David Thompson, the explorer

by Charles Norris Cochrane

The first duty was to repair the canoe, and the Indians were sent to the woods to procure gum from the pines. The question was then how to light a fire, for they had neither flint nor steel. Thompson pointed to his gun from which they took the flint, and with the steel blade of his pocket knife they struck a spark. When the gum was melted, they repaired the canoe and carried their kit above the fall and rapids. The Indians shouldered the canoe, while behind them the wounded leader hobbled painfully along under the burden of gun, axe, and sextant case.

Night had fallen before they found time to make a fire and warm themselves. Their situation was enough to strike terror into the boldest heart. Destitute, almost naked, and suffering from the weather, they faced a journey of three hundred miles through a barren country. Yet Thompson did not despair. For two days they paddled and portaged up the river without a bite to eat. On the afternoon of the second day they saw two gulls hovering over a reedy bay as if to protect their young. They found the nest and in it three young gulls, but the few ounces of meat which they were able to pick from their miserable carcases sufficed only to sharpen their hunger.

The next day as they went along, Thompson remembered an eagle's nest on the banks of a small lake before them. When they came to the lake they found the nest in the spreading branches of a birch tree, about sixteen feet above the ground. Kozdaw had barely time to climb to the nest before the old birds arrived. Paddy and Thompson, with shouts and stones, succeeded in preventing them from attacking Kozdaw, while the latter threw the two young eagles to the ground. The birds fought with beak and claw for their lives, but were finally killed and flung into the canoe.

In the evening, they opened the eagles by the gleam of the camp fire, and divided the meat and yellow fat into three equal portions. While Kozdaw roasted his meat and oiled his body with the fat, the others ate only the fat, reserving the meat for next day. In the night they were both awakened by a violent dysentery, which continued to plague them for many days, although a strong infusion of a certain dried moss, known as Labrador tea, brought them some relief.

Day by day they continued their voyage, subsisting on the wretched crow-berries of the far north. By the sixteenth of July, Thompson and Paddy were like skeletons, from hunger, dysentery, and cold. On that day Thompson scratched what he thought was his dying message on a scrap of birch bark which Kozdaw was to carry back with him to civilization. Late in the afternoon, as they paddled weakly and painfully along, they came upon two tents of Chepawyans. The savages pitied their condition and restored them with broth. From them Thompson procured some provisions, a flint and a few rounds of ammunition, together with a pair of shoes each for himself and his men. Thus they were able to proceed on their journey, and arrived without further adventure at Fairford House after an absence of thirty-one days.

At Fairford House Thompson was joined by Malcolm Ross with a stock of provisions for the northern trade, and together they returned to build a trading post on Reindeer lake. Along with the supplies, Ross brought a letter from Colen to Thompson, containing a curt order that he should cease his surveys and explorations. This was his reward.

CHAPTER IV
WITH THE NORTH-WESTERS

The chilly reception which Thompson met after his return from Lake Athabaska was enough to quench the enthusiasm of any man. He might have lain down under the blow. In that case he would no doubt have ended his days as an obscure and broken-spirited trader, embittered by his fate, but powerless so late in life to change it. Another course, however, was open to him, if he had the courage and self-reliance to take it. This was to throw up his post with the Hudson's Bay Company, and seek employment in other quarters where his talents would meet with the recognition they deserved.

In the long winter evenings at Reindeer lake, he weighed the problem before him. Colen, his chief, had undoubtedly failed to appreciate the value of his work. Worse still, he had hampered it, since for the last two years he had neglected even to supply Thompson with the Nautical Almanac so necessary for his surveys. But behind Colen stood the Company. How far had they given him the sympathy and encouragement which he needed? The directors, he felt, might easily have had the northern part of the continent surveyed as far as the Pacific coast, and thus greatly extended the range of their trade. This they could have accomplished at trifling expense, for in England there were numbers of highly-trained naval officers on half pay, who would have jumped at the chance of employment. But any explorations which they had undertaken were solely at the behest of the Colonial Office. His feelings toward the Company may not have been altogether justified. Nevertheless, he could only conclude that there was little or no future for him in the service. With Thompson to think was to act. On the 28th of May, 1797, he left his post on Reindeer lake and walked south through the bush for seventy-five miles to the nearest house of the North-Westers. After ten days spent there, he proceeded to Grand Portage, the headquarters of the Company at the west end of Lake Superior, in order that he might offer his services to the merchants from Canada.