A CATfADTAN CAMDEN SOCIETY. 49 



journey to the interior taken by him some ton years before. Between the years, 1760 and 

 1^*16, a traveller named Alexander Henry, in comi^any with Frobisher, one of the leading 

 founders of the Northwest Company, took a journey as far into the interior as Lake Atha- 

 basca. Of this extended expedition the traveller published an account in 1809. A leading 

 work of the period is that published by the great traveller, Alexander Mackenzie, after 

 wards knighted for his discoveries by Greorge III. In the service of the Northwest Company 

 he first descended the river which bears his name. He, first of white men, crossed the 

 Eocky Mountains north of Mexico, and inscribed in vermilion letters, on a rock on the 

 Pacific coast, the following words, " Alex. Mackenzie, from Canada by land, 22nd July, 

 1793." Another Northwest trader, Daniel "W". Harmon, who, in 1800, penetrated the inte- 

 rior and lived successively on the Assiniboine River in the southern, and on Lake Atha- 

 basca in the northern department, and who even crossed the Rocky Mountains in the 

 Peace River district, has left us a most absorbing volume published in 1820. 



V. 



Leaving for a time the inward movement by the great lakes and the water-ways of 

 the northwest country, we must notice a series of expeditions from Montreal, and a current 

 of trade, no doubt induced by this Montreal stream, but counter to it. This was the move- 

 ment to the interior made by the great English fur company from Hudson Bay. The 

 Indians, from the whole Northern Department, who had formerly come by the line of con- 

 nected lakes and rivers all the way from Athabasca down the Churchill River, and even from 

 Lake "Winnipeg by way of the Nelson, with their furs, were, as already mentioned, intercepted 

 by the interlopers, as they were considered, from Montreal between the years, 1760 and 

 1770. To carry out their inland movement, to regain their diminishing trade, the Hudson's 

 Bay Company selected Samuel Hearne, not only an intrepid officer, but a clever writer. 

 His first expedition was to discover the Coppermine River, of which the Indians had told. 

 His daring explorations have gained him the name of "the Canadian Park." In 1774 he 

 established posts far inland, — one of them being Fort Cumberland, on the Saskatchewan. 

 Hearue's book was published in 1795. Another adventurer, who, under the direction of 

 the Hudson's Bay Company, carried on this aggressive work was Edward Umfreville, who 

 has given us a work, "Present State of Hudson's Bay Company," which was published in 

 1790. The archives of the Hudson's Bay Company would undovibtedly afford ampler 

 details of this period, which was a turning-point in the history of the monopoly. 



VI. 



The discovery of the Pacific coast of America belongs to the later years of last century. 

 The unfortunate French navigator. La Perouse, who, having left France in 1785, was never 

 heard of after departure from Botany Bay on his homeward voyage, has a double interest 

 for us. In the account of his travels, published by M. Millet-Mureau, in four volumes, at 

 Paris in 1798, these points are given. The first is found in the introduction to the first 

 volume, where there is a description of the attack upon the forts of Hudson Bay by the 

 French in 1782. La Perouse, again, is said to have discovered a portion of the coast of 



Sec. II., 1884. 7. 



