low.] JA.MES' BAT. 13 J 



soon had a great number of posts scattered over the North-West and 

 on the Mackenzie River. 



David Thompson, at first emplo3'ed by the Hudson Bay Company, ^^'^J 

 and afterward by the North-West' Company, was the first person to fix son, 1790-1812. 

 with any degree of accuracy the positions of the different posts, and 

 make surveys through the country; he was engaged at this work from 

 1790 until 1812. From 1S16 to 1826 he was employed on a boundary 

 survey between Canada and the United States, from the St. Lawrence 

 to the Lake of the Woods. 



Philip Turner was another Survej-or, who explored extensively under 

 the orders of the Hudson Bay Companj', about the beginning of the 

 present century, and may have made the surveys in Severn River 

 country, as laid down on Arrowsmith's Map prepared for the Company. 



In 1782, the French Admiral La Perouse entered the Bay with three Capture of 

 war ships, and took Fort Prince of Wales, spiked the guns, and Admiral 



lr G l*OU *"C 



destroyed the factory, without any resistance being offered by Hearne, 

 who was then in charge of the place ; then sailing to York he destroyed 

 a small battery at the mouth of the Hayes River, and burnt the factory, 

 but failed to capture the Company's ships with their rich cargoes of fur. 



1814. — Lieut. Edward Chappell, on H.M.S. Rosamond, the convoy to voyageof 

 the Company's ships, visited Churchill and York. He published an Lieutl Cha PP e11 

 account of the voyage, with descriptions of the Bay, and a map of the 

 Nelson, from its mouth to Lake Winnipeg. 



1820. — Sir John Franklin, on his first expedition overland to the F ran kii n 's 

 Arctic Ocean, went by way of York and the Hayes River route to the journey - 

 Saskatchewan ; he made a track survey of the route and published an 

 account of it, in the narrative of the journey. Since that time many 

 other travellers have passed over the same route. 



Geographical explorations of the country to the eastward of the Bay 

 were not undertaken until about 1820, when Dr. Mendry and Mr. J. 

 Coulson made exploratious, under orders from the Company, and have 

 left rough maps of their work. The former traversed the country from 

 Richmond Gulf to Ungava Bay ; the latter explored the East Main, 

 Rupert and Notaway rivers, also the portage routes between the head 

 waters of these rivers. 



Shortly after this posts were built at the mouths of the Little Whale E f S postl S orfI2gt 

 and Great Whale rivers, where important porpoise fisheries were for- Mamcoast - 

 merly carried on, but of late years have been abandoned as being 

 unprofitable. Fort George, at the mouth of Big River, was also 

 built about the same time, and is at present the headquarters of the 

 East Main district. It has been found impossible to get the exact date 

 at which these posts were established. 



