The 17th we came to an Indian Town, and the Indians told our Interpreter Mr Parmentiers, that a little way from us lay a great Ship where there had never been one before; we sailed to them, and found only one Man advanced in years, and a Youth; the Man was the greatest Man in the Mechanical Parts of the Mathematicks I had ever met with; my second Mate was an English Man, an excellent Seaman, as was my Gunner, who had been taken Prisoners at Campechy, as well as the Master's Son; they told me the Ship was of New England, from a Town called Boston. The Owner and the whole Ships Company came on board the 30th, and the Navigator of the Ship, Capt. Shapley, told me, his Owner was a fine Gentleman, and Major General of the largest Colony in New England, called the Maltechusets; so I received him like a Gentleman, and told him, my Commission was to make Prize of any People seeking a North West or West Passage into the South Sea but I would look upon them as Merchants trading with the Natives for Bevers, Otters, and other Furs and Skins, and so for a small Present of Provisions I had no need on, I gave him my Diamond Ring, which cost me 1200 Pieces of Eight, (which the modest Gentleman received with difficulty) and having given the brave Navigator, Capt. Shapley for his fine Charts and Journals, 1000 Pieces of Eight, and the Owner of the Ship, Seimor Gibbons a quarter Cask of good Peruan Wine, and the 10 Seamen each 20 Pieces of Eight, the 6th of August, with as much Wind as we could fly before, and a Currant, we arrived at the first Fall of the River Parmentiers, the 11th of August, 86 Leagues, and was on the South side of the 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 answer'd their Civility and Justice.
The 20th of August an Indian brought me a Letter to Conosset on the Lake Belle, from Capt. Barnarda, 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 Strait; for the Natives had conducted one of his Seamen to the head of Davis Strait, 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 fix'd, that from the Shore to 100 Fathom Water, for ought he knew from the Creation; for Mankind knew little of the wonderful Works of God, especially 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 then the Land trended North, and the Ice rested on the Land. I received afterwards a second Letter from Capt. Barnarda, dated from Minhanset, informing me, that he made the Port of Arena, 20 Leagues up the River los Reyes on the 29th of August, where he waited my Commands. I having store of good Salt Provisions, of Venison and Fish, that Capt. de Ronquillo had salted (by my order) in my absence, and 100 Hogsheads of Indian Wheat or Mais, sailed the 2d of September 1640. accompanied with many of the honest Natives of Conosset, and the 5th of September in the Morning about 8, was at an Anchor betwixt Arena and Mynhanset, in the River los Reyes, sailing down that River to the North East part of the South Sea; after that returned home, having found that there was no Passage into the South Sea by that they call the North West Passage. The Chart will make this much more demonstrable.
Tho the Style of the foregoing Piece is not altogether so Polite, (being writ like a Man, whose livelihood depended on another way) but with abundance of Experience and a Traveller, yet there are so many Curious, and hitherto unknown Discoveries, that it was thought worthy a place in these Memoirs; and 'tis humbly presum'd it will not be unacceptable to those who have either been in those Parts, or will give themselves the trouble of reviewing the Chart.
OBSERVATIONS
ON
The Title affixed, and on other Circumstances relating to the Letter of Admiral de Fonte, shewing the Authenticity of that Letter, and of the Account therein contained.
Observations have been made by several Geographers of different Nations on the Letter of Admiral de Fonte, to shew that such Letter is not deserving of Credit, is to be thought of as a mere Fiction or Romance, and is a Forgery composed by some Person to serve a particular Purpose. But it will appear, as we proceed in a more particular Consideration of the Title and Circumstances relative to the Letter of Admiral de Fonte than hath been hitherto used, and from the following Remarks on the Subject of such Letter[6], That those Observations made by the Geographers have many of them no just Foundation, the rest afford not a sufficient Evidence to invalidate the Authenticity of that Letter, and of the Account it contains.
It is only from a Copy of the Letter of de Fonte that the Translation hath been made, which is now published, as is plain from a Title being affixed, A Letter from Admiral Bartholomew de Fonte, then Admiral of New Spain and Peru, and now Prince of Chili. As Prince is never used in this Sense with us, it is apparently a literal Translation of the Spanish Word Principe, consequently this Title was wrote in the Spanish Language, and we cannot otherwise conclude but in the same Language with the Letter. From this and other Defects of the like Sort, which will be noticed as we proceed in our Observations, the Translator must be acquitted from all Suspicion of being any way concerned in this pretended Forgery. By the Copiest affixing this Title, it is evident he was well assured that there had been such an Expedition.
The Anecdotes, as to the Vice-admiral Pennelossa, in the Body of the Letter, what is therein mentioned as to the Jesuits, evidence that a minute and particular Inquiry was made by the Copiest; that he had thoroughly informed himself of every Particular of this Affair; that he was assured that the Account by him copied contained the most material Transactions in a Journal of de Fonte's, and that de Fonte was then, probably from his advanced Age, in the Service of the Government in another Station.
This Expedition not being solely to intercept the Navigators from Boston, but also to discover whether there was a Passage in those Parts thro' which the English expected to make a Passage, viz. by the back Part of Virginia, by Hudson's or by Baffin's Bay; it was an Undertaking which required that the Person who had the conducting of it should not only be a Man of good Understanding, but a judicious and experienced Seaman. The Time required to attain such Qualifications implies, that de Fonte must have been of a mature Age when he went on this Command; and de Fonte being alive at the Time that the Copy was taken, it must have been taken within twenty Years, or in a less Time after such Expedition, as the Copiest speaks of Pennelossa as a young Nobleman. The Copiest therefore could not be imposed on, as his Inquiries were made in such a Time, either with respect to the Persons concerned, or with respect to the Letter not being a genuine Account of the Voyage.