Steamboats on the Fraser from the Diary of George Hill Some things in Columbia I was prepared for. But I certainly did not expect to see so good accommodation as afforded by the steamboats. The cost of Moody was 2000£. It pays the shareholders nearly fifty percent. It could accommodate 300 passengers. I had a cabin the three nights I was on board, superior to that I had on the La Plata or Silent, ships of the West India Mail Company. Provisions were good & abundant. Thus for dinner the first day, soup, sturgeon, mutton, beef, bacon, potatoes, beans, carrots, apple tart. For breakfast, there was fried sturgeon, bacon, mutton chops, hot rolls, bread, butter, tea, coffee, etc., [and] silver forks & spoons. Everything [was] very clean & well cooked. Prices are high, 4 shillings a meal, besides the passage money. The captain was a Scotchman, the purser an American citizen born in Ireland, the steward an African, the steward's boy a Chinaman, the pilot an American & etc. Such is a Fraser River steamboat.