VICTORIA IN 1859-1860.
I have before me an old picture of Victoria as it appeared in 1860.
It is a watercolor sketch, drawn and colored by H. O. Tedieman, C.E.,
and artist. For me this picture has a great fascination, because it
reminds me of those days gone by--"those good old days," as an old
friend of those pioneer days remarked to me recently. A prettier
place could not be imagined, with its undulating ground covered with
grass relieved by spreading oaks and towering pines.
By the aid of this picture and information furnished me by Colonel
Wolfenden and Mr. Harry Glide, I am enabled to give a pen-picture of
the Queen City of the West forty-four years ago. Colonel Wolfenden
says that when he first remembers James Bay he saw a gang of
Indians--it may be one hundred--under "Grizzly" Morris, a contractor,
and superintended by H. O. Tedieman, with pick, shovel and
wheelbarrow making Belleville Street along the water and in front of
the Government building. The sea beach then came up in front of the
large trees on the Government grounds, about eighty or one hundred
feet further inland. All this space was filled or reclaimed from the
sea by the Indians. I might say that Chinese were almost as rare in
those days in Victoria as Turks. Indians performed all manual
labor--in fact were to that day what John Chinaman is to this. James
Bay bridge, which was just built, looks a very frail structure
in this picture, and must have been, as Colonel Wolfenden says,
intended for passenger and light vehicular traffic, there being
nothing to cause heavy traffic over the bay, the only houses of any
moment being the pagoda-like buildings erected in 1859 for the
Government, and replaced by the present palatial buildings, of which
there were five. In addition to these I see the residence of Governor
Douglas and Dr. Helmcken, Captain Mouat and City Clerk Leigh. There
was also a good-sized house on Beckley Farm, corner of Menzies
Street, in charge of John Dutnall and wife. Across Menzies Street
there is the cottage now owned and occupied by Mr. Jesse Cowper,
since dead, which was then occupied by John Tait of the Hudson's Bay
Company's service, and who was an enthusiastic volunteer of the white
blanket uniforms of 1861.
[Illustration: Government buildings, 1859-60.]
I see what I think was the residence of W. A. Young, on Superior
Street, who was Colonial Secretary, and whose wife was a daughter of
Chief Justice Cameron. If this is the place I see, it is still
standing, and for years was the residence of the late Andrew J.
Smith. To the right of the Government buildings is an isolated
cottage which I believe is still in the land of the living, being
built of corrugated iron, brought out from England by Captain
Gossett, who in 1859 was colonial treasurer, mention of whom will be
made later on. From Mr. Leigh's residence, which with Captain Mouat's
was on the site of Belleville Street, until you come to St. John
Street, there is a blank. On the corner is the house built and
occupied by Captain Nagle, now occupied by Mr. Redfern, and across
the street another built by James N. Thain and now occupied by Mr.
George Simpson of the customs. From this on to the outer dock I
see three isolated houses, that still remain. The large one was built
and occupied by Mr. Laing of "Laing's Ways," the pioneer shipbuilder;
another by Captain H. McKay, the sealer captain; the third was built
out of the upper works of the wrecked steamer _Major Tomkins_, the
first steamer to run from Olympia to Victoria. She was wrecked off
Macaulay Point in 1856. Mr. Laing bought the upper works and built
this house. Lumber in those days had mostly to be imported from
San Francisco--that is, the wood for fine work. Mr. Muir, of Sooke,
bought the boilers and engines, which he put into a sawmill he built
there, and good service they gave for years. Before the road opposite
the Government grounds, which is now Belleville Street, was reclaimed
from the sea, there was an Indian trail which ran through the woods,
from Laing's Ways, in the direction of town along the water-front,
around the head of the bay to Humboldt Street. I might say that the
plat of ground on which the Government buildings were built in 1859
was bought from a French-Canadian who came overland from Montreal,
and although in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company for years,
either could not or would not speak a word of English other than
"yes" or "no." He built his house here and lived here until he sold
out to the Government, the house being afterwards used as a
Government tool house.
[Illustration: First bridge over James Bay.]
Mr. Harry Glide, from whom I got these particulars, is a pioneer of
1856, and lived near the outer wharf. He married a daughter of Mr.
Laing. He says all James Bay from the bridge to the mouth of the
harbor was covered with pine trees, and all this land, together with
that facing Dallas Road up to Beacon Hill, was called Beckley Farm.
The greater part of all these trees were cut down for Kavaunah, a man
whom many will remember as having a woodyard about where the
James Bay Athletic Association now stands.
Mr. Glide says that there were quite a lot of Cherokee Indians here
who came from their native land to the coast of British Columbia for
work, and a fine body of men he says they were, most of them over six
feet and strongly built. It does seem strange that they should have
travelled so far from their homes and country. There were also many
Kanakas here, who came on vessels from Honolulu at odd times. They
formed a small colony and located on Kanaka Road, or Humboldt Street,
as it is now called. I can remember them in 1860, one family
attending service at Christ Church regularly.
The most prominent building in sight is Victoria District Church, as
it stands out in relief on Church Hill. When I first went there as a
boy, it was a most primitive-looking building, with its low steeple
or dovecote (as it looked like). There were two bells in this
steeple, one larger than the other, which sounded ding dong, ding
dong, many a year, until early one morning James Kennedy, an old
friend of mine, as he was going home saw flames issuing from the
roof.
