Separate

I have much satisfaction in communicating for your Grace's
information that intelligence was this morning received, by the
arrival of the Sloop "North Star," from Stickeen of the continued
welfare of Her Majesty's Subjects in that quarter.

2. In addition to the statements of the Master of that vessel,
a number of private communications have been received from the miners by
their friends at this place, which furnish much valuable and apparently
reliable information respecting Stickeen and its resources.

3. It appears by these reports that the mines are not yet
fairly started, for no sooner had the ice disappeared, and the
mining claims been selected and opened, than the freshets swollen
by the mountain snow, set in with violence, flooding all the River
Bars, and compelling the reluctant miners to suspend for a time
their productive labours. The yield of gold is said to have,
therefore, not been large, yet the miners do not complain, but are,
on the contrary, full of hope, being now convinced from the
researches made, and from their own experience, that the country
does actually possess large auriferous resources, a few, moreover,
are said to have realized handsome sums, especially one party of
two men, who, in the interval between the departure of the ice and
the rising of the river, a period of about seven days, succeeded
in taking out of their claim six hundred and seventy-five dollars
worth of gold.

4. The miners who have visited Stickeen appear to have formed
a very favorable opinion of the Country, believing that it contains
rich and extensive deposits of gold, no less so, indeed than those
existing in the valleys watered by the Fraser and its tributaries, an opinion which
derives force and
corroboration from the number of places, both River Bars and Bank Claims, which have been successfully tested.

5. Several small bodies of miners are engaged in constructing
flumes and making other preparations for the steady and vigorous
prosecution of their arduous labours.

6. The Stickeen trade already gives employment to a number
of small sail vessels which are continually plying to and from
this place. The Stern wheel Steamer
"Flying Dutchman," lately
employed in Fraser River, is now plying on the Stickeen, and has
successfully accomplished its ascent to the distance of 140 miles
from the sea. The great ambition of her enterprising owner being
now to reach the "Upper Narrows" (Big Canon) about 160 miles from
the sea, which is considered as the head of Steam Boat navigation,
the river beyond that point being inaccessible to craft larger than
boats and Canoes.

7. I enclose cuttings from the British Colonist of the 9th
instant, conveying further
information relative to the new gold
field which may be interesting to your Grace.

8. No communication whatever relative to the Stickeen, has
hitherto passed between my Government and the Governor of the
Russian American Company's Possessions on this Coast. I have not
considered it expedient to enter into any explanations, nor has
that officer demanded information on the subject, nor made any
attempt to interfere with British Subjects proceeding to the Stickeen River.
I have now however made
arrangements with Admiral
Sir Thomas Maitland to despatch one of Her Majesty's Ships on a
complimentary visit to the Governor of the Russian Settlement of
Sitka, to assure him of the friendly sentiments of Her Majesty's Government,
and of our earnest wish to avoid every cause of
difference, and to co-operate cordially with him in maintaining
peace and order.

9. Before closing this Despatch I have further to remark,
that, slender as is our knowledge of the general features and
resources of Stickeen, and imperfectly as it has hitherto been
explored, there is in my opinion a sufficient attraction in the
simple fact, now so clearly established, of the existence of gold
in remunerative quantities to draw a mining population to the
Country; and the experienced miner has something stronger even
than that fact to build his hopes upon; he sees in it an earnest
of further and more valuable discoveries probably of rich deposits
of heavy gold at remoter points, from whence the smaller particles
descending through the force of floods, and torrents, have
gradually settled in the sands and flats of rivers. The drift
gold is thus prized not only for its intrinsic worth, but as being
also an evidence of the existence of richer deposits; and I have
long entertained the opinion that were the researches of science
practically directed to the advancement of this branch of knowledge
data might be found in the character and indications of the soil,
that would conduct, by inerring process, from the outpouring as it
were, of the lead, to the parent mines.

10. Under these circumstances the Stickeen can hardly fail to
become the resort of a mining population, and Her Majesty's
Government will no doubt consider it necessary, ere disorders arise,
to take measures for the government of the Country.

11. All that perhaps is necessary for the present to secure
tranquility until more formal action can be taken by Parliament, is
to empower me to extend the Laws in force in British Columbia to
all parts of Her Majesty's Dominions west of the Rocky Mountains,
not included within the limits of any other Colony.