180 NORTH 
and Barlow on a voyage of difcovery, he fhould lay his 
application before the minifters of the crown;” and for 
this purpofe he actually waited on one of the fecretaries 
of date. When the company perceived him thus refo- 
lutely bent on his projedi, and that his “ troublefome 
zeal,” as Robfon calls it, “ might actually bring on an 
enquiry into the legality of their charter,” they thought 
it necefl’ary to comply, and fitted out a fhip and floop 
called the Albany and the Difcovery, the former com¬ 
manded by captain George Barlow and the other by cap¬ 
tain David Vaughan ; Mr. Knight being, however, en- 
trufted with the foie direction of the expedition. Perhaps 
they had the lefs fcruple in fending Knight, as, by Rob- 
fon’s account, he mull have been nearly eighty years of 
age when he undertook this voyage; of the fuccefs of 
which he was fo confident, that he had ftrong chefts 
made, bound with iron, to hold the gold and copper 
which he expedted to find. This was probably the fingle 
objedt that occupied the mind of Knight; the north-weft 
paffage and theftraits of Anian were thrown out with no 
other view than to urge the company, and to point out 
to them the neceflity, to do fomething which might wear 
the appearance at leaft of fatisfying the conditions of their 
charter. Knight is accordingly, by his inftrudtions, di- 
redled “ to depart from Gravei'end on the intended voyage, 
by God’s permiflion, to find out the ftraits of Anian, in 
order to dil'cover gold and other valuable commodities to 
the northward.” 
As neither of thefe (hips ever returned or were heard 
of, it was concluded they had been loft among the ice, or 
ihut up in fome creek or ftrait from which they had no 
means of returning; and, as the Hudfon’s-Bay Company 
had fent out thefe two veffels, they could not do other- 
wife than difpatch another to look for the unfortunate 
crews. The Whalebone was accordingly ordered to pro¬ 
ceed on this fervice. The perfon appointed to command 
her was John Scroggs, of whofe proceedings nothing was 
ever published, except a brief abftradt procured by Mr. 
Arthur Dobbs. From this account we learn, that he 
failed from Churchill River on the nd of June, 1722. In 
latitude 62. he had communication with the natives, and 
traded with them. In 64.. 56. he came to an anchor within 
three leagues of the north ihore, to the projefting head¬ 
land of which lie gave the name of Whalebone Point. 
Here he faw many black whales in the water, and feveral 
deer on the land. “He had two northern Indians with 
him who had wintered at Churchill, and told him of a 
rich copper-tnine fomewhere in that country, upon the 
fliore near the furface of the earth, and they could diredt 
the floop fo near it as to lay her fide to it, and be foon 
loaded with it; they had brought fome pieces of copper 
from it to Churchill, that made .it evident there was a 
mine thereabouts. They had fketched out the country 
with charcoal upon a fkin of parchment before they left 
Churchill; and fo far as they went it agreed very well.” 
An Account of the Countries adjoining Hndfon's Bay ; by 
Arthur Dobbs, efq. 
In latitude 64.. 8. being then in the Welcome, he faw 
many whales, but no ice. The land from Whalebone 
Point fell off to the fouthward of weft, and the men who 
went on-fhore laid they perceived nothing to prevent 
their'going farther; their foundings here were from 40 
to 60 fathoms. Capt. Norton, late governor of Churchill, 
who was then with Scroggs, confirmed all that the latter 
had dated ; laid that the tide role thirty feet; that, being 
.on-fhore at the top of a mountain, he faw the land fall 
away to the fouthward of welt, and nothing to prevent 
their going farther. 
In this account there is not a fyllable mentioned of any 
fearch being made for the unfortunate crews of the two 
fhips ; not a fingle inquiry whether they might be living, 
or be deftroyed by the natives, or have perifhed from cold 
and hunger. Many perfons, indeed, were fanguine enough 
to conjecture that Knight and Barlow had difcovered the 
north-weft paffage, and had proceeded through it into the 
POLE. 
