2-982-356 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Victoria, the Chief Town of Vancouver's Island, 1858. 'This place, a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company, bids fair, on account of its position with regard to the gold fields in British Columbia, speedily to become a large town...Victoria is situated on the southerly extremity of Vancouver's Island. It is nearly opposite the mouth of Fraser River, which falls into the Gulf of Georgia, separating Vancouver's Island from the mainland. The Bay of Victoria runs in a zigzag shape, two long, sharp promontories on the southward hiding the town from view until the voyager gets close to it. A long, low sand spit juts out into it, which makes the entrance hazardous for large vessels at some little distance below the town, and higher up the anchorage is shallow... The prominent object in making the approach to Victoria by water is the Hudson's Bay Company's fort, built on a rocky bluff in the foreground of the picture...The Californians, who have flocked to the place with the view of bettering their broken fortunes, have run up the price of land to an absurd figure'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.