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 ROBERT ERNEST COWAN
 
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 OF THE 
 
 IRo^al lEuGineevs in British Columbia 
 
 1858 to 1863. 
 
 HIS HONOUR FREDERIC W. HOWAY 
 
 JUDGE OF THE COUNTY COURT OF WESTMINSTER. 
 
 An Address delivered before the Art Historical and Scientific Association of Vancouver 
 
 on 9th February, 1909. 
 
 VICTORIA, B. C. : 
 Printed liy Richard Wolpinden, I. SO. , V.D., Printer to the Kiog'8 Most Exoellent Uajesty. 
 
 1910. 
 
 • '.. -.•
 
 CO 
 
 
 ^•?5 
 
 FOREWORD. 
 
 Mj' good friend Judge Howay has been kind enough to ask me to subscribe 
 a few ititroductory lines to his excellent lecture on the pioneer work of the 
 Sappers and Miners in British Columbia, and it is ivith pleasure indeed 
 that I readily comply with his request. 
 
 An early recollection of the members of the corps who remained in British 
 Cohnnbia after the }nain body had returned to England bririgs to mind names 
 of many who have passed away — ivhose descendants arc now prominent in the 
 social and commercial life of the Province — as uvll as of those who still remain 
 with us, notably in this instance Colonel Wolfenden , who for upwards of 
 forty-seven years has efficiently filled the position of King's Printer in British 
 Columbia. 
 
 fudge Howay's contribution to perhaps the most important event in con- 
 ^ nection with the establishment of civil gover-nrnent on the mainland of the 
 Province will pr ove a most valuable addition to the authentic literature relat- 
 ing to the early history of this country. 
 
 The achievement of the officers and men of the corps will ever remain as a 
 permanent factor in the development and material prosperity of British 
 Columbia , and should rank as a work worthy of the highest traditions of the 
 Royal Engineers. 
 
 RICHARD McBRIDE. 
 
 Prime Minister's Office, Victoria, B. C, 
 March zist, igio. 

 
 ^he Jlogal ^nigmeer 
 
 5 
 
 ^»>IIT<^ 
 
 British Sclumbi;^. 
 
 THE ROYAL ENGINEERS. 
 
 IN the formation of the Colony of British Cohim- 
 bia, the doctrine of evolution had neither place 
 nor part. In the spring of the year 1858 the mag- 
 netic lure of the gold drew into the amorphous 
 territory called New Caledonia a horde of reckless 
 fortune-hunters, " from the world's four corners 
 blown." 
 
 The first contingent of 450 miners arrived in 
 Victoria on the 25th April, 1858. Reporting this 
 event, Governor Douglas said: "They are repre- 
 sented as being with some exceptions a specimen 
 of the worst of the population of San Francisco — 
 the very dregs, in fact, of society." Yet he admits 
 that they were quiet and orderly during their stay 
 there ; and we know that some of our best respected 
 and most esteemed citizens came in that early rush. 
 
 In the fortnight between the 5th and the 20th of 
 June there arrived in Victoria from San Francisco 
 the steamers Republic, Commodore, Pamvna, Cortec, 
 and Santa Cruz; the ships Gcorgina and William 
 Berry; the barques Gold Hunter, Adelaide, Live 
 Yankee, and Madonna; the schooners Guilictta, Kos- 
 suth, and Osprcy; and the sloop Curleiv. And all of 
 them loaded to the gunwales with eager adventur- 
 ers. On the 27th June the Republie returned with 
 800; on the 1st July the Sierra Nevada landed 1,900; 
 and on the 8th July the Orizaba and Corlez landed 
 2,800 more. 
 
 By every then known mode of conveyance, on 
 land and water, " this motley inundation of immi- 
 grant diggers," as Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton (after- 
 wards Lord Lytton) described it, poured into the 
 unorganised territory, startling with a rude awaken- 
 
 ing the slumberous forts of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
 pany, until by the middle of July the number ex- 
 ceeded 30,000. As the Rev. R. C. Lundin Brown 
 says : " Never in the migrations of men had there 
 been seen such a rush, so sudden and so vast." 
 
 The mainland of British Columbia, comprising 
 the territory referred to as New Caledonia, then 
 held by the Hudson's Bay Company under its exclu- 
 sive licence of trade, still lay wrapped in the mantle 
 of original silence. About a score of forts, or trad- 
 ing posts, of the Company, separated in most 
 instances by hundreds of miles, were the only 
 evidences of civilisation ; hunting, trapping, and 
 trading, the only occupations; beaver-skins, the 
 only money; the natural waterways, the Indian, 
 and brigade trails, the only means of communica- 
 tion ; semblance of government there was none ; 
 and the law of the club and the fang was the arbiter 
 in all disputes. 
 
 In a moment all this was completely changed. 
 The gathering cry had been cried; the bounden 
 were obeying and responding in thousands to the 
 call of the " yellow root of evil." 
 
 Instantly an enormous burden was thrown upon 
 the " mother of nations." This great inrusii called 
 for the formation of civil government ; the enforce- 
 ment of law and order; the raising and collection 
 of revenue; the examination, exploration, and 
 development of the country; the construction of 
 roads, trails, and bridges ; and all the thousand-and- 
 one things which are necessary to change a wilder- 
 ness into the abode of civilised and law-abiding 
 people. And all of these things to be done, not 
 leisurely, but immediately; not separately, but 
 jointly; not consecutively, but concurrently.
 
 THE ROYAL ENGINEERS 
 
 James Douglas, the Governor of Vancouver 
 Island, and the head of the Hudson's Bay Company 
 west of the Rockies, being the nearest representa- 
 tive of the Crown, was by letter from Sir Edward 
 Bulwer Lytton, the Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies, dated i6th July, 1858, " authorised under 
 the necessity of the case " to perform the duties of 
 Governor of the unorganised territory, pending the 
 passage of the organic Act, and his own formal and 
 legal appointment as Governor. 
 
 Douglas, from a lad, had been accustomed to the 
 natives, knew their habits, their manners, their lines 
 of thought and of action, and understood the 
 motives and impulses which prompted their con- 
 duct ; but these foreign gold-seekers, these wild and 
 adventurous spirits, many of whom brought un- 
 savoury reputations from California, and whose 
 sympathies, as he himself said in his letters to the 
 Secretary of State, were decidedly anti-British— 
 these he looked upon with suspicion and dismay. 
 The inrush of land-seekers had robbed the British 
 Crown of the fertile fields of Oregon; this inrush 
 of gold-seekers might rob it of New Caledonia. 
 With such thoughts in his mind he felt the necessity 
 of a "power behind the throne." Writing to Sir E. 
 . B. Lytton on the 19th August, he says: "The affairs 
 of Government might be carried on smoothly with 
 even a single company of infantry; but at present 
 I must, under Providence, depend in a great 
 measure on personal influence and management — a 
 position inconsistent with the dignity of the Queen's 
 Government." 
 
 Much the same thought appears to have been in 
 the mind of Sir E. B. Lytton, for in introducing into 
 the House of Commons, on the 8th July, 1858, the 
 Act to provide for the government of New Cale- 
 donia, he spoke of " the necessity of an immediate 
 measure to secure this promising and noble terri- 
 tory from becoming the scene of turbulent disorder, 
 and to place over the fierce passions which spring 
 from the hunger of gold the restraints of established 
 law." This abstract statement took form in a letter 
 which he wrote a few days later to Governor 
 Douglas, in which he says that he intends " sending 
 to British Columbia by the earliest opportunity an 
 officer of Royal Engineers (probably a field officer 
 with two or three subalterns) and a company of 
 Sappers and Miners, made up of 150 non-commis- 
 sioned officers and men." 
 
 In a letter of 31st July, 1858, he explains to him 
 his views as to the duties of the Royal Engineers. 
 " It will devolve upon them " he says, " to survey 
 those parts of the country which may be considered 
 most suitable for settlement, to mark out allotments 
 of land for public purposes, to suggest a site for the 
 seat of Government, to point out where roads 
 should be made, and to render you such assistance 
 as may be in their power. . . . This force," he 
 adds, " is sent for scientific and practical purposes, 
 
 and not solely for military objects. As little dis- 
 play as possible should therefore be made of it." 
 
 Sir E. B. Lytton, in a very lengthy letter written 
 to Governor Douglas on the i6th October, 1858, 
 goes into the reasons which moved him to select the 
 Royal Engineers for this work. He says : — 
 
 " The superior discipline and intelligence of this 
 force, which afford ground for expecting that they 
 will be far less likely than ordinary soldiers of the 
 line to yield to the temptation to desertion offered 
 by the goldfields, and their capacity at once to pro- 
 vide for themselves in a country without habitation, 
 appear to me to render them especially suited for 
 this duty ; whilst by their services as pioneers in the 
 work of civilisation, in opening up the resources of 
 the country, by the construction of roads and 
 bridges, in laying the foundations of a future city or 
 seaport, and in carrying out the numerous engineer- 
 ing works which in the earlier stages of colonisa- 
 tion are so essential to the progress and welfare of 
 the community, they will probably not only be pre- 
 served from the idleness which might corrupt the 
 discipline of ordinary soldiers, but establish them- 
 selves in the popular good-will of the emigrants by 
 the civil benefits it will be in the regular nature of 
 their occupation to confer." 
 
 The detachment was sent out in three principal 
 sections : First, Captain Parsons and twenty men ; 
 second, Captain Grant and twelve men; third. Cap- 
 tain Luard and the main body. Those accompany- 
 ing Captain Parsons were principally surveyors; 
 those accompanying Captain Grant, principally car- 
 penters. These two bodies came by way of Pana- 
 ma, leaving England on the 2nd and 17th Septem- 
 ber, 1858. Colonel Moody, the commanding officer, 
 also came by that route, leaving England on the 
 Asia on 30th October, 1858. Captain Parsons and 
 his men arrived at Victoria on 29th October; Cap- 
 tain Grant and his men arrived on 8th November; 
 and Colonel Moody, accompanied by his wife and 
 children, arrived at Victoria on Christmas Day, 
 1858. 
 
