Jump to content

Page:Quarterlyoforego10oreg 1.djvu/46

From Wikisource
This page needs to be proofread.

38 Joseph Schafer We shall have the honor to submit a more detailed report on our return to Canada next summer, with a statistic of the separate tribes from whence we have taken our census of the Indian population, which, we beheve, has been based on the best information to be obtained in the present unsettled state of the country. We regret not being able to accompany our report with more numerous sketches or surveys. The whole of the lower Columbia is covered with so dense a forest, and is so impen- etrable that it would be quite imcompatible with the time allowed to visit so vast a section of the country to give de- tailed plans of the separate points and the season has been so short during which operations could be successfully carried on in the field as to render it impossible to gain more than a superficial knowledge of the whole. With regard to Cape Disappointment and the shores of the Columbia River we could not, consistent with our duty, gain any information on their capabilities for defense during the very limited stay we were obliged to allow for that country. We intend proceeding again to those points, and hope to be able to complete our survey, and make such observations as may be advisable under the present circumstances. The Cape and principal points of the adjacent country be- ing in the possession of American citizens, has much crippled our proceedings, having no authority for their purchase. The absence of Mr. Ogden, to whom Sir George Simpson gave instructions on the subject, has also delayed our operations in that quarter. We have the honor to be. My Lord, your Lordship's obe- dient, humble servants, Henry J. Warre, M. Vavasour, Lt. 14 Reg. Lieut. Royal Engr. The Rt. Honorable, The Lord Metcalfe, Gov. General of Canada. [The report and the letters seem to be in the handwriting

of Lieut. Warre.]----