The conquest of the great Northwest, Volume 2 (of 2): $b Being the story of the adventurers of England known as the Hudson's Bay Company, new pages in the history of the Canadian northwest and western statesLaut, Agnes C.
History
The conquest of the great Northwest, Volume 2 (of 2): $b Being the story of the adventurers of England known as the Hudson's Bay Company, new pages in the history of the Canadian northwest and western states
Laut, Agnes C.
Hudson Bay -- History; Hudson's Bay Company; Northwest, Canadian
_Notes to Chapters XXIII, XXIV, XXV._--Details of the advance up
the Saskatchewan are to be found in Alexander Henry’s Journals, in
Harmon’s Journals, and in those fur trade journals of the Masson
Collection. Of unpublished data I find the most about the Saskatchewan
and Athabasca in Colin Robertson’s letters, of which only two copies
exist--the original in H. B. C. Archives, a transcript which I made
from them.
* * * * *
About Chippewyan--for which there are as many spellings as there are
writers--Pond built the first fort thirty miles south of the lake on
what he called Elk River; Roderick MacKenzie built the next fort on
the south side of the lake. In the 1800’s this was abandoned for a
post on the north side.
* * * * *
About Slave Lake--it is named after the Slave Indians, who were called
“Slaves,” not because they were slaves, but because they had been
driven from their territory of the South.
* * * * *
MacKenzie’s Voyage, I have told fully in “Pathfinders of the West.”
The authority for that volume is to be found in MacKenzie’s Journals,
and in MacKenzie’s letter to his cousin, Roderick. Norman McLeod, the
clerk under MacKenzie, became the aggressive partner of a later day.
* * * * *
The dates of Thompson’s service with the H. B. C. are variously given.
I do not find him in H. B. C. books after 1789, and rather suspect
that he wintered with Alexander MacKenzie as well as Rory before the
former went to the Pacific; but I left this unsaid. It is well to
note that Howse did as great service as an explorer as Thompson, but
Thompson’s services became known to the world. Howse’s work passed
unnoticed, owing to the policy of secrecy followed by the H. B. C.
Father Morice’s “History of Northern B. C.” traces MacKenzie’s course
very clearly.
In H. B. C. Archives of 1804 is Duncan McGillivray’s letter to the
English company proposing division of the hunting field, the H. B. C.
to keep the bay, the Nor’Westers to have inland--which was very much
like the boy’s division of the apple when he offered the other boy the
core.
* * * * *
November 16, 1808, Minutes record £800 of stock transferred to Sir
Alexander MacKenzie, £742-10--to Earl of Selkirk. This marks as far as
I could find the beginning of the end. Selkirk’s visit to Canada was
in 1803. His observations will be found in his book on “Sketch of the
British Fur Trade,” 1815, pp. 38-52. The Minutes of H. B. C., 1804,
order suit against John Richards, “late commander for the Co’y,” for
entering H. B. in the month of August in the _Eddystone_, and erecting
a fort at “Charlton Island and leaving men with goods for trade.”
* * * * *
Details of clashes between 1800 and 1810 will be found in the court
records and Canadian Archives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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