THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY. HEARNE AND MACKENZIE, COOK AND PHIPPS
We have seen how quickly a lucrative trade and remunerative returns
followed on the heels of Arctic discoveries. It was so in the
Spitsbergen seas, it was so in Greenland and Davis Strait, and now we
shall see that it was so in Hudson’s Bay. The Hudson’s Bay Company,
under the auspices of Prince Rupert, was founded in 1668, and an
expedition was sent out, consisting of the ship _Nonsuch_, under the
command of Captain Zachariah Gillam. That officer wintered with his
crew in Rupert’s river and established a station called Fort Charles.
A charter was granted by which the sole right to trade in Hudson’s
Bay and Strait was given to the Company, with territorial rights and
jurisdiction. Stations were formed and a trade in furs was established
with the Indians, who received European goods in exchange.
Discovery was not altogether neglected, although nothing was thought
of but trade during the first 50 years. In 1720 a sloop was sent on a
voyage of discovery under two officers named Knight and Barlow, but
they were never heard of more. A Captain Scroggs was sent in search,
but without result. Again in 1737 a sloop and shallop were despatched
by the Company, also without result.
In 1741 a Mr Arthur Dobbs became the chief projector of an expedition
to discover a north-west passage by Hudson’s Bay. The Admiralty gave
assistance, and Captain Christopher Middleton received the command
of an old bomb vessel called the _Furnace_, with a pink called the
_Discovery_, under Captain William Moore, as a consort. Arriving
late in the season of 1741, Captain Middleton resolved to winter in
the Churchill river, housing his men in an old fort. In February,
1742, scurvy broke out. The only efficacious treatment was not then
understood, and Captain Middleton’s panacea was plenty of rum with
sugar to make punch. There were some deaths in March but not enough
to hinder the expedition, and in July 1742 the voyage was resumed,
the plan being to explore the great opening called by Luke Foxe “Sir
Thomas Roe his Welcome,” and to seek a passage by that route. The cape
on the western side of the sound in 65° 10′ N. Middleton named Cape
Dobbs. Proceeding up the Welcome he discovered an opening which at
first seemed likely to lead to the desired passage, but it turned out
to be the estuary of a river which was named the Wager River, after Sir
Charles Wager, then First Lord of the Admiralty. A point of land was
named Cape Hope, because hopes of a passage were revived on rounding
it and further north another opening to the west was seen, but it
could not be explored owing to the ice and the state of the weather.
It received the name of Repulse Bay. Then Frozen Strait was discovered
at the head of the Welcome and, on climbing a high hill, Middleton
saw that the coast trended south-east to the Cape Comfort of Baffin,
thus proving the insularity of Southampton Island. The expedition then
shaped a course down Hudson Strait, arriving in the Thames in October
1742.
Middleton had done his work well, and had made some important
discoveries. But he was subjected to an unjustifiable attack[100]
from Mr Dobbs, the projector, who accused the explorer of stating
that the Wager River was only a river when he knew it to be a strait.
Dobbs had sufficient influence to enable him to raise funds for a
second expedition. Two vessels, the _Dobbs_ and the _California_,
were fitted out and despatched under the command of Captain Moore,
who fully confirmed Middleton’s report. Mr Ellis wrote the history of
this voyage, and pointed to Chesterfield Inlet as a possible passage.
Accordingly Captain Christopher was sent to settle the question in the
sloop _Churchill_ in 1761, and again with Captain Norton in 1762, when
the survey of Chesterfield Inlet was completed.
[Illustration: Hudson Bay.]
The next expedition of the servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company was by
land, and was conducted by Samuel Hearne, who had been a naval officer.
Through the Indians who traded with the Company’s factories rumours
were received of a tribe which possessed copper mines on a river which
emptied itself into a northern sea, and the Governor of Fort Prince
of Wales on the Churchill river resolved to despatch an expedition to
ascertain the truth of these rumours.
