No. 34

The recent dreadful massacre of a Road party in British Columbia by
the Chilcoaten Indians has naturally given rise in the Colony under
your Government to the same feelings with which the intelligence was
received in British Columbia. I think it well therefore to convey to you
the caution which on the first receipt of the melancholy tidings I
expressed to Governor Seymour.

One of the consequences of such an occurrence is to give rise to a
spirit of retaliation, which may easily be carried beyond the limits of
law, of Justice, or of policy. I am satisfied it will be your care to
moderate any tendency of this nature, and so to avert the risk which
would otherwise result that an isolated outrage might be converted into
a Tribal War. I need not impress upon you what the experience of every
civilized Community settled in the neighbourhood of savage races so
abundantly demonstrates, that the utmost vigilance is requisite to avert
these dangers whenever unprovoked aggression has given rise to the
necessity for just and salutary chastisement.