Writing history is a serious undertaking, and
not to be thought of without long preparation and minute and
scrupulous investigation. If a person qualified for the task
should devote ten or fifteen years exclusively to it he might
produce a work that would deserve to stand for the West as
Parkman stands for the East. What follows, therefore, does not
partake of the dignity of history. It is merely an outline of
events and conditions prominent in the past of British Columbia
from the very outset. Lack of time, if there were no other
considerations, would have prevented me from going so deeply,
and in detail, into the circumstances connected with the history
of the province as would have been desirable for the purpose and
otherwise have been possible. As it is, with the assistance of
friends, I have been enabled to present to the reader a certain
chain of facts which have never before been presented in the
same connected form. These have been grouped so as to leave a
more distinct impression of their order .and importance. There
is not much that is new to the student, except, perhaps, the
arrangement. Regarding a country about which so much has been
written in a desultory way, it is difficult to more than collate
and summarize, without, as I have intimated, delving for years
among the original sources of our information. Hubert Howe
Bancroft's History of British Columbia, though characterized by
many imperfections, performed a splendid service, and indicated
by innumerable references much that will be exceedingly useful
for the real historian when he appears upon the scene. With a
wealth of original material at his disposal, however, his own
use and treatment of it were not historical in that sense in
which the great Bancroft excelled. The late Alexander Begg, with
his conspicuous industry, compiled a history of this province
that is valuable in many respects, but
obviously lacking in workmanship, analytical skill and insight.
To avoid comparisons, I make
no pretensions to have done more than is set out in the
foregoing, and that, I am aware, imperfectly. It is simply a
narrative, or succession of narratives, that a journalist
familiar with an outline of the events described, might have
contributed to a magazine in order to convey a general
impression of the past, and prepare the reader for a keener
appreciation of a more pretentious work with the details
faithfully and artistically filled in.
R. E. GOSNELL,
