MANNING THE FRASER CANYON GOLD RUSH

by

AVERILL GROENEVELD-MEIJER

B.A., The University of British Columbia, 1991

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS

IN

THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

(Department of Geography)

We accept this thesis as conforming

to the required standard

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

August 1994

© Averill Groeneveld-Meijer ______

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.

Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date 9yQ U

Abstract

In the canyon where the Fraser River flows through the Cascade mountains,

migrating salmon supported a large, dense native population. By 1850 the Hudson’s Bay

Company had several forts on other parts of the Fraser River and its tributaries but found

the canyon itself inaccessible. Prior to the gold rush, whites rarely ventured there.

Discoveries of gold in Fraser River in 1856drew the attention of outsiders and a

rush of miners, and led eventually to permanent white settlement on mainland British

Columbia. Contrary to much historiography, these were not foregone results. Instead, the

gold rush was a complex process of negotiation and conflict among competing groups as

they sought to profit from gold discoveries. The Hudson’s Bay Company sought to gain

and retain control of the resource by incorporatingit into its trade and by excluding

outsiders. But miners arrived by the thousands, and the Company was forced to try to

regulate miners’ access to the resource. However, as a group, miners were cohesive and

self-reliant; they had little need for outside intervention. The Hudson’sBay Company was

unable to regulate them while pursuing its own ideas of profit. The British government

subsequently revoked the Hudson Bay Company’strade license, and proclaimed British

Columbia a colony. In efforts to impose its own ideals of order on the gold fields, the

government introduced a new colonial administration which, following a chain of

command extending from London through Victoria to the Fraser, sought to organize the

population in the spaces of the Fraser Canyon. Government authority was reinforced by

the legal system’sflexible responses to the diverse population’sactivities it deemed illegal.

By studying the interactions of natives, miners, traders, administrators, and the

legal system, I have attempted to untangle the ways in which white men negotiated their particular racist and masculinist ideals and sought to impose them in the spaces of the Fraser Canyon. 111

Table of Contents

Abstract ii

List of Figures v

List of Tables vi

Acknowledgements vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 2: THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY AND THE GOLD TRADE 10

Precedents 11

Roots of the Fraser River Rush 16

From Managing Resources to Managing Miners 24

The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Colonial Office 26

CHAPTER 3: MINING MEN IN THE FRASER CANYON 33 To the Fraser River Mines 35

The Mining Life 44

Mining Men 49

Miners and Women 52

Pardners’ 58

Miners’ Rules 63

Racism 67

Miners and “Indians” 72

Economy and Trade 72

Annoyances and Belligerance 73

Indian Wars 76

Conclusion 80 iv

CHAPTER 4: GOVERNMENTS’ DESIGNS FROM LONDON TO LYTTON 82

London’s Colony 83

A Governor’s Colony 89

A Gold Commissioner’s Beat: H.M.Ball at Lytton 92

Management of People: the institutionalizationof race 95

Managing Land: the creation of town and country 110

Transportation: connecting the dots 115

From E.B. Lytton to Lytton B.C. 120

CHAPTER 5: THE LAW AND “THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY” 128

Justice or Peace? 131

The Law’sDiplomat 138

Case Studies 142

Conclusion 153

POSTSCRIPT 155 BIBLIOGRAPHY 159 V

List of Figures

Figure 1. British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, 1858. 2

Figure 2. Winter Villages in the Fraser Canyon, ca 1850. 5

Figure 3: Hudson’s Bay Company Mainland Forts and Trails. 12

Figure 4. J.D. Pemberton’s Map of Cross-Continental Routes to the Fraser. 37

Figures. Miner’s Map to the Fraser River. 38

Figure 6: Mining Bars in the Fraser Canyon. 42

Figure 7: Mountain Roads. 43

Figure 8: To the Diggings and from the Diggings. 64

Figure 9: C.O. Phillips’s Impressions of the Fraser Canyon. 69

Figure 10: Reconnaissance of Fraser’s River (for Parliament’s use). 84

FIgure 11: Leverett Estabrooks and Company’sClaim. 100

Figure 12: Cameron’s Flat. 102

Figure 13: Town plan of Lytton, 1860. 112

Figure 14: Lytton, ca. 1868. 113

Figure 15: Detail of the Waggon Road Survey, 1861. 118

Figure 16: Thompson River Survey. 119

Figure 17: A Section of the Waggon Road. 120

Figure 18: Judge Begbie’sTravels. 141

Figure 19: Topographic maps of the Fraser Canyon, 1990. 158 vi

List of Tables

Table 1: Gold Commissioner Ball’sQuarterly Reports for the Lytton Disctrict, October 1858 to June 1860. 94

Table 2: Travaillot’s “List of the different places where water’spriviledges have been recorded, and the number of of mining licenses to be collected therein,” April, 1859. 96

Table 3: H.M. Ball’s List of Mining Bars, Lytton District, May 1860. 97

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histories of aboriginal people and to deny other imperial histories of exploration and trade.

As a result, study of the gold rush provides one means for uncovering the ways in which much history of British Columbia has been constructed around the singular narrative of white mens’ conquest of natives and land. The gold rush brought outsiders into the region in unprecedented numbers, brought the attention of the world to the region, and finally invoked the institutionalized presence of colonial power. However, I would like to destabalize some gold rush myths, and argue that these changes were not as ‘natural’as they may seem in retrospect. Not all gold discoveries led to gold rushes, and not all gold rushes have resulted in the sustained presence of outsiders. Colonialism was not an inevitable fact of history.

Histories of world gold rushes focus on the roles of institutional intervention in harnessing miners’ cumulative energies in service of colonial progress and convey an excitement usually associated with a Clint Eastwood Western - Miners and Indians instead of Cowboys and Indians. Unfortunately they say little about processes of colonialism, seeing it instead as the product of an all-powerful monolith, mysteriously represented by a mere handful of colonial administrators whose courage and righteousness tamed the wild men. Instead, I would argue that the transition from gold rush to colony was neither inevitable nor a simple equation of oppressors, oppressed, and conquest, but was composed of processes of interaction, negotiation, and conflict within and among several groups, including natives, traders, miners, administrators, and legal practitioners.

Put geographically, the colonization of British Columbia was about more than the straightforward and rigid application of new ideas to a neutral surface. Miners and administrators arrived in British Columbia from very different experiences in other gold fields, homes, and colonies. Miners from California or rural New England, and administrators from Australia or the English countryside seeking to apply their ideas to

British Columbia immediately encountered a rugged terrain and large aboriginal population resistant to their ideas. As a result, ideas about British Columbia were formed and 4

reworked at various scales. As outsiders approached the space of the canyon, they found they had be flexible and allow their ideas to become increasingly suited to the spaces in which they found themselves, while remaining true to their general principles.

In an attempt to uncover the relative flexibilitiesand rigidities of colonialism, this thesis is concerned with some of those who sought to construct a certain kind of British

Columbia, that is, white men. Their official and personal writings - including government despatches, court records, journals, and letters - express their perceptions of this ‘new’ place and their intentions for its future, and offer frighteningly familiar glimpses of distant times and places. The narratives show that their ideas were neither random nor irrational, but served the very particular purpose of establishing common ground among newcomers, often at the expense of those who stayed home and those who were already there. Racist and masculinist notions crowd the pages of most narratives, demonstrating how the meaning of “British Columbia” was created in particular ways by particular groups.

The topics of this study - white men, colonialism, and the gold rush - are linked to its themes - masculinity, racism, and power - by the spaces in which these social relations were worked out. The Fraser Canyon is the 75 kilometer stretch of the Fraser River that flows through the Cascade mountains. The northern edge of the canyon lies at the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers. The town of Lytton was founded here during the gold rush, adjacent to the Ntlakapamux village Tlicumcheen, where Simon

Fraser reported shaking hands with 1,200 natives in 1808. At the canyon’s southern limit, in Stab territory, lies Yale, another gold rush town. South of Yale the canyon widens into the Fraser Valley. The boundary between the two linguistic groups was near the lower end of the canyon. For natives the canyon provided a zone of plenty as swift currents and narrow canyons allowed migrating salmon to be caught in adundance. Supplemented by hunting and gathering, the fishery sustained one of the densest aboriginal populations in

North America, as seen in the map of villages (Figure 2), based on archeological fieldwork and archival and narrative sources. The territorial divisions along the canyon suggest that 5

Figure 2. Winter Villages in the Fraser Canyon, ca. 1850.

North South Canyon Canyon

Nkattsi’m (T) Nkatzam (H-T) Nqopkin (T) inkafltsapt (SB) Nokoieken (l-t-T) Sta’iEn (T) • Sük (T) Stain (H-T) • Cuk (H-T) , Stryne (SB) AnExterim (fl? Sho.ook (5)) in-kiuck-cheen (S) Kimus (T) • Skmuc (H-T) Stein NxSmin Kah-moose (S) SintakL (fl r) Cntaktl (H-T) Nhomin (H-T) Skwauyix No-Ho-Meen(S) Tuckka-zahp (S) (T) • Tsin-tahk-tI (S) • Tsaumäk (T) Spapum •iKamtcin Spaim çr (H-T rn —Speim (H-T) Tzauamuk (H-T) Papyum (mod) Tlkumtcin (H-T) um (5) Tsa-waw-muck (SB) Klick-kum-cheen (SB) 2Sp Nqaia (T) Nkaia (H-T) Neek-eye-yah (S) Kapatcitcin (T) Kiapatcitcin (H-T) Npiktrm (fl Kapahchut-lnn (S) Npektem (t-i-T) Skapa (H-T) Skuppah (5) Ntsuwi’Bk (T) Koiaum (T) Tlclcoeaum (H-T) Siska (T) •TUCIc-Kwi-oWh-urn(S) CD Siska (H-T) Noiêttsi r) •Kaluiaa-IEX (T) z Skuzis (H-T) iqiaqtin (T) NLaqLakitin (T) Scousey (5) Sluktiakten (H-T) rt I Ce Tslank.Iahktun (B)

Staxahani (T) Statciani (H-fl • Tcêtawe (fl Sti-e-hanny (5) Skoxwic (fl catua (H-T) Skuouakk (H-T) pep.I.kim (B) Yelakin (mod)

Ckuet (H-T) • Tikwalus (T) Tikuiluc (H-T) Teeqaloose (5)

Orthography Cuimp (H-T) Skueernp (S) • winter village B = Blenkinsop H-T = HBI-Tout SpÔzêm (T) Spuzum (H-fl S = Sproat o 3 6 9km T =Teit

Source: Cole Harris, “The Fraser Canyon Encountered,” BC Studies, 94, Summer 1992. 6

the Fraser Canyon was not so much a linear transportation corridor, as a place to be lived in.

During the early Hudson Bay Company years fur traders and explorers wrote of the canyon as a difficulty to be overcome and, after the border agreement of 1846, desperately sought to use it as a transportation corridor between the interior posts and Fort Langley (on the lower Fraser), or even to provide a link in the overland route from Eastern Canada to the Pacific. Exploration parties wrote with despair of their experiences through the canyon; most barely survived the journey. Beyond such explorations, fur traders had little reason to travel to the canyon, as natives brought salmon and furs to trade at Fort Kamloops and

Langley. The effects of the Hudson’s Bay Company’spresence above and below the canyon on natives there is hard to establish. Exotic trade goods undoubtedly entered into the regional economy, but it hard to assess their influence. Fur traders wrote of both respectful treatement by natives and of violent attacks. The picture of native-white relations in and around the Fraser canyon is not clear, but not until the discovery of gold would outsiders be interested in the canyon as a place to stay.

In the process of uncovering the tensions and transformations brought on by this influx of outsiders into the Fraser Canyon, my thesis will be organized as follows.

Chapter 2 looks at the Hudson’s Bay Company’sresponses to the discovery of gold. The company tried to fit gold within its diversifying trade and to prevent other traders and miners from interfering. When, despite its efforts, miners travelled to the Fraser, the company also tried to incoporate them into its trade. Its lack of success, and British

Parliament’s subsequent revocation of its license and creation of the colony suggest that administering a trade was unlike, and perhaps incompatible with, administering a population. The HBC could deal with natives as trade partners, but however it adapted its spatial strategies, proved unable to respond to the challenges posed by the arrival of thousands of miners, along with natives’ responses to their presence. 7

Chapter 3 seeks to refute stereotypes of miners as rowdy, irrational individuals.

Miners came from widely varying backgrounds but managed to pull together and create a group identity in the face of opposition from natives and, in some ways, government.

Miners’journals, letters, and reminiscences reveal how they articulated their group identity on the basis of their experiences as miners. Many had spent time at the California mines, took their occupations as miners seriously, willingly moved about in search of gold, and in so doing encountered similar hurdles. This identity was reinforced in opposition to other groups, including administrators, natives, Chinese miners, and women. In other words, miners saw themselves as white working men, and used racism, masculinity, and class as means of group definition. These identities were not expressed in towns and other long term settlements, but among partners and friends in shifting camps and saloons. Miners’ motives were not always comprehensible to non-miners, but government officials found some areas of compatibilty with their own visions for the future of British Columbia and sought to reinforce them in order to garner support from this powerful section of the population.

Chapter 4 is about the attempt of a colonial government to transform British

Columbia into a settlement colony. Ideas for the colonization of British Columbia were worked out at several scales and underwent several rounds of translation before they could be made applicable to the Fraser Canyon. In London, the Colonial Office and the British parliament debated the wisdom of establishing the colony and the types of government considered suitable to the task of transforming a turbulent gold rush into an ordered society. Broad instructions were sent from the Colonial Office to the governor of British

Columbia who spent most of his time in Victoria in the separate colony of Vancouver

Island. He rejected some instructions and rethought others, and communicated the results to the Gold Commissioners. Gold Commissioners were, in essence, administrative field officers placed in strategic locations in the gold regions to watch, register, and regulate people, that is, to uphold the governor’srules and report inconsistencies and irregularities 8

back to him. In this way, the most distant ideas were of necessity the most abstract, and concerned reasons for territorial expansion and the role and powers of government in general. Local ideas were the most practical and focussed on individuals, groups and land.

Thus, London’s advice to use overt force sparingly became translated into the use of land and access to resources to establish an order for the benefit of some (white miners and settlers) at the expense of others (natives and Chinese miners). Land regulations and the principles behind them sought to make social relations concrete in spaces of the Fraser Canyon.

Given the magnitude of these tasks, government required additional support. The legal system, discussed in chapter 5, was important in establishing the bases of colonial authority for such transformations, as well as in communicating ideals of a civil society to all groups in the population. The legal system approached both tasks by overseeing and, where necessary, interfering in interpersonal relations. Through flexible interpretations of court room procedures and sentencing strategies, the court was able to make laws shaped in distant times and places applicable to colonial British Columbia and its diverse population.

In this way, it discouraged personal violence and asserted the state’smonopoly on the use of force, while reinforcing the relative positions of whites, natives, Chinese, as well as, men and women. This, too, worked at several levels; local Justices of the Peace (the same people as the Gold Commissioners) responded summarily to most disputes, but capital cases were dealt with more elaborately by the Court of Assize during its annual circuit through the gold regions.

The activities and ideas of these groups - natives, miners, governments and practitioners of the law - collided in the relatively small spaces of the Fraser Canyon.

Miners and natives competed for access to the river and fishing sites and mining bars.

Roads and towns were laid out over such human spaces to avoid the many physical obstacles. Government officials sought to keep their eyes on scattered populations and, as far as possible, impress them with their presence. Through the interactions of these 9

groups, webs of control began to tighten, setting precedents for the further colonization of British Columbia. 10

CHAPTER 2

THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY AND THE GOLD TRADE

“The most certain means of retaining the trade in our own hands is to aid and assist the Indians in working the treasures of their own country.”

James Douglas, 18571

The discovery of gold in the Thompson River District, on the mainland of what is now British Columbia, required the Hudson’sBay Company to rethink its trade policies between 1856 and 1858. The diversifying Company had already adapted established fur- trading practices to include a variety of commodities, and initially James Douglas, the chief factor, sought to fit gold into its trade - among salmon, cranberries, shingles, ice, potatoes, and 2coal. In this process of adapting to the exploitation of a new commodity, the company tried out different strategies for procurement and trade and, in so doing, reworked established components of the fur trade such as trading posts and mobile trading brigades.

The advent of large numbers of miners drew the attention of the colonial office and required new shifts in policy. Throughout this process, the Hudson’s Bay Company worked at several geographical scales. Douglas, in Victoria, relied on his field officers (the chief traders of the mainland posts), and was responsible to the Governor and Committee of the

Company and later to the British Colonial Office, both in London. Advice and information relied strongly on the positions of the authors of despatches in relation to both the geography of gold and the colonial hierarchy. Eventually it became apparent that the

Hudson’s Bay Company could make commercial adjustments but was unable to operate as a colonial government. The gold discoveries had renewed interest in the canyon’spotential

‘James Douglas, to Donald McLean, December 26, 1857. Fort Victoria, Correspondence Outward, Country Letter Book. Diversification was a feature of Hudson’sBay Company operations from 1849 to 1858, according to Richard Mackie, “ColonialLand, Indian Labour, and Company Capital: the Economy2 of Vancouver Island, 1849-1858,” M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Victoria, 1984. 11

as a transportation corridor, and a whole new apparatus of power, a colonial government, also came to focus its attention on the Fraser canyon and its inhabitants. The Fraser canyon became the destination of miners - a place to be travelled through - and perhaps a place to stay.

Historical writing on the gold rushes in British Columbia has often seen this shift in terms of “pioneer 3progress,” in which the discovery of gold led to an inevitable rush, which spelled the obvious end to the Hudson’sBay Company’strade monopoly on the mainland. Barry Gough put it this way: “Gold is found; gold-seekers move in; colonial officials fear the undermining of authority; British warships give support; the frontier is made secure; and the area is added to the “formal empire,” that is, it comes under the jurisdiction of the Colonial office and the 4governor.” Such summary patterning encapsulates the general courses of events, but obscures the different processes of negotiation and conflict between natives, miners, the Hudson’sBay Company, and the different levels of government that worked out the ‘meaning’of gold in British Columbia.

The Company’s attempts to incorporate gold, and later miners, into established trade practices, question such rigid patterns. Precedents

Gold mining was not entirely new to the Hudson’sBay Company. During the early 1850s there was a small, unsuccessful, rush to the Queen Charlotte Islands, and gold had been mined around Fort Colvile before the finds on the Thompson River in 1856

(Figure 3). According to Rickard, the first gold discovery in what is now British Columbia was made in 1850 by a native on the Queen Charlottes who brought a nugget to a

Leslie M. Scott, “The Pioneer Stimulus of Gold,” The quarterly of the Oregon Historical 3 18 (3), 1917, Society, p.147 4Barry M. Gough, “Turbulent. Frontiers” and British Expansion: Governor James Douglas, the Royal Engineers, and the British Columbia Gold Rushes,” Pacific Historical Review, 41, 1972, .p.17 Figure3: 12 Hudson’s Bay Company Mainland Forts and Trails Source: Great Britain, Parliament, . Papers Relative to the Affairs of British Columbia, 1859. \ ç j

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Hudson’s Bay Company 5post. In 1851, another native brought in a specimen which Blanshard, then governor of Vancouver Island, reported to the Colonial Secretary.

Included in this dispatch was the promise that Blanshard would arrange that a party be sent to the Queen Charlottes to assess the resource. The initial discoveries drew some

Hudson’s Bay Company interest, and some prospectors from California during 1851 and 1852, but natives resisted, little gold was found, and “the miniature rush” 6ended. This rush, according to Rickard, had two tangible results. It “made the few people then on our western coast aware of the possibility of developing profitable 7mines.” And this, in turn, prompted an official response by Douglas who asserted the Crown’sright (the “regalian right”) to all potential gold deposits. This response, made several months after the rush had ended, was to become the precedent for Douglas’slicensing strategies during the

Fraser River rush several years later. The Hudson’sBay Company’sonly other action had been to send a ship for exploration and a half-hearted show of force.

The Colvile finds were more complex. In response to the boundary settlement of

1846, most of the Hudson’s Bay Company’strading operations at Colvile had been shifted slightly north to Fort 8Shepherd. The Company did not hold a monopoly license south of the 49th parallel and as a result it operated as one of many traders there. Operations were hampered by serious native opposition to settlement north of the Spokane 9River,

T.A.Rickard, “Indian Participation in the Gold Discoveries,” British Columbia Historical Quarterly, 2 (1), January, 1938, 7p. But, contrary to Rickard’s assertions, gold was not a 5special item of native trade in what. is now British Columbia, and not nearly as important as copper. Rickard, p. 6. 7lbid.6 8But not until the Palliser boundary surveying expedition came through in 1859 were the traders sure they were north of the border; Palliser read their location at 49’ 1”.Irene Spry, The Palliser Expedition: An Account of John Palliser’sBritish North American Expedition 1857-1860, (Toronto: The MacMillan Company, 1963), pp.265266 Horace S. Lyman. History of Oregon: The Growth of an American State, (New York: The9 North Pacific Publishing Society, 1903), p.221 .- 14

where gold was being washed by “inexperiencedminers, Frenchmen and 10

(the latter two were probably references to fur traders). The Baptist missionary in Oregon

City attributed the unrest to the interference of French Catholic missionaries, who were alleged to have known about the gold deposits for years and to have convinced natives to keep them secret:

“Rumours reliable say the chiefs forbid the Oregonians, except French and half- breeds, to dig till they have treated with the Indian agent for their lands. Money is extremely scarce in this valley and, if there is much gold to be had, our citizens will have their portion of it, even at the price of blood. They will not stand by, by the thousands, and see French Catholics, half-breeds and Indians monopolize the best of the diggings.” 11

The conflict expanded with many tales of atrocities committed by natives, negotiations, and

U.S. military intervention. In order to placate the natives, and to stop this “Indian War”

General Wool, the officer in charge of the Pacific Department, issued the following order in

August, 1856:

“No emigrants or other whites, except the Hudson’s Bay Company, or persons having ceded rights from the Indians, will be permitted to settle or remain in the Indian country, or on land not ceded by treaty, confirmed by the Senate, and approved by the President of the United States. These orders are not, however, to apply to miners engaged in collecting gold at the Colville mines. These miners will however, be notified that, should they intervene with the Indians, or their squaws, they will be punished and sent out of the 12country.”

This curious treaty allowed miners, but not their suppliers, to go to Colvile, and thus benefitted the Hudson’s Bay Company. Although it was perhaps designed to keep permanent settlers out the region (as were natives’attacks), Colvile and the Dalles began to develop as mining supply towns.

‘°Ezra Fisher to Rev. B.M. Hill, July 3 1855. In Sarah Fisher Henderson et al. ed.s, “Correspondence of Reverend Ezra Fisher,” The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, 20, 1919, p. 121. 11Ezra Fisher to Rev. B.M. Hill, August 2, 1855, in Henderson, p. 123. ‘2From the 34th Cong. 3d sess., Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 169, cited inScott, p. 149. 15

The Colvile gold finds did not result in a rush as much as they helped struggling farmers from the Willamette Valley to survive hard times. Migrants from California, or other parts of the world, did not appear in great numbers, perhaps because the California mines were still promising. The discovery of gold did draw the Fort Colvile area into a slightly larger regional economy through the development of the Dalles, which would also play an important role in the Fraser rush. In all, the Colvile gold affected the Hudson’s

Bay Company little, and did not impress Douglas:

“The intelligence it gives is on the whole satisfactory,especially in regard to the earnings of the gold miners, who appear to be making remarkably good wages, how then does it happen, in the midst of wealth so easily acquired, that so small a portion should reach our Establishments; one is almost tempted to believe that the gold diggings are a 13myth.” While mining at Colvile and prospecting along the Columbia, miners likely explored north of the 49th parallel. As the boundary had yet to be surveyed, the miners apparently stayed on the margins of Hudson’sBay Company territory, and their numbers were not large, the Hudson’s Bay Company did not respond to these incursions. In addition, the Hudson’sBay Company felt protected by natives:

“The people from American Oregon are thereforeexcluded [by natives] from the gold district, except such, as resorting to the artifice of denying their country, succeed in passing for British subjects. The persons at present engaged in the search of gold are chiefly of British origin and retired servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who being well acquainted with the natives, and connected by old ties of friendship, are more disposed to aid and assist each other in their common pursuits than to commit injuries against persons or 4property.”

13Douglas to Blenkinsop, September 20, 1857, Correspondence Out, Country Letter Book. Douglas to Henry Labouchère. October 29, 1856. “Correspondence relative to the Discovery14 of gold in the Fraser’s River District, in British North America”. Great Britian, Parliament,- Papers Relative to the Affairs of British Columbia, (London: George Edward Eyre andWillaim Spottiswoode, 1858). In British Columbia, the gold miners too commented on that “artifice”:“the indian ast us if wee was boston men or not we told him wee wos kinggorge [King George’s] men and we was sent out to see thar cuntry and wee wodent du them eny harm ... te brith [British]american indins dident like the americans a toll [at all] and cold [called] them bostnars and the english kins Jorge men.” Lucius Samuel Edeiblute, “The History of Lucius S. Edeiblute.” n.d., BCARS, p. 43. 16

Gold finds on the Queen Charlottes and around Colvile did not attract large numbers of miners from afar and were hardly precedents for the Fraser River rush. As a result Douglas had little reason to anticipate the many miners who would respond to the

Thompson River finds. Roots of the Fraser River Rush

In April of 1856, Douglas reported gold had been found on the ‘BritishColumbian’ side of the 5Columbia,’ and in February 1857 he received a specimen of gold from Donald McLean of Thompson’s River. Unfortunately, McLean’scorrespondence no longer exists, but Douglas responded that the gold was an indication of the “highly auriferous” nature of the country and encouraged McLean to “contriveto collect a large party of

Indians, & proceeding to the Gold Districts make them search and wash for the precious metal, buying it from them as fast as they collect t.”16 This, Douglas continued, would allow McLean to develop the resource and to estimate the productivity of the region “more correctly than by mere Indian report.” In contrast to his comments concerning the Colvile finds, Douglas concluded with the encouragement:

“make every exertion in your power to test the gold diggings, and I will supply you with all the necessary means,..., and remember that the object is of so much importance, and may be so productive of gain to the Concern, that no reasonable expense, should be spared to accomplish it.”

The discovery of gold within the territory of the Hudson’sBay Company’s monopoly was important to its policy of economic and resource diversification, but communication was slow. Douglas did not respond to McLean’sreport of his expedition until September: “The discovery appears no longer a shadow but a sober reality. The quantity you have traded proves that fact beyond question, and we must now prepare to turn that great discovery to 7advantage.” Estimating the extent of the resource was a standard procedure for trying to 15Douglas to Labouchere, 16 April 1856. Great Britain, Parliament, Correspondence Relative to the Discovery of Gold in the Fraser’sRiver District, London, 1858. 16Douglas to Donald McLean, Feb. 10 1857, Fort Victoria, Country Letter Book. 17Douglas to McLean, September 10, 1857, Fort Victoria, Country Letter Book. 17

turn a new resource into a commodity, and Douglas encouraged McLean to identify

“American” trade items so that he could order them for the following year. Douglas, it seems, expected the arrival of some miners into the region, and sought to benefit from the discoveries in two ways: through the gold trade with natives and through a new provision trade with miners.

The scale of a potential rush of miners had yet to strike Douglas and, unlike

McLean, he was not concerned about security. McLean had suggested building a fort at the mouth of the Thompson River, thinking it could be supplied directly from Fort Langley, but Douglas pointed out that this would require two separate lines of water transport, one above the Fraser Canyon, should it even prove navigable, and the second below the canyon to Fort Langley. In between these two lines, through the canyon, the Company would have to rely on land transport for, he estimated, 13 18miles. It seems unlikely that, when putting forward his suggestions, McLean was ignorant of the topography of the canyon.

Instead, it is likely that his position in the midst of the finds forced him to take miners’ impending presence more seriously than his superior in Victoria. Although Douglas’s actions were economically cautious, unlike McLean he had no sense of urgency and seemed unconcerned about the huge numbers of people gold could draw, the speed with which “gold hysteria” could bring them, and the threat they would pose to the Hudson’s

Bay Company’s monopoly. In a letter to his superiors in London, Douglas indicated his uncertainty about establishing the new fort: due to the poor knowledge of the country the

Company should delay building a fort to prevent it from being placed in the wrong location, and postpone the substantial investment until the mines had proven themselves.19

He further responded to McLean’s finds at his leisure, rejected his urgent pleas for reinforcement in the form of a fort, and preferred instead to test the ground with horse brigades, a relatively low cost alternative. He also planned to keep the gold collected thus 8lbid 19‘Douglas to William G.Smith, September 1, 1857. Fort Dallas, Correspondence Out. 18

far for another five months, until March, when the annual return ship would take it to

London. For Douglas, the discovery of gold and the arrival of miners was in the first instance a matter of trade and profit - scarcely different from other forms of trade - rather than an international issue of security and statehood.

In pursuing the gold trade, Douglas occupied himself by organizing the mobile trading brigade. He advised McLean:

“We will certainly not be able to commence that establishment this year, ... in the mean time we must push trade with the means at our command, and if necessary keep a trading party continually on foot carrying supplies to the mines for 20sale.” Dissatisfied with the returns of the Colvile mines, Douglas informed George Blenkinsop that he would be moved to Thompson’s River to use his “head for business” managing the

“moveable party to travel with horses and goods among the diggings to supply the miners and to collect as much gold dust as possible. That plan I think will answer better than having a permanent post on any of the great water communications at a distance from the 2mines.” Douglas may not ’have expected a full-blown gold rush, but he was anticipating the arrival of some miners and acknowledged possible difficulties. He was determined to turn the arrival of miners to the Company’sbenefit. In the postscnpt he added: “There will be ere long a great rush of people into the District of Thompson’sRiver, and nothing but the most energetic measures will protect our 22interests.” These energetic measures included the construction of a post, but Douglas thought the time was not right:

“we must strive to secure the trade in our own hands. We have been thinking of establishing a post in the Gold District, for the supply of the miners, but it would not be advisable to do so, until the country is better 23known.”

20Douglas to McLean, September 10 1857, Country Letter Book. Douglas to Blenkinsop, September 20.1857, Country Letter Book. 2122Jbid 23Douglas to Angus McDonald, September 21, 1857, Country Letter Book. 19

He added that the new post would wait until spring, and instructed McLean to carry on while reiterating the comments he had made to 24Blenkinsop. Douglas expressed some of his concerns more clearly to Peter Ogden:

[this] event ... will give us no end of trouble, so far as the Company’s servants are concerned; and leave us more than ever dependent upon the natives for getting through with the Brigade and other interior work. You must however prepare to meet the evil; and to derive every possible advantage from the discovery of gold. We havejust sent out additional supply of goods to Thompson’s River and Fort Colville in consequence of our anticipating a large demand for 25supplies.” While Douglas acknowledged the amount of trouble (no end) he was not clear about its type. He considered defection of company servants more threatening than an influx of miners. He gained reassurance from the Hudson’sBay Company’s trade position on the mainland, and did not doubt that the license would be renewed when reviewed in 1859, and that he would remain free to exclude competing, independent, 26traders. During the fall of 1857, the Company seemed to be settling down with the gold trade with native miners; when Yale wrote requesting some gold scales for Fort Langley, he was informed that there were none left.

As miners from the Dalles started to trickle into the region, McLean reiterated his appeal for a post on the Thompson River 12 miles from the Forks, but Douglas responded instead with a long letter about the benefits of using mules over horses in a trading brigade.

He continued :“Let us now return to the all engrossing subject of the gold trade. It appears from your letter that Thompson’s River, Fort Yale, the Falls and Pavillion are all highly

24Douglas to McLean, September 20 1857, Country Letter Book. 25Douglas to Peter Ogden, September 21, 1857, Country Letter Book. 26Douglas to Dodd, September 22, 1857, Country Letter Book. This action was not without precedent according to Mackie’sreverse parallel: “. . . the cranberry trade shows the Company did not hesitate to expel intruders who came to the Fraser River to trade with the Indians of the Company’scontinental territories. Douglas’prompt and decisive use of the Company’slegal right to the mainland Indian trade is strikingly reminiscent of his behaviour during the 1858 gold rush.” Mackie, p.113. 27Douglas to Yale, November 23, 1857, Country Letter Book. 20 auriferous 28districts.” The trading party wasjust about to get under way in late November, three months after the idea was first discussed. In recommending the construction of a post, it seems that McLean was intent on asserting a stable Hudson’s Bay

Company presence in the region and impressing incoming miners. Douglas’s responses, on the other hand, indicate that he was considering a post more as a place for trade and, at most, secure storage. As a result, Douglas felt no urgent need to establish a post as the monopoly license still excluded competition:

“The Company have exclusive right of trading with Indians on the West side of the mountains, no other person can lawfully carry on trade or erect trading establishments within the British Territory, and you may warn them off on any attempt being made to do so, but I would advise you to avoid collisions which may end in serious difficulty and 29bloodshed.”

