5. The officers in command of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s posts in that quarter, have received orders carefully to respect the feelings of the natives in that matter, and not to employ any of the company’s servants in washing out gold, without their full approbation and consent. There is, therefore, nothing to apprehend on the part of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s servants, but there is much reason to fear that serious affrays may take place between the natives and the motley adventurers who will be attracted by the reputed wealth of the country, from the United States’ possessions in Oregon, and may probably attempt to overpower the opposition of the natives by force of arms, and thus endanger the peace of the country.
6. I beg to submit, if in that case, it: may not become a question whether the natives are not entitled to the protection of Her Majesty’s Government, and if an officer invested with the requisite authority should not, without delay, be appointed for that purpose. I have, etcetera, (Signed) James Douglas, Governor.
The Right Hon. H. Labouchere, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
No. VI.
Extract of a Despatch from Governor Douglas to the Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, M.P., dated Victoria, Vancouver’s Island, December 29, 1857. (Received March 2, 1858.)
Since I had the honour of addressing you on the 15th July last, concerning the gold fields in the interior of the country north of the 49th parallel of latitude, which, for the sake of brevity, I will hereafter speak of as the “Couteau mines” (so named after the tribe of Indians who inhabit the country), I have received farther intelligence from my correspondents in that quarter.
It appears from their reports that the auriferous character of the country is becoming daily more extensively developed, through the exertions of the native Indian tribes, who, having tasted the sweets of gold finding, are devoting much of their time and attention to that pursuit.
They are, however, at present almost destitute of tools for moving the soil, and of washing implements for separating the gold from the earthy matrix, and have therefore to pick it out with their knives, or to use their fingers for that purpose; a circumstance which in some measure accounts for the small products of gold up to the present time, the export being only about 300 ounces since the 6th of last October.
The same circumstance will also serve to reconcile the opinion now generally entertained of the richness of the gold deposits by the few experienced miners who have seen the Couteau country, with the present paucity of production.
The reputed wealth of the Couteau mines is causing much excitement among the population of the United States territories of Washington and Oregon, and I have no doubt that a great number of people from those territories will be attracted thither with the return of the fine weather in spring.