Victoria, V.I. 27 Feb 1873 4-sides Marcus Smith letter to his wife
Lot 90 in our auction Saturday 11th July 2020

Victoria Vancouver Island BC Feb 27th 1873

My dear Nannie,

I have not heard from you this year. The last letter of yours is dated 8th Dec. 1872. I suppose you have been sick and that after all that has been spent on them neither Tom nor Eloise are able to write a letter- I have written to you nearly every steamer- that is once a fortnight- by my letters you will know that I am detained here at the request of Mr. Fleming to examine all the accts. as a personal favor to himself- I send off by today’s steamer a cash book and about 2500 accts or vouchers. I thought I should have got through all and come home myself- but it will take ten days more yet and I shall leave here in a fortnight for home unless I hear from Mr. Fleming to the contrary-

I see they have got the charter for a company to construct this railway alright at last and that Sir. Hugh Allan and a few others are gone to England to try to raise the money on the bonds- If they are successful I shall be home just in time to be on hand for some appointment under the comp. as I don’t see in the charter that the govt. have any engineers except those appointed as arbitrators on their behalf from time to time- but I also see that provision is made in the charter for the payment of cash of surveys to be made in 1873. So that it is possible I may have to come out here again next summer as neither of the routes surveyed are quite satisfactory- If I do come out I shall not have half the trouble I had last year as there will probably be only two or three parties instead of eight in the field- but I shall have a great deal of “exploring” to do myself- however I know the country well now and how to travel in it with comfort and I am a great favourite with the Indians- If I come out next summer I shall be home probably by x-mas.

Last Sunday was our first spring day and all the early flowers were out- But these last three days have been cold- and last night several inches of snow fell- so that I cannot send you any flowers as I intended- in a few days it will go off again and then we shall have spring in earnest.

Love to all the little ones-

Yours ever,

M. Smith