The Company, he thought, was further protected by natives’resistance to the intrusions of outsiders:

“The Indians object to the entrance of white men into their country, and will not permit them to work the aunferous streams, partly with the view of monopolizing the precious metal for their own benefit, and partly from an impression that the salmon will leave the rivers, and be prevented from making migrations from the sea. That disposition on their part is altogether in favor of our interests, and I cannot help admiring the wisdom and foresight of the Indians; and have given directions to the officers in charge of the Company’sPosts to respect their feelings, and to permit them to work the gold for their own benefit and to bring it in as an article of °3trade.” Douglas was not disturbed about natives’hostility to outsiders, in fact it was an added insurance for the Hudson’s Bay Company’smonopoly, although he did want to protect the

Company from liability for natives’behaviour. In addition, natives were not to think they could exert pressure on the Hudson’sBay Company officers and servants; a trading

28Douglas to McLean, November 23, 1857, Country Letter Book. 30James Douglas to George Simpson, July 17, 1857, Fort Victoria, Western Department Letterbook, 1855-1857. 21

relationship with natives had to be maintained. In directions to McLean, Douglas tried to find a balance between using and tempering natives’hostility:

“I am aware of the feeling of the Indian population in respect to the Americans, but I think they will find it impossible to carry out their determination of preventing whites from working in their diggings. Leave them entirely to their own impulses and be careful not to encourage them to resist the influx of gold diggers, as we may become embroiled in serious difficulties;in short inculcate upon the Indians the duty of being kind to all Whitemen; your words will at least have a restraining effect if they cannot altogether prevent evil, at the same time I should take care to inform any white strangers coming into the country that the Indians are dangerous and not to be 3trusted.” In July 1857,’to further emphasize that the Company was not aggravating the Natives and leading them to commit acts of violence on the miners, Douglas denied Hudson’sBay

Company servants were involved in washing gold:

“The officers in command of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s posts in that quarter, have received orders carefully to respect the feelings of the natives in that matter, and not to employ any of the Company’sservants in washing out gold, without their full approbation and consent. There is, therefore, nothing to apprehend on the part of the Hudson’s Bay Company’sservants, but there is much reason to fear that serious affrays may take place between the natives and the motley adventurers who will be attracted by the reputed wealth of the country... and may probably attempt to overpower the opposition of the natives by force of arms, and thus endanger the peace of the 32country.”

As if to justify his policy of excluding foreigners, not to protect his monopoly, but to protect “his Indians,” Douglas continued:

“I beg to submit, if in that case, it may not become a question whether the natives are not entitled to the protection of Her Majesty’sGovernment, and if an officer invested with the requisite authority should not, without delay, be appointed for that 33purpose.” With these words, Douglas was implying that he thought mining should be reserved for the profit of the company and that the British government should be in charge of protecting that right, as well as the rights of natives. So while Douglas began to acknowledge miners’

31Douglas to McLean, November 23, 1857, Country Letter Book. 32Douglas to Labouchere, July 15, 1857, “Correspondencerelative to the discovery of gold...” British Parliamentary Papers 33Ibid. 22

potential for disturbing the peace, he had little idea that he would become responsible for their behaviour and liable for their safety.

Douglas continued to protect the monopoly with words, by issuing a proclamation stating the Crown’s exclusive rights to all minerals (to which the Hudson’s Bay Company thus had exclusive right through license). This was published in all the relevant papers:

“I beg that you will cause the proclamation and license regulations to be inserted in the Oregon Weekly & Journals, for the information of the Public. It is also proper to state that the Couteau indians are decidedly dangerous, and that they have forcibly expelled all the whites who have attempted to work Gold in their Country. “‘

If this proclamation and its advertisement were acknowledgements of a pending rush and were intended to buy time for the organization, they were not so interpreted by the Colonial

Office which reprimanded him for his high handed measures.

Douglas started to hit his stride as he settled down to arranging details. If, he informed McLean, servants were to start leaving for the gold fields themselves he would

“send to Honolulu for a few Sandwich Islanders to meet defections.” As the threat of outsiders (Americans) became more real and as he gained confidence in the productivity of the mines, Douglas started to take McLean’sadvice more seriously, pursuing the idea of a gold trading post:

“About 209 oz. of Gold have been traded from the natives since the 6th of last October. I am forming a transport corps for the purpose of pouring supplies into the interior by Fraser’sRiver making a portage in whole or in part at the Falls, and we shall probably form a Depot at the junction of Thompson’s River with Fraser’s 35River.”

McLean found the richest gold deposits to be 12 miles from the Forks of the Thompson and Fraser rivers, and in January, 1858, Douglas advised his superiors of his decision to establish a “small trading post” near those forks. He acknowledged the impassable nature of the Fraser below that point, and restated the need for two lines of 36vessels. The post 34Douglas to McTavish, December 30, 1857, Country Letter Book. 35Douglas to Tolmie, December 28, 1857. Country Letter Book. 36Douglas to Smith, January 14, 1858. Fort Dallas, Correspondence Outward. HBCA. 23

would be small because he was no longer sure the license would be renewed in 1859. By February of 1858 he issued a contract for the Fort’s38construction. Part of the necessary arrangements included standard negotiations with the native groups upon whose territory they would infringe and upon whose trading cooperation the scheme depended:

“I send herewith a small gift for each of the two Chiefs of Quayome and the Chief of Tlcumjane ... tell them that I have sent you to build a Fort on their lands and that they must behave well and be kind to my 39pc” By March the post had been named Fort Dallas and the building party despatched. Security had finally become an issue, and along with diminishing economic hesitationsjustified the new fort:

“When the buildings are finished, we will use the place as a Depot, and throw in a large supply of Goods for the gold trade; until then we must furnish goods as required, as it would be unsafe to keep a large stock on hand without adequate protection... “40

McLean was instructed to decide on the precise site of the Fort and the aspect of the buildings, keeping both business and defense in mind. Douglas recommended houses forming three sides of a square, but made no mention of 4palisades. Experienced personnel were a further necessity, Douglas was thinking’of putting Thomas Charles of New Caledonia in charge of Fort 42Dallas, and had decided to use “small handy river boats” instead of canoes for 43transportation. In April ships from California brought about five hundred miners to Victoria, en route to the Fraser River. Despite this, operations seemed to Douglas to be running smoothly. The Hudson’s Bay Company was still in control of the situation:

37Ibid 38Douglas to McLean, Fort Langley, Feb. 9, 1858. Fort Dallas, Correspondence Outward. 39Douglas to George Simpson, February 9, 1858, Fort Dallas, Correspondence Outward. 40Douglas to Smith, April 19, 1858, Fort Dallas, Correspondence Outward. 41-Douglas to McLean, March 13, 1858, Fort Dallas, Correspondence Outward. 42Douglas to McLean, March 30, 1858, Fort Dallas, Correspondence Outward. 43Douglas to McLean, April, 19, 1858, Fort Dallas, Correspondence Outward. 24

“It would perhaps be impossible so great is the excitement to arrest the torrent of emigration at present, but by watching the course of events we may I conceive manage to limit and control the tide, and to introduce something like order and systematic management into the mining operation of the 44country.”

But by May 1858 Douglas lost control of immigrationand took little consolation from the

Fort:

“The conviction has at last been forced upon me, that it is altogether impossible to prevent people from entering the British possessions, in search of gold, as long as there is a prospect of finding it in abundance. The evil will thus work its own course, without interposition on our 45part.” While Douglas acknowledged this situation, he did not consider it permanent or a threat to the future of the Hudson’s Bay Company on the Pacific coast. Even the appearance of competing traders did not worry him as he saw new ways to profit from the gold rush, and at the same time tried to convince the Colonial Office that the Hudson’sBay Company’s administration of it could benefit British interests. In the meantime, the gold discoveries brought more outside scrutiny to the Fraser canyon than it had ever received. From Managing Resources to Managing Miners

The Thompson River finds brought the first serious gold discoveries north into

British territory and the Hudson’s Bay Company’smonopoly. Other finds north of the

49th parallel had not been threatening, because they drew few miners or had been considered offshoots of the Colvile diggings. The Thompson River finds were seen as discrete, as witnessed by Douglas’sconstant attempts to define the “gold district.” In the first instance the Company sought to treat gold as any other resource. Its presence signalled possible benefit for the Company and steps were taken to evaluate the extent of the resource and its distribution, followed by economic considerations of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to develop it. Because the Hudson’sBay Company had never tried to extend its monopoly to gold, methods were not immediately obvious. This led, in part,

‘Douglas to Smith, April 17, 1858, Douglas, Correspondence Out, Letterbook of Affairs on Vancouver Island Colony, BCARS. 45 Ibid. May 18, 1858. 25

to the debate over the establishment of Fort Dallas. However, Douglas’sambivalent attitudes were brought on by more than the difficulties involved with exploiting a new resource. He could have been informed by examples from other British colonies

(Australia) or by gold rushes closer to home (California). Already in 1857 he realized that gold could draw intruders into the British mainland and threaten other Hudson’s Bay

Company operations. It is difficult to know how much of the rush Douglas could have foreseen, but clearly he underestimated both the potential of the Thompson river finds to draw thousands of gold seekers as well as the threat they would pose to the monopoly. He was slow to organize his mobile trading party and even slower to establish a stable physical presence close to the finds. Initially, he was hampered by economic concerns and lack of information. The size and distribution of the gold fields were unknown and any action

Douglas took would have been an awkward gamble for what was, essentially, a trading company. A still meager knowledge of the land, including lingering doubts over the navigability of the Fraser Canyon, also inhibited Douglas. He placed too much faith in the legality of the company’s trade license and, apparently, in natives’dislike of foreigners.

While some groups were eager to exclude miners, others found employment and trade partners among the newcomers. Whatever the nature of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s hold over natives, it could not be maintained in the presence of a gold rush.

The influx of miners introduced a whole new series of problems. The company had to move from procuring a resource to managing people. At one scale this changed the meanings of the forts. These traditional points of collection for trade goods and of defense from natives were adapted to provide for the provision trade, aimed at the miners.

Brigades shifted from transporting traded goods to supervising native miners, providing them with tools, and collecting their gold, and to surveillance of white miners’activities in the region. In addition, both forts and brigades came to stand as symbols of the Hudson’s

Bay Company’s authority throughout the region. At another scale, the gold rush changed the entire meaning of the Hudson’sBay Company, posing questions about the priority of 26

trade over colonization. During the fur-trade years the Fraser Canyon had been virtually free of white activity, but as a result of the gold discoveries the Company itself began to take a more focussed interest in it and its inhabitants. The arrival of outsiders also drew the involvement of a whole new apparatus of power, a colonial govermnent, which focussed squarely on the Fraser Canyon. The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Colonial Office

The Hudson’s Bay Company was quickly forced to shift its position on the mainland, moving from exploiting a resource to defending a territory. Once the influx of miners was underway, it tried to limit that flow. When this proved ineffective, it had to control the population within the boundaries in more precise and directed ways.

Throughout this process it worked at a variety of geographical scales.

As Douglas was trying to prepare the Company to exploit the resource and later to defend against miners, he formed his policies based upon his own experience and on communication from traders in the field, in this case primarily McLean. The Governor and

Committee of the Hudson’s Bay Company gave Douglas considerable freedom. He had only to report generalities to them as they were not interested in day-to-day operations. But his jurisdiction over trade on the mainland was ambiguous. When miners entered the mainland and the gold rush drew international attention, the emphasis shifted from

Hudson’s Bay Company license to British Territory. As a result Douglas was drawn into another level of communication and was made responsible to the British Colonial Office.

The Colonial Office appreciated the problems of communicationand their own distance from the Fraser Canyon. It entrusted Douglas with considerable responsibility and relied upon him to exercise

“whatever influence and powers you may possess in the manner which from local knowledge and experience you conceive to be best calculated to give development to the new country and to advance Imperial 46interests.”

E.B. Lytton to J.Douglas, July 11858, Great Britain, Colonial Office, British Columbia Original Correspondence, CO 60/1, BCARS. (Hereafter cited as CO 60/1) 27

Despite the Colonial Office’sappreciation of “local knowledge” and Douglas’suse of it as a rationale for his policies, he received frequent repnmands. The Colonial Office ensured he understood that hisjurisdiction did not cover matters other than trading on the mainland.

He represented the Colonial Office because he was at hand, but he was to report to them and take orders. The Colonial Office knew little about the area, communication was slow, and the actual correspondence quite abstract.

The Colonial Office and Douglas shared common concerns, particularly about the influx of Americans. Douglas’spolicies and the Colonial Office’sresponses were based on particular understandings of the types of threats Americans could pose to the Hudson’s

Bay Company monopoly, as well as to British presence in the region in general. In his correspondence to the Colonial Office Douglas tried to tie Hudson’sBay Company interests to those of Great Britain:

“the interests of the Empire may suffer from the introduction of a foreign population, whose sympathies may be decidedly anti-British and if the majority be Americans, strongly attached to their own country and peculiar 47institutions.” He tried to speak to broader issues by emphasizing the Empire, but if that were not convincing enough, he made oblique references to the Oregon boundary dispute of 1846:

“there will always be a hankering in their minds after annexation to the United States, and with the aid of their countrymen in Oregon and California, at hand, they will never cordially submit to British Rule, nor possess the loyal feelings of British 48subjects.” When Douglas estimated the actual numbers of immigrants he had to concede that

Americans formed but a small proportion of the total numbers. Germans and French were in the majority and were considered safer by far than the Americans. The Colonial Office also found relief in this, as the Secretary of State, Herman Merrivale’s,marginal comments 49indicated. At the same time the Colonial Office was not completely taken in by Douglas. It was less concerned with the viability of the Hudson’sBay Company than with imperial 47Douglas, to Colonial Office, May 8, 1858 CO 60/1 ‘Ibid. 49Memvale in margin of ibid. 28

interests. It impressed upon Douglas the need to avoid “seriouscomplications between two neighboring and powerful 50states.” The Colonial Office stressed “that it is no part of their policy to exclude Americans and other foreigners from the Gold fields. On the contrary, you are distinctly instructed to oppose no obstacle whatever to their resort thither for the purpose of digging in those fields as long as they submit themselves, in common with the subjects of Her Majesty, to the recognition of Her authority, and conform to rules of police as you may have thought to 51establish. Douglas had tried to exclude miners or at least control their entrance. He defined the gold finds as bounded within a region requiring defense. This was to be achieved through imposing strict licensing regulations, but they did not discourage miners, nor could he enforce them. He finally conceded that he would have to allow immigration to “take its course.” Yet Douglas sought to channel the flow in such a way as to benefit the Hudson’s

Bay Company, Victoria, and, he wrote, the “mothercountry” by “forming a valuable outlet for British manufactured 52goods.” To the Hudson’sBay Company he wrote: “The merchants and generaldealers of Victoria are rejoicing in the increase of wealth and business, produced by the arrival of so large a body of people in the Colony, and are strongly in favour of making this a stopping point between San Francisco and the gold mines, which so far as respects the prosperity of the Colony is evidently an object of the utmost importance, as both in going and returning miners would make purchases, and spend a great deal of money; the value of property would be greatly enhanced, while the sale of public land and the colonization of the country would be greatly 53promoted.” Simpson too found that protection of the Hudson’sBay Company trade was only just, considering what it had lost: “I hope we may secure a fair share of the profits to be made by supplying the miners and collecting the precious metals, as some compensation for the loss of our trade, which will at once become 54extinct.” To the Colonial Office too, Douglas wrote of his intentions in making the “porta stopping place between San Francisco, & the

E.B.Lytton to Douglas, July 11858. CO 60/1 51Ibid.50 52Douglas, Victoria, to Col. Office, May 8 1858, CO 60/1 53Douglas to Smith, April 27, 1858. Letterbook of Affairs on Vancouver Island Colony. 54George Simpson to H.H.Berens (private) July 30, 1858, London, Locked Private Letterbook, 1855-1860, HBCA, p.152. 29

gold mines, converting the latter as it were into a feeder and dependency of this Colony.

Victoria would thus become a depot of trade for the gold Districts, & the natural consequence would be an immediate increase in the wealth of the 55Colony.” These ends were to be achieved through the organization of regular steamers from Victoria to the Fraser

River in order to encourage miners to favour that route over the various American ones through Fort Colvile or Whatcom. An entry to the gold fields via Victoria also de emphasized the proximity of the gold region to the U.S. and protected British sovereignty by discouraging the north-south routes.

In more overt efforts to protect the Hudson’sBay Company trade monopoly,

Douglas tried to enforce its license and interpreted the Company’s“exclusive right of trade with Indians” to include whites. After all, he argued, when the license had been given no whites were in the region. Miners were encouraged to outfit themselves at Victoria, and were required to pay duty on the goods they took up the Fraser. Non-Hudson’s Bay

Company traders were at first not allowed to bring any goods that the Hudson’s Bay

Company carried, and later were required to pay duties on them. These regulations caused an uproar among miners and traders alike, as the Hudson’sBay Company could not keep its posts stocked with provisions for the miners. The company was forced to allow other traders up the river, provided they did not sell the same goods as the Hudson’s Bay

Company. It rapidly lost control of that trade: “For a time we did a very large business, but it did not last long. Competitors arose, and we have on hand very large stocks of provisions and American goods, on which we are undersold by 56outsiders.” As a result the Hudson’s Bay Company tried at least to maintain control of trade with natives but this too could not be enforced and natives soon traded with, and worked for, whites.

55Douglas to Labouchere, May 8, 1858, “CorrespondenceRelative to the Discovery of Gold in The Fraser’s River District.” 56 A.G. Dallas, to Captain Shepherd, September 1, 1858. London, Locked Private Letter book, pp. 164-168. 30

As long as Douglas avoided internationalincidents and kept the miners under control the Colonial Office was not concerned about the Hudson’sBay Company. At first he thought this could be achieved by requiring foreigners to take an oath of allegiance to

Her Majesty, but this was never done, in part because miners refused. Instead, Douglas focussed on practical control. While his original policy was to limit access to the region as a whole, once the miners arrived he had to exert his authority within the boundaries of the

“gold region.” He did this by controlling access to items within the region, particularly land. If land could not be occupied legally, through title, he feared miners would “occupy the land as squatters.” Indeed,

“Several applications for preemptions of land rights were made by parties desirous of settling in Fraser’sRiver. Refused to entertain the said applications for want of authority. Think we ought to immediately commence the sale of land for if we refuse to make sales the people will squat on every part of the country and there will be a great difficulty in ejecting them. In fact unless sales are made at once they will neither pay for the land 57afterwards.” In response, all land was to be opened for settlement, surveyed, and sold at a fixed rate.

This would require “a large and efficient corps of Surveying Officers to be placed under the management of the Surveyor General [of Vancouver Island, Joseph 58Pembertonj...” Perhaps this would protect land from squatters and promote lawfulness, but more importantly the focus of Douglas’sdefense had shifted - he was now seeking to impress the Colonial Office with the Hudson’sBay Company’sability to organize a population.

Thus, he emphasized that the region could be self supporting: the revenue raised from

57 Douglas, May 14, 1858, Private Papers, “Diary of Gold Discovery on Fraser’s River in 1858,” p. 58. BCARS. 58Jbid. June 10. Quite how the Hudson’sBay Company license and position on the mainland was to be interpreted was not immediately clear. Walter Sage portrays three possible solutions to this “vexed constitutional and administrative problem.” “The first was to extend the authority of the of the government of Vancouver Island over the mainland of British Columbia.” The second was to annul the 1849 grant fo Vancouver Island and amalgamate the mainland and the Island into one colony. The third option, and the one eventually carried out, was to create a separate colony out of the mainland. By trying to establish a land policy, it appears, however, that Douglas favoured the first option. See, Walter N.Sage, “The Gold Colony of British Columbia,” The Canadian Historical Review. 2(4), 1921, p. 350. 31

selling land would cover the cost of surveying it - just as licensing would pay for its own enforcement. In effect, then, the Hudson’sBay Company had been moved towards operating as an arm of Colonial administration. But the transition was not complete, even if licensing and surveying could pay their costs, there were services some miners felt were still lacking, including security of life and property achieved through transportation improvements, enforcement of land policy, and control of natives.

Before land laws were in place, Douglas had felt absolved from any responsibility towards the miners. Of his talk with miners on Hill’sBar he said:

“I refused to give them any rights of occupation to the soil, and told them distinctly that Her Majesty’sGovernment ignored their very existence in that part of the country which was not open for settlement, and they were permitted to remain there merely on sufferance, that no abuses would be tolerated...”

The plan to open land for settlement served to acknowledge the miners’presence, and brought with it responsibility for their safety. As the focus of the rush shifted northwards, it became apparent that the route through the Fraser Canyon was exceedingly difficult. It slowed the pace of northward movement and resulted in many accidents, particularly among miners who tried to canoe through the Canyon. Drowning miners could become

“international incidents” and raised miners’dissatisfaction with Douglas. To promote his image and bolster his authority, Douglas hired approximately 500 miners to build the

Harrison-Lillooet route, and planned for a new fort (Berens) near Cayoosh (Lillooet). Like

Fort Dallas it was never completed.

The miners and the Colonial Office also felt the Hudson’sBay Company should provide for civil order. Douglas appointed George Perrier as justice of the Peace at Hill’s

Bar in June, and also tried to establish a series of “IndianMagistrates” “to bring forward when required any man of their several Tribes, who may be charged with offenses against the Laws of the 59country...” During the summer, as conflicts among whites and between whites and natives became increasingly serious it became clear that the Hudson’sBay

59Douglas to Colonial Office, June 15, 1858, CO 60/1. 32

Company could not provide the requisite civil order. One Justice of the Peace would not be enough to control the miners, especially as they spread inland. The provision of justice did not pay for itself, at least not in the short term, and a trading company could not carry it out.

As a trading company, the force at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s disposal was limited. Douglas’s realization of this is reflected in his attempt to exclude miners from the region altogether. With a little naval backup, the mouth of the Fraser and perhaps some of the Company’s brigade trails (the main overland routes), could have been shut off, at least for a time. The Colonial Office’sdismissal of this option led Douglas to more complex alternatives. Defending a bounded region was easier than controlling a large and complex population within it. Douglas tried to achieve this by regulating the inventory of that region, but as the summer wore on it became apparent that the miners had their own ideas of how gold rushes should be run. In effect the Colonial Office and Douglas were trying to transform the Hudson’s Bay Company into a form of colonial government, but this would have entailed forcing a trading company to reconsider its ideas of profit. The Hudson’s

Bay Company’s spatial strategies were based on trade, not on administering a population.

This new population consisted of experienced miners who had their own ideas about the nature of a gold rush. The right to mine the soil was not return enough for their licensing fee, they also demanded services. Douglas hoped that the group would be too heterogeneous to pull together and assert itself as a community, but the miners proved him wrong.

4 Robin

particularly 5 W.p.

3 Willaim

University

Columbia, British

Columbia, 2 Charles

& carried

1880,

rush

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1774-1890, for

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‘William such

MINING

CHAPTER

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1990.

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188-200.

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student,

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as

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nature. 4

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recently,

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contrary,

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Department

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Indian-European

Wilson

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1977).

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and

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1963).

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1941.

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to

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1859, discusses

native-white

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3

Fisher

Inland

denying

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History,

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manhood,

done

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far

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miners

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it

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1914,

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229.

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up;

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Island,

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Black,1940

power

William

as

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Authority

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British two

only

Observer.

152

restraints

will

(London:

frontier

fledgling

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Loo,

of emphasis).

goes

Bulletin

Carew

tell

Paul, Charles

Frazer

the

ways.

relations, to

remember

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of

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J.

have

down

palliate to

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precursors

British

territories. 5

and

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heroes

Hazelitt,

support

in

(1968),

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legal

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of

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forms

Historians

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focussed

British

the

home.

the

truth

while

what

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system

who

gold

part

it,

1848-

1914

18581

18592

of

the

on

in 33

6 Trimble,

these the

narrative impressions,

group. chosen

of

even

interests

sense

gender, composed

was

reproduce real

seem

working

Contemporary

conclusions:

William

opposition

British

‘civilization’

not

British

ideas

miners to

lifestyle,

Miners

Mining

adopted

little

methods,

Fraser

everywhere

class,

“But

grounded imply,

and

Trimble,

men

contains

p.

itself

mainly

administration.

were

Columbia

love

social

expressed

whatever

considered

141.

from

with

and

River,

brought

observers

how

society

socially?

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but

not

of

the

and

the

race,

of

in

a

suspicion.

natives

cohesion.

the

present,

western

not

could

random,

permanent

men,

customs,

of

Cariboo,

‘whole veneration.” 6 elements

-

was

with

Fraser

in

and

an California

as

every

such

their

a

who

Their

and

empty

theirs.

not

expressed

group

them

everywhere

mining

story’

irrational,

The

Whether

Canyon

and

as

gold

Kootenay;

administrators

instantly

writings

moved

of

towns,

ideas

government

space:

a

Their

incapable Fraser

-

the

population

about

jumble

bearing

youngest

historian,

at

ideas

frequently

awaited

about

but

miners

nor

on

narrowly-defined

miners

recognizable

a

respected,

miners.

canyon

John

local

of

in

women,

disconnected

region

of

of

in

ideas begetters

officials

a

in

prevailed

was

the

were

the

physical

Day,

strong

search

had level

order

contradict

was

But

mother

wary arrival

-

everywhere

and

to

natives, cast

including

Boise,

on

a

as

the

to

identity

and

be

of

of

left

space

in

reproduction

of

the

such

in

survive

from

able gold.

narratives

of colonies

region,

identities

one

the

stereotypes,

a

behind

each

Alder

river

settlers.

mining,

positive

in

to

to

the

press

or

based

the

vital

Indeed,

which

these

as

draw

other,

other

bars.

and

Fraser

Gulch,

world a

-

individuals

provided

jumble viewed

carrying do

-

upon

friends,

be

or

After

outsiders:

retaining

the

together

to

place,

and

demonstrate

but

In

mining

negative

expected

around River

continue

Californian.

Helena,

a

ethnicity,

drew

no

all,

of

these

more

with

for

home,

there

one

region

and

in

outsiders

for

society

it

them.

similar

common

light,

white

the

general

to

went

them

was

a

it

was

as

that

and

not

face

or

a

To

the

one

the

the

a 34

7 Frank

8 lbid.

along The

California.

Vancouver

rush

California,

equipment

‘Northern as

going

region.

for

they

built For

overland.

from

Victoria To They

world

large

many

the

the

flow

guides.

reached

up

further

the

show

According home

around

and

difference,

Miners

Sanfrancisco,

“The

Sylvester,

During

miners

corporations

What

in

from

Fraser

was

Fraser

miners.

Eldorado.’

In

California,

and

and

Island,

mechanics

how

or

geographical

afield

Fur

Victoria

1858,

fed

may

them,

San

sold

moving coming

techniques

reports

the

River

miners

trader

to

River

by

But

encouraged

“Reminiscences,”

Francisco,

there

have spring

-

most

or

Sylvester,

and

from

rumours,

took

as

or

coupled

and abandoned

by

(Figure

from

via

on

A.C.

perceived

a

started

was

the

what

Mines

miners

1858,

and

over

starting

location

became

the

to

traders

the

Fraser

Californian

gold

Anderson

other

most

eastern

it

summer

as

leaked

miners

with

3), California

mining.

out

this

meant

came

a

thier

all

to

while

point.”8

necessary

of

disincentive,

of

River.

gold

en

as

the

life

be

became

1901,

themselves

Fraser

information,

United

from a

route

directly

of to

claims,

waning

used

had,

quick

The

regions. 7

was

prospectors

J.D.

gold

be

1858

It

p.

further

to

River

drew

white

miners

so

his threatened

to

Pemberton,

States,

wild

adventure

1.

fields,

from

the

farmers

possibilities

around

mine

[the]

miners

experience

BCARS.

as

directly

News

Fraser

with

was

men

and

afield

miners,

were

California,

convinced

Canada,

report

increasingly

the

decidedly

rapidly

15,000

sold

the

had

working

in

in

of

Fraser

River

the

with

forced

on

California

fever,

1849

the

said,

for

to

of

how

or

Surveyor

China,

the

pay

his

the gold

written leased

Fraser

many

independent

mines,

in

rush

to

had

in

they

and

momentum

limited,

and

diffuse

later

maps

region

a

contemplate

this

miners

fee

and

started

become

as

that

to

all

thier

thought

gold

and

and

years

General

region.

more

of try

for

Western

flocked

to

gold

but

was

cross

others

published

fields

[sic]

arrived

their

leaving

guide

long

miners

of they

a

that

expensive

about

enough

deposits

way

excitement

of

either

ranches,

luck

to

before

reached

came

made

Europe.

came

miners

in

in

of

the

gold

in that

-

life

and

no

the 35

James

preprared

historical 9 Elwood

Mania

impetus and

insane.” 13

which

15 Charles 12 Jbjd carried

‘ 4 Evans, 13 Sylvester, 11 Robert Palestine.” instituted

10 James

1858),

“the “Their behavior

occupations, do

representations res[ulting]

commentators

failed

indicating

continental

Californians

not

property,

news

to

Bell,

they

is

object

by

p. 2 .

so

[of]

see

Bell,

irresistible...

of

Evans.

Ballentyne, notice.”

by

p.

for

far

acted

large

Alfred

where

Other

from

bear

trails

Correspondence

the

the

Gold

12. the

that

and

p.1.

counterbalance

is

This

infatuated

H.H.

Sanfrancisco,

wrote,

of

miners,

a

of

as

rationale

to Times

such

authors

Families

(Figure

gold

portion

the

Bayley,

“The

the

a the

Olympia, [was]

writer

live,

Bancroft.

match

Fraser

excitements took

“14

Handbook

New

earth,

had

Fraser

between

but

or

with

to

also

4).

of

explained,

for

Coupled

“Early

at

been

hold

dare

to

Gold

be

were

the

River

earthly-wealth

1856-1878.

one the

Outward.

to

the

Another

this

powder

stress

River

there

BCARS,

population

Mr.

to

of

found

the

rush:

advantages.” 9

Fields

Life

to

mocked

time...” 10

mania

though

was

die.” 12

their

with

the

this

rush

first.” 5

Excitement,

John instead,

-

On

gold

(Figure

worth

“It

The

BCARS.

New

to

imaginations

orig. irrationality:

this

to

to

BCARS,

Vancouver Thompson, attended

for

is

warrant

Frequently,

of

try

rush

in

Fraser

people

Others

extremely

fever,

Gold

that

their

the

in

Europe

its

their

5).

Another

writer

Bancroft.

rawest

1858

nsk,

the

River

Fields,

efforts:

such

by Such

became

they

original

tried

fortunes

miners

Island,”

in

to

a

Annan,

“Madly and

-

physiological

made

doubtful

distribution

multitudes

pathological

found,

form die

guides

to

wrote,

its and

(Edinburgh:

the

p.18.

find

wild,

“How

in

philosophy

on

on

were

his the

-

[1878].

Scotland,

Bancroft

the

gold

the

gold,

was

helped

“There

the

something

whether

maps

medieval

in

strange

goidhunters

possessed

burning

leaving

discoveries,

Fraser.

fact

of

the

metaphors

the proportions.

Reminiscences,

seductive

wealth

to

Alex.

was

and

need

library.

temporarily

the

one

Feb.

convince

is

crusades,

principled

their

plains

This

nothing

claims

the

evils

by

thing

for

Strahan,

and

27,

risked

comparison

greed:

were

with

haste,

Gold

of

benefits

1859, Some

for

to

in

which

life

labels

used:

in

the

“the

the 36 CNV6 r r-’ I S p

• v; m /J/ c : ::,e: I • ; ,y 1F \ , • — 3P’ L

I 0 I

- • •c. -r:; I H ••1 :Iz

- 7 38

Figure 5: Miner’sMap to the Fraser River MINER’S MAP FRAZERRIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES,

- GOLDBEARINGCOUNTRY.

