First Invaders: The Literary Origins Of British Columbia

by Alan Twigg

This unprecedented volume about British Columbia's earliest authors and first explorers (prior to 1800) provides a fascinating range of characters, events and intrigues. The names Cook and Quadra ring a bell for most of us, as do Bering and Vancouver, but what about the first year-round European resident of BC, the Irish drunkard John Mackay? He voluntarily wintered at Nootka Sound in 1786 well before the more famous John Jewitt became the so-called 'white slave' of Chief Maquinna in 1803. A year later the first European woman to visit and write about British Columbia was the eighteen-year-old bride Frances Barkley. She circumnavigated the globe with her husband after making a lasting impression with her long red hair at Friendly Cove in 1787. And how much do we know about the Greek-born navigator Juan de Fuca? Or the Machiavelli of the maritime fur trade, John Meares? More than 50 pre-nineteenth-century characters are presented -- each with his or her own entry and bibliography. the west coast of Canada, provided extracts, gathered images, taken photographs and let the composite story unravel like a mini-series. First Invaders concludes with Alexander Mackenzie and his over-land trek to the Pacific in 1793, after providing ample coverage of the many lesser-known Spaniards and Americans who arrived in the wake of Captain James Cook in 1778 -- and Captain Juan Perez, the 'discoverer' of British Columbia, in 1774.

229 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

Reviews

[Warren Wulff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn’t an academic history like I thought it would be. Instead it’s a compendium of everyone who wrote and published something about BC pre-1800. Even Jonathan Swift, who set part of Gulliver’s Travels in BC but never visited. Each author (who usually were explorers too) has their entry along with the publishing history of what usually was their journal they kept during their travels. This book doesn’t explore themes or have a central thesis like a typical history, although one can draw themes out regarding European perspectives on First Nations and how different European nations either hid (Spain and France) or proclaimed (Britain) their discoveries geographic and scientific. A one of a kind book vital to keeping the dizzying array of explorers and their publications straight.