Ian Beardsell's Reviews > Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West

D'Arcy Jenish brings to life fur-trader turned mapmaker, David Thompson, with this book. Slightly different to my recent readings that focused in on the details of the explorations of the Pacific Northwest, this narrative is a well-rounded chronology of the life of this Canadian explorer of the late 18th and early 19th century.

David Thompson was born to poor parents, and when his father died at an early age, his mother gave the little boy up to the Grey Coat Hospital School in New Westminster, London in the hopes of providing a better future for him. At the age of 14, the school sent Thompson to the Hudson's Bay Company where he became an apprentice for the fur trade, and he left England for Canada in 1784, never to see his homeland or family of origin again.

Obviously life was quite difficult in those early years, but Thompson did his best, learning the rudiments of book-keeping and clerical tasks in the forts just to the west of Hudson's Bay in the great plains of what is now Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territory. In one of those twists of fate, the 16-year-old Thompson badly broke his leg, which forced him to stay in camp for more than a season. He was befriended by Philip Turnor, a lead surveyor in the company, who taught Thompson the use of a sextant, chronometer, and the mathematical computations required to determine one's location. Thompson found it enthralling to be able to read the stars and calculate accurately his location in latitude and longitude.

This became a significant turning point for Thompson, and as he recovered, he became more interested in the aspect of exploring the great territory held by the Hudson's Bay Company. In a few more years he left HBC for the upstart Northwest Trade Company, who were much more eager to explore the extremes of the frontier, since they had the philosophy of going out to find the indigenous traders to get the best furs, unlike the more timid HBC who were more apt in setting up forts in the prairies nearer their factories along the bay.

Jenish provides a fair amount of detail, based on Thompson's fairly meticulous records and diaries. Probably my biggest peeve with the book is the lack of readable maps and relating Thompson's described whereabouts with modern locations. Jack Nisbet's books on Thompson do this service, which I and many other Pacific Northwest history fans greatly appreciate, to a much better degree.

The highlight of Thompson's career is his navigation of the headwaters of the Columbia River to it's mouth at Astoria on the Oregon coast. Interestingly, he arrived there the same year that Astor's Pacific Fur Trade Co. set up shop there in 1811. The story of that venture is well told in Peter Stark's Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival. I was slightly disappointed that Jenish did not spend more time on this adventure, but I understand he was providing an overview of Thompson's life story, and perhaps did not want to over-focus on the highlight.

Jenish also takes us through the sad story of Thompson's later life, where he retires as a gentleman farmer in Eastern Ontario (Williamstown), but through some bad business deals and debts, ends up impoverished. He went back to work here and there doing survey work for the British-American Border Survey's Commission; however, by the time he was in his 60s, Thompson was definitely in dire straits.

I found it sad how the British government and fur trade big-wigs treated him in his later years, and I wonder if he had been born and bred of "better lineage" that he might have been granted the pension one would have expected a man of his unique service should have earned.

All in all, this is a well written book for a Canadian icon who truly led a remarkable life.