140 



CHAPTER VI. 



1763 to 1780. 



Great Britain obtains Possession of Canada — Journey of Carver to the Upper Mis- 

 sissippi — First Mention of the Oregon River — Inaccuracy of Carver's Statements 

 — Journeys of Hearne through the Regions west of Hudson's Bay — Voyage of 

 Captain Cook to the North Pacific — His important Discoveries in that Quarter, 

 and Death — Return of his Ships to Europe ; Occurrences at Canton during their 

 Stay in that Port. 



Whilst the Russians were thus prosecuting the fur trade on 

 the north-westernmost coasts of America, the British were engaged 

 in the same pursuit on the north-eastern side of the continent. 



It has been already mentioned that King Charles II. of England, 

 in 1669, granted to an association of gentlemen and merchants of 

 London the possession of all the territories surrounding Hudson's 

 Bay, and the exclusive trade in those regions, with the object, ex- 

 pressed in the charter, of encouraging his subjects to prosecute the 

 search for a north-west passage for ships from that sea to the Pacific 

 Ocean. Under the protection of this charter, the Hudson's Bay 

 Company erected forts and trading establishments on the shores of 

 the bay, and carried on an extensive and profitable trade with the 

 natives of that part of America, to the annoyance of the French, 

 who, also, claimed the country as part of Canada, and more than 

 once dislodged the British traders. It was, indeed, provided by 

 the treaty of Utrecht, in 1714, that the Hudson's Bay territories 

 should belong to the former nation, and that commissaries should 

 be appointed, on both sides, to settle the line separating those terri- 

 tories from Canada : but no such boundary was ever fixed, by 

 commissaries or otherwise, as will be shown hereafter ; * and the 

 limits of the Hudson's Bay territories remained undetermined in 

 1763, when Canada, with all the other dominions of France in 

 North America, east of the Mississippi, were ceded to Great Britain 

 by the treaty of Paris. 



* See chap, xiii., and Proofs and Illustrations, letter F. 



