* A Distributed Proofreaders Canada eBook *

This eBook is made available at no cost and with very few restrictions. These restrictions apply only if (1) you make a change in the eBook (other than alteration for different display devices), or (2) you are making commercial use of the eBook. If either of these conditions applies, please contact a https://www.fadedpage.com administrator before proceeding. Thousands more FREE eBooks are available at https://www.fadedpage.com.

This work is in the Canadian public domain, but may be under copyright in some countries. If you live outside Canada, check your country's copyright laws. IF THE BOOK IS UNDER COPYRIGHT IN YOUR COUNTRY, DO NOT DOWNLOAD OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS FILE.

This eBook was produced by: Hugh Dagg, John Routh, Brittany Jeans & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at https://www.pgdpcanada.net

Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada Third Series, Volume XXII, Section II, 1928

It is perhaps altogether fitting and proper, in consideration of the recently celebrated sixtieth anniversary of the Dominion, that the work of students in Canadian history should centre so largely on the development of responsible government and the formation of Confederation. This paper is not an attempt to disparage the importance and value of that work but rather to insist that equally important work remains to be done in Canadian history both earlier and later than the period 1840-1867. It is concerned especially with the period after the Conquest, or roughly the early and crucial part of the period 1763-1821.

From the standpoint of Canadian history this period witnessed the conquest of the French on North America, the revolt of the American colonies, and the approximate determination of the boundary lines of those portions of North America which were destined to remain British. Considerable attention has been paid to the difficulties, especially the geographic difficulties, under which Confederation has been achieved. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the period in which the northern part of North America, apparently without serious difficulty, became a distinct unit under the control of Great Britain. Canadian unity was developed from the Atlantic to the Pacific from 1763 to 1821, and it is a part of the plan of this paper to inquire into the causes which were at work. Ordinarily the British army and the navy have been given most of the credit for the outcome of the American Revolution and of the War of 1812, but work done recently and notably by Mrs. K. B. Jackson and Professor Wayne Stevens, has shown, however, that the fur trade and the importance of British manufacturers to the trade have been of very great importance in the diplomatic arrangements which finally determined the boundaries during this period. The organization of greatest importance to Canadian interests in the prosecution of the trade was the Northwest Company, and it is proposed to pay especial attention to the activities of an individual who played an important rôle in its formation.

Peter Pond, adventurer and fur trader, was born in Milford, in the county of New Haven in Connecticut, on January 18, 1740. Interestingly enough Alexander Henry, his contemporary, was born in New Jersey in August, 1739. Both these men were present at the surrender of Fort de Levis in 1760, Pond as a commissioned officer and Henry as a merchant supplying the commissariat. In 1775 these men made their first voyages by Grand Portage to the Northwest. Alexander Henry is a well known figure in the fur trade, but Peter Pond has suffered relative obscurity.

The reasons for the obscurity were apparently lack of an ordinary education and consequent bad spelling, which meant that his journal was partly destroyed and the remaining fragment published only at a very late date in the Wisconsin Historical Collections. Nevertheless, it has a flavour not found in any other fur trader’s journal. From the available evidence Peter Pond was a descendant of William Pond of Groton, Suffolk, England, a neighbour of John Winthrop. Two sons of William Pond arrived at Salem, Massachusetts, and it is probable that Peter was a descendant of one of these sons, probably Samuel Pond. In any case Peter Pond was the eldest son of nine children of Peter Pond and Mary Hubbard. His father appears to have been a shoemaker by trade, as the son enlisted on April 17, 1759, with the Suffolk County Regiment as a shoemaker. His journal begins with entry into army life. At the age of 16, in 1755, he enlisted under Capt. David Baldwin in the seventh company of the Connecticut regiment. He was engaged during the summer on the Fort George front but saw no hard fighting. In the autumn he returned to Milford and did not enlist in the following year. However, in 1758, he joined the army under Col. Nathan Whiting of the second Connecticut regiment and was engaged in the fiasco at Ticonderoga under Abercromby. His account of the campaign is conclusive evidence of the validity of his journal. In 1759 he joined the Suffolk County regiment and was engaged in the successful attack on Niagara. Again he returned to Milford at the end of the season’s campaign, but enlisted the following year with a commission. As already shown he was present at the attack on Fort de Levis, and also at the capitulation of Montreal. In 1760 he had served in three campaigns and he was twenty years of age.

