Details of clashes between 1800 and 1810 will be found in the court records and Canadian Archives.
I have given the explorations of Thompson in great detail because it has never before been done, and it seems to me is very essential to the exploration period of the West. Thompson’s MS. is in the Parl. Building, Toronto, Ontario. The Ontario Boundaries Report gives brief account of his Eastern explorations. Henry’s Journal, Harmon’s Journal, Ross, Cox, Franchere of the Astor expedition give in their journals his movements in the West. Fraser’s voyage is to be found in his own MS. Masson Collection. It ought not to be necessary to say here that I know both regions traversed by Thompson well, very well, from personal travel. Nor ought it to be necessary to forewarn that Thompson’s Journals do not use the same names as apply to modern regions. To avoid confusion, I have used in every case possible, only the modern names. The men who went with Thompson to the Mandane country were—Rene Jussuame, Boisseau, McCracken, Hoole, Gilbert, Mimie, Perrault, Vaudriel. Who the H. B. C. men were who had been on the Missouri before Thompson, I could not find out. Whoever they were, they preceded Lewis and Clarke on the Missouri by ten years. That is worth remembering, when the H. B. C. is accused of being torpid. Thompson never received any recognition whatever for explorations that far exceeded Alexander Mackenzie’s. He died unknown in Longeuil, opposite Montreal, in 1857.
The H. B. C. Minutes of 1805 record that “Mad McKay” (Donald) cannot procure a man in the Orkneys. They also record that the copper brought by Hearne from the North, was given to the British Museum.
I regret space forbids quoting the Minutes on the Louisiana Boundary.
1808, Peter Fidler is paid £25 bonus, which he surely had won.
Morice says the Indians of Stuart Lake are called “Carriers” from their habit of burning the dead and carrying the ashes.
It may be explained that Mt. Thompson of the Howse Pass region was not named after the explorer, but after a Mr. Thompson of Chicago, who with Mr. Wilcox and Professor Fay and Professor Parker of the U. S. and Mr. Stutfield and Professor Collie and Rev. James Outram, London, explored all this region from 1900 to 1904. I was in the mountains at the time this was done and attempted to go up Bow River, but in those days there was no trail. We were late going up the river and were stopped by the early autumn rains, just beyond Mt. Hector. On a previous occasion, when I was in the mountains, I happened to be delayed at Kootenay Lake for two days. Mr. Mara, who was then president of the Navigation Co., offered me the opportunity to go down on one of his steamers to this very region of Idaho, past the reclamation workers attempting the impossible task of draining the floods of Kootenay Lake. In Thompson’s trip from Canoe River, in 1811, to Astoria are some discrepancies I cannot explain, and I beg to state them; otherwise I shall be charged with them. Thompson says he left Canoe River in January. That is a very early date to navigate a mountain river, even though there is no ice. Snow swells the streams to a torrent. Pass that: His journal shows that he did not reach Astoria till July—nearly seven months on a voyage that was usually accomplished in forty or at most sixty days. He may, of course, have been hunting and caching furs on the way, or he may have been exploring east and west as he went on. The reliability of Thompson’s Journal is beyond cavil. I merely draw attention to the time taken on this voyage. In the text I “dodge” the difficulty by saying Thompson set out “toward spring.” For his exploration, Fraser was offered knighthood, but declined the honor on the plea that it would entail expense that he could not afford.