TABLE OF IITSTANCES. VIOTORIA ROUTE. Into Frmeb.c )Iot.rla S.O Tht.,ia 71.0th Frozor Rher 71 171..th Frooor Rhror F•rI L.tgioy 61 F.rt L...jJey F.rt H.p OS F.rt H.p F.rt V.o 10 F.m aIe Fork. Th..p.... Hirer 46 F.rkn Th.o.p... RlveiF.mt fl..up .50 -a 1063 OOLUMIA RIVER ROUTE. 1.00 To Hitno. 6.. Fra.cinc IIroih (J.IobIa River 000 I1.Ih Coloneblo River.. Fort Ok.oig 435 Fort Ok..igo Troi.t 140 Teeki Fort Tb..opo .65 1070

Source: S.F. Baker, engr., [San Francisco: Whitton, Towne & Co., 1858], Spec. Coil. 39

Miners were more matter of fact: “Thevery flower of California came into this country. It was because they had money that they came and they had money because of their habits of living. I did not have much but I had six hundred dollars in gold 16dust.” For Lucius Edelbiute, British Columbia was a reasonable sequel to California. Friends in

California told him

“to load load up and stick tu it thay wood fit me out again but i dident du so i poot my mules up at oxin [auction] and sold all but dick i then tuck him to a friend at Johntown and left him on his ranch and started for the frasier river... i ship on the bruthe Jomthan to vancover island then on the wild dutchman to new westminster then up the frasher river to fort 17yal.” Bills of lading for ships coming into Victoria show the following numbers of arrivals: April/May 1,262; June 7,149; July, 6,278; August 254.18 From Victoria miners tried to board over-booked steamers (like Edelbiute), or to build their own boats to cross the Strait of Georgia to the Fraser River. Some miners tried to avoid Victoria (and mining licenses) by travelling overland from Fort Colvile and The Dalles along the Hudson’sBay

Company’s brigade trail through the Okanagan valley, or by sailing to Bellingham Bay to take the Whatcom trail. Once in Whatcom, early arrivals discovered that the trail had not yet been cut through to the Fraser River, and were forced to revise their plans. One miner

“Boarded the Steamer at Portland Maullanoma [?] Landed about a mile below the mouth of Cowletz River Went to the little town of Cowletz about two miles up the river. And got cayuses and went across to Olympia. And Boarded the old Steamer (Sea Bird) and went [sic] Bellingham Bay then known as Watcum And fitted out some canoes for the Fraser 9River.” Whatcom, an abandoned coal mining settlement (“but some of the men - half breeds + their squaws still lived ),20there” and the Dalles were the last American places where miners could outfit themselves. Later arrivals, heading for the upper Fraser could outfit at New

16Edward Stout, Tales from Edward Stout At Yale, British Columbia, May 14th, 1908, Reminiscences, p.1. BCARS. Lucius Samual Edelbiute, “The History of Lucius S. Edelblute,” p.4.1.BCARS. 718E.W. Wright ed.Lewis and Dryden’sMarine History of the Pacific Northwest, (New ‘ Ltd. 1961), 69. York: Antiquarian Press, p. 19J.C. (Dutch Charlie) Lual, “A trip to the Fraser River in 1858,” 1911. BCARS. 20Stout, p.1. 40

Westminster and take the Harrison-Lillooet road. Despite efforts to reduce costs by using as much overland transportation as possible, and attempts to avoid Victoria where miners were required to take out licenses, alternate routes were difficult and the Victoria-Fraser

River route remained the most travelled. At Victoria and points along the Fraser, miners were observed and counted as officials and naval detachments tried to force them to pay their license fees and duties on personal goods. Among the miners arriving in Victoria in early May, Governor Douglas counted “About60 British subjects, with an equal number of native born Americans, the rest being chiefly Germans, with a smaller proportion of Frenchmen, and 21Italians...” Licensing regulations were difficult to enforce: “the ascertained number of persons who had actually sailed from the Port of San Francisco, with the intention of going into Fraser’sRiver mines, up to the 15th of Instant [May], was 10,573,” but only 2525 licences had been taken 22out. Victoria was ill-equiped to feed, lodge, or provision the thousands of miners. Gold seekers were described as desperate to outfit themselves and to get to the mainland.

“Imagine hundred of tents pitched every where, and boats being built without being pitched &c, to travel a distance of Ninety miles to reach Fraser River and then to ascend the same which many hundreds never did, being assaulted by the Natives or Lost crossing the Gulf of 23Georgia.” This chaos caused the merchants, who had been largely in favour of new trade to ask themselves what they stood to gain:

“OUR FUTURE The world can no longer be astonished by the growth of mushroom cities. California has exhausted the list of possible wonders in this line. Her towns have risen like magic apparitions, and her experience has also shown how much more rapid than creation destruction may operate, when fire is the agent of the latter. Gold can be no more potent in the Eldorado on the North, than it has been in that of the West. We see memories of the “oldtime” in every tent, canvas structure and frail wooden tenement that springs up along our streets, and covers the vacant ground with dwellings more or less hospitable. We hear echoes of the old wild delusion on the auctioneer’s cry, as he vends his wares of goods or grounds, and

Douglas to Col. Office, May 8, 1858, Co 60/1 22Ibid21 23Bayley, p. 18 41

instances their increased value of wonderful cheapness when compared with the rates of yesterday, or prospects of to-morrow; and it is not wonderful that even those whose experience had been dearly bought and in some instances still fresh in mind should fall in line, and rush wildly, as in years past, toward the will-o’-the wisp of sudden wealth.24

Other tradesmen were more practical: in response to the first large group of arrivals in May

1858, Charles Bayley

“Took a survey of the circumstances [on board the ship] and returned satisfied that I had seen the most motley crowd of men that could be congregated together from any country. I returned and took in the situation immediatly bought up all the bread in the “Town” and had to feed over 250 men who would not wait for the meat to be cooked...steamer after steamer followed and in one day 3500 men were landed in Esquimalt from two steamers all bound for the 25Diggins.” Although the Thompson River had been the focus of the Hudson Bay Company’s gold trade and native miffing,most gold seekers entering the Fraser initially worked the bars between Hope and Yale. Hill’sBar was said to be the richest, but others, including,

American Bar, St. Clara Bar, Posey Bar, Emory’s and Texas Bar were also densely populated (Figure 6). From there miners moved through the canyon on native trails, laying logs across the deep ravines as makeshift bridges as they went. Miners frequently wrote home about the difficult trails (Figure 7), and as alternatives some miners paddled up the river, and “erected wind-lasses at some point in the canyons to wind the boats up falls and rapids and overcome difficulties which no other class of men would 26surmount.” Several travellers, but few miners, recorded their impressions of the larger settlements, such as Hope and Yale. Dr. Carl Freisach visited Yale in 1858 when it consisted of the Hudson’s Bay Company’sfort, the “American restaurant,” some frame cabins, and a large number of tents in which most of the estimated 3,000 people lived.

Among these inhabitants, he found the majority to be Americans, with numbers of

24The Victoria Gazette, July 7, 1858. 25Bayley, p.18. 26William Dietz, Emory’s Bar, Fraser River, to his Brother, July 12, 1859, Correspondence Outward. BCARS. 42

Figure 6: Mining Bars in the Fraser Canyon.

Source: Great Britain, Admiralty, (London: The Admiralty, 1865, Corr. 1890) 43

Figure 7: Mountain Roads

7

I /1/i / A)2Ji 7:1 ,‘ I c, ‘ 4 I’! -

AA1N flOiDU.

Source: “To the Cariboo and Back” The Leisure Hour: a family journal of instruction and recreation, Volume 14, 1865

30 Hills,

29 Hills,

28 Bishop

from

27 Dorothy

physical

(Victoria: The The

white

not

predominant

1861 and

appearance

bare

and

found

consisted

The

Franklin.

neighbourhood.”

presumably

Germans,

sites

restaurants,

the

gold

Anglican

&

the

Mining

and

woman

eight

Once

dusty.

from

here

digging... placed,

itself

ferry “The

July June

of

labour

letters

commissioner

April

of

Provincial

George

French,

Blakey

great

of

inhabitants:

than

five

meant

group

they

which

right

shore

man. 28

3,

30,

in

Bishop,

it

Life

The

of

and

to

of

and 1860.

-

Lytton,

activity.

houses,

we

not

Many

1860. July,

Hills,

got

placer Sophia

Miss

&

Smith,

Chinese,

slopes

Sappers

of

the

white

however

found

Archives

have

left

a

to

Lytton

“Jews

George

intervening

tree

1870,

Sophia

and

“Journal,” three

of

the and

mining.

along

a

Cracroft

ed. women,

rather

seen

one

liquor

the

are

near

Fraser,

constables

Italians,

and

she

the

he

Lady

Provincial

Frenchmen,

of

Hills,

tents

Englishman,

them

the

laying

Cracroft,

found

gradually

was

for

Americans.”

stockade

This

British

shop,

visited

as

June

bank

beach

Franklin

miners

were

some

in

went

“of Spaniards,

he

involved

out

scarcely

lived

any

and

found 27,

-

Archives

Columbia,

ill-reputation.” 30

occupied

is

Sir

Yale

the

a

hundreds

was

further upwards

a

sought

settlement

Town. a

strewn

Spaniard,

and

1860.

visits

together

John

combination

lower

He

large

removed.” 27

in

digging

worthy

several and

up

1861

held

rich

the

of

Vancouver

Franklin’s

with

by

to

I

of

1974), extremity

numbers

Poles.

the

British was

in

Pacific

the

on

indians

“two

river yards.” 29

service

while

of

gravel

rough

Frenchmen

tents,

river

this

much

bank

description,

restaurant/blacksmith.

p. 52 .

Apart

coloured

bars

He

Columbia,

neice,

travelling

Northwest: of

river.

and

to having

School who

quarters.

from

in

on

disappointed

counted

natives

Boston

and

the

He

from

which

miners

are

February

The

among

the

set government

visited men,”

the

of

its

more

Yale,

with

bars

Memoir,

“in

There

about Bar,

little six

Theology.

the

being

H.B.Cos

“environs

fluming

the

the

a

women.

all

and

her

numerous

little

towns

at

which

blacksmith,

to

town

the

was

extracts

the

the

April,

aunt,

separating

no.

building.

town

He

hard

Fort, &

stores

extends

one

are

were

11,

He

Lady

is 44 45

gold from it by ‘working’the gravel with water in pans, rockers, or flumes. By August of 1858, there was already a steam saw mill near Yale to provide lumber for 31flumes. Veiy fine particles of gold were amalgamated using mercury (quicksilver). One miner described his settling-in as follows:

“Got to Fort Yale about the middle of may and started through the canyon and landed on a place called Sailors Bar. Built our rockers and went to work And kept moving up till we got to the old Suspension Bridge that is now And from there up to Chatmans Bar. About a mile distant from the bridge. There was now some fifteen or twenty of us in our gang. We made our headquarters on Chatmans Bar. We all lived together then and worked in that 32vicinity. As Lual indicates, gold washing was not a solitary activity: each mining bar became a temporary home to groups of men, and even those miners working alone were seldom far from male companionship.

“I used to play the fiddle on Boston bar. Cabins were scattered all down the beech for half a mile and there were forty or fifty miners around Yankee Flat at that time. All the boys had more or less gold those days and they used to take in a thousand dollars a night at White’s Place on Boston Bar. The principal amusement those times was drinking and playing a little cards. Every man on Yankee Bar then could go down in his pocket and bring up a few hundred dollars in quick silver 33dust.” Drinking was the most common entertainment mentioned by the miners, and drinking establishments and their proprietors were looked back upon with fondness. Even a sly bar keeper was remembered that way:

“I remember Dick Bowdon who kept the California House in Yale in 1862. He was a jolly Irishman. When the miners were pretty well stewed up and there was a carelessness as to how money was handed in for drinks Dick used to measure himself what was coming to the bar. He would pick out a sizeable lump af gold from the bags which were extended for that purpose, remarking “only a pinch me boy” They no bother with the 34scales.”

31Daily Victoria Gazette, Sept. 28, 1858. The sawmill was an imporatant addition, as the paper reported: “Messrs. Land& Hemming’s sawmill at Fort Yale has proven a god send to the miners at that place, as well as at Hill’s, Emory’s,and other neighbouring bars, supplying them with lumber for sluices, without which a large proportion of the fine gold would be lost, the old fashioned rockers not being well adapted to save the fine particles.” Daily Victoria Gazette, Oct. 18 1858. 32Lual, p.2. 33John S. (Dec Holloway) Holloway, “Reminiscences,” 8p. 1908. BCARS. 34Stout, p.9. . 46

Another miner provides some background for these shifting, improvised taverns, and their owners.

“Among the arrivals on Hills Bar in April 1858 was Edward Edwards who had served as a Midship man in the early fifties on one of Her Majesties fighting battleships and was a great favorite with the miners on Hills Bar. Edwards had a Stock of Provisions of different kinds and started to do business as a storekeeper in his stock was also the inevitable whiskey the majority of miners at this time on Hills bar were Americans they would very often congregate at Edwards Store and when the party gin[flied up they would try to induce Edwards to becom an American but they could not induce him to change his Nationallity he would tell them he was quite satisfied to be a bloody good Englishman. In Edwards conversation he invariable used the word bloody and that name stuck to bloody Edwards during his life time. Edwards died in Mexico a number of years 35ago.” In part this jovial atmosphere is a product of reminiscence, but contemporary accounts too speak of the great sense of comraderie combined with individual freedom.

Miners were a highly mobile group, and as the lower Canyon filled up with miners, or as bars were worked out, they spread northward. They also responded to reports of better diggings elsewhere. Furthermore, during the early summer run-off the Fraser rose so high as to prevent work on its lower bars. The miners responded by testing the high banks for

“dry diggings” or by moving up along the river.

Mining was frequently described as a hardship. One of the most common complaints (sometimes in reference to the Hudson’sBay Company’sadministration) concerned the lack of food. Many miners had bought provisions at Victoria, usually little more than flour, bacon and beans. Some of the English miners were more particular.

According to Charles Bayley, the proprietor of the Red House Grocery in Victoria in 1861:

“The contemptuous manner that was exhibited when beans and bacon were suggested to some of the newly imported scions of a large family of the Aristocrats of the Old Country was very amusing, Beans! they fed orses on them where I come from was the reply; but after a while they were not asses enough to refuse them as many a day before they returned they were glad to take Beans straight peppered with Sand Flies and 36Mosquitoes.” 35james Moore, Reminiscences, p.3. 36Bayley,p. 20. Indeed, one English miner also brought the following, two tents, flour, bacon, “30 lbs of tea, 12 lbs of sugar, 6 tins baking powder, 3 bottles mustard, 3 do. pepper, 15 lbs beans, 12 lbs oatmeal, some soap, candles, and matches, waterproof sheets 47

Miners looking for supplies at Fort Langley in April and May of 1858 were disappointed at their stores, but by May, Fort Yale had laid in some supplies. The Dalles and Walla Walla were better prepared to supply a gold rush, but traders there had to use an arduous route to get to the Fraser. In 1858 Joel Palmer led a pack train with cattle and a variety of packhorses with mining implements along the Okanagan Trail to the Thompson 37River. In 1859, he took a route that connected up with the Hudson Bay Company brigade trail through the Similkameen Valley to Fort Hope, and then travelled along the Fraser. Such provisioning remained difficult. It was dangerous because natives in the Okanagan were hostile to 38pack-trains. In addition, merchants from Victoria and United States were initially excluded from operating on the mainland by the Hudson’sBay Company’s monopoly. Miners’ narratives often referred to food shortages, both because of lack of funds and because food was not available. Strategies to procure food included trading salmon from natives or planting small gardens. One miner revelled in this luxury “I shall eat no more bacon for the next three months, if I stay here, for the Indians have begun to catch the delicious salmon. I shall live on them I bought a half one a few days ago for 50 cents, about 8 pounds and had quite a 39feast.” Another was more prosaic: “Them brought us Salmon and we traded them Grub for °4it.” Gardens were often mentioned, and miners were allowed 5 acres near their claims for the purpose. Others took up more elaborate strategies of survival:

a frying pan, a camp kettle, and a small compact cooking apparatus...” Cecil William Buckley, “Journal of a journey to the Cariboo gold mines, April - August, 1862,” p. 28. BCARS. 37Scott, p.153 and Judge William Brown, “Old Fort Okanogan and the Okanogan Trail,” The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, XV(1), March 1914, p.33-35. According to Brown, heavily laden pack-trains had to take the “old Okanogan trail” along the east side of the Columbia, while fur traders could travel either side of the river. 38An agent from Kent& Smiths’sExpress reported a “severe fight” with natives at Fort Okanogan, in which three of his party were killed and six wounded. Daily Victoria Gazette, August24, 1858. 39William Henry (Dutch Bill) Dietz, Emory’sBar, Fraser River, to his brother, July 12, 1859. BCARS. 40Lual, p. 4. 48

“... I think I still have cause to think my luck is hard. I am living alone on the ranch as one can keep the crops cultivated, and Bob Garner has gone up on to Emory’s Bar to mine so that we may keep from starving while our potatoes grow. He is only making about two dollars a day, and I suppose when our potatoes have grown it will be our luck to get nothing for 41them.” Growing vegetables provided dietary variety and extra income, and allowed miners to stretch their supplies to last the winter months.

While the rush brought a lot of people to the Fraser River very quickly, the mining population, and all who were building on its success, were frequently beset by doubts.

There was no way to gauge the distribution of gold or the size of the deposits. Mining society was built on a gamble. For some it was a way of life upon which they thrived, for others it was adventure, but they all hoped sudden wealth was nearby. At times the attitude prevailed that all unknown regions were full of gold, but negative reports periodically shook this faith, sending waves of despair and depression through the society. A letter in a local paper (directed at concerned speculators)explained that the origin of such contradictory reports resulted from two types of gold hunters, the intensive and the extensive, or:

“1. Men who have gone hastily over a large extent of country, prospecting here and there, whose information is too general to be of practical value in establishing anything beyond the extent of the diggings. 2. Men who have remained in one locality, and can only state its operation in detail, but who indulge in whole sale statements of prospects and operations at other points on hearsay 42authority.” People also left the mines because of individual hard luck. The way of life mentioned above by the old miners in their reminiscences had both good times - at least times looked back upon with fondness - and bad. The nature of gold-rich sediments and the unknown physical geography frequently caused panic among the miners. Hard luck stories are common in the accounts:

“I hung on for six weeks like a drowning man catching at straws always hoping that something would turn up that I might make a living at and perhaps make a little money. I am sure that brother John will think it cowardly in me to give up but in

41-Dietz, Emory’s Bar, Fraser River, to his brother, July 12 1859. 42Victoria Gazette, July 17, 1858. 49

fact I could do nothing else it came to be a question to either go down [river] or 43starve.” Another miner walked from Lytton to Yale wearing only one boot, which he cut to fit either foot. Gold rush society was filled with uncertainty, and its growth was by no means unidirectional. As a result, the routes to river bars were also used to leave them. As James

Bell wrote: “the rush north was immediately succeeded by as unwarranted a rush south.” He called this communal shaken confidence “home 45fever.” Particularly during the summer of 1858, before the reputation of the mines was established, and most miners were there on speculation, waves of miners headed 46south, but southward rushes were mentioned in other years as well, including 1860:

“Miners are coming here daily from Canboo and other parts of the upper country, cursing the whole affair, and saying they have been shamefully taken in; that it is the most awful country they ever set their foot into, that there is no gold, and if there was, that there are no means to work it, that provisions are at famine prices, and in some places there is none left at 47all.” Miners movements were not irrational but observers did not understand their motives. Miners mined because it was what they knew; and based decision-making on the present and the immediate future. They were willing to struggle for the preservation of livelihood and a way-of-life, but both depended on the availability of gold. Mining Men

Veterans of the British Columbia rushes identified strongly with their mining lives and lifestyles. As one elderly miner commented: “I have been fifty years in the mines and at seventy six years of age I am still a child of chance. If a gold rush were to take place

43Alexander Robb, to his father, August 10, 1862, Alexander Robb, Correspondence Outward, BCARS. 44Harry Guillod, October 10, 1862, Journal of a Trip to Cariboo, 1862. BCARS. 45Bell, p. 2 The developments were eagerly watched from California, who headlined stories as follows “Why Don’t You Send the Gold?”, demonstrating the level of communication between the two regions in their knowledge of the river’srising and falling. Indeed, Bayley noted with surprise that the first arrivals from California in May 1858 knew more about the Fraser River than residents of Victoria. Bayley, p. 18. 47Buckley, June 20, 1860, p. 44. 50

tomorrow I should be the first to 48go.” Another miner, J.C. Lual, felt particularly knowledgeable about of the history of the mines, and warned against believing all these tales: “There is a hole lot of stories told by people who call themselves old timers. They know they are lying But they have told them them so many times that they actually believe themselves. In reference to this there is one man I could refer you to Mr. yates then

Hudson bay man at Fort Hope.” Although William Yates had eye-witness experience of the mines, Lual considered his own experience more extensive and his own story more legitimate:

“I culd give the history of the country if I had space to put it in Writings. I have been to every gold excitement in this country excepting one and that was granite creek. And in ever gold excitement I met Sam Adler. When Sam came back from Granite Creek I asked him what luck. He said he knew it was no Good. Because I did not see you 49there.” When Edward Stout told his story for the 50th anniversary celebration of Yale, he knew of thirteen “58-ers” still living through the 50canyon. In a 1918 letter to E.O.S.Scholefield (the provincial archivist), James Moore carefully recited the names of the discoverers of the first mining bars, and thanked the archivist for preserving his materials in the 5archives. From 1914 to 1919, Moore wrote eight letters and articles to archivists, a Premier,’ and the Daily Province. As one of the first white miners in British Columbia, Moore considered himself an authority on their history and signed himself, “Pioneer of Pioneers” at the end of one of his 52letters. Onlookers may have been on skeptical but miners prided themselves on their pasts.

These carefully preserved identities were composed of various strands of social constructions, intertwined like the currents of the Fraser and as difficult to separate. While

Shearer, “Reminiscences of Mr. Shearer, a pioneer of 1862,” p.8, 1911. BCARS. 49Lual, p. 18-19. 50Stout, p. 9. 51James Moore, to Scholefield, January 31, 1918, Reminiscences, BCARS. 52James Moore, to H.L. Harding, August 19, 1919, reprinted in “The Discovery of Hill’s Bar,” British Columbia Historical Quarterly. 111(3),July 1939, p. 220. 51

miners had left their homes, they did not forget them. Similarly, the ideas acquired in other gold fields were not discarded the moment they got to the Fraser. Instead, they adapted their ideas to the new gold region, and for the rest, expected it to adapt to them. While certain travellers such as Sophia Cracroft, Bishop Hills, and Doctor Fnesach described the settlements of the Fraser Canyon, miners themselves did not. Instead, miners wrote about life on the mining bars and in the drinking bars. They emphasized their common ways to create common ground; after all, they were all a long way from home.

Miners left their relatives behind to come to the Fraser gold rush, some more recently than others, but they did try to keep in touch. Miners kept careful track of their correspondence and often reprimanded their relatives: “MyDear Brother, I have had no letter from you later than the mail of 20th May and none from sisters or Ella later than the mail of 20th April from New York. I can’tunderstand this long silence and have been much disappointed in not getting letters the last few 53mails.” Relatives were not always associated with happiness, but they were the ones to whom miners felt accountable.

“To call up despondency, with all its gloomy associations I have only to sit down with the intention of writing my relations; why I should experience such feelings on calling to memory, those who above all others, excep[t] my two dear Children, I most love and esteem, may appear unaccountable... Though we cannot hope forgiveness, still would we plead sympathy... I fear I have dwelt too long on a subject in which you may be little interested, It is my home however, and in what ever country that is, I trust my relations will still feel an interest, if only for my sake.. “54

Bell stressed his physical distance from his brother in Scotland, but he wanted emotional support in his endeavours. Others felt the need to justify their reasons for leaving their relatives and, as the following letter demonstrates, were anxious to remain involved in family affairs, but on their own terms:

“I have given you my reasons, in previous letters, for not being particularly desirous of coming home and I think they are good. Sam says the business is in

53Willaim Henry (Dutch Bill) Dietz, Lytton City, Forks of Thompson and Frazer River, August 19, 1859, to his brother, BCARS. See also Joseph Haller, Canboo Letters, Vancouver City Archives. 54James Bell, San Francisco, to Mr. John Thompson, Annan, Scotland, Feb. 27, 1859. 52

wretched condition, but gives no particulars in consequence of not being well. He says he hopes improvement from your being back. I fear the want of harmony and concert of action among you will be the great difficulty, and unless there can be harmony I have no faith that my services would be of much avail. I certainly do not wish to engage in family quarrels I know I have duties there and have full faith that I can run the business successfully and well, if I can be received with confidence and sustained by the harmonious co-operation of all and without that assurance I have no desire to return; as to the means, the want of that alone might keep me here a lifetime if I have no better luck in the future than have had in the 55past.” Others begged quite openly for news from home; despite ajaunty attitude Alexander Robb was anxious to know what was going on with all he had left behind.

“Dear Father, I suppose you will be thinking by this time that I am either dead or have forgotten all about home else I would have written long ago. I can assure you however that this is not the case for I am as well as ever I was and as for the forgetting part it will be a long time before that time comes... [closes letter with:] In the meantime dear father keep writing to the care of Mr. Kyle tell me how the farm is getting on and in fact everything Nothing will be uninteresting Give my love to all brothers and sisters friends...

Miners were far away from their families, but shared experiences of mining drew them together in a place that Wasdefinitely not like those original homes. Those elements of life in the Fraser canyon that made it so different from home, including the lack of white women, the overwhelming presence of natives, and some level of freedom from established authority, were precisely the factors that served to draw them together to find new definitions of their new homes. -Miners and Women

Mining was not generally perceived as an occupation suitable for women, and, in relative terms, very few women travelled to the gold mines. Fnesach’s numbers of the population at Yale - six women among three thousand men - give a very rough estimate of the numerical proportions. But both Trimble and Sylvia Van Kirk, writing some 80 years apart, stress the importance of acknowledging that some women did go to the Fraser and

55Dietz, Emory’s Bar, Fraser River, to his brother, July 12 1859. 56Alexander Robb, to his father, August 10, 1862. 53

57Cariboo. Tnmble cites some examples, but concludes that most “respectable women” were married to professional men, merchants, and fur traders, and lived in Victoria, or occasionally in the smaller 58towns. Most white women, he wrote, were “hurdy-gurdy girls” (women who danced with miners for a fee), and occasionally prostitutes, but these too were few, and lived in 59towns. He does not consider the possibility of women as miners, nor does Van Kirk. Van Kirk objects strongly to the idea of a “womanless frontier,” and argues that women had an effect “outof all proportion to their numbers.” Searching through a variety records, she found names 6 of of 75 women who lived° in the Cariboo between 1862 and 1875. She stresses that most of these women were married and important entrepreneurs (which probably goes a long way toward explaining why they were ‘named’in records). Van Kirk demonstrates the presence of a very few women, but never explains why their presence was “vital”,beyond upsetting the masculine frontier myth. This does not explain why gold rushes were generally perceived as male events or how they were constructed as such.

The Fraser River rush undoubtedly drew some women, but in contemporary writings, it was perceived as an opportunity for men, not for women. There were a variety of ways in which the exclusion of women from the profits and freedoms of the gold rush worked. Again, many of these ideas of exclusion were present before the miners ever came to the Fraser region. In California gold fever affected both men and women.

“The appearance of a steamer in the harbor was the signal for general stampede of the pantalooned to the waves; while the pantaletted seek the attic windows and huddle together near their doors to catch the first whisper of the “news.” It may well be debated whether the feminines are not more seriously affected just now than their natural protectors.” 61

57Sylvia Van Kirk, “A Vital Presence: Women in the Cariboo Gold Rush” in British Columbia Reconsidered: Essays on Women, eds. Gillian Creese and Veronica Strong Boag, (Vancouver: Press Gang Publishers, 1992). 58Trimble, p. 142 -143. 59Trimble, p. 150-151. 60Van Kirk, p.22. 61Victona Gazette July 7 1858. 54

The “pantaletted” may have been eager for news, but they were confined, at least as far as men were concerned, to their attics. Attempts to break such stereotypes were reported in the papers with mockery. One woman in Sacramento was said to have packed her bags and $500 with the intention of leaving her husband and going to the Fraser. Her husband caught her, took most of her money, and left for the Fraser 62himself. The report gave no account of what she did. Both husband and wife were ridiculed: she for thinking she could make it to the Fraser, he for having a wife who would do such thing and almost allowing her to get away with it. The newspaper heading “Matrimonial Felicity” was a wry comment on the state of the marriage in which such a thing could happen.

William Buckley described a more complicated incident concerning the situation of women on the vessels sailing from Europe to San Francisco. He first described with horror the conditions under which women on board had to travel. He thought it was disgraceful that they shared berths and washing space with men, and deplored the lack of boundaries between them. But when the American captain gave a heavy punishment to an

Irishman for insulting an American woman he decided that this was the result of the captains dislike for the British. The Irishman was “drunken, worthless fellow, and I have not the least feeling of sympathy for him, but I do not not see how he could do more than 63apologize...” Buckley felt he had to rationalize his responses to a situation which pitted men against women, English against Irish, and American against British. In the struggles between classes, nationalities, and gender, different boundaries were crossed simultaneously, in this case leading to considerable confusion.

In the above accounts, as in most others, women were nameless. This erasure distanced women from debates going on around them and about them. Even women who overcame the obstacles on the way to Fraser Canyon were not named in the miners’ narratives or in newspaper reports. The Victoria Gazette reported that, “on the 16th a canoe

62Victoria Gazette, July 10, 1858. 63Buckely, May 20, 1862. 55

was upset in the Lower Canyon, and three men and one woman met with a watery grave.

The men’s names were Henry Brown, Jacob Wilson and John Linderman, the woman’s name I was unable to learn.”M Other times women were noted in accounts as symbols of the potential for civilization in the region. The Methodist missionary at Hope often noted how many women were present at his 65meetings. The Anglican Bishop, George Hills, met white women during his annual tours of the Canyon. Sometimes they suffered from the roughness of the country, including Richard Hicks’(the controversial Justice of the

Peace) wife who “once lived she said a Xtian life & was happy & every day her resolutions were good. She was surrounded by profanity which her heart condemned.” Others, such as Mrs Price of Lytton were women of “ill 66reputation.” ‘Goodwomen,’ in Hills terms, did not fit in, and others were ‘bad.’

In most accounts women are notable by their absence, prompting the comment that this place was not quite home:

“This day .. .one of the finest I have seen; all nature ... smiled. we travelled all day stopping to eat out meals in ... pristine style & but for the absence of woman might have failed to realize the far distance which separated us from those we were with in other times to greet upon this anniversary of flowers. Picked a bouquet 12 miles south of 67Lytton...” The lack of women required some adjustments. A member of a Welsh company of miners wrote: “By now we have learned to live without the support of a 68woman.” But a year and a half later, another Welsh miner, Morgan Lewis, was less sure:

“I am ashamed to tell you of our way of living... I am one of four living in a plank house without one woman, remember, and you can imagine what an unpleasant situation this is. Considerable value is placed on a good woman in this country. Our first task when returning home is to light a fire and, after cleaning up and getting a little food, each one is bound to do his chore. The first does the dishes

64Daily Victoria Gazette, Aug. 24, 1858. 65Ebenezer Robson, “Diary,” 20 March and 23 April, 1859. BCARS. 661-Iills, Journal, see for example, June 25, and July 3,1859. 67John Damon, Diary, April 30 1859. BCARS. William Jones, Lytton, June 1861, in Y Gwladgarwr, September 20, 1862, reprinted in Alan Conway, “Welsh Gold-Miners in British Columbia during the 1860’s,” British Columbia Historical Ouarterly, XXI(1-4), January-October 1957-1958), p. 58.

70 Guillod,

72 Haller, 71 Shearer,

69 Morgan

(Star

family

women

became

Bishop attempt

The

1862.

like

in

White

the For

they

the

Fraser

Morgan

some

white

had

of

eyes

women

that

very and

If around

Comments

“A.

of

Paddington: cold,

superlatively with

pinnacle

picture

fourth

in and

“It

to

domestic

Wales),

left

I

December

miners

British

England),

bring

women

Canyon.

is

Lewis,

Letter

want

of

Munch

p.1.

I

cleans

scarce

closed

Lewis

will

at

now

hungry,

some

were washes

here.

to

home,

January

‘civilization’

one of

send

women

servants

myself

Columbia,

to

between

New

who

about the

at

[a

happiness;

bemoaned

curtains

miners,

spatially

to

Mother,

26, Angela

I

There

cozy

wet

home,

friend

guess but

cabin,

etc.” 69

him

walk

did

Westminster,

1865.

native

what

23,

were

and

justified

in

about

nine

one

make

are

and

was

in

in

I and

Burdett-Coutts,

Victoria

sent

to

Sunday, the

restricted

1863,

will

tired,

the

of

you

and

Pa.]

practical.

only

in

women the

and

a

no

it.” 70

I second

course

it

comfortable

lack

the

50

guess

have

are

the

see

colony

reprinted

wants

into

place

my

ten

Indian

or

and

next

to

Oct.

all

absences

of

you

to

were

thoughts

o’clock

to

60

the

to

plies

there

Rev.

white Other

doing

cozy,

married

for

me

bring

letter

(while make

young

19th,

all

women.

Canyon

the

more

in

white

the

to

D.R.

must

just

fire

comfortable

women

here

miners

at

because

Conway,

or

send

philantropist

one

it

1862.

have

needle,

solving

quite

women

home;

and

then

complete

complicated.

by

Lewis,

not

women.

were

and

along

If

him

telegraph.

centred

then

in

he

thought

be

would

quickly. 71 and

women

I

the

and

Journal

p.

the

discounted.

a

wants to

reckon

many

with

Ocober

to

wife,

their

and

65.

it

third

Victoria.

