Mcgoogan's account sets out to burnish the explorer' s reputation as a humanist, anthropologist, and literary pioneer. The detailed narrative of Hearne's trek north with a band of Dene Indians is absorbing. In 1766, Samuel Hearne, at 21 already a veteran of the Seven Years' War, joined the Hudson Bay Company, which charged him with the unwieldy task of finding first a famed and long-lost copper mine -- and then the Northwest Passage. Braving treacherous weather and devastating hunger, Hearne traveled more than 3500 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 -- later the first book 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 "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." - Back cover.