'View of Victoria' June 13th, 1860 by H.O Tiedemann
mmbc 979.141.0002P

They then lived on a reserve across the harbour. In 1911 the Songhees sold their land on Victoria Harbour to the province and moved to a smaller reserve at Esquimalt Harbour.

Another view of the Songhees land ca. 1890
mmbc 980.42P

The British Columbia Directory of 1887 supplied this information about the local First Nations people: (the text is as it appears in this artifact)

The Indian element also is a great feature: we have in the main a well-ordered native population, studious of improvement and eager in the acquisition of those industrial arts which conjoined with other instruction, can elevate them permanently in the social scale. Kindness, firmness and justice may sum briefly the secret of success of the once powerful trading companies of the North-west and the Hudson Bay. The natives are large producers, and as consumers contribute an important share in the aggregate customs revenue of the province. The coal mines, the saw mills and above all the canneries, are largely dependent on them, and in the interior as packers and canoe-men they are invaluable.

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