Volume 1

PETER PANGMAN—NEW ARRIVALS. 269
man/ and others, arrived from the Assiniboine— X. Y.
freemen, the first of the kind who ever came to Panbian
river, and as great a nuisance, according to their capacities,
as their former employers.
This quarter has hitherto been
free from men of that description, as I made it a rule never
to give a man his freedom in this country on any conditions
whatever, and I have always found the benefit of
such
procedure.
Oct. jotJi. My Assiniboine chief arrived with a young
Saulteur, Nawicquaicoubeau, who, having been long married
to an Assiniboine woman, was perfectly well acquainted
with their language. They wanted me to send
people to the hills to trade, which I would not do, giving
them many plausible reasons; they were soon satisfied and
promised to bring in their hunt themselves. After the
gates were closed, I gave them a quart of rum ; they drank
same as one Dejadon, given as wintering at Portage la Prairie 1794-95, in
opposition to William McKay of the N. W. Co., and very likely also same as
one De Jardin of the X. Y. Co., mentioned by Thompson in the Reed Lake
country, fall of 1804. No full name appears in any of these instances ;
the
surname should also be found as Dujardin.
» Bostonnais Pangman, clerk N. W. Co. in charge of Pembina post when captured
by H. B. Co., Mar. 20th, 1816. The surname is the same as that of Peter
Pangman, one of the most noted characters in the beginnings of the N. W. Co.,
whose restless energies were a large factor in shaping events. He went to Grand
Portage in the spring of 1784, as a member of the company who had a claim to
partnership.
But no provision for this having been made in the organization of
the company, he went to Montreal with Peter Pond, who was also dissatisfied, to
persuade Gregory, McLeod & Co. to form with them an opposition company.
Pangman prevailed upon the firm to support him in this enterprise, but Pond
almost immediately withdrew from it, accepted terms of the N. W. Co., and thus
rejoined his former associates. Pangman and John Ross proceeded to establish
a post for G., McL. & Co., at Grand Portage, in the spring of 1785. He
somewhat later went to Fort des Prairies, on the Saskatchewan, and while in
that far West had the honor of being the first
white man known to have reached
the Rocky mts., or in sight of them ; for, in 1790, he carved his name on a tree,
and "Pangman's tree" became a historical landmark. Both Thompson and
Henry speak of examining it, many years later. It was a pine which stood on
the Saskatchewan, about 3 m. above the Rocky Mountain house. Pangman
left the company in 1793, bought the seigneury of Mascouche, and settled
there ;
he was the father of Hon. John Pangman.