Six of the succeeding twelve years were spent in the fur trade at Detroit, but unfortunately the journal gives little information as to his activities. We do know, however, that after his return from the army he went in 1761 on a voyage to the West Indies and returned to find that his father had joined the rush of traders to Detroit after the Conquest and that his mother had died. He assumed charge of a large family until his father returned (probably 1762) and at some time during the next three years married Susanna Newell, by whom he had at least two children. His father apparently had little success in the Detroit venture probably because of the disturbances prior to the Pontiac wars—he died insolvent in 1764. The following year Peter Pond engaged in the Detroit trade and practically nothing is known of his success in the next six years except that toward the end of the period he disposed of an enemy in a duel. Certainly he was at Detroit in 1767, as along with Isaac Todd and other traders he signed a petition on November 26th of that year asking for restrictions on the trade in rum. On August 13, 1770, he is recorded as having purchased 120 acres of land on Gros Point. He probably extended his activities to Michilimackinac as there is reason to believe he wintered there in 1770-71. After his duel in 1771 he returned to Milford and made another trip to the West Indies in 1772.

With his return from the West Indies, a long and unbroken connection with the fur trade begins. He received a letter from Mr. Graham^[1] of New York, an Albany trader, who had been engaged in the trade of Michilimackinac at least as early as 1767, offering to arrange a partnership in trade from Michilimackinac. Pond was presumably to supply the experience and Graham the capital. In 1773 a cargo valued at 4,600 pounds was made up and Pond departed for Montreal to secure goods for the trade not available in New York, while Graham took the boat loads of merchandise to Oswego and by the lakes to Michilimackinac. Pond’s goods were taken up the Ottawa by the well known route to Michilimackinac in the canoes of his old acquaintance, Isaac Todd, and of James McGill. At Michilimackinac he completed arrangements to take twelve large canoes and nine clerks for various points on the Mississippi. He reached Green Bay, crossed over the Fox Portage and from Prairie du Chien despatched the clerks to various districts. Pond wintered on St. Peter’s river apparently above the point at which Carver had wintered in 1766-7. In the spring of 1774 he returned to Prairie du Chien and in company with his other canoes proceeded after a successful winter, to Michilimackinac where he met Mr. Graham with a new supply of goods. His success warranted his buying out Mr. Graham^[2] and in the following year he returned on his own venture. In 1774 after completing his cargo, and before leaving for a return visit to the Mississippi, news arrived of an outbreak of trouble between the Sioux and the Chippewas. Pond, in addition to his activities as a trader was despatched also as a peacemaker. He reached his old wintering place on St. Peter’s river and spent a successful winter including a visit to the Yankton’s, a band of the Sioux. In the spring he left St. Peter’s river and took with him some of the chiefs of the Sioux preparatory to arranging a peace at Michilimackinac. With his return in 1775 the journal, unfortunately, comes to an end.

After his return to Michilimackinac, Pond, for various reasons, decided to proceed to Grand Portage^[3] and the Northwest and to abandon the Mississippi country. In the same year Simon McTavish appears to have decided on a venture to the same district. Also we learn that Alexander Henry made his first visit to that region. It is necessary to inquire at this point into the general reasons for the northwest migration. The significant changes relate to those who had traded from Albany. McTavish had been a forwarder from Albany. The firm of Phyn and Ellice with headquarters at Albany left for Montreal and London. So too, Pond who had obtained his goods from Albany began to rely on Montreal. Several causes may be assigned for the change. The supplies of fur of the Mississippi country were being worked out and reports were abroad of tremendous profits to be obtained from the better furs of the northwest. Finlay wintered on the Saskatchewan in 1768. In 1771, Thomas Curry had wintered at Cedar Lake, and in 1772 took down large quantities of furs. But probably more important as a cause of the migration was the rumour of the outbreak of troubles in the colonies and the advisability of depending on Montreal as a base of supplies in the event of the cutting of the Albany route, and of retreating to territory beyond the pale of disturbance.

