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

still smoking after having erupted two years before) to
the NisqualJy River, Puget Sound, Vancouver Island,
and the opposite mainland, from March 25th to June
20th. Of Kane's work during this trip, Russell Harper
has written:
Nearly a hundred sketches sUTVive from the three
months during which Kane worked on the southern tip of
Vancouver Island. along the adjoining coasts of British
Columbia and in the state of Washington. These are of the
greatest ethnological and historical interest, and some are
among his finest artistic productions. 'Their subject-maner
has no parallel in the work of any other 19th century artist
in the same region. 3l
On July 2nd, Kane made his last departure from
Fort Vancouver, heading up the Columbia for the
interior with the inland brigade. He stopped for some
time in the vicinity of Walla Walla. At this point he
spent five days with the Whitmans. He also sketched
in the Palouse River valley (a tributary of the Snake
River, in Washington) during extremely hot summer
weather before returning to Walla Walla and making his
way upriver by canoe and overland by horse (via the
~rand Coulee) to Fort Colville (today's Colville, Washmgton).
He left there on September 22nd with the last
interior brigade of the season, and arrived at Boat
Encampment on October 10th. After waiting three
weeks for the arrival of the brigade coming from the
other side of the mountains, K~e retraced the route of
November, 1846, and reached Fort Edmonton on December
5th. lbere, he enjoyed Christmas and some
repose before taking two extensive trips with Fran~is
Lucie, a Metis guide at Fort Edmonton: one of 200
miles by cariole and dog team dowruiver to Fort Pitt
(on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border) in January,
1848; and another of 180 miles by horse southwest to
Rocky Mountain House in April. Kane left Fort Edmonton
for the last time on May 25th, and on October
13, 1848, he arrived in Toronto by the route that he had
traveled in the other direction in the spring and summer
of 1846.
Paul Kane's journal is published here in its original
fonn with the pennission of its owner, the NeldaC. and
H. J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, Stark Museum of Art,
Orange, Texas. The journal itself is a leatherbound
memorandum book, with a brass clasp at the bottom, a
pencil sheath on the right-hand side, and 72 leaves. The
front and back covers are lined with green plaid paper.
The journal measures .55" thick x 3.7" wide Oeft to
right, as the lines of text are written) x 5.9" high (top to
bottom, as the text reads). 'The text appears on n9
unnumbered pages, written unless otherwise indicated,
in pencil. From twenty to thirty lines of text
appear on each page.
Square brackets in the printed text indicate additions
to Kane's own words. egible words are designated
by solid lines. With a few minor exceptions
the lengths of lines foUow exactly Kane's own. The
text dates from May 9, 1846, when Kane left Toronto,
to September 13 1848 (although there is nothing
entered for that date), when he was still northwest of
Lake Superior, a month from Toronto by canoe,
steamboat, and coach.
Kane's round-trip journey allows for the possibility
that any of the sketches was made on one of at
least two occasions. Thus the dates assigned in the
captions depend on the best available evidence:
Kane's journal, his landscape and portrait log other
contemporary sources. Harper's study, the titles of
the pictures themselves. and, where reasonable.
Wanderings of an Artisl. Because in some cases the
journal does not mention all the people and places be
painted, or simply because the journal has lacunae for
some portions of his itinerary, dates in some of the
captions must rely on these other sources. All of the
paintings done on can~as were executed following his
return. to Toronto in October, 1848, and by 1856, when
he fulfilled commitments to George W. Allan and
what was then the Parliament of Canada.
To help the reader understand Kane' s phonetic,
variant spellin~s and to identify the many characters
and places the artist encountered. two references
have been provided: a Glossary of Common Words
and a Guide to People and Places in Kane s Journal
containing detailed biographical, geographical, and
historical information.
1. The transcription and publication of Paul Kane' 5 journal which is
has
in the coUection. of the Stark Museum of M Orange T~xas ,
bee~ made posSIble through the kind permission of Nelda C. Starlc.,
Chauman, Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation who
provided convenient and mOSl hospitable access to the ~t·
Anna Jean Caffey, Registrar oCthe Stark Museum of Art ~ and ~
Bowler, also of the Stark Musewo.
2. Bison is the COlTect term, but buffalo, because Kane uses the
word exclusively, will be kept here.
3. Saulteaux is a name given to the westernmost part of the Chip--
20
pewa/Ojibwa nation from the falls of Sault Sainte Marie both
shores of Lake Superior and weU into the northern interior,' as far
west as the Turtle Mountains in what is now North Dakota and as
far north as the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg.
4. The nickname is a conundrum. Judging by the fact that Kane
speUs t.he name Francois as "Frans way ," Bushway is likely the
phonetiC fonn of a French word such as boucher or bouchee. 'There
IS no French word bouchois. TIle possibilities for translation stem
from two words: boucher and bucher. 1be latter is a verb meaning
to work or to study with fury and ardor. Perhaps the name then
MacLaren! Kane