'We arrived at the River Parmentiers the 11th of August 86 Leagues, and was on the South Side Lake Belle on board our Ships the 16th of August, before the fine Town Conosset, where we found all Things well, and the honest Natives of Conosset had, in our Absence, treated our People with great Humanity, and Capt. de Ronquillo answered their Civility and Justice.'
We have been before told, that the Admiral went sixty Leagues up Los Reyes, which I take to be the whole Distance between the Entrance of Los Reyes to Conosset in Lake Belle; and if we transpose the above Words, 'arrived at Parmentiers the eleventh of August, and was on the South Side Lake Belle eighty-six Leagues on board our Ships the sixteenth of August,' then we have the Distances respecting every Part of de Fonte's Course thro' Land, from Los Reyes to Conosset sixty Leagues, from Conosset to Lake de Fonte eighty-six Leagues, from the Entrance of Lake de Fonte to the Streight of Ronquillo one Hundred and sixty Leagues, from the Entrance of the Streight of Ronquillo to the Sea thirty-six Leagues. The Time that de Fonte was passing down the River of Parmentiers, and the Time he took to return, are equal, which is plainly owing to his being obliged to wait the Tides for getting over the Falls both Ways. The sixth of July they had entered the Lake de Fonte, and by the fifteenth were through the Streights of Ronquillo, and at the Indian Town the seventeenth, so they were eleven Days from their Entrance into the Lake de Fonte; but in their return the same Way only five, favoured by a strong Current which the Wind occasioned to set into the Lake, and having as much Wind as they could fly before, and now came directly back; whereas in their Passage out they had made some Delays. The Course to Conosset being nearest North-east, I compute it to be in Lat. 56 Deg. Long. 118° 2´ from London. The Entrance of Lake de Fonte (supposing the Course of the River Parmentiers and from Conosset East North East) in Lat. 59° 4´. Long. 113°. The Entrance of the Streights of Ronquillo East North East, in Lat. 61 Deg. 8 Min. Long. 98 Deg. 48 Min. the Course through the Streights to enter the Sea North by East, such Entrance to be in Lat. 62 Deg. 48 Min. Long. 98 Deg. 2 Min. which Course must be consistent with de Fonte's Account that a strong Current set in, as by this Course such Current must be accelerated, if it set to the Southward, by the Wind from the Northward, or if it was from the Southward, would be opposed in going to the Northward.
De Fonte proceeds to give an Account of the good Estate in which he found all Things on his Return; mentions the Honesty and Humanity of the Natives, and the prudent Conduct of Captain Ronquillo, who answered their Civility and Justice. For they had, during the Time of de Fonte's Absence, procured, by dealing with the Natives, Store of good Provisions to salt, Venison, Fish; also one Hundred Hogsheads of Indian Maiz; besides the Service this would be of on their Return, procured pursuant to de Fonte's Order, it employed the People, with the other necessary Work about the Ships after so long a Run, and kept them from brangling with the Natives. The Natives were also employed to their Interest, which preserved them in good Humour; and a Justice in dealing preserved their Friendship.
'The 20th of August an Indian brought me a Letter to Conosset, on the Lake Belle, from Captain Bernarda, dated the 11th of August, where he sent me Word he was returned from his cold Expedition, and did assure me there was no Communication out of the Spanish or Atlantick Sea, by Davis Streight; for the Natives had conducted one of his Seamen to the Head of Davis Streight, which terminated in a fresh Lake, of about 30 Mile in Circumference, in the 80th Degree of North Latitude; and that there was prodigious Mountains North of it, besides the North-west from that Lake the Ice was so fixed, that from the Shore to 100 Fathom of Water, for ought he knew from the Creation; for Mankind knew little of the wonderful Works of God, near the North and South Poles: He writ further, that he had sailed from Basset Island North East, and East North East, and North East and by East, to the 79th Degree of Latitude, and the Land trended North, and the Ice rested on the Land.'
