I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordships
letter of the 25th Instant transmitting a Copy of a Despatch from the Governor of Vancouvers Island in which he states that a Gentleman of the
name of Grant has been prevented by the Hudsons Bay Company from
settling in the neighbourhood of Victoria in that Island, and recommends
that two Companies of regular Troops be sent out for its defence, and
requesting that I should furnish your Lordship with any Explanation
which it may be in the power of the Hudson's Bay Company to afford on
the Subject of the refusal of Land near the Fort to Mr Grant, and that I
should state the views of the Company with regard to the measures to be
taken for the more efficient protection of the Settlers.
With regard to the case of Mr Grant, I have to state that the
Company never received any complaint from him, or other information
(until now from your Lordship) that he had been prevented from settling
near to Victoria.
Mr Grant purchased 100 Acres of Land in 1848, and sent out in a
Vessel chartered by the Com--panyCompany agricultural implements and other articles, and 8 Laborers. He proceeded himself to the Island by way of
Chagrés, Panama, San Francisco, and Fort Vancouver on the Columbia
River, and I enclose an Extract of a Letter from Mr Douglas the Agent of
the Company, dated 3rd, September 1849, which contains all the
information possessed by the Company in regard to the selection of his
land. ⎯ The Land reserved for the Hudson's Bay Company, and the Pugets
Sound Company could not make it necessary for him to place himself at a spot 25 miles distant from Victoria, there is therefore every reason to believe that it was entirely a matter of his own choice and selection.
I have not received any infor--mationinformation from the Company's Agent of any outrages by Indians at Soke or Victoria, but I learn from the Captain of one of the Company's Vessels lately arrived from the Island, that from
some cause or other Mr Grants Ser--vantsServants had left him; that he had placed
his Farm in the charge of one old man, whom he had hired on the Island, and that the Indians had pilfered some of his Potatoe Crop, and Stolen
some Blankets and other Articles, most of which had been recovered from
them, but that he (the Captain) had not heard of any other injury being
done by the Indians.
With regard to the Governor's recommendation of sending out two
Companies of regular troops for the more efficient protection of the
Settlers I have to state, that the Company have no reason to apprehend any danger from the Indians in that part of the Island, who consist of Small Tribes, and in the whole are not numerous. It is the practice of
the Company to maintain at all their stations a number of men sufficient
for their protection, and the collection of settlers will of course
diminish the risk of any trouble from the Indians.
The Company therefore do not consider that any Military Force is
required at present; but if your Lordship should be of opinion, that
such a Measure is called for, I think it proper to state, that the
Company are not in possession of any funds applicable to the
Colonization of the Island, adequate to meet the expence.