He gave the alarm, and shortly after the whole town was there, and
the engines with volunteer firemen. Nothing could save it though, as
it was summer-time and very dry, and it was not more than an hour or
two before it had disappeared. The other day I had the pleasure of
meeting one of my schoolfellows of 1859, Ernest A. Leigh, of San
Francisco, a son of the second city clerk of Victoria, and who was
here on a visit to his niece, Mrs. George Simpson (customs). We of
course had a long talk over old times, the days of yore, the days of
'59. In looking over this old picture he exclaimed, "There is the
old church we went to! My father built it," and then I remembered the
fact. Well can I remember the old church, with its old-fashioned
windows, seats and gallery, and its organ that stood in the gallery,
facing the congregation. When I first remembered it, Mrs. Atwood, now
Mrs. Sidney Wilson, was organist, and I was organ-blower. Originally
it was played as a barrel organ, as it contained three barrels which
contained ten tunes each, but Mr. Seeley, the owner and proprietor of
the Australian House, at the north end of James Bay bridge, made and
adapted a keyboard to it, and Mrs. Wilson played it in the morning
and in the afternoon. In the evening the keyboard was removed, and
your humble servant ground out the hymn tunes as on a barrel organ.
It was in this gallery that I first met John Butts we have heard so
much of through Mr. Higgins. I remember Butts as a sleek,
respectable-looking young fellow with a nice tenor voice, which he
was not afraid to use, and he was quite an addition to the choir, of
which I was a juvenile member. In after years John fell from grace
and gave up the choir, and might have been heard singing as he walked
along the street, and not above taking fifty cents from someone well
able to give it. He was always cheerful and goodnatured, and if a
child were lost John would ring his bell and walk up and down calling
out the fact.
This view of the old city is taken from the rocks on the Indian
reserve, and in the foreground is a large building which occupied the
site of the present marine hospital. When first I remember this
building it was used as a lunatic asylum. It is the only prominent
building shown on the reserve, with the exception of the Indian
lodges, which by the extent might accommodate easily two
thousand Indians. The harbor is full of shipping, taking up the whole
frontage from the Hudson's Bay Company's wharf north, which is the
only one distinctly to be seen in the view. The vessels reach to the
bridge across the harbor.
At anchor is the historic _Beaver_, and steaming out of the
harbor is the British steamer _Forward_. On the Hudson's Bay
Company's wharf is a large shed or house. I do not see the present
brick building, which was not built then (1859), but Mr. Glide says
in a large shed on this wharf the _British Colonist_ first saw
the light, the advance sheets being printed here in 1858. When the
shed was torn down a little over a year ago there were brought to
light a number of old letters, which was a good find for the man who
had the job of taking the shed down, for there were lots of old
Vancouver Island stamps on these letters.
The _Colonist_ was moved from here to Wharf Street, about where
the Macdonald block now stands. Also Wells, Fargo's express first did
business in this shed, then moved to Yates Street, where it was
located in a building, the lumber for which was imported from San
Francisco, being redwood. This building was afterwards moved to
Langley, between Bastion and Fort, and used as a feed store by Turner
& Todd, whom we all know.
An incident by my schoolfellow Ernest Leigh, of Upland Farm in 1859,
finishes this reminiscence.
Killing of Capt. Jack.
Referring to Mr. Higgins' most interesting account of the killing of
the noted Indian chieftain, "Captain Jack," at the Victoria jail in
the year 1860--the result of this shooting was to set the Indians
over on the reserve wild with excitement, which condition was aided
by a plentiful supply of infernal firewater obtained from the
notorious wholesale joint at the end of the Johnson Street bridge.
They immediately decided to start in their canoes up along the
straits toward Saanich, calling at the many farms and wreaking their
vengeance upon the settlers. A man was sent out from the fort on
horseback to warn the farmers. At the Uplands Farm at Cadboro Bay,
where the late William Leigh and family were residing, there were
some seventeen people--men, women and children. When the warning came
a hasty consultation was had, Mr. Leigh being away on business, as to
whether it would be best to load up the wagons and all move in to the
fort, or to barricade the house and run chances of being burned out,
or to hide away in the forest behind the farm. The latter course was
finally decided upon, and with a supply of blankets, mats and wraps,
for protection against the cold, a movement was made down into a
heavily wooded ravine about half a mile back of the farm, where,
hidden under the spreading branches of a large pine, the party made
themselves as comfortable as they could, the women and children
huddled close under the tree and the men and elder boys mounting
guard on the outer edge. Some of them were perched in the lower
branches with whatever arms they had been able to secure, principally
old Hudson Bay flintlock muskets.
It was very dark and gloomy in the ravine, which was heavily timbered
with a pine forest, and the concealed partly expected that at any
time the Indians might arrive and fire the farm buildings, and
perhaps search for them.
Just before dawn several dark forms were seen by the best-sighted
of the men on watch, creeping cautiously up the ravine towards
the hiding-place. The cracking of twigs and an occasional grunt
were heard, and we knew the Indians were approaching. Word was
passed not to fire until our leader gave the signal, which was
finally given. Two of the old flintlocks went off, the others missed
fire. One of the bullets struck one of a drove of pigs which were
quietly feeding up the ravine and which in our terror we took for the
foe. The squeals of the wounded pig frightened the others, and the
whole drove came charging and squealing up the ravine right through
our camp, tumbling over men, women and children, whose screams, added
to the noise of the pigs, made matters a trifle lively until the
enemy went by. The morning growing bright, and no Indians appearing,
a cautious approach was made to the farm, and shortly after a runner
came from the fort with word that the Indians had taken to their
canoes the night before and had started out, but had been turned back
by the gunboat which was on watch, and they were not allowed to leave
the outer harbor, so our terror was without cause.
(Note.--I saw the arrest of the Indian chief "Captain Jack," and
heard the shot fired by Constable Taylor that killed him, as I stood
outside the outer entrance to the gaol.--E. F.)