HE FINDS HIS MÉTIER
His first two years of service brought nothing but disappointment and
disillusion to David Thompson. Vaguely sensible of his capacities,
he was conscious of nothing except that as yet he had been given no
scope to realize them. But in the summer of 1786 a new and important
chapter opened in his life. Fitted out with a trunk, a handkerchief,
shoes, shirts, a gun, powder, and a tin cup, he was included in a
party of forty-six "Englishmen" who left for the interior under the
leadership of Robert Longmore to establish trading posts on the
Saskatchewan river to the west of those already occupied by the
Company.
For over one hundred years from the time when the merry monarch had
vested in them a monopoly of trading rights in the vast territory
whose waters drain into Hudson Bay, the "adventurers of England
trading into Hudson Bay" had maintained their factories on the coast,
and allowed the Indians from the interior to make their way to them
for trade. Great rivers flowed from all directions to the Bay; but
the courses of these rivers were still unknown to the map makers of
the British Admiralty in 1784, the year in which David Thompson
landed at Churchill. For Hudson Bay is encircled from Labrador on
the north-east to the Arctic on the north-west by a giant horse shoe
of Archaean rock, most of it clothed with the dense northern forest;
and so long as the red men were willing to make the tedious journey
up and down the rivers, the slumbering giant on the Bay was content
to accept the annual tribute of furs which they flung at his feet.
Each September, when the ships from London arrived, the factories
were crammed with pelts that meant a fortune on the markets of the
Continent; and the traders eagerly awaited a fresh supply of guns,
axes, and kettles for the Indian, and awls and beads for his squaw,
as well as the fire-water which made him the anxious though reluctant
slave of the great white chiefs on the Bay.
But the monopoly of trade to which the Company laid claim had not
been accepted without challenge. On the eastern face of North
America, the St. Lawrence river points like a finger to the heart of
the continent, and from the head of Lake Superior it is possible, by
a comparatively easy portage, to cross the height of land and descend
through Rainy lake, the Lake of the Woods, and the Winnipeg river to
Lake Winnipeg. Lake Winnipeg forms a vast collecting basin for the
waters of the interior, before they finally discharge through the
Nelson river into Hudson Bay. Thus it affords communication south
and west by way of the Red and Assiniboine rivers through the prairie
country of southern Manitoba, the Dakotas, and Minnesota; while, from
the north west corner of the lake, the Saskatchewan carries the
traveller to its sources in the Rockies. While therefore the English
had waited for the Indians to bring their furs down to them on the
Bay, the French from Quebec had pushed their way along these waters
to the heart of the hunting grounds, and the advance of these gallant
adventurers was marked by a string of forts that extended from
Dulhut's post at the head of Lake Superior to Fort La Jonquière near
the site of Calgary.
The fall of Quebec in 1759 had brought with it the destruction of the
organized French fur trade, and the traders were scattered through
the wilds. But new groups of adventurers, mainly of Scotch descent,
swarmed westward from their headquarters at Montreal, and penetrated
into the wilderness further than the French had ever gone. By the
year 1772, the Montreal traders had crossed from the Saskatchewan to
the still more northerly Churchill river, and cut the line of
communication ordinarily used by the Indians of Lake Athabaska in
their long journey to Hudson Bay. The consolidation of the rival
interests into one great firm--the North West Company--was
accomplished in 1784 at the very time of Thompson's arrival in the
West. This achievement brought vastly increased strength to the
Montreal traders by mitigating the evils of their fierce competition.
Thus the Hudson's Bay Company was threatened with the loss of its fur
supply at the same moment as the French war interrupted its convoys,
and La Pérouse swept the Bay, destroying the posts at Churchill,
York, and Albany.
Energetic measures were necessary if the lost trade was to be
recovered. As early as 1774, Samuel Hearne had taken the momentous
step of founding the first inland post of the Hudson's Bay Company at
Cumberland House. Situated on the Saskatchewan a few miles west of
Lake Winnipeg, Cumberland House stood, as it were, in the centre of a
vast web of waterways. "A canoe could start from this house, and
with no portage of more than a day's length could be launched on the
Arctic ocean, Hudson Bay, the Gulf of St. Lawrence or the Gulf of
Mexico; and without much greater interruption could be floated on to
the Pacific ocean." Despite the disasters of the French war, and the
dreadful epidemic of smallpox which in 1781 had swept across the
West, decimating and demoralizing the natives, the advance of the
Company was continued by the establishment of further posts along the
Saskatchewan river. Thompson was thus drawn into the forefront of
the battle for furs, when he was included in Longmore's party in the
summer of '86.
