Grand Portage on American
soil—Anxiety about the boundary— David Thompson,
astronomer and surveyor—His instructions —By swift
canoe—The land of beaver—A dash to the Mandans —Stone
Indian House—Fixes the boundary at Pembina—Sources of the
Mississippi—A marvellous explorer—Pacific slope explored
—Thompson down the Kootenay and Columbia—Fiery Simon
Fraser in New Caledonia—Discovers Fraser River—Sturdy John
Stuart—Thompson River—Bourgeois Quesnel—Transcontinental
expeditions.
A number of events conspired to make
it necessary for the North-West Company to be well
acquainted with the location of its forts within the
limits of the territory of the United States, in some
parts of which it carried on operations of trade, and to
understand its relation to the Hudson's Bay Company's
territory. The treaty of amity and commerce, which is
usually connected with the name of John Jay, 1794, seemed
to say that all British forts in United States territory
were to be evacuated in two years. This threw the partners
at Grand Portage into a state of excitement, inasmuch as
they knew that the very place of their gathering was on
the American side of the boundary line.
DAVID THOMPSON, ASTRONOMER AND
SURVEYOR.
At
this juncture the fitting instrument appeared at Grand
Portage. This was David Thompson. This gentleman was a
Londoner, educated at the Blue Coat School, in London.
Trained thoroughly in mathematics and the use of
astronomical instruments, he had obtained a position in
the Hudson's Bay Company. In the summer of 1795, with
three companions, two of them Indians, he had found his
way from Hudson Bay to Lake Athabasca, and thus showed his
capability as an explorer. Returning from his Western
expedition, he reported to Mr. Joseph Colon, the officer
in charge at York Fort, by whose orders he had gone to
Athabasca, and expressed himself as willing to undertake
further explorations for the Company. The answer was
curt—to the effect that no more surveys could then be
undertaken by the Company, however desirable. Thompson
immediately decided to seek employment elsewhere in the
work for which he was so well qualified. Leaving the Bay
and the Company behind, attended only by two Indians, he
journeyed inland and presented himself at the summer
meeting of the North-West fur-traders at Grand Portage.
Without hesitation they appointed him astronomer and
surveyor of the North-West Company. Astronomer Thompson's
work was well mapped out for him.
(1) He was instructed to survey the
forty-ninth parallel of latitude. This involved a question
which had greatly perplexed the diplomatists, viz. the
position of the source of the Mississippi. Many years
after this date it was a question to decide which
tributary is the source of the Mississippi, and to this
day there is a difference of opinion on the subject, i.e.
which of the lakes from which different branches spring is
the true source of the river. The fact that the sources
were a factor in the settling of the boundary line of this
time made it necessary to have expert testimony on the
question such as could be furnished by a survey by
Thompson.
(2) The surveyor was to go to the
Missouri and visit the ancient villages of the natives who
dwelt there and who practised agriculture.
(3) In the interests of science and
history, to inquire for the fossils of large animals, and
to search for any monuments that might throw a light on
the ancient state of the regions traversed.
(4) It was his special duty to
determine the exact position of the posts of the
North-West Company visited by him, and all agents and
employ6s were instructed to render him every assistance in
his work.
Astronomer Thompson only waited the
departure of one of the Great Northern brigades to enter
upon the duties of his new office. These departures were
the events of the year, having in the eyes of the
fur-traders something of the nature of a caravan for Mecca
about them. Often a brigade consisted of eight canoes
laden with goods and well-manned. The brigade which
Thompson accompanied was made up of four canoes under
trader McGillis, and was ready to start on August 9th,
1796. He had taken the observation for Grand Portage and
found it to be 48 deg. (nearly) N. latitude and 89 deg. 3'
4" (nearly) W. longitude.
