colindaColinda
According to this despatch, the barque colindaColinda, owned by Mr. Tomlin of London, was chartered by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1853
to carry supplies and new emigrants to Victoria from England. This same despatch reports
that off the coast of Chile, the passengers of colindaColinda incited a mutiny and forced Captain John Powell Mills to anchor at the Port of Valdivia,
and that the passengers were tried at Valparaiso and acquitted based on lack of evidence.
Apparently, they remained in Chile and refused to continue on under the command of
Mills.
This despatch, by Douglas, describes the mutiny. It reports that Mills, who was also
part owner of colindaColinda, sold much of the cargo owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Moreover, Mills refused
to pay the HBC in full for the undelivered goods and was arrested upon landing at
Victoria. colindaColinda eventually returned to London under the command of James M. Reid.
Mills’s account of the incident can be found in this private correspondence. He claims
that Governor Douglas seized the colindaColinda
in the Queens Name
and converted [the ship] into a brothel for prostitutes and drunkards.
Douglas’s response to Mills’s complaints can be found in this despatch.