After Selkirk returned to England, in 1818, a motion was made in the House of Commons for all the official papers in the recent troubles, and in 1819 they were printed.

Selkirk died in 1820, and the next year the two companies were united, preserving only the name of the Hudson's Bay Company, and Sir George Simpson became governor. This story is told at length in Bancroft's Northwest Coast, ii. ch. 15.

John West's Substance of a journal during the residence at the Red River Country and frequent excursion among the Northwest American Indians, 1820-1823 (London, 1824), and Keating's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's Lake (Lake Winnepeek) in 1823 (London, 1825), become now of

interest.

The later writers are variously inclined in their sympathies. Alexander Ross's Red River Settlement, its rise, progress, and present state, with some account of the native races and its general history to the present day, by Alexander Ross (London, 1856), is on the side of the elder company; and the same position is temperately sustained in George Bryce's Manitoba, its infancy, growth, and present condition (London, 1882).1 The story of the Red River events, as well as the subsequent career of both companies after their enforced union, is sufficiently told, and with a good many helpful references, in Bancroft's Northwest Coast, with the aid of some manuscript accounts, as well as of the great mass of printed material. The story of the Northwest Coast is further continued by Bancroft in his Oregon and in his British Columbia.

The question of commercial intercourse with the Winnipeg country led to an exploration of the country between Lake Superior and the Red River settlement, of which a Report 2 was published, with a Map of a part of the valley of Red River, north of the 49th parallel, to accompany a Report on the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition, by H. Y. Hind. Of late years it has become a debatable question whether the route from Europe through Hudson's Bay may not be made commercially serviceable through a considerable part of the year. (Cf. Robert Bell's "Commercial Importance of Hudson's Bay" in the Roy. Geog. Soc. Proc., October, 1881, with a map; W. Skelford in the National Rev., London, vii. 541; C. R. Tuttle's Our North Land (Toronto, 1885), ch. 28; Science, vii. 278.; Charles N. Bell's Northern Waters, Winnipeg, 1885; and some papers published by the Manitoba Historical Society: no. 1, Navigation of Hudson's Bay; no. 2, The Hudson's Bay Route.) The rebellions in the Red River region, which followed upon the creation of the Province of Manitoba, fall on a later period than this volume is intended to embrace, but the sources of their history involve the results of the final extinction of the Hudson's Bay Company as a great monopoly.3

An account of the fur trade along the Pacific is the essential body of Bancroft's Northwest Coast, which is of use in tracing the transactions of the Hudson Bay Company in those regions, with its abundant references. He says in his preface:

"During the summer of 1878 I made an extended tour in this territory for the purpose of adding to my material for its history. Some printed matter I found, not before in my possession. I was fortunate enough to secure copies of the letters of Simon Fraser, and the original journals of Fraser and John Stuart; also copies from the originals of the journals of John Work and W. F. Tolmie, the private papers of John McLoughlin, and a manuscript History of the Northwest Coast by A. C. Anderson. Through the kindness of Mr. John Charles, at the time chief of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Pacific coast, I was given access to the archives of the fur company gathered at Victoria, and was permitted to make copies of important fort journals, notably those of Fort Langley and Fort Simpson. But most important of all were the historical and biographical dictations taken from the lips of several hundred of pioneers and earliest furhunters and settlers then living, by a short-hand reporter who accompanied me in my travels, and which were afterward written out, severally bound, and used in the usual way as material for history.

"It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the importance of this information, given as it was by actors in the scenes represented, many of whom have since departed this life, and all of whom will soon be gone. To no small extent it is early historical knowledge absolutely rescued from oblivion, and which, if lost, no power on earth could reproduce. Conspicuous among those who thus bear testimony are Mrs. Harvey, who gave me a biographical sketch of her father, Chief Factor McLoughlin; John Tod, chief for a time of New Cale

1 He gives a list of his authorities. Cf. Donald Gunn's Hist. of Manitoba to 1835, with a continuation to its admission to the Dominion by C. R. Tuttle (Ottawa, 1880); Alexander Begg's Creation of Manitoba and the history of the Red River Troubles (Toronto, 1871); and John Macoun's Manitoba and the Great Northwest (1883).

2 Henry Youle Hind's Northwest Territory. Reports of progress; with a preliminary and general report on the Assiniboine and Saskatchewan exploring expedition, made under instructions from the provincial secretary, Canada. Printed by order of the Legislative Assembly (Toronto, 1859); and the same author's Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857, and of the Assiniboine and Saskatawan Expedition of 1858 (London, 1860).

Cf. Alexander J. Russell's Red River Country, Hud

son's Bay and Northwest Territories considered in relation to Canada (Ottawa, 1869; Montreal, 1870).

Red River Insurrection; Hon. Wm. McDougall's Conduct Reviewed (anon.).

The Red River Insurrection Reviewed; letters to Hon.
Jos. Howe by Wm. McDougall (Toronto, 1870).
Alexander Begg's Creation of Manitoba, or a history of
the Red River Troubles (Toronto, 1871).

Capt. Geo. Lightfoot Huyshe's Red River Expedition (London, 1871).

S. J. Dawson's Report on the Red River Expedition of 1870, printed by order of the House of Commons. Reprint, with remarks on certain strictures published in England by an officer of the expeditionary force (Ottawa, 1871).

Report of the Select Committee on the Causes of the difficulties in the Northwest Territory in 1869–70 (Ottawa, 1874).

donia; Archibald McKinlay, in charge of Fort Walla-Walla at the time of the Whitman massacre; Roderick Finlayson, once in charge of Fort Victoria; A. C. Anderson, road-maker, explorer, and historian."

