James Finlay who was one of the earliest British traders on the Saskatchewan.[1] 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.[2] 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[3] 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.[4] 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."[5]
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,[6] 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.[7] L. J. Burpee in The
- ↑ Cocking, Matthew, Journal, Royal Society of Canada, Transactions, Ser. 3, II, Sec. 2, p. 101.
- ↑ Masson, Bourgeois, I, 7 et seq.
- ↑ Mackenzie, Voyages, 125-127.
- ↑ Davidson, The North West Company, 63.
- ↑ Masson, Bourgeois, I, 7 et seq.
- ↑ Fraser, First Journal, MS., 108; Fraser to James McDougall, Letters, MS., 13.
- ↑ 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.
