EXPEDITIONS TO PACIFIC. lOl 



Up to the commencement of this century, no explorations were undertaken by the 

 Government or by any citizen of the United States, beyond the valley of the Missouri. 

 It is to the northern part of the continent that we have to look for the seat of adventure 

 and enterprise. It is mainly within the territory now known as the Dominion of Canada 

 that the earliest and more important results were obtained. 



The French pioneers displayed remarkable enterprise and activity. As early as 1615, 

 Champlaiu ascended the Ottawa, and discovered Lakes Huron and Ontario. In 1640, 

 Fathers Jogues and Raymbault were at Sault St. Mary, the discharge of Lake Superior. 

 In 1669, the French discoveries extended to Lake Michigan. In 16*73, Jolliet and 

 Marquette penetrated to the Mississipi, and descended its waters as far as Arkansas. In 

 1682 La Salle descended the Mississipi to its mouth. As early as 1671, an overland 

 expedition from Quebec under father Charles Albanel, reached Hudson Bay, and in 1686 

 a trader, Noyon, had found his way to the Lake of the Woods. 



A great impulse was given to these discoveries early in tlie following century. La 

 Verendrye the elder, between 1131 and 1*739, established various trading posts on Lake 

 Winnipeg and its tributaries. Red River, the Assiniboine and the Saskatchewan. 

 His son, Ch(!valier La Verendrye, undertook more distant expeditions to the west and 

 south. This adveutirrous traveller places on record his arrival at some mountains which 

 were probably the outlying highlands or foot-hills which, south of the 49th parallel, 

 extend some degrees of longitude to the east of the Rocky Mountains zone. Under 

 Niverville, the ascent of the river Saskatchewan was made for some considerable distance 

 and the narrative states that the Rocky Mountains were seen. 



(2) First overland Journey to the Pacific Ocean. 



In the second half of the century, Canada having passed under British rule, expeditions 

 of discovery were made at the instance of the English trading companies. In 1771, 

 Hearne, irnder the instructions of the Hudson's Bay Company, which then had been in 

 existence a hundred years, followed the river Coppermine to its mouth on the Arctic 

 Ocean. In 1783, the North- West Fur Company was formed, with i(s headquarters in 

 Montreal. By the year 1787, its trading posts had reached the river Athabasca, and the 

 following year a post was established on Peace River. In 1789, an officer of the company, 

 Alexander Mackenzie, discovered the great river of the north which bears his name, 

 which he descended to its outlet in the Arctic Ocean. Three years later he arrived at the 

 Pacific coast in latitude about 53°. This intrepid traveller made the first overland journey 

 to the Pacific, north of the G-ulf of Mexico. 



(3) United States overland Expeditions. 



Twelve years after Mackenzie had traversed the continent in the interest of a Canadian 

 fur company, the attempt to reach the Pacific Ocean, was repeated by Lewis and Clark, 

 under the authority of the government of the United States. Up to this period the 

 central region of North America, within the limits of the United States was unknown. 

 Canadian merchants had established trading posts from the St. Lawrence to the Rocky 



