The Hudson’s Bay Company having formed an establishment on the southern point of Vancouver’s Island, which they are annually enlarging, are anxious to know whether they will be confirmed in the possession of such lands, as they may find it expedient to add to those which they already possess.

—Sir John Pelly, Governor of the HBC to Earl Grey, Britain’s Colonial Secretary, 7th September, 1846
[Great Britain, Parliament, House of Commons, Sessional Papers, 1846-48, No. 619, p. 3]