THE PUBLICATIONS OF
THE CHAMPLAIN
SOCIETY
VI

THE PUBLICATIONS OF
THE CHAMPLAIN
SOCIETY

HEARNE:

A JOURNEY FROM PRINCE OF
WALES'S FORT IN HUDSON'S BAY
TO THE NORTHERN OCEAN

TORONTO
THE CHAMPLAIN SOCIETY

Five Hundred and Twenty Copies of
this Volume have been printed. Twenty
are reserved for Editorial purposes.
The remaining Five Hundred are
supplied only to Members of the
Society and to Subscribing Libraries.

This copy is No. 229

[v]

A JOURNEY
FROM PRINCE OF WALES'S
FORT IN HUDSON'S BAY TO
THE NORTHERN OCEAN

In the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, and 1772

BY

SAMUEL HEARNE

NEW EDITION
WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS, BY
J. B. TYRRELL, M.A.

TORONTO
THE CHAMPLAIN SOCIETY
1911

[vi]

[vii]

PREFACE

By SIR EDMUND WALKER

President of the Champlain Society

When the Champlain Society was first organisedin 1905 one of the works on its list of proposedpublications was the Journal of Samuel Hearne.This book, written with great literary charm, is the firstaccount preserved to us of an attempt to explore the interiorof far-northern Canada from a base on Hudson Bay. Thenatives had brought to Fort Prince of Wales glowing reportsof a vast store of copper at the mouth of a river which flowedinto the Arctic Ocean. An attempt to find it was inevitable.Twice Hearne failed, but his third effort succeeded and, aftera laborious journey, he reached the mouth of the CoppermineRiver. Soon after he was promoted to command at FortPrince of Wales, now Churchill, on Hudson Bay. Francehad joined Britain's revolted colonies in their war on themother land, and one day, in 1782, a French squadron, underthe well-known seaman, La Pérouse, dropped anchor beforeFort Prince of Wales. Hearne, mightier with the pen thanwith the sword, surrendered meekly enough in spite of hismassive walls from thirty to forty feet thick. Thus ingloriouslyhe dies out of history.

Hearne's Journal, published after his early death, hasbecome a rather rare book. Besides the narrative of whathe did, it contains copious notes on the natural history ofthe region which he was the first white man to make known.[viii]A new edition has long been needed. Yet to secure competentediting was a difficult task, since few knew the remotecountry which Hearne explored. It may be regarded asfortunate that the new edition has been delayed, for onlynow are we able to present Hearne's story with the annotationsnecessary to give it the last possible elucidation. Theneeded knowledge

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