We briefly noticed yesterday the return of Mr. Homfray and six others, who left here two months since to survey the route from the head of Bute Inlet to the interior.  It appears that the party had to endure the greatest of suffering and privation on their return, and that their lives were in jeopardy for more than a fortnight, owing to the loss of their canoe, with nearly everything it contained, in one of the rapids of Price River.  They were reduced to the necessity of making rafts to get down the river, and spent ten days at the head of the inlet, in attempting to make a canoe with the only tools that had been saved- two axes and a spade.  The latter was cut into three and made into adzes(?) to hollow out the trunk of a tree.  Finally, when they were reduced to their last meal, they were rescued, from what seemed certain death, by the Indians of Desolation Sound.  These Indians Mr. Waddington had made the acquaintance of, some two months before, while on the steamer Henrietta, and on learning that the party had been sent by the  "old tyhee from Victoria" (as they called him) showed every kindness, took the party to their lodges on Desolation sound , fed and kept them,  and finally brought them in canoes to Victoria. With respect to the object for which the party was organized, the information furnished us is satisfactory.  Price River is found to be navigable for forty miles with light-draught steamboats, and boats and canoes can ascend, twelve miles higher, at which point an easy portage is required to avoid a canon, of about 350 yards in length.  The valley then reassumes its former level surface.  The distance, in all, from the head of steam navigation to the Big Lake, is about sixty miles.  The lake itself is 35 miles long, and is drained by Price River.  The distance from the lake, according to an Indian report, is five days to Alexandria.  The Natives say that there is not a single mountain or swamp between the canon and Fraser River, and claim to make trading trips to Alexandria twice a year and back by this route.  The expedition, from all that we can learn, appears to have been undertaken at too late a period of the year, though the subscribers say they feel perfectly satisfied with the results

Bute Inlet - Victoria Colonist, May 7, 1862

The "original" party who have been working at Bute Inlet have returned here.  They completed about a mile of the trail and built ten Bridges and two store houses.  No snow had fallen at the Inlet since March 30th-- the date of their arrival; and there is neither snow on the ground nor ice in the river.  The Euclutaus were at first rather troublesome, but finally allowed the party to work on being promised presents from the Victoria tyhee (Mr. Waddington).  The Indians filled twenty canoes, and were fishing for oolachans.  Six Chilcaten Indians -- three from the rapids above the canon and three direct from Alexandria -- learning that there were whites at the head of the Inlet, came down to trade furs, but on obtaining information that the Euclutaus were there, they retreated immediately and could not be prevailed on to return,  The weather was mild and beautiful during the stay of the party at the Inlet.  The river was rising on Wednesday last, the day the party left.

"The Bute Inlet Massacre and Its Causes" The Victoria Colonist, June 13, 1864 Alfred Waddington’s Account

