offered every assistance in their power to aid me in my operations.

6

Nothing can exceed the beauty of these waters, and their safety; not a shoal exists within the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty Inlet, Puget Sound, or Hood's Canal, that can in any way interrupt their navigation by a seventy-four gun ship. I venture nothing in saying, there is no country in the world possessing waters equal to these.

The anchorage off Nisqually is very contracted, in consequence of the rapid shelving of the bank, that soon drops off into deep water. The shore rises abruptly to a height of about two hundred feet, and on the top of the ascent is an extended plain, covered with pine, oak, and ash trees, scattered here and there so as to form a park-like scene. The hill-side is mounted by a well-constructed road of easy ascent. From the summit of the road the view is beautiful, over the Sound and its many islands, with Mount Olympus covered with snow for a back-ground. Fort Nisqually, with its outbuildings and enclosure, stands back about half a mile from the edge of the table land.

'In returning the visits of Mr. Anderson and Captain McNeil, I had an opportunity of seeing the so-called fort. It is constructed of pickets, enclosing a space about two hundred feet square, with four corner bastions. Within this enclosure are the agents' stores, and about half a dozen houses, built of logs, and roofed with bark. This fort was considered quite large when it was first established, but since it has become an agricultural post as well as a trading one, it is found to be too small. Its locality is also ill chosen, on account of the difficulty of obtaining water, which has to be brought from a distance of nearly a mile. I was informed that there was now little necessity for any sort of protection against the Indians, who are but few in number, and very peaceably disposed.

'After spending some time in conversing about my plans, Mr. Anderson was kind enough to show me his garden, which is an enclosure just without the pickets. Here I saw peas a foot high, strawberries and gooseberries in full bloom, and some of the former nearly ripe, with salad that had gone to seed, three feet high, very large and thrifty.

K

Near by were to be seen fine fields of grain, large barns and sheepfolds, agricultur..l implements, and workmen with cattle engaged in the various employments of husbandry.

In connection with the Company's establishment at Nisqually, they have a large dairy, several hundred head of cattle, and among them seventy milch cows, which yield a large supply of butter and cheese; they have also large crops of wheat, peas, and oats, and were preparing the ground for potatoes. These operations are conducted by a farmer and dairyman, brought from England expressly to superintend these affairs. A few Indians are engaged in tending the flocks, and the Company's servants are almost exclusively employed as labourers.'

On his route from Fort Nisqually to Fort Vancouver, the Commodore visited another of the Puget Sound Company's establishments, on the Cowlitz River, in latitude 46° 50′ north, longitude 123o, which he thus describes: After passing extensive cammass plains we reached the Company's farm on the Cowlitz, which occupies an extensive prairie on the banks of that river.

They have here six or seven hundred acres enclosed and under cultivation, with several large granaries, a large farm house, and numerous outbuildings to accommodate the dairy, workmen, cattle, &c. The grounds appeared well prepared, and were covered with a luxuriant crop of wheat. At the farther end of the prairie was to be seen a settlement, with its orchards, &c.; and between the trees, the chapel and parsonage of the Catholic Mission gave an air of civilization to the whole. The degree of progress resembled that of a settlement of several years' standing in our Western States, with the exception, however, of the remains of the conquered forest; for here the ground is ready for the plough, and nature seems, as it were, to invite the husbandman to his labours.

We were kindly received by Mr. Forrest, the superintendent, who quickly made arrangements for canoes to carry us down the Cowlitz and Columbia River to Astoria, or Fort George. He also provided us with an excellent repast, and pressed us to remain overnight, which we would gladly have done, had I not found that it would be impossible for us to reach Astoria the next day if we did so.

'At this farm the Company have a large dairy, and are about erecting a saw and grist mill. The superintendent's dwelling is large, and built of well-hewn logs; with the workmen's houses, &c., it forms quite a village.

'Large numbers of cattle were being brought in for the night, which is a very necessary precaution in Oregon, in consequence of the numerous wolves that are prowling about; in some places it becomes necessary for the keeper to protect his beasts, even in the day-time. The cattle, at times, suffer from drought, in which case the Indians are sent across the river to cut fodder for them, in order to avoid sending the cattle to the cammass plains, where they would be subject to the loss of all their young.