 Captain Grant's party, although the second to 
 reach Victoria, was the first to enter British Colum- 
 bia. They were embarked on the Beaver on the 
 14th November, 1858, and sent forward to Fort 
 Langley. Captain Parsons's party accompanied 
 Governor Douglas and the other officials of the new 
 colony of British Columbia who sailed from Vic- 
 toria for Fort Langley on the i6th November in H. 
 M. S. Satellite. At Point Roberts the officials and 
 their bodyguard were transferred to the Hudson's 
 Bay Company's steamers Beaver and Otter, arriving 
 at Langley on the i8th November. There they 
 were received in approved military form by Captain 
 Grant's party. These two sections of the Royal 
 Engineers took part in the ceremonies in connection 
 with the official birth of the Colony of British 
 Columbia, which occurred at Fort Langley on the 
 following day.
 
 IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
 
 The third section, comprising the main body, 
 sailed from Gravesend on the loth October, 1858, 
 and from the Downs a week later, in the clipper 
 ship Thames City, 557 tons, commanded by Captain 
 Glover. This section consisted of two subalterns 
 (Lieutenants A. R. Lempriere and H. S. Palmer), 
 one staff-assistant surgeon (J. V. Seddall), 118 
 non-commissioned officers and men, 31 women, and 
 34 children, under the command of Captain H. R. 
 Luard, R. E. 
 
 A portion of the stores and provisions for the 
 detachment was sent out in the barque Briscis, 
 which sailed from the Downs on 27th October, 
 1858. It had been intended to send on her four 
 married men of the detachment under Corporal 
 William Hall, but when the vessel was loaded it 
 was found that there was not sufficient accommoda- 
 tion for them. This was fortunate, as the Briscis 
 was burned at sea, and the passengers and crew 
 suffered many hardships before reaching safety. 
 The remainder of the stores and provisions was 
 sent out on the ship Euphrates, which sailed from 
 London Docks on the 3rd January, 1859, and arrived 
 at Victoria on the 27th June, 1859. On her came 
 the four married men and their families above 
 alluded to — Sergeant Rylatt, the storekeeper and 
 his wife, and Mrs. James Keary and her infant 
 son, W. H. Keary, the present Mayor of New 
 Westminster. 
 
 The interest which Sir E. B. Lytton took in the 
 formation of the colony and in all that made for its 
 solid foundation is shown by the care and attention 
 he gave to the selection and proper fitting out of the 
 Royal Engineers. He believed in the necessity for 
 proper literary surroundings, and the men of the 
 detachment having raised a fund for the purchase 
 of a library, he undertook to select it personally. 
 The result was a small but complete library, which 
 after the disbanding of the Engineers in 1863 was 
 transferred to the Mechanics' Institute in New 
 Westminster, and formed the nucleus of the first 
 public library in the colony. A description of this 
 library as it existed some years afterwards will be 
 found in Morley Roberts's " Western Avernus." 
 When Captain Parsons was leaving on the La Plata, 
 Sir E. B. Lytton went on board and addressed the 
 party at some length, impressing on them the inter- 
 est he felt in their welfare, and pointing out how 
 much the ultimate success of the new colony 
 depended on the exertions of themselves and their 
 comrades. We must never forget — indeed, it should 
 be a pleasure to us to remember — that the author of 
 the " Last Days of Pompeii " was the father of the 
 Colony of British Columbia. Of it, he was, he said, 
 " most proud "; and in September, 1861, in address- 
 ing the electors of Hertford, whom he represented in 
 the House of Commons, he expressed the hope that 
 " in future generations his name might be remem- 
 bered in connection with the commencement of a 
 colony destined, he believed, to be the wealthiest of 
 all that now speak our language." 
 
 It must not be thought that the detachment sent 
 to British Columbia was simply one of tiie forty 
 companies into which the Royal Engineers were 
 then divided. No greater mistake could be made. 
 It was a picked body— selected out of a large num- 
 ber of volunteers for this service, and chosen with 
 the view of having included in their ranks every 
 trade, profession, and calling which might be useful 
 in the circumstances of a colony springing so sud- 
 denly into existence as British Columbia had done. 
 And although it is called a detachment of the Royal 
 Engineers, there were four men in it who did not 
 belong to the Royal Engineers at all— namely, two 
 of the Royal Artillery and two of the 15th Hussars- 
 included for the purpose of forming the nucleus of 
 an artillery corps or a cavalry corps should the 
 exigencies of the case so require. 
 
 Upon the arrival of Captain Parsons's and Cap- 
 tain Grant's parties at Fort Langley, they were sent 
 to New Langley, or Derby, for the purpose of erect- 
 ing the necessary buildings in which the force 
 should be housed. In the interval the Hudson's 
 Bay Company's brigantine Recovery was pressed 
 into service as a place of lodgment for them. 
 
 The main body, as I have stated, left England on 
 the 17th October, 1858. Although in a clipper ship, 
 the long voyage around the Horn occupied over six 
 months — anchor not being dropped in Esquimalt 
 Harbour until the 12th April, 1859. The only calls 
 made on the way were at the Falkland Islands, of 
 which Colonel Moody had at one time been Gover- 
 nor, and at Valparaiso. 
 
 THE EMIGRANT SOLDIERS' GAZETTE. 
 
 Chief amongst the means of whiling away the 
 dull monotony of the voyage was the preparation 
 and presentation of a paper, " The Emigrant 
 Soldiers' Gazette and Cape Horn Chronicle." This 
 novel paper was edited by that versatile genius 
 Second Corporal Charles Sinnett, assisted by 
 Lieutenant H. S. Palmer, and " published at 
 the Editor's Office, Starboard Front Cabin, 
 Thames City." It was read by Captain Luard 
 to the assembled company every Saturday night. 
 Each little occurrence on board, all births and 
 deaths (there were no marriages), the natural his- 
 tory of the voyage, the records of the days' runs, 
 jokes, gags, and riddles, original and selected items, 
 both of prose and poetry, fill its columns. It may 
 be interesting to note that among the children born 
 on the voyage was a son of Sapper Linn, after 
 whom Linn Creek, on the northern side of Vancou- 
 ver Harbour, is named ; a daughter of Sergeant 
 Jonathan Morey, whose very name (Marina) indi- 
 cated that she was born upon the sea ; a son of 
 Sapper Murray, and a son of Sapper Walsh. Per- 
 haps I may be pardoned for introducing a specimen 
 of a home-made poetic effusion, entitled " Hutlili- 
 caut's Wedding," sung by Corporal Sinnett at a 
 theatrical entertainment on 4th March, 1859: —
 
 THE ROYAL ENGINEERS 
 
 I'll sing ye lads a Falkland sang, 
 Wi' thumpin' chorus loud and lang, 
 I'll tell ye o' the gleesom' thrang 
 
 At Huthlicaut's braw weddin' O. 
 The first that cam' was Geordie Cann, 
 Then Osment too, and Wolfenden, 
 Wi' Jock McMurphy, Dick Bridgeman, 
 
 Cam' skippin' to the weddin' O. 
 There was Morey too, and Rogerson, 
 And Lindsay cam' to join the fun, 
 An' Smith cam' ere the feast begun. 
 
 At Huthlicaut's braw weddin' O. 
 There was Normansell and blithe Woodcock, 
 And Launders came to join the flock, 
 An' Sinnett wi' his dirty smock, 
 
 Gid faith ! he marred that weddin' O. 
 
 The proper names, it will be observed, are worked 
 
 into the metre in a manner worthy of a Macaulay. 
 
 After filling four more verses with an enumeration 
 
 of the other persons present, the alleged poet goes 
 
 on to describe the good things. The tables groaned, 
 
 he says, 
 
 Wi' haggises an' fine kale soups, 
 Wi' brandies, wines, and mint-juleps, 
 Wi' gid brown ale full mony stoups. 
 
 At Huthlicaut's braw weddin' O. 
 Wi' ham, an' beef, an' mutton too, 
 Wi' Athol brose an' Irish stew, 
 Wi' pies an' pasties, not a few. 
 
 At Huthlicaut's braw weddin' O. 
 
 The original manuscript of the paper, in Sinnett's 
 own handwriting, is preserved in the archives of the 
 Province, and was no doubt seen by many who 
 viewed the Simon Fraser exhibit at the Exhibition 
 at New Westminster last year. Soon after the 
 arrival of the corps at New Westminster it was 
 published by the late Hon. John Robson, then editor 
 of the " Columbian." This edition being unobtain- 
 able, the Provincial Government, in 1907, reprinted 
 the paper in a most attractive and elaborate style, 
 embellishing the work with beautiful photogravures 
 of the officers of the corps. 
 
 I have referred at length to this paper not only on 
 account of its intrinsic merit and its interest as an 
 historical document relating to this Province, but 
 also and more especially because a perusal of it will 
 show far better than any words of mine the versatile 
 abilities of the members of the corps. 
 
 By the time Colonel Moody arrived, the carpenter 
 force, which had been at work since the latter part 
 of November, had constructed at New Langley, or 
 Derby, quite a number of necessary military build- 
 ings. Remembering that his instructions were to 
 suggest a site for the seat of Government, Colonel 
 Moody proceeded to examine into the suitability of 
 New Langley, or Derby, then the de facto capital. 
 On sanitary, on commercial, on military, and on 
 political grounds, the Colonel unhesitatingly con- 
 demned that spot, and chose instead the site upon 
 which the City of New Westminster now stands. 
 
 The position selected for the Royal Engineer 
 camp lay at the junction of the Brunette and the 
 Fraser — the spot upon which the Provincial Peni- 
 tentiary now stands. To this place Captain Par- 
 sons's and Captain Grant's parties were removed 
 early in March, 1859. 
 
 THE NED McGOWAN "WAR." 
 
 Before the removal from New Langley and while 
 the Royal Engineers consisted only of Captain Par- 
 sons's and Captain Grant's contingents, they were 
 called upon for the first military service performed 
 in the colony. The incident is trivial, but may be 
 interesting, as showing how high treason may grow 
 out of a common assault. 
 
