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Lt. Aemilius Simpson's Survey from York Factory to Fort Vancouver, 1826

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Lt. Aemilius Simpson's Survey from York Factory to Fort Vancouver, 1826 The Journal of the Hakluyt Society August 2014 Lt. Aemilius Simpson’s Survey from York Factory to Fort Vancouver, 1826 Edited by William Barr1 and Larry Green CONTENTS PREFACE The journal 2 Editorial practices 3 INTRODUCTION The man, the project, its background and its implementation 4 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE ACROSS THE CONTINENT OF NORTH AMERICA IN 1826 York Factory to Norway House 11 Norway House to Carlton House 19 Carlton House to Fort Edmonton 27 Fort Edmonton to Boat Encampment, Columbia River 42 Boat Encampment to Fort Vancouver 62 AFTERWORD Aemilius Simpson and the Northwest coast 1826–1831 81 APPENDIX I Biographical sketches 90 APPENDIX II Table of distances in statute miles from York Factory 100 BIBLIOGRAPHY 101 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1. George Simpson, 1857 3 Fig. 2. York Factory 1853 4 Fig. 3. Artist’s impression of George Simpson, approaching a post in his personal North canoe 5 Fig. 4. Fort Vancouver ca.1854 78 LIST OF MAPS Map 1. York Factory to the Forks of the Saskatchewan River 7 Map 2. Carlton House to Boat Encampment 27 Map 3. Jasper to Fort Vancouver 65 1 Senior Research Associate, Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary, Calgary AB T2N 1N4 Canada. 2 PREFACE The Journal The journal presented here2 is transcribed from the original manuscript written in Aemilius Simpson’s hand. It is fifty folios in length in a bound volume of ninety folios, the final forty folios being blank. Each page measures 12.8 inches by seven inches and is lined with thirty- five faint, horizontal blue-grey lines. It is reposited in the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is filed among the Fort Vancouver post journals as B.223/a/3. While Barr presented a paper on the topic of Aemilius Simpson’s survey at the meeting of the Centre for Rupert’s Land Studies at the University of Winnipeg in Vancouver, Washington, in 2000 (later published in a limited edition by that Institution), 3 the full text of Simpson’s report has not previously been published. It is written in ink, the handwriting is neat and uniform throughout, and when compared to other examples of Simpson’s penmanship (ships’ logs, correspondence), it is obvious that it was not written during the rigours of a transcontinental journey by York boat, canoe, horseback and on foot. He probably made daily notes and used them to compose the journal after his arrival at Fort Vancouver. It begins with his departure, on 14 July 1826 from York Factory at the mouth of the Hayes River on the west coast of Hudson Bay and there is a daily entry until his arrival, on 2 November 1826, at Fort Vancouver, about one hundred miles upstream from the mouth of the Columbia River and now the site of Vancouver, WA. Until his arrival at Fort Carlton on 21 August 1826 each entry is a straightforward narrative occupying part of one page. But thereafter, for the remainder of the journey the entries are arranged in columns, those on the left page being headed Week Days, Courses, Distances, Accompanying Remarks upon the Course of the River etc., and those occupying the whole width of the right page simply Daily Remarks, etc. Aemilius Simpson’s Journal of a Voyage across the Continent of North America in 1826 is an eloquent account of his journey over what would become one of the HBC’s essential transportation and communication routes. It is one of the few journals which describes the entire distance from York Factory to Fort Vancouver. Simpson diligently recorded compass directions, weather, and lengths and conditions of portages. Moreover his education had evidently included the natural sciences, in that he made numerous observations concerning geology, plants and animals he saw during the journey. His senses of awe and wonder are leit-motifs which thread their way through the journal as he describes a variety of new and interesting scenes, experiences and personal impressions which a more seasoned veteran of the fur trade might not have mentioned. As an ‘outsider’ observing the logistics of the fur trade for the first time Simpson’s comments on the trade's transport system are revealing, whether it involved the brutally arduous labour of tracking a York boat or canoe upstream, or the equally arduous work of portaging a York boat by unaided manpower. It is a narrative by a newcomer to North America and to the fur trade, written with the conversational intimacy of a friend describing his travels in a foreign land. It is a document which deserves to be better known. 2 Simpson, Journal of a voyage. 3 Barr, ‘Lieutenant Aemilius Simpson’s survey…’. 3 Fig. 1. George Simpson, 1857. Engraving from portrait by Stephen Pearce. Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba (P206, neg. N5394). Editorial practices Aemilus Simpson’s words are presented verbatim, but we have made some changes to present the text in a manner that is more convenient and less distracting for today’s reader. The following are the editorial practices followed: The first instance of a spelling error is followed by [sic], e.g. enemys [sic], but subsequent misspellings of the same word are not noted. The same principle is applied to words which are now obsolete, but were part of the written vocabulary of Simpson’s day, e.g. mosketo [sic], shewing [sic], or untill [sic]. If a word is unclear but some letters are legible and the context suggests a particular word, that word is placed in brackets followed by a question mark, e.g [laid?]. In a few instances an incorrectly spelled word is followed by the correct spelling in brackets, e.g. lys [lies]. Illegible words are replaced by [illegible]. Misspellings of personal names are noted in footnotes. For the most part Simpson’s orthographic errors and variances from modern usage are few and minor and are not obstacles to the understanding and enjoyment of his writing. Common abbreviations of compass directions, such as N, SW, NbE and SWbS have been left as originally written by Simpson. He frequently abbreviated words by writing the first few letters in regular script, followed by one or more of the terminal letters in superscript. For example he commonly used chr, thermomr, and altde for chronometer, thermometer and altitude. These superscripts have been retained. Where such a use of superscripts may have made the meaning unclear, it is followed by the complete word in brackets, e.g. Nd [northward], latde [latitude]. Simpson followed the early nineteenth-century practice of using the uppercase for the initial letter of some common words within sentences, and we have retained all such uppercase letters. However he was inconsistent in this practice, and there is no discernible pattern. Moreover the only distinction between the way he wrote some upper and lower case 4 letters, such as ‘c’, ‘d’ and ‘p’ is a slight variation in size, and his intention is often unclear, but in such cases we have made an educated guess. Some changes have been made to Simpson’s punctuation. Many of his commas have been deleted, and some dashes and periods have been changed to more appropriate commas. He was inconsistent in the use of commas to denote the possessive, so we have inserted the comma in all instances. Fig. 2. York Factory 1853. From a sketch by Chief Trader Alexander Murray. Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba (P114, neg. N5299) INTRODUCTION The man, the project and its background Aemilius Simpson was born in the village of Dingwall in the Highlands of Scotland on 27 July 1792.4 He was the son of Alexander Simpson, a parochial schoolmaster who, in 1784 had married Emilia MacIntosh, the daughter of a farmer from Invernesshire. She died giving birth to Aemilius or shortly afterwards. In 1897 Alexander married Mary Simpson5 (younger sister of the father of George Simpson6 – the future Overseas Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Aemilius was thus George Simpson’s half-cousin. Alexander and Mary had two sons, Thomas and Alexander, who were born in 1808 and 1811 respectively. Both pursued careers with the Hudson’s Bay Company and Thomas became a noted Arctic explorer. On 17 April 1806, at the age of thirteen Aemilius joined the Royal Navy as a first- class volunteer.7 His career spanned the last nine years of the Napoleonic Wars, and he served on various ships in the Channel Fleet, the West Indies, Ireland and the Mediterranean. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 2 March 1815, the year the war ended and the reduction of the naval establishment began. During his years at sea Aemilius became a competent navigator, with a sound knowledge of nautical astronomy. On 5 December 1816 he retired on 4 Raffan, Emperor of the North, p. 26. 5 Although they shared a common surname, there is no known close familial relationship between Alexander and Mary. 6 See biographical sketch, p. 99. 7 Smith, ‘Simpson, Aemilius’, p. 720. 5 half-pay and returned to Dingwall. There he formed a relationship with Margaret McLennan and a son, Horatio Nelson Simpson, was born in 1821. In that same year Aemilius’s father, Alexander, died leaving his widow with a meagre pension of £25 per annum; thereafter Aemilius lived with her. His half-brother, Alexander has described his situation as follows: Our father died in 1821. His income was too small to have allowed his laying up a store, and the only provision for his family was an annuity to our mother of twenty- five pounds in that excellent institution ‘The Schoolmasters’ Widows’ Fund’ which he secured by annual life payments.
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