HISTORICAL SUMMARY 81 



sufficient money to outfit a small vessel, under the command of 

 Zachariah Gillam, a New England captain, who, accompanied 

 by Groseilliers and Radisson, sailed through Hudson strait and 

 down the bay to the mouth of Rupert river. Here friendly 

 intercourse was held with the natives, and a small fort was 

 built, in which the party successfully wintered. 



On the return of Gillam, in 1669, Prince Rupert and his 

 associates applied to Charles II. for a charter. This was granted 

 on the 2nd of May, 16TO, to the Governor and Company of 

 Adventurers trading from England to Hudson bay. It states 

 that ' in consideration of their having at their own cost and 

 charges undertaken an expedition to Hudson bay in the north- 

 east parts of America, for the discovery of a new passage to the 

 South sea, and for the finding of some trade for furs, minerals 

 and other considerable commodities, and of their already having 

 made by such their undertakings such discoveries as did en- 

 courage them to proceed farther in pursuance of the said design, 

 by means whereof there might probably arise great advantage 

 to the King and his Kingdom, absolutely ceded and gave up to 

 the said undertakers, the whole trade and commerce of all those 

 creeks, seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes and sounds, in what lati- 

 tude soever they may be, which are situated within the entrance 

 of the Hudson's straits, together with all the countries, lands 

 and territories upon the coasts and confines of the said seas, &c., 

 so that they alone should have the right of trading thither, and 

 whoever should infringe this right, and be found selling or buy- 

 ing within the said boundaries, should be arrested and all his 

 or their merchandises should become forfeit and confiscated, 

 so that one-half thereof should belong to the King and the other 

 half to the Hudson's Bay Company.' 



In 1670 the newly formed company sent out Charles Bayly, 

 as Governor, to establish Fort Rupert at the mouth of Rupert 

 river, in latitude 51 30', thus establishing their sovereignty by 

 right of the first permanent habitation of the territory granted 



