This Account agrees both with that of de Fonte and de Fuca. The Sea they imbarked on was that at the Back of Hudson's Bay, and the Streight might be formed by some Island, or both the Shores approach each other, tho' the Account is not sufficiently intelligible to make any Description of it in the Map. De Fuca says the Streight grew wider when he entered such Sea, which seems to imply it had been narrow. And the Indians, as before-mentioned, said there was a Streight, and they can perceive the Land on the other Side. De Fuca also mentions he went ashore, and found the Land fruitful, and rich of Gold and Silver and Pearls, and other Things, like Nova Hispania. Which shews it was a mixed Country; for a fruitful Country and a Produce of Gold and Silver is not a Description compatible with one and the same Part. The one we may suppose the Description of the Parts nearer the Ocean, the other of the Parts where the Tete Plat live: But the old Indian seems also to make a Distinction; for he says they went to hunt in the Country and the Woods. When they had passed the Streight, they came into the broader Part of the Streight of Anian, which appeared to them to be a Sea. As to the Place of their Imbarkation, they would be directed by where they could procure Birch to make their Canoes.
The true Situation of the Part they went to, nor where they imbarked is not to be determined with any Certainty; but it doth not carry the least Probability that they went to War with a People more than a thousand Miles distant. It is scarce probable they had ever heard the Name of the Inhabitants of those Parts, much more so acquainted with their Situation as to be able to form a Plan of going to conquer them. There must have been some particular Cause for their going to War with a People so far off; what that was it would be difficult to imagine; if it was only to shew their Prowess, they must have had Enemies nearer home, against whom there was a greater Probability of succeeding. Neither could it be at that Distance, as they had one continued Scene of Fatigue until they reached the Streights; their Hearts broken by Reason of the Disappointment, the Heat of Summer, no venturing ashore but for a very short Time, either for Food or Refreshment, as they expected the Conquerors to follow them with Canoes, it would have been impossible for them to have reached the Streight. If they had a hundred Leagues a direct Course until they attained the Place of their Imbarkation, and by going round the Bays, might be near twice that Distance, the Current also against them, it would be sufficient, stout young Fellows, and full of Blood as they were, for what they underwent to be fatal to them. It is evident the Streight was not far from where they imbarked, and the Relation seems to express it so, as they had such a Fatigue in attaining to it. Allowing the Tete Plat to be in Long. 108 Degrees from London, and the true Course was W. S. W. or E. N. E. on their return, with a Distance of a hundred Leagues, they would alter their Latitude 114 Miles, and make 277 Miles Departure, which, with 27 Miles to a Degree, would make the Place of their Imbarkation to be in Longitude 98 from London, about the Longitude of Ronquillo. As to the Latitude where the Tete Plat Indians live, and as to the Longitude it is but conjecture; there is such a Discordancy and Contradiction in the Maps, there is such Uncertainty, that the North-west and West Parts beyond Hudson's Bay in the Latitude of Churchill, seem to be entirely unknown. But this is to be observed, and which has been my Direction in these Observations, the Northern Indians and the Home Indians about the Factory of York Fort, mention these Tete Plat Indians, and speak of them as their Enemies, therefore they cannot be at so great a Distance as the Western Ocean, neither further than where I have supposed their Country to be. For as the Time the Indians were going there three Months, that is not to be considered so much with respect to the Distance, as they would choose a proper Season, when there were the fewest Indians in the Towns, and were mostly engaged abroad in their Summer hunting. Perhaps there are no People who plan better in the Partizan Way, and execute with more Success. They fix the Time they intend to make their Attack before they set out, then proceed easily and gradually towards their Enemy's Country, allowing a Sufficiency of Time in which they may recover any Accident by which they might be delayed, as unseasonable Weather, Difficulty and Disappointments as to procuring Subsistance, or any Indisposition, that they go to Action in their full Strength and Vigour; as an Indian who conducts an Expedition would be as much contemned for Want of Prudence, on his Return to the Towns, as he would for his Want of Conduct in leading his People to an Attack, and when the Enemy was too powerful not bringing them off without the Loss of a Scalp. In either of which Cases the young People, who observe freely the most exact Discipline, and implicitly obey what he orders, would not go any more to War with him.
