sent out teachers who are to act under the
superintendence of the Rev. Mr. West, the principal chaplain of the
Company.

We had the pleasure of meeting this gentleman at York Factory, and
witnessed with peculiar delight the great benefit which already marked
his zealous and judicious conduct. Many of the traders, and of the
servants of the Company, had been induced to marry the women with whom
they had cohabited; a material step towards the improvement of the
females in that country.

Mr. West, under the sanction of the Directors, has also promoted a
subscription for the distribution of the Bible in every part of the
country where the Company's Fur Trade has extended, and which has met
with very general support from the resident chief factors, traders, and
clerks. The Directors of the Company are continuing to reduce the
distribution of spirits gradually among the Indians, as well as towards
their own servants, with a view to the entire disuse of them as soon as
this most desirable object can be accomplished. They have likewise
issued orders for the cultivation of the ground at each of the posts, by
which means the residents will be far less exposed to famine whenever
through the scarcity of animals, the sickness of the Indians, or any
other cause, their supply of meat may fail.

It is to be hoped that intentions, so dear to every humane and pious
mind, will, through the blessing of God, meet with the utmost success.

JOURNEY TO THE SHORES
OF
THE POLAR SEA.

* * * * *

CHAPTER I.

Departure from England--Transactions at Stromness--Enter Davis'
Straits--Perilous Situation on the Shore of Resolution Island--Land
on the Coast of Labrador--Esquimaux of Savage Islands--York
Factory--Preparations for the Journey into the Interior.

1819. May.

On Sunday, the 23d of May, the whole of our party embarked at Gravesend
on board the ship Prince of Wales, belonging to the Hudson's Bay
Company, just as she was in the act of getting under weigh, with her
consorts the Eddystone and Wear. The wind being unfavourable, on the ebb
tide being finished, the vessels were again anchored; but they weighed
in the night and beat down as far as the Warp, where they were detained
two days by a strong easterly wind.

Having learned from some of the passengers, who were the trading
Officers of the Company, that the arrival of the ships at either of the
establishments in Hudson