Book excerpt: Dreamers they were, sailing out into the west in quest of they knew not what-puppets in the game of destiny. What splendid courage it must have needed to sail in their little cockle-shells of vessels over that untravelled sea, with its dangers all the more terrifying because unknown... -Lawrence J. Burpee, in the Introduction From the discovery of Hudson Bay and the search for the mythical Northwest Passage to the first overland journey to the Pacific, Canadian historian Lawrence Burpee makes the story of the exploration of northwestern North America come alive in this classic book, first published in 1908. Meet Samuel Hearne, who survived Indian massacres to discover the mouth of the Coppermine River in 1771 and proved the nonexistence of a water passage across the continent; the adventurous La V rendrye family of explorers; path-finding fur trader Peter Pond; astronomer and surveyor David Thompson; and others who contributed to the European settlement of North America. LAWRENCE J. BURPEE (1873-1947), a beloved popularizer of Canadian history, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In addition to authoring numerous books of North American exploration, including Pathfinders of the Great Plains and The Discovery of Canada, he was also the founding editor of Canadian Geographical Journal and among the founders of the Canadian Historical Association. He served on the board of the Boy Scouts of Canada and was a member of the Royal Society of Canada and the National Geographic Society.