204 Mackenzie’s Voyages

the Nechaco followed in 1807. Receiving instructions to
explore the ‘‘’Tacouche Tesse,” Fraser with Jules Maurice
Quesnel, nineteen voyageurs, and two Indian guides, began
the descent of the Great River, arriving at its mouth 2 July,
1808, after unspeakable difficulties. He found the position
of the outlet to be in latitude 49° north, and realised that it
was not the Columbia.

David ‘Thompson, as previously stated, had crossed the
Rockies in 1801-2—3. He was at first associated with the
Hudson’s Bay Company as astronomer, but they intimated
to him that exploring and surveying were not the services
expected of him. He accordingly in 1797 transferred his
allegiance to the North-West Company which welcomed
him with open arms. He was instructed to determine the
location of all its posts, to locate the forty-ninth parallel, to
visit the Missouri, to inquire for fossils of large animals,
and to search for archzological remains, and to enable him
to prosecute these various activities he received an order on
all the posts for what men, canoes, horses and supplies he
might require.

Leaving Rocky Mountain House 10 May, 1807,
Thompson crossed over the divide to the Columbia which
he reached 30 June. Paddling upstream to Windermere
Lake, he built Fort Kootenay and wintered there. In June
of the following year, while he was descending the Columbia
from Kootenay Lake on his return journey to Rocky
Mountain House, another North-Wester, Simon Fraser, on
the fourteenth of the same month, had reached the junction
of the Fraser and the Thompson in his perilous descent
to the sea, so that the two were separated by about two
hundred miles, both engaged in exploring new territory.
Fraser heard from the Indians of the presence of Thomp-
son’s party to the eastward.