DOUGLAS AND FINLAYSON.

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low, the upper part of it dry, while at the lower part there were three or four feet of water. It was lined with stone-work up to the surface, then covered with wood. To this well the miners came for their supply of water, which was hauled up with a rope and bucket. While one of them was hauling up water the rope broke and let his kettle fall to the bottom. In order to save his kettle, he gave an Indian a dollar to go down and fish it up. The Indian went down and stood on the dry part of the rock. After trying a little while, and unable to grapple the kettle, in order to help him to recover it the miner swung himself down by the rope. When about ten feet down his feet struck the stone-work. In an instant the whole wall fell down on the Indian, who, poor fellow, died instantly, crushed to death at the bottom. A number of people came and quickly recovered his body. The well was ordered to be filled up, which was done. Only one of all the old buildings now remains, which is the store known as number three. It is at present used as a theatre"-that is to say, in 1878.

Characteristic of Douglas was the desire to accomplish the greatest possible results with the smallest means, a praiseworthy quality if not carried too far. During his wide experience he had often been forced to this economy of capital, and what he had done he compelled others to do. If a fort was to be built, Douglas would specify the number of men to be employed, the tools to be used, among which the neverfailing Canadian chopping-adze was always prominent, if indeed it was not the only one, if I may except a few augers, chisels, and saws. Finlayson had been the pupil of Douglas, as Douglas had been the pupil of McLoughlin.

Under the influence of Douglas, Finlayson imbibed similar ideas; so that when ordered to build Fort Camosun without a single nail, he did it. Strange as it may appear, houses, palisades, and bastions were

erected without the use of one iron nail or spike, wooden pegs alone being employed."

Besides Finlayson's Hist. V. I., MS., passim; Deans' Settlement V. I., MS., passim; Douglas' Voyage to the Northwest Coast, in Journal, MS., 120–7; Bolduc, in De Smet's Or. Miss., 55-65; and Waddington's Fraser Mines, on whose evidence this and the preceding chapter rest-I may infer to Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 279; Simpson's Or. Ter., 47; Niles' Reg., Ixix. 134; Seemann's Voy. Herald, i. 101-3; Maine's B. C., 26–57; Kane's Wanderings, 215; Guide to B. C., 281-4; Martin's H. B., 34-5; Grant, in London Geog. Soc., Jour., xxvi. 272; McKinlay's Nar., MS., 7; Overland Monthly, xv. 497; James Douglas, H. B. Co. Ev. H. B. Co. Claims, 49-61; Cooper, Mar. Matters, MS., passim; Hazlitt's B. C., 157, copied verbatim from Grant; Tolmie's Puget Sound, MS., 19; Howison's Rept., 36; Macfie's B. C., 58; Blanchard, in House Commons Rept., 1857, 290, 294; Cooper, in House Commons Rept., 1857, 208; Good's British Columbia, MS., 2; Tod's New Caledonia, MS., 19.

CHAPTER VII.

CAMOSUN, ALBERT, VICTORIA.

1845.

EXTERMINATION OF SAVAGE NOMENCLATURE-CAMOSUN BECOMES FIRST ALBERT, AND THEN VICTORIA-FOOD SUPPLY-DOUGLAS' MOTTO, GREAT ENDS FROM SMALL MEANS -WOODEN PLOUGHS AND ROPE HARNESS—A MORE LIBERAL ECONOMY SOMETIMES PROFITABLE - OUTWARD-BOUND SHIPS FROM ENGLAND NOW COME DIRECTLY HITHER-WHALING FLEETS -THE MISSION OF THE 'AMERICA'-CAPTAIN GORDON AS A SPORTSMAN— HOSPITALITY AT FORT VICTORIA-FIFTY-FOUR FORTY OR FIGHT MORE VESSELS OF WAR AT VICTORIA-ALSO SURVEYORS AND APPRAISERS OF TERRITORIES-THE NORTHWEST COAST NOT WORTH FIGHTING FOR ADVENTURES OF PAUL KANE-FORT VICTORIA IN EARLY DAYS.

