Chapter Twenty Three.
Richfield, the Capital of Cariboo—The Diggings—Habakkuk sets up a Store—Engages Peter for a time—Arrive at Victoria—Lord Milton and Dr Cheadle.
The city of Richfield has been built, and furnished, and supplied with provisions and liquors at the expense of a large amount of animal life; for the sides of the road were literally strewed with the bodies and bones of the animals which had died on the way. We put up at an inn where the object seemed to be to give us the worst possible food and accommodation at the greatest possible charge. Already, Richfield boasts of numerous hotels, and stores, and shops of every description, and dwelling-houses of a somewhat rough character. Coin is scarce, but gold is plentiful; so people carry gold dust about in little bags, and weigh out what they require for payment of goods received. I had fancied that gold-digging was rather clean and pleasant work, and that all a man had to do was to walk about for a few hours in the day with a geologist’s hammer to fill his wallet with nuggets. My visit to Cariboo dispelled this notion. There are possibly harder and more dirty employments; but gold-digging is a very dirty and hard one. In the first place, shafts have to be dug forty or fifty feet deep to the lodes, where the pay dirt is found. In galleries leading from these shafts the earth is dug out and put into baskets, which are hoisted out by a windlass and turned into large troughs, through which a stream of water is made to pass, with a succession of sieves, through which the gold dust falls. This is one of the most simple and easy of the processes employed. Water has often to be brought from great distances; deep trenches have to be dug, and the diggers have to work up to their middle in icy-cold water, with their heads exposed to the hot sun, down in deep holes in the beds of streams, or by the sides of streams, day after day, sometimes finding nothing, at other times only enough to enable them to procure food and lodging for the time. Others, again, have been fortunate, and have worked claims from which they have extracted many thousand pounds worth of gold in a few weeks. The latter have been mostly men who have had their wits about them, and who have purchased claims which they had good reason to believe would pay.
Such was the case with our friend Habakkuk Gaby. The day after our arrival, we saw him wheeling a barrow about, up and down hill, stocked with a variety of small wares such as he well knew miners would value. Whether he sold or not, he stopped and had a talk with all he met, picking up a little bit of information from one and a little bit from another. His former experience in California enabled him to ask questions likely to procure what he required. For several days he patiently continued at this occupation. At last, one evening, Trevor and I received a visit from him.
He told us that he had bought a claim which he guessed would pay; that he had engaged Stalker and the rest of our men for the summer; and asked if I would allow Peter to remain with him, promising to make the lad’s fortune, and to bring him down safely with him to Victoria at the end of the season, in time for him to leave the country with us. As Peter expressed a strong wish to remain and try his fortune at gold-digging, I did not oppose him; indeed, I could manage to do without the lad, and I wished him to employ himself in whatever was most likely to conduce to his success in life. Trevor and I tried our hands at gold-digging for a fortnight, at the end of which time we had had quite enough of it. After paying the owners of the claim the rent agreed on, we pocketed some few pounds apiece; but we were nearly knocked up with the hard work.
Before leaving Richfield, we paid a visit to Mr Gaby. We found him in a most flourishing condition. At one end of his claim was a store, of rough materials. On the front was an imposing board with “Gaby and Co.” painted in large letters on it, and underneath, “Everything sold here.” He welcomed us warmly, and pressed us to come in and liquor.
“I don’t much like this work,” he said; “but I’ll make it pay while I am at it. We shall meet again before many months are over.”
We found Peter serving in the store. He said that he took his turn with another lad at mining, and liked his occupation. His master treated him well. He got two dollars a day and everything found him, so that he did very well.
The next day we bade farewell to Cariboo, and tramped it on foot four days to the town of Quesnelle, on the banks of the Frazer. Here we found a steam-boat going down the Frazer to a place called Cedar Creek, where the navigation of the river becomes impracticable for four hundred miles to the town of Tale, from which place to New Westminster and Victoria steamers run constantly up and down the Frazer.
By far the most uncomfortable part of our journey was that performed in the stage between Cedar Creek and Yale. Our feet were cribbed, cramped, and confined, and we had just cause to apprehend a capsize over the terrific precipices along which part of the road lay, into the foaming waters of the Frazer.
Victoria is already a wonderful place, considering when it had its beginning—full of hotels, large stores, churches, dwelling-houses, and places of amusement, including a theatre, where stars of the first magnitude occasionally shine forth. We travelled all over the province of British Columbia and through Vancouver Island; made a visit to Nassaimo, the Newcastle of the North Pacific, and became more than ever convinced that what is chiefly required to place those colonies among the most flourishing and valuable of the possessions of Great Britain is the opening up of a road and the erection of post-houses along the line of country we had travelled from Lake Superior, via the Red River settlement and the Fertile Belts.
