202 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITLTE. 



Fort Prince of Wales to the Northern Ocean, in 1769. to 177-2," and 

 as it is not long, I shall quoie wlmt he says ly— ■ 



'' The strong opinion which then prevaile(J.,,in Euiope respecting 

 the pi'obability of a North-west passage by t.he way of Hudson'.? Bay, 

 made manv conjecture that Messrs. Knight and ^Barlow had found a 

 passage and had gone through it into the South Sea by the way of 

 California. Many years elapsed without any other convincing proof 

 to the contrary, except that Middleton. Ellis, Bean, Christopher and 

 Johnson had not been able to find any such passage. And notwith- 

 standing a sloop was annually sent to the northward on discovery 

 and to trade with the Eskimos, it was the summer of 1767. (forty- 

 eight years) before we had ^)Ositive proofs that poor Mr. Knight and 

 Captain Barlow had been lost in Hudson's Bay. 



" The Company were now carrying on a black-whale fishery and 

 Marble Island was made the place of rendezvous, not only on account of 

 the commodiousness of the harbour, but because it had been observed 

 that the whales were more plentiful about that island than on any 

 other part of the coast. This being the case, the boats, when on the 

 lookout for fish, had frequent occasion to row close to the land, by 

 which means they discovered a new harbour near the east end of it, 

 at the head" of which they found gu^is, anchors, cables, bricks, a 

 smith's anvil and many other articles, which the hand of time had not 

 <lefaced, and which, being of no use to the natives, or too heavy to 

 be removed by them, had not been taken from the place in which 

 they were originally laid. The remains of the house, though pulled 

 to pieces by the Eskimos for the wood and iron,' are yet very plain to Vje 

 seen, "as also' the hulls, or more properly speaking,' ttie bottoms of the 

 ship and sloop, which lie sunk iii about five fathoms of water, toward 

 head of the harbour. Tlie figurehead of the ship, and also the guns, 

 <tc.*, Were'sent home to the Company, and are 'certain proofs that 

 Messrs.- Kfiightand Barlowhad been lost on that inhospitable'island, 

 where neither stick nor stump was to be seen, arid which lies' sixteen 

 " miles' from the mainland. Indeed, the main is ''little better, being 

 a jumble of barren hills and rocks, destitute- of every kind of herbage 

 except moss and grass, and at that part, the woods are several hun- 

 dreds of miles from th^ sea-side. • 



. " In the summer of 1769^, while we- %vere prosecuting the tishery, 

 we saw several Eskimos at this new harbour, and perceiving that one 

 or two of them were greatly advanced in years, our curio.sity was 