He was now ready with his
instruments—a sextant of ten inches radius, with
quicksilver and parallel glasses, an excellent achromatic
telescope, one of the smaller kind, drawing instruments,
and a thermometer, and all of these of the best make. The
portage was wearily trudged, and in a few days, after a
dozen shorter portages, the height of land was reached in
48 deg. N. latitude, and here begins the flow of water to
Hudson Bay. It was accordingly the claim of the Hudson's
Bay Company that their territory extended from this point
to the Bay. At the outlet of Rainy Lake still stood a
trading post, where Verendrye had founded his fort, and
the position of this was determined, 48 deg. 1' 2" N.
latitude. In this locality was also a post of the Hudson's
Bay Company.
No post seems at this time to have
been in use on Rainy River or Lake of the Woods by any of
the trading companies, though it will be seen that the X Y
Company was at this date beginning its operations. At the
mouth of the Winnipeg River, however, there were two
establishments, the one known as Lake Winnipeg House, or
Bas de la Riviere, an important distributing point, now
found to be in 50 deg. 1' 2" N. latitude. There was also
near by it the Hudson's Bay Company post, founded in the
previous year.
Thompson, being in company with his
brigade, which was going to the west of Lake Manitoba,
coasted along Lake Winnipeg, finding it dangerous to cross
directly, and after taking this roundabout, in place of
the 127 miles in a straight line, reached what is now
known as the Little Saskatchewan River on the west side of
Lake Winnipeg.
Going by the little Saskatchewan
River through its windings and across the meadow portage,
he came to Lake Winnipegoosis and, northward along its
western coast, reached Swan River, the trappers' paradise.
Swan River post was twelve miles up the river from its
mouth, and was found to be in 52 deg 24' N. latitude.
Crossing over to the Assiniboine (Stone Indian) River, he
visited several posts, the most considerable being Fort
Tremblant (Poplar Fort), which some think had its name
changed to Fort Alexandria in honour of Sir Alexander
Mackenzie.
John McDonnell, North-West trader of
this period, says :— "Fort Tremblant and the temporary
posts established above it furnished most of the beaver
and otter in the Red River returns, but the trade has been
almost ruined since the Hudson's Bay Company entered the
Assiniboine River by the way of Swan River, carrying their
merchandise from one river to the other on horseback—three
days' journey—who by that means, and the short distance
between Swan River and their factory at York Fort, from
whence they are equipped, can arrive at the coude de
l'homme (a river bend or angle) in the Assiniboine River,
a month sooner than we can return from Grand Portage,
secure the fall trade, give credits to the Indians, and
send them to hunt before our arrival; so that wo see but
few in that quarter upon our arrival."
The chief trader of this locality was
Cuthbert Grant, who, as before mentioned, was a man of
great influence in the fur trade.
The astronomer next went to the Fort
between the Swan and Assiniboine Rivers, near the spot
whore the famous Fort Pelly of the present day is
situated. Taking horses, a rapid land journey was made to
Belleau's Fort, lying in 53 deg. N. latitude (nearly).
The whole district is a succession of
beaver meadows, and had at this time several Hudson's Bay
Company posts, as already mentioned. Thompson decided to
winter in this beaver country, and when the following
summer had fairly sot in with good roads and blossoming
prairies, he came, after journeying more than 200 miles
southward, to the Qu'Appelle River post, which was at that
time under a trader named Thorburn. Thompson was now
fairly on the Assiniboine River, and saw it everywhere run
through an agreeable country with a good soil and adapted
to agriculture.
Arrived at Assiniboine House, he
found it in charge of John McDonnell, brother of the
well-known Miles McDonnell, who, a few years later, became
Lord Selkirk's first governor on Red River. Ensconcing
himself in the comfortable quarters at Assiniboine House,
Thompson wrote up in ink his journals, maps, astronomical
observations, and sketches which he had taken in crayon,
thus giving them more permanent form. He had now been in
the employ of the North-West Company a full year, and in
that time had been fully gratified by the work he had done
and by the cordial reception given him in all the forts to
which he had gone.
Assiniboine House, or, as he called
it, Stone Indian House, was found to be a congenial spot.
It was on the north side of the Assiniboine River, not far
from where the Souris River empties its waters into the
larger stream, though the site has been disputed.
