I have to acknowledge the receipt of Mr Hawes's letter of the 30th Ult. enclosing a copy of a Despatch from Mr Blanshard
Governor of Vancouver's Island dated the 18th August, and requesting
me to furnish your Lordship with any information which it may be in the
power of the Hudson's Bay Company to afford on the subject of the
melancholy occurrence reported by Governor Blanshard, the murder of
three British subjects by the Indians in the neighbourhood of Fort
Rupert at the northern end of the Island.

The Hudson's Bay Company have received from Mr Douglas their principal Officer at Fort Victoria a letter dated 17th August in
which no mention is made of such an occurrence. I enclose an extract
from that letter containing all the information which he gives respecting the state of affairs at Fort Rupert, and what he was doing for the purpose of restoring order.
If no instructions have yet been given that one of Her Majesty's cruisers in the Pacific should visit Vancouver's Island, I would take the liberty of suggesting that the Admiral on that Station be instructed to cause frequent visits to be made to the Island by the cruisers.