[Untitled]
On this thirteenth day of March, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, personally appeared before me, David Eckstein, Consul of the United States of America for the Province of British Columbia, Dominion of Canada, residing at the port of Victoria, Vancouver Island, George Thomas Seymour, who, being first duly sworn, states as follows: My age is forty-nine years; and I have resided at Victoria, Vancouver Island, since eighteen hundred and fifty-eight. My occupation is that of merchant. I have been acquainted with the routes of travel by water between Victoria and points on the Gulf of Georgia [Page 161] and Fraser River, since the year eighteen hundred and fifty-eight. The canal de Haro has been the channel used by steamers and sail-vessels, British and others, since eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, and is the one now generally, if not exclusively, used in making trips to and from the above-named points, both night and day. It is in fact the main channel, and the only one regarded as really safe by masters of steamers and sail-vessels, who are acquainted with the waters between the continent and Vancouver Island.
*Ever since my residence at Victoria, in eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, the canal de Haro has been the channel invariably used by navigators in going from Victoria to points on the Gulf of Georgia and Fraser river. No navigator would ever think of using any other channel, unless he had some special reason for it.[79] Affidavits on the canal de Haro.
[l. s.]