The Orders Bernarda received were to sail up a River North and North East, North and North West, which River I suppose to have emptied itself near to Los Reyes into the South-east Part of the South Sea; and it is not uncommon, in America, that two great Rivers should have their Entrances contiguous to each other; and I suppose Conabasset, afterwards called Basset, to be in Lat. 58 Deg. 10 Min. to the Westward of Los Reyes in Long. 122 Deg. 9 Min. from London. The Course up the River Haro North 14 Deg. West; and as Conosset is laid down in Lat. 56 Deg. Long. 118 Deg. 2 Min. the Distance from Basset to Conosset is one Hundred and seventy-seven Miles; the Course North 46 Deg. West. The Letter by the first Messenger was dated the 27th of June, and is received the fourth Day, as he could not come a direct Course, we may suppose he travelled fifty Miles a Day, which is an extraordinary Allowance, the greatest Part by Water, and Light most of the Night. We know he would go Part by Water in Lake Belle, and Lake Belle issuing its Waters both by Los Reyes and the River Parmentiers, must receive some considerable Influx of Waters by which it is formed, as well as to give a constant Supply of the Waters that issue from it, and which must be principally or only from the Northward, for it cannot be supposed to receive its Waters from the Southward, and discharge them there again, and which the Messenger would make Use of as soon as possible, and come down Stream. The second Messenger, who is expresly mentioned to be an Indian, is nine Days a coming. But Bernarda mentions nothing as to his Ship or People in this Account, only says he is returned from his cold Expedition, therefore probably he sent away the Indian as soon as he could after he entered the River, which ran into the Tartarian Sea, in Lat. 61. If this was the Case, we may suppose that the Waters which came into the Lake Belle head a great Way up in the Country.
Bernarda had Directions, after he left Lake Valasco, to sail one Hundred and forty Leagues West, and then four Hundred and thirty Leagues North East by East to seventy-seven Degrees of Latitude. Bernarda, in his Letter of the 27th of June observes, there was a River eighty Leagues in Length, not comprehended in his Instructions or Orders, and emptied itself in the Tartarian Sea; and says, in his Letter of the 11th of August, that he sailed from the Island Basset North-east; with that Course, when he entered the Tartarian Sea, in Latitude 61, his Longitude would be 116 Deg. he then begins the Course de Fonte directed him, one Hundred and forty Leagues East North East; and he mentions on his Return he had steered that Course, keeping the Land aboard. So that West and the Land trending North East, are Mistakes in the Publication in April; but the mentioning how the Land trended, shews he was then entering the Sea; for to talk of Land, with respect to a River, is absurd; and with the Course and Distance he steered would be in Lat. 63 Deg. 39 Min. and Long. 110 Deg. from London: Then he steers four Hundred and thirty-six Leagues North East and by East, and that brings him into Latitude 79 Deg. Long. 87 Deg. from London. But the Land trending North, and with Ice, which would be dangerous for the Periagos; and as the Land trended North, where he was appearing to him to be the nearest Part he could attain to to go to the Head of Davis Streight; and as to the Distance over Land, and the Propriety of sending a Messenger, the Indians would inform him; he sends a Seaman over with an Indian to take a Survey of the Head of such Streights, by us called Baffin's Bay; which Name was not at that Time generally received. Which Seaman reports, that it terminated in the eightieth Degree of Latitude, in a Lake of about thirty Miles in Circumference, with prodigious Mountains North of it, which indeed formed that Lake, or is a Sound, as that of Sir James Lancaster and of Alderman Jones; and along the Shore, from the Lake North-west, the Ice was fixed, lying a great Distance out, which was very consistent with there being no Inlets there, the Waters from which would have set it off. The Distance that the Indian and Sailor travelled would not exceed fifty Miles; and their mentioning the high Mountains to Northward imply, that they were in a more level Country where they were to take this View. Light all Night, the Snow off the Ground, and the Heighth of Summer there. It is no vain Conjecture to suppose that the Journey was practicable, even if performed all the Way by Land, and much easier, which is not the least improbable, if they had an Opportunity of making Part of it by Water. Bernarda proceeding thus far in the Tartarian Sea, and entering in Latitude 61, is no Way contradictory to the Russian Discoveries; and by the Tartarian Sea is meant, the Sea which washes the Northern Coasts of Tartary, and is supposed to extend round the Pole. Those Discoveries are agreeable to the Japanese Map, as to the North-east Parts of Asia, and North-west Parts of America, brought over by Kemper, and in which Map there is expressed a Branch of the Tartarian Sea or Gulph, extending to the Southward, agreeable to this Account of de Fonte. Who calls it, with respect to Asia, the North and East Part of the Tartarian Sea. Which compared with what de Fonte says, as to sailing down the River to the North-east Part of the South Sea, these Expressions cast a mutual Light on each other, and that the Archipelagus of Saint Lazarus is a Gulph or Branch of the Sea, in the like Manner.
