colony, and constructed the Victoria District Church (the forerunner to the Christ Church Cathedral). In 1856, as ordered by the British Government, Douglas reluctantly established an elected Legislative Assembly. That was a turning point for Douglas, who had grown accustomed to administering the colony with absolute authority. The council was opposed to Douglas on many issues and consistently criticized him for having a conflict of interest between his duties to the company and to the colony. Fraser Canyon Gold Rush In 1856, gold was discovered in the Thompson River, a tributary of the Fraser River, and a year later in the Fraser River itself. That sparked an influx of miners and others, as word of the discoveries spread south to the United States. Thousands of Americans flooded into British Columbia during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Although without political authority on the mainland, Douglas worked to exert British jurisdiction over the territory. He stationed a warship at the mouth of the Fraser in order to issue licenses to prospectors and merchants. A major task during the huge inflow of settlers was to prevent violence between the recent arrivals and the local First Nations peoples. The Indian Wars in the United States West made American animosity against natives often high. In the fall of 1858, escalating tensions between the miners and the Nlaka’pamux people of the central area of the canyon broke into the Fraser Canyon War. Douglas's actions in asserting British sovereignty over the mainland is generally conceded today to have helped exert to control over American miners and to undermine American territorial ambitions toward this part of British North America. Shortly thereafter, the Colonial Office formally confirmed Douglas's proclamation of sovereignty and established a new colony encompassing the mainland. Feud with Moody After the British Parliament in 1858 created the Crown Colony of British Columbia, Douglas was assigned as governor and was asked to resign as Chief Factor of the western portion of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Crown did not renew the company's trade monopoly on the mainland or Douglas' position as Chief Factor. Richard Clement Moody was handpicked by the Colonial Office, under Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, to establish British order and to transform the newly established Colony of British Columbia into the British Empire's "bulwark in the farthest west" and "found a second England on the shores of the Pacific". Lytton desired to send to the colony