I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of the
15th of
April last, and to acquaint you that I have called upon
Mr Blanshard,
the late Governor of
Van Couver's Island to deliver to this
Office Office, copies
of the Despatches to the Secretary of State, which, as you report, are
not included among the public Records of the Settlement which he
committed to your charge on his retirement from the Government.
In expressing my approval of the firmness and good judgement shewn
by you in the affair of the Songies Indians, I have only to add that the
mode of dealing with the native Tribes is a point which I must leave to
your own discretion, trusting
to to your disposition to cultivate friendly
relations with them as far as may be possible.
With reference to your request
that a Ship of War may be stationed off
Vancouver's Island I have to acquaint you that Her Majesty's Ship "
Thetis" has been
ordered to remain there until the latter end of
January next.
I take this opportunity of enclosing a Book of Regulations for the
guidance of the Governors of Her Majesty's Colonial Possessions, and I
have to direct your attention
to to the Rules laid down in the 6
th
Chapter, as to the manner in which the correspondence with the Secretary
of State should be conducted.
P.S. With reference to the first paragraph of this Despatch I
enclose for your information the Copy of a Letter which I have just
received from
Mr Blanshard, in answer to the enquiry I directed to
be made to him, respecting the absence of any Copies of his Official
correspondence with the Secretary of State, from the Records of the
Government of
Vancouver's Island.
16 Augt/52