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other's strength was so far exhausted, that he fell down and died also in attempting to dig a grave for his companion. The sculls and other large bones of those two men are now lying above ground close to the house. The longest liver was, according to the Esquimaux account, always employed in working iron into implements for them; probably he was the armourer or smith.”*

CHRISTOPHER MIDDLETON. 1741.

The circumstances mentioned by Scroggs and Barlow respecting the tides, and the whales observed in the Welcome, the copper mine from which there was so easy a communication with the sea, and the chart made by the native Indians, were considered by a gentleman of the name of Dobbs as being such decisive proofs of a passage into the Great Western Ocean, that, by dint of persuasion, solicitation, and importunity, he succeeded in prevailing on the Hudson's Bay Company to send out two small vessels, for the purpose of examining the eastern coast of the Welcome to the northward of their settlements; and these ships sailed accordingly on this service in the 1737. It does not appear that any account of their

year

*Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean. By Samuel Hearne. Introd. p. xxxi.

proceedings was ever published; but they are supposed to have reached only to about 623° of northern latitude, confirming however the former reports of Fox, Button, and Scroggs with regard to the set of the tide from the northward.

Mr. Dobbs, it seems, was by no means satisfied with the proceedings of these two vessels. Indeed he treats the Hudson's Bay Company with very little ceremony, accusing them of intentionally preventing rather than encouraging discoveries. "The Company," he says, "avoid all they can making discoveries to the northward of Churchill, or extending their trade that way, for fear they should discover a passage to the western ocean of America, and tempt by that means the rest of the English merchants to lay open their trade, which they know they have no legal right to; which, if the passage was found, would not only animate the rest of the merchants to pursue the trade through that passage, but also to find out the great advantages that might be made of the trade of the rivers and countries adjoining to the bay, by which means they would lose their beloved monopoly; but though they are fully informed of a fine copper mine, on a navigable arm of the sea north-westward of Whale Cove, and the Indians have offered to carry their sloops to it, yet their fear of discovering the passage puts bounds to their avarice and prevents their going to the mine, which by all accounts is very rich; and the

Indians, who have been often at the mine, say it is upon a navigable arm of the sea of great depth, leading to the south-west, where are great numbers of large black fish spouting water, which confirms the opinion, that all the whales seen between Whale Cove and Wager River all come there from the Western Ocean, since none are seen any where else in Hudson's Bay or Strait."*

It is rather singular that, after expressing so strong an opinion against the Company, he should have entered into a correspondence with Captain Middleton, who had for many years been in their service, and, as would appear, not disposed to go against their interests. The facts, however, which he obtained from this gentleman confirmed his former opinions, and rendered in his mind the existence of a passage into the Pacific quite conclusive. On the strength of these facts he prevailed on the Lords of the Admiralty to appropriate

By

*An Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay. Arthur Dobbs, Esq. p. 48.-There can be little doubt that the Hudson's Bay Company were for a long time exceedingly jealous of their monopoly; and that they not only discouraged all attempts at northern discovery, but withheld what little information came to their knowledge; but of late years the governors of this Company have liberally communicated whatever information may have been sent to them respecting the geography and hydrography of Hudson's sea and lands adjoining, as Mr. Arrowsmith can testify. That their servants have not been very active in collecting information is quite true; but the fault is rather to be ascribed to the individuals than to the Company.

a ship of the Navy for the purposes of discovery, and to give the command of her to CAPTAIN MIDDLETON. Accordingly the Furnace bomb and the Discovery pink were put under his orders, the latter being commanded by Mr. WILLIAM MOOR.

Middleton left England in 1741, and passed the winter in Churchill River, in latitude 58° 56′, where he unaccountably was detained till the 1st July, 1742. Leaving this river he stood along the coast to the northward, and on the 4th saw Brook Cobham, which had still much snow lying on it. On the 10th he was in latitude 63° 51', longitude 88° 34′, the Welcome being here eleven or twelve leagues in width and full of floating ice, from the upper part of which they procured fresh water for the use of the ships' companies.

Having got through the ice, he observed, to the northward of Cape Dobbs, another headland on the north-west side of the Welcome in latitude 65° 12′, longitude 86° 6′ W., beyond which was a fair opening or river six or eight miles in width, which extended within to the width of four or five leagues. Into this opening the ships proceeded to secure them from the ice, until it had dispersed in the Welcome. The entrance into this river, called the Wager, lies in latitude 65° 23′. The ice floated in and out with the flood and ebb tides, but a good anchorage was found on the northern side free from the ice in a cove which he called Savage Sound.

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On the 15th, a lieutenant with nine men well armed were sent in a boat to examine the river; they returned on the 17th, having gone as far up as the ice would permit and until they found it to extend from side to side. The ships therefore fell down the river on the 21st, when, from a high hill a few miles above the entrance, it was perceived that the Welcome was still full of ice from side to side. In one of the excursions up the river it was reported that many black whales and other fish had been observed, whereas none had made their appearance where the ships were anchored, nor below them. This circumstance afforded a hope that there might be some other opening into the Welcome than that by which they had entered. The Lieutenant and the Master were accordingly again sent up with directions to examine all the coves on the northern shore of the Wager. After four days absence they returned on the 1st August. They reported that they had seen a great many black whales of the whalebone kind; that they had tried every opening they saw; and that they constantly found the tide of flood coming from the eastward or in at the mouth of the Wager. This put an end to all expectations of finding any outlet from the Wager besides that through which they had entered it.

On the 4th of August the ships departed out of the river. In latitude 65° 38', longitude 87° 7′ W., they entered another opening lying north-west of

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