l place of deposit, and forbidding all persons to dig for
gold without a licence, has been published in the newspapers of Oregon
and Washington territories, and that, notwithstanding, some seventy or
eighty adventurers from the American side have gone by the way of Fraser
River to the Couteau mines without taking out licences.

11. I did not, as I might have done, attempt to enforce those rights by
means of a detachment of seamen and marines, from the "Satellite,"
without being assured that such a proceeding would meet with the
approval of Her Majesty's Government; but the moment your instructions
on the subject are received, I will take measures to carry them into
effect.

I have, etcetera, (Signed) James Douglas, Governor.

The Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, M.P., etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

NO. X.

_Governor Douglas to the Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, M.P._

Victoria, Vancouver's Island, May 8, 1858.

Since I had the honour of addressing you on the 6th of April last on the
subject of the "Couteau" gold mines, they have become more than ever a
source of attraction to the people of Washington and Oregon territories,
and it is evident from the accounts published in the latest San
Francisco papers, that intense excitement prevails among the inhabitants
of that stirring city on the same subject.

The "Couteau" country is there represented and supposed to be in point
of mineral wealth a second California or Australia, and those
impressions are sustained by the false and exaggerated statements of
steamboat owners and other interested parties, who benefit by the
current of emigration which is now setting strongly towards this
quarter.

Boats, canoes, and every species of small craft, are continually
employed in pouring their cargoes of human beings into Fraser River, and
it is supposed that not less than one thousand whites are already at
work and on the way to the gold districts. Many accidents have happened
in the dangerous rapids of that river; a great number of canoes have
been dashed to pieces, and their cargoes swept away by the impetuous
stream, while of the ill-fated adventurers who accompanied them many
have been swept into eternity.

The others, nothing daunted by the spectacle of ruin and buoyed up by
the hope of amassing wealth, still keep pressing onward towards the
coveted goal of their most ardent wishes.

On the 25th of last month, the American steamer "Commodore" arrived in
this port direct