Where did henry kelsey explore

Henry Kelsey ca. He was the first European to visit the interior of western Canada and to winter on the prairies. Henry Kelsey was apprenticed in to the Hudson's Bay Company for a term of 4 years. He would eventually serve the company for almost 40 years, spending all but 3 in the environs of the bay. Unlike most of the servants of the company, Kelsey showed no hesitation in striking inland from the shores of the bay.

This venturesome spirit was noted by the committee in London, which directed the resident governor "that the boy, Henry Kelsey bee sent to Churchill River because Wee are informed hee is a very active lad Delighting much in Indian Company being never better pleased than when he is travelling among them.

What did henry kelsey accomplish

His journal described the immense grasslands of the interior, the awesome spectacle of the vast buffalo herds, and an exciting vignette of his encounter with a grizzly bear. Kelsey also developed a rare talent for understanding Indian dialects. In Kelsey was captured by D'Iberville, the commander of a French expeditionary force. France and England were then engaged, on opposite sides, in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Kelsey's confinement was not arduous, but he was relieved in the summer of , when the Royal Navy appeared in the bay and Ft. York was retaken. For the next 20 years he was a mariner in the employ of the company. Kelsey was named deputy governor in the bay in and was present to receive the surrender of Ft. York from the French who had again captured it.

In he succeeded to the resident governorship, a post which he held for 4 years. He went back to England in and died there 2 years later while awaiting the captaincy of a ship in order to return to Hudson Bay.