CHAPTER III. 



6PFER OP PARLIAMENT. HEARNE'S JOtTRNET. PHIPP9. NELSON. 



COOK. MACKENZIE. SIR JOHN ROSS'S FIRST VOYAGE. BDCHAN ANB 



FRANKLIN. DANGEROUS SITUATION OF THE TRENT AND DOROTHEA. 



IN 1743 the British Parliament offered a reward of 

 twenty thousand pounds to any one who should sail to 

 the north-west by way of Hudson's Strait, which passage, 

 it was declared, would be "of great benefit and advan- 

 tage to the kingdom." Between 1*769-72 Mr. Hearne 

 undertook three overland journeys across the territories 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company, to the shores of the Polar 

 Sea. He failed in the first two attempts ; in the third 

 he succeeded in reaching a large and rapid river, the 

 Coppermine, and followed it down nearly to its mouth ; 

 but, as there is reason to believe, without actually view- 

 ing the sea. The proof of the existence of the river 

 was the most important result of Mr. Hearne's labors ; 

 for such scientific observations as he attempted are 

 loose and unsatisfactory. 



In the following year (1773), in consequence of com- 

 munications made to the Royal Society on the possi- 

 bility of reaching the North Pole, Captain Phipps (after- 

 wards Lord Mulgrave) was sent out with two vessels 

 to effect this interesting object. He coasted the eastern 

 shore of Spitzbergen to 80 48' of latitude, and was 

 there stopped by the ice. With Phipps on this expe- 

 dition was Nelson, the future naval hero of England, 

 then a mere boy. Young as he was, he was on one 

 occasion appointed to command a boat, sent out to 