The significance of the movement from Albany may be shown in its relations to later developments leading to the formation of the Northwest Company. Albany traders had depended on lake transportation and the use of boats to carry goods along Lake Ontario, Lake Erie and Lake Huron. For this reason important capital investment was involved in providing transport facilities. The Albany traders, especially Phyn and Ellice and McTavish, acquired substantial capital interests as a result of the methods by which the trade was conducted and the substantial profits available as a reward. The importance of the Ellice family and of McTavish and McGillivray, which persists throughout the history of the Northwest Company and its successor, the amalgamated Hudson’s Bay Company, was a result of the capital acquired in the early trade from Albany prior to 1774.

On August 18, 1775, Alexander Henry, en route to the Saskatchewan, was joined on Lake Winnipeg by Peter Pond with two canoes. They were obliged to proceed slowly because of storms on the lake and because of the necessity of constantly stopping to fish to get a supply of food. On the seventh of September they were overtaken by Joseph and Thomas Frobisher and Mr. Patterson, and on October 26th they reached Cumberland House which had been established the preceding year by Hearne for the Hudson’s Bay Company. After this long and trying journey plans were made for the winter—Henry and the Frobishers went to the North, Peter Pond dropped down stream to Cedar Lake, portaged to Lake Winnipegosis and proceeded to Lake Dauphin on the shores of which he built his fort. Several reasons may have persuaded Pond to winter at this point. He may have joined with the other traders and acted in concert with them, taking his smaller outfit to the point which would prevent the Indians from the south going to Hudson Bay, or he may have realized that acting as an independent this was the only plan left open for him. The post gave him access to the buffalo country and he was able to trade with the Assiniboines with whose language he was already familiar. In the spring of 1776 he probably returned, certainly to Grand Portage and possibly to Michilimackinac, to dispose of his furs and secure a new supply of goods. It is known that Simon McTavish had a small boat on Lake Superior in 1775 and that he brought down some £15,000 worth of furs, most of which was probably from Grand Portage in 1776. It is quite possible that McTavish had taken Pond’s goods to Grand Portage for him in 1775 and that he met Pond at that point to receive his furs in 1776. The partnership of McTavish and McBeath owned a boat of thirty tons on the Upper Lake in 1775. In 1777 McBeath took out a license for five canoes to Grand Portage^[4]. For this license Alexander Ellice acted as guarantor. It is quite probable that the goods taken up by McBeath to Grand Portage in that year were intended for Peter Pond.

After Pond’s visit to Grand Portage or to Michilimackinac in 1776, he decided upon a change in his plans and wintered beyond the posts of Canadian traders above the Forks on the North Saskatchewan. In the same year the Hudson’s Bay Company had decided on a post in the same locality to check the Canadian traders, and Tomison was directed to build a post near the present site of Prince Albert, called Hudson’s House. Pond remained at this post two years, but possibly as a result of Hudson’s Bay Company competition and smaller profits decided in 1778 to attempt a trade to the Athabasca district.

Pond’s chief contribution was the solution of the problems incidental to the establishment of trade in this distant area. Alexander Henry and Thomas and Joseph Frobisher had been extremely successful in 1775-6 in meeting the Indians from Athabasca on their way to trade at Hudson Bay or at Cumberland House. In 1776 Thomas Frobisher proposed to accompany the Indians on their return to Athabasca, but wintered on Isle à la Crosse Lake. The problem of Athabasca was incidental to the lack of food supply and the short season. Canoes were the feasible method of travel in the difficult waters of the Churchill and only a small quantity of food could be carried. To reach Athabasca it was necessary to start early in the season to give sufficient time to fish along the route for a supply of food and to get in before the season closed. It was impossible at that time, with no organization of the food supply, to reach the district from Grand Portage in one season.

