The capital of British Columbia, Canada, on southeast Vancouver Island at the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Founded in 1843 as a Hudson's Bay Company outpost, it became provincial capital in the late 1860s. Population: 78,100.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.