David Thompson, the explorerCochrane, Charles Norris
History
David Thompson, the explorer
Cochrane, Charles Norris
Northwest, Canadian; Thompson, David, 1770-1857
"A small part of this work has already found its way to the public,
being copies of a rough map laid before the North West Company of
Canada.
"Of these regions the map makers have no doubt given the best
delineation they could acquire; but of what was known, so little was
founded on astronomical observations; and their being obliged to fill
up the vacant space with what information they could procure, has led
them into many errors.
"In this map now offered to the public, almost all the great rivers
on the above part of the continent, on both sides the great mountains
are traced to their sources; the sources of the Mississippi, and
several other great rivers, and the shores of Lake Superior, have
been examined and laid down by the author only.
"The position, extent and height of the hills and mountains, have
engaged much of his attention; of which he has many landscapes. The
last six years of his discoveries were on the west side of the
mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Each Indian Nation's Territories,
with their limits, and the places of the trading settlements will be
marked out.
"The courses and distances, (taken when necessary to 100 yards,) with
their calculations, etc., the astronomical observations, and rough
maps on the scale of one inch to a mile, on which these maps are
founded will be open to the inspection of the curious, while the work
is publishing; and it will doubtless afford much speculation to the
scientific, to find many of the great rivers of North America taking
their rise in a small compass, and going off to the different seas
like Radii from a centre.
"To render the map more general, and to give connection to all the
parts, the author will avail himself of the Sea Coast of Hudson's Bay
and the Pacific Ocean, etc., etc., as laid down by the latest
navigators and travellers; whatever he has not personally examined
himself, will be in a different colour, and the authority mentioned.
"Nothing less than an unremitting perseverance bordering on
enthusiasm could have enabled him to have brought these maps to their
present state; in early life he conceived the idea of this work, and
Providence has given him to complete, amidst various dangers, all
that one man could hope to perform.
"The map will be engraved in a neat, chaste manner, combining
elegance and economy, on the scale of 3 inches to one degree of
longitude and will form either a map or an atlas at the will of the
subscriber.
"The arduous survey, on which the author is at present employed does
not permit him to present the Public with a description of these
Countries and the nations of aborigines. This he hopes to perform as
soon as time permits.
"It is expected the geographical map will be ready for delivery to
the subscribers by the latter end of the summer of 1820 at the latest.
"These parts of North America have long been a desideratum on
geography.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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