Several factors contributed to solve the problem. In the first place the traders on the Saskatchewan had reached an agreement among themselves, at least as early as 1775, for a pooling of supplies of dry meat. Ample supplies of food were necessary to support the trip to Grand Portage from the Saskatchewan and the buffalo were drawn upon as the chief source. This pooling of resources which began apparently in reference to the meat supply, was the beginning of co-operation which was at the basis of the Northwest Company. Competition on the Saskatchewan from the Hudson’s Bay Company affected not only Pond but other traders as well. In 1778 it was agreed that the merchandise left over should be pooled, and that surplus meat should be used to support Pond in a venture to Athabasca. It was a tribute to Pond’s organizing ability and to his trading ability that four canoes were entrusted to him to open the trade. The success with which he carried out the expedition with the honour of being the first white man to enter the Mackenzie River drainage basin by the Methye Portage, was evidence that the trust was well placed. He established a post on the Athabasca River about forty miles above Lake Athabasca, acquired a supply of food for the return voyage and a large quantity of furs, a portion of which he was obliged to leave in cache until the next season.

The development of trade in Athabasca was fundamental to the Northwest Company. The distance from Montreal necessitated the closest co-operation between all the traders concerned. Larger quantities of capital were necessary to finance the trade. It was necessary to organize supplies of food from the Detroit area for the canoes at Grand Portage and from the Saskatchewan area for the canoes at Cumberland House. Corn and grease had been adapted to the fur trade in the Grand Portage area and pemmican in the Saskatchewan. The source of pemmican, contrary to general belief, has not been definitely located. There is some reason to believe that it was a cultural trait of the Chipewyans or of the northern Indians of Athabasca, and that the Plains Indians prior to the coming of the white man had subsisted on dried meat. It is possible that Pond made a valuable contribution in adapting the pemmican which he found in use among the Athabascan Indians to the development of the trade from the Saskatchewan. The production of ample supplies of pemmican in Athabasca and the Saskatchewan was basic to the conduct of the trade in Athabasca and to the organization of the Northwest Company.

After a successful venture to Athabasca in 1778, Pond came down to Montreal in 1779^[5]. In that year as a result of the lateness of the season in which the passes were issued, a formal agreement was made between the important traders at Grand Portage. Waden was selected to represent the partnership in the Athabasca district and wintered in Pond’s absence at Lake la Ronge in 1779-80. In the partnership, McBeath and Company probably including Pond, held two shares. In 1780 Pond took out two licenses at Montreal for two canoes each for Grand Portage, and with these he apparently returned to Athabasca to bring out the furs he had left in cache in 1779. In 1781 he probably came down to Grand Portage with these furs and secured the goods brought up from Montreal in four canoes under a license to McBeath, Pond and Graves; Waden was apparently still at Lac la Ronge in the summer of 1781 representing the minor interests in the trade to Athabasca. Pond was consequently chosen at Grand Portage to represent the larger interests and to trade on a joint account with Waden. Difficulties developed between the two men, probably as a result of the conflicting policies which they were chosen to represent, and Waden was killed in 1782. Mackenzie’s account of the murder is unreliable and inaccurate as shown in a sworn statement of a voyageur in Montreal. In any case Pond was acquitted. After the death of Waden, Pond sent his clerk, Toussaint Sieur, to meet the Indians on their way from Athabasca to Hudson Bay and to warn them of the dangers of smallpox, which was at that time raging on the plains. After the trade Pond came down to Grand Portage with the news of Waden’s death. This news apparently led to a disruption of the agreement and two parties were sent to establish posts at Athabasca only to find that the smallpox had preceded them, and to return with only seven packages of beaver. Pond apparently arrived too late to get into the district and wintered at Isle à la Crosse Lake. It is probable that he did not go down to Grand Portage in the summer of 1783, but proceeded directly to Athabasca. In any case he wintered in Athabasca and came down to Grand Portage and Montreal in 1784.

