Additional Particulars

Daily Chronicle, May 12, 1864

Mr. Waddington thinks that the trail crossing a portion of the Chilicooten Territory, may have influenced them in some degree in making the attack, but plunder was no doubt the main object they had in view. The hour of attack was well chosen – just before daylight — when the poor victims were in their soundest sleep. The plan of slaughter, to judge from the disconnected accounts furnished us, seems to have been formed with military precision, each Indian selecting his man. The attacking party numbered about 18, all Chilicootens, who were in the employ of the Road Company, and were accompanied by their women and children. The workmen were divided into two camps; one gang, numbering five men, were ahead, with Mr. Brewster, foreman of the work, and the other gang, numbering twelve men, were working at what is known as the third bluff, nine miles above the ferry. Of the latter party, only three are known to have escaped; and of the former, all are believed to have been destroyed. About fifteen miles above the point where Brewster’s party were working, Alex. McDonald, with seven or eight men, was engaged in cutting the trail from Benshee Lake, to meet Brewster’s gang, and it is feared that this party, too, have fallen victims. The murderers are Chilicooten Indians. The Bute Inlet Indians are friendly, and will no doubt render valuable assistance in bringing the guilty parties to justice, to any force sent up for their punishment.

From Mr. Waddington, the proprietor of the road, we have received the following list of those believed to have been destroyed:

The Killed.

William Brewster, foreman, a Cornishman.
Joseph Fielding, Derbyshire, England.
James Openshaw, Lancashire, England.
Chas. Butler, late of Boundary Commission, has been a broker in Victoria.
James Campbell, Scotchman.
Timothy Smith, an Englishman.
John Newman, an Englishman.
John Clarke, an Englishman.
Baptiste Demarest, a French Canadian.
James Gaudet, a half-breed; father and brother in Victoria.
John Hoffmeyer, a Bavarian.
Robert Pollock, Scotchman.
Alex Millan, Scotchman, blacksmith.
George Smith, a Scotchman.

Survivors.

Edwin Mosely.
Peter Petersen.
Philip Buckley.