"The Committee have full confidence in your discretion and judgment,
but they have deemed it right to associate with you in this inquiry
Governor Dallas, of the Red River Settlement, with whom they request
you to communicate at once.
"The Committee are aware that it is now so late in the season as to
preclude you from doing more than procure such information as may
enable them to commence fresh inquiries at the opening of next season.
"I have the honour to be, Sir,
"Your obedient Servant,
"EDMUND HEAD, Governor.
"EDWARD WATKIN, Esq."
I found soon after my arrival in Canada that Governor Dallas was coming
down from Red River, and would meet me at Montreal. He was a very able
man; cool, clear, cautious, but when once he had had time to calculate
all the consequences, firm and decided. He had been for years on the
Pacific coast; and, thanks to his prudence, the landing, in 1859, of
General Harney, and a detachment of United States troops on the Island
of St. Juan, between Vancouver's Island and the mainland, on the
Pacific, had been controlled and checkmated, by the proposal of a joint
occupation until negotiations had settled the question of right.
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