4442 Vancouvers Island

No. 10.
25th February. 1851.
My Lord,
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No 5 of 23rd October 1850, in which after expressing a hope that the emigration to California may ultimately prove beneficial to this settlement, you point out a mistake I have fallen into in supposing the Puget Sound Agricultural Company to be identical with the Hudson's bay
2Extract Copy to Admity 4 June/ 51
Company. I am fully aware that the rights of the Puget Sound Company are recognised in the Treaty of 1846, between Great Britain and the United States, but my remark was merely intended to apply to the state of things here. The Agent of the Hudsons Bay Company receives, I am informed, a salary for acting as Agent of theManuscript imageof the Puget Sound Company, beyond this the latter company are not represented in this country, labourers bound by engagements to the Hudson's bay Company have been, and now are employed on the Puget Sound Company's Land Claim, without any change of service. The Hudsons Bay Company make use of such portions of that Land Claim as they think fit, for the erection of buildings, cutting timber &c, a saw mill and houses attached for the workmen are standing on it, their property, Farming stock such as cattle, and sheep, are removed from one company's claim to the other belonging alternately to each of them, but always under charge of the Hudson's bay company's servants, none of whom acknowledge any service to the Puget Sound Company, the greater part being ignorant of its very name; A Further proof of their identity here may be found in the fact that these persons employed on the Puget Sound Company's Land Claim are allowed to make their purchases at the stores of the Hudson's bay Company, at the same reduced rate of prices as when employed on the Land claim of the Hudsons bay company, a privilege which is declared to be strictly reserved to the servantsManuscript imageservants of that company. I think that these statements will prove sufficient explanation of my remark.
Mr Grant has returned to the Island and resumed possession of his farm at Soke, one or two persons in the employment of the Hudson's bay Company have as they inform me agreed to purchase small plots of land near Fort Victoria at very high rates, others who are willing to settle are deterred by the price,
I have received a note from Captain Wellesly, commanding H.M.S. Daedalus, of 24 October 1850 San Francisco, in which he informs me that one of his boats was fired into by the Indians near cape Scott, by which the officer in charge and two marines were wounded, all slightly, I have no particulars, but presume the occurrence has been reported to the Admiral on the station,
I have the honor to be
My Lord
Your obedient Servant
Richard Blanshard. Governor of Vancouvers Island.
1The Rt Honble
Earl Grey.
Minutes by CO staff
Manuscript image
Mr Merivale
Should the Hudson's Bay Company be furnished with an extract from this desph?
The portion which relates to the attack on the Daedalus should probably be communicated to the Admiralty?
ABd 23/5.
I hardly think it is necessary to communicate this to the HBC. I suppose there is no doubt that the Puget's Sound Company is as a corporate body distinct from the H.B.C. but that it consists of the same members or part of them & is in point of policy & management conducted so as to effect joint objects. There is therefore no real discrepancy between the two statements.
HM May 26.
G. 27
Other documents included in the file
Manuscript image
Draft, Colonial Office to Hamilton, Admiralty, 4 June 1851, transmitting extract from despatch relating to the attack on the Daedalus.
Footnotes
  1. This addressee information appears at the foot of the first page of the despatch.
  2. This text runs perpendicular to main body text; see image scan.
  3. Note that a large { encloses this paragraph, in the left margin; see image scan.
People in this document

Blackwood, Arthur Johnstone

Blanshard, Richard

Grant, Walter Colquhoun

Grey, Henry George

Hamilton, William Alexander Baille

Merivale, Herman

Wellesley, George G.

Organizations in this document

Colonial Office

Hudson's Bay Company

Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty

Puget Sound Agricultural Company

Vessels in this document

HMS Daedalus, 1826-1911

Places in this document

Cape Scott

San Francisco

Sooke

Vancouver Island

Victoria