Others

many

problem

who

my

on

have

must

with

me

were

safe

one

if

homely

Joseph

He

a

but

you

of

bakes

idea

funded

he

29,

quiet

a

when

been

be

were

a longing

says

of

time

homes

there

irreconcilable

wants

are

Trip

of

The

there

Most

in

1862,

them

bread

Haller

cup

the

skills.

too

the

that

at

I

less

the

when

are

Fraser

come

to

dinner:

elsewhere.

one

is

of

highest

of

many

of

short

let

Seren

Anglican

Canboo,

the

sure,

and

not

something

wrote them

the

tea

I

In

him

from

home.” 72

have

girls

Canyon,

many

the

days

an

single

women

at

and

Cymru

I

with

say

often

his

here.

are

been

so 56 57

Haller’s tone suggests he was only partly serious; native women were not real replacements for the white women of home. Edeiblute was less certain: “to [be] shure [the chief’s] doter was a indin buty. . .sum of the bois sed that they would like to marry hur she was fin and well 73drest.” Maybe Edelbiute were serious, maybe not, but the chief and his daughter were looking for horses not husbands. Other times native women were a part of miners’entertainment: “We had a cracking ball on yankee Flat one winter. We had a good many squaws here you know and the miners came in from bars all around the country. We kept it up for a couple of 74weeks.” On the whole, Native women were considered native first, and women second.

They were difficult to define: they were not miners’mothers and sisters. Instead, they overstepped spatial boundaries and were present to such an extent that the miners were forced to struggle with some sort of definition. Racism provided the miners with quick and easy answers to the position they thought native women should have in the miners’ new territory. Native women’somnipresence in the region and in mining society as trade partners and providers of a variety of services became taken for granted, in these matters, miners used race to deny gender, that is, native women did things white women were not supposed to do, including packing, mining, and paddling canoes, but were discounted because they were natives. Native women as womenwere more difficult to define. They were viewed lewdly and their sexual availability was taken for 75granted. Amicable liaisons between native women and white men must have existed but beyond Haller’s jokes, were rarely commented upon, perhaps because of their dubious acceptability at the time. They endangered the sense of cohesion in mining society by providing an

73Lucius Samuel Edelblute, The History of Lucius S. Edelbiute, p.44. BCARS. 741-Iolloway, p.9. 75See A.C. Anderson’s Handbook and map to the gold region of Frazer’s and Thompson rivers, (San Francisco: J.J. Le Count, 1858). In later years (native) prostitution would be more overtly refered to. 58

opportunity for whites to cross established racial boundaries, as Friesach mused, after having met Ovid Allard:

“The officer in command of Fort Yale is a french Canadian who has become half savage by living so long in the far West; he has almost forgotten his Mother tongue, has never known the English language and makes himself best understood in Chinook. He has married a full blooded squaw, who gave him a number of children, who in their appearance take far more after the mother than after their father. It is a matter of common experience that Frenchmen and Irishmen become almost entirely savage when living with the Indians. In the case of men belonging the Teutonic races this process encounters stronger obstacles. The Yankee and the Scotchman seem to resist 76best.” Stout remembered an incident where native women’sambiguous positions were useful:

“While we were on the Thompson, one good morning, a klootchman came along and told us that the indians had massacred a number of whites down below and warned us to get out of the country as they were coming after us. She was in love with one of our men and was friendly to us for that 77reason.” Such treachery could easily work both ways, and on the whole native women were to be resisted (emotionally if not sexually). They represented threats to miners’links to civilization elsewhere, as well as to the pending civilization of the region. Potentially native women could distract miners from their links to each other: the real source of social power.

- ‘ Pardner&

Beginnings of social organization were already in place before the miners reached

Fraser River as men either travelled with their partners or ran into old friends at the mines: “a great many of us were old aquaintance[sJ from the mining camps of 78California.” Others met their partners during theirjourneys:

“There were 4 of us in the party that started up the river. We were just thrown together and I do not remember the names except as Jack, Tom and Dick. They were all from 79California.”

76Fnesach p. 29 77Stout, p.2. 78Stout, p.1 79Ibid. 59

Sometimes they travelled together for protection:

“when I got thar the bar [Boston Bar] was cuvered with watter and the miners duing nuthen thay was a graidell [greatdeal] tolk a bout the hed woters of the frasier river the supsishion woz that it wood bee hard to get thru an the count of indins and hi woter but feling ancious to see whar the gold cam from thay was seven in number maid a start i wos one of that number wee got our packs and horses redey and started up the river the nams wos bill wiliams from pensilvana bill cunnigham from Kentuckey frank fulford from verginia Sorge scott from elinois abit and black Jack and cairboo odd that wos the name that wos given me...

Another miner started out with just one partner, “I left Portland Oregon & my pardner Tom

I only knew him by the name of Tom and he only knew me by the name of Dutch 81Charley”, but by the time they got to Chatmans bar, “there was now some fifteen or twenty of us in our gang. We made our headquarters on Chatmans bar. We all lived together then and worked in that 82vicinity.” The partnerships were also based on common backgrounds including class, as in the case of William Buckley, a decorated veteran of the Crimean war. He travelled with a group of men he met in Victoria, “Major

B, Captain S, and Doctor G.” He noticed everyone else too “forming themselves into small companies, buying horses a tent, and as much provisions as they can 83afford..” Not only did a group provide protection, but it also made financial sense: “many would form in companies, buy a canoe, lay in three to six months provisions, and start working their way up as far as possible, until the river 84fell.” Like the gardening miner above, partnerships were based on trust, not proximity:

“Some three weeks ago a man went out from American bar up the river & yesterday his partner received a letter...stating there was more gold up there [40 miles north of Lytton] than the writer had anticipated & desired his partner to procure a stock of provisions & come up. He accordingly laid out $160 in a hill of goods & left 85rejoicing.” 80Edelblute, pAl 81Lual, p.1 82Lual, p. 2 83Buckely, June 9, 1862. C.C. Gardiner, Michigan Bluffs, Placer County, California, to the Editor of The Islander [Prince Edward Island],November 17, 1858. Reprinted in British Columbia Historical quarterly, Oct. 1937. 85Damon, April 13, 1859. 60

A less perfect situation was experienced by Dutch Bill Dietz:

“I am not, as you suppose, so far away as to be beyond suffering the meaness of white men. Sanborn, one of my partners whom I kept from starving all winter (for he had neither money or credit), run [sic]off to California, leaving me to pay over $70.00 for him. He quit our claim in March and by little run of good luck in mining saved about $300 in two months and then run off leaving me to pay the debts of the 86Company...” Betrayal of friends was not acceptable for as Tnmble wrote, “One of the very essentials of manhood was violated if fidelity to friends was 87lacking” Similarities of purpose and position united the group and gave them common concerns lending them a certain amount of power. These partnerships and groups of travelling companions coalesced into larger groupings, based in part on different attitudes towards class and masculinity.

The lack of physical reproduction, as commented upon by the missionaries, was used to imply a lack of social reproduction, but instead of traditional households, men arranged themselves into small groups which felt, to varying degrees, connected to the larger whole. Masculinity and class were bonds between miners, but it also caused friction in mining society. For the California miners, gold mining and gold rushes were familiar, but the terrain, the government, and the people were different. For miners coming from

Britain, the colony was a safe place to make a new life - safe because of the British presence, new because of the distance from home and the expectations of the new world.

The gold rush was seen as presenting opportunities for settlement both on Vancouver

Island and mainland British Columbia, if the British government encouraged “men with empty or slender purses, and strong hearts, to go out and take up the waste land, at a lower rate than that which the government now demands for it.” On Vancouver Island,

“there is no reason why every man should not be his own landlord, and in a new colony the more independent of domestic help that a family may be the better the better the prospect of that family; in no country in the world can a working man

86Dietz, Emory’s Bar, Fraser River, to his brother, July 12 1859. 87Trimble, p. 161. 88Captain Fenton Aylmer, A Cruise in the Pacific From the Log of A Naval Officer, (London: Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, 1860), p.94

31,

93 Buckely,

92 Thoman

9 lHolloway,

Essay,

90 James 89(

Panama: decorated

an

wrath independence

wrote

model

as

independence

of

they

some

Some

good

independency

settlement

1862,

had

Forbes,

British

of

“I

miners

(Victoria

of

better discontent

be

“The

The

of

may

themselves, industrious,

Scotch

great

capital

“I earn

as

am

the

Bell,

left

gold

Reprinted

British

alike

learned

all

another

0.

May

entirely

above

elements

3rd serve

such

behind.

miners

Vancouver

natural

p.

look

associated

who

agreed.

of

Price,

were

Sanfrancisco,

rushes,

and

enterprise

at

8.

Americans,”

Class

4,

The

than

officer, wages,

-

the

that

bring to

out

quotes

and

the

they

tightly

1862.

and

scientific

sick

Letter

in

had

resources,

induce

diggings,

of

Colonial The

Bell

crawl

even

then.” 93

the

passengers

exercise

Conway,

a

Families,

call

creation,

with

with

no

Island,

of

dam

was

and

contain

[fur

progress

gold

encouraged

bound

to

though

America

intention

like

some

the

to

class-divisions,

at

but

Dear

them,

confronted

Scotchman...

sight

traders],

Govemment,1862),

Mr.

and

rush,

as

of

the

2nd

its

a

p.54

up

added

and

ideals

an

insist

holding

of

worm

patient

LL, most

of

Resources

better.” 91

same

John

“them

to

with

class

and

your

they

independent

of

dare the

-

the

his

and

55.

in

of

replicating

on

were

through

Americans;

with

Thompson, time

country

their

thought,

industry

a people

new many

as

March

the out

all settlement

as

dining

set

may

tries

because

the

I

skeptical

same

ideals inducements

snd

live

For

ideas

colony,

of

consider

worthy

the

not in

torments

20,

heretofore

and

to “bloated

with

capabilities

so

some may

would

the

p.27.

letter

Scotland

of

make

of

I

mire

only

as

1862, Annan, cheaply;

during

prosperous

am

hierarchies

colonialism

habits

the

of

equality

soon

civilization,

aquaintances

the

British

“I

provide

disgusted

of

Americans.

be

themselves

of

aristocrats,”

2nd

peculiarly

in

future

would

has

poverty.” 92

have

to

interesting

the

human

Scotland,

of

Merthyr

as

and join

-

during

miners

been

industry

great

gold

a

future;

freedom

of

a

development

every

rather

new

and

with

house

him:

but

invention

the

entirely

rush, to

to

exclusive

growling

A

Telegraph,

saying his

the

equality

colony,

Americans

to

Feb. settled

the

secure

man

the

the

brave

Welsh

and

Buckley,

of

voyage

American

from

yourself

“one

hardy,

liberty

certain

his

frugality.” 90

27,

with

indebted

we

to

all

societies

for

of

Prize

and

now,

miner

and

that

own.” 89

man

acquire

shall

1859.

the

May

through

its

a

and

the

and

but

reward

small

model

many

had

was

to

all 61

96 Moore, 94 W.

95 james

Practically,

American

British

and

would

those

witness

climate

healthy

mere

addressed

presenting

the

an

Cariboo,

Buckley

equally

skill

healthy...” 95

Parker

thinker.” 94

in

flourish

onlookers,

toward

only

previously

conduct

Like

“By

would

Service

weeks

to

“Previous

in

region

how

the

Bell,

or

did

because

Letter

explore

ideologies

California,

himself

opportunities

illustrious

Socially,

inclination

far

mountains

object

the

Snow.

not

those

on

take

Sanfrancisco,

ungodliness:

for

the when

Send

since

Americans,

to

take

a

And

Manliness

to

he

as

and

been

British

to

of larger

his

old

prospecting

Schoufield,

this

British

they

did

of

and

the

not independent

they

the

worship.

tells group

prospect

gun

despite

worn-out

to

who

living

independence

time

not

for

“manliness

your

Politically.

incident

proportion

prospect

precluded

constitutions,

arrived

very

a

he

had

Columbia,

of

the

independent

little and

have

to

[the

for

the

foolish

is other

Mr.

who

trip.

Apart quickly

n.d.,

“3rd

scarcely

Californians

labour

perpetually

years

salt

enough

seriously

hardships

Canboo]

in

from

his

John

social of

did

British

of

professionals.

It

Reminiscences,

Class”

(London:

a

from

through

own.

and

may

England

in

Emigration,

the

pick

amongst

other

as

were

not

the

men

Thompson,

California

money

feeble...

well

order:

colonists

we

this,

but,

not

territory

wanted know

of

Other

shovel

means

roving

seen

constraints.

gained

labour,

had -

mining,

as

Piper,

be

as

and

the

the

one

to

for

what

as

mentioned,

observers

“96 out

men

and

of

After

to

buy

very

and

about,

to

working

where

are

has

mutually

flush,

author

BCARS.

Annan,

the

were

Stephenson,

work sustaining

of

the

British

gold

hardships

in

miners,

his

our

been

nature

place

Californian:

several

worker,

this

in

the

and

viewed

way

of

for

Colonies,

pan

too

population;

Scotland, the

very

he

reinforcing

Province

Columbia

“Almighty a

here

strength

of

themselves,

who,

into

saw

gold

and

life,

months

was

morning

ment

a

and

and

praiseworthy,

with

to

miners

a

be

the

mining

came

quick

though

Considered

quote “The

claim,

not

Spence,

like

gone

men

suspicion

while

Feb.

gold

It

he

was

Dollar”

rich, qualities,

to

was

down

life

Old

to

extremes

quit

but

from

fit

as

handbook,

the

27, several and

considered

rush

team

north,

at

tends

curious

at

these

1858).

yet

Texas

the

idealist

had

is

1859.

ruddy

lacked

sunset

all

by R.W.

as

their

the

up

and

even

times

some

of

who

with

to

or

a 62

99 Moore,

98 Snow,

97 Richard

Corporation:

(London,

particular

armed,

-miners’

Despite

survival

had

arising

accounts,

Gambling

Saloons

that

manhood.”

of

A

popular

social

to

miners

be

from

partrons.

Store

Edwards

the Edwards

On

where

place

Speedily

The

Despite

“One

its

poor;

labourer.” 97

for

were

organization.

John

proven:

to

not

p.35.

p.3.

Charles

was

rules

playful English

one

store

it

congregated

mining

value

Independent

drinking

and

1969),

may

where

to-day

so

allowed

as

man

Murray,

one

occasion

the

were

much

transient

to

Store

however,

held

placed

be

tone,

Mayne,

magazine

of

prove

located,

emphasis

society.

society

p. 350 .

a

a

and

shooting

the

him

the

gentlemen

a

because

determinedly

Many

1862;

this

little

I

in

on

from

his

most

as

remember

Candle

gambling

to

Four

the

saloons:

houses

is

When

incident

independence

the

illustrated

grit

prove

more

on

authors

Reprint: found.

want

the

visible

with

they

miners

Years

“every held

-

out

William

bonds

in

of

than

his

of

were

created

their

when

sober

was

the

at

Among

entertainment

narrow

a

forms

in

companions,

courage

S.R.Publishers

the

but

arms

lighted

man

usual

American

of

British

revolvers

dangerous,

solved

the in

man

decline

Dietz

were

the

society,

for

of

length

gold

this

the

some

miners

candle

entertainment,

home

and

when

himself,”

Columbia

by

also

ran

first

down

rush

from

sense

at

fighting,

of

retain

while

of

but

[“taverns”]

(walked)

but

used

were

first

it

the

establishments

and

the

Limited,

some

society

seemed,

to

because gentleman

integral

of

lighted

the

there

the

party

he

stood

as

“the

and enjoying

the

society,

and

landmarks arrives

others

respect

his

as

had

essential

Vancouver term

was

are

Johnson

questioned

at

to

it

to

candle...” 99

occassionally

was

express

was

implications

the

to

outsiders,

essential.

Edwards’

an

themselves standing

-

in

cause

erected

of

pauper

fighting.

to-morrow

back

honour

expressed

a

his

in

traits

Reprint

new

company

Island,

many

him

his

many end

“

(Figure

in

at

only

(financial)

colony.

of

code

bravery.

manhood

Disputes

any

the for

at

to

of

of

a

there.

drunken,

visit

natural

his

views

front

their

spot

8).

any

of 63 64

Figure 8: To the Diggings and from the Diggings

TO T1U DIGGZKG AND NItON TILN DXGGING.

Source: “To the Cariboo and Back” The Leisure hour: a family journal of instruction and recreation, Volume 14, 1865. 65

through the Canyon in 1859, he experienced something of a brotherhood among the

miners. “I found the miners universally kind and accomodating on the route, giving me

meals and lodging when night overtook me at their camps and refusing any compensation

therefor. I could give them [news] papers on way up, but coming back my papers were exhausted and I could only give my 10thanks.” During his impoverished trip down the river, Guillod too made frequent mention° of spending nights in shacks and sharing the meals of people he did not know.

The Methodist missionary certainly did not see miners this way. During his first

sermon among the “gambling class,” “There were about 40 miners present. Excellent

attention and some deep emotion - many a tear flowed from eyes little used to

101 But three weeks later, again on Puget Sound Bar he met with less success:

“I was punctual & waited an hour after the time but no one came not a single soul...” Two

weeks later, after a sermon at Victoria Bar he wrote “I lack power in preaching. My

[desire] is to see actual conversations among the people from day to day. The devil is raising a star amongst the miners on some of the bars which is for the present keeping them from meeting - but I trust God will take care of his own work.” Evangelizing miners was discouraging work, and Robson had little support, except when he “walked out upon the mountain side & communed with God.”

There is some evidence to suggest that miners codes of ethics were formalized into mining boards. When the Governor made his first official visit to the mines, he found that the miners on Hill’s Bar had composed and posted the following regulations, following the California precedent:

1 No claim on this bar to exceed 25 feet to each man. 2 Each man can hold 2 claims viz, one by preemption and one by purchase. Provided he works both. 3 Bar claims can be held during absense by partners representing claimant.

-°°Dietz, Lytton City, Forks of Thompson and Frazer River, to his brother, August 19, 1859. 101Robson, Sunday March 20, 1859.

American

formalization

formalized

organizing

‘° 5 For proclamations

idea

103 Holloway,

1858. Law

‘° 2 James laws

the

something Miners’

the

narratives.

104 Holloway, impress

Some the

danger from Any

7

6

on

be 4

[signed], case

the

5

1

There

Any

Any

When

No

dealt

it.

claims

Cariboo,

orders

mines

of

used

and

one

of

the

Private

of

liquor

white

whiteman

mining

mining or

narratives

sickness.

Douglas,

shall

with

workable

the

violating

it

[bar]

Geo.

Frontier

to

Douglas,

attack,

shall

down of

to

themselves.

rules.

would

And

regulations

be

“They

shall

man

either

do

as

be

and

Papers,

made

forfeiting

p.9.

p.8.

boards

boards

Tennent

direct,

that

a

elected

it

with

to

The

caught

or

enforcement

particularly committee

molesting

stand.

be

is

rarely

every

this

Government.

25

had

shall

Diary

so

whenever

allowance

quite

sold

few

making

BCARS.

with

feet

and

in

many

law

what

Perhaps

a

mentioned

all

Secty.

stealing

claim

be

mention

Califoma,

On

captain

references

of or

possible

shall

on

shall

them

his

subject

the

of

Bodkins given

the

miners

was

the

after

account

they

by

must

right

for

miners

if

Indians

miners

P.H.

be

Rodman

Gold

on

from

laws

&

called

mining

committees

he

them,

he that to

in

fined

to

may

see

this

2

have

when title

made

For

belongs

Fumess,

the

this

Bar

lieutenants

a

sent

of

Discoveries

California,’ 05

theselves.”-° 3

shall

the

Charles

shared severe

whilst

bar

a

have

and

but

mutual

it

$100

Indians,

boards,

Paul

one

Mining

document

for

they

to

the

being above

shall

direct.

otherwise

interest

them

to

reason

instance,

of

day’s

natives

in

penalty.

ed. for

enough

Presdt.”- 02

went

Howard

the

safety

miners

who

so a

be

but

regulations

Board

nor

the

on

indicate

state

(Gloucester,

Bar

work

rich.” 104

punished

contradict

to

onto in

John

particularly

first

mining

Fraser’s exposed

shall

values

A

the

miners’

apprehend it.

forfeit

of

were

Shinn.

on

in

page

a

offense

Holloway

intoxication

miners

that have

new

Williams

every

were

not

at

as

in

River

all

Clearly

publicly

later

narratives the

miners

Mining

Mass:

Hill’s

every

a

bar,

entire

necessary.

his

as

three

Committee

had

any.

&

descriptions

written

he

Douglas’s

in

could

for

remembered

right,

Creek

Bar

day a

miners

Peter

control

explained,

had

or

1858,

for

Camps:

put

Anyone

meeting

the

are

otherwise

back

in

life

other

title

make

sale

on

and

Smith, second

order

vague

May

appointed

brought

in

that

it,

in

to

and

on

A

they

disobeying

and

ways case

their

except

miners

“The

Yale.

two

Study

to

26,

this

their

about

interest

be

1970).

shall

had

cut

of

the

own

of

in

sent

bar.

by

in

in 66 67

Serious disputes, particularly those centering on mining rights, were solved on the

spot by fellow miners. Yates, the Hudson’sBay Company servant, was a more detached

observer, and noted several instances where miners took the law into their own hands.

Besides stones of miners’intervention in a botched hanging and their persecution of a

native accused of capsizing a miners’boat, he also told the following:

“In 1859 there was a fir stump which stood about sixty feet in front of the company’s store here. The new coming miners had a habit of getting the miners who had been working on the bars to give them information as to what the prospects were and what they had been doing. On one occasion a miner got up on the stump and commenced making a stump speech - telling what he had been doing. He was going to tell about the success he had met with on Hills Bar when somebody in the crowd called out that he was a dam liar and a shot was fired and he was killed instantly. This happened in the evening just before dark and I was standing on the stoop in front of the store a the time. The next day there was another stump speech in the same place and another miner was shot. The constables were powerless to do anything. There were miners laws among the men. We were there to do the best we could. The miners soon got to know that the only safe way to give information was to answer yes or no when questions were 06asked.” On the whole, the Fraser Canyon was defined as a male space and gold mining as a male activity. For the most part, women were physically excluded from gold mining, and those that did come to the Fraser canyon were excluded from the writings. At one level this means even the most approximate numbers of women and their activities cannot be figured out. At another it demonstrates how the exclusion from an activity was made concrete in space. Women were excluded from the gold rush because it was defined as a male activity, and were excluded from the Fraser Canyon because it was defined a male space. But, contrary to outsiders’ expectations, the lack of women did not prevent miners’ social organization. Instead, mining men organized themselves around friendships and partnerships, and interacted on mining bars and in saloons.

- Racism

Racism also enabled miners to define themselves; by differentiating themselves from natives, miners were able to act in opposition to them when the need arose. In

William Yates, Reminiscences,n.d., 20. BCARS. 6‘° p.

not certainly

including

canoe

and

Fraser

Sylvester But

l 09 Sylvester, 108 “there

107

racist

Indians, and

claim

California, prior

all

miners

if

differed

California,

only

wrote

be

found

such

Dietz,Emory’s

Sylvester,

by

claim.

attitudes

navigation, to

were

erased.

Canyon

trivializing

cruelty.” 108

at

whole

with

Indians

second

“our

something

from

the

astonished.” 09

Californian

about

noted

mining,

the

the

and

as

no

miners territory.

feelings

Its

Fraser

that

history

steamer

well

p. 1 .

Once

were

navigable

was

p.

rank

and

these

natives.

miners’

invalidity

3.

consequently

and

exhibited

their

as

Bar,

large

like

they

had

ones,

imported

confronted rush,

less

racism

were

have

on

were

In

surrounded

surprise

presence.

the

hardly

Fraser

Natives

generally

and Vancouver

order

swift

humane

white

in

was

Natives

nearly

in

African

central

required

towards

whites’

natives

general

into

demonstrated

rivers

got

to

River,

when

with

on

miners

were

all

rationalize

than

speak

Vancouver

by

were

One

into

to

their

Hottentots,

opinions.

of

Island

Chinese

natives were

in

some

treated

numbers

the

we

difficult

to

they

miner

the

the

rarely

California

important

arrival

of

his

got

economy.

an

tribes

country

reworking

them

and

apply

brother,

then,

by

their

the

into

integral and

wrote:

Island

wrote

to

of

Despite

in

and

at

emphasizing

Indians

with

called

deal

Esquimalt

canoes

Black

to

own

the

Victoria

miners

and

sources

before

nearly

about

brutes. and

Unlike

“There

July

part

Fraser,

because contempt

with

few

presence,

the

Diggers,

miners,

with

the

filled

and

of they

12

of

them

allied

at

of huge

because

white

were

Fraser

on

Our

every

natives’

racism

information the

1859.

worse

the

travellers

the

with

were

a

and

or who

numbers

about

miners

presence

to

people

fine

miners

very

native

women,

about

day

River:

animals.” 107

they

scorn

Indians,

than

fighting towards

lack

were

sunny

few

the

life

abandonned

sought

through

had

population

knew

savage

Black

about

of

of

and

of

after

lowest

natives

Indians

(Figure

July

civilization

some Chinese

we

natives:

natives

with

regard

anything

to

miners,

all

the

were

their

morning

Such

of

deny

the

could

prior

miners

in

9).

region,

in

the

them

the

this

but of

- 68 69

Figure 9: C.O. Phillips’sImpressions of the Fraser Canyon

“a tribe builds a ranch as it is called being a lot of sheds all togather [sic] & they all live togather & wherever you see indians mar[k}edon the map it is one of those ranches.”

1..f Lk I /

/ 4 I / ‘S - 7 I

1‘I -

- — / / ‘ - /

::S -‘ .

r..1

— ---V::

Source: charcoal sketch and quote: C.O. Phillips, Port Douglas, to Doc. A.D. Merritt, Woodstock, Ill., November 12th, 1858, Howay Collection, Box 34, File 10, Spec. Coll. 70

myth of the noble savage and replaced it with a more obvious racism. One gold rush writer

noted this shift as follows:

“The public mind has long been disabused of the pleasant fiction of the noble savage, a being who only existed in the imagination of dreamers, and who has received his most recent embodiment at the hands of American story-tellers. He has been drawn out of the haze of the novelist, and examined in the light of day, and he turns out to be a compound of sensuality, treachery, and cruelty the most revolting. Civilisation may have much to answer for, but there is nothing it has introduced at all to be compared to what it has driven away. It would be more just to say that there are evils which civilisation cannot eradicate, and which still remain amongst us, the residuum of the primal 110savage.” However, early attempts to understand natives’participation in the gold rush and

their rightful place in the Fraser Canyon, continued to focus on natives as decorative

objects, parts of the local scenery. Descriptions of them were used to enliven both personal and published travel accounts.

“On Steamer days it was always a picturesque sight to see the Indians turn out and squat on their haunches on the banks of the River watching the approach of the Steamboat coming slowly up the strong current of the River at Hope to her landing. Their shades and colors of shawls and blankets broke the monotonous aspect of the 111scene.” Benjamin Israel, a German Doctor, wrote a detailed account of a native funeral ceremony he sought out with his hired guide, where he saw, “About two thousand feet away from us, ... a crowd of men garbed in bright colors who formed themselves into groups and then ran apart.” The chief of these men was, “the handsomest Indian whom I had seen up to this time. His body was tall and slim, his features grave but pleasant.” Israel could not deny the existence of, he thought, 2,000 natives near 2Bar, Hill’s one of the busiest mining bars at the time. Instead he had to somehow see this existence, which he and his

110D.G.F. MacDonald. Lecture on British Columbia and Vancouver’sIsland, (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1863), 9p. “William Teague, Reminiscences by William Teague, n.d.,. 2. p. 112Benjamin, p.35. Reprinted from the communications of the Philosophical Society, Graz. 1875. Transi. E.E. Delavault. 71

compatriots were intruding upon, as less valid than his own. He did not openly ridicule the

funeral ceremony, but focussed on its, in his opinion, distasteful simplicity: “men and

women alike had their faces painted in the most abominable way. The paint of the women

was confined to an ugly dab of red on each cheek and over the eyebrow...” Edelblute,

shielded from literary convention through his near illiteracy, wrote a simpler description of natives:

“[T]he frasher-river tribe lives on the river and cetch samon fissh thair rother a smoll size indin and du bary thar ded on top the with open around them and cut out imaiges out of wood as near thar looks and form as when they was alive and pots thar gun in the woodens man 113hands” The population in general enjoyed native ceremonies. Newspapers reported on a native potlatch that took place in Yale. So many miners flocked to see it that a constable had to be called in to make room for the participants.

Miners were keen to witness such ceremonies as in their opinions they demonstrated that native societies were not viable in a gold mining culture. Contemporary authors reinforced these beliefs:

“The Indian will recede before the white man, as his fathers have done. The lovely valley in which the warriors stood forth in their triumphant glory, in which the young and sprightly listened with throbbing hearts to the chants of other days, in which the mothers fondly played with their tender offspring, will soon know him no more. But, as he turns to take a last look on the tombs of his race, he will shed no tear, he will heave no groan; for there is in his heart that which stifles such indications of emotion. It is savage courage absorbed in 4despair.” Israel went an hour out of his way and found 2,000 natives engaged in a ceremony, but he never mentioned daily activities such as mining, or fishing (which had the same seasons and locations as mining). Such activities were only mentioned when they pertained to the white economy. Natives were considered disposable, “revolvers are of little use, as you must not make too free in shooting an indian by the way, even if you do

113jelblute, p.95. ‘14MacDonald, p.14..

and

Yacht

they

canoes

natives’

was The

coerce?)

117 For went

grease

116 Edelblute, liven

115 Captain Fraser.

surrounded Edelbiute

selling

Miners

-Economy resistance.

constant

because natives

be

get

detached

a

Lual,

a

miners

were

back

and

chance;

desirable

Voyage

on

Natives

food.

“and

salmon

On

as

assertion

He

native

the

and tension

wee

convinced

and

p.4.

the

degraded

to

one

tells

were

by

C.E.

from

miners

and

their

the

better

Such

way

his

had

p.43.

“Indians”

Round

a

culture

item

level

carried

trade,

how

group

with

chief

Barrett-Lennard,

allowed

of

partners

trade

every-day

camp

no

down.

trade

to

bear

beings

ownership

as

to

natives

he

rite

the

see

Vancouvers

liked

sell

could

of

miners’

it

part

and

to

with

was

gave

day-to-day

to

Dietz, to

natives

When

were

their

eat

or

with

it

purchase

take

life.

his

reacted

be

an

well.” as

an

what

the

goods

of

best

among

partners

shown

Emory’s

part

assertion

impoverished

them

their

insult

The

“the

Travels

miners

the

Island,

he

horse

to

presence

The

of

on

some

resource

maintenance

cheaf

prized

and

had

the

the

than

to

the

had

their

Bar,

a

following

be

of

(London:

to

in

miners’

first

just

for

welcome

of

local

stir

sed

him,

obsolete.

caught

British natives’

possessions

backs

the and

Fraser

to

miners

sold.

was

to

up

them

poot

color,

salmon

reach

and

interaction

presence

the

of

important.” 7

day

Hurst

some

on

Columbia,

respite

The rights

River,

native

[salmon

them

an

could

ire

However,

the

allowed

the

the

as

agreement

they

miners

of

salmon

and

way

Alkali

to

back

chief by

fare.

from

to

lives

not

these

of

the

from

had

Blackett,

providing

his

with

up

whites

natives

pay

wee

fried

returned

these

One salt

was

territory

and

country

savages.” 5

brother,

caught

river

the

was

the

for

dun

pork

were

not

miner

the

to

ideas

river]

in

Narrative

their

and

reached.

1862),

transportation

consider

and

important

so

fish

to

on

business

and

and

July

immediately

in

convince

bartered

at

stood

trip

the

was

the

in

its

beans,

their

once.” 116

p. 189 .

Seeing

12

bacon

northern

in

chief

products.

of

Salmon

thar

them

in

1859;

and

cash,

a

with

and

(or

and

in

to 72 73

a native woman to him take down the river from Yale: “for this we had to pay $2.50 each

and I had only $1.25 I had to make a bargain with the old “Klootchman”giving her what

money I had, the red smoking cap the girls made and jersey.” 118 As part of the price of passage, Guillod, and other passengers were put up for the night with the woman’s family

before continuing the journey the following day. Ebenezer Robson, the Methodist

missionary, had a standing arrangement with a native man to help him paddle from Hope to

Yale every Sunday. He noted he had “Hiredan Indian in the afternoon. They have learned to charge for work as I have to pay $2 per day for an 19Indian.” Robson called him his “Man Friday.” Robson was shocked at the expense of native labour, but paid a white man twice as much with little comment.’ Native packers were°2 regarded as lazy or weak when they refused to follow the commands of their employers or took control of their payment. When they raised the prices for their services they were considered greedy; when they set the pace on trips they were called lazy. On the other hand, observers remarked upon the natives’industry when they worked for whites. A journalist saw “A train of Indians, each with a hundred weight of flour or other food on their shoulders, packing for whites, and then again you see them in every stage of filth carrying baskets and food on their 2backs.” It seems that whites considered working natives useful, and thought that natives’ sunk back into distasteful habits when not working for whites.

By treating miners and their activities as financial opportunities, natives were also asserting control over miners’presence in their territory. Because miners resented being reliant on any outsiders (let alone natives), they resented natives’ability to control the terms of trade relations. -Annoyances and belligerence

118Guillod, Oct.15. 1862. 19Robson, April 29th 1859. 120Robson, May 11, 1859: “Had a white man working with me today at $4 per day.” ‘121DaiIy Victoria Gazette, July 27, 1858. 74

The miners often felt themselves to be in precarious positions, and feared violent

attacks. The HBC was the source of information on how to interact with natives. William

Yates of the Hudson Bay Company fort at Yale was often called in to translate and resolve

disputes between miners and natives. Edelbiute, though practically illiterate, carried a Hudson’s Bay Company dictionary (probably English and Chinook) with 122him. Other miners, perhaps ones who did not take natives’presence and ownership seriously, were

offered a series of non-violent, yet important reminders.

