Canadian fur traders in the region engaged in either fur trading or farming. The French-speaking voyageurs and traders continued to make up the majority of the Europeans that settled near the fur trading posts of the Fraser Valley, and Vancouver Island. Because the majority of the early European settlers in the region were French traders, the French language was used as the lingua franca of the fur trade until the 1850s. French-speaking Roman Catholic missionaries from the Canadas, and France were among the first residents in the region. The most prominent Catholic orders working in the region in the early 19th century included the Sisters of Saint Anne based in Montreal, and Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate based in France. The former typically set out to educate the children of the region, whereas latter order set out to impose a European lifestyle upon the First Nations communities in the region, leading to the foundation of communities based in Mission, and Kelowna. French remained the language of instruction for these missionaries until the 1850s, when English became more prominent, and recruits were increasingly drawn from the anglophone population. In addition to fur trading and missionary work, francophones were also employed with the first law enforcement and military unit raised within the Colony of Vancouver Island. Formed by the colonial governor in 1851, the Victoria Voltigeurs was a volunteer unit made up of French-speaking Métis and French Canadian voyageurs. The unit served alongside the Royal Navy's Pacific Station until March 1858, when the colony disbanded the voltigeurs. Although the influx in migrants from the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858 occurred for only a brief period, it caused a significant shift in the demographics of the newly established Colony of British Columbia, with French being displaced as the dominant European language in the region. 20th century After the Canadian Western Lumber Company adopted a racial policy of not employing people of Chinese or South Asian descent, the company sent out a francophone employee to Eastern Ontario and Quebec in an effort to recruit French Canadian lumber workers to work for the company. Approximately 40 families took up the offer to work in British Columbia, settling in present-day Maillardville. The community saw another influx of francophone settlers during the 1930s from the Canadian Prairies following a series of servere droughts that afflicted that region. In 1945, the Fédération canadienne-française de la Colombie-Britannique (FFCB)