One of the astronomer's clearly
defined directions was to visit the Mandan villages on the
Missouri River. He was now at the point when this could be
accomplished, although the time chosen by him, just as
winter was coming on, was most unsuitable. His journey
reminds us of that made by Verendrye to the Mandans in
1738.
The journey was carefully prepared
for. With the characteristic shrewdness of the North-West
Company, it was so planned as to require little
expenditure. Thompson was to be accompanied chiefly by
free-traders, i.e. by men to whom certain quantities of
goods would be advanced by the Company. By the profits of
this trade expenses would be met. The guide and
interpreter was René Jussaume (a man of very doubtful
character), who had fallen into the ways of the Western
Indians. He had lived for years among the Mandans, and
spoke their language. Another free-trader, Hugh McCracken,
an Irishman, also knew the Mandan country, while several
French Canadians, with Brossman, the astronomer's servant
man, made up the company. Each of the traders took a
credit from Mr. McDonnell of from forty to fifty skins in
goods. Ammunition, tobacco, and trinkets, to pay expenses,
were provided, and Thompson was supplied with two horses,
and his chief trader, Jussaume, with one. The men had
their own dogs to the number of thirty, and these drew
goods on small sleds. Crossing the Assiniboine, the party
started south-westward, and continued their journey for
thirty-three days, with the thermometer almost always
below zero and reaching at times 36 deg. below. The
journey was a most dangerous and trying one and covered
280 miles. Thompson found that some Hudson's Bay traders
had already made flying visits to the Mandans. On his
return, Thompson's itinerary was, from the Missouri till
he reached the angle of the Souris River, seventy miles,
where he found abundant wood and shelter, and then to the
south end of Turtle Mountain, fourteen miles. Leaving
Turtle Mountain, his next station was twenty-four miles
distant at a point on the Souris where an outpost of
Assiniboine House, known as Ash House, had been
established. Another journey of forty-five miles brought
the expedition back to the hospitable shelter of Mr.
McDonnell at Stone Indian House. Thompson now calculated
the position of this comfortable fort and found it to be
49 deg. 41' (nearly) N. latitude and 101 deg. 1'4"
(nearly) W. longitude.
The astronomer, after spending a few
weeks in making up his notes and surveys, determined to go
eastward and undertake the survey of the Red River. On
February 2Gth, 1798, he started with three French
Canadians and an Indian guide. Six dogs drew three sleds
laden with baggage and provisions. The company soon
reached the sand hills, then called the Manitou Hills,
from some supposed supernatural agency in their
neighbourhood. Sometimes on the ice, and at other times on
the north shore of the Assiniboine to avoid the bends of
the river, the party went, experiencing much difficulty
from the depth of the snow. At length, after Journeying
ten days over the distance of 169 miles, the junction of
the Assiniboine and Red River, at the point where now
stands the city of Winnipeg, was reached. There was no
trading post here at the time. It seems somewhat
surprising that what became the chief trading centre of
the company, Fort Garry, during the first half of this
century should, up to the end of the former century, not
have been taken possession of by any of the three
competing fur companies.
Losing no time, Thompson began, on
March 7th, the survey, and going southward over an
unbroken trail, with the snow three feet deep, reached in
seven days Pembina Post, then under the charge of a
leading French trader of the company, named Charles
Chaboillez. Wearied with a journey of some sixty-four
miles, which had, from the bad road, taken seven days,
Thompson enjoyed the kind shelter of Pembina House for six
days. This house was near the forty-ninth parallel and was
one of the especial points he had been appointed to
determine. He found Pembina House to be in latitude 48
deg. 58' 24" N., so that it was by a very short distance
on the south side of the boundary line. Thompson marked
the boundary, so that the trading post might be removed,
when necessary, to the north side of the line. A few years
later, the observation taken by Thompson was confirmed by
Major Long on his expedition of 1823, but the final
settlement of where the line falls was not made till the
time of the boundary commission of 1872.
