In 1766, Samuel Hearne, at just twenty-one and already a veteran of the Seven Years' War, joined the Hudson's Bay Company, which charged him with the unwieldy task of finding first a famed and long-lost copper mine--and then the great Northwest Passage. Braving treacherous weather, serious injury, and devastating hunger, Hearne traveled more than thirty-five hundred miles, much of it with the help of legendary Indian chief Matonabbee, to become the first European ever to arrive at North America's Arctic coast. During his harrowing three-year quest, he fell in love with a young settler, observed the infamous massacre at "Bloody Falls," and kept a meticulous account of his experiences--the first book ever published on the Arctic. McGoogan recounts these and many other spectacular and historic events in his characteristically enthusiastic voice, and even argues convincingly that Hearne's chance encounter with Samuel Taylor Coleridge inspired the great poet to compose his epic work. Ancient Mariner is illustrated throughout, and maps are also featured.