Cross Bar Fraser River Feb. 3rd/59

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Dear Father,

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Since I came on Fraser River I received a letter from you and one from another which I proposed to answer long ere this but you must be aware that in a country New, Wild and inhospitable as this, whose only resource is the glittering ore in the banks of its streams, which must soon be exhausted, we want many of the conveniences of civilised life, such as chairs, tables, lamps and writing material, and consequently it is something of an undertaking to compose ones self to write a sensible letter, worthy of being conveyed across such a space of water and breadth of land as separates us. On the first day of July, I left the Government Reserve near Port Townsend where I had been employed for twelve months and where I was receiving about five dollars a day with board for an excursion to the mining regions of New Calidonia. I may have done wrong and probably did in thus leaving the best situation I have had since residing on the Pacific Coast. There were however many annoyances one had to submit to at the Military Station from the meddling and tyrannical disposition of the commanding officer which oftentimes made it very disagreeable for the foreman on the works and to which hardly any American Mechanic of high spirits and of a sensitive nature could for much length of time put up with.

Notwithstanding this I should most likely have remained some length of time in the Quarter Masters employ keeping in check my feelings of offended dignity looking rather to my pecuniary interests, had I not from such reliable sources that I thought it impossible for me to be deceived, received glowing accounts of fabulous wealth, untold treasures of golden dust, deposited in the banks of Frasers Stream, glittering particles so fine!, so Yellow, bright and beautiful! Oh! it is wonderful how the imagination is excited at the recital of such tales and the mining district was only ten or twelve days journey from Port Townsend by canoe. I was not however like some, carried away by enthusiasm, but coolly embarked in an enterprise in which I knew well on setting out that not only property but even life was in jeopardy. In the first place by 150 miles of Ocean navigation in a frail canoe and then again for the same number of miles through a country the most wild imaginable, infested with hostile savages and up the rapid current of a stream whose navigation is often interrupted by rapids by cataracts and by canyons where the swollen river rolling in a broad channel becomes suddenly contracted and forced through a bed worn in the solid rocks which rise like a wall of masonry, perpendicular for hundreds of feet towards the clouds, almost shutting out the light of heaven and seeming to overhang the turbid waters below which rush with fearful velocity through these frightful chasms whirling, eddying, foaming and dashing with a roar that is deafening with such fury and violence against these ramparts of granite as would dash into ten thousand atoms any boat or canoe which unfortunately should be caught within the grasp of the mad waves. The distance from Port Townsend to Victoria is some fifty miles where I landed on the fourth of July. Here I had some business to arrange which occupied me about one week when we set sail from the mouth of Frasers River which is from Victoria about 90 or 100 miles in a north easterly direction and in latitude about 49 degrees and six or seven minutes and consequently but a few miles north of the American line. Between Vancouvers Island and the Mainland south of Frasers River there is a large group of islands, of which one quite large, quite valuable and of some considerable importance, which are in dispute between the Government of Great Britain and the United States inasmuch as there are two channels, one on either side of these Islands by which the ships sail.

We had two days travel to reach the mouth of Frasers River when we proceeded up it encountering many hardships and facing some danger. I reached this point on the river about 140 or 150 miles from its entrance to the Gulf of Georgia near the last of July since which we have had to contend with the elements which seem inimical to our enterprise, with the rugged and almost inaccessible nature of the country and with the hostility of the natives with whom we have had war and conquered a peace. As for myself I have been mining some and trading some and when I shall have disposed of what goods I have now on hand I hope to realise a sum equal to what I should have earned had I remained on Puget Sound. Some questions you asked me in your last letter which I cannot now answer for want of knowledge and others for want of room in this sheet and therefore must defer it. With regard to the purchase of the homestead I would gladly assist Lucius in so doing had I the means of so doing at my disposal. All that I’m worth in these parts now that I could make available within a month or two months time I suppose would not amount to over 2000 dollars.

Then I own Script which I suppose will be worth about $1000 more when government sees fit to fulfil its promises and pay the expenses of the Indian war in Washington and Oregon Territories. I would not like to part with all the available funds I have at once inasmuch as if often occurs that by a judicious expenditure of money I can make more than by hard labor. If Lucius thinks it would be a profitable investment I think I could help him to about $1000 within two or three months from this without seriously discommoding myself and perhaps the remainder of the money could be raised by bond and Mortgage and we could pay it by instalments. If Lucius thinks it advisable let him inform me his wishes as soon as possible that I may arrange my business accordingly.

Yours affectionately

Whit Chase

 

on the reverse of the last sheet:

in a few days when the weather becomes a little more favourable I expect to proceed up the river in order to sell my goods and prospect for a mining claim and hope soon to inform you what my prospects will be for the ensuing season. I would gladly most gladly visit you at the cottage Home of my childhood and will endeavour to do so as soon as seems practicable but I cannot now name the day or venture to guess even at the day. May it come soon is my wish and not long then after will I greet my native hills again and with joy unspeakable breathe the fresh free air of Delaware’s mountains and quench my thirst from the crystal streams which flow into Susquehanna’s pleasant vale.

Whit. Chase

Continue to direct your letters to Port Townsend.