Victoria - History

Hence the City of Victoria was founded by the Hudson's Bay Company on March 14, 1843, as a trading post and fort at the location the native Indians called "Camosack" meaning "Rush of Water." Anticipating that under the Oregon Treaty, then being drawn up, the 49th parallel would be chosen as the International Boundary Line, the Hudson's Bay Company moved its fort from Vancouver on the Columbia River to the southern end of Vancouver Island. Thereafter, for a short time, it was known locally as "Fort Albert," but by resolution passed by the Council of the Northern Department of the Company meeting at Fort Garry on June 10, 1843, it was officially named "Fort Victoria" after the great British Queen.

The life of the little community of Victoria, numbering 450 men, women and children in 1853, centered in the business of the Hudson's Bay Company until 1858 when gold was discovered on the mainland of British Columbia. Then miners and adventurers from the gold fields of California and Australia, and indeed from all parts of the world, flocked to Victoria which was the only ocean port and outfitting centre for the gold fields of the Cariboo. The first ship bringing these modern Argonauts, the "Commodore" - a wooden side-wheel American steamer, entered Victoria harbour on Sunday morning, April 25, 1858, just as the townspeople were returning homeward from church. With astonishment, they watched as 450 men disembarked - typical gold-seekers, complete with blankets, miner's pans and spades and firearms; and it is estimated that within a few weeks, over 20,000 had landed. The gold rush was on in earnest and the quiet of Victoria shattered forever.

In the spring of 1778 Captain James Cook, R.N., became the first known European to set foot on what is now British Columbia. Permanent European settlement, long delayed, was brought about by the gradual overland penetration of the fur trade companies towards the Pacific Coast. On March 13, 1843, Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company James Douglas, accompanied by the pioneer Roman Catholic missionary Father J.B.Z. Bolduc, anchored off Clover Point in the "Beaver." The next day he selected the site for Fort Victoria. By mid-June Chief Factor Charles Ross was busy at work constructing the new post.

Victoria grew rapidly as the main port of entry to the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. When the colonies combined, the City became the colonial capital and was established as the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871.For most of the nineteenth century, Victoria remained the largest city in British Columbia and was the foremost in trade and commerce. However, with construction of the Transcontinental railway, Vancouver, as its terminus, emerged as the major west coast port and the largest city in British Columbia. The achievement of Confederation was no simple undertaking. The colonial legislative Council had for weeks in March, 1870, debated the terms of union and, agreement reached, three delegates were appointed to negotiate with the federal government. Dr. J.S. Helmcken from Victoria, Dr. R.W.W. Carrall from Cariboo, and Hon. J.W. Trutch, senior government official, left Victoria on May 10 and, travelling of necessity most of the way through the United States, reached Ottawa early in June to begin the negotiations which were to reach their culmination the following year.