A Journey From Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean. Undertaken by Order of the Hudson's Bay Company for the Discovery of Copper Mines, A North West Passage, &c. in the years 1769, 1770, 1771, & 1772

4to [33 x 26 cm]; xliv, 458 pp, complete with 5 folding maps including large folding map frontis hand colored in outline, 4 folding engraved plates, errata page. original marbled boards with later leather spine, gilt spine title lettering and decorations in blind, a few margins with light foxing, a fine uncut copy with wide margins, copy of Simon McGillivary Junior with his signature dated 1822 on title page. A pi The epic journey by Hearne, who was the first European to reach the Arctic Ocean, at the mouth of the Coppermine River, by land and discovered the Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River system. Hearne was employed by the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada for twelve years. He recorded in detail the lives of the Indians and the natural history of the regions seen on his three trips. The book's publication, three years after Hearne's death, was due to the famous French explorer La Perouse, who found Hearne's manuscript when he captured Fort Albany, Hudson's Bay, and stipulated, as a condition of surrender, that the manuscript be published. Sabin 31181: 'The author will be remembered as the first white man that ever gazed on the dreary expanse of the Arctic of Frozen Ocean from the northern shores of the Continent of America. . . a beautiful volume'. Streeter sale 3652: 'This day-to-day record of three trips northwest by land from Hudson Bay was printed from Hearne's manuscript three years after his death'. 'A painfully honest chronicle of his epic journey. . . a classic in the literature of northern discovery' [Newman, Empire of the North]. TPL 445. Cox II, p. 171. Hill 141. Lande 1220. Simon McGillivray (1783?-1840) entered the London firm of McGillivray, Fraser and Co. in 1805, and in 1813 became a partner in the Montreal-based McTavish, McGillivray and Co. He played a leading role in the merger of the Hudson's Bay and The North West companies in 1821 [McCord Museum]. A fine copy of a cornerstone of Arctic exploration with excellent provenance.