill, had completely nullified them. The Graving-Dock Question Thus matters stood when the legislature met in 1882. In the speech of the lieutenant-governor, C. F. Cornwall, who, in the preceding July, had succeeded A. N. Richards, reference was made to this dispute, and the papers relating to DeCosmos's mission were brought down ; but it was soon * 8 206 POLITICAL HISTORY eclipsed by the graving-dock question. As this was the rock upon which the Walkem gove"rnment was shattered and the Beaven government was also wrecked, a short statement of the difficulty is given. The desire for a graving-dock at Esquimalt was deeply embedded in the people of the island. Under the Terms of Union Canada had agreed to guarantee the interest at five per cent for ten years on £100,000 to aid the scheme. In 1873, at the solicitation of the province, this assistance was altered to a grant of $250,000, payable as the work progressed; and as a result of the visit of DeCosmos to England in December 1873, the imperial government consented to grant £30,000 in aid, payable when the work was completed. With these promises in hand the province undertook to build the dock as a provincial public work. Its estimated cost was about half a million dollars. Of course the mainland people, or at any rate a portion of them, taking up the ' Island v. Mainland ' cry, objected to the province putting into this dock money that they thought would be better spent in building roads and bridges on the mainland. In 1874, when Walkem was in England on railway matters, he applied to the imperial government to increase its grant to £50,000. It consented, and thus the grants equalled the estimated cost. Very little in the way of actual construction had been done when the DeCosmos-Walkem government went out of office in 1876. Its successor, the Elliott government, while arranging preliminaries to construction, negotiated with the Dominion government to take over the work and thereby relieve the province from what was already a burden. These arrangements had, however, not been completed when that government was defeated in the elections of 1878. On resuming office the Walkem government immediately cut short all these negotiations, and in 1879 entered into a con- Hfcract with F. B. McNamee and Company for the construction (of this great work. One of the terms in that contract was that the provincial government should supply all the cement required therein. This was supposed to be merely an item of about a hundred tons—a matter of only $3000 or $4000. Being pressed in the house upon the subject soon after this ttfc LAST DAYS OF THE WALKEM MINISTRY 207 contract was made, Walkem had assured the people that the dock ' would not cost the province one cent more.' But early in the session of 1882 it came out that the item of cement—the mere negligible item, as had been supposed— represented between 4000 and 5000 tons, or in money, the considerable sum of $175,000 or $200,000. The house was alarmed. A committee was appointed to investigate, and a month was spent in taking evidence. The majority report was adverse to the government, finding great lack of business ability and serious mismanagement in connection with the work, and that the ministry had misled the house as to the actual condition of affairs. On the motion to adopt the report the house was evenly divided—twelve to twelve— but the casting vote of the speaker saved the day. (oh i&v^n* The Last Days of the Walkem Ministry During the session of 1881 a resolution had been unanimously passed that • in the opinion of this House it is desirable that at the next session the question of representation should be dealt with, with a view of equalizing as far as possible the various political interests.' As the government showed no sign of bringing in such a measure and the session was drawing to a close, a resolution requiring the government to take the necessary steps to carry it into effect was offered. Two supporters of the government moved in amendment: That in view of the approaching general election, it is not advisable for this House to change the constitution of the province in respect to its existing provisions for the representation of the people in the legislative assembly, without first consulting the people and obtaining their sanction to such a change as they are directly interested therein. In justification of the movement for a readjustment of seats, it was pointed out that in the last election—that of 1878—in Kootenay electoral district, which was represented by two members, only fifteen votes had been polled ; while | the important and comparatively populous district of New m M i m 1 208 POLITICAL HISTORY Westminster had only the same number of representatives. The house again divided equally on this question, and again the speaker's casting vote saved the situation. Soon after these divisions Smithe, the leader of the , opposition, moved a vote of want of confidence in the Walkem i) administration. The principal grounds of this motion were the graving-dock mismanagement and the failure to bring I in a redistribution measure. Then occurred one of those k strange changes of front which were frequent at this period {of the history of British Columbia: a member who had consistently opposed the government, even in the late divisions, suddenly gave it his support. The result was that the motion jwas defeated by a vote of thirteen to eleven. The house "was prorogued on April 21, and dissolved on June 13, 1882. ■*•«-£. The Beaven Ministry, 1882-83 On May 23, 1882, Walkem was appointed to the bench, as a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Robert Beaven, the chief commissioner of Lands and Works in the Walkem government, was called upon to form a ministry. The Beaven government was composed of : Robert Beaven, premier, chief commissioner of Lands and Works, minister of Finance and Agriculture and president of the council. T. B. Humphreys, provincial secretary and minister of Mines. J. R. Hett, attorney-general. [j This government was, therefore, but a continuation of 1 the Walkem government; and was so regarded by the people, I who held it responsible for the deeds and misdeeds of its pre- 1 decessor. This is clearly shown by the issues discussed in the press and on the platform during the election in July 1882. The more prominent were the mismanagement of the graving-dock construction, the demand that it should cease r to be a charge upon the province, "the demand for a more] equitable representation based jyipon population, and that/ j the policy of ' fighting Canada' should cease. Tacked to these were the usual complaints—inefficient handling of THE SMITHE MINISTRY 209 public moneys, the failure to build roads and bridges and to supply schools in distant places, and generaPincompet-j ency in every branch of the public service. The election resulted in~the complete overthrow of the Beaven ministry. T. B. Humphreys, the provincial secretary, was defeated in Victoria District; and the attorney-general, though elected by a majority of one, was unseated as the result of an election petition. W. J. Armstrong was appointed provincial secretary in the place of T. B. Humphreys, who had resigned. The opposition newspapers clamoured for the resignation of the government, claiming that it had lost the support of the people. The lieutenant-governor, C. F. Cornwall, however, did not force the situation, but allowed Beaven, though he could only muster nine supporters in a house of twenty- five, to retain office until the legislature met in January 1883. At the opening of the session the ministry, consisting of only two members, Beaven and Armstrong, faced a house overwhelmingly hostile. Still they held on. But on the second day Smithe, the leader of the opposition, moved a vote of want of confidence and condemnation of the ministry in not having called the house together at an earlier date. The government was defeated by a vote of sixteen to eight.. On the following day Beaven resigned, and the lieutenant- \ governor at once called upon Smithe to form a government. The Smithe Ministry, 1883-87 The personnel of the new ministry was at once announced: William Smithe, premier and chief commissioner of Lands and Works. A. E. B. Davie, attorney-general. John Robson, provincial secretary and minister of Finance and Agriculture. M. W. T. Drake, president of the council. This, government and its lineal successors, the A. E. B, Davie governrnent. the Robson government, the Theodore Daviegpvernment, and the "Turner government, held office from January 1883 till August 1898. if ^IB f 210 POLITICAL HISTORY Immediately upon its accession to office the Smithe ministry commenced negotiations looking towards a settlement of the island railway difficulty, the claim for compensation for the delay in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and for relieving the province of the graving-dock. These negotiations had reached such a stage that in May 1883 the act relating to the island railway, graving-dock, and railwayjands of the province was passed. The desire of the ministry to sweep away in a few months thgjncubus of these troubles—the accumulation of many years—necessarily^ required expedition, and it is not surprising that the act, as passed, was not regarded as accurately representing the real agreement. Later in 1883 Sir Alexander Campbell, the minister of Justice, visited the province, and as a result the small differences remaining were adjusted. An agreement was entered I into which in the following year was given legislative sanction. This act provided for a grant of about 2,000,000 acres of land by the province, to be supplemented by a grant of $750,000 from the Dominion as aid-to_the construction of the island railway ; for the Dominion government's taking over, completing, and operating the graving-dock and repaying to the province the moneys already spent thereon, amounting to over $182,000, and a further sum of $250,000 ; for a grant to the Dominion of 3,500,000 acres of land in the Peace River country as satisfaction for lands alienated by the province out of the forty-mile belt on the mainland which had been granted to the Dominion in aid of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The act also contained provisions in reference to the administration of the forty-mile railway belt and the lands to be granted to the island railway. This arrangement was to be a complete settlement of all matters in dispute—for all claims in connection with the delays in the commencement and construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, in respect of the non- construction of the island railway, and all claims by the Dominion for additional lands under the Terms of Union. Thenceforward the island railway and the graving-dock, which had figured so prominently in the history of the pro- THE CHINESE QUESTION 211 vince from the time of union downwards, ceased to be political factors. The island railway was shortly afterwards built by Robert Dunsmuir, with whom were associated the American capitalists, Crocker and Huntingdon of the Central Pacific. 1 The contract for the graving-dock completion was let to f Connolly and Larkin, and the work was at last satisfactorily completed. The Chinese Question1 From the earliest days of the colony a small though steady immigration of Chinese had existed. At first, while gold-* mining was the chief industry, their presence was scarcely/ noticed, as they were content to work the ground abandoned! by the white miners or regarded by them as not of sufficient value to warrant their attention. But with the decrease of gold-mining and the advent of a period of depression theyj entered other lines of employment, and consequently their competition soon came to be regarded as a serious menace. In the session of 1876 a resolution of the legislature was passed that steps be taken to prevent the country's being overrun by them. During the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway large numbers of Chinese were imported to work as navvies; and this aggravated the situation, as it was felt that the people of the province were not obtaining the same advantages from that work as would have been obtained had it been done by white men. The exclusion of the Chinese was a popular topic at every election ; and, until 1884, resolutions were almost annually] I passed by the legislature asking the Dominion government! j to take steps to prevent the entry of these people into the province, but without avail. In that year the Smithe government introduced and passed three acts dealing with the subject: an act to prevent Chinese from acquiring crown II lands, an act to regulate the Chinese population of British ij Columbia, and an act to prevent the immigration of Chinese. Though the last of the acts was disallowed, their passage had the effect of awakening the Dominion authorities to the 1 For a fuller discussion of the Chinese question see p. 250 et seq. \J V 212 POLITICAL HISTORY conditions prevailing in the province. Consequently, when in the session of 1884 a motion was made in the House of ; Commons, f That in the opinion of this House it is expedient to enact a law prohibiting the incoming of Chinese to that f portion of Canada known as British Columbia,' Sir John A. Macdonald promised that, if the motion were withdrawn, he would appoint a commission to investigate the whole subject. Reference was made to the Chinese question in the speech at the opening of the legislature in 1885, and later the house by resolution expressed regret at the disallowance of the act of 1884 and urged the Dominion government to act in accordance with the oft-expressed wish of the legislature. In 1886 I the legislature prepared a standard Chinese clause to be inserted thereafter in all private bills granting franchises, ' but it soon became a dead letter. Although the Dominion parliament in 1885 imposed a tax of $50 on every Chinese j person entering Canada, and in 1900 increased this tax to 1 $100, the exclusion of the Chinese still continued to be a favourite plank in election platforms and to be the subject of constant discussions in the legislature. In 1903 the tax was still further increased—to the sum of $500 ; but nevertheless the question, with its closely associated question of the exclusion of other oriental races, remains unsolved. The Extension of the Railway to Vancouver The terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway as fixed by statute was Port Moody, the extreme eastern end of Burrard Inlet. The Smithe government were desirous of having the line extended to Coal Harbour, a point near the entrance of that inlet. To accomplish this an agreement was made in 1884 whereby the Canadian Pacific Railway ' Company undertook to extend the railway to Coal Harbour in consideration of a grant from the government of 6000 # acres of land in the vicinity. In addition to this govern- f/fenent grant the company received from private landowners a la grant of one-third of their holdings for the same consideration. This led to the founding of the city of Vancouver. Before the agreement was made by the government and ^— EXTENSION OF RAILWAY TO VANCOUVER 213 while rumours were rife on the subject, a number of persons squatted on lands in the neighbourhood of Coal Harbour. These lands were included within the area proposed to be granted to the railway company. The conflicting claims were the subject of a parliamentary inquiry in 1885 an(i again / in 1888, with the result that a considerable number of claims which had been refused by the company were held to be valid. The government was fiercely attacked for having made this grant, as it was contended that the interests of the company would have ultimately compelled it to extend its line to that point. Indeed, on one division in connection | with the investigation of 1885, the government was only able to command a majority of three. From 1871 down to 1886 the house had consisted of jj twenty-five members, thirteen being from the mainland and If twelve from the island. Originally the representation was divided in the following manner: on the mainland—Cariboo 3, | Kootenay 2, Lillooet 2, New Westminster City 1, New West-/ minster District 2, Yale 3; on the island—Comox 1, Cowicharj 2, Esquimalt 2, Nanaimo I, Victoria City 4,Victoria District 2. The bill which aroused the fiercest opposition during the first session of 1878 was one introduced by the Elliott government having in view a redistribution of seats ; Walkem's firm front and obstructive tactics forced Elliott, as already shown, to abandon this bill and go to the people. On the return of Walkem as the result of that election he had come to the conclusion that some measure of redress must be granted. Accordingly he passed an amendment providing that at the next election Kootenay with its fifteen voters—the Old Sarum of the time—should have but one member, and that the seat so taken from Kootenay should be given to the Cassiar district,) then coming into prominence as a mining section ; the act j also provided that at the same time one member should be ) taken from Cowichan and given to Nanaimo. The net result of these changes was to abolish some anomalies, but to retain the same relative standing of the two sections. The legislature remained thus constituted until 1885, when the Smithe 1 ministry, owing to the growth of the New Westminster district, I granted it a third member, and at the same time, to retain ' 214 POLITICAL HISTORY the balance of power, the representation of Cowichan was increased to two, thus bringing that district to its original y {standing under the Constitution Act of 1871, and in a house * Jof twentj^seven members allowing fourteen representatives to the mainland and thirteen to the island. RTMarch 1885 the portfolio of Finance and Agriculture, which had been held by John Robson from the formation of the Smithe ministry in 1883, was transferred to Simeon Duck, one of the members for Victoria City. In June 1886 the fourth legislature was dissolved. The (jjelections were held in July. The Smithe ministry was strongly " attacked on account of its ' give-away' policy. It was . charged with having given away to the Dominion the graving- 1 i j dock ; with having given away 3,500,000 acres of land in the 11 Peace River district; with having given away 2,000,000 acres ) 11 of land in connection with the island railway ; with having j I j given 750,000 acres of land in Kootenay for a reclamation j [ scheme near the source of the Columbia River ; with having'i j I given away 60,000 acres of lancTm aid of the Eagle Pass wagon road ; and with having given away 6000 acres oFland to the Canadian Pacific Railway for the extension to Vancouver. The government's reply was that the graving-dock was a burden from which the whole province wished relief ; that the Peace River lands were as a recompense to the Dominion for the lands which the province had sold out of the forty-mile belt; that the land given to the island railway was land which from the days of Confederation had been put aside for that purpose ; and that as regarded the others they were simply Ijaids to the opening up of the country. This answer was ■jlsatisfactory, for the ministry was returned with a majority I'of about ejeyenjn a house of twgnjy-ge^^i. Duck, the new minister of Finance and Agriculture, however, was defeated in Victoria, and in the following October the portfolio was resumed by Robson. The A. E. B. Davie Ministry, 1887-89 Owing to his continued illness Smithe, though elected, (was unable to take his seat in the session of 1887. He died g j w= r^^ggM^ THE ROBSON GOVERNMENT 215 in March of that year, and the ministry was reconstituted under the name of the A. E. B. Davie government. As originally framed its members were : A. E. B. Davie, premier and attorney-general. John Robson, provincial secretary and minister of Finance and Agriculture. F. G. Vernon, chief commissioner of Lands and Works. To these were added in August 1887 : J. H. Turner, minister of Finance and Agriculture. Robert Dunsmuir, president of the council.} During the time of the Smithe and A. E. B. Davie ministries the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway 1 and the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, and the influx | of population incident upon the completion of the former j especially, created a period of great growth and advance- I ment in the province. After the final settlement of the railway and the graving-dock questions hv th~f» act of 1884 there were no momentous public questions at issue in 'local I politics, and even the old ' Mainland v. Island ' cry, which 1 had so long been heard, gradually lost its power with the/ arrival of new blood in the country, with the growth of a closer acquaintance, and the more firmly knitting together of the various interests It may be truly said that the province came into existence only twenty years after Confederation ; so tenacious of life are sectional jealousies. The legislation during these two administrations was such as naturally resulted from the changed conditions ; legislation which in the main provided no subject for divided opinion, but was such as the condition of an expanding and/f growing community required. •*#£?> The Robson Government, 1889-92 In June 1889 Dunsmuir, the president of the council, jj died ; and in the August following A. E. B. Davie also died. Again the ministry was reconstructed under the name of the 1 1 I; 216 POLITICAL HISTORY RobspjL governrnejrit. The members of this adrninistration were : ./John Robson, premier, provincial secretary and minister of Mines. F. G. Vernon, chief commissioner of Lands and Works. J. H. Turner, minister of Finance and Agriculture. Theodore Davie, attorney-general. C. E. Pooley, president of the council. In the session of 1890 the Robson ministry passed a re- \ distribution measure, whereby the number of seats was thereafter to be thirty-three, of which seventeen were allotted to ' the mainland and sixteen to the island. The mainland representation was divided as follows : Cariboo 3, Lillooet 2, New Westminster City 1, New Westminster District 3, Yale 3, Kootenay 2, Cassiar I, Vancouver City 2. On the island the constituencies were: Comox I, Cowichan 2, Esquimalt 2, Nanaimo District 2, Nanaimo City I, Victoria City 4, Victoria District 2, Alberni I, and The Islands I. The legislature, the fifth since the union, was dissolved in May 1890, and the elections were held in the month of June following. Apart from the stock charges of incompetence and extravagance, the chief question discussed in this election was the late redistribution bill, which was regarded as unfair, not so much on the basis of ' Mainland v. Island ' as on the unit of population. It was pointed out that on the island 7111 voters elected the whole sixteen members, while on the mainland 6556 voters elected but six members. The government frankly admitted that the representation as fixed by this bill was not wholly satisfactory, but urged that a new measure dealing with the question could not be brought down until after the decennial census to be taken in 1891. An independent party was formed on the mainland with the slogan ' Fair Representation ' ; it succeeded in electing ten j or eleven supporters. This party was not at the outset opposed to the ministry, which on the first division showed great strength—having a majority of seventeen. An unusual incident occurred in the session of 1892. Two private bills to incorporate companies, to be known respectively as the Vancouver and New Westminster Short =V8VSS!W=H THE ROBSON GOVERNMENT 217 Line Tramway Company and the Twin Cities Railway Company, were introduced. At that time a line of electric railway operated by the New Westminster and Vancouver Tramway Company was actually in existence and practically in operation. Neither of these two private bills ever got beyond the first reading, being strongly opposed by the existing company. The Kennedy brothers, the owners of the Daily Columbian, a newspaper published in New Westminster, printed a leading article entitled ' Outrageous Presumption,' in which the action of the private bills committee in report-)/) ing that the Twin Cities Bill was not in the public interest} was strongly commented on. The house, regarding this article as a libel and a high contempt of its privileges, summoned the publishers to appear at its bar and answer therefor. The Kennedys refused to obey the summons. The house then resolved to refer the matter to a select committee. While it was before this committee the discovery was made that there was no statute in existence defining the privileges, immunities, and powers of the legislative assembly. A bill was, therefore, hurriedly introduced for this purpose on April 1, which passed through all its stages and was assented to on April 8. On the following day the committee reported recommending that the offending publishers be proceeded against under the act just passed. They were accordingly summoned once more to appear at the bar of the house to answer their alleged contempt. This summons they treated as they had its predecessor. The house then resolved that in not obeying the summons the publishers had been guilty of contempt, and that they be brought before the house in custody of the sergeant-at-arms and that the speaker issue his warrant accordingly. At last, on April 21, the sergeant-at-arms reported their presence at the bar by virtue of the warrant. In reply to a question from the speaker as to why the second summons had been disobeyed, they challenged the power of the house to punish for contempt committed out of its doors, and contended that the Legislative Assembly Privileges Act, 1892, so hastily passed, did not and could not apply to anything done before its existence. The house, however, committed them to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms till the VOL. XXI 2 E 218 POLITICAL HISTORY following day. When brought to the bar of the house on April 22 they were asked whether they had any apology to make to the legislature for their conduct. They replied that they had none, and were committed to the same custody during the pleasure of the house. Prorogation followed on the 23rd of the month, the imprisonment was therefore ended, and the incident closed. In the various divisions on this matter the ministry's original majority of seventeen was decreased to eleven, most of the independents marshalling . against the government. In the country at large the feeling ran very strongly in favour of the Kennedys, and the bringing in of the Privileges Act and the subsequent proceedings thereunder were regarded as almost in the nature of persecution. The whole affair scarcely redounded to the credit of the administration. I The Theodore Davie Ministry, 1892-95 By the death of the premier the Robson ministry came to an end in June 1892. Robson had been prominent in the province since 1861, and whether in or out of the house had exercised a marked influence upon the destinies of the country. He was a strong and logical writer, a forceful and fluent speaker. His views were generally broad and progressive. With the knowledge of men and things necessary to the successful politician he combined the prophetic vision of the statesman. In July 1892 the ministry was reconstituted under the name of the Theodore Davie government. Theodore Davie, premier, attorney-general and provincial secretary. F. G. Vernon, chief commissioner of Lands and Works. J. H. Turner, minister of Finance and Agriculture. James Baker, minister of Education and Immigration. C. E. Pooley, president of the council. In the same month the term of office of Hugh Nelson, who had succeeded C. F. Cornwall as lieutenant-governor, expired, and Edgar Dewdney, a pioneer of the province, assumed this high office. THE THEODORE DAVIE MINISTRY 219 The opening speech in 1893 stated : ' The time has arrived when the altered conditions of the province demand a change in the method of popular representation in the legislative assembly, and a measure of redistribution will, therefore, be submitted to you.' After the house had sat for about six weeks, the promised measure not having arrived, the opposition moved : ' That the government, by neglecting to bring down a redistribution bill, as promised at the opening of this session, has broken faith with this House and forfeited its confidence.' The government was sustained by a vote of twenty-one to ten. The speech from the throne in 1894 contained the following reference to the question : 'The measure of redistribu-|j tion, which was necessarily postponed on account of imperfect u census returns, will be introduced during the present session for your consideration.' By this bill no change was made in the number of members, which remained at thirty-three ; but a great change was made in the proportion existing between the island and the mainland representatives, showing quite clearly that old things had passed away. The former division had been seventeen mainland members and sixteen island ., members ; this division was nineteen mainland members and!/} Jv^" fourteen island members. The mainland representation was arranged as follows : Cariboo 2, Cassiar I, New Westminster District (four ridings) 4, New Westminster City I, Kootenay (three ridings) 3, Vancouver City 3, Yale (three ridings) 3, Lillooet (two ridings) 2. On the island the allotment was : Cowichan-Alberni 2, Comox 1, Esquimalt 2, Nanaimo City 1, Nanaimo District (two ridings) 2, Victoria City 4, Victoria District (two ridings) 2. From Confederation the legislative assembly had met in . the legislative hall, one of five quaint pagoda-like buildings 11 which were scattered over the parliament grounds. The progress of the province and the growth of public business made it imperative that a new home, more in keeping with present conditions and future requirements, should be built, not only for the legislative assembly, but also for the various . departments of the government. To accomplish this end 11 Davie, during the session of 1893, introduced and passed an tf\ 220 POLITICAL HISTORY , act to authorize a loan of $600,000 for the erection of such [ new parliament buildings. Construction was commenced in 1894 and completed in 1897 at a cost, including furnishings, of about $960,000. At the time the proposal to undertake this work raised considerable opposition, especially upon the mainland, but it was not long before the wisdom and the necessity of the expenditure were fully conceded. Soon after the close of the session of 1804 the legislature, the sixth since the union, was dissolved. The elections took place in July. No great or important question was at stake in the contest. The country had begun to feel the pinch of hard times and the record of the government had been one of constant and continually increasing deficits. The burden of Ithe opposition cry was the extravagance of the ministry in (undertaking the erection of the costly parliament buildings at a ' time of such financial depression, and generally in failing to keep the ordinary expenditure within the income. It was claimed that the increase of the net public debt from $701,418 in June 1891 to $2,398,767 in June 1894 was proof of incompetency in the management of the public business. The assistance granted to various railways, notably the Nakusp and Slocan, a short road in the Kootenay—where the government had guaranteed both principal and interest on $647,500—was vigorously con- jdemned. The result of the elections was the return of the Davie government by a majority of about nine. One cabinet minister, F. G. Vernon, was defeated in Yale by thirteen votes. The Turner Ministry, 1895-98 On March 4, 1895, which was about a week after the prorogation of the first session of the seventh legislature, Theodore' Davie resigned the leadership of the government to accept the office of chief justice of British Columbia. Once more the ministry was reconstituted under the name of the Turner government. < J. H. Turner, premier and minister of Finance and Agriculture. James Baker, provincial secretary, minister of Mines v*" and rninister of Education and Immigration. THE TURNER MINISTRY 221 ^^pt. B. Martin, chief commissioner of Lands and Works. /D. M. Eberts, attorney-general. <•/ C. E. Pooley, president of the council. On June 30, 1894, the net public debt had stood at $2,398,767 ; four years later it was $4,845,414—an increase of | $2,446,647, a state of affairs most truly appalling. The era of annual deficits had been a long one, though the yearly additions were comparatively small; but these enormous accretions of the last few years naturally raised many complaints, particularly in view of the increase of taxation which had been granted by the act of 1896. It had been hoped that the added revenue thereby obtained would be sufficient to allow a satisfactory increase in the appropriation for public works necessitated by the growth of the province, especially in the new mining region of the Kootenay district, and at the same time establish that much-wished-for condition—a nearer approach to an equality between income and expenditure. Criticism of the government's management of the public business became more frequent, more general and more emphatic. It was insistently demanded that the province must live within its income. This demand was. / j strengthened by the fact that the fiscal year 1897-98 showed a j j| deficit of over half a million dollars. No doubt this situation resulted, in part at any rate, from conditions created by the last administrations; but the opposition refused to recognize this distinction, claiming that the line of deficits was unbroken from the days of the Smithe ministry in 1883 down to the Turner ministry in 1898. The Turner government was also subjected to very severe attacks on account of the grant of 10,240 acres of land, perti mile made by them in 1896 in aid of the construction of the/j^ Columbia and Western Railway, a branch of the Canadian { Pacific Railway ; and tor the unconditional extension of time granted to the British Columbia Southern Railway, another . branch of the CanadianTacihc"Railway, in which to earrTits m land subsidy of 20,000 acres per milejnthe Crow's Nest Pass coal-fields. The aid which the government agreed to grant jj to the Cassiar Central Railway caused considerable dissen-fl m !1 1 1 m ^ w/ft 222 POLITICAL HISTORY sion among its supporters, and during the last session—that of 1898—the speaker, D. W. Higgins, who had presided over the deliberations of the assembly since 1890, handed in his resignation as a protest against its policy in this regard, although he did not withdraw his support from it on other questions. During that session the premier and the president of the council were bitterly assailed in the house and by the opposition press for allowing their names to appear on the directorate of a trading company, known as the Dawson City (Klondike) and Dominion Trading Corporation, Limited. In this connection occurred a very protracted prosecution of the editor of the Province, W. Nicol, for libel; the jury, however, in the end found a verdict of r not guilty.' All signs portended a very exciting, close, and bitter election ; but before that came, in the session of 1898, the ministry proceeded to another distribution of the seats. The extraordinary activity in mining which had existed for the last three years had greatly increased the importance of the Kootenay district, where new towns had arisen, rich mines had been developed, and large interests had suddenly come into existence ; and justice demanded that these should have representation. Then, too, the phenomenal growth of the city of Vancouver entitled it to greater consideration. By the redistribution bill of 1898 the number of members kWas increased from thirty-three to thirty-eight, of whom fourteen represented island constituencies and twenty-four represented mainland constituencies. The island members were allotted as follows : Victoria City 4, Victoria District (two ridings) 2, Esquimalt 2, Comox 1, Cowichan 1, Alberni 1, Nanaimo City 1, Nanaimo District (two ridings) 2. Thus far the