1766.] CANADA CEDED TO GREAT BRITAIN. 141 



How far the Hudson's Bay Company, also, endeavored to fulfil 

 the intention expressed in the charter, of promoting the search 

 for a north-west passage, it is unnecessary here to inquire ; suffice 

 it to say, that, at the end of a century from the date of the con- 

 cession, the question, as to the existence of such a channel, was 

 nearly in the same state as at the commencement of that period. 

 Hudson's Bay had been navigated by Middleton, in 1741, to the 

 66th degree of latitude, beyond which it was known to extend ; 

 Baffin's Bay had not been visited since the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century, when it was examined imperfectly to the 74th 

 parallel. The territories west of both these seas were entirely unex- 

 plored ; but accounts, which seemed to merit some credit, had been 

 received from the Indians, of great rivers and other waters in that 

 direction. The desired communication with the Pacific might, 

 therefore, exist ; or the Pacific, or some navigable river falling into 

 it, might be found within a short distance of places on the Atlantic 

 side of the continent, accessible to vessels from Europe : and the 

 determination of these questions became infinitely more important 

 to Great Britain, after the acquisition of Canada. 



The region extending south-west, from Hudson's Bay to the 

 great lakes, and the head waters of the Mississippi, had long been 

 frequented by the traders from Canada and Louisiana, and had been 

 partially surveyed by French officers and missionaries, by whom 

 several journals, histories, and maps, relating to those countries, 

 had been given to the world. This region was also visited, imme- 

 diately after the transfer of Canada to Great Britain, by an Amer- 

 ican, whose travels are here mentioned, because he is supposed to 

 have thrown much light upon the geography of North-west America 

 by his own observations, and by information collected from the 

 Indians of the Upper Mississippi. 



This traveller, Captain Jonathan Carver, of Connecticut, who 

 had served with some credit in the war against the French, partic- 

 ularly in the country about Lakes Champlain and George, set out 

 from Boston in 1766, and proceeded, by way of Detroit and 

 Michilimackinac, to the regions of the Upper Mississippi, now 

 forming the territories of Wisconsin and Iowa, where he spent 

 two years among the Indians. His object was, as he says in the 

 introduction to his narrative, " after gaining a knowledge of the 

 manners, customs, languages, soil, and natural productions, of the 

 different nations that inhabit the back of the Mississippi, to ascer- 

 tain the breadth of the vast continent which extends from the 



