In 1843 was published in London, by Richard Bentley, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, the bookNarrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America, effected by the Officers of the Hudson’s Bay Company, during the years 1836-39, written three years before by Thomas Simpson (1808-1840). It was a fundamental work to make known to the world the results of the discoveries of the great Scottish Arctic explorer, a man who made a decisive contribution to the knowledge and mapping of the northern coasts of today's Canada.
On 14 June 1840, Simpson and two of his companions were fatally shot at a wilderness camp in the Territory of Iowa – in what is now the state of North Dakota. A number of scholars have studied the evidence in Simpson's death without reaching a conclusion.
In 1844, on the first number ofLittell's Living Age, an American general magazine largely consisting of selections from various English and American magazines and newspapers, was published an interesting review of the Simpson’s book, the same one that we propose to our readers today.