“The indians showed a disposition to annoy us and were around our camps all the time. /We became very uneasy/[struck out] We had to submit to all kinds of indignities from them and they would take anything in our camps they took a violin their venom was sometimes shown by spitting in our 123hats.” Other miners complained that natives spat in their beans.’’ Miners usually treated these

actions as merely annoying and fitted them within their understanding of natives as “uncivilized” and naturally bad people.

Another reaction to native annoyances or belligerence was to blame it on alcohol.

“Dr. Spearm says the Indians at New York Bar were all drunk, and had driven the few whites on the Bar into one tent, where the latter were determined to make a stand, and if worse came to worst, for all to die fighting like 12 And, “all the Indian troubles come of selling them liquor, by unprincipled white men, which if not prohibited will lead to a horrible war - one that must end in the extermination of the redskins from this region of the country.” But the belief that the natives only stole to get alcohol and only attacked whites because they were drunk implies that attacks were irrational. In this way miners

122EdeIblute, p. 41, “i had bot hudsonbay ditchsonary at fort yail that had the indian and inglish language in it cam in youse.” 23Stout, p.2 124Holloway, p.8 125‘ Victoria Gazette, “Letter from Fort Yale” July 30, 1858. 75

avoided understanding natives’attacks as retalitations for miners’attempts to take charge of the 26region.’ According to James Moore such ideas had been present since the beginning of the gold rush. He and his partners had been tipped off by an employee of the San Francisco mint and they were, he thought, the first miners up the Fraser Canyon where they discovered Hills 127Bar. As soon as they began washing gold there, a large group of natives moved across the river from Yale to mine along side them. The white miners tolerated their presence as long as they were not disruptive and even shared some implements with them, acting as congenial hosts to their native guests. At one point a liquor merchant came up the river and traded gold for alcohol. Apparently the natives stayed up all night and “howled,”which disturbed the sleep of the miners who only had tents to sleep in. “Detennined to put an end to this drunken 128brawl,” the white miners smashed the merchant’s kegs and ordered him off the bar. The natives resented the miners interference in their lives, and the attempts to impose theirjurisdiction over the bar. One in particular, White Cap, refused to give back a pick he had boffowed, and in response a miner hit him over the head with a shovel. ‘ [f]his of course precipitated a row in camp the

Indians congregating by themselves and the little party of whites in their camp all ready for the worst that might happen the Chief of the tribe got on a stump to make a speach to his braves.” The miners were saved by the chance appearance of a naval vessel and Douglas who escorted the natives off the bar and back across the river to Yale, in protection of the white miners ‘rights.’ This had been a routine operation for Douglas, barely warranting

126Mayne, p.248. See also the Daily Victoria Gazette.July 30, 1858 on the first native disturbances at Hill’sBar: “Several instances have occurred of whites being murdered by Indians in different parts of the colony, but I fear these murders have been the result of introducing fire-water, or taking liberties with the females of the tribe...” 127James Moore, to Mr. Harding, August 30, 1919. Reminiscences. BCARS. 76

mention, but the miners saw it as an early legitimation of their superiority: “we never had any trouble with the Indians after 29that.” -Indian Wars

After several weeks of the gold rush the newspapers began to report increasingly serious native attacks on whites. By August 1858 natives’hostility towards miners’ impositions, and miners’ frustration at natives’refusal to submit, culminated in what have been called the Indian Wars. This native-white conflict is the most elaborately described event in miners’ reminiscences. Their descriptions are generally similar, but details and interpretations vary. Prior to the incident, Lual described a typical set of relations with some natives in the Lytton area. They stole some of his “soak,”but traded his grub for salmon, to their mutual satisfaction. He seemed fairly unperturbed when two of his partners drowned after a native offered to take them up river to show them richer diggings. But, “then the toughs came from 30frisco...” The incident started when, for once, the Fraser fulfilled expectations as an artery of communication: according to the Victoria Gazette miners working on the bars saw several white, mutilated and headless bodies float by them. Lual’sreminiscence was skeptical:

“Then all kinds of stories was then told About men floating down the river. With their heads cut off. these fellows got in so thick on us and trouble commenced. Every tale that was told got bigger. And till there got to be about 100 men at Chatmans bar and that vicinity.” Holloway was not there, but afterwards he too heard of the bodies:

“I did not come up to yale after the indian row. I was working down at Hudson bar. I did not see any bodies floating down past Hudson bar but I understood they picked up five or six white men at Yale who were supposed to have been murdered at Boston bar or China Bar just below North bend.”

Ballou was more certain the rumours were true:

The Indians became very troublesome from Yale up to Lytton City at the mouth of Thompson R. Under the leadership of Spinkulim, the head chief of all those

130Lual, p.3.

Library.

the

them

supposedly

one

we

soon

Ed

‘ 33 Stout, 131

132 Lual,

‘ 34 Ibid.

who

Graham’s congregated

some, A

Miners

wave

came Stout

treaty,

William

of

disagreed

as

a

Captain

our

white

as

cut shot

and and

Top

and only

What

treaty

“As of

month

One

there

them uncommon

Indians

further

of

may

across

p.5.

group

and

p.2

the

possible.” 133

men.th 134

us

hysteria

originated.

a

we

make

soon

at

Ballou,

spoke

of

way

in

flag.

a

was little

few

with

off

Indians

have

decided

us

and

Snyders’

to day,

our

burned

Yale

upstream

there,

an

wanted

as

whenever

to

and

this

them

news

of

grub up

we

them

indian

He party

settled

occurance

hit

the

do

to

“Adventures

and

His us

we

and

about

strategy

they

never

be

then

to every

the

was

aply

Klootchman

of there

Snyder’s

and

group

as to

party

Mr

around

had

camp heard

seen

who

said

down

trouble

miners,

were

subdue

they

moved

to

they

as

started

for

had

Chatman

rancherie

were

a

clean

were

to

met

intended

that floating

many

stood

very

for

the

a

was

led

200

into

got

the

find

group

of

treaty

he

we

the

those

the

he

on up

news

down

not

William

them

on

hard

least

a

told

not

of

men

on

a

had

a

had

chance

spoke

up with

could

natives

night

rhythm

and

down

to

white

made

them

listened

with

to

a

hostile

working

and

us

trip

river. no

for

trouble

out

organized

kill

rock

bought

make

every

Snyder

about

before

difficulty not

up

them

Ballou,”

came

China

as

the

as

a as

man,

and

the

and

of

and

treaty

and

and

white

to:

we

When

we

stop

a

river

with

salmon

trade

whites

on

we

[fought?]

the

treaty

they

exterminate

down:

or

at

waved

following

had

Bar.

said

went

said

themselves

the

them. 132

did

with

China

massacre a

Seattle,

men

them.

with

shooting

Graham’s

with

did

Chinaman,

to

we

bars

it

with

&

box We

along

the

keep

defiance

was

that

destroy

Chinese,

their

A

Indians

have

the

Bar,

same.

There

of

had

we

Snyder.

the

fellow

1878,

them

not

group

and

we

clear

natives:

into

natives

the

heads

group

could

where

lived

natives,

to

necessary

every

or

gathered

at

was

destroy

Lower

in

They

fight

p.12,

groups.

&

if

by

of

of

even

us.

Florida

That

necessary.

here

off.’ 31

it

get

got

at

the

the

the

only

“On

natives,

thing

was

our

did

while

the

Bancroft

He

hold

Fraser

four

there

river

what

problems

name

with

night,

our

According

the

to

ten

way

Forks,

their

no

was

and

they

make

or

of.

Captain

blankets

way

them

or

and

he

as

they

of

through

shot

Those

said

five

best

twelve

much

had.

read

They

Brick

but

gave

down

a

had

had

for

the

by

of

to

as

a 77 78

someone in Snyder’s group panicked, and thinking they were being attacked by natives, fired some shots. Struck with terror, the miners all started shooting at each other. Two managed to “escape.” They fled to Yale and spread the news that the natives had attacked again and had slaughtered 49 miners. This story was contradicted several days later, when, according to the newpaper, practically the whole group filed back into Yale. Lual agreed with the paper’s version,

Now all this I saw with my own eyes and was witness to it. now then they formed a party of about twenty. And went up into the Canyon. And while they were camping at nights they built a big fire and had two men on watch. And while they were walking around the fire, one man waked up and thinking them to be Indians, and the result was firing comenced. And two of there own men killed. One of the men ran away from the party and got down to Fort yale and raised the excitement. Now every body up with arm and the excitement was 135

Yates had been sent along from Yale as an interpreter, and he too thought the massacre was a hoax: “We found one or two dead bodies in the morning. We thought it was not indians but that it was their own party that got in a panic way and started in the night. Some of the men were drowned in the river and some were shot and killed or wounded by dragoon pistols and five shooters - not by indian guns at all.”

For several days after that reports came in of further native attacks. “About 36 whites were killed during the indian trouble, to my recollection, but of course bodies may have drifted down the river unobserved. A great many indians were 36killed.” Eventually, according to Yates, Lual, and Stout the incident fizzeled out around Boston

Bar, as miners convinced themselves that the original attacks had been made by the

Chinese: “But those party that was supposed to be murdered at China bar With their heads cut of[fj This Brick Top the Florida fighte[r] Said That is not Indian style of fighting.

Cutting off heads. They scalp. The Chinamen got them in to that way to save their own 37necks.” They decided not to persecute the Chinese though because they had no

135Lual, p.12-13. 136Stout p.9. 137Lual, p.6.

decided

141 ‘ 40 Stout, Klootchmen

139 Ballou, But

‘ 38 Stout,

siwash, Like

is

or

attacks,

backgrounds

months

probably

maybe

fighting

own

proof. 138

miners

all.”

the

Victoria

after

Ballou,

conviction

resolution

the

more

newspaper

they

“Whether

But

It

anything.”’ 39

them They nor

Bonaparte

driving

passing

it of

which

did

the

did

is

stemmed

p.3

p.9

living

whites

p.12-13.

Lual

any

he

Gazette,

impossible

had

not

trouble

[women]

Stout

Southern

show

any

float

had

also

take

the

signs

the

is

stop

drowned.

of himself

among

from

further.

a

have

correspondents,

down

river, that

thought

in

Indians

commented,

from

fight

the up

bars,

they

“Letter

until

of

this

and

Aboriginees,

more

the

the

dispute.

been

to

mining

&

them

the

poor

at

waved was

had

incident

know That

the

prestige

indians

used

whites

Clearly, there

up

Boston

river,

space

to

more

more

skeptical,

miners

policy:

to

were

the

is

to

or

a

that

Stout

quite

the

Lytton,

the

white

won:

were

help

and

forbearing

in

through

of

fighting.

Governor”Aug.

given

Bar,

respect

miners

easily

and

Indians

“they

the

only

won:

their

what

thought

maybe

themselves

and

not

“After

&

flag.

the

&

narratives

the

spooked.

Indian

killed

thought

numerical

for

their

were

happened from

put

general

went

got

Stout

red

and

they

Before

that

us.”’ 4 °

peace

up

away

different

man,

frightened

Lytton

18

war

to

lenient

did

to

we it

had

from

24,

than

distribution

Indians.

China

In

was

was

this.”

strength

this

they

during

by

from

not

was

1858. addition,

been

The

to

the

our

inaccurate

than

made

“the responses

the

believe

ever

Bar.

Nicola,

come

And

of them,

Victoria reasons

murdered

packs

the

They

indians

nature

and

was

natives,

with

had

among

He

according

Indian

the

to

& the

superiority

&

and

to then

take

there

to

representation

found

for

miners

the they

Gazette’s

of

from

called

be

rumours

(real

and

(but

things

them

War.

the

the

succeeded

indians

their

expected.

to

did

no

Nicola

after

to

Red natives’

by

or

diverse amount

the

of

not

country.” Ballou

Chinese

over

of

Some

editorial

imagined)

either

whom?),

white

fire-arms,

man,

every

several

that

chase

to

..“141

made

in

the

attacks

to

bodies

the

kind.

that

men

“My

but

by 79 80

The Gazette concluded that the Indian Wars left the miners no other course, “than to abandon the scene of operations until a more enlightened and Christian policy 42prevails.” Unless, that is, the “H.B.Co. authorities at once take those measures which should have been taken long ago...” Partially abandoning the high value placed on strong independent men taking control of the wilderness, they concluded that “allthe gallant men who are perilling their lives on that river now, need, are arms and a leader - means to fight with and a man to fight under.”

From the sound of the stories, the Indian Wars themselves were less about natives than about whites finally responding to natives’attacks that had been happening all along.

Whites’ insecurity in a still largely unknown region and fear of natives culminated in panic, as native attacks during the Indian wars and the number of white casualties were overestimated. For one week natives’resistances were being read and responded to by the white population. The hysteria that perhaps blew the incident out of proportion was the result of a slow build up of natives’ refusal to submit to miners’attacks on women, encroachment on property, and control of trade relations. Perhaps the gold rush nearly came to an abrupt end because the native population refused to submit. But shortly after the disputes the region became part of the new colony, and a government, ironically holding much the same values as the miners, came in with the intention of establishing law and order. Conclusion

Doubtless, miners and miners’values were many and varied. As Trimble warns

“In trying to find out the characteristics of the population, at whose amusements we have glanced, two extremes are to be avoided: The one is the view of those superficial writers who, seizing on the unusual, unconventional, or abnormal features of the life of the mining communities, and especially regarding the exploits of desperadoes, conclude that ruffianism and violence were the normal qualities of these communities; the other (and the more forgiveable) is that of some of the pioneers who, looking back through mellowing years, and remembering the ‘42Victoria Gazette, August 25, 1858. 81

good and true men who formed the majority of the mining populace, forget some of the undeniably bad blots upon the society of the 43time.” But the point is not whether miners were good or bad, but whether such a large and internally diverse group of people could find enough common ground - that is define their identities sufficiently - to be able to pull together in the face of opposition and impose their ideas of a “gold rush.” They defined their identites based on common experiences and

“manly” attributes (by excluding women and using outsiders’criticism to their advantage), and in opposition to natives. In their eyes, white men worked, and hence ruled, in the isolation of the Fraser canyon. This explains, in part, why, the new administration found support among a group generally opposed to authority. They shared important commonalities, they were white men.

‘43Trimble, p. 151-152.

66-67.

Practically,

with inhabitants.

‘W.

tame an

given

task

governor, announcing in

trade colony.

control

GOVERNING

CHAPTER

mid-November

end

Parker

of

the

the

license

little

in

transformation

where

the

“It

of

During

many

had

one

secretaries, of

somewhat

colony,

the

transformation:

“...it

wilderness

By

itself.

James

is

miners,

it

new

credit

Socially,

Snow,

word

both but

or

August

W.

a

what

on

should

nature

land

years’

4

two

the

government

to

the

Parker

a

Instead

Douglas.

the

for

of

FROM

population

was

the

when

be

British

disorderly

where

summer

individuals,

magistrates,

mainland

they

the

2, be

reigns

foundation

their

standing.”

and

appointed

British

is

required.

parliament

borne

Snow’s

colonial

the

Judge

about

considered

Politically.

the

internal

Columbia,

LONDON

British

in

of

new

was

of

parliament elements

wild

and

in

wonderful

to

Begbie

1858,

writings

and

here

some

of lawyers,

mind

minister

to

government

Consequently,

take

establish

social

had

Columbia

Indian

the

transform

sent

British

was

(London:

while

Emigration.

sort

place!

that

arrived

new

decided

wanted

TO

reflect

to

organization,

debated

majesty!

went

and

abundant

is

was

from

a

establish

the

colony

Columbia

as

LYTTON

colony

became

and

was all

the

on

forth

yet

only

already

Piper,

Hudson’s

something

to

unlike

the

the

transforming

region

Vancouver

it

revoke

expected

and

almost

it

and

material

is

bringing

moment

giving

there.

a

paraphernalia

is

a

Stephenson,

a

political

to

and

our

formed.

a

colony,

a the

land

into

poor

be,

Bay

land

in

the

of

Colonies,

the

appointment

The

name

to

to

his

along

whither

the

properly

a

Island

the

Hudson’s

Company

where

settlement

use gold

William

the

work

settler

rule

at

formalities

savage

The

cry

excitement

and

least

region

the

and of

with

nearly

rush

with

of

upon:

a

straggling

considered

thousands

a

title

society.

miners’

together

sudden

in

Spence,

local

state!

gold

Bay

Parker

its

tried

of

was

just

proclamations

into

name,

to

equal

original

its

and

were

Company’s

the

associated

was

government

not

to

fixed

new

it a

manpower

Miners

Snow,

to

governor,

and

formal

of

is

1858),

maintain

new

to

but

completed

considered

raised,

make

a

the

that

upon

land

the

18581

were

pp

of

out

and

by

to 82

2 Snow,

Caledonia” E.B.Lytton,

was

Columbia

relied

1,

a

commentary. The

Victoria),

for

general

reorganizing

Hudson’s

repositioned

to

importance

society.

readily particularly

London’s

Unless

considerable

1858,

colonial

colonizing

scarcely

Secretary

on

For

managed

With accept

outlines

spoil!” 2

civilized

p.1

it

his

Bay

came

went

Douglas

and

all

governor,

that

presented

those

field-officers,

interested

in

Colony

both

the

the

of

lag

Company’s

British

authority.

Because

“the

a

through

about

the

for

shift inhabitants

new

State

carefully,

recent

coming

in

groups

was

colonial

the

maintenance

communication

Douglas

chain

surprisingly

Parliament

Columbia

in

for

in

new

those

left

several

argument

his

During

establishing

upon

from

trade,

the

the

however,

considerable

of

position

government

government,

of

in

Colonies,

found

gold command.

the

the

California

rounds

England

were

he

of

this

with

quickly,

that

globe

land,

commissioners,

law

had

(it

on

himself

transitional

miners

worked

new

a

by

of

took

and

the

to

bill

E.B.Lytton,

control

and

freedom

are

knew

including

the

debates.

who

Instead

protect

colonies,

with

mainland

the

to

3

rushing

were

in

regulating

middle

out

months

provide

little

were

charge

preservation

little

miners

phase

to

at

of

and

considered

All

the

to

of

formulate various

the

thought in

passed controlling

of

opposition

from

for

implement

control

of

the

for

members

types hot

then,

and

the

miners’

formal

a

a

region

the

haste

nineteenth

Hudson’s

new

organize

despatch

these

levels.

of

to

it

of

threats

government

natives

policies.

was

be

life

founding

enforcement

access

type

from

natives

to

agreed

(Figure

his ideas

far

gather

in

of

Parliament

them

from

of

Bay

to

policies.

too

parliament.

the

century

the

and

to

on

organization,

the

and Douglas

-

of

district,” resources.

independent

albeit Company

utmost

10)

of

into

London

miners,

to

of

new

British

managing

the

at

Douglas

and

“New

Great

a

its

discussed

for

colony,

new

settled

in

there

disposal.

When

on

to

by

turn

factor

Britain

Ideas

found

reach

and

July

to

with

the

was 83 84

3

‘3

Ui / (I) Cl) CID z C I— CfD

Source: Great Britain, Parliament, Papers Relative to the Affairs of British Columbia, 1858.

4 Lytton,

5 E.B.

6 Christy, 3 Friend

Columbia. importance

(London: discoveries

authority

and

impolicy

as

and,

ensuring commerce

destined

concealed

Vancouver

railway

promised

taken

of

United American

lost

different

should

it

America...

one

control

was

in

Lytton,

seriously.

Some

the

States.

The

be

communication

in

of

to

assumed

Hansard, a

of [sic]

reasons

Hansard.

Corneilius

the

for

encroachment,

particular

run,

prosperous

and

Lytton’s,

long

effect,

of

for

Island,

No.

of

the

colony

“3,

house,

members

to

of

Vancouver ages,

Oregon

having

navigation

They

and

Crown.” 6

8,

and

run,

Gov.

The granting

-

that

at

Downing

implied

col.

to

col.

was

by

which

Hansard’s

bringing

no

that

found

Buck,

saw

prosper.

mainland

establish

Douglas.

interposed

future.

rich

in

whom.

1106.

were

very

will

primarily

1115

there

Vancouver

Island.

1846,

given

such

Founding

of

are

natural that

that

1858),

unite

Street,

distant

the

hostile

that

now

Financial

were

the

a

Parliamentary

would

other

the

and

the

British

monopoly,

known

and

the

piece

founded

colony,

column

resources

“Bill, so

arrival

August

members

period,

special

toward

the

Island

resources

brought

Pacific

be

suddenly

of

Parliamentary

world.” 5

colony

hesitations

particularly

indeed

of

but

mainland

to

1097.

a

as

resources

and

14, the

would

to

thousands

marked protect

sought

this

Debates:

debated

“a

would

the

was

brought

Hudson’s

1858.

he

was

kind

Lowe,

Discoveries

important

Atlantic.” 4

believed

allow were

a

adjacent

a

British

to

important

and

“which

convenient

be of

(p.

conclusive

the

Papers,

Third

avoid

of

to

col.

England

quelled

found

65).

permanent

Bay

the

American

form

light,

interests

they

territory

1119,

to

colony

have

losing

Series,

of

(hereafterE)

Company

Papers

when

in

it

it

In

and

gold,

by

might

way

commentary

attached

should

under

abundance,

so

also

addition,

the

more

change

miners.

to

which

on

under

Vol.

“one

strangely

relating

to

along

pay

thank

emphasized

prospect

the

British

and

revoke

take,

territory

direct

151,

to

the

Pacific

its may

in

Lytton

with

its

the

Britain

the

thus

to

how

own

on

the

direct

been

1857-58,

rule

license,

a

be line

continent

of

British

gold

the

coal

to

from

it

way

gold,

the

was

had

of

the

on 85 86

monopoly license a year ahead of schedule. But these objections to Hudson’s Bay

Company rule on the mainland were directed at the company rather than at Douglas, who was put forward as the obvious candidate for the governorship. Objections over his position in the Company were pushed aside because there was hardly an alternative and rationalized by the requirement that he relinquish all attachments to the Hudson’sBay

Company and the Puget Sound Company. What remained, then, was to decide the type of government Douglas should head, what the future of the colony should look like, and what kind of powers he should wield. These issues provoked more discussion than any other topic, a discussion that expressed generally held opinions concerning the process and project of colonization.

Parliament discussed the implications of a local government led by an ex-fur-trader: the talent which made him the obvious governor - ‘Indianexpertise’ - brought his colony- building qualities into question. “His sole power,” over the mainland while working for the Hudson’s Bay Company had “been the moral power of energy, talents, and extraordinary influence over the 7natives.” In the mid-nineteenth century, the era of missionary societies, native issues were taken seriously. Most members felt that in some way natives had to be protected, although some disagreed. One member:

“Knew something of Canada, and he could state from personal knowledge that in that country the Indians were like wandering gypsies of other countries. They were disapearing fast from the face of nature. One might occasionally see a poor wretched being, clothed in a dilapidated blanket creeping along, degraded and miserable, and that was the Indian of Canada. That was what we were going to do in New Caledonia. We were about to introduce civilization there. Before that civilization the Indians must disappear, and the more rapidly the better. This might seem like harsh and cruel language; but it was the language of 8truth.” The opposition, in turn, argued:

“it would be one of the first duties of the Government to intervene for the protection of these aborigines. He did not mean to sentimentalize on a matter of this kind. Wherever the white man and civilization extended the

Lytton, Hansard, col. 1100. 78Roebuck, Hansard, col. 1111. 87

red man fled before them and eventually perished from the face of the country. This appeared to be one of the laws of God which the efforts of civilization and humanity could not prevent; and it was one of the paramount duties of a good government, in carrying out colonization, to interfere as far as possible to prevent those cruelties and horrors that had been perpetrated .. in the early days of our Colonies . “

These two opinions reveal much of current thought about colonies and their founding. Both members stressed their own rationality (one was not sentimental, the other possessed special knowledge) and they both agreed that “the Indian” was not viable in ‘civilized’ society. For the first, the inevitable disappearance of natives was an integral part of the introduction of civilization, for the other, it was the will of God. But as far as the latter was concerned, the true project of British colonization could accept no constraints - not even divine inspiration. Colonization meant civilization and, in turn, the taming of ‘wildnature.’

Creating a colony entailed taking charge not only of boundaries, as Douglas had done, but of its contents. Rising popular concern for the welfare of natives would require Douglas to regulate this part of nature and its (not their) destiny.

Nature itself was multifaceted, and controlling it would be too. By extension then

(although the commentary was not nearly as elaborate and perhaps taken for granted), Douglas was to take charge of other facets of nature: the wilds would require infrastructure, resources would need rules of access, and the population a government. People in London knew little of the colony, and as a result, they focussed on legislating the appropriate type of government. If this could be established, then specific rules and regulations could be worked out locally. British Columbia provided space for progress and the future. The only requirement for its smooth operation was a local government, with local knowledge, to guide the colonial process.

Parliament felt that it could quite safely leave the details of governing natives to

Douglas - after all, this was his reputed expertise. Controlling miners and managing a settler colony was another matter. After all:

9Duke of Newcastle, Hansard, col. 2102.

the

the

this

thus

governing

In

12 Lytton,

11 Gjadstone, ‘°C.W.Fitzwilliam,

colleagues

not

a

freedom.” 1 ’

convict

for A

government

the

government

present:

geographical

British

rule

particular

transforming

end,

Few

colonies

by

Hansard,

powers

it

by

subjects

force.

for

comments

was

Although

Hansard,

vision

implying

of

authority and

which

as order,

the

government based

that, gold

them

“I

any was far

wrong them.

States

Now

dealings

“[Douglas]

distance,

of

that

decided

would

that

the

for

In

prospect,

less

that

Australia

or

which

right,

col.

if

fields

of

Hansard,

this

that

fact

sort

on

gold

no

it

5

of

where

These

you Americans

way,

were

with

the

a

col.

if

that

has

years.

submit

were

such

in America,

1103.

government

colony

colony

would

he

to

you

(as

but for

will the

desire

colony

proponent

had

which

to

the

or

even

a

many

1763.

considered

at

made

the

men

(convicts

Lytton

they

also principles,

society

with

Governor

desire

which,

col.

else

probably

the

After

never

privilege

that

not

was

whole

structured

a

to

must

used

it

into

of

because

in

earliest

would

because

government

they

Indians,

1121.

keep

participates.”’ 2

the

do

had

strong

that

in

Parliament

the

been

in of

we

of

a

and

to

be

society

in

a

larger

that

would

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case: Lytton

unfitted

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his

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need

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to

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to

might

of

in

than

the

hold

the

of 88 89

civilization. On the whole, Lytton was free to translate his colleagues’ideas in correspondence and instructions to Douglas. He was particularly intent upon tempering

Douglas’s absolute powers with unambiguous instructions about how to control “rowdy” miners. As early as April 1856, the Secretary of State for the colonies had warned Douglas

“that it would be abortive to attempt to raise revenue from licenses to dig for gold in that region in the absence of effective machinery of government, and left to the Governor’s discretion the means of preserving 3order.” Lytton concurred and warned Douglas with an example from the gold rush, in Victoria (Australia) where “a general antipathy to the license 4system” resulted in the Ballarat riots. The lesson Lytton drew was to be aware of “Discontent with its attendant dangers.”

A Governor’s Colony

When it came to miners Douglas himself was convinced that, indeed, might was right. For him, the miners posed such an immediate threat that it would not have been out of proportion had the entire Pacific fleet gathered at the mouth of the Fraser. On numerous occasions he wrote to Lytton and others requesting military back up. “1 ... much regret that

I have not a permanent force under my control, for the protection of the Revenue laws of the country, as they would in that case produce a return far exceeding the expense of maintaining such a force, besides upholding the moral influence of Her Majesty’s 15Government.” In correspondence with the Captain of H.M.S. Satellite, he remarked that even if not enough vessels were available in the Pacific at the moment, the presence and

“imposing display of force at that point will have a powerful moral effect, and prevent much future 16evil,” much as he thought it had during the fur trade.

13Lytton, Hansard, col. 1100. 14Sir Charles Hatham, Nov. 21, 1855, to Sir William Molesworth, cited in: Lytton to Douglas, Oct. 14, 1858, PP. No. 29, p. 86. 15Doug1as, to Lord Stanley, M.P., Victoria, July 26, 1858. PP. No. 7 (P.40) 16 Copy of letter from James C. Prevost, Captain H.M.S. Satellite,” to Douglas, Esquimalt, May 18, 1858. No. 12, .p.15 90

Lytton was adamant that force would not maintain control: “they [Her Majesty’s

Government] rely upon your forebearance,judgement, and concilliation to avoid all resort to military or naval force which may lead to conflict and loss of life, except under pressure of extreme 7necessity.” Indeed even the display of force could backfire: “This force [Royal Engineers] is sent for practical purposes, and not solely for military objects. As little display as possible should, therefore, be made of it. Its mere appearance, if prominently obtruded, might serve to irritate rather than appease, the mixed population which will be collected in British Columbia. It should be remembered that your real strength lies in the conviction of the emigrants that their interests are identical with those of the Government, which should be carried on in harmony with and by means of the people of the 8country.” Douglas was to conciliate the miners by acting “fortheir interests in a manner which shall be popular, conformable with their general 19sentiments.” and by adapting “the scale of these fees to the general acquiescence of adventurers...“20

Douglas, however, did not agree with Lytton’s subtle strategies, did not comply completely, and in the end felt that during that raucous summer the gunboats at the mouth of the Fraser had been necessary:

“The rights of the Crown, as well as the trading rights secured by statute to Hudson’s Bay Company, have been broadly asserted in my several proclamations with the object of maintaining British supremacy, by establishing a moral control over the masses of foreigners, who, under the false impression that the country was free, and open to all nations, and that we had no military force at our disposal, were rushing defiantly and without ceremony into Her Majesty’sPossessions; and we succeeded by that means in securing respect and obediance to the law, at a time when a policy of concession would have been mistaken for weakness, and have proved injurious to British 21interests.” Lytton’s and Douglas’sdifferent views on controlling miners stemmed from their different backgrounds and locations. Because of his previous experience in the fur trade, his

17Lytton to Douglas, July 1, 1858. PP No.1, p.59 18Lytton, to Douglas, July 31, 1858. PP. No.6, p.62 9lbid. . 20Lytton‘ to Douglas, Aug. 14, 1858. PP No.8, p. 65. 21Douglas, to E.B. Lytton, Fort Hope, Fraser’s River, September 9 1858. No. 11, p. 51. , 91

proximity to the gold rush and his day-to-day involvement with miners, Douglas emphasized tangible and forceful actions aimed directly at the miners. Based on his distance and long-term vision, Lytton was more interested in the survival of the physical colony than in its current social situation. As a result, Lytton encouraged Douglas to rethink his actions. During the course of 1858, then, Douglas’s methods of control shifted from the overt use of force to its mere display; as he enacted his own policies he moved toward using land and resources to regulate the population.

Without recourse to force, or even its display, Douglas was left to translate the general directives of the Colonial Office (as recommended by parliament) in ways which would placate the population and protect life and property, while still raising a revenue.

Closing the boundaries to the region and regulating access to it were no longer options; instead he installed administrators to organize small sections of the territoiy and uphold his various proclamations from within. The need for proclamations was inspired by Lytton:

“From such intelligence as has reached me of the state of things in California, I have been led to believe that it would be of great service if the rights of miners could be briefly established and defined beforehand by law, instead of being left to grow up by mere custom or accident” but their contents were left to 22Douglas. Douglas issued a series of proclamations covering the taxation of merchants, liquor licensing, and mining regulations. The latter were formulated using Australian laws as 23guides. For their enforcement, Douglas envisaged a large force of officials. Already in July of 1858, he wrote provisional regulations for the first assistant gold commissioners. They were instructed to collect license fees and keep Douglas informed of the numbers of miners

22Lytton to Douglas, Sept. 2 1858. PP no. 22, p.79 23”In the summer [of 1859] Douglas reorganized. gold fields administration on Australian lines, replacing the system of monthly licenses, which had never been more than partially effective, by an annual licence at £1 or $5, and instituting gold commissioners to administer the the gold laws, settle mining disputes, and exercise the authority and jurisdiction of justices of the peace.” W.P.Morrell, The Gold Rushes, (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1940), p. 127. 92

in their districts. In addition, they were told: “as soon as practicable, you will divide your

District into seperate beats assigning to each man a particular locality - By this means he will soon become acquainted with every person on his beat and more readily detect unlicenced 24diggers.” In September, he noted in his journal that the foliwing would suffice “for the establishment of public Government and order: Fort Hope; 1 Justice of the

Peace, 2 constables, 10 special constables. Fort Yale; 1 sub commissioner, 10 troopers,

10 special constables. Forks [Lytton]; 1 sub commissioner, 10 troopers; Warden of the river, 1 officer, 20 25men.” The gold commissioner system was based on Australian precedent, and put into practice quite rapidly, but never reached the numbers Douglas had originally intended, presumably due to expense. By the end of the year, Douglas had appointed one assistant gold commissioner with at most two constables to each of Hope,

Yale, Hill’s Bar (briefly), Lytton, and Lillooet. A Gold Commissioner’s Beat: H.M. Ball at Lytton

Gold Commissioners were the senior government representatives in each loosely- defined disctrict, and were stationed in areas of high traffic to watch miners’movements and activities and to enforce Douglas’srules and regulations among the population mining in, or moving through, their districts. In 1858 they visited mining bars and issued licenses, in later years they worked primarily from their offices, where they also recorded mining claims and water rights. They also resolved disputes related to mining, in which case they were called Justices of the Peace, and were supervised by Judge Begbie whose court of Assize would come to town at least once a year to hear capital cases and appeals

(see chapter 5). In all other matters they reported to the Governor (via the Colonial

Secretary of British Columbia) on miners’and natives’activities in each region. They also supplied him with detailed information (including prevailing wind direction) about the

24James Douglas, Instructions to Assistant Gold Commissioners, July 1, 1858. 25James Douglas, Diary of Gold Discovery on Fraser’s River in 1858, Private Papers, September 6, 1858. 93

region to inform plans for further development of the Colony as a whole (Table 1). Like the officers and men in a Hudson Bay Company’sfort, Gold Commissioners’ offices were stationary and stable presences in their regions, and served as points of collection of revenue, but they had little staff. Instead of force, gold commissioners relied on detailed information gathering and record keeping to create their kind of order, because miners and their activities had to be understood before they could be controlled.

