358 T. C. ELLIOTT
who require no other encouragement than to be told such service will be acceptable to the king, and if properly executed will commend them to his favour; but, as they are unac- quainted with the country, the Indian language and manners, 'tis necessary to join with them some Canadians, to serve as guides and interpreters.
Should his majesty think proper to allow the traders to go
"Should his majesty think proper to allow the traders to go winter in one of those posts, set out early in the spring for the Pacific Ocean, find out a good port, take its latitude, longitude, and describe it so accurately as to enable our ships from the East Indies to find it out with ease, and then return the year following; Your Lordship will readily perceive the advantage of such discoveries, and how difficult attempts to explore unknown Parts must prove to the English, unless we avail ourselves of the knowledge of the Canadians, who are well acquainted with the country, the language and manners of the natives."
As far as Jonathan Carver is concerned, there is strong reason to believe that he had no such original design, and that this journey to West or Northwest was merely preliminary to more extensive plans of the Commandant, as will appear in the continuation of this discussion.
The discussion thus far has served to indicate Captain Carver's journey to the Mississippi Valley and the opportuni- ties afforded to hear the name Oregon mentioned there or at the Grand Portage. We will now consider his environment at Mackinac during nine months' residence.
He returned there the last of August, 1767, and in the fol- lowing month wrote a letter to his wife at Montague, Massa- chusetts, which was promptly published in a Boston paper the following February. This letter, 17 together with a prospectus published in the same paper in August, 1768, clearly discloses that his journal and observations were being prepared at Mackinac for publication, and that the manuscript must have been partly completed there. The statements in the letter
17 Both letter and prospectus are printed in full by Mr. Lee in Proceedings for 1909, State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
