Note 31 — Chapter XII

Many of the names of white men in the northwest and in other parts of the country, which are mentioned in this narrative, are grossly misspelt; the same principle having been followed in writing both foreign and Indian names, in all instances where the name the narrator intended to mention did not immediately recur to the recollection of the writer. Thus Codman is here written for Coltman: in other places, Maveen for Mainville; Tussenon for D’Orsonnens, etc. It is also not improbable that names may have become confounded in the mind of our hunter himself, who appears to have been more conversant with Indians than white men. Thus, in his account of the murder of a governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, of the name of M’Donald, or M’Dolland, he may possibly have used one of these names in place of that of Mr. Semple, who was one of the victims to that spirit of bloody rivalry which occasioned these troubles between the trading companies. This want of precision, particularly in the spelling of names, will not, with the candid, impair the credibility of this humble narrative.