bill was practically a re-enactment of the redistribution bill of 1894, the only alteration being that Cowichan- Alberni, which under the old bill had returned two members, were divided into two sections returning one member each. The mainland members were allotted as follows : New Westminster City I, New Westminster District (four ridings) 4, Yale (three ridings) 3, Cariboo 2, East Kootenay (two ridings) 2, West Kootenay (four ridings) 4, Lillooet (two THE TURNER MINISTRY 223 ridings) 2, Cassiar 2, Vancouver City 4. Thus the five new members were given to the Kootenays, Vancouver City and Cassiar. The legislature, the seventh since the union, was dissolved! on June 7, 1898 ; the elections were held in the following) month. As a result new blood was infused into the house.) Six of the old members were defeated ; and of the thirty-eight( members elected, but sixteen had sat in the last house^/ Among the new legislators were Joseph Martin, who "for » many years had been a prominent politician in Manitoba, j and Richard (afterwards Sir Richard) McBride, the present premier. The former was one of the representatives of Vancouver City; the latter sat for Dewdney, one of the ridings of New Westminster District. For the first time in j the history of the province, election petitions against the / members-elect were issued wholesale—no fewer than twenty-1 three petitions being filed against the return of thirty-two j of the members—but they were ultimately abandoned except I in the case of Esquimalt, where, on a recount, D. W. Higgins, the ex-speaker, was declared elected. Owing to technical1 irregularities six of the members elected resigned, and were' re-elected. While matters were in this unsettled condition and even before the deferred elections were held in Cassiar, Thomas R. McInnes, the lieutenant-governor, on August 8 took a most remarkable and unusual step. For some time prior to the elections the relations between the lieutenant-governor and the Turner ministry had been very inharmonious ; and] now, without waiting for complete returns or the calling to-l gether of the house, he summarily dismissed them, claiming] that they had not the support of a majority of the elected members and had therefore lost his confidence. He then called upon Robert Beaven, an old politician, but who was at that time not even a member-elect, having been defeated in Victoria City in the recent election, to form a ministry. This, Beaven, after taking a few days to consider the situation, acknowledged himself unable to do. The lieutenant-governor then called upon Charles A. Semlin, the recognized leader of the opposition in the late house, to undertake the work. POLITICAL HISTORY The Semlin Ministry, 1898-1900 The members of the Semlin ministry were : Charles A. Semlin, premier and chief commissioner of Lands and Works. Joseph Martin, attorney-general. F. L. Carter-Cotton, minister of Finance. J. Fred Hume, provincial secretary and minister of Mines. R. E. McKechnie, president of the council. Owing to the absence of some of the members-elect, who, as stated, had owing to technical irregularities resigned their seats, this ministry in the early stages of the session of 1899— the first session of the eighth legislature—had a majority of six ; but later, when the house was filled, this majority decreased to three or four. However, Semlin retained control y during the session, though the inherent elements of discord in the ministry began to be apparent. The legislation of the session was of a much bolder type than at any previous one, 1/ and embraced such novelties as the Alien Exclusion Bill and the Eight-Hour Bill. Prorogation occurred on February 27, and five months later, as a result of a government caucus, the v premier requested the resignation of the attorney-general. The vacant portfolio was then conferred upon Alexander * Henderson, the member for New Westminster City. When the next session opened, Joseph Martin, the ex- attorney-general, went into opposition, and during the whole session most bitterly attacked the actions of the ministry and its members. Nevertheless, for about six weeks the ministry struggled along, sometimes with a majority of one on the floor of the house, sometimes on the casting vote of the speaker, until on February 23, 1900, having brought in a bill for a redistribution of seats, they were caught napping, and were defeated on the second reading by one vote. Again the lieutenant-governor stepped in and allowed Semlin three days to decide whether he would resign or go to the country. In that interval Semlin succeeded in securing sufficient support to assure his carrying on the government. Notwithstanding THE MARTIN MINISTRY 225 assurances to that effect, the lieutenant-governor dismissed this ministry also. On February 27 the legislature by a vote of twenty-two to fifteen expressed regret at this action of the lieutenant-governor. Upon whom would the lieutenant- governor now call ? The uncertainty was ended on the next day when Joseph Martin announced that he had been en- . trusted with the duty of forming a cabinet. Then the legis- lature on March I passed a resolution which clearly showed their feelings. By a vote of twenty-eight to one it was resolved that the house had ' no confidence in the third member for Vancouver [Joseph Martin] who has been called in by His Honour the lieutenant-governor to form a government.' Immediately afterwards Lieutenant-Governor McInnes arrived to prorogue the house. There were no bills to be assented to, as, owing to the tactics of the opposition, the whole session, of almost two months, had been occupied with questions and discussions upon amendments and motions of an obstructive nature. Then occurred a scene absolutely unique in the history of representative government. On the entry of the lieutenant-governor every member but one left the hall, and the speech was read to vacant seats. It certainly augured ill for the possibility of Martin's success, that out of a house of thirty-eight, just elected, but one member was willing to remain at his side at this juncture. As D. W. Higgins has said : j It was an extreme measure, but it was deemed necessary to mark popular disapprobation of the course of the lieutenant-governor in calling upon a gentleman with not a political friend in the House.' The Martin Ministry, March i to June 14, 1900 Joseph Martin, in forming his cabinet, went outside of the existing house altogether. Its members were : Joseph Martin, premier and attorney-general. C. S. Ryder, minister of Finance. Smith Curtis, minister of Mines. J. Stuart Yates, chief commissioner of Lands and Works. George W. Beebe, provincial secretary. 226 POLITICAL HISTORY This ministry has the distinction of being the shortest-lived in the history of British Columbia. Its term of existence was just three and a half months. The legislature was dissolved on April 10, 1900, and the elections held early in June. In April Ryder resigned the office of minister of Finance, and J. C. Brown, a former member, accepted the vacant portfolio. Martin issued a /comprehensive platform, outlining a strong and vigorous vpolicy, but, although he made a brilliant campaign, he was unable to carry the country. Among the defeated were the chief commissioner of Lands and Works and the provincial secretary, who lost his deposit. Twenty-one of the members- elect had occupied seats in the house just dissolved. Five days after the elections the Martin ministry resigned. As soon as the elections were over a majority of the members signed an address to the governor-general asking for the removal of Lieutenant-Governor McInnes from office because of his action in dismissing the Semlin ministry and calling to office Martin, who had failed to secure the endorsement of the people. The governor-general acted promptly. The lieutenant-governor was dismissed on June 21, 1900. The Dunsmuir Ministry, 1900-2 Before his dismissal the lieutenant-governor had called upon James Dunsmuir to form a new ministry. The Dunsmuir government was a compromise, a sort of coalition of the various factions then existing in local politics. When completed it consisted of : James Dunsmuir, premier and president of the council. D. M. Eberts, attorney-general. J. H. Turner, minister of Finance and Agriculture. Richard McBride, minister of Mines. W. C. Wells, chief commissioner of Lands and Works. The new legislature, the ninth since the union, was opened on July 19, 1900, by the new lieutenant-governor, Sir Henri Joly de Lotbiniere. Its principal purpose was the voting of supply and the taking up of the work which had been left unfinished owing to the hasty dismissal of the Semlin THE DUNSMUIR MINISTRY 227 ministry in the preceding February. This was the second time that two sessions were held in one calendar year. The other occasion was in 1878, on the defeat of the Elliott government. In September 1901 Dunsmuir made a junction with the party of Joseph Martin, then the leader of the opposition, by offering to J. C. Brown, the member for New Westminster City, and late minister of Finance in the Martin ministry, the portfolio of provincial secretary. This seemed antagonistic to the raison d'etre of the Dunsmuir government; and accordingly McBride, the minister of Mines, who had taken a very prominent part in the conciliatory arrangements out of which that government had sprung, resigned his position in the cabinet as a mark of his disapproval of the step. When Brown came for re-election before his constituents in New Westminster—Mc Bride's natal city—all the influence of the latter was thrown into the scale against him, with the result that he was defeated, and resigned the portfolio on September 30, 1901. At the opening of the session of 1902 Me Bride, who had been elected president of the Liberal-Conservative Union of British Columbia, appeared as the leader of the opposition. Strangely enough, by a vote of the house, Martin was given the seat of the leader of the opposition, although all through the session he consistently voted with the government. In February 1902 Colonel E. G. Prior, who had represented Victoria in the House of Commons, was appointed minister of Mines vice Mc Bride, and in the subsequent election Prior gained a seat in the legislature as one of the members for the city of Victoria. Although hard pressed, the ministry succeeded in keeping control of the house, sometimes, however, only by a majority of two or three. In response to the call for a fairer representation, the Dunsmuir ministry, in this session, passed a redistribution bill. The number of members was increased to forty-two : on the island, twelve ; on the mainland, thirty. They were distributed as follows : on the island—Victoria City 4, Esquimalt 1, Cowichan 1, Alberni 1, Comox 1, Nanaimo City 1, Newcastle 1, Saanich 1, The Islands 1 ; on the mainland— rlitl 9 1 I i ill 111 ' i 1: ! i»i 228 POLITICAL HISTORY Delta I, Chilliwack I, Dewdney I, Richmond I, New Westminster City i, Vancouver City 5, Atlin i, Skeena I, Cariboo 2, Lillooet I, Yale I, Kamloops I, Okanagan I, Similkameen I, Greenwood I, Grand Forks I, Revelstoke I, Slocan I, Ymir I, Nelson City i, Rossland City I, Kaslo I, Columbia I, Cranbrook I, Fernie I. On May 5, 1902, there was placed before the house a message from the lieutenant-governor transmitting a bill, containing the ministry's railway policy, intituled ' An Act respecting certain Railway Agreements.' This bill provided for the construction of a railway from the Yellowhead Pass by way of Bute Inlet to Victoria, in consideration of a grant to the company of 20,000 acres and $5000 in cash per mile, exemption from taxation, and other valuable considerations. Under the able leadership of Mc Bride this bill was fought so vigorously, and such obstructive tactics were pursued, that, although the session was prolonged till June 22, it was never reported to the house. The opposition was not to the railway, but to the extravagant terms which had been granted. In November 1908 Dunsmuir resigned the leadership, and Colonel E. G. Prior was selected to continue the government. The Prior Ministry, November 21, 1902 to June i, 1903 The members of the Prior ministry were: E. G. Prior, premier and minister of Mines. D. M. Eberts, attorney-general. J. D. Prentice, minister of Finance and Agriculture. Denis Murphy, provincial secretary. W. C. Wells, chief commissioner of Lands and Works. W. W. B. McInnes, president of the council. Denis Murphy, however, only retained office for about a week—resigning on November 29. W. W. B. M°Innes accepted the vacant portfolio. In the by-election consequent upon the resignation of Murphy, C. A. Semlin again entered the house and took his seat with the opposition, thereby decreasing the government's small majority. ^ THE MCBRIDE MINISTRY 229 During the session of 1903 a bill was passed ratifying the cancellation of the grant of certain lands in the coal and oil region of the Crow's Nest district to the Columbia and Western Railway Company, a subsidiary company of the Canadian Pacific Railway. These lands lay some two hundred miles eastward of the terminus of the Columbia and Western Railway and were not even within the area in which that company's subsidy lands were to be selected. The circumstances surrounding the whole matter, which had occurred during the regime of the Dunsmuir ministry, were the subject of an inquiry by a select committee which sat from April 20 to May 22, 1903. As a result of this investigation Prior on May 26 asked for the resignations of the attorney-general and the chief commissioner of Lands and Works. On the following day W. W. B. MTnnes resigned, to facilitate, as he said, an appeal to the country on party lines. The Prior ministry was certainly going to pieces with a vengeance—only two ministers remained in office, the premier and the minister of Finance. On May 28 the attention of the house was called to a charge against the premier. It was stated that, while acting as chief commissioner of Lands and Works, he had awarded a contract for the cable for the Chimney Creek bridge to E. G. Prior and Company (Limited), in which company he held a controlling interest. The select committee to which the matter was referred reported the following day, and the house at once agreed to place the evidence before the lieutenant-governor. On Monday following, June I, the legislature was informed that Richard Mc Bride, the leader of the opposition, had been called upon to form a ministry. The McBride Ministry McBride at once took a decisive step. Between July 1898 and June 1903 the province had had five ministries— the Turner, the Semlin, the Martin, the Dunsmuir and the Prior—owing somewhat to the fact that the support of a ministry was largely a personal following of the premier in power, without any bond of party affiliation. To secure 230 POLITICAL HISTORY stability in the government and in response to what he considered the view of the people, M° Bride resolved to make a radical change by introducing party lines and forming a conservative ministry. As originally constituted in June 1903 the McBride ministry consisted of: Richard Mc Bride, premier and chief commissioner of Lands and Works. A. E. McPhillips, attorney-general. R. G. Tatlow, minister of Finance and Agriculture. R. F. Green, minister of Mines. A. S. Goodeve, provincial secretary. Charles Wilson, president of the council. The legislature, after passing the estimates, was prorogued on June 4 and dissolved on the 16th of the same month. M°Bride, on his entry into office, found an empty treasury, an immense overdraft, and a credit practically exhausted. The following figures show concisely, but graphically, the way in which deficits and debts had been piling up. The deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, the first year of the Dunsmuir ministry, was $681,901 ; for the next year it was $729,448 ; while for the year ending June 30, 1903, the year of the Prior administration, it reached the high-water mark in the history of the province, $1,348,552. The net debt on June 30,1898, the last year of the Turner government, was $4,845,414 ; on June 30, 1901, it stood at $6,450,465 ; on June 30, 1903, the practical commencement of McBride's administration, it had increased to $8,539,878. The young premier set himself resolutely to the task of ending this condition of affairs and placing the province on a sound financial basis ; but the urgency of the financial situation was such as to admit of no delay, and he was compelled to meet the electors in October 1903. In this contest the parties were very evenly divided. However, although both the provincial secretary and the attorney-general were defeated, the result was the return of the McBride ministry by the narrow majority of two. Charles Wilson, the president of the council, took over the office of attorney-general; THE MCBRIDE MINISTRY 231 while F. J. Fulton, the member for Kamloops, entered the cabinet as provincial secretary. The legislature, the tenth since the union, was at once summoned for the dispatch of business. The dire condition to which the province had been brought is shown by the Loan Act, the last in the history of British Columbia, which McBride at once introduced, whereby the sum of $1,000,000 was borrowed at five per cent payable in ten annual instalments. His next step was to cut down every expense which could be reduced consistently with efficient service. He then proceeded to increase the income by raising the rate of taxation. The result was to swell the income from taxation from $343,646.85, the figures for the fiscal year ending June 30,1903, to $757,496.39 in the year ending June 30, 1904. Now came the termination of the era of deficits which had prevailed continuously since Confederation, with the single exception of the year ending June 30, 1881, when there was a surplus of $18,257. The first year of McBride's administration is also the last year of the deficits. That year, ending June 30, 1904, the deficit was only $224,534 as against $1,348,552 for the preceding twelve months. The second year of McBride's administration showed the first respectable surplus in the history of the province, $618,044. For 1906 the surplus was $716,316 ; for 1907 it was $1,595,114 ; for 1908, $2,292,705 ; for 1909, $915,320 ; and for 1910, $2,491,748. Thus the McBride administration had in a business way solved the problem which its predecessors had failed to solve; and on June 30, 1910, it had actually on deposit in the banks the enormous sum of over $8,000,000, drawing interest at four per cent. In the meantime the rate of assessment, which had been raised in 1903-4, was gradually reduced until it is to-day (1913) in some respects even lower than before 1903. With his small majority in the house Mc Bride was sorely pressed by the opposition, but he had ordinarily the support of the socialist members, and succeeded in keeping control. In the session of 1906 he was strongly attacked in connection with the grant of land at Kaien Island, the proposed terminus of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, now the site nrfl 232 POLITICAL HISTORY of the city of Prince Rupert. This arrangement figured largely in the issues in the election of 1907, but his actions were affirmed by the electors on that occasion. In December 1906 the tenth legislature was dissolved, and the elections took place in February 1907. The personnel of the Mc Bride ministry as it faced this election was : Richard Mc Bride, premier and minister of Mines. R. G. Tatlow, minister of Finance and Agriculture and chief commissioner of Lands and Works. F. J. Fulton, attorney-general. F. L. Carter-Cotton, president of the council. William Manson, provincial secretary and minister of Education. Although Manson was defeated in Alberni, when the smoke of battle had cleared away M° Bride found himself with a good working majority of about thirteen in a house of forty- two. Dr H. E. Young, the member for Atlin, was selected for the vacant portfolio, and assumed office in February 1907. In the following March Tatlow resigned as chief commissioner of Lands and Works, but continued to hold the portfolio of Finance and Agriculture. Fulton, who had taken over the Lands and Works department, retained also, until July, the office of attorney-general. In that month W. J. Bowser, one of the members for Vancouver, became attorney-general. In the fall of 1909 the Mc Bride government, which had been promising to bring down a railway policy, made public the agreement that had been entered into by them with the Canadian Northern Railway Company, and obtained a dissolution of the house to secure the opinion of the country thereon. This agreement provided, among other things, for the construction of a line of railway from the Yellowhead Pass through the valleys of the Thompson and the Fraser to the coast, and also for the building of a railway from Victoria along the west coast of Vancouver Island. The government agreed to grant assistance to these works in the form of a guarantee of the principal and interest on the company's debentures up to the sum of $35,000 per mile for five hundred miles on the mainland and one hundred miles on the island. THE MCBRIDE MINISTRY 233 Further concessions included the free grant of right of way through crown lands, such timber and other material as might be required in the construction of the line, and the exemption- of the whole line from taxation until the year 1924. The agreement also provided for the grant to the company of certain areas for town-site purposes, the proceeds from which were to be divided in the proportion of two-thirds to the company and one-third to the government. In return the government received the right to supervise the rates to be charged on the line. Fulton and Tatlow differed from the other members of the ministry in regard to this agreement, and just before the election resigned their portfolios. When appealing to the country on this occasion the Mc Bride ministry consisted of : Richard Mc Bride, premier and minister of Mines. F. L. Carter-Cotton, president of the council. H. E. Young, provincial secretary and minister of Education. W. J. Bowser, attorney-general and minister of Finance. Thomas Taylor, minister of Public Works. Price Ellison, minister of Lands. The elections were held in the latter part of November 1909. The result was the practically unanimous return of the Mc Bride ministry. Every constituency in the province but four elected a supporter of the government. In October 1910 occurred a further change in the ministry. F. L. Carter-Cotton resigned the presidency of the council, and was succeeded by A. E. Mc Phillips, the member for The Islands District; while Ellison was transferred from the Lands department to that of Finance and Agriculture ; and W. R. Ross, the member for Fernie, became minister of Lands. Among the changes which have occurred since 1903 are the placing of the finances of the province on a sound footing— the accumulated surplus being sufficient to pay off the whole bonded debt; the Canadian Northern and the Grand Trunk Pacific transcontinental lines have been brought into the province ; legislation has been passed conserving the water power and the timber; a move has been made towards keeping the land for the actual settler ; timber cut on crown vol. xxi 2 G 234 POLITICAL HISTORY lands must now be manufactured in the province; a large expenditure has been made on public works, especially on roads through the country ; new British Columbia—the undeveloped northern portion—has been opened up ; a provincial university has been inaugurated ; and a new and up- to-date hospital for the mentally afflicted has been established, and a model farm put in operation in connection therewith. $ Better Terms This article would scarcely be complete without at least a short statement of the claim for ' Better Terms,' a question which was very prominent in the days of the Dunsmuir and Prior ministries and in the earlier period of the Me Bride administration. From the date at which British Columbia entered Confederation down to the year 1905 there was practically one unbroken chain of annual deficits, varying from $2468 in 1872 to $1,343,552 in 1903. The single bright spot in all that stretch was the year ending June 30, 1881, when the Walkem ministry had a surplus of $18,257, but this happy result was obtained by the simple expedient of starving the public works. From the union down to the day of the Dunsmuir ministry there had been twelve ministers of Finance, but under every one of them the normal condition at the end of each fiscal year was a deficit. This fact led Dunsmuir, while he was premier, to conclude that some permanent condition lay at the root of the difficulty. When the province entered the Dominion she gave up her customs and excise revenue in return for specific subsidies for the support of the government and legislature and for other purposes— the Dominion at the same time assuming certain services. The only class of taxation left to the province was that of direct taxation. Dunsmuir made a careful examination of the accounts and financial statements relating to the matter, and ascertained that the income which the Dominion had received from the province, in the thirty years that Confederation had existed, exceeded by some $13,000,000 the amount which had been expended by Canada in relation to the province. amtigij^K-ssaftagggfc'g BETTER TERMS 235 The question was taken up very energetically by Dunsmuir in 1901, and a large mass of statistics was prepared and submitted to the Dominion government. A lengthy correspondence took place, but no result was accomplished. In 1903 the Prior government followed up the discussion of the claim for better terms. The position taken by it was not that the Dominion had violated any term of the union, as was the case in the railway question, or that British Columbia was entitled to compensation for lack of fulfilment thereof in any substantial respect, as the performance of a legal contract could be construed, but that in the development of the constitution, in its actual operation since 1871, a state of affairs had grown up in British Columbia and in the Dominion, as the result of the union between the two, which established a moral right and a sound constitutional claim on the part of the former for increased recognition—a state of affairs that was not anticipated by either party to the federal compact. The debates on that compact in the legislative council and in the parliament of Canada, Prior claimed, showed that in neither case were the framers of the terms able to foresee accurately, or even approximately, what the results would be, and that for both it was in a great measure a leap in the dark. It was further claimed that the cost of administering local government owing to the mountainous condition of the province and the consequently sparse and scattered population ; the distance from the commercial and industrial centres and from the markets of Eastern Canada ; the non-industrial character of the province, whereby the contributions in the way of customs were increased in the proportion of about thrice those of the other provinces,—were special circumstances which morally entitled the province to receive a larger grant and more liberal treatment than was provided by the Terms of Union. The various statistics to support the above statements are too lengthy and intricate to be entered upon in this article.1 Linked to this main claim were subsidiary ones for an adjustment of the income arising from inland fisheries, for a 1 For full details see British Columbia's Claim for Better Terms, by George H. Cowan, K.C. 236 POLITICAL HISTORY larger share in the revenue derived from the Chinese exclusion tax, and for an understanding and adjustment of the reversionary interest of the province in the large area of land held as Indian reserves. Though the Prior ministry in 1903 sent a delegation to Ottawa, as the Dunsmuir ministry had done in 1901, to get this question adjusted, nothing was accomplished. On February 24, 1905, j Better Terms' was the subject of a resolution of the legislature, which was introduced by Premier McBride and seconded by J. A. Macdonald, the leader of the opposition, and carried unanimously. The resolution was: That in the opinion of this House the province is entitled to such distinct and separate relief from the Dominion of Canada, based upon an equitable consideration of conditions in the province, the large contributions made by the province to the Dominion by way of Customs duties and otherwise, and the exceptionally high cost of government in the province and of the development of our natural resources. Fortified with this resolution McBride took up the matter with the Dominion administration. The main claim of the province—that above outlined in reference to an increased contribution by the Dominion— was admitted by the latter at the conference of the provincial premiers in Ottawa in 1906. Premier McBride then applied to the federal government for the appointment of a special tribunal to whom the whole question should be referred, to ascertain what sum would be fair and right in view of all the circumstances. This was refused, and instead the Dominion ministry referred the question of the proper amount to be granted, to the provincial premiers then in session. Premier McBride opposed this reference, claiming that the matter was one which concerned only British Columbia and the Dominion and did not fall within the purview of that conference, and in protest retired from the gathering. The provincial premiers decided that British Columbia should receive $1,000,000, in annual payments of $100,000 each, and that this should be in final settlement of the province's claim. The Dominion p ft i BETTER TERMS 237 government accepted this finding and embodied it in the petition to the imperial government for the amendment of the British North America Act. McBride objected to this award as being' final and unalterable,' as stated in the petition and in the draft act. In 1907, when the act in question was to come before the imperial parliament, he went to London to combat the words ' final and unalterable,' with the result that these words were not inserted in the act as finally passed. Thus the claim for { Better Terms ' still remains open, and no doubt more will be heard on the subject in the future. Over and above the sum of $1,000,000, so granted to British Columbia to meet her special case, the province by virtue of the imperial act of 1907, already mentioned, also receives, as does each of the other provinces, an increased grant, based on population, from the Dominion for the support of government. This grant is, of course, perpetual and is on a sliding scale. It provides for the payment to each of the provinces annually of the following sums : until the population reaches 150,000 the sum of $100,000 ; then and until the population reaches 200,000 the sum of $150,000 ; then and until it reaches 400,000 the sum of $180,000, and so on until the population exceeds 1,500,000, when it remains stationary at $240,000. 