In the first place, organizing the gold rush required that property be regulated.

Miners demanded security of their persons, but also of their access to gold-bearing dirt.

All miners were to purchase and possess free miner’scertificates: mining licences which secured the right to work in British Columbia. This was one major way in which the colonial apparatus was funded. Miners were initially reluctant to pay the $5 fee and went out of their ways to avoid the gun boats anchored in the lower Fraser or officials stationed along the way. The regulation became easier to enforce once miners realized that if they wanted to register their claims and receive protection of them, they would have to produce their licenses. From the government’spoint of view, registering miners was a way to keep track of them, and registering claims, they thought, encouraged stability.

As far as mining itself was concerned, gold commissioners’sactivities fell into several categories, particularly as miners were not all treated in the same ways, as can be seen in Henry Maynard Ball’srecords. Ball was the gold commissioner at Lytton from

1859 to 1865. He arrived in the colony, applied to Douglas, and on June 8 1859, took an oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria and was sworn in as Justice of the Peace of the Colony of British 26Columbia. Although new to this colony, he had had 10 years of previous colonial experience in New South Wales where he had served as an officer and as a magistrate in the gold 27fields. According to his commanding officer, these duties were

26”Oath taken by Ball before J. Douglas.” British Columbia, Colonial Correspondence (Hereafter CC), June 8, 1859, File 94. K.Bloomfield (Col.), Gloucestershire, Feb. 18th 1859. Testimonial letter for H.M.Ball. 27BCARS. Table 1: Gold Commissioner Ball’s Quarterly Reports for the Lytton District, October 1859 to June 1860.*

Year 1859 1860 Month Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. March April May June Revenue () (f) (i) () () (f) () (f) () Licenses: Mining 138 64 2 18 36 84 148 179 105

Licenses: Trading 8 3 9 7 - 31 18 11 20

Licenses: Liquor 74 - 20 10 - 31 40 30 20

Sale of Lands 5 23 - 2 2 21 54 - - Ground Rents 10 2 6 10 3 7 15 10 11

Miscl. 62 23 11 ------

Fines & Cost 13 4 14 11 - 7 6 - 23

Tolls & Ferries - - - 3 15 - 3 16 21

General Mining Returns - - - 6 17 23 73 66 95

Total 310 118 48 67 72 229 357 311 295 Expenditure 42 i2 _S2 142 1S2 Net 245 64 13 19 15 29 268 165 109

No. Police Constables 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2

No. Police Cases 4 1 1 2 - 6 2 - 4

No. Imprisonments - - - - -

Average No. Miners 200 - - 100 250 400 400 620 850

Avg No. Bars Worked 20 - - - 10 30 30 35 42 Avg Wage per Diem (f) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Avg Price Provisions/100 lbs. 6 6 6 8 7 6 6 6 6 No. of Public Houses 6 7 8 11 11 12 13 15 16 No. of Stores 8 9 10 10 10 12 14 15 17

No. of Cattle Imported ------Prevailing Winds South North South North North SW SW South South Average Temperature (°F) 54 27.4 27.6 28 36.8 48.5 59.35 63.14 67.4

Fall of Snow/Rain (inches) - 3 6 - - - 1.25 1.5 1

*HM Ball Lytton, to Colonial Secretary, B.C., January 2, 1860, “Quarterly Outline Report for the Lytton District for December Quarter, Colonial Correspondence, F 95/2; ditto for March: April 6, 1860, CC f 95/7, and June: July 4, 1860, CC F 95/18. 95

conducted with “intelligence, zeal, judgement, and discretion.” He was complimented on the discipline of his detachment, and on the whole, his commander “entertained the highest possible opinion of him both as an Officer and as a Gentleman.” His correspondence and record books illustrate his duties at Lytton and his ideas concerning mining and the formation of a colonial society. -Management of People: the institutionalization of race

One of Ball’smain tasks was to administer the population in accordance with

Douglas’s instructions and his own insights. He identified several main population groups along racial lines and, as far as white miners were concerned, focussed on regulating their mining activities by registering their partnerships, claims, and leases.

The miners’ narratives considered in chapter 3 suggest that most miners worked in partnership with several people. Frequently based upon friendships and common interests, some of these partnerships were more formal than others. Companies leased sections of land in common, otherwise miners registered their claims individually, but together worked whatever claim seemed most profitable. It is likely they owned their mining implements in common. In gold commissioners’ records, partners’ licenses were cross-referenced as were their claims, and listed alphabetically in ledgers.

Methods of mining evolved rapidly in the Fraser Canyon. As the river bars around

Yale were worked out, miners were forced to move northward and prospect new regions or invest more time and capital in their operations. Mining on the high bench diggings or re working river bars required more efficient and more expensive sluices instead of rockers.

One traveller saw sluices all along his 1859journey up the canyon. One at Fargo’s Bar used a 30 foot diameter handwheel to raise water. At Hudson’sBar, 6 miles below Hope he noted: “a ditch one mile in length conducting to a flume 1000 yards long furnishing water for 3 companies of 3 each to each sluice - 30 men on the bar with rockers. “

28John Damon, Diary, April 9 1859. BCARS.

30 1-ienry

priviledges

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sluices.

once 97

indicate

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1860.

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1859.29

a

in 96 97

Table 3: Gold Commisisoner Ball’sList of Mining Bars, Lytton District, May 1860.*

Name of Bar Average No. Average Rate Miners of Yeild Per Day ($) Fraser River: Boston Bar & neighbourhood 20 6 Italian Bar, East Bank 10 6 Rough’s Flat, East Bank 30 10 Yankee Flat, West Bank 80 8 Ranchene Flat, West Bank 10 6 Enesley Flat, East Bank 16 5 Walker’s Flat, East Bank 4 5 Amador Flat, West Bank 5 4 Fays Flat, East Bank 6 4 Ranch Flat, East Bank 16 6 21 Mile Rat, East Bank 10 4 Revolution Flat, West Bank 4 5 Mamkum Flat, East Bank 6 4 Yad Fou Flat, East Bank 4 4 Austrian Flat, West Bank 4 4 Wall Flat, West Bank 10 8 Assin Flat, East Bank 10 4 Siwash Flat, East Bank 7 5 Canaka Flat, East Bank 4 4 Akkum Flat, EastBank 10 6 Spinlum Flat, West Bank 15 4 Fountain Flat, West Bank 4 6 Siskee Flat, West Bank 4 5 Miners Flat, East Bank 7 10 Edinburgh Flat, West Bank 5 8 New Brunswick Flat, West Bank 8 6 Rancherie Bar, East Bank 10 4 Spring Bar, West Bank 20 8 Fort Dallas Bar, West Bank 10 6 Junction Bar, East Bank 4 8 Mormon Bar, East Bank 3 4 Spinklum Flat, East Bank 18 4 Hydraulie Flat, East Bank 4 4 The Guffie’s Dry Diggings, East Bank 15 5 Foster’s Bar, East Bank 6 6 Browning’s Flat, West Bank 4 4 Cameron’s Bar, West Bank 11 8 Byron’s Flat, West Bank 12 6 Last Chance Flat, West Bank 8 8 Maryborough Flat, West Bank 60 8 Rip V.W. Bar, West Bank 10 8 Thompson River: Lowan Flat, 6 6 Butler’s Flat, 3 6 Free Miner’s Flat 4 6 Barr’s Flat 5 6

* H.M. Ball, Lytton to Colonial Secretary of British Columbia, May 12, 1860, Colonial Correspondence, F95112 98

district, they also issued licenses to miners travelling through them. Lytton was an important node during the gold rush as miners heading north along the Thompson, as well as those arriving from the Dalles along the Okanagan brigade trail, would pass through it.

During his tenure in Lytton, most of Ball’srevenue came from selling mimng licenses

(Table 1).

In his monthly and quarterly reports, Ball discussed the numbers of miners in his district. This district itself was never clearly defined - it had to be flexible in response to miners’ movements. During the winter months activity was slow due to cold, frozen ground, and shortages of water. Provisions were scarce during winter as the Fraser and

Thompson rivers froze, and snowed-in trails prevented supplies from reaching Lytton. In

March, 1862, there was still 2 feet of snow in Lytton and several feet of ice in the rivers, and Ball reported dying livestock, expensive provisions, and halted mining. In addition,

Ball feared the trails would be thmaged during the snow melt and that the “Boating Season” would be 31short. In addition, miners responded to (their understanding of) gold distributions and bureaucratic conditions for its removal. In May 1860Ball reported “but few miners [on

Thompson River], although in spots some good claims might be found, but the security of water priviledges for ditches is a great drawback to the mines, on this river at present being much 32worked.” In December 1860 he reported that numbers had increased during the past season “in consequence of the discovery of “pay dirt” on the benches above high water mark, and although many of these are worked out, still there are many 33remaining.” By watching miners closely, and noting their responses to the climate, gold deposits, changing technology, and availability of provisions, Ball was able to find logic behind their movements, and thus, he hoped, to predict or even channel them. Such reports came

31Ball, to 1.1.Young (actg private secretary), March 11862. F96126. 32Ball, to Col. Secr., May 12 1860, CC F 95/11. 33Ball, to Col. Seer., December31 1860, F95/31. 99

together in Victoria with those of other gold commissioners, information for Douglas’s use as he adjusted his policies and devised new ones.

In addition to individual miners and partnerships, some groups of miners worked in formal companies. Leverett Estabrooks & Co. consisted of Estabrooks himself who corresponded with Ball, and four others. In March 1860, they requested to lease a seven and a half acre tract of “auriferous land (dry diggings)” for 10 34years. They enclosed both a verbal description of their tract as well as a map (Figure 11), which shows their claim in reference to the river, and the mule trail, but shows no other land marks; perhaps they recognized none. It was not related in any way to a native geography. They did not name the creek from which they drew their water. Instead of landmarks, they enclosed a verbal description of the claim, which measured 120 “rods”along the margin of the east bank and extended eastward for 10 rods, to the base of the rising ground. It was located in reference to a gold commissioner: six miles south of Lytton. Integral to their request for land was the request for rights to the adjacent stream - for the latter they were willing to pay $50 rent per year. They explained their claim as follows:

[We] propose to work the ground in a regular miner-like manner with sluices. There are no individual miners working on the spot, nor is it a locality where individual claims can be taken up, on account of the supply of water, the above mentioned stream affording a supply only of 2 sluice heads of water, and that only for 3 months of the year. The short season for mining this tract of land, and the depth of the soil above the pay dirt has guided us in our offer of the yearly rent, to the 35government.” Their application was forwarded to Douglas who approved of the scheme in principal, but not of the rent:

34Leverett Estabrooks & Co. [John Pessin, Joseph Oulton, Joseph Dohane, and Charles Hendnk] to Assistant Gold Commissioner of Lytton District, Lytton, March 27 1960. CC F95. 35Leverett Estabrooks & Co., Lytton, to Assistant Gold Commissioner of Lytton district, March 27, 1860. F96/6. Source:

H.M.

Ball

Figure

to

Colonial

11:

Leverett

Secretary,

Estabrooks

April

24,

and

1860,

Companys

Colonial

Claim

Correspondence

F9516.

100 101

“Clause VIII of rules & regulations provides that unless specially arranged the rent to be paid for any water pnviledge shall be in each month one average dig receipts from sale thereof aca. one days work for a company of five averaging $8.00 to the hand would amount to $4000 this for three months in the year the time during which there is a supply of water according to.?. would amount to $12,000 I do not think that $8.00 to the hand in sluicing is on this part of the river too high an 36estimate.” In the end, Estabrooks & Co. stood their ground and, perhaps due to lack of competition, received the tract at their asking 37price. Although a firm proclamation had been issued, the process of land leasing was still being worked out and was flexible to miners’ demands and Douglas’s inspiration.

In May of that same year, 1860, Robert Kirkpatrick & Co. put forward a similar 38proposal. They were interested in Cameron’sFlat, situated 20 miles north of Lytton on the west bank of the Fraser. Their claim was 20 acres, which they wanted for £10 per year for four years (Figure 12). Again Ball forwarded this request to Douglas, who again found the rent too low because renting to individual miners would yield more. This time, however, he approved the application immediately because they would be bringing in a ditch and a flume and “it is desireable to encourage the introduction of capital in mining enterprises and therefore the present application has my approval though respects the amount of rent it should not be considered a 39precedent.” Not all such formal applications came from groups. In 1863, Ball handled a request by an individual, Theophile

Mallard,who applied to lease three and three quarters acres on Fort Dallas Flat (3 miles below Lytton) for four years at $30 per °4year. He too submitted a map. His application was approved because he had already constructed a three mile ditch to the flat.

36margin in ibid. 37Bail, to Col. Secr., April 24 1860. CC F95/9. 38Robert Kirkpatrick & Co., Lytton to Gold Comm. Lytton Distr. May 21 1860. CC F95/15. Company included T. Spence, I. Darling, J. Lunney, J. Maxwell, L. Strandhan, H. Phair, T. Cameron, J. Haller, ? Helly. 39Ball, to Col. Secr.,May 211860. CC F 95/14. 40Ball, to Col. Secr., June 13, 1860, CC f 95/14. Cl) 0

CD

C-) 0 0

Cl) CD

CD

cm

00 C C-) 0 I

C-) 0

CD .I.

C 103

The advantages of renting to companies were that they contributed a fixed income over several years and made capital improvements to the land, thus setting an example for other miners (by showing that more intense mining would yield more gold). Furthermore, ditches and flumes could be adapted to agriculture (although placer mining would have washed away the topsoil). More importantly, it was difficult for formal companies to fade away, particularly as they were sponsored by “respectablemerchants of Lytton” such as

Cook and Kimbal (in the case of Estabrooks and Kirkpartick), and Hautier and Chapperon

(in the case of Mallard). These leases indicate the formulation of particular social networks during the gold rush. Not only were mining companies formed, but they aligned themselves with local merchants along ethnic lines, and the administration favoured these companies’ interests over those of individual miners. Natives are conspicuous by their exclusion from this land system by both miners and officials who considered them irrelevant to this facet of social (re)organization. During the early years, while regulations were still being worked out, the system was flexible to the demands of favoured groups, defined by the Colonial Office, governor, and gold commissioner as white men.

The first Chinese miners arrived during the summer of 1858 from California, where they were subject to the same pressures as the white miners and, in addition, to increasingly racist legislation (following the decline of the gold fields there leading to attempts to shut them out). Later arrivals came directly from Canton. They were defined as a group because they eluded other categories. London had not explicitly anticipated this group, and no colonial precedent or policy existed for the administration of resident alien populations. White miners’ narratives rarely mentioned them, but during the 1860s,

Chinese miners formed close to a majority in the Lytton district. Ball needed to find ways to fit them into colonial schemes. Despite the numbers of Chinese miners, regulations had been devised for white miners, and the Chinese were not considered the same. They were not considered integral to the future of the colony - as most whites expected they would leave - and therefore were subject to only cursory regulation during the early years. 104

Most of Ball’sfew comments about the Chinese reflect attempts to find some way of understanding them. His lack of prior experience with the Chinese gave them a degree of liberty, in some respects. For example, their hesitance to take out licenses was not viewed as an immediate problem, despite the loss to revenue.

“Great numbers of Chinamen are continually arriving in the District, but as yet only those holding sluicing claims take out their mining licenses, though perhaps towards the Fall of the Year, as the river bank diggings become richer, more will be induced to take out their Licenses to prevent any Trespass on their claims. The bench diggings still continue to pay good wages, and most of the best claims are worked by 41Chinamen.” By 1861 and 1862, Ball concluded that most of the miners working in his district were Chinese, most of whom were on the Thompson and Tranquille 42rivers. The benches were “yielding tolerable wages” and would continue to, he thought, for some years. At this point their evasion of the rules was taken more seriously:

“Many Chinamen are on their way to the Upper Country, and a considerable number are locating themselves on Thompson river during the low stage of the water. As most of these Chinamen have only claims which they work with rockers, and travel from point to point they consequently did not take out miffing licenses and as there is no clause in the Act compelling them to do so a great loss to the revenue is 43occasioned.” Unlike natives, the Chinese were allowed and encouraged to take out claims, perhaps because, like white miners, this encouraged them to pay for licenses:

“The miners who have claims on the different flats have commenced operations some weeks back [ie since the winter], and are actively at work. The claims are principally owned by Chinese who have opened some new flats on the right bank of Fraser River above Cameron’s bar.”

By 1863, Ball estimated that 300 Chinese men were working the bars between Lytton and

Lillooet.

41Ball, Lytton, to Col. Secr., July 4 1860, CC F95/17. 42Ball, Lytton, to C. Good, acting private secretary to his Excellency, July 3 1861. F96/13. and Ball to Col. Seer., May 3 1862, F96/27. 43Ball, to Col. Seer., March 1, 1861. F9513. 44Ball, to Col. Seer., April 7, 1863. F97!2. 105

Despite the large numbers of Chinese miners in the Fraser canyon, they received little attention in whites’personal and official accounts. Like white miners, Chinese miners had come from abroad (often California) and moved about in search of gold, but the administration regulated them differently, because mining regulations had been designed to regulate white rather than Chinese miners. Unlike white miners, Chinese miners posed no threat to British sovereignty on the Pacific, because their roots were considered to lie on the other side of the ocean in a non-expansionist China. In addition, government (at all levels) knew little about Chinese miners, and did not know how to fit them into the future of British Columbia.

Among the few comments Douglas made to Lytton about his plans for natives, he wrote in 1858 that he would “renderthem as comfortable as in their natural 45state,” implying his intentions to integrate them into the new society. But, during the early years of the gold rush, Douglas had yet to formulate such policies. As gold commissioner, Ball reported the actions of natives living at Tlicumcheen, the large village near the Forks,

(which he called the Ranchene) and paid some attention to those in other parts of his district, but he was not an Indian Agent. Most of his comments referred to their participation in the gold economy, usually mining or packing. He also kept Douglas up to date on his impressions of their health and well-being. But unless approached by natives, he did not, as gold commisisoner, interfere directly in their lives, so long as they did not affect mining or colonial interests.

Natives had been the first miners in the gold regions, particularly in the area which became the Lytton District, when they had traded gold to the Hudson’sBay Company.

When white and Chinese miners arrived and mining regulations were issued, natives continued to mine.

“The Indians however during the low stages of the river, in many parts have been working and making average daily wages: on the Fraser also the Indians were very 45[ref?] 106

diligently working during the low water and many were enabled to support themselves & families through the latter part of the winter, from the gold they washed out.”

Along the Thompson too, natives were active miners and were getting a “good deal of Gold by washing with a pan only, and many of the most industrious gain sufficient to keep themselves & families during the greater portion of the 47season.” Initially, native mining was considered only supplementary to other subsistence activities. Native miners were not required to take out mining licenses, but nor were they allowed to register claims. This was not an acknowledgement of natives’prior right to the soil, but a disparagement of their position as (even) miners.

Whites gradually came to see gold mining and participation in the gold rush economy as integral to native well-being. Ball and other gold commissioners, for example, often reported on native famines, for which they saw potential each winter. Elwyn, his colleague at Lillooet, thought that one cause could be fishing further down the river, and saw it as his duty to report the problems:

“I have the honour to report that during the last week the salmon have entirely stopped running; the Indians at present are not able to catch half-a-dozen a week among them all. The supposed reason of this is, that a fishing company at Langley have placed a net across the river. I have no means of knowing if this is really the case, but such is the general belief. The Indians in this vicinity will suffer fearfully this winter & a great majority starve to 48death.” Ball too, often noted the great potential for famines among natives around Lytton. In 1859, he thought they were saved from famine by learning how to lead a settled life style from whites (and ironically miners, whose mobility he viewed with suspicion): “The Indians are especially quiet and are beginning to appreciate the advent of white people amongst them, adopting their habits and costume, and in many parts cultivating the ground for 49gardens.” A year later he reported that they were saved by the income they had earned by working for

6Ball, to Col Secr., May 12 1860. F95/11. 47Ball, to Col. Seer., Dec. 311860. F93131. Thomas Elwyn, Cayoosh, to W.A.C. Young, Aug. 13 1859. F52415. 49Ball, to Col. Seer. July 4 1860. F95117.

Traditional

53 Romanoff,

Indians,”

52 Steven

Stl’cItl’imx

MBrian

50 Ball,

in

differently,

thought, fitted

however,

adversly

with

been was

would

activities.

been

Fraser

native

1860s. 51

themselves.

winter

whites:

their

a

which

uncommon,

affected

the

season

not

medicines, amongst

Chief subsistence

“A By Canyon

prevention.

to

stock

Ball

Hayden,

“The

did

in

affected

Romanoff, present

the

Col. Alternatively,

Resource

serious

have

the

Or

Stl’dtl’imx

and

Brian

Ball

not

“

may

of

of

p.

of

gold

Indians

by

miners

1860s

Secr.,

during

more

the

481-482. food,

the

been

cause

noted hunger.” 52

A

to

placer

the

Hayden

have

but

and

as

rush

rounds.

Complex

Tribe

colonial

Indian

Use,

“The

the introduced

native

harshly,

uncommon,

may

would

Jan.

have

as

Resource

infectious

problems

famine

the

thought

improved

mining,

most

Indians

natives

“Sassirton”

(Vancouver:

ed.,

Cultural

early

have

31

children

not

But

subsistent

preconceptions.

have

Culture

Prior

points

of

than

1861.

A

suffered

that

taken

it

gold

Use, although

among

diseases

could

epidemic

found

them

Complex

is

according

followed

natives’

Ecology

whites.

to

natives

of

also

F96/1.

to

of

rush

applied

p.

over

the

economy.

this

have

have

recent

their

UBC

the so

natives

483.

possible

were

arrival

the

years.

lives.

of

tribe,

much

fishing

were

Culture

British

But

a

been

of

been

own

White

to

to

“Diptheria effects

Press,

four

interference;

Hunting

widely Romanoff:

-

here

me

which

starving

as

of

it

able

In

distracted

treatment According

that

The

year

sites

Columbia

solved

intervention

of

for

expected

the

this

1992),

may

too

to

famine

the

understood

salmon

some

daily

cycle. 53

and

miners,

for

and

way,

obtain

Ball

because

not

British

them.

“even

at

mining.

was

p.

Potlatches

from

Diarrhoea”

to

carried

medical

from

Plateau:

have

some

managed

did

Ball’s

29.

runs

Ball

employment

poor

in

ineffectual,

However,

in

their

Columbia

strike

he

to

the

the

shown

level

themselves

a

and

Temporary

reports

off

affect

runs

did

normal

assistance

Traditional

Fraser

scarcity

among

usual

to

natives

two

combined,

his

not

the

focus

up

would

natives

the

colleagues,

Plateau:

and

to

or

gold

subsistence

understand

&

canyon,

before

year,

the

of

Douglas

three.

to

frequency

may

around

on

famines

&

as

not

rush their

Lillooet

support

spring

there

his

spread

the

have

have

Ball

The

role

usual

the 107 108

was a medical practitioner in Lytton, I directed him to attend at the different ranchenes of those affected with the epidemic, and I am happy to say that many lives were thereby saved, which would otherwise have succumbed to the diseases. Common humanity, as well as a sense of duty dictated to me to undertake upon myself the responsibility of the expense, as in such a case there was no time to make application for its authorization. The attendence was required for 24 days at the rate of twelve shillings per 54day.” It is hard to know what disease he was refering to. The doctor may have limited the damage, or the disease may have run its course. In Ball’smind there was no doubt of the former. He emphasized that his assistance had been asked for and that, in conjunction with white skills, it provided the cure. “Common humanity,” as provided by a representative of

Her Majesty’s Government, he thought, provided a solution to natives’ problems.

During the 1862 smallpox epidemic, concerns were more widespread and called upon close interaction of a variety of government employees. The first to attempt to prevent the epidemic from spreading to the mainland was made by J.V. Seddall, a physician at New Westminster. He reported smallpox among natives near New

Westminster to Moody, in June of 1862. In his opinion, natives from Burrard Inlet should be barred from the city, and all natives moved to the mouth of the river. He vaccinated all whites and natives of New Westminster. And “Besidesthe Indians vaccinated by monsr.

Fouquet, the Roman Catholic missionary, 302 have been vaccinated at the Camp” mainly by corpl. Smith R.E., “the hospital orderly who has shown much zeal and attention in carrying out my directions relative to the vaccination of the Indian 55population.” Motivated by similar concerns, Douglas instructed the Colonial Secretary to send Ball a supply of vaccine and to instruct him to vaccinate all natives and 56whites. Ball dutifully “engaged the Resident Medical Practitioner to travel to all the different Rancheries in the

District, extending from Boston Bar to Foster’sBar on the Fraser, and to Nicola River, to vaccinate every Indian. This has been done to the number of 1790. As yet the disease has

54Ball, Lytton, to 1.1.Young, (Acting private Seer.), March 1 1862, F96/26. 55J.V. Seddall, New Westminster, to R.C. Moody, 20 June 1862, F1583. 56Douglas in margin of Ball to Col. Secr. May 3 1862. F96/27. 109 not spread into the interior of British 57Columbia.” Unfortunately his ministrations were not completely successful, as one month later he was forced to admit: “I am sorry to report that the small-pox has broken out amongst the Indians, at the mouth of the Nicola

River... “58 Again however he possessed the ability to curtail the disaster: “I am using every precaution to prevent those tribes having any communication with others, so that I hope it will shortly 59disappear.” This was his final communication concerning the epidemic. His focus was again positive, colonial administrators not only identified the epidemic, they anticipated it, and as a result, whites were able to save native lives, and demonstrate that the natives’ physical survival was important to the administration.

This was reflected in the laying out of Indian Reserves. In 1864 Sergeant McColl of the Royal Engineers, was sent to the villages in the lower Fraser to survey reserves which were to include all lands claimed by natives, with no single reserve smaller than 100 °6acres. In the canyon earlier reserves were surveyed in 1860, at the same time as nearby white settlements. Beyond these reserves, summary comments about natives in general, and the occasional mention of a chief, gold commissioners largely ignored natives, as long as they did not interfere with the development of the colony. White miners remained the gold commissioners’ immediate concern. Their main task was to prevent natives from dying and, until natives’ place in British Columbia’sfuture could be worked out, reserves and some directed intervention would suffice. Ball’scasual commentary about activities of natives in his district were part of a process of learning how to fit natives into his, and the colony’s, framework of understanding. Neither cultural survival nor native prosperity were the government’s concerns.

57Ball, to Col. Secr., July 6 1862. F96131. 58Ball, to Col. Secr., September 8 1862. F96135. 59Ball, to Col. Secr., September 8 1862. F96135. 60According to verbal instructions from Douglas, see: William McColl, New Westminster, to Surveyor General, May 16, 1864. CC F1030121. 110

-Managing Land: the creation of town and country

While approximately 2,000 natives were left aside, plans were in hand for the few settlers and town folk: the real business of the colony. During these early years of the colony, plans for its future included rationalizing the landscape in conjunction with new rules and regulations. Existing settlements had to be formalized through town surveys and linked together with roads. Amble land had to be identified and demarcated. Most strikingly, the land had to be given a European flavour, as Moody, the man in charge of this huge project, commented:

“The entrance to Frazer is very striking - Extending miles to the right & left are low marsh lands (apparently of very rich qualities) & yet fr. the Background of Superb Mountains - Swiss in outline, dark in woods, grandly towering into the Clouds there is a sublimity that deeply impresses you. Everything is large and worthy of the entrance to the Queen of England’sdominions on the Pacific Mainland. I scarcely enjoyed a scene so much in my life. My imagination converted the silent marshes into [Albert] Cuyp-like pictures of horses and cattle iazily fattening in rich meadows in a glowing 61sunset.” While revelling in the sublime, Moody was quick to focus his imagination on the future:

“All delightful to look at, but those half drowned woods promise hard work for the settler and possibly fever & ague in the 62autumn.” Fulfilling his ideals required coordinating the large scale mobilization of labour and funds with the small scale activities of settlers and placed considerable demands on the administrative capacity of the colony. 1860 was a boom year for Lytton. Not only were increasing numbers of miners working claims in the district, great numbers were also travelling through it. As a result the town itself began to draw outsiders. According to Ball: “During the Boating season trade is

61Moody, Letter to Friend, In Willard Ireland, “First Impressions: Letter of Colonel Richard Clement Moody, R.E., to Arthur Blackwood, Febraury 1, 1859.” British Columbia Historical Quarterly, (Vol. XV, No. 1 and 2, Jan.-April), p. 92. 62Ibid. Moody used the term “fever & ague” interchangably with “malaria.” Whatever he was refering to, he indeed noted the disease among settlers three years later in the lower mainland, see, R.C.Moody, New Westminster, to the Governor, Sept. 18, 1862, CC F1156. Although not usually associated with British Columbia, Robert Boyd argued that malaria caused many deaths among whites, and particularly natives, in Oregon in the 1830s. See Robert Boyd, “The Introduction of Infectious Disease among the Indians of the Pacific Northwest, 1774-1874.” (PhD. Thesis, Univeristy of Washington, 1985), pp. 112-144. 111

very brisk. The town of Lytton is increasing in size and importance, many influential storekeepers from Hope & Yale being about to locate at Lytton & establish wholesale

63stores.” (Table 1, p. ) As a result, in June of that year a group of engineers, under guidance of Sergeant McColl of the Royal Engineers, surveyed the Lytton town sites at considerable cost.M Ball considered the survey integral to the development of the 65town. At Moody’s advice, the town lots were sold at auction on December 1, 1860.66 Ball conducted the auction, and although he sold 14 lots (50x100 feet each), competition was not brisk as they all sold at their “upset price” of £ 20.67 Most of these lots were sold to traders (Figure 13).68 Ball concluded, in his annual report that the auction had been a success: “The sale of the Town Lots of Lytton will tend to increase the importance and prosperity of the Town; many purchasers having erected new & substantial Buildings on their lots. Twenty Four of the Town Lots have already been sold, and property is increasing in 69value.” While the forks of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers had figured prominently on maps as an identifiable node in a little known territory and as the site of a large native population, the survey transformed it from a straggly collection of shacks into a semblance town, however small (Figure 14). The survey map was no more than a collection of lines on paper representing the application of outsiders’technology and world view, until it was made concrete by the auction. The boundaries of the Indian Reserve

(probably surveyed at the same time as the town) were drawn around the existing native settlement to the north east of the town, but they too began to gain meaning as the surrounding space was pre-empted by outsiders.

63Ball, to Col. Secr., May 12 1860, CC F95/1 1. 64Ball, to Col. Moody, Chief Commissioner of Lands & Works, Aug. 26, 1860. CC F95124a. 65Ball, to Col. Secr., July 4 1860. CC F95117. 66Ball, to Moody, Oct. 13 1860. CC F95 67Ball, to Moody, Dec. 2 1860. CC F95129b. Bal1, to Col. Secr., Dec. 311860. CC F95131. 69Bal1, to Col. Secr., Dec, 31, 1860. CC F95/31. C

(J)

o C b r

00

00

BC

Source:

723

F.

Daily,

“Lytton,

B.C.,

Figure

View

of

14:

the

Lytton,

Town:

Ca.

1868,”

1868.

U.B.C.