Pushing southward in March, the
astronomer ascended Red River to the trading post known as
Upper Red River, near where the town of Grand Forks, North
Dakota, stands to-day. Here he found J. Baptiste Cadot,
probably the son of the veteran master of Sault Ste.
Marie, who so long clung to the flag of the Golden Lilies.
Thompson now determined to survey
what had been an object of much interest, the lake which
was the source of the great River Mississippi. To do this
had been laid upon him in his instructions from the
North-West Company. Making a detour from Grand Forks, in
order to avoid the ice on the Red Lake River, he struck
the upper waters of that river, and followed the banks
until he reached Red Lake in what is now North-Eastern
Minnesota. Leaving this lake, he made a portage of six
miles to Turtle Lake, and four days later reached the
point considered by him to be the source of the
Mississippi. Turtle Lake, at the time of the treaty of
1783, was supposed to be further north than the north-west
angle of the Lake of the Woods. This arose, Thompson tells
us, from the voyageurs counting a pipe to a league, at the
end of which time it was the fur-traders' custom to take a
rest. Each pipe, that is, the length of time taken to
smoke a pipe, however, was nearer two miles than three, so
that the head waters of the Mississippi had been counted
128 miles further north than Thompson found them to be. It
is to be noted, however, that the Astronomer Thompson was
wrong in making Turtle Lake the source of the Mississippi.
The accredited source of the Mississippi was discovered,
as we shall afterwards see, in July, 1832, to be Lake
Itasca, which lies about half a degree southwest of Turtle
Lake.
Thompson next visited Red Cedar Lake,
in the direction of Lake Superior. Here he found a
North-West trading house, Upper Red Cedar House, under the
command of a partner, John Sayer, whose half-blood son
afterward figured in Red River history. He found that
Sayer and his men passed the winter on wild rice and maple
sugar as their only food.
Crossing over to Sand Lake River, Mr.
Thompson found a small post of the North-West Company,
and, descending this stream, came to Sand Lake. By
portage, reaching a small stream, a tributary of St. Louis
River, he soon arrived at that river itself, with its
rapids and dalles, and at length reached the North-West
trading post near the mouth of the river, where it joined
the Fond du Lac.
Having come to Lake Superior, the
party could only obtain a dilapidated northern canoe, but
with care it brought them, after making an enormous
circuit and accomplishing feats involving great daring and
supreme hardship, along the north shore of the lake to
Grand Portage. On hearing his report of two years' work,
the partners, at the annual meeting at Grand Portage,
found they had made no mistake in their appointment, and
gave him the highest praise.
The time had now come, after the
union of the North-West Company and the X Y Company, for
pushing ahead the great work in their hands and examining
the vast country across the Rocky Mountains. The United
Company in 1805 naturally took up what had been planned
several years before, and sent David Thompson up the
Saskatchewan to explore the Columbia River and examine the
vast "sea of mountains" bordering on the Pacific Ocean.
The other partner chosen was Simon Fraser, and his orders
were to go up the Peace River, cross the Rockies, and
explore the region from its northern side. We shall see
how well Fraser did his part, and meanwhile we may follow
Thompson in his journey.
In 1806, we find that he crossed the
Rockies and built in the following year a trading-house
for the North-West Company on the Lower Columbia. Thompson
called his trading post Kootenay House, and indeed his
persistent use of the term "Kootenay" rather than
"Columbia," which he well knew was the name of the river,
is somewhat remarkable. Coming over the pass during the
summer he returned to Kootenay House and wintered there in
1807-1808. During the summer of 1808, he visited possibly
Grand Portage, certainly Fort Vermilion. Fort Vermilion, a
short distance above the present Fort Pitt, was well down
the north branch of the Saskatchewan River, and on his way
to it, Thompson would pass Fort Augustus, a short distance
below where Edmonton now stands, as well as Fort George.
