1.
Vancouver Island
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Vancouver Island is in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Canada. It is part of the Canadian province of British Columbia, the island is 460 kilometres in length,100 kilometres in width at its widest point, and 32,134 km2 in area. It is the largest island on the West Coast of North America and this area has one of the warmest climates in Canada, and since the mid-1990s has been mild enough in a few areas to grow subtropical Mediterranean crops such as olives and lemons. Vancouver Island has a population of 759,366 according to the Canada 2011 Census, nearly half of that figure live in the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria. Other notable cities and towns on Vancouver Island include Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Parksville, Courtenay, and Campbell River. Victoria, the city of British Columbia, is located on the island. Vancouver Island has been the homeland to many indigenous peoples for thousands of years, the island was explored by British and Spanish expeditions in the late 18th century. Quadras name was dropped from the name. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, Vancouver Island is the worlds 43rd largest island, Canadas 11th largest island, and Canadas second most populous island after the Island of Montreal. It is the largest Pacific island anywhere east of New Zealand, Vancouver Island has been the homeland to many indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The groupings, by language, are the Kwakwakawakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and their cultures are connected to the natural resources abundant in the area. The Kwakwakawakw today number about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and they are also known as Kwakiutl in English, from one of their tribes, but they prefer their autonym Kwakwakawakw. Their indigenous language, part of the Wakashan family, is Kwakwala, the name Kwakwakawakw means speakers of Kwakwala. The language is now spoken by less than 5% of the population—about 250 people, today 17 separate tribes make up the Kwakwakawakw. Some Kwakwakawakw groups are now extinct, Kwakwala is a Northern Wakashan language, a grouping shared with Haisla, Heiltsuk and Wuikyala. The Nuu-chah-nulth are indigenous peoples in Canada and their traditional home is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The Nuu-chah-nulth speak a Southern Wakashan language and are related to the Makah of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State. The Coast Salish are the largest of the southern groups and they are a loose grouping of many tribes with numerous distinct cultures and languages
2.
British Columbia
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British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, with a population of more than four million people located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia bioregion, along with the U. S. states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, subsequently, on the mainland, the Colony of British Columbia was founded by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Port Moody is named after him, in 1866, Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British Columbia, and Victoria became the united colonys capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the province of Canada. Its Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu, the capital of British Columbia remains Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for the Queen who created the original European colonies. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, in October 2013, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,606,371. British Columbia evolved from British possessions that were established in what is now British Columbia by 1871, First Nations, the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties and the question of Aboriginal Title, notably, the Tsilhqotin Nation has established Aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision. BCs economy is diverse, with service producing industries accounting for the largest portion of the provinces GDP and it is the endpoint of transcontinental railways, and the site of major Pacific ports that enable international trade. Though less than 5% of its vast 944,735 km2 land is arable and its climate encourages outdoor recreation and tourism, though its economic mainstay has long been resource extraction, principally logging, farming, and mining. Vancouver, the provinces largest city and metropolitan area, also serves as the headquarters of many western-based natural resource companies and it also benefits from a strong housing market and a per capita income well above the national average. The Northern Interior region has a climate with very cold winters. The climate of Vancouver is by far the mildest winter climate of the major Canadian cities, the provinces name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of British Columbia, i. e. the Mainland, became a British colony in 1858. The current southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, British Columbias land area is 944,735 square kilometres. British Columbias rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres and it is the only province in Canada that borders the Pacific Ocean. British Columbias capital is Victoria, located at the tip of Vancouver Island. Only a narrow strip of the Island, from Campbell River to Victoria, is significantly populated, much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast is covered by thick, tall and sometimes impenetrable temperate rainforest
3.
