As told in the story of Kamloops, gold was discovered this very year on Thompson River. A year later, the air was full of wild rumors of gold discoveries north of Colville, in Cariboo, on Queen Charlotte Island. The tide, that had rolled over the mountains to California, now turned to British Columbia. When the second five-year grant of Vancouver Island to the Hudson’s Bay Company expired in 1859, it was not renewed. Douglas foresaw that the gold stampede to the North meant a new British empire on the Pacific. The discovery of gold sounded the death knell of the fur lords’ ascendancy. Douglas resigned his position as Chief Factor and became governor of the new colony now known as British Columbia, including both Vancouver and the mainland. For the repurchase of Vancouver Island, the British Government paid the Hudson’s Bay Company £57,500. The Company claimed that it had spent £80,000. Among the gold seekers stampeding north from Oregon were our old trappers and traders of the mountain brigades, led by Dr. David McLoughlin, now turned prospector. _Notes to Chapter XXXIII._--The contents of this chapter are drawn from the same sources as XXXII; in addition Hansard and Congressional Reports for both the Vancouver Island and Oregon disputes, the Parl. Enquiry Report of 1857; H. B. C. Memorial Book on Puget Sound Company; Fitzgerald’s Vancouver Island, 1849; Martin’s H. B. Territories, 1849; De Smet’s Oregon Missions, 1847; Oregon (Quarterly) Hist. Soc. Report, 1900; Schafer’s Pacific Northwest, 1905; and most important--H. H. Bancroft’s invaluable transcripts of Douglas and Finlayson MS. in his “British Columbia.” For a popular account of McLoughlin from an absolutely American point of view nothing better exists than Mrs. Dye’s “Old Oregon,” though it may be sniffed at by the higher critics for unquestioning acceptance of what they please to call the “Whitman myth.” Whitman’s ride was not all myth, though the influence was greatly exaggerated; and the truth probably exists half way between the critics’ skepticism and the old legend. Wilkes’ Narrative of the Exploring Squadron, 1845; the reports of Warre and Vavasseur, the two special spies on McLoughlin; early numbers of the old _B. C. Colonist_ and _Cariboo Sentinel_; Sir Geo. Simpson’s Journey Round the World; Lord’s Naturalist, 1866; Macfie’s Vancouver Island, 1865; Mayne’s B. C., 1862; Milton’s North-West Passage, 1869; Paul Kane’s Wanderings, 1859; Dunn’s Oregon Territory, 1844; Grant’s Ocean to Ocean, 1873; Gray’s Oregon, 1870; Greenhow’s Oregon, 1844; Dawson’s Geol. Reports, Ottawa; Peter Burnett’s Letters to _Herald_ N. Y.--also throw side lights on the episodes related. CHAPTER XXXIV 1857-1870 THE PASSING OF THE COMPANY