167^. ZACCHARIAH GILLAM. 26\ 



the original design, though this was the chief 

 plea on which the cliarter had been granted. 

 Their whole attention was turned to the establish- 

 ment of forts and factories and to extend their 

 trade with the Indians ; from whom they pro- 

 cured the most valuable furs for articles of very 

 trifling cost. In this prosperous state of affairs, 

 the north-west passage seems to have been entirely 

 forgotten, not only by the adventurers who had 

 obtained their exclusive charter under this pretext, 

 but also by the nation at large ; at least nothing 

 more appears to have been heard on the subject 

 for more than half a century. In the meantime, 

 however, the public attention was once more 

 awakened to the possibility of discovering a passage 

 to the Indian seas by the north-eastward ; a new 

 voyage was projected with this design, and was 

 sanctioned by the same monarch who had granted 

 such exclusive privileges to the Hudson's Bay 

 Company. 



JOHN WOOD AXD WILLIAM FLAWES. K)?^. 



The question of a north-eastern passage to 

 China had been set at rest in England for more 

 than a century, when it was once more revived 

 by the appearance of a paper in the Transactions 

 of the Royal Society of London, in 1675. This 

 volume of the Philosophical Transactions contained 

 a short statement of a voyage fitted out by a com- 



s 3 



