We do not know his name: Klatsassin and the Chilcotin War
   
 

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The Expedition against the Indians

The British Columbian, September 7, 1864

In another column will be found an account of the movements chiefly of the party under the Hon. C. Brew, from which it would appear that the New Westminster volunteers have had a pretty rough time of it – have, in fact, had all the work to do, and all the privations to undergo. Of the conduct of Mr. Brew himself, everyone under him, we are assured, speaks in the highest terms of praise. Kind and considerate to his men, untiring in his zeal to accomplish the most difficult task entrusted to him, he is ever foremost in danger or in toil; and we are informed that so much has his physical system given way under multiplied privations and wearing anxiety that in the lank and haggard frame one would with difficulty recognize the sleek and portly gentleman of three months ago. The highest compliment we can pay the party under his more immediate command is that they are every way worthy of their leader. And we are assured that had the efforts of Mr. Brew been fittingly seconded by Mr. Cox, the Colony would have been saved a considerable portion of the expense attending the expedition.

We do not conceive it to be our duty to say all we think or feel upon this subject at present, but trust, when all is over, such investigation will be had as will do justice to all parties. Meanwhile, the account given by our informant of the means by which Mr. Cox obtained possession of the eight Indian prisoners – an account of whose surrender, according to Mr. Cox, we published a few days ago - does not look very well. How does it come that these prisoners were sent to Alexandria, when the Governor had made all the necessary arrangement for their trial and execution on the spot, and had invested Mr. Brew with supreme authority for that very purpose? What became of the fat ox which the Governor bought at Alexandria and forwarded with the intention of its reaching Mr. Brew’s party? How came Mr. Cox and his party to be snugly housed and eating and drinking to the full, while Mr. Brew and his party were scouring the country, subsisting for days upon berries and roots, and no attempt made to supply them? These are questions which ought to be answered, and to which the public will yet demand a reply, if half we hear be true.

Source: "The Expedition against the Indians," The British Columbian, September 7, 1864.

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