National Historic Sites of Canada
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Parks Canada, a federal agency, manages the National Historic Sites program. As of 2016, there are 976 National Historic Sites,171 of which are administered by Parks Canada, the sites are located across all ten provinces and three territories, with two sites located in France. There are related federal designations for National Historic Persons and National Historic Events, Sites, Events, and Persons are each typically marked by a federal plaque, but the markers do not indicate which designation a subject has been given. The Rideau Canal is a National Historic Site, while the Welland Canal is a National Historic Event, emerging Canadian nationalist sentiment in the late 19th century and early 20th century led to an increased interest in preserving Canadas historic sites. There were galvanizing precedents in other countries, in the United Kingdom, the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty was created in 1894 to protect that countrys historic and natural heritage. Domestically, Lord Dufferin, the Governor General from 1872 to 1878, initiated some of the earliest, high-profile efforts to preserve Canadas historic sites. He was instrumental in stopping the demolition of the fortifications of Quebec City, at the same time, the federal government was looking for ways to extend the National Park system to Eastern Canada. In 1914, the Parks Branch undertook a survey of sites in Canada. Fort Howe in Saint John, New Brunswick was designated a historic park in 1914. The fort was not a site of significant national historic importance, Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia was also designated in 1917. At the same time, the Department of Militia and Defence was anxious to transfer old forts, harkin, the first Commissioner of Dominion Parks, to develop a departmental heritage policy. On Harkins recommendation, the government created the Advisory Board for Historic Site Preservation in 1919 in order to advise the Minister on a new program of National Historic Sites. Brigadier General Ernest Alexander Cruikshank, an authority on the War of 1812 and the history of Ontario, was chosen as the Boards first chairman. Due to a lack of resources, the HSMBC limited itself to recommending sites for designation, of the 285 National Historic Sites designated by 1943,105 represented military history,52 represented the fur trade and exploration, and 43 represented famous individuals. There was also a strong bias in favour of commemorating sites in Ontario over other parts of the country, at one point, some members of the HSMBC concluded that there were no sites at all in Prince Edward Island worthy of designation. Lawrence, and in Niagara, promoting a loyalist doctrine of unity with Britain. Proposals to designate sites related to the immigration of Jews, Blacks and Ukrainians to Canada were rejected, such was the view of Canadian history by the Board in the first half of the 20th century. As time passed and the system grew, the scope of the program, by the 1930s, the focus of the heritage movement in Canada had shifted from commemoration to preservation and development
4.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
5.
Nuu-chah-nulth
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The Nuu-chah-nulth, also formerly referred to as the Nootka, Nutka, Aht, Nuuchahnulth or Tahkaht, are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast in Canada. The term Nuu-chah-nulth is used to describe fifteen related tribes whose traditional home is on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Nuu-chah-nulth are related to the Kwakwakawakw, the Haisla, and the Nitinaht. The Nuu-chah-nulth language is part of the Wakashan language group, the Makah people in northwest Washington were historically also Wakashan speakers. When James Cook first encountered the villagers at Yuquot in 1778, Cook interpreted this as the natives name for the inlet—now called Nootka Sound. The term was applied to the indigenous inhabitants of the area. In 1978 the tribes of western Vancouver Island chose the term Nuu-chah-nulth and this was the culmination of the 1967 alliance forged among these tribes in order to present a unified political voice to the levels of government and European-Canadian society. The Makah of northwest Washington, located on the Olympic Peninsula in their own reservation, are related to the Nuu-chah-nulth. The Nuu-chah-nulth were among the first Pacific peoples north of California to encounter Europeans, competition between Spain and the United Kingdom over control of Nootka Sound led to a bitter international dispute around 1790, called the Nootka Crisis. It was settled under the Nootka Conventions of the 1790s, when Spain agreed to abandon its claims to the North Pacific coast. Negotiations to settle the dispute were handled under the aegis and hospitality of Maquinna, a few years later, Maquinna and his warriors captured the American trading ship Boston in March 1803. He and his men killed the captain and all the crew, after gaining release, John R. Jewitt wrote a classic captivity narrative about his nearly 3 years with the Nuu-chah-nulth and his reluctant assimilation to their society. This 1815 book is entitled Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R, in 1811 the trading ship Tonquin was blown up in Clayoquot Sound. Tla-o-qui-aht and his warriors had attacked the ship in revenge for an insult by the ships captain, the captain and almost all the crew were killed and the ship abandoned. The next day warriors reboarded the empty ship to salvage it, however, a hiding crew member set fire to the ships magazine and the resulting explosion killed many natives. Only one crew member, a pilot / interpreter hired from the nearby Quinault nation, from earliest contact with European explorers up until 1830, more than 90% of the Nuu-chah-nulth died as a result of infectious disease epidemics, particularly malaria and smallpox. Europeans carried these endemic diseases but the First Nations had no immunity to them, the high rate of deaths added to the social disruption and cultural turmoil resulting from contact with Westerners. In the early 20th century, the population was estimated at 3,500, total population for the 13 tribes in the Nuuchahnulth nation is 8,147, according to the Nuuchahnulth Tribal Council Indian Registry of February 2006. The Ditidaht First Nation, while politically and culturally affiliated with the Nuu-chah-nulth, are referred to
6.
