The Kelsey Papers

John Kendle is a history professor at St. John’s College, University
of Manitoba.

This reprint of the 1929 edition of The Kelsey Papers is introduced by
John Warkentin of York University. The original 1929 edition was edited
and introduced by Arthur Doughty and Chester Martin. Their careful
reconstruction of Kelsey’s life and travels, and their analysis of the
dispute surrounding the veracity of the Kelsey material, is intact and
as suggestive today as it was 60 years ago.

In his lucid introduction, Warkentin succinctly provides the reader
with a sense of the young Kelsey and of the country into which he
journeyed in 1689 and the early 1690s, and clearly outlines what is
known of the rest of Kelsey’s life with the Hudson’s Bay Company. He
also describes and analyzes each of the 11 pieces of documentary
material that make up The Kelsey Papers, and uses modern scholarship to
establish a context into which he fits the arguments and speculations of
Doughty and Martin.

Henry Kelsey was a remarkable man, serving 38 years (1684-1722) in the
service of the Hudson’s Bay Company at a time when Great Britain and
France were struggling for dominance in North America generally and in
the Bay particularly. This book captures those tumultuous times and is
an invaluable source for those studying contact between Native peoples
and newcomers. The CPRC is to be congratulated for making this material
available.