Discovery Island (British Columbia)

About

Discovery Island is located off the eastern side of Vancouver Island and is viewable from Ten Mile Point, near Cadboro Bay, and Oak Bay. Discovery Island Marine Provincial Park occupies the southern portion of Discovery Island, 4.8 kilometres (3 mi) east of Oak Bay. The northern portion of the island is part of Discovery Island Indian Reserve 3, under the control of the Songhees First Nation. Discovery island was named in 1846 by surveyors in honour of HMS Discovery, the ship used by 18th-century British Explorer Captain George Vancouver to chart the coastline of British Columbia between 1792 and 1794 (see the Vancouver Expedition). The adjacent Chatham Islands were named after his escort ship, HMS Chatham. During the early stages of the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic, which started in Victoria, almost all Songhees self-quarantined themselves by abandoning their villages and relocating en masse to Discovery Island. Other indigenous people, many already infected, were forced to leave the Victoria area. Some tried to join the refugees on Discovery Island, but the Songhees fought off such attempts. Due to their self-quarantine as well as HBC physician Dr. John Helmcken's efforts to vaccinate as many Songhees as he could, the Songhees were one of the few First Nations to survive the epidemic with few deaths. The Lighthouse at Sea Bird Point, the eastern end of Discovery I

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.