Hearne (1769-1772)
Hearne, Samuel (1745-1792). A Journey from Prince of Wale's Fort in Hudson's Bay, to the Northern Ocean. Undertaken [...] in the Years 1769, 1770,1771 & 1772. London: A. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1795.
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Born in London in 1745, Samuel Hearne served for 10 years in the Royal Navy before entering the service of the Hudson's Bay Company in February 1766. From 1769 to 1772 he made three voyages of exploration in the Northwest. On July 17, 1771, during his third voyage, he reached the Arctic Ocean at the mouth of the Coppermine River, thus becoming the first European explorer to reach this ocean overland in North America. However, Hearne considered that these voyages "would probably turn out to be of no practical use to the nation in general or even to the Hudson's Bay Company." But the fact that he had reached the coast of the Arctic Ocean indicated that it must be possible to find a sea route round the American continent to the north of it instead of having to cross it. A few years later, the British Admiralty sent James Cook in search of a Northwest Passage, based on this new concept.
As for Hearne, he was chosen in 1773 to found the company's first inland post in the West. The following year he directed the construction of Cumberland House on Cumberland Lake, the oldest permanent settlement in the present province of Saskatchewan. Appointed chief agent of the company at Prince of Wales Fort in 1775, Hearne was still there in 1782 when a French fleet led by Lapérouse came and captured the fort. After this incident Hearne worked for four more years at Fort Churchill before retiring in 1787. He then lived in London until his death in 1792.
Hearne devoted the last years of his life to writing the book that made his name. Published three years after his death, his account of his voyages of exploration was an immediate success, and was translated into German (1787), Dutch (1798), Swedish (1798), French (1799) and Danish (1802).
In his account, Hearne devoted a chapter to the Chipewyan, which is still considered as one of the best accounts ever written on an Indian tribe of North America at the time of its first contacts with the Europeans. Moreover, his descriptions of animal behaviour, especially that of the beaver, musk ox and woodland bison, entitle him to a prominent place among early naturalists.
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