INTRODUCTION. 
gant writer, has ftill lefs claim to our indulgence, 
as his affertions are a greater tax on our creduli- 
ty. Hisfaying that he difcovered feveral large 
lumps of the fineft virgin copper*, is fuch a pal- 
pable falfehood that it needs no refutation. No 
man, either Englifh or Indian, ever found a bit 
of copper in that country to the South of the fe- 
venty-firft degree of latitude, unlefs it had been 
accidentally dropped by fome of the far Northern 
Indians in their way to the Company’s Factory. 
The natives who range over, rather than in- 
habit, the large track of land which lies to the 
North of Churchill River, having repeatedly 
brought famples of copper to the Company’s 
Factory, many of our people conjectured that it 
was found not far from our fettlements; and as 
the Indians informed them that the mines were 
not very diftant from a large river, it was gene- 
rally fuppofed that this river muft empty itfelf in- 
to Hudfon’s Bay; as they could by no means 
think that any {ct of people, however, wandering 
their manner of life might be, could ever tra- 
verfe fo large a track of country as to pafs the 
_ Northern boundary of that Bay, and particular- 
ly without the affiftance of water-carriage. The 
following Journal, however, will fhew how much 
thefe people have been miftaken, and prove alfo 
the improbability of putting their favourite 
icheme of mining into practice. 
The 
* American Travellers, page 23. 
XXIX 
