Colonial Despatches
The colonial despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871
Despatch to London
Douglas, James to Labouchere, Henry 5 March 1858, CO 60:1, no. 4567, 2.
Abstract
Despatch to London.
Minutes (3), Other documents (3), Marginalia (1).
This document contains mentions of Indigenous Peoples. The authors of these documents
often perpetuate a negative perspective of Indigenous Peoples and it is important
to look critically at these mentions. They sometimes use terminology that is now considered
hurtful and offensive. To learn more about modern terminology pertaining to Indigenous
Peoples, Indigenous ways of knowing, and decolonization, please refer to the Glossary of terms.
Douglas requests that more men be sent from England to survey the boundary along the 49th
parallel. His reasons are that the survey will exhaust his small labour pool and increase
the rate of wages in the colony.
The minutes forward Douglas’s request to the War Department and the Foreign Office.
No. 7
1. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Mr
Merivale's letter of the 24th December
last,
1
informing me that the letter from the War Department, respecting the
despatch of the party for exploring the line on the 49th parallel of
latitude, between the British and Americanpossessions
possessions
2
was written from unavoidable circumstances, too late for communication to
the Colonial Office, in the ordinary manner, and that it should be
regarded as addressed to me, with your concurrence.
I was obliged to write privately & in haste, to catch a mail. HM.
possessions
2
was written from unavoidable circumstances, too late for communication to
the Colonial Office, in the ordinary manner, and that it should be
regarded as addressed to me, with your concurrence.
2. Your instructions in respect to the objects contemplated
in that letter shall be implicitly attended to, and I will take
measures at an early day, to provide accommodations for the party
on Vancouver's Island, as suggested by Lord
Panmure,
and otherwise to advise the Chief Commissioner regarding the best method
of carrying out the instructions of Her Majesty's Government, so faras
as respects the means of transport for his provisions and stores,
and the obtaining of local labor.
as respects the means of transport for his provisions and stores,
and the obtaining of local labor.
3. There being a great scarcity of laborers in this country
at present, and wages consequently running very high; Mechanics
refusing employment at any thing under 12/6, and common laborers 5/-
a day, besides their food; it being moreover not improbable that
the demand for so many additional hands, as will be required in
exploring the Boundary Line may have the effect of raising the
present rate of labor; I would therefore suggest for your consideration
whether it would not be advisable in those circumstancesto
to send
out a greater number of men from England, than the 30 non-Commissioned
Officers and men, mentioned in Mr Hawes' letter.
to send
out a greater number of men from England, than the 30 non-Commissioned
Officers and men, mentioned in Mr Hawes' letter.
4. By pursuing that course there would not be so great a drain
of labor from this Colony; wages would be kept within reasonable
bounds, and what is of far more importance to the public service,
the Chief Commissioner would be in a measure independent of local
labor, and enabled to carry out the views of Her Majesty's Government
in respect to the Boundary Line with such aid, chiefly native Indians,
as can at all times be procured in this Colony.
5. I would not advise the exclusive employment of Indian labor
in tracing the boundary line;but
but I think with a body of 60 white
men as a nucleus, and for the purpose of maintaining a proper
supervision and control, we could under any probable circumstances,
by the employment of Indian labourers, even in the event of the not
unlikely contingency of the whole floating white population of
Vancouver's Island, leaving the Colony for the gold mines, make up
a party of the requisite force to complete the boundary Survey.
but I think with a body of 60 white
men as a nucleus, and for the purpose of maintaining a proper
supervision and control, we could under any probable circumstances,
by the employment of Indian labourers, even in the event of the not
unlikely contingency of the whole floating white population of
Vancouver's Island, leaving the Colony for the gold mines, make up
a party of the requisite force to complete the boundary Survey.
The RightHonble Henry Labouchere
Her Majesty's principal Secretary of State
For the Colonial Department.
Her Majesty's principal Secretary of State
For the Colonial Department.
Minutes by CO staff
Certainly.
S.
13.
Other documents included in the file
Draft, Colonial Office to E. Hammond, Foreign Office, 22 May 1858,
transmitting copy of the despatch for information.
Draft, Colonial Office to Under-Secretary at War, 22 May 1858,
transmitting copy of the despatch for information.
Footnotes
- Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary) to Douglas, 24 December 1857, NAC, RG7, G8C/1, p. 545.
- = Merivale to Douglas, REs The letter from the War Department (Benjamin Hawes to Douglas, 24 December 1857) is in Hawes to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary), 30 December 1857, 11734, CO 305/8, p. 358, informing Douglas that a detachment of thirty Royal Engineers are being sent to survey the Oregon boundary. The boundary east of the continental divide had been established by a convention signed in 1818, which agreed to allow the territory west of the Rockies to be occupied jointly by nationals of both countries for a period of ten years, without prejudice as to the eventual ownership of this area. This agreement was renewed on an indefinite basis in 1827, and by a treaty signed at Washington on 15 June 1846, both countries agreed to fix the boundary at the forty-ninth parallel from the continental divide to the main channel leading to the Straits of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean. The need to survey this boundary led to the establishment of a joint boundary commission, headed by Archibald Campbell of the United States and Capt. John Summerfield Hawkins, R.E. of Great Britain. Hawkins left England with his detachment on 2 April and arrived at Esquimalt on 12 July 1858, by which time the discovery of gold on the Fraser and Thompson rivers made the clear demarcation of the boundary even more urgent. See Labouchere to Douglas, 23 January 1858, No. 3, CO 410/1, p. 119; George F.G. Stanley, ed., Mapping the Frontier: Charles Wilson's Diary of the Survey of the 49th Parallel, 1858-1862, While Secretary of the British Boundary Commission (Toronto: Macmillan, 1970). Cf Douglas to Labouchere, 6 April 1858, No. 15, 5180, CO 305/9, p. 61 for Satellite. Swan notes original treaty is preserved in PRO: SP 108.