Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/31

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zealous and effective co-operation of the Hudson's Bay Company, in the Arctic land expeditions commanded by Franklin and Back, is well known to the British public. Notwithstanding the reiterated efforts of these able officers, and the simultaneous enterprise by sea, a considerable extent of the northern coast of America remained unexplored at their close.

Actuated by an earnest desire to complete an examination so important to geographical science, and towards the achievement of which Great Britain had made so many brilliant attempts, the Directors of the Company determined, in the spring