The difficulty of carrying on trade to Athabasca and the large quantities of capital involved made competition intolerable and in the autumn of 1783 Montreal interests had apparently decided on a merger. Pond arrived at Grand Portage in 1784 to find that he had been allotted one share in a sixteen share concern. Considering the importance of his work in facilitating the formation of the Company, he was disappointed at not receiving an additional share, and resolved to join a small opposition group. He was soon to discover that his affections were still with his old friends in the larger group and decided to accept the share which had been left vacant for him. In the winter of 1784-5 he probably spent some time at his old home in Milford. On March 1st, 1785, he presented his famous map to Congress. On April 18, 1785, he signed a memorial at Quebec and later in the year returned to Grand Portage and Athabasca. He found himself in opposition in Athabasca to John Ross the representative of the small group, which had secured the support of Gregory and McLeod of Montreal. His immediate problem was that of establishing posts and organizing the district. In the summer of 1786 he apparently surveyed the district and decided on building a post on Peace River above Vermilion Falls and a post on Slave Lake to the east of the entrance of Slave River. In the winter of 1786-7 competition became more severe and in the summer of 1787 word arrived that Ross “had been shot in a scuffle with Mr. Pond’s men”. The small opposition group amalgamated to form the Northwest Company in that year.

Alexander Mackenzie, who had been a member of the small company was despatched to Athabasca in 1787 to take Pond’s place. The latter retired from Athabasca in 1788 and in the agreement of 1790, sold his share in the Northwest Company to William McGillivray for £800. In March, 1790, he returned to Milford and severed his connection with the fur trade forever.

His contribution to the fur trade was important. He bridged the difficult gap between Cumberland House and Athabasca and left the Athabasca district an organized department. From this organization the Northwest Company was able to expand its activities to New Caledonia in British Columbia and eventually to the Pacific Coast. The most profitable department of the Company was that of Athabasca. Its organization was an important factor leading to the formation of the Northwest Company. Pond was a pioneer and an organizer and in a very real sense a father of the Northwest Company.

We have attempted to this point to indicate Pond’s contributions in the development of fur trade organization. There remains the task of appraising his work and influence on exploration. As already shown he was the first white man to cross the Methye Portage to the Mackenzie River drainage basin, and it is in reference to the Mackenzie River drainage basin that his later work in exploration was concerned. His work in exploration was very much handicapped through the lack of a scientific training and the lack of accurate instruments. He apparently learned something of the methods of taking observations from his experience in the army and his voyages to the West Indies. According to David Thompson, Pond used a compass and for distances adopted those of the Canadian canoe men in leagues, reckoning a league as three miles whereas it should have been two. Consequently his maps were very inaccurate from the standpoint of longitude, but quite accurate from the standpoint of latitude. To offset these disadvantages he possessed an amazing facility for acquiring accurate information from the Indians. In spite of the demands made by the fur trade he was able to extend very appreciably the existing knowledge of the Mackenzie River drainage basin. Indeed, without his organization of the trade in Athabasca, the later voyages of Mackenzie could not have been accomplished at such an early date.

From information which Pond had acquired in 1778-9, in 1779-80 and 1783-4 he was able to construct his first important map of the Northwest. To that time he had apparently not been below Lake Athabasca and yet his map of 1785 shows the main features of the Northwest with surprising accuracy. The locations of Slave Lake, Bear Lake, and of the Arctic Coast line and the route of the Mackenzie River are shown to be approximately correct. There can be no doubt that he had gained a clear conception of the topographical features of the country chiefly through his reliance on information supplied by the Indians. In a memorandum, of which a copy is included in the Appendix to Davidson’s Northwest Company, he gives much valuable supplementary information to that which is included on the map. The map of 1785 is undoubtedly his most important and permanent contribution to geography and exploration.

