No. 91

I have the honor to forward a Petition addressed to you
by Mr Alfred Waddington of Victoria, complaining of the refusal
of the Government of this Colony to defray the expenses he has
incurred in endeavouring to open a trail from Bute Inlet to
Cariboo, and praying that you will cause justice to be done
him. He does not specify in what manner. A consideration for
Mr Waddington's losses will induce me to deal indulgently with
the statements made by him. I shall first give, as near as I
can, a correct narration of the particulars referred to by Mr
Waddington, and then refute such assertions only as may, when
unexplained, convey the opinion that the Government of this
Colony acted unjustly towards him.

2. Immediately on the foundation of New Westminster as the
Capital of British Columbia, a feeling of jealousy and opposition
towards it showed itself in Victoria. The gold found in the bed
of the Fraser led the first immigrants to follow up that stream.
By this guide the Mines of Cariboo, for some years past acknowledged
to be the richest in the Colony, were discovered. Step by step the
miners advanced towards the upper waters of the great river, and
the Government step by step, improved the communications. Settlers
took up land near the line of traffic and finally the colonization
of British Columbia was commenced in the valley of the Fraser.
Cariboo once discovered and its position ascertained, it was seen
that there was water carriage nearer at hand than that furnished
by the river at Yale. If a road could be made from the head of
North Bentinck Arm, or Bute Inlet, it appeared on the map that
the Cariboo traffic would take that direction and the cost of living
at the mines be possibly reduced, but the main incentive to exertion
was the fact that the communication with Cariboo would be diverted from
New Westminster, and Victoria would then become the only market for
the two Colonies. It is certainly far from my wish to cast blame
upon Mr Waddington for endeavouring to further his own interests
and those of his adopted town by a perfectly legitimate, if feasible
transaction. Mr Waddington having determined to enter on the
speculation, unfortunately for himself, selected Bute Inlet for
the commencement of his enterprise instead of Bentinck Arm.

3. Sir James Douglas, a perfectly competent judge of the
difficulty of the work Mr Waddington was about to undertake,
did what he could to dissuade him from proceeding. This is
abundantly shown by the papers I enclose. Seeing Mr Waddington
however intent on his purpose, my predecessor consented to the
work being undertaken, with the promise of certain privileges
being granted in the event of its reaching completion.

4. Mr Waddington, supported I believe by a Victoria Company,
commenced operations. At first his road party was well armed &
efforts were made to conciliate the Indians, but with each
succeeding spring the gang returned with greater confidence to
their work among the natives. They bartered away their arms to
the Chilicotens and at the same time kept them short of food.

5. We have an account published in a Victoria newspaper,
the "British Colonist" of the 10th May 1864, of the condition
of the Chilicoten Indians at Mr Waddington's Camp two days
before they massacred the white men. It is from Mr Whymper,
an artist who accompanied the expedition. He says "they (The
Chilicoten Indians) disputed with their wretched cayote dogs
anything we threw out of the house in the shape of bones, bacon
rind, tea leaves and other such like luxuries. Many of them
are however able and willing to pack." The Indians had fire
arms and ammunition. The white men possessed but one musket,
and this was borrowed by a Homathco on the evening preceding
the massacre and not restored. The road party slept while the
armed and starving Indians watched. Abundance of food lay within
reach of the latter. Its protectors were helpless. A range of
mountains almost inaccessible to Europeans would preclude pursuit,
should a force desire to avenge the fate of those who lay at
their mercy. It is no matter for astonishment that an attack was
made on the road party and nearly all of them murdered in their sleep.

6. Mr Waddington alleges, that the Government was bound
to give him protection. He never asked for protection. Had
he made any claim of the kind the permission to engage in the
enterprise would have been refused him. Supposing we had sent
a few Constables, what could they have done? I know not under
what law they could have prevented the white men disarming
themselves. Had they interfered to urge the feeding of the
Indians I have no doubt that an immediate clamour for their
withdrawal would have been made. But this is scarcely to the
point. The Constables were not asked for and would not have
been given had they been asked for.

7. In this vast territory white men have carried their
ventures over the whole coast and sometimes penetrated into the
interior. There is not a coasting trader who could not count
on his fingers, and require all of them in doing so, the number
of such adventurers who have been killed by the natives in my
predecessor's time without retribution following.

8. But the Colony put forth its whole strength for once to
avenge the fate of the road makers at Bute Inlet and the V.C.I.s
of the succeeding massacres, my despatches will have told you
with what signal success.

9. I showed Mr Waddington's petition to Mr Brew, the Police
Magistrate of New Westminster, and I beg leave to enclose his
report. Mr Brew commanded the Volunteer Expedition from this
town and is as well acquainted with Indian affairs as any one
in the Colony. I leave Mr Brew to deal with the earlier allegations
of the petition, but I support his assertion that Mr Waddington's
undertaking was not viewed favorably by my predecessor, by the
statements of Mr Crease and Mr Trutch, and by an official letter
from the Colonial Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Lands
and Works.

10. In regard to the general allegations respecting the
comparative merit of the Bute Inlet and Bentinck Arm lines, I
have simply to say, that the Volunteers turned back unable to
cross the mountains on the former line, who subsequently
penetrated by way of Bentinck Arm.

