The place had been already chosen for a village and fortification by the resident tribe, the Songhies, and went by the Indian name of Camosun. The Indian village was a mile distant from the entrance to the harbour. When the Beaver came to anchor, a gun was fired, which caused a commotion among the natives, who were afraid to draw near the intruding vessel. Next morning, however, the sea was alive with canoes of the Songhies.
The trader immediately landed, chose the site for his post, and found at a short distance tall and straight cedar-trees, which afforded material for the stockades of the fort. Douglas explained to the Indians the purpose of his coming, and held up to them bright visions of the beautiful things he would bring them to exchange for their furs. He also employed the Indians in obtaining for him the cedar posts needed for his palisades.
The trader showed his usual tact in employing a most potent means of gaining an influence over the savages by bringing the Jesuit Father Balduc, who had been upon the island before and was known to the natives. Gathering the three tribes of the south of the island, the Songhies, Clallams, and Cowichins, into a great rustic chapel which had been prepared, Father Balduc held an impressive religious service, and shortly after visited a settlement of the Skagits, a thousand strong, and there too, in a building erected for public worship, performed the important religious rites of his Church before the wondering savages.
It was the intention of the Hudson's Bay Company to make the new fort at Camosun, which they first called Fort Albert, and afterwards Fort Victoria—the name now borne by the city, the chief trading depôt on the coast.
FORT VICTORIA, B.C.
As soon as the buildings were well under way, Chief Factor Douglas sailed northward along the coast to re-arrange the trade. Fort Simpson, which was on the mainland, some fifteen degrees north of the new fort and situated between the Portland Canal and the mouth of the Skeena River, was to be retained as necessary for the Alaska trade, but the promising officer, Roderick Finlayson, a young Scotchman, who had shown his skill and honesty in the northern post, was removed from it and given an important place in the new establishment. Living a useful and blameless life, he was allowed to see the new fort become before his death a considerable city. Charles Ross, the master of Fort McLoughlin, being senior to Finlayson, was for the time being placed in charge of the new venture. The three minor forts, Taku, Stikine, and McLoughlin, were now closed, and the policy of consolidation led to Fort Victoria at once rising into importance.
On the return of the chief factor from his northern expedition, with all the employés and stores from the deserted posts, the work at Fort Victoria went on apace. The energetic master had now at his disposal fifty good men, and while some were engaged at the buildings—either store-houses or dwellings—others built the defences. Two bastions of solid block work were erected, thirty feet high, and these were connected by palisades or stockades of posts twenty feet high, driven into the earth side by side. The natives encamped alongside the new work, looked on with interest, but as they had not their wives and children with them, the traders viewed them with suspicion. On account of the watchfulness of the builders, the Indians, beyond a few acts of petty theft, did not interfere with the newcomers in their enterprise.
Three months saw the main features of the fort completed. On entering the western gate of the fort, to the right was to be seen a cottage-shaped building, the post office, then the smithy; further along the walls were the large store-house, carpenter's shop, men's dormitory, and the boarding-house for the raw recruits. Along the east wall were the chapel, chaplain's house, then the officers' dining-room, and cook-house attached. Along the north wall was a double row of store-houses for furs and goods, and behind them the gunpowder magazine. In the north-west corner was the cottage residence of the chief factor and his family.