Of course, we gained great credit for the successful accomplishment of our voyage down the Frazer; but I consider that we were far eclipsed by the journey performed by Lord Milton and Dr Cheadle across the Rocky Mountains, by Jasper House and the Bête Jaune Cache down the Thompson and Kamloops. We had the pleasure of meeting at Victoria a very intelligent gentleman, who accompanied them from Edmonton; and from him we learned the particulars of their journey. The party consisted of himself, Lord Milton, Dr Cheadle, and an Indian hunter from the Assiniboine River, with his squaw and their son, a big strong boy. They had also several hones and a fair amount of provisions and stores.
“Ah, sir, it was very fortunate for those young men that they had me with them, or they would inevitably have perished. The countess would have had to mourn her son and his friend, the gallant Cheadle,” he observed, as he was introduced to us as the companion of those persevering travellers. “Yes, sir, I say it, fearless of contradiction, had it not been for my courage and perseverance they would never have accomplished the journey. I saw that, when I offered to accompany them; and if they did not know their true interest, I did. Why, that Assiniboine fellow would have murdered them to a certainty, but I kept him in awe by my eye—he was afraid of me, if he did not love me. Lord Milton is brave, but he wants that discretion and judgment which I possess; while Dr Cheadle is really a fine fellow, and would have made a capital backwoodsman. We had good horses; and as I am a judge of horse-flesh, I have a right to say so, and we got on very well till we began to cross the rivers. Some of the streams were fearfully rapid, and it was very evident that my companions were scarcely up to their work. I used, generally, to plunge in with my horse, and, leading the way, call them to follow. This they did, and I was always ready on the top of the banks to help them out. We had frequently to construct rafts, when I invariably set to work to cut down the trees and to carry them to the river’s brink. Sometimes, when I could not carry a log by myself, I had to call on one of them to help me; but I did so only in the last extremity. You see, Lord Milton was a delicately-nurtured young man, and I wished to save him as much as I could. I do not doubt that if he writes a book he will bear witness to the truth of my assertions. The Assiniboine was of a good deal of use, considering that he had only one hand, and his wife and boy were active too; but they could not possibly have got on without me. On one occasion, while I was asleep (or it would not have happened), the forest caught fire. I jumped up, and with a thick stick I always carried, so effectually attacked the flames that I put the fire out and saved the horses and our property.
“On another occasion, when all the rest of the party had gone out hunting, and, being disabled, I had remained in charge of the camp, I saw a huge bear approaching. I had no gun; but, sallying out with my stick, I put it to flight, and saved the camp from being plundered, which it would inevitably have been, of our most valuable property.
“Our first important raft adventure was in crossing the Canoe River, a tributary of the Columbia. A raft had been constructed. We embarked on it. The current was very strong. I warned my companions. They were deaf to my cautions. I saw that they were not up to navigating a raft. Suddenly, our raft was whirled round in a rapid current, which bore us to seeming destruction. A huge pine tree lay with its branches recumbent on the water. I shouted to my friends to hold on; but it was of no use. Dr Cheadle leaped on shore, followed by the Assiniboine and his boy. I sat firmly at my post; Lord Milton and Mrs Assiniboine hung on to the branch of the tree, like Absolom, only it was with their hands instead of the hair of their heads. To stop the raft was impossible; but to guide it towards the shore was practicable. I sat, therefore, calmly waiting an opportunity of steering my eccentric-moving bark towards a wished-for haven. This, with the assistance, I must own it, of the Assiniboine, I was enabled shortly to do. Lord Milton and Mrs Assiniboine were, meantime, very nearly carried away by the roaring flood. Dr Cheadle and I, at the risk of our lives, hastened to their assistance; and I must do the young nobleman the justice to say that he refused to be helped till we had got the woman out of her perilous position. I look upon that as true gallantry; and I told him that I should consider it a pleasing duty to narrate the circumstance whenever I gave an account of our adventures. However, Dr Cheadle, considering that he was in by far the most dangerous position, got him out at once, and, with the aid of my handkerchief, I helped out the dark-skinned lady.
