Paul Kane's Journal of his Western Travels, 1846-1848 - History and ...

Paul Kane. FALLS ON THE UPPER PELOUSE RIVER. July 14,1847. Oil on paper, 8 1 /8x 131/8". Collection, Stark MuseumoJArt.
Company factor posted at Sault Sainte Marie, the
gateway to the hinterland. Not only was he impressed
with Kane's paintings, but also he was aroused by
Kane's report that Angus Bethune, a retired fur trader
from the North West Company, which had undeI"gone
a bitter merger with the Hudson's Bay Company in
1821, had discouraged Kane from hoping to obtain
any assistance whatsoever from the officials of the
Hudson's Bay Company. On October 29 J 1845, at the
end of Kane's sununer trip, Ballenden wrote to his
superior, Sir George Simpson, the inland governor of
the company, urging him to engage his services. The
governor demurred, demanding to know, in the year
when the Hudson's Bay Company was still urging the
British government to press its claim to the Oregon
Territory, whether Kane was a British subject, and
waiting while men of higher standing, such as the
British anny officer, J. H. Lefroy, sent him character
references of Kane. Another painter was not entirely
necessary: just that year, Henry James WaITe (18]9-
1898) had traveled west under the auspices of the
company. Under the guise of an English sportsman
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and landscape enthusiast with artistic ability, Lieutenant
Warre had the primary purpose of investigating
the Oregon dispute on behalf of the Britisb government.
He painted en route lS but his military espionage
went for naught: on June 16, 1846, while Warre was
still on the Pacific Coast, the Oregon Treaty was
signed, thereby yielding to the United States lands to
which, in Simpson's opinion the Hudson's Bay Company
had primary claim, that is, all of present--day
Washington and Oregon states, with the Snake River
district thrown in. This tenitorial dispute had been
occupying Simpson inordinately; matters of less moment
had to await his attention. In the end, and only
after Kane had proved to him that he could endure
travel in the wilderness with a brigade of traders,
Simpson relented. As Harper has explained:
Sir George Simpson wrote Kane' s final letter of
authorization only after reaching Rainy River in northern
Ontario on May 31, 1846. Simpson and Kane bad been
travelling west from Toronto at the same time, and Sir
George had had an opportunity to gauge the artist' fierce
detennination. Left behind at Mackinac when he missed
MacLaren! Kane