Which Way the Boston Ship made this Passage is uncertain. Gibbons was acquainted with Bylot, was Shipmate with him in Sir Thomas Button's Voyage. Bylot was also with Gibbons the Time he lost his Season, by being detained in the Ice. Bylot made an Expedition for Discovery of a Passage in the Year 1615, on Sir Thomas Button having at a Trial of a Tide off the Island of Nottingham, in Hudson's Streights, found it came from the North-west, and to be from an Opening at the Back of Cary's Swans-nest, this Tide he went in Pursuit of; and was as far up as Lat. 65 Deg. 26 Min. then supposed where he was was nothing but a Bay, but could not (he had gone up the East) return down the West Shore. Whether Gibbons took his Information from Bylot, and pursued his Plan, is uncertain, and found his Way round the Head of Repulse Bay. He was also acquainted with what Fox had done, who went into Lat. 66 Deg. 5 Min. so further than Bylot, who did not return down the Western Shore; but his People being indisposed, and not finding a North-west Tide, he hastened home. These Parts, therefore, were not properly searched, the Conclusion drawn for there not being a Passage there, being that the Tide came from the Eastward.
Or whether Gibbons went through Hudson's Bay is equally uncertain. The undiscovered Parts of which Bay, or the Openings that were not determined in the Expedition in the Year 1747, are in a Map hereto annexed. But the Termination of Chesterfield's or Bowden's Inlet hath been since searched by the Direction of the Hudson's Bay Company, and a Plan made of it, which I have not seen. Their Design was to go as far up such Inlet until it terminated, or there was a Passage into another Water. But as it is terminated by Land, and if there is no Inlet or Opening left on the North or South Shore unsearched, or a Survey taken from the Heights, by which they could be satisfied there was no Communication with any other Waters by which there could be a Passage, it is to be concluded that Chesterfield Inlet is no Streight or Passage as was expected, and it appeared to be as far as the Californias Boat went up, according to the Report made at that Time. The People who had been in the Boat belonging to the California, when the Ship was going up Wager Bay, where, from the Depth of the Water, the Breadth between both Shores, the high mountainous Land, there was great Reason to believe there was a Streight or Passage: Those People declared, if there was a Streight they were assured that Chesterfield Inlet was a Streight also.
There remains then to be searched for the Discovery of a Passage, the Opening called Pistol Bay, in Hudson's Bay. That Part which Bylot and Fox left undetermined, along the Coast to Southward of Baffins Bay called Cumberland Isles, which entirely consists of large Inlets and broken Lands. We may be too premature in our Conclusions as to the Impracticability of such a Passage from the high Latitude and the Shortness of the Season, as we have the Instance of the Boston Ship, which was so far advanced in the Sea to Westward of Hudson's Bay in the Month of August; and some Time would be taken up in finding out the Way. The strong Tides that set in, and the Current when to Westward, which there is apparently in the other Sea, may give an Expedition that may compensate against the Shortness of the Season. It is but a short Time that would be required to pass that Part of the Passage which lies in those high Latitudes, as the Course would be soon altered to the Southward.
The Discoveries made in the North West Parts OF HUDSONS BAY. By Capt. Smith in 1746 & 1747.
Seyxas y Lovera, in his Theatro Naval Hydrographico, in the seventh Chapter, P. 426, says, 'North-east of America there is the Coast of Greenland, from sixty to sixty-eight Degrees, where there is to the East the Entrance of the Streight of Frobisher. North-west in the different Islands which compose the Northern Parts of America, there is the Entrance of the Streight of Hudson, where the North Sea communicates with the South Sea, passing out of the Entrance of the Streight of Anian, which runs North-east and South-west to the Northward of the Island of California, which Streight is hid by great Gulphs on the Part that is North of America, which contain such great Islands, as Cumberland (or Estoliland) that are more than one hundred Leagues in Length from North-east to South-west, and their Extremity from East to West more than seventy Leagues.'—Page 44. 'Some hold it for certain that you can sail from Spain to China through those Streights, or to Japan, or to the Lands of Eso, in three Months. As says also Doctor Pedro de Syria; but it is the Opinion of D. T. V. Y. Author of the History of the Imperial States of the World, that he holds it for uncertain whether there is such Streight by which you can pass from the North to the South Sea.—P. 45. There were some of the Subjects of the King of France, who offered themselves, if they could get his Majesty's Licence, to perform that Voyage in four Months; entering the Canal de Hudson from out of the Ocean, with a Course North-west or West North-west, taking always a Sight of the Coast at Noon, they should attain to the Height of the Arctic Circle, or one Degree more, as in making that Voyage they will be favoured in that Part by the Currents and Winds from the East and South-east, and afterwards in their Passage by the Streight of Anian, the Winds and Currents would be from the North.