In 1668 Captain Gillam entered Hudson bay with a pioneer fur-trading expedition under the patronage of some influential Londoners, at the head of whom was Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland, Count Palatine of the Rhine and cousin of Charles II, King of England. Thus was inaugurated the regime of the Hudson’s Bay Company, but the Royal charter to Prince Rupert and his associates, constituting them “The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay”, was not granted until 1670.[2] “THE HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY.” The company was organized to prosecute the fur trade, and not for colonizing purposes. The few explorations into and from the company’s first posts on the bay were made solely in the interests of the fur trade. When in 1683 Governor Sargeant was urged to send men to penetrate into the country, the object was distinctly stated to be “to draw down the Indians by fair and gentle means to trade with us.” This was the burden of many letters of instruction sent out to Hudson bay in those days, but the response was not very promising. The company’s servants were not easily induced to imperil their lives, particularly as they complained of lack of encouragement. In 1688 Governor George Geyer, who himself, in 1773, had volunteered to do some exploring, was instructed to send the boy Henry Kelsey to Churchill river for an exploring trip “because we are informed he is a very active lad, delighting much in the Indians’ company and being never better pleased than when he is travelling amongst them.” Thus began the adventurous career of one who may be regarded as the pioneer explorer of the region under review.[3] In 1690 Kelsey “cheerfully undertook a journey up into the country of the Assiniboine Poets, with the Captain of that Nation.” The following year he accompanied the Indians on a journey he computed at four hundred or five hundred miles, penetrating as far as the buffalo and grizzly bear countries. A diary of this trip was published, but it contained no references to the natural resources of the country. There followed a period of some activity in the matter of exploration by sea, the discovery of a northwest passage being aimed at. Between 1719 and 1737 the Hudson’s Bay Company alone fitted out nine vessels to participate in this discovery, but these voyages added nothing to the scanty knowledge then available as to the resources of the territory ruled over by the company.