First Nations
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The First Nations are the predominant Aboriginal peoples of Canada south of the Arctic. Those in the Arctic area are distinct and known as Inuit, the Métis, another distinct ethnicity, developed after European contact and relations primarily between First Nations people and Europeans. There are currently 634 recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Under the Employment Equity Act, First Nations are a group, along with women, visible minorities. First Nations are not defined as a minority under the Act or by the criteria of Statistics Canada. Within Canada, First Nations has come into general use—replacing the deprecated term Indians—for the indigenous peoples of the Americas, individuals using the term outside Canada include supporters of the Cascadian independence movement, as well as U. S. tribes within the Pacific Northwest. The singular, commonly used on culturally politicized reserves, is the term First Nations person, North American indigenous peoples have cultures spanning thousands of years. Some of their oral traditions accurately describe historical events, such as the Cascadia earthquake of 1700, written records began with the arrival of European explorers and colonists during the Age of Discovery, beginning in the late 15th century. European accounts by trappers, traders, explorers, and missionaries give important evidence of early contact culture, in addition, archeological and anthropological research, as well as linguistics, have helped scholars piece together understanding of ancient cultures and historic peoples. Combined with later development, this relatively non-combative history has allowed First Nations peoples to have an influence on the national culture. Collectively, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples constitute Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, First Nations came into common usage in the 1980s to replace the term Indian band in referring to groups of Indians with common government and language. Elder Sol Sanderson says that he coined the term in the early 1980s, others say that the term came into common usage in the 1970s to avoid using the word Indian, which some Canadians considered offensive. No legal definition of the term exists, some Aboriginal peoples in Canada have also adopted the term First Nation to replace the word band in the formal name of their community. While the word Indian is still a term, its use is erratic. Some First Nations people consider the term offensive, while others prefer it to Aboriginal person/persons/people, the term is a misnomer given to indigenous peoples of North America by European explorers who erroneously thought they had landed on the Indian subcontinent. The use of the term Native Americans, which the United States government and it refers more specifically to the Aboriginal peoples residing within the boundaries of the United States. The parallel term Native Canadian is not commonly used, but Natives and autochthones are, under the Royal Proclamation of 1763, also known as the Indian Magna Carta, the Crown referred to indigenous peoples in British territory as tribes or nations. The term First Nations is capitalized, unlike alternative terms, bands and nations may have slightly different meanings
7.
