Explorers seeking a commercial route to the Pacific Ocean often were affiliated with the major fur trading companies. In the early-1800s, Thompson, formerly an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company and later a partner in the North West Company, followed the Columbia River and succeeded in connecting the North West Company trade route from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. As this excerpt from Thompson's 1801 report reveals, his explorations were not conducted without the assistance of the Aboriginal inhabitants.