Three years later, when the two ships had not returned, and no word had been received from them, Captain Scroggs was sent by the Hudson's Bay Company from Churchill to look for them, and at the same time to continue the search for copper. The story of his journey, as given by Dobbs in his "Account of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay" (London, 1744), says nothing about the explorers who had been lost, but comments on the copper deposits as follows:—
"He [Scroggs] had two Northern [Chipewyan] Indians with him, who had wintered at Churchill, and told him of a copper mine somewhere in that country upon the shore near the surface of the earth, and they could direct the sloop so near it, as to lay her side to it, and be soon laden with it; and they brought some pieces of copper from it to Churchill that made it evident there was a mine thereabouts. They had sketched out the country with charcoal upon a skin of parchment before they left Churchill, and so far as they went it agreed very well. One of the Indians desired to leave him, saying he was within three or four days' journey of his own country, but he would not let him go. Captain Norton, late Governor of Churchill, was then with him."
The Captain Norton here mentioned was the father of Governor Moses Norton who afterwards despatched Hearne to look for the Coppermine River. Captain Carruthers, who is mentioned above, and who, according to his own statement, had "quitted" the service of the Hudson's Bay Company thirty-five years before 1748, said that he "himself carried Mr. Norton, who was afterwards Governor, and two Northern Indians to Churchill where he put them in a canoe, and the purpose of their voyage was to make discoveries and encourage the Indians to come down to trade and bring copper ore."[5]
The journey of Mr. Norton referred to by Captain Carruthers was probably undertaken about 1714, in which year York Factory was restored to the English, after having been occupied by the French for seventeen years. Probably it was on account of this and similar journeys that, in 1719, a gratuity of £15 was voted to Mr. Norton by the Hudson's Bay Company, on account of having endured "great hardships in travelling among the Indians." In 1733 the same Mr. Norton wrote to the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company in London that he had "served your Honors many years and gone through many difficulties and hardships in taking long journeys with the natives to promote your trade with them, even many times to the hazard of my own life."[6]
In the same Parliamentary Report Alexander Browne, a surgeon who had been for six years in the Company's service, testified "that the Indians brought down the ore at the request of Governor Norton," and also "that he had heard the late Mr. Norton say that he had been at this mine and that a considerable quantity of copper might be brought down."[7] It is not probable that Browne's statement with reference to Norton having visited the Coppermine River is correct, but it would be rash to deny that such a journey had been accomplished until the letters and records of the Hudson's Bay Company are finally made public.
After the unsuccessful voyages of Captains Knight and Scroggs, several other expeditions were sent from Churchill northward along the shore of Hudson Bay. Most of these doubtless more than paid their way by trading for furs with the Eskimos, but to the outside public they were ostensibly to find the North-West Passage to China and the "mine" of copper ore. The most important of these expeditions were those of the Furnace and Discovery under Captains Middleton and Moor, in 1741-2, and of the Dobbs and California under Captains Moor and Smith in 1746-7. After these expeditions, interest in the copper may have languished for a while, but the numerous references to it in the Hudson's Bay Report of 1749 show that it was not by any means forgotten.
Meanwhile, Richard Norton of Churchill had died, and his half-breed son Moses Norton had been appointed Governor in his stead. In the year 1767 the remains of Knight's ill-fated expedition were found on Marble Island, and the thoughts of the people on Hudson Bay were undoubtedly again turned to the object for which his voyage had been undertaken. To add to the interest in the copper, the Northern Indians, who came to Churchill in the year 1768, brought with them some fine specimens of ore which they said came from Coppermine River. By this time Governor Moses Norton's interest was thoroughly aroused in the possible value of the copper "mines," and as they were said to be only four hundred miles from Churchill, he determined that, if possible, something definite should be learned about them. Accordingly, that very summer, when the ship came from England, he took passage back in it to London, and laid a plan for the discovery of this supposed great body of copper ore before the directors of the Company and received their approval for its execution. The plan was not to entail any very great expense to the Company. A man was to be sent out with the Indians, who should be supported by them and live as they lived.