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106 T. C. ELLIOTT

SECOND PROPOSAL

From Public Record Office, Colonial Offices, Class 323, Vol. 27, p. 143.

To the King's most excellent Majesty in Council

The Petition of Major Robert Rogers, most humbly sheweth:

That in the Month of September 1765, Your Majesty's Peti- tioner preferred a Proposal to the Board of Trade and Planta- tion, for an Atempt by land to discover a navigable Passage by the North-West, From the Atlantic, into the great Pacific Ocean.

That the great national Advantages which might result to Comerce and Navigation, from that Discovery, proposed to be atempted across the great Continent of North-America, were submitted to Your Majesty, by Representation from their Lordships the then Comissioners of Trade &c.

That Your Majesty by Order in Council of the second of October 1765, was pleased to refer the said Proposal and Representation, to their Lordships of the Comittee of Your Privy Council, who, on the third of October 1765 were pleased to postpone the Consideration thereof.

That Your Majesty's Petitioner, has since been employed in an important Comand in the Midst of the interior Parts of the great Continent of North-America, in which through his Official Intercourse with the numerous savage Nations and through divers Persons who had served as provincial Officers during the last War, and were especially ordered out to ex- plore remoter Parts of the Country ; he collected a great Fund of additional Intelligence, tending to assure, evince, and al- most positively establish the Existence of a navigable Passage by the North-West, from the Atlantic, into the great Pacific Ocean, and that the Discovery is only practicable by Land.

That from the vast Distances to which the interior Country has been explored since the proposal of the Year 1765; from the Extension of Setlement, from comercial Intercourse, and Alliances with the remoter Tribes of Indians, and the Peace