Profile: Samuel Hearne

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Stone, Ian R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1986
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Hudson Bay; Hudson; Coppermine River; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400006793; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400006793

Samuel Hearne is best known to students of polar history because of his famous overland expedition of 1770–72, when he became the first European to reach the northern coast of North America at the mouth of the Coppermine River. Fewer know of his other notable journeys, in which he established Cumberland House as an inland trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company; fewer still may be aware of his capture, while Governor of Prince of Wales' Fort on Hudson Bay, by the French naval commander la Pérouse in 1782. That Hearne was an attractive and interesting character emerges clearly from his own account of his major expedition (a classic in exploration literature) and his other writings. However, he was also a figure of controversy, both during his life and subsequently, and this lends interest to his story.