Company Fool Or God's Tool: Robert Terrill Rundle, The Hudson's Bay Company, And the Plains Indians‪.‬

"One squeeze of the trigger and I can rid us of this pest before it bites a single soul." (1) The line quoted above demonstrates how novelist Fred Stenson imagined John Rowand, chief factor at Fort Edmonton, reacted in October 1840 to the arrival of Robert Terrill Rundle, Wesleyan missionary. In his novel, The Trade, Stenson stays close to the truth and Rowand (referred to as One Pound One) does not actually attempt to exterminate Rundle. However, in a book that treats all other characters with respect, Rundle is viewed with contempt. In Stenson's story, the missionary departs from the pages of the novel as a broken man, viewed as a failure by everyone, and more importantly, a failure in his own eyes. (2)