Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Islands on board the D.G.S. Neptune, 1903-1904

by A. P. Low

On the return of Gillam, in 1669, Prince Rupert and his associates applied to Charles II. for a charter. This was granted on the 2nd of May, 1670, to the Governor and Company of Adventurers trading from England to Hudson bay. It states that

‘in consideration of their having at their own cost and charges undertaken an expedition to Hudson bay in the northeast parts of America, for the discovery of a new passage to the South sea, and for the finding of some trade for furs, minerals and other considerable commodities, and of their already having made by such their undertakings such discoveries as did encourage them to proceed farther in pursuance of the said design, by means whereof there might probably arise great advantage to the King and his Kingdom, absolutely ceded and gave up to the said undertakers, the whole trade and commerce of all those creeks, seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes and sounds, in what latitude soever they may be, which are situated within the entrance of the Hudson’s straits, together with all the countries, lands and territories upon the coasts and confines of the said seas, &c., so that they alone should have the right of trading thither, and whoever should infringe this right, and be found selling or buying within the said boundaries, should be arrested and all his or their merchandises should become forfeit and confiscated, so that one-half thereof should belong to the King and the other half to the Hudson’s Bay Company.’

In 1670 the newly formed company sent out Charles Bayly, as Governor, to establish Fort Rupert at the mouth of Rupert river, in latitude 51° 30´, thus establishing their sovereignty by right of the first permanent habitation of the territory granted to them by the King, whose right was that of discovery by Hudson.

The French soon felt the competition of the English trading posts on Hudson bay, and sought to oust them, claiming the territory about Hudson bay by right of discovery and possession. They claimed that in 1656 the Sovereign Council of Quebec authorized Jean Bourdon to make discoveries in Hudson bay, and that he proceeded there, took possession in the name of the King of France, and made treaties of alliance with the natives. This claim is disproved by the journal of the Jesuits for that year, which relates that Bourdon sailed on the 2nd of May, and returned on the 11th of August, having been stopped by ice on the coast of Labrador, where a Huron Indian was killed by the Eskimos.

The Governor of Canada, D’Argenson, in 1661, despatched Dablon, a Jesuit missionary, accompanied by Druillette de Vallière, to the country about Hudson bay. They travelled by way of the Saguenay, but did not reach the watershed, their guides refusing to proceed on account of Iroquois war parties being between them and Hudson bay. The ravages of the Iroquois were such that no travel was possible in the north until 1663, when Sieur de la Couture with five men, it is claimed, proceeded overland to the bay, took possession of the territory in the name of the King of France, noted the latitude, planted a cross, and deposited His Majesty’s arms engraved on copper at the foot of a large tree. Sieur Duquet and Jean L’Anglois are said to have visited the bay the same year, by order of D’Argenson, and to have there set up the King’s arms. No mention of these important expeditions occurs in the Relations des Jésuites. The first Frenchman whose visit to the bay is undisputed, was the missionary Albanel, who crossed by way of the Saguenay and Rupert rivers, arriving at the mouth of the latter on the 28th of June, 1672, where he found a small fort and a boat belonging to the English traders.

The Hudson’s Bay Company, always energetic in establishing trading posts wherever the Indians congregated about the shores of the bay, had, by 1685, small forts at the mouths of the Albany, Moose, Rupert, Eastmain, Severn and Nelson rivers. All were trading posts except Eastmain, where a mica mine was worked for a few years, but finally abandoned as unprofitable. No attempts were made to carry the trade inland in direct competition with the French, whose coureurs de bois the English appear to have held in great respect.

Many complaints were soon made to the Governor of Canada by merchants and missionaries that the English posts on the bay were ruining the fur trade and demoralizing the natives; and he, knowing no affront in this quarter would cause James II. to break with Louis XIV., resolved, in a time of peace, to take possession of the English forts. The Governor accordingly sent a detachment of soldiers, under the command of Chevalier de Troyes, overland from Quebec, who, almost without a struggle, took possession of Rupert, Moose and Albany forts. This was the commencement of an intermittent warfare between French and English on Hudson bay, lasting until the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713. In 1690 D’Iberville sailed from Quebec with two ships to capture Fort Nelson, but was unsuccessful. War having been declared between England and France in 1693, the Company, assisted by warships, retook Albany, Moose and Rupert forts. The following year D’Iberville, with two ships and one hundred and twenty men, took Fort Nelson from the English; while a strong force, sent overland from Canada, easily recaptured Albany and Rupert forts. These latter places were a second time recovered by the assistance of the warships Bonaventure and Seaford, in 1695: while in the following summer Fort Nelson was recovered with the aid of four warships.

In 1697 D’Iberville again visited the bay, where he destroyed the English ships amongst the ice, and afterwards took Nelson, renaming it Fort Bourbon. By the treaty of Ryswick, signed in this year, each country returned to the other all places taken during the war, and retained those captured previously, thus leaving to the company the possession of Albany only.

Affairs remained in this condition until the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, when the French relinquished all claims to the territory about Hudson bay.

The first attempt at exploration inland was made by the Hudson’s Bay Company, in 1691, when Henry Kelsey, by order of the Governor at Nelson, accompanied some Indians to the interior. From his diary, it would appear that he journeyed, in a canoe, some distance up the Nelson river, and then tramped overland to the open country north of the Saskatchewan.