11. Mr Waddington states that the Indian outbreak or
insurrection of last year originated in the Upper Chilicoten
Country. He knows this to be incorrect. The Massacre at Bute
Inlet took place on the 30th of April. The Murder of Manning
at Benshee about the middle of May. The slaughter of Macdonald
and some of his party at Sutless on the 31st of May. He says
that I acknowledged the successive massacres as an "insurrection."
I quote the words I used in the speech to which he alludes.
"Favored by impunity the assassins soon became promoted to the
dignity of insurgents by the adhesion of the whole Chilicoten
tribe from the summit of the Cascade Mountains to the Benches
of the Fraser." I enclose such parts of my address as referred
to the outbreak.

12. The 7th paragraph complains of delay in receiving
answers to Mr Waddington's letters. He is however aware that
I could not answer them, inasmuch as at the time they were written
I was in the Chilicoten Country having our communications with
the settled portions of the Colony closed.

13. In the 10th paragraph however Mr Waddington reports
that he had to wait four months for a reply to a memorial addressed
to myself in Council. This is not candid. I entered very fully
into the whole question in the interview to which he refers. I
told him I was of opinion he had no claim, but that I would go
once more over the matter, if he petitioned me in Council. I
meant the Executive Council. I told Mr Waddington that the
decision of the Executive Council was unanimously against him,
but that I would give him a final chance with the Legislative
Council. When the Session commenced it occurred to me that I
had somewhat rashly pledged myself to bring a matter of purely
Executive Administration before a Legislative Body. I endeavoured
to get rid of the difficulty by asking the opinions in writing of
every member of the Legislature. They urged me, however to give
them an opportunity of expressing publicly their views on the
subject. Hence my message. Mr Waddington knew all that was
passing in regard to the petition, and cannot justly complain
of not having his hopes crushed at once by a reply which must
have entailed a direct refusal. Every Member of the Legislature
publicly expressed his opinion that Mr Waddington had no claim
on the Government of this Colony. I did not use my influence
with any of them. I expressed an opinion, and that I conceive
the present Constitution requires of me in a matter of importance
where I leave my public officers free to vote as they please. Mr
Waddington complains that his petition was not read in the Council.
I do not know what occurred but he is well aware that it had been
in the hands of every Member of Council before I sent it down
officially.

14. The 13th paragraph requires every indulgence. It states
that the Indian hostilities "continued unabated." There has not
been a crime of violence of any kind committed by a native on a
white man for upwards of a year. And how have the murderers or
insurgents fared? Eight were driven to surrender to Mr Cox. Two
committed suicide. One was shot by Macdonald. Two were recently
captured near Bella Coola. Six have died on the scaffold, and we
fear that many of the tribe have perished of starvation, the active
pursuit of the Volunteers having prevented the native[s] from laying
in their usual supply of fish and berries for the winter. So far
from our efforts having failed, I have recently granted a free
pardon to one of the Chilicoten Murderers, being weary of taking
life and thinking that the consequences of the imprudence of Mr
Waddington's party have already caused but too much bloodshed and
suffering. The interpretation put upon my remarks respecting an Indian policy so disingenuous that I explain matters merely by enclosing a statement of what I said. Could Mr Waddington, in
his most excited moments imagine that I proposed to feed the
Chilicotens if they were still in Arms against the Government?

15. I have already stated that I sanctioned the pardon
 granted to Anaheim, who was two hundred miles from the nearest
 scene of massacre. The powerful Chief Ahan, who according to
Mr Waddington would make the Country impracticable to White
men died yesterday at New Westminster upon the scaffold.

16. To the remaining portion of Mr Waddington's petition
I will only say, that I see no reason why the Government should
compensate him for the consequences of his own reckless imprudence.
The work he has performed is utterly valueless to the Colony. If
the Government were to make a road from the sea board to Cariboo,
to the Northward of the Fraser, it would be by Bentinck Arm, where
our Volunteers penetrated by an Indian trail, certainly not by
Bute Inlet where Mr Waddington's large expenditure left the
Country impracticable to the hardy Volunteers of New Westminster.

17. The failure of Mr Brew's party to cross the Cascade
Mountains, and the light which his expedition has thrown upon the
whole question, have ruined the Bute Inlet speculation, not the
Indian massacres. A Road gang, using ordinary precautions, may
with perfect safety from Indian aggression resume work on the
abandoned trail, but capital will not again be deluded into
so hopeless an undertaking. When I speak in my message of the
loss to Mr Waddington by the massacre being problematical, it
is because I and every man of Mr Brew's party, are convinced
that the natural difficulties of the Country would never have
been surmounted with the means at Mr Waddington's disposal. The
failure must have come soon and the sooner the better for his pocket.

18. An undertaking started in opposition to the wishes of
the Government, grossly mismanaged, and utterly impracticable,
as far as we know, even in more skilful hands, has ended in
pecuniary embarrassment to one and in a violent death to thirty.
It would be more discrete, in my opinion, for Mr Waddington to
keep silence respecting the whole unfortunate affair.