Colonial Despatches

Charles Nevin was a Hudson's Bay Company employee, formerly Chief Officer of the Una. The Fort Victoria Journal mentions Nevin leading armed parties to milk the cows.1 Helmcken referred to Nevin as a good-natured, active man who was too fond of grog and women.2 According to this correspondence, Nevin was at Fort Victoria when Captain Kuper recruited him to help navigate around Haida Gwaii, as he had visited there twice before when he was aboard the Una. Kuper states, however, that Nevin was of no service whatever and that as they approached the straits leading to Port Mitchell [he] did not even recognize the headlands.

• 1. 1849 May, Fort Victoria Journal, 1846-1850.
• 2. Hartwell Bowsfield, Fort Victoria Letters, 1846-1851, 12.