North West Company People: David Thompson, Alexander MacKenzie, John Johnston, Simon Fraser, Thomas McKay, John Rowand, James McMillan

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 26. Chapters: David Thompson, Alexander Mackenzie, John Johnston, Simon Fraser, Thomas McKay, John Rowand, James McMillan, Simon McTavish, Peter Fidler, Peter Skene Ogden, Michel Laframboise, Alexander Ross, Donald McLean, Naukane, Jaco Finlay, Peter Pond, Alexander MacKay, Donald Mackenzie, Pierre Belleque, Daniel Williams Harmon, William McGillivray, Angus Bethune, Francois Payette, Nicholas Montour, Laurent Leroux, Joseph Frobisher, Benjamin Joseph Frobisher, Duncan McGillivray, John McGillivray, Benjamin Frobisher, George McBeath, Alexander Henry. Excerpt: David Thompson (April 30, 1770 - February 10, 1857) was an English-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, known to some native peoples as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer." Over his career he mapped over 3.9 million square kilometers of North America and for this has been described as the "greatest land geographer who ever lived." Thompson was born in Westminster to recent Welsh migrants, David and Ann Thompson. When Thompson was two, his father died and the financial hardship of this occurrence resulted in his and his brother's placement in the Grey Coat Hospital, a school for the disadvantaged of Westminster. He eventually graduated to the Grey Coat mathematical school and was introduced to basic navigation skills which would form the basis of his future career. In 1784, at the age of 14, he entered a seven-year apprenticeship with the Hudson's Bay Company. He set sail on May 28 of that year, and left England forever. He arrived in Churchill (now in Manitoba) and was put to work copying the personal papers of the governor of Fort Churchill, Samuel Hearne. The next year he was transferred to nearby York Factory, and over the next few years spent time as a clerk at Cumberland House and South Branch House before arriving at Manchester House in 1787. On December 23, 17...