James Cook
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Captain James Cook FRS RN was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755 and he saw action in the Seven Years War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This helped bring Cook to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society, in three voyages Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe. He mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail, as he progressed on his voyages of discovery he surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, Cook was attacked and killed while attempting to kidnap the native chief of Hawaii during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to influence his successors well into the 20th century, and numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him. James Cook was born on 7 November 1728 in the village of Marton in Yorkshire and baptised on 14 November in the church of St Cuthbert. He was the second of eight children of James Cook, a Scottish farm labourer from Ednam in Roxburghshire, in 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at Great Ayton, where his fathers employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school. In 1741, after five years schooling, he work for his father. For leisure, he would climb a hill, Roseberry Topping, enjoying the opportunity for solitude. Cooks Cottage, his parents last home, which he is likely to have visited, is now in Melbourne, having moved from England and reassembled, brick by brick. In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved 20 miles to the village of Staithes. Historians have speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window. After 18 months, not proving suitable for work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of Whitby to be introduced to friends of Sandersons, John. The Walkers, who were Quakers, were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade and their house is now the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their fleet of vessels. His first assignment was aboard the collier Freelove, and he spent several years on this and various other coasters, sailing between the Tyne and London. As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and his three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on trading ships in the Baltic Sea
8.
George Vancouver
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He also explored the Hawaiian Islands and the southwest coast of Australia. George Vancouver was born in Kings Lynn on 22 June 1757 as the sixth, and youngest, child of John Jasper Vancouver, a Deputy Collector of Customs, and Bridget Berners. In 1771, at the age of 13, George Vancouver entered the Royal Navy as a young gentleman and he was selected to serve as a midshipman aboard HMS Resolution, on James Cooks second voyage searching for Terra Australis. He also accompanied Cooks third voyage, this time aboard Resolutions sister ship, Discovery, upon his return to Britain in October 1780, Vancouver was commissioned as a lieutenant and posted aboard the sloop Martin initially on escort and patrol duty in the English Channel and North Sea. He accompanied the ship when it left Plymouth on 11 February 1782 for the West Indies, on 7 May 1782 he was appointed fourth Lieutenant of the HMS Fame which was at the time part of the British West Indies Fleet and assigned to patrolling the French-held Leeward Islands. Vancouver returned to England in June 1783, in the late 1780s the Spanish empire commissioned an expedition to the Pacific Northwest. However, the 1789 Nootka Crisis intervened, spain and Britain came close to war over ownership of the Nootka Sound on contemporary Vancouver Island, and of greater importance, the right to colonize and settle the Pacific Northwest coast. Henry Roberts and Vancouver joined Britains more warlike vessels, Vancouver went with Joseph Whidbey to HMS Courageux. When the first Nootka Convention ended the crisis in 1790, Vancouver was given command of Discovery to take possession of Nootka Sound, departing England with two ships on 1 April 1791, Vancouver commanded an expedition charged with exploring the Pacific region. In its first year the expedition travelled to Cape Town, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti and he formally claimed at Possession Point, King George Sound Western Australia, now the town of Albany, Western Australia for the British. Proceeding to North America, Vancouver followed the coasts of present-day Oregon and Washington northward, in April 1792 he encountered American Captain Robert Gray off the coast of Oregon just prior to Grays sailing up the Columbia River. Vancouver entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca, between Vancouver Island and the Washington state mainland on 29 April 1792 and his orders included a survey of every inlet and outlet on the west coast of the mainland, all the way north to Alaska. Most of this work was in small craft propelled by sail and oar, maneuvering larger sail-powered vessels in uncharted waters was generally impractical and dangerous. Mount Rainier – after his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier, Discovery Bay, Discovery Island and Port Discovery. Vancouver was the second European to enter Burrard Inlet on 13 June 1792 and it is the present day main harbour area of the City of Vancouver beyond Stanley Park. George Vancouver surveyed Howe Sound and Jervis Inlet over the nine days. Then, on his 35th birthday on 22 June 1792, he returned to Point Grey, here he unexpectedly met a Spanish expedition led by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores. For three weeks they cooperatively explored the Georgia Strait and the Discovery Islands area before sailing separately towards Nootka Sound, after the summer surveying season ended, in August 1792, Vancouver went to Nootka, then the regions most important harbour, on contemporary Vancouver Island
9.