1 3 In the spring of 1906 the term of office of Sir Henri Joly de Lotbiniere expired, and James Dunsmuir, the former premier, was appointed lieutenant-governor. Sir Henri Joly came to the province as a practical stranger to the people and held office during very disturbed political times ; but his genial manner, his uprightness, his high ideals made him beloved by all, and his departure from the province was deeply regretted. In December 1909 Lieutenant-Governor Dunsmuir retired from office, and Thomas W. Paterson, the present incumbent (1913), was appointed. "7^<^2£2ss> ggws jmfr-s, sxtw *mi ECONOMIC HISTORY 1 ECONOMIC HISTORY1 THE FUR TRADE STANDING on the shore of Nootka Sound is a totem- pole erected in memory of Maquinna, the last of the great Indian chiefs of the north-west coast, and the only one whose figure is outlined against the background of prehistoric times. Maquinna knew personally such men as Cook, Vancouver, Quadra, Meares and the other English, Spanish, and American navigators, who, prompted by the desire for discovery, the yearning for adventure, or the less noble pursuit of wealth, ventured into the uncharted seas that washed the unknown shores of the North Pacific. Surmounting the heraldic devices on Maquinna's totem- pole is the figure of a man in European dress, wearing a top hat, and on the pole itself is an inscription stating that the originals of this incongruous costume were presented to the chief, who gave sea-otter skins in exchange for them. The transaction thus recorded was probably not the first in the early trade of British Columbia, but it was certainly among the first. It serves as a pioneer record in the history of the north-west coast, and marks the beginning of an industry that has continued ever since and even now forms an important item in the trade of the Pacific province. The fur trade of the coast began shortly after 1741, the year in which Bering sighted the North American continent. It was at first wholly in the hands of the Russians, whose **■ As the economic importance of mining, farming, the fisheries and forest resources has been dealt with in the special articles on these subjects in this section, it has been thought unnecessary to touch on them in this article. VOL. xxi 2 H "^ 242 ECONOMIC HISTORY rapacity was not only a disgrace to their alleged civilization, but served to embitter the natives against all white people. A better state of feeling existed after 1778, when Baranoff came to the island which bears his name, as the head of a strong company. This organization was afterwards merged in the Russian American Fur Trading Company. In 1778 Captain James Cook made his famous voyage to the northwest coast. He was primarily an explorer, and such trade as he carried on with the natives of newly discovered lands was incidental to his main purpose. When in the course of his explorations he reached Nootka, he became possessed of a quantity of sea-otter pelts, and when news of this reached Europe, the United States, and Asia, great interest was at once manifested in the opening for trade along the shores south of the Russian sphere. It was not, however, until seven years after the departure of Cook from Nootka that any attempt was made to turn his discovery to material advantage. The first known English trader to venture into the field was Captain James Hanna, who in 1785 sailed from China in a brig of sixty tons, for the express purpose of trading on the coast of which Nootka was looked upon as the centre. He was successful in securing no fewer than 560 sea-otter skins. A second voyage, made in the following year, was not so fortunate. Hanna contributed something to a knowledge of the coast by his explorations, which he made public in a chart, but his great service was in showing the way not only to the source of supply of a profitable article of commerce, but also to the market in which the furs could be readily sold. Captain John Meares, who followed in the wake of Hanna, must be looked upon as the pioneer business man of British Columbia. Meares was born in 1756, and in due course entered the royal navy. After the Treaty of Paris in 1783, when peace was proclaimed between Great Britain, France and the United States, Meares, finding the service of the crown too barren of promising adventure, obtained permission to take command of a merchantman bound for Calcutta. His destination reached, he was of no mind to spend his life in sailing along the established routes of commerce, and THE FUR TRADE 243 therefore organized a company of Calcutta merchants for the purpose of engaging in trade in the distant waters along the American shore. Stories of the wealth of furs to be found there had reached India, not only from the reports of Cook's voyage, but also by way of China, where the Russian traders were accustomed to exchange the pelts of sea-otters and seals for tea. Meares left on his venture in 1786. It was not attended with much success, but in 1788 we find him purchasing from Maquinna at Nootka a site for a shipyard and trading-post. He built and launched a vessel of forty tons for the purpose of carrying on a coasting trade. His plans, however, met with opposition. The Spaniards resented his attempt to set up a claim to sovereignty over the coast for the crown of Great Britain, and in consequence he found himself dispossessed of his trading station and shipyard, and his business venture completely ruined.1 Meares played an important part in broadening the foundations of the British Empire. Unlike his predecessors in the fur trade, he was more than a mere trader, content with the profits of one or more voyages. He came to the coast intending that his stay should be permanent, or at least to establish a permanent business. Hence his purchase from Maquinna, and his effort at shipbuilding. He left Asia prepared for such an enterprise. He brought with him copper wherewith to buy the land, and Chinese carpenters to build his ship. Moreover, he refused to acknowledge the pretensions of Spain to sovereignty over the country. A British subject, he claimed the right to acquire property anywhere beyond the recognized territorial Umits of other powers, provided he obtained the assent of the native occupants. His intention was clearly to make Nootka the headquarters of trade, as the factories established by the East India Company on the coast of India had been a century and a half before his time. It is probable that he was inspired by the triumphs of Clive, then fresh in the mind of every Englishman, to attempt among the red men of the north-west coast achievements similar to those of his fellow-countrymen in India. First a trading station, then the conquest of an 1 See p. 33 et seq. 244 ECONOMIC HISTORY empire had been the story of the ' John Company,' and whatever uncertainty there may exist as to the intention of Meares and the Calcutta merchants who lent him their co-operation, there is none as to his course of action, which was essentially the same as that adopted at the outset by the merchants who were the pioneers of British supremacy in India. But Meares's efforts ended in failure, and there was little, if any, action on the part of British traders to recover the ground lost. The fur trade fell into the hands of men from the United States, the first of whom had visited the coast in 1788. Between 1788 and 1800 more than forty American ships traded with Vancouver Island, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century American traders enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the business of the whole region south of Alaska. But a new competitor was about to appear on the scene, one which in the course of time was to overcome all rivals and establish what seemed likely to be a permanent supremacy. In 1783 a number of Montreal merchants, impatient at the attempt of the Hudson's Bay Company to assert a monopoly over all the vast domain lying between the St Lawrence valley and the Pacific coast, formed a rival concern known as the North-West Company. Associated with this company was Alexander Mackenzie. This intrepid pioneer, after his return from the Arctic in 1789, resolved to find a way to the Pacific Ocean, and for that purpose set out overland in 1792. He reached the sea at Burke Channel in 1793, and was greatly impressed with the possibilities of trade with the Indians. He was apparently not able to convince the directors of the company of the desirability of establishing posts west of the Rocky Mountains, and ten years later he visited London in an attempt to organize the Fishing and Fur Company, the object of which was to exploit the fisheries of the Pacific in connection with the fur trade of the interior. In his prospectus he proposed that a chain of trading stations should be established between Montreal and Nootka, which, he said, "would open and establish a commercial communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, to the great advantage and furtherance of the Pacific fishery of America and THE FUR TRADE 245 the fur trade of Great Britain, and in part indirectly through the channel of the possessions and factories of the East India Company in China.' In view of recent developments it will be conceded that Alexander Mackenzie had a prophetic vision of the future trade of the Pacific Ocean, and was able to assign to the British Columbia coast its proper place in the economic development of the world. His project failed in London for lack of financial backing. Later, others followed in his footsteps and some part of his great programme was carried out; but if his plans had been supported in the beginning, the history of the north-west coast and of trans-Pacific trade would have been different. Possibly the disturbed condition of Europe at this time, rather than a failure to appreciate the magnitude of his project, compelled its abandonment. We who, in these later days, with all the appliances of modern transportation, look forward to the development of a great commerce between Canada and the Orient, are no more far-seeing than were such men as Meares and Mackenzie. When William H. Seward, United States secretary of state, in announcing the completion of the negotiations for the purchase of Alaska, declared that * the greatest triumphs of mankind will be won on the greatest of the oceans,' he was only expressing the dreams of the adventurers and explorers who nearly a century before bis time had sought pathways across seas and mountains to the new Land of Promise. These men realized that a great commerce was possible between the densely populated areas of China and the sparsely settled regions of what is now Western Canada, and all their plans were formed with that object in view. It is recorded that when Mackenzie was endeavouring to promote his company, the question was raised in London as to the capacity of the great oriental empire to absorb the produce of the north-west coast, and to this the conclusive answer was given that every pelt that had yet been shipped across the Pacific had been purchased in the city of Canton, and yet the demand of that market was unsupplied. More than a century has passed since these gallant adventurers dreamed of a great west-bound commerce from 246 ECONOMIC HISTORY Nootka. The little snows in which Meares and his fellow- traders sailed, whose tonnage was often not more than forty tons, and which required several months to cross the ocean, have given place to the monster 16,000-ton floating palaces of to-day. The waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, then rarely visited even by the most daring navigators, are now furrowed daily by great argosies. The little vessel built by Meares has as her latest successor a splendid steamship named Princess Maguinna, after the daughter of the great chief. Nootka has surrendered her early supremacy to rich and prosperous cities. Instead of difficult mountain trails we have long lines of steel, and the stations which Mackenzie sought to have established in a chain across the continent are represented by centres of population with great farming areas around them. We are witnessing the fruition of the hopes of all the gallant company who were the pioneers of commerce, and who, long before the first white man had made his home in this vast province of the West, were able to foresee its marvellous future. The Far West in the early days was not only a country of magnificent distances, but one calling for no ordinary degree of energy, strength, and courage in those who endeavoured to exploit its resources. Thirteen years elapsed before the North-West Company determined to take advantage of Mackenzie's discoveries, and to establish trading-posts beyond the mountains. In 1806 its representatives, Fraser and Stuart, built forts at the outlets of the lakes which bear their names, and in the following year Fort George was built. Thus the fur trade of the interior of British Columbia was inaugurated. Four years later the Pacific Fur Company, organized by John Jacob Astor of New York, built Fort Astoria, near the mouth of the Columbia River. The operations of this company extended all along the coast. Nor were they alone in the field, for in addition to such individual ventures as were carried on, the Russian American Fur Company was active, not only in the seal rookeries of the north, but also in trade with the natives as far south as California. Meanwhile the North-West Company had been pushing its sphere of operations south-westerly, and the rivalry THE FUR TRADE 247 between it and Astor's company was keen. In 1813, during the hostilities between Great Britain and the United States, the American company decided to withdraw from the coast, and the North-West Company purchased its interest for $80,500. In 1821 the North-West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company entered into a partnership, which was to be for a term of twenty-one years, but which proved to be a permanent absorption of the Montreal concern by the older organization. Eight years later the Hudson's Bay Company secured the retirement of the Russian company from the field, except so far as the rookeries were concerned, by leasing a strip of the continental coast, ten leagues broad, at an annual rental of two thousand east-side land-otter skins. This area is now known as South-Eastern Alaska. At this time, owing to the co-operation of the two Canadian companies, nearly all individual fur traders had been driven from the field, so that by the year 1829 the Hudson's Bay Company had obtained a monopoly of the fur trade of both the coast and interior of British Columbia. As a rule the Russian fur traders concerned themselves chiefly with the taking of seals, which were killed on the rookeries, these being located exclusively in Russian territory. Seals, however, were sometimes taken on the shores of what is now British Columbia. Mackenzie reports that he saw numbers of them on the shore of Burke Channel. But it was the sea-otter that was mostly sought after by the English-speaking traders. This beautiful animal has become almost extinct owing to the greed of hunters, and is now seldom seen. Captain William Sturgis, a Boston trader, gives what is perhaps the best available description of it. He says : A full grown prime skin, which has been stretched for drying, is about five feet long and twenty-four to thirty inches wide, covered with very fine fur, about three- fourths of an inch in length, having a rich, jet black glossy surface, and exhibiting a silver colour when blown open. Those are esteemed the finest skins which have some white hairs interspersed and scattered over the whole surface, and a perfectly white head. 248 ECONOMIC HISTORY Captain Meares wrote of the sea-otters : They are sometimes seen many leagues from land, sleeping on their backs, on the surface of the water, with their young ones reclining on their breasts. The cubs are incapable of swimming until they are several months old. . . . The male otter is, beyond all comparison, more beautiful than the female. After the lease of South-Eastern Alaska by the Hudson's Bay Company there were few changes in the control of the fur trade on the north-west coast. New posts were established, however, and the business was prosecuted more systematically. About 1880, when pelagic sealing was introduced as a regular enterprise, Canada had no seal rookeries. The greatest home of the fur seal in the North Pacific is on the Pribyloff Islands, which formerly belonged to Russia, but which were sold to the United States when that nation acquired Alaska. Russia and Japan also have rookeries. These breeding-places of the seals were closed to the people of British Columbia, but a method of preserving pelts in salt having been discovered, pelagic sealing was begun. Seals are migratory. They journey from their rookeries as far south as the equator, and return again at breeding time. The Canadian hunters were accustomed to take them on their way back to the north, and hence the term pelagic, which means ' pertaining to the open ocean,' and is used to distinguish the killing of seals at sea from killing them on land. The headquarters of the pelagic seal industry was Victoria. It was prosecuted vigorously for a long time, although the sphere of operations was subject to important restrictions. Bering Sea was declared closed to sealers by the United States government. The Canadian sealers refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the United States over those waters and several of their vessels were seized. Great Britain made claims on their behalf for compensation, and these claims were allowed after arbitration. The ultimate result of the international negotiations was that an area adjacent to the Pribyloffs was designated as a sanctuary for homing seals. In 1911 an agreement regarding pelagic sealing was reached THE FUR TRADE 249 between the United States and Canadian governments.1 Thus was terminated a Canadian industry in which as many as sixty-four schooners were engaged at one time, the value of the annual catch reaching millions of dollars. The fur trade remained the only important industry in British Columbia until the year 1858, when the gold discoveries on the Fraser River gave the energies of the people a new direction. It continues to hold an important place, though almost lost sight of by the public in view of other greater activities. No statistics exist by which the value of fur products can be approximated. At present trapping is confined to land animals, which include the species usually found in north temperate latitudes. There are considerable areas in the province which, under a judicious system of conservation, will keep this primitive industry alive for an indefinite period. As the years have passed, the fur trade has lost nearly all the features which made it so alluring to adventurous sailors and enterprising merchants. We no longer hear of ships laden with priceless cargoes of sea-otter pelts ; the fascinating tales of the sealing ventures will never be renewed ; but it must be remembered that the fur traders won and maintained for the British flag a place on the north-west coast. From Cape Horn in South America to Singapore on the Malay Peninsula, is a long coast-line, broken only for a few miles by Bering Strait. It extends across, approximately, one hundred and eighty degrees of latitude, or more than twelve thousand statute miles. Along this great distance, equal to one-half the circumference of the globe, or, if the sinuosities of the coast-line were measured, probably equal to the entire circumference, the only part, with the exceptions of Hong Kong and Wei-hai-wei, over which the Union Jack flies is that embraced in the less than six degrees of British Columbia coast-line which the fur traders claimed and held for Britain. When we reflect upon what the possession of this coast has meant to Canada, when we endeavour to grasp the potential development of commerce on the Pacific, and when we try to pierce the future and contemplate what a globe-encircling 1 See' The Fishery Arbitrations,' section rv, pp. 747-8. VOL. XXI 2 1 I I 250 ECONOMIC HISTORY empire may mean to the British people and to the world at large, we are able to form some conception of the value of the services of Meares, Mackenzie, and their successors in the fur trade. The record of their deeds is an honourable one. It is one of the few stories of the supplanting of an aboriginal race by a civilized people that can be read without a blush. Justice, equity, fair dealing have marked it no less than daring, energy, and splendid manliness. In the long record of British achievement there is no chapter which reflects more credit upon the race. THE ORIENTAL QUESTION THE problem presented by oriental immigration has had such an important bearing upon the economic development of British Columbia, is likely to have such a far- reaching effect upon its future, and is so certain to assume grave international magnitude, that it deserves treatment in a special chapter and in greater detail than would be possible in the political history of the province. Up to the present it has affected only British Columbia among the provinces of Canada, and the Pacific coast alone as a part of the American continent; but it is generally realized that, while hitherto purely local in its interest, it may become one of the greatest of world problems. It is of all the greater importance because it no longer affects but one Asiatic race, a race which can, when it suits its purpose, show indifference to the fate of its representatives in any quarter of the globe. To a nation of four hundred millions of Chinese still in a condition of semi-torpor, the treatment accorded to a few thousands of its people in Canada or elsewhere may easily be a matter of indifference ; but now that such a nation as the Japanese, inspired by racial pride and believing in its fitness to compete with the white man on his own ground, has begun to demand for its people equality of opportunity everywhere, and our fellow-subjects in India THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 251 are asking why the vast unsettled lands of the Empire should be closed to them, the considerations which were sufficient to be taken into account, and the remedies that appeared to be effectual, a few years ago have suddenly become utterly inadequate. The white race is rapidly coming to realize that its conception of the yellow races has been a mistaken one. British Columbia has learned much regarding these people since the first Chinese laundryman arrived in the province from San Francisco nearly half a century ago. It has come to know the yellow man as a skilled workman, a shrewd dealer in real estate, a man of capital and enterprise. The Chinese, the Japanese, the Sikh and the Hindu of British Columbia to-day are vastly different people from the coolies against whom Dennis Kearney and his ' sand-lot' followers waged war forty years ago in San Francisco. The progress which these people have made in British Columbia, in spite of the handicap of unfavourable conditions, is one of the most remarkable achievements in the economic history of mankind. The advance-guard of the Asiatic invasion came to America, not to force themselves upon a hostile people, but to fill a place that no others were prepared to occupy. They were ready and anxious to begin at the very foundation of occidental social and industrial organization. They were willing to serve. It is rapidly becoming evident that they have no intention of remaining servants. The Japanese, whom we were accustomed to regard, only a few decades ago, as an interesting and somewhat childlike race, have shown themselves to be the very incarnation of aggressiveness. The shivering Sikhs and Hindus, who only a few years ago huddled together in the immigration sheds at Victoria and Vancouver, are now a prosperous people, exhibiting an aptitude for occidental business that is astonishing. The Chinese, who began the oriental invasion of America, were attracted by the gold discoveries in California, and they were welcomed by the white population, who spoke of their coming as proof that the wealth of the country had challenged the attention of the whole world. The Chinese participated in the first Fourth of July celebration ever held in San Francisco, and much was made in the descriptions of the 252 ECONOMIC HISTORY incident of the brightness and variety which their costumes added to the occasion. They did not immigrate in large numbers, but when the construction of the Central Pacific Railway was undertaken, the contractors were quick to learn that an inexhaustible supply of cheap labour was available in Asia, and Chinese were soon imported by the ship-load. At what date the first of these people found their way to British Columbia is uncertain, but it was some time before 1870. None of the witnesses who gave testimony before the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration in 1885 would fix a date, further than to say that they began to come to the province fourteen or fifteen years before that time. They arrived in small numbers at first, and, as was the case in California, they seem to have been cordially welcomed. They came to supply a serious lack in the sparsely settled community and to do work that white people either could not or would not do. They first set up as laundrymen ; then they took up menial labour of any kind that offered and soon entered households as domestic servants. Female help was at that time, as it is now, exceedingly difficult to obtain in British Columbia, and, even if it had been plentiful, women could not have been expected to go out alone to the very frontiers of civilization. The Chinese were more than welcome on the skirmishing line of advancing settlement. The pioneer of the West is in his way an aristocrat. The spirit that inspires a man to seek new frontiers causes him to look upon household work and menial tasks generally as unworthy. The pioneer will do such work if he must, but he will avoid it when he can. In the late sixties the white population of California began to realize the serious nature of the problem presented by the unrestricted influx of Chinese, who then formed about one-tenth of the population of the State and were rapidly increasing in numbers. An agitation arose against them, inspired by the working classes, who saw in them formidable competitors, and declared that they only awaited an opportunity to become masters of the industrial situation. Merchants also became disturbed over the outlook. The Chinese declined to adopt American standards of living. They ft 9 ft I 8; THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 253 adhered to the food and clothing to which they had been accustomed in their homeland, and it soon became evident that in proportion as the number of Chinese residents increased, the opportunities for white merchants would decrease. These facts were soon brought home to the people of British Columbia, and a considerable section of the then small population sought to prevent the occurrence of conditions that might lead to the menacing state of affairs fast developing in California. The agitation did not assume any practical form until after the province had entered Confederation; but in the first session of the provincial legislature held after that event, on February 26, 1872, John Robson, who represented Nanaimo, moved that ** an humble address be presented to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor praying that a Bill may be sent down to the House during its present session providing for the imposition of a per capita tax of fifty dollars per head upon all Chinese within the province.' In moving this resolution, Robson referred to the fact that Chinese were employed in connection with the coal mines and were thereby displacing white men. There was apparently no attempt to answer his arguments, the opponents of the resolution contenting themselves with calling him a demagogue, anxious to win the political support of labouring men. The motion was lost by a vote of fourteen to six. Two days later it was moved by Robson and seconded by Robert Beaven, the latter representing Victoria : That a humble address be presented to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, praying that effectual steps may be adopted for the purpose of preventing the employment of Chinese labour upon the public works of this province or upon any federal works within the province, whether such works may be given out by contract or carried on under the immediate control of either government. In the discussion of this resolution stress was laid upon the fact that the Canadian Pacific Railway was to be built, and that fully $30,000,000 would be spent west of the mountains. It was contended that if Chinese were permitted to be employed in its construction, most of this vast sum would pass into the 254 ECONOMIC HISTORY hands of merchants of the same race, and ultimately find its way to China. It was also contended that the Chinese would not occupy the land which the railway would make available for settlement, whereas white men would very likely do so in large numbers and thus the development of the province would be promoted. The answer to this argument was that white labour was unattainable, and the completion of the transcontinental fine would be indefinitely postponed unless Asiatic labour were employed. This resolution also was defeated, only five members of the house voting for it and seventeen voting against it. In the session of 1874 Robson returned to the attack and moved that Whereas under the existing system of taxation the Chinese residents do not contribute their just and equitable quota towards the public revenue ; and Whereas in the opinion of this House it is expedient that a per capita tax should be imposed upon Chinese residents ; therefore Resolved that a respectful address be presented to His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, praying that a Bill for the aforegoing purpose be sent down during the present session. The government of the day had no intention of permitting this resolution to pass, or even to be discussed, and on motion of one of the ministers the previous question was adopted and the resolution was thus disposed of. The next action taken was during the session of 1876, and the following is an extract from the journals of the house of that day: Pursuant to order the House again resolved itself into a committee of the whole for the purpose of considering the expediency of taking some steps toward preventing the country from being flooded with a Mongolian population ruinous to the best interests of British Columbia, particularly of the labouring classes. A point of order having arisen in the committee, the Speaker resumed the chair and decided against the following motion moved by Mr. Smith : namely j That in the opinion of this committee it is expedient to impose 9 99 8$ THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 255 a tax of ten dollars per capita per annum on every male of eighteen years who wears long hair in the shape of tail or queue, residing in the province of British Columbia.' The ruling of the speaker was the subject of an appeal to the house. He asked for a day to consider the point further, and then repeated his ruling, being sustained by a large majority of the members when a vote was taken. The peculiar phraseology of this resolution was designed to overcome the objection to the constitutionality of any provincial legislation imposing a special tax on aliens, the exclusive right of legislating in respect to such persons being reserved to the federal parliament by the terms of the British North America Act. Here the matter rested for two years, but with an increasing Chinese immigration the feeling against them increased, and in 1878 a new ministry decided to face the question squarely and test the powers of the legislature by a determined effort to check oriental immigration and regulate the employment of Chinese already in the country. Accordingly an act was passed and was assented to by the lieutenant-governor, which provided that every Chinese person over twelve years of age residing in the province should take out a licence every three months, paying therefor ten dollars in advance. The act also provided for a minimum wage to be paid these people, for their hours of work, for their registration, etc., and prescribed heavy penalties to be inflicted upon them and their employers for contravention of its provisions. This act was declared unconstitutional by a provincial court and was subsequently disallowed by the governor-general. In opening the following session, the lieutenant-governor said in the speech from the throne : Although your legislation upon the Chinese question has been considered unconstitutional, this circumstance should not deter you from adopting every legitimate means for the attainment of the end of your late statute. Two special committees were appointed to consider the question. One of these, presided over by J. W. Williams, in its report made reference to the disallowance of anti- Chinese legislation passed by the Australian colonies and i i! i J 256 ECONOMIC HISTORY New Zealand, and an address to the Dominion government was suggested, setting forth the baneful effects of oriental immigration and asking for legislation that would effectually prevent it. The other committee reported through G. A. Walkem, recommending that the federal government should co-operate with the other British dominions in view of the action of Australia and New Zealand. The question appears to have been brought up for the first time in the Dominion House of Commons on March 18, 1878, when A. Bunster, one of the British Columbia delegation, moved the following resolution : That the government insert a clause in each and every contract for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad that no man wearing his hair more than five and one-half inches in length be deemed eligible for employment upon the said work, and that no man wearing his hair longer [sic] shall be eligible to any contract on said railroad. The penalties proposed for violation of this provision were, one hundred dollars for the first offence, one thousand dollars or three months' imprisonment for the second offence, and one year's imprisonment without the option of a fine for the third offence. Bunster's observations on moving the resolution were brief, but in the course of them he pointed out that there were in California 80,000 Chinese, in Australia 50,000, in South Africa 5000, and in British Columbia 3000. Alexander Mackenzie, who was then prime minister of the Dominion, declined to take the motion seriously; nevertheless, in the course of a short speech he stated : ' While there may be a good deal in what was said about the habits of some of the Chinese who crossed the ocean in search of employment, I do not think it would become a British country to legislate against any class of people who might emigrate to this country.' He went on to emphasize the fact that most of the Chinese in British Columbia came from Hong Kong, which is British territory. Charles Tupper also opposed the resolution; it was supported by J. S. Thompson, the representative of Cariboo. The motion was defeated. THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 257 The anti-Chinese speakers, not only in parliament and the local legislature, but elsewhere, continually dwelt upon the alleged gross immorality of the Chinese. It is probable that the objections made to them on this score were greatly exaggerated. It is clear, moreover, that the principal forces behind the movement were the fear of competition in the labour market, and the apprehension of merchants that they would be driven out of business by Chinese traders. The moral side of the argument was emphasized because of a desire to strengthen a case which at that time did not greatly commend itself to the public in general. In the session of 1879 Amor DeCosmos presented a petition from Noah Shakespeare and fifteen hundred labouring men, asking for the passage of an act to restrict the further immigration of Chinese, that in the construction of the Intercolonial Railway no Chinese should be employed, and that the British Columbia act of 1878, referred to above, should be confirmed. It is evident from the speech of DeCosmos that the Canadian Pacific Railway was meant by the expression ! the Intercolonial Railway.' He dealt to some extent with the moral aspect of the question, but he laid chief stress upon the economic side of it. He said there were then six thousand male adult Chinese in British Columbia, or double what there had been the previous year, and placed their annual earnings at an average of three hundred dollars. This totalled $1,800,000. Allowing sixty dollars a year for the cost of living, he claimed that $1,440,000 were annually sent out of the province to China. On the other hand, he declared that if the places of these Chinese had been taken by white men, it would have meant an additional resident population of twenty-four thousand people, all of whose earnings would be spent in the country. DeCosmos moved that a special committee should be appointed to investigate the whole question with the view of providing some relief. Sir John Macdonald, the prime minister, was noncommittal, while admitting the need of inquiry. Alexander Mackenzie opposed the motion on imperial grounds, taking the position that it was not seemly that Canada should II 258 ECONOMIC HISTORY legislate against men who in some cases were natives of a British possession and in others of a foreign country with which Great Britain did a very large trade. DeCosmos in his closing speech essayed the role of a prophet. He said the people of China had again begun to migrate, and sketched briefly the terrible march of the Mongolians under Genghiz Khan and Tamberlane. He spoke of the approach of a time when mothers in British Columbia would whisper to their children, ! The Chinese are coming.' Nothing resulted from this motion, and the matter remained in abeyance, so far as the House of Commons was concerned, until May 12, 1882, when DeCosmos drew the attention of the house to a telegram from Victoria stating that twenty-four thousand coolies would shortly arrive there from China. This, he said, would swell the number in the province to thirty-two thousand, or more than the total white population. He urged prompt action by the government. Sir John Macdonald was not disposed to consider the dispatch seriously, and while expressing himself as not favourable to Chinese immigration, said that British Columbia would have to put up with a temporary inconvenience in order to secure railway construction. He quoted Onderdonk, the contractor for the Pacific section of the railway, as saying that he had utterly failed to get a sufficient number of workmen from the United States, and therefore, said he, ' You must have this labour [oriental] or you cannot have the railway.' Sir John expressed the opinion that after the railway was completed the Chinese would go back to their own country, but added that it might become necessary in the future to introduce what he called (representative legislation.' It is evident from what was said in the House of Commons, in the public press, and by some of the more prominent men of British Columbia that the real nature of the problem arising from Chinese immigration was appreciated by only a few people. The opposition to their presence in the country was almost universally attributed to the hostility of labouring men to competitors who were willing to work at a lower wage. Even a statesman so far-seeing as Sir John Macdonald failed THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 259 to realize that the stay of the Chinese would be permanent and would have a lasting effect upon the industrial development of the Pacific province. Influenced, doubtless, by events in California, where the presence of Chinese had led to serious racial riots, by the strong antipathy of the labouring men of the province to a people who were satisfied with a low rate of wages, and also by a growing feeling that the true significance of the oriental invasion had not been fully understood, the anti-Chinese agitation continued to gather strength. On May 19, 1884, Noah Shakespeare, one of the representatives of Victoria in the House of Commons, brought up the subject again by moving a resolution setting out that it was expedient to enact a law j prohibiting the incoming of Chinamen to that part of Canada known as British Columbia.' He mentioned the numerous petitions that had been sent to parliament by the government, the legislature, and the people of the province, and then went on to deal with the characteristics of the Chinese which rendered them objectionable. His speech disclosed the changing ideas of the people on the subject. He said very little about the alleged moral aspects of the question, resting his case chiefly on the ground that Chinese had already driven white men out of employment. In the course of his remarks he made use of the following expression, which is an admirable epitome of the whole