Fort Simpson (Apr 25/03) - As she walks along the Mackenzie River, researcher Susan Ellenton tries to envision the world that appeared before Selina Bompas more than 100 years earlier.

"I think, what was it like to watch for the boats and listen for the (sled) dogs?" said Ellenton. "I've been imagining being here for a long time. It's quite a trip."

Ellenton, who resides in Victoria, B.C., came to Fort Simpson on April 18 to do a week of research. She is writing a biography of Bompas, an Anglican missionary and wife of Bishop William Bompas.

The couple married in England when she was 44. In 1874, they made the four-month trip to Fort Simpson, a Hudson's Bay Company post where William had been stationed previously. While the bishop travelled extensively throughout his geographically enormous diocese, Bompas maintained the mission, taught English and led choirs.

Bompas, who referred to herself as Nina, was also a rather prolific writer. She kept journals and penned columns for missionary society magazines. As well, she wrote a short book entitled Owindia, about an aboriginal girl she adopted.

Ellenton noted that Bompas's compositions bring a female perspective to early contact with the Dene. Her writings also indicate that she felt that Indians had been driven from their own lands and were suffering from alcohol introduced by western society.

"In the context of her life she was considered very progressive," Ellenton said.

Sympathetic yet controversial Yet the researcher acknowledges that Bompas's intentions are controversial in contemporary society. She was trying to indoctrinate aboriginal people into Anglican spirituality, which was much different than their own.

"She sees religion as comfort and she sees a lot of discomfort in the lives of aboriginal people," Ellenton explained, referring to ailments such as influenza, scarlet fever and measles, which ravaged the aboriginal population.

To date, Ellenton's research has drawn on material from nine archives in Canada and some in England. As of Monday, she had found one Fort Simpson resident who recalled hearing that the rhubarb growing around her home was planted by Bompas.

Sadly, anecdotes of a more personal nature may no longer be within reach.

"I'll probably never know how she was perceived by the families that she came here to help," said a resigned Ellenton.

Then she recalled that another author had reported seeing unpublished letters from William to Bompas in Fort Simpson in the 1970s. Ellenton would love to get a hold of those letters. She said she was going to sift through material in the basement of St. David's Church on Tuesday.

"You never know," she said.