INTRODUCTION. 



FOR many years it was the opinion of all ranks of people, 

 that the Hudson's Bay Company were averse to making 

 discoveries of every kind ; and being content with 

 the profits of their small capital, as it was then called, did 

 not want to increase their trade. What might have been the 

 ideas of former members of the Company respecting the first 

 part of these charges I cannot say, but I am well assured that 

 they, as well as the present members, have always been ready 

 to embrace every plausible plan for extending the trade. As 

 a proof of this assertion, I need only mention the vast sums of 

 money which they have expended at different times in endea- 

 vouring to establish fisheries, though without success : and the 

 following Journey, together with the various attempts made by 

 Bean, Christopher, Johnston, and Duncan,^ to find a North West 

 passage, are recent proofs that the present members are as 

 desirous of making discoveries, as they are of extending their 

 trade. 



That air of mystery, and affectation of secrecy, perhaps, which 

 formerly attended some of the Company's proceedings in the 

 Bay, might give rise to those conjectures ; and the unfounded 

 assertions and unjust aspersions of Dobbs, [xxii] Ellis, Robson, 



[^ John Bean was master of the Company's sloop trading to Knapp's Bay 

 and Whale Cove in 1756 and subsequent years, but no more is known of him. 

 Captain Christopher was sent from Churchill in 1761 to examine Chesterfield 

 Inlet, and during that and the following years he explored it to the head of 

 Baker Lake. Magnus Johnson explored Rankin Inlet in 1764. Captain 

 Duncan in 1791 explored Corbett's Inlet, and in the following year made a 

 re-examination of Chesterfield Inlet, and ascended a short distance up Dubawnt 

 River.] 



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