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"Your Committee Thought Proper, In The First Place, To Inquire Into The
Nature And Extent Of The Charter Granted By
King Charles the Second to
the Company of Adventurers trading to Hudson's Bay; under which charter
the present Company claim
A right to lands, and an exclusive trade to
those countries; which charter being laid before your Committee, they
thought it necessary, for the information of the House, to annex a copy
thereof to this Report, in the Appendix No. 1. Your Committee then
proceeded to examine the following witnesses: -
"The witnesses were Joseph Robson, who had been employed in Hudson's
Bay for six years as a stonemason; Richard White, who had been a clerk
at Albany Fort and elsewhere; Matthew Sergeant, who had been employed
in the Company's service, and 'understood the Indian language'; John
Hayter, who 'had been house-carpenter to the Company for six years, at
Moose River'; Mathew Gwynne, who 'had been twice at Hudson's Bay';
Edward Thompson, who had been three years at Moose River, as surgeon;
Enoch Alsop, who had been armourer to the Company at Moose River;
Christopher Bannister, who had been armourer and gunsmith, and had
resided in the Bay for 22 years; Robert Griffin, silversmith, who had
been five years in the Company's service; Thomas Barnett, smith, who
went over to Albany in 1741; Alexander Brown, who had been six years at
Hudson's Bay as surgeon; Captain Thomas Mitchell, who had commanded a
sloop of the Company's; Arthur Dobbs, 'Esquire,' 'examined as to the
information he had received from "a French Canadese Indian" (since
deceased), and who was maintained at the expense of the Admiralty, on a
prospect of his being of service on the discovery of a North-west
Passage,' 'and who informed your Committee that the whole of that
discourse is contained in part of a book printed for the witness in
1744, to which he desired leave to refer'; Captain William Moore, who
'had been employed in Hudson's Bay from a boy'; Mr. Henry Spurling,
merchant, who 'had traded chiefly in furs for 28 years past, during
which time he had dealt with the Hudson's Bay Company'; Captain
Carruthers, who had been in the Hudson's Bay service 35 years ago;
Arthur Slater, who had been employed by the Company on the East Main."
It will be seen that one object aimed at in granting a charter to the
Hudson's Bay Company was to further the discovery of the "North-west
Passage." Beginning in 1719, and ending, probably in despair, in 1737,
the Hudson's Bay Company fitted and sent out in the whole six separate
expeditions, which the Committee record in their Appendix, as follows
(The instructions to the commanders usually ended, "So God send the
good ship a successful discovery, and to return in safety.
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