OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS. 355 



selected for the distinction were Mr Peter Warren Dease and Mr Thomas 

 Simpson — the former a chief factor and the latter a junior officer in the 

 service of the Company. Mr Dease, who, it will be remembered, rendered 

 signal service to Franklin during the winter of 1825-26 (see page 247), 

 was a gentleman of considerable experience in dealing with Indian hunters, 

 guides, etc., and on account of his seniority, the chief command of the 

 expedition was entrusted to him. Practically, however, the actual conduct 

 of affairs came gradually into the hands of Simpson, who was young, 

 ardent, ambitious, and to whom, personally, all the discoveries of the ex- 

 pedition are to be credited. 



The purpose of the expedition, as explained in the letter of instruc- 

 tions sent by the Governor of the Company to the joint commanders, and 

 dated 13th July 1836, was " to endeavour to complete the discovery and 

 survey of the northern shores of the American continent." The expedition 

 was to consist of twelve men, to be placed under the command of Dease 

 and Simpson. These were to be conducted without delay to the Athabasca 

 country, and to pass the winter of 1836-37 either at Fort Chipewyan (Lake 

 Athabasca) or Fort Resolution (Great Slave Lake). In June 1837 the 

 officers, leaving four men behind on Great Bear Lake to erect buildings 

 there and collect stores, etc., were to proceed down Mackenzie Eiver and 

 trace the unknown coast-line between Eeturn Keef— Franklin's farthest in 

 the westward direction — and Point Barrow, the farthest point eastward from 

 the Pacific, discovered by Beechey's first officer in 1826. Returning along 

 the coast, and by the Mackenzie River, the leaders should pass the following 

 winter at their establishment on Great Bear Lake, whence, in the summer 

 of 1838, they were to proceed down the Coppermine, and coasting along 

 the north shores of the continent, should explore the unknown coast-line 

 from Franklin's Point Turnagain east to the moutli of Back or Great Fish 

 River. In compliance with these instructions, Mr Dease set out on the 

 31st July 1836 from Norway House to Athabasca Lake, while Mr Simpson, 

 whose services were not immediately required, went south to Red River 

 Settlement, "chiefly," he says, "with a view to refresh and extend my 

 astronomical practice, which had for some years been interrupted by avo- 

 cations of a very different nature." Simpson subsequently states that he 

 found less difficulty in refreshing his knowledge of mathematics and astro- 

 nomy, with the view of taking the necessary observations of the expedi- 

 tion, than he had expected. Certainly the routine work of a clerk in the 

 employment of the Hudson's Bay Company of the date referred to was 

 not of a kind requiring the exercise of high-class scholastic attainments, 

 but it must be remembered that Simpson, who was now only twenty-eight 

 years of age, had seven years previously graduated M. A. at King's College, 

 Aberdeen, of which, also, he was the successful candidate for the " Hut- 



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