But

BACK into the woods, you greased and painted redskins! Go! And take your belongings-all of them, that is, all except what civilization would have. chiefly take yourselves, your past, your future; take your names of things and places; take your lares et penates, take your legends and traditions. Begone! Blot yourselves out! Why should you be remembered? What have you done as tenants of this domain except to occupy, and eat and sleep, and keep it fresh and virgin as God gave it you, until some stronger hand should come and wrest it from you? Thanks, gentle savage; but go! And please do not die here under our cultivated noses. You need execute no testament; we will administer your estate. Go! Be forgotten! Be not! And let not your late home breathe of your former being.

For the first two years of its existence, as we have seen, the post at the south end of Vancouver Island was called by the native name of the place, Camosun.

It was now deemed advisable, not to say necessary, to eradicate all traces of nature and the natural man; it was thought in better taste, with the levelling of forests and the tearing up of rocks, to blast from memory the sylvan race that once were masters there. It happened there lived somewhere a man whose name was Albert, whom it were well for the adventurers of England to conciliate; therefore, in the year of grace 1845, orders came from the London magnates to damn the name Camosun, and call the place Fort Albert. But even then they were not satisfied; for behold, upon this planet there was one mightier than Albert, even his wife, the queen; and so before the year had expired Camosun was called Victoria, each new baptism being celebrated by the usual salutes and ceremonies.1

No sooner were the stockade, storehouses, and dwellings prepared than the people at Camosun turned their attention to the production of food. "For," said Finlayson, "after the first year many applications for agricultural produce from head-quarters would be ascribed to want of energy on the part of the officers in charge," and holding fast to the motto of Douglas, "great ends from small means," the omnipotent adze was sharpened, and wooden ploughs and harrows were made, the mould-board and teeth being of oak; old ropes obtained from the coasting vessels were used as traces for the horses to pull by. Afterward, seeing how industrious and thrifty they were, as a mark of his special favor Douglas indulged them in the extravagance of a few iron ploughshares

Finlayson says, Hist. V. I., MS., 26: 'In the year 1845 the name of Camosun previously given to the fort was changed to Fort Albert by order from England, and the succeeding year to that of Victoria.' This I should regard as the highest authority did I not find a higher in the report of lieutentants Warre and Vavasour, House of Commons Returns to Three Addresses, 7, dated the 26th of October 1845, in which the post is plainly designated Fort Victoria. This may have been done without proper authority, or it may not have been commonly called by that name, or baptized into it before 1846. At most, the discrepancy in the time of the change of name involves but a few months.

GREAT ENDS FROM SMALL MEANS.

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from Fort Vancouver; and whetting their Scotch ingenuity still further, they took the iron hoops from old provision casks and with them lined the mouldboards of the plough and bound the wooden agricul tural machinery. Agricultural outhouses were built; and grain was thrashed by driving horses round a ring in the barn. Flour was made with a steel handmill sent from Fort Vancouver.

Perhaps a more liberal economy would have better served the purpose, though it might not so well have served James Douglas. McLoughlin was making ready to retire from the service, and remove from Fort Vancouver to Oregon City the coming winter, leaving Chief Factor Douglas first in command on the Pacific. This new post on Vancouver Island was undoubtedly destined to great things. Mr Grant

says: "As in settling there, no idea was entertained. by the Hudson's Bay Company beyond starting a fresh trading-post with the Indians, the establishment remained in statu quo until the year 1849, when the granting of the whole island to the company opened out a fresh field for their exertions;" but in this he is mistaken. We know that the company harbored far more ambitious views for Camosun, or by the grace of God, Albert, and Victoria, than the establishing of an ordinary trading-post there, though Mr Grant did not. The great men of the great monopoly were wholly able to keep their own counsel, and those nearest them, in point of time as well as of distance, often knew least as to the project or policy revolving in their mighty minds.

Had a trading-post alone been the measure of their expectations, Langley would have answered. At Langley were both furs and fisheries; there was little local trade on this south end of Vancouver Island. No, the day was coming when progress should demand somewhere in this western north a British city. Already the Americans were upon them, and had spoiled their southern grounds. Possibly they might