Places which are in one and the same Latitude, have not an equal Degree of Heat or Cold, or are equally fertile or barren, the Difference in these Respects chiefly consists in their Situation. The Country of Labrador, which is to Eastward of Hudson's Bay, in Latitude 56, almost as high a Latitude as Port Nelson, is a Country capable of being improved by Agriculture, and would supply all the Necessaries of Life, though intermixed with rugged and craggy Mountains. The Winter's not so severe as in the more Southern Parts of Hudson's Bay, as the Earth is not froze there, as it is in the same and lower Latitudes about that Bay: Also People have wintered in the Labrador, wearing only their usual Cloathing: Therefore drawing a Parallel between Port Nelson and Conosset, as to the Infertility of one, therefore the other being in the same Latitude, could not produce Maiz to supply Ronquillo, is an Objection which hath no Foundation in it. The higher the Latitude the quicker is the Vegetation; and as Indian Corn or Maiz may be planted and gathered in three Months in lower Latitudes, it may be in an equal or less Time in higher Latitudes, in a good Soil. As to Port Nelson, or York Fort, in Hudson's Bay, it is a low Country through which two large Rivers pass, with the Bay in Front, and nothing is certainly known of the more inland Parts.
The physical Obstacles that are produced against our giving Credit to this Account of de Fonte, from the Depth of the Falls at the Entrance of Lake Belle in the River Parmentiers, and from the River Bernarda passed up, are, from not understanding what is expressed by the Word Falls amongst the Americans. They mean by a Fall wherever there is the least Declivity of the Water; and the Fall of thirty-two Feet in the River Parmentiers, doth not mean a perpendicular Fall, as the Objector would have it understood, however ridiculous to suppose it, but eight gradual Descents, from the Beginning of which to the Extremity of the last there was a Difference of thirty-two Feet, and which became level or even at the Time of high Water.
What Bernarda says as to his cold Expedition, a Person used to the Climate of Peru might justly say so, of the Nights and Evenings and Mornings, at that Time of the Year, in the Latitude of seventy-nine, though temperate in Latitude fifty-six; and the whole Disposition of the Country, the immense high Lands, their barren and desert Aspect, in Places their Summits covered with perpetual Snow, the Ice fixed to the Shores, Sheets of floating Ice in the Waters, the immense Islands, frequently seeing Whales, Sea-horse, and a great Variety of the Inhabitants of those Waters, which do not frequent the Southern Parts: The Whole a Scene so different from the Verdure and Delights of the Plains about Lima, and from the pleasing Views that present themselves on running along the Coasts of Peru, Bernarda might well be affected with such Scene as to express himself, that Mankind knew little of the wonderful Works of God, especially near the North and the South Poles. But he was not so ignorant as to report, that he saw Mountains of Ice on the Land, as well as in the Sea, though he might see them forming between Points of Land, which jetted out into the Sea; and such a Column of Ice would appear to him as something very curious.
That these Parts were inhabited does not appear, for it was a Native of Conibasset that conducted the Seaman over the Land; and, at that Season of the Year, the fresh Waters are thawed, no Snow on the low and level Lands, only on the extreme Summits of the Hills.