Henry kelsey biography

KELSEY, HENRY (CA. 1667-1724)

C. W. Jefferys. Kelsey Sees the Buffalo, August 1691. 1928 calender illustration

Famous as the first Englishman to have seen the buffalo, in 1684 the London-born Kelsey was apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company and sailed to York Factory, its fur trade post on the west coast of Hudson Bay.

The Hudson's Bay Company's strategy was to build posts at the mouths of rivers flowing into the bay and there await the Indians who came down the rivers from the interior.

When did henry kelsey die

To encourage such a trade, the company required employees who were skilled in Indian languages and willing to travel inland. As these proved hard to find, company directors were happy to learn that "the boy Henry Kelsey [was] a very active lad delighting much in Indians' company, being never better pleased than when he is traveling amongst them."

On June 12, 1690, Kelsey set forth from York Factory with a group of Indians who had come to the post to trade.

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