Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 26/An Error Concerning Finlay's Journal

by Marion O'Neil

AN ERROR CONCERNING FINLAY'S JOURNAL

By Marion O'Neil

Because of certain references in Bancroft to a Journal by James Finlay many students have been led astray. Diligent search has failed to reveal the journal or even letters of James Finlay in the Bancroft Library, nor have I learned of any being elsewhere. The trouble has been caused by an error in the title of the manuscript referred to. In Bancroft's History of the Northwest Coast, II. there are three erroneous citations in the footnotes to Finlay's Journal. In each case the name Finlay's Journal has been substituted for Fraser's First Journal. They are as follows:

Page 87, note 2. "Upon the bank of the stream, says Mr. Fraser nine years after, 'we found the old Barbue in the very identical spot he was found by Mr. Finlay in the summer of 1797.' Finlay's Journal, MS., 108."

Page 97, note 12, "Parsnip River, or south Branch, on some maps is called Peace River, while Finlay River is put down as a branch, whereas the fact is the reverse. Regarding these streams Fraser says: 'This river at its confluence with the Peace River is large, and appears to contain a large quantity of water, and the Indians say it is navigable a considerable way up, and that beaver, bear, and large animals of all kind are amazing numerous.Finlay's Journal, MS., 28-30 ."

Page 103- note 20, "There was a portage of a mile and a half at most from one of the lakes beyond Trout Lake into a fine navigable river, and no rapids, that flows into the Columbia.' Finlay's Journal, MS., 114."

The above passages are all exact quotations from Fraser's First Journal. In each one the page reference is correct for that manuscript.

The Finlay referred to was James Finlay,^[1] son of the James Finlay who was one of the earliest British traders on the Saskatchewan.^[2] James, the son, was an apprentice-clerk to Gregory, McLeod and Company of Montreal, merchants in the Indian trade. In 1875 James Junior and Roderick McKenzie, an apprentice-clerk in the same firm, journeyed westward to begin their adventures in the Indian country.^[3] In October, 1792, young Finlay was in charge of the most westerly of the forts on Peace River. Alexander Mackenzie stopped at this fort three days^[4] on his way to build his winter quarters farther up on the same river about six miles above the mouth of Smoky River, from where he would set out in the early spring on his expedition to the Pacific Ocean.^[5] In a letter dated "Forks of Peace River 10 January 1793," Mackenzie writes to his cousin Roderick who had been left in charge of Fort Chipewean, "I would take Finlay, but he is of a weak constitution."^[6]

It was in 1797 that James Finlay made an exploring trip to the region west of the Rocky Mountains. Simon Fraser and John Stuart in their journals from Rocky Mountain Portage 1805-1806, frequently refer to Finlay's River, and Fraser tells us in his journal, and again in his letter to James McDougall,^[7] that Finlay was on the Parsnip River in 1797. The extent of Finlay's travels does not appear, but the incidents referred to occurred near the source of the Parsnip River.

The Finlay River was explored to its source, Lake Thutade, in 1824 by John Finlay.^[8] L. J. Burpee in The Search for the Western Sea says that the Finlay mentioned by Mackenzie as being in charge of the fort on Peace River where he passed the three days, October 20–23, 1792, was the "John Finlay who explored the river which bears his name to its source in 1824,"^[9] but does not cite an authority for his identification of the Mr. Finlay. As the river had been called Finlay's River for about twenty-seven years, ever since James Finlay had been there in 1797, it would be interesting to know if James and John were the same Finlay, and if so, why the name was changed.

1. Bancroft, Northwest Coast, II, 87.
2. Cocking, Matthew, Journal, Royal Society of Canada, Transactions, Ser. 3, II, Sec. 2, p. 101.
3. Masson, Bourgeois, I, 7 et seq.
4. Mackenzie, Voyages, 125-127.
5. Davidson, The North West Company, 63.
6. Masson, Bourgeois, I, 7 et seq.
7. Fraser, First Journal, MS., 108; Fraser to James McDougall, Letters, MS., 13.
8. Finlay, John, A Voyage of Discovery from the Rocky Mountain Portage on the Peace River to the Sources of Finlay's Branch and North-Westward, Summer 1824. MS.
9. Burpee, The Search for the Western Sea, 445, note 1.