378 SIMPSON'S EXPLORATIONS— 183Q-29. 



greatest pain to think that a whole year must intervene " before the final 

 expedition can be set on foot that is destined to accomplish this North-East, 

 as my excursion to Point Barrow in 1837 achieved the North- West Passage. 

 As for what remains to be done," continues Simpson, writing 

 evidently under the influence of intense mental excitement, " I am so far 

 from seeking to convert it to my future advantage, that, with my life, I 

 hereby place at your disposal, towards meeting the expenses of the new 

 expedition, the sum of five hundred pounds, being every shilling I am worth 

 at this moment, besides all the future proceeds of my double commission, 

 till the whole charge of the said expedition shall be redeemed. Fame I will 

 have, but it must be alone. My worthy colleague on the late expedition 

 frankly acknowledges his having been a perfect supernumerary. 

 The coast, from the Straits of the Fury and Hecla to York Factory (Hudson's 

 Bay) is still more dangerous for boats than that which we have tried so well 

 this season ; but my whole soul is set upon it, and I feel an irresistible pre- 

 sentiment that I am destined to bear the honourable Company's flag fairly 

 through and out of the Polar Sea." 



A week before writing the above, Simpson had written to the directors 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company in London, proposing to lead an expedition 

 for the exploration of " the Gulf of Boothia, the only section of the Arctic 

 coast of America now unknown." This proposal was favourably received 

 by the directors, who, writing from London in June 1840, formally accepted 

 Simpson's offer, and appointed him sole commander of an exploring party to 

 continue the survey of the coast from the mouth of Great Fish River to the 

 Strait of Fury and Hecla. That letter, however, which would have filled 

 Simpson's cup of happiness to overflowing, the explorer was destined never 

 to see ; for in the meantime the Governor of the Company, ignorant appa- 

 rently of the resolution to which the directors had come, had ordered the 

 explorer to repair immediately to England. On the 6th June 1840, Simpson 

 started from Red River, with two companions well mounted and armed, to 

 travel through the United States, and take ship for the " old country." 



At this point all clear authentic record of Simpson ends. Six weeks 

 afterwards all America was ringing with a terrible narrative of " Murder and 

 Suicide," of which crimes the traveller was stated to have been the perpe- 

 trator. The details of the tragedy, around which the deepest mystery still 

 hangs, were derived from the deposition of one of Simpson's companions, 

 whose statement may or may not be trustworthy, and of two persons, who 

 visited the scene of violence, to witness only its closing act. 



James Bruce, of the Red River Colony, appends " his mark " to a sworn 

 statement made before Henry H. Sibley, Justice of the Peace, Clayton 

 County, Iowa, on the 13th July 1840, to the following effect: Bruce left 

 Red River to travel eastward early in June, with a party consisting of a 



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