ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HUDSON^ BAY COMPANY. 6 
majesty for the better promoting* their endeavours for the good 
of his people, was pleased to confer on them exclusively all the 
lands and territories in Hudson’s Bay, together with all the trade 
thereof, and all other which they should acquire, &c. This 
extraordinary charter, with its sweeping exclusive privileges, 
which was granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1669, con¬ 
tinues without abridgement to the present day. Though dis- 
< covery was amongst the ostensible objects of this charter, the 
indolence of monopoly prevailed, and for some time the north¬ 
west passage seems wholly to have been forgotten.* 
In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Mr Knight, 
governor of the factory established by the Hudson s Bay company, 
on Nelson’s River, learned from the native Indians, that at some 
distance to the northward, and on the banks of a navigable river 
or inlet, there was a rich mine of native copper. He immedi¬ 
ately applied to the company for ships to discover this rich mine > 
his representations however met with no attention, and he was 
obliged to remind the company, that they were bound by their 
charter to make discoveries, and he threatened to call on govern¬ 
ment to enforce that condition before they would comply. 
Two ships were at length fitted out for the expedition, the sole 
direction of which was entrusted to him, and he sailed m 1719, 
by God’s permission to find out the Straits of Arrian, in order to 
discover gold and other valuable commodities to the northward. 
These ships never returned, and the fate of Knight remained for 
a long time a mystery. A vessel was despatched in search of 
Knight, but no conclusive information was obtained. In the 
year 1769, however, the following melancholy intelligence was 
collected by Mr. Hearne, from the Esquimaux in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Marble Island. 
“ When the vessels arrived at this place, (Marble Island,) it 
was very late in the fall, and in getting them into the harbour 
the largest received much damage, but on being fairly in, the 
English began to build the house ; their number at that time 
seeming to be about fifty. As soon as the ice permitted in the 
following summer, 17'20, the Esquimaux paid them another visit; 
* Cabinet Cyclopaedia, Maritime and Inland Discovery, Vol. II. 