case against Asiatic competition : * The white men, handicapped by the responsibilities of civilization, the Chinaman prepared to struggle for his solitary existence—the result is obvious.' For the first time in the discussion of the question in parliament, Shakespeare pointed out that the Chinese were shipped into the province by wealthy Canton merchants as if they were so much freight—a statement fully warranted by the evidence of Robert Ward before a royal commission, when he spoke of several thousand coolies being consigned to his firm. He also declared that the condition of these people was practically that of slaves. He said there were then eighteen thousand of them in British Columbia, and claimed that the presence of so many slaves in a great province sparsely settled by white people invited disaster. On the strength of 260 ECONOMIC HISTORY investigations made on the ground, he alleged that there were a sufficient number of white labourers in the province to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway within the time set by the contractors. E. Crowe Baker, also a representative of Victoria, supported the resolution. He directed the attention of the house to the fact that Australia had felt the necessity of restriction and that New South Wales had legislated on the subject as far back as 1865. In view of the fact that during the first three and a half months of 1884 over four thousand Chinese had landed in Victoria, Baker thought the house should realize the perilous outlook and the necessity for prompt action. Students of this question will find in Baker's speech, reported in Hansard of the session of 1884, one of the best resumes of the case against oriental labour as far as the facts in relation thereto had at that time developed. There was some opposition to Shakespeare's resolution, chiefly from Ontario members, and an amendment was moved to the effect that the proposed inquiry should deal with the question of restriction, not prohibition, and should be made applicable to the whole of Canada. After some demur the amendment was accepted by the mover and seconder, but only on a promise by Sir John Macdonald that a commission should be appointed forthwith. Accordingly, on July 4, 1884, a royal commission was issued to Joseph Adolphe Chapleau, secretary of state, and John Hamilton Gray, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, to investigate the question of Chinese immigration. This action was far from satisfactory to a large element of the population of the province, and the commissioners were not cordially received on their arrival in Victoria. The people were incensed because prohibition seemed indefinitely postponed, and also because they regarded it as absurd to suggest that two commissioners would be able to reach a wiser conclusion in a few weeks than had been reached by those who had been in touch with the subject for years. It was also felt that the commissioners were favourably disposed towards the admission of Chinese. The commission examined a large number of witnesses not only in British Columbia but also in California, and the facts collected are THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 261 of great historic interest. They made separate reports: that of Chapleau fills 134 pages, that of Gray 102 pages, while the evidence fills 415 pages. The testimony covers every phase of the question as it was then understood. Great emphasis was laid upon the unsanitary conditions under which the Chinese lived, and even those who were not unfavourable to their admission into the province were disposed to place them on a very low moral plane. On the economic side of the question, Onderdonk, the railway contractor already referred to, said he was at that time employing four thousand Chinese and three thousand white men, and he claimed that the former were employed at a loss. He gave as his reason for engaging them that he was required to complete his contract with all speed. S. M. Robins alleged that the Chinese employed in the coal-mines were brought in to meet a strike situation. He expressed the opinion that it would have been wiser to have engaged Indians, but claimed nevertheless that the opposition to the Chinese had been fostered chiefly by white merchants, whose trade was reduced by the fact that the proportion of white labourers was so small as compared with the Chinese. Many witnesses examined by the commissioners declared themselves favourable to the admission of Chinese without any restriction. According to the evidence given, there were at this time four hundred Chinese working in the coal-mines at Nanaimo, nine hundred in the mines at Wellington, fifteen hundred in the Cariboo district, and six thousand on the railway. These figures do not agree with the statement made by Noah Shakespeare in his speech in the House of Commons as to the number of Chinese then in the province, which he placed at eighteen thousand. Onderdonk testified that he wanted two thousand more Chinese for railway work, but could not get them. Justice Gray gave a summary of the opinions expressed by the witnesses. He said there were three classes, holding different views: A well-meaning but strongly prejudiced minority, whom nothing but absolute exclusion would satisfy j An intelligent minority who consider that no legislation whatever is necessary; but that as in all business 262 ECONOMIC HISTORY transactions, the law of supply and demand will apply, and the matter will regulate itself in the ordinary course of events; A large majority who think there should be a moderate restriction based upon police, and sanitary principles, sustained and enforced by local regulation for cleanliness and the preservation of health. Chapleau expressed the opinion that' in British Columbia those persons who are not in any way dependent upon the labouring classes are, as a rule, unfavourable to anti-Chinese legislation.' In their reports the commissioners recommended that a head-tax of ten dollars should be imposed upon all Chinese entering Canada ; that a special tribunal should be appointed to deal with legal matters in which Chinese were concerned ; that there should be provision made for the registration of Chinese ; and that a law similar to the Agricultural Labourers Act of the United Kingdom should be passed to regulate Chinese domestic service. Perusal of the evidence and of the reports discloses the fact that only a few persons, generally regarded as extremists—the ' well-meaning but strongly prejudiced minority ' mentioned by Gray—appeared to appreciate the real nature of the problem to which Chinese immigration had given rise. The grounds of opposition to the entry of Chinese chiefly relied upon before the commissioners were : their unsanitary habits ; unfair competition with white labour; that they would retard the settlement of white people in the province ; that by the purchase of Chinese goods and by remitting their savings to China they would seriously interfere with the development of trade ; that they would be a constant source of trouble by reason of their criminal propensities and their general untruthfulness ; and that they were utterly unreliable. The recommendations of the commissioners were received with a storm of protest. The legislature hastened to record its opinion that the investigation had been I hurried and imperfect,' and later passed a resolution protesting against the disallowance on the ground of expediency of the iwawg .BU»-S«i4kB J«fe-: igatd-gig THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 263 provincial legislation of 1884, whereby a licence fee was imposed upon every adult male Chinese in the province and regulations were made for their employment. It was felt that the Ottawa authorities were in no position to judge of the expediency of a measure enacted to meet conditions peculiar to British Columbia. Popular feeling rose to a high pitch. A public meeting, called by the city council of Victoria, passed a resolution expressing ** unreserved dissent' from the report of the commissioners, and protesting against the admission of Chinese on the terms therein recommended. Later an open-air meeting, attended by four thousand, declared in favour of very stringent restriction and asserted that ' the patience of the people was exhausted.' It was impossible for the Dominion government to ignore the determined expression of the views of the people of the coast. Public opinion was daily gathering force, and the success of the anti-Chinese legislation in California was causing invidious comparisons to be made between the condition of affairs in Canada and that existing in the United States. Moreover, the Canadian Pacific Railway was fast approaching completion, and there was little evidence that the expectation of Sir John Macdonald would be realized and that the Chinese employed in that work would speedily return home. The influx of coolie labourers continued ; white settlers seemed unwilling to go to the province, and it was apparent that the object of the transcontinental railway—the building up of a strong British community on the Pacific seaboard—might be defeated by the very means employed to expedite the completion of the road. Sir John Macdonald resolved upon what it was believed would prove a sufficient measure of restriction. On April 13, 1885, Chapleau introduced a bill to restrict and regulate the admission of Chinese. The principal feature was the imposition of head-tax, the amount of which was left blank in the bill but was subsequently fixed at fifty dollars. Chapleau's speech on the second reading shows evidence of careful preparation. He declared himself unalterably opposed to the prohibition of the objectionable immigration, since the presence of Chinese in British Columbia was of great economic advantage, because it was only through their labour that the GW p 264 ECONOMIC HISTORY mining, fishing and agricultural resources of the province could be developed. He dwelt upon the importance of developing trade with China, and expressed the opinion that the welfare of the whole Dominion ought not to be sacrificed to what he regarded as the unreasoning prejudice of a small part of the sparse population of British Columbia. The members for the province stoutly opposed the bill. They contended for total exclusion, pointing out that the proposed head- tax would have no restraining effect and asking that, if there could not be absolute prohibition, the tax should be placed at five hundred dollars. Sir John Macdonald told the British Columbia members that they had better be satisfied with what they could get, and the bill was thereupon passed. That the British Columbia representatives were right as to the inadequacy of the law was soon apparent. Chinese continued to enter the country in as great numbers as ever, and it was evident that they looked upon the province as a favourable field for exploitation, and for ultimate occupation to as great an extent as possible. The agitation for total prohibition was soon renewed. The legislature passed resolutions on several occasions, all substantially to the same effect: namely, that oriental immigration would prevent the settlement of the country by white people. Petition after petition was sent to parliament. In 1891 more than seventy were tabled from representatives of every industry in British Columbia and from nearly every labour organization in the Dominion, setting forth that this immigration was not in the best interests of Canada, and praying for its total prohibition. In 1892 an even greater number of petitions were presented, and from that time forward for seven years these petitions and resolutions of the legislature of British Columbia formed regular features of the proceedings of parliament. In the session of 1899 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who was then prime minister, realized that something would have to be done to meet the demands of the Pacific province, and a measure was introduced to increase the head-tax to one hundred dollars. It was passed, but met at once with a protest from the legislature of British Columbia and from many petitioners on the h= THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 265 score that the tax was too low, and should be increased immediately to five hundred dollars. A new problem of oriental immigration had by this time begun to make itself manifest. About the year 1896 a few Japanese had settled in the province. They were not unwelcome, for they proved active, industrious, eager to please and ready to accept almost any wages for any employment for which they were fitted. There was a disposition to regard them with interest as representatives of a nation that was seeking to acquire occidental civilization and had, in the war with China, shown itself to be the leading Asiatic power. There was unquestionably a demand for cheaper labour, which the Japanese seemed able to supply. But public opinion soon changed. The Japanese crossed the ocean in rapidly increasing numbers, and in five years between fourteen and fifteen thousand entered the province. In the twelve months ending July 1, 1900, the arrivals numbered ten thousand. Not all of these remained. A considerable number returned home after a short stay and many went to the United States. The- census of 1901 showed 4578 Japanese resident in British Columbia. Opposition to the Japanese was not confined to the working classes with whom they came into competition, for it was apparent that, whereas the Chinese confined themselves to a limited number of occupations, the Japanese were ready to invade every department of industry. They assumed European dress, and, as far as they were able, adopted European habits, making no concealment of their intention to strive for equality with the white people. The new competition in the labour market increased the agitation against oriental immigration, and once again parliament was petitioned to pass a measure absolutely prohibiting it. It was pointed out that between January 1 and April I, 1900, no less than 4669 Japanese and 1325 Chinese had landed in Victoria, a fact that naturally caused much anxiety, especially as one very important industry, the fisheries, seemed likely to pass almost wholly into the hands of the Japanese, to the exclusion of white men and Indians. The latter joined in the protests to parliament, complaining that § 266 ECONOMIC HISTORY they were likely to be deprived of one of their most remunerative occupations. So strong was the agitation that the federal government took prompt action, and a royal commission was issued to Roger C. Clute of Toronto, Ralph Smith of Nanaimo, and Daniel J. Munn of New Westminster, authorizing them to investigate the whole question of Chinese and Japanese immigration. Smith resigned his appointment and his place was taken by Christopher Foley of Ross- land. The commissioners heard a large number of witnesses and collected much valuable information. There was a very noticeable difference between the testimony given in 1901 and that submitted to the commission of 1885 in respect to the Chinese. Many witnesses before the last-named commission laid stress upon the unreliability of the Chinese and their criminality. Very little was said on these points in 1901, but on the contrary it was freely admitted that in these respects the Chinese averaged at least as high as white people. It was now apparent that the true nature of the oriental menace was beginning to be understood, that it was economic and not moral in its character. Opposition to the Chinese was by no means universal among those who testified, but only one opinion was expressed regarding the Japanese, and that was hostile. It was not so much racial hostility as a feeling that the Japanese were too formidable competitors to be permitted to enter the country in large numbers. They were ready to accept any sort of work at any rate of wages in order to obtain a foothold in Canada. Moreover, the influx of Japanese seemed a menace per se, as those who saw the hundreds of arrivals were quick to appreciate. The commission of 1901 stated in its report that the population of British Columbia was 177,000, of whom 129,000 were white people. There were 16,000 adult unmarried Chinese males, and it was contended that if their places were taken by white people it would mean an addition to the population of from 50,000 to 70,000 men, women, and children, and that the money received by the wage-earners would be kept in the country instead of being sent to China. The commissioners recommended that Chinese immigration THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 267 should be regulated by a treaty ' heartily supported by suitable legislation,' and that in the meantime a head-tax of five hundred dollars should be imposed upon every Chinese immigrant. The commission made no recommendation in regard to the Japanese, the government at Tokio having issued a decree forbidding emigration to either Canada or the United States. In the ensuing session of parliament, 1902, a head-tax of five hundred dollars was imposed upon Chinese. Subsequently an agreement was reached between the Canadian and Japanese governments placing a limitation upon the number of Japanese who should be permitted to enter Canada in any one year. The immediate effect of the increase in the head-tax was to reduce the number of Chinese immigrants and to increase the wages demanded by Chinese already in Canada. The advance was from fifty to one hundred per cent. No sooner had a new standard of wages been established than the Chinese influx was renewed, and it became clear that the employers of Chinese labour were paying the head-tax, not only upon the new immigrants but upon those already in the country. The Chinese merchants and others engaged in the importation of coolie labour raised no objection to the increased tax. One of them voiced the general opinion when he said : ' I always thought the white people were fools, and now I know it. You pay the tax in higher wages and we make more money out of financing the immigration.' Concerning the immigration from India little need be said, for after a period of great activity, it was arrested by government regulation. The contention has been made and is still upheld by many people that the incoming of the orientals has retarded the settlement of the country by white people and has had a tendency to reduce wages. On the other hand, it is claimed by a large and influential element that its influence has been wholly advantageous and that much of the progress of British Columbia is due to the presence of orientals, who have furnished a supply of labour that would otherwise have been unattainable except at prohibitive prices. The truth probably lies between these two extremes. Oriental immi- I 268 ECONOMIC HISTORY gration has not been altogether bad for the province ; neither has it been wholly beneficial. The opposition to the presence of Chinese was in the first place based largely upon the belief that they would have a demoralizing influence. In the earlier speeches in the legislature and elsewhere on the subject this view of the case was always prominent, and the picture presented of what would happen if many Chinese women entered the country was lurid and alarming. Stress was also laid upon the consequences likely to result from the fact that the great body of the Chinese were unmarried males. All such fears have proved groundless. The line of demarcation between the two races has been so strongly drawn that the influence of the Chinese upon social morality has been negligible. It is true that Chinese are inveterate gamblers, but no one can seriously claim that they have caused any increase in this practice among white people. A second objection was that the Chinese were criminally inclined, were untrustworthy and given to falsehood, and that it would be necessary to establish special tribunals to deal with them. It was also asserted that they would recognize their own clubs or guilds as of greater authority than the courts of the land. Experience has shown these fears to have been without foundation. In criminal tendencies and untruthfulness in testimony, the Chinese are in no way different from white people. It is exceedingly rare that they abuse the confidence reposed in them as domestic servants, and they are as a rule punctilious in carrying out any obligations they assume. A third objection was from a business standpoint. It was claimed that, as they ate Chinese food and wore almost exclusively Chinese clothing, they would not trade with white merchants. It was further contended that they would not remain in the country, but would return home when they had accumulated a little money, and that most of their earnings would be sent to China. This objection had some foundation in fact. It is still a serious detriment to the community in which any large number of Chinese live. THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 269 Those who claimed that the immigrants would not remain were mistaken. Many Chinese of the merchant and contracting class have become wealthy and have large interests in British Columbia. In respect to their mode of living, there are indications of a disposition to adopt European habits, but progress in that direction has hitherto been slow, although there has been a notable advance since the inauguration of republican government in China. The Chinese in British Columbia were prompt to fall in with the new order of things at home. A fourth objection was that in proportion as Chinese labour displaced white labour it retarded the increase in population, for only a few of the Chinese have families, whereas a very considerable number of the white men are married and have children. This is a well-founded and grave objection to the oriental immigration. To appreciate it one has only to compare the homes of white miners with the quarters occupied by Chinese working in the mines. In the former will be found children being trained to take their places in the general life of the community ; in the latter there is only a hive of men with no other interest in the country than the day's wage. The contrast is so great that there is little wonder that the coal-miners are among the most determined opponents of Chinese immigration. The fifth objection, that the Chinese have kept down the rate of wages, is scarcely borne out by the facts. What, then, is the objection to oriental immigration, and what, if any, are its injurious economic effects upon the country ? The problem is not without its difficulties, but as the contact of the Orient with the Occident is likely to become closer as the years pass, it is well that the lessons taught by experience in British Columbia should be understood. There is no historical warrant for assuming that two races as widely different as the Caucasian and the Mongolian can live side by side on terms of equality. All historic precedents oppose the suggestion, favoured by no inconsiderable number of people, that we can safely admit into Canada a limited number of oriental people to occupy a species of servile relation to the majority. To attempt to build up an - 270 ECONOMIC HISTORY occidental civilization with oriental labour at the base of the industrial edifice is to invite disaster. For—and let this primal fact not be forgotten—the white man will not work side by side with the yellow man on terms of equality. Place the two in one industry and the question that arises is one of the survival of the fittest. The fittest workman is not necessarily the best; he is merely the most capable of coping with existing conditions. The white man will not do ' Chinamen's work'; the Chinese is ready and eager to do white man's work. Hence in competition between the two in the same field the white man is under a handicap. This fundamental fact has had a serious effect upon the economic progress of British Columbia and will have a profound influence upon its future if the influx of orientals, whether Chinese, Japanese or East Indians, is continued. However, it must be admitted that without the relatively abundant and cheap Chinese labour available, British Columbia could not have achieved the progress made during the past thirty years. The remoteness of the Pacific coast from the centres of population has naturally retarded the settlement of the province while vast unoccupied areas lay between it and the sources of white immigration. While there has always been a claim that Chinese were driving white men out of employment, there has been little basis for it in fact. They made possible the early completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway ; they aided materially in the development of the lumber industry; they helped in the promotion of mining ; they have been absolutely necessary in fish-canning ; they have made it possible to clear up large areas of land and fit it for farming ; they have done much to solve the problem of household help. Admitting all that can be urged against the presence of orientals because of the money that they have sent out of the country, it cannot be denied that they have been of value to the province. That they have in any material degree prevented white people from settling in the country has not been established; that to a limited extent they have driven white labour out of the country may be admitted, but on the other hand they have enabled the white population to live in greater comfort than THE ORIENTAL QUESTION 271 would have been possible without them. All these things may be freely admitted as a summary of the beneficial economic effect of oriental immigration during the first two- score years of its existence. What is there to be said on the other side of the question ? They have absorbed the market- gardening industry, and have thereby practically closed a desirable occupation to white people ; the Japanese have almost driven the white fishermen from the coast; the Chinese and natives of India have monopolized the lower grades of industry. They have created an industrial stratum into which the white men will not descend. The fact last mentioned is one that seems to possess an enormous economic significance. The reference so far has been only to the past. What is the position and attitude of the oriental in British Columbia to-day ? The answer to this question is important, because what applies to this province now will apply to every other community where the Orient and Occident come in contact upon terms of equality of opportunity. The experience of half a century has shown the oriental that in America there is a field for his industry and ability that is practically unlimited, and in British Columbia he is rapidly occupying it. There is no line of activity that he is not ready and eager to enter. Only a few years ago the Chinese were content to live in \ Chinatowns.' They are breaking away from that habit. Only a short time ago a Chinese store was a sort of curiosity shop to white people ; a place wherein picturesque men, smoking long pipes, or with children in their arms, stood listlessly about, making no effort whatever to push sales while possible customers examined their wares. Chinese stores now carry many classes of necessary commodities, and are managed by alert salesmen in European dress, who know how to cater to the public taste. Chinese tailors have built up a large trade in clothing for both sexes. The curio shop is rapidly disappearing ; the up-to- date business house is taking its place. The Chinese capitalist may be seen driving in his electric brougham ; the Sikh, who a few years ago shivered in his scanty clothing on a Victoria dock, may be seen riding out from his real-estate office in his own motor-car, or bringing in milk from his own ranch. The m 1 <*m 272 ECONOMIC HISTORY Japanese asserts his ability to compete with the Canadian in any occupation except those which are closed to him by law. Chinese, Sikhs and Japanese have a common ambition, which they are rapidly satisfying, to become landowners. Such are some of the changes that a short period has brought about. Their lesson is obvious. A few words may be added as to the effect of the imposition of a head-tax upon Chinese. It has doubtless served to reduce the influx of these people, but only to a limited extent. It is probable that if there had been no restrictive legislation the whole of the Pacific coast of Canada would have been overrun by Chinese, who would practically have taken possession of the country ; but when a heavy tax was imposed upon them, it became impossible for coolies to come to the country except when assisted by some person of capital. Hence the influx was restricted automatically to such a number as the contractors could find employment for. When the tax was raised to five hundred dollars, the immediate result was that immigration practically ceased until a new standard of wages was introduced in British Columbia. Then it increased again. The Chinese importer of labour raises no objection to the heavy head-tax. He knows it serves to increase the earnings of the Chinese already in the country and increases his own profits upon the new importations. It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that the average earnings of Chinese in British Columbia have doubled since the imposition of the five-hundred-dollar tax. To sum up the situation, it may be said that oriental labour has, on the whole, been thus far an advantage to British Columbia, but in the conditions that have developed and are now developing, it is evident that the continued influx of the Asiatic peoples would mean that an economic situation would be created, the outcome of which would be antagonistic to the building up on the Pacific coast of a strong British community capable of sustaining and increasing British prestige there. If the advantage which the North- West pioneers gained for the Empire a century and more ago is to be maintained, oriental immigration into Canada must cease. As was said at the beginning of this chapter, the TRANSPORTATION 273 contact of the Orient and Occident has created a problem of world-wide interest, and the lessons which British Columbia teaches in that regard are of immeasurable value. TRANSPORTATION FROM the time of its earliest occupation by Europeans transportation has been the most important and most difficult problem presented in British Columbia. In all countries this factor is one calling for serious consideration, but it is especially so in the Pacific province because of its area and the contour of its surface. In the other provinces of Canada settlement readily advances from some central point, and the occupied area grows as the frontier of the wilderness is gradually pushed back. This sort of development is impossible in British Columbia. The mountain ranges prevent continuity of settlement, which proceeds sporadically, and long and difficult distances have to be overcome to connect the several centres with each other and with the outside world. Owing to these natural characteristics of the province, and the enormous expense necessary to overcome them, the occupation of the colonizable areas within its borders has been greatly retarded. For nearly a century after its first discovery by Europeans what is now British Columbia was one of the most isolated parts of the world. It could be reached only by a long sea voyage either round the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn, or by a land journey of thousands of miles across prairies and over inhospitable mountain ranges. Until about fifty years ago there was hardly a highway in the province worthy of the name, except in the immediate vicinity of Victoria. There were, of course, no railways. A few small steamers plied in the coast waters. The discovery of gold in the Cariboo made necessary the construction of the famous highway, the Cariboo Road, a work of vast difficulty, and one of the greatest achievements in the world in the way of road- 274 ECONOMIC HISTORY building. The work was done by a corps of Royal Engineers. This highway, which is upwards of three hundred miles in length, has played a very important part in the development of the province. It proved also of great political value, for it united the great unsettled interior with the centre of government at the coast, and thereby prevented a disruption of the western part of British North America, which might have ensued on the arrival of thousands of gold-seekers from the United States, if the main line of communication had been established by way of the Okanagan direct from the State of Washington. The Cariboo Road made British law, British justice, and British administration paramount north of the 49th parallel, a consummation the value of which has often been overlooked in the consideration of the advantages which flowed from it. To understand the nature of the transportation problem as it affects British Columbia—and this problem is only as yet on the threshold of solution—it is necessary to have a general idea of the geography of the country. Although the surface and the coast-line of the province are exceedingly diversified, and present upon the maps ordinarily in use an almost inextricable tangle of mountains, fiords, lakes and rivers, close examination shows that a few general features dominate the topography. The greater part of the province lies west of the summit of the Rocky Mountain range and a line drawn north-westerly in prolongation thereof. This range, which is a consistent and distinct structural feature of the continent from the 49th to the 56th parallels, begins to lose its distinctive character north of the latter. There is a great structural valley lying west of the Rockies. In its southerly part it is occupied by the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers, and a tributary of the latter, the Canoe River, flows through it from the north, its tributaries interlocking with those of the Fraser in the vicinity of Yellowhead Pass. Going yet farther northward we have the Fraser occupying the valley up to the 54th parallel, where a low ridge crosses the valley and separates the waters of the Fraser from the tributaries of the Peace River. The Parsnip and the Findlay, the former flowing from the south and the latter from the north, unite TRANSPORTATION 275 at the 56th parallel to form the Peace, which finds its way to the great Mackenzie River system through a tremendous canon which cuts the range of the Rockies in twain. The head-waters of the Findlay interlock with those of one of the tributaries of the Liard River, a great tributary of the Mackenzie; and the Liard itself, and its tributary the Frances, mark the line of the great structural valley northward until the head-waters of the Pelly, one of the forks of the Yukon, are reached, whence the valley proceeds northward and westward to Bering Sea. The Rocky Mountain range is traversed by several passes, the chief of which are the Crowsnest, through which the southerly line of the Canadian Pacific Railway runs, the Yoho, the Kananaskis, the White Man, the Kicking Horse, through which the main line of the Canadian Pacific runs, the Howse, the Athabaska, the Yellowhead, where the lines of the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern are, the Pine River and the canon of the Peace River. West of this great valley is a mountain range which is in a sense continuous, but which is cut by several valleys and is known by several names, such as the Selkirks, the Gold Mountains and the Cariboo Range. West of these lies the great Central Plateau, extending from the 49th parallel as far at least as the 56th. The term ' plateau' must not be understood as meaning a level plain, for it is used only to distinguish the central and generally undulating part of the province from what are the distinctively mountainous portions. West of this plateau is what may be called in general terms the Coast Range. This range is broken by many passes, such as the Fraser Canon, utilized by the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian Northern Railways, Howe Sound and the Squamish River, utilized by the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, Bute