Samuel Hearne

He was the first European to make an overland excursion across northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean, specifically to Coronation Gulf, via the Coppermine River. In 1774, Hearne built Cumberland House for the Hudson's Bay Company, its second interior trading post after Henley House^[1] and the first permanent settlement in present Saskatchewan.

Biography[edit]

Samuel Hearne was born in February 1745 in London. Hearne's father was Secretary of the Waterworks of London Bridge, who died in 1748.^[2] His mother's name was Diana, and his sister's name was Sarah, three years younger than Samuel. Samuel Hearne joined the British Royal Navy in 1756 at the age of 11 as midshipman under the fighting captain Samuel Hood. He remained with Hood during the Seven Years' War, seeing considerable action during the conflict, including the bombardment of Le Havre in 1759. At the end of the Seven Years' War, having served in the English Channel and then the Mediterranean, he left the Navy in 1763.


In February 1766, he joined the Hudson's Bay Company as a mate on the sloop Churchill, which was then engaged in the Inuit trade out of Prince of Wales Fort, Churchill, Manitoba. Two years later, he became mate on the Brigantine Charlotte and participated in the company's short-lived black whale fishery. In 1767, he found the remains of James Knight's expedition. In 1768, he examined portions of the Hudson Bay coasts with a view to improving the cod fishery. During this time, he gained a reputation for snowshoeing.


Hearne was able to improve his navigational skills by observing William Wales who was at Hudson Bay during 1768–1769 after being commissioned by the Royal Society to observe the Transit of Venus with Joseph Dymond.

Later life[edit]

Hearne was sent to Saskatchewan to establish Cumberland House, the second inland trading post for the Hudson's Bay Company in 1774 (the first being Henley House, established in 1743, 200 km or 120 mi up the Albany River). Having learned to live off the land, he took minimal provisions for the eight Europeans and two Home Guard Crees who accompanied him.


After consulting some local chiefs, Hearne chose a strategic site on Pine Island Lake in the Saskatchewan River, 97 km (60 mi) above Fort Paskoya. The site was linked to both the Saskatchewan River trade route and the Churchill system.


He became governor of Fort Prince of Wales on 22 January 1776. On 8 August 1782 Hearne and his complement of 38 civilians were confronted by a French force under the comte de La Pérouse composed of three ships, including one of 74 guns, and 290 soldiers. As a veteran Hearne recognised hopeless odds and surrendered without a shot. Hearne and some of the other prisoners were allowed to sail back to England from Hudson Strait in a small sloop.


Hearne returned the next year but found trade had deteriorated. The First Nations population had been decimated by European-introduced diseases such as measles and smallpox, as well as starvation due to the lack of normal hunting supplies of powder and shot. Matonabbee had committed suicide and the rest of Churchill's leading First Nations had moved to other posts. Hearne's health began to fail and he delivered up command at Churchill on 16 August 1787 and returned to England.


In the last decade of his life he used his experiences on the barrens, on the northern coast, and in the interior to help naturalists like Thomas Pennant in their researches. His friend William Wales was a teacher at Christ's Hospital and he assisted Hearne to write A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean. This was published in 1795, three years after Hearne's death of dropsy in November 1792 at the age of 47.^[8]