The English official record of the occupancy of Vancouver's Island is given in the Charter of Grant of Vancouver's Island to the Hudson's Bay Company, and correspondence, and the Report on the Grant from the Com. of the Privy Council for Trade and Plantations (1849); and in James Edward Fitzgerald's Charter and Proceedings of the Hudson's Bay Company with reference to Vancouver Island (London, 1849). The rivalries of the English and American traders are necessarily set forth by Bancroft.1

1 Bancroft's treatment of the Astoria enterprise is held to have a touch of spleen in it, by P. Koch in his paper on "Astoria and the Pacific Fur Trade," in the Magazine of

American History, March, 1885, p. 289.

Cf. Wm. Sturgis on the Northwest Fur Trade in Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, xiv.

CHAPTER II.

ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES.

FOR

BY CHARLES C. SMITH,

Treasurer, Massachusetts Historical Society.

OR two centuries after the unsuccessful voyages of Luke Fox and Thomas James, mentioned in an earlier chapter of this History,1 little interest was felt in the search for a northwest passage. The more important of the Arctic explorations in this period were carried on overland, under the auspices, in whole or in part, of the Hudson's Bay Company, and are described in another chapter.2 Meanwhile, however, in 1746, two small vessels were sent from England to make further discoveries in Hudson's Bay. These were the "Dobbs Galley," of one hundred and eighty tons, commanded by Captain William Moor, and the "California," of one hundred and forty tons, under Captain Francis Smith. They sailed from the Thames on the 20th of May. Their progress was slow, and they were able to go only a short distance up Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome before the lateness of the season compelled the captains to make arrangements for winterquarters. For this purpose a small creek was selected, about two miles from Fort York, the principal station of the Hudson's Bay Company. Here the crews built log huts on the shore, and remained from November until June, when the vessels were released from the ice. Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome, Wager Strait, and the entrance to what is now known as Repulse Bay, were then explored; but differences of opinion among the officers led to an early abandonment of the undertaking, and by the middle of August both vessels made sail for England. They anchored at Yarmouth on the 14th of October, 1747, — having been gone nearly a year and a half, — and entirely disappointed the large hopes and expectations awakened by their departure.

A few years later an attempt was made by the British colonies in America to discover a northwest passage; and in the spring of 1753 a schooner of about sixty tons was fitted out in Philadelphia for this purpose, mainly through the exertions of Dr. Franklin. This schooner was called the "Argo," and was commanded by Captain Charles Swaine. Sailing in March, she encountered ice off Cape Farewell, but finally succeeded in

1 Vol. III. ch. iii.

VOL. VIII.

6

2 See ante, ch. i.

entering Hudson's Strait in the latter part of June. Here the accumulation of ice was so great as to force her out to sea again, and the attempt to penetrate farther westward was at length abandoned. Swaine then carefully examined the coast of Labrador before returning to Philadelphia, where he arrived in November. In the following year he made a second voyage of discovery in the same vessel. He was again unsuccessful, and

Nearly a quarter of a century later, in the same year in which the American colonies declared their independence of the mother-country,the English government determined to renew the search for the much desired passage; but it was now thought desirable to reverse the course hitherto followed, and to attempt to pass from the Pacific into the Atlantic. Two ships were accordingly fitted out, the "Resolution," under command of the famous navigator Captain James Cook, and the "Discovery," Cap* From an engraving in Troisième Voyage de Cook (Versailles et Paris, 1783).

tain Charles Clerke. Cook sailed from Plymouth on the 12th of July, 1776, and was to be joined by Clerke on his arrival at the Cape of Good Hope. It was not, however, until August, 1779, that the two ships entered Behring's Strait. After passing through the strait they first sailed toward Asia, and then turning east skirted the American coast for a short distance; but the season was far advanced, and Cook did not think it prudent to continue his voyage. Before the end of the month he began to retrace his course, and not long afterward he was killed in the Sandwich Islands, leaving a name unsurpassed by any English sailor of his time. In the following year Clerke again passed through the strait; but the obstruction by ice was such that he soon relinquished any attempt to prosecute the search along the American coast.

About the time that Cook sailed from England, Lieutenant Richard Pickersgill was sent to Baffin's Bay in the brig "Lion," to make such an examination of the waters in that neighborhood as might be useful to a vessel which it was intended should meet Cook on his anticipated arrival from the other side of America. Pickersgill left Deptford on the 26th of May, 1776, but he seems to have lacked the qualities which characterized the great navigators of the preceding century, and his voyage only added one more to the catalogue of those which had failed to give an adequate return for the thought and expense bestowed on them. In the next year Walter Young was sent out in the same vessel with a similar purpose, to ascertain how far it was probable that a northwest passage existed by way of Baffin's Bay. Like his predecessor, he was deterred by the multitude of icebergs which he encountered, and he returned within a little more than three months after leaving England. It was left to another century, and to men of more persistent energy, to trace the extent and direction of the waters flowing into that great sea.

The spirit of Arctic adventure slumbered for more than a generation after the departure of Cook on his last voyage. At length it suddenly revived in consequence of reports carried to England that during the years 1815 to 1817 there had been a great change in the enormous ice-fields surrounding the coasts of Greenland. It was said they had been broken up to an unusual extent, and had drifted down into the Atlantic, leaving it more probable than ever before that exploring vessels would be able to reach a high northern latitude. With the repeated confirmations of this theory from various sources there was a revival of interest in the still unsolved problem of a northwest passage; and this interest was further stimulated by the writings and personal appeals of Mr., afterward Sir John, Barrow, then and for many years Secretary of the Admiralty. Through the persistent exertions of the advocates for further explorations, it was determined by the British government to send out another expedition.

1 [See Vol. II. p. 469. In the London Athenaum, July 20, 1878, is a list of the MSS. in the

British Museum illustrating Cook's voyage, in cluding journals, log-books, etc. — ED.]