xliv PreUmhiary Chapter. 



A VOYAGE FROM VIRGINIA 1772. 



The Gentlemen's Magazine, published in London, November, 

 1772. says : 



By a letter from James Wilder, captain of the Diligence, fitted out by sub- 

 scription in Virginia ^\ ith a \ icw to the discovery of the long sought for North- 

 west Passage, it appears by the course of the tides there is a passage, but that 

 it is seldom or never open, and he believes impassable. He sailed as high as 09° 

 11' and discovered a large bay before unknown. 



The American Quarterly Review of 1828 refers to this voyage; 



also, Scoresby, in his Account of the Arctic Regions, and Macpherson, 



in Ills Annals of Commerce, vol. iii. Contributions in sums of £5 



and ui)ward were made for it in New York. 



A VOYAGE REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN MADE IN 1639 FROM BOSTON. 



Hall had notes of a strangely-reported expedition from Boston 



in 1039, against which the Viceroys of New Spain and Peru were said 



to have dispatched Admiral de Fonte. These notes will be found in 



Jeffer^'s' work already referred to. Snow's History of Boston treats 



tlie story of the Admiral as a myth, made up by the Magnalia. But 



Ellis, ill his Voyage of the Dobbs and California, says : 



It is not at all impossible that either to this, or some other Expedition un- 

 <1« itakcn frcjm Boston, the present Hudson's Bay Company owe that Discovery 

 which i)i(»<luced their Charter, and put them in Possession of those Places in that 

 Bay. in which they have Settlements at present. Mr Jeremie, who was Governor 

 ai I'lui Nelson while it was in the Hands of the French, and who without doubt, 

 ha<[ licttcr ()|)i)oitunities of knowing the Matters of which he writes than most 

 other 1 'eople, gives us this account of the INIatter. He says, that one M: de Groise- 

 h'iz, an inhaltitant of Canada, a bold and enterprising nmn and one who had trav- 

 elled iiiiK-li in those j)aits. ])nslie(l his Discoveries at length so far, that he reached 

 the Coasts of Hudson's Bay, from the French Settlements bj' Land. Upon his 

 Bet mil, he jirevailed ujum some of his Countrymen at Quebeck to fit out a Bark 

 loi jjerfecting this Discovery by Sea; which being done, and he landing upon 



