All this while the authorities of British Columbia were not asleep, but fully awake to their own interests. Soon Governor Douglass put a quietus upon parties going direct from Puget Sound ports into the Fraser River, and several outfits of merchandise were confiscated, among which was one of McCaw and Rogers from Steilacoom. Another effectual barrier was the prohibition from entering the country without a miner's license, which could be obtained only at Victoria. In this way the Whatcom game was blocked, with or without a trail, and the population disappeared nearly as rapidly and more mysteriously than it had come, and the houses that had been built were left tenantless, the stakes that had been set were left to be swept away by tides or to decay, and Whatcom for a time became only a memory to its once great population.
It is doubtful if a stampede of such dimensions ever occurred where the suffering was so great, the prizes so few and the loss of life proportionately greater, than that to the Fraser in 1858. Probably not one in ten that made the effort reached the mines, and of those who did the usual percentage of blanks were drawn incident to such stampedes. And yet the mines were immensely rich, and many millions of dollars of gold value came from the find in the lapse of years, and is still coming, though now nearly fifty years have passed.
While the losses to the people of the Puget Sound country were great, nevertheless, good came out of the great stampede in the large accession of population that remained after the return tide was over. Many had become stranded and could not leave the country, but went to work with a will, of whom not a few are still honored citizens of the State that has been carved out of the Territory of that day.
CHAPTER XXX.
AN OLD SETTLERS' MEETING.
The fact that the generation that participated in the Indian war in this State (then Territory) will soon pass, an attempt was made to hold a reunion of all the adults who were in Pierce County at the outbreak of the Indian war in 1855, who are still living in the county.
An Old Settlers' Meeting.