Our Canadian Girl

Priscilla Galloway

Why did you decide to write about the journey overland to Cariboo?

It's a story I've wanted to tell for more than twenty-five years. My aunt Brownie Peebles used to tell me stories about my great-aunt Margaret McNaughton, who was married to one of the men who made that journey. Aunt Margaret wrote a book about it. Her book was published more than one hundred years ago.

What kind of research did you do to find out about the world Lisa lived in?

Family stories and my great-aunt's book gave me a start, as well as other books I own. I used books from libraries, especially the Robarts Library at the University of Toronto. I also did some genealogical research for dates of births, marriages and deaths. I use the Internet for many kinds of research, including this book. My first husband was a geological engineer, and he worked in mines in Northern Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba. I learned a lot about mining then, and I go back to mining country to visit now and then. I've panned for gold in New Zealand and Alaska. My great-grandfather was skipper of a paddlewheel steamer on the Fraser River, and I have some information about that ship, the K. de K., in family papers.

As you can see, I use my own experience and things that I know, and build on that base. When you are a writer, everything in your life can be useful in some way at some time. As we say, "It's all grist to the mill."

What do you think was most different about life in that time?

Obedience and conformity were prized virtues in women and young people in that time, where now independence and lateral thinking are far more acceptable, and may be both prized and rewarded. My grandmother wrote in my autograph book a stanza from a poem that begins, "Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever." I was not a wicked child, but being clever to me was far more important than being good. As far as I was concerned, anybody could be (and should be) good; but most children were not nearly as clever as I was. With an attitude like that (even though I didn't put it in words), no wonder I wasn't popular! Oh dear! Lisa was a bit like me, wasn't she? She liked to think things out for herself. She had more room to do so than most other children of her time, mainly because of the unusual circumstances of her journey.

Do you think that Lisa would be a very different person if she were alive today?

Lisa would still be independent and gutsy. Her character would be the same, but her life would be very different, and this would make her a different person. If she lived in Canada, she would not have to grow up as fast as she did in her own time and place. My grandchildren have lived very protected lives compared to Lisa. This is not true of all children today, of course. In some parts of the world, her life today might not be very different from her life in the 1860s.

Would you want to go back and live in that time yourself?

No. Much as other times fascinate me, I'd have to be a very different person from the person I am, in order to live and function in any other time than my own. I like hot water that comes out of a tap, fridges and stoves and flush toilets. Email keeps me in touch with friends around the world. If I'm without computer access for more than a day or two, my fingers feel itchy. Pen and paper are wonderful, but they aren't a substitute. I love books and libraries, but few people had access to great libraries in Lisa's time, and none in her part of the world. I have driven across Canada more than once, and a car is preferable to an ox and cart. From Winnipeg to Vancouver is an easy three or four day drive; Lisa's family spent five gruelling months on the trail. I've lived that trip in writing the book; that's close enough.

When people look back to past times, they sometimes look only at the problems of our times, and think that life was simpler in the past, and more predictable. Maybe so, but if I had lived in those times, it probably would not have seemed simple or predictable to me. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a great American scholar, wrote something along these lines: Any age is a good one in which to live, if we but know what to do with it. I copied the passage into my Commonplace Book more than fifty years ago; it still makes excellent sense to me.