Colonial Despatches

In sitting down to write the accompanying letters, I had intended to address myself to the Geographical Society of which I am a member, & to confine myself merely to the matter of town sites. I have however been led "currente colonio" to dwell on so many other topics that I seem entirely to have transgressed the limits of a simply geographical paper. I therefore venture to take the liberty of addressing my letter to you Sir as Colonial Minister, in case that any of the remarks contained in it, sd be useful to you, and through you to the colony in question.

I am aware of the difficulty of altering the direction of commerce or even of passenger traffic when once it has taken a run to any particular locality. Still it seems a pity that the money of the public as well as of private individuals sd all be expended on such a place as Victoria, when so many sites unquestionably superior remain comparatively unoccupied. I sd fancy that the neighbourhood of Victoria might with some propriety be bestowed on the Hudson's Bay Compy—thus at once satisfying their claims, and doing so in a manner least expensive to the public. I am tolerably well acquainted with the Island having purchased land frm the H.B.C. and gone out there as a colonist in '49 taking with me some of my own people from the North of Scotland, & I have subsequently travelled over & sailed round the greater portions of the district. I trust therefore that [the] interest which I consequently feel [in] the prosperity of our new Colony, [does] in some measure plead my case, for having ventured to trouble you with the accompanying remarks. There is little danger to be apprehended from Scylla (Russia), but I fear that accident alone can prevent Vancouvers Island eventually from being swallowed up by Charybdis (America in Puget Sound).

I beg of you to accept my apologies for troubling you, & to receive with them the assurance of the sincere respect with which I have the honor to remain