GOVERNMENT STREET, (VICTORIA), BEFORE THE REMOVAL OF THE OLD BASTION
Vancouver Island had in the year 1843 first been occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company, a party of whose employees, landing at Victoria, had settled there, building a fort and laying the foundation of what became and important trading station. In 1849, a small dairy at the head of James Bay was the only building standing outside the fort pickets, which are now demolished.

R. C. Mayne, Four Years in British Columbia, 1862