in the summer of 1886 the little settlement of Port Moody, on the coast of British Columbia, witnessed two remarkable events. Standing at the head of Burrard Inlet, about 12 miles from Vancouver (at that time a clearing in the forest scarcely three months old), Port Moody was then the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the first event was the arrival, on July 4, of the first through train from Montreal. The second was the arrival, on July 26, of the brig W. B. Flint, five weeks out from Yokohama, with a cargo of tea, the first cargo carried across the Pacific for the newly completed railway.
An insignificant event, perhaps. Hight-hundred, ton sailing ships slip in and out of ports the entire world over every day of the year. Yet if an onlooker had been blessed with the gift of prophecy, he would have seen that which would have amazed him almost beyond comprehension. He would have seen the descendants of that brig carrying the flag of the Canadian Pacific on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans—on the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Adriatic and South China Seas, and the coasts and inland waters of Canada. He would have seen the 80 tons grow into over 465,000 tons, and the one service into those numerous ones by which Canada is now linked with four continents. From that humble beginning the Canadian Pacific has become the world's greatest transportation system, by water as well as by land Tus First Empresses.
The year 1887 saw the establishment of a regular trans-Pacific service, with three chartered steamships, the Batavia, the Parthia, and the Abyssinia. The latter'#) first outbound cargo consisted of 40 tons of freight. Three years later, in July, 1890, the Canadian Pacific concluded a contract with the British Government, providing for a mail subsidy of £60,000 a year, with the services of three twin-screw steamships between Vancouver, Japan and China. To fulfil the terms of this contract, the Empress of India, the Empress of China and the Empress of Japan were specially built. These steamers. which were built by the Naval Construction & Armament Ca.. Ld., of Barrow, began their work.in 1891. Their tonnage was 5,940 registered. length 456 ff., breadth 51 ft., death 33 ft., carrying capacity 160 first-class passen-! gers, 44 second-class and 585 steerage. a total of 789 passengers.
The popularity of the short route between Vancouver and the Orient was such that the Monteagle was added to the Pacific fleet in 1906.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.