Special

Collections, 113 114

The first pre-emption was filed by John Hill, the constable at Lytton, in November

1859. Thinking it the minimum, he initially requested 160acres, but when he realized there was no minimum he reduced his request to 31 71acres. Miners were not interested in agricultural land, as under the mining regulations they were allowed to grow gardens on up to 5 acres of Crown land. Few miners had the time or need to to cultivate beyond this limit. According to Ball:

“As yet but few miners have taken advantage of the Preemption Law, but under the Law regarding the occupation of land by Free Miners for Gardens, many have recorded ground for that purpose, in the neighbourhood of their claims, and the Indians in this locality are following the example of the White population, and planting potatoes &c for their winter stock of 72food.” Other pre-emptions in that year were made by several merchants and by Ball himself3

Again, generally pleased with the state of affairs Ball was

“happy to be able state that all the small available patches of agricultural land in the neighbourhood of the mines, are eagerly taken up & recorded as Gardens by the Miners, and also that some small farms have been recorded under the Preemption Act all of which locations tend to form the basis of a settled 74population.” Despite the growing physical evidence of a settled population, the demography remained skewed by age and gender. Ball conducted his only census of Lytton in April

1861. He counted only men and found among the “British subjects,” one under 21 years of age, and 13 over. He counted 65 “Foreigners” over 21 and none younger. ‘ (In

1864, Ball noted the arrival of merchants daughters and wives in Lytton: “Mail arrived &

70Ball, to Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands. November 30 1859, CC F95/4. 71Ba11, to Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands, May 11860. CC F95/1O. 72Ball, to Col Secr. May 12 1860. CC F95/1 1. 73Ba1l, to Col. Moody. December 12 1860. CC F95!29b. Ball to Chief Comm. of Lands and Works, New Westminster, November 5 1869. Ball to Col Seer. April 11861 CC F96/6. Ball to Col Seer. April 30 1861. CC F96/9. 74Ball to Col. Seer. December 311860. CC F95/31. Natives could well have been growing potatoes along the Fraser before the arrival of miners and Gold Commissioners. See Wayne Suttles, “The Early Diffusion of the Potato Among the Coast Salish,” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 7(3), 1951, pp. 272-288. 75Ball to Col. Seer. “Return of Male Inhabitants of the Town of Lytton, April 1st,” April 1 1861. CC F96/ 6.

79 Bal1,

78 P.H.

French, 77 Ba1l,

76 H.M.BalI,

animals

centre

transportation

the

to

and

bars

“Upper

-Transportation:

needed

unified

elsewhere

surveyed. 78

In

Otherwise Romano’s

prospect

1865,

miners,

east

and

for

Nind,

to

Lytton, In

Country” to

colony.

With

5

the

carried the

property

permanent

Columbia proposed

“There

along

benches

Ball’s

British

the

the

improve

1860

it

family.

he

principally

new

proposed

forth

became

Journal,

the

Canboo.

to

Private

of

reported

the

are

provisions successor

to

Lytton

areas.

J.W.

Miners

people

surveys

holders

subjects,

coming

as

along

waggon

Thompson.

C.

their

its many

improvements

Wife,

Ball

connecting

necessary

line

Good,

Trutch,

Secr.

Monday

ability

Chinese

In

little

was

By

future

the

and

and

called

of

and

however

season.” 77

June

reported of

2

roads,

between

1

1861,

of

Canyon

at

the

daughters

activity

their

it

Belgian,

goods

Col.

to

a

August

his

the

homes.

have

and

tentative

August

to

Other

men,

Lower

manage

it,

much

who

Secr.

suppliers find

Excellency,

centre

on

the

and

who

14

July to

Lytton

established

to

in

he

those

miners

the

30,

1

settlers

intend

one

ways

the

this The

Fraser,

dots

1861,

July are

mining

10,

Chinese,

the

became

of

settlement

of

Upper

1865.

south,

married

changed

and

already

1861 only

demanded

rich

the

1864.

population.

of

3

locating

passed

but

who

and

Oct.

1861,

linking

mining

activity

the

a

discoveries

awaiting

increasingly

CC

Country,

he

north

awaited

confidence

1

all

wished

forks

located, with

pattern

German,

noted

11861,

his

F1259136.

through,

CC

are

Preemption

ease

the

world.

along

duties.

had

two

of

F96113.

the

well

a

that

as

townsites

emerging

to

of

second

with

the

from

shifted

F96117.

And

children;

Lytton

in

commencement

involved

the

have

making

movement,

between

pleased

Miners

Quesnelle

Though

the

These

a

Fraser

the

1

Claims,

view

their

boom

future

to

Italian.

had

together

in

Canboo

the

their

not

worked

in

with

the

settlers

550

to

toward

still

land

become

organizing

for

Canboo

prospects

while

River. 79

pretty

making

and

Canyon

ways

and

the

in

Lytton,

around

to

of

District,

both

charge

making

included:

prospect

Lillooet,

create

600

the

the

either.” 76 )

a

northward

or

British

supply

In

and

colony

river of

pack

the

Lytton

July

of

a

and

the

of

5 115

82 Ball,

80 Ball,

81 Ball,

F96/30.

ferries

held his

as The

also

lodged

By of

Moody,

constructing

any as

superintended role:

district

Commissioner.

agreed.

trail

merchants

itself,

Lytton

1862,

seven

its

much

position

June

additional

aware

road

by

and,

“I

progress

many

he

in

their

on

and

shall Transportation,

Lytton,

Chinese

to

to

Ball

1862,

miles,

as

his

along counted

perhaps

Col.

Col.

their

of

of

possible,

the

in

complaints

preferred

district.

await

the

continued

Hope

the

the

directly repairs

by

the

colony

Secr.,

Secr., and

the

to

ways

men.

Ball

new

state

him..i’ 81

64

town

because

Chief road

the

Thompson,

and

the

trains

had

but

waggon

Leases to

July

June on

to

arrival

Larger

of

as

(bypassing

to

from

road

then,

life

Yale.

with

the

Comm.

take

by

the

the

always

a

take

his

6,

whole

of

of

14,

Cariboo.

But,

1861,

from

trail

of

road Yale

him.

was

the

of

1862,

leases

road

about

regulatory

They

Lytton,

an

Ball

1862.CC

simple

the

Lands

when been

Harrison-Lillooet

up

seen

active

and

from

Lytton

and

Moody

he

He

along

non-commissioned

CC

30

petitioned

were

thought,

Thompson

was

Once

was

in

Ball

passed

the

to

the

log

animals

his

and

F96/31

interest

charge

apparatus

be

F

the

to

granted

informed

road

to

Royal

one

bridges

arranged own

96/30.

the

Works,

Kanaka

integral

whom

Fraser

would

such

the

of

Canyon

along

each. 80

River,

and

of

travels

in

Engineers

the

merchants

governor

maintaining

over its

information

route,

was

the

River

that

April

Ball be

to

the

was

main

the

construction,

in

the

a

and

officer

constructing

was

creeks

also

Not

leasing

experts

to steep,

Thompson order

to

much

under

25,

development

responsibilities

those

be

Col to

were

no

all

focussed

of

1861.

improve

of

finished

along

that

the

longer

on

but

Lytton

miners

of

to

Secr.,

would

the

Engineers

of

placed

the

various

to

trails

and

they

“good

command

miners

CC

were engineers

the

Douglas.

on

chagrin

a

June

as

travelled

soon

informed

shortly. 82

the

destination

of

may

F96/8a.

through

Canyon in

the

they

completed

durable

toll

of

the

Fraser

charge

who

before

14,

take

river,

be

a

of

had

bridges

Lytton

reported). of

Gold

Because

1862,

through

often

the

his

had

Douglas

R.C. over

River

road.”

He

both

of

I he

in

make district

as

been

was

and

CC

his

far

the

of 116

85 Ball,

86 Ibjd 83 Ball,

84 Ball,

took

the

preferred

of

contractors from

Lytton

Many

Country

as

“There

canyon,

the

Native

and According

habitation

were

this

Canyon interest

capital

means

an

other

survey

settlements,

survey,

their

Boston

indication

either

of

to

is villages

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necessary

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to

to

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in

and

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and

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wages

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sites

the

maps

the

added

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natural

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scarcity

Thompson

Bar

transporting

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smooth

each

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July administering

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in

themselves

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an

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seen

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13,

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1862,

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the

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Miners road

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the

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F96127.

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the

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types,

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17).83

over

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generally been

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100

network.

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property

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119

Figure 16:Thompson River Survey

“Sketch of the casual survey made by Corp. Howell of the river bank of the Thompson, from Lytton to the Ferry, in which he has marked all the principle points which would requre Blasting & Bridging in the construction of a Waggon Road, between these 2 points.”

\ ,/ -, Ii - S. 1_._ — — - -, -“\_r- — NJ - - .. ..j 5 -- / .‘ .••• : —f--

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[China

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364.

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the

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120

89 Ball, 87 Ball,

Ball

be attempt

carrying Douglas

understanding

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through

population

employed.” 88

expense

a Ball

the

whites

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southern

Chinese

their

small

understood.

northern

made

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the

are

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may

Lytton,

whom

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to

clue

the

approved

food of

earned

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half

catch

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term.” 87

no

present

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to

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14,

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the

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the

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payment

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the

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the

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per

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occasions

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provided

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governor

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the

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and

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of

and

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an

the

as,

on

22 121

91 O.T.

Police,

90 John

promised

his

O.T.

Douglas

regulation

was

and

small

the

establish

the

colonial

changes.

From

superior:

necessity

landscape.

of

still

Travaillot

patches

mining

April

Travaillot, comply.” 9 °

any

come

mining

can

fellow

could

along

about

young Finally

S. think

Despite

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The

E.B.Lytton

(in

far

designs.

to

order

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(Doe

met

come

way.

pay

their

from

influx

Cap

it

again.

“I

15,

not

forty

of

there.

of

fellow

says

rules

began

with

laws

he

was

himself,

in

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have

new

Holloway)

on registering

control

come

1859. Trevalli own

down

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perfect.

came

what

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Fort

of

miners

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my

right

considerable

put

established

survey

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rules

course

collected

to

named

miners

to

ways)

Yale,

next

to

was

Col.Corr. next

down

in

converge,

assistant

began

all

never

of

and

Lytton,

was

terms

and

here

place

working

and

the

themselves

Holloway,

played

when

considered

Friday

E.T.

had

into

to

they

again

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sent

but

saw

to

the

rules,

rnee” 9 ’ construction

-

C.

with

for

gold

feared.

resistance

made

fulfill

the

Bowen

F1367/1716.

the

natives

few

would

best broke

Brew,

up

him

there.

B.C.

and their

-

Treva

Fraser

and

thought

laws

commissioner

to

licenses

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and

some

thing

wilderness.

again.

the

if

means

collect

regulation

and

One

not

some

Chief who

Other

we were

We

were

colonial

from

their

Ii

Canyon

of

pay.

you

laws.

made

havBut

and

he

miner

palavered

used

Of

(140)

roads

of

of

squeezed

Gold taxes

gold

made

was

land

the

can

he

course

the

keeping

I

one

tried

The

to

plan.

Miners

was

brought

remembered:

mining

for

was

going

as

commissioners

and

the

along

Commissioner

do and,

regulation,

the

be

excuse

1908,

men

miners

Yale

mining

with to

is

money

a

in

going

a

organization

miners As

along

track

little

to

wells

channel

to

the

were

between.

population,

about

were

the

district

get

him

make

p.8.

and

river.

looked

tonarrest

later

of

we

at

with

spaces

fargo

transformed

increasingly

in

were

not for

BCARS.

immediate

Hudson

miners,

another

these

will a

your

&

complained

on

in

killing

The

the

awhile.

But

able

of

willing

on

expressman

Inspector

1859,

as

of

they

tell

us

boat

changes

towns

towns,

it

this

miners

Lytton

colonial

to

the

to bar.

-

as you

-

got

this

pay,

put

and

elements

reported

and

faced

there

There

early

to

system

a

tried

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when

grab

these

the

of

of

young

him

did

to

and

immense

but

go. control

-

were

similar

came

the

with

system

fit

was

we

to

not

game

off.

have

of

to

You

to

of

a 122

92 C.

led escalated.

Miners incarcerated

When

Hill’s

commissioner American

incidents

known

intended

and

confrontations,

much

themselves

but

Not

reinforcement

situations,

by

advised

lack

surprisingly,

Brew,

Bar

he

as

a

from

as

Other

License

a

doubtful

for

sufficient

measures.

banded

$100,-

Bars

well

“Mr.

of

their

to

did

it

body

would

Ned

miners

The

had

so

their

be,

training.

had

Fort

instead

himself

the

known

not

between

Saunders

difficulties

inability

much

at

McGowan’s

from

case

particularly

of

to

annual together

Many

intended,

two System

Yale

Yale,

not arrest.

appear,

if

from force

-

given

troops

deal

they

that

gained

He

in

character, Douglas:

that

rival

honour

They

issued

Fort

of

with.

Yale.

to

licenses

Hill’s to

assistant

against

accordingly

his

can

will

gold

But

to

the be

the

the

with

Col.

pay.

settlements

the

Yale

were resist

particular

while

war

instructions

placed

be

it,

Hill’s

as

Chief

miners

attend.

a

Bar

The

commissioners

A

incident

the

summons

Secr.,

Ned

and

a

License

the

completely

replaced

delegation

the

commissioner

and

not

he

combined

had

they

Victoria

system

Bar

Gold

whole

at

in

fledgling

McGowan,

had

absolutely

issued

always

Fort

If

notoriety

the

became

beaten

18

turn

was

were

constable

they

fees

not

from

May

Commissioner,

the

against

disposal

Hope.

arose

commissioners

Gazette

not

summoned

from

summons

established.” 92

and

insecure

a

the

don’t

were

monthly

a

allow

system

involved sufficient

London,

1858.

Black

thought

refused

because

has

efficient from detennined

who

the

Hill’s

arrived

He

attend

slowly of

just

reported

miners

men,

was

the

about

had

barber

CC

the

was

against

ones.

Bar

the

to

Douglas

in

to

returned

the

force assistant

-

in corps Chartres

gold

been

out

reduced

F485.

reflect

the

pay

staff,

threatened

but

warrants

gold

some

set

their

Yale

contingent

movement,

in

in

two

several

dispute

with

the

and

commissioners’

out

January

Yale.

thrown

of

ten

commissioner

did

authority.

from

their

to

leeway.

gold commissioner

civil nights

and,

Brew

to

as

him

in

fetch

will

not

free

parties

they

and

The by

unwillingness number,

a

out

commissioner

servants

from

to

1859

to

I

visit

have

send

requested

one

and

have

him,

the

it

lessen

adopt

gold As

evidently

of

In

quickly Hill’s

-

that

only

of

to

constable.

California

the enforcement,

to

but

the

but inexperience

to

of

is

the

some

they

coercive

be

monthly

until

request

a

miners

not

Yale.

incident

it

collected

was

Bar

group

issued

first

is

were

were

so

a

at

of

the

was

by

the

that

of 123

96 Moody,

shooting 94

95 Already 93 Moody

difficulty

Ball’s

sense;

gaining

although

and agitators,

to

Island.

results.

colleagues.

the

commissioners’

of

escalation,

on

Soldiers quell

of

his

the

this

Ibid.,

Yankee

soldiers

to

rivalry

regulatory

considered

Vigilance

experiences

it

Yale

they

case

As

an

Any

McGowan

quietly,

McGowan

in

p.

as

like

gaining

came

letter

in on

understanding

these

between

Rowdies

somehow

San with

the

and

than

95.

the

Whannel

incident

Ireland,

other

July

Committee.

apparatus,

miners

the

very

out

Judge

to

Francisco.

if

needs

few

Begbie,

it

access

at

it

a

may

10,

played

possibilities

himself

miners,

the

the

Friend,

were

defying

last

Lytton,

incidents

involving

had

p.103.

and

Begbie.

to

1858

involvement,

hero.

have

mining

to

dire

where

emphasize

both

Douglas

to

possible

an

Perrier

mining

In

had

“he

the

Victoria,

make

illustrate

the

otherwise

necessity

important

(Moody’s

Moody

response

illustrate,

of

communities

Once

of

needs

him

they

been

Victoria

law!” 94

the

were

themselves

“convert[ing] sent

-

society.

I

was

their

and

dismissed

immediate a

at

had

drank

February

watching.” 96

that celebrity

-

Colonel

received. 95

to

unsure

role

Hope,

emphasis).

Their

gold

Gazette

written

the

own

But

great

this

such

a

in

government’s

of

commissioners

the

glass

threat

part

Moody

presence

authority,

of

this

the

confidence

Yale

Moody

figures

1,

from

“gold

him

about

mentioned

their

initial

1859.

of

event:

Gold

of

In

to

and

into

a

the

rush” champagne

“

jurisdictions

in

the

his

larger

of

left

up

often

dispute

In

Commissioners.

even

Hill’s

the

moment

a

he

(supposed)

authority

end,

panicked

the

in

valuable

Ireland,

the

McGowan’s

and

was

papers

required

myself

network

exasperates,” 93

at

river

Bar,

soldiers,

McGowan,

arose

of

the

the

he

with

its

along

and

had

p.

lending

and

subject

response

expense

reason

&

arrived

from

authority

more

lasting

of

96.

always

him

this,

exaggerated

determining

the

involvement

regulation,

with

gold

one

of

for

than near

more

on

on

combined

of

importance.

and

to

the

a

consider

Hill’s

had

its

of

their

Vancouver

“the

detachment

collapse

common

notoriety

travelled

Crown”

the

while

the

to

band

Bar,

in

chief

with

a

of 124

98 Ball,

97 H.M.

Seymour.” 98

tolerably circumstances

debts.

Ah

back” neck.”

trips

After

for

holbrook,

family,

which

“a

Charles

commissioners

governor

winter

himself

myself,

other

Ball

live

“pension”

success.

me,

a

on

to

colony.” did

dinner

(his

people

all

Furthermore,

season

With

Victoria

Journal,

Admiral

mine

his

Ball, Ball

&

by

there

not

good

and

the

brother) Good

Neeve

got

shooting own

The

played

a

enjoy

fitted

is in

world

Journal,

So

catching

being

&

when

favor

millstone

too

Sometimes

a

could

Lytton

are

ladies

for

Nov.

Denman

[Colonial

hope

Ball

miserable

on

much

uncomfortably

Ball

those

all

poker

from

the

no

mining

at

he

grouse

board

take

had

to

16th

Oct.

were

Head the

up

he

one

was

was most

around

remain

bored

“fellows,”

victoria

&

would

with

when

to

leave

enjoyments

Secretary], Ball

[the

life in

1864.

or

14th,

forced

trapped

Mrs. activity

well

make Quarters,

part:

town

by

with

friends.

&

also

steamer

his

the

so in

or

dressed

Denman

exploring

1864.

&

I

into

“Commenced

Victoria

the

for

to

see

and

to could

neck

clergy

in

“dined

around fellows

New

be

go

O’reilly

some

best

where

I

Lytton’s

the

no

suffered

from

He

look

grateful:

(his

&

&

talk

Westr.

end

&

colonies

left.”

of

at

and

also

altogether

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constraints became stifling he changed his mind about Lytton and “skedadled & went off on my Arab steed rejoicing towards Lytton. stopped at Boston Bar & first met Romano, then old spence and we had a night of it, the old fellow getting up with a 99headache.” After his short absence, Ball was pleased to be back in Lytton where he “met Houghton and Cudlip, and we all had a drink & a chat at my House. It felt like home getting back again, although the house is but small. I shall be sorry to leave Lytton.” While in government service, Ball was at home both everywhere and nowhere; several days later he left for a new post in Lillooet after being “presentedwith a cup by the people of Lytton with an address read out by Buie [an important merchant].” At first glance Ball may have possessed°0 the necessary attributes for managing part of the gold rush. He was an experienced and respected colonial officer: a man, according to his peers, fit to rule other men. But while his official writing was confident and sometimes even cocky, his personal journal displays an unhappy and lonely person who found it difficult to adjust to a society in which miners defined the norm. He may have been the right gender, but he was definitely the wrong class, representing as he did a government viewed with suspicion. This, perhaps, accounts for his detached views of mining society.

Ideas for colonizing British Columbia, and for managing the diversity of people within its boundaries, were worked out at various scales. They ranged from the general, distant ideas put forward by the Colonial Office, with input from the British parliament; to

Governor Douglas who tried to put their ideas into practice; through to the local representatives in the field who were in charge of operationalizing these ideas in the day-to day administration of the gold rush. This chain of information did not flow in one direction, and Douglas altered rules and regulations based on recommendations from the field, while in turn trying to convince the Colonial Office that some of their policy

99Ball, Journal, 24th April 1865. 100Ball, Journal, April 28th, 1865. 127

recommendations were inappropriate to the British Columbian context. As this administrative system was gradually put in place, those living in the colony were subject to increasing degrees of surveillance and control.

But there were many problems. BalPsprecarious position at the centre of a world

(but belonging to none), the expanse of the region, the mobility of the miners, and the lack of coherent policy (particularly with regard to natives and Chinese), all served to create gaps between colonial ideas and practice. Particularly during its first few years, Douglas’s administration was far from perfect: miners were (at best) skeptical, good personnel were scarce, and the ‘rules’were not quite worked out. Parliament debated the form of local government to be installed, Lytton commented upon the use of force, but little guidance was offered for the eventual closing of these gaps between London’s theory, and Ball’s reality, of the gold rush. Eliminating such loopholes required the tightening of other elements of the administration; before regulations could become fully intrusive, the authority behind them would need to be asserted. Given the limitations on force, the government had to rely on alternative means of establishing authority and of imposing details of its plans upon all segments of the population. This role was filled by the law. 128

CHAPTER 5

LAW AND “THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY”

“Every wise man and every good man, knows the value of good laws, and every man who expects to receive their protection when he himself gets into trouble, must be ready at all times to come out manfully in support of those laws.” James Douglas, 18581

“I remember when the Governor asked Pemer if he understood law. Perrier said he had read Blackstone. Tut tut said the governor it is not Blackstone you want here but just common Sence.” James Moore, 19182

Besides reordering the landscape and, to some extent, the people on it, the

administration interfered even more directly in interpersonalrelations through the legal

system. English Common Law, as practiced in the Fraser Canyon by a combination of

localized Justices of the Peace (Gold Commissioners) and the mobile Court of Assize

(M.B. Begbie), had two related aims. As an important form of communication between the

administration and the population, it set out to bolster the government’sauthority, while

reinforcing colonial ideals of a civilized society. This message included the rhetoric that all

were equal before and subject to the law. More subtly, court room procedures

demonstrated that some were more equal than others. To some degree this differentiation

replicated the miners’ ideas. But, as Douglas’saddress above shows, the state had its own

ideas about manhood, social organization, and the reciprocal relationships of these

constructs within the legal system. This system sought to put these ideas in place through

its varied response - both in court and in settlements - to those activities it deemed unlawful.

”Address of his Excellency the Governor to the inhabitants of Fort Yale,” September 12, 1858.1 Colonial Correspondence, File 484A13. 2James Moore Reminiscences. BCARS. 129

Accounts of violence between and among natives, whites, and the Chinese, appear frequently in most records, including miners’journals and reminiscences, missionary accounts, and officials’ correspondence; but figure most prominently in court records. The preoccupation with violence had several causes. Officials worried that the “American element” of the population would try to draw the newly settled boundary North around themselves; that natives’attacks on miners would draw criticism from the United States; that miners’attacks on natives would draw criticism from missionary societies; and that accounts of violence between natives and whites would discourage settlers and retard the development of the colony. In addition, surveying officers and Gold Commissioners required the establishment of law and order to carry out their duties. Integral to their operation (authority) was acceptance of the government’sauthority by miners and natives alike. Violence was a threat to civil society and the future of the colony because it undermined principles of the social contract whereby the population signs away its rights, including those to violence, in return for the promise of protection. A social contract had yet to be “signed” between the government and miners and natives; gaining monopoly over violence was an early step in establishing/emphasizingsuch a contract. Private violence was a crime.

The legal system figured prominently in this process because conceptual contract had to be secured through popular consent rather than coercion. In addition to his communication with Douglas, E.B. Lytton also expressed this unequivocally to, of all people, Colonel Moody, the chief of the Royal Engineers and the highest ranking military officer in the colony. In a carefully worded despatch, Moody was instructed that military powers were only to be sparingly used and was warned that “nothing can be more likely to sap the Manhood and virtue of any young community than the error of confounding the duties of soldiers with the ordinary functions of a 3Police.” Military force was to hover in E.B.Lytton, D[owning].S[treet]., to Colonel Moody, October 29, 1858. British 3Columbia, Colonial Secretary, Colonial Correspondence (CC), F 130

the background of the operation of colonialism and to back up “theauthority of the Civil

Power.” The most important thing for all to remember, particularly a military man, was the

“noble art of conciliating varieties of Humankind with the essential concomitants of dignity, sincerity and firmness.” After all,

“This art which is among the rarest and happiest attributes of Statesmen in Old societies is comparatively easy because more vitally necessary to those who are called upon to aid in reducing to harmony and order the manifold elements of a new community.”

Diplomacy was to take the place of physical force. Behind these comments lies the acknowledgement that military force was not only expensive, but also not quite equal to the challenge of “men too accustomed to danger to be daunted by the menace of force.” As

Lytton put it, “Soldiers will be popular in proportion as the strength which they afford to

Law is tacitly felt rather than obtrusively paraded.”

Colonizing British Columbia relied on the subtle use of power, provided for in part by the legal system and the built-in flexibility of its functioning. The law usually communicated with people only after an incident had occurred, and hence was adaptable to most situations and circumstances. The law’sflexibility was demonstrated by the ability to make its universalizing content relevant to specific contexts, that is, to the development of a vastly different space and population than the one in which it had matured. Of course, the military capacity of the Royal Engineers representedforce behind the law but it was rarely put to the test. Instead, the state saw the law’s strength in its ability to be assertive without being offensive. Justices of the Peace responded to daily infringements of the law. They also identified more important cases to be tried at the next Assize. The information they gathered fed into Begbie’scourt room, where both court room process and refined judgements sought to fine-tune the message sent to the population. Violence had been defined as criminal, and justice and order became increasingly intertwined. 131

Justice or Peace?

Justices of the Peace were responsible for resolving mining disputes and most other

legal cases, except those relating to capital crimes or appeals. They had little training for

their posts as Gold Commissioners, and few had any legal experience at all. Douglas

himself was not entirely confident in his legal knowledge. He wrote to the Governor of

New South Wales, requesting information on “the recent enactments on your Colony in

relation to the gold mines,” because: “There are at present in this Colony a few regulations

which have hitherto been sufficient and which proved satisfactory, but it is probable that as

our mineral wealth becomes developed, it will be necessary, before long, to make extensive legislative provisions on this 4subject...” However, Douglas was quick to reassure his Gold Commissioners of their own legal abilities. As James Moore reminisced, the

governor was not concerned with specific legal expertise: “. .it is not Blackstone you want

here just common Sence.” This recollection in part belies Douglas’legal knowledge (if he

really said it) for, theoretically, Blackstone was based on common sense. On the other

hand, it acknowledges that common sense was context-specific and that the type of justice

to be provided in British Columbia was to be less formal than a response to the surroundings in which Justices of the Peace/Gold Commissioners found themselves.

Ball’s County Court records speak mainly of drunkenness, assaults, the selling of

liquor without a license or to natives, and perhaps most tellingly, the beating of the local

constable by natives, whites, and less frequently Chinese miners. These court cases, along

with his descriptions of violent acts sent to Douglas, are Ball’sonly recorded comments upon the interactions taking place between the different groups in his district. Peaceful relationships were rarely mentioned, instead the state of social order was defined by the level of crime. Perhaps due to fear of native resistance to miners and government, Ball dwelt particularly on natives as perpetrators of crimes, and faithfully reported their

James Douglas, Victoria, to William Denison, Governor, New South Wales, January 7, 41859. CCF485/1. 132

behaviour to Douglas, even though most defendants for violent crimes were whites. A typical comment is: “With the exception of a few Indian cases of crime the District still continues very 5quiet.” Even when all was well in Lytton, he would comment on the state of civil order: “It is with pleasure I can report to his Excellency, that there is but little crime committed in the District, and that with a few trifling exceptions both the white & Indian inhabitants are presently quiet and 6orderly.” On another occasion he wrote:

“Within the last month, I am sorry to have report to his Excellency the Governor that some instances of crime have occurred in and around my District, and that Indians have been the principle delinquents. The Indians are commencing to stop the Chinese travelling on the trails, extorting money from them. A few weeks since, a Chinaman was found murdered near Boston Bar, and an Indian, the supposed murderer, given up by his Chief, to the authorities at 7Yale.” In his court record book Ball noted the charge, the verdict, and the penalty for each case. Where their names did not make it immediately clear, he would add the race of defendants and victims. For example, “R. v. Schrelist Indian Charged with stealing and killing a horse the property of Inaz Gonzales at Canaka Bar. Charges of stealing dismissed Indian to give a horse in 8exchange.” Another entry reads: “Thomas Cavanagh, confined for shooting at indians on the 25th of June at Lillooet B. Columbia also another charge, for an attempt to copulate with the wife of Mr. Chilwhoseltsan indian Chief at Lillooet on the night of the 26th June 1859.” Both these charges were dismissed for lack of evidence.

Violent crime was dealt with in a serious but almost routine way; upon conviction the defendant could choose either to pay a fine or spend a number of weeks in jail with hard labour.

5Ball, Lytton, to C. Good (actg private seer. to the governor), July 311861, CC F96/14. 6Ball, to Col. Secr., Jan. 31, 1861. CC F96/1 7Ball, to Col. Seer., July 1860, CC F95/22 British Columbia, Attorney General, County Court, Lytton, Plaint & Procedure Books. 8Henry M. Ball Magistrate, November 17, 1860. BCARS. 9lbid, July 11859. 133

Curiously, thefts received much harsher convictions. One miner stole a pot of beans from another and received a two month jail sentence with hard labour.’° Ball noted another case of theft as follows:

“An Indian, by name Encloha arrested for stealing on the 9th of August from the cabin of a miner on Fraser River about $30, a pr. Blankets, and 2 prs of Trousers - 2 shirts - the property of Daniel L. Thompson of Fraser River. Pleaded guilty and sentenced to be imprisoned in Fort Yale Gaol for a period of Four Months with Hard Labour.”

It is not clear what “hard labour” meant in Lytton. According to a gaoler’sreport in

Victoria it could have included: cooking, chaingang, shoemaking, stable attending, wood cutting, and 12washing. This form of punishment was entirely new to the Fraser Canyon and represented a particularly great change for natives. The highest sentence Ball pronounced was against a native named Cincilleskot, who received a 7 month jail sentence with hard labour and periods of solitary confinement for stealing the constable’s 13trousers. In case of default of payment for the trousers he was to spend another month in jail. This seemingly excessive sentence may have been an attempt to improve the image of the constable and assert his authority; after all, stealing the constable’strousers implied little respect for him and the law he represented. Through his judgements, Ball asserted the unacceptability of the frequent beatings his constables were subject to by people resisting arrest or “trying to rescue prisoners from custody.”

Ball often complained of the lack of enforcement available to him as did the constables themselves, who also acted as “lock-up keepers.” Prisoners occasionally escaped from the jail, and once missing were difficult to find - particularly when recaptured they were likely to escape again en route tojail. Poor communication and transportation also made it difficult to identify convicts beyond the scene of the crime. For

10Plaint and Procedure Books, July 13, 1862. 11Ibid, August19 1859. 12 British Columbia, Attorny General, Documents, Box 4, file 1864/35. BCARS. ‘3Plaint and Procedure Book, December, 24, 1862. 134

example, a native man had been sentenced to death in the Cariboo by Judge Begbie, and escaped, only to be recaptured at Lytton. Ball could not execute him because there was no way of positively identifying him. Ball was hesitant to send him with an escort to Cariboo lest he escape again, and was equally worried about getting him down to New Westminster where, in addition, no one would be able to identify him. Such incidents were common enough to prompt the supreme courtjudge to write the following to the Attorney General in

1862:

“I have the honor to draw your attention to the extreme inconvenience and probable expense caused by the want of some provision for the speedy trial of prisoners. The commission for this place was closed and the Jury men formally discharged this morning. This evening an express arrived from Mr. Ball J.P. at Lytton announcing the recapture of two prisoners, one of whom had escaped a few days ago from custody here and the other of whom had escaped from the special constable charged with the duty of conveying to this place for trial; the escape having been effected on the trail between Lytton and this place - Both these men I am informed are notorious thieves one is an Indian concerning whom I have had lately many complaints from Indians Chinamen and others. The witnesses are here but I have now no authority to try these prisoners until the next assizes. The consequence is that they will have to remain in custody here to escape again probably as soon as it shall be known that their trial is approaching - or else they will have to be sent to New Westminster for safe custody and either brought back here for trial or the witnesses sent down there - the expense and delay are as nothing compared with the uncertainty in the administration of justice. The people are I believe very [?]to place confidence in the English law: but when a few more cases of this sort shall have happened, the mischief and absurdity of which they can fully feel and the reasons for which they cannot appreciate that confidence may perhaps be 4shaken.”’ The law relied on other elements of the administration, for without adequate infrastructure, it could not respond to every infraction of its own rules, and for this system of control to work, both ‘criminals’and ‘citizens’had to believe it infallible.