Inlet, recommended by Sand- ford (afterwards Sir Sandford) Fleming as the best route to the western ocean frontier of the Dominion, Burke Channel and the Bella Coola River, Dean Channel and the Kimsquit River, Douglas Channel and Kitimat Arm, the Skeena River, utilized by the Grand Trunk Pacific, Portland Canal 276 ECONOMIC HISTORY and the Nass River and Alice Arm, and farther to the north the Stikine River. West of the Coast Range is a remarkable structural feature, which for convenience may be called a line of submergence. This begins at the south in the lower part of Oregon, where the valley thus formed has in the process of centuries been filled by the soil formed from the silt from the adjacent mountain ranges and in part by glacial deposits. The Willamette River flows through it to join the Columbia. North of the Columbia the depression has been filled, chiefly with glacial deposits, for approximately a hundred miles, at which point the southern extremity of Puget Sound is reached. Thence northward the alluvial or glacial deposits are not extensive except in what is called the lower Fraser valley, and the depression presents a series of deep channels, encircling islands which seem to form the higher parts of a submerged mountain range. At one point, just north of Bute Inlet, between latitudes 500 and 500 30', the channels are very narrow, forming 'stepping-stones' between the continental shore and Vancouver Island. The islands and islets in the archipelago formed by this great subsidence, which extends across some seventeen degrees of latitude, are practically innumerable, varying in size from Vancouver Island, with an area about equal to that of Switzerland, or 15,000 square miles, to the smallest rock pinnacles rising above the sea. The islands of the Queen Charlotte group lie some distance off the coast. Beyond the archipelago is the continental shelf, which is the 100-fathom fine. This is of great importance: first to fishermen, as upon it are found extensive halibut grounds and resorts of other food fish ; and, secondly, to mariners, because it is so well defined that it is an infallible guide to vessels approaching the north-west coast. To the above general geographical features of the province must be added the numerous large navigable lakes scattered over the interior of the province and the many navigable rivers, furnishing possibly three thousand miles of useful waterways, a large proportion of which are open throughout the entire year. TRANSPORTATION The problem of transportation in British Columbia is to correlate these structural features of the country. The problem is not difficult, although its solution will necessarily be expensive. If we include, as is proper in this connection, the water stretches between the islands of the archipelago, the area for which transportation must be provided is upwards of 400,000 square miles, approximately 383,000 of which are land. Highways, railways and water-craft of every sort will all play a part in it. Fortunately numerous water- powers are available in all parts of the province, and these will materially simplify the providing of transportation facilities by furnishing an abundance of power for the generation of electricity, a factor of much importance because there are many areas that can be more readily and inexpensively opened up by electric railways than in any other way. The transportation problem was fully appreciated by the men who had control of the affairs of British Columbia in the earlier period of its history. We find in the Terms of Union with Canada that provision was made for the subsidizing of a line of steamships from Victoria to San Francisco, for the building of a graving-dock at Esquimalt, and for the establishment of connection with Eastern Canada. The last-named demand on the part of the western province originally took the form of a claim for a highway road in continuance of the Dewdney trail. A transcontinental railway was an after-consideration. Land transportation in British Columbia has been chiefly along lines from east to west. Beginning at the extreme south we have the Great Northern, which will shortly have completed a road traversing the province from east to west; next we have the Kettle River and Crowsnest Pass railways, which will in combination give the Canadian Pacific an east- and-west road south of its main line; the latter, although not very direct, may also be considered as an east-and- west line ; the Canadian Northern's line, technically the Canadian Northern Pacific, is chiefly designed for east-and- west transportation, although, with its southern extension from Kamloops to Okanagan, it will to some extent become a north-and-south line ; lastly, we have the Grand Trunk 278 ECONOMIC HISTORY Pacific, essentially an east-and-west line. The Pacific Great Eastern, which as far as at present (1913) planned will extend from Vancouver to Fort George, is the first step primarily intended to provide north-and-south railway transportation in British Columbia. What appears to be the next pressing need from the standpoint of economic development is the completion of north-and-south lines of communication, to unite the great outlying and undeveloped parts of the province with the more settled areas, to supplement the east-and-west lines, and to give an all-Canadian land route to the Yukon and Alaska. Mention may be made here of the railways on Vancouver Island. The three transcontinental companies are represented, the Canadian Pacific as the owner of the Esquimalt. and Nanaimo Railway, the Canadian Northern as the owner of the Canadian Northern Pacific, and the Great Northern as the owner of the Victoria and Sidney Railway. The mainland divisions of these railways, as well as the line of the Pacific Great Eastern, either are or will be connected with the island by means of car-ferries. The plans of the two companies first named in this paragraph embrace the complete opening of the island by railways, involving the construction of about one thousand miles of lines. The transportation requirements of the island may be said to be fully provided for from a local point of view. There remains the question of all-rail connection with the mainland by way of the ' stepping-stones ' at Bute Inlet, a project that has been before the public for forty years. Transportation in British Columbia may be regarded from four different points of view : namely, as it affects local development, as it affects the commerce of Canada, as it affects the commerce of the Empire -and of the world, and as it affects the relations of the several parts of the Empire to each other. The description given above of the geographical features of the province, taken in connection with its great area and the fact that in every part of it are colonizable lands and great resources in forest and mineral wealth, demonstrate that many miles of railway and many miles of highways will be needed before the province has TRANSPORTATION 279 reached a stage when its economic development can be said to have been thoroughly provided for. In respect of Canadian trade, the western shipping of grain to ports that are always open, to be sent thence to Europe via the Panama Canal, or to Asia to supply the growing demand for this grain among the hundreds of millions of people there, renders the problem of great interest and importance. In considering this question, it ought not to be overlooked that the ports of the Pacific coast are nearer any district of Canada lying west of the central part of Saskatchewan than are the ports at the head of Lake Superior. This fact must have a potent influence in determining the course of a large part of the export trade of the Dominion. The imperial aspect of the transportation problem presented by British Columbia is of the greatest importance. The shortest possible route from the United Kingdom to the Orient would be by way of Hudson Strait to Fort Church- hill or Fort Nelson and thence by a combined Canadian and United States railway to a point at or near the mouth of the Yukon. Such a route would only be available for a few months annually because of the harbours at both termini of the railway being closed by ice for the greater part of the year, and it therefore possesses only an academic interest. The shortest practicable route from Western Europe and the whole of that part of the North American continent lying east of the Mississippi to the Orient is by way of the ports on the western seaboard of Canada. Transportation companies will adjust themselves to this controlling fact in their own interest as the saving of time becomes more important in the transit of goods. A very important question arising in this connection is the character of the harbours on the western coast of Canada. Here we have another geographical factor to take into consideration. Between the Panama Canal and the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is the southern boundary of Canada on the Pacific, there is 'only one first-class harbour, that of San Francisco. Portland, in Oregon, would be of the first class, if it were not for the great bar at the mouth of the Columbia River. North of the strait there are 280 ECONOMIC HISTORY a number of excellent harbours. As Captain Devereux wrote in 1876, ' Nature seems to have revelled in making them.' Some of them are: on the mainland—New Westminster and other points on the lower Fraser River, Vancouver, Howe Sound, Bute Inlet, Frederick Arm, the other inlets mentioned in a preceding part of this article in connection with the passes through the Coast Range, Prince Rupert, Port Simpson, Nasoga Gulf and other points on Portland Canal; on Vancouver Island—Victoria, Esquimalt, Barkley Sound and Alberni Canal, Nootka Sound, Quatsino Sound, Hardy Bay, Nanaimo and others, all capable of accommodating shipping of every size, and all readily accessible from the sea and also from the land. There is no very material difference in distance between any of these ports and Yokohama, which may be regarded as the first port of the Orient, and the average may be placed at 4200 miles. There are various factors to be taken into consideration by transportation companies which will determine the choice of ports and of land routes to reach these ports, but the great basic fact remains that commerce has a choice of all these various excellent harbours, approachable from the land side through the several passes in the Coast Range and on the direct line of the shortest possible route of transportation between the most populous continents of the world, one of which is the most advanced and energetic and the centre of modern civilization, and the other about to enter upon a period of development, the magnitude of which no one can pretend to foresee. &„ 9T^1 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR ill INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR •gvs agar, waits gj ta isa-SSSflggg) M Tribes and their Habitat A LL that part of the Province of British Columbia lying / \ east of the Cascade or Coast range of mountains is JL \. known as the interior. The aboriginal inhabitants of this region, classed according to their linguistic affiliations, belong to several distinct stocks, which are divided into various tribes and bands, many of them speaking languages and dialects only partially intelligible to other members of the same stock. From south to north in the interior these linguistic families are distributed as follows : (A) Kitunahan.—This stock is represented by two tribes speaking dialects differing very slightly from each other. Their language is thought to have some similarity in grammatical structure to the Shoshonean tongues. They are: 1. The Upper Kutenai, or Kutenai proper, inhabiting the East Kootenay valley from the international boundary north to the head of the Columbia River. 2. The Lower Kutenai, or Flatbow, living along the Kootenay River and on the lake of the same name, below the Upper Kutenai tribe. Both tribes inhabit the neighbouring parts of the United States. (B) Salishan (Interior Salish).—All the people of this stock belong to what is known as the interior Salish group, which linguistically, physically, and culturally differs considerably from the Salish group of the British Columbia coast. In point of numbers the Salish is the most important stock in the interior. Their tribes are also distributed over large portions of the eastern part of the State of Washington, and the States of Idaho and Montana. The Salish languages | 284 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR resemble the Chimakuan and the Wakashan in structural type, and appear to have remote points of similarity with the Algonquian. Five Salish tribes are found in the interior: 1. The Senijextee or Lake tribe is found along the Columbia River and near the Arrow Lakes from Revelstoke south ; along the Slocan River and Lake ; along the Kootenay River below the Lake ; near the west arm of Kootenay Lake and in a part of the Kettle River valley. 2. The Okinagan live along Okanagan Lake and River, from the head southwards, in parts of the Kettle and Simil- kameen valleys, and in a portion of the upper Nicola valley near Douglas Lake. Both of these tribes extend into the United States, and both speak the Okinagan language, while the other three tribes speak closely allied but separate languages. 3. The Ntlakyapamuk, also called Couteau or Knife Indians, and Thompson River tribe, etc., occupy the country along Fraser River from near the foot of the canon north to the Lillooet; the main Thompson River from the mouth east to Ashcroft; and the greater part of the Nicola country. Most of the people of the upper Similkameen are Ntlakyapamuk, but in late years they have tended to assimilate with the Okinagan. The hunting country of the Ntlakyapamuk extends south a short distance into the United States. 4. The Shuswap occupy the Fraser River country from the Lillooet north to Soda Creek, and the plateaus eastward to the Rocky Mountains, the Thompson River from Ashcroft to its sources, the Bonaparte River, and the Columbia River from near Revelstoke to its head. The Kutenai formerly claimed the upper part of the Columbia down to about Golden, but in later years this tract of country was also hunted by Assiniboin and Shuswap, and finally, about ninety years ago, a band of the latter located there permanently in close proximity to the most northern settlement of the Kutenai. 5. The Lillooet have their main habitat in a valley extending through the Cascade Range from Harrison Lake north-east by Lillooet, Anderson and Seaton Lakes to Fraser River. On the latter stream they occupy the country around the mouths of Cayuse Creek and Bridge River. Westwards TRIBES AND THEIR HABITAT 285 they extend to the head of Squamish River. The Fountain and Pavilion bands east of the Fraser River are of mixed Shuswap and Lillooet blood. (C) Athapascan (D6ng).—Members of this great family, noted as the most widely distributed of any linguistic stock in North America, occupy most of the central and northern interior, covering a greater area than any other stock in the province. The Athapascans of British Columbia are an extension to the south-west of the northern division of the stock, the main body of which occupies all the adjoining parts of Canada northwards to the Eskimo. They may be divided into three linguistic groups, each comprising a number of tribes, some of them differing considerably in dialect, physical characteristics and customs: 1. Southern Group.—(a) Tsilkotin, occupying all the Chilcotin River region westwards to the upper Bella Coola. They are divided into several bands speaking the same language, (b) Carrier, also known as Porteur, and Takulli or Takenne, occupy the country between the Tsilkotin and the Kitksan of Skeena River, and most of the upper Fraser River above Soda Creek. Father Morice classes them in three branches speaking slightly different dialects, and ten septs : viz. Southern Carriers (six septs), Northern Carriers (two septs) and Babines (two septs). The Babines are sometimes recognized as a distinct tribe. 2. Central Group.—(a) Sekani, occupying the head-waters of the Peace River, and the Rocky Mountain region from near Fraser River north to near the Liard. They are divided into a number of loosely connected bands or septs. One of these, called the Bear Lakes, range north-westerly across the sources of the Skeena and Nass Rivers to the head of the Stikine, and some of them within recent years have settled among the Tahltans. (&) Tsattine, also known as Beaver or Castor, inhabiting the Peace River region immediately east of the Sekani. A few of them live within the confines of British Columbia, and the rest in the neighbouring parts of Alberta. The Sarsi tribe, now located in the Blackfoot country, is claimed to be an offshoot of the Tsattine. 3. Northern Group, or Nahane.—(a) The Tahltan, who 286 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR have a distinct tribal organization, and differ considerably in culture from the other Nahane, occupying the upper waters of the Stikine River and its tributaries, the Tahltan, the Tuya and the Nahlin, and other southern branches of the Taku. They range easterly to Dease Lake or beyond, and north to near the head of Teslin Lake and Jennings River. Southerly they extend to some of the northern sources of the Nass. (b) The rest of the Nahane, who appear to consist of a number of loosely connected bands rather than tribes occupying the country east and north-east of the Tahltan to beyond the confines of British Columbia; some of these are the Kaska, inhabiting the Dease River country, the Upper Liards or Deloires, the Mountain Nahane or Goat Indians, etc. The exact divisions and dialects of the Sekani and Nahane groups are not well known. Detached Athapascan tribes: 1. Probably belonging to the Nahane group is the Tsetsaut, who until recently inhabited the country around the head of Portland Canal and over to the head of the Iskut River. They are now reduced to a very few individuals, and their language has become extinct under Niska influence. Their habitat is rather on the coast than in the interior. Formerly a band of Athapascans, probably a part of either the Tahltan or the Tsetsaut, lived a considerable distance down the Iskut River in close proximity to the Tlingit. They were exterminated or dispersed by the Niska. 2. Another tribe of Athapascan lineage called the Stuicha- mukh occupied the Upper parts of Nicola and Similkameen Rivers, and at one time may have extended to the mouth of the latter river within the confines of the United States. Gradually they have been absorbed by the Ntlakyapamuk and their language is now extinct. Tribes of other stocks inhabiting portions of the interior are r1 I. The Tlingit of the Koluschan family: a branch of the Tlingit, generally called the Stikines, claim the Stikine River 1 The customs of the Taku and Kitksan are not dealt with ii because their social organization and culture are mainly the sam the northern coast, and they belong to typical coast stocks. ■^a-£i|a|iBjjfiH----M POPULATION, PAST AND PRESENT 287 valley for about 140 miles of its length, but have no camps much above the mouth of the Iskut. Another branch called the Takus claim the country along the main Taku River, the Nakina River, and all the sources of the Taku towards Atlin and Teslin Lakes. A band make their home around Teslin Lake and range via Nasutlin River over to the head of the Liard. Another small band live on the Big Salmon River, and remnants of a third band, called the Tagish, reside in the neighbourhood of Atlin Lake. Although more or less intermarried with Athapascans, they nearly all speak the Tlingit language. 2. The Kitksan: one of the three main divisions of the Chimmesyan or Tsimshian family. They occupy all the country along the upper Skeena River above the canon, and are closely related to the Niska. 3. An Iroquois band, occupying part of the country about the head-waters of the Fraser River, and east through the Yellowhead Pass to the sources of the Athabaska River. This band appears to have originated about ninety years ago by the settlement of some Iroquois trappers in the country west of the Yellowhead, and developed through intermarriage with the neighbouring Shuswap and Cree to be a mixture of these tribes with Iroquois and French elements. The Cree of the Algonquian stock, and the Stony or Assiniboin of the Siouan stock, claim some hunting grounds within the eastern boundary of British Columbia, but neither of them appears to have had any permanent camps or headquarters within the province. Population, Past and Present All the interior tribes have decreased in number since the advent of the whites, and at the present time are only about one-third as numerous as in former times. Sixty or seventy years ago the Indian population of the interior was probably at least 38,000, of which about 20,000 were Salish, 12,000 Athapascan, and 6000 were of other stocks. The present population is estimated at 11,500, divided about as follows : Salish, 6000 or less ; Athapascans, between 3000 and 3500 ; Kutenai, between 500 and 600; Kitksan, between 1100 and 288 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR 1200 ; Tlingit and others, about 200. In the early sixties many tribes were reduced one-half by an epidemic of smallpox, and some bands were practically exterminated. Since then other epidemics, venereal diseases and intoxicants introduced by the whites have gradually diminished their numbers. The sudden changes in their methods of living, forced upon them by new conditions, resulted in the breaking down of almost all their laws and customs and in the loss of authority by their elders and chiefs. The removal of the old restraints undermined their power of resistance and left them practically without protection against the evils of the white man's civilization, resulting in both moral and physical degeneration. They had no adequate guidance or protection from the white men who had forced the new conditions upon them, and the change in life was too abrupt and far-reaching for them to adapt themselves to it with readiness. Of late years the Dominion government and church missions have done something in the way of providing education and medical attendance, but these provisions have been quite inadequate. Where the conditions are favourable, the Indians appear to have recovered their lost ground to a considerable degree, holding their own in population, and showing even a slight increase in numbers in some places. There are also signs of moral improvement, particularly in those bands more or less remote from the main settlements of the whites. Physical Characteristics and Temperament The physical characteristics of the interior people vary a good deal from tribe to tribe and even within the same tribe, as might be expected in people belonging to different stocks, living in different environments and, in some cases, intermarrying with alien neighbours. Several distinct types can be recognized. Statures, on the whole, are higher in the east and south, and lower towards the west, the smallest natives living near the lower Fraser River. The following average statures of adult males are based chiefly on the investigations of Dr Boas: The Southern and Eastern Shuswap and the Okinagan, iron'ments and. ighbours. See- I It prsiff^iiF^ '^aP- -bu.-:^4Se:r»i PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 289 about 169 cm.; the Senijextee, probably about the same; the Kutenai, 169 cm.; the Shuswap of the North Thompson River, 167 cm., and those of Fraser River, 166 cm. or less. The Ntlakyapamuk of the Thompson and Nicola Rivers average about 166 cm., while those bands along the Fraser River range between 161 and 164 cm., decreasing in height towards the west. Statures decrease in like manner among the Lillooet, who average between 164 and 165 cm. along the Fraser River, where they border on Ntlakyapamuk and Shuswap, whilst westwards along Seaton and Anderson Lakes they decrease to between 162 and 163 cm., and become still shorter towards Harrison Lake. Of Athapascan tribes the Tsilkotin are probably the shortest, averaging 165 cm. or less. According to Father Morice, the Carriers of Stuart Lake are 166 cm., and probably none of the Carrier bands will average any lower than this. Statures between 166 and 168 cm. will probably be the average of the Athapascans farther north. The Kitksan probably average about 167 cm. Most of the southern interior Indians belong to the prevailing physical type of the Salish of the interior plateaus. Dr Boas says of the Shuswaps : The Shuswap represent a type which is found all over the interior of British Columbia, Idaho, Washington and Oregon so far as they are inhabited by Salishan and Sahaptin tribes. Their stature is approximately 168 cm. The head is shorter than that of the tribes of northern British Columbia or of the Indians of the plains. The face has the average height of the Indian face. The nose is high and wide and has the characteristic Indian form, which is rare in most parts of the coast. Again he says : The Kamloops and other Shuswap tribes are closely allied to the Thompson River type, but it seems that the dimensions of their heads are a little larger, their statures a little higher. The latter type appears to embrace most of the Ntlakyapamuk and Lillooet. Dr Boas describes it as follows : The Thompson River type is characterized by a very small head, both diameters being much shorter than VOL. xxi 2 o 290 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR those found on the coast, while the proportions are nearly the same. The transversal diameter of the face is much shorter than that of the coast Indians, being nearly the same as that found among the Indians on the plains. The face is much lower than that of the Kwakiutl type, and also slightly lower than that of the northern type. The nose is convex and heavy ; its point is much longer and heavier than the points of the noses of the coast types. The Kutenai appear to approximate more closely to the type of the western plains. No systematic studies have been made of physical types obtaining among the Athapascans of British Columbia with the exception of the Tsilkotin, who appear to resemble the Shuswap of Fraser River. Dr Boas says of them : \ The Chilcotin resemble the Shuswap much, but their faces are flatter, their noses not so highly elevated over the face.' According to Father Morice, the Athapascan tribes of British Columbia exhibit numerous points of dissimilarity in their physical characteristics. Speaking of the Carriers and others, he says : While the Carriers are in stature perhaps above the average, and stoutly built, with coarse features, thick lips, prominent chins, indices generally more brachy- cephalic than otherwise, and noses straight with extended nostrils, the Sekanais have fine, almost delicate, features, wiry limbs, well formed, and sometimes rather long noses, thin lips slightly protruding, and very small eyes deeply sunk in their sockets. Their size and weight are certainly much belowthe average. On theotherhand the Chilcotins and Babines are short and broad, with heavy features, and flatfish faces, though the women of the latter have abnormally round and fat heads, with remarkably thick lips. The fair sex is more attractive among the Nahane, who enjoy an even whiter complexion which in many cases is not far from rosy. The Kitksan appear to have the general type of head and face common to the Indians of Nass River and the Tsimshian and Haida of the coast, and thus belong to what Dr Boas calls the northern type (on the coast of British Columbia). He says of them: PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 291 Among the northern type we find a very large head. The transversal diameter is very great. The same may be said of the face, which has an enormous breadth. The height of the face is moderate, and therefore its form appears decidedly low. The nose is often concave or straight, seldom convex. The noses of the women are decidedly concave. Its elevation over the face is slight. The point of the nose is short. Generally speaking, the interior people are taller and of a slighter and more athletic build than those of the coast. They are also darker skinned, although the colour of skin varies among individuals in every tribe. The Athapascans of the north are lighter skinned than the Salish and Kutenai of the south. Individuals with wavy hair and others with brownish hair are occasionally to be met with in some tribes. Among the Salish, light hair is often coupled with very dark skin. Among all the tribes there appears to be a greater tendency towards growth of hair on the face and body than among the plains tribes. The so-called mongoloid type of features and eyes are much more common in the north than in the south. In temperament and mental and moral traits there is just as much divergence between tribes and among individuals as in physical characteristics. The Kutenai and most of the Athapascan and Salish tribes have been praised for their honesty and hospitality. All the Athapascan tribes are noted for their receptiveness and propensity to copy from strangers. They appear to be of a more mercurial and emotional temperament than the Salish and Kutenai, and many of them are of a lively, talkative disposition. Father Morice remarks : ' The Carriers are proud, touchy and naturally progressive, the Sekanais naive, honest and credulous, the Babines loquacious and stubbornly attached to their ancestral customs, while the Chilcotins are energetic, violent, and somewhat prone to profligacy.' His description of the Carriers would also be quite applicable to the Tahltans. Of the Salish tribes the Shuswap are reticent and self-contained, and their women somewhat reserved; the Ntlakyapamuk are more sociable, obliging, outspoken and easy-going. The ethical standards of the 1'1 292 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR latter were high, as also was the general morality of all the Salish tribes, before the advent of the whites. The Kutenai are distinguished for sobriety and the higher morality of their women. The tribes of the interior are possessed of a rather high general intelligence, and the reasoning powers of many individuals are very good. Many of the men are excellent speakers, and nearly every one has a fine ear for music. Oratory and singing were formerly much practised. 1 !f Migrations and Tribal Movements Migrations no doubt occurred throughout the interior in early times, but nearly all traditions of them have disappeared. According to legends still extant among the Ntlakyapamuk, their remote ancestors came originally from some place to the south. There appears to be some evidence, at least in later days, that the Ntlakyapamuk language spread from around Lytton up and down the neighbouring river valleys; the Shuswap from the vicinity of the west end of Shuswap Lake; the Okinagan from the lower part of Okanagan River ; and the Lillooet from around Pemberton Meadows. These appear to have been the districts from which the peoples speaking these dialects spread, and in course of time gradually occupied all the territories known to have been recently inhabited by them. It is by some considered probable that the Salish tribes originally came from farther south and east, but whether they were the first inhabitants in the parts of the interior of British Columbia where we now find them, or have dispossessed Athapascan or other tribes from those parts, is a question on which so far there is practically no light. As stated already, an Athapascan tribe occupied the upper Nicola and upper Similkameen, but have lately been completely absorbed by the Ntlakyapamuk. Although said by some to be descendants of a Tsilkotin war-party that arrived there about one hundred and fifty years ago, there is other evidence to show that these people at one time occupied probably the entire Nicola and Similkameen valleys, and must have been located there for a longer period than one hundred and fifty years. Archaeological researches, conducted —- INTERMARRIAGE 293 in parts of the Fraser, Thompson and Nicola valleys, have brought to light no remains other than what can be ascribed to the immediate ancestors of the present inhabitants. So far no different type of man has been discovered, nor any remains showing overlapping of cultures and peoples, excepting to a slight extent along the present lines of contact between tribes. Nor has anything been found to prove that the present tribes have been there for any great period of time. Several migrations and movements have taken place within comparatively recent times: a band of Shuswaps, now called Kinbaskets, shifted to within the borders of Kootenay territory less than one hundred years ago, and remained there as a distinct people; the Nicola valley was gradually occupied by Ntlakyapamuk and Okinagan since the advent of the horse; the Shuswap blood and language was slowly but surely displaced by Ntlakyapamuk in the Thompson valley between Spences Bridge and Ashcroft, and the same thing happened in the Fraser valley around Fountain and Pavilion by Lillooet; some Tsilkotin have moved eastward since i860 and occupied old Shuswap grounds. Traditions are also current of an invasion of Shuswap territory on the North Thompson by a large body of Sekani in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and of their finally having been driven out by Shuswap and Cree parties. At a still earlier date Shuswaps are said to have occupied for a number of years the central part of the Lillooet country. In the Similkameen valley at the present time the Okinagan is gradually displacing the Ntlakyapamuk. It appears to be certain that at least part of the Kutenai formerly lived east of the Rockies. Intermarriage Intermarriage between the various tribes of the interior was frequent in neighbourhoods where they came in contact. In the organization of most tribes there were no restrictions in this respect, and in the families of chiefs intermarriage with strangers was encouraged. The Lillooet intermarried with their neighbours of the coast more often than any other interior tribe, and thus acquired many of the habits and 294 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR customs of the coast Indians. The tribes nearest the Rockies had less opportunity to intermarry with their eastern neighbours, but there were instances of the Kutenai marrying Blackfoot, Assiniboin and Flathead, and members of the Shuswap sometimes married Crees. There is little doubt that most tribes brought in extraneous blood by marriage with women captured in war. Among the Ntlakyapamuk, Okinagan and Shuswap the majority of these slaves came from the lower Lillooet and the coast, but some were from the Athapascan and other tribes. 