Lachine to the Qu'Appelle in 1793. / Narrative of a Clerk of the North West Company.
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| Database ID | 26364 | |
| Institution | University of Saskatchewan Libraries Special Collections | |
| Fonds/Collection | Morton Manuscripts Collection | |
| Series | MSS-C500 | |
| File/Item Reference | MSS-C500-4-9 (Box 4) | |
| Date of creation | 1808 | |
| Physical description/extent | 1 folder; .5 cm | |
| Number of images | 75 | |
| Historical note | The North West Company, a Canadian fur-trading company, was once the chief rival of the powerful Hudson's Bay Company. The company was founded in 1783 and enjoyed a rapid growth. It originally confined its operations to the Lake Superior region and the valleys of the Red, Assiniboine, and Saskatchewan rivers but later spread north and west to the shores of the Arctic and Pacific oceans. It even penetrated the area then known as the Oregon Country, where it constructed posts in what are now the U.S. states of Washington and Idaho. Its wilderness headquarters was located first at Grand Portage on Lake Superior and after 1805 at Fort William (also on Lake Superior, at the site of the present city of Thunder Bay, Ontario). Competition with the Hudson's Bay Company became especially intense when that company established the colony of Assiniboia on the Red River (in present-day Manitoba) in 1811-1812, across the North West Company's line of communications. A few years later, open conflict broke out, during which North West Company men destroyed the Red River colony (see Seven Oaks Massacre) and Hudson's Bay Company men destroyed the North West Company post of Fort Gibraltar (located on the site of modern Winnipeg, Manitoba) and captured Fort William. Under pressure from the British government, the old North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company were merged in 1821 under the name and charter of the latter company. The New North West Company, or XY Company, had a brief existence (1798-1804) as a competitor of the old North West Company before being absorbed by the latter. In the late 1700's and early 1800's, rivalry between the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company pushed their posts further and further west up the Saskatchewan River. In 1792, they both built forts at a site on the north bank of the North Saskatchewan, SE of present-day Elk Point, AB. The HBC called their post Buckingham House, and the Nor'westers christened their establishment Fort George. John McDonell (30 November 1768-17 April 1850) was a soldier, judge and political figure in Upper Canada. During the 1830s, he began spelling his surname Macdonell.He was born in Scotland in 1768, the son of John MacDonell (scotus), and came to the Mohawk Valley of the Province of New York in 1773 with his family. He joined the North West Company and travelled west to the Qu'Appelle River valley. He became head of the Upper Red River department and, then, the Athabasca department. In 1812, while returning to Montreal, he heard that war had broken out with the United States and joined a group of fur traders planning to join an attack on the garrison on Mackinac Island. He became a captain in the Corps of Canadian Voyageurs but was taken prisoner at Saint-Régis.In 1813, he settled in Hawkesbury Township in Upper Canada near Pointe-Fortune, where he began farming. Contrary to the usual practice of the time, he had brought his Métis wife, Magdeleine Poitras, back with him from the west. He opened a general store and also operated a forwarding business for moving goods along the Ottawa River. In 1816, he became a judge of the Ottawa District court and was elected to the 7th Parliament of Upper Canada representing Prescott. He was also a colonel in the local militia. He died at Pointe-Fortune in 1850 and was buried at Saint-André-Est, Quebec. | |
| Scope and content | This file contains an early record of the fur trade route from Lachine up the Ottawa River, though various waterways and portages up the Red River and the Assiniboine to the mouth of the Qu'Appelle River and on to Fort Esperance. It provides a detailed description of John McDonnell's travels and the geography and wildlife, including buffalo, of the surrounding land, as well as anecdotes about people whom he met and stories he was told. He mentions encounters with Indians, and with individuals such as Cuthbert Grant. This copy is edited with an introduction, extensive notes, and a bibliography by Lawrence J. Burpee. | |
| Contributer | John McDonnell (author) Burpee, Lawrence J. | |
| Copyright holder | Public domain | |
| Copyright expiry date | Public domain | |
| Other terms governing use and reproduction | Responsibility regarding questions of copyright that may arise in the use of any images is assumed by the researcher. | |
| Type | Archival | |
| Primary Media | Textual documents | |
| Provenance Access Point | Morton, A.S. | |
| Other notes | Typed copy, with handwritten annotations, made from photostats in the National Archives. | |
| Treaty boundaries | Canada -- National | |
| Cultural region | Canada -- National | |
| Names | de La Vérendrye, Louis-Joseph Gaultier Grant, Cuthbert Grant, Robert Henry, Alexander McDonnell (McDonell) John Pangman, Peter | |
| Subject | Exploration Forts Fur Trade Hudson's Bay Company Hunting and Trapping Aboriginal North West Company | |
| Date Range(s) | 1776-1799 | |
| Permanent Link | https://digital.scaa.sk.ca/ourlegacy/permalink/26364
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