 Know, then, that at Yale and at Hill's Bar, two 
 miles below, were resident two magistrates, Whan- 
 nell and Perrier, each bitterly jealous of the other. 
 On Christmas Day, 1858 — by the way, the first 
 Christmas in British Columbia — a miner, Farrell, a 
 resident of Hill's Bar, went up to Yale, imbibed too 
 freely, and strolling along its one street, happened 
 to see a negro, Dickson, standing at the door of his 
 barber-shop. Feeling, with Sir Anthony Absolute, 
 that he should not breathe the same air, or use the 
 same light, or enter the same hemisphere with him, 
 he committed a serious and unprovoked assault on 
 the poor negro. News of his conduct reached the 
 Bar, and the Hill's Bar magistrate, on the ground 
 that Farrell resided there, and should have got in- 
 toxicated at home, following the maxim, possibly, 
 that " equity looks on that as done which ought to 
 have been done," concluded that he would investi- 
 gate the affair, although it had not occurred in his 
 jurisdiction, but in the jurisdiction of the Yale 
 magistrate, and sent his constable with a warrant 
 to Yale to arrest the offender. But before the con- 
 stable arrived Farrell had been arrested by the Yale 
 authorities, and the former was himself arrested and 
 locked up for contempt of Court in daring to enter 
 Yale for such a purpose, which, the Yale magistrate 
 thought, reflected on his impartiality. This roused 
 the ire of the Hill's Bar magistrate. The celebrated 
 Ned McGowan was then a resident of the Bar. 
 Likely at his suggestion, for he had been a Judge in 
 California, a warrant was issued by the Hill's Bar 
 magistrate for the arrest of the Yale magistrate and 
 his constable for contempt in arresting the Hill's 
 Bar constable. Armed therewith, and accompanied 
 by a posse coinitatits from the Bar, McGowan entered 
 the town of Yale, arrested the Yale magistrate and 
 his constable, opened the gaol, released the Hill's 
 Bar constable, and took possession of the " bone of 
 contention " — to wit, the original offender. When 
 the matter came before the Hill's Bar magistrate, 
 heavy fines were imposed — especially upon the 
 brother magistrate for contempt of Court. 
 
 The Yale magistrate, highly incensed, sent word 
 to Governor Douglas that the notorious Ned Mc- 
 Gowan, the renegade of renegades, had been prison- 
 breaking at Yale, and was at the bottom of a con- 
 spiracy to overturn British power in the colony, and 
 annex it to the United States. 
 
 The Governor called upon Colonel Moody for 
 assistance to put down this supposed rebellion. 
 Twenty-five sappers under Captain Grant and a 
 party of blue-jackets and marines were embarked
 
 IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
 
 for Yale; a field-piece was taken along; and that 
 there might be no delay in trying the traitors when 
 caught, Chief Justice Begbie accompanied the ex- 
 pedition. 
 
 Of course, as soon as the party reached Yale the 
 real truth became known. Lack of time prevents 
 entering into all the details of this opera bouflfe, 
 which may be found in Lieutenant Mayne's interest- 
 ing volume. McGowan entered into an elaborate 
 and successful defence of his conduct in the squab- 
 ble over magisterial dignity; took the Chief Justice 
 and the officers to Hill's Bar, showed them how to 
 wash " dirt," and invited them to a champagne 
 lunch in his hut. Mayne says : " Whatever opinion 
 the Viligance Committee of San Francisco may 
 entertain of these gentlemen (McGowan and his 
 friends), I, speaking as I found them, can only say 
 that, all things considered, I have rarely lunched 
 with a better spoken, pleasanter party." 
 
 The testy magistrates both lost their commis- 
 sions; the Royal Engineers had an outing; the 
 colony paid the expenses — and heavy expenses they 
 were; and Ned McGowan's war, as the incident was 
 named, went on record as being even more bloodless 
 than the ordinary South American revolution or 
 the celebrated Battle of the Spurs. 
 
 THE SAN JUAN TROUBLE. 
 
 Later in the summer of 1859 occurred the San 
 Juan difficulty, and although not in exact chrono- 
 logical sequence, this seems a suitable place to men- 
 tion it, so as to have side by side the two occasions 
 in which the Royal Engineers performed military 
 duties. 
 
 The question of the ownership of San Juan Island 
 had been in difiference between Great Britain and 
 the United States from about 1854, but that was 
 quite a different matter from the " mimic war " 
 which developed on the island in July, 1859. Like 
 the trouble just related, the San Juan imbroglio 
 originated in a very trifling incident. 
 
 On San Juan Island the Hudson's Bay Company 
 had a farm, and on the farm they had an historic 
 hog. One L. A. Cutler was a resident of the island 
 and he had a potato patch. About the 15th June, 
 1859, this hog trespassed on the potato patch and 
 did damage. Mr. Cutler, irate, shot it. The com- 
 pany was wroth, and claimed exorbitant damages 
 for the loss of the hog. You know that nothing 
 increases the value of an animal like an accident to 
 it. It is said that the company threatened to take 
 Cutler to Victoria for trial. 
 
 Now at this time Brigadier-General W. S. Har- 
 ney, in command of the United States Military 
 Department of Oregon — Dcus ex machina — visits San 
 Juan, and in response to a request from the 
 " American citizens on the Island of San Juan " 
 orders a company of troops under Captain Pickett 
 
 to occupy the island for their protection against 
 interference by the British authorities on Vancou- 
 ver Island and the Hudson's Bay Company. Gen- 
 eral Harney's brusque and almost insulting letter to 
 this eflfect is reproduced in Viscount Milton's San 
 Juan Water Boundary, at page 272. 
 
 Governor Douglas protested against this occupa- 
 tion. He did more than protest. He called upon 
 Colonel Moody for military assistance. As the 
 greater portion of the Royal Engineers was then 
 scattered over the colony. Colonel Moody could 
 only send forty-four of the Royal Marines who 
 happened to be then at New Westminster, but he 
 supplemented these with fifteen of the Royal Engi- 
 neers. 
 
 In a letter to Governor Douglas dated the 31st 
 July, 1859, Colonel Moody states his reasons for 
 doing this. He says : — 
 
 " As the number of Marines is so few, and as it is 
 not improbable field intrenchments may have to be 
 formed, I have taken on myself to add to the above 
 force Lieutenant Lempriere, R. E., and fourteen 
 non-commissioned officers and men of the Royal 
 Engineers." And in his instructions of the same 
 date to Lieutenant Lempriere, Colonel Moody says : 
 
 " Your party will take with them in addition to 
 the ordinary equipment: Revolvers, ammunition 
 for ditto, entrenching tools, carpenter's tools, 
 camp equipment, and such other stores and in such 
 quantities as may be ordered." 
 
 I am indebted to Lieut-Colonel Wolfenden, I. S. 
 O., V. D., for copies of the above letters. 
 
 Lieutenant Lempriere with his fourteen Royal 
 Engineers embarked on H. M. S. Plumper on the 
 1st August for service on the Island of San Juan, 
 where they formed part of the force on H. M. S. 
 Tribune, Captain G. Phipps Hornby. Colonel 
 Moody himself, as Commander-in-Chief of the Land 
 Forces of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 
 accompanied the expedition. Mr. T. C. Elliott, of 
 Walla Walla, Washington, has called my attention 
 to the issue of the Pioneer and Democrat of 12th 
 August, 1859, published at Olympia, in which the 
 following item appears : — 
 
 " H. B. M. ship Tribune lies with spring cables 
 and her guns double-shotted, broadside to the camp 
 of Captain Pickett ; her decks are covered with red- 
 coats, having on board 450 marines and some 180 
 sappers and miners." 
 
 The number of Royal Engineers is grossly 
 exaggerated; from 15 to 180 is certainly a long cry. 
 
 Governor Douglas's instructions were that Brit- 
 ish forces equal in number to the American troops 
 should be landed ; but although the entire American 
 strength on the island was only 66 (afterwards 
 increased to 461), while Rear-Admiral Baynes had 
 under his command five ships carrying 167 guns and
 
 THE ROYAL ENGINEERS 
 
 2,140 men, he contented himself with making a 
 demonstration of his force and with making a 
 suggestion of a joint occupation. Viscount Milton 
 tells us: "The Admiral was complimented by the 
 British Government for the line of conduct adopted 
 by him." It cannot be doubted that it was owing 
 to his moderate and dignified conduct that no 
 collision took place. It is not difficult to surmise 
 what the result of a landing of a British force 
 would have been. As Captain Pickett himself said 
 in a letter to headquarters dated 3rd August, 1859: 
 " They have a force so much superior to mine that 
 it will be merely a mouthful to them." 
 
 In September, Lieut.-General Winfield Scott, 
 Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army, 
 was sent out by the President to assume immediate 
 command of the United States forces on the Pacific 
 Coast. The knowledge that General Harney, who 
 was regarded as somewhat of a firebrand, was to be 
 superseded and that General Scott was coming to 
 arrange the matter, cooled the atmosphere ; and 
 when he arrived in October, 1859, all the British 
 vessels, except H. M. S. Satellite, had been with- 
 drawn from San Juan. 
 
 After an absence of about three months, Lieuten- 
 ant Lempriere and his party of Royal Engineers 
 returned to New Westminster, without having seen 
 any more of actual warfare than their brethren in 
 arms had seen in the Ned McGowan war. Of those 
 who were sent on this service three still survive — 
 Sergeant L. F. Bonson, Corporal William Hall, and 
 Sapper J. Musselwhite. 
 
 General Scott and Governor Douglas, after some 
 correspondence, agreed upon a plan of joint occupa- 
 tion, whereby each Government was ultimately 
 represented by a company of about sixty men. The 
 British troops were not landed on San Juan until 
 20th March, i860, when by command of Rear- 
 Admiral Baynes a detachment of Royal Marines 
 under Captain Bazalgette was disembarked on the 
 north point of the island. 
 
 It is a matter of common knowledge that this 
 joint occupation continued until 1872, when the 
 award of the Emperor of Germany, declaring the 
 island the property of the United States, was made. 
 
 1859. 
 
 On the arrival of the Thames City at Esquimalt on 
 April i2th, 1859, the main body of the Engineers 
 was immediately embarked on the old Elica Ander- 
 son and sent forward to its future home — the camp 
 I have mentioned, at Queensborough, as New West- 
 minster was then called. 
 
 Reporting to the Home authorities on April 25th, 
 1859, Governor Douglas says : " The Royal Engi- 
 neers have been all safely landed at Queensborough, 
 where they are now stationed." On their arrival, 
 owing to the change from New Langley, or Derby, 
 
 instead of finding their quarters ready for occupa- 
 tion, as they had expected, they found only a small 
 portion of the site of their camp cleared, and one 
 little log-hut erected. However, the Hudson's Bay 
 Company's old brigantine Rceovcry lay at anchor 
 before the spot, and as many as could do so found 
 accommodation aboard her, while the remainder 
 went out under canvas on the site of their future 
 home. 
 