5 The Native Shelters and Dwellings The winter dwelling of the Salish Indians was a semi- subterranean lodge, formed by a circular excavation, over which a conical roof of timbers was built and covered with earth for warmth. These huts varied from twenty to fifty feet in diameter, and the usual entrance to them was by means of a ladder or notched log passing down through the smoke-hole at the apex. There was sometimes an opening on the south side as well. Certain families of the Tsilkotin and Southern Carrier tribes also lived in dwellings of this type. During the season of mild weather mat lodges were generally used, and most of these were of conical design. Single and double lean-tos, some of great length, were erected at fishing points and other scenes of large gatherings. The Kutenai lived in mat lodges of both types. The common dwelling among the Athapascans was of the double lean-to style, constructed of poles and covered with coniferous boughs. Some of the Western Lillooets and Carriers dwelt in houses made of planks, somewhat similar in design to those of the coast Indians. The Tahltans built large structures of poles and bark, which were used partly for fish-drying purposes and partly as dwellings at the chief salmon fishing places. Caches for fish and other provisions were made of logs and poles on the ground or were raised on posts. Many were roofed with bark. Among the Salish most caches consisted of circular pits in the ground lined with bark and covered with poles and grass. Sweat-houses were used by TRADE AND INTERCOURSE OF THE TRIBES 295 all the tribes, and were made of a framework of wands covered with bark, mats or robes, if temporary, and with earth if intended for permanent use. The southern tribes used separate lodges for pubescent girls and menstruating women. These were conical and covered with boughs of fir, and sometimes with bark and skins. The young men of the tribes, while undergoing a course of training, lived in the sweat- houses. Tipis of skin were used in British Columbia only by the Beavers and those Athapascan bands in the extreme east, who probably adopted them from the Cree. A few tipis of buffalo skin, imported from the south and east, were used by the Kutenais and Okinagans. None are to be seen to-day, for canvas tipis and tents of drilling have long supplanted them. Trade and Intercourse of the Tribes The tribes of the interior had frequent intercourse with the Indians of the coast and of the plains, and also with the tribes of the plateaus north and south of them. As the great mountain chains hemmed them in east and west, the outlets for trade in these directions were confined to a few points where rivers had forced their way through these barriers, or where low passes existed. Along some of these routes an active inter-tribal trade was carried on. In early times the Indians usually travelled on foot from place to place. Canoe transportation was employed wherever possible or convenient, but ordinarily goods were carried on people's backs, supported by tump-lines passing over the head. These lines were usually straps of hide, but were sometimes woven of hair or bark. Dogs were employed for packing by many tribes, and among the northern Athapascan they were also used for drawing sleds in the winter time. After the introduction of horses, which were brought in from the south about the middle of the eighteenth century, travel became easier, and all the southern tribes soon learned to ride and pack. North of the Tsilkotin, however, owing to unfavourable environment, the tribes never became horse- people, and horses are scarce there even at the present day. The canoes used in the interior were of three kinds: 296 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR dug-outs, hollowed out of cedar, cottonwood, and pine logs; canoes made from bark of white pine, spruce and occasionally birch ; and skin-boats made by stretching hide over a wooden frame. Dug-outs were used principally in the western parts of the country bordering on the coast tribes, being for the most part copies of craft owned by the latter. After the introduction of iron tools they were in more general use. Bark canoes were of two types: the so-called f sturgeon- nose ' kind, with points at the water line, used by the Ntlakyapamuk, Okinagan, Senijextee, Shuswap and Kutenai ; and those approximating to eastern and Yukon River types, used by all the Athapascan tribes and most of the Lillooet. Skin- boats were generally of the same shape as the Athapascan bark canoes and were used chiefly by the Nahane. Among the Okinagan and Ntlakyapamuk and some other southern tribes, a temporary canoe was made occasionally of several thicknesses of tule tent-mats spread over a frame. Rafts of bundles of mats-or of bunches of tules tied together, were also employed in some localities. Rafts of logs and poles were sometimes used by all the tribes. Snow-shoes were much employed for travelling in deep snow, especially in the north, and were of several different styles. Those used by the Ntlakyapamuk, Okinagan, Senijextee and Kutenai were of the Columbia River type—small, round-headed, and without cross-bars. Those in vogue among the Athapascans, most of the Shuswap, and many Lillooet were much larger, with finer meshes, and had wooden cross-bars. The style called j shovel-nose,' lately much used by the Tahltan, appears to have been introduced originally from Alaska through the Taku tribe. Clothing and Personal Decoration The full dress of men among the southern interior tribes consisted of moccasins, long leggings, breech-cloth, belt, shirt and head-dress. Many men when indoors or when going about the camp in warm weather, or when engaged in games, wore simply a breech-cloth or a breech-cloth and moccasins. The common style of moccasin consisted of a single piece of skin folded over and sewed along the outside of the foot and CLOTHING AND PERSONAL DECORATION 297 heel. To this was sewed a short gaiter, which folded around the ankle and was held in place by the moccasin strings. Another style, almost as common, had the seam down the toe and was provided with a small tongue-piece. It was similar to the ordinary moccasin used by certain Athapascan and Algonquian tribes. Leggings reached to the hip and were fastened with loops to a belt around the waist. Nearly all were decorated with cut fringe at the sides. Old men sometimes wore an apron consisting of a long piece of skin hanging in front. Breech-cloths were of several kinds. A piece of skin passing between the legs with long flaps hanging before and behind over the belt was worn, and also the same with short flaps, a single flap in front, or without flaps and fastened at the sides. Shirts, like most other clothing, were made of dressed leather of the deer and elk and other animals. They were commonly of two styles. One kind reached almost to the knees, and was made of two doe-skins, and the other sort reached to the hips and was made of a single buckskin. Head-bands and caps of fur, bird-skin, and buckskin were worn, and many of these were ornamented with feathers. Shamans, chiefs and warriors had distinct styles of bonnets or head-dresses. Hunters often wore head-bands with a feather set at each side, or caps made of the head-skins of deer and other animals. Sometimes caps were set with the horns of deer ; and small ponchos, made of entire skins of coyote, Wolf or fox, were worn by some. Sleeveless shirts, laced at the sides, made of buffalo or other skin, were also in vogue. Women's moccasins were similar to the men's. Their leggings reached from the ankle to the knee. Their skirts or dresses were loose and reached to the ankle or halfway below the knees. The skirts were of several styles, some being made of two skins and some of three. A belt was generally worn to keep them in place. Some shirts of both men and women had full sleeves, but many were without true sleeves. The head-bands and caps were of dressed skin, and the caps usually had a short tassel or were decorated with fringes at the crown. Robes, ponchos and cloaks made from the skins of marmot, otter, coyote, deer, buffalo and other animals were much worn by both sexes. Robes of vol. xxi 2 p 298 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR woven rabbit skins were also used, especially in the winter, and in the western part of the country robes of woven goat hair were common. Some of the elderly women, especially those of the poorer class, wore, instead of dresses, a skirt reaching to a little below the knees, the lower half of which was cut in a long fringe. In the neighbourhood of the coast tribes many of the poorer class used robes, ponchos, skirts, caps, and socks woven of the bark of sage, willow, and cedar, or of rushes. These were often ornamented with buckskin, fur, and feathers, and the best clothes of both sexes were elaborately decorated with fringes, quill-work, beads, shells, and painted designs. The clothing of some of the men was fringed with hair and ermine skins. Necklaces of shells, seeds, beads and quills were much used by women for adornment, and men also wore necklaces of claws, teeth, or bones. The clothing of the northern tribes was generally the same as that worn in the south, but there was a considerable difference in details of cut and decoration. Garments of fur were naturally much more used in the north than in the south, and the leggings used by women were longer. Mittens and fur caps were used everywhere during the winter. Earrings of shells and beads, and hair ornaments of various kinds were common to all the tribes, both north and south. Nose ornaments of shell, bone, or quills were worn by the women of practically all the tribes. Among the Babines and Kit- ksans labrets were also worn. Painting of the face or body was a universal practice of both sexes, red being the colour commonly used. Tattooing of the face and wrists, and occasionally of other parts of the body, was more or less common, particularly among women. The usual style of hair-dressing in the southern interior was to wear the hair in two braids, but several different styles were common in all tribes. Women generally wore the ends of their hair braids tied to each other behind the back, but the men usually allowed their braids to hang in front of the shoulders. Warriors frequently tied their hair in a knot on the top of the head, or at the nape of the neck, and pubescent girls wore theirs in knots at the ears. INDUSTRIES Industries The tools of the interior Indians were usually made of stone, antler, bone, or wood. Trees were chopped down with antler chisels driven by stone hand-hammers. Adzes of serpentine and jade and knives of chert were common. Stone and wooden mortars and pestles were used in the south, and spoons were made of wood, horn and bark. The dressing of animal skins was an important industry in every tribe, and most of this work was done by the women. A deer's ulna or the rib of a horse was used by the southern tribes for fleshing, and the skins were afterwards softened by severe rubbing with a sharpened stick or with a stone scraper mounted on the end of a wooden handle. Skins were sometimes smoked, especially those intended to be used for moccasins. Sewing was usually done with a bone awl, and thread was made of sinew from the backs of animals or of Indian hemp and other kinds of vegetable fibre. Coiled basketry of split cedar roots and of spruce roots was made by the Salish tribes, the Lower Kutenai, and the Tsilkotin, but the industry appears to have been unknown to the most northern Athapascan tribes of British Columbia. These baskets were ornamented with strips of grass and bark, and designs were produced by the process known as imbrication. The nearest coast tribes who make similar baskets appear to have learned the art from the Lillooet and Ntlakyapamuk ; and the Tsilkotin also may have adopted it from the Shuswap or Lillooet. Birch-bark baskets were made by all the tribes. Many were ornamented about the rims with stitching of spruce root, quills and dyed hair, and some had designs and pictographs incised in the bark around the sides. Bags were woven of twine, bark, thong, and grass. Wallets of twined weaving of the Sahaptin type were made by the Okinagan and Ntlakyapamuk. The Athapascan tribes made game or carrying bags of babiche, using the coil without foundation weave. Many kinds of bags used for various purposes were made of dressed skin. Some of these were highly ornamented with quill and bead work. Mats of tule and rushes were manufactured by I 300 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR all the southern tribes and were of various types ; but the Athapascan tribes, with the exception of the Tsilkotin, did not weave mats. Blankets of twisted strips of rabbit skins were evidently made by all tribes, and some of goat's wool were woven by the Lillooet and the Lower Ntlakyapamuk. Bags and parfleches of raw hide were made by the Salish tribes, and by the Kutenai after the horse had been introduced among them. Many of these were painted with designs in colours. Saddles and all horse equipment were similar to what were used among the tribes in the neighbouring States and on the plains. Pipes were made of soapstone. Originally most of them were of the tubular or straight type, but these were later superseded entirely by pipes of the elbow type. Carving on wood and stone was but little practised and was always rude in execution. None of the interior tribes manufactured pottery. Paints and dyes of several kinds were used by all, but their decorative art was quite distinct from that of the coast tribes. Wallets were occasionally woven of goat's wool and of bear and buffalo hair, but dog's hair was never used in manufactures as it was upon the coast. The Food Supply of the Interior Tribes The Indians of the interior of British Columbia subsisted principally by hunting and fishing, and those living near the chief salmon streams made fish their staple diet. On the banks of the Fraser and other rivers were numerous villages, which were occupied in the north during the summer season by the southern tribes, and in the south during winter by the northern tribes. The Sekani and the majority of the Nahane were nomadic and had no permanent residences. Even among the tribes which had more or less permanent homes there were many families which were migratory in their habits. The methods of fishing were with nets or traps or by spearing. The spears used were of two types—a harpoon spear with single or double points, fitted with barbs which became detached when a fish was struck ; and a three-pronged spear which was used when the fish was swimming directly FOOD SUPPLY OF THE INTERIOR TRIBES 301 below. Gaff-hooks were used in pools and at weirs, and hooks and lines were also employed. A great variety of snares and traps were made by the various tribes for capturing large and small game, and dogs were used for hunting deer and elk. The more skilful hunters secured large game by still-hunting with bow and arrow, and sometimes a large number of Indians participated in driving, ringing and corralling the animals. Driving game over steep precipices was another method employed in capturing it. The Lillooets were the only tribe that employed pitfalls in hunting. Among the Ntlakyapamuk and Okinagan enclosures for trapping game were made by stretching nets between patches of bushes in the form of a half-moon or circle. Many Kutenai and some Okinagan went on buffalo-hunting trips to the plains. Beavers were caught in nets, or were speared with lances having notched bone heads. Eagles, which were highly valued for their tail-feathers, were difficult to secure. In the south a common method of catching them was to construct a pit and cover it with brush. Bait for the eagle was placed on top, and when the bird came for it its legs were seized by an Indian concealed within the pit. Young eagles were sometimes caught in their nests by men who descended the cliffs with ropes. With the exception of a little tobacco, grown by the Kutenai, no agriculture was practised among the tribes. Tobacco seeds were sown by the Ntlakyapamuk around camping places, but were not cultivated in any way. Roots of many kinds of plants were dug by the women, and amonj the southern tribes formed an important part of the food supply. The implement used for digging was made of a bent piece of hardwood with a handle of birch wood or of ram's horn ; sometimes it was entirely of antler. Nuts and seeds of several kinds were gathered. All kinds of edible berries were used in their season, and service-berries, soapberries and huckleberries were cured for the winter. In the south they were generally spread on mats and dried in the sun. Some varieties were mashed with wooden pestles, kneaded into cakes and dried. Several kinds of roots were 302 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR cooked in pits in the ground, with or without steaming, and afterwards threaded on strings and dried. Tradition says that eggs and meat were also sometimes cooked in this manner. Fish, especially salmon, were split and dried for winter use. Among the tribes living along the Cascades, where the climate was damper than farther east, curing by heat of fire and smoke was resorted to, the fish being hung in houses, or in shelters erected for the purpose. Meat of large game was jerked by the ordinary methods employed on the plains. In some places both salmon and meat pemmican were prepared for food. Salmon oil was preserved in sealed fish- skin bottles by all the tribes living near good salmon streams. Both fish and meat were roasted on spits, and certain kinds of roots and nutlets were baked in hot ashes. A great deal of food was boiled in kettles by means of hot stones. The vessels used were chiefly of basketry in the south and of bark in the north, but occasionally the paunches of animals were also used as kettles. Fire was produced by twirling between the hands a small sharpened bit of dry wood set in a notched stick. War : Weapons of Offence and Defence War was frequent between the various interior tribes, and also between them and the neighbouring tribes of the coast and the plains. Although battles were generally in the nature of raids and surprises, determined fighting sometimes occurred and open attacks were made. The Ntlakyapamuk fought chiefly with some of the coast tribes of Puget Sound and the lower Fraser, and with the Lillooet and Shuswap, but not with the Okinagan, who were sometimes their allies. The Lillooet fought principally with the Ntlakyapamuk, Shuswap and Tsilkotin ; the Shuswap with the Lillooet, Ntlakyapamuk, Okinagan, Tsilkotin, Sekani, Cree and Kutenai; and both were generally friendly with the Carrier and Assini- boin. The Senijextee were sometimes at war with the Lower Kutenai; the Carriers and Tsilkotins occasionally fought each other. The Tahltans warred with the Niska and Taku tribes, and the Kutenai frequently fought with the Black- WEAPONS OF OFFENCE AND DEFENCE 303 feet. Cree war-parties sometimes raided the Sekani country to the confines of the Carriers and across the Shuswap region as far as the Fraser River. In like manner Shuswaps occasionally crossed the Rockies by the Yellowhead Pass into the Cree country. The weapons used in warfare were bows and arrows, lances, knives, daggers, and clubs of various kinds. A war club, consisting of a stone enclosed in hide attached to a short wooden handle, was very common among the Salish and the Kutenai tribes. Other kinds used by these tribes were : a wooden club with a point of antler set in the striking end ; an antler spike or a chipped stone placed crossways in the end of a wooden handle ; a club made of stone, wood, copper, antler or bone in a single piece with sharp striking edges ; and a club of wood or bone, with saw-like edge. Some of the Lower Ntlakyapamuk and Lillooet used a hardwood club with a round head, or a head consisting of a knot with a natural spike. Daggers were of chipped stone, antler, bone, or of wood tipped with stone. Lances were about five feet in length with stone and antler heads. Arrows were usually made of service-berry wood or rosewood. A number of different types were common. Harpoon arrows with detachable heads of bone or wood were used for rabbits ; a notched arrow without head for squirrels ; arrows with three-pronged heads for birds, and others with a cross piece of wood at the end for fish. Arrows used for big game had leaf-shaped stone heads, and some had grooves along the shaft to facilitate the dripping of blood. Many war arrows had detachable foreshafts. The heads of war arrows were usually inserted in a line parallel to the nock; those of hunting arrows were placed at right angles to it, to allow them to penetrate more easily between the ribs. The feathering of arrows consisted of three split feathers applied spirally, or two whole feathers laid on flat. Shafts of arrows were finished with smoothers made of sandstone. The Salish tribes often poisoned the heads of their war arrows. The bows of the southern tribes were short and usually made of juniper, dogwood or yew. Some were made of ram's horn. All the best bows were sinew-backed and covered with snake-skin. They were of several different shapes. Some were narrow 304 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR and round, others wide and flat, some had a single curve, and others a double curve, some had upturned ends, and others had the ends turned downwards. The arrow release was generally primary. Quivers were made of skins of wolverine, otter, wolf, and other animals, and were of several styles. Hand-guards of skin were used when shooting with certain kinds of bows. Among the Athapascans arrows were generally made of service-berry wood, and the feathering appears to have been flat. Arrow heads were of bone, antler, and stone (mostly obsidian among the Tsilkotin and Tahltan). A war arrow with detachable antler head was used, but none with detachable foreshafts. For birds, an arrow with thick, blunt point was much in vogue. Arrows were not poisoned. Bows were made of maple, juniper, and other woods. Among the Carriers and Tsilkotin they were about four feet in length, but among the Sekani and Nahane about five and a half feet. The best bows of the Carrier and Tsilkotin were sinew-backed like those of the Salish, but the tribes farther north used a wrapping of sinew. A crossbow was in use among Sekani children. A cuirass made of slats or rods of hardwood was worn in time of battle by some warriors of all the Salish tribes, and by the Tsilkotins, Carriers and Tahltans. Skin tunics reaching nearly to the knees were also used for protection against arrows. For the same purpose oblong skin shields about five feet in length were in use, also oval shields made of rods of hardwood twined together. Small board shields were in use in the Salish tribes, as well as small circular shields of hide. In some places earth-covered houses of logs, built over pits connecting with underground passages, the entrances to which were hidden, were erected as places of refuge. Stockaded forts were also built by some tribes. Games and Pastimes When not busy in hunting or fishing or in raiding their neighbours, numerous athletic sports and games of chance were engaged in by all the tribes. The Lehal game of hiding bones was popular with all, and according to Father Morice it was probably introduced among the Athapascans from SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 305 Algonquian or Salish sources. The game of hiding sticks in the grass also appears to have been universal. A dice game, in which marked teeth of the beaver or marmot were used, was common ; and some tribes used buttons for the same purpose. Dart games of various kinds were also popular. Another sport, confined to the Salish tribes and the Kutenai, was played by throwing a lance or rod in front of a beaded ring. The Athapascans had a different game of throwing rods, and also played a variety of the snow-snake game. Ball-playing was popular among all the southern tribes, and many kinds of shooting games were engaged in. Tug-of- war, wrestling, jumping, running, putting the stone, and swimming were popular forms of athletics everywhere, and among the women cat's-cradle games, played with strings on the fingers, were universal. There were also many kinds of games for the children. Singing and dancing, accompanied by drumming and the beating of sticks, were popular pastimes among all the Indians of the interior. Social Organization There were two main forms of social organization among the interior tribes. The western tribes adopted a type based on the complicated system of the coast tribes, while the eastern peoples maintained the simple organization characteristic of the plateau tribes in general, which was no doubt the form originally followed by all the interior tribes. Accepted custom and public opinion were the only laws among the Salish tribes that adhered to their original organization. As a rule the family was the basis of society, the elder men being always the leaders, advisers, protectors, and practically the rulers. A group of families, generally related to each other and making their headquarters in certain districts, composed the local community, the elders of each family acting as an informal advisory council, which was presided over by a chief whose position was hereditary in most bands. The chief was the acknowledged head of the band and his advice on all questions was listened to with deference. Through him, also, matters affecting the com- vol. xxi a Q 306 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR munity were negotiated with strangers, and he was expected to supervise all things for the benefit of the band as a whole. However, he had no real power without the practical aid of all the people. If the hereditary chief proved incompetent, a suitable successor was chosen from among his close relatives, or, when necessary, from .an entirely different family. In some bands there were certain men who became prominent because of their wealth, wisdom or their prowess in war, and these were always consulted by the chief on matters of importance. In the majority of bands there was a war-chief who was chosen by election. If he failed in an expedition, he was likely to be superseded in power before the next foray took place. Aggregations of bands, based partly on geographical disposition and partly on ties of relationship and intercourse, formed the tribal divisions, and these in turn the tribe, the chief basis of which was the community of language distinguishing it from surrounding peoples, and the general assumption that all its members were at least distantly related and had sprung originally from a common group. The interior Indians were accustomed to affiliate with one band or another, according to inclination, convenience or relationship. There were no exogamous groups, and there were practically no restrictions on intermarriage, except between close blood-relations. There were no privileged classes, no hereditary nobility, no clan systems and no secret societies. Nor were there any totemic institutions, as among the coast tribes. Young women who were captured in war and made slaves, became acknowledged members of the tribe when they had borne children. Hunting territory was considered to belong to the whole tribe, there being no private property in land, although in some bands certain salmon fishing stations, deer-fence sites and eagle breeding places were the sole property of families or individuals. The earth and all that grew upon it, and all the game and fish of the country, were the common property of the tribe. A wife's property was separate from that of her husband. The home generally belonged to the wife, and in case of death the mother's property was inherited by the daughters and the father's by the sons. When there were no children, the SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 307 property of a deceased person passed to the nearest relatives, males generally taking precedence of females. The father had the first right in naming children, particularly sons, but the names, which were hereditary in families, were taken from both maternal and paternal lines. Sometimes family or individual names were sold or given away to strangers. The tribes arranged several varieties of social festivals, at which there was much feasting, exchanging of presents, dancing and games. Some of these gatherings were arranged by formal invitation, and others were in the nature of surprise parties. There were a few fixed festivals, which took place invariably at certain seasons of the year. The Kutenai had the same general social organization as the Salish. Among the Athapascan tribes in the north-eastern portion of the interior the social structure appears to have been even more simple than among the Salish and Kutenai. The tribes living north of the Ntlakyapamuk, and near the coast people, copied the social organization of the latter, each tribe following the particular form belonging to its nearest coast neighbour. Thus the Tahltan followed the customs of the Tlingit, the Carrier copied the Kitksan and Tsimshian, and the Tsilkotin had many of the customs of the Bella Coola. The system among the Shuswaps of Fraser River had both northern and southern coast features, the latter derived from the Lillooet and the former from the Tsilkotin and Carrier. This social system was not introduced among any of the bands much more than a hundred years ago, and had not been fully adopted by some in 1858, when the advent of the whites put an end to its further growth. The most striking features of the system were the clan organization, the division of the people into castes, the formation of numerous secret societies with special songs, rituals and dances, the use of crests, and the adoption in some tribes of mother-right instead of father-right. The hunting grounds were parcelled out between the clans, or in some cases the nobles, the privileges of hunting, fishing and trapping being controlled by them. In some places trading was also a special privilege of either the clan or the nobility. £ I I 1 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR Cradles of the Infants The carriers or cradles used by the southern tribes for carrying their infants were of several varieties. Most of the Shuswaps, some of the Ntlakyapamuk and Lillooets, and a few people of other tribes used for babies cradles of birch bark which were carried horizontally. The western bands of the Ntlakyapamuk and Lillooet used cradles which were constructed of coiled basketry. The Kutenai and Okinagan, part of the Ntlakyapamuk and some of the Shuswap used board carriers of several different styles. Skin carriers were much used for transporting older children. They were constructed like a sleeveless shirt, with straps to pass between the legs and fastened over the shoulders with thongs, a tump- line attachment passing around the back and over the mother's head. All the best bark carriers were covered with skin. Different kinds of skin sacks and swaddling-clothes were also in use. The Tsilkotin used a carrier made of willow wands, which were covered with skin on the outside and fitted with a board inside. Many cradles of the Tsilkotin, Lillooet and Ntlakyapamuk were supplied with conduits of bark or wood. Hammocks for babies were used in homes, particularly by the Lillooet. Most families among the Ntlakyapamuk, Okinagan and other southern tribes had the custom of attaching navel-string pouches to the heads of cradles. Training the Young A great many ceremonies were performed at the age of puberty, especially among the Salish tribes. Adolescent young people of both sexes were obliged to undergo hard systems of training for the purpose of preparing them for their future spheres in life. In some tribes the training extended over a number of years, and consisted largely of physical exercises which were designed to make them healthy, strong, active, and enduring. Some ceremonies were of a religious character and were intended to assist the young in acquiring special or supernatural powers. ^b BURIAL CUSTOMS Marriage Marriage appears to have been a rather simple and informal affair among most of the Athapascan tribes, being chiefly a matter of arrangement between the man and the parents of his prospective bride, followed in most cases by the payment of a certain amount of goods to the woman's relatives. The most common form of marriage among the Salish was also somewhat in the nature of purchase. When a union had been arranged, the man and his relatives gave presents to the woman's people, an equal amount being afterwards returned to them. Feasts were given later by each group of relatives to the other. Marriage by betrothal, in which the girl's parents took the initiative, was also common. Another form 'of marriage was by ' touching,' a dance being held at certain seasons to permit the young men and women to choose life partners. A young man might choose a wife at a certain period of the dance by taking hold of her belt or by merely laying his hand upon her. If accepted, she allowed him to dance with her to the end, when the couple were led out before the people by the chief and proclaimed man and wife. A girl could choose a man in the same way. Polygamy was common in every tribe, the chiefs and wealthy men often having several wives. Levirate also prevailed, and there was a strong tendency among men in many tribes to marry sisters. Burial Customs It was the universal custom among the southern tribes to bury their dead. The body was bound up in mats or in skins and interred in the ground or in rock-slides. Stones were piled on the spot of burial, or a small tipi was erected over it, and sometimes a pole was inserted at the head of the grave to mark the place. Certain belongings of the deceased were buried with the corpse, or were hung up or destroyed at the grave. In some cases one or more of the dead man's horses or dogs was slaughtered at the grave, or actually 3io INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR buried with him, and occasionally slaves were also forced to follow their master to the spirit land. The practice of bundling and rewrapping the bones of deceased relatives was practised by wealthy people among the Salish. Among Athapascan tribes the Tsilkotin generally interred their dead and built small log enclosures over the graves. The Sekani and Eastern Nahane disposed of their dead on scaffolds, or placed the bodies in hollow trees, covering them with piles of brush or logs. The Babines, Carriers, and Tahltans burned their dead, a custom they probably borrowed from the neighbouring coast tribes. The most western bands of the Lillooet and Ntlakyapamuk deposited their dead in wooden vaults or boxes above ground and erected wooden images of the deceased at the graves. This custom was also borrowed from the coast tribes. In the south-west part of the interior canoes were sometimes placed over graves and grave goods placed in them, or underneath them if the canoe was inverted. Religion The religion of the interior tribes may be described as a sort of animism, or nature-worship, based largely on the belief that a certain mysterious power pervaded all nature, its manifestations varying in different objects as to kind and degree. It was the effort of the Indians to obtain as much as possible of this power from those animals and objects in nature that appeared to possess it in the greatest degree or that manifested the type of power considered the most valuable. Thus the sun and day-dawn were among the chief objects of veneration and supplication, as were certain mountain peaks, the thunder and rocks and trees. In the animal kingdom such creatures as the eagle, raven, owl, wolf and grizzly bear were venerated, and young men tried to obtain them for manitous or guardian spirits. The acquisition of power from the spirits was generally accompanied by the receiving of songs. The bulk of the Ntlakyapamuk music is supposed to have been originated in this way. The spirit of the sweat-bath was looked upon as a deity of great power, and was prayed to by Indians who were purifying L RELIGION 311 themselves before embarking upon some important undertaking. This spirit was frequently supplicated as an intermediary and asked to obtain power from animals as well as to bestow his own. He was also asked at times to take away the power of animals and enemies, in order that they might fall easy victims to the supplicant. A manitou dance was regularly performed among the southern tribes, the participants dancing, singing their manitou songs in turn, and giving exhibitions of powers they claimed to have obtained from their manitous. A dance was also held at the summer and winter solstices, during which prayers were offered to the sun. Everything was supposed to have a soul, and the soul was thought to possess a shadow which remained on earth as a ghost for some time after the real soul had departed. Souls were supposed to go to the spirit land, which most tribes claimed lay underground, and to the west, the trail to which was guarded at several points by spirits who turned back the souls of persons whose time had not come to die. Farther on the trail entered a valley and reached a river spanned by a log, which rolled over whenever souls attempted to step on it. Only the souls of persons whose time had come to join the shades could cross it. Sickness was supposed to be caused by the soul leaving the body, and as long as it remained absent the victim remained ill. Shamans, who claimed to see souls, or the tracks of souls, when other people could not, were employed to search for the lost soul and return it to the body. They might find it wandering about the earth or gone on the long trail to the shades. As soon as it was returned to the body the patient recovered, but if the soul remained away too long the victim died. The spirit land was supposed to be ruled by a chief, who was a very old man and had existed from the beginning of time. He was claimed by some to have been the creator of the world. The coyote, who is the combined hero and trickster in the legends of the southern tribes, was said to have been sent by the ' old-one,' or chief, to set the world to rights, and many stories are told of his travels and exploits while performing this task. Eventually the chief visited the world to examine the coyote's work, and afterwards both of them disappeared. 