Colonial Despatches

I beg to enclose you a copy of my last letter, April 8. 1850, since which time no opportunity has occurred of dispatching letters with any degree of certainty. Nothing of importance has since occurred in the colony, no settlers or immigrants have arrived nor have any land sales been effected. Coal has not yet been discovered, though the miners have not yet, I am happy to say, abandoned all hope.

An American Company have commenced running a line of Mail steam packets between San Francisco and Oregon, they have not yet decided what port in Oregon will be their terminus, Could coal have been supplied from Vancouvers Island they would have chosen Nisqually in Pugets Sound, which would have greatly facilitated the communication between Vancouvers Island and England, but as it cannot be obtained, they will probably select Portland on the Columbia river. The Hudsons Bay Company have commenced a survey of the land reserved to themselves, which is bounded by a line drawn nearly due North from the head of Victoria harbour to a hill marked on the charts as Cedar Hill, or Mount Douglas, and thence running due East to the Canal de Arro. The extent is estimated at about ten miles (square). A tract adjoining, of similar extent is reserved for the Puget Sound Agricultural Association, the Hudson Bay company under another name, for the Association has no real existence, this last contains the harbour of Esquimalt, the only harbour in the southern part of the Island worthy of notice, as it is of large extent, has good anchorage, is easy of access at all times and in all weather, is well watered and in many places the water is of sufficient depth to allow ships anchoring along shore. Victoria Harbour where the Hudson's Bay Companys settlement is established, is very small the entrance is narrow, tortuous, and shallow, no vessels can enter except at high tide with favourable wind and weather, and there is no water near, the water required for the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company is brought from a distance of two miles, and during summer and autumn they are kept on allowance as at sea.

I have received news from Oregon, of the discovery of very rich gold mines on the Spokan River the whole population of that territory are flocking to the spot; should the favourable accounts of these mines prove correct, I fear that it will draw away all the Hudson's Bay Company's servants from Vancouvers Island, and at present they form the entire population.