The Bittancourt Brothers: the Beneficiaries?
![[ Bittancourt Family Portrait ]](../../images/site/81972_2.jpg "[ Bittancourt Family Portrait ]")
Bittancourt Family Portrait, Unknown, Salt Spring Island Archives, HP000784, The following text should be included as a caption: The man second from the left, back row looks a little odd. This is because his photograph has been cut out of another, and added to this photo, as he had unfortunately died just before the family photo session
If any family could be said to benefit from the death of William Robinson, it was the Bittancourts. Estalon Jose and Manuel Antoine were born in the Azores Islands. According to local legend, after leaving Portugal they sailed to Australia, where they worked in the gold fields. They travelled to Victoria in 1863 where Estalon bought a sloop and transported fuel for a living. Island lore maintains that they met fellow Portuguese John Norton there in the early 1860s and he persuaded them to come to Salt Spring. The families, who were almost the only Catholics in the neighbourhood, were close friends. Manuel Antoine Bittancourt first took up land on Salt Spring in 1863 and Estalon arrived around 1870. They acquired William Robinson's land, and Estalon used the wharf site to establish a successful business and to build up a large personal fortune.