l899-'00 TRANSACTIONS 45 



The first water expedition of the Hudson Bay Company in 

 search of a North West Passage was unfortunate. Opposite the 

 names of the "Albany" frigate and the "Discoverie," the 

 Hudson Bay Company had to write the ominous words, "never 

 returned." For nearly half a century the fate of the men of 

 that expedition remained unknown. Then (1767) some whalers 

 connected with the Black Whale Fishery, the company was at 

 that time carrying on, made Marble Island their rendezvous, and 

 visiting its shores found English guns, anchors, and other 

 articles lying about. When the tide ebbed the hulls of two 

 craft were seen lying in two fathoms of water. Inquiries were 

 made and in the course of a few years the details of the sad fate 

 were pieced together. The two vessels were damaged and made 

 the harbor ; the crews, landing, set about building the house 

 whose ruins had attracted the whalers. After finishing the 

 house they seem to have set to work repairing the ships. The 

 first winter passed and the succeeding summer faded into winter. 

 By this time thirty of the fifty persons composing the companj^ 

 were dead. When spring advanced the Eskimos crossed over to 

 the mainland. When they returned they found onh^ five alive. 

 These they supplied'with food, seal's flesh and whale's blubber, 

 which the^^ in their distress de^^oured raw, and, in consequence, 

 three of the five died. The two survivors, though weak, man- 

 aged to bury their dead and for some weeks kept themselves 

 alive. Hoping against hope, they frequex:tly dragged them- 

 selves to the summit of a nearbj^ rock to look for a relief part}^ 

 At last they were seen bj^ the wandering natives to crouch close 

 to one another and to weep like children. Then one died and 

 the last man of the fifty tried to dig a grave, but fell over the 

 dead bod}^ of his fellow, himself a corpse. "The Eskimo, who 

 told the story as he had heai'd it, took the whalers to the spot 

 and showed them the skulls and larger bones of the luckless 

 pair, then lying above ground, not a great distance from the 

 dwelling."* 



The uncertainty of the fate of the men of the "Albam^" and 

 the ' ' Discoverie' ' was not the reason why so little energy on the 

 part of the English appears in the i8th century. During the 



* "Journey from Prince of Wales Fort in Hudson Bay to the Northern 

 Ocean," by Samuel Hearne. 



