222 DR. McLoucHLiN TO SIMPSON
impunity, it requires no gift of prophecy to foretell that this murder will be followed by others unless the officers allow the men to do as they please, as on the men's own showing, it was murder on their part, and if he was drunk as they say their crime was only the greater. As to my late son being a drunkard as these men represent, the vigilant watch they admit he kept and the state of his accounts disprove this and the cause of their hostility to him was that he kept them to their duty and would not allow them do as they pleased. If the character of an officer is to be taken from what such men as were at Stikine will say, let me in truth add, though it pains me to say so, will swear to without examining into what they say, the situation of the officers is extremely deplorable.
6. I do not know nor can I imagine whence you derived the information that our rivals in trade have been so success- ful that they will repeat their visit. It is true Capt. Chapman caught six hundred barrels salmon, but after he did it was so bad he could not sell it and has given up the business. Captain Couch's owner, Mr. Gushing of Salem, Massachusetts, sent a small vessel last summer and another is expected this season but he is carrying on a losing business. He is, as they say, a wealthy man and perhaps keeps on in expectation of our being obliged to withdraw, and that the business will fall to him. Another American, Mr. Pettygrove, equipt by the house of Benson and Co., New York, who were to send here a vessel last fall with an assorted cargo but she did not come.
7. When you speak of the abundant resources at our dis- posal, if you mean goods you are correct; but if you mean men and officers, we are too few of the latter and as to our men, I have already stated their capacity.
8. In your 9th para, you write, "I am sorry to observe the Southern or Bonaventura party, have made very poor hunts, arising as much from the impoverished state of the country as from their late arrival at their hunting grounds which by good management might have been avoided." As to your writing the expedition ought to have been despatched