 The summer of 1859 saw them busily engaged in 
 clearing the site of their camp, building the bar- 
 racks, married men's quarters, storehouses, offices, 
 and other necessary structures; surveying and lay- 
 ing out the City of New Westminster, and preparing 
 the necessary plans with all the neatness and 
 accuracy for which their draughtsmen were famous. 
 Some of Corporal Sinnett's and Corporal Launders's 
 plans prepared at this time are preserved in the 
 archives of the Province, and show work so exact 
 and so beautifully executed that it is difficult to 
 believe that they were done by hand. 
 
 Speaking of the site of the camp. Captain Barrett- 
 Lennard, who visited it in i860, says, in his book: 
 " About a mile higher up the river are the quarters 
 of the Royal Engineers, situated on a steep incline, 
 presenting a most picturesque coup d'ceil from which- 
 ever side it is approached, both on account of the 
 graceful high-pitched roofs of the buildings them- 
 selves, as well as the romantic character of the site 
 they occupy." 
 
 The crying necessity of the colony was a waggon 
 road to reach a point above the canyons of the 
 Lower Eraser. To meet this demand the first work 
 undertaken was the improvement of the communi- 
 cation between Douglas and Lillooet. During May 
 and June, 1859, Lieutenant Palmer surveyed the 
 road — a trail already existed — and later in the sum- 
 mer a party of almost a hundred men of the Royal 
 Engineers was employed in making more passable 
 the various stretches of land travel which separated 
 the series of lakes on that route. 
 
 With the same object in view. Lieutenant Lem- 
 priere and a small party explored from Hope up the 
 Coquihalla, thence along the south branch of Ander- 
 son River to Boston Bar, and along the left bank of 
 the Eraser to Lytton. On receiving their report 
 another party of the Engineers commenced the work 
 of making a trail along this route, which was com- 
 pleted by August, 1859. 
 
 During 1859, the Engineers surveyed, besides 
 New Westminster, the towns of Yale, Hope, and 
 Douglas ; and established at their camp an observa- 
 tory, settling its exact position as 49 deg. 12 min. 
 47 sec. North Latitude, and 122 deg. 53 min. 19 sec. 
 West Longitude. The transit used by them in this 
 observatory is still preserved by the Provincial 
 Government, and was shown with other relics at the 
 Simon Eraser Exhibition.
 
 I
 
 IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
 
 In this year the Engineers also built a trail from 
 New Westminster to Burrard Inlet, along the line 
 on which in 1861 they constructed the road, which 
 exists to-day, known as the North Road. 
 
 In September and October, 1859, Lieutenant Pal- 
 mer explored the country between Hope and the 
 Columbia River. The careful, systematic work of 
 the Engineers is well shown in his report of his 
 examination, which covers ten closely printed folio 
 pages containing topographical, geological, and 
 military information and remarks. 
 
 i860. 
 
 Upon the passage of the first Pre-emption Act on 
 the 4th January, i860, a demand for land at once 
 sprang up, and the survey department of the Engi- 
 neers was kept busy laying off the lands applied for. 
 While the country was being overrun with people 
 seeking chiefly the royal metals, yet that which 
 always and everywhere is the basis of stable condi- 
 tions and steady development — good agricultural 
 land — was not being overlooked by the far-seeing 
 ones. This demand necessitated the formation of a 
 drafting office and a record department. These 
 were also in charge of the Royal Engineers. The 
 Clerk of the Records was the late Corporal Alfred 
 R. Howse. 
 
 The Douglas-Lillooet route was much hampered 
 by the poor means of reaching Douglas, hence in 
 March, i860, a detachment of eighty men of the 
 corps under Captain Grant commenced the deepen- 
 ing of the channel through the shoal of the Harrison 
 River. This is the portion of that river which to- 
 day prevents its navigation, as it is only during a 
 freshet that sufficient depth of water can be found 
 on it to float the ordinary river steamer. When 
 driven from this work by the rising of the river in 
 June, Captain Grant changed the scene of his 
 labours and resumed work on the Douglas-Lillooet 
 Road, or rather on the twenty-eight-mile section 
 that separates Douglas from the Little Lillooet 
 Lake. " This road," says Captain Barrett-Lennard, 
 " as far as it was then finished, lay through a wild 
 rocky district ; on the left hand of it flowed the 
 Harrison, sometimes broad and shallow, brawling 
 over stones, sometimes deep and narrow, and rush- 
 ing through a gorge." By the end of October this 
 waggon road was practically completed to the 
 28-Mile House at Little Lillooet Lake. Reporting 
 to the Duke of Newcastle, Governor Douglas speaks 
 of it as " a work of magnitude and of the utmost 
 public utility which has been laid out and executed 
 by Captain Grant and a detachment of Royal Engi- 
 neers under his command with a degree of care and 
 professional ability reflecting the highest credit on 
 that active and indefatigable officer." 
 
 During the summer of i860. Sergeant McColl with 
 another detachment of the Engineers located the 
 trail from Hope towards the Similkameen as far as 
 the summit or punch-bowl, carrying it over an 
 
 elevation of 4,000 feet with no greater single grad- 
 ient than I foot in 12. Later in the summer of i860, 
 the Hon. Edgar Dewdney built along this route the 
 first trail from Hope to the Similkameen. 
 
 The trail from Yale to Spuzzum was built by 
 Powers and McRoberts in the summer of i860. 
 The old trail used by the Hudson's Bay Company 
 and by the early packers left the Eraser at Spuzzum, 
 and crossing a divide followed Yale Creek to the 
 town of Yale ; but this new one was built along the 
 course of the Eraser at a moderate elevation above 
 the river, following much the same line afterwards 
 adopted for the waggon road. Speaking of this 
 work. Governor Douglas, in a letter to the Secretary 
 of State for the Colonies, says: "The arduous part 
 of this undertaking — excavating the mountain near 
 Yale — was executed entirely by a detachment of the 
 Royal Engineers under Sergeant-Major George 
 Cann, and it has been completed in a manner highly 
 creditable to themselves and to the officers who 
 directed the operation." In this year, the Royal 
 Engineers also surveyed the sites of Lytton and 
 Lillooet. 
 
 Captain Parsons and a party of Royal Engineers 
 were engaged from the middle of June till the end of 
 the summer of i860 in making a reconnaissance of 
 the country adjacent to the Sumas and Chilliwack 
 Rivers. This work was done in connection with the 
 plan of the Governor for a waggon road from tide- 
 water to Yale ; it also had in view the ascertainment 
 of the feasibility of utilising the rich farming lands 
 of that locality. Indeed, whenever Governor Doug- 
 las wished information of any kind in reference to 
 the colony, he had only to turn to the Royal Engi- 
 neers and he could find men competent to undertake 
 the investigation ; thus, while on a tour through the 
 country in the fall of i860, not being satisfied 
 with the location of the existing trail from Pember- 
 ton to Lillooet, he sent out two exploring parties 
 under Sappers DuiTy and Breckenridge to examine 
 the neighbouring country with a view to obtaining 
 a more convenient route. Apparently no better 
 route could be obtained, as there is no record of the 
 route being changed. 
 
 1861. 
 
 We now come to the operations of the Engineers 
 during the year 1861. The Douglas-Lillooet Road 
 and the road from Hope to the Similkameen were 
 those upon which work was done. 
 
 On the former the Engineers still stuck to the 
 twenty-eight miles separating Douglas from Little 
 Lillooet Lake, which had been completed the pre- 
 vious year. On this portion was a hill — Gibraltar 
 Hill — very steep and difficult of access. A party of 
 the Engineers under Sergeant Bridgeman was em- 
 ployed during this summer in making a cut-off, 
 decreasing the gradients and generally improving 
 the road at this spot, and so well was the work done 
 that Sergeant Bridgeman was dubbed the " con-
 
 THE ROYAL ENGINEERS 
 
 queror of Gibraltar." Lieutenant Mayne, who 
 travelled over this road soon after its completion, 
 speaks of it as " a waggon road which would be no 
 discredit to many parts of England." 
 
 The work in the neighbourhood of Hope this year 
 consisted in commencing a road to the Similkameen. 
 This was in charge of the greatest builder of them 
 all— Captain Grant. The road did not follow the 
 exact line of the trail built the preceding year, 
 although it touched it here and there. By October, 
 Captain Grant with his party of eighty sappers had 
 completed the road to the Skagit Flats, twenty-five 
 miles from Hope. From that point to the Similka- 
 meen the Engineers simply widened the existing 
 trail. This latter work was divided into three sec- 
 tions : the first under the charge of Sergeant L. F. 
 Bonson; the second in charge of Corporal William 
 Hall ; the third in charge of the late Sergeant John 
 McMurphy. The intention of this work was to 
 improve the access to the diggings on Rock Creek 
 and the vicinity ; but when their glory waned before 
 the wondrous riches of Williams, Antler, and the 
 other creeks of Cariboo, the road was abandoned. 
 
 The success of the work done on the trail along 
 the Eraser from Yale led the Governor to consider 
 the possibility of a waggon road along that route to 
 Lytton. This necessitated a careful survey and 
 examination of those sheer and stupendous 
 shoulders of rock which confine the Eraser as in a 
 straight-jacket for miles along the Little Canyon 
 and the Black Canyon. To whom was this work of 
 examination to be intrusted? To none other than 
 our old friends the Royal Engineers. A party was 
 despatched to examine the route from Yale to Lyt- 
 ton and thence to Cook's Ferry, or Spence's Bridge, 
 as we now call it. Preserved in the archives of this 
 Province will be found the reconnaissance sketch of 
 this survey, together with the specifications drawn 
 by the Engineers for the construction of the road. 
 It was seen as soon as their preliminary reports 
 were made that the waggon road, if built, must cross 
 the Eraser. What point should be selected? To 
 determine this, another party of Engineers under 
 Sergeant McColl was ordered to examine and select 
 the most suitable spot for a suspension bridge. The 
 spot selected was that upon which in 1863 the late 
 Sir Jos. W. Trutch built the Alexandra Suspension 
 Bridge. 
 