Hearne made two false starts. In the first journey he was robbed by
Indians, in the second, when some months on the way, he had to return
owing to an accident to his great Cotton’s quadrant. At last he set out
in December, 1770, under the guidance of a remarkable Indian chief,
named Matonabi, and without any European companion. This guide was the
son of a northern Indian by a slave woman. His father had died, and
the boy was adopted and brought up by the Governor of Fort Prince of
Wales, who employed him as a hunter. He was a fine man, of nearly six
feet, and possessed of many good moral qualities. He had been on an
embassy to a powerful tribe, establishing peace and trade, and had also
visited the Coppermine river. It was indeed owing to his report that
the expedition was undertaken. Matonabi’s influence was so great that
he was made Chief of the northern Indians, and caused great quantities
of furs to be brought to the Churchill factory.
The method of travelling was for each man to drag his own little
sledge. These one-man sledges were 8 to 9 feet long by 12 to 14 inches
wide, made of boards a quarter of an inch thick sewn together with
thongs of deer-skin, with wooden cross-bars on the upper side. The fore
part was turned up so as to form a semicircle, to prevent the sledge
from diving into soft snow. The trace was a strip of leather with a
loop across the shoulders. The snow-shoes were 4½ feet long by 13
inches broad.
The country crossed by Hearne and Matonabi, accompanied by a large
party of Indians with their wives and children, was fairly well
supplied with game. In May, 1771, a lake was reached where they began
to build canoes and were joined by more Indians, eager to rob and
massacre the Eskimos.
The women and children were left behind, and the party of Indians,
in company with Hearne and Matonabi, entered the Arctic regions, and
began the descent of the Coppermine River on July 14th, 1771. Then five
Eskimo tents came in sight on the left bank. The Indians put on their
war-paint, formed an ambuscade, and approached stealthily. The wretched
Eskimos were completely taken by surprise, and Hearne was an unwilling
witness of a horrible massacre. One young girl clung to Hearne’s legs,
writhing in agony while the Indians drove their spears into her.
Hearne continued his voyage down the Coppermine River with his
bloodthirsty companions, until he reached the mouth on July 18th,
1771. He found that it was full of islets and shoals, with many seals
on the ice outside. For 30 miles there had been nothing but barren
hills and marshes. Above that distance there were stunted pines and
dwarf willows on the river banks. In returning, he visited one of the
surface copper mines. He gives an interesting account of the musk oxen,
deer, wild geese, salmon, and other sources of food-supply, and of the
building habits of beavers, and describes the Eskimo weapons and mode
of life.
[Illustration: Alexander Mackenzie]
On June 29th, 1772, Hearne returned to Fort Prince of Wales, and was
soon afterwards rewarded by being made Governor. But in 1782 a French
Expedition under La Pérouse destroyed the fort, carrying off Hearne and
the other Company’s servants as prisoners. Hearne was several years a
prisoner of war, and only returned to London to die. This disaster so
affected the faithful Matonabi that he committed suicide.
It was 18 years after Hearne’s discovery of the mouth of the Coppermine
that a young man named Alexander Mackenzie undertook to trace the
course of another river, flowing north from the Great Slave Lake. This
explorer was not one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s servants, but at an
early period of life he had been led, with commercial views, to the
vast region north-west of Lake Superior. His voyage down the river
which received his name was undertaken in six canoes, chiefly manned
by French Canadians. Starting in June, 1789, he reached the numerous
channels which form the estuary of the Mackenzie river on July 13th,
and thus was the second European to reach the American polar ocean. The
river journey was over 1000 miles in length. Mackenzie was knighted in
recognition of the value of his discovery.
It was in a year between the dates of the two river mouth discoveries
that Captain Cook, during his third voyage, made his researches in
the Arctic Sea between the two continents of Asia and America. The
_Resolution_ under the command of the great navigator himself, and the
_Discovery_ under Captain Clerke, were commissioned in 1776, but it
was not until August, 1778, that they crossed the Arctic Circle. The
first Lieutenant of the _Discovery_ was James Burney, so well known to
geographers as the historian of voyages in the Pacific, and the writer
of an interesting account of Cook’s Arctic discoveries.