He left Fort Vermilion in September,
and by October 21st, the Saskatchewan being frozen over,
he laid up canoes for the winter, and taking horses,
crossed the Rocky Mountains, took to canoes on the
Columbia River again, and on November 10th arrived at his
fort of Kootenay House, where he wintered. On this
journey, Thompson discovered Howse's Pass, which is about
52 deg. N. latitude.
In 1809, Thompson determined on
extending his explorations southward on the Columbia
River. A short distance south of the international
boundary line, he built a post in September of that year.
He seems to have spent the winter of this year in trying
new routes, some of which he found impracticable, and can
hardly be said to have wintered at any particular spot. In
his pilgrimage, he went up the Kootenay River, which he
called McGillivray's River, in honour of the famous
partner, but the name has not been retained. Hastening to
his post of Kootenay House, he rested a day, and
travelling by means of canoes and horses, in great speed
came eastward and reached Fort Augustus, eight days out
from Kootenay, June 22nd, 1810. From this point he went
eastward, at least as far as Rainy Lake, leaving his
"little family" with his sister-in-law, a Cree woman, at
Winnipeg River House.
Returning, he started on October
10th, 1810, for Athabasca. He discovered the Athabasca
Pass on the "divide," and on July 3rd, 1811, started to
descend the Columbia, and did so, the first white man, as
far as Lewis River, from which point Lewis and Clark in
1805, having come over the Rocky Mountains, had preceded
him to the sea. Near the junction of the Spokane River
with the Columbia, he erected a pole and tied to it a
half-sheet of paper, claiming the country north of the
forks as British territory. This notice was seen by a
number of the Astor employes, for Ross states that ho
observed it in August, with a British flag flying upon it.
Thompson's name among the Indians of the coast was
"Koo-Koo-Suit."
Ross Cox states that "in the month of
July, 1811, Mr. David Thompson, Astronomer to the
North-West Company, of which he was also a proprietor,
arrived with nine men in a canoe at Astoria from the
interior. This gentleman came on a voyage of discovery to
the Columbia, preparatory to the North-West Company
forming a settlement at the mouth of the river. He
remained at Astoria until the latter end of July, when he
took his departure for the interior."
Thompson was thus disappointed on
finding the American company installed at the mouth of the
Columbia before him, but he re-ascended the river and
founded two forts on its banks at advantageous points.
Thompson left the western country
with his Indian wife and children soon after this, and in
Eastern Canada, in 1812-13, prepared a grand map of the
country, which adorned for a number of years the
banqueting-room of the bourgeois at Fort William and is
now in the Government buildings at Toronto.
In 1814 he definitely left the upper
country, and was employed by the Imperial Government in
surveying a part of the boundary line of the United States
and Canada. He also surveyed the water-courses between the
Ottawa River and Georgian Bay. He lived for years at the
River Raisin, near Williamstown, in Upper Canada, and was
very poor. At the great age of eighty-seven, he died at
Longueil. He was not appreciated as ho deserved. His
energy, scientific knowledge, experience, and successful
work for the Company for sixteen years make him one of the
most notable men of the period.
SIMON FRASER, FUR-TRADER AND
EXPLORER.
As we have seen, the entrance by the
northern access to the Pacific slope was confided to Simon
Fraser, and we may well, after considering the exploits of
David Thompson, refer to those of his colleague in the
service.
Simon Fraser, one of the most daring
of the fur-traders, was the son of a Scottish U.E.
Loyalist, who was captured by the Americans at Burgoyne's
surrender and who died in prison. The widowed mother took
her infant boy to Canada, and lived near Cornwall. After
going to school, the boy, who was of the Roman Catholic
faith, entered the North-West Company at the age of
sixteen as a clerk, and early became a bourgeois of the
Company. His administrative ability led to his being
appointed agent at Grand Portage in 1797. A few years
afterwards, Fraser was sent to the Athabasca region, which
was at that time the point aimed at by the ambitious and
determined young Nor'-Westers. By way of Peace River, he
undertook to make his journey to the west side of the
Rocky Mountains. Leaving the bulk of his command at the
Rocky Mountain portage, he pushed on with six men, and
reaching the height of land, crossed to the lake, which he
called McLeod's in honour of his prominent partner,
Archibald Norman McLeod. Stationing three men at this
point, Fraser returned to his command and wintered there.