Chemainus
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Chemainus /ʃʌˈmeɪnəs/ is a community located in the Chemainus River Valley on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Founded as a logging town in 1858, the Chemainus is now famous for its 39 outdoor murals. This outdoor gallery has given birth to many businesses, including a theatre, antiques dealers, the tourist industry stemming from the murals helped rejuvenate the town after its large sawmill closed in the early 1980s and was replaced by a smaller but far more efficient mill. The name Chemainus comes from the shaman and prophet Tsa-meeun-is. Legend says that the man survived a wound in his chest to become a powerful chief. His people took his name to identify their community, the Stzuminus First Nation, the railroad arrived in the 1880s and by the early 1920s the towns population had ballooned to 600 persons. Chemainus was eventually designated a populated area by Statistics Canada comprising the more built-up residential and commercial neighbourhoods. Its population had grown to 3035 residents by 2011. A larger more inclusive Chemainus area is regarded as comprising part of the District of North Cowichan that lies north of the Chemainus River. This is the covered by the Chemainus Advisory Committee set up as a consultation body by North Cowichan. Chemainus Secondary School is located in the town, and serves as a school for students living in Chemainus, Crofton. A BC Ferry terminal is located in Chemainus, which service to Thetis Island. On 13 January 2006, a Boeing 737 aircraft was sunk off the coast in order to build an artificial reef, the sinking was documented in Sinking Wings, an episode of the Discovery Channel Series, Mega Builders. In the 1980s, British Columbias forest industry experienced a period of recession, largely caused by a substantial decrease in demand. Fordism is a system of methods based on principles of specialized mass production technologies. However, due to rising competition, energy crises, stagflation and recession. Consequently, a new system of production, characterized by greater flexibility. This transition placed a burden on coastal single-industry forest communities like Chemainus due to rising unemployment
10.
Comox, British Columbia
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Comox is a town of 13,000 people located on the southern coast of the Comox Peninsula in the Georgia Strait on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The warm dry summers, mild winters, fertile soil and abundant sea life attracted First Nations thousands of years ago, when the area was opened for settlement in the mid-19th century, it quickly attracted farmers, a lumber industry and a fishing industry. For over fifty years, the village remained isolated from the world other than by ship until roads. The town is home to a Royal Canadian Air Force base CFB Comox. The mild climate has attracted many retirees to the area in the 21st century, resulting in a rate of growth. The nearby Comox Glacier is visible from parts of the town and is the areas signature landmark. Archaeological evidence suggests there was an active Coast Salish fishing settlement at Comox for at least 4,000 years. At the time of first contact with Europeans, the Pentlatch Nation and these wooden stakes can still be seen at low tide—local archaeologist Nancy Greene has estimated that up to 200,000 wooden stakes still remain in the mud flats. Several of these stakes were carbon dated, revealing the oldest to be made from a hemlock tree c.750 CE. Some scientists estimate that the weirs could have supported a population of several thousand people, the Pentlatch also harvested the abundant shellfish in Comox Bay. Centuries of discarded shells resulted in a strata of shell fragments along the shoreline of present-day Comox now known as the Great Comox Midden. By the 19th century, the Kómoks had been out of their lands by a particularly fierce group of Kwakwakawakw, the Lekwiltok. The Kómoks migrated south to present-day Comox, where they allied with the resident Pentlatch against their common enemy, in 1862, a smallpox epidemic swept across Vancouver Island, killing an estimated 30% of First Nations people. A census of First Nations in the Comox Valley taken in 1876 revealed that the local First Nations population had dwindled to only 88 Kómoks and 21 Pentlatch and he named the region Nova Albion—Latin for New Britain. Drakes detailed logs—and the exact location of Nova Albion— were later lost in a 17th-century fire, in 1791, a Spanish expedition led by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores produced a crude chart of the Strait of Georgia and possibly visited Comox. Captain George Vancouver arrived the year, tasked by the British government with charting the northwest coast of North America. Vancouver, in concert with the Spanish expedition, entered the Courtenay River estuary between the locations of Courtenay and Comox and charted the shoreline of Comox. By the middle of the 19th century, European and American settlements had sprung up in the Vancouver area and on southern Vancouver Island
