| Summary: | border between British North America and the newly formed United States as a line running through the middle of the St Lawrence River to the north west angle of the Lake of the Woods and west along the 49th parallel to the headwaters of the Mississippi. So little knowledge had the diplomats negotiating in France that they could only guess the boundary would be near the Mississippi. The boundary question was disturbing to the Nor' Westers as the terms of of Jay's Treaty in 1794 spelled doom to their supply depot at Grand Portage on the American side of the line; their western posts were also questionable. Thompson's instructions were to survey the 49th parallel of latitude and to determine the exact location of the Company posts in proximity to the boundary line. He was also told to locate the upper Missouri country where the Mandans lived and were said to practice agriculture. In August, 1797, Thompson and his party set out from Grand Portage, following the usual trade route to Lake Winnipeg, then westward along Dauphin River to Lake Manitoba, and over Lake Winnipegosis. Late in November Thompson arrived at McDonnell's trading house about a mile and a half from the junction of the Assiniboine and Souris rivers. To his superiors he wrote, "From this post a well- beaten trade track winds south and then southwest across about 200 miles of prairie to the upper waters of the Missouri River where the Mandans live." Although winter had set in and traveling on the open prairie was dangerous and difficult, Thompson was determined to continue his explorations accompanied by "our guide and interpreter.a M. Rene Jussomme, who fluently speaks the Mandan language; Mr. Hugh McCrachan, a good-hearted Irishman who has often been to the villages and resides there for weeks and months; and seven French Canadians — a fine, hardy, good- humoured set of men, fond of full feeding, willing to hunt for it, but more willing to enjoy it. (Among the Canadians was Louis Joseph Houle of the North West Company, an old man then, who had been in the vicinity for a number of years.) Thompson's journal records temperatures of 27 to 36 degrees below zero and winds so fierce that it was December 3rd before they were able to continue their journey. Fortunately, they had sled dogs to haul their tents and provisions over the high drifts that cut visibility to short distances for the next few days. The men walked single file, calling out to each other to make sure no one slipped away into the "white death". In spite of all precautions, one man was almost lost on December 10th. "a gentle south wind arose and kept increasing. By 10 a.m. it was a heavy gale, with high drifts and dark weather — so much so that I had to keep the compass in my hand. By noon it was a perfect storm.Night came on. I could no longer see the compass and had to trust to the wind. The weather became mild with small rain but the storm continued with darkness. Some of the foremost called to lie down where we were, but as it was evident we were ascending a gentle rising ground we continued, and soon, thank good Providence, my face struck against some oak saplins and I passed the word that we were in the woods. A fire was quickly made. but one man and a sled with the dogs were missing. To search for the latter was useless; but how to find the former we were at a loss and remained so for another half an hour, when we thought we heard his voice. The storm was still raging; we extended ourselves within call of each other. The most distant man heard him plainly, went to him, raised him up, and with assistance brought him to the fire, and we all thanked the Almighty for our preservation. For days afterward, the group staggered over the frozen prairie, somehow managing to track an occasional buffalo to appease their hunger. On one occasion Thompson shot a bull Indian-style. He had been warned that the trail ran through Sioux territory and on December 24th, the men threw themselves in the snow when Thompson suddenly spied mounted Indians riding in the distance through his telescope. Later it was learned that what they saw was, in truth, a Sioux war party out looking for a chance to garner some scalps. On December 30th, the weary, bedraggled party arrived at the Mandan Villages — a journey that would have taken only ten days under normal conditions had taken thirty-two. After a month with the Mandans, Thompson's men were loathe to leave the comfort of the lodges of the hospitable natives. On the return trip, dog sleds loaded with furs and corn, in weather as disagreeable as the month before and the men grumbling, twenty-four days passed before McDonnell's post was reached. This was only the beginning of extensive geographical exploration along the 49th Parallel; in the course of twenty- eight years in western North America Thompson surveyed and mapped almost two million square miles of land as hazardous as any to be found on the continent. His work was so accurate that as late as 1915, many maps used by railway companies were based on the cartographic work he performed more than a hundred years earlier. (8) Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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