Berens to Lytton

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr Merivale's letter
of the 24th ulto in which he acquaints me that before communicating
to the Admiralty my letter of the 10th ulto on the subject of the
Sale of Thetis Island you would be glad to have some further
explanation on one point. Mr Merivale then observes that by the
return forwarded with Captain Shepherd's letter of July 15th 1858,
the only lot of 24 acres sold at Esquimalt is stated to have been
sold to the Hudson's Bay Company, and he adds
"that as the subsequent sale by Auction, was not made by the Company
or any one acting for them" he infers that, "the lot must have passed
into the hands of some intermediate possessors."

In answer I beg to state that Thetis Island is a portion of the lot
of 24 acres on Esquimalt Bay which appears in Captain Shepherd's
return as having been sold to "The Hudson's Bay Company". But the
entry in the return in question is a mistake which seems to have
originated with the Colony Surveyor who in reporting the sale used
the words "Hudson's Bay Company" in place of the words "James Douglas
and John Work as Trustees for the Fur Trade" which is a subordinate
branch of the Hudson's Bay Company.

The history of the transaction is this. In 1856 it was felt by
Governor Douglas that one of the great impediments to the
Colonization of Vancouver's Island was the rule laid down by the
Government when the Grant of the Island was made to the Hudson's Bay
Company, by which they were prohibited from disposing of inappropriated
land to Settlers in lots of less than 20 acres. To obviate this
inconvenience Mr Douglas suggested that he and Mr Work another head
Officer of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Island should as Trustees
for the Fur Trade branch of the Company purchase one or more lots of
public land for the purpose of disposing of them afterwards at the
original cost, in small allotments to working people desirous of
becoming Settlers but unable to purchase larger lots. Accordingly
two or three lots were purchased for the purpose by "The Fur Trade"
and among them Lot 53 (of which Thetis Island is a part) and which
was sold in 5 acre lots with the exception of Thetis Island itself
(which consists of only one acre) and which was sold separately to a
person of the name of Jeremiah Nagle as may be seen by the return
made by the Governor of this Company to the Government on the 23rd
January 1858 where it figures under the head of "Suburban Lots No
35" with the price paid namely "£1:0:10. Herewith I have the honour of
enclosing extracts from letters addressed by Governor Douglas to the
Secretary of this Company in which the whole course of the affair
is traced. In the first (dated March 5th 1856) is set forth an
account of the purchase of the 24 acres in question and the object of
the purchase; in the second (dated 4th June 1857) an account is
given of the subsequent purchase of a still larger lot with similar
views; and the third, dated July 9, 1858 gives the latest account we
have received from the Island as to the position of the affair.
These Extracts make the object of all parties so clear that it is
unnecessary for me to add a word.

With respect to the subsequent sale by Auction all that has come to
our knowledge is the fact that Mr Jeremiah Nagle the purchaser of
Thetis Island having afterwards got into difficulties had made over
that and other property to his Creditors, and as it appears from the
letter from the Secretary of the Admiralty to Mr Merivale which you
did me the honor to transmit to me that a Sale by Auction of the
Island had taken place as late as the 16th of January of the present
year, we have inferred that the Sale must have been made at the
instance of Mr Nagle's Creditors.