Victoria History:

Captain James Cook became the first white man to visit British Columbia when he landed in 1778 on the western most tip of Vancouver Island .  European settlers came to the area slowly and were drawn by the fur trade. The island was inhabited by a very large population of First Nation aboriginal families who, for the most part, were part of one of three dialect groups known as the Songhees, the Saanich and the Sooke.

In 1842, James Douglas of the British Hudson Bay Company came to the southern end of Vancouver Island looking for a location to set up a trading post and selected Victoria (then known as Camosack), as their new trading post site. It was later named Fort Victoria in honor of the British Queen and in 1849, the Hudson Bay Company was granted the whole island, of which the British really had no right too since the First Nation were there first. In 1852, the name Victori a became official and the city was incorporated ten years later. Victoria's main industries were fur trading, coal mining, lumber, fishing and agriculture.