Alexander Henry extended his travels in the north-west within four hundred and fifty miles of Lake Athabaska.  He met at this point some Chipewayan slaves in the possession of the Assiniboins, and heard from them (1) of the Peace River in the far west which led one through the Rocky Mountains (he uses that name) to a region descending towards a great sea (the Pacific Ocean); and (2) of the Slave River which, after passing through several lakes, also reached a great sea on the north.  This, of course, was an allusion to the Mackenzie River.  Here were given and recorded the chief hints at possible lines of exploration which afterwards sent Alexander Mackenzie and other explorers on the journeys that carried British-Canadian enterprise and administration to the shores of the Pacific and Arctic Oceans.

After 1776 Alexander Henry ceased his notable explorations of the far west.  In that year he paid a visit to England and France, returning to Canada in 1777.  Whilst in France he was received at the French Court and had the privilege of relating to Queen Marie Antoinette some of his wonderful adventures and experiences.  After two more visits to England he settled down at Montreal as a merchant (autumn of 1780), and in 1784 he joined with other great pioneers in founding, at Montreal, The North-west Trading Company.  Eventually he handed over his share in this enterprise to his nephew, Alexander Henry the Younger, and established himself completely in a life of ease and quiet.  He died at Montreal in 1824, aged eighty-five years.

CHAPTER X

Samuel Hearne

The first noteworthy explorer of the far north was SAMUEL HEARNE,[1] who had been mate of a vessel in the employ of the whale fishery of Hudson Bay.  He entered the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company about 1765, and was selected four years afterwards by the Governor of Prince of Wales’s Fort (a certain Moses Norton, a half-breed) to lead an expedition of discovery in search of a mighty river flowing northwards, which was rumoured to exist by the Eskimo.  This “Coppermine” River was said to flow through a region rich in deposits of copper.  From this district the northern tribes of Indians derived their copper ornaments and axeheads.

[Footnote 1:  Hearne was born in London in 1745.  He entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman at the tender age of eleven, and remained in the Navy till about 1765, when he went out to Hudson Bay with the rank of quartermaster.  He must have acquired a considerable education, even in botany and zoology.  He not only wrote well, and was a good surveyor for rough map making, but he had a considerable talent as a draughtsman.]