The Hudson's Bay Route Supported. 501 



member of this House that before the system of navigation of the 

 St. Lawrence was fully established, before the construction of our 

 lighthouses, of the storm-signals, of the marine charts, and lately 

 the establishment of the admirable system of telegraphy, due in 

 great part to the patriotic energy of the hon. member for Gaspe 

 (Mr. Fortin), the navigation of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was 

 considered just as difficult as that of the waters of the Hudson's Bay 

 is at this time. I am sure that it has come before the eyes of every 

 one who reads history that, in the seventeenth century and during 

 the last century, writers in many instances showed that the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence was impossible to navigate. In fact, it was only due 

 to the persevering energies of the fur traders and of the adventurers 

 seeking a north-west passage that the Gulf of St. Lawrence was 

 opened. In fact we find in some authors the statement that, during 

 the winter months, the River St. Lawrence, and part of the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, was but one solid mass of ice. No doubt to-day these 

 assertions seem to be rather exaggerated, but what can prevent us 

 from thinking that many of the statements made in connection with 

 the navigation of the Hudson's Bay are also either beyond or inside 

 of the truth ? 



" The Hudson's Bay occupies in our history a very prominent 

 place. It was discovered, as I stated, in 1610. Champlain had 

 founded Quebec two years previous, and in that year he left Quebec 

 and ascended the St. Maurice in order to discover that great sea of 

 the north, as it was thought the Hudson's Bay was, and to find a 

 north-west passage. In the same year, an English sailor of long 

 experience and daring energy, Hudson, who discovered also the 

 Hudson's River which flows past New York, discovered the bay, and 

 made the entrance by the Straits which to this day have borne his 

 name. Well from that year the Bay was frequented every year, 

 and you know very well that it has been the theatre of naval 

 engagements which have* left in the history of our country more 

 than one brilliant trace. Years after the discovery, it was of course 

 between the two nations — England and France — that the contest 

 took place for the dominion of those seas ; and at the end of the 

 seventeenth century we all know that D'Iberville, that giant of our 