Editor British Colonist - I have so far refrained from answering the nonsense (?) of the British Columbian with respect to myself and the Bute Inlet Trail, nor am I going to trouble your readers or myself on the subject; but when in other quarters I see vague accusation hunted up against the dead and columnies (?) mysteriously circulated in order to serve a certain purpose, and throw the burden of the late massacres there where it does not belong.  It becomes a duty to speak out and vindicate those who alas! can no longer speak for themselves.  Now sir, I say at once that the real cause of the Bute Inlet massacre had nothing to do with the conduct of the victims themselves, who neither " excited the assassin by ill-neage or provoked him by injustice or improper conduct"; and I am going to prove the contrary.  The public are aware that the sole originators of the massacre were Chilcooaten Indians from the Upper country who had never been down before at Bute Inlet.  Several of them were from the neighborhood of Lake Nacourtoon (?), and one of the principal murderers was well known to belong to the Chief A agrim’s tribe.  The Nacourtoon and Be La Coula tribes are on the most friendly terms and constantly intermarry, and the reaprovocations which took place amongst them were what brought down the vengeance of those Indians on my innocent party.  I am no magistrate sir, nor have I ever been a detective of police, but I have carefully collected the following details, which unlike the secrecy which has been observed with respect to myself I lay fearlessly (?) before the public and challenge contradiction.  Is it therefore true or not, that the week (?) before last Lieutenant Palmer or his sergeant on their way through to Alexandria broke through some well known Indian range, and that Lieutenant Palmer knocked down the son of the second Chief of the tribe, who resented it, and that Lieutenant Palmer then threatened to shoot him, on which the young man returned with fifty armed Indians, bared his breast, and dared him to do so? The Indians were too powerful, and Lieutenant Palmer desisted; but surely that affront has never been forgiven.  Did not the whites also, about the same time, bring the smallpox to Bella-Coula where it spread to Nacoutloon, and as far as the (?) and Chisient Lakes, when myself saw the graves of perhaps 500 Indians; and was not one-third of the population carried off by that first visitation; for there was a second one on which I shall have to speak presently?  And did not the white settlers communicate another contagion to those tribes, of which the second Chief at Bella Coula is now slowly dying?  And did not two of the upper Chilcoatens who were foremost in the massacres at Bute Inlet (one of them with the very wide mouth), come down so deceased? and were they not furnished with medicine, and kindly taken care of in the camp doing nothing, and at my expense for more then a month before the murder?  Whilst the smallpox was raging it is well known that the Indians could hardly muster courage to bury their dead; but they carried the bodies out into the bush, packed up the infected blankets, and deposited them by their side.  Little by little, however, the contagion ceased, and the survivors again began to breath. In the meanwhile a settler, who is still at Bella Coula, made a bargain to marry a pretty young Indian girl, according to the Indian fashion.  This was willingly consented to, and the relations made their presents of blankets to the bridegroom, to the amount of several dozen all of which were to be returned in a month or so, in the proportion of two for one, Indian fashion.  And there was great feasting at the expense of the Indians, and the bridegroom took his wife home.  He was to receive vast quantities of blankets and rich presents from Victoria by the first schooner, which never came!  and at the end of four months the relations had to take the poor girl back again, dishonored.  Was that a provocation, or not? And did not about the same time one Angus McLeod and another named Taylor go and collect those same infested blankets in the bushes, which the Indians had deposited with the bodies of those men dead of the smallpox and sell them again to the Indians which brought on a second contagion, carrying off another third of the population, and Angus McLeod, the perpetrator into the bargain as he well deserved?  Such are a few of the details I here collected, and is it to be supposed, even by officials that such diabolical deeds did not arouse the hatred of the Indians and those who came down to Bute Inlet?  My men and myself had been utterly guiltless of any such base action, yet the vengeance which fell upon them and those at (?) Lake, and which has now got to be punished is attributed to ourselves -- because I complain and have asked and still ask for indemnity.  The Indians who came down to Bute Inlet had been shamefully treated, unknown to ourselves, buthardly unknown to the Government, they found a party who in the innocence of their hearts and their confidence in the coast government, felt secure and were working unarmed and those Indians were naturally tempted to take a cruel revenge and plunder where they had been plundered.  Let the compassionate public compare the above stated with the vague charges that have been brought against the unfortunate victims of the massacre.  I am speaking of what is generally known of those charges; for the particulars, though so well known, as it appears, and circulated in certain quarters, have been carefully hid from myself and those alone who could answer them. They are founded entirely on Indian testimony, and chiefly I believe on that of squint eye, a man whose want of veracity is so notorious that no magistrate, when aware of it, ought to believe onword he says --Such testimony, obtained by a sort of detective police procedure, is of little value, and the whole system calculated to intimidate and bewilder the mind of the poor Indian, whose easily led to say what he thinks may be agreeable to the great Government Tyhee who is questioning him.  Moreover, all these charges are emphatically denied by every one of the survivors of the expedition, eight in number! one of whom, bye-the-bye, was questioned and counter questioned on Friday afternoon by a certain official at New Westminster, till, as he told me, "it revolted him." So much for the zeal of government officials. who try to prove too much. deceive both themselves and the government they wish to serve and injure the latter in the public opinion. Alfred Waddington