“That was only one of the many fearful dangers we ran. As I before remarked, it was very much owing to my forethought that things were not worse. I used to rouse the young men up every morning, or I do not know how long they would have indulged in their downy slumbers; not that they were very downy, by-the-bye, considering that spruce-fir-tops formed the most luxurious bed we had for many a day. They were also improvident, and had a knack of leaving their things behind them, insomuch that, in spite of all I could do, we had only one small axe left with which to cut our way through a dense forest. We supplied ourselves with a second axe belonging to a dead Indian found in the woods. By-the-bye, my friends were very much puzzled to find that the said dead man had no head, and that it could not have been taken by a human being, as he would have carried off the poor man’s property; or by a wild beast, as it would have upset the body, which was found in a sitting position. It was close to our camp; and the fact was, that I had, not five minutes before, found the body, and lifted the head, which had fallen to the ground, with the end of a stick, and hid it in a bush hard by. Having crossed the mountains and found that we could not push overland to Cariboo, we turned our faces northward, to proceed down the Thompson River to Kamloops.
“None of our party were skilful boatmen. I do not myself profess to have any extensive knowledge of navigation; so my young friends would not venture to go down the Frazer in canoes, which, in my opinion, they might have done with ease. They chose to stick to terra-firma, and, in consequence, they very nearly stuck fast. First, they lost one of their horses, laden with numerous valuables—nearly all their tobacco and tea and sugar; and the other poor beasts were so completely knocked up that it was difficult to drive them. Now they went one way, then another; now they tumbled down precipices or got jammed between trunks of trees; then they fell into the river and began swimming away, and the Assiniboine had to plunge in and fish them out. This continued week after week. We were like babes in the wood, lost in that fearful forest, cutting our way through it; often making good three or four miles in the day, our provisions running shorter and shorter, till we were reduced to live one day on a skunk, a creature I thought no human being could have eaten. I own that I could not. Sometimes precipices faced us, and sometimes steep hills, which it took us hours to get round or climb up. At last we had to kill a horse, my little pet Blackie, which, owing to my careful and judicious driving, was in better condition than any other of the lot. The young men had expended nearly all their powder; and, at the best of times, rarely killed more than a few birds in the course of the day. We found horse-flesh tolerably palatable; but, by the time we had begun to eat Blackie, we were not very particular. However, he was only the first horse we ate—we had to kill another before long—and it seemed probable that we should have to eat up our whole stud before we could reach Kamloops. Several times we discussed the question as to whether we should kill all our horses and tramp through on foot, or build rafts and descend the river. I urged my young friends to persevere. They took my advice, with happy results, for, in a short time, we entered an open country, and met some natives, not handsome, but kind-hearted people. They knew of Kamloops; they could guide us there; and did so. We were hospitably received.
“Our troubles were over; but I must say that I hope I may never spend another eleven weeks such as we went through since we started on our journey over the mountains. I entertained a different opinion of the Assiniboine to that held by my companions, and I believe that had it not been that I kept my eye on the man he would quietly have murdered us all; but he was afraid of me—that is the fact. He behaved bravely on one occasion, certainly, when he plunged into a river and dragged out our horse, Bucephalus, that, with another, Gisquakarn, had fallen in. The latter was swept away with our stock of tea and tobacco, salt and clothes, and several important documents belonging to me. Had my friends taken my advice, they would have divided these articles among the various animals. Possibly they will do so another time. Lord Milton and Dr Cheadle talked of giving an account of their adventures to the world. If they do, unless their memories altogether fail them, they will corroborate all I have said.”
The fine island of which Victoria is the rising capital, with a population of some seven or eight thousand inhabitants, came into possession by the British Oregon treaty, which determined the boundary between British North America and the United States. Vancouver Island is by far the longest on the west coast of America; and the coast-line is broken into fine natural harbours, which will afford protection to ships in all weathers. Coal of excellent quality is found at Nanaimo, and copper and iron ores: the latter, found nowhere else on the North Pacific coast, are plentiful. Fish of the most valuable kinds, including the viviparous species, are abundant; as are also the elk, deer, grouse, snipe, etc, by way of game; and for fur-bearing creatures, the beaver, the racoon, and land-otter, are the chief wild animals. Indeed, considering all its natural advantages, and its vicinity to the gold-fields of British Columbia, Vancouver Island must soon take a prominent place among the colonies of Great Britain.
Queen Charlotte Sound, which separates Vancouver Island from the mainland, is scarcely ten miles wide in some places, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which waters its shores as well as those of the territory of Washington in the United States, is not more than eighteen miles wide. The island itself is 275 miles long, of an average breadth of 75 miles, containing an area of 16,000 square miles, with a population of 20,000, of which above one-half are Red Indians.