80 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
the track taken by Fox. After parting with Fox, he sailed 
southward along the west coast, thoroughly examined it, and 
after several narrow escapes from shipwreck through grounding 
on shoals, finally ran his ship aground on Charleton island, and 
there passed the winter. James gives a woeful tale of the hard- 
ships caused by cold, lack of food and scurvy. He states that 
the cold was so intense that wine, sack, oil, vinegar and even 
brandy froze solid; that the cook soaked his salt meat near the 
fire to prevent it from freezing, and that the side near the fire 
was found to be warm while the opposite side was frozen an 
inch thick. This is a sample of James' report, and shows What 
reliance may be placed on his other statements. 
From the time of Charles I. to that of George I. England 
was convulsed with civil war and revolutions, and was at war 
with other nations abroad, so that for nearly a century after 
Fox no maritime discoveries were undertaken, and nothing 
would have been done in the north but for the foundation of the 
Hudson's Bay Company. 
Two French Canadian fur traders, named radisson and 
Chouart dit Groseilliers, had for a number of years traded and 
lived with the Indians in the country north and west of Lake 
Superior, learning much about the great sea to the north, and 
the canoe routes leading to it. They visited its southern shores 
in 1659, and on their return to Quebec endeavoured to enlist 
prominent merchants there in a scheme to establish permanent 
trading posts on the bay, to be supplied by ships from Canada 
or France. Being unsuccessful, they crossed to Paris, where 
they found no one to advance the capital necessary to start the 
project. The English ambassador, hearing of their scheme, sent 
them to London, where they interested Prince Rupert and 
several influential men of the court and city.* These advanced 
* Another version, however, of the origin of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
states that the two Frenchmen went to Boston, New England, Where they 
met Sir George Carteret (or Cartwright), who gave them letters of introduc- 
tion to King Charles. 
