62 
EXPEDITION OF GILLAM. 
interior in search of peltry, at length arrived on the shores of 
Hudson’s Bay. One of these adventurers named Grosseliez, 
having visited that coast, conceived that it possessed great ad¬ 
vantages for the prosecution of the fur trade. He proceeded to 
France and laid his representations before government. He did 
not however meet with any encouragement from the French 
ministers, but the English ambassador at Paris listened to him 
with attention, and gave him a letter to Prince Rupert, with 
which he came over to England ; here he was favorably received, 
and immediately engaged to go out in one of his majesty’s ships, 
not merely to make a settlement in Hudson’s Bay, but also to 
seek again for the passage to China by the north-west. Re¬ 
specting this projected voyage, Mr. Oldenburgh, the first secretary 
to the royal society, writes in the following terms to the cele¬ 
brated Mr. Boyle: “ Surely I need not tell you from hence what 
is said here with great joy, of the discovery of a north-west 
passage, made by two English and one Frenchman, lately 
represented by them to his majesty at Oxford, and answered by 
the royal grant of a vessel to sail into Hudson's Bay, and thence 
into the South Seas; these men affirming as I heard, that with 
a boat they went out of a lake in Canada, into a river which 
discharged itself north-west into the South Sea, into which they 
went, and returned north-east into Hudson’s Bay.” 
Captain Zachariah Gillam was appointed to carry out Grosse¬ 
liez to Hudson’s Bay, and to prosecute the north-western dis¬ 
coveries. Gillam wintered at Rupert’s River, considerably to the 
north of Charlton Island, yet he does not complain of the severity 
and long continuance of the cold, from which James’ company 
suffered so much. At this place Capt. Gillam laid the foundation 
of the first English settlement, by building a small stone fort, to 
which he gave the name of Fort Charles. The king, who had 
encouraged the expedition, continued to favor the adventurers in 
consideration of their having undertaken at their own costs and 
charges, an expedition to Hudson’s Bay, for the discovery of a 
new passage into the South Sea, and for the finding of some trade 
in furs, minerals, and other commodities, whereby great advan¬ 
tage might probably arise to the king and his dominions. His 
