No. 18

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
Despatch No 1 of the 2nd Septr
 transmitting to me the Queens Commission under the Great Seal, constituting and
appointing me to be Governor and Commander in Chief in and
over the Colony of British Columbia, and its dependencies,
with instructions under the Royal Sign Manual and Signet
for my general guidance in the administration of the
Government of the Colony, and I have to beg that you will
lay before Her Majesty my humble thanks for this
distinguished mark of confidence.

2. I enter upon the office with diffidence, and with
a deep sense of my own deficiencies; but with a humble
dependence on Divine help, and a firm determination to
exert every faculty in the service of my Queen and Country.