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Bay question by Parliament , -the intense interest already created by the foundation of the new colony and the recent correspondence from both San Eranciscoand Victoria , have created a desire for information that Mr . Hazlitt ' s able little compilation will in a great measure supply . He lias traced the history of British Columbia , 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 drawn 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 4-2 ° to Latitude 5-1 ° , derived from * the Trading Lists of the Hudson ' s Bay Company , and from the best obtainable Information , " have afforded him ample population statistics ; and from these authors , Mr . M'Lean , and Mr . Dunn , he Las culled a most interesting . memoir upon the Indian population . He has reprinted , by pel-mission , ihe celebrated June letters of the Times correspondent at San Francisco , from . whom first the English public obtained a lifelike account of the new the
and a disquisition upon the interoeeanic railway and telegraph projects , also extracted from the Times , but more likely to be available and of use in 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 the Hudson ' s I 3 ay Company , who ( teste , Governor Douglas ) have for several years had evidence of the 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 has induced them to break the covenant to of which
colonise , on the religious observance they might , perhaps , have founded some plea for consideration . The 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 by 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 opening 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 Pacilip may be but one step in the career of steady progress by which her Majesty ' s dominions in IN'orth America may 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 ma-v 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 .
El Dorado , the trials and troubles of 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 land flowing" ( in possibility , of course ) " with milk and honey . " To use the words of the Times despatch : — " ' Everything is redolent of Frazer River : the boxes and cases at all the doors have it painted on them—no one speaks of anything else . Wages have-jumped to-day from 4 dols . to 7 dols . in consequence of it . The editor of the Bute ltecord , 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 meatdrink , and apparel . ' "
, Mr , Hazlitt has added greatly _ to the value of his work by largely availing himself of the Description of Vancouver Island by its first colonist , Colonel W . Colquhoun 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 . Routledge , 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 for 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 ol the world , and herrings are so numerous as to be caught by the natives with a sort of rake , or long stiolc , with crooked nails fastened to it . He sneaks confidently of the future of the collieries , which had already exported , when he wrote , about 2000 tons to San FranciscOi This sold at twonty-eight dollars per ton , and is a good deal , according to the Hon . Charles Fitzwillinm , M . P ., like tho 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 . Ho oeheves them—anomalous though it may seemafter an experience of years , to be without religion j and that " for some inscrutably wiso purposo the Almighty Ruler of the Universe has decreed that they shall fulfil the daily courso of their lives with tho law of nature for their moral code , and with no
higher motive of action than that which is furnished by the impulses of instinct . " They are grout gamblers , he says , and will stake their blankets , their canoes , and even their wives , on tho hazard of tho turning up of ono side or other of a piece of cut wood , which is their die . Their colour is a dull reddish brown , like that of a dirty copper kettlo , and tho features of both sexes arc very muoh disfigured by tho singular custom prevalent among them of flattening Their heads .
