June 22, 1857.] GRANT'S DESCRIPTION OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 489 



grovelling race of Indians as tliey were. They had a few superstitions among 

 them. There were among them several most zealous Eoman Catholic mis- 

 sionaries, who were incessant in their endeavours to implant Christianity. The 

 savage was very ready to take any impression, but his mind was incapable of 

 retaining any fixed idea, and the missionaries had consequently been unable to 

 make any permanent progress. There were three languages in the island ; the 

 prevailing one was the Cowitcheu. The languages again were subdivided into 

 various dialects, so that the different tribes speaking them could, with some 

 difficulty, understand each other. There was not the slightest trace of a com- 

 mon patriarchal government. Each tribe had a patriarchal government, 

 because each tribe formed a family something like our clans in Scotland. 



Mr. Kenneth Sutherland, f.r.g.s., remarked that our Government had 

 sent an expedition to Nootka Sound towards the end of the last century. 



Colonel Grant said the object of Vancouver's exjiedition was to discover 

 the North- West Passage, and in trying to discover it he saw a large inlet, 

 which he immediately proceeded into, thinking it would conduct him to the 

 opposite coast of America, and that he had found the long sought North- West 

 Passage. He followed the channel and learned that he was sailing round an 

 island, and he was much disappointed in finding himself in the Pacific again. 

 In going round the island he met two Spanish vessels coming from Nootka, 

 and they first told him that he was sailing round an island. He then went 

 round to Nootka and gave the Spaniards notice to quit. 



Mr. Monckton Milnes, f.r.g.s,, asked whether Colonel Grant had ever 

 turned his attention to the practicability of rendering the island a convict 

 settlement ? 



Colonel Grant was afraid that it would not make a good convict settle- 

 ment, on account of its contiguity to America. Access to the continent across 

 the channel was easy, and to prevent the convicts escaping, a large military 

 guard would be required. 



The Rev. Brymer Belcher, f.r.g.s., believed what had been said about 

 the missionaries in Vancouver Island was quite correct. At present there 

 were no missionaries in the island, except some Roman Catholics, who had 

 been engaged there several years. The Hudson Bay Company had a chapel 

 at Victoria, and about a year ago an unordained labourer, a catechist, was sent 

 out by one of the great missionary societies of this country to the southern part 

 of the island. The gentlemen who brought their geographical knowledge to 

 bear upon the missionary work of the Church, had looked on Vancouver 

 Island as an unoccupied field, and had directed the attention of the Society for 

 the Propagation of the Gospel to it. A grant of 250?. had been expended in 

 sending out two missionaries. The population amounted to between 20,000 

 and 30,000 of native inhabitants, according to the last census given by the 

 Hudson Bay Company. With respect to the climate arid nature of the country, 

 all the information that the Society had been able to obtain, went to show that 

 there was nothing in either respect which the Anglo-Saxon race might not 

 most easily overcome. The coal, to which allusion has been made, he had 

 reason to believe, was spread over a large field, and was of very excellent 

 quality, well suited for furnaces and for steam purposes. With coal and wood, 

 and with what, there was every reason to believe, would be found in mineral 

 products as well, Vancouver Island appeared to him to be one of the most pro- 

 mising fields open to the English settler. 



Mb. R. Blanchard, f.r.g.s., late Governor of Vancouver Island, begged 

 leave to offer an observation with regard to the population. Colonel Grant 

 estimated it at 17,000, and Mr. Belcher at between 20,000 and 30,000. When 

 he was there he took great pains to make inquiries of the people who, he con- 

 sidered, were best qualified to judge, and they stated the numbers to be, at the 

 outside, 10,000, and that the population was decreasing. 



