EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 13 



Governor Norton was a man of much more than the ordi- 

 nary intelligence and strength of character, and he saw that 

 if the expedition was to be a success it must be conducted 

 by some one who would be able to make full and accurate 

 surveys of the route followed, and who could intelligently 

 describe the character and value of the " mine " and deter- 

 mine its latitude and longitude by astronomical observations. 

 For this purpose he chose Samuel Hearne, now a young man 

 twenty-four years of age, who, after his service as a midship- 

 man in the British Navy, was at the time employed as a mate 

 on the Charlotte^ one of the Company's sloops trading from 

 Churchill with the Eskimos. The story of his journey, the 

 hardships which he endured, and the success which he achieved, 

 form the subject of this book and need not be discussed here.^ 



Hearne's character, which had been moulded to a large 

 extent by his surroundings, can be fairly well understood from 

 a careful reading of his book. He was diligent and reason- 

 ably accurate but not strong or forceful. In this latter par- 

 ticular he differed from his great successor. Sir Alexander 

 Mackenzie, who descended the Mackenzie River eighteen years 

 after Hearne had reached its waters at Great Slave Lake. 

 Alexander Mackenzie was a man of masterful temperament, 

 and those who accompanied him, whether vv^hite men or 

 natives, were merely so many instruments to be used in the 

 accomplishment of any purpose which he had in hand. Their 

 likes and dislikes, and their habits of life, were merely interest- 

 ing to him in so far as they affected the results that he wished 



^ As farther evidence that this expedition was undertaken solely for the 

 purpose of obtaining a knowledge of the whereabouts of the copper deposits, 

 Edward Umfreville, who was employed as a writer at York Factory in Hearne's 

 time, makes the following interesting statement : " Some years since, the 

 Company being informed that the Indians frequently brought fine pieces of 

 copper to their Settlements on Churchill River, they took into consideration, 

 and appointed a person (S. Hearne) with proper assistants, to survey and 

 examine the river where the valuable acquisition was supposed to be con- 

 cealed." — The Present State of Hudson's Bay, by Edward Umfreville, p. 45. 

 London, 1790. 



