IN the Archives Building of the
; Niversity of Toronto there is
Uge map of Western Canada.
Gibed “Map of the North-
f St Territory of the Province
ee Nada, from an actual survey
This © the years 1792-1812.”

S map, which is now faded
eee for it is some 140
Work old, represents the life-
fe and achievements of a
ed 4: man who has been describ-
eo, the greatest practical land
Pe cher that the world has

oe Byenced.” That man was
eS He Thompson, explorer, fur-
af tT, Surveyor and astronom-

ens

aa ae little is known of this
Periog ing Canadian who, in a
50,000 er 27 years, travelled over
sleq iles by boat, canoe, dog-

» On horseback and: on foot,

mu :
‘ et of it over territory complete-
titbnca the white man, and who
niles. Over 1,500,000 square
wet he landed in Canada in
7 the whole country from Lake
Perj

or and Lake Winnipeg west
Space. Pacific Ocean was a blank
When He the maps of his day.
181); € left western Canada in
Physical’ Main geographical and
ely al features had been accur-
the jo Surveyed. He determined
and peneion of almost every lake
the ea of any consequence in
tees! (Lake Superior, Lake
‘peg, Lake Athabaska, Koot-
Ri Lake, Churchill River, Nelson
ments Saskatchewan River — to
al eee Only a very few). This
Tent w Single-handed accomplish-
Teed his lasting and construc-
“ontribution to Canada.

Welsh Thompson was born of
30, ae in England on April
erty whe His father died in/poy-
S80 he ie David was a child and
pittthe €came a charity case and
Grey ee of seven was sent to
Sat School in London, a

aa

Siewert wer

Jan ~
SS

Muniay : Z ;
MUNRO MVim omy m tay cm tym gm YT
.»

| The man who mapped the West

aT ,
i
LIM EET TM eee By VENUE SU AE A A

royal foundation “the principall
designe of which” was “to educate
poor children in the principle of
piety and virtue and thereby lay
the foundation for a sober and
Christian life.’ Here he’ studied
mathematics, algebra, mechanics
and the art of. navigation,

A big change in his life came
when, at the age of 14. he was ap-
prenticed to the Hudson’s Bay
Company ‘and immediately shipped
off to. Fort Churchill on Hudson’s
Bay, the company’s trading head-
quarters. And the school paid £5
to the company for taking the

lad!)
*

The Hudson’s Bay Company,
which had been established 100
years before Thompson was born,
had a complete monopoly over the
fur trade in all lands whose waters
drained into Hudson Bay. It had
all the dictatorial powers of a
government of a colony and it'used
them to the full in its brutal ex-
ploitation of the Indians as well
as its white servants and ruled
over all with an iron hand.

By securing literally millions of
furs for next to nothing from the
Indians (a robbery made easier
by debauchery of the natives with
liquor) it, had quickly grown rich.
Having a monopoly on the fur
trade it didn’t bother building
trading posts inland and com-
pelled the Indians to come all the
way to Hudson Bay to sell their
furs. It cared little or nothing
about exploring or surveying the
country and violently opposed all
settlement. Like all monopolies
it held back progress.

But a few years before Thomp-
son’s arrival in Canada, a new
factor entered the situation. Scots-
Canadian merchants in Montreal,
eyeing the lucrative fur trade, de-
cided.to muscle in on the HBC
monopoly.

In 1784 they established a new
company, the North-West Com-
pany, with headquarters on Lake

e

Superior. They proceeded to out-
flank the HBC by establishing
trading posts between the Indian
tribes of the West and Hudson’s
Bay, intercepting the Indians and
securing their furs.

Tt wasn’t long before the
North - West Company’s forts
stretched from the Great Lakes to
the Yukon, and a most intense,
ruthless and murderous rivalry de-
veloped between the two com-
panies. This threat to its mono-
poly and profits compelled the
HBC to send its servants inland to
establish new trading posts, and
this involved both exploring and
surveying.

