No. 25

On my return to New Westminster after an absence of nine
weeks, I find so great an accumulation of work that I am unable
by this Mail to give you full particulars respecting the recent
Indian insurrection, and the means taken for its suppression.

2. The Chilicotens who massacred Mr Waddington's road party
at Bute Inlet, as mentioned in my despatch No 7 of the 20th
of May, marched into the interior, were joined by other members
of the tribe, and succeeded in murdering or expelling every
white person from the sea to the Upper Fraser.

3. The country in the hands of the insurgents might be described
as about three hundred miles from East to West by one hundred
and fifty North and South. It was inevitable that steps should
be taken for the assertion of our authority, and two parties of
Volunteers were started for the interior. The one, under Mr
Cox, a Police Magistrate of Cariboo, from Alexandria. The other,
under Mr Brew, Police Magistrate of New Westminster, from Bella
Coola at the head of Bentinck Arm. This latter force I accompanied.

4. These two small bodies had to make their way to Benshee
Lake in the heart of the Country. Mr Cox's party of sixty men
would then be one hundred and twelve miles from Alexandria,
the base of his operations, and Mr Brew's band of forty, two
hundred and fifty miles from Bella Coola, from whence only he
could draw his supplies.

5. It is hardly necessary for me to say that the communications
with the civilized portions of the Colony were closed to these
parties as soon as they were in the hostile country, or at least
could only be kept up by detaching a large proportion of either
force. Thus isolated in the bush our fate became a matter of
speculation throughout the Colony and the most painful rumours
circulated.

6. The two forces met at Benshee on the 6th of July and on
the following day Mr Cox's party was sent by me down towards
the Bute Inlet Mountains. They travelled over a Country, presenting
every natural difficulty, for a fortnight, pursuing the trails of
the Indians and occasionally exchanging shots with them. Mr
McLean, the second in command, fell a victim to his excess of zeal.

7. In the mean time the head quarters of Mr Brew's party,
with which I remained, occupied the important post at Benshee
where all the Indian trails converge. We were then but ten in
number, having despatched a party in pursuit of the natives and
another to escort a provision train. The force was so
disproportionate to the value of the position we held, that it
was with satisfaction we saw the return of the flying party of
twenty-five men who had left us in the preceding week, after the natives.

8. The supply of provisions with us began to run extremely
low, as the provision train did not arrive, yet perfect discipline
prevailed in Camp, and no murmurs were heard respecting the smallness of
the rations of such supplies as remained, or the total absence of many
things usually considered almost indispensable to existence.

9. By means which I shall describe another time, Alexis,
one of the principal Chiefs of the Chilicoten people, who
had refrained from joining the hostile movements of the tribe,
was induced to present himself to me, and after many days
negotiation, promised to accompany the attack, in full force,
which we determined to make on the Indians in the direction
in which Mr McLean was killed.

10. The details of the arrangements we made before my indispensable
return to the other duties of my office I shall state in another
despatch. I enclose an extract from the official Gazette showing
the success which has already attended them.

11. It appears to me creditable in the extreme to these two
small bodies of white men, that they should thus have scoured
the vast territory of the Chilicotens so well as to remain
victors in a contest in which famine fought on both sides. I
do not however venture yet to predict that the victory will be
absolutely complete.