Boas was one of the first Jewish merchants of the Cariboo gold fields that capitalized on the supply-demands of the miners.2
In this despatch, Douglas quotes Levi's letter to Boas, who was at the firm's New Westminster headquarters, about the conditions and opportunities in Barkerville: It is only 5 or 6 weeks more that pack trains come in here, and then we can get any
price for them … You bet I would soak into them. The Country is alright, there is
more gold in it as there was in California, dont say nothing to nobody.
Boas lived an interesting life in Barkerville. He almost died in a fire,3 and he sat on a committee responsible for finding the murderers of two Jewish merchants.4
2. Cyril Edel Leonoff, Pioneers, Pedlars, and Prayer Shawls: The Jewish Communities in British Columbia and
the Yukon (Victoria: SONO NIS Press, 1978), 45.