No. 56

I have had the honor to receive your Despatch No. 30 of
the 1st of August, respecting the insurrection of the
Chilicoten Indians in this Colony. I am highly gratified to
perceive that you approve of the determination I expressed of
dealing with the matter as far as lay in my power as a series
of offences against the Law.

2. I am reluctant to make any observations upon a despatch
so indulgent in tone as the one I have now the honor of acknowledging,
but I would observe, with reference to your second paragraph that
it was not so much the high rate of pay assigned to the Volunteers
of the two Expeditions I regretted, as the heavy miscellaneous
charges. For instance, the first that came under my notice, two
hundred pounds (£200) for the conveyance of fifty rifles and ammunition
to Alexandria. During three Months a force of upwards of a hundred
men has been maintained upon supplies obtained mainly from the Gold
regions, with their bases of supply, Alexandria or Quesnel Mouth,
upwards of five hundred miles from the Sea. That these supplies
were difficult to obtain, even at exorbitant prices, can hardly
be considered as evidencing the prosperity of the Colony.

3. The Indian insurrection is merely referred to by you as
a question of Colonial importance. I would, however, beg most
respectfully to point out that should a real war take place between
the Indian population and the Whites, the former numbering about
60,000, the latter about 7,000 I may find myself compelled to
follow in the footsteps of the Governor of Colorado, whose
proclamation I forwarded in my despatch No. 49 of the 24th
of September and invite every white man to shoot each Indian he may
meet. Such a proclamation would not be badly received here in a
case of emergency.

4. The final paragraph of your despatch directs me to maintain
a cordial cooperation with the Admiral on this Station. I can
assure you that your wishes will be fully carried out on my part.
Indeed, they have been forstalled. I have no copy of the hurried
semi-official letter to your department in which I stated that I
had "despatched" a gun boat somewhere. But my official despatch
No. 8 of the 20th of May was, I understand, before the Lords
of the Admiralty at the same time as the note referred to, and in
it their Lordships may have seen stated that, "the Senior Naval
Officer after some hesitation, complied with my application for
assistance to the extent of supplying the Gunboat "Forward,"
coupled with the request that she should be detained in the Colony
as short a time as possible." When so lent, I may have carelessly
stated—improperly, possibly—that I had "despatched" her to Bute Inlet.

5. My correspondence with Lord Gilford created no bad feeling
between us, but after it had closed when he was on a visit to me,
I learnt that he was annoyed by something which had been published
in the Victoria Papers, and I, quite unsolicited by him, wrote
the letter, copy of which I enclose. I do not and have not
complained of Lord Gilford, and I shall be always happy to
cooperate in the most friendly manner with him, but at the same
time I reserve to myself the right of thinking that earlier
assistance ought to have been afforded me. We might have saved
the lives of Macdonald's party and prevented the rising of the
 Western branch of the Chilicoten tribe under Anaheim.

6. Sir Edward Lytton's despatch No. 30 of the 10th March
1859, and the Duke of Newcastle's, No. 31 of the 21st October 1859
*

certainly led me to believe that the two Gunboats would
be generally available for the Service of British Columbia when
our fellow Countrymen were being butchered therein.