On the 21st of July, the brigade of canoes left York factory for the
upper country. Longmore, the chief, was well qualified for the task
of leading the expedition. For many years he had served as
lieutenant to Tomison, the "chief inland" of the dépôt at Cumberland
House. Here he had acquired the difficult knack of dealing with the
Indians, besides earning their love and respect. Thompson's
immediate superior was Mitchell Oman, an old and experienced trader
of the Company, to whom he had been assigned as clerk. Oman could
neither read nor write, but he nevertheless impressed the lad by the
unusual quality of his curious and inquisitive mind. During the
tedious paddle into the interior, he drew from the pages of a
retentive memory endless tales of the Company's early activities
inland. "In those days," he declared, "our situation was by no means
pleasant. The Indians were very numerous, and although by far the
greater part behaved well, and were kindly to us, yet among such a
number there will always be found bad men. To protect ourselves from
them, we had to get a respectable chief to stay with us and assist us
in trading, and prevent as much as possible the demands of these
men." His valuable reminiscences were not lost upon the boy.
As the boatmen slowly worked their way up the river, Thompson's eyes
gazed for the first time on the country he was afterwards to know so
well. Their course lay up the Hayes river, and thence, by way of
Lake Winnipeg, to the Saskatchewan. Progress at first was rapid,
even against the stream, for they were still in the low and marshy
country that fringes the south-west corner of the Bay. Presently,
however, they encountered the first of the many rapids which mark the
descent of the river to the sea. At each of these, with monotonous
reiteration, the packs were all heaved ashore and shouldered along
the rugged path of the portage to the higher level of the river. At
the same time, the face of the landscape suddenly altered. The
marshy alluvial gave way to naked granite, and they entered the belt
of dark and gloomy northern forest. As they passed through the heart
of the rocky country, the character of the river was also changed.
From point to point the stream was held back by ledges of granite
which broke its progress, giving rise to an irregular chain of wide
and deep lakes. Through these lakes they threaded their way until,
reaching the end of the granite country, they saw before them the
broad expanse of Lake Winnipeg, the "bad water" of the Indians.
Sixty miles along its northern coast brought them to the point where
the Saskatchewan, after a swift and unbroken course of over one
thousand miles through the plains, plunges in a long series of
cascades into the lake. Having portaged past these, and wended their
way through the alluvial flats of Cedar lake, they came at last to
Cumberland House, and the first stage of their journey was
accomplished.
Their objective was a point on the Saskatchewan about fifty miles
above the present site of Battleford. As they continued their
journey westward from Cumberland House, the forest gradually gave way
to open country, and they found themselves in the vast expanse of the
plains, dotted here and there with clumps of trees--the country of
the bison, the antelope, and the red deer. Passing the forks of the
river, they came to the site which the keen eye of Longmore had
selected. There, on the northern bank of the stream, they cleared
the ground and ran up a series of log huts, surrounded by a wooden
stockade--the future Manchester House. Except for a solitary post
which the North-Westers had for three years maintained about forty
miles further up stream, Thompson had now reached the limit of
country at that time familiar to civilized men. To the west
stretched the unknown wilderness, which it was his destiny, in
considerable measure, to explore.
The object of the new post was to secure the trade of the natives of
the plains; and during the following winter David was busy learning
the complicated ritual of Indian barter. In the course of a year he
had so far mastered his duties that he was selected to lead a party
of six men across country to the south branch of the Saskatchewan, in
order to open friendly relations with the Piegan and Blackfeet
Indians whose camps lay along the banks of that stream. Each man had
a horse, and among them they carried a small assortment of goods.
The duties of the young diplomat were to find the camps of the
Piegans and winter among them, in order to induce them to hunt for
furs and to make pemmican or dried buffalo meat for the traders. He
was to persuade as many as possible to travel to the post for trade.
With those who were unwilling to do so, he was to bargain for furs.
The party set forth in October, under their seventeen-year-old
leader. The trail they followed led through a fine rolling country,
everywhere clothed with short grass, and dotted with islands of
poplar and birch. For twenty-three days they rode without seeing any
animals other than a chance bull-bison which they shot for food. To
the south of the Bow river they found an Indian camp pitched in a
spot where the tender grass afforded rich pasture for the buffalo;
but the plains, which were ordinarily black with moving herds, were
at this time strangely deserted. After several moves, they finally
struck a large encampment of Piegans near the present site of
Calgary. Sending some of his men back to Manchester House, Thompson
settled down in this camp to spend the winter.
The Piegan, Blood, and Blackfeet Indians were three allied tribes of
Algonquin stock who had emerged from the northern forest and taken
possession of the plains, driving their enemies, the Kootenay,
Salish, and Snake Indians, before them to the mountains. Since the
white men had come to trade on the river, they had advanced from the
Eagle hills in western Saskatchewan to the very foot of the Rockies.
This rapid conclusion of an age-long struggle for the mastery of the
grazing country had been due to the fire-arms which they had procured
from the traders.
