workers. The white population feared wage decreases and job loss because of competition with the Chinese, as employers took advantage of their immigrant status and lack of language skills by paying them lower wages. Onderdonk told the Canadian government that if he could not use Chinese workers, the railway could not be built. The people and government of British Columbia were forced to accept the Canadian government's method of keeping costs down in order to get the railway built to complete a major transportation route through the mountains and to eastern markets. Historians estimate Onderdonk arranged to bring in six and a half thousand Chinese from China and many more thousand from California. The Chinese workers were assigned to crews separate from the white workers and often given the most dangerous jobs, including the tunnel blasting, using the highly unstable nitroglycerin explosive. Many Chinese were killed in accidents or died of scurvy during the winter. Scurvy fatalities, due to a vitamin deficiency in the diet, were high because of the workers' dietary reliance on rice. They were given rice mats as part of their pay system, and the workers had little cash to buy supplements for their food. They owed debts to the Chinese labour contractors who had sold their services to Onderdonk. Unlike the white workers, injured Chinese workers were not provided access to the company hospital. They were left to the aid of their fellow workers. At the end of construction, the Chinese labour contracting companies abandoned their charges; thousands of workers were left stranded and living in caves without food and water in the desert heat of the mountains surrounding Spences Bridge. They were not able to leave the area until white charities in Vancouver sponsored tickets for their transport back to China or California. Discrimination and racism led to occasional fights between the Chinese workers and the white workers. A white foreman was murdered by a mob of Chinese workers at Camp 23 near Lytton after three Chinese workers were fired. Generally management considered the Chinese to be efficient, hard-working and well-behaved workers, although many thousands deserted to the goldfields rather than stay in the harsh conditions of the railway camps. Canadian Pacific contracts When Onderdonk finished the five government contracts, he undertook contracts directly with the Canadian Pacific Railway to build eastward to meet the track being built from Eastern Canada and then ended at