The farm at the Cowlitz has no sort of defences about it, proving, as far as the Indians are concerned, that there is no danger of being molested; indeed, their numbers here are too small to enable them to attempt any aggression, and their dependence on the Company for both food and clothing, too complete to allow them to quarrel, except among themselves; and of such disputes the agent of the Company takes no sort of notice. The Indians belong

to the Klackatuck tribe, though they have obtained the general name of the Cowlitz Indians. In a few years they will have passed away, and even now, I was informed, there are but three Indian women remaining in the tribe. The mortality that has attacked them has made sad ravages; for only a few years since they numbered upwards of a hundred, while they are now said to be less than thirty. The quantity of land actually under cultivation here is six hundred acres, most of which is in wheat. Mr. Forrest told me that the first year it had produced ten bushels per acre, but the present one it was thought the yield would be double*.

' Around the superintendent's house is a kitchen garden, in which all the usual horticultural plants of the United States were growing luxuriantly; the climate was thought to be particularly well adapted to them.'-(Pp. 315, 316.)

The agricultural farm at Puget Sound (Fort Nisqually), as also that at the Cowlitz River, does not actually belong to the Hudson's

*The crop at the end of 1841 was 7000 bushels.

Bay Company; the Puget Sound Association has been formed principally by the officers and retired servants of the Company, who have subscribed a capital of £.200,000, on which ten per cent. has been paid up.

This farm aids in the supply of grain, butter, cheese, &c., for the forts and stations of the Hudson's Bay Company on the western coast of America, and it furnishes supplies for the Russian stations at Sitka and to the northward. Grain is also shipped for the Sandwich Islands, where the Hudson's Bay Company have an agency; and a cargo of corn has been recently sent to China.

The facts herein stated need no further comment; but there are two points in favour of the extension of agriculture and the promotion of colonization by the Hudson's Bay Company, which appear to have been but little noticed in the recent parliamentary discussions :—1st, The necessity of providing food for numerous and distant posts where corn will not grow: 2nd, That with every precaution which a Company with exclusive rights can adopt, the fur-bearing animals must in the course of time diminish, and the Hudson's Bay Company, who have shown no deficiency in far-sighted views, are not likely to neglect providing for coming emergencies, or to lose the opportunity of securing new fields for the employment of energy and capital, which can only be done by colonization.

A consideration of these circumstances, and a recognition of the principle that colonization can be most effectually conducted by corporate bodies, has doubtless had due weight with the Minister of the Crown, when acceding to the proposition that Vancouver's Island be vested in an association, who have given solid proofs of sound policy, by maintaining a most difficult position with honour and profit to themselves and to their country since the reign of Charles II.; that has shown both ability and willingness to colonize, by the formation of the Red River settlement, and by promoting the flourishing farms on the Columbia and Cowlitz Rivers; which has at this moment several posts and stations, not only in New Caledonia, but also an excellent fort and establishment on the adjacent shores of Vancouver's Island; which possesses on the spot ships, steamers, well-trained functionaries, and every other requisite for

attaining, without delay, the desired end, namely, the immediate occupation, by British subjects, of the largest and most important island on the Pacific coast of the American continent; and as the colonization of the island is in unison with the existing and prospective interests of the Hudson's Bay Company, it is to be hoped that, when the whole case is known, a cordial co-operation will be promptly accorded, and that a now comparatively useless appanage of the Crown may be converted into a thriving and happy home for a large portion of the various classes of society who are suffering from the effects of a redundant population and want of occupation, and who may there find that scope for enterprise, skill, and labour, which no Government, however wise and zealous in its exertions, can afford them in England.

Some of the points on which facts and evidence have been adduced in the previous pages, may be summarily stated as follows:

1st.-The Royal Charter granted by King Charles II., in 1670, to the Hudson's Bay Company conveys, in perpetuity, the territorial right, and exclusive privilege of trade, over certain regions in British North America.

2nd. The validity of this Charter has been acknowledged by successive Sovereigns down to Her Present Most Gracious Majesty, -by Parliament on different occasions, and by diplomatic arrangements with Foreign States.

3rd. The Royal Licences of exclusive trade with the Indians in certain parts of North America, granted to the Hudson's Bay Company and to the Agents of the North-West Company in 1821, and to the Hudson's Bay Company solely in 1838, recognised the rights conceded by the Royal Charter of 1670, and granted an extension of exclusive traffic in furs over territories declared neutral between Great Britain, the United States, and Russia.

4th. Those Royal Licences did not therefore supersede the Royal Charter of 1670; they merely extended the right of exclusive trade over some territory, regarding which, doubts might be entertained, whether it came within the scope contemplated on the issue of the original Charter to Prince Rupert, and the distinguished