 It was not at all a case of " all work " with the 
 Royal Engineers. From November till March the 
 corps was gathered together into its home at the 
 camp. This portion of the year saw another phase 
 of the versatile sapper. At the camp a theatre was 
 built, and during each winter the members of the 
 corps presented from time to time light dramatic 
 pieces, comedies, farces, etc. They were not at a 
 loss even when it came to female parts in such 
 theatrical entertainments, and one or two of the 
 beardless youths obtained quite a reputation for 
 acting such parts. The corps had also a social club, 
 
 the Royal Engineers' Club, and during each winter 
 it was the scene of many happy gatherings, ban- 
 quets, and dances. 
 
 1862. 
 
 The survey made in 1861 determined Governor 
 Douglas to devote the whole strength and force at 
 his disposal to the building of a road from Yale to 
 connect at Clinton with the then existing Lillooet 
 Road. That road had never been popular with the 
 travelling public owing to the delays in making con- 
 nection with the steamers on Lillooet, Anderson, 
 and Seton Lakes. 
 
 In May, 1862, a force of fifty-three sappers under 
 Captain Grant was despatched to Yale to commence 
 at that point the great waggon road — a work which, 
 as British Columbians, we may claim to be the 
 eighth wonder of the world. By November a mag- 
 nificent road, cut, or at any rate built, out of the 
 solid rock, was constructed to a point six miles from 
 Yale. Of course, in the building of the C. P. R. that 
 roadbed was in many instances destroyed, but suflS- 
 cient remains unto this day to make us realise the 
 excellent work done by them; and to indorse the 
 words of Hon. John Robson in the " Columbian " of 
 July 18th, 1863, " Some of their work will stand long 
 as the everlasting rocks, an enduring monument of 
 engineering skill and patient toil." 
 
 I might add here, parenthetically, that the portion 
 of the Cariboo Waggon Road from the six-mile post 
 to Chapman's Bar (suspension bridge) was built by 
 Thomas Spence in 1862 ; from Chapman's Bar to 
 Boston Bar by J. W. Trutch in 1863 ; from Boston 
 Bar to Lytton by Spence and Laiigvoidt in 1862; 
 from Lytton to Spence's Bridge, the contract was 
 held by Moberly and Oppenheimer, in 1862-3. 
 
 In July, 1862, Lieutenant Palmer explored a route 
 from Bentinck Arm to Fort Alexandria, and thence 
 to Williams Creek. His exhaustive report can be 
 found in the files of the " British Columbian " for 
 March and April, 1863. It, like all the reports of 
 these trained men, seems the final word on the sub- 
 ject. His minute examination covering a period of 
 three months made it clear that the road then being 
 constructed to Cariboo through the canyons of the 
 Eraser was the more suitable route. This line 
 showed for a space of fifteen miles a continuous 
 average grade of 182 feet per mile, a great part of 
 which was on loose rock and precipitous mountain 
 slopes. It was carefully examined in 1873 by Mar- 
 cus Smith to ascertain if it were a feasible line for 
 the C. P. R. ; but when it was decided to bring the 
 C. P. R. down the Eraser valley, no further exami- 
 nation was made. 
 
 1863. 
 
 We now come to the last year of the work of the 
 Royal Engineers as a corps in British Columbia — 
 the year 1863.
 
 a 
 
 D 
 
 o
 
 IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
 
 In this year the Engineers commenced the publi- 
 cation of the British CoUimbia Gazette — the first 
 number being published on 3rd January, 1863. The 
 Gazette was then, as it is to-day, in charge of Cor- 
 poral Richard Wolfenden (now Lieut.-Col. Wolfen- 
 den, I. S. O., V. D.). 
 
 The existing trail or, rather, route into Williams 
 Creek by way of the Forks of Quesnel, Snowshoe 
 Mountain, and the head-waters of Antler Creek, 
 being at too high an elevation and consequently 
 difficult for winter travelling, the Governor desired 
 an alternative route z'ia Quesnelmouth and Cotton- 
 wood River. The route was selected, and the trail 
 built along it in 1863 under the superintendence of 
 Captain Grant. By September he had built the trail 
 over the whole sixty-three miles which lie between 
 Quesnelmouth and Barkerville, and had made such 
 a passable way that he himself rode over the entire 
 distance in one September day. We have on this 
 point the testimony of Lieutenant Palmer, who, in 
 addressing the Royal Geographical Society in 
 March, 1864, declared it to be " the one good trail 
 in Cariboo." 
 
 During the year 1863, the late Gustavus Blinn 
 Wright built the waggon road from Clinton to 
 Alexandria, and the work of locating the line fell to 
 the lot of Captain Grant — that is, as to that part in 
 the vicinity of Williams Lake and Deep Creek. 
 
 The Engineers, under the charge of Lieutenant 
 Palmer, built during 1863 the first stretch of nine 
 miles of the Cariboo Waggon Road along the course 
 of the Thompson River, easterly from Cook's Ferry, 
 or Spence's Bridge. There the road connected with 
 the portion then being constructed by William 
 Hood. 
 
 The Alexandra Suspension Bridge over the 
 Eraser was built by the late Sir Joseph W. Trutch 
 in 1863. This was of course a toll-bridge, but 
 before he could obtain the right to collect tolls the 
 work must be accepted by the Government. The 
 duty of examining and approving the bridge was 
 placed on Lieutenant Palmer, who in September, 
 1863, passed it as satisfactory. That the work was 
 done satisfactorily and well is shown by the fact 
 that, having been in constant use for twenty years, 
 until the advent of the C. P. R., it is now standing 
 after a lapse of forty-five years from its completion. 
 Those who have pased by it lately cannot have 
 failed to notice that the planking at this end of the 
 bridge has given way, and it is no longer passable. 
 The whole structure shows signs of what our 
 medical friends would call general paresis and senile 
 decay. Some step, it seems to me, should be taken, 
 while there still is time, to preserve this historic 
 bridge — one of the few remaining public works 
 which link our present with our past. 
 
 This year also saw the finishing touches put upon 
 the Douglas-Lillooet Road by the Engineers. But 
 the road from Yale having been constructed, it 
 
 became evident that, being more direct, unbroken 
 by portages, and always accessible by water, it 
 would become the more popular; consequently but 
 little attention was paid to the Douglas route there- 
 after. 
 
 In this year also a party of the Royal Engineers 
 under Lance-Corporal George Turner surveyed the 
 original Lots 184, 185, 186, and 187 upon which a 
 part of the City of Vancouver now stands, and made 
 a complete traverse of the shore-line from Hastings 
 Townsite around Brockton Point into English Bay 
 and False Creek. 
 
 And here it may not be uninteresting to remem- 
 ber that to Colonel Moody is due the credit of 
 setting apart as a military reserve the land now 
 known as Stanley Park. So that the people of Van- 
 couver owe to that far-sighted officer the existence 
 to-day of the largest and most beautiful natural 
 park contiguous to any city in Canada. If the 
 Engineers had done naught else, this one thing 
 alone should create in the people of Vancouver a 
 deep and abiding interest in the corps and serve to 
 keep its memory green among them. 
 
 In this year also the Engineers surveyed the sub- 
 urban lots adjoining the City of New Westminster, 
 and while the survey was in progress the Municipal 
 Council seized the opportunity to do honour to 
 Colonel Moody. On the 20th April, 1863, the fol- 
 lowing resolution was passed : " Moved by Mr. A. 
 H. Manson, seconded by Mr. John Cooper, and 
 resolved: That in consequence of the judicious 
 selection of the townsite of New Westminster for 
 the capital of British Columbia by Colonel Moody, 
 R. E., this Council considers it desirable that a space 
 of not less than twenty acres should be reserved in 
 the suburbs now being surveyed to be called 'Moody 
 Square ' in commemoration of the founder of the 
 city; and that the Clerk be instructed to forward a 
 copy of this resolution to the Chief Commissioner of 
 Lands and W^orks with a request that the same may 
 be acted upon." 
 
 Taking stock of the work of the Engineers up to 
 the end of 1863, we find that all the important 
 explorations in the colony were performed by them ; 
 the whole peninsula between Burrard Inlet and 
 Eraser River was surveyed by them ; all the 
 surveys of towns and country lands were made by 
 them ; all the main roads were laid out by them ; 
 some of these, including portions of the Cariboo 
 Road, the Hope-Similkameen Road, the Douglas- 
 Lillooet Road, and the North Road to Burrard Inlet, 
 were built by them ; practically all the maps of the 
 colony and of sections of it were made from their 
 surveys, prepared in their drafting office, litho- 
 graphed and published by them at their camj) ; they 
 formed, in 1862, the first building society in the 
 colony ; they designed the first churches (Holy 
 Trinity Church and St. Mary's Church, New West- 
 minster) and the first school-house in the colony;
 
 10 
 
 THE ROYAL ENGINEERS 
 
 they designed the first coat-of-arms and the first 
 postage-stamp in the colony; they established the 
 first observatory, and to them we owe the first sys- 
 tematic meteorological observations in the colony, 
 covering a period of three years ; they formed the 
 Lands and Works Department, the Government 
 Printing Office, and printed the first British Colum- 
 bia Gazette; they aided in the maintenance of law 
 and order; and their commanding officer was the 
 first Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, as 
 well as the first Lieutenant-Governor. 
 
 This enumeration does not include the work done 
 by a diff'erent detachment of the Royal Engineers 
 in locating the 49th parallel in conjunction with an 
 American force; nor does it include the work of 
 Captain Gossett, R. E., Colonial Treasurer, to whom 
 is due the establishment of the Assay Office and the 
 Colonial Mint. 
 
 But over and above all these material things, the 
 Royal Engineers and their officers were a power for 
 good in the land. Their influence in this respect 
 cannot be overestimated. In aid of Bible and mis- 
 sionary societies, in every moral and religious move- 
 ment, in every scheme looking to the improvement 
 of social conditions, the officers and men of the 
 corps were always foremost. To their energy we 
 owe in a great measure the existence of the first 
 hospital in British Columbia — the Royal Columbian 
 Hospital at New Westminster. 
 
 In an editorial in the " British Columbian " of the 
 2ist October, 1863, the Hon. John Robson says: 
 " Their name stands identified with nearly all the 
 great and important public works in the colony, 
 either as engineers, mechanics, or operatives. They 
 have made their mark, and it will be seen by future 
 generations, whether in throwing a pathway across 
 the foaming torrent or in cutting a highway through 
 the towering mountains of everlasting rock." 
 
