his signature elsewhere in the company’s records and the dates in the text correspond with dated references made by other company employees and employees of the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company in their records. As Robert Shakely’s journal is itself the only record of the completion date of the document, historians are left to conjecture on the validity of its claim. Occasional statements suggest that sections of the journal consisting of more than one day were probably written during single sittings. It is definite, though, that the journal was completed at some time between 16 December 1775, when William Pond refers to his visit to Prisom Factory via Wachannabee Gorge, and 1 April 1776, when Pond returned to the central storage post by the same route, in response to requests made by the Home-Guard Cree.
Shakely’s history, prior to his joining the Royal Trade Company, is unrecorded. Company records state that Shakely was hired on 12 August 1775 as Governor of Prisom Factory (named after Lord Ashley Prisom, Principal Shareholder) to oversee twelve men, with ‘that number increasing substantially the following year if trade proves lucrative’ (Records: 1775, 36). Shakely’s journal implies that he was fairly well educated in surveying and had been trained in commerce. He also seems to have been somewhat read and was learning astronomy from Peter Post, the factory surveyor, during the autumn, before their situation became more dire.
The original of Shakely’s journal can be viewed at the Royal Trade Company Archives (Archives of the Province of Ontario, 212 Glasshall Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K2K 4A2). For an analysis of Shakely’s incorporation of astronomy into his company duties, see my article ‘Robert Shakely and Astronomic Narrativity,’ Studies in Navigational History 3.11: 54–69. The influence of subordinates on Shakely’s management is analyzed in my article ‘“The Heart of the Wachana”: Robert Shakely and Hegemonic Despondency,’ Journal of Exploration Discourse 5:IV: 12–27. A comparison of Shakely’s text to the records of William Pond is forthcoming in Journal of Exploration Discourse 7:1.
Dr. J. C. Amicable
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