I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of 20th March 1851 in which after acknowledging the receipt of mine of 18 September 1850, you inform me that it is not in the power of Her Majesty's
government to maintain a detachment of regular troops to garrison
Vancouvers Island and further that Her Majestys government cannot protect British subjects who may voluntarily expose themselves among the
natives at a distance from the settlements.
I beg to assure your Lordship that I have always discouraged
persons from so exposing themselves but it is scarcely applicable to the
unfortunate seamen who were murdered at Fort Rupert, as the murder was committed at a considerably shorter distance from that post than is frequently visited by the servants of the Hudson's bay company on their shooting excursions.
That the settlement was in danger I was fully persuaded both by
what I saw myself and by the apprehensions expressed by the Hudson's bay
company's servants who were on the spot, and I still firmly believe that
the visit of H.M. Ship "Daedalus" prevented a massacre,