INTRODUCTION. U 



What is now, for the firft time, authentically laid before 

 the Public, with regard to the difcoveries made by the Hud- 

 fon's Bay Company, was well known to the noble Lord who 

 prefided at the board of Admiralty, when this voyage was 

 undertaken ; and the intimate connexion of thofe difco- 

 veries with the Plan of the Voyage, of courfe, regulated 

 the inflrucTtions given to Captain Cook. 



And now, may we not take it upon us to appeal to every 

 candid and capable inquirer, whether that part of the in- 

 ltru(5lions which dire(5led the Captain not to lofe time, in explor~ 

 ing rivers or inlets^ or upon any other account, till he got into the 

 latitude oi 6^°, was not framed judicioufly ; as there were 

 fuch indubitable proofs that no paflage exifted fo far to 

 the South as any part of Hudfon's Bay, and that, if a paf- 

 fage could be effedled at all, part of it, at leafl, mufl be tra- 

 verfed by the fhips as far to the Northward as the latitude 

 72°, where Mr. Hearne arrived at the fca ? 



We may add as a farther confideration, in fupport of this 

 article of the Inftrudlions, that Beering's Afiatic difcoveries, 

 in 1728, having traced that continent to the latitude of 67°, 

 Captain Cook's approach toward that latitude was to be 

 wiflicd for, that he might be enabled to bring back more 



Indian women immediately began to examine her bundle ; andhaving there found the 

 child, took it from her and killed it immediately. The relation of this fliocking 

 fcene only ferved the favages of my gang for laughter. Her country is fo far to the 

 r^^tt'^'v/, that file fays file never faw any iron, or other kind of metal, till taken 

 prifoner ; thofe of her tribe making their hatchets and chifels of deers horns, and 

 knives of flone and bone ; their arrows are fhod with a kind of flate, bones, and deers 

 horns ; and their inllruments, to make their wood work, are nothing but beavers 

 teeth. They have frequently heard of the ufeful materials the nations to the Eafi: of 

 them are fupplied with from the Englifh ; but, inftead of drawing nearer to be in the 

 way of trading for iron work, &c. are obliged to retreat farther back, to avoid the 

 Arathapefcow Indians, as they make furprifing flaughter amongft them every year, 

 both winter and fummer. Hearne's MS. Journal. 



g 3 authentic 



