No. 13

In reply to your Despatch of the 2nd September last
No. 10,

forwarding to me an extract of a letter from Dr P.M. O'Brien, Port Physician at Port Townsend, stating that
miners proceeding up the River to British Columbia are compelled
to purchase their tools from the Hudson's Bay Company, though
previously provided with such articles, and instructing me to
report whether this statement is founded on fact, and to furnish
you with any information which I may have it in my power to give
upon the subject. I beg to assure Her Majesty's Government that
the allegations of Dr O'Brien are entirely unfounded.

2. From the first period of the gold discoveries in Fraser's
River much petty jealousy has been exhibited by the inhabitants
of Port Townsend, and other little Towns in Washington Territory,
which thought proper to feel ag[g]rieved at the prosperity of
Victoria, and commenced a crusade against British interests in
general, and against the Hudson's Bay Company in particular, and
the American Press in that quarter, has teemed with Articles of
the most absurdly fabulous character.

The letter of Dr O'Brien is a specimen, though indeed but
a mild one, of the invective that has been indulged in, and of
the fabrications that have been spread abroad; and the Press of
California, with scarce an exception, has adopted a similar strain
with the obvious purpose of deterring emigration from that state.

3. As a direct proof of the little truth, in the assertions
of Dr O'Brien, I may mention that, at the date of his letter,
the Hudson's Bay Company had no Mining tools for sale in their
stores at Victoria, consequently they could not have compelled
the miners to purchase them, and in refutation of the remainder
of his letter, it is sufficient to state that the trouble he so
confidently predicts has not come to pass, and that as a body,
the American Miners, are not dissatisfied with the treatment
they have received since their arrival in the British Possessions.