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CHAPTER IV.

DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTHERN REGIONS DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Knight, Barlow, Vaughan, and Scroggs-Middleton and Moor-Moor and Smith-Hearne-Phipps-Cook and Clerke-Pickersgill-Young-Duncan-Lowenorn and

Egede-Mackenzie.

JAMES KNIGHT, GEORGE BARLOW, DAVID VAUGHAN, AND JOHN SCROGGS. 1719 to 1722.

Or the unfortunate voyage, undertaken by KNIGHT, BARLOW, and VAUGHAN, very little was ever collected, as the two ships sent out upon it were lost and the whole of their crews perished. MR. KNIGHT, with whom it originated, had been long in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, and was ultimately appointed Governor of the factory established on Nelson's River. In his communications with the native Indians he had learned, that at some distance to the northward, and on the banks of a navigable river or inlet, into which vessels might go from the bay, there was a rich mine of native copper. On the strength

of this information he came over to England to solicit the Company to fit out two vessels, and send them, under his command, to discover this rich mine; but the Company, for certain reasons which were construed unfavourably to the liberal views of the directors, refused to comply with the proposal of their Governor. Knight, however, did not give up his point. He plainly told them that they were obliged by their charter to make discoveries, as well as to extend their trade; that they were particularly required to search for a north-west passage through the straits of Anian to the South Sea; and that if they still refused to send him and Barlow on a voyage of discovery, he should lay his application before the ministers of the crown; and for this purpose he actually waited on one of the secretaries of state. When the Company perceived him thus resolutely bent on his project, and that his "troublesome zeal," as Robson calls it, "might actually bring on an enquiry into the legality of their charter,"* they thought it necessary to comply, and fitted out a ship and sloop called the Albany and the Discovery, the former commanded by CAPTAIN GEORGE BARLOW and the other by CAPTAIN DAVID VAUGHAN; Mr. Knight being however entrusted with the sole direction of the expedition. Perhaps they

* An Account of Six Years Residence in Hudson's Bay. By Joseph Robson, Appen. p. 37.

had the less scruple in sending Knight as, by Robson's account, he must have been nearly eighty years of age when he undertook this voyage; of the success of which he was so confident, that he had strong chests made, bound with iron, to hold the gold and copper which he expected to find. This was probably the single object that occupied the mind of Knight; the north-west passage and the straits of Anian were thrown out with no other view than to urge the Company, and to point out to them the necessity, to do something which might wear the appearance at least of satisfying the conditions of their charter.

Knight is accordingly, by his instructions, directed "to depart from Gravesend on the intended voyage, by God's permission, to find out the straits of Anian, in order to discover gold and other valuable commodities to the northward." As neither of these ships ever returned or were heard of, it was concluded they had been lost among the ice, or shut up in some creek or strait from which they had no means of returning; and as the Hudson's Bay Company had sent out these two vessels, they could not do otherwise than dispatch another to look for the unfortunate crews. The Whalebone was accordingly ordered to proceed on this service. The person appointed to command her was JOHN SCROGGS, of whose proceedings nothing was ever published, except a brief abstract procured by Mr. Arthur Dobbs. From this account

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we learn, that he sailed from Churchill River on the 22d June, 1722. In latitude 62° he had communication with the natives and traded with them. In 64° 56′ he came to an anchor within three leagues of the north shore, to the projecting headland of which he gave the name of Whalebone Point. Here he saw many black whales in the water, and several deer on the land. "He had two northern Indians with him who had wintered at Churchill, and told him of a rich copper mine somewhere in that country, upon the shore near the surface of the earth, and they could direct the sloop so near it as to lay her side to it, and be soon loaded with it; they had brought some pieces of copper from it to Churchill, that made it evident there was a mine thereabouts. They had sketched out the country with charcoal upon a skin of parchment before they left Churchill, and so far as they went it agreed very well."*

In latitude 64° 8', being then in the Welcome, he saw many whales, but no ice. The land from Whalebone Point fell off to the southward of west, and the men who went on shore said they perceived nothing to prevent their going farther; their soundings here were from 40 to 60 fathoms. Captain Norton, late Governor of Churchill, who was then with Scroggs, confirmed all that the latter had stated; said that the tide rose thirty

*An Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay. By Arthur Dobbs, Esq. p. 80.

feet; that being on shore at the top of a mountain he saw the land fall away to the southward of west, and nothing to prevent their going farther.

In this account there is not a syllable mentioned of any search being made for, the unfortunate crews of the two ships; not a single inquiry whether they might be living, or be destroyed by the natives, or have perished from cold and hunger. Many persons, indeed, were sanguine enough to conjecture that Knight and Barlow had discovered the north-west passage, and had proceeded through it into the South Sea to return by the way of Cape Horn; but two years having expired put an end to these delusive hopes and it was not before the year 1767 that the most unequivocal proofs were discovered of the melancholy fate of these adventurers, and of the whole of their party.

In that year, as some of the boats employed on the Company's whale fishery, near Marble Island, stood in close to the shore, they discovered a new and commodious harbour near the east end of it, at the head of which were found guns, anchors, cables, bricks, a smith's anvil, and several other articles, which, from their weight or uselessness, had not been removed from their original place by the natives. The remains of a house, and the hulls or rather bottoms of the two ships were also discovered under water; and some of their guns and the figure-head of one of the ships were sent home

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