Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition

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The Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition explored the areas of the Vancouver Island colony outside the capital, Victoria and the settlements of Nanaimo and Cowichan Valley , which were unknown at the time. The expedition during the summer and fall of the year went as north as possible to the Comox Valley and lasted four and a half months. Gold was found at one point , which led to a small gold rush. Coal was also discovered in the Comox Valley. There is a historical record of contact with the indigenous people , many geographical objects were named and a number of sketches from the time were made.

Mission and Participants

The need to explore the unpopulated areas of Vancouver Island had become a topic of discussion in the colonial press in the early 1860s, but it did not materialize until the new governor, Arthur Edward Kennedy, took office in March 1864 and sponsored the project. In April 1864, he announced that the government would contribute an additional two dollars for every dollar raised by the public.

From his arrival in Victoria in May 1863, Robert Brown had worked in the colony as a seed collector for the British Columbia Botanical Society of Edinburgh, but earned little income. He explores Alberni Inlet including Sproat Lake (which he named) and the Great Central Lake . He also named some of the surrounding geographic objects after his sponsors. Between May 28 and July 8, 1863, he explored Barkley Sound as far as Kyuquot and Nootka Island . On his return to Victoria, he sailed the Juan de Fuca Strait to Port Townsend , Port Angeles and Whidbey Island and went as far as possible to Seattle . In September 1863 he traveled to Lillooet and New Westminster , followed by the return to Port Alberni , where he determined the length of the Great Central Lake Appointed commander of the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition on June 25th, 1864. Browns saw the mission's goal to report on the topography, soil, wood, and resources, but his sponsors were more interested in whether gold would be found.

The group he put together also included Frederick Whymper, who made a series of drawings and scenes that he was able to observe during the expedition. Two members of the recently disbanded group Royal Engineers became part of the group, there were the deputy commander Peter John Leech (1826-1899) and John Meade. The two university graduates Henry Thomas Lewis and Alexander Barnston were also members. John Buttle (1838-1908), John Foley and Ranald MacDonald (1824-94) were the remaining team members. After John Foley resigned from his appointment, the VIEW committee decided on July 30th that "two efficient miners" should be substituted. On August 30, Richard Drew and William Hooper were signed. During their first stopover in Cowichan , both brought in Tomo Antoine, the son of a ranger with the Iroquois . MacDonald was the oldest in the group at 40, and the commander was 22.

Voyages of discovery

After arriving in Cowichan on the HMS  Grappler , the group followed the Cowichan River and along the Cowichan Lake shore, where they were then split into two groups. One led by Leech sailed from the south side of the lake to Port San Juan . The other group, led by Brown, followed the Nitinat River along the west coast to meet the leech group in Port San Juan to pick up fresh food that was brought in by boat from Victoria. Brown returned to Victoria by boat to leave the group led by Leech for a period. When Brown was absent, the group found gold in what would later be called Leechtown.

On August 1, the group continued their expedition. Brown went to Nanaimo , then by boat to Comox and from there across the island to Alberni. During his stay in the Comox Valley, he discovered coal. The members of the expedition insisted that the river be named after him where the coal was found. Leech's group had to take the more difficult route across the island. In September the two groups met again in Alberni. After the research in this area, they crossed the island to the Qualicum River to go there by canoe to Nanaimo and finally board the Grappler . From there, they returned to Victoria as local celebrities on October 21st.

Observations

Brown described the settlers he met in the Cowichan Valley, Chemainus, and the Comox area. They had arrived according to the Vancouver Iceland Country proclamation of September 1862 (one man was allowed 100 acres (0.40 km 2 to possess), a married man 150 acres (0.61 km 2 ) and additionally for each other child under 18 years 10 acres (40,000 m 2 , two years after the seizure). Unlike some other observers, Brown described the residents as ill-suited for life as farmers, they came as a result of the gold rush. He described the few Settlers as unmotivated and living in poverty.

What was described as a prime route between Nanaimo and Comox was completed in May 1863, however Joseph Despard Pemberton had discarded the idea of ​​converting the route into a road because the Vancouver Island colony could not afford it, which costed $ 70,000 to raise. As a result, the road from Victoria was only built to Chemainus . When Brown explored the island in August 1864, he found a path blocked by wind gusts and washouts, although he found a bridge over the Qualicum River.

The motivation in supporting the expedition was to find gold and mine Victoria, but its growth stopped after the Fraser Canyon gold rush ended. A little gold was found on the Goldstream River in 1863 and the expedition found something in Leechtown as well. The expedition mapped and gathered information on the island's mineral and agricultural potential.

Brown's accounts also include a collection of Native American myths and are one of the earliest references to the potlach ceremony.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sproat Lake . In: BC Geographical Names (English)
  2. ^ A b Captain John T. Walbran: British Columbia Place Names, Their Origin and History. 1971, p. 67 ( nosracines.ca ( memento of the original from October 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. Facsimile, Reprint of the 1909 edition). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nosracines.ca
  3. ^ A b c d e John Hayman (Ed.): Robert Brown and the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver 1989, ISBN 0-7748-0322-3 .
  4. ↑ Note: HMS - sometimes also written with punctuation marks as HMS - is an acronym or abbreviation for His Majesty's Ship ( His Majesty's Ship ) or Her Majesty's Ship ( Her Majesty's Ship ) and has been the official name prefix , which all warships in service since 1789 lead the British Navy.
  5. ^ A b c Richard Somerset Mackie: The Wilderness Profound, Victorian Life on the Gulf of Georgia. Sono Nis Press, Victoria, BC 1995, ISBN 1-55039-058-9 .
  6. ^ Derek Hayes: Historical Atlas of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. Cavendish Books, Vancouver 1999, p. 165, ISBN 1-55289-900-4 .