VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 45 



but these unfortunate people were never more heard 

 of. Mr. Scroggs, who sailed in search of them, in 

 1722, only brought back proofs of their shipwreck, 

 but no fresh intelligence about a passage, which he 

 was also to look for. They also sent a sloop and a 

 shallop, to try for this discovery, in 17^7 ; but to no 

 purpose. If obstructions were thrown in the way of 

 Captain Middleton, and of the commanders of the 

 Dobbs and California, the Governor and Committee 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company, since that time, we 

 must acknowledge, have made amends for the narrow 

 prejudices of their predecessors ; and we have it in 

 our power to appeal to facts, which abundantly 

 testify, that every thing has been done by them, that 

 could be required by the public, toward perfecting 

 the search for a north-west passage. 



In the year 176l> Captain Christopher sailed from 

 Fort Churchill, in the sloop Churchill; and his 

 voyage was not quite fruitless : for he sailed up 

 Chesterfield's Inlet, through 'which a passage had, 

 by Mr. Ellis's account of it, been so generally ex- 

 pected. But when the water turned brackish, which 

 marked that he was not in a strait, but in a river, he 

 returned. 



To leave no room for a variety of opinion, how- 

 ever, lie was ordered to repeat the voyage the en- 

 suing: summer, in the same sloop, and Mr. Norton, in 

 a cutter, was appointed to attend him. By the favour 

 of the Governor and Committee of the Company, the 

 Journals of Captain Christopher, and of Mr. Norton, 

 and Captain Christopher's chart of the Inlet, have 

 been readily communicated. From these authentic 

 documents, it appears that the search and examin- 

 ation of Chesterfield's Inlet was now completed. It 

 was found to end in a fresh water lake, at the dis- 

 tance of about one hundred and seventy miles from 

 the sea. This lake was found also to be about 

 twenty-one leagues long, and from five to ten 

 broad, and to be completely closed up on every side, 



7 