In 1785 he returned to Athabasca apparently with the intention of verifying his information and continuing his exploration of the lower river. Before discussing his later work it is necessary to review briefly the general developments in exploration on the Pacific Coast. He had learned in Montreal of Cook’s voyages and had apparently read the volume by W. Ellis, An Authentic Narrative of a Voyage Performed by Captain Cook and Captain Clarke. (London, 1782). He had noted the locations of Prince William Sound and King George’s Sound, of Cook’s Inlet, Bering Strait and other points. He was especially impressed with the information that Cook’s Inlet was the mouth of a very large river. The importance of this information impressed not only Pond but other traders, including Alexander Henry. The profitable fur trade of the Pacific Coast was an incentive to American traders in Boston and New York. In this Montreal traders were anxious to share.

From this information it is not surprising that Pond decided that Cook’s Inlet was probably the outlet of the Mackenzie River. Should this prove to be the case the traders of the Athabasca would have an outlet to the Pacific for their furs, which would greatly reduce costs of transport of furs and supplies and enable them to share in the profitable trade of the Pacific! Pond had returned to the Athabasca department, already an old man for the fur trade, to attempt a solution to the problem.

His movements are difficult to follow but he apparently visited Slave Lake in July, 1787, and he may have proceeded to the entrance of Mackenzie River in the same year. Alexander Mackenzie arrived in the district in the autumn of 1787. In the winter of 1787-8 we learn that Alexander Mackenzie in a visit to Patrick Small spoke of “the wild ideas Mr. Pond has of matters, which Mr. Mackenzie told me were incomprehensibly extravagant. He is preparing a fine map to lay before the Empress of Russia”. There is evidence that Pond had decided to go down the Mackenzie River after he had visited Grand Portage in 1788, as Small writes that he gave orders to him “to go with or after the packs but represented to him that he required to be expeditious if he intended returning after seeing the Grand Portage”. Arriving at Grand Portage he found it necessary to go on to Montreal and the partners apparently decided that Mackenzie should be sent in his place in 1789 the following summer. Mackenzie had also become inspired with the possibilities of the expedition and made his famous voyage only to find that he had travelled down the River Disappointment which emptied into the Arctic and not into Cook’s inlet on the Pacific. While the partners had decided that Mackenzie should take Pond’s place in his voyage down the Mackenzie in 1789, it was also decided that Pond’s presence in Montreal was very much needed to interest the government in the possibilities of exploration. The Montreal traders were enthusiastic over the possibility of discovering the route to the Pacific. Pond gave Ogden, among others, a detailed account of the country, which was written to his father in London and forwarded to Evan Nepean on January 23, 1790. Alexander Dalyrymple suggested on February 2nd, 1790, that two vessels be sent, “one round Cape Horn without delay and another to Hudson’s Bay and the Hudson’s Bay Company have expressed their readiness to co-operate with government”. The Hudson’s Bay Company were extremely anxious to co-operate and if possible to share in the profits of the new route and in 1790 despatched Philip Turner to Athabasca to determine the locations. He met Alexander Mackenzie on his way out after his return from the disappointing journey. As late as July 25th, 1790, Captain Holland in a letter to Evan Nepean, suggested plans for exploration in the following year. These bubbles came to a sudden end with the news of Alexander Mackenzie’s failure. Pond was discredited. Unfortunately he was too old to return to the attack, whereas Alexander Mackenzie was still a young man and able to vindicate himself by his determined voyage to the Pacific in 1793.

Pond’s difficulties were the result of his inaccurate determination of longitude. He returned to Milford in March, 1790. He visited Ezra Stiles the President of Yale University, who fortunately made a copy of the map which he had apparently planned to present to the Empress of Russia. Little is known of his later days but they were apparently spent in writing his journal, in reading other accounts of the countries in which he travelled and in musing over an eventful life. He is said to have died in poverty in Boston in 1807.

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple spellings occur, majority use has been employed.

Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors occur.

A cover which is placed in the public domain was created for this ebook.

[The end of Peter Pond and the Influence of Captain James Cook on Exploration in the Interior of North America, by Harold Adams Innis]