312 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE INTERIOR It was supposed that they would return some time from the east, as the sun does,1 and bring the shades with them, and henceforth there would be no more death or separation. A big ' praying' dance was formerly held by all bands at irregular intervals, at which prayers were offered to the spirit chief. The object was to hasten the reunion of the living with the shades, as well as to make the living more acceptable to the dead and to preserve the supplicants from harm. Several varieties of war dances were performed, including a victory or scalp dance, but little is now remembered of the latter. One variety of dance was performed by men about to go to war, and another by their wives and relatives during their absence. Practically all the interior Indians believed in the existence of races of dwarfs and giants. A belief also obtained that the various animals went to spirit worlds of their own. The earth was often spoken of symbolically as mother, and sometimes the sun was referred to as the father of all life. A ceremony and feast of first- fruits was regularly observed, and there was also an elaborate ceremonial when the first tobacco of the season's crop was smoked. The coyote legends and many other stories of the southern tribes are closely connected with those current farther south, while other legends show greater relationship with coast and northern myths. Traditions of a great flood which had occurred in early times were universal, and in many tribes there was also the legend of a great fire. The beliefs of the Athapascan tribes regarding manitous, shamanism and the soul are, on the whole, similar to those obtaining among the tribes of the southern interior. The Kutenai beliefs appear to have been like those of the Salish, and their dances were practically the same. In later days their ceremonies appear to have been modified by the influence of the tribes of the plains, and the same may be said of the Okinagan. INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST General Characteristics THE Indians of the north-west coast of America from Southern Alaska to Juan de Fuca Strait consist of a group of tribes which, differing as they do very materially in language, physical characteristics and details of culture, are nevertheless conveniently grouped together by ethnologists as exhibiting several distinct cultural traits which separate them definitely from their Eskimo neighbours to the north-west and from the various tribes of the plateaus to the east. The coast tribes have developed a characteristic aboriginal culture which exceeds in complexity and intensity that of their neighbours ; the north-west coast culture area may indeed be considered as the most specialized of the ethnological areas recognized by anthropologists north of Mexico, unless perhaps we except that of the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico. Nowhere north of Mexico have the aborigines brought certain industries, particularly wood-carving and blanket-weaving, to such a high degree of perfection, and few areas offer to the anthropologist such interesting problems of social organization. In the course of the last fifty years or so the native industries, customs and beliefs have suffered considerable decay owing to the influence of the whites, with whom the Indians have been coming in contact from year to year. In certain parts of the coast region the natives have become almost completely demoralized as tribal units, and are largely dependent for their economic subsistence on the neighbouring whites. In others, however, as in some of the villages of Northern Vancouver Island, they have been more conservative; but even here much of the early intensity and picturesqueness of aboriginal life 316 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST has vanished. In one important respect the anthropologist's task in Western British Columbia is simpler than in Eastern Canada. The tribes of the latter area, even where they have distinctly maintained their-identity, have become assimilated in both physical type and culture to their neighbours of European descent to a much greater degree than in the Far West. Hence the student has constantly to deal with the ofttimes perplexing problem of just which elements in any given industry, custom, or belief are European in origin, and which truly aboriginal. Such considerations have far less weight in the study of the aborigines of the coast of British Columbia, not so much for the reason that the influence of the whites has been less profound, as that it has been of shorter duration. This means that the old life of the Indians and the new life with which they are now confronted have not had time to be thoroughly welded together. Hence it follows that most of the traits of aboriginal culture among the coast tribes can be studied in relative purity. Often enough this or that industry or custom has dropped entirely out of use, or, in extreme cases, has been entirely forgotten, but survivals of the older life in the form of compromises are, fortunately for the anthropologist, less frequently met with than in the eastern part of the Dominion. Linguistic Stocks The tribes of the west coast are most easily and satisfactorily classified according to the linguistic stocks to which they belong; in other words, according to the various unrelated groups of languages that are spoken by these Indians. Of these linguistic stocks, which can no more easily be shown to be divergent forms of a common stock than can Aryan and Semitic, there are no less than five in the region from Yakutat Bay to Puget Sound : the Tlingit, Haida, Tsim- shian, Wakashan or Kwakiutl-Nootka, and Salish. Of these, all but the Salish are confined to the strip of coast just defined. Salish languages, however, are spoken in the southern interior of British Columbia and in large parts of the adjoining States of Montana, Idaho, and Washington, LINGUISTIC STOCKS 317 most of the coast of the last state being occupied by tribes of this stock ; a Salish tribe, the Tillamook, is found in North-Western Oregon not far south of the mouth of the Columbia. The division of tribes according to linguistic stocks is made primarily from the point of view of the linguist, yet it so happens that a purely ethnological classification can be brought into correspondence with the linguistic one. The Tlingit tribes inhabit the islands and fiords of the long strip of coast of Southern Alaska as far south as Portland Canal. Though the dialects spoken by the Tlingit tribes seem to differ only slightly from one another, these can hardly be said to form a political unit, but must be considered as independent of one another. These tribes, proceeding from south to north, are: the Tongas, Senya, Henya, Kuiu, Kake, Sundum, Stikine, Taku, Auk, Hutsnuwu, Huna, Sitka, Chilkat, and Yakutat Though falling outside the limits of British Columbia, the Tlingit Indians are typical representatives of the west coast culture area. The Haida occupy the islands forming the Queen Charlotte group as well as the southern part of Prince of Wales archipelago, where they are known as Kaigani. Haida is now chiefly spoken in two dialects, that of Massett on the northern island (Graham) and that of Skidegate in the southern part of the group. There were several important villages besides Massett and Skidegate, such as Cumshewa, Tanu, and Ninstints, but these are now practically abandoned. The Tsimshian stock is represented by tribes occupying the shores of Nass River and Skeena River (from a point some distance above Hazelton), the main coast from Portland Canal to about as far south as Douglas Channel, and the islands along the coast as far south as Millbank Sound. There are three dialectic subdivisions in Tsimshian spoken by as many groups of related villages : the Niska of Nass River, the Kitksan of the upper Skeena, and the Tsimshian proper of the lower Skeena and of the islands to the south. The Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Indians may be grouped together both physically and culturally in contrast to the coast tribes south of them. In regard to social organization they may be considered as the most typical tribes of the region ; their technical achieve- 3i8 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST ments (as, for example, the Chilkat blankets, canoes, and horn spoons) often reveal a finish not attained by the other coast tribes. The Wakashan tribes inhabit a long stretch of coast land and adjacent islands from Douglas Channel to Juan de Fuca Strait. The stock is composed of two linguistically quite divergent members, the Kwakiutl and the Nootka, also known as the Aht. The Kwakiutl tribes embrace the Haisla, of Douglas and Gardner Channels; the Heiltsuk, who occupy the country between Gardner Channel and Rivers Inlet, and whose best known village is Bella Bella ; and the Kwakiutl proper, a number of tribes that are divided between the mainland of British Columbia, from Rivers Inlet to Valdez Island, and the northernmost part of Vancouver Island from Cape Cook on the north-west of the island round to Cape Mudge on its east coast. The various tribes collectively referred to as Nootka (though this term is used locally only to refer to the natives of Nootka Sound) occupy the west coast of Vancouver Island from Cape Cook south to Juan de Fuca Strait. There is a distinct line of dialectic cleavage at Barkley Sound, the Nootka Indians south of which are often known as Nitinat. To the Nitinat belong properly also the Makah Indians of Cape Flattery in the extreme north-west of the State of Washington. The Salish tribes consist of two main groups, which differ markedly in physical characteristics, culture, and grammatical features of the languages respectively spoken in the two areas. Here we need refer only to the coast Salish, whose tribes, as we have seen, are continued south to the lower Columbia. The coast Salish of British Columbia include two geographically disconnected peoples, the Bella Coola of Dean and Burke Channels, who can be shown to have separated themselves some time in the past from the main body of coast Salish, and the coast Saiish proper, who occupy the mainland south of Cape Mudge and Bute Inlet to the American line as well as the east coast of Vancouver Island south of the Kwakiutl to Juan de Fuca Strait. The coast Salish Indians are composed of a rather large number of distinct tribes speaking mutually unintelligible languages, which, for British Columbia, I LINGUISTIC STOCKS 319 can be grouped into six divisions, excluding the Bella Coola. These are the Comox and allied tribes near the present town of Comox and at Toba Inlet on the opposite mainland; the Pentlach, a small tribe now practically extinct, south of the former; the Sishiatl of Jervis Inlet; the Skomish of Howe Sound and Burrard Inlet, in the neighbourhood of the present city of Vancouver ; the Cowichan of the lower Fraser ; and the Songish and related tribes of the south-east of Vancouver Island. The Kwakiutl and Bella Coola are the most typical representatives of the west coast culture area among all these southern tribes, the northern Kwakiutl (Haisla and Heiltsuk), who are nearly cut off from the southern tribes of the group by the Bella Coola, in particular more closely approximating in culture the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. The Nootka and coast Salish are generally reckoned the least typical of the west coast tribes, though the Nootka have attained considerable complexity of cultural development in ways peculiarly their own. Differing as the various languages of the west coast do in grammatical structure, there are several phonetic characteristics which they have in common ; naturally this does not mean that they do not differ more or less markedly among themselves in phonetic respects also. To European ears these languages are apt to sound remarkably harsh, the flow of speech seeming to be interrupted at every step by uneuphonious chokes and clicks. To some extent this harshness of acoustic effect is due to an accumulation of consonants such as we are not used to in English or other European languages; to a larger extent, however, it is due to the occurrence of types of consonants that are entirely unfamiliar to European ears. Among these are deep ^-sounds which are pronounced much farther back in the mouth than ordinarily (ordinary ^-sounds also occur) ; peculiar /-sounds, which have often been inadequately rendered by untrained observers as // or kl; and a set of consonants of peculiar formation which impress the ear as cracked or exploded in quality. Grammatically the five linguistic stocks represented on the west coast differ very considerably from one another, some, 320 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST particularly Kwakiutl and Nootka, being more synthetic in character, that is, expressing by formal means a greater number of concepts within the limits of a single word, than such others as Tlingit. The west coast languages are one and all characterized by grammatical systems of great complexity, a complexity that may seem startling to one who occupies himself with their study for the first time. Thus, in Tsimshian, Kwakiutl-Nootka and Salish there exist distinct series of numerals for various classes of objects, while in Haida there is a large series of elements prefixed to verb- forms indicating the class of object with which the action of the verb is concerned. Local ideas, such as position at or movement to or from, are grammatically expressed with great nicety in many west coast languages; various parts of the body are also often referred to by means of grammatical elements, affixed to verb or other forms, that in themselves have no etymological relation to the independent words expressing such parts of the body. An interesting example of grammatical complexity of a type that is unfamiliar to speakers of European languages is the suffixing in Kwakiutl to verbs and nouns of grammatical elements that define with exactness the demonstrative relation of the nouns of the sentence—that is, whether they are thought of as being near the person speaking, the person addressed, or the person spoken of—and the fact of their visibility or invisibility from the point of view of the speaker. Thus an English sentence such as ' He killed my dog,' is rendered ■ He killed my visible (or invisible) dog near you (me, or him).' The various west coast languages differ considerably in regard to the formal means employed to express grammatical concepts. Thus, while Haida and Tsimshian make a very liberal use of prefixed elements, such are absolutely unknown in Kwakiutl and Nootka, which, on the other hand, possess a truly astounding number of suffixed elements. Again, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl, Nootka and Salish make an extended use of a grammatical device known as reduplication, that is, the prefixing to the word itself of a fragment of it (in a manner parallel to the formation of the perfect tense in Greek). There are several types of this grammatical device, :U. .-■..■ h make an extern al device known as redu.plica.tion., that is word itself of a fragment of it (& ■ the formation of the perfect tense I^ppl ^v-ujw.ig^.y. THE QUESTION OF ORIGIN 321 which are employed to express the ideas, among others, of repetition, plurality, and diminution. Tlingit and Haida, on the other hand, know no more of reduplication than does English. Unlike the more advanced Indians of Mexico and Yucatan, the west coast Indians did not develop any system of expressing ideas that could be truly termed a system of writing, though symbolism in decorative art is naturally not lacking. This fact, however, did not in the slightest militate against the growth of a vast body of what may be termed oral literature, handed down in practically unchanged form from generation to generation. This oral literature embraces innumerable legends, myths, and songs, chiefly such as are of ceremonial importance. The mind of a typical old-time Indian was, and in many cases still is, saturated with such literary lore. It is thus strongly borne in upon us that neither in language nor literature can the Indians of the west coast be termed truly primitive. It is well indeed to remember that the term ' primitive,' as applied to so many native peoples less advanced in most respects than ourselves, has but a relative meaning. The Question of Origin The question is often asked, ' What is the origin of the Indians ?' and close upon this is apt to follow the inquiry, ' Are not the East Asiatic peoples of Mongolian type physically related to the American Indians ?' The first question has not perhaps now the interest for anthropologists that it at one time had ; at any rate, it can be answered only by more or less plausible surmises, hardly by tangible evidence. The second question, however, gives more opportunity for arriving at definite results. The high cheek-bones and straight black hair of both American Indians and Mongolians are points of physical similarity that must undoubtedly be assigned considerable significance. Add to this the fact that though the American Indian is not characterized by the so-called slanting eye found among peoples of the Mongolian race, there is nevertheless some tendency for this type 322 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST of eye, or rather characteristic fold of eyelid, to be found among American women and children, with whom it tends to disappear with age. It may be too much to say that the American Indians and Mongolians form together one of the great races of mankind, but there is good reason to believe that the American Indians as a whole form a sort of divergent sub-race of the Mongolian race. At any rate, the American Indian contrasts far less with the typical Mongolian than with either the white or the negro. In comparing the west coast tribes with the Mongolian tribes of Eastern Siberia we find that there obtains between them a degree of physical similarity that exceeds the general similarity between the American Indians taken as a whole and the Mongolian race. This similarity extends not only to the colour and texture of the hair, but also to the colour of the skin and to the shape of the head and face. The main differences between the west coast Indians and the Mongolians of Eastern Siberia are stated by Dr Boas to be the more constant appearance of the slanting eye among the latter and the greater absolute size of face among the former. The physical similarity between these two North Pacific peoples is accentuated by the great divergence physically of the west coast Indians from such American Indian types as those of the prairies or of Southern California. From the point of view, then, of physical anthropology, it seems necessary to look upon the west coast Indians and the Mongolians of North-Eastern Asia as members of the same fundamental race of mankind. Whether the west coast Indians should be considered as representing a transitional type, between the American Indians and the Mongolians proper, which is historically of secondary origin, or whether they should be regarded as a definite sub-type falling within the limits of variation of a generalized Mongolian-American race, is, of course, not easy to decide. There are several striking resemblances in culture between the west coast Indians and some of the primitive tribes of Eastern Siberia (Chukchee, Koryak, Yukaghir), but it cannot be too strongly emphasized that such resemblances need have no connection at all with the points of physical similarity that have been PHYSICAL SUB-TYPES noted, as they more likely than not represent purely secondary borrowing of cultural elements from tribe to tribe, Bering Straits and Sea naturally forming no insurmountable barrier. The importance of the raven in the mythology of both the Koryak and the northern tribes of the West Coast Indians may be given as merely one of the points of cultural similarity. Physical Sub-Types Taking the Indians of the coast of British Columbia as a unit, there seem to be three distinct physical sub-types, which Dr Boas has called the Northern type, the Kwakiutl type, and the Lillooet type. All these are distinguished from the generality of American Indian tribes by their lighter hair and skin colour; they are of medium stature. The Northern type embraces the Haida and the tribes of Tsimshian stock, very probably also the Tlingit, of whose physical characteristics, however, very little is known from actual measurements. The typical Indian of this sub-type has a large head with great diameter from side to side ; to match the head, the face also is extremely broad. In height, however, the face is not above normal, so that the general effect is of a low face. The nose is not markedly elevated above the face and is either concave, particularly among the women, or straight. The Indians of the Kwakiutl sub-type have heads of similar relative dimensions to those of the Northern sub-type, though the absolute measurements do not seem to be quite so great. The type of face, however, is very different, being remarkable for its great height. The nose is high and narrow and is greatly elevated above the face. It is typically convex in form. The existence of the third, or Lillooet sub-type, as distinct from other types, is not quite satisfactorily determined. The name of the sub-type is taken from the Lower Lillooet Indians of the neighbourhood of Harrison Lake, where it seems to appear in its greatest purity, though culturally the Lillooet are generally considered an interior tribe (yet they have been very considerably influenced by the neighbouring tribes of the coast). The Lillooet sub-type includes the coast Salish of the Fraser 324 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST River region and of Southern Vancouver Island south to Puget Sound. The main characteristics of the sub-type are very short stature, marked breadth of head as compared with length (they would be described as markedly brachy- cephalic by physical anthropologists, though the former practice of head-flattening in childhood makes it difficult to secure reliable data on the natural dimensions of the head), great breadth of face, flat nose, thick lips, and receding chin. Environmental Influence It is one of the favourite ideas of to-day that the geographical environment exercises a profound influence on the life of a people. To a not inconsiderable extent geographical environment undoubtedly does play its part in the moulding of a type of culture, particularly in less advanced stages of society. The west coast of British Columbia affords an excellent example of such environmental influence. Being a coast country, it gives the life of its native inhabitants a distinctive tone. The natives were primarily a littoral people whose villages were generally drawn up back of the beaches, whose sustenance came primarily from the fish and mammals of the sea, and who therefore had developed numerous ingenious devices for the obtaining of these, and whose chief means of transportation from village to village were dug-out canoes. The influence of the sea makes itself strongly felt even in the less material aspects of their culture. Thus, much of the ceremonialism of the Indians was bound up with the performance of rites intended to bring about success in fishing or sea-hunting; the legendary accounts told by Nootka families often dwell on the whaling achievements, generally under supernatural guidance, of their ancestors ; among the Haida the dreaded killer-whale is invested with the powers belonging to a supernatural being ; and so on indefinitely. The west coast is one of the most rainy parts of the American continent, and this environmental factor also has left its mark on the life of the natives. The heavy rainfall meant that the tent-like lodges covered with hides, bark or mats, which are characteristic of the ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE 325 Indians of the plateaus and plains, could hardly be of service here ; hence we find that the west coast Indians built heavy plank houses of great size and durability, the presence of large trees easily worked into lumber assisting the Indians materially in solving the problem of shelter. The rainy climate of the coast has also had much to do with determining the character of the clothing worn by the Indians. A coast people continually splashing in and out of canoes would be hampered by tight-fitting skin garments and by moccasins ; hence we find cedar bark garments in use, and note the absence, on the whole, of moccasins and leggings. Conical hats woven of vegetable fibres and cedar bark rain-capes, both of which are characteristic west coast articles of wear, again indicate a rainy country. A third environmental factor which we may note is the heavily wooded character of the coast, coniferous trees (red cedar, spruce, hemlock, and yellow cedar) being particularly characteristic of the coast flora. The red cedar is indeed to the coast natives what the palm is to many tropical peoples. From the hollowed-out trunks were fashioned dug-outs, often gigantic in size, hewn timbers of cedar served as material for house-posts and totem-poles, while cedar planks were used to form the roof and walls of the houses ; cedar wood was worked into a vast number of useful or ceremonial objects, in many cases carved, such as boxes of various types, trays, dishes, ladles, canoe bailers, buckets, masks, whistles, and numerous other objects; out of twisted cedar withes were made stout ropes strong enough to hold a harpooned whale ; cedar bark was used for a great variety of purposes, its strands being twisted into cordage or utilized as woof in twined basketry, cedar bark strips serving as material for matting, bags, and garments, shredded cedar bark being often employed for ceremonial head, neck, arm, and leg wear, while the innermost bark could be pounded so fine and soft as to serve as a wool-like padding for the baby in its cradle ; finally, the roots of the cedar were split into strands suitable for basket-making. The inner bark of the yellow cedar was woven into blankets and garments of finer make than those of red cedar bark. So obvious is the influence of the coast environment on 326 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST the culture of the aborigines that we run more danger of overestimating than of underestimating its extent. For it is, after all, clear on further reflection that by no means all the elements of west coast aboriginal culture are immediately or even indirectly traceable to the character of the land and climate. The physical environment has given the west coast culture a colouring all its own, and has in many cases, as we have seen, even directly called forth some of the elements of that culture, yet by far the greater part of the mental culture of the Indians can hardly be explained on the score of geographical environment; this environment is doubtless reflected in innumerable ways in the beliefs and customs of the people, yet their actual form and content must owe their origin to historical causes lying largely beyond our knowledge. Even in material culture the geographical environment often hardly does more than determine the material of the object. We can point out that the cedar forms an indispensable factor in the industries of the natives, yet the mere existence of the cedar does not help us to explain why the utensils have such and not other definite forms, or why the totem-poles are carved into such and not other definite figures. In other words, the geographical environment, here as elsewhere, cannot be made to explain more than the superficial aspects of a culture. The Food of the West Coast Indians The diet of the west coast Indians was almost exclusively animal in character, though vegetable foods were by no means wholly lacking. By far the most important source of the food supply was the many varieties of marine fish, the most important of these being the different kinds of salmon that come up the rivers at different seasons to spawn. Various kinds of fishing took place at definite times throughout the year ; besides salmon, some of the more important kinds of fish secured were herring, halibut, and a number of varieties of cod. The oulachan or candle-fish was particularly valued for the oil that was obtained from it, and candle- fish grease mixed with berries was to many of the tribes the ■"■^SB THE FOOD OF THE WEST COAST INDIANS 327 greatest delicacy that could be offered at a feast; among the Nootka, however, where whale oil was plentiful, the oulachan was of much less importance. The methods employed in securing fish were quite diverse. Some of these were spearing (both three-pronged spears, of a type found widely distributed in North America, and spears with detachable points were extensively employed) ; fishing with hook and line (a typical method of catching halibut was by means of bone-pointed hemlock-knot hooks and kelp line) ; fishing with nets ; and trapping with weirs and a great variety of types of basket traps, this last type of fishing being particularly adapted to the securing of salmon in the creeks. Freshwater fish were also utilized, particularly salmon trout, but to a much less extent. Fish were either boiled in cooking boxes, the water being heated by means of red-hot stones, or roasted in ashes ; a supply was dried and smoked to be set aside for use in the winter. Next to marine fish may be noted the use of sea mammals (whales of various kinds, sea-lions, hair-seals, fur-seals, and sea-otters), though these formed a far less dependable source of the food supply than the former. The majority of west coast tribes, including even such expert seamen as the Haida, did not go out whaling, but contented themselves with such dead whales as stranded on the shore. Among the Nootka, however, certain families possessed the hereditary privilege of going out in canoes to harpoon whales. A whaling harpoon consisted of a long shaft of yew wood and a double- barbed bone harpoon head tipped with a cutting edge that was formerly of mussel shell, latterly of iron ; the harpoon, which was socketed on the shaft and came loose on striking the animal, was secured by means of a lanyard of whale-gut, to which was looped a long rope of cedar withes which was paid out till the exhausted whale came to a standstill, whereupon it was killed and towed to shore. The stranded or caught whale was invariably cut up and distributed, generally according to fixed hereditary rights, to the leading men of the village, who thereupon might proceed to give whale feasts to their tribesmen. Sea-lions were harpooned in a manner similar to that of whales, except that the sea-lion outfit 328 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST was less strong and that the lanyard was generally made of sea-lion gut. Sea-otters and seals were generally secured by spearing. A large number of invertebrate animals of the sea was also utilized for food purposes, chief among these being several kinds of clams, which were gathered in large open-work baskets and steamed. A certain amount of land hunting was done by most of the coast tribes, yet the deer was hardly used at all as an article of food by the Kwakiutl and Nootka tribes. Among the mainland tribes whose territory extended into the interior, such as the Tsimshian and Bella Coola, the hunting of land animals was of economic importance. Of vegetable foods, the most important were various kinds of berries and edible roots ; the former were partly eaten fresh, partly dried and laid aside in the form of tightly packed cakes for winter use. Less normal types of vegetable food that were in use among the west coast Indians were dried cakes of hemlock sap and kelp. No agriculture worthy of the name was practised by the natives of the coast, though tobacco and clover patches were looked after with some care. This fact is interesting as showing that a very considerable advance in culture can be reached by a society not economically dependent upon agriculture. There is more than one American Indian tribe farther to the east, among whom agriculture was developed to a fair extent, whose degree of industrial and social advancement must nevertheless be considered as below that of the west coast Indians. The only domesticated animal known before contact with the whites was the native dog, more savage and long-haired than his successor of to-day. 1 fir Dwellings The dwellings of the coast Indians, as we have already seen, were large quadrangular structures built of hewn timbers and planks. The framework of the typical west coast house consisted of a pair of heavy posts at either end of the central line of the house supporting a ridge pole, and four corner posts to support beams parallel to the first; cedar CLOTHING AND ORNAMENTATION 329 planks were used for the walls of the house and the rafters of the roof. The floor of the house, which was simply the stamped-down soil, was generally excavated a few feet below the level of the ground, leaving a surrounding quadrangular raised space that was utilized for storage and bed platforms. The fire was built in the centre of the floor space, exit for the smoke being provided for by pushing aside two or three of the rafters of the roof. The door was often an opening at the base of a huge heraldic column, generally known as a totem-pole, erected at the front of the house. Not only these totem-poles, but frequently also the house-posts, were carved into human or animal figures referring to the legendary history of the family occupying the house. The plank houses of the coast Salish were generally communal houses occupied by several families, whose quarters were separated from one another by means of partitions, each section having its own fire. These houses, in consequence, often reached an astonishing length, some of six hundred feet or more having been reported on good authority. Among the coast Salish the houses lacked a central ridge pole, though the roof was given a gentle pitch for the shedding of rain by having one of the side walls a trifle higher than the other ; on the roofs of the houses ceremonial dances were often performed and speeches delivered. A typical west coast village always consisted of a single street levelled in front of the line of houses facing the beach. A long row of totem-poles and the many canoes drawn up on the beach lent a very picturesque appearance. In front of the houses were often erected summer platforms, where, early in the morning in fair weather, the old men were fond of lounging and conversing. Clothing and Ornamentation The clothing of the west coast Indians, as we have already seen, was rather scanty. Blanket robes were made either of animal hides (sea-otter skins were in particular demand among the wealthy) or woven out of mountain-goat wool, dog's hair, or yellow cedar bark strands ; among the coast vol. xxi 2 T 330 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST Salish woven fabrics were also made of a mixture of the last two materials. Besides hats, woven of spruce roots and cedar