106 SANDFOED FLEMING ON 



(2) Travels and Discoveries of Mr. Simon Fraser, 1805 — 1808. 



The explorations of Mr. Simou Fraser were iu every sense remarkable, and they have 

 exercised no little influence on the history of British Columbia. He entered the service 

 of the North-West Company, in 1*792, at the age of nineteen ; ten years later he became a 

 l^artner. In 1805 a conference was held at Fort "William, to discuss the advisability of 

 extending the operations of the company beyond the Rocky Mountains, for the purpose of 

 occupying the territory. The desire was to anticipate the United States explorers and 

 traders, who might establish a claim to its ownership by right of discovery and occupa- 

 tion. It was decided that trading posts should be established in the then unknown terri- 

 tory, and possession by this means taken of it. The duty of carrying out the project was 

 assigned to Mr. Fraser. He soon afterwards left Fort AVilliam, made his w^ay to Lake 

 Athabasca, and ascended Peace Eiver iu the mountains, where he established a trading 

 post, which he named the Rocky Mountain Portage. 



Placing men in charge, he continued his journey to McLeod Lake, which he discov- 

 ered, and there also left some traders. In 1806 he portaged to Fraser River, at that 

 date regarded as the main stream of the Columbia, or one of its principal affluents. He 

 left the Fraser, and followed a tributary flowing from the westward, now known as 

 Stuart River, and so named from a companion in the service, Mr. John Stuart. He 

 traced this stream to Stuart Lake ; he here established a trading post, the present Fort 

 St. James. He penetrated to Fraser Lake, another of his discoveries, and there also he estab- 

 lished a trading station. He gave the name of New Caledonia to the whole territory. In 

 180Y, two canoes with goods, under the charge of Messrs. Quesnel and Farries, reached 

 him ; at the same time he received letters urging him to carry on his explorations to the 

 ocean, by the river flowing through the country to the south, in anticipation of parties 

 from the United States, who were displaying some activity at this date ; Lewis and 

 Clark having been sent out by the United States Grovernment to the Pacific coast. This 

 year Mr. Fraser established another po^t, Fort George, on the maia stream. 



In the spring of 1808, Mr. Fraser, with Messrs. John Stuart, Jules Maurice Quesnel, 

 and a crew of nineteen men, and two Indians, embarked in four well-furnished canoes to 

 explore the unknown waters w^hich were regarded as the main affluent of the Columbia. 

 They left Fort George on May 28th, where the river is described as 300 yards wide with a 

 strong current. They reached its mouth on July 1st, and found the latitude to be about 

 49°, establishing that the river was a separate and distinct stream, and not the Columbia, 

 the latitude at the mouth of which was then known to be 46° 20'. 



For a few days after leaving Fort George, the expedition made rapid progress. Sir 

 Alexander Mackenzie fifteen years earlier, had passed over some extent of the distance to 

 the point where, on the advice of the Indians, he turned back, to follow a trail westward 

 to the sea. The Indians whom Mr. Fraser met v\H?re friendly, and gave him similar advice ; 

 they informed him that the descent of the river was extremely dangerous, that he could 

 not go on, and that the whole party would meet destruction if they made the attempt. 

 The object of the undertaking being to follow the river to the mouth. Fraser declined to 

 turn back. The verification of the Indian description of the navigation was not long 

 delayed, for in a short time appalling dilficulties were encountered. A striking narrative 

 of this descent is given in the Journal of Simon Fraser in the work of Senator Masson, 

 recently issued, " Le Bourgeois de la Compagnie de Nord-Ouest." 



