12 j 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Ellis' voyage. 



Capt. Coate"s 

 notes of voy- 



Hearne's jour- 

 ney from 

 Churchill. 



1*740. — Henley House was built about one hundred and fifty miles up 

 the Albany Eiver, to prevent the Indians communicating with the 

 French. 



1741. — Christopher Middleton, sent out to discover a north-west pas- 

 sage, wintered at Churchill on account of a dispute between him and 

 Mr. Dobbs; another expedition under Wm. Moor and Francis Smith 

 were sent out to settle the matter. They wintered in the Hayes Eiver, 

 and an account of the expedition was written by Henry Ellis, who 

 accompanied them. 



1752. — Josejjh Eobson published an account of his six years' resi- 

 dence at York and Churchill, where he had been sent by the Company 

 to oversee the construction of the stone fort at Churchill, and survey 

 the mouths of the Hayes, Nelson, and Churchill Elvers, plans of which 

 are published in his book. He complains of the lack of interest 

 exhibited by the Company in regard to the interior, and says that the 

 officers in charge had never been five miles up any of these rivers. 



1727-51. — Capt. W. Coates for these years was Captain of one of the 

 Company's ships voyaging to the Bay ; during this time he kept a series 

 of sailing notes, entering in them a full account of the geography of 

 the Bay; these notes he bequeathed to his son, with instructions to 

 him, not to reveal them so long as the Hudson Bay Company continued 

 to employ him. These notes, edited by John Barrow, were published 

 by the Hakluyt Society in 1857, and form an important source of 

 information in relation to the coasts, rivers and islands of the Bay. 



From the time of the treaty of Utrecht until after the conquest of 

 Canada, the Hudson Bay Company confined their trade strictly to the 

 Bay, and did not go inland until they found themselves in danger of losing 

 their trade to the Canadian traders, who secured the fur by meeting 

 the Indians on the headwaters of the rivers, and thus saved them the 

 long journey to the sea. 



The Company becoming aware of this fact, resolved also to send 

 inland, and in 1769 despatched Samuel Hearne, from Churchill, with 

 instructions to accompany the Indians to their hunting grounds, visit 

 the copper mine on the river of that name, and if possible reach the 

 sea at its mouth. After two unsuccessful attempts, he accompanied 

 some Northern Indians and wandering over the barren lands with 

 them reached the mouth of the Copper Mine Eiver, then visited Great 

 Slave Lake, and returned across country to Churchill in 1773. 



On his arrival he was immediately sent inland again, to build Cum- 

 berland House, on Pine Island Lake, a short distance north of the 

 Saskatchewan Eiver, the first of the Company's many posts in the 

 North-West. From this date the Hudson Bay Company entered into 

 active competition with the Canadian traders for the inland trade, and 



