Colonial Despatches

Several families (from England & from my own native Country, Scotland) residing in this State, & belonging to the Baptist Church, of which I have been for the last Seven years pastor, are desirous of removing with me to the Co[a]st of the Pacific, and we would feel under obligations to you, for any information you may have it in your power to give about "Vancouver Island". Our object is a quiet, healthy, home, where we may live by industry, & gather round in an intelligent & religious community. Besides any information you may be able to give concerning the climate & the adaptation of the Soil of that Island, for farming purposes, will you have the kindess to inform us, how much land Her Gracious Majesty will be pleased to grant to each family settling there, to each family, as a homestead; & to each child, as a home to them, when they come of age? For it will be a long & very expensive journey. We shall have to take cattle with us from the States, & to put up with, at first, many hardships, yet for the Sake of our families, we are willing to undertake, & to endure much. My family, consists of eight children, six of them boys, and I am therefore not only anxious to have a home for them, but to take along with us a sufficient number of families as will enable us at once, to organize a church, & establish a school, for their education.

Be pleased to pardon the liberty I have taken, in troubling you with these particulars &, believe me,