South Sea, to return by the way of Cape Horn ; but two 
years having expired put an end to thefe delufive hopes; 
and it was not before the year 1767 that the moft unequi¬ 
vocal proofs were difcovered of the melancholy fate of 
thefe ad venturers, and of the whole of their party. In 
that year, as fome of the boats employed on the com¬ 
pany’s whale-fifhery, near Marble Ifland, flood in clofe to 
the fhore, they difcovered a new and commodious har¬ 
bour near the eaft end of it, at the head of which were 
found guns, anchors, cables, bricks, a fmith’s anvil, and 
feveral other articles, which, from their weight or ufelefs- 
nefs, had not been removed from their original place by 
the natives. The remains of a houfe, and the hulls or 
rather bottoms of the two fhips, were alfo difcovered under 
water; and fome of their guns, and the figure-head of one 
of the fhips, were fent home to England. The following 
account, given by Hearne, points out the mifery to which 
thefe poorpeople muft have been reduced on this defolate 
ifland. “ In the fummer of 1769, while we were profe- 
cuting the fifhery, we faw feveral Efquimaux at this new 
harbour ; and, perceiving one or two of them greatly ad¬ 
vanced in years, our curiofity was excited to aik them 
fome queftions concerning the above (hip and floop, which, 
we were the better enabled to do by the affiftance of an 
Efquimaux, who was then in the company’s fervice as a 
linguift, and annually failed in one of their veffels in that 
character. The account which we (received from them 
was full, clear, and unreferved, and the fum of it was to 
the following purport. When the veffels arrived at this 
place (Marble Ifland), it was very late in the fall of the year 
1719 ; and, in getting them into the harbour, the largeft 
received much damage ; but, on being fairly in, the 
Englilh began to build the houfe, their number at that 
time feeming to be about fifty. As foon as the ice per¬ 
mitted, in the following fummer, 1720, the Efquimaux 
paid them another viiit, by which time the number of the 
Englifli was very greatly reduced, and thofe that were 
living feemed very unhealthy. Sicknefs and famine oc- 
cafioned fuch havock among them, that, by the fetting- 
in of the fecond winter, their number was reduced to 
twenty. That winter, 1720, fome of the Efquimaux took 
up their abode on the oppofite fide of the harbour to that 
on which the Englifli had built their houfes, and fre¬ 
quently fupplied them with fuch provifions as they had, 
which chiefly confided of whale’s blubber, feal’s flefh, 
and train-oil. When the fpring advanced, the Efqui- 
maux went to the continent; and, on their vifiting 
Marble Ifland again, in the fummer of 1721, they only 
found five of the Englifli alive; and thofe w;ere in fuch 
diftrefs for provifions, that they eagerly ate the feal’s flefh 
and whale-blubber quite raw as they purchafed it from 
the natives. This difordered them fo much, that three of 
them died in a few days, and the other two, though very 
weak, made a lhift to bury them. Thofe two furvived 
many days after the reft, and frequently went to the top 
of an adjacent rock and earneftly looked to the fouth and 
eaft, as if in expedition of fome veffels coming to their 
relief. After continuing there a confiderable time toge¬ 
ther, and nothing appearing in fight, they fat down clofe 
together and wept bitterly. At length one of the two 
died, and the other’s ftrength was fo far exhaufted, that 
he fell down and died alfo, in attempting to dig a grave 
for his companion. The fkulls and other large bones of 
thofe two men are now lying above ground clofe to the 
houfe. The longeft liver was, according to the Efquimaux 
account, always employed in working iron into imple¬ 
ments for them ; probably he was the armourer or fmith.” 
Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudjbns Bay to 
the Northern Ocean; by Samuel Hearne. Introd. p. xxxi. 
The circumftances mentioned by Scroggs and Barlow 
refpedting the tides, and the whales obferved in the Wel¬ 
come, the copper-mine from which there was fo eafy a 
communication with the fea, and the chart made by the 
native Indians, were confidered by a gentleman of the 
name of Dobbs as being fuch decifive proofs of a paffage 
into 
