Studies in American History 
191 
many Americans departed. The governor continued to legis- 
late by proclamation until 1864, after which he issued ordi- 
nances with advice and consent of a legislative council. In 
1867, as the result of an agitation in Vancouver in favor of 
annexation to the United States, the island was united with 
the mainland to form the province of British Columbia.^^ 
The water boundary between Washington Territory and 
Vancouver was still unsettled. The United States claimed 
San Juan Island, upon which some Americans had settled in 
1854-1856. In 1859 a bitter dispute in regard to a dead pig 
for which the Hudson Bay Company demanded payment led 
to the occupation of the island by American troops under 
General Harney and Captain Pickett. General Scott, who 
arrived later, agreed to a joint occupation till the matter could 
be settled by treaty. 
North of Minnesota, which had been organized as a terri- 
tory in 1849 and admitted as a state in 1858, was a vast fertile 
region drained by the Red and Saskatchewan rivers, known 
as the Winnipeg district, and later formed into the territories 
of Manitoba, Assiniboia, and Saskatchewan, which was be- 
ginning to feel the awakening touch of American in- 
dustry. A colony of Scotch settlers reached the Red River 
in 1812 under the encouragement of the enterprising Earl 
of Selkirk. For twelve years they had no regular form of 
government. Then for eleven years the Hudson Bay Company 
claimed the right to govern them. In 1835 they cooperated 
with the Hudson Bay Company in the formation of a govern- 
ment by a president, and a council appointed by the presi- 
dent from among the settlers. In 1857 they sent a petition 
asking that their country might be formed into a crown colony, 
but met with no success. In 1858-1859 they petitioned Canada 
for annexation, but Canada did not want to expand westward. 
After the British colonial government on the Pacific was 
organized. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, British colonial secre- 
tary, proclaimed the policy of continuous colonies from Lake 
Superior to the Pacific and a highway across British Amer- 
ica as the most direct route from London to Japan and 
China.2^ Upper Canada and the British government in 1859 
Charles G. D. Roberts, History of Canada, 334. 
Senate Executive Documents, No. 29, 35-2, Vol. X, January 31, 1859 ; also House 
Executive Documents, No. Ill, March 3, 1859. 
House Executive Documents, No. 146, 37-2, Vol. X, June 20, 1862 (Taylor Report), 
p. 45. 