bark, and rain capes, which have already been referred to, mention may also be made of cedar bark women's aprons, forming the chief article of dress among the women, and woven ponchos and dancing aprons. Curiously differing in this respect from most of the North American Indians, the men did not remove the hair of the face with tweezers, but allowed it to grow ; scraggy beards are thus not uncommon among the Indian men of the west coast. Various styles of head flattening were practised by the Kwakiutl, Nootka, and coast Salish tribes; among these tribes it was a mark of social inferiority to have the head of normal shape. Tattooing was practised to some extent, particularly among the more northern tribes. Ear and nose rings, chiefly of abalone, were worn, also necklaces of dentalium shells, bear claws, and other materials. The women of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian were careful to wear lip plugs or labrets, which were made of various materials. These latter were often quite heavy, pulling down the lower lip and exposing the teeth ; inconvenient as they must have been to the wearer, no self-respecting woman would dare show herself in public without one. Industries Of all the industries of the coast Indians, wood-work was by far the most characteristic and highly developed, easily worked wood being plentiful in the well-forested coast-land. For the great majority of objects of daily Use red cedar, which is easily split and carved, formed the most suitable material, while implements requiring a stronger material, such as bows, whaling-spear shafts, and needles for rush- mat making, were made of yew, spiraea, or other hard woods. The process of felling a full-sized cedar in the days when iron tools had not yet come into use required considerable care and often lasted several days. The chief implements used were wedges of wood or antler and stone hammers, which in the north were attached to long wooden handles, while in the INDUSTRIES 331 south, where they were pestle-like in shape, they were operated directly with the hand. Planks and other wooden objects were fashioned out of timbers by means of bone-bladed or stone-bladed adzes with handles of peculiar form, which were generally carved into animal figures. The wood was carved by means of long curved knives and was often given a smooth polish by rubbing with dog-fish skin. There seems little doubt that before the use of iron tools the accomplishments of the natives in wood-work were somewhat more limited than in recent times, yet the use of iron tools seems to have been responsible rather for work on a larger scale than for finer finish. Perhaps the most skilfully constructed objects of wood were the boxes which were used for storage cf valuables, cooking, burial, and other purposes. The sides of a box were ingeniously constructed out of a single plank, which was steamed and bent into the desired shape, the corners having first been provided for by cutting out notches. The bottom of the box was made of a separate piece of wood fitting tightly into the side frame. Various types of box-lids were employed, and were often tied to the boxes by means of cedar bark strings. The most striking objects of wood were the totem-poles and canoes. The latter were dug-outs constructed out of a single tree-trunk, which was hollowed out by a careful process of charring and adzing ; the proper width amidships was secured by steaming and tightening with thwarts. These dug-out canoes were of various characteristic models, differing according to tribe and purpose for which used. The longest of all was the Haida war canoe with separate bow and stern pieces; sixty feet was quite a normal length for canoes of this type. The natives were not only expert in the use of wood, but also worked in stone, horn, and bone. Archaeological evidence discloses the former existence in the coast region of a considerable number of types of stone implements, such as mortars, hammers, spear points, and adze blades or chisels. A variety of stone material was employed, including slate and often beautifully polished jade or nephrite. It is worth noting that the practice of fashioning stone points by means of flaking, which was almost universal in other parts of I I m 332 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST aboriginal America, was unknown here, its place being taken by rubbing and pecking. Perhaps the most remarkable examples of stone-work in this area are the hammers of the northern tribes, which are often carved into realistic figures ; even masks of stone were made to some extent. Bone was used in the preparation of a number of types of implements, such as points of hooks, spears and arrows, awls, spindle whorls, sap scrapers, bark beaters, bark shredders, adze handles, and various ceremonial objects, such as medicine-men's charms and ceremonial war clubs. Horn was naturally less extensively used than bone ; yet many beautifully carved examples of horn-work, particularly the horn spoons of the Tsimshian and Haida, were found. Work in metal was of far less consequence than work in wood, stone, horn, and bone. Before contact with the whites, copper was the only metal employed, and even this hardly to as great an extent as in more recent times. The copper was merely beaten into the desired shape, the art of smelting metals being entirely unknown in aboriginal America. The most characteristic objects of copper among the west coast Indians were the so-called {coppers,' large or small plates of conventional form, often with incised designs ; these ' coppers,' which seem to have been in particular use among the Kwakiutl, were symbolic of wealth, being often exchanged at ceremonial feasts in the manner of our paper currency. Upon the women devolved the work of spinning, netting, matting, and basket-making. Thread and cordage were spun of cedar bark strands, spruce and cedar root fibres, nettle fibre, and sinew ; spindle and whorl were used in the process of spinning. Nets were constructed chiefly of nettle fibre with the help of netting-needles and mesh blocks of wood. Mats were of two types, some being made of rushes sewed together by long wooden needles with thread ; other mats, as well as bags and certain garments, were made of strips of cedar bark that were woven into checker-work or twilled patterns, ornamental border effects being often obtained by dyeing certain strands red or black (chewed alder bark and black mud were respectively used as dyes). The basketry of the west coast Indians is much less highly developed than in GAMES AND DECORATIVE ART 333 the interior of British Columbia, its place being largely taken by wooden vessels. Besides the twilled cedar bark bags already spoken of, which are almost as much examples of matting as basketry proper, all the baskets made in this area were of twined technique, coiling being entirely unknown. Many of the larger twined baskets were of openwork, others, often ornamented in geometric patterns with coloured overlay, were closely woven. Baskets of this latter type were made particularly by the Tlingit and the southern tribes among the Nootka. Games and Decorative Art Quite a number of games, both of chance and dexterity, were played by the coast Indians. Gambling for stakes was an invariable accompaniment of most games of chance, the chief of which were the stick game, played with a large number of smooth cylindrical sticks that were often ornamented with painted designs ; the hand or guessing game played with a pair or two pairs of cylindrical bones ; and a dice game played with marked beaver teeth. The two former were games for men, the last a game for women. The hand game was practically universal in one form or another among the aborigines of North America west of the Rockies ; the guessing side sang gambling songs to the accompaniment of beating of sticks. Decorative art was highly developed. Simple geometric designs were brought out in matting by dyeing and in basketry by coloured overlay strands. This style of art, however, is more characteristic of other parts of aboriginal America than of tiie west coast Indians, whose decorative art was preeminently one of conventional realism. Despite the great diversity of forms in which this style of art is expressed, it has throughout the same general characteristics. Whether the designs are carved in relief on totem-poles, house-posts, boxes, and trays, painted on boxes, house-boards, or at bow or stern of canoes, woven in blankets of mountain-goat wool, or even incised in modern copper or silver bracelets, thev are unmistakably west coast in character and treatment. The I 334 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST subjects represented are practically always either animals or supernatural beings, but often so stylicized and distorted by the conventions of artistic tradition as to be quite unrecognizable to the unprepared observer. In massive relief work the figures preserve their realism best of all, but a typical design painted on a Haida hat or woven in a Chilkat blanket suggests little, if any, of the intended realism. Conventionalization is due primarily to two factors: first, the desire to cover the whole field of decoration; secondly, the substitution for realism pure and simple of conventional symbols which, in the mind of the native, unambiguously refer to the animal or being represented. In consequence of the former tendency, parts of the field that would normally be empty are filled in with oval designs or ' eyes,' which seem originally to have symbolized joints; moreover, the animal must often be thought of as cut through and spread out, or distorted in some other conventional way, so that the parts of the body may be disposed in symmetrical fashion (thus the two halves of an animal's tail are often represented in the right and left of the design). By virtue of this conventionalizing tendency animals are often given human form, but are provided with characteristic decorative elements that make them recognizable as animals. Thus the beaver is indicated by his flat incisor teeth or cross-hatched tail, the eagle by his curved beak, and the bear by his erect ears or lolling tongue. In actual practice several distinct designs are often combined or interlaced in complicated fashion (as in the superimposed series of figures of a totem-pole, which hold, sit on, or support one another), whereby the symbolic interpretation is rendered more difficult. Painted designs are chiefly in black, white, or red, sometimes also in blue or green ; relief designs on boxes are not infrequently painted at the same time. Among the Nootka and Salish this conventionally realistic style of art is only slightly developed, true realism, though often crude in execution, taking its place. Such realistic designs, representing supernatural beings and animals, have been found carved into the rock at various points on Vancouver Island. MUSIC Music The musical art also of the west coast Indians is far from being truly primitive in character. It is chiefly vocal, drums and rattles being often used as accompanying instruments. There are several types of skilfully constructed whistles or trumpets in use, which, however, serve merely to produce various kinds of calls and other sounds in religious ceremonials. Among the different types of drum used are the hand-drums or tom-toms and the large box-shaped drums of the northern tribes. Many different types of rattles are found, among them being the large bird-shaped wooden rattles of the Nootka, the globular wooden rattles of the Kwakiutl, the smaller bird-shaped rattles of the Tsimshian and Haida, which are very elaborately decorated in relief, pecten-shell rattles, and hoop-shaped rattles with attached penguin beaks. Besides rattles and drums, hand-beating and striking of sticks on planks are also often employed to mark time. The singing of songs plays a very important part in the life of the Indians, particularly in the conduct of the rituals. There are quite a number of distinct types of songs, which differ considerably in their melodic and rhythmic qualities ; particular types of accompaniment are often limited to definite classes of songs. The music of the songs offers interesting problems in intonation, the intervals apparently not corresponding exactly to those that we are accustomed to, and in rhythm. In the latter respect the songs exhibit a complexity that not seldom far surpasses such rhythmic subtleties as we are familiar with. Such time schemes as 5/4, which are quite uncommon in even our most daring modern music, are not at all infrequent here ; moreover, drum beats do not always follow the accents of the song, but follow their own course, yet in a manner definitely related to the song beats. Much attention is given by the natives to the proper execution of the rhythmic niceties of their music ; in earlier times mistakes in rhythm made by dancers in certain sacred songs of the Kwakiutl were punished by death. 336 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST The texts of the songs are in some cases definite words, in others meaningless syllables or burdens. Not infrequently the words are not in the ordinary prose forms of daily speech, but are special song-words modified, phonetically or otherwise, from the normal forms. Many types of song are used in connection with dances, in which various steps, according to the character of the music, are used. Women have dance steps peculiar to themselves ; their dancing consists largely of posturing and of swaying movements of the arms and body. Classes of Society and Clan Organization Three distinct classes of society are recognized in the social structure of the west coast Indians—nobility, common people, and slaves. The chiefs may be looked upon as constituting the highest subdivision of the nobility. These three classes were, at least in theory, fixed once for all, each individual being assigned his rank by inheritance. The chiefs exercised considerable authority and enjoyed a number of privileges and property rights that went with their office. Not only did the nobility constitute a class higher in rank than that of the common people, but they were carefully graded in rank among themselves, the bearer of each grade of nobility being distinguished by a hereditary name, which inhered in a definite family, and by a definite seat assigned to him at ceremonial gatherings. Intercrossing the division of the community into social classes was the clan organization, which, however, obtained in strictness only for the more typical west coast tribes. A clan is a group of individuals held together by ties of real or fancied relationship, and generally supposed to have common descent from a legendary ancestor; there is good evidence to show that the clans of the west coast were in every case merely village communities in origin which, by migrations and intermarriages, came in time to lose their distinctly local character. Closely connected with the clan organization was totemism, or a system of clan crests. A crest is an animal, supernatural being, or object, generally an animal, 3 !! 1 1 § s> I ople, and slaves. TV chiefs may be ting the highest subdivision of the xj loses were, at least in theory, fixed c pal being assigned his rank by in£ erased considerable authority and' ivileges and property - that, d >t only did tlie nobility ttwatiiute i I, CLAN ORGANIZATION 337 which in the mind of the natives is associated with a particular clan and which often, though by no means always, gives it its name. A crest animal or totem is not, as a rule, thought of as the ancestor of the clan, nor are there, generally speaking, specific taboos in force against killing or eating it; among the Kwakiutl, however, belief in the ancestral character of the crest animal is not entirely absent, though it is not as systematically developed as in other parts of the world, as, for instance, in aboriginal Australia. Each clan has its stock of names, songs, privileges, and traditions. These traditions always recount the manner in which, in the remote past, the totem became associated with the clan ancestor, the most typical style of legend in this respect being that in which the ancestor is believed to have met the totem (the mythological prototype of the animals, supernatural beings, or objects that to-day bear his name) and to have been awarded privileges and supernatural gifts by it. The clans are subdivided into families, which often have their own special traditions, privileges, and crests. In the more typical tribes of the north the clans are not the largest totemic units of society, but are grouped into larger social units, known among ethnologists as phratries. These are always few in number and have their distinctive crests. Among the Tlingit there are two such phratries, whose crests are respectively the raven and the wolf. Among the Haida the two phratries, corresponding respectively to the Tlingit raven and wolf, are the eagle and the raven; the Haida raven phratry, curiously enough, corresponds to the Tlingit wolf phratry—not the raven phratry—and indeed its chief crest is not the raven but the killer- whale. Among both the Haida and Tlingit the phratries are exogamous; in other words, an individual is debarred from marrying a member of his own phratry, but must seek his or her partner from among the individuals of the opposite phratry. Both clan and phratry are, in these tribes, inherited through the female line, whence it follows that a man is in some respects considered more intimately related to his mother's brother than to his own father. Among the Tsimshian there are four phratries, whose crests are VOL. XXI 2 tf m 338 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST respectively the wolf, raven, bear, and eagle. The same laws of exogamy and maternal inheritance that we have noted in the case of the Haida and Tlingit apply to the Tsimshian phratries. The grouping of clans into phratries seems to be absent in the other west coast tribes, but the Northern Kwakiutl clans resemble the phratries of the Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian in that they have animal names, are exogamous, and follow the rule of maternal descent. The rule of exogamy is not carried out in other west coast tribes, the Southern Kwakiutl clans being apparently indifferent on this point, whereas among the Bella Coola it seems that the opposite tendency obtained, at least among the nobility, of the members of a clan marrying among themselves (endogamy). The Southern Kwakiutl system of inheritance is in effect maternal, yet not purely so in form. Among the Nootka and coast Salish the crest system, though apparently not entirely absent, does not seem to be as definitely connected with social units as in the other tribes. Properly speaking, a definite clan with its crest or crests is represented in but one of the phratries of the tribe, yet this is not quite consistently carried out: thus we find that among the Haida the raven is used as a crest by certain clans of both the raven and eagle phratries. To illustrate the fact, however, we may enumerate some of the more important crests of the Haida phratries. Among the ravens we find, in the order of their importance, the killer-whale, the grizzly bear, the rainbow, a certain supernatural being, the sea- lion, the moon, the thunder-bird, the cumulus-cloud, the dog-fish, the wolf, the flicker, and the raven ; among the eagles we find represented the eagle, the beaver, the sculpin, the frog, the whale, the raven, the halibut, the hummingbird, the cormorant, the dog-fish, the heron, and another supernatural being. Crests are not only obtained by inheritance but, in the case of the chiefs and nobility, may be acquired by purchase or gift from neighbouring tribes, whence is explained the fact that families and clans often possess several crests subsidiary to the main one. A crest is concretely symbolized in carved figures, masks, tattooing, and face-painting. Not all the figures of a totem-pole, how- MEDIA OF EXCHANGE AND THE POTLATCH 339 ever, necessarily represent crests of the owner of the house ; the crest or crests of his wife, and supernatural beings that have reference to the legendary history of his family, are also sometimes represented. One of the most deeply rooted ideas in the culture of the Indians of the coast is that of property, with which is connected that of inheritance. Not only is property in the narrow sense of the word inheritable, but many intangible forms of wealth, such as names, songs, legends, dances (which generally go with certain masks), membership in religious societies, ritualistic privileges, and knowledge of secret rituals of many sorts, are transmitted by inheritance. It is indeed these latter quite as much as material wealth that give one social position and prestige. Inheritance of privileges does not necessarily take place at the death of their former possessor. One of the most characteristically developed procedures among the west coast Indians is the transfer of status and accompanying privileges to the heir. Thus it frequently happens that the titular chief of a village or clan is a young man whose maternal uncle, father, or other appropriate predecessor in office is yet alive and active. Media of Exchange and the Potlatch Though a definite coinage can hardly be said to have been developed in aboriginal times, there were several media of exchange whose value was as much symbolic as real. Among these were the ' coppers' already spoken of, strings of den- talia, triangular-shaped box-covers, which often formed part of dowries, and, in later times, blankets of unit value. A chief or nobleman was ever on the alert to exhibit in public his wealth and prestige, seeking at the same time, wherever possible, to add to both. The chief means employed for these purposes was the potlatch or ceremonial feast at which the host gave away property (consisting of slaves, canoes, strings of dentalia, sea-otter skins, blankets, or other objects) to the assembled guests. Such a potlatch was often given in connection with some such event as a marriage, the coming of age of a daughter or niece, a religious 340 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST ceremonial, a memorial feast, the assignment of adult name and status to a young man or woman, and many other occasions of ceremonial or social significance. A typical potlatch was always rather an elaborate affair, consisting partly of ceremonial activities, including songs and dances appropriate to the particular type of potlatch, and of the potlatch proper, that is, the distribution of property. This distribution was, however, rarely in the nature of a gift pure and simple, as it was always understood that the recipients were to return the gift at one hundred per cent interest in a potlatch given before the end of the year. Thus a potlatch was to a large extent the public announcement of business transactions of one kind or another, at which debts were paid and investments made. Failure to return with interest the value of the property obtained in a potlatch meant loss of prestige and would arouse the contempt and derision of the rest of the tribe. Not infrequently a tribe as such invited another tribe to a potlatch, and the mere expense of feasting all the guests for a number of days was in such cases very considerable. A spirit of rivalry between chiefs and tribes often ran high in potlatches, each seeking to outdo the other. Grandiloquent speeches delivered by formal speakers extolling the wealth and dignity of the host and his ancestors, and taunts levelled at the rival chief, were the order of the day. Sometimes a chief would destroy much of his own property (the killing of a slave was one form of such destruction) in order to show how reckless he could be with the disposition of wealth. If his rival failed to do likewise, he was deemed outdone. The most dreaded form of destruction of property was the breaking of a ' copper,' whereby the destruction of a very large amount of wealth was symbolized, for to copy such an example might lead to impoverishment. The desire to amass wealth and the spirit of rivalry may be said to have been the mainsprings of action among the west coast Indians. Ceremonial Customs and Taboos Many ceremonial customs and taboos, that is, prohibitions or restrictions of various kinds, accompanied the most CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS AND TABOOS 341 important periods of an individual's life. The chief of these periods may be said to have been birth, puberty (in the case of girls), marriage, and death. At birth the parents of the child had many rather irksome taboos to observe in regard to eating certain kinds of food and sharing in certain activities. The ears of the child were pierced and its head flattened; it received a child's name from among the stock of names owned by the family, later to be exchanged for an adult name, this in turn to give way to an old man's or old woman's name. The arrival of a girl at the age of puberty was probably the most important event in her life and was hedged about by ritual performances and many taboos. Until the prescribed period, often lasting for a year, was over, she was looked upon as unclean, and lived in seclusion from the rest of the household. During this period she was trained in her future duties of a full-grown woman. Marriage, generally preceded several months before by a formal courting visit of the bridegroom and his people to the house of the future bride, was accompanied by the giving of purchase-money to the bride's people, and, in return, the granting of a dowry. The marriage ceremony, which took place on the arrival of the bridegroom at the house of his bride's people, his suit having meanwhile been granted, often took the form of a dramatic performance symbolizing the legendary marriage of an ancestor. Death was followed by the burial or destruction of the personal property of the deceased. The methods of burial differed somewhat in different tribes, one of the characteristic forms being the burial of the body in a box, which was then placed in the branches of a tree ; some families possessed private caves in which they buried their dead. There was a definite period of mourning followed by a memorial feast, at which the various taboos in force during this period were lifted. One of the most interesting of these taboos was the avoidance of the name or of any word sounding like the name of the deceased, a consequence of which was that many individuals in the tribe changed their names and that certain words would drop out of use for some time. i i § INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST Belief in the Supernatural The west coast Indians believed in a large number of supernatural beings who were supposed to be powerful for good or ill. The idea of a supreme being is not absent; thus among the Haida we find a belief in an all-powerful being called ' Power of the Shining Heavens,' while among the Nootka prayers were addressed to the ' Sky Chief.' However, it cannot be said that this belief in a supreme being occupied an important place in the religious system of the natives. Of far greater importance, as reflected in their mythology and rituals, are a large number of beings, definitely localized in air, sea, or land, that are believed capable of bestowing definite powers on mankind. Among the Haida the sea was believed to be peopled by a vast number of such beings, who were regarded, curiously enough, as members of either the raven or eagle phratry. The thunder-bird, particularly among the Nootka, was looked upon with great awe; it is the flapping of his wings as he leaves his mountain home to go out in pursuit of whales that constitutes thunder, while his belt, itself a supernatural serpent-like being, twists in the air and makes the lightning. Besides supernatural beings of this sort, there were believed also to be a great many kinds of more or less uncanny supernatural peoples corresponding to our own fairies, mermaids, and other imaginary beings. Some of these could bestow favours on men, others were of small account. Some of the religious ceremonials of the natives were performed in connection with specific events, such as the arrival at maturity of girls, the first appearance in the season of salmon, or the capture or stranding of a whale. The most important of all rituals, however, was held in the winter, which was looked upon as the sacred season. The masks, whistles, and other ceremonial regalia that were used in the course of the winter ritual had to be concealed during the rest of the year, and their exposure constituted a sacrilege that was sometimes punished with death. The main idea at the basis of the winter ceremonials may be said to be that BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL 343 of the introduction of novices or initiates into the protection of certain supernatural beings, who were supposed to reveal themselves in secluded places and to bestow their customary gifts upon them. We are here face to face with the widespread American Indian belief in the acquirement of power or * medicine ' from some manitou or guardian spirit. The west coast practice, however, differs fundamentally from the normal process in that the individual does not put himself into religious association with any supernatural being at will, but always with one to which he is entitled by virtue of his inherited privileges. Moreover, the supernatural beings involved were strictly limited in number and graded in rank. Among the Kwakiutl, who seem to have developed the winter ceremonials in their greatest complexity, this state of affairs resulted in a peculiar social organization which obtained only during the course of the ritual season. In place of the clan organization in effect during the greater part of the year, the so-called profane season, the members of the tribe were divided into religious fraternities (the so- called secret societies), which were each composed of members initiated by the same supernatural being. All the members of the tribe that had already been initiated into some fraternity were grouped together as 'Seals,' in contrast to the uninitiated and superannuated individuals, who were grouped together under the name of' Sparrows.' The fraternities constituting the ' Seals ' had each its assigned rank, its definitely prescribed mode of action, its songs, its dances, its whistles, its masks, and its cedar bark regalia. Many also made use of symbolic objects of various kinds, while among the Nootka and other tribes specific face-paints were used. The most important fraternities were the Cannibals, who were initiated by the cannibal spirit and who acted in a frenzied manner and practised ritualistic cannibalism, the Ghosts, the Fools, whose function it was to police the proceedings, and the Grizzly Bears. The general conduct of the ceremonials was dramatic in character and the state of mind of the participants was of ten one of religious ecstasy. A novice was never introduced at his initiation into the highest fraternity to which his inherited privileges entitled 344 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST him, but advanced from one fraternity to another in the course of successive winter ceremonials. A typical initiation consisted in the abduction of the novice into the woods, theoretically by the supernatural being, his ceremonial capture and return after a stated period, the exorcism of the spirit that caused his frenzy, and the performance of the dances that he is supposed to have learned from his newly acquired protector. Disease, as among most primitive peoples, is believed to be due to the entry of a disease-object or (pain' into the body of the sick person, and it is the business of the shaman or medicine-man to find the nature and seat of the ] pain,' also, if possible, the one responsible for its entry, who, if discovered, may then be summarily dealt with. A medicineman is believed to have gained supernatural power from some uncanny or rarely seen being that he has met in the woods or other secluded spot; most medicine-men claim more than one such tutelary spirit. There are different types of doctoring procedures, in most of which the singing of medicine songs plays an important part. Generally the medicine-man puts himself into a supernormal state, often a trance, in the course of which he is enabled by the help of his medicine spirits to ascertain the cause of a disease. The main object was always to expel the foreign substance causing the disease, and this is often shown in the shape of a hair or other small inconspicuous-looking object. Distinct from shamanism or primitive doctoring, which might for revenge or other reasons be employed to cause as well as to cure disease, is witchcraft, in so far as it may be practised by any one, of which many forms were in use among the Indians. Among the Nootka each family had its own inherited stock of curative herbs and other medicines for ailments of different kinds, methods of bewitching, and methods of warding off witchcraft. Myths The existence of a large body of mythological lore among the natives of the west coast has been referred to more than once. As a rule, a strict difference is made among all the v MYTHS 345 tribes between myths pure and simple, which are the common property of the whole tribe, and family legends, which, though for the most part quite mythical in content, have a more historical ring about them than the myths of the first type. The clan or family legends are the property of particular clans and families and detail the acquirement of powers and privileges by ancestors of the families laying claim to them. It is not possible to draw a hard and fast line between the subject-matter of myths proper and that of family legends, as much of the myth motives and folk-lore current in west coast mythology, and, for that matter, in some cases in American Indian mythology generally, has been incorporated into the pseudo-historical framework of the legends. Not infrequently genealogies are introduced into these family legends. The typical myths, in the narrower sense of the word, tell of the experience of animal beings who, as so often in American Indian mythology, are believed to have existed in human or semi-human form in a remote mythological epoch, and who constitute the progenitors of the transformed animals of to-day. The idea of a definite creation of the world, such as we find in typical Californian and other Indian mythologies, hardly finds a place here. The world is always supposed to have been very much as it is now, except that things were originally in a much more chaotic state. Culture heroes are believed to have transformed various features of the mythological world into those we are familiar with now. Among some tribes the culture hero is thought of as a human being endowed with supernatural power, in others he is an animal being. Curiously enough, the culture hero is not always spoken of with unmingled respect, for many incidents are told of him which reveal him as clownish, gluttonous, and obscene. This so-called 'trickster' note is often conjoined in American Indian mythology with that of the culture hero or transformer. The raven is the culture hero and trickster of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian. Some of his exploits, as his liberation, for the benefit of future generations, of daylight, which had been kept enclosed in a box by a greedy individual, almost entitle him to be considered a kind of vol. xxi 2 x 346 INDIAN TRIBES OF THE COAST god ; yet almost in the same breath incidents are related of him that would put him on the level of a Reynard the Fox or Till Eulenspiegel. Among the more southern tribes his rdle as culture hero is assumed by other characters and he has degenerated into a trickster pure and simple. « "TOKg I ~ J THE*
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FC18 .S57
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Canada and its provinces : a history of the Canadian people and their institutions by one hundred associates. Volume XXI
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