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The Oregon Boundary dispute provided Britain with motives for colonization and forced the Hudson's Bay Company to shift its main depot from Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River, to the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island. The person chosen for the task of finding a suitable site for Company headquarters was James Douglas, assistant chief factor of Fort Vancouver. Douglas selected the "Port of Camosack", the site of present-day Victoria, as a suitable and safe place for the location of a new HBC depot. The earliest account written by Douglas has provided us with a list or original names for present-day Victoria sites:
Douglas explained that he chose Camosack because the area from Point Gonzales to Sooke Harbour contained the only extensive stretch of clear land, and that the area offered fine harbors such as Sooke, Pedder Bay, and Esquimalt. Furthemore, Sooke had the advantage of fresh water and, according to aboriginal informants, a considerable quantity of salmon was caught there annually; a consideration which made it exceedingly valuable as an establishment. Pedder Bay and Esquimalt were described as good harbors but as having 'nothing else to recommend it." Port Camosack, however, contained nearly six square miles of tillable and pasture land 'well adapted for the plough and for feeding livestock In March of 1843, Douglas began construction of Fort Victoria - named after the reigning British queen. During
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