Gabriel Franchère was a young fur-trader, merchant, and author; born on 3 Nov. 1786 in Montreal, the son of Gabriel Franchère, merchant, and Félicité Morin (Miron, Marin). He died 12 April 1863 in St Paul, Minn. Gabriel Franchère’s ancestor, a ship’s surgeon, came to Quebec from France in the middle of the 18th century. His father became master of the port of Montreal. Gabriel probably had some formal education, but nothing is known of his life prior to the spring of 1810.
Then, hoping to advance himself in a proposed enterprise (Pacific Fur Company) of John Jacob Astor on the Columbia River, he signed on as clerk, one of a number of clerks and voyageurs recruited in Montreal. They left from Montréal to New York City (NYC). As a member of the Duncan McDougall party, they set sail from NYC in 1810 on an adventure that determined the course of his life. It was a difficult voyage around South America’s Cape Horn to the Columbia River under the disturbing guidance of Captain Jonathan Thorn of the Tonquin. Franchère demonstrated his ability and common sense in the daily struggles at the Fort Astoria outpost that they built, observed the competition between the Astor’s company and the North West Company in Astoria.
Gabriel finally returned to Canada with some of the survivors of the Astor enterprise in a party of Nor’Westers in 1814. This trip up and over the Rockies and down the Athabasca and up the La Biche River was common in these days but not well documented. But his work for the expedition was less significant than his valuable narrative of its progress, the only chronicle by one whose entire service was passed at Fort Astoria.
Here we have excerpted Chapter 25 of his Diary to show the journey from Lac La Biche down the Beaver River to the Moose River, up todays Thin River to Bang's Lake to Kehewin Lake to Spring Park Lake [or Moosehills Lake], up the hill and across the Sand Plain to Fort George and Buckingham House (which were closed in 1800) and down the North Saskatchewan River to Fort Vermilion (at Lea Park).
This map shows the relative location of early forts:
Here is the text of this chapter Franchere's diary with [my remarks in square brackets]:
CHAPTER XXV.
Red Deer Lake. — Antoine Dejarlais. — Beaver River. — N. Nadeau. — Moose River. — Bridge Lake. — Saskatchawine River. — Fort Vermilion. — Mr. Hallet. — Trading-Houses. — Beautiful Country. — Reflections.
THE 5th of June brought us to the beautiful sheet of water called Red Deer lake [Lac La Biche], irregular in shape, dotted with islands, and about forty miles in length by thirty in its greatest width. We met, about the middle of it, a small canoe conducted by two young women. They were searching for gulls' and ducks' eggs on the islands, this being the season of laying for those aquatics. They told us that their father was not far distant from the place where we met them. In fact, we presently saw him appear in a canoe with his two boys, rounding a little isle. We joined him, and learned that his name was Antoine Dejarlais; that he had been a guide in the service of the Northwest Company, but had left them since 1805. On being made acquainted with our need of provisions, he offered us a great quantity of eggs, and made one of our men embark with his two daughters in their little canoe, to seek some more substantial supplies at his cabin, on the other side of the lake. He himself accompanied us as far as a portage of about twenty-five yards formed at the outlet of the lake by a Beaver dam. Having performed the portage, and passed a small pond or marsh, we encamped to await the return of our man. He arrived the next morning, with Dejarlais, bringing us about fifty pounds of dried venison and from ten to twelve pounds of tallow. We invited our host to breakfast with us: it was the least we could do after the good offices he had rendered us. This man was married to an Indian woman, and lived with his family, on the produce of his chase ; he appeared quite contented with his lot. Nobody at least disputed with him the sovereignty of Red Deer Lake, of which he had, as it were, taken possession. He begged me to read for him two letters which he had had in his possession for two years, and of which he did not yet know the contents. They were from one of his sisters, and dated at Verchcres, in Canada. I even thought that I recognised the handwriting of Mr. L. G. Labadie, teacher of that parish. At last, having testified to this good man, in suitable terms, our gratitude for the services he had rendered us, we quitted him and prosecuted our journey.