In the spring of 1806 he passed
through the mountains, and came upon a river, which he
called Stuart River. John Stuart, who was at that time a
clerk, was for thirty years afterwards identified with the
fur trade. Stuart Lake, in British Columbia, was also
called after him. On the Stuart River, Fraser built a
post, which, in honour of his fatherland, he called New
Caledonia, and this probably led to this great region on
the west of the mountains being called New Caledonia.
Stuart was left in charge of this post, and Fraser went
west to a lake, which since that time has been called
Fraser Lake. He returned to winter at the new fort.
Eraser's disposition to explore and
his success thus far led the Company to urge their
confrère to push on and descend the great River Tacoucho
Tesse, down which Alexander Mackenzie had gone for some
distance, and which was supposed to be the Columbia. It
was this expedition which created Eraser's frame. The
orders to advance had been brought to him in two canoes by
two traders, Jules Maurice Quesnel and (Hugh) Faries.
Leaving behind Faries with two men in
the new fort, Fraser, at the mouth of the Nechaco or
Stuart River, where afterward stood Fort George, gathered
his expedition, and was ready to depart on his great, we
may well call it terrific, voyage, down the river which
since that time has borne his name. His company consisted
of Stuart, Quesnel, nineteen voyageurs, and two Indians,
in four canoes. It is worthy of note that John Stuart, who
was Fraser's lieutenant, was in many ways the real leader
of the expedition. Having been educated in engineering,
Stuart, by his scientific knowledge, was indispensable to
the exploring party.
On May 22nd a start was made from the
forks. We have in Masson's first volume preserved to us
Simon Fraser's Journal of this remarkable voyage, starting
from the Rockies down the river. The keynote to the whole
expedition is given us in the seventh line of the journal.
"Having proceeded about eighteen miles, we came to a
strong rapid which we ran down, nearly wrecking one of our
canoes against a precipice which forms the right bank of
the river." A succession of rapids, overhung by enormous
heights of perpendicular rocks, made it almost as
difficult to portage as it would have been to risk the
passage of the canoes and their loads down the boiling
cauldron of the river.
Nothing can equal the interest of
hearing in the explorer's own words an incident or two of
the journey. On the first Wednesday of Juno he writes:
"Leaving Mr. Stuart and two men at the lower end of the
rapid in order to watch the motions of the natives, I
returned with the other four men to the camp. Immediately
on my arrival I ordered the five men out of the crews into
a canoe lightly loaded, and the canoe was in a moment
under way. After passing the first cascade she lost her
course and was drawn into the eddy, whirled about for a
considerable time, seemingly in suspense whether to sink
or swim, the men having no power over her. However, she
took a favourable turn, and by degrees was led from this
dangerous vortex again into the stream. In this manner she
continued, flying from one danger to another, until the
last cascade but one, where in spite of every effort the
whirlpools forced her against a low projecting rock. Upon
this the men debarked, saved their own lives, and
continued to save the property, but the greatest
difficulty was still ahead, and to continue by water would
be the way to certain destruction.
"During this distressing scene, we
were on the shore looking on and anxiously concerned ;
seeing our poor fellows once more safe afforded us as much
satisfaction as to themselves, and we hastened to their
assistance; but their situation rendered our approach
perilous and difficult. The bank was exceedingly high and
steep, and we had to plunge our daggers at intervals into
the ground to check our speed, as otherwise we were
exposed to slide into the river. We cut steps in the
declivity, fastened a line to the front of the canoe, with
which some of the men ascended in order to haul it up,
while the others supported it upon their arms. In this
manner our situation was most precarious ; our lives hung,
as it were, upon a thread, as the failure of the line, or
a false step of one of the men, might have hurled the
whole of us into eternity. However, we fortunately cleared
the bank before dark."
