Rare book prophesies War of 1812 sequel
U. S. desire for B. C. was potential flashpoint, spy wrote
While both the Canadian and U. S. governments have framed this year’s bicentennial of the War of 1812 as a celebration of two centuries of postwar friendship, a rare, 164- year- old book to be auctioned next month in Britain is a reminder of just how fragile the peace between the two countries has sometimes been.
The lavishly illustrated, 1848 volume by Henry James Warre — innocuously titled Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, and expected to fetch up to $ 40,000 at a Christie’s sale on June 13 — was the product of an undercover reconnaissance mission by two British agents sent to scope out a territorial dispute encompassing parts of present- day British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, which threatened to spark a sequel to the War of 1812.
‘ 54’ 40 or fight!’
After James Polk was elected U. S. president in 1844 — rallying voters with his “54’ 40 or Fight!” vow to push the U. S. border in the Pacific Northwest all the way to Russian- controlled Alaska — Warre and fellow agent Mervin Vavasour were assigned to discreetly collect intelligence in the disputed region by posing as British tourists on a West Coast trek.
Military conflict was eventually averted with a deal that permanently set the 49th parallel as the border between the U. S. and Canada along North America’s western frontier. While territory around the mouth of the Columbia River would become part of the U. S., Britain retained the future site of Vancouver and its surroundings, along with all of Vancouver Island — despite the fact that its southern portion extended well south of the mainland boundary line.
The border agreement allowed Warre, a talented artist and erstwhile spy, to publish his sketches of about 20 strategic sites — the 19th- century equivalent to secret satellite photos — as one of Western Canada’s earliest travel books. A first edition of Warre’s Sketches is a coveted prize among collectors of early North American books; in 2007, a colour- plate version of the 1848 volume sold at Christie’s for more than $ 200,000.
Warre and Vavasour — who travelled through the sites that would become Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton before reaching their destination beyond the Rocky Mountains — were assisted in their arduous journey by aboriginal guides as well as FrenchCanadian voyageurs, who had become familiar with the western wilderness from trading furs in the region.
Vivid account of scenery
Warre’s vivid account of the expedition remains a major document in Canadian history, capturing scenes from an era when European settlement had begun to take a serious its toll on first nations as well as many species of wildlife in the future Western Canada.
“Between the Red River and the Rocky Mountains, the country presents a vast extent of undulating prairie [ nearly denuded of timber] intersected by lakes and swamps of various extent,” Warre wrote. “These prairies are frequented by vast herds of buffaloe.”
From Fort Edmonton to Fort Colville, just south of the present- day B. C.Washington border, the party lost 33 of 60 horses due to starvation, sickness or falls down steep mountain slopes.
“The scenery was grand in the extreme,” Warre wrote. “Similar in form to the Alps of Switzerland, you felt that you were in the midst of desolation: no habitations, save those of the wild Indians, were within hundreds of miles; but few civilized beings had ever even viewed this.”
And Warre, though writing after Britain and the U. S. had settled its boundary dispute, nevertheless warned of the growing international power of the American nation as it expanded westward.
“It promises [ before] long to add another to the already formidable union of states, and to give the federal government of the United States a command in the Pacific Ocean which may eventually threaten our possessions.”
Concern about U. S. expansionism persisted in Canada for years after the Pacific Northwest boundary was settled. The worrisome prospect of experienced, well- armed and numerically superior American troops invading Canada in the aftermath of the U. S. Civil War helped forge the Confederation consensus in 1867.