120 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



David Thompson, and still later it was the home of Daniel Harmon 

 for several years. 



On March 30th, 1796, he left Charlton House, and on April 3rd he 

 arrived at Swan River House near the mouth of the Swan River in North- 

 western Manitoba. After remaining here for a little more than a month 

 to allow the ice to break up on the rivers and lakes he left Swan River 

 house and embarked for Cuml^erland on the Saskatchewan River, 

 where he arrived on the 23rd of May, having doubtless made the journey 

 by the way of the Mossy Portage from the north end of Lake Winni- 

 pegosis to Cedar Lake. 



He remained at Cumberland house throughout the summer, until 

 the 25th of September. During this time we have not only his brief 

 meteorological record, but we have his extended journal which is full 

 of interesting material about the life in the country at that time. All 

 the employees in charge of posts of the Hudson's Bay Company were 

 instructed to keep daily journals, and in my travels through the Western 

 country I have had opportunities of inspecting many of these old 

 manuscript books most of which closely reflect the minds and characters 

 of the men who wrote them. Many of them are simply monotonous 

 records of wind and weather and the daily rounds of life, with most of 

 the interesting and extraordinary events omitted, probably for the 

 reason that such events were so widely known and deeply felt that it 

 seemed needless to record them. But Fidler's journals are good 

 exceptions to such monotony. They are not diffuse, but they give 

 clear statistical accounts of life at the time and in the places where he 

 was wi'iting and enter with perfect faithfulness the coming and going 

 of his companions or competitors in the fur trade, and of the Indians 

 with whom they traded. 



The following extract is his account of summary justice as ad- 

 ministered to the Indians on the Saskatchewan by the Partners of the 

 North-West Company, and at the same time it is a good illustra- 

 tion of Fidler's matter-of-fact style of describing even the most tragic 

 occurrences. 



"June 2nd [1796] Thursday. Early this morning two Canoes of In- 

 dians arrived loaded with meat for our house. These two men was known 

 to be the principals in the murder of one of the Canad. men this last 

 winter at Isle a la Crosse. Just as one had stepped out of his Canoe 

 (i.e., Charles's Brother alias Beardy) he was immediately seized by the 

 Canadians that was ready to take him when he landed, and they hauled 

 him into their house. The other, called Little Gut, had not disembarked 

 when the other man was seized, and he immediately pushed his Canoe 

 from the Shoi-e and padled with all the haste he could to get out of the 

 Canadians way, they immediately manned one of their Canoes with 