The manners and customs of the confederate tribes were in keeping
with their war-like disposition and constant danger. Unlike the
scattered forest Indians, they lived in large camps, and without
yielding their traditional liberty to the control of a single
authority, they had nevertheless evolved a rudimentary form of social
organization. Hunters of the bison, they were in constant need of
horses. Horse-stealing was thus among them an honourable pursuit,
and their raids extended far to the south and west. During the
winter of Thompson's stay among them, a raid on the Snakes took a
part of two hundred and fifty warriors a distance of one thousand,
five hundred miles to the south-west, as was testified by the thirty
well-bred animals that were brought back to camp, and the Spanish
saddles and bridles that lay thrown about among the tents.
Of the three allied tribes, the Piegans occupied the most exposed
position, and consequently led the most precarious and watchful life.
From boyhood they were trained in arms, and their martial bearing and
enterprising character produced a strong impression upon Thompson.
They had an hereditary civil chief or "orator", as he was called, who
presided at all councils except those of war. Arrayed in his
splendid mantle of otter skin, he paced the camp each day three hours
after sunset, reciting in a loud voice the news which his couriers
had gathered, announcing in particular where the herds of bison were
feeding and what direction they were taking. The war chief, on the
other hand, was a self-made man, whose power and influence had
developed from his conduct in war. Kootanae Appee, as he was called,
was a magnificent giant, six feet six inches in height, and was the
father of twenty-two warriors, no less tall and sinewy than himself.
In after years, when Thompson was battling his way south along the
Columbia river, the bond of friendship which he now forged with this
old chief stood him in good stead.
The chief in whose tent Thompson passed the winter bore the name of
Saukamappee (Young Man). Saukamappee was broad of shoulder and
strong of limb. Old age had not bowed his grey head, nor had a
troubled life obliterated the mild and playful expression of his
countenance. During the long winter evenings, he entertained his
guest with reminiscences that went back for fifty years. From him,
Thompson learned of the Indian methods of fighting before the time of
firearms, of the first importation of these deadly weapons from the
distant factory at York, of the introduction of the horse among the
Blackfeet, and of the dreadful effects of the small-pox epidemic in
'81, of which Saukamappee himself had been a victim. While Thompson
thus learned the history of the tribes among whom he was staying, he
practised himself in the use of their language. His note books
contain long lists of Indian words with their English equivalents,
gathered from the Piegans and from other tribes whom he encountered.
The winter over, Thompson returned to the post, from which he was
sent to Cumberland House in the summer of 1789. Here he began to
keep a careful meteorological journal, noting two or three times
daily the temperature, the strength and direction of the wind, and
the general character of the climate. He also began a series of
astronomical observations, as the result of which he was able to
determine the exact latitude and longitude of Cumberland House. This
post was thus the first of a series of widely scattered points fixed
by him on the map of British North America. It was then, too, that
he acquired the large brass sextant which was to be his constant
companion for years to come.
Having made this start, Thompson attempted in the following summer to
make a survey of the canoe route from Cumberland House to York
factory, by way of the Saskatchewan and the Hayes rivers. In the
autumn, he returned to Cumberland House. While there, he had the
good fortune to meet Philip Turnor, the man without whose guidance
and help Thompson could hardly have realized his future career.
For several years, the Colonial Office had been urging the Hudson's
Bay Company to proceed with the survey of the vast territory over
which it exercised sway; and to satisfy the pressing demand of the
government, the Company had engaged Philip Turnor as astronomer and
surveyor. Possessed of a sound theoretical training, Turnor had been
employed in England as one of the compilers of the _Nautical
Almanac_; and since 1776 he had added to his qualifications a wide
practical experience drawn from numerous surveys throughout the
region of the Bay. Here was a man who could solve Thompson's doubts
and difficulties, and correct the deficiencies of his education for
the work which he had in view. An eager pupil, Thompson sat at the
feet of Turnor during the winter of 1790; and when, in the following
spring, he returned to York factory, it was as a man with his mind
made up. If a man knows clearly what he wants and has the
intelligence and perseverance to pursue his aims, no obstacle, not
even such as these which confronted Thompson, can keep him from
attaining his goal.
Thereafter Thompson and his beloved instruments were inseparable
companions in journeys that carried him for thousands of miles
through the wildest parts of the unknown west. By day and night, he
was an object of wonder to his French-Canadian and Indian followers,
as, armed with his sextant, telescope, compass, and other
instruments, he took observations on the sun, moon, and stars. While
he sought to determine the position of rivers, lakes, and mountains,
to be recorded on the map which was to be his life's work, his
activities suggested to their superstitious minds the idea that he
was in communication with powers not of this world, and earned him
the title which he bore among them, Koo-Koo-Sint, "The man who looks
at the stars."