bakee.] HISTORY OF THE SURVEY. 15 
Fauntleray, with the officers and assistants attached, 3 Air. Campbell 
sailed from New York April 20 and reached San Francisco via the 
Isthmus of Panama on May 15. On June 17 the party sailed on the 
Active for Victoria, where they arrived five days later and learned 
that the first British commissioner, Capt. James Charles Prevost, 
R. N., commanding II. B. M. S. Satellite, had arrived at Esquimaltten 
days before. The second British commissioner was Capt. George 
Henry Richards, R. N., whose ordinary duties were those of chief 
astronomer and surveyor, he being empowered to act as commissioner 
only in the event of the death of Captain Prevost. Captain Richards, 
commanding the British steamer Plumper, left England at the close of 
March, 1857, for Victoria. By an accident to the Plumper's machinery 
he was delayed at Rio de Janeiro for some time and did not reach 
Victoria till November, 1857. The powers of these first and second 
British commissioners did not extend to the whole line, but only to the 
water boundary. " So much of the boundary between her Majesty's 
possessions in North America and the territories of the United Stales 
as is comprised between the continent of America and Vancouver's 
Island.'' Such is the language of the instructions to Captain Prevost. 
The British and American commissioners held their first meeting on 
Saturday, June 27, 1857, on board the Satellite in Esquimalt harbor. 
The respective commissions of themselves and assistants were exhib- 
ited, read, and found in due form. A second meeting was held three 
weeks later in Nanaimo harbor on board the Satellite. Captain Rich- 
ards not yet having arrived, it was decided that nothing further could 
be done with the water-boundary question. 
Accordingly the American party proceeded to the vicinity of the 
forty-ninth parallel at Point Robertson the mainland and began oper- 
ations on the land boundary. It was not till the summer of the next 
year, 1858, that the British commissioner for surveying the land 
boundary, Col. J. S. Hawkins, Royal Engineers, arrived from Eng- 
land. The American parties worked, therefore, alone during the fall 
and winter of 1857 and spring of 1858. "Before the spring [of 1858] 
four astronomical points on the -19th parallel were determined, and 
the country thoroughly reconnoitered in the vicinity of the parallel, 
for a considerable distance eastward." 2 
After the arrival of Colonel Hawkins a joint meeting of the com- 
mission was held to arrange a plan of held operations for surveying 
and marking the line. The outcome of that meeting is set forth in 
the following agreement: 2 
After discussing plans for determining and marking the line as far eastward as the 
Cascade Mountains, it was concluded to be inexpedient at the present time, in con- 
1 From Coast Survey Report for L8f>7, i». 116, we learn that, "At request of State Department," 
steamer Active and party, in charge of Lieut. Commander Richard M. < Juyler, r. s. X.. were placed at 
disposal of Archibald Campbell, esq., commissioner of the Northwestern Boundary Survey. 
2 House Ex.Doc.No.86, Fortieth Congress, Third session, p. 95. 
