"... I soon saw Mr. Barclay at the Hudson's Bay House, to thank him for my ship &c. and give an account of myself. He likewise wanted to know, what next? I told him the same as Dr. Graves. "Well," he replied, "the Hudson's Bay Co are sending out emigrants to Vancouver's Island, their new colony and of course will want a Surgeon."...'Where on earth is Vancouver Island?' Says I. 'If it be in Hudson's Bay, depend on it I do not go.'. 'Oh,' say he, it is in the Pacific ...my nephew writes me it has a climate like that of England."

"Of course some natives squatting in canoes came around the ship and possibly had fish for sale. These natives were a [lot of?] dirty greasy nasty-smelling creatures ... very dark with black hair. Everyone had on a blanket ... or in some cases less ... we greenhorns could hardly distinguish the men from the women.

They did not speak one word that we could understand, and none were allowed to come on board, indeed none of them seemed desirous of doing so. Their canoes were then as they are today and the Captain admired their model and so forth. Of course they could not give us any news. Waik cumtax means don't understand.

...At length Esquimalt Harbor was reached and the ship came to an anchor opposite to where the dry-dock now stands, [on 24 March 1850].. . .I thought the bastions at a distance were dovecotes. There was nothing else to be seen save land, water, canoes and Indians. It did not seem very inspiriting ... it looked like York Factory" John S. Helmcken (BCARS: ADD.MSS.505, V.12)