 As Joaquin Miller says : — 
 
 The Crusades knew not braver knight 
 
 Than these brave men before her walls ; 
 The noblest in the old-time fight 
 
 Matched not the humblest here that falls ; 
 And never were there worn such scars 
 As these won in these nobler wars. 
 These bloodless wars that bring not pain, 
 
 These priceless victories of Peace, 
 Where Pride is slain, where self is slain, 
 
 Where Patience hath her victories ; 
 Where, when at last the gates are down. 
 You have not burned, but built, a town. 
 
 As early as June, 1863, there were rumours that the 
 corps would be disbanded in the fall. On Wednes- 
 day, the 8th July, the order for recall was read on 
 parade. The end of September saw all the various 
 parties who had been at work on the roads at home 
 in camp. Preparations for the return of the corps, 
 or those who wished, went on apace. To at least 
 two hearts then came the thought of those " sudden 
 partings," which, as Lord Byron says, " press the 
 life from out young hearts." Result: On the 7th 
 
 October, Lieutenant Palmer was married at Holy 
 Trinity Church in New Westminster to a daughter 
 of Archdeacon Wright, the Chaplain of the Force; 
 and following the good example, Captain Luard was 
 married on the 8th at Christ Church, Victoria, to 
 Miss Leggett, of that city. 
 
 On the 5th November, at the old Colonial Hotel, 
 then kept by Grelley Brothers, a farewell banquet 
 was tendered to the Royal Engineers by the citizens 
 of New Westminster. The chair was occupied by 
 the late Robert Dickinson, the Mayor, or President 
 of the Council, as he was then called ; on his right 
 hand. Colonel Moody, Captain Hardinge, R. N., 
 Lieutenant Palmer, and Dr. Seddall ; on his left, 
 Archdeacon Wright, representing the Bishop of 
 Columbia, Captain Grant, and Captain Parsons. 
 The vice-chair was filled by the late Hon. Mr. 
 Homer; on his right, the late Hon. Mr. Holbrook; 
 on his left, Captain Cooper. 
 
 In the course of his response to the toast of 
 " Colonel Moody and Officers of the Royal Engi- 
 neers," the gallant Colonel said : " It was an experi- 
 ment, gentlemen, a novelty, mingling thus military 
 and civil duties. How far it has met what was 
 sought for by the Government is not for me to say. 
 I ever, as was natural, and as was my duty, kept the 
 military part foremost in my mind, and it is with 
 feelings of extreme satisfaction I can reflect on that 
 part of our service in British Columbia. You have 
 been witnesses throughout of our discipline, and at 
 the same time how we — soldiers — have borne our- 
 selves in our social relations with you. Some 
 anxiety was felt on the probable result of this part 
 of the experiment. I had no fear. I had full confi- 
 dence from the beginning in the class of men I had 
 the honour to command. I knew what they were; 
 I knew well how they would act, and in this I have 
 not been mistaken." 
 
 Colonel Moody was also the recipient of compli- 
 mentary addresses from St. Andrew's Society and 
 from the Municipal Council of New Westminster 
 on the day preceding his departure — the loth 
 November. 
 
 On the nth November, 1863, the steamer Enter- 
 prise sailed at noon, carrying with her forever from 
 our shores Colonel Moody, Captain Grant, Captain 
 Parsons, and their respective families, and Captain 
 Luard and his bride. An hour later H. M. S. Came- 
 Icon, having on board Lieutenant Palmer and his 
 bride, Dr. Seddall and some fifteen sappers, who 
 were the only ones returning to England, came 
 sweeping gracefully down in front of the town. 
 "As she passed the Pioneer Wharf the order was 
 given ' to man the rigging and give three cheers,' 
 when up shot a hundred blue-jackets as if by magic, 
 and out rang three hearty cheers, such as only Her 
 Majesty's seamen can give, in response to which the 
 crowd on shore cheered most lustily, the excellent 
 Royal Engineers Band the while playing those
 
 
 10 
 
 
 a 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 s 
 K
 
 IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
 
 11 
 
 beautiful and, under the circumstances, touching 
 airs, ' Home Again,' ' Home, Sweet Home,' ' Auld 
 Lang Syne,' and ' God Save the Queen.' In every 
 direction, from window and balcony, was to be seen 
 the waving of handkerchiefs and hats, accompanied 
 by many a truant tear. But, Oh ! the reaction ! 
 When all was over, and the bustle and excitement 
 consequent upon leave-taking had subsided, a feel- 
 ing of sadness and gloom seemed to pervade the 
 entire community, and people wended their way 
 home with grave countenances and drooping heads, 
 looking as though each had lost a near and dear 
 friend that day." 
 
 Whether the policy pursued by Governor Doug- 
 las enabled the colony to obtain the full fruits to be 
 expected from the presence of such a body of trained 
 men during its toddling days may well be doubted ; 
 and it may be questioned as a consequence whether 
 the full measure of success hoped for by Sir. E. B. 
 Lytton was attained. But no one can doubt, in 
 looking over their record, that what was assigned 
 to them to do they did thoroughly and conscien- 
 tiously. To them and to their work the language of 
 Kipling is fitting: — 
 
 Keep ye the law — be swift in all obedience — 
 Clear the land of evil, drive the road and bridge the ford. 
 Make ye sure to each his own 
 That he reap where he hath sown ; 
 By the peace among our peoples let men know we serve 
 the Lord ! 
 
 The remaining members of the corps, some 130 
 in all, remained in the colony, and took up as civil- 
 ians their various occupations. A perusal of the 
 advertising columns of the " Columbian " for 
 November and December, 1863, shows them as 
 gardeners, masons, carpenters, tailors, hotelkeepers, 
 tanners, grocers, blacksmiths, architects, and sur- 
 veyors — in fact, in every walk and avocation in life. 
 This gave to the colony the advantage of men well 
 trained in their trades and professions as a basis 
 upon which to build the industrial life of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 Of this number there remain to-day in British 
 Columbia only fourteen — namely, in Victoria, Cor- 
 poral Richard Wolfenden, Bugler Robert Butler, 
 Thos. Argyle, John Cox, and William Haynes ; in 
 New Westminster District, Sergeant L. F. Bonson, 
 Corporal William Hall, Matthew Hall, Philip Jack- 
 man, and John Musselwhite ; in New Westminster 
 City, Corporal George Turner, Samuel Archer, and 
 Henry Bruce*; and in Vancouver, Allan Cummins. 
 
 And all of them are men over the allotted span, for 
 remember it is fifty years since they landed on our 
 shores. In this number there are no survivors of 
 Captain Parsons's party. Two, Sergeant Bonson 
 and Sapper Bruce, came with Captain Grant ; one, 
 Corporal Hall, came on the Euphrates; all the 
 remainder came on the Thames City. Four of the 
 above survivors, namely: Sergeant Bonson, Cor- 
 poral Hall, Matthew Hall, and Henry Bruce are 
 veterans of the Crimean War of 1854-55. 
 
 In 1894, there were thirty-four of the Engineers 
 alive in this Province ; in 1900, when Colonel Wol- 
 fenden read his paper on this subject (to which I 
 gladly acknowledge my indebtedness in the prepara- 
 tion of this address), the number had decreased to 
 twenty-five; to-night there are but fourteen. Thus 
 we see that in fifteen years twenty of the detach- 
 ment in this country answered their last bugle-call. 
 And this brings the sad thought that this is a corps 
 which can never be recruited, but must constantly 
 diminish, until it becomes but a memory among us. 
 
 As we think of this gradually diminishing force, 
 the words of an American poet, in reference to a 
 group picture of the pioneers of California, come to 
 mind : — 
 
 For years I have watched these shadows as others I know have 
 
 done ; 
 As death touched their lips with silence I have draped them 
 
 one by one, 
 Till, seen where the black-plumed angel has mingled here 
 
 and there. 
 The brows I have flecked with sable cloud the living every- 
 where. 
 Darker, and darker, and darker these shadows will yearly 
 
 grow. 
 As, changing, the seasons bring us the bud and the falling 
 
 snow ; 
 And soon — let me not invoke it — the final prayer will be 
 
 said. 
 And strangers will write the record, " The last of the group 
 
 is dead." 
 
 Thinking of the few remaining members of this 
 once distinguished corps, whose motto, " Ubique 
 quo fas et gloria ducunt," was seen in the thickest 
 of the fight at Inkerman and at Balaklava, I feel 
 that I cannot close better than by quoting the words 
 of the poet last referred to : — 
 
 Let us drink this toast in silence, "To the builders of the 
 
 West." 
 Long life to the hearts still beating, and peace to the hearts 
 
 at rest. 
 
 F. W. HOW AY. 
 New Westminster, February 13th, 1909. 
 
 ' Died 29th January, 1910.
 
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 From the "Daily Columbian" op Wednesday, October 13th, 1909. 
 
 OLD-TIMERS PROMINENT. 
 
 Old-timers and pioneers of this city and district 
 are the chief centres of interest at the Exhibition 
 to-day, and every possible honour is being accorded 
 the twelve survivors of that famous corps of Royal 
 Engineers who founded the City of New Westmin- 
 ster and assisted in establishing a system of law and 
 order in the Province of British Columbia. 
 
 At one o'clock to-day Mayor W. H. Keary, mana- 
 ger of the Exhibition, entertained these pioneers at 
 luncheon at his home. The members of the corps 
 present at the luncheon were Thomas Argyle, 
 Rocky Point, Vancouver Island ; Samuel Archer, 
 New Westminster; Lewis F. Bonson, Port Ham- 
 mond ; Robert Butler, Victoria ; Henry Bruce, New 
 Westminster; John Cox, Victoria ; Allan Cummins, 
 Vancouver; William Hall, Sumas ; William 
 Haynes, Victoria; Philip Jackman, Aldergrove; 
 George Turner, New Westminster; and Lieut. - 
 Colonel Richard Wolfenden, Victoria. Matthew 
 Hall, of Sumas, and John Musselwhite, of Chilli- 
 wack, were unavoidably absent. 
 
