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THE LEADER. [No. 450, November 6, 1858. ...
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MY ESCAPE FROM THE MUTINIES IN OUDH. My ...
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THE NEW EL DORADO. The Kexo 7LI Dorado; ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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B] Br Ti Pri British Colombia And Vancou...
Bay question by Parliament , the intense interest already c reated by the foundation of the new colony and . the recent correspondence from both San Francisco and Victoria , have created a desire for information that Mr . Hazlitt ' s able little compilation will in a great measure supply . He has traced the history of British Colambia , through the best sources , from the first discovery of the coast by the Spaniards , in the 16 th century , whose visits were consequent upon their spirited searches after a western passage to India , China , and Japan . Among ; the modern writers upon whom Mr . Hazlitt has clrawn for his geographical information are
Mr . Nicolay ; Commodore Wilkes ; Sir Alexander Mackenzie ; Messrs . Frazer , M-Leod , and Anderson , of the Hudson ' s Bay and North West Company ' s Service ; and Colonel Grant . Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour , authors of the " Census of the Indian Tribes in the Oregon Territory / from Latitude 42 ° to Latitude 54 ° , derived from * the Trading Lists of the Hudson ' Buy Company , and from the best obtainable Information /' Lave afforded him ample population si atistics ; and from these authors , Mr . M'Lean , and Mr . Dunn , he has culled a most interesting ¦ memoir upon the
Indian population . He has reprinted , by permission , the celebrated June letters of the Times correspondent at San Francisco , from whom first the English public obtained a lifelike account of the new El Dorado , the trials and troubles of the diggers , and the impression created at San Francisco by the reports of the spies as they dropped down from the promised land , some reporting it " all barrenness , " and others " a laud ( lowing" ( in possibility , of course ) " with milk " ami honey . " To use the words of the Tinies despatch : — " Everything is redolent of Frazer Itiver : the boxes and cases at all the
doors have it painted ou them—no one speaks of anything else . Wages have- jumped to-diiy from 4 dols-.-to . 7 dols . in consequence ot" if . The editor of the Bide > ltecorJ , an up-country paper , says waggishly of his fellow-townsmen— ' Every joke that is cracked is mixed in Frazer River water , and Frazer forms a part and parcel of everybody ' s ltieat , drink , and apparel . '" Mr . Hazlitt has added greatly to the value of his work by largely availing himself of the Desaription of Vancouver Island by its first colonist , Colonel W . Colquh ' ouu Grant , which was read before the Royal ¦ Geographical Society of London on the 22 nd of June , 1 S 57 , and which the considerate courtesy of that body and its secretary , Dr .
Shaw , has thus placed , through - our author and Messrs . Routledgc , at the service of the community . Colonel Grant is no enthusiast , and though he does not approach the subject of gold , he yet shows other sufficient cause lor our turning our serious attention to the island . He describes the colony as abounding in fish . Salmon especially swarm , he says , to an extent unknown in any other part of the world , and herrings are so numerous as to be caught by the natives with a sort of rake , or Jong stick , with crooked nails fastened to it . He speaks confidently of the future of the collieries , which had already exported , when lie wrote , about 2000 tons to San Francisco . This sold at twenty-eight dollars per ton , und is a good deal , according to t he Hon . Charles Fitzwilliam , M . l \ , like the West Riding of Yorkshire coal .
The Colonel has furnished his correspondents with a pleasing sketch of the native population of Vancouver ' s Island ( numbering about 17 , 000 ) , their language , manners , and , ethnological characteristics . He believes them—anomalous * though it may seemafter an experience of years , to bo without religion ; and that " for some inscrutably wise purpose the Almighty Ruler of the Universe 1 ms decreed that they . shall fulfil the daily course 61 * their lives with the law of nature for their moral code , and with no
higher motive of action than that wlnqli is furnished by the impvilses of instinct . " They are great gamblers , he soya , and will stake their blankets , their canoes , and oven their wives , on the hazard of the turning up of one sido or other of a piece of cut wood , which is their die . Their colour is a dull reddish brown , like thnb . pf a dirty copper kettle , and the features of both sexes are vory much disfigured by tho singular custom prevalent among them of flattening their heads .
