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his 1855 map shows Canada at the height of
the fur trade. Confederation had not occurred; the Hudson's Bay Company
administered most of the western interior; Russia held Alaska. By this date
the great canoes were still in service, but large boats had replaced them
on the main water routes.
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![](/web/20061029112436im_/http://www.warmuseum.ca/hist/canoe/images/1ph12.gif)
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J. H. Colton & Co.
Northern America, 1855
National Archives of Canada (NMC 7037)
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Sir George Simpson (1786-1860)
Hudson's Bay Company Archives (Photograph Collection 1987/363-S -25/5
[N1987/335/A2])
Provincial Archives of Manitoba
impson, the Hudson's Bay Company Governor-in-Chief
from 1821 to 1860, had his own narrow beam, eight-metre "Express Canoe" that
carried him across Canada many times. With flag flying, an elite crew
of Iroquois voyageurs, and a personal Scottish piper, Simpson's
arrival at any outpost was a very special event.
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Lady Frances Simpson (1812-1853)
Hudson's Bay Company Archives (Photograph Collection Album 10/82
[N6459])
Provincial Archives of Manitoba
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nly nineteen and newly married
to the Hudson's Bay Governor Sir George Simpson in 1830, Frances
Simpson and a companion, Catherine Turner, were the first British
women ever to travel by canoe from Lachine (Quebec) to York
Factory (Manitoba) on Hudson's Bay.
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![](/web/20061029112436im_/http://www.warmuseum.ca/hist/canoe/images/1ph14.gif)
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The Journeys of Sir George Simpson, 1820-60
Hudson's Bay Company Archives, The Beaver, June 1936, p. 33
(N13713)
Provincial Archives of Manitoba (and The Beaver, Canada's
National History Society)
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lmost all of the travels depicted here were
made in birchbark canoes.
As Simpson once wrote, "It is strange that all my ailments vanish as
soon as I seat myself in a canoe. "* Nicknamed the "Little Emperor,"
he was renowned for his energy, determination, toughness, and
business ability.
* Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, p. 817.
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