Some of the evidence as to the resources of the country and as to the conditions of the very slim white population is still edifying. The attack upon the legality of the company’s charter, however, came to nothing, and the revelations made as to the suitability of the country for settlement had no practical result, which is scarcely to be wondered at considering the conditions prevailing in both Europe and America—conditions which in the course of a few years were to result in momentous changes in the map of this continent. No additional data as to the resources and geography of the great northland were produced until the years 1770 and 1771 when HEARNE MADE HIS HISTORICAL TRIP of discovery. Many of the witnesses examined during the enquiry of 1748-49 had spoken of the statements of Indians regarding the rich copper mines existing on a great river many miles to the northwest of Churchill. The Indians who visited that post in 1768 so impressed the governor, Mr. Moses Norton, with their version of the richness of the copper deposits along the river they called the Neetha-San-San-Dazey (the “far-off metal river”), that being in London the following season he induced the Company to send out an exploratory expedition. The man selected for the command was Samuel Hearne,[6] a capable and experienced mariner, then serving as mate on the Company’s brig “Charlotte.” Hitherto all of the exploratory expeditions from Hudson bay towards the northwest had been in search of the northwest passage, and by sea, but now it was decided to undertake exploration by land.[7] Hearne really made three trips, two of which were unsuccessful. The first failed because of the lack of provisions, and the second because Hearne was plundered by his Indian companions and broke his sextant. On these trips he attempted to penetrate to the northwestward through the so-called Barren Grounds or Barren Lands, but on the third venture, leaving in December, 1770, he kept more to the westward and, being in the wooded country, was able to provide himself with provisions and to travel with much less discomfort. As he was accompanied by a number of Indian families as bearers and hunters, his progress was necessarily slow and indirect, on account of the difficulty of crossing lakes and large rivers, and of providing food for so large a party. His general line of travel was at first a little north of west to Clowey lake, which was reached May 3, 1771, and thence a little west of north to the eastward of Great Slave lake, probably passing Artillery lake (his Catt lake?) and Clinton-Colden and Aylmer lakes (his Thoy-noy-kyed lake?) to the stream since called Coppermine river, which was reached probably near Sandstone rapid.[8]