Gabriel Franchère was a French Canadian

French Canadian

French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...

 author and explorer of the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

.

Franchère was a native of Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 and joined the Astor Expedition

Astor Expedition

The Astor Expedition of 1810-1812 was the next overland expedition from St. Louis, Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River after the Corps of Discovery, led by Lewis and Clark.-History:...

 as merchant's apprentice, arriving at Fort Astoria

Fort Astoria

Fort Astoria was the Pacific Fur Company's primary fur trading post in the Northwest, and was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. After a short two-year term of US ownership, the British owned and operated it for 33 years. It was the first British port on the Pacific coast...

 on the Tonquin

Tonquin

The Tonquin was an American merchant ship involved with the Maritime Fur Trade of the early 19th Century. The ship was used by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company to establish fur trading outposts on the Northwest Coast of North America, including Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River...

. After Astoria was sold to the North West Company

North West Company

The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...

, Franchère returned to Montreal overland in 1814. He was employed for a time by John Jacob Astor

John Jacob Astor

John Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob Astor, was a German-American business magnate and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States...

 in Montreal. He wrote Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, which was published in 1851. Originally written in French, the untranslated version was one of Washington Irving

Washington Irving

Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...

's sources for his book Astoria.

External links

• Gabriel Franchère from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography
  Dictionary of Canadian Biography
  The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is a dictionary of biographical entries for individuals who have contributed to the history of Canada. The DCB, which was initiated in 1959, is a collaboration between the University of Toronto and Université Laval...
  
  
• The Quebec History Encyclopedia: Gabriel Franchère from Marianopolis College
  Marianopolis College
  Marianopolis College is a private, subsidized CEGEP in Montreal nestled against the side of Mount Royal in Westmount, Quebec, Canada. It is one of the smallest anglophone colleges, with a student body of fewer than 2,000...
  
  
  • Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or the First American Settlement on the Pacific