After making two portages, we arrived on the banks of Beaver River, which was here but a rivulet. It is by this route that the canoes ordinarily pass to reach Little Slave lake and the Athabasca country, from the head of Lake Superior, via Cumberland House , on English River [North Saskatchewan River]. We were obliged by the shallowness of the stream, to drag along our canoes, walking on a bottom or beach of sand, where we began to feel the importunity of the mosquitoes. One of the hunters scoured the woods for game but without success. By-and-by we passed a small canoe turned bottom up and covered with a blanket. Soon after we came to a cabin or lodge, where we found an old Canadian hunter named Nadeau. He was reduced to the last stage of weakness, having had nothing to eat for two days. Nevertheless, a young man who was married to one of his daughters, came in shortly after, with the good news that he had just killed a buffalo ; a circumstance - which determined us to encamp there for the night. We sent some of our men to get in the meat. Nadeau gave us half of it, and told us that we should find, thirty miles lower down, at the foot of a pine tree, a cache, where he had deposited ten swan-skins, and some of martin, with a net, which he prayed us to take to the next trading-post. "We quitted this good fellow the next morning, and pursued our way. Arriving at the place indicated, we found the cache, and took the net, leaving the other articles. A short distance further, we came to Moose River, which we had to ascend, in order to reach the lake of that name. The water in this river was so low that we were obliged entirely to unload the canoes, and to lash poles across them, as we had done before, that the men might carry them on their shoulders over the places where they could not be floated. Having distributed the baggage to the remainder of the hands, we pursued our way through the woods, under the guidance of Mr. Decoigne.
This gentleman, who had not passed here for nineteen years, soon lost his way, and we got separated into small parties, in the course of the afternoon, some going one way, and some another, in search of Moose Lake. But as we had out stripped the men who carried the baggage and the small stock of provision that old Nadeau had given us, Mr. Wallace and I thought it prudent to retrace our steps and keep with the rear-guard. We soon met Mr. Fillet and one of the hunters. The latter, ferreting the woods on both sides of a trail that he had discovered, soon gave a whoop, to signify that we should stop. Presently emerging from the underwood, he showed us a horse whip which he had found, and from which and from other unmistakeable signs, he was confident the trail would lead either to the lake or a navigable part of the river. The men with the baggage then coming up, we entered the thicket single file, and were conducted by this path, in a very short time, to the river, on the banks of which were visible the traces of an old camping ground. The night was coming on; and soon after, the canoes arrived, to our great satisfaction; for we had begun to fear that they had already passed. The splashing of their paddles was a welcome sound, and we who had been wise enough to keep behind, all encamped together.
Very early on the 8th, I set out accompanied by one of the hunters, in quest of Messrs. D. Stuart, Clarke and Decoigne, who had gone on ahead, the night previous. I soon found MM. Clarke and M'Gillis encamped on the shore of the lake. The canoes presently arrived and we embarked ; MM. Stuart and Decoigne rejoined us shortly after, and informed us that they had bivouacked on the shore of Lac Puant, or Stinking lake, a pond situated about twelve miles E. N. E. from the lake [Bangs Lake] we were now entering.
Finding ourselves thus reunited, we traversed the latter, which is about eighteen miles in circuit, and has very pretty shores. We encamped, very early, on an island, in order to use old Nadeau's fishing net. I visited it that evening and brought back three carp and two water-hens. We left it set all night, and the next morning found in it twenty white-fish. Leaving camp at an early hour, we gained the entrance of a small stream that descends between some hills of moderate elevation, and there stopped to breakfast. I found the white-fish more delicious in flavor, even than the salmon. We had again to foot it, following the bank of this little stream. It was a painful task, as we were obliged to open a path through thick underbrush, in the midst of a rain that lasted all day and kept us drenched. Two men being left in each canoe, conveyed them up the river about thirty miles, as far as Long Lake [Kehewin Lake]— a narrow pond, on the margin of which we spent the night.
On the 10th, we got through this lakelet, and entered another small stream, which it was necessary to navigate in the same manner as the preceding, and which conducted us to Bridge Lake [Moosehills Lake]. The latter received its name from a sort of bridge or causeway, formed at its southern extremity, and which is nothing more than a huge beaver dam. We found here a lodge, where were a young man and two women, who had charge of some horses appertaining to one of the Hudson's Bay trading houses. We borrowed of them half a dozen pack horses and crossed the bridge with them. After surmounting a considerable hill, we reached an open, level, and dry prairie [sand plain], which conducted us in about two hours to an ancient trading-post [Fort George/ Buckingham House] on the banks of the Saskatchawine. Knowing that we were near a factory, we made our toilets as well as we could, before arriving. Toward sundown, we reached Fort Vermilion [Lea Park], which is situated on the bank of a river, at the foot of a superb hill.
We found at this post some ninety persons, men, women, and children; these people depend for subsistence on the chase, and fishing with hooks and lines, which is very precarious. Mr. Hallet, the clerk in charge, was absent, and wo were dismayed to hear that there were no provisions on the place: a very disagreeable piece of news for people famished as we were. We had been led to suppose that if we could only reach the plains of the Saskatchawine, we should be in the land of plenty. Mr. Hallet, however, was not long in arriving: he had two quarters of buffalo meat brought out, which had been laid in ice, and prepared us supper. Mr. Hallet was a polite sociable man, loving his ease passably well, and desirous of living in these wild countries, as people do in civilized lands. Having testified to him our surprise at seeing in one of the buildings a large cariole, like those of Canada, he informed us that having horses, he had had this carriage made in order to enjoy a sleighride ; but that the workmen having forgot to take the measure of the doors of the building before constructing it, it was found when finished, much too large for them, and could never be got out of the room where it was ; and it was like to remain there a long time, as he was not disposed to demolish the house for the pleasure of using the cariole.
