1770. December.
Having engaged Matonabbee, therefore, as my guide, I began to make preparations for our departure; but Mr. Norton, the Governor, having been very fully occupied in trading with a large body of Indians, it was the seventh of December before I could obtain from him my dispatches. It may not be improper to observe, that he again wanted to force some of the home-guard Indians (who were {62} his own relations[Z]) into our company, merely with a view that they might engross all the credit of taking care of{63} me during the journey; but I had round them of so little use in my two former attempts, that I absolutely refused them; and by so doing, offended Mr. Norton to such a degree, that neither time nor absence could ever afterwards eradicate his dislike of me; so that at my return he used every means in his power to treat me ill, and to render my life unhappy. However, to deal with candour on this occasion, it must be acknowledged to his honour, that whatever our private animosities might have been, he did not suffer them to interfere with public business; and I was fitted out with ammunition, and every other article which Matonabbee thought could be wanted. I was also furnished, as before, with a small assortment of light trading goods, as presents to the far distant Indians.
1770. December.
At last I succeeded in obtaining my instructions which were as follows:
{64} "ORDERS and INSTRUCTIONS for Mr. Samuel Hearne, going on his third Expedition to the North of Churchill River, in quest of a North West Passage, Copper Mines, or any other thing that may be serviceable to the British Nation in general, or the Hudson's Bay Company in particular; in the year 1770.
"Mr. Samuel Hearne.
"Sir,
"As you have offered your service a third time to go in search of the Copper Mine River, &c., and as Matonabbee, a leading Indian, who has been at those parts, is willing to be your guide, we have accordingly engaged him for that service; but having no other instrument on the same construction with the quadrant you had the misfortune to break, we have furnished you with an Elton's quadrant, being the most proper instrument we can now procure for making observations on the land.
"The above Leader, Matonabbee, and a few of his best men, which he has selected for that purpose, are to provide for you, assist you in all things, and conduct you to the Copper Mine River; where you must {65} be careful to observe the latitude and longitude, also the course of the river, the depth of the water, the situation of the Copper Mines, &c., but your first instructions, of November sixth, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine, being sufficiently full, we refer you to every part thereof for the better regulation of your conduct during this journey.