including a View of previous Discoveries. 233 
obtained furs and other articles, which sold in England for 
L. 120,000, making a profit of L. 5250 per cent. This, how- 
ever, does not include the expence of forts and shipping ; and, 
considering the mismanagement to which all such companies are 
liable, we are ready enough to believe that their profits have 
been by no means of that enormous magnitude which is usually 
supposed. 
The Company, by their charter, were taken bound to make 
the most strenuous exertions to discover the Strait of Anian and 
a western passage ; notwithstanding which it is generally asserted, 
that their most indefatigable efforts were directed to the preven- 
tion of any such discovery. In 1719, however, the urgent voice 
of the public impelled them to send an expedition under Knight 
and Barlow, to discover the Strait of Anian. The issue was of 
the most disastrous nature : the ship, soon after entering the 
Welcome, was wrecked near Marble Island, and the whole crew 
perished. The natives told Hearne that the two last survivors 
went every day to the top of a neighbouring hill to spy if any 
aid was approaching, and returned with marks of the deepest 
disappointment. At length one of them died, and the other, in 
attempting to dig his grave, fell down above him, and expired. 
This catastrophe, though no blame was ever imputed to the 
Hudson’s Bay Company, served to favour their views of quench- 
ing the spirit of discovery. At length, in 1741, the zeal of Mr 
Dobbs, a gentleman of fortune and influence, succeeded in sti- 
mulating the Admiralty to fit out another expedition. Mr Dobbs’s 
main hope rested on Captain Middleton, who had been long in 
the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, but who now prof- 
fered his exertions, and declared his conviction of the probabi- 
lity of finding a passage. Middleton was accordingly supplied 
with two vessels, and set sail in 1741 ; but, from the lateness of 
the season at which he arrived, was obliged to winter in the 
the bay. Next season, as soon as the season permitted, he be- 
gan to sail up the Welcome, and his attention was attract- 
ed by a broad inlet, to which lie gave the name of the Wa- 
ger. Being detained in it by the state of the ice for several 
weeks, he conceived himself to have completely ascertained, 
that it was a mere bay, formed by a river. He could dis- 
cover no tides unless what came from Hudson’s Bay ; and as 
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