By the side of the factory of the Northwest Company, is another belonging to the Company of Hudson's Bay. In general, these trading houses are constructed thus, one close to the other, and surrounded with a common palisade, with a door of communication in the interior for mutual succor, in case of attack on the part of the Indians. The latter, in this region, particularly the Black-feet, Gros-Ventres and those of the Yellow river, are very ferocious : they live by the chase, but bring few furs to the traders ; and the latter maintain these posts principally to procure themselves provisions.
On the 11th, after breakfasting at Fort Vermilion, we resumed our journey, with six or seven pounds of tallow for our whole stock of food. This slender supply brought us through to the evening of the third day, when we had for supper two ounces of tallow each.
On the 14th, in the morning, we killed a wild goose, and toward midday, collected some flagroot and 'choux-gms, a wild herb, which we boiled with the small game: we did not forget to throw into the pot the little tallow we had left, and made a delicious repast. Toward the decline of day, we had the good luck to kill a buffalo.
On the 15th, MM. Clarke and Decoigne having landed during our course, to hunt, returned presently with the agreeable intelligence that they had killed three buffaloes. We immediately encamped, and sent the greater part of the men to cut up the meat and jerk it. This operation lasted till the next evening, and we set forward again in the canoes on the 17th, with about six hundred pounds of meat half cured. The same evening we perceived from our camp several herds of buffaloes, but did not give chase, thinking we had enough meat to take us to the next post.
The river Saskatchawine flows over a bed composed of sand and marl, which contributes not a little to diminish the purity and transparency of its waters, which, like those of the Missouri, are turbid and whitish. Except for that it is one of the prettiest rivers in the world. The banks are perfectly charming, and offer in many places a scene the fairest, the most smiling, and the best diversified that can be seen or imagined : hills in varied forms, crowned with superb groves ; valleys agreeably embrowned, at evening and morning, by the prolonged shadow of the hills, and of the woods which adorn them ; herds of light-limbed antelopes, and heavy colossal buffalo — the former bounding along the slopes of the hills, the latter trampling under their heavy feet the verdure of the plains ; all these champaign beauties reflected and doubled as it were, by the waters of the river ; the melodious and varied song of a thousand birds, perched on the tree-tops ; the refreshing breath of the zephyrs ; the serenity of the sky ; the purity and salubrity of the air ; all, in a word, pours contentment and joy into the soul of the enchanted spectator. It is above all in the morning, when the sun is rising, and in the evening when he is setting, that the spectacle is really ravishing. I could not detach my regards from that superb picture, till the nascent obscurity had obliterated its perfection. Then, to the sweet pleasure that I had tasted, succeeded a triste, not to say, a sombre, melancholy. How comes it to pass, I said to myself, that so beautiful a country is not inhabited by human creatures? The songs, the hymns, the prayers, of the laborer and the artisan, shall they never be heard in these fine plains? Wherefore, while in Europe, and above all in England, so many thousands of men do not possess as their own an inch of ground, and cultivate the soil of their country for proprietors who scarcely leave them whereon to support existence; — wherefore — do so many millions of acres of apparently fat and fertile land, remain uncultivated and absolutely useless? Or, at least, why do they support only herds of wild animals? Will men always love better to vegetate all their lives on an ungrateful soil, than to seek afar fertile regions, in order to pass in peace and plenty, at least the last portion of their days ? But I deceive myself; it is not so easy as one thinks, for the poor man to better his condition : he has not the means of transporting himself to distant countries, or he has not those of acquiring a property there ; for these untilled lands, deserted, abandoned, do not appertain to whoever wishes to establish himself upon them and reduce them to culture ; they have owners, and from these must be purchased the right of rendering them productive! Besides one ought not to give way to illusions: these countries, at times so delightful, do not enjoy a perpetual spring; they have their winter, and a rigorous one; a piercing cold is then spread through the atmosphere; deep snows cover the surface; the frozen rivers flow only for the fish; the trees are stripped of their leaves and hung with icicles; the verdure of the plains has disappeared; the hills and valleys offer but a uniform whiteness; Nature has lost all her beauty; and man has enough to do, - to shelter himself from the injuries of the inclement season.
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