Colonial Despatches
The colonial despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871
Public Offices document
Hammond, Edmund to Merivale, Herman 9 November 1858, CO 60:2, no. 11498, 98.
Abstract
Public Offices document.
Minutes (3), Enclosures (untranscribed) (1).
Hammond announces, on behalf of the British Consul at Panama, the arrival there of a detachment of Royal Engineers and their subsequent departure
for British Columbia via San Francisco.
The minutes
Put by.
Enclosed is Bidwell to Malmesbury reporting the arrival of Captain Parsons and his detachment and their departure for San Francisco on the John L. Stephens.
Hammond to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)
I am directed by the Earl of Malmesbury to transmit to you, for the
information of Secretary Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, a copy of a despatch
from the acting British Consul at Panama, reporting the arrival at that
place of the detachment of Royal Engineers, referred to in your letter of
the 25th of August
last,
1
and their subsequent departure for San Francisco on their way to BritishColumbia
Columbia.
Columbia.
Documents enclosed with the main document (not transcribed)
Charles Bidwell to Malmesbury, No. 41, 5 October 1858, reporting
the arrival of Captain Parsons and his detachment on 25 September and
their departure for San Francisco via the John L. Stephens.
2
on 1 November.
Footnotes
- = M-FO, 25 Aug 58, REs en route to BC FIND Mer - FO, 25 Aug 58, REs en route to BC
- Built in New York for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in 1852, the John L. Stephens, 275' long and 2183 tons, was named for one of founders of the Panama Rail-Road ?? Company and placed on the Panama to San Francisco run, arriving in San Francisco on 3 April 1852. She remained in this service until October 1860. In 1864 she ran between San Francisco and the Columbia River. In 1878, she was sold in San Francisco to Sisson, Wallace and Company, who sent her to Karluk, Alaska, as a floating cannery. It was retired and broken up in 1879. Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869, p. 233.