ORIGIN OF THE NAME OREGON 109
Early in the Spring the Adventurers will proceed to explore every Inlet, Nook, or Bay, from the Straits of Anian to Hud- son's Bay, between which it is expected to find the navigable Passage, or Communication in Question.
The Proposer is induced to verge along the western Coast of the Continent, and to trace the Straits of Anian, and the Bay or Gulf projecting thence toward Hudson's Bay, the better to avoid an Exposure to the intolerable Rigor of the Winds, which on the Coast of Hudson's Bay, blow almost incessantly from the Pole. But the Point being established and the great national Purpose of the Expedition accomplished ; it will be- come necessary to consult on the Expediency or Practicability of dividing the Party, and leaving the greater Number to winter at the Hudson's Bay Entrance of the Passage; to be ready the ensuing Season to navigate, or pilot through the Ship or Vessel, which may be dispatched to pass through into the great pacific Ocean since such a Measure if practicable (would doubtless prove most?) [obliterated] elegible and satisfactory: But if an untoward, or hostile Temper in the Savages there, or an Impossibility of subsisting during the Winter in these inhospitable Latitudes should render the Return of the whole Party, the only Alternative, it is urged, and may be insisted upon, that Accuracy in Observation, and perfect Exactitude in delineating the requisite Charts or Maps, will fully answer the End, and every Purpose, although it should prove in some Degree less satisfactory.
The Temperature of the Weather, and the almost constant Direction of the Winds on the western Coast of North-America, from the pacific Ocean, will render it most elegible to return north-westerly between the Islands of Japan, and the Pole, through that great Archipelago which bounds the Sea (hereto- fore supposed a Continent) between America and Kamtchatka the north-east Point of Asia; to return through Siberia, Russia, &ca: &ca: to Great Britain.
London llth February 1772
ROBERT ROGERS, Major
