In June 1882, Captain Nedham, of the HMS Rocket Journal from the UK Royal Navy, was the navigation officer under Lieutenant Commander Orlebar. Captain Nedham was responsible for correcting charts and new place names, charting courses, and writing crucial daily information about the vessel’s activities.

June 10, 1882, Lieutenant Colonel Israel boarded the HMS Rocket at Esquimalt, Victoria. On June 14, from Lieutenant Commander Orlebars Log Book of the HMS Rocket anchored off Harwood Island, and a Party of Officers came ashore. ” a steep trail of 2 miles leads to a lake of nearly 40 miles in length ( from which this stream runs) to the north and reaches to within about 5 to 10 miles of the tip of Toba Inlet, by a family Indians report( ? ) a party of officers caught a magnificent lot of trout at this lake.

What is exceptionally notable is that Pages 5 and 6 of the Remarks Book of the HMS Rocket contain the following entry.

It is important to note that this Remark Book is in Lieutenant Commander Orlebar’s handwriting; it is his words, with no additions or corrections. Lieutenant Commander Orlebar, as in the Journal of Captain Nedham, calls it both a stream and a lake. The other important information is that they did not sail by; they do not call it a river, and the lake is two miles from the ocean. Neither Captain Nedham’s Journal nor the Remarks Book of the HMS Rocket in 1882 by Lieutenant Commander Orlebar names the lake or mentions the river as Powell.

After this despatch and Israel Powell’s visit to Sliammon (Tla’amin), the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs. Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs for the Year 1882. Ottawa: Maclean, Roger & Co., 1883, 250. Report of P. McTiernan, Indian Agent, Indian Office, Victoria, 22 November 1882, is published, and this is a section on this visit.

In his official annual report dated 22 November 1882, Indian Agent P. McTiernan reported to the Department of Indian Affairs that members of the Shammon Band — a documented historical orthography of the Sliammon (Tla’amin) people — were permanently settled in multiple locations along the central coast of British Columbia. McTiernan stated that five Shammon families were settled on Harwood Island, where they had cleared land, established homesteads, and collectively owned sixteen head of cattle. He further noted that these families had created what he described as “fine places” and that this location was the most suitable settlement site he observed in that region.

McTiernan further reported that Shammon people, along with other coastal Indigenous bands, derived their livelihoods from fishing, hunting, the production of dogfish oil, and logging activities supporting the Burrard Inlet sawmills. He recorded that Indigenous labour formed a substantial portion of the regional industrial workforce and that Indigenous fishermen entered into direct commercial contracts with settler businessmen, including an individual identified as “Mr. English.”

The same report confirms that McTiernan personally visited Indigenous communities along the coast as far north as Bute Inlet aboard Her Majesty’s Ship Rocket, thereby establishing the vessel’s role in Indian Affairs administration and direct governmental engagement with Indigenous settlements during this period.

By 1882, federal Indian Affairs officials explicitly recognized the Shammon (Sliammon – Tla’amin) people as a distinct Indigenous band with permanent settlements, cleared lands, livestock holdings, and integrated coastal economic activities. Government inspection voyages aboard HMS Rocket documented Indigenous communities from Burrard Inlet to Bute Inlet, while departmental reports acknowledged Indigenous participation in fisheries, logging, and commercial contracting with settler businessmen. These records demonstrate continuous Indigenous land use, economic agency, and direct state engagement in the region before the industrial transformation of Powell River.