No. 7

I transmit for your information copies of a correspondence between
this Department and the War Office, which will place you in possession
of the measures which have been taken for sending to British Columbia a
Detachment of the Royal Engineers under the Command of a Field Officer.
Royal Engineersto BC

Colonel Moody has been appointed to this command, and has also been
Moody, Col. Richard C.to command Royal Engineers
Moody, Col. Richard C.appointed CCLW
Moody, Col. Richard C.Minstructions to
selected for the Office of Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works in
British Columbia, and I transmit a Copy of the Instructions which have
been addressed to Colonel Moody with reference to the discharge of his
duties in that capacity, and specifying the amount of Regimental pay and
Colonial allowances to which he and the Commissioned and
Non-Commissioned Officers and Sappers of the Detachment are entitled.

I may further observe that a Ship has been chartered and is in
course of preparation for the conveyance of the larger portion of this
Detachment by the Horn; but as the passage will consume nearly four
months and it is desirable that you should have the assistance and
support of a part of this body without delay both to represent the
Military force of this Country and to facilitate those Surveying and
Engineering operations which it may be expedient to commence forthwith,
I have made arrangements for the despatch of Twenty men and an Officer
by the Steamer which leaves this Country for Panama on the 2nd of next
Panama
month.