 Hon. Richard McBride, Premier of British 
 Columbia, and Judge Howay were the only ones 
 present beside the Royal Engineers. After luncheon 
 the host, Mayor Keary, proposed a toast to His 
 Majesty the King. Premier McBride proposed the 
 toast to "Our Guests: the Survivors of the Royal 
 Engineers." Judge Howay then read an interest- 
 ing paper prepared by one of the pioneers, Lieut.- 
 Colonel Wolfenden, giving an interesting descrip- 
 tion of the trip from England to British Columbia, 
 around Cape Horn, over fifty years ago. 
 
 At the conclusion of the speaking special badges 
 were presented to the Royal Engineers present at 
 the luncheon as souvenirs of the occasion. A pho- 
 
 tograph of the group was taken, and the party were 
 then driven in carriages to the Exhibition grounds. 
 This evening they will be the guests of honour at 
 the Scotch concert to be given in the Opera House. 
 
 REMINISCENT OF PIONEERS. 
 
 Colonel Wolfenden, in his address, was reminis- 
 cent of the incidents of the voyage of the old ship 
 Thames City, which brought to British Columbia 
 from England the main body of Royal Engineers, 
 who were selected for service on the Mainland, or 
 what was then termed the Crown Colony of New 
 Caledonia. The speaker, to give effectiveness to 
 his narrative, threw it into the form of a supposed 
 dialogue, overheard between two, now compara- 
 tively old, gentlemen, sons of two of the " Sappers," 
 who accompanied their parents on the ship to this 
 new land, a land then thought by some to be a vast 
 wilderness, and it would, probably, remarked 
 Colonel Wolfenden, never have been heard of had it 
 not been for the accidental discovery of gold in the 
 Eraser River in 1858, and but for which discovery 
 the detachment of Royal Engineers would not have 
 been sent out to this country. It was on the request 
 of Governor Douglas, he points out, that Sir Edward 
 Bulwer Lytton, then Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies, decided to send out a detachment of Royal 
 Engineers to assist the Governor in maintaining law 
 and order, to construct roads and trails, to erect 
 bridges, to make surveys, to conduct explorations, 
 and generally to assist in colonising the country. 
 
 " You all know," the speaker said, " that that vast, 
 and then unknown, wilderness is now the richest, 
 the brightest and fairest Province of the whole 
 Dominion. It is not for me to say what share the 
 Royal Engineers had in furthering the marvellous
 
 14 
 
 THE ROYAL ENGINEERS 
 
 development that has taken place since their arrival 
 in the then new colony of British Columbia. You 
 will, however, I think, agree with me that but for 
 their presence in the country this magnificent Prov- 
 ince might have been lost to the British Crown." 
 
 DIALOGUE. 
 
 The speakers, as I said before, were sons of 
 Sappers, and having heard that it was the intention 
 to hold a Jubilee celebration of the arrival of the 
 Royal Engineers in the country, happened to meet 
 in the Guichon Hotel last night, and after partaking 
 of one or two whiskies-and-sodas and several 
 cigars, naturally commenced to relate their reminis- 
 cences of the long voyage of six months that it took 
 to bring them to this fair land. 
 
 " I say, Hughie," said Johnny, "do you remember 
 when we came out with our fathers and mothers in 
 the Thames City? We were only little chaps then." 
 
 " Yes, I do, Johnny, and wasn't she a regular old 
 tub?" 
 
 " Well, perhaps she was an old tub, Hughie, but 
 didn't she bring us safely here, and didn't she 
 behave like a thoroughly good ship when she came 
 round the Horn? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, she was a safe old boat, Johnny. I say, 
 do you remember that night when the hatches were 
 battened down, when we all thought we were going 
 to the bottom of the sea? " 
 
 " Yes, Hughie, and didn't the women and children 
 scream, and weren't the men all huddled together in 
 their hammocks, perhaps some of them praying 
 'God save us'? Tlicy were all as silent as the 
 dead." 
 
 " Yes, Johnny, and weren't all of us youngsters 
 afraid to sleep that night, and weren't our fathers 
 and mothers, our sisters and brothers, and all the 
 men, thankful when morning came and the wind 
 had somewhat calmed down, and the hatches had 
 been uncovered, the men sang and whistled for 
 pure joy? " 
 
 " Hughie, do you remember Captain Luard, the 
 commanding officer, always with his monocle in his 
 right eye— 'Old Scrooge' the men called him— 
 how he had the men paraded every morning in bare 
 feet, so that the pudgy little Doctor Seddall could 
 inspect them? What for I don't know, unless it 
 was to see that they had not got the foot-rot." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I remember that, Johnny, and although 
 the men did call the Captain ' Old Scrooge,' I think 
 they all liked him, for didn't he often read to them 
 out of Dickens's and other works, and didn't he 
 furnish them with all kinds of games to amuse them 
 during the long voyage, and wasn't he a good- 
 hearted, considerate man?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, Johnny, and didn't they all like to hear 
 him read the ' Emigrant Soldiers' Gazette ' every 
 
 Saturday night, that was edited by a fellow named 
 Charlie Sinnett? Wasn't he a funny little fellow, 
 a sandy-haired chap, who used to wear a dirty 
 smock? " 
 
 " Yes, Hughie, but he was a clever fellow for all 
 that, and wasn't it great fun to listen to his scraps 
 of poetry on ' Matilda,' the fellow who was the 
 Doctor's assistant, and who used to lead a little 
 black cat around the ship with a blue ribbon round 
 its neck? " 
 
 " Yes, but my ! Johnny, didn't Matilda give it 
 him back hot and strong, and weren't we all sorry 
 when the two fellows couldn't accept each other's 
 banter without quarrelling, so that the Captain had 
 to stop them, and we lost a lot of fun? " 
 
 " By the way, Hughie, why did they call that 
 fellow 'Matilda'?" 
 
 " Oh, it was because he was more like a woman 
 than a man, with his finicky ways." 
 
 " Yes, Johnny, and wasn't there a young chap — 
 Lieutenant Palmer, I think his name was — he was 
 a regular swell. They said he was the Assistant 
 Editor of the ' Gazette,' and I think he must have 
 been, for there were many interesting scientific 
 articles in the paper which I think must have been 
 written by him, for he was a clever fellow. I have 
 heard it said that he was a wonderful man at figures, 
 could add up pounds shillings and pence all at once 
 — just run his fingers up the three columns of 
 figures and tell you the total in a jiffy." 
 
 " Some of the fellows used to think that Doctor 
 Seddall — the men called him ' Bouncer ' — was a 
 frequent contributor to the paper; perhaps he might 
 have been the author of those articles on the 
 Natural History of the voyage." 
 
 " Yes, Hughie, perhaps he was, but if he did not 
 write them, either Captain Luard, Lieutenant Pal- 
 mer, or the Parson did. Anyway, whoever wrote 
 them, don't you think they were cleverly written? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed, Johnny. Do you remember the 
 great fun we had on board when the men got up 
 private theatricals; and don't you remember that 
 chap — Howse I think his name was — who called 
 himself the manager of the Theatre Royal? And 
 didn't he think himself smart?" 
 
 " Yes, Hughie, I remember how he rigged his 
 company out, making us really believe he was the 
 manager of a real ' City Theatrical Troupe.' But 
 he was a clever chap, for didn't he and his fellow 
 actors help to make us laugh, and thus amuse us?" 
 
 " Oh, I say, Johnny, do you remember the names 
 of the fellows who assisted him, thought they could 
 act a bit? I think some of the names were Sinnett, 
 Turnbull, Benney, Franklin, Derham, Eaton, 
 Elliott, Hazel (Matilda), Launders, Mead, and 
 Dick Wolfenden. Dick sometimes used to take a 
 lady's part."
 
 IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
 
 15 
 
 " Oh, yes, Hughie, fancy white-haired old Colonel 
 Wolfenden, as we know him now, acting the part of 
 ' Lydia ' in ' Done on Both Sides.' But they say he 
 was then a nice, slim, modest young fellow, and 
 that he was always a ' ladies ' man. Oh, but 
 weren't they all funny, and didn't they make our 
 mothers and us kids laugh?" 
 
 " And, Johnny, didn't they have lots of concerts 
 on board, and balls, and all kinds of fun, and didn't 
 the women like to dress themselves up in their very 
 best for the occasion, and didn't we kids enjoy the 
 fun, too?" 
 
 " Yes, Hughie, wasn't Franklin funny when he 
 sang ' My Pretty Maid,' when one side of him was 
 the maid and the other the man, and didn't Wood- 
 cock, Derham, Sinnett, Argyle (from Brum), and 
 others bring down the house with their humourous 
 songs, and didn't ' Professor ' Haynes and his 
 splendid band add greatly to our amusement?" 
 
 " I say, Johnny, I was reading the other day a 
 printed copy of the ' Emigrant Soldiers' Gazette,' 
 and I see that they had streets and squares and 
 alleys, and all other things like they have in a 
 town." 
 
 " How was that? " said Hughie. 
 
 " Oh. don't you know that the ship we sailed in 
 was called the Thames City, so the silly Editor tried 
 to make us believe that we were living in a real city? 
 Do you remember, Hughie, the horrible murder 
 that he said took place one day, when an old gentle- 
 man named ' Jimmy ' was found dead, and his body 
 horribly mutilated? " 
 
 " Yes, the fool Editor tried to make us all believe 
 it was a real murder, when it was only Cooper (our 
 butcher) who had cut the throat of an old sheep, to 
 save its life. Wasn't it silly on the part of the 
 Editor? But it made our fathers and mothers and 
 all the men laugh, and I think we youngsters 
 laughed, too." 
 
 " Hughie, do you remember the old ship putting 
 into the Falkland Islands? Wasn't it a treat to get 
 on shore once again after about three months at 
 sea? And didn't we youngsters enjoy going shop- 
 ping with our fathers and mothers, and buying 
 lollypops, etc.? although we could scarcely keep our 
 feet, still feeling the rolling of the ship." 
 
 " Yes, Johnny, and I think the men must have 
 had a jolly time on shore, too, for I sometimes 
 think that the unsteady gait of some of them when 
 they came on board was not altogether due to the 
 bad behaviour of the ship." 
 
 " Well, Hughie, don't you think that the officers 
 and men tried to amuse the women and children 
 and all on board, and make the voyage as enjoyable 
 as could be under the circumstances?" 
 
