Mallory Novicoff has written an essay about Frances Simpson’s journey with the Hudson’s Bay Company, which you can read here.
Frances Simpson’s diary provides a detailed account of her journey with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), highlighting interactions with Indigenous peoples and reflecting on social dynamics in the Canadian West during the early 19th century. On May 2nd, her party received a warm welcome at the Lake of the Two Mountains by chiefs of the Iroquois, Algonquin, and Nepisang tribes. Simpson’s observations often included descriptions of the people’s appearance and dress. Her interactions with Indigenous and Métis women were strained. The arrival of British women like Simpson disrupted the customs of the fur trade, and caused an increase in the rarity of marriages to country wives. Simpson’s account of her journey, which concluded at the Red River settlement, is marked by both the hardships of travel and the kindness of HBC men. Despite the physical comforts of her new home, she experienced loneliness and homesickness. The isolation described in Simpson’s diary shows how the arrival of British women in the Canadian West underscored increasing class and racial distinctions.
Hidden Hands in Colonial Natural Histories 