Peter Fidler, Trader and Surveyor, 1769 to 1822
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/peterfidlertradeOOtyrr FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA THIRD SERIES— 1913 >LUME VII PETER FIDLER, TRADER AND SURVEYOR. 1769 TO 1822 By J. B. TYRRELL, M.A., F.G.5., &c. OTTAWA PRINTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 1913 .^^ '^^>n/./t'.rer^h c^/ "^/K//, U^ 3Sui/<^c^^ J.34 ^<..r/er/e..^^c<.^ ^/^ 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. Tajdor for Mr. J. G. McTavish to illustrate the surveys made by Mr. Fidler in Western Canada but the exacc 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 Section IL, 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 piiljlished in tlie 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 118 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA of his life during the years, 1796, 1797, 1800, 1803 to 1805, 1806, 1807, and 1821. There was also a meteorological Register kept by Peter Fidler himself from 1793 to 1807, giving the places at which he lived dm'ing those fom'teen 3"ears, the readings of the thermometer twice a day, the du-ection and force of the wind, and general remarks on the climate, as well as occasional notes on remarkable occurrences in the country at that time. In addition to these books written by himself some other papers and journals were seen which gave some information about him and the life which he led. From these data I am able to offer a brief sketch of Peter Fidler's life in Western Canada, and a ver}^ few items of interest out of his extended and detailed journals. Peter Fidler was born at Bolsover, Derbyshire, on the sixteenth of August 1769, and entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company when he was nineteen years old, which would be in 1788. During the following winter he probably remained at York Factor}', but in 1789 he went to Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River, where he remained in company with David Thompson and Phillip Turner, the former of whom was one year his junior, while the latter was an enthu- siastic surveyor and astronomer who had been in the service of the Company for a number of years, and who doubtless had much to do with the training of the two young men who were thus thro\vn in contact with him. Where he spent the following year is not known, but it is reported, perhaps truly, that in the summer of 1791 he accompanied Phillip Turner on his expedition to surve}'' Lake Athabasca, in which case he doubtless spent the winter of 1791-1792 with his chief at old Fort Chipewyan on the south side of the lake. Here he would have been the guest of Roderick Mackenzie of the North-West Company, though, being a young man and merely acting as assistant to Mr. Turner, he is not mentioned in any of the correspondence of Roderick Mackenzie which I have seen. In 1792 he was back again on the Saskatchewan River at Bucking- ham House, the most western trading post of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany at that time. From that post he travelled southwestward across the plains to the foot of Chief Mountain in the main range of the Rocky Mountains, and not far north of the present boundary line between the United States and Canada. Here he spent the wmter, doubtless in a camp of Blackfeet or Piegan Indians, and in the following summer returned to Buckingham House, after which he ascended the Sas- katchewan River for about one hundred miles, his courses and positions for these two years being laid down on Arrowsmith's map of North- western America, made in 1795, with corrections to 1796. " " [TYRRELL] PETER FIDLER, TRADER AND SURVEYOR ng After having spent four years in the Saskatchewan country, through which he probably made surveys, though the character and extent of the surveys are not yet known, he descended the river to York Factory where he started a series of meteorological ob- servations, the results of which for the next fourteen years, with the exact places at which they were taken, we now have, so that for that time there is no uncertainty as to his movements. From 1793 to September 5th, 1795, he remained at York Factory acting as a clerk and trader at that post and receiving a salary of £25 a year for his services. On the 26th of June the following — 1794 remark is entered in his register: ''South Branch House burnt and plundered by the Fall Indians, 3 men, 1 woman and 2 children murdered, and 2 carried away as slaves, young women. Canadians killed and wounded 14 of these Indians in ye attack." On August 11th of the same year there is the following entry, "8 Canoes of Englishmen arrived from Cumber- land House with the news of the S.