—It is said that some Strangers (on what Occasion is not said) have gone that Rout; and that there is in the Archives of the Admiralty of Lisbon, and of the Contratacion at Seville, a Copy of such Rout; what I here observe is the same with what Don Francisco de San Millan observes, from which or from the Copy of which Rout to be seen in various Languages, or the Disposition of the said Streights, he holds it for certain that there is such a Course, and relates, That a Hollander, on the Evidence of a Spaniard who was aboard his Ship, from the North of California, forced by the Winds from South-west, attained to sixty-six Degrees North-east, afterwards took a Course East, and East South-east, came into fifty-eight Degrees, when he entered the North Sea to Northward of Terra Nova, from thence to Scotland, and from Scotland to Lisbon, in less than three Months from the Port of Nativadad to Lisbon, of which Voyage he makes no Doubt.' And Seyxas observes, he hath seen many other Accounts of Voyages made from Holland, also from England, to the South Sea in three or four Months, which he much doubts, from the Shortness of the Time; also as in the Spanish Historians they have an Account of what passes in the several Parts of the South Sea, in Cathay, and China, and no such Thing is to be found in the Bibliotheca of the Licentiate Antonio de Leon, which sets forth all the Discoveries and Voyages which have been made from any Region from the Year 1200 in America.
It is plain from the Account of Seyxas, he doth not determine absolutely for a Passage, but that there is a Passage is his Opinion. His chief Objection is to the Accounts from the Brevity of the Time in which the Voyages were said to be performed, and there being no Account in a careful Writer of the Discoveries made in those Parts. He doth not confine the Passage to Hudson's Bay, as I understand him, but to the Streight and the other Openings to Northward through Cumberland Isles, and that they go up into as high a Latitude as the Arctic Circle. Which is agreeable to Acosta's Account, and gives a further Explanation to his Meaning than I have already done. As to which Isles, and to the Northward and Eastward of Cary's Swans-nest, it is apparent, from the Perusal of the Voyages, there hath been no certain Account on a compleat Discovery as to those Parts. What he says as to the Voyage of the Hollander, it must be observed it was while Holland was under the Spanish Government in the Reign of Philip the Second, and seems to be the same Voyage, of which Mention hath been made that an Account was found amongst the Papers of that Prince.
It hath been shewn to have been the constant Opinion of there being a North-west Passage, from the Time soon after which the South Sea was discovered near the Western Part of America, and that this Opinion was adopted by the greatest Men not only in the Time they lived, but whose Eminence and great Abilities are revered by the present Age. That there is a Sea to Westward of Hudson's Bay, there hath been given the concurrent Testimony of Indians; and of Navigators and Indians that there is a Streight which unites such Sea with the Western Ocean. The Voyage which lead us into these Considerations, hath so many Circumstances relating to it, which, now they have been considered, shew the greatest Probability of its being authentick; which carry with them as much the Evidence of a Fact, afford as great a Degree of Credibility as we have for any Transaction done a long Time since, which hath not been of a publick Nature and transacted in the Face of the World, so as to fall under the Notice of every one, though under the Disadvantage that the Intent on one Part must have been to have it concealed and buried in Oblivion. Transacted also by Persons in a private Part of the World, who only spoke of it amongst their Friends at home, being themselves Strangers to what they had effected, and made little Account of their Voyage. Besides the Chagrin of their Disappointment, and the illnatured Reflections it might subject them to, they might think it also best not to communicate it to the Publick, as it might encourage others to the like Undertaking, and so they fall into the Hands of the Spaniards, not only at the Hazard of their Ship, but their Lives, or at least subject them to many Hardships such as they had sustained to no Purpose. Therefore they thought proper to say little about their Discovery, as it might only be a Means of entrapping some brave Adventurers, who might be animated by their Example to a like Undertaking. These would be and were, by its being so little published on their Parts, (and no Accounts of it in England, which shews their Friends were under an Injunction not to make it publick) the Resolutions of such sensible and sagacious Men as Gibbons and Shapley were agreeable to which they acted. All which Circumstances considered, what Degree of Evidence can be required more than hath been given to authenticate this Account of de Fonte?