70 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
W1 Express Journal 
March 1827 
March— 
Tuesday 20th.—Fair weather. The Express Boat leaves Fort 
Vancouver at + before 6 o’clock p.m. A second Boat accompanies us 
as far as the Chûtes to assist in carrying our Boat over them and to 
strengthen the party. Passengers Messrs. McLoughlin‘, McLeod,® 
Douglas,® Pambrun,’ Annance,’ and E. Ermatinger. Proceed 3 miles 
and encamp. 
21st.—Embark at 4 a.m. Breakfast at the upper end of Prairie 
du thé. Head wind strong all day. Encamp at the end of Portage 
Neuf. Trade 1 sturgeon and 1 salmon trout. Patches of snow along 
the banks of the River. 


‘A symbol signifying York Factory on Hayes river near mouth of Nelson 
river, Hudson bay. 
2 Journal of the ‘‘ Express” sent across the continent and back each season by 
the Hudson’s Bay Company. 
8 Fort Vancouver—Headquarters of Hudson’s Bay Company on Pacific Coast 
at that time and for some 20 years after; on north bank of Columbia river, 7 miles 
north of the present city of Portland, Oregon. In 1846, it was the largest post in 
the Hudson’s Bay Co.’s territories and there were, usually, two chief factors, eight 
or ten clerks and 200 voyageurs residing there. The buildings were “enclosed by 
strong pickets about sixteen feet high with bastions for cannon at the corners. The 
men, with their Indian wives, live in log huts near the margin of the river, forming 
a little village—quite a babel of languages as the inhabitants are a mixture of English, 
French, Iroquois, Sandwich Islanders, Crees and Chenooks”’ (Kane, Wanderings in 
North America, 171-2). 
*Dr. John McLoughlin; Chief Factor and chief officer of Hudson’s Bay Com- 
pany on Pacific Coast; Scotch Canadian. On his retirement from company settled 
at Oregon City where he died. Edw. Ermatinger subsequently wrote of him: “a 
more indefatigable and enterprising man it would have been difficult to find.” 
5 Alex. R. McLeod, Chief Trader, Hudson’s Bay Company, Fort Vancouver. 
5 David Douglas (1798-1834) botanist, sent out by London Horticultural Socy. 
in H. B. Co. ship in 1825. Spent several years botanizing in neighbourhood of the 
Company’s posts. Wrote an interesting journal of his experiences. 
7 Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun, a clerk and, subsequently, a Chief Trader of the 
Hudson’s Bay Co.; in 1825, he was clerk at Stuart Lake, B.C.; about 1832, took 
charge of Fort Walla Walla and remained there till his death by a fall from a horse in 
1840. His body was sent to Ft. Vancouver for burial. 
* Mr. Annance was a clerk of the Company in the ‘ twenties.’ In Macdonald’s 
‘Peace River,” it is stated that in 1822, he was sent in from the east to procure 
information respecting the ‘‘heads of the Thompson and N. Branch.” 
° Prairie du Thé is about 28 miles from Fort Vancouver. 
