The British Continue to Explore

The British Continue to Explore

The Hudson Bay and Beyond.
At first, traders at the HBC posts stayed at their forts. They waited for the First Nations peoples to bring fur to them.
Then, the French began interfering in the British fur trade. They met First Nation trappers before the trappers reached the British forts. The French bought the furs the British were expecting.
The British would now have to travel into the interior to compete with the French.

Henry Kelsey
1690 - Henry Kelsey, who worked for the Hudson Bay Company decided to travel west with a group of Cree. His goal was to meet Aboriginal peoples and convince them to trade with the British.
He remained on the prairies for two years. Travelling as far as a present day Saskatchewan. Through his contact with First Nations, he increased the flow of furs from the interior to the Hudson Bay posts.

Anthony Henday
1745 - Anthony Henday, another British explorer, ventured even farther west, to present day Red Deer.
He wanted to make contact with First Nations (Siksika) and convince them to bring their furs to the Hudson Bay.
He suggested the Siksika adopt an economy driven by profit.
The Siksika refused his offer.
The idea of trading for profit was new to them. The affect of this trade on their hunting and gathering activities would have to be carefully considered before it could be accepted.

Samuel Hearne
1770 - Samuel Hearne set out from Hudson Bay to find a river rich in gold and copper. He travel north and joined a party of Dene and their leader, Matonabbee.
Hearne did not find any gold or copper, but he was the first European to reach the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

James Cook
1778 - James Cook sailed into a harbour in Vancouver Island in search of a Pacific entrance to the Northwest Passage.
He was welcomed by the Nuu~chah~nulth who lived on the island.
Cook failed to find the route he was searching for and set sail across the Pacific to Asia.
When his ship reached China, he discovered that the sea otter skins they had traded with Nuu~chah~nulth were so valuable that the traders called the sea otter pelts “soft gold”.
When word spread, fur traders rushed to the pacific coast to grab these precious furs.