Moberly, "History of Cariboo Wagon Road", continued
(Part 10 of 13)

When I reached Yale I was surprised to meet a large number of my men who had engaged to work the whole season, and others who had only engaged by the month. They had heard of my going down from Lytton in a great hurry, and some irresponsible creature had circulated a report that I had left the country. My return rather astonished these men. They were desperately hungry, so I took them to a restaurant and ordered them a good meal and told them to meet me after breakfast at the office of the Gold Commissioner. On their arrival I paid off all those who had worked the full time for which they had engaged, and after well rating those who had left the work before the term for which they had engaged expired, and by which action on their part forfeited all wages coming to them, I paid them half their wages and obtained employment for them for the rest of the season with Captain Grant, who with the Royal Engineers and a body of civilian laborers was then constructing the first section of the wagon road between Yale and Chapman's bar.

The next day I proceeded on my way to the road camps which, after my arrival, I re-organized and then returned to Lytton as I expected the $44,000 agreed to be forwarded to me by express would have arrived. I reached Lytton on a Saturday evening and found the mail and express had not arrived, but I received a letter from a friend, sent by a special messenger, to inform me the Government would not send me the money, and that the day after his messenger had arrived at Lytton a capias would reach that town by mail instructing Captain Ball, the sheriff, to arrest me for the amount of an account due for some supplies furnished by a party in Victoria, and that a writ had been obtained owning to a notice emanating from the Attorney-General that the charter, out of which I could easily have cleared $100,000 if the Government had acted in good faith, had been forfeited as the work was not going on properly.

The letter I received from my friend also informed me that Captain Grant had been instructed to proceed to Lytton regarding the steps to be taken by the Government about my works. The unfortunate general power of attorney I had given the Attorney-General, by a breach of faith on his part, placed it in his power to act as he did, and that power of attorney was used by him for a very different purpose to that intended when I gave it to him.

This unscrupulous act on the part of the Government I afterwards found out was owing to the refusal of the Imperial Government to grant a large loan to the colony upon which Governor Douglas relied for building the Yale-Cariboo road and the extension of the Harrison-Lillooet road northerly from Lillooet, and as I was the one to whom the largest amount would have to be paid it was decided to sacrifice me and carry the other contractors through, especially as the Government would gain a large and very expensive portion of the constructed road I had built without paying anything for it, which was a very convenient thing for them, but it was a disgraceful and dishonest transaction on their part.

The day when the capias would arrive in Lytton would be a Sunday. I therefore knew it could not be served upon me until the following morning. On Sunday morning I had breakfast with Captain Ball, the sheriff, and as we sat at that meal his mail arrived and I saw him open a letter which I felt convinced contained the ominous document, but he said nothing, nor did I.

I was now thoroughly disgusted with the bad faith I had met with from the Government, and the duplicity of the Attorney-General, and felt certain I could not struggle any longer against such adverse circumstances; but as I knew what vast importance it was to the colony to get this road completed as soon as possible, I decided to take a course that would prevent the stoppage of the work and let my personal interest be sacrificed and the general interests of the country be protected, particularly as I had been the principal cause of leading Governor Douglas to undertake this great work which had placed him in a very serious dilemma.