Every day brought its dangers, and
the progress was very slow. Finding the navigation
impossible, on the 26th Fraser says: "As for the road by
land, we could scarcely make our way with even only our
guns. I have been for a long period among the Rocky
Mountains, but have never seen anything like this country.
It is so wild that I cannot find words to describe our
situation at times. We had to pass where no human being
should venture; yet in those places there is a regular
footpath impressed, or rather indented upon the very rocks
by frequent travelling. Besides this, steps which are
formed like a ladder by poles hanging to one another,
crossed at certain distances with twigs, the whole
suspended from the top, furnish a safe and convenient
passage to the natives down these precipices ; but we, who
had not had the advantage of their education and
experience, were often in imminent danger, when obliged to
follow their example."
On the right, as the party proceeded
along the river, a considerable stream emptied in, to
which they gave the name Shaw's River, from one of the
principal wintering partners.
Some distance down, a great river
poured in from the left, making notable forks. Thinking
that likely the other expedi- tion by way of the
Saskatchewan might be on the upper waters of that river at
the very time, they called it Thompson River, after the
worthy astronomer, and it has retained the name ever
since.
But it would be a mistake to think
that the difficulties were passed when the forks of the
Thompson River were left behind. Travellers on the
Canadian-Pacific Railway of to-day will remember the great
gorge of the Fraser, and how the railway going at dizzy
heights, and on strong overhanging ledges of rock, still
fills the heart with fear.
On July 2nd the party reached an arm
of the sea and saw the tide ebbing and flowing, showing
them they were near the ocean. They, however, found the
Indians at this part very troublesome. Fraser was
compelled to follow the native custom, "and pretended to
be in a violent passion, spoke loud, with vehement
gestures, exactly in their own way, and thus peace and
tranquillity were instantly restored."
The explorer was, however, greatly
disappointed that he had been prevented by the turbulence
of the natives from going down the arm of the sea and
looking out upon the Pacific Ocean. He wished to take
observations on the sea-coast. However, ho got the
latitude, and knowing that the Columbia is 45 deg. 20' N.,
he was able to declare that the river he had followed was
not the Columbia. How difficult it is to distinguish small
from great actions! Here was a man making fame for all
time, and the idea of the greatness of his work had not
dawned upon him.
A short delay, and the party turned
northward on July 4th, and with many hardships made their
way up the river. On their ascent few things of note
happened, the only notable event being the recognition of
the fame of the second bourgeois, Jules Quesnel, by giving
his name to a river flowing into the Fraser River from the
east. The name is still retained, and is also given to the
lake which marks the enlargement of the river. On August
6th, the party rejoined Faries and his men in the fort on
Stuart Lake. The descent occupied forty-two days, and, as
explorers have often found in such rivers as the Fraser,
the ascent took less time than the descent. In this case,
their upward journey was but of thirty-three days.
Fraser returned to the east in the
next year and is found in 1811 in charge of the Red River
district, two years afterward in command on the Mackenzie
River, and at Fort William on Lake Superior, in 1816, when
the Fort was taken by Lord Selkirk. After retiring, he
lived at St. Andrews on the Ottawa and died at the
advanced age of eighty-six, having been known as one of
the most noted and energetic fur-traders in the history of
the companies.
Thus we have seen the way in which
these two kings of adventure—Fraser and Thompson—a few
years after Sir Alexander Mackenzie, succeeded amid
extraordinary hardships in crossing to the Western Sea.
The record of the five transcontinental expeditions of
these early times is as follows:—
(1) Alexander Mackenzie, by the
Tacouche Tesse and Bellacoola River, 1793.
(2) Lewis
and Clark, the American explorers, by the Columbia River,
1805.
(3) Simon Fraser by the river that bears his
name, formerly the Tacouche Tesse, 1808.
(4) David
Thompson, by the Columbia River, 1811.
(5) The overland
party of Astorians, by the Columbia, 1811.
These expeditions shed a flood of
glory on the Anglo-Saxon name and fame.