Tho volume also is enriched by a reprint of tho July despatch of a Sim Francisco correspondent of the Times , who viaited Vancouver ' s Island in June , 1858 , a contribution of the utmost practical utility to all who intend emigrating or take interest in any intending emigrants . It concludes very properly with some handy notes upon " Tho W « y Thither /
and a disquisition upon the interoceanic railway and telegraph projects , also extracted from the Times , but more likely to be available and of use m their present form than buried as they now must be under that' journal ' s news-heap of even a single month ' s accumulation . It is pretty well understood that tlic Hudson ' Bay Company , who ( teste , Governor Douglas ) have for several , years had evidence of tlie auriferous nature of the country * will , when the renewal of their lease comes under consideration , be held to have forfeited all claim to it through the selfishness with which they have kept secret the wealth of the region under their control . This spirit lias induced them to break the covenant to ious observance of which
colonise , on the relig they might , perhaps , have founded some plea for consideration . Tire territory , therefore—thanks to the disclosures of Mr . Douglas and the sagacity ( so unlike the wooden-headed fatuity we should have witnessed in other statesmen ) of the Minister who acted upon the Governor ' s report at once—will be thrown open . That no unforeseen difficulty may defer the execution bv the Colonial Secretary of a project in which a man of his poetic temperament cannot but feel deep interest , must be the hope of all who would sympathise , not with the preservation of bears and foxes , but with the spread of civilisation and the openin" - of elbow-room for the crowds of the Old World .
In the Queen ' s Speech at the close of the last session we find ' the following passage : — " Her Majesty hopes that this new colony on the Pacific maybe but one step in the career of steady progress by which her Majesty ' s dominions in North' America mav ultimately be peopled in an unbroken chain , from the Atlantic to the Pacific , by a loyal and industrious population of subjects of the British Crown . " " So may it be ! " say we and all good citizens ; and with so sound an aspiration we may terminate our superficial . ' notice of Mr . Hazlitt ' s ^ valuable though slight ; performance , which , coming as it does in the nick of time , compiled from reliable sources , and so cheap as to be within reach of the humblest would-be emigrant , is of more really
practical value than the parent tomes of the old voyagers , or the elaborate handbooks experience will prepare when the face of the white man has ceased to be a curiosity upon the westward tracks .
The Leader. [No. 450, November 6, 1858. ...
THE LEADER . [ No . 450 , November 6 , 1858 . JL ICO ¦ . ¦ ¦— : — ' — ' — . .
My Escape From The Mutinies In Oudh. My ...
MY ESCAPE FROM THE MUTINIES IN OUDH . My Escape from the Mutinies in Oudh . By a Wounded " Officer . 2 vols . Bentley-We have long shirked the task of noticing this work , owing to our doubts as to how it ought to he treated . When we found , on glancing through il , , that the first mention of the recent mutinies occurred quite towards the end of the second volume , and that the supposed author had , in fact , seen next ; to nothing or recent stirring events in India , wo were disposed to regard it as a mere
catchpenny livre d ? occasion seeking to creep into circulation under fallacious colours . Since , however , the " Wounded Officer , " who is , we have no reason to doubt , what he describes himself , hiis publicly owned that his performance is a compilation and a notion founded upon facts , we arc enabled to regard it from that point of view , and have pleasure in awarding him considerable praise , not for imaginative power or fine writing , but for tho natural , yet withal adroit , manner in which ho has woven his fabric . His materials consist of military reminiscences of the Sikh war : many usual incidents of n
regulation modern society novel ; some startling adventures , almost bordering upon tho fabulous , supposed to have been gone through by some fugitive officers from Mccrut ; and lastly a good deal of sound and apparently earnest criticism upon Anglo-Indian affairs . Tho latter is singularly ooinoidont in many respects with that of tho more serious writers who have preceded the author ; but still it is fair to say that , upon military points especially , it bears tho stamp of genuineness . Wo regret not to have at our present disposal space for a resume
of tho story , or for extracting , as wo could wish , tho stirring descriptions of Chilianwalla , tho Moorut massacre , or tho < advonturos « of ! . tho fugitives among tho hills ; but wo cun cordially recommend the work in its entirely as ono of tho most ugrcoablo of its ohias . llefcrcnco being had , moreover , to its reflective portions , wo should cstcom it a really valuable hook to place iu tho hands of young porsoiw who cannot bo supposed qualified for the attack or digestion of tho comparatively hoavy treatises ut
Gubbins and Norton , but who may find a good deal of useful knowledge in captivating guise scattered through the pages of the " Wounded Officer . "
The New El Dorado. The Kexo 7li Dorado; ...
