DCHP-1 Online

express † Hist.

• 1 n. a party of special messengers travelling light by foot, canoe, or dog team and entrusted with conveying messages, correspondence, and other documents between posts; also, the system of employing such messengers.

  See also: inland packet  winter express  

  • 1794  (1929)  Mr. Tomison is much disappointed that no goods are sent him by this express.
  • 1820  (1938)  I expect some trains of dogs by the return Express from St. Marys. . . .
  • 1918  There was a regular system of expresses to carry correspondence, reports, and news to and from the different posts in the Northwest. Masson states that there were two expresses annually. The winter express left the farthest posts in the north about the end of November, passed through the whole country on sledges and snow-shoes and reached Sault St. Marie in March. The summer express hurried down to the place of rendezvous with the results of the winter's trade, apparently in advance of the canoes with the furs.
  • 1949  But in the golden years, Simpson's "express" was regarded as a speed-up of revolutionary proportions typical of the efficient trader who inaugurated it.
  • 1962  (1964)  In 1832 the southern express went via Fort Pelly and Norway house.

• 2 † n. a runner, especially an Indian runner.

  • 1806 [1893]  (1904-1905)  To day the Indians dispatched an express over the mountains to the travellers rest.
  • 1896  Once past here, the most rapid means of communication is the "express," as the Indian runner is called.
  • 1921  In the meantime, an express had been despatched to Prince Albert to summon a doctor; but the old Indian women could not bear to wait so long for the coming of relief, so filing a big knife into a fine-toothed saw, they cut away the bruised flesh and sawed off the broken bones.
  • 1957  Colin had then seized the pedlar express and found, in writing, absolute proof of a plot to wipe out the entire colony. . . .