It is as a diarist that Peter Garrioch (1811-1888), teacher, free trader, trail-blazer, contrarian, smuggler, farmer, community leader, has taken his place in the history of Rupert's Land and Western Canada. From 1837 to 1847, Peter kept a sporadic personal journal, setting down in a distinctive voice both his own activities and the events big and small of the frontier life he observed around him as he developed into a leader of the Metis opposition to the Hudson's Bay Company's trading practices. Based on the unpublished typescript and notes of the diarist's nephew, George Henry Gunn (1865 – 1945), the editors have added explanatory notes, appendices, and historical context to their publication of Peter's vivid diary account.