THE NEW EL DORADO . The Kexo 7 LI Dorado ; or , British Columbia . ByKinah an Cormvallis . T . C . Newby . The tide of belief that the vast territory between the Rocky Mountains and Vancouver's Island is a land full of promise to British emigrants , is just now setting in very strongly . Making every allowance for the extra avidity with which the public seized the faith in the new El Dorado after the discovery that its advantages had been much underrated , if not suppressed , by the Hudson ' s Bay Corporation , there is yet much reason for Dunking that its yield will surpass those of Australia and California , " and that it will be found in other respects more suitable
than they arc for colonisation . It is not improbably destined , moreover , ( o take a much more prominent position iu the future history of" the world ; for the attention of many enterprising men is already turned to the solution by . its means of the ancient problem of a north-west road to ihe glorious Enst . We may hardly look for so grand a result , during the official life of one man or one administration ; but it is no idle dream that if the spirited move of Sir Edward Lytton in erecting the colony be followed up in the like spirit , a coming generation may sec at Port Victoria , the capital of Vancouver ' s island , the . terminus of an
interoccauic railway , laid wholly on British ground , and avast entrepot forjhe traliic between Europe and Asia . We shall , however , endeavour strictly to confine ourselves in the present , notice to a brief review of that portion of the work before ; us ' -which professes to detail Mr . Cornwallis ' s personal adventures on a trip from Sail Francisco ami a point on flic Frazer river , 2 S 0 miles from Vort Victoria , and buck again to the former city . The natural advantages of the whole of British Columbia arc , he informs us , fully
equal , if not . superior , to those of Vancouver ' s Island , which arc already recognised . Its soil varies from a deep-black - vegetable ioam to a light-brown" loamy earth . It is well watered and well timbered , favouring the growth of cereals and fruit ; but those interested in emigration should observe this writer ' s statement , that although from tho middle of March to the middle of October the weather is serene and delightful , still , for the remainder of the year , the prevalent south and south-east winds bring almost Incessant rain , frequently accompanied by heavy thunder and lightning . -., „ ,, batch ol d
On the 20 t . li of April the first goseekers left San Francisco for tho new El . Dorado Up to the 20 th of June , ll . SUO had embarked . On the 21 st of the same month , the steamer Republic arrived from Fra / . or Kivor . On the 20 th ol June , the author sailed in tho steamer Cortes and arrived in Victoria on the sixth day . lie found the yellow " fever" raging strongly , and having purchased a monthly license of tho Hudson s Buy Company , for which ho paid at the rate ol 120 / . per annul ) ., started up tho Frazer llivcr , and arrived at Fort Hope , 100 miltss from Victoria , early on tuo morning of the second day . . . Here" he disembarked , armed with a geological shovel only , and a . pan for which he had ffivcu lour dollars . The banks of the vivcr were dotted wit i sands
miners , and gold glittered among tho , nn I , though our " green hand" contrived to realise newly sixteen dollars' worth of gold in throo hours , ho soon learned that this was a trilling yiold , and , being admitted into the digging fraternity , sal , to work m earnest . A canoe was bought , and a party staiicu lor the upper waters . Durnig tho journey Ihuy I to stem rapids , aud sometimes to carry their tinu vessel overland . They gathered abundance oi ffow , and on ono occasion , while : ashore for six hours , loiu u that each of the party had realised from lorty-cignc to eighty dollars j but the mania was for nrfvanciUn , for tho minors had learned by experience that , whatever the yield might be , it was sure to 'I ,, , greater higher up . They passed ll'O'W ^ fV ? a portngo , aided by tho Indians , and noticed thai their impression of tho thickly wooded n « itu o ot *! . ~~ .... « . » , U .. A lwr . ii ni-ivii ' innilS . foi " U DCll / Ol UCUO
„ merely flanked the wntor-mdo , beyond \ vlnoh deeply gmssed prairie land stretched for several miles . Sounded to the westward by lofty forest trow , « "J I . o tho north by tho ovortoweruiff ™ 0 llllt » , * ' J J open to the south , and reaching iarthor than tuo oyo could carry . " . . .. m . They were now two hundred and oighty nuns
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1858, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06111858/page/12/
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