*

Such was the situation when
David Thompson landed at Fort
Churehill in 1784. His first two
vears were spent at company posts
along the shores of the bay and
he saw with his own eyes how
cruelly the company mistreated
the Indians.

In 1786 he was sent inland and
up the Saskatchewan River with a
large expedition of 46 men to es-
tablish trading posts to compete

‘with the North-West Company.

He was, to use his own words,
“fited out with a trunk, a hand-
kerchief, shoes, shirts, a gun, pow-
der and a tin cup.”

After travelling up the Saskat-
chewan River close to where Bat-
tleford now stands, the party
divided up and Thompson, only 17
years old, was sent further inland
at the head of a small party to
visit the Blackfeet on the Bow
River in Alberta. He wintered
among these Indians learning
much about their customs and his-
tory.

His next three years were spent
largely along the Saskatchewan
and in travel between there and
Hudson Bay.

\

Having already started the prac-
tice and study of surveying on his
own, in 1790 he had the good fort-
une to work at Cumberland House
(near the present Saskatchewan-
Manitoba border) under Philip
Turner, a most capable surveyor
and astronomer. Thompson was an
apt student and he soon decided
what his life’s work would be.

His keen powers of observation,
his love of scientific exactitude,
his great interest in the life of the
country, its climate, physical feat-
ures and its people, all naturally
gravitated him in the direction of
becoming a surveyor and explorer.

The next summer he made his
first survey — from Cumberland
House to Lake Winnipeg and
York Factory. It wasn’t long be-
fore be became. known among the
Indians as Koo- Koo - Sint, “the
man-who-looks-at-the-stars.” -

Returning to York Factory in
1791, his seven years of appren-
ticeship with the HBC. now ended,
he hired out to them as a trader
and surveyor. Exploring and sur-
veying had become his chief and
all-absorbing interest, but’ to hold
a job with the company he had to
earry on a trade in furs. This
was how the spent the next six
years, in what is now northern
Saskatchewan ‘and Manitoba.

* :

His growing dissatisfaction with
the HBC came to a climax in 1796.
Its London headquarters had long
wanted’ a survey of Lake Atha-
baska but Thompson was hindered
and obstructed in his desire to
make it by Joseph Colin, HBC
chief resident at York Factory,
who was determined that Thomp-
son should spend his time securing
furs in the dreary “muskrat coun-
try” southwest of that post.

Almost on his own Thompson
made a most difficult and arduous

TOC OOOO a Tr En Ge

trip to Lake Athabaska in 1796
that. nearly cost him his life
through exposure and staryation.
Finally, Colin ordered him to stop
surveying.

Unable to brook Colin’s obstruc-
tion any longer, Thompson decid-
ed to quit the Hudson’s Bay Com-
pany and join the North-West
Company, which he did in 1797.

In the direct and honest manner
that was characteristic of. him, he
sent a farewell letter to Colin. He
‘reminded Colin that it was he,
‘Thompson, who several years be-
fore had led an organized protest
against Colin’s tyranny, and. he
concluded with these words:

“How is it, Sir, that everyone
who once wished you well should
turn to be indifferent to you, and
even some to hate you, altho’ they
are constant in their other friend-
ships,—there must be a defect
somewhere.”

“The fact is, that from your
peculiar manner or conduct, you
are also one of those unfortunate
men who will have many an ac-
quaintance, but never a_ real
friend.”

In the North-West Company,
Thompson found an entirely dif-
ferent atmosphere. Its officials
were quick to see how useful a
man of Thompson’s intrepid cour-
age and ability could be to them.
They needed a survey of the whole
West and particularly to establish
the exact position of their own
trading posts in relation to the
49th Parallel, established in 1792
as the boundary line between Brit-
ish and American territory.

For Thompson it meant that at
last he would have more freedom
to do the work closest to his heart
(although he never was entirely
free of fur-trading; his employers
never forgot that!) “How very
different,” he wrote, “the liberal
and publie spirit of this North-

Concluded on next page

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 6, 1953 — PAGE 9

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