The colonial despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871
Bijou, Laurent
In this despatch illustrating the wealth of gold being acquired in the colony at the time, Douglas refers to several miners in the Cariboo region, including Laurent Bijou. Douglas writes that Bijou is a native of France that left Cariboo on 1 August 1861.1 He had spent about a month mining in Cariboo and in that time acquired $4500 worth of gold dust. According to Bijou, he was not
so fortunate, as others were making as much as $1000 a day. Bijou had mined in California
before, but never saw a Gold-field so rich as Cariboo.2