Section II., 1913. [117] Trans. R.S.C. 



Peter Fidler, Trader and Surveyor. 1769 to 1822. 

 By J. B. Tyrrell, M.A., F.G.S., &c. 



(Read May 28, 1913) 



Twenty-five years ago I published in the Proceedings of the Can- 

 adian Institute, Toronto, a short account of the surveys made by 

 David Thompson in North Western America during the latter part 

 of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. My 

 researches at the time also showed the existence of another surveyor 

 named Peter Fidler who was in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany at the same time, but very little could be learned about him, 

 or of the extent of the work which he accomplished. 



Since that time Doctor Bryce has told us something about the 

 man, and the extraordinary will which he left at his death, in which, 

 after bequeathing his Note-books and Journals to the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, and making other legacies, he directed all the balance of 

 his estate, after his youngest son had come of age, to be placed in the 

 public funds, and to be allowed to accumulate there until August 16th, 

 1969, the 200th anniversary of his birth, when the accumulated sum 

 was to be given to the heir of his youngest son, Peter Fidler. Mr. 

 James White has also shown us the map which was made by Mr. G. 

 Taylor for Mr. J. G. McTavish to illustrate the surveys made by Mr. 

 Fidler in Western Canada but the exact extent of these surveys, the 

 times when he made them, and the records which he kept of the con- 

 ditions of life as he saw them in the various parts of the country in which 

 he happened to be travelling or residing in that strenuous period of 

 struggle between the English and Canadian trading Companies, when 

 success in the fur trade depended in no small degree on fighting ability, 

 have remained unknown. 



Such information as we had about the man was just enough to 

 whet our appetites for more, and students of western history have been 

 keenly on the lookout for notes and memoranda which would supply the 

 missing data, and would furnish a record of the work done by this pioneer 

 in the exploration of the northern and western portions of our country. 



Last summer, while at York Factory, on Hudson Bay, in the 

 capacity of Commissioner for the Government of the Province of On- 

 tario, I had the good fortune to find, and through the kindness of Mr, 

 Ray, to be allowed to inspect, several of the original notebooks kept 

 by Peter Fidler while he was in Western Canada. These gave accounts 