 " Yes, Johnny, and wasn't it nice to hear that 
 editor chap, Sinnett, sing his ' farewell ditty ' when 
 
 we were nearing the end of our voyage ; and oh ! 
 can we ever forget the day when our good old ship 
 safely entered Esquimalt Harbour on the 12th of 
 April, 1859?' 
 
 " Oh, those were happy days, Hughie. And 
 weren't they a fine, jolly lot of men, and didn't they 
 look smart on Sunday Parade, in their splendid 
 scarlet uniforms? " 
 
 " Yes, Johnny, they were a fine-looking lot of 
 men. There were tall men and short men, round, 
 plump men, and thin men; men with black beards, 
 men with red beards, and others with no beards at 
 all ; young fellows, some of them, not then out of 
 their teens. And there was one man with a grey 
 beard, a man who had been in many wars and had 
 five or six medals. You know who I mean, Johnny? 
 Oh, but he was a grand old man." 
 
 " Oh, yes (tearfully), I know who you mean, 
 Hughie. And do you know this man — a man in 
 the full prime of manhood, a man with red, curly 
 hair, wearing a splendid red beard — such a well-set- 
 up man and so strong and healthy; such a handy 
 man, too, a man who could do almost anything — 
 make you a pair of boots, build you a boat, or print 
 you a map, and I don't know what he couldn't do. 
 Do you know who that man was, Hughie?" 
 
 "Yes, yes, I know, Johnny (almost sobbing)." 
 
 " And there was a fat, chubby little chap — quite 
 a boy — who used to blow the bugle for the men to 
 parade, and to call them to dinner; and oh! couldn't 
 he make it sound, and wasn't he proud of his 
 bugle?" 
 
 " Yes, he was a dandy player, and wasn't he the 
 pet of all the women? Do you think you could 
 recognise him now if you were to meet him? He 
 must be quite an old chap now. And, oh, do you 
 remember one day when the ship was rolling and 
 pitching, the poor fellow fell down the hatch and 
 broke his arm? " 
 
 " Yes, I remember that, but the Doctor and 
 ' Matilda ' (who nursed him in the hospital) soon 
 put him to rights." 
 
 " I say, Hughie, I used to hear the men talking 
 about 'Splicing the Main Brace.' What did they 
 mean ? " 
 
 " Oh, don't you know that every day when the 
 sun passed over the yard-arm, at 12 o'clock noon, 
 the Quarter-Master (Davy Osment) used to serve 
 the men with grog and limejuice? They called that 
 ' Splicing the Main Brace.' " 
 
 " And do you remember, Johnny, our leaving 
 Esquimalt Harbour on board the steamer Eliaa 
 Anderson on our way to our future home ' The 
 Camp,' New Westminster, and that we got stuck 
 on the sandheads at the mouth of the Fraser 
 River?"
 
 16 
 
 THE ROYAL ENGINEERS 
 
 " Yes, quite well, and I saw in the papers the 
 other day that another ship got stuck on the same 
 sandheads." 
 
 " Well, Hughie, we have had a good yarn about 
 our experiences on board ship. What do you think 
 of the doings of the detachment after their arrival 
 in the colony? " 
 
 " I think, Johnny, that, on the whole, our men 
 and our women, and we boys and girls who came 
 out with them, have reason to believe that they 
 and we played no small part in assisting to colonise 
 this wonderful country." 
 
 " Yes, Hughie, but isn't it sad to think that at the 
 Jubilee of our arrival to-morrow there now only 
 remain, out of the one hundred and fifty men, 
 fourteen who have been spared to take part in the 
 celebration, and that nearly all the mothers have 
 passed away, too ? " 
 
 " Yes, Johnny, it is truly sad that so many have 
 gone to their long home, yet we have the consola- 
 tion of knowing that they strove to do their duty, 
 and that they have left hundreds of descendants to 
 help in upbuilding this splendid Province." 
 
 AN ACROSTIC. 
 
 True to their motto, time but enhances their fame ; 
 Hard though their task nothing could them restrain ; 
 Ending their long sea voyage and on shore once again, 
 
 Robust, strong and willing, success their brightest aim, 
 On Fraser's mighty river bank their home a canvas tent, 
 You soon could hear the humming that saw and hammer sent. 
 A city stands upon the spot where, fifty years ago, 
 Lo! the Indian and the coyotes enjoyed their to and fro. 
 
 Every way they cut new trails where white had never been ; 
 No grander road than Cariboo new country's ever seen. 
 Girtling streams with bridges, felling mighty pines, 
 Initial work in everything — even churches in their line. 
 Nobly did they do their work, B. C. will always tell, 
 Empire-builders surely! their descendant ofispring swell. 
 Esteemed by one and all are the few that now remain ; 
 Remembered in all honour those who've left this earthly train. 
 Symbols of their motto, they upheld their glorious name, 
 B. C. admits that " Ubique quo fas et gloria diicunt " a motto 
 without stain. 
 
 «i „ ^ THOS. HARMAN. 
 
 8/ A March, igog. 
 
 STORY OF THE ENGINEERS. 
 
 The story of the work of the Royal Engineers in 
 British Columbia is an interesting one as set forth 
 by Lieut.-Colonel R. Wolfenden in a paper read 
 before the Veterans' Association of Vancouver 
 Island on November 23rd, 1900. It gives an excel- 
 lent conception of the services performed for British 
 Columbia by this body of men now celebrating the 
 fiftieth anniversary of their arrival here. It was 
 owing to the discovery of gold in 1858, in what was 
 then termed New Caledonia, that Sir James Doug- 
 las, Governor of Vancouver Island, reported to the 
 
 British Government the advisability of appointing 
 a Governor to administer the new territory in case 
 of a sudden rush of miners. Mr. Douglas was 
 appointed Governor of the Colony of British 
 Columbia, as it was named. A body of men 
 possessed of military and scientific acquirements 
 was sent out to the new colony to support Governor 
 Douglas and to contribute to the improvement and 
 colonisation of the country. This body of men was 
 selected from the Royal Engineers, under the com- 
 mand of six ofificers, Colonel R. C. Moody, Captain 
 J. M. Grant, Captain R. M. Parsons, Captain H. R. 
 Luard, Lieutenant A. R. Lempriere, and Lieutenant 
 H. S. Palmer, also Dr. Seddall as medical officer. 
 
 From the large number of volunteers one hundred 
 and fifty non-commissioned officers and men were 
 selected. The men were composed of surveyors, 
 astronomers, engineers, draughtsmen, architects, 
 accountants, clerks, printers, lithographers, carpen- 
 ters, boat-builders, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors, 
 and men of all other trades and callings who were 
 fitted to perform some special work in the new 
 colony. 
 
 The first detachment of this corps left South- 
 hampton on September 2nd on the steamer La Plata, 
 and these were followed shortly afterwards by a 
 second detachment, under Captain Grant. The 
 main body, in charge of Captain H. R. Luard, 
 Lieutenant A. R. Lempriere, Lieutenant H. S. Pal- 
 mer, and Dr. Seddall, with 118 non-commissioned 
 officers and men, 31 women and 34 children, sailed 
 from Gravesend in the steamer Thames City on 
 October loth, 1858. They arrived at Esquimalt on 
 April I2th, 1859, after a long and rather tedious six 
 months' voyage around Cape Horn. 
 
 Owing to Captain Marsh the tedium of the jour- 
 ney was relieved by the publication of a weekly 
 paper in manuscript form called " The Emigrant 
 Soldiers' Gazette and Cape Horn Chronicle." This 
 was edited by Corporal Charles Sinnett, and was 
 read by the Captain every Saturday night. Lieut.- 
 Colonel Wolfenden has since republished this paper 
 in book form, which is one of the most interesting 
 features of the historical exhibit at the Fair. 
 
 On their arrival at Esquimalt the main body of 
 the party proceeded by the steamer Eliza Anderson 
 to their future home on the Fraser River. A camp 
 was established on the present site of the Provincial 
 Penitentiary. At that time the City of New West- 
 minster was covered by a dense forest, the only 
 signs of human habitation being a crude jetty, a 
 saloon conducted by T. J. Scott, late of Port Moody; 
 a butcher shop conducted by the late Robert Dick- 
 inson ; a grocery by W. J. Armstrong, and a bakery 
 by Philip Hicks. 
 
 The party arrived here fifty years ago and at once 
 proceeded to establish the capital of British Colum- 
 bia here. Fort Langley was chosen by Governor 
 Douglas, but was later abandoned for Queens-
 
 IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
 
 17 
 
 borough. There was some dissatisfaction with the 
 name, and the matter was submitted to the Queen, 
 who named the city New Westminster. The party 
 proceeded to build barracks, to survey the sites of 
 the city, and of Hope, Yale, Lytton, Douglas, 
 Lillooet, Clinton, Richfield, and others ; they con- 
 ducted numerous explorations and surveys through- 
 out the country, and established astronomical 
 stations ; they constructed many roads, streets, and 
 bridges, notably the waggon road from Douglas to 
 Pemberton Lake; the first and most difficult section 
 of the Yale-Cariboo Waggon Road, the Hope 
 Mountain Trail, as well as the principal streets and 
 roads in and about New Westminster; they formed 
 a gold escort and brought gold down from Cariboo ; 
 they designed the first English churches built at 
 New Westminster and Sapperton, as well as the 
 first school-house ; they designed the first British 
 Columbia coat-of-arms and the first postage stamp 
 
 used in the colony; they built, at their own cost, a 
 reading-room, library, and theatre, in which many 
 interesting entertainments were held during the 
 winter months, as will be remembered by many old 
 residents; they established the Lands and Works 
 Department and the Government Printing Office, 
 and printed the first B. C. Gazette on the 3rd Jan- 
 uary, 1863. Law and order were maintained by the 
 party and a form of government instituted. 
 
 The detachment disbanded in October, 1863, after 
 five years' service, and all the officers and twenty- 
 five or thirty men returned to the Old Country. 
 Those who remained were given a free grant of 150 
 acres of land, and engaged in various occupations 
 in the new colony. Fourteen of the survivors still 
 reside in British Columbia, of whom twelve are in 
 the city celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of their 
 arrival. 
 
 VICTORIA, B. C. : 
 Printed by Richaed Wolfexden, I.S.O., V.D., Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. 
 
 1910. 
 
 .MJ7?.35
 
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