The Sandwich Islands had been discovered on January 18th, 1778, and on
August 4th the _Resolution_ and _Discovery_ anchored off Sledge Island
in 64° 30′ N. The westernmost extremity of the American continent
in Bering Strait, 65° 45′ N., received the name of Prince of Wales
Cape. Captain Cook then stood over to the Asiatic side, and landed to
investigate the Tchuktches, of which tribe he gives an interesting
account. Continuing his exploring work he crossed Bering Strait, and
proceeded along the American coast, naming a cape after another Arctic
explorer, Lord Mulgrave. On the 18th August the two ships were close to
the edge of a very heavy pack which was drifting towards the coast. The
furthest point seen was very low and much encumbered with ice. Captain
Cook gave it the name of Icy Cape, in lat. 70° 29′ N., long. 161° 42′
W. This was the furthest point reached on the American side.
Captain Cook found himself in a narrow lane in shoal water with the
ice coming down upon the ships. He plied to the westward, making short
boards between the ice and the shore. On the 19th the ships were
among loose pieces, and were brought to at the edge of a close pack.
There were immense herds of walrus on the ice, which afforded them a
welcome change of diet from the salt beef. Much attention was given to
soundings and to the force and direction of the currents. The sea in
Bering Strait is shallow, and the strait exercises no influence on the
general direction of the movement of the water. The principal current
in the strait is tidal and intermittent, flowing north with the flood
and south with the ebb.
From the 21st to the 29th of August the exploring ships were sailing
along the coast of Asia, which was low, with elevated land behind.
The furthest point was in lat. 65° 56′ N., long. 179° 11′ W., and
received the name of Cape North. The thick weather made it prudent
to return. The greatest depth north of Bering Strait was 30 fathoms,
the current slight. Passing through Bering Strait on a southerly
course, the distance across between Tchuktchi-nos and Prince of Wales
Cape was found to be 13 leagues. The ships arrived at a large bay on
the American side, which received the name of Norton Sound, after
the Speaker of the House of Commons (Lord Grantley). Here spruce was
collected to make spruce beer, and the men were sent on shore to
collect berries, for Captain Cook was ever thoughtful for the health of
his people. A corporal of Marines, John Ledyard, volunteered to go in
search of settlers in one of the frail _baidor_, a light wooden-frame
boat covered with whale skin, and he brought back two Russians whose
information was very useful to Captain Cook[101].
Captain Cook’s expedition returned to the Sandwich Islands, where the
great navigator was murdered. There was to have been a second voyage
to the Arctic regions in the next navigable season. Captain Clerke
succeeded to the command, but he was in a dying state. In April,
1779, the _Resolution_ and _Discovery_ arrived at Petropaulovsky in
Kamschatka, where they were most hospitably received by the Russian
Governor, and in July the ships again passed through Bering Strait, and
were among the ice in lat. 69° 20′ N. But on the 27th further attempts
were relinquished and it was decided to return to England. Captain
Clerke died on the 23rd of August.
The Arctic discoveries of Captain Cook extend on the Asiatic side to
Cape North, and on the American side to Icy Cape. For nearly 50 years
the knowledge of the polar sea north of America was bounded by Cook’s
Icy Cape, with the mouths of the two rivers Coppermine and Mackenzie.
A gun brig had been fitted out to meet Captain Cook in Baffin’s Bay,
the _Lion_, commanded by Lieutenant Pickersgill, who had served in
Cook’s second voyage. But he never got north of 68° 14′, though he
fixed several positions in Davis Strait. He left the Scilly Islands
June 20th, 1776, with instructions to protect the whalers from any
attacks from colonial rebels, as well as to meet Captain Cook’s
expedition[102]. In the following year the _Lion_ was sent north again,
under Lieutenant Young, but did still less.
Our Government then had a far clearer perception of their duties as
regards discovery than is the case now. By Acts George II cap. 17
(1745) and George III cap. 6 (1776) £5000 were offered for reaching 89°
N. and £20,000 for making the North-West Passage. In 1818 a further
attempt to stimulate discovery was made by offering proportionate
rewards for reaching high latitudes from 83° to 89°. But it was due
to the persistent representations of a private geographer that the
Government itself was induced to take action.
