[howay] the raison D'ETRE OF FORTS YALE AND HOPE 59 



APPENDIX 



Fort Langley, 30th Oct., 1848. 



John Tod, Esq. 



Dear Sir: — 



Having met Mr. Peers on the Cowlitz Portage, I received your 

 letter of the 25th Aug., which will meet with due attention here- 

 after, on my return to Fort Vancouver, and your various demands for 

 assistance be complied with as far as our means permit. My object 

 in addressing you from this place chiefly is to put you in possession 

 of our views and the plan we have in contemplation with respect to 

 the communication with the Interior. In consequence of the very 

 unfavourable report we have received from Messrs. Manson and 

 Anderson of their last summer's route we have come to the determina- 

 tion of opening a new road recommended by Mr. Peers after a very 

 careful survey. Leaving Fraser 's River it follows successively the 

 valleys of the Quequealla, Peers, and the Soaqua Rivers, from thence 

 the crossing of the dividing ridge into the Similkameen Valley, where 

 it falls upon Mr. Anderson's track of 1846 and follows it to Thompson's 

 River. Mr. Peers will be despatched with ten men in a few days 

 hence to commence operations at the mouth of the Quequealla, where 

 we intend to establish a small Post for the convenience of parties 

 passing to and from Thompson's River and at the same time he will 

 proceed in opening the road with the assistance of all the Indians that 

 can be mustered, and we hope to have it made as far as the snowy 

 region before the winter sets in. The more elevated parts must be 

 left until the disappearance of the snow in the spring and the first 

 weeks of summer when I trust this important undertaking will be 

 completed. This road will not be accessible for horses before the 

 beginning of July and can only be considered in the light of a tempo- 

 rary expedient for the transport of the Interior Outfits until our posts 

 are withdrawn from the Columbia, and were it not for the extreme 

 reluctance of Mr. Manson to continue the route of last summer we 

 would not have gone to the expense of opening a new Road which in 

 many respects will be found exceedingly inconvenient. We have 

 directed Mr. Peers to use every exertion to communicate with you, 

 either by means of Indians or otherwise, in order that you may 

 co-operate in the important service on which he is now employed 

 and give him every assistance in your power. He has instructions to 

 apply to you for guides and such other aids as he may stand in need of 

 and I have most earnestly to request a compliance with his demands. 