The volume also is enriched by a reprint of the July despatch of a San Frnudisco correspondent o'f the Times , w \\ o visited Vancouver ' s Island in June , 1858 , a contribution of llio utmost praotioal utility to all who intend emigrating or take interest in any intending emigrants . It concludes very properly -with some handy notes upon " Tho Way Author /
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MY ESCAPE FROM THE MUTINIES IN OUDIL 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 be treated . When we found , on glancing through it , 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 ot recent stirring events in India , we 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 ho describes himself , has publicly owned that his performance is a compilation and a fiction 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 the natural , yet withal adroit , manner in which lie has woven his fabric His materials consist of military reminiscences of tho Sikh war ; many usual incidents of a regulation modern society novel j some startling adventures , almost bordering upon tho fabulous , supposed to have boon gone through by some fugitivo officers from Mocrut ; and lastly a good deal of
Gubbins and Norton , but who may find a good deal of useful knowledge in captivating guise scattered through the pages of the " Wounded Officer . "
sound and apparently oarnost criticism upon Anglo-Indian affairs . Tho latter is singularly coincident in many respects with that of tho moro serious writers who have preceded tho author j but still it is fair to say that , upon military points especially , it bears tho stamp of genuineness . Wo rogrot ; not to have at our present disposal space for a ro ' sumd of the story , or for extracting , as wo oould wish , tho stirring descriptions of Chiliimwalla , tho Meorut massacre , or the adventures of the fugitives among Mio hills j but \ Ve can cordially recommend tho work in its entirety as ono of tho most agreeable of its class . Reference boing had moreover , to its rolleolivo portions , wo should estcom it a really valuablo liook to place hi tlio linnds of young porsons who cannot be supposed qualified for tho attack or digestion of tho comparatively heavy treatises c €
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' THE NEW EL DORADO . The New FA Dwudo ; or , British Columbia . B yKinalian Cornwallis . 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 t . o 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 thinking 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 , to take a much more prominent position in 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 the glorious East . 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 bo followed up in the like spirit , a coming general ion may sec at Port Victoria , the capital of Vancouver ' s Island , the terminus of an iuteroccanic railway , laid wholly on British , ground , and a . vast entrepot for J he 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 uswhichprofcss . es to detail Mr . Gornwallis ' s ' personal adventures on a
trip from San Francisco and a point on . the Frazer river , 2 S 0 miles from Port Victoria , and back a . tjain to the former city . The natural advantages of'the whole of British " Columbia arc , he informs us , fully equal , if not superior , to t hose of Vancouver ' s Island , which'are-already recognised . Us soil varies from a deep-black vegetable ioam to a li < rht-bro \ vn loamy earth . It is well watered and well tiiiibcrcc . l , favouriiu _ ' the growth of cereals and fruit ; but those interested in emigration should observe this writer ' s statement , that although from the -middle of March to the is and de
middle of October the weather serene - lightful , still , for the renmimlor of the year , the prevalent south and south-east winds bring almost incessant rain , frequently accompanied by heavy thuiulcr and lightning . ., On the 20 tli ' of April the first batch of go dseekcrs left San Francisco for the new El Dorado . Up to the 20 l . li of June , H . SOO had embarked . On the 2 . 1 st of the same month , the steamer hepublic arrived from LYa / , er Itiver . On the 20 th ot June , the author sailed in the steamer Cortes and arrived in Victoria on the sixth day . He found the
yellow " fever" raging strongly , and haying purchased a monthly license of the Hudson ' s Bay Company , for which ho paid at the rate ot itW . pej annum , started up the Eraser Kivor , and arrived at Fort Hope , 100 miles from Victoria , early on the morning of the second day . . , Hero he cliscmbarkod , armed with a geological shovel only , and a pan for which he had given ioui dollars . The banks of tho river wcro dotted will minors , and gold glittered among the sands , nun , though our " grocn hand" contrived to realise ncaiiy sixteen dollars' worth of gold in throe hours , no soon learned that this was a trifling yield , and , boiug admitted into the digging fruku-iui y , set to- wort , m
earnest . A canoe was uougm , mm " l "" v , " v . Tj for the upper waters . During tho journey they Mw to stem rapids , and sometimes to curry then" "wu vessel overland . They gathered abundance ol go a , and on oneoccnsion , \ vhii « nslioro for si * hours , iou « that each of tho party had realised from iorly-cfff" * to eighty dollars ; but tho mania was lor »«™ "< V for tho minors had loarncd by experience that , \\ a - ever the yield might bo , it was sure tg bo sun greater higher up . They passed the upper lulls by h portage , aided by tho Indiana , and noticcc that their impression of the tliiokly wooded not «» o jj tho country had boon erroneous , for " ft bd ( , o merely flanked l , ho watqr . aido , boypnd . winch dooniy grassed prairio land stretched , lor several ipiAoS j Eomidod to the westward by lofty iorcst trow , g to tho north by tho ovortoworing inounta us , y open to tho south , and reaching larthor than tno cyo could oarry . " , . , . : i They wore now two hundred and eighty nmts
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1188 T HE LEA DEE . [ No ^ . 4 i 50 ? November 6 , 1 S 58 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1858, page 1188, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2267/page/12/
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