n two low, rocky promontories and found ourselves
suddenly transported from the open sea and its heavy roll and swell into
a Highland lake, placid as the face of a mirror, in the recesses of a
pine forest. The transition was startling. From the peculiar shape of
the bay and the deep indentations its various coves make into the shore,
one sees but a small portion of the harbour at a glance from the point
we brought up at. We therefore thought it ridiculously small after our
expectations had been so highly wrought in San Francisco.

"The whole scenery is of the Highland character. The rocky shores, the
pine trees running down to the edge of the lake, their dark foliage
trembling over the glittering surface which reflected them, the
surrounding hills, and the death-like silence. I was both delighted and
disappointed--delighted with the richness of the scenery, but
disappointed at the smallness of the harbour. Can this little loch,
imprisoned within natural ramparts of rocks, buried in the solitude of a
forest, be the place which I hoped would become so famous, the great
destiny of which has been prognosticated by statesmen and publicists,
and the possession of which is bitterly envied us by neighbouring
nations; this the place where England is to centre a naval force
hitherto unknown in the Pacific, whence her fleets are to issue for the
protection of her increasing interests in the Western world; this the
seaport of the Singapore of the Pacific; the modern Tyre into which the
riches of the East are to flow and be distributed to the Western
nations; the terminus of railway communication which is to connect the
Atlantic with the Pacific?

"Victoria is distant from Esquimault, by land, about three miles round
by sea, double the distance. The intervening ground is an irregular
promontory, having the waters of the Straits of Fuca on the south, the
Bay of Victoria on the east, and the Victoria arm encircling: it on the
north. The promontory contains three farms, reclaimed from the forest
of pines, oaks, alders, willows, and evergreens. The soil is good, and
produces fair crops of the ordinary cereals, oats, barley, and wheat,
and good grass, turnips, and potatoes.

"I came the first time to Victoria round by water. The rowing of our
boat was much impeded by kelp. The shore is irregular; somewhat bold
and rocky--two more facts which confirmed the resemblance of the scenery
to that of the western coast of Scotland.