Fonds contains "The journal of an English lady; or letters descriptive of the continent during the years 1829 and 1830" to which have been added water-colour illustrations by the author.
Approximately half this material consists of letters, covering the years 1823-1837, from Andrew William Cochran, 1792-1849, civil secretary to the governors of Lower Canada from 1812 onwards, and a member of the Executive Council from 1827 to 1841. The remainder comprises a number of accounts of travels and exploration by North West Company employees, probably collected by McKenzie for his history. Included are Charles McKenzie's expeditions amongst the Otoe Missouria Tribe.; Edward Umfreville's journal of a canoe trip from Lake Superior to Portage de l'Isle 1784; accounts of the Alaskan Athabaskans, 1795 and 1805, George Keith's memoirs of the McKenzie River Department, 1807-1817; and George Henry Monk's of the Department of Fond du Lac or Mississippi, 1807; John McDonnell's account of the Red River, ca 1787; and John Johnston's of Lake Superior and a letter on the Indigenous communities of the northwest from Eneas McDonnell. Also included are letters written to McKenzie from Forks on the Mackenzie River by William Ferdinand Wentzel, 1807-1824.
This appointment of Robert M. Watson as Second Lieutenant in the Brockville Artillery Company is signed by Sir George Arthur, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada.
Fonds includes The Duel, a prose short story, December 1838, 68 pages. Also included are prose pieces by Susan Corse, dated March-August 1838, and Elements of the philosophy of the human mind [approimately 1860?].
Collection consists of one bound manuscript notebook softbound in a piece of brown leather. The notebook dates chiefly from 1841 and was produced in St. Armand by Philip Luke. The notebook contains a title page that has been lettered, illustrated, and coloured by hand: A Latin Translation / by Philip Luke. St. Armand. 1841. Commenced April 4th. The text within this first portion of the notebook is Aesop's Fables in English and Latin on facing pages. The first part of the manuscript ends with "13. Horse and Ass" (Latin is incomplete) and "32. Widow and Servants" (Latin text missing). The following leaf contains two medical recipes: "A cure for a felon or whitlow," refering to an abscess or infection of the fingertip and consisting of a paste made from egg yolk, honey, turpentine spirits, camphor, and flour, and "A reciet for the inflammatory rheumatism," involving a wine-based tonic containing three types of bark, horseradish, brandy, and tar water. Following another blank leaf, a partial letter is found dated 1839. Philip Luke's text begins again in the latter part of the manuscript with a second coloured title page: "Dialogues and Declamations." There is also one loose note laid in dated 1809, a receipt for 100$.
Fonds consists primarily of correspondence between Hertel de Rouville and members of the Canadian government, including Chief Secretary of Lower Canada Sir Thomas William Clinton Murdoch (1809-1891) and Governors General Lord Gosford and Charles Bagot, regarding financial losses he incurred during the rebellions of 1837, 1838, and 1839, and half-pay claims dating from his time as captain of the Canadian Voltigeurs during the War of 1812. Also included are five envelopes with wax seals intact.