Welcome arrival at Christmas

Christmas in Victoria a century and a half ago — in 1867, the year of Canadian confederation — would not have been quite so merry without the arrival of the bark Mercara. The ship had sailed from Liverpool in the middle of June, making its way across the Atlantic Ocean, through Le Maire Strait to get around Cape Horn, and then up the Pacific coast to Victoria.

Its arrival in Victoria on Monday, Dec. 2, was cause for celebration. Many merchants had been waiting for the Mercara to arrive, and many citizens had been waiting for the fancy goods and fine foods that were being delivered to local stores.

It was big news, then, when the Mercara was brought alongside of Janion, Green and Rhodes’ wharf at the foot of Johnson Street. Crews quickly went to work unloading crates, and retailers took to the pages of the Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle to declare what they had to offer.

The Mercara was the most important arrival that fall. The Superior, which sailed from San Francisco, also brought goods to help us celebrate the festive season.

Fellows, Roscoe and Co. boasted that its shipment on the Mercara had included Lea and Perrin’s sauce, bottled fruits, assorted pickles, shoe and saddler’s thread, linseed oil, white lead and paints, copper sheets and twine of all kinds.

Wilson and Rickman, at the corner of Fort and Douglas streets, advertised 50 chests of U.S. tea, 100 boxes of muscatel raisins, 100 boxes of lemon peel, 100 boxes of orange peel, 100 boxes of shelled almonds, 100 boxes of fresh peaches in tins, and much more.

Hicks and Russell, grocers on Government Street, offered for sale English cheese and Coleman’s English mustard and starch, as well as oatmeal, jams, jellies, marmalade and Keen & Co.’s mixed spice. But Christmas 1867 was not just about shopping. On Christmas Eve, the Park Hotel offered free admission to its Grand Christmas Ball on Dec. 24. “There are enough ladies to form two sets of Quadrilles connected with the hotel,” the hotel boasted. Supper came first, then dancing started at 8 p.m.

“Christmas Day was rationally and reverently observed by our citizens,” the Colonist reported. “The town was unusually quiet for a holiday, and no instance of a breach of the peace has come to our knowledge. “The churches were well attended in the morning.” In the afternoon, John Weir, a blacksmith from Dungeness, Washington territory, and G.C. Gerow of Victoria celebrated the day with a shooting competition. The two men fired their rifles at a target from a distance of 150 yards. Fifteen shots were allowed, and when the targets were checked, Weir was the winner by a wide margin.

On Boxing Day at Alhambra Hall, George Edwards sang 100 songs in succession, a feat that was greeted with much applause.

And then, with Christmas out of the way, life got back to normal in Victoria, in the colony of British Columbia.