Colonial Despatches

I beg to enclose a copy of a letter I addressed to J.S. Helmcken Esqre, Medical officer of the Hudsons Bay Company at Fort Rupert, appointing him to act as magistrate provisionally; this is the only appointment I have yet made in the colony, for as there are no independent settlers, all cases that can occur requiring magisterial interference are disputes between the representatives of the Hudson's Bay company and their servants, to appoint the former, magistrates would be to make them judges in their own causes, and to arm them with additional power which few of them would exert discreetly. Mr Helmcken has only recently arrived in the colony, from England he is therefore a stranger to the petty brawls that have occurred and the ill feelings they have occasioned between the Hudsons Bay Company and their servants, from this and from my knowledge of his character I have great confidence in his impartiality his situation too as surgeon renders him more free from the influence which might be exercised over another servant of that Company.

It is moreover highly desirable that there should be a resident magistrate at Fort Rupert as the miners and labourers there have shewn a disposition to riot which if not checked may lead to serious consequences. The Indian population being numerous savage and treacherous, and the distance from Victoria and total want of means of communication between the two places, increases the inconvenience.

I would strongly recommend a duty to be imposed on the importation and manufacture of ardent spirits as their introduction tends to demoralize the Indians to a most dangerous degree, but I conceive I have not the power to impose such duty, free trade having been declared here, without further instructions which I would request on this point at your Lordships earliest convenience.

I may here mention that the accounts which have been published in respecting the barbarous treatment of the Indian population by the Hudsons bay company, are, both from my own personal observation and from all I have been able to gather on the subject entirely without foundation. They are always treated with the greatest consideration, far greater than the white labourers and in many instances are allowed liberties and impunities in the Hudson's bay company's establishments that I regard as extremely unsafe. No liquor is given them by the Company on any pretense but it is impossible to prevent their obtaining it from the merchant vessels that visit the coast.