As a result of natives’attacks on Chinese and in an attempt to improve efficiency more generally, Ball suggested increasing the Police force in Lytton and Lillooet Districts, by stationing a constable at Boston Bar to patrol from Yale to Lytton; two “steady men” at

Kamloops to patrol towards Lillooet, Lytton, and Alexandria by horse; and 2 more

M.B. Begbie to Attorny General B.C., Lilloet 24 June 1862. B.C. Attorney General, Documents.‘4 Box 2 1862/15. BCARS. 135 between the Similkameen mines and 15Kamloops. The latter route was important because it was

“the main route for the Oregon emigrants, and very liable to become the scene of robberies and murders, which would be much checked by the presence of a mounted patrol frequently passing along the trails. These men would also be of considerable assistance to Mr. Cox in his duties as collector of revenue, by giving him timely information of trains of merchandize and cattle... I have ventured these suggestions for the consideration of His Excellency as the arrival of Chinese is increasing daily, and as they spread over the District, locating themselves in isolated places along the Rivers, the Indians who are inclined to treat them as inferior beings to themselves, and all badly disposed white people will have every opportunity of committing outrages on them. I am of opinion that if there was some protection against the depredation of Indians towards the Similkameen and Okanaga Districts, that emigrants might be induced to settle down there as agriculturalists, and eventually those districts would form an important part of the 16Colony.” Ball feared violence toward Chinese miners could easily begin to include whites, and that there was little point in constructing a transportation network if people would hesitate to use it, however, he did not get his reinforcements. Ensuring order in the gold rush would protect the short term security of the miners; but more importantly, it would encourage settlers.

While Justices of the Peacejudged some crimes, their main duties revolved around the practical difficulties of administering an unruly population. After the Court of Assize had been to town, the Gold Commissioners had to ensure that Begbie’s sentences, even capital ones, were carried out. Ball reported executing at least two natives between 1859 and 1865. Two other executions were carried out in 1865 by his successor, Philip 7Nind.’ But it seems the legal system was more intent on demonstrating its authority to confer such sentences than on carrying them out: several times Ball intervened on behalf of natives in the court system, bringing his local experience to bear on Begbie’slegal training.

15Ball, Lytton, to Col. Secr. of B.C. July 1860, CC F95/22 6lbjd ‘Nind to Ball (Actg. Col. Secr.), December 6 1865, CC F1259!53. Moise was convicted 7 Begbie two Italians. He was captured at Williams Lake, he subsequently by‘ of murdering escaped, was recaptured, jailed at Lytton (where no one could identify him), sent to New Westminster, identified, and eventually executed. Nind to Col. Secr. Aug 14 1865, CC F1259/34. 136

The following examples are among the few instances of Ball’sengagement with natives, and among his few comments about how natives could be induced to recognize the beneficial effects of colonialism.

In 1861, Hoighs K.’s death sentence was reprieved at Ball’s intervention. 18

Hoighs had been sentenced to death for murdering a Chinese man, but Ball suggested

Douglas pardon him because a Frenchman had seen him save an American from drowning in the Fraser in 1858, “at which time the Indians were generally very hostile to the white 19population.” “Should your Excellency be pleased to reprieve this sentence,” he wrote “I shall take every opportunity of circulating amongst the Indians, that he has been spared, on account of his having been the friend of the white man, which may produce a good effect in their future behaviour towards the white population, and be a stimulus to them to exert themselves in saving others from a similar 2accident.” Ball rarely exerted himself as an advocate for native rights, except when he °thought a lesson could be drawn from it. Although he represented the authority of a colonial administration responsible for conferring the original death sentence on Hoights, by having it reprieved he sought to convey the idea that whites solved problems rather than created them. It did not seem to trouble him if, along the way, he suggested that an American life was worth more than a

Chinese life. More broadly, this case further indicates that the courts were more interested in their authority to both pronounce and retract a death sentence than in actual executions

(this is even more notable at the supreme court level).

The intention to use legal proceedings as a form of communication was often explicit. Nind was particularly self-conscious in his lengthy report of a journey to

Kamloops. He went there to gather information on Shuswap life, but also to explain the workings of English Law by example of an actual trial and “shew the Indians of this

18Hoighs K. (or Hongst-K), death sentence reprieved, sent to New Westminster jail until new sentence. Ball, to Col. Secr. June 12 1861, CC F96/12. 19Ball, JP, Lytton to His Excellency James Douglas. Nov. 19, 1860. CC F95/28. 137

section who are numerous, independent and at present well disposed towards the whites, with whom they are just coming in contact, that the government would protect or punish them as the case might ’2arise.” Once in Kamloops he “was glad to find a large assemblage of Indians some of whom had come to give evidence, but most of them to watch proceedings that were entirely novel to them. I held a court on the 16thJune in the Hudson Bay Company’shail and convicted one white man named Le Veau of selling spirits to Indians, solely by Indian evidence, another white man who did not appear to the summons fled the country some days 22previous.” After conducting the trial, and demonstrating to his native audience that the law worked for them, he set out to encourage them to work for the law. He paid a visit to the local chief,

Nisquimilth, who “travels about with a body guard of Indians well mounted and equipped, and is much feared by his subjects.” Nind was impressed with Nisquimilth and “desired to strengthen his position of supremacy, as it is so much easier to deal with Indians through their chief if he is a real one.” After having made some gifts to the tribe, to be distributed through Nisquimilth, Nind set out gather information concerning Moyese, who had been sentenced for murder in 1863, but had escaped causing much embarrassment. Several people admitted having seen him, and Nind “toldthe chief that I would pay him a reward for his capture and that I should expect him to be brought to Lytton in ten days time. To this he agreed.” In addition, Nind “spoke to the Indians generally about observing the laws and obtaining redress if injured or oppressed, about the equal justice that was observed towards white men and indians, and I strongly recommended them to avoid drinking whiskey which would be their ruin.” He was particularly interested in demonstrating his and the government’sauthority to these natives as he saw much potential in their territory

21P.H. Nind, to A.N. Birch, July 12 1865. CC F1259/27. In a separate letter he reported meeting 500 natives “who claimed possession of all the land on the North side between the foot of the Great Shuswap Lake and the North River” and a smaller group who “claim all the available land on the North-River, extending Northward many miles above the mouth.” In, Nind, to Col. Secr. July 17, 1865, CC F1259/30. 22P.H. Nind, to A.N. Birch, July 12 1865. CC File 1259/27. 138

for agriculture and settlement, and he noted among them “ajealously about admitting the whites on to the land...” Nind did what he could, but strongly recommended

“the appointment of a constable at Kamloops - the Indians who throng here from all parts require the idea of authority to be kept constantly before their eyes - as long as there is no constable nearer than Lytton there will always be some few whites and half breeds who will supply the Indians with Liquor, and whilst this is the case neither the lives nor property of settlers can be considered safe.”

According to Nind, settlers and Hudson’sBay Company people of the area found that,

“the visit of a magistrate and constable has had a most beneficial effect upon the Indians - shortly after our departure one Indian killed another and was arrested and delivered up to me at Lytton by other Indians - I am told the first impulse was to kill the culprit particularly as he was much feared and it was known if he escaped he would try and kill his captors - but on second thoughts they resolved to bring him to Lytton to stand his trial - they are now afraid breaking the law or doing anything to endanger their liberties and this feeling I have no doubt will last some little time; but impressions soon wear out with Indians and as they act on impulse and quite contrary to our notions of reason they require to be constantly reminded of a controlling power acting without fear or favour to anyone.

Because no local government was in place to keep the law before their eyes, Nind sought to impress natives, through their chief, with the law’sauthority. With settlement interests in mind, he encouraged natives to take grievances to court (where they could be diffused) instead of resorting to violence. He considered natives irrational and was more paternal than Ball, but respected the natives’ability to destabilize an important region. The Law’s Diplomat

Nind then, like Ball (but more ambitiously) set out to spread the word that the law affected everyone everywhere, and although he doubted the efficacy of mere words, he was confident that once fully in place, his legal duties, along with his regulatory activities,

(combined with those of others’elsewhere) would be effective in creating a settled colony.

The Court of Assize had similar aims, but details of the more intricate process (or at least the more elaborate records contained in the bench books) contain the finer points of colonial social organization. Beyond the summary statements of Ball’scourt records, which indicate more than anything that members of all groups found their ways into both sides of legal 139

procedure, the record books remain more tantalizing than descriptive. The lack of detail leaves obscure how crimes were defined in the first place or by what processes they were brought into court. Like other documents, these records illustrate the great diversity of the population of the Fraser Canyon during the gold rush, but unlike many of them it shows the constant struggle and interaction that took place between groups. The administration of

English Common Law was flexible to these demands, and through it the administration sought to establish order, rather than pronounce individualjustice, and to impress all groups with the authority behind colonial power. The Justices of the Peace combined, conveyed that message extensively while the Court of Assize worked intensively to refine it.

Beyond the Justices of the Peace the law was expressed at higher levels of the colonial hierarchy. While the law’sstrength - in this instance the Royal Engineers - was instructed to remain behind and focus on civil duties, the law itself went on display in the form of Judge Begbie and the Court of Assize. This court was “an age-old practice of

English judges founded on the notion that persons accused of crime should be tried by their peers in the locality where the crime allegedly 24occurred.” According to David Williams, Begbie’s legal biographer, Begbie “believed it his duty to carry the law to the miners and others, rather than insist that they come to him in New Westminster or Yale. He also considered it essential to have an intimate personal knowledge of the Colony, its citizens and their 25habits...” Much of this information came from personal observation, but also from the local Justices of the Peace. The Assize also met some of the difficulties of getting the accused down to New Westminster and had the extra benefit of making another element of the law visible in practically every community, no matter how small or remote. In addition it allowed Begbie to gather information for the Governor on “the state of the

24 R. Williams, “... The Man for a New Country..” Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, (Sidney, B.C.: Gray’s Publishing Ltd., 1977), p.45 25 Begbie correspondence. F142- B, Begbie to Young,. Sept. 1859, cited in Williams, p. 56. 140

26country.” In this way, Begbie’smobility over a large territory complemented the relative stability of the Justices of the Peace in each district (Figure 18).

Begbie left on his first round in March 1859, and thereafter spent spring and summer completing his circuit through the Interior. He spent the rest of the year in New

Westminster and in Victoria in order to be near the Governor. On circuit, he was accompanied by a court registrar, Bushby, and several guides, translators and packers

(often Native or Metis). Before leaving England he had outfitted himself with the

“appropriate” robes and whigs, even though he was often forced to hold court while sitting on a 27stump. More importantly, the implementation of the formal court process was affected by the lack of British subjects to sit on juries and British trainedjurists to provide counsel.

The former problem was addressed rapidly as it drew much complaint from the American miners, and as a result Begbie saw fit to allow Americans to sit on juries. The second problem was somewhat more difficult. An act passed on Vancouver Island in 1849 stated that only those lawyers who were qualified in Britain were allowed to work on Vancouver

Island (and by extension, British Columbia). But Begbie found no such persons on the mainland and that, as a result, counsel was absent from the court room. This, he argued, was particularly troublesome because the informal provision of counsel outside the court room by unqualified, but not always unknowledgeable persons, reduced his control over each particular case and the provision of justice as whole. Better, he argued, to allow aliens into the court room where he could control them, and thus the application of the law throughout the 28colony. In parallel to Nind’sefforts at keeping law before native eyes, Begbie sought to keep the population before his eyes.

26Williams, p. 45. 27Williams, p.34. 28”They avoid much of the responsibility w[ijch wo[ul]d attach to their conduct if they were rendered officers of the court, under the summery control of the judge.” Begbie to Douglas, Dec. 15,1858, CC F142aJ4. 141

Figure 18: Judge Begbie‘sTravels -

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Source: M.B Begbie, “Sketch of trails, BCARS CM/A137. 142

As the only qualified judge in British Columbia, Begbie had a power beyond his office, as his judgements were not subject to approval or reinterpretation by other trained jurists. This left Begbie free to play to his most critical audience, the population. Already in 1858 Begbie too saw the need to allow for a certain amount of flexibility in the provision of justice. Indirectly following up on Lytton’sattitudes he wrote:

“To render a court of justice useful it is more important that the suitors sho[ul]d be satisfied than that substantialjustice sho[ul]d be done. Substantial justice might be, and often is, done, by a strong despotism: it might be and wo[ul]d be just as often as not, the result, if the decision were left to chance. But neither a despotism nor the hazard of dice wo[ul]d be a satisfactory tribunal at the present 29day.” Again despotism was not considered an option, perhaps because it could not be imposed, but neither could justice be left to chance. Law had to be omnipresent, but it could not afford to offend. Instead the focus was to be on catering, as much as possible, to the population. Part of the intent was to establish the general authority of the legal process first, along with a general vision of civilization, before worrying too much about legal details. This is not to say that the legal system was completely arbitrary, but that it was adaptable to, and in some cases willing to reinforce, dominant groups, in the provision of peace, rather than formal justice.

As noted in Begbie’sbenchbooks, the cases arising from the Court of Assize contain many illustrations of flexibility in the application, if not content, of the law. The state of the country, rather than some rigid notion of justice was at stake. These cases were directed much more carefully at particular segmentsof the population and particular incidents, than Douglas’s address at Yale, or even Nind’sor Ball’s visits to natives. Case Studies

One of the first cases to come before the Court of Assize involved a dispute between two 30miners. Matthias Neil was accused of killing Thomas Hartwell in a

R.30 V. Neil, British Columbia, Supreme Court, Notes on Proceedings, March 10, 1859 - May 8, 1861, pp 1-7. BCARS. 143

shooting in a bar room in Lytton. During the hearing several witnesses were called forward including Hartwell’s partner. Begbiejotted down some of his instructions to the grand and petty juries and emphasized for them the need to take the “stateof the country” into account in their deliberations, and “whatthat state is is known to you better than me. It is part of your business indeed if you know of any great [struck out] crime or nuisance to present it now to the court in order that the crown dff [defender] now present may take steps.” He further emphasized that unless Neil could show due provocation and lack of malice in his actions then this would be a case of murder rather than manslaughter. The case itself attempted to unravel the reasons for the dispute and how it had escalated. All witnesses agreed that Neil and Hartwell had not known each other before that evening, which ruled out forethought and the malice referred to by Begbie. Instead they were fighting about gambling - but no one could be more precise than that. The witnesses all admitted that people (other than themselves of course) had been playing rondeau for money. One person thought that perhaps Neil had intervened on someone else’sbehalf, another thought that he had disagreed with the size of the stakes. The bartender testified to breaking up the argument. Hartwell’spartner said Hartwell had then crossed the bar, to come over to him and borrow his pistol, “andasked me if I wo[uljd see him insulted when

[the] other man was armed and he was not.” The deceased recrossed the room, and the shooting began. All witnesses were asked questions as to who had drawn first, who had fired first, how many times, and in what direction. Regrettably no single witness could answer all these questions. In order to unravel these problems, Begbie drew a small map of the bar room, including two bars, the rondeau table, and approximate distances, based on the testimony. Hartwell’spartner lent his pistol so that Hartwell could protect his honour (“1could have prevented the dec[eas]ed from taking my pistol”), but by this admission in court he showed that Hartwell had gone out of his way (according to Begbie’s sketch map) to aim himself before any shooting began. In the end his testimony was 144

disallowed because it favoured the defendant. In ensuing testimony the picture became

more complicated. Neil may have provoked the argument, but Hartwell shot first.

Begbie was interested in this incident because such unfettered violence produced a

bad “state of the countly” which had been shown to be harmful to colonization.

Consideration of this state made this case particularly important, and would perhaps modify

its outcome. Neil killed Hartwell, but it became clear that Hartwell couldjust as easily have

killed Neil. The “state of the country” was an oblique reference to mining society, its

values, and men’s relationship to the state, all understood differently by miners and the

court. To the jury, the state of the country rationalized the use of force, in concert with their

values of self-reliant manhood. But Begbie’suse of the phrase seems to imply an attempt to

communicate the need to refrain from violence out of respect and support of the law, as

incorporated in Douglas’image of a strong male citizenry in his address at Yale. If Begbie

felt he had to roll dice to decide such cases, the miners felt they wagered their lives with

such simple actions as walking into a saloon. The two different views of the relationship

between men and the state did agree that life in early British Columbia was a game of

chance, and that any measures perceived as capable of improving the odds were welcome.

The miners were concerned with their safety and their rights to protect themselves; the

courts were concerned with establishing the state’sability and right to protect them.

Other cases attempted to demonstrate the authority of the court over natives, for

without their acceptance of such authority they could not be fitted into other parts of the

administration. Miners had some basic understanding of the courts and “justice,” but when

the legal system came into contact with native groups it had more problems to deal with.

One of the first concerned the structural difficulties of native evidence in the court room.

Natives in the Canyon were generally not Christians in the early years and even if they

professed to be, they were considered to be only nominally so after summary Roman

Catholic baptisms. Anglicans required deeper understanding of the scriptures along with

lifestyle changes associated with English culture, neither of which natives in the canyon 145 were considered to have in the early 311860s. Questioning the sincerity of their faith allowed the courts to call into question the validity of their oaths to tell the truth. Begbie avoided these problems by according natives the same exceptional status granted those who refused to pledge allegiance to the Crown, that is by modifying the oath procedure. Natives were frequently merely asked (often through interpreters) if they knew what truth was, and if they meant to tell it. This is but one illustration of the ways native evidence was made less valid than white evidence. Moreoever, natives further often required interpreters, were unfamiliar with the British legal system, and were not considered to have their own mechanisms for solving disputes.

These pitfalls did not however indicate that natives did not belong in court. In several cases they were required to testify against whites; and, more importantly, there were several instances where “justice”reached into native reserves.

In Regina versus Nickashan a young native man was found dead on an Indian reserve beside his sleeping cousin (or brother), Nickashan. The body was buried and the matter presumably dealt with in native ways. About a week later, however, Constable

William Evans came up from Yale, disintered the body, took it into the coroner at Yale, and apprehended Nickashan. The depositions charging him with murder were made before the Justice of the Peace for Yale, E.H. 32Sauders. The first person heard from was the constable himself. He declared that he had heard of the murder, had ridden up to Boston

Bar, disintered the body and examined the two mortal wounds. He was told by two natives, Jiminse and Zenemetko, that

31-The methodist missionary expresses some of the attitudes of his day toward Catholicism and its mission strategies: “The Roman priests have been all through this country and have succeeded in teaching almost all the natives how to make the sign of a cross which appears to be about sum total of their religious knowledge. What better than pagans are Roman indians? Nothing. They have been baptized and taught to make the sign of the cross but have not abandonned their pagan customs or superstitions.” E.B. Robson, Diary, April 7, 1859. BCARS. Not all Roman Catholics worked this way. 32 Depositions made before E.H. Saunders. British Columbia, Attorney General, Documents, F1864/7. BCARS. 146

“the prisoner and the murdered man had been out together, that they had got drunk and that the prisoner had stabbed his tillicum - Jiminse also told em that he was the first who discovered the body - nickoshan was found laying about five paces from the murdered mans body in a drunken state and pretended he knows nothing about the matter.”

Evans was not present when the body was found, instead he paraphrased the information he was given (hearsay?), even though Jiminse and Zenemtko themselves were present and were to be heard from shortly. This part of the account was followed seamlessly by the parts that did involve Evans:

“- shortly after leaving Boston Bar an Indian came galloping after me and told me they had found Nickoschan and begged me to take him in charge - I returned with the Indian and found the prisoner at China bluff a few hundred yards on this side of Ryan’s “Mount Pleasure House” - the prisoner on seeing me said he saw me passing up the day before and intended giving himself up to me - he told me that the murdered man was his brother and that he did not kill him - that he got liquor at Ryan’sfor a salmon and a dollar and that after he drank the liquor he knew nothing more till he was sober.”

It is not clear how Evans found out about the murder - he did not elaborate - but he did make clear that he was asked to take the accused into custody. After Evans had laid out the basics of the case, people from the reserve were called in to fill in the details. Toqueskat, the chief, was the first to speak

“I was sitting outside my Camp at Quaiome when an Indian - several Indians came to me and informed me that a man had been killed - this was on tuesday morning - I went out and saw the body it was laying about a mile from my Camp on the ground turned on its back - jiminse was with me - the body was nearly naked - the coat, trousers & cap were under one of the arms of the body there were two wounds one onthe breast and the other onthe back - they had been made by aknife - the body laying in plenty of blood - there was no appearance of a struggle where the body was found - the body must have been dragged a good distance, from the Road to the bank of the River where it was found - I could trace blood all the way up to the Road - Nickaschan was laying about four yards from the body - he was asleep - I awoke him and told him he had killed his brother and he gave no answer - he was quite sensible and expressed no sorrow - he had blood all over his hands - he had no clothes on - there was blood on his legs - I waited till other Indians came - [t]hen we took the body and buried it in the village cemetary - I do not know that there was any misunderstanding or emnity between the prisoner & the murdered man - I should have known if there had been - the prisoner never mentioned the murder to me -“

only

nor

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stages

anything

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nature

left

sober.” According

blood

only

testimony

be

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valuable

to

was

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in

pieced

denies

the

till

synopsis

Nickaschan

“the

hint

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court.

of

on

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each

salmon,

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reserve

then

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Zenemelko,

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interpretation,

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the

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together

not

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to

say.

doubt

Monday

through,

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was

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until person

relations

prisoners

of

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Jiminse,

know

followed

amicably

written

he

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the

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Nickaschan

he

way

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uncertainty

comes

I

this

to

sold

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salmon

was

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whether

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night

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the

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give

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between

Nickaschan

about

“when

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hands

all

mentioned

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Nickaschan’s

awakened

by

murdered

court.

together

at

words

great

a

some

into

three

I

in

with

at as

-

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those

left

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the

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by

points

chief

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got

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the

end

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warning

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the

to

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idea

legs...

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location

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of

then abbreviated

prisoner

impression

drunk

should

Thomas

mould

two

the

by

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when

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represented

to

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my

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comments

night

the

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men;

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the

taken

and

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that

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sister

of

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have

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awoke

found

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way

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official

not

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according

my

it

that

form

seriously

to

known,”

to

could

and

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-

or

with

in

the

was

are see

cousin a me.”

-

we

the

the

give

‘Hallo natives

salmon

Tom

his

not,

deceased,

and

the

incident

court

poignant.

witnesses’ a

that

neither

never

stabbing

case

and

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body

neither

knife

deposition

his

to

that

prisoner’s

used

by

too

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used

he

no

Nickaschan

whose

her

language

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to

version

the

drunk

and

said,

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is

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.

of unravelled.

.

trade

only

admits

.when

him

the

against they

all

and

Justice

fairly

accounts

Evans,

us

the

I

comments

“if

am

I

deceased

do

show

before.” cousin

one

to

had

of

never

for

have murdering

first

or and

there

he

not

to

back

I

straight

the

him,

which

a

of

dollar

weapon here?’

knives

the

killing

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drink.

through

native

to

recollect

were

quarreled,

events:

the

testified Toqueskat’s

had

up

constable

if

say.”

had

She

echoed

he

could

Peace.

and

he

there

forward.

his

about

Towachsa.

been.”

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to

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was

three

She

added

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version.

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as

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been

a

did

to and

his,

us

listened

gave

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to

drink

He too

-

The

add

the

had

I

a 147

July

following

George concerned July

by continued 33 Favouring

should several

wounds

between

native

the

power

quiet

demonstration

over

this

out

British

questions

of

of

reserve

grudgingly

itself

its

four found.

a

the

whites.

circumstantial

court’s

prejudice,

incident

7:

6,

knife

every

and

way

as

matters

incident

felt

The

think

1859:

white legal

From

being

Perhaps

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and

with

“just”

the

half

verdict.

were

during

and

in

in

intervention

throughout

The

corner

trial

allowed

the

town

hierarchically

system

there

show

the

the

a

white

“The

the

men.

accesory hours

but

officially

made

of (through

knife

and

asked

murder

body

or

the

hands

murder.

moment

the

their

and

nature. 33

the

of

have

That

that

rather

body

even

evidence

of

law

stemmed

but

their

The

whole

Her

buried

way about

the

the

right

deliberation.

of

they

to

in

took

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acquittal)

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ceased

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of

went

inquest

officers

Majesty’s

evidence

an

The

second

it.” relations

of

region.

the

structured

a

deceased

day.

to how

were

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made

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indian the

place

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near

within

from

Robson,

agents

so

afternoon

have

to

them,

existence

natives

upon far

The

Rancherie

also

also

succeeded

exist,

but

twenty

a

on

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man

between

the

domain.

called

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point

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as

Franklin evidence

of

say,

capable

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evidence

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noted concerned narrow

case

the

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rhetoric

to

reserve,

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law

was

was

had

the

witnesses

enter

somehow,

about

but

Moosens of

death

was

the

up

enforcement

natives

unintentionally

in

larger

discovered

dealt

spent British

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ordering

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of

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created

arresting

of

the

of

the

state

tried,

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its

of

seeing

to

British

several

with

hearing

river. jurisdiction

purpose

reserve

the

prove

sworn.

3

came

(even

Columbia

committed

natives

set

several

the

other

an

murdered

their

the

all.

early

about

several

justice

jury

went

aura

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Indians

to

their

on

and

and

the

crime.

of

Indians

The

Native

evidence

by

his

a

had

miles

reserves

this

acquitted

the voice

of

demonstrating

where

circumstantial

out

as

dig

and

might,

outsiders:

by

death

jury

Indians

being

certainty

man

received

a

was

court:

morning

of

Including

natives

up

formal

away

voices

authority

viz

in

returned

underwritten

their

curtailed

by

Franidin

of

taken.

the

power,

available

court

Cutscus,

Nickashan

to

supposed

its

wounds

a

Robson,

body.

not

3

in

colony,

way

living

make

constable

lying

own

or

was

this

natives

this

by

evidence

In

and

the

born

this

4

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to

to

showing

all

Ilial,

creation).

British No

on

very

case

on

a

through

inflicted

uncover

to

authority

all

purely

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after

in

out

I

a

the

in

was

be

heard

a

with

&

trail

those

were

deep

of

by

the 148

35 Begbie’s

34 Ra.

about

moved was out

wide

too

before.

to

1863, own According

not

question

testify. cause

prisoner

died

but

fiancee,

than

Initially,

the

young

of

tell

the

recalled

ear.

from

and

it

what

stabbing

of

BCARS.

v.

the

on

did

the

her

and

family

the had

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“she

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I

because

Kesshua,

her

running

which

apparently

in

saw

After

wound

to

to

the

to

court

in

was girl

brackets

or

he

been

an

girl,

died

death

question first.

be

the

Ra.

the

not

wounds

could

did

but

earlier

had

turned

this

given.

married,

precisely

her

put Skocenecenux,

mother

from

in

away,

v. wounds

-

not

He

and

British

had

to

she

been

imprecise

her

Nickashan. 34

very

family

not

into

the

her

case,

knew

repay

out

several

for

the

seen

My

was

back.”

and

say

the

promised

her

mother,

deep.

each

father,

Columbia,

precision

how

1

knife to

wife

Ra.

had

the about

little:

behind

saw

it

court

whether

daughter

be

testimony

when

days

wound

old

v.

results:

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complicated.

Having decided

had wounds

called

her

was

who

Kesshua,

“When

focussed

so

to

her

In

and

later.

the

they

the

wounds.

high

it

the stabbed

Supreme

gave

the

was

Ra.

knew

daughter

would

first,

court

1

heard

“They

whole

against

in

a

prisoner

broke

the

in knives

The

v.

(qu

white not

her

breast

on

the

front.

more

Kesshua,

deceased

wanted

in

To

have

the

“of

11

the

first

some

management told

The

Court,

court

the

daylight the

was,

man

would

or this

&

two

details

an

marriage

about

contract.

I

me

been witness

first

marriage.

back

12

tea

thought

age

had

to

merely

end

was

years

Notes

a

was

she

years

not

know

in

requirement

native

the

right

in

of to

acted

they

her

sworn

my

had

first

heard

have

front

contract.

go

her

ago.

agreement:

of

on

them

that

old). 35

parents

her

for

He

presence

were

with

the

man

been

with

wounds

betrothed

Proceedings,

passed

in.

of

she

pris[one]r She

the

age;

had

affair.”

very

any

several

killed

very

more

stabbed

He

was

stood

were

girl’s

To

was

paid

a

serious

&

eachother

man.”

and

seemingly

was

this deep

establishing

I

circumspection

it his

not

called

So

scream,

a

as

know

witnesses

to

came

that

the

bride

not

end

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native

high

the living

-

have She

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if

day

a

she

they

in

the

nothing

court

a

running

he

price,

witness

as

easy

1,

saw

could

knife

to

taken

him

was

father

said

and

her

were

the

the 149

36 ”Ra.

Columbia,

his

After

He

he

premises. 36

assaulting

commodities

male

pronouncing

of

while

testify

itself

victim

death,

considered

If The

interpreter,”

women

“In

they

was

murder,

knowledge

then

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English

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that,

in

illustrating

the

even

of

going

v.

choose,

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relations

wo[ul]d

prop[e]r[ty]

drew

a

“the

being

a

Squascot senseless

matter

him

court

all

two

Supreme

case,

recommend

justifiable.”

though

pris[one]r

Boothroyd

the

and

legal

and

to the

initially

his

regarded

and

in

other

they

strike

became

the

return

over

chiefs

which

administrators

receiving

gun,

his commuting

scarce the

system

beliefs

violence,

accessory,

they

pri[one]r’s

might Court,

-

natives,

own

authority

women

I

being

me

and

gave

the

never

took

to

as

brother

ones

intrigued

struck

had

house

with

could

concerning

mercy”

property,

apparently

money

take

money

Notes

interested

money

place

had

Squascot

she

at

death

did

were

of

Ra.

it

at

life

that.

no

to

were).

while

understand

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[a

was the

-

Kamous

with

on

was

he

made

“show

on

notice

I

might

not

sentences.

knife]

at

v.

but

considered

court

Proceedings,

William

wo[ul]d

then

a

drove

natives:

to

the

Chinipult

in

they

and an

the

rare

reserve,

As

here

it

do

the

the

of

attempt

time

be

&

binding,

first viewed nature

to

in

Chimpult,

were

contract

in with

them

it.

girl’s

in

taken

it

customs

preside

the

give

Boothroyd

the

of

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seems

because

self

But

between

the

do.,

trying

the

above

know

of

the

to

away.

age

Fraser

as

up

or

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defense

agreement

if

the

the

negotiations

acknowledge

incident.

over

betrothal

property.

jumped

at

not

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they his

and

to

indians

pris[one]r

case,

contract

he

a

1863.

the

natives,

Canyon.

He

accused

claim.

at

loss.

remove

v.

both

dwelling

took

“thought

I

the

savages.”

Kamous

was

struck

women

on The

-

binding

BCARS.

life

about

The

It

option

his my

concerning

They

him

and

and

briefly

three

called

a

afterwards

both

judges

Most

and

life

on

brother

native

him

court

by

were

allowed was

-

with

principle,”

never

the of

-

always

He

native

death,

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38 Williams,

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court

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in

so

the

much

functions

that 154

native response

race,

region

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Nagle

1 Susan

limited miner’s

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mention

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POSTSCRIPT

very

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11867

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at 155

institutionalized around

set

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Chinese

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Stationary

Cornelius

accession

Historical

Douglas,

from

from

colony. Robin.

S.F.

Columbia

the

1774-1890.

Voyage

Barry

Collections.

Country.

London:

Charles.

Judge

with

Brian. 1858.

Captain

Dr.

Alan.

Oregon

A.C.

Mine?s

the

German

a

Carl.

Parliament.

M.

William

by table

Ed.

Hansard’s

Contact

Victoria:

Round

“The

Communications

“Welsh

the

Hurst

of

Captain

engr.

Fenton.

Prize Handbook

Resource

Buck,

Office. Review,

George

Historical

““Turbulent

An

Historical

A

William

of

Map

Royal

Vancouver:

by

Fraser

Complex

distances.

Excursion

and

Essay: San

Vancouver’s

and

1858. Gold-Miners

“Old

E.E.

The

Parliamentary

C.E. to

Edward

A

1858 Papers

Engineers,

41,

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Use.

Francisco:

Conflict:

Frazer

and

Quarterly,

Cruise

Canyon

the

Colonial

Delavault;

Fort

Society,

Vancouver

frontiers”

Travels

Culture

and

1972,

IV.

map

UBC

Vancouver:

Relative

With

through

of

Eyre

Okanogan

River

BIBLIOGRAPHY

in

1859.

Island.

the

Vol.

Encountered.”

Indian-European

1860.

to

pp.

in

and

the

Government,

Press,

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15

Chinook

in

of

Debates:

and

21(1-4),

the

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Theses

Boyd, Robert Thomas. “The Introduction of infectious Disease among the Indians of the Pacific Northwest, 1774-1874.” PhD. Thesis, Dept. of History, Univeristy of Washington, 1985.

Mackie, Richard. “Colonial Land, Indian Labour, and Company Capital: the Economy of Vancouver Island, 1849-1858.” M.A. Thesis, Dept. of History, University of Victoria, 1984.

Loo, Tina. “Law and Authority in British Columbia, 1821-1971.” PhD thesis, Dept. of History, Univerisy of British Columbia, 1990.