Welsh Journals

does it? James, after all, was trying to get to Asia and the Pacific via a North- West Passage, when he had the misfortune to find the southern shore of Hudson's Bay, which he named New South Wales in 1631. Probably James would have seen the irony of his hometown accepting even celebrating in print his desire to reach the Pacific on his journey, not the barren Canadian reality he actually found, a barrier that put paid to any real western commercial route to China! This example can probably be repeated in the histories of many other forgotten or misunderstood figures of Welsh origin in the early history of Canada, for there are few comprehensive sources of information on the Wales- Canada connection.5 Hence it is the objective of this study to add to the literature in this field by illustrating the contribution of one of these apparently forgotten Welsh figures to Canada, the Rev. Mr. David Thomas Jones, who spent fifteen years (1823-38) on missionary work at the Red River settlement in what is now Manitoba. There are tantalizing, but only brief references to Jones in standard histories of the Church Missionary Society,6 Manitoba,7 and even the Hudson Bay Company itself. But relatively little has been published on the details of Jones's career or character, except for a short 800 word article in the latest Dictionary of Canadian Biography,9 and in Foster's10 longer review of the Anglican Red River missionaries in the early days up to 1826. This essay attempts to provide a more comprehensive introduction to Jones' pioneering work in Canada, but must begin by setting the social context of his religious and educational labours. 2. The Red River Milieu In the early 1820s the Red River area was the only area of significant settlement in the Canadian North West, with approximately seven hundred people scattered along the riverine area below and above the Red-Assiniboine river junction. In social terms the area can only be described as a potentially explosive crucible that had just survived virtual warfare between rival fur trade companies. The historic Hudson's Bay Company (H.B.C.), constituted in 1670, had used the northern sea and bay route into the interior since its beginning. From the mid 1700s its monopoly was challenged by a series of companies, the Nor'Westers, dominated by French-Canadian and then Scottish voyagers travelling through the river systems back to Montreal.11 The 1821 reconstitution of the H.B.C., involving the absorption of its Montreal rivals, led to many changes. Among them was the much delayed recognition of the social respon- sibility of the company. In part this was linked to concerns about the spiritual welfare of its senior local employees and the education of their mixed blood