No Better Land: The 1860 Diaries of the Anglican Colonial Bishop George Hills

A.J. Pell is the rector of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Diocese of New
Westminster in British Columbia.

Comprising the 1860 diary entries of George Hills, the first Anglican
bishop of British Columbia, this book provides a welcome window into
that long-ago era.

The first entry, dated January 4, 1860, finds Hills on the ship that
will take him to his newly created diocese in British Columbia.
Subsequent entries describe the bishop’s first impressions of his new
home, his new pastoral charges, and the rough-and-tumble world of a
colony dominated by the Hudson’s Bay Company and by the rush for gold
in the interior. In these diaries, we meet Governor James Douglas,
Colonel Richard Moody of the Royal Engineers, pioneering Anglican
clergy, Native men and women, humble farmers, and lonely miners’
wives. Providing a valuable context for the diaries is Roberta
Bagshaw’s lengthy introduction.