The Hon. Daines Barrington--brother of the excellent Dr Shute
Barrington, Bishop of Durham, and friend of Gilbert White of
Selborne--was born in 1727, and after leaving Oxford became a
barrister, and eventually a Bencher of the Inner Temple and Recorder
of Bristol. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of
Antiquaries, and the author of a translation of King Alfred’s work on
Orosius. He was deeply interested in northern voyages, and collected
many accounts of ships reaching high latitudes from English and Dutch
whaling captains. He published the information he had collected in
his _Possibility of approaching the North Pole asserted_[103], and at
the same time made strong representations to the Royal Society on the
scientific importance of a northern voyage. At last he induced that
body to make an appeal to the Government, and Lord Sandwich, then First
Lord of the Admiralty, resolved that an expedition should be fitted out
and despatched.
Two ship-rigged bomb vessels, the _Racehorse_ and _Carcass_, were
selected and specially strengthened. Captain Constantine John
Phipps, the eldest son of Lord Mulgrave, a scientific officer and
a good seaman, received the command of the expedition on board the
_Racehorse_, and Captain Lutwidge was appointed to the _Carcass_. The
Board of Longitude appointed Mr Israel Lyons as astronomer. Great pains
were taken with the outfit, but the ships were not intended to winter.
The surgeon, Dr Irving, had invented an apparatus for distilling fresh
from salt water, which was very simple, but answered its purpose
admirably. Lord Sandwich visited the ships on the 22nd April, and on
June 4th, 1773, the expedition left the Nore.
Phipps’s expedition was well conducted throughout. A latitude of 80°
50′ N. was reached, and the edge of the ice was examined along all the
meridians north of Spitsbergen, without a sign of any opening. Near
the Seven Islands the ships were closely beset, the ice piling up to a
great height, and there seemed little hope of extricating them without
a strong north-east wind. A party was sent to an island about 12 miles
off, under a midshipman, named Walden, to see if any open water was
in sight from its summit. He reported that there was water to the
westward. The island received the name of Walden. Boats were also sent
to see if a passage could be found into open water. One of the boats of
the _Racehorse_ was attacked by a herd of walrus, and was in danger of
being swamped when she was rescued by one of the boats of the _Carcass_
under the command of Horatio Nelson, a young midshipman not quite 15
years old.
The same young midshipman was keeping the middle watch on board the
_Carcass_, when a bear came in sight, and he started off after it with
a musket and one companion. A fog came down over the ice, and when it
rose young Nelson and his friend were seen at a considerable distance,
attacking the bear. A gun was fired which frightened their intended
quarry, and the boys returned. Nelson’s excuse to his Captain was that
he wanted the bear’s skin for his father.
The danger to the ships appeared to be so imminent that preparations
were made to abandon them, and all the boats were got ready. At the
same time all sail was made, and taking advantage of every slight
opening, the ships at length reached open water. They passed Hakluyt
Headland, and came to anchor in Smeerenburg Harbour in company with
some Dutch whalers. Very heavy weather was encountered during the
voyage home, but the ships reached the Thames safely and were paid off
in October, 1773.
This was an ably conducted expedition, and should have shown the folly
of attempting to approach the pole by trying to make headway against
ice drifting south, without the refuge of a land-floe. But it did
not. Captain Phipps published an interesting narrative of the voyage,
prefaced by a review of former attempts, with some valuable scientific
appendixes. He succeeded to the barony of Mulgrave on his father’s
death in the following year, and marrying into an old naval Yorkshire
family, Cholmley of Howsham, left an only daughter when he died in
1792. Captain Phipps was among the ablest of our scientific Arctic
explorers[104].
One important interest connected with the expedition of Captain Phipps
is the presence of Nelson as a midshipman on board the _Carcass_.
The future hero thus gained his first naval experience in the Arctic
regions, as other naval heroes of lesser fame have done before and
since his time. Nelson’s continued friendship for, and correspondence
with, his old captain show that his Arctic work was not forgotten
in after life. It is this phase of exploration that has the highest
importance. Great as are the commercial advantages obtained from Arctic
discovery, and still greater as are its scientific results, the most
important of all are its uses as a nursery for our seamen, as a school
for our future Nelsons, and as affording the best opportunities for
distinction to young naval officers in time of peace.