Old Victoria BC - 1865 photo

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

British Columbia has been described as "The West Beyond the West".  Here is a period photo of my town, only 78 years before I was born,

https://www.facebook.com/hallmarksociety/photos/a.201380813211504.65764.155499747799611/1186430171373225/?type=3&theater

Here is the poem posted beside the photo;

November 4, 1865 – Colonist
A Poem
Victoria
Wretched streets and wooden buildings,
Without ornament or gildings,
Filled with folks of tempers various,
Driving on through life precarious.
Parsons, doctors, saints and sinners,
Broken merchants, new beginners,
Zealous bigots and free-thinkers,
Poverty in shining slippers,
Cobblers, Methodists, and Dippers,
Wholesale dealers, loafers, peddlers,
Masons, carpenters, and saddlers;
Gentlemen with powdered wigs,
Coaches, wheel-barrows, and gigs,
Empty fops, more fools than wise men,
Bailiffs, lawyers, here you'll find them;
Many a beau without a penny,
Old sots and drunkards many,
Everyone his trade pursuing,
Some to wealth and some to ruin;
Prime-cost shops for ready cash
Selling out their lie by trash;
Many a bargain if you will but strike it,
This is Victoria, how do you like it?

BC Archives photo - Government Street - 1865

[Oregon Bill]

And such a gorgeous flower today!

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Here is a view of FORT Victoria in 1859. The